Another Day on the Dink

Today we spent the morning exploring a couple of more Cays. These were South of Guana Cay and quite spartan. There were only a couple of places we could land the dink as the shoreline was quite rough. For the most part the shoreline of the cays was certainly not friendly to hard bottom inflatable dinks. All one needs to do is brush the shoreline and this would spell disaster for the tubes.

It was probably an eight mile round trip in the dink which is about as far as I like to take it. We could have gone out on the Atlantic. The water was like glass and we could easily see the bottom. We saw a large sea turtle and a few rays, and quite a few fish around the marina's break water. Then we went to nippers for lunch and a swim in the pool.

We've uploaded some additional photos as well as the GPS tracks.

Life on Guana Cay and a Spoil Island dink

 Power on the island has been off several times since we arrived. No doubt much of this is related to the fire at the main power plant but all of Marsh Harbour was out recently because a garbage truck hit a power pole. I probably shouldn't say this but the internet access has been relatively stable and performance is definitely better than it was last year.
 As part of living aboard I went and tried our Village Marine desalinator in the water over here and it let us down yet again. It's producing water at 500 ppm total dissolved solids and that is marginal performance at best. We had ok performance in the US waters but over here the water it produces is not up to their own standard.
 I have a feeling their in house membranes are not all that great. I may elect to try an alternative brand membrane and see what happens.

 So we took the dink out to Gumelemi Cay and Spoil island yesterday. The water was quite calm so the ride was fine. We could have gone out in the Atlantic to a reef if we wanted to but heck it's only a 340 Avon with 18hp! There were a number of small boats on the water given it was Sunday and the water was flat. Many of them chose to go where we did so we always had some company about. I have to admit that Spoil Island has been picked over well so the variety of shells on it has dwindeled since last year. But we managed to collect some and here is a photo of that collection.

Hopefully as the season continues and we visit other places the diversity of the shells will go up. I've updated the GPS tracks to include the dink outing and will upload some more photos of what things are like around here. The sunsets have been nothing less than spectacular.

Orchid Bay, Photos, Power and fuel

 I've uploaded some photos into the bucket and the tracks are updated as well.
 Over all, I'd say Freedom has been good to us with regard to fuel consumption as long as we didn't push it hard. We can easily get 1.5 Npg and we are sure that we have hit 2.
 Coming across the stream we pushed her to 1500 and that dropped the consumption to 1.0 without question. But it was a choice between slogging through it or waddling through it and we chose to make the time in the stream pass more quickly.
 Anyone coming over here had better make sure they keep topped off before they decide to go anywhere. Gas is non-existent and diesel is also difficult to locate. We dried up the pumps here at Orchid bay when we took on about 55 gallons of diesel.
 The power on the island is remarkably stable in spite of the fire they had at the main power plant on Abaco. It seems a high voltage switch panel blew up and it took three hours to put the fire out. As a result rolling black outs have been occuring. It's a good thing we have the inverter because it along with the house battery bank has been able to fill in the shore power voids.
 Hopefully that ability continues!

 It was 90 down here today and we took a ride to Spoil Island where we found a few interesting shells. It was quite a rough ride back in the dink since the wind was out of the South and that put it square on the bow all the way back to Orchid Bay.

And just like that

 We're in Orchid Bay on Guana Cay. After 130 nautical miles we are are in a spot where we can spend some time relaxing. There were a couple of occassions during which we were wondering if we would continue. A new main refrigerator, a untimely failure of a  raw water pump and another raw water pump issue on the opposite engine had us concerned that Freedom was not going to be reliable enough to continue.
 But we pressed on making repairs along the way and Freedom perservered as long as we maintained her. So here we are around Whale Cay safe and sound and that means our Winter is relatively locked in. By the way, the hurricane season has been declared dead as well.
 The first leg of this portion of the trip started at the Grand Bahama Yacht Club at Lucaya. A great stop. Mention Freedom and you will save 10 percent if you speak with Thomas. From there we traveled to Sale Cay where we anchored out for the night. The trip up the Lucayan water way was a welcome break from the slamming we took across the Gulf Stream. Upon enterring the canal we were greeted by turtles and various other crites. Since we were the only ones in the canal the water was extremely clear and a pleasure to look through. The view eventually faded from interest since the more one moves into the canal the less the aquatic life there is to review. The view of clear water is replaced by the vestiges of failed business ventures like Viky's place.
 This is not a passage to be taken in a larger boat. We had plenty of depth throughout the canal  at 8 feet minimum but at the North end of the canal we were concerned. We were not in any danger of running aground but we were concerned. We followed the charts and with a rising tide we probably had 3 feet to spare upon exiting the canal into Dover Sound where the skinny water is. There were also a couple of pinch points in the canal that would certainly preclude anything with more than say 16 feet of beam from continuing. Anyone that moves through this pinch with more beam would be fool-hearty.

 We clearly saw plenty of damaging options on the bottom as we moved through. It looks as though this was going to be a bridge site that remains unfinished as another example of the failed investments.

 There was quite a bit of unfinished work along the canal. It's actually pretty sad because a short trip along this canal will convince you that many people invested alot of money into something that is not paying off. Just thinking about the money spent on digging the canal and lining parts of the canal wall with concrete will certainly convince you. By the way, the canal is only say sixty or eighty feet wide at many points on the northern half.

 Once out on the bank we were all alone with no other boats in sight. We traveled this way all day on glass all the way to Sale Cay and threw the hook for the night. In spite of the wind shift we sat right on our anchor and had no worries.

 As an example of what has gone wrong, here is Viky's place. It's a highrise example of how to lose a mess of dollars. But moving out onto the bank, and then across to Spanish Cay we were treated to very calm water. It was certainly the equal of the Hudson on a calm week day afternoon.
 Pulling into Spanish Cay Marina Merle helped us in and we settled down after a long day on the water. That included dinner at the marina restaurant and it was quite good as well as being reasonably priced.
 Later that night when the sun light faded we turned on the transom lights and were treated to quite a display of aquatic life. Big, large, in your face aquatic life. The kind that can eat you.
 Yup. Sharks.
 Big sharks. Hungry hunting at nite hoping to cash in on our transom lights sharks. We tried to ID them but we can only come close thinking they were Bull or Lemon Sharks. We suspect that they were after the large grey snapper than chased the bait fish for a while. For one reason or another they dissappeared into the night. Maybe that's why they were big snappers eh?
 Here at Orchid the water is very clear at night. And yes, our buddy the Green Heron is still here and he picks out the bait fish at night with the transom lights attracting them.
 Diesel is 4.10 a gallon and they are out at this point. Perhaps they are trying to discourage people from moving on by falsly saying they have no fuel . I have no idea, but the Bahamas are hurting big time. Many facilities have no fuel of any sort.

Stream crossing made easy

 Buy a copy of the Dozier's "Waterway Guide". We have the 2008 version. It has a section "Crossing the Gulf Stream" which has a great chart outining starting points, destinations, speeds and courses.
 Even though the rhumb line course from Ft. Lauderdale to Lucaya is 80 degrees, as much as I could I set the autopilot to 90 degrees as indicated in the chart for 10 knots. When the autopilot was not a viable option due to rough water, I used the compass and swagged 90 as best I could. At the points early in the stream crossing where we miander the bow was certainly being pushed North into the North East Swells by the stream (I suspect). Sometimes it was better to "go with the flow".
 So by steering 90, we vectored over to Lucaya. It's the sum of vectors or preliminary physics. I might be able to handle that still just don't ask me to derive Einstein's Theory of relativity again. I'll certainly send you into a black hole.

 As far as choosing Lucaya over West End? They raised their rates and we were up for something different. That gave us the incentive.

 By the way if you come to Lucaya, Thomas the dockmaster has asked me to let everyone know that he will grant you a 10% dockage fee discount as he did for us. We are going to wash up Freedom and check out the reefs all over the shore here. We saw numerous glass bottom boats out there on our way into the Grand Bahama Yacht Club.
 The power is good at 225v, and the facility is well protected and quiet.  

Lucaya Bahamas

 After a day of 10 hours on the water that started somewhere around 4:30 a.m. we have arrived in Lucaya on Grand Bahama.

 The trip started on the new river at 6:15 am when we went to leave the wall and spin Freedom around for the trip down the New River from Ft. Lauderdale. The first photo gives you an idea just how narrow this river is. It also implies what it must be like to spin a large boat around and head down stream. There are mega yachts all over the place and channel 9 has several "Security" broadcasts being issued. The passages are narrow and one does not want to meet a 100 footer in some of the kinks.
 We were located just the other side of the bridge in the back ground because we needed an early start and that bridge did not start opening until 7:30 am. With that, at 6:15 am we shoved off in darkness and proceeded to spin Freedom around. As I approached perpendicular to the river, Deb yells look out!! I freak and see a commercial boat ripping up stream headed right for us. So he stops and I leave room. He gets pushy, I hold still. He relents and lets me flip the boat around.

 An ugly start but we got 'er done.

 So on down the "miracle mile" we head looking at houses of all sorts. They have mansions and quaint old houses that were built decades ago mixed in here and there. The old ones survive because they have refused to sell out. It's an odd mix but it works imho.

  Anyway out the inlet we went and we hit the Gulf Stream. It hit us back again and again. While the water was not high at 2-3 it was of a short duration that we figure was not more than a few seconds. We were constantly pounding or rolling as it was hitting us smartly off the port bow. This went on for about 3 hours and then subsided. If you look at the image of the WxWorx screen you will see the wave predictions we depended on to make the trip. We knew it would be a bit rough to start. Eventually we were hoping it would lay down as we approached the Southern side of Grand Bahama. That turned out to be the case. What did not turn out to be the case was that the initial water was 2-3 with some 4 footers in there and they were only a few seconds apart. Sort of like 3 foot chop ok? This area was forecast to be 2 feet or less. Ugh. Fortunately it was calm for the last half of the trip so the "gambit" played well. By the way darker colors to green mean larger waves. The contour lines indicate the period.

And yes, it was a while before Dan could take a break from the driving. Next time perhaps I'll only have one cup of coffee in the morning.
I've started a new photo bucket album and that is listed to the left of the blog main page. Along with that I also have more GPS data. You'll see a couple of dodges in the track. We had a container ship catch and pass us along the way so we left some extra room off the rhumb line. If you zoom in on the track to Lucaya you will see that it's obvious when I was using the autopilot and when I was not. Early on it was rough and I chose to pick different courses to make the ride as smooth as I could. Once it laid down, we dialed her in and let her have her stride. All 10 blazing knots of it.

 All in all it was an Ok call to move to Ft. Lauderdale and skirt some of the rough water. Given how the NOAA forecasts were a bit off lately based on some grumblings we've heard we hoped a more Southern starting point would be to our advantage. Sure we could have waited another day but the way the forecasts have been flip flopping around less wave heights off West Palm and how there were consistently lower heights to the South we gave it a shot and it paid off. It might well have been 3-5 off West Palm today.

Say the secret word and ...

 Ok, Groucho used a duck on his show "You Bet Your Life". Things have been kindo dull around here what with waxing the boat and other work. Anticipating the forecast only to find it change in the evening. So here I am sitting on the aft deck pondering the predicament when Pete comes in for a landing. He flew right off the aft deck almost getting his wings under the hard top, and landed on the pole a few feet away. I wonder if he's the same one that landed nearby last year.

Anyway the forecast looks good for tomorrow, and better for Wednesday at this moment. But given the way things have been going we're pretty sure the forecast will degrade with the afternoon spin.

How many docks can you do this on?

 Ok this is an old photo, but think about it. How many docks have you been on that easily support a couple of Dresser Harleys? This one, the Megadock in Charleston, does so easily. We all had plenty of room for them to drive by without interference.

 

 Some day? Nope.

 Anyway, we're still stuck here in North Palm Beach. I know, there are much worse places to be stuck. The forecasts for the GS continue to paint a rough ride for us. Today we had a car again and drove out to the Riviera City Beach. They have it all torn up with new construction but the sand and the water are still intact. Besides we wanted to see what the forecast compared against. It was still a bit on the rough side coming into shore. Not bad for several miles but in the distance we could easily pick out some rollers that looked somewhat intimidating to a hard chined motor yacht that rolls easily. 

We've lost a certain amount of faith in NOAA's ability to predict wave heights. Given that we may stick our nose out the inlet on Tuesday morning and if things are ok along with the forecast, we'll press on. Otherwise we'll probably just head to Ft. Lauderdale and pull in until the forecasts settle down and become more consistent. 

 On the plus side of life, tonite we went out to eat for the first time since Georgia. We found a Sushi place named Yu Mi Sushi on Military Avenue in West Palm Beach Fl.. If you ever need to have some Sushi or rolls this is the place to go. They have good fish in all of their rolls instead of the punky chewed up squirt bottle stuff they are serving in upstate NY these days. So we had five rolls two saki's and it came to 64 bucks.

 So anyway, the forecast for Tuesday is marginal.

  MONDAY

 NORTH WINDS 5 TO 10 KNOTS. SEAS 3 TO 5 FEET. NORTHEAST
 SWELL 2 TO 3 FEET. INTRACOASTAL WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. SLIGHT CHANCE
 OF SHOWERS.

 MONDAY NIGHT
 NORTH WINDS 5 TO 10 KNOTS NEAR SHORE TO NORTHEAST
 10 TO 15 KNOTS IN THE GULF STREAM. SEAS 2 TO 4 FEET NEAR SHORE AND
 UP TO 4 TO 6 FEET IN THE GULF STREAM. NORTHEAST SWELL 2 TO 3 FEET
 BECOMING 2 FEET. INTRACOASTAL WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. SLIGHT CHANCE OF
 SHOWERS.

 TUESDAY
 NORTHEAST WINDS 5 TO 10 KNOTS NEAR SHORE TO NORTHEAST
 10 TO 15 KNOTS IN THE GULF STREAM. NEAR SHORE...SEAS 2 TO 3 FEET. IN
 THE GULF STREAM...SEAS 3 TO 5 FEET SUBSIDING TO 2 TO 3 FEET.
 INTRACOASTAL WATERS A MODERATE CHOP. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

 TUESDAY NIGHT
 NORTHEAST WINDS AROUND 10 KNOTS. SEAS 2 TO 4 FEET.
 INTRACOASTAL WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

And we know full well that it will change in the morning since we have dueling forecasters. Tomorrow around 11:00 or so another forecaster will take over the reigns and the wave heights will go up. 

"There's something in the air".......

We took a short break from the maintenance grind and went to a local park to check out the beach. Along the path back from the beach I looked up because something caught my eye. If you click on the photo you should get a better view of what caught my eye. Being tall things over or near my head catch my attention. It was probably about 3 feet over my head and as far as I am concerned that really wasn't enough. We've seen some webs down here that look like they could drag down a small bird or a bat. This was not one of them but the spider probably had a leg span of about 5 or 6 inches.
 On another outing we drove down to Palm Beach and went through the ritzy area. There is more money down here than you can imagine. Having made ourselves feel totally insignificant, we moved on to the local beach to check out the conditions.

 The water quite rough and it is getting rougher all the time. This shot is looking east, directly into the wind and water. We don't believe this is the sort of weather either of us wants to travel in. Even though the water temperature is warm, we want to keep it out of the boat if you know what I mean.


 While some folks might enjoy being tossed around in the bone crunching  waves of the North Shore of Hawaii, we prefer mild mannered water that let's us enjoy the ride in a relaxed stated of mind.

 And so it continues. The foreseeable forecast has the waves diminishing to 4-6 for a while this week. That gives us more time to clean up the boat. We're actually still recovering from the summer lay up. It's much better, but we have a ways to go yet.
 TONIGHT

 EAST WINDS 20 TO 25 KNOTS. SEAS 6 TO 8 FEET. INTRACOASTAL
 WATERS ROUGH IN EXPOSED AREAS. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

 TUESDAY
 SOUTHEAST WINDS 15 TO 20 KNOTS. SEAS 5 TO 7 FEET.
 INTRACOASTAL WATERS CHOPPY IN EXPOSED AREAS. SLIGHT CHANCE OF
 SHOWERS.

 TUESDAY NIGHT
 SOUTHEAST WINDS 15 TO 20 KNOTS. SEAS 2 TO 4 FEET
 NEAR SHORE AND UP TO 4 TO 6 FEET WELL OFFSHORE. INTRACOASTAL WATERS
 CHOPPY IN EXPOSED AREAS. CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND SLIGHT CHANCE OF
 THUNDERSTORMS.

 WEDNESDAY
 SOUTH WINDS AROUND 15 KNOTS. SEAS 4 TO 6 FEET.
 INTRACOASTAL WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. SHOWERS LIKELY AND CHANCE OF
 THUNDERSTORMS.

 WEDNESDAY NIGHT
 WEST WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS. SEAS 4 TO 6 FEET.
 INTRACOASTAL WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

 THURSDAY
 NORTHWEST WINDS 15 TO 20 KNOTS. SEAS 5 TO 7 FEET. NORTH
 SWELL 2 TO 3 FEET. INTRACOASTAL WATERS A MODERATE CHOP. SLIGHT
 CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

 THURSDAY NIGHT
 NORTHWEST WINDS 15 TO 20 KNOTS. SEAS 5 TO 7 FEET.
 NORTH SWELL 2 TO 3 FEET. INTRACOASTAL WATERS A MODERATE CHOP.

 FRIDAY
 NORTHWEST WINDS AROUND 15 KNOTS. SEAS 4 TO 6 FEET. NORTH
 SWELL 2 TO 3 FEET. INTRACOASTAL WATERS A LIGHT CHOP.

 FRIDAY NIGHT
 NORTH WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS. SEAS 4 TO 6 FEET. NORTH
 SWELL 2 TO 3 FEET. INTRACOASTAL WATERS A LIGHT CHOP.

 SATURDAY
 NORTHEAST WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS. SEAS 5 TO 7 FEET. NORTH
 SWELL 2 TO 3 FEET. INTRACOASTAL WATERS A MODERATE CHOP.

This forecast is out of our league!

 From the Weather Underground Marine weather page:

 Synopsis

Strong high pressure will continue to build over the eastern Seaboard leading to increasing northeasterly winds across the waters through the weekend. Rough and hazardous marine conditions are expected through the weekend. The high will move east Monday and Tuesday...allowing Ida to move northward from Central America...possibly into the Gulf of Mexico by Tuesday.

Small Craft Advisory in effect through Monday morning

Forecast as of 4:03 am EST on November 6, 2009

Coastal Waters From Jupiter Inlet To Deerfield Beach, Fl Out 20 Nm-

Waters From Jupiter Inlet To Deerfield Beach, Fl Extending From

20 Nm To 60 Nm-

Today

Northeast winds 20 to 25 knots. Seas 7 to 9 feet. Intracoastal waters rough in exposed areas. Slight chance of showers.

Tonight

Northeast winds 20 to 25 knots. Seas 8 to 10 feet. Intracoastal waters rough in exposed areas. Slight chance of showers.

Saturday

Northeast winds 20 to 25 knots. Seas 7 to 9 feet. Intracoastal waters rough in exposed areas. Slight chance of showers.

Saturday Night Through Sunday Night

East winds 20 to 25 knots. Seas 7 to 9 feet. Intracoastal waters rough in exposed areas. Slight chance of showers.

Monday

East winds 20 to 25 knots. Seas 6 to 8 feet. Intracoastal waters rough in exposed areas. Slight chance of showers.

Monday Night

East winds around 20 knots. Seas 6 to 8 feet. Intracoastal waters choppy in exposed areas. Slight chance of showers.

Tuesday

Southeast winds 15 to 20 knots. Seas 6 to 8 feet. Intracoastal waters choppy in exposed areas. Chance of showers and slight chance of thunderstorms.

Call us wuzzy, we don't care! Note all of the shift in direction as well. That (in my experiece) leads me to believe the stream is going to be a washing machine that throws furniture around. We're not talking mere cushions on furniture, we're talking the whole enchilada here.

So the work on the boat continues.

Sadly if we had been here a day earlier we had a shot at crossing before all of this started. That's Boating!

Vero Beach to Lake Worth Florida

 Today we had another very pleasant day on the water. While there were a few squalls off of Ft. Pierce on a parallel course they never really came down on us. It was interesting to see them develop and then dump rain on the ICW and surrounding (flat) terrain. We could clearly see where the rain was coming down in the distance. It's sort of like looking at a storm while driving across the plains of the U.S..
 There were no dolphins to keep us company today. There were stretches of channel that went straight as an arrow for quite a distance so we used the auto pilot to hold a course for us. Given traffic on the ICW is very light this year vs. last year, we had no concerns because the channel is just about clear of traffic. Every once in a while all we had to do was tweek a dial to bring the bow around for a shift in the channel or turn it off due to approaching traffic. At 8 knots the auto pilot was a blessing since it managed all of the minor course corrections required to keep the boat in the narrow channel.

 We had some interesting discussions with others moving past us about the Bahamas. One boat out of NY was heading South to leave the boat in Fl. so they could use it in the Bahamas when they had time. Given the forecast for the G.S. they elected to leave the boat South and return to work next week. The G.S. is forecast to have 8-10 foot waves (at this point anyway and we all know how forecasts go) this weekend.

 I would not go there. Neither would Deb. The G.S. is nothing to mess around with.

 So we'll sit in in Florida a while, rent an econobox type car, and provision. We'll also pick up some spares since we used so many on the way through Georgia.

 Here is a photo of the Jupiter Inlet Light. Approaching this we had the opportunity to pass in close quarters with a SeaTow operator that was towing, not HIP TOWING, a small boat upstream under a bridge. We held for them in adverse conditions given our size, manuverability and current. They passed us and all waved gratefully in spite of the situation and what little wake our boat makes. This was a far cry from what we have experienced elsewhere.
 

Palm Cost to Vero Beach Florida

 We had a great ride at a leisurly pace. Several pods of dolphins swam in our wake obviously hitching a ride. At the near end of the ride we had an incident involving a tow operator that claimed we caused wake damage.
 We are disputing this through our insurance company with photos and GPS data from the time of the incident and when I have details I will with permission publish everything I can. Believe me, I will.
 So stay tuned.

Titusville Florida

 We've arrived in Titusville Florida without any issues. Well ok, there was one. Robidobido from this city devided to pass us. So I backed off and put 'er in neutral to facilitate the slow pass. The "Captain" decided it was more important to wave to us than it was for her to back off and reciprocate. So we were rocked a ton. I managed to make solid eye contact and flip her off. Later on some folks we've chatted with along the way were wondering why I called her boat Robidildo and what I was talking to her about. As it turned out this couple left Palm Coast an hour after us, and in between, Robidobido rocked the whole marina. So she got chastised and the boat name and port of call were publicised so that others could be aware.
 Other than that, we had a great ride. Several pods of dolphins followed us on several occassions providing plenty of entertainment. Several of them had youngsters along with them. One of them had to be close to new born because it was barely two feet long. We also had to dodge a couple of manatees along the way.
 Here at the marina a couple was providing fresh water for a gang of manatees to drink. They certainly are lethargic. It's no wonder people call them sea cows.

And here we see mom and a calf horsing around in our wake. They were maybe 4 feet off the side of the boat. Sometimes they actually fan out their tails to let the wake push them along. The scarey part of the dolphin act is that they will always hear us coming and head right for the bow of the boat. As if to say something to us they dive right as the bow pulpit goes over them. Then they come up with a splash into the wake. They worry us all the time but if I chop the throttles and then power up again I run the risk of changing their ability to time their dives based on our speed.
Notably the calves always hold up the pod and everyone bails out so the little ones can take a break.