Block Island, RI Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Our cruise from Cape May to Block was quiet and uneventful.  We followed two sailboats out of Cape May that were also headed to Block, and spoke to them as we passed them late in the afternoon.   We had very little wind, and the fact that we were cruising on the longest day of the year made the nighttime hours relatively short.  We had the usual traffic of big commercial ships coming and going in the New York City lanes, but no close encounters.  The moon was only half full, but shone very brightly, and we were visited by the dolphins at about 4 am in the morning, as we were getting close to the southern shore of Long Island!

Upon arriving at the entrance to the Salt Pond, we were confused by the sight of what looked like “many” (forty to fifty??) sailboats milling around in front of the island.  We quickly checked and found out that this week is Race Week at Block!!  This means that there are probably over 125 sailboats participating in various classes of races over the entire week.  Too bad, there is hardly any wind, and it has just started raining!!!!

Anyway, we anchored at about 11 am, and had a nice breakfast of bacon and eggs, and had a nap.  Chris just went for a dive under the boat to “check things out” and decided that everything looked good after about 5 minutes in the 62 degree water….We ain’t in the Bahamas any more…!!!

Tomorrow morning we will cruise the 5 hours or so to get to Fall River.  Our friends John and Travis Woolcott will pick us up in the afternoon from the marina and bring us home.  Then it will really be over.  I’ll try to think of some deep and meaningful things to say by then on our final blog of this great adventure.

Cape May NJ, June 20, 2011

Well, here we are anchored again in Cape May, nearly 8 months after arriving here in late October at the beginning of our journey.  Not much to say, but it is bittersweet!  We saw many dolphins today on our way down.  We had not seen any all through the Chesapeake Bay, so we were very happy to have our swimming friends back!

We are anchored right next to another Selene, Alacrity, a lovely 48 foot boat.  She is relatively new, and the owners invited us over for cocktails!  They are heading to the New York area, then on to Montreal and the St. Lawrence river.  Amazing, everywhere we go, we see Selenes!!

We are heading out tomorrow early for our 30 hour run to Block Island.  We'll check in on Wednesday afternoon after we arrive.

Cambridge & Betterton MD, to Chesapeake City, MD June 14 to June 19, 2011

After leaving Urbanna in the Rappahannock River, we cruised to Solomons Island, already in Maryland.  The bugs were atrocious is this harbor!  It was a very closed in and protected anchorage, but it was also a “bug heaven”.  By morning, our boat was literally covered in small, mosquito-like bugs, which seemed to give off a green powdery substance so our boat was covered in it!  Yuk! 

We headed out of Solomons the very next day. Solomons is up the Patuxent River.  In the harbor, we saw both Blue Grotto, a 53 foot Selene from our rendezvous with Mike and Renee on board, and Ashton Gray, the mysterious power boat that has been “following” us since the ICW!  Our next stop was Cambridge MD, on the Choptank River.  We relaxed for a couple of days, and ate lots of oysters and crab cakes!  Cambridge is a very small town, but has some lovely old historic homes.  Cambridge is famous for being an important link in the underground railway system that was used by many slaves to travel to freedom before the civil war.

We then moved on to Betterton MD , on the Sassafras River.  Not much going on here, but it was a quiet anchorage for the night.

We are now anchored in Chesapeake City, which is on the C&D Canal.  This is a convenient stopping point for crossing Delaware Bay tomorrow.   From there, it’s onto Cape May, then the 30 hour overnight run to Block Island.  The weather seems to be shaping up pretty good for the next several days, with no big storms or high winds.  A few rain showers and cloudy conditions, but that is not an issue for us for these next few legs.

There is another Selene in our anchorage here, it looks like a 43 foot older model, and still has “Solo” badges – Solo was the predecessor name of the Selene boats.  Amazing!  Everywhere we go we see Selenes!!

Norfolk to Urbanna VA, June 12 to 14, 2011

Well both the broken bridges finally sorted themselves out around 2:30 in the afternoon, and we were on our way.  We did narrowly squeak through another railroad bridge that was about to close for a train, but thanks to Captain Chris, we speeded up and got through without any other delays.  We then had to cruise through Norfolk harbor, a roughly two mile “no wake” zone, where they were having a huge harbor festival.  We saw some tall ships, and many large (huge container ships) and small boats milling around.  There were also many police and coast guard boats making sure everyone behaved on the water.  We managed to get through without attracting any attention from either for an unscheduled boarding!

Because of the nearly 4 hour bridge delay, we stopped short of our intended anchorage and instead stopped at Old Point Comfort and anchored in the same place we had anchored on the way down last November.  It was completely empty of boats, so we had the place to ourselves, until “Ashton Gray”, a large cruising power boat arrived.  We had seen the boat a day earlier anchored off the ICW.  They anchored in the same anchorage, and left after us the next day.  We cruised to Fishing Bay in the Piankatank River on the West side of the lower Chesapeake, and low and behold, they showed up in the same anchorage!  I don’t think they are following us, but it was quite a coincidence!

While we were in Fishing Bay, we spoke to a couple from a beautiful 2-masted sailboat “Valkyrie”.  They suggested we visit Urbanna, on the Rappahanock River if we wanted to get some good oysters and crab cakes.  So here we are.  We cruised to this lovely and protected harbor yesterday, and have decided to take a day off.  We ate well last night on fried oysters and crab cakes.  Today we will have a lazy day and maybe do some swimming, take the dinghy for an exploratory ride up the creek, and get some groceries in town for the last leg of our trip.  The weather is beautiful, so we are lucky.

We are also planning the last few days of our journey back home.  We will likely visit Solomons for a couple of days, before heading to Annapolis, the C&D Canal, Cape May and then Block Island.  With just about two weeks left in our grand cruise, we are feeling torn between the desire to stretch this trip out a few more days, and getting back home.  We will definitely enjoy these last few days of our grand adventure!

Beaufort NC, to Norfolk VA, June 8 to 11, 2011

We arrived in Beaufort expecting to anchor, but the Taylor Creek anchorage was filled with mooring balls!!  As we were trying to figure out what to do, we got a call on the radio from Catalina Sunshine, one of the boats at the marina on the shore.  We had seen that boat anchored in the Waccamaw River and along the ICW over the previous few days.  He told us that there was a “free” mooring ball whose owner was off in the Caribbean.  He had used it the night before, and suggested that we could pick it up rather than anchor.  We were very happy to hear this, and picked up the mooring ball and had a very relaxed evening, not having to worry about the anchor in such a tight spot.  It’s always nice to have strangers help out!!

The next day we headed off early into the ICW, and started off with the 20 mile journey down the Pungo–Alligator canal.  This is a fairly narrow channel that connects the Pungo and Alligator rivers.  On this trip, we saw three bald eagles, and a little black bear swam across the stream right in front of us!!   We also had many bugs along for the ride, needless to say lots of green heads and black flies, but we also had two beautiful bugs, a golden tortoise beetle (it is not a ladybug, as I found out on the internet) and a huge dragonfly.

Bald Eagle

Little black bear swimming across the ICW

Golden Tortoise Beetle

Dragonfly

Today, we started early, as we had a busy day to get through Norfolk.  The passage in the last 10 miles of the ICW through Norfolk is packed with bridges, and lots of boat traffic.  We also planned to get 500 gallons of diesel for the return trip home at a marina just along the ICW.  It is now 1 pm, and we have been through all the bridges but one, fueled up, and were excited to pass the last opening bridge and be on our way to the Chesapeake, when, the bridge has failed to open due to “mechanical problems”, and is not expected to be fixed until 2:30 pm the earliest.  The railroad bridge that precedes it, which is normally open, just closed for a train, and it apparently also has failed!!!!!!!!!!

The "broken" railroad bridge is stuck in the down position just to the right of the large red boat on the left of the photo

 

After jockeying for position with about 10 other anxious large power boats, we have left the area and are anchored about a half mile from the problem, outside the channel.  

Who knows how long we will be stuck here!  Hopefully they will get it working so we can be on our way.  In any case, we won’t make the bottom of the Chesapeake tonight, and will most likely stay at Old Point Comfort just north of Norfolk, VA for the night if they get the bridges working. 

Charleston SC, Waccamaw River SC, and Carolina Beach NC, June 2-7 2011

We arrived in Charleston, SC after an uneventful 22 hour run overnight from Fernandina Beach although it did get kind of busy off the inlet to the port of Savannah, where at least 10 large freighters showed up as AIS targets at 2:00am. Charleston is everything our friends told us it would be – beautiful architecture, great restaurants and pubs, and a great friendly atmosphere.  We spent Friday and Saturday walking around the beautiful ante-bellum houses, we took in the Farmers’ market where we got to snack on all the samples that were on display, we ate in a couple of great restaurants, and even got to see an art festival held on the common in the evening, where they had a band and great food!  We really enjoyed our stay.  The highlights were the “Charleston ice” which is a cross between a slush and a sorbet, in mango and peach (our choices), and, in true Simmons character, we found the only Irish pub in town, Molly Darcy’s, and managed to stop there twice in a 32 hour time span!

Fort Sumter, at the entrance to Charleston

Architecture in Charleston - a feast for the eyes!

Wrought iron gates are everywhere...

We could have had 20 photos like this...!

We left Charleston on Sunday early, and headed for the Waccamaw River on the ICW.  This is truly the most scenic part of the ICW, with wooded banks and cypress trees lining the way, as well as nesting ospreys on nearly every single mile marker!!   

The Waccamaw River

Pelicans guarding the dock

We also passed a barge, which looked ordinary as we were approaching it, but once we got closer we saw it was towing almost a quarter mile of dredging gear behind it!  Wow!!

Barge approaching

A quarter mile later...!

On Monday, we left our secluded and quiet anchorage, and headed for Carolina Beach in NC.  This is a very busy part of the ICW, and we crossed the Cape Fear inlet and river, which is a pretty big shipping port going to Delaware NC.  We were “chased” by a huge ship, the Socol 6, and managed to get a VERY close up shot.

Socol 6!! up close and personal!

Today, Tuesday, we have decided to spend the day in Carolina Beach.  This is a very quiet and relaxed beach community.  The real reason for our decision though, was last night, as we were anchored in the harbor, we heard on the news that Michael’s Seafood Restaurant, right here in Carolina Beach, just won, for the third time, first place in the Newport (RI) chowder contest!  We couldn’t resist the temptation to head over there today for lunch, so we will report out to you our conclusion about the chowder! 

Tomorrow, we will head off for Beaufort, NC, and then plan to be at the bottom of the Chesapeake by Saturday evening.  We have a busy few days coming up, since there are lots of bridges to go under!  The good thing is that this time of year, the ICW is much quieter, since all the cruising boats have already stopped moving around for the summer. 

We’ll report back in a few days.

Ft. Lauderdale to Fernandina Beach, May 27 to June 1, 2011

We finally left Ft. Lauderdale with an almost brand new dinghy, a second leaking dinghy, and a full refrigerator after restocking our provisions.  Our “old” Rendova dinghy got a brand new set of inflatable tubes in Ft. Lauderdale, so it looks and feels like new, while our “new” dinghy that John & Travis brought over in March (to substitute for the “old” dinghy that fell upside down in the water) sprung a significant water leak – presumably from a defective seal!!  Honestly, we should call this cruise “The Curse of the Dinghies”!!   We cruised on the outside to Ft. Pierce, which was a roughly 12.5 hour cruise.  The weather was glorious, warm, sunny and perfect for an outside run.  

The bridge at Las Olas near our mooring in Ft. Lauderdale

One of our neighbors in the mooring field with his crew!

We anchored in Ft. Pierce where we had stopped before on our way south back in early February.  It was quite fun going through the inlet, knowing that “we had done this before”!  We then decided to travel the next leg north on the ICW.  This was due to the wind predictions being a bit strong, and from the East, such that a northerly cruise would become a bit uncomfortable.  

Nesting ospreys on the ICW

Pelican waiting for a handout from the fishermen...

We traveled from Ft. Pierce to Titusville, then the following day from Titusville to St. Augustine.  We hadn’t actually traveled on this stretch of the ICW on our way down, so it was all new to us.  However, we had to go through the planning of bridge openings, and other ICW traffic.  Because of the time of year, there was a lot less traffic on the ICW, and we generally had the place to ourselves.  We did see many dolphins, Chris saw a large ray breach out of the water, and we actually saw several manatees, but we generally only saw their back-ends going down into the water!  They never hung around long enough for us to get any photos!

Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine

 

Upon leaving St. Augustine, we decided to cruise on the outside to Fernandina Beach.  Fernandina Beach is actually the northernmost city in Florida, and is on Amelia Island.  We are planning to spend a few days there.  We will not only get to see Amelia Island, but will also go over the Cumberland Island, where there are some Indian ruins, and some wild horses that roam the island. 

On our way we saw the Royal (that’s British) Navy Auxiliary ship the Wave Ruler.  This is a ship that provisions other Royal Navy ships with fuel, food, and other essentials.  We saw their AIS signal on our chart plotter, but each time we tried to get the info on the ship, it shut off our GPS and the entire chart plotter went dead!  Obviously some serious radio jamming frequencies from that boat!  In any case, I think they decided to put on a show for us, and did some amazing helicopter exercises.  We got some great pictures.  

Helicopter exercises!!

 Once we were settled down on our mooring at Fernandina, we saw, Orient Moon, one of the Selenes that was with us on the rendezvous with Leslie and Terry on board cruise into the anchorage!  Unbelievable!  Two Selenes in the harbor!  We asked them over for drinks, and we had a great time catching up.  We may see them again in Annapolis, which is their home base. 

We will update the blog again on our way from Cumberland to Charleston, NC in a few days.  We can definitely tell we are back in the States…the water temperature is about 80 (as opposed to the 85 degrees in the Bahamas) and the water is a murky greeny blue, instead of the crystal clear “I can see my toes in the water” of the Bahamas.  But it’s good to be home…

Ft. Lauderdale – Friday, May 20th to Friday May 27th, 2011

Back in the US(S)A…boys, you don’t know how lucky you are boys…

We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale Friday afternoon after a smooth and warm cruise from Bimini.  On the way, we actually saw a “baby” funnel cloud about 2 miles off in the distance!  Otherwise, the trip was uneventful, until we got closer to the Ft. Lauderdale inlet.  It was a typical Friday afternoon in Lauderdale, with fishing boats, cargo ships and the usual radio banter.  I guess you know you’re back in the US when both radio and boat traffic is “back to normal”!

We have been on our mooring at Las Olas City Marina for a few days now.  We have already put our dinghy to get brand new tubes!  Very exciting, since it will be “like new”, even after falling in the water upside down.  We expect to get it back on Friday.

We also got our bimini repaired.  When we were in Man-o-War, we had a brief but fierce squall with wind speed over 35 knots!  We had to re-anchor our boat, and in the storm, our bimini got shredded.  We tried to get it fixed in the Abaco, but given our schedule (and the much higher price) we decided to bring it here for the repair.  We already have it back and mounted, so it is very nice to have some shade on the top deck! 

 We have been enjoying the Ft. Lauderdale scene; people watching on the beautiful beach (lots of college kids), eating in restaurants, doing laundry, and generally hanging out.  Weather has been absolutely wonderful, although it is VERY hot here!  Most days it is well in the upper 80’s, but we generally get a nice breeze in the mooring field. 

We saw our good friends Karen and Dave for dinner on Monday night.  We had a great time, and even though we hadn’t seen each other for five years – we saw them the last time we were in Ft. Lauderdale when we bought Auriga in 2006- it seemed like it was just yesterday!  We are also seeing Rolf tonight for dinner, to say thanks again for helping us out with our dinghy purchase back in March. 

Tomorrow, Friday, we have a busy day.  We will get our renewed dinghy back, and then we will get stocked up at the grocery for our journey back.  On Saturday, we will head out to Stuart, then keep moving north home. 

Yesterday, we left our mooring briefly to fuel up with diesel for the return journey.  They have a fuel barge here in Lauderdale, just like the one in New Bedford where we fueled up at the beginning of our journey.  Whereas in New Bedford, the barge ties up to us and we “float” around the harbor as we refuel, here in Lauderdale, since the river is a bit less deep than New Bedford (10 ft vs about 30!), the fuel barge has “spud poles” which it lowers into the mud at the bottom of the river to hold it in place.  Chris did an amazing docking onto the barge, and we took on about 500 gallons of diesel.  Once we were done, we came back and picked up our mooring again. 

I won’t get too philosophical about our adventure, since it is really not quite the end yet.  Suffice to say, we are feeling a bit sad about not being in the beautiful Bahamas, but also pleased to be closer to home.  We have been listening to the news every day, and while we didn’t get much news when we were in the Bahamas, nothing much seems too different.  The government is still almost running out of money, we are still in a mess in the Middle East, and the economy is still not great.  The biggest news is that Oprah is going to retire, but we don’t feel very strongly about that!!

Hope Town, Snake Cay & Lynyard Cay, Abaco, May 13 to May 17, 2011

We moved the boat from our anchorage at Man-O-War Cay to the very sheltered harbor at Hope Town.  At Hope Town, there is a fully functional original lighthouse that was built over 100 years ago.  The light functions with an original mechanism which has to be primed and lit each evening by the lighthouse keeper.  The view from the top of the lighthouse (after climbing over 100 steps!!) was pretty spectacular.

Hope Town Lighthouse

View from the top

After the weekend in Hope Town, we moved on to Snake Cay.  We anchored there for a couple of days and went into the creek behind the cay to explore.  We did see a few turtles, rays, and a few fishermen!!

Hope Town Breadfruit Tree

We also went to the coral gardens off of Sandy Cay to snorkel.  It was almost as good as the Exumas!!  We saw many stag coral heads, which were enormous and really looked just like antlers.  We also saw a very large grouper – over 6 feet long- a giant angelfish, and two eagle rays that were over 10 feet long with their tails!

After anchoring at Lynyard Cay, we took the dinghy to the famous Pete’s Pub in Little Harbor.  There is a foundry there where the artists make bronze sculptures using the “lost wax” method.  In any case, we didn’t get a tour, but checked out the shop, had a couple of drinks in the beachside bar, and took a long walk on the beach.

Tomorrow, we will set off on our return voyage to Ft. Lauderdale.  We will post our final blog once we get there. 

Great Guana Cay, the Sea of Abaco, Sunday, May 8th

The weather here has been tremendous, with warm sunny days and NO WIND!! We have stayed anchored at Man-O-War Cay, and are using our (actually working quite well) big dinghy to visit the cays around us.

Yesterday we went to Great Guana Cay, home of the famous Nippers bar and Sunday pig roast!  We had a flat run of about 7 miles to the island, and docked our dinghy with the famous Bahamian stern anchor. 

Road sign showing the way to Nippers

World Famous Nippers Beachside Bar

We walked through the village (quite small, only one street on the harbor!) and up to Nippers.  We had a drink, went for a swim, and a walk on the beautiful beach.  We passed a group of beach walkers, and Chris swears one of them was Warren Buffett (wearing a Berkshire T-shirt!!)!! Seeing Warren is not quite as good as seeing Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell in George Town (way to go Dirk!), and we didn’t get a picture, but we are quite sure it was him!!

Chris having a drink at Nippers...

We left Nippers, and walked to the other great attraction on the island, Grabbers Bar at the marina.  We had another drink there, and listed to the great “rake and scrape” band.  As you can see, they actually “play” the saw (from Ace Hardware) with a rather large fishing knife!!  Good advertising for Ace Hardware!!

Chris having a drink at Grabbers... (do you sense a theme?)

Rake & Scrape....note the saw from Ace Hardware!!

Way too many rum drinks!!

Anyway, we had another easy ride back to the boat on the dinghy, with the sea very flat and smooth.    Later in the evening, during low tide, we went for another dinghy ride in the small dinghy (wow! We have so many toys!!), and collected several sea biscuits from the shallow waters.  They are so unbelievably perfect; they almost look like someone made them!  We are going to bleach them and bring them home with us. 

Today we are going to take the dinghy to Hope Town, which is on Elbow Cay to our southeast.  We will likely move Auriga further south to Lynyard Cay toward the end of the week. 

Abaco - May 3 to 7, 2011

We arrived into the Sea of Abaco on Tuesday afternoon, after a rolly and not so comfortable cruise from Spanish Wells.  We left Nassau on Monday morning and cruised to Spanish Wells at the Northern tip of Eleuthera.  We have been there before, on one of Bandit’s moorings, almost 10 weeks ago, and that is where we met Dirk and Nancy and Dan and Ruth.  We went into town for dinner, and bought some fish.  We reminisced about the last time we were here, which was at the beginning of our adventure.  Now, we are slowly making our way back home.

We anchored in the Sea of Abaco just south of Man-O-War Cay.  The Sea of Abaco is a body of water that is surrounded by a number of Cays to the north, and the Great Abaco Island to the south.  It is almost like a lake, and is quite calm.  We plan on staying here for a week or so, and visiting the surrounding cays and villages with the dinghy.  We also are planning to do some snorkeling and fishing!!  We will then move South to visit Little Harbor in the main island, before starting our trek back to Florida.

Tomorrow we are going to Guana Cay, to Nippers Bar, where they have a famous pig roast every Sunday.  We will begin the day with a call to Mom, and wish here a very happy Mothers Day!!

We don’t have any photos, but will work on the over the next few days.

Nassau, April 30 to May 2 2011

We finally left George Town on Friday morning, and traveled north toward Hawksbill Cay.  We had a long cruise, almost 10 hours, but it was lovely weather, and we had a very calm and uneventful passage.  On the way, we spoke with many of our Selene friends who were moving around the Exumas, including Wayne and Sharon on My Sharona, John and Kathy on Mystic Moon, and Uncle Luc on Innu.  We said good-bye as we are all slowly moving North to our respective destinations either in the North of the Bahamas or Florida.

We also had a little visitor on this run, a lovely little bird who decided that our boat looked enough like an island to take a rest on his migration route.  He stayed with us for almost an hour!  We also saw four dolphins! They came right up to the boat and swam in our bow wave for several minutes!  

Our little stowaway!

After a nice swim on the beach at Hawksbill, our night started out very quiet, but the anchorage got very uncomfortable after midnight as the wind and the tide were in opposing directions.  We rolled around a lot, and woke up at about 5:30 am and decided to hit the road!

We arrived in Nassau at about noon after another nice cruise.  We entered Nassau Harbor, and Chris docked the boat with amazing grace and precision!  Even the dock master was impressed!!

We had dinner Saturday night at Café Matisse, which is with no exaggeration, the best restaurant in Nassau!  We had a lovely table in the courtyard, and a fabulous meal.  The scene at this restaurant did not disappoint, as the place was hopping with the “beautiful people”.  We’ll come back again!!

We spent a couple of days in Nassau, cleaning the boat (which it sorely needed), charging up batteries (which it sorely needed) and some walking around to take in the sights and shopping in Nassau…a very welcome and good interlude.

We went to find some of our old haunts from the last few times we were in Nassau.  We had a drink in the beautiful British Colonial Hotel.  We found the Dunkin Donuts that Alex used to have breakfast every morning when we were here 24 years ago!  Alas, though, the wonderful British pub, The Green Shutters has been converted to an Indian restaurant, the Taj Mahal!  

Alex's Dunkin Donuts!

The sign is still there...

But a British Pub no longer...!!

Today, we are planning to head out to Spanish Wells.  We hope to get a mooring in Bandit’s mooring field, before heading out to the Abaco tomorrow. 

Family Islands Regatta, George Town, April 24 to April 28, 2011

Boats arriving

We have been doing a few chores, cleaning the boat, etc. while waiting for the annual Regatta to begin here in George Town.  The weather, while warm, has not been very sunny, and we have had three days of off-and-on showers.  Also, we have not had much wind, certainly not enough to make the races exciting.  We went out to watch one of the races yesterday afternoon in the dinghy.  

Pulling up anchor and sails!!

The boats all start out at anchor with their sails down. So when they blast the starting gun, the crew lift anchor and hoist their sails, and away they go!  It is quite fun to watch the beautiful handmade boats all jockey for position.  We followed the lead boat in our dinghy for most of the race, but learned later that that particular boat, Rupert’s Legend, came in second.  Oh well…

And they're off!!

Rupert's Legend comes in second!!

We are leaving early tomorrow morning for a long run (85nm) as far north as Shroud Cay.  We have had a lot of fun here in George Town, and now it is time to start heading north. We spent last night playing cards with Dirk and Nancy, and we got together again for brunch this morning.  We will have to say goodbye today, and hope that we will meet again, either stateside, or back here in the Bahamas!!

George Town, Saturday April 23

Today is St. George’s Day (he is the patron saint of England  - actually reputed to be a Roman born in Syria!!!), so in honor of his saintship we are today flying both the British red ensign and the closest we have to the English St. George flag – actually the number 8 pennant.  Also, because of St. George, Irina allowed me to write the blog today for the first time since we left the US!!

Nearly an English St. George's flag!! (Number 8)

Red Ensign - Go UK!!

Leftover (till tomorrow) X cross buns

It is also Easter weekend – a big holiday here in Bahamas. Most shops etc are closed Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Monday. We got local hot cross buns – very tasty, though the crosses need some work!!

Tuesday the regatta begins – there must be 30 local stalls erected in town – probably all selling beer, rum and conch and the Bahamian racing sailboats have started arriving in port. We’ll post photos of the boats and the races next week. Suffice it to say at this time that they are only small dinghy-type boats with large sails and crews of ten or more, mostly hanging out over the side on a large board to balance the boat underway- more to come on that.

The other reason I get to write this blog is to tell the story of the dinghy collection. We now have 2 dinghies and a kayak on Auriga (actually off Auriga at this time)..

3 for the price of 1????

This story began March 3^rd when were at Warderick Wells but to protect the innocent and avoid alarming Irina’s parents unduly we delayed writing about it until now!!!

So there we were just beginning to lower our 700lb dinghy on a bright sunny day at Warderick, when without warning it suddenly dropped 20 ft into the sea upside down!!!

Oh shit!!!

The immediate concern was how to right the dinghy and avoid an environmental catastrophe (not quite the Exxon Valdez but 10 gallons of gasoline and a few pints of engine oil do not exactly help the Exuma national sealife park maintain its beauty!!

Anyway, after several nearby boaters saw the situation, we were helped to tow the upside down boat ashore and eventually to turn it right way up – it is very heavy and took several people to turn it over. Fortunately, there was hardly any spillage of gas or oil in this process. We then towed the dinghy back to Auriga and began to think about what had happened and what to do next.

It turned out that a stainless steel shackle (probably made in China!!) had snapped completely - it had obviously been corroding through for some time but looked normal from the outside. When the shackle broke it put a shock strain on our stainless steel lifting cable that then also snapped, dumping our boat in the water upside down.

Needless to say, even though the dinghy motor was not running at the time of immersion, it did not like the experience and refused to start, so we began a long process of cleaning, drying and fiddling to sort out the problem(s).

Anyway, after a couple of days with no obvious progress and no way to get ashore from our anchored boat, we began to think seriously about what to do next. Fortunately, our friends, John and Travis were scheduled to fly in from Boston via Ft. Lauderdale the following weekend for the Selene Rendezvous week. John, with the help of another friend, Capt. Rolf Taunton Rigby, in Lauderdale, purchased a new dinghy for us at West Marine and brought it with him on the small passenger plane to Staniel Cay. And, because I am so smart (!!!!), I already had a small 5HP 2-stroke outboard on Auriga (much to Irina’s amazement) and voila, once again we were mobile and able to get ashore.    

So then we had 2 dinghies – one working and one dead!! Incidentally, John also brought new shackles and cable with him, so we were able to repair the boom lift and winch the dead dinghy back on board. Once on board we continued fiddling with the engine. We changed the engine oil several times, changed the spark plugs, and continued drying the engine with WD40 and sunlight. Finally, it coughed and spluttered a few times. By this time, our friend Dirk from Tybee Time was really committed to making this engine run again. We disassembled the 3 carburetors and over the course of several days and multiple goes finally got the engine firing, though it still ran very poorly, especially at lower speed. The final step was to remove the carburetor jets completely to clean them (probably grains of sand in the jets) but only one jet would come out. Despite our best efforts and lots of carb cleaner fluid, there was no way to remove the other 2 jets. So finally we arrived in George Town where we were advised to contact Mr. Perry Brown, the local engine guru. 3 Days later we got our carbs back with removable jets. And 2 days later with Dirk’s help, the engine is now running better than ever!!! So now after 6 weeks, we are up and running once again.

In the meantime, we have grown quite used to having 2 dinghies – a very fast relatively dry dinghy and a shallow draft slower boat that we get in closer to shore, though we shall probably sell the new dinghy after we get back to Fall River. Next step with the big dinghy is to see if we can get some help in Lauderdale on the return trip, to stop the slow seepage leaks that necessitate pumping it up a bit every few days. It is 10 years old and the inflatable tubes are getting a bit tired --- as I am sure you all are of this long drawn out story!!!

Enough said, Irina will be back as usual next time with her “girly” non technical accounts of life in the sunny Bahamas – by the way we just found out that we missed naked volleyball last week, damn!! In the meantime, here is a very rare Bahamian rainbow. It even rains here once in blue moon.

Where is that crock of (pirate) gold??