New Years Eve - The start of the Phase 3

New Years Eve - The start of the Phase 3  …   Monday 31st Dec 2012

1.45 am is not my favorite time of the day. I rarely, if ever stay up that late, but on this occasion Tash and I needed to get up at this time to drive to Orlando airport iso she could catch the 6am flight to JFK and on to South Africa. Last night, the three of us went out for an Italian meal, which was a lot of fun and very good food. After that we turned in fairly early to catch a few brief hours of sleep. It was sad to see Tash go, but it's a fantastic opportunity for her to spend 6 months studying in a foreign country. The courses she will take fall under the general heading of "Globalization and the Environment", a topic that really interests her. There are about 7 students on the program and they will live together in a house and it seems that they will get to spend some time in the first few weeks traveling within the country.

After I got back from the airport I managed to get a couple of hours sleep, but by 9 am we were up an ready to head out from Loggerhead Marina and start our journey to the Bahamas. Gloria's brother Paul is joining us for a week or so on the trip to Marsh Harbor and his wife Fran was there to wave us off. During today and tomorrow we need to cover 65 mies down to West Palm Beach and the Lake Worth Inlet, ready to head offshore to the Bahamas on Wednesday. Conditions today were not attractive for covering this off the coast, with high winds, waves and a small craft advisory in place, so we motored south down the Intra Coastal Waterway past Vero Beach, Fort Pierce, Stuart and across the St Lucie Inlet. At about 4 pm we reached an area called Peck Lake and anchored just off the ICW in fairly shallow water. The charts would have you believe that the water is far too shallow for us, but guidebooks describe a narrow deeper section of water. The area is relatively small with uncharted depths and there were probably 20 boats already anchored when we arrived. It took us three attempts to find a spot that we felt comfortable with in terms of depth and swinging room. We saw one other boat run aground and need to deploy anchors from a dinghy to pull it off. As I write this, it's coming up to 9pm and pitch black, and it seems the boat is making more efforts to get to deeper water as the tide has now risen. Anyway, it's new years eve, and as any cursing sailor knows, 9pm is boaters midnight so Happy New Year to you all!

Mike

27 06 50.8 N, 80 08 33.4 W

On the dock ready to leave Loggerhead Marina

Pecks Lake - this boat seemed to know where it was going

... and this boat unfortunately hard aground and trying to kedge off with dinghy deployed anchors

Shopping, Shopping, Shopping

Shopping, Shopping, Shopping   …   Friday - Saturday 28-29 December 2012

The weather forecast is suggesting that there will be a good weather window to cross to the Bahamas in the middle of the week so we are busy making preparations. Tasha flies out of Orlando on Monday morning (New Year's Eve - 6am) heading for South Africa and her semester abroad. If all goes as planned we will leave Vero Beach later that morning and spend two days heading south to West Palm beach and the Lake Worth Inlet ready to leave early Wednesday morning for West End on Grand Bahama. Our friend Bob was planning to come with us but sadly he won't be able to make it because his mother in law passed away on Christmas. We hope that he will be able to join us at some later date. Gloria's brother Paul has decided that he will come along so we are very pleased about that. We think we have completed most of our jobs on the boat, we just need to top up with diesel, gasoline (for the outboard) and fresh water, and also stow the dinghy. Apparently supplies in the Bahamas can be quite limited and also expensive, so we have been shopping madly to provision for the months ahead and we have pretty much filled all our storage space. There is a stack of meat freezing down in Paul and Fran's freezer and we will transfer that to our freezer on the boat tomorrow. We have washed our fruit and veg in vinegar / water in an attempt to get it to last longer, but realistically we only expect it to stay fresh for a few weeks - after that we may be on the Atkins diet! Yesterday Gloria and Tasha went clothes shopping with Fran and her sister - thankfully I managed to cry off that one. Today we just bought what I think will be our most important purchase - a lure that is supposed to be great for Dorado (aka Dolphin Fish or Mahi-Mahi) so if we get reasonable conditions on the crossing we will definitely have a shot at fishing the gulf stream! Tonight we are off to the Comedy Night at the local theatre.

Mike

27 41 28.6 N, 80 23 41.6 W

Our Thoughts turn to the New Year

Our Thoughts turn to the New Year   …   Wed 26th December 2012

As you will have gathered from the yesterdays entry we had a great Christmas. After Gloria posted the blog last night the three of us stayed up chatting until past midnight. It's actually very cozy on the boat and it was a lovely way to cap off the day. This morning we switched our attention to preparing for our forthcoming travels. Tash went in to town to buy some things she needs for her trip to South Africa and Gloria and I did laundry and a little tidying up, and also worked on a list of provisions we need to get. This afternoon we set about changing the oil in the engine and replacing the oil filter. This went well for about 30 seconds and then the shaft separated from the main body of the stirrup pump we were using to drain the oil and I got sprayed from neck to knee with black oil. This was followed by a rapid trip to West Marine to buy a new new pump, after which we were able to finish the job. Whilst we were doing this it became evident from the oil spill cloth below the engine that we are leaking some transmission fluid. We checked the levels and topped up, but have not found the source of the leak which is a bit of a concern. However, we also noticed that one of the four engine mount bolts was very loose and were able to tighten this and it does seem the engine now makes considerably less vibration and noise. Tasha leaves for South Africa and her semester abroad very early on Monday morning. We are starting to look for possible weather windows to cross to the Bahamas and it looks like there may be an opportunity right at the start of the New Year. So we will be trying to wrap up our preparations as quickly as possible over the next few days.

Mike

27 41 28.6 N, 80 23 41.6 W

A giant moth at the marina 

Sandhill crane outside Paul and Fran's house on Christmas Day

Sandhill Crane - up close

The staff at Loggerhead Marina (Steve, Harry, Mike and Neil) are fantastic. This is a portrait of Mike who lives on his own boat nearby

Christmas fun

‘Twas the morning of Christmas—25^th December 2012

‘Twas the morning of Christmas and all through the boat

All the creatures were stirring or chopping, afloat

Tomatillos were roasted, by Michael, with care

Hoping delicious guacamole to prepare.

The cheeses were grated, mixed and mashed

With a dashing of port to make a smash.

Formed to a ball and popped in the freezer

To make a sure-fire crowd pleaser…

Well that’s certainly too tiring to carry on for long. 

On Christmas Eve afternoon, we went along to Customs and Border Protection to have our interview for the Small Vessel Registration System.  Hopefully this will make our re-entry into the US more straight-forward after the winter in the Bahamas. It’s just as well that we didn’t have a long way to travel for this “interview”. The chap took our documents and after about 5 minutes came back with the registration cards.  That was all there was to it! All to the good—I spent the trip to the airport fretting about what kind of questions we would get….

Today, Christmas, we tried our hand at catching some large snook that we saw at the marina. Then we got ready to go to Fran and Paul’s house.  We had a great lunch with my Aunt Aline, her son Charles, Susan and Clark (Fran’s sister and brother-in-law). After eating too much, we enjoyed an afternoon of chatting and laughing.  We stayed long enough that some people felt moved to eat more food.  Finally, we drove back to the marina tired and happy.

Double Whammy

Double Whammy   …   Sunday 23rd December 2012

Not only was Gloria sick today with nausea and a GI upset, but by the time the evening rolled around she also had a migraine, so she definitely didn't have a great day. We arrived back from the cinema quite late last night. It was pretty cold outside with no sign of the dreaded no-see-ums - so a good night for sleeping. However, when we woke Gloria was already feeling less than a 100% and as the morning wore on she just got worse. We figure it must be a bug rather than something we ate because we've all been eating the same food and Tash and I are fine. I spent the morning taking bird photos around the ponds and trees close to the marina. Tash worked on trying to sort out her iTunes. It seems the new download is pretty crappy and has a number of problems. In the mid afternoon with Gloria feeling a little better we all headed round to Paul and Fran's to watch some football and eat dinner - a wonderful meal of chicken, rice, cauliflower and mango salsa. Unfortunately by 9pm Gloria was feeling pretty rough again, despite lying down for a while, so we packed up and came home to the boat.

Anhinga

White Ibis

Tricolor Heron

White Pelican

Red bellied woodpecker

Red bellied woodpecker

Awesome Pine?

Awesome Pine?   ...   Friday - Saturday December 21st/22^nd 2012

Yesterday morning we got Mike registered with the small vessel registration system and booked our interview for Christmas Eve. (The aim here is to pre-clear the immigration process for when we return from the Bahamas so that we don't have to go in person to an immigration office). In the afternoon we did an errand to get Tasha set to go to South Africa.  This involved ordering some rand and finding out about banking charges while abroad.  Then we went round to Fran and Paul’s house to cook dinner.  We had a fun evening that ended with Tasha and Paul doing on-line shoe shopping.  Who said that Zappos is a girl thing?

Today we had a slow start with one member of our group sleeping until 11 am! After breakfast/lunch we went to two local birding sites.  The first site has a set of signs directing the walker to various destinations.  We were quite intrigued by the sound of “Awesome Pine”.  After following the signs hither and yon we came to the site.  It’s a log lying on the ground.  Admittedly the girth is fairly large but really? There was even a strategically placed bench where you could sit and contemplate the awesomeness.  We didn’t see much in the way of birds but had a nice walk.   The second site was more open and a very pleasant walk. Our plan for this evening is to go see “The Hobbit” at the cinema. 

The beautiful, if somewhat antiseptic, views of the Grand Harbor village. The marina sits within this gated community.

Dinghy up the ICW and walk to the beach

Dinghy up the ICW and walk to the beach   …   Thursday 20th Dec 2012

We awoke to a beautiful almost cloudless blue sky. After breakfast in the cockpit, Gloria and Mike made a quick trip into town to start re-provisioning. Clearly beer is the number one priority and apparently it's not cheap in the Bahamas. We managed to find a pretty good selection of craft beer in cans at the local ABC liquor store and bought in a good supply. We ate lunch on the boat and then the three of us took the dinghy up the Intracoastal waterway to Vero Beach City Marina (where we had been unable to get a slip). It was a bit of a bumpy ride as there was a stiff southerly breeze blowing and a fair amount of chop. Once we had docked, we walked across the barrier island to the ocean and did a little fishing. Tash managed to catch a fish on her first cast. Actually I lie, Tash managed to catch herself on the first cast and only on the second cast, once she had managed to get the bait into the water, did she succeed in catching the fish. It was a small Creville Jack or Florida Pompano. Flushed with success Tash took off for a run whilst Gloria visited the land of Nod! Mike then also caught a fish, which may have been an Atlantic Croaker or a grunt, but because we left our laminated identification card on the boat, we aren't too sure. After her run, Tash went for a quick swim. The water was pretty warm but she was the only one of us brave enough to go in the sea. We finished up our trip with dinner at the Riverside cafe and a long dinghy ride back in the dark.

Mike

Sunny morning at loggerhead Marina

Condos on the harbor

Tash meets a wave!

Back Together again

Back Together again   …   Wednesday 19th Dec 2012

I'm back! It was a very good trip to the UK - great to see my family, although my mum's health wasn't as good as I'd hoped and is still a concern. I arrived back on Monday evening and spent the night at Paul and Fran's house, returning to the boat yesterday. Then it was a very early start this morning (4am) to pick Tash up at the airport. I'm really happy to be back on the boat and even happier to be back together again as a family for a couple of weeks. Gloria and I spent the day doing some shopping and jobs whilst Tash tried to catch up on some sleep. Yesterday we had succeeded in getting the water maker (de-salinator) working. It turned out to be surprisingly easy and it appears to be in working fine. However, we weren't able to figure out the flushing mechanism and in fact wanted to return the system to its "pickled" state so we wouldn't need to keep running it until we get to the Bahamas. Today we bought some extra hosing so we could simply flush with fresh water (non-chlorinated) collected from the system and then anti-freeze to "pickle" it. This went well and we feel fairly confident about being able to bring the system on line when needed.

This evening Paul and Fran came round and we ate "Shrimp and Grits" which I've been keen to cook for a while and it turned out pretty good. For dessert we got to enjoy the cookies that Grant and Traci sent down to us. Thanks very much - they are totally excellent! The chocolate coconut macaroons were fantastic, and Paul said the ginger snaps were outstanding - so I'll look forward to tasting them tomorrow.

Overall things going very well - we (mostly Gloria in my absence) have done many of the jobs we needed to do. The biggest challenge at the minute are the bloody "no-see-ums" which are very irritating - literally and metaphorically. Desperately need to sleep now. 

Mike

Christmas Pot Luck

Christmas Pot Luck---15/16^th December 2012

Yesterday at 5 the marina Christmas pot-luck was scheduled to get underway.  I gave up sanding the hatch boards at about 2:30 to make apple-cranberry crisp.  (You’ve got to go with the ingredients that you have!) Cooking on the boat is a somewhat different experience.  The first step is usually assembling the ingredients.  As things are stored all over the boat, this might involve lifting the floor-boards or pulling off the cushions of the settee and ferreting in the storage space behind.  If you need a pan to cook in, you have to get down on your knees in front of the stove and pay homage to the cooker. Next you get started with the chopping and preparation on the countertop that doubles as the fridge top.  Inevitably just as you have loads of things on chopping boards or plates on top of the fridge you remember that key ingredient that is ---still in the fridge. 

By the time I had the apple crisp assembled, the oven thermometer read 400.  I popped the tray in and turned the oven down.  Forty minutes later (after a few temperature checks) the “crisp” looked like the underbelly of a flounder.  A fork prod at an apple revealed that even the apples weren’t soft.  I boosted the temperature further and went off to take my shower.  On returning, the boat was starting to have an apple smell (mixed with that unmistakable whiff of diesel).  Peeping into the oven, the white glare of the topping nearly blinded me. The heat dial went to max.  Meanwhile I spotted the butane burner I had been using for stripping varnish.  I found myself thinking, if it works for crème brulee why not apple crisp? It was only the risk of fire that stopped me.  After one hour and forty minutes in the oven, I gave up and took the pallid crisp to the party.  It’s boaters after all…

I ate and drank (diet sprite and tea) and talked to various people until it was well past my usual bedtime.  It’s uncertain what today will bring.  Perhaps I’ll start varnishing but then again maybe not. Football tonight if I can find somewhere to watch it!

Progress is slow

Progress is slow—14^th December 2012

With the help of my sister-in-law’s sister, Susan and her husband Clark, I was able to fill the propane cylinder.  I also got to go out to lunch.  Things are looking up!

Today was an absolutely beautiful day, sunny and breezy.  In addition to the propane, I ordered the fuel filter useful in the Bahamas where the diesel may not be as pristine as we expect in the US.  Also, I registered with the Small Vessel Reporting System (SVRS) that should make our re-entry through US Customs and Border patrol more straight forward.  A requirement of this system is that we have a face-to-face interview before leaving the US.  That will have to be scheduled once Mike returns. I did laundry (not on the jobs list!).  

The more jobs I do on the list, the more things I remember that need doing.  I think I’ve added 3 things to the list and I’ve crossed off six.  That’s a net reduction of three jobs.  Clearly I’m not going to get the list completed by Monday evening.