A little closer to home

 When I last spoke, we were at the Berry Cays, specifically on Great Harbour Cay. It was very scenic and quiet there but the weather prevented us from taking out the dink and traveling to some of the sites we wanted to visit, like Market Fish and Hoffman's Cays. These were long rides in the dink, perhaps as much as 15 miles each way. Given the westerly wind  patterns and our experience telling us 8 miles was enough we elected not to push it and move on.
 In spite of leaking dripless shaft seals, we have arrived at Bimini. We had to sweat things out along the way because the shafts started leaking. Not much of a leak. It was about the same as having standard packings. About a drop a second or two. Since this was in line with the non catastrophic failure, I pushed on and to our advantage the leaks settled down to the point they stopped for a while. All in all after traveling about 11 or 12 hours from the Berries to Bimini we only shipped about a gallon or two of water. Since (for years) I have been performing regular bilge checks while running we were on top of the situation and within a comfort zone. No big deal in spite of some paranoia. Besides the water was so shallow we could have sat on the bridge and waited for help if it got 'that bad'.
 We chose some great weather to make the run from the Berries to Bimini. It was a very smooth ride and on several occasions we were treated to views through gin clear water.  If you click on the photo and look closely you will see all the tracks that were left on the bottom. The water isn't very deep on the bank. In some places one can only expect five feet at low tide and that's when we were running. Low tide. Freedom only pulls 3.5 feet. Being fortunate to have good weather and light winds on we went until we hit the deeper water where all the "Sporties" took off by pushing the throttles forward on the V10 MTUs and V12 Cats. Awesome boats. Must be nice! Some might say the same about us also I suppose.

 It was actually a bit of a dull ride across the bank. We took turns on watch while the other played electronic Yatzee. I guess that doesn't say much but it helped pass the time.
 But when we were within about 3 hours of North Rock at the North end (ya think?) of Bimini, we had company. What we think is a Whip-poor-will caught up with us and started flying around the bridge. Since we had the enclosure down due to the heat we were wondering if it was going to land on our heads. We were hopeful it would land somewhere because there was no land in sight and it was flying low, seemingly 'out of gas'. Fortunately the bird landed on the bow rail and stayed with us all the way to Bimini where it took flight and landed on another motor yacht. This sly little critter had us worried. I'm thinking it was totally within its envelope now. It held on even after the swell from the Gulf Stream started to hit us on the starboard bow.
 Coming around the North end of Bimini we dealt with bad information in the cruising guides that document one must go north and round the Moselle Bank. Not so. There's plenty of water there. However coming into Bimini, one has to have things working well and find the markers that may or may not be there. Fortunately for us they were present and the water was calm.

 So we settled down and the next day we took the dink out to the wreck of the Sapona. It's pretty spectacular to take in from a dink and it was worth the 4 mile ride out against the chop. They say Henry Ford had it built and used it for an escape from Prohibition. And we all thought he was a good tea totaling business man that brought America into a new age. Anyway we circled it a couple of times and Deb was able to review marine life with the look bucket. Once we had our fill we moved on to the Rocks, the South Riding Rocks. We stayed in the lee which happened to be on the Gulf Stream side and worked these as far as we could back to South Bimini. It was a much more comfortable ride (I know, why didn't we go out that way) on the way back and Deb was able to use the look bucket quite a bit to check out coral and fish in the depths below us.
 The water here is very clear, so all we need is some good weather now. That front that brought all the Tornadoes to the U.S. hit us today and tore all the zippers from the enclosure. Well, not all of them but quite a few. But we're safe and looking forward to some more sedate weather.

I've put some photos in the bucket and updated the GPS data as well. You might enjoy flying the "Sapona Wreck Dink" GPS track with Google Earth. And the web cam (for what it was worth) is dead. The router's just don't agree with the wifi here. That and having to restore the laptop due to an incompatibility between IE8 and Symantic, well, I've decided to wait until the wifi is more reliable and forgiving.

Touring around Great Harbour Cay

 Yesterday was mostly a day of relaxation after the stressful crossing from Lucaya what with the imposing weather. But after a while we went out in the dink and found a blue hole. If you review the GPS tracks you'll see it on Goggle Earth. Use Internet Explorer to open the files and G.E. will start up if you have it installed. It was difficult to see anything below the dink because the skies were cloudy, but Deb was certain the bottom dropped out from under us. Perhaps tomorrow the sun will be out and we can get a better look.
 Later on Heinz came across from Lucaya with his gang and once again we were able to share an evening over some wine aboard their boat. I have to give them credit. Being German they were all willing to speak English with us with only an occasional  translation for someone who did not understand.
 Usually I am very easy to understand or ignore. But not being totally familiar with English they had a tough time once in a while.
 We all had a good time having an enjoyable, lively discussion about Harleys, cars, and guns. But with their departure for Nassau we needed to find something to do so we ventured out and rented a golf cart for the day.
 As the Bahamas go, or more correctly, compared to the Abacos and the outer islands we've been to, the Berry's are quiet. Everyone here has been friendly and warm. In fact we took a walk on the beach the first day we were here and while walking back along the road a kind man named Emerson stopped and gave us a ride back to the marina. That's the sort of folks that live here. Everyone waves and says hello. Do you think they want our dollars? If so they have certainly received the message but I think it's more their nature than anything else. Heck, they live in a very pleasant environment when the weather is good. Hopefully they continue to get good weather and avoid the storms.

 Out and about in the cart we covered the island. To the north there are several beaches and we hit a few.
 I have to say that overall the beaches here are devoid of sea glass or shells. Perhaps it's because there are no life supporting reefs just off shore. This would be a large geographical difference between here and the Abacos. But the beaches are very clean with natural debris like seaweed and etc.. The sand is soft on the foot being small grained. It makes it difficult walking but that's not bad because the conch fritters at the Beach Bar here on Great Harbour Cay are excellent and we have to work them off somehow.
 They are probably the best I've had in the Bahamas. You wouldn't know it by looking at the place but the smell of bleach is reassuring and the view is nothing short of breath taking. The cook's approach here is to make smaller fritters, say no more than an inch in diameter and load them up with conch. Add in some spice and a good dressing and wow, were they were great! I should have ordered another round. Perhaps tomorrow. There's nothing like looking out at the Ocean on a calm day with a full plate of conch fritters and a couple of Kalik's. It just doesn't get better. And then Heinz shows up in his ride off shore. We gave him a call on the hand held radio, something one should always have available, and toasted them on their way to Nassau. It certainly looks like it was a day to make the run around the North East side of the Berry's and head South! If you click on the photo you'll see them out there with the hammer down on their 800 hp CATs.

   But here you see Shark Creek on the South end of Great Harbour. Perhaps we could get in here with the dink but the water on the West side is really skinny so walking the beach will probably have to suffice.
 On the way back into town, if you could call it that, we stopped to look over the air port. It's pleasant enough with a small strip mall housing some stores. Sure enough the Australian couple we met earlier over lunch at the Beach Bar were there trying to extend their visas. They were burning off some time over lunch waiting for the immigration official to show up. He was out on one of the cruise ships off Great Stirup Cay so they could not take care of business. So we offered them a ride back to the marina where their dink was. They had come North into the marina from South of Hoffmans Cay some 18 miles away over shallow water having to haul it a bit to get going again. Not a pleasant experience by any means. But they had to get their papers in order so they were in a bind. Last we saw they were able to get a ride later in the afternoon back to the airport since the officials had arrived. At least they were able to get gas for their dink while waiting for the officials.
 It would be a bad thing to run out of gas 20 miles away from your boat out here.
 It would also be a bad thing to try and land your airplane on a driveway. That just doesn't work.

Later Lucaya, and Hello Great Harbour Cay

 We finally got a break in the weather. We could have crossed yesterday but the forecast changed overnite. Fortunately the window that opened was at least two days wide so we geared up and left on the second morning at the crack of dawn. We had a great time on Lucaya, and enjoyed out stay there. The amount of time we were held up by weather worked out well enough so that we did not run out of things to do before the next window South opened up. Driving on the "correct" side of the road was different and in spite of that challenge we walked away from the rental without a scratch. Others were not so lucky.

 I heard the rental owner and employees talking about the fact that at least two cars had been totaled during the week we had ours. In fact our rental was delayed by another one. Maybe it was all that practice on the BQE with the TR-4A back in the 70's that prepared me. It could have been the taxi driving I did in Manhattan while in college. All 83 days of it. No matter what it was it worked.

 So I mentioned the weather window was two days wide right? HA! YOU FOOL!!! We caught you again the forecasters sneer. Feel free to insert your own expletives that reflect on the weather man.

 This is a screen shot of what "blew up in our faces" once we were well off shore heading for the Berries. The WxWorx is a "North up" view and the nav software is a "course up" view so things may not appear to line up well. Regardless we're out there where the container ships rule and cruise ships stop to let people hang out on relatively remove islands. It's certainly not like Long Island.

 Here is another screen shot of where we were at that time. As you can see we had some alternatives laid down that got us onto the "bank" at difference spots. In stead of driving into the weather not knowing how bad it really was we put the spurs to Freedom and she didn't let us down. It may not sound like much running her at 13 knots but she's running at about 80% at those RPM with a heavy load of fuel, water and "all that stuff what we take with us" when we travel. So the race was on and we pulled onto the bank by the cruise ships as the light rain set in. As it turns out the heavy rain disapaited just South West of the Berries.
 Cool. So the weatherman isn't so bad after all.

 So now we are on about 8 feet of water, and we're looking at all the dark spots thinking they are coral heads. Coral can do some serious damage to running gear. It's probably pushed it up into boats and pulled it out on others. They are quite solid and rock like but this time it turns out that they were grassy spots. So on we continue and we come up to a point where the island has been opened up to let people into what must be a man-made harbour (English spelling thank you very much).
 This is what we've been looking for so in we go and with that we are tied up at the Great Harbour Cay Marina.
 I've updated the GPS data and as we get some photos I'll add them to the bucket. But for now, we've been up since 4:30 AM getting the boat ready and piloting and it's time for a Bloody Mary!

Calm seas are still elusive

 Ever since we arrived here back on the 5th of April, we've been hoping for some calm water to facilitate the next part of the trip. We thought this would come sooner than today since we've been watching the forecasts for some time leading up to our departure for Lucaya. Back then it always seemed as though the Northwest Providence Channel was more cooperative based on the forecasts.

 Since all of that has changed we'll be here was seems like another 5 or 6 days waiting on the weather to calm down out there. While the wave heights are not all that bad, the period of the waves is short making for a very uncomfortable and wet ride.

 Our last encounter with heavy chop encouraged me to go after the seams in the hard top with some 5200 by 3M. Perhaps with this change the amount of water that makes its way into the bridge will be reduced. It wasn't the new enclosure that had all the issues. There are seams between the hard top cover and frame as well as between the enclosure bead and frame. With the help of the 5200 I have plugged up quite a few of these so I'm hopeful we will have less water dripping when we encounter weather.

 So things are getting done while we sit out the slop.

 Having a car for a week allowed us to move about Grand Bahama easily. We've done quite a bit of site seeing as well as shopping. Prices here are not all that bad but one has to be careful where one shops. Prices for the same items can vary substantially. More so than at home.

 Our site seeing included a visit to the Lucayan National Park. They have provided walkways to a couple of caves near the Southern shore of Grand Bahama and a very pleasant beach. Walking down into the caves was a bit of an experience since the openings start out as a rock ledge that overhangs some pools of crystal clear water. Going down some wooden steps one arrives at some interconnected platforms that are attached to the rocks allowing you to look around. There are several pools of water that have fish in them. Perhaps bringing along some food for the fish might prove interesting as the fish are quite sedate.  

  I think if you click on the photo of the water in the cave you may see some fish eyes that managed to ellude the red eye function the camera has. Maybe I should have used a "fish eye" lens?
 I know. Moving on -
 We have driven from one end of Grand Bahama to the other. Along the way we saw the damage caused by the brush fire along the canal and, we encountered another brush fire that was threatening the  road. It seems these fires are common here. The sun does leave quite a bit of dried our brush on the ground waiting to be ignited.
 Arriving at McLeans Town on the Eastern end we were a bit disappointed because there was no place that looked like a place we wanted to sit down and have lunch at. This is the Bahamas and there isn't much to support a small restaurant at this end of the island. While there is ferry service to Abaco, the dock is small and there is only a small hut with a teller whiling away the hours of duty in between dockings. The ride back into Lucaya was pleasant enough with stops at several beaches along the way.
 The beaches are quite clean from the water line up to the ground covering brush and trees but there isn't much besides the sand here. Apparantly the wave action is relatively light in close so nothing much is washed up. Once closer in to Lucaya we were able to locate Banana Bay where we had a good burger and a couple of beverages. It's the sort of place that comes to mind when you think of lunch by the beach. It's a very pleasant stop.

 On the other end of the island is West End (nothing complicated about that name) and having been there last year we elected to stop a bit short of it and check out the beaches.

 I came across this bit of rusted machinery and it appears as though this was a raft powered by an old aircooled Vtwin. It doesn't appear to be a motorcycle engine. It could be out of a small car or some other application. It had a manufacturer's tag on the block but I could not read it. I'm thinking some Haitian's made their way to the island on this given this memorial we found on a beach not far away. Hoping not to become another person of this sort of reflection we'll continue our wait for better weather.

We drove Freedom through brush fire.

 We never know what life is going to present us with. After leaving the Bluff House on Green Turtle yesterday we motored around Abaco and stopped at Great Sale Cay for the night. The trip around to the Cay was quiet and relaxing with only a small amount of chop on the Sea of Abaco as well as the Bank.

 Pulling into Great Sale we were surprised to see what were new sand bars or "fish muds". Fish muds are areas of water you swear are going to rip your running gear out from under you. Schools of fish create this illusion by churning up the bottom. It's common on the bank. They look exactly like rocky sand bars but they are safe to travel over. We went around them regardless since there were Tornadoes in the area recently and we suspected some new sand bars had popped up. Regardless on we went into Great Sale and dropped the hook. In spite of 15 knots of wind we were hooked up well enough and settled into dinner. Deb did a Hunan Beef and Dan (after driving all day) ate and crashed for a while. It didn't last long.  

 Being out on the hook is always an adventure on Freedom. Ask people that have rafted up with us. Regardless of the anchor and how much chain we put down, she always seems to meander from the original site. Last night was no exception. We were in 10 feet of water at Great Sale. We payed out 120 feet of chain with our 55 pound Delta and she still dragged 70 feet over night. This isn't bad given we were in about 20 knots of wind, but it was unnerving none the less. I think I'm going to enter Freedom in Rue Paul's race. Next year we will move further into the protection of Great Sale as the holding appears to be better there. At least from our experience.

 In the morning we chugged away at the break neck speed of 8 knots. Across the bank and into Dover Sound we went but this time through the sound I managed to keep Freedom in an extra foot of water versus the trip through Dover in November. Into the canal at mid tide we went and throughout channel into the canal we had roughly 3.5 feet under the transducer. That translates to about 5 feet of water. This was not exactly comfortable traveling when one considers the props (cheapo bronze by the way) are 1700 bucks a pop. But that was not the worst of it.

 While heading South off the bank into Dover we saw plums of smoke rising. I was hoping they were merely an indication of a dump burning off refuse but that was not to be. It was a brush fire that was right on the rim of the canal we were traveling through. As we approached it the wind was fanning it over the canal encouraging us to turn around. Slowing down and waiting proved to pay off as the wind shifted opening an opportunity to blow by it all.

 And that's what we did. I hammered the throttles and Freedom lethargically moved up onto plane. She's been a bit of a dock queen in salt water this Winter so there is all sorts of growth on her bottom and running gear. But plane out she did and she hit a respectable 16 knots in the canal before I had to shut her down because we were approaching a pinch point in the canal. Maybe she would have hit 19k. We probably put out some of the fire on our way by with our wake. Check out the width of the canal and you will see that one screw up and you are on rocks. Quite a bit of water was washed ashore.
 So here we are in Lucya, and we're all tied up safe and sound. We're really fortunate to be here this week instead of last week given the Tornadoes that ripped through here.  There are several boats with quite a bit of damage. Several of the dock poles, regardless of being concrete or wood, have been destroyed. It seems that line spreaders, antennas and canvas were the choice of the Tornadoes moving through Lucaya last week. Sadly a number of folks in Freeport were killed when the cranes they were working on in the Port had issues caused by the wind.

 GPS data uploaded as well.

Over to Green Turtle

 As some may know, there are two paths from Green Turtle over to Guana Cay or Marsh Harbour. One either goes around Whale Cay and then on to either destination or one choses to run the Dont Rock passage. Since many folks have banged up quite a bit of gear running the later, we have avoided taking that route. Even though we have received tracks from folks that have done it, we've never seen the need.

 Not even today. In spite of a bad report by a new neighbor that ran the Whale yesterday we set off around 10 am for Loggerhead channel. The ride from Orchid Bay Marina was calm enough and along the way we passed reasonably close to Madsummer which happens to be in town again.
 What a boat.
 We're not talking the NYS lottery here. She's a 257 foot Lurssen, and I think the weekly charter rate is somewhere around a mil a week PLUS expenses. I'm thinking fuel is not included. That being the case, we'll up the ante to a robust Mega Millions winner, and you had best be the only one if you want this boat.
 But once past Madsummer which was on the hook with Spoil (Shell) island in the back ground, we motored into Loggerhead channel. This channel can be quite confusing even though the channel is obvious with the changing water colors. It's confusing because the markers are all rusted to the point they all look red. So keep your plotter handy and watch the color of the water until you are into the Atlantic.
 And that's where the fun started.
 We found ourselves in 4-6 foot rollers out of the North, and a foot or two of chop out of the East on top of that. Not exactly washing machine material but we certainly rolled quite a bit. Adding to the pleasure was our leisurely pace of about 8 knots. So we were proud to experience this for about 45 minutes. After that we turned and had the swell to our stern and the ride improved dramatically. All in all it was a good day on the water getting us to the Bluff House on Green Turtle Cay.
 So with a bit of a sigh we have moved away from our Winter home in the Abacos. Elbow Cay and Guana Cay. We had a great time with all of the folks on both islands and will miss them over the Summer.
 Hopefully we all get to meet up again next year. Have a great Summer everyone!

GPS data has been uploaded, and I'll add more photos to the bucket later on.