Passage to Black Sound, Green Turtle Cay

Today we had another 60 miles to go from Great Sale to Green Turtle Cay. This would be our final long voyage of the trip. One very frustrating experience was that our AutoPilot failed for most of the morning. We had to hand-steer in 20-25 knot winds which was tiring. Brian was on the satellite phone with Tech Support at Simrad trying to get some assistance; we watched the clock as he was on hold for 18 minutes at $1.00 per minute charges on this phone! In the end, his troubleshooting skills paid off and he solved the problem by tightening a pivotal screw in the assembly that was manufactured by the company and sent to us intact. How maddening! We were so relieved to have it working again, so we could take a break from the intensity required at the helm in these conditions.

Contrary to the weather predictions, the wind really died down throughout the afternoon. Here are some photos of this trip once things were calmer. The first photo shows the different colors of the water. You can see the foreground of this first picture is darker (deeper), and the water further away is the brilliant aquamarine (more shallow). If you are interested, Google “reading the waters in the Bahamas with eyeball navigation”… there is a lot to learn! We rely less on our GPS and more on our eyes because we draw 6 feet and have to be careful not to run into coral reefs or rocks. Polarized sunglasses are essential. On this bank, as far as I could see to the horizon is only 20 feet at its deepest. On the Gulf Stream, in contrast, (hold your breath, Dad!) we sailed in 2,500 feet of water!

Here are some more photos of the trip today. I guess my senses were heightened by the fresh air and bright colors and sunshine – I took a lot of close-up shots around the boat because suddenly everything looked more interesting.  We still wore layers: it was 65 degrees today, cold weather by Bahamian standards!








We arrived in Black Sound at Green Turtle Cay at around 4:00pm today. We decided to pick up one of the 2 remaining moorings so that we didn’t have to worry about anchoring in a tight spot. More to come!

Great Sale Cay

Monday morning, December 28th, we got up at 4:30am reluctantly. It was completely dark. But the water was smooth and there was only 4 knots of wind, which would make our exit from our slip easier. Brian arranged our dock lines in a certain way so that with the engine in neutral, he could “walk” our boat backwards by pulling the lines as he walked along the dock. I was at the helm, and I pulled our starboard stern line tightly to “swing” our boat out in the correct direction.

At the last minute, Brian hopped onboard at the bow, and I put the engine in forward and we quietly left the docks without a problem. It is so hard to contain my anxiety during these times. It is all I can do to stop the stream of movie images of a boat crashing into other boats in my mind. We do not have brakes on the boat. Without bow thrusters it is incredibly difficult to “steer” in and out of a dock, and when we go in reverse our boat pulls to port. Our boat feels like a massive animal that is slow moving but very heavy with the potential to do a lot of damage. I sighed deeply as we left the dock, only just then aware that I had been holding my breath.

With that accomplished, we were looking at about 68 miles of sailing this day in order to reach Great Sale Cay (cay is pronounced “key”) before sunset. Great Sale is uninhabited, and is known as a protected stopover spot across the Great Bahama Bank. We had 15-20 knots of wind for most of the day, with about 4-5 feet of seas. Later in the morning, “Charlotte Ann” called us on our VHF Radio once they left the dock at the West End. Their boat only has a draft (depth into the water) of about 2 feet, as compared to our 6 feet. This means they can go a lot more places in the Bahamas than we can. They left later in they day because they were able to take a shortcut. Our depth will definitely hinder us here, but there have been many other boats just like ours who have explored here before we came along, we just have to pay close attention and plan accordingly.

We continued to see a good 20 knots of wind off our port reach, coming from the north as we headed east. I was thrilled to see the green water! Here are some photos of our passage:







Above there is a photo of the screen we see on our cockpit GPS and our TV screen down below when we are at sea. The center is a representation of our boat, on course with the purple line leading to our next waypoint. The top left is our depth. The bottom left is our speed. We can also see estimated time of arrival at our destination, wind direction and wind speed, outside air temperature, and many other things.

We arrived at Great Sale about 1 hour ahead of “Charlotte Ann”. It felt good to stop the boat’s movement, relax, clean up and play more with the girls. They did phenomenally well during this trip! Madelyn’s imagination is a gift to both girls; she seems to come up with dozens of ideas of what they can do with a simple item from the galley or a few odds and ends from around the boat. Katja just toddles after her, happy to have a playmate, for the most part. This time, Madelyn did not get seasick at all. I think she is getting used to it.

We had invited the MacLean family to our boat for Happy Hour, but they were worn out from the voyage, so we will reschedule. Here is a photo of Brian and Madelyn headed over to their boat when they arrived at our anchorage:

I’m glad we have other cruisers to travel with now. It brings back fond memories of traveling to Maine and Cape Cod with the Stevens and Hitchcock families back home. Even though we did not get together that night, it was comforting to look out in the anchorage and see their anchor light shining in the darkness. I could picture their kids getting ready for sleep and I knew we would travel beside each other tomorrow on another long day at sea.

West End, Grand Bahama (Day Two)

West End, Grand Bahama : (Day Two)

Today we spent a full day at the dock. We met a family of 4 from Ontario, Canada. They have been sailing on their catamaran down the ICW, and crossed the Gulf Stream from Palm Beach just yesterday. Here is a photo of our boat, and then their boat at the docks. You can see they have bicycles, which would be great for us to have:


Their children Delaney (age 9) and Mitchell (age 6) went back to the pool and beach with us and we all had a great time. Brian went snorkeling and found a live Conch in the shell:




Madelyn and Katja played for hours with Delaney:


The perpetually out-of-breath-and-excited Mitchell at the top of his “mountain peak” of sand:

We had a chance to quickly wash down our boat since we had freshwater hookup available at the dock. This is a free service in the US, but cost $15 here, since freshwater is in shorter supply. “Estella” needed a good washing, since it had been a few months, and she had a lot of saltwater build-up on her deck and hull. We stopped short because we were invited for Happy Hour on “Charlotte Ann”, Mark and Lisa’s boat from Ontario. It was a fun evening as we all made new friends.

Later on, we studied the charts and realized we needed to leave at 5:00am the next day in order to make it to our next spot in time for sunset! We had not prioritized our trip planning very well, instead spending the day relaxing, on other boat projects, and with new friends. Now, after a few drinks, at 11:00pm, we were tired and not excited about sailing for 10 hours the next day with little sleep. We also felt anxious about leaving this tight spot at the dock in the pre-dawn darkness with no help! But it did not seem right to stay on another night or two, because the winds were predicted to increase and move in our heading direction, and because this marina was expensive. We decided to just go for it and leave the next morning.

West End, Grand Bahama (Day One)

West End, Grand Bahama : (Day One)

We decided at the beginning that we would spend 2 nights here at Old Bahama Bay Marina in the West End. We were too exhausted from the Stream crossing to leave the very next day, and we still had laundry to do and further course planning. Also, once we looked around the resort, we found a lot of reasons to stay to enjoy the amenities!

First, we needed to check in with Customs. Standard protocol for private boats entering a foreign port is to first fly a yellow “Quarantine Flag”, showing that you have not formally cleared yet. Here is our flag:

Technically, only the captain of the boat is allowed on land until the clearance, but this marina was relaxed about this, and told us we all could get off the boat to look around since we arrived before the office opened. The marina dockmaster gave us the necessary paperwork, which took me almost 45 minutes to complete!




All 4 of us walked over to the Customs office, then after are papers were processed (and they accepted our $300 in cash as the fee for boats over 35 feet!), we went back to “Estella”. We all now have a Bahamas stamp in our passports! We changed the yellow flag to the Bahamian/Turks&Caicos flag as you can see:

Here are a few photos of the marina itself:









We decided to have fun before doing anything else, so we enjoyed the pool, playground, and beach, all adjacent to each other on the campus of the resort. There are hotel rooms and small house rentals here, as well as 2 restaurants and a small gift shop. Guests can also rent ocean kayaks, windsurfing equipment and bicycles. I think it would be a fun place for an extended family to visit, each smaller group renting their own space, however it is 5 miles to the settlement of West End and 25 miles to the city of Freeport, so it does feel isolated on the edge of the island. It also felt strange to see the border of the resort, where the lush manicured grass of the resort meets the dry low-lying brush of the native landscape. It felt like a mirage.


We were in a fog from feeling so tired, but somehow we did 3 or 4 loads of laundry and carted it back to the boat. I can’t remember much about the rest of the night….we needed sleep!

Christmas Day

Madelyn woke up excitedly at 6:45am, and immediately remembered that this was Christmas Morning! She asked me “Mommy! Did Santa find out boat?” She walked into the salon (aka living/dining room) and shrieked “There are PRESENTS here!!!” After Brian and I each had a cup of strong coffee, we joined both Madelyn and Katja for a special time together. It was a fun morning with opening cards and little gifts. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa, Omi, Aunt Vera and Aunt Renee for sending little treasures and notes… It was great to also have a chance to “Skype” our families and see their smiling faces!!!!

We didn’t have a lot of time to just relax because check-out time from the dock was 11:00am. We talked with the couple from Indianapolis on a catamaran named “Private Island” to see if they planned to leave West Palm Beach tonight as well, but they had to wait for family members to fly in the next day before they could sail to the Bahamas. We exchanged email addresses, and hopefully we will meet up soon. It’s a small world! They live on Geist Reservoir in Indy and now plan to cruise on their sailboat for months, maybe chartering their boat to guests along the way.

We left the dock without a problem, and then passed through the Flagler Bridge as it opened on schedule. I took a picture because I felt nostalgic; this would be the last bridge for us for a long time.

We found a new place to anchor farther north in Lake Worth by Peanut Island. For the rest of the day we continued to make preparations to cross the Gulf Stream that night. We took naps, made dinner, secured the dinghy on davits and the outboard engine on our deck, and made sure to tie all lines and sails tightly. We checked the weather again and our course again. The winds were predicted to come from the west/northwest at 10-15 knots, with seas 3-5 feet, and we would be heading more or less due east from Palm Beach.

We both were feeling apprehensive about this crossing, but we knew it was time to go. The weather was the best it could be. We had been waiting 2 weeks in Palm Beach, now 2 months since we flew down to start this trip, and over 4 years since we first dreamed of this and started budgeting to make this happen. We had made so many upgrades to our boat for this passage, with a lot of personal time and financial sacrifice. Can you ever be fully ready for a big change in your life? That is a question that is difficult to answer. There have been many times when we have been faced with this: deciding to have children, change jobs, move to a new place, try to move on after a huge loss, etc… I have to trust in God, myself, and the things I can plan for reasonably, and try to make the best decision possible. We also asked ourselves, “If we don’t do this Gulf Stream crossing, will we always regret it?” The answer was yes. We came this far, all the way from New England, we couldn’t hold back now.

So we left! We analyzed the weather again, and it was going to clock around from the north later the next day and become stronger, so we left 3 hours ahead of schedule, at 9:00pm on Christmas Day.

It was a dark, bumpy night with a lot of rolling and pitching. The seas were coming from our port (left) side almost at our backs, so we could feel (but not see) the waves behind us, then under us, then in front of us. The wind was also behind us. I took Dramamine before we left, which helped immensely. Poor Madelyn got sick at the beginning, but then slept on the starboard settee with her lee-cloth secured to steady her, for the rest of the trip. Katja slept the entire way. I put 2 big pillows on either side of each little girl, which prevented them from rolling around in their beds and kept them from waking up. Here are some photos of the lee-cloth and pillow arrangements:

Brian and I had a hard time sleeping when we took turns. Once as I tried to sleep in the cockpit, I rolled off when a big wave came and caught myself just before my head hit the companionway hatch.

The Gulf Stream pushed us north a bit as it flowed north about 2-3 knots speed. We were able to compensate for this and made great time. We were headed east and saw the sunrise directly ahead of us, arriving at the marina exactly at 7:00am as the office was opening for the day. The green and red navigational lights marking the channel were such a welcome sight! I kept thinking “We DID it!” “We DID it!”

As always, when we entered the harbor, the waters calmed down to a flat surface and we felt better. We hailed the dockmaster on the VHF radio and she directed us to come in to the slip with our fenders and lines on our port side. As we entered, we could see it was tight spot! We came in, then had to come back out again to try again. Brian did a great job at the helm, trying to make up for the gusty winds and the momentum of the boat. There were 3 people on the dock ready to help with our lines, and I was so grateful. The docks here have large pilings instead of cleats, which is unfamiliar. Also it was low tide so I would have had a difficult time quickly climbing the ladder onto the dock and trying to slow the boat down to tie the lines all by myself.

We did it! Now it was early in the day, about 8:00am, and we were exhausted. We made it across the Gulf Stream and docked in a tight harbor, and we needed to check in with Customs, and get a lot of sleep. Around 8:30am our girls woke up excited to start a new day and see a new place. It is a challenge to travel with two energetic toddlers!

Bon Voyage!

We plan to leave tonight to cross over to the Bahamas! We will leave around 11pm tonight, arriving at approximately 9am tomorrow.

Here is the link to the marina we will stay at tomorrow night:
http://www.oldbahamabay.com/bahamas-luxury-resort-marina-information.aspx

We will check in with Customs and then after 1-2 nights, we will find an anchorage and go exploring!

LOVE TO ALL OF YOU!

Aimee, Brian, Madelyn and Katja

Christmas Eve

We celebrated Christmas Eve by giving ourselves the gift of a dock slip for the night! I feel so pampered to use as much electricity as I want to when we are "plugged in" at the dock. We were almost out of water so it was reassuring to fill all 200 gallons again. We pay by the foot at a dock, and additional to have electricity. For our 40-foot boat, this was over $100 for one night. Anchoring is free, so we will just stay for this one night.

After getting settled, we strung L.E.D. Christmas lights on our boat!
This helped my homesickness, and several other boaters stopped by to let us know how much they enjoyed them as well.




Later, we walked into town for dinner.

After the girls went to sleep, I started wrapping their little presents, and we have them gathered in the salon, waiting for them in the morning. Thank you to those of you who sent small things along the way!

This experience has strengthened my concept of our intact little family. Here we are, floating in the compact unit, the 4 of us brought together, and learning how to live both on water and on land. It is a privilege to have this time to connect in deeper ways, especially at this important time in our girls' lives. Each day, we wake up and spend the entire day together. Now, miles and miles away from friends and family on this important holiday, away from our usual traditions that steady us, we rely on each other even more.

What is Christmas without snow, the company of extended family and friends, Grandma Crago's turkey recipe, Omi's wonderful holiday cookies, or a decorated tree? I still feel a longing for those things, but at the same time, I realize that maybe this separation has happened for a reason.

Farmer's Market, West Palm Beach FL

After days and days of rain and thunderstorms, the weather cleared and we had a chance to visit the Farmer's Market on Second St. in West Palm Beach one weekend!

Fresh air!
Sunshine!
Fresh foods!
Room for the girls to run around!
It was great.

We bought a fresh coconut and watched as the vendor sliced off the top with a hachet, and served it to us with a straw to drink the clear coconut juice.

Can Daddy touch the sky?

Our light at the top of the mast went out a few days ago.

This "anchor light" tells other boats at night that we are anchored. It's an important navigational tool, and is essential especially right now when we are anchored almost 100% of the time.

So... you ask, how does one fix the light at the top of our almost-60-foot mast?



Well, fortunately we have experience in this endeavor. We have had several projects over the past few years requiring Brian to go up the mast, including installation of a new radar and radar reflectors, as well as installing this very same anchor light 18 months ago. It is frustrating to have problems with this light already.

Here you can see the winch (large pulley) and halyard (rope normally used to raise a sail) that we use for this. I attach a winch handle to the winch which helps me turn it.




Brian gets in the "bosun's chair" and clips on the halyard. You can see the chair has pockets for his needed tools, and in this case, electrical supplies.




Then, I start to hoist him upwards. Madelyn watched intently this time. When Brian reached the top, she called up to him loudly and excitedly "Daddy, can you touch the sky???".

This is an interesting photo. It seems like one of those contests in the newspaper, asking for readers to send in captions. Why is this man's feet dangling in the air above his boat? Or maybe I was irritated with him and decided he should stay there for awhile... haha....okay I guess that isn't really that funny...sorry Brian.

On a more serious note, it does take a lot of trust in each other to make this work. Both of us are anxious when we have to do this, even in very calm wind and water. Sometimes, a boat zips by unaware of what we are doing, and the wake makes our boat rock back and forth. This is amplified at the top of the mast, where Brian has to stay calm and hold on. I don't know how he does it. He has nerves of steel. We have heard reports of people doing this at sea in a storm because of problems with their rigging. That is difficult to imagine.

I also have to stay calm when I'm focusing on his safety and I hear the girls crying down below. Whenever we need Brian to go up the mast, we always have the companionway closed completely so they cannot come up into the cockpit. I have to take deep breaths, and trust that they are fine until I get Brian down safely and can check on them later.

Brian took a self-portrait at the top of the mast!

He also took this great photo looking down on our boat! You can see our solar panels at the right of the photo. The companionway (where we take the stairs down into our boat) is just to the right of the mast.


Here is a photo he took at the top. You can see all of the other sailboats are either at anchor or moored.

After working on the light, we discovered that it is defective and is still under warranty. Since then, we have purchased a new light online and had it delivered to a local UPS store nearby. We had to do this again yesterday in stronger winds, and Brian successfully installed the new light.