Across the banks and Tongue of the Ocean

We finally left Bimini on Thursday morning. It was an easy departure and Luke exited our slip with ease. 9 hours and 70 miles later we are anchored in the Great Bahamas Banks, about 10 miles from the Tongue of the Ocean.


But first, we had to deal with Smokey and her anxiety about the boat ride A “calming collar” did the trick.

It must have worked on me, too….

It worked on Luke, too, but I don’t have a picture! We transited the Great Bahamas Banks without any problems, saw only 2 sailboats. Finally at anchor, 10 miles from the Tongue of the Ocean, we are quietly waiting out the night.

Smokey was most happy to be at anchor. Awake from her “calming collar” induced nap, she was ready to rumble!

And ready to explore any open port…

It’s a beautiful anchorage…50 miles from anywhere (except land…15 feet down…). Can you see where the air stops and the water starts? The anchor line under the water is over 15ft down! We love this section of the shallow banks.

Today we crossed the Tongue of the Ocean - no pictures.  It was very rolly.  Not bad, just tiring after 9 hours.  Smoke spend a lot of the time asleep, especially stretched out on Luke's lap.  Tonight we are at New Providence Island, home of Nassau. Our anchorage is a little rolly,but ok for the night.  At least we have internet!

Danger! Warning!

The below picture may seer your eyeballs!  Not for children! Look at your own risk!

OK, Luke will never lose me when we go snorkeling.  In fact, I may be shark bait.... one of the local dive shops is going out of business and the owners were having a yard sale.  I don't have a scuba suit on the boat so we thought we'd look for one.  They didn't have one but they did have this "skin" - protection against jellyfish, etc.  and I paid $1 for it! Worth ever penny, huh!!!

Luke took a few pictures of the Big Game Club today.  Here are the 2 prize marlin caught by Guy Harvey himself, back in the 70's, off the coast of Portugal.  This is the only time in history that one person has caught 2 trophy marlin in the same day.

The walls around the club are decorated with his paintings.  Here are a couple.

It's a nice club and I hope they make it, but today there were only 3 boats at their docks and no evidence of any hotel guests.

We had fresh wahoo tonight.  The neighboring fishing boat caught it yesterday and generously gave us a couple of steaks when they were cleaning it this morning.  It was wonderful.

Luke cleaned and polished our plastic enclosure, Smokey insisted on jumping onto the dock to chase birds and generally wander, and I cleaned the boat in preparation for our departure tomorrow.  It still looks promising!

Mr. Saunders Boatbuilding

We went for a leisurely walk yesterday, almost to the northern end of the island.  On our way back we noticed the small sign for mahogany boatbuilding and championship bonefishing guide.  We wandered down the little side street to a small shop, roughly the size of a two car garage, and met the 77 year old Mr. Ansil Saunders.  He's an amazing person with lots of stories to tell.  Master boatbuilder and bonefish guide to the likes of Richard Nixon and Hemmingway. He has the distinction of being the guide for the current world record bonefish catch, right here, off of the island.  His brother is Dr Ashley Saunders, PhD from U of Wisconsin, recognized Bimini historian, builder and manager of the Bimini Dolphin House Museum.

Ansil Saunders was also the person who took Dr. Martin Luther King to the mangroves, in one of his boats, to meditate and write his famous last speach. He says that King knew he was about to die, and also wrote or at least outlined his eulogy at that same time.

As for boating, he has one finished boat in his shop and one under construction.  These runabouts are beautiful.  The wood for the topsides of the boat is French marine plywood and painted with an awlgrip paint.  The light wood on the transom and some of the other woodwork is from a local tree, Horsemeat......  The dark wood on the picture below is 100 year old mahogany.

Mr. Saunders built this boat as trade for his daughter's dentistry training.  A boat takes about 6 months, with $12k worth of material, the rest his skilled labor, for a sale price of around $40k.  Here are Mr. Saunders and Luke.

In looking for a web link to Mr. Saunders, I found this great article.  http://laststands.kennedywarne.com/tag/bimini   Not only does it talk about Mr. Saunders life, but has a great article and pictures of the shark lab!  Well worth looking at if you are interested!



We walked along the beach for awhile --- yes, we ARE in paradise!

Smokey is still contemplating her fate.  Most days it's not too bad, especially when she can sit and watch the seagulls.  Those ears are turned back towards me, just in case I tell her to stay in the cockpit.  She's a good girl for the most part. (looks like a stuffed sack-o-potatoes-kiddy, doesn't she!)

She's almost as interested in the fishing boat activity behind our boat, at the govenment dock.  This boat full of about 20 fishermen came in yesterday in the howling wind - it was amazing to watch her finally dock with the help of little runabouts and men on the dock. These fishing boats are away from home for as long as 3 months at a stretch, looking for lucreative spots to fish.  As with all fishing boats here, there is the mother boat that collects and flash freezes the catch (lobster, conch, or grouper, usually). This is a large fishing boat by Bahamian standards.  I expect there are at least 12 small boats associated with her.  The little boats search out each day, fishing (that means diving and hand collecting the goods).  They swarm around the mother boat like flies, bringing in the catch and sometimes, I think, just swarming.  It's noisy.  AND they keep their big spotlight on all night, pointed directly into our berth.  oh, and they run that damn generator all night, too.  Oh, well, so paradise may have a few little snags.  We'll still take it!

Our stay in this part of paradise may end tomorrow.  Rain and wind squalls are predicted today, but a good change to light wind (in the right direction!) tomorrow.  As long as this holds, we'll head out onto the banks for an overnight stay anchored on the shallow Great Bahama Banks, usually only 8-12 ft in depth.  The next day we'll be in West Bay, the western side of New Providence Island, home of Nassau (on the eastern shore).  We don't anticipate a visit there, just an overnighter en route to the Exuma chain of islands. 

Take a look at this link -  the photo and my explanation may be a good way to show where are and where we're going. See the gray mass at the left top?  Florida.

See the light blue all over the place? the Banks. The western and southern expanse of light blue - Great Bahama Bank.

See large landmass in the middle of the Great Bahama Bank?  that's Andros.

If you look northwest from the north tip of Andros, into the little bulge of bank, there is a small dot of land, nearer to FL.  That's Bimini.

Our trip tomorrow takes us east, across the blue shallow bank to almost where the dark blue water starts.  That is the Tongue of the Ocean (pretty appropriately named, huh!).  This water is thousands of feet deep.  We will anchor just before the water gets deep.

The trip the next day takes us SE, across the dark blue water, to the small island of New Providence.

That's the plan!  Hope it makes sense.

This also means probably no internet for a couple of weeks.  I"ll stay in contact as I can~

An interesting day in Bimini

First the work - we did laundry.  2 small wash loads, 1 dryer for 1 token --- $12.  ugh.  But it'll be worse the further in the Bahamas that we get.  And we do have clean clothes!
Friends on a neighboring sailboat from Canada recommened going to South Bimini (a separate island) to visit the Shark Lab.  The shark lab is an independent organization that studies Lemon Sharks in every way imaginable.  Very well known, check out website http://www6.miami.edu/sharklab/index.html

First, a brief ride across the channel between North and South Bimini. There is a ferry boat that runs every 15 minutes or so.  Many of the workers on the islands commute back and forth between home and work. We were alone on the trip to South Bimini; a full boat on the way back to North Bimini.

Then a long 1 mile-ish walk down a long dirt road.  It was a nice walk, actually.  The weather is cool and pleasant.

Here is the lab

There are 2 full time managers, 2 assistant managers, and generally a "Principal Investigator" working on his/her doctoral thesis, with their own specific thesis goals.  They live at the lab from 1-3 years.  The 4 full time workers do a variety of work, but their primary purpose is to tag sharks and then, from information from the tags, learn their daily routines and where the sharks move through their lifetimes.  Juvenile sharks stay in a 100 meter area for several years before they move on.  Adult bull sharks can move from the Bahamas to South Africa and back twice a year.  Tracking these movement patterns is important to the lab. Here are the pens that are used to house juvenile sharks for testing purposes.

On our way back we stopped at a nice 1 mile loop walk.  This is sponsored by the Bimini Sands Resort.  Well marked and very interesting.  One landmark is along the coast; the former home of Australian Olympic Swimming Champion Percy Cavill.

Here is the house as it looks now.

If you are interested, there is an excellent 1960's Bahamas book, Out-island Doctor, by Evans Cottman, that also gives a lot of insight to the later life of Percy Cavill.

Back to North Bimini, Alice Town, and what to our wondering eyes should appear but the most beautiful wooden boat ever!  The presidental yacht, for many years, was the M/Y Sequoia.  Well, she had a sister ship, one that eventually lay in ruins.  Found, refurbished (rebuilt), and on the seas again in 2009---- here she lays, on the dock opposite us.  This is the S/V Freedom  http://www.superyachts.com/news/world-superyacht-awards-2010:-best-refitted-yachts-667.htm  That is her, bottom right.  Scroll down until you find the info about her.

Don't be mislead by this picture - look at it carefully.  There is a large fishing vessel beside us, making us look larger than life.  Our boom is there, at the same latitude as the top of the pier piling.  The top of S/V Freedom is twice that high.  We are 42 feet long--- she is 104 feet.  And LOOK at this wood work on the entire ship!!!  Like a piece of very fine furniture!



The owners (???) are not aboard, and the captain and crew are "dead heading" her back to her home port in Newport, RI.  The winds are heavy today and the captain could not get a good internet connection to check the weather.  So, Luke invited Brad over for a bit of computer weather search with our wi-fi booster system providing good internet connectivity for us.  They may leave tomorrow, but Brad will be back at 6:30 a.m. to review the weather again with Luke.

The wind is howling.  The forecast is not great --- we need to go east for an overnight on the "banks", then SE towards New Providence Island.  The winds are against us for the next few days.  We do NOT want to motor into 20-30 knot winds on the nose.  So, we'll be here a bit longer.  Thursday is the first possible window, Saturday looks more likely.  This is what happens to sailing plans and schedules.

Better Bimini

We ARE here!  I forgot to put in the ceremonial raising of the Bahamian courtesy flag.

As we walked around Bimini  last night and this morning, we were pleased to see that there seems to be more activity, more open stores, revitalized marinas, etc, in the main part of town.  Our dockmaster says that it's worse now, only picked up during the weekends when the FL locals zip over in their fishing boats for a few days.  But it sure looks better.
The old Big Game Fishing club has reopened.  They have redone the docks, repainted everything, opened a nice restaurant/bar, have a liquor store, and have the same rates as the worn down marina where we are.  Artist Guy Harvey is part owner, so the entire place is done up with his work.  But they cater to big boats, not sailboats.  We could stay there, on their most exposed dock.  I think we're ok where we are.

That would be beside the government dock, frequented by the locals and their fishing boats....

The grocery stores are open today (Sunday) from 7a.m. to 11 a.m.  I don't understand but it seems to be standard in the Bahamas.  We picked up some apples, nectarines, soy milk, and the cheap crackers that we love (from the UK - every cruiser has a boatload of them).  A few shops were open, too. 
There seem to be more shops this time, fewer abandoned shop buildings.  And more restaurants.  This street is deserted because it's Sunday and the cruisers aren't out stretching their legs yet.  But many of these small stores were abandoned last year; not this year.

We walked along the secondary street (there are 2 on the island) for a long way this morning and discovered a whole new section of shops and grocery stores. 

A lot of churches, too.  Someone told us that there are 9 religions representated by churches here.  We believe it!  And these church goers were celebrating joyously and loudly!  We slowed down by one church to listen and were promply invited inside.  We did go, for a few minutes, and "enjoyed" the very loud spirited music.

After church, we walked on the beach on the ocean side of the island (west side). This is the ocean side that we came in from --- much calmer today! There were "elephants" on the horizon out in the Gulf Stream, though, wind from the north, current from the south.

Hundreds of Portugese Man-O-War jellyfish had washed ashore in yesterday's rough waves and west wind!  They lined the beach, all sorts of sizes.  We had to be careful not to step on them.  They are beautiful, but I sure wouldn't want to meet one in the water.

NFL playoff day!  The Big Game Club has wide screen coverage plus $2 hotdogs and $3 beers.  We'll be one our way shortly to watch the games and meet other cruisers.

Our little wanderer...

Not  content to be on the boat, little Smoke decided --- several times --- that the dock was really a better place to go a-wandering.  I mean, there are BIRDS out there!  As much as we hated doing it, we decided to limit her wanderings.  Note the pink leash....

We slept blissfully late (8:30!!!), then spend the major part of the day with chores.  Chores in Paradise...doesn't seem right, does it?  I defrosted the freezer, helped Luke with changing 2 fuel filters, etc.  That and wonderfully hot showers at the marina filled most of the day.

We did go for a walk down to the southern part of the island.  This part of the island remains the same - a sad reminder of past glory days.  The entrance to Alice Town, first settlement on the northern island of Bimini.

The somewhat forelorn street through town.

Chalks, a seaplane business that brought in the tourists to paradise.  Gone now, but the open door of the building shows chairs, the carpet covered "check-in" desk, etc...

But the beach is still nice, including the ferry running from North Bimini to South Bimini and back.  We found lots of good beach glass here.

Last year, our marina was filled with sailboats.  This year we are the only sailboat, and it's filled with fishing boats from the US.  We met one  group of fishermen today - they trolled 19 miles of Bahamian coast and pulled in a 60 pound wahoo, several large baracuda, and a beautiful mahi.  Luke asked about fishing techniques, etc, and the great guy aboard gave us a real education about lures, bait, trolling, etc.  AND!! He gave us a "guaranteed" lure, along with how to rig a ballyhoo bait!  The lure is an "island"something... damn...I need to ask again tomorrow.  Anyway, here is the lure --- it worked on Smokey. She is definitely interested in the smells and history of that lure!  I'M interested in how well it works!!! Need to buy ballyhoo tomorrow!

The wind is picking up, the boat is rocking a little, and Smokey has decided that inside on the sofa is the place to be.  I think that the bed will be the place to be shortly. Tomorrow we plan to wander through town (closed on Sunday).  We hear there will be a playoff party at a local bar tomorrow!!!

We made it to rainy Bimini!

No pictures this time --- the trip was ...well...miserable.  We pulled up the anchor at 2:30 AM at "Government Cut" in Miami. As we reached the ocean, the waves were higher (2 to 3 ft, building 3 to 4 ft)and closer together than advertised, and the wind was higher (forcast 11-12 kts growing to 12 to 15), making for a lumpy ride, impossible to prepare meals, sleep, etc.  We did have a near full moon, though, giving us good visibility most of the time. With the wind from the south, and our heading 110 deg, we initially motorsailed, and then sailed most of the way as the wind increased to 15 to 18 kts, finally reefing the main sail. We saw at least a dozen big ships, mostly in the dark, on radar and by their lights, in the 42 mile crossing. At least 4 were giant cruise ships, lit up like amusement parks.

The Gulf Stream seemed faster and wider than average. The guide books say to assume an average of 2 kts northerly current all the way across. We did - and ended up with a projected land fall 5 miles north of the Bimini channel entrance. To correct for this, as we approached Bimini, we turned more and more south, headed closer and closer into the current, wind and waves, which by that time were about 20 kts, with 4 to 5 ft choppy waves, respectively. Oh, and we were run over by several rain squalls as we were within about 10 miles of Bimini.

Overall, no real problems, just not fun.  Luke did a geat job of getting us here, especially navigating through the narrow & shallow entry channel into Bimini. Our goal of doing that near high tide, with it's additional 2 1/2 ft of water depth,  dictated our wee hours crossing .

The weather now is cloudy, with showers.  That's ok - it's warm, we're here, and will do exploring tomorrow.

to Miami

Onward to Miami!  Outside again, we passed endless big buildings along the coast. This may be the best way to se the area.

There are also the big cargo ships, headed for faraway places unknown.

We finally settled on a compromise with Smokey.  She DESPERATELY wants to be outside of the enclosure during a rocky ride.  That's better than behind the toilet....  So, we put on her harness, hooked her leash up to a secure clip, and allowed her to "sail" with us, on a non-skid rug, outside of the cockpit.  That seemed to satisfy her.  As soon as we anchored, we unhooked the harness and she has been roaming the boat freely (and happily) for the past 3 hours or so.  It's warm here (80 when we arrived...I'm sorry....)  Anyway, we have the ports (windows) open and I'm constantly surprised when Smoke pops into one of the ports.

Ah, Miami.  Home of the big cruise ships - "Carnival Destiny" heading out at dusk. 

We, however, are in a quiet anchorage, full of fuel and water, and ready for a 2 a.m. departure for the Bahamas.  Before noon tomorrow we should be at a marina in Bimini!  I'll post as soon as we get internet after we arrive.  Bedtime at 8:30!!!

Lake Worth

Oh, we love FL...80 today.  Ok, we had showers, but that's OK!
We left Vero Beach on Tuesday morning, into dense fog, to our dismay. We don't like fog.  But, with our trusty GPS and radar, we were fine.

After struggling with the dense fog, we decided to go "outside" at the Ft. Pierce Inlet, a smart decision.  No bridges, no fog, and no speeding motor boats to pass us or slow sailboats for us to pass.  But you can't avoid realizing the population density ashore. (look at that blue water!)

We arrived in Lake Worth just as a thunderstorm hit. Thank goodness Luke did an excellent job of finding an anchorage spot pronto.  We dumped the anchor and waited out the storm.  All went well.  Just after the storm, we watched an amazing, sleek, beautiful racing sailboat drift into the inlet.  Rambler.  http://www.charterworld.com/news/2011-les-voiles-de-st-barth-sailing-yacht-vesperteam-moneypenny-sy-rambler-100-headline  Wow, we've read about these racing boats but not seen them locally.

We were treated to a nice sunset.

Today we pulled up the anchor and took at slip at the local municipal marina.  We went to the Customs Border Patrol folks and got our "Local Boater Option" certificates.  Basically, we are recoginized as ok folks and get a quick pass-through when we return to FL from the Bahamas.

En route to the Customs House,  we realized that Lake Worth must have something special to offer these massive racing sailboats.  In addition to the Rambler (now on a lift, on land, and having something or another done to her), we also saw the Beau Gueste.  http://yachtpals.com/beau-geste-mackinac-9114

If you've ever watched one of those extreme sailing races, you have seen the sailboats heel over waaaay far into the water.  Wonder why they don't go under?  (usually....). The answer is in the photo above, but more obvious in this photo of the Geniune Risk...

Look at the bottom of the boat, then follow it down, down, down to the bulb shapped keel almost on the ground.  Our keel is 5.5 ft from the bottom of Latitudes; this one is more like 15 ft down.  Absolute balance!

There are a lot of boats at the marina and more birds.  LOTS of birds.  A flock flew over the boat and instead of the usual you-know-what that we expected, we ended up with black speckles of bird feathers/down allll over the boat. Yuck.  This poor guy in front of us has an unwelcome resident - a night heron seems to have made his home here.  It was a mess....

I got laundry done and Luke cleaned filters, etc.  Tomorrow looks good for another outside run (70 miles) to Miami.  If the weather holds as predicted, we will get diesel & water, nap until 2 a.m.-ish, and leave for a run over to Bimini on Friday morning.  We need to get there before low tide, as the channel into Bimini is shallow. The Bahamas at last with some luck!

With friends in Vero Beach

We are enjoying our visit with our friends in Vero Beach. No more electrical or toilet problems!!!  Dinner with Gail & Eric from Portsmouth, along with Marina and Dave, from Vero Beach.  After dinner, we took in the local favorite club singer, Bernie.  Dave did his usual sing-along; great voice!

Today friends Ange and Ray came up to visit from Ft. Lauderdale.  We took them out for a little ICW cruise.  Perfect weather - warm!!! and sunny.  Ange and Ray brought cinnamon buns, cheese & crackers, and wine, plus Ange made some of Luke's favorite Belgian cookies!  She is from Belgium also.

There are always sculling practices along the creek where we are moored.  I don't know if there is a local collage nearby that has a team or what.  But these girls are out there every day.

We will visit with our friends one more day, then probably head southward on Monday.  Maybe to the Bahamas in a week or so!!!