When a Bicycle Seat Would Be Preferable to the Cockpit Seat ... Tuesday 5th June 2018

As you know, it's our tradition to have visitors write a bog about their experiences, so here is Rod's post ...

When a Bicycle Seat Would Be Preferable to the Cockpit Seat ...   Tuesday 5th June 2018

Well, I’m getting a bit ahead of myself.    After a long but uneventful day of flying from Providence to Marsh Harbor, by way of Orlando, I met up with Gloria and Mike at Union Jack Dock in Marsh Harbor.   BTW, a word of advice to anyone planning to  fly into the Bahamas and return to the USA by boat…..the Bahamas won’t let you into the country unless you have a booked return flight back to the US. Don’t try telling them that you are leaving by boat; that won’t work. 

Expecting the weather to be very hot, I was pleasantly surprised to find it warm but bearable, with a nice breeze off the water.  The water of the Bahamas is incredibly blue and clear as you no doubt have noticed by Mike’s photos.  

Thursday morning (I had arrived late Wednesday afternoon) we weighed anchor and set off for Fowl Cay (not Foul Cay) to do some snorkeling at a really nice bit of reef.  I though the water was warm and comfortable, and I saw some nice examples of corals and reef fishes….in my head, I can hear Jacques Cousteau saying that last bit!

Knowing that a bit of bad weather was on the approach due to Alberto, the first named tropical storm of the hurricane season (May, no less), we had lunch and headed for Green Turtle Club Marina, where we expected to and did stay until Monday to wait out the weather.   After a bit of tricky approach to the dock and expecting to be tied up starboard side to (that means the right side of the boat tied up to the dock for you landlubbers)  Gloria and I found ourselves scrambling  to prepare for a port, or left hand side, docking while backing into the slip and tying to bows to pilings instead of floating docks.   Our captain did an excellent job with the backing maneuver, though the crew was flailing a bit.   I couldn’t toss a loop over that piling and had to be rescued by one of the dock hands who must have a cowboy in another life. 

The weather didn’t turn really rainy until Sunday, so we were able to take two walks to explore the island on Friday and Saturday.  The showers at the marina were excellent as was the dinners that Mike made every evening.   An excellent lunch of jerk grouper was had on Friday in New Plymouth during our first walk and a dinner, Saturday, at the Marina restaurant was excellent ( I had Mahi Mahi).

The weather cleared late Sunday allowing our plans to fall into place.  Monday we sailed to Crab Cay, despite the overcast skies, where we anchored for the night.  Tuesday morning we sailed on a broad reach in 16-18 Kts of wind and smooth seas anchoring in the lee of Great Sale Cay.  By the time we anchored, the sun had come out and it was quite hot, causing me to lead the crew into the water to cool off!    Mike had noticed some vibration in the wheel while motoring and that persisted, albeit less dramatically while sailing, so I snorkeled under the boat but was unable to detect anything amiss, except that the antifouling paint had pretty much stopped working after nearly a year in the water. 

At 6 PM, we weighed anchor and headed for Mantanilla Shoal, the beginning of the end of the Little Bahama Bank and the beginning of deep water. 

Now I am getting to the parts that lead to the title of this blog entry.   The crossing to the US from the Bahamas (did I mention that that was part of the plan?) is hard to describe.  It took us three overnights, or about 66 hours to cover the nearly 500 miles to our destination.   Once we reached the Gulf Stream by heading northwest from Mantanilla Shoal, we turned a bit more northward, following the stream and its advantageous current.   For nearly a day and a half we covered the bottom at 10 kts or so even though our speed through the water was probably about 6 and a half knots.  

Okay, here comes the part about the bicycle seat.  The seas in the Gulf Stream are pretty bumpy, and, from the time we entered it and arrived IN the Cape Fear River it never ceased being bumpy except for a short spell on Thursday.  As you boaters out there will know, there is a thing called “boat butt” which comes from sitting on hard fiberglass seats for long periods of time.   Add in a lot of rolling and bumping and that phenomena get a lot worse, prompting me, a cyclist as well as a boater to comment “ I think  I would prefer to be sitting on my bike seat (saddle) rather than sit on this cockpit seat any longer!”. That got a chuckle from Mike and Gloria. You spend a lot of time sitting on a passage like this.

It wasn’t all misery.   We trailed fishing lines on Thursday and left them out all night.  The next morning I reeled them in to remove accumulated seaweed and discover that both lures were missing.   Something big had bitten them off, but we never noticed.   Later Thursday afternoon Gloria was cleaning off one line and announced that now that she had done so, we’d never catch anything.   About 10 minutes later we landed a Mahi Mahi, a photo of which, I think, Mike has already posted.   It made for a delicious dinner, cooked by Mike.   He served it in a lime ginger reduction with rice and veggies…..Yum!

Thursday night was probably the most uncomfortable of the crossing.   Following seas mixed with large roller coming abeam set Cotinga rolling from side to side nearly putting the boom in the water on the starboard side.  Nevertheless, watch on watch, we persisted even with little sleep, finally arriving in the Cape Fear River early Friday morning.  Motoring up river in smooth water was a joy and a relief from the rolling.  We pulled into a dock in Southport, NC, showered, cleaned up the boat, ate dinner and then collapsed into our bunks, nearly comatose after very little sleep in the rocking and rolling of Thursday night.  

Saturday morning we awoke much refreshed (or at least I did) and we headed again upriver to our current location, a dock at Bennett Brothers Marina, where the boat will stay while the three of us will head home. 

I had a great time spending the last two weeks aboard with my sister and Mike and they were extremely gracious hosts.  I hope I haven’t been to wretched a guest.  

Rod

Just a quick response to Rod's final sentence ...  It has been fantastic having Rod aboard, not just because of his invaluable help in sailing back from the Bahamas, but because he's a terrific person to hang out with. We are so pleased that he was able to join us.

As we post this we are preparing to leave the boat at Cape Fear Marina, Wilmington NC for two weeks. We are flying back to New England and Mike will continue on to the UK to visit family. We should be back aboard Cotinga on Sunday 17th June ready to complete the final section of our journey and we'll re-start our blog at that time.

M&G