Being There

Another long post but that’s what happens when we go days of traveling and exploring without finding civilization. Be advised that the pictures don’t really capture all the crazy blue colors of the water down here. . . so, come visit!

A long time ago, well, it seems like a long time ago now, our old friend Mark from Burnahm Harbor, Chicago started giving us his old issues of Cruising World. It seems every picture in that magazine shows a boat all by itself in a beautiful anchorage. I guess we’ve been carrying around pictures like that in our heads ever since leaving Chicago. We’ve had wonderful adventures and some pretty anchorages here and there but lurking in the back of our minds was the idea that we were never there yet. Too much America and usually too many boats. At times I began to lose hope that we’d ever get to the place in our heads.

Monday 2/19 - Crazy wind finally backed down and we broad reached out of Nassau sailing ESE toward Sail Channel Cay. We sailed between 6 and 7 knots the whole way with reefed main and full genny. What a perfect sail. Maybe this will be the day. (Well of course it is otherwise why all the foreshadowing in the first paragraph!) A number of boats left Nassau with us but we could tell by their heading and by their radio chatter that they were all heading for Allen’s Cay. Many cruisers feel a clustering instinct with other cruisers. We do not. We’ll go there too soon but the anchorage we have in mind is off of the western shore of Ship Channel Cay which features some high bluffs. Since the wind is suppose to continue to diminish and clock to the east we think this rather open anchorage will be fine for tonight. As we approach we see all the other boats...ZERO! We nose in slowly and drop the hook in about 8 feet crystal clear water onto white sand. The anchor pulls tight and we are in.

Engine off now we just look around. Open sea to the west and rugged shoreline to the east and completely uninhabited. Some obvious coral heads near shore that will need exploring.

We’re there.

Other ports will follow and we’ll once again be snuggled up in tight anchorages. That’s ok and that’s fun too. It is great to know that you can still get truly away though.

We did nothing the rest of the day except watch the changing sky as the sun set and sipped our sun-downers. Tomorrow we’ll launch the dingy and go snorkeling and exploring. I thought back to all the conversations I had with good intentioned people back in Des Plaines Illinois who tried to explain to me why what I was planning was impossible. Well, it’s not impossible to sail away and life is every bit as good as I ever imagined it to be.

We are going to make short hops from here down to Staniel Cay (45 miles) as a practice run for where we will take my daughter and her husband when they come on March 10.

Life is good.....GOOD AND SHORT!

Tuesday 2/20 - We stay on the hook by Ship Channel Cay. Beautiful day and we want to explore around here a little. We take the dingy over near shore. The ‘shorline’ is mostly very sharp and pointy rock (old coral?) so we keep the dingy away. To the north is a little beach though and we pull the dingy up there and walk around a little. I snorkeled here too. Pretty but not very many fish. Later, we were joined by 4 other boats! So much for our lonely anchorage. This is a lot of area though so not really crowded at all. We actually hear nothing and no one bothers us.

Wednesday 2/21 - We’re off for Allen’s Cay. This is a motor of about 4 miles. I think from now on we will usually see our destination as soon as we get to open water. Allen’s Cay is made up of 3 islands: Allens, Leaf, and SW Allens together along with various un-named rocks and reefs form a well protected anchorage. It is shallow running north and south between Allens and Leaf with anchoring room toward either side. As usual the water is amazing and no problem visually separating the deeper water from the shallow. We anchor about as far north as we dare is soft sand. Probably not great holding but there’s no wind and none really predicted. What there is is a significant tidal current. We anchored about high tide and didn’t notice. Once is started running it turned us about toward the even shallower region. We took the second anchor out in the dingy and set it Bahamian style 180o from the first anchor. Now we can turn in the current without making huge circles. There are about a dozen boats here but still plenty of room.

After watching the play of the anchors for a bit we take the dingy out to explore a little. Leaf Cay is VERY special in that it is inhabited by thousands of Iguanas. Aggressive ones too! As we pulled the dingy up on the sand they were literally running (something they don’t do all that well) towards us. More than a little creepy. Sue stayed in the dingy initially while I ventured ashore. They come close and then they back off. Apparently they’ve been fed by the tourists enough to have learned where an easy meal comes from. OK, that’s enough...let’s go snorking!

We saw some dingys out snorking to the north of us by some rocks so we head up there to see what we can see. Now there is a significant current running. Running fast enough that I can’t make headway against it swimming with fins on. This is not too safe so we decide to put off snorking until low tide when the current will be down.

Reading and naps ensue...

At near low tide we venture out around to the ocean side of the rocks to the north of Leaf Cay. There lies a wonderful reef and the thousands of different tropical fish that inhabit such places. We are always so amazed by this. You just stick your face in the water and there’s a whole world for you to fly over with virtually no effort. Tomorrow we’ll come back or try another reef farther to the north.

Time is on our side. We have about 10 days to make the few little hops it will take to get to Staniel Cay. Then we’ll have a full week to make it back to Nassau to pick up daughter and son-in-law. Weather is being our friend right now so we are free to stay or go on any of the upcoming few days.
After dinner (brats and potatoes) we sit out on the fore deck and look at stars. There is no civilization here at all so the sky is good and dark. Wonderful.

We can’t imagine things getting any better than this.

Thursday 2/22 - We plan for the next few days ahead. First we listen to Chris Parker on the ssb at 6:40 a.m. Weather is good to go for the next few days. We decide to move south. But where to next? Well, why not go someplace where there is wifi since we haven’t been in contact with family since we left Nassau on Monday morning. Okay. We hail the marina at Highborne Cay. This is a private island but if you take a slip at the marina you can have access to shore amenities such as wifi. Well there is a slip available but the price is rather large so we look at our options. If we sail further we can be at Warderwick Wells where there is a ranger station for the Exuma Park and also wifi. We call Exuma Park on VHF 16 and find out that we can make a reservation for a mooring ball there. $20 a night compared to $80+ a night. Okay, we’ve made a decision. Onward. As we leave Allen’s Cay Friday morning the wind is significant and we have to raise the main out on the banks.

The anchor and bow are consistently bowing their heads below the waves as we hoist the main into the wind. Scott discovers that he can actually time his pull on the halyard with the bobbing of the boat. Down goes the boat........up goes the main..... and so on. Reefed and ready to go we head southeast, but not too east since there are shoals and coral heads out there to watch for. Very different that sailing lake Michigan where there is a serious lack of coral heads!

We sail a broad reach all the way to Warderick Wells even missing the one significant coral head at Elbow Cay. Okay. We had to jibe a couple of times to make sure we missed it but better sure than not. We had very nice wind (10-15 knots) off our port quarter for a broad reach with only 2 foot waves. Very nice. Hope we get this when Leah and Jason come to visit. An almost flat sail which Sue always likes. (Sue is also writing this piece).

So what is it like to not only sail for 6 hours on the Bahama Banks but also to arrive at Warderick Wells? Let’s let the pictures speak for themselves. And yes you guessed it. There is nobody here unless they arrived by boat and mostly sail boats at that. Now you’re really somewhere! Somewhere else.

Waderick Wells is the main island for the area called the Exuma Park. This area is protected - no fishing, no taking trash ashore, to taking shells, or shellfish. Our mooring ball is about a mile from the park office which is a pretty long dingy ride. Once there we find a very quaint office with the nice lady from the radio working there. They do have wifi...of sorts. We paid $10 for 24 hours and we could get in but it was desperately slow. Still we could read and write a couple of e-mails but no uploading of this blog with pics.

Waderick Wells itself is gorgeous. That crazy blue water, many sandy beaches and trails all over the place to go exploring. There are some little coral patches with dingy moorings to go snorking as well. We stayed 3 days.

Monday 2/26 - Time to leave Waderick Wells. Before we go we join the Bahamas National Trust. This is $60 but gives you two free nights on the moorings which is $20 a night. So, we would have paid $60 anyway for our three nights and now for another $20 we become members which puts us on a priority list for a mooring ball. Since we know we are coming back with Leah and Jason we decide this would be a good idea.

We have yet to nail down air travel for Leah and Jason out of Staniel Cay so we decide to just go there and do it in person! The wind is likely to be right on our nose with some indication that it might swing to the south-west. It is only about a 16 mile run so we decide to leave late morning hoping to catch the wind shift. We’ve never had occasion to try to tack this boat directly upwind. We know she’s not very good going close to the wind but now we’ll get some actual data. Oh yeah...this is NOT a weatherly boat! We tacked several times and each time through 120 degrees! That is really clawing your way down the coast! After few hours of this we decide to get there in daylight and motor and main the rest of the way.

There is a main channel into Staniel Cay. Outside this narrow channel on the west side of the island bordering Staniel there are about 20 boats anchored. Hmmm...what do they know that I don’t know? Oh well...onward! It gets pretty shallow on the way in - about 3 feet under the keel which I think is actually considered a LOT of water around here! It gets deeper once we are in the channel proper near the Staniel Cay Yacht Club. Oh, by the way...there are NO buoys EVER marking ANYTHING down here. You have to really go slow and depend on your charts and your eyeballs! We tried to drop the hook near three other boats but the water was too thin for us. We have less than a meter under the keel and this was at high tide. We continued in to the area near Thunderball Grotto! Yes, this is where they filmed parts of the James Bond movie, Thunderball. There is a boat anchored there and two on mooring balls. We went slow and circled around until I could see a nice hunk of sand (about 10 feet down...no trouble seeing that!) and dropped the hook. Seemed to grab ok but it’s never like the hard pull you get in mud. After laying out about 60 feet of chain I dive in and swim over the anchor. Looks pretty good with the shank buried and one whole wing of the CQR. A little bit of the other wing is sticking out but it is not dragging. We’re in!

We go ashore to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club which is just a fancy name for a tavern. And a great place it is. Lots of atmosphere, lots of sailors (cute ones too!), and cold Kalik and best of all...free and fast wifi! I called Leah on Skype (the greatest invention since sliced bread). Life is good.

I’m thinking of the Jack Nicholson movie, As Good as it Gets, where he says the famous line, “What if this is as good as it gets”? I’m wondering the same sort of thing is a good way. I’m wondering if this is possible...to just sail place to spectacular place taking care of each other and our boat. Reading, writing, exploring...Doesn’t seem possible...but here we are! Breakdowns and storms will come - another day though.

Leaving Nassau

For anyone who has been away from the blog for a few days you might want to scroll down to the story of our crossing from Florida to Nassau.

Hurrican Hole Marina...we're in there ...somewhere!

Monday 2/19/07 - We offer here a couple of pictures from our short stay in Nassau. Later this morning we will once again set sail this time heading for the northern end of the Exumas. We hope to anchor off of the western shore of Ship Channel Cay (cay = key). Yesterday the winds cranked up to near gale here in Nassau for a brief time but today they should be down and from the north-west allowing us another down hill ride. We are on an exploratory mission from Ship Channel Cay down to Staniel Cay about 40-50 miles to the south. Then we’ll sail back to Nassau to arrive on 3/10 to pick up daughter and son-in-law and then take them on a well deserved vacation from Nassau back to Staniel Cay. From there they will take a charter flight back to Nassau and from there back to the frozen tundra that is our beloved Chicago.

We are excited as usual to get going again. We didn’t have time to learn much about Nassau. We did take some long walks and we did visit the fish market under the bridge. Bahamian people are VERY friendly and talk VERY fast and laugh VERY easily. My dream audience!

Conks at the marketplace

From our reading of our various cruising guides it looks like we could be in touch again before reaching Staniel Cay but at Staniel Cay for sure. We are looking forward to getting away from the hustle and bustle of US/Nassau (we skipped Atlantis).

Finally, I offer a little story about our checking in progress...Thanks to all for the comments...we really cherish each one. Onward!

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The Customs of Star Trek

We knew there was a checking in process to go through upon our arrival in Nassau. It involves paying $300 and getting a cruising permit and fishing permit (Any fish reading this you can relax. You are safe from us.). OK. Our marina in Nassau contacted the authorities for us and, sure enough, while I was paying (a lot) for our slip a lady showed up from immigration. She looked at our passports and took those cards that you always fill out when you arrive in a foreign land. I was told that Customs would show up at our boat later. This was the day we arrived after 48 hours at sea with little sleep. We were hoping this would be taken care of sooner rather than later as you are not supposed to go wandering about until you’ve finished with all this bureaucracy and we were hankering for cheese burgers. After a couple of hours I went back to the marina office and asked if they knew how much longer it would be for the Customs person to come to our boat. The nice lady there seemed surprised that this hadn’t happened yet and made a call after which I was told that a man would be out around 4:15 or 4:30 and could I stay on board and wait for him. No problem. This gave me time to walk about and find out that the Bahamas $20 phone card that I bought for $15 in Boot key didn’t work (damn Aussies!). I had no sooner gotten back to the boat when two officials arrived from Customs to check us in. They were early but, OK. The younger guy came aboard and went over our paperwork and asked a couple of questions. He then told me that unfortunately he didn’t have the forms with him for our cruising permit but would be back tomorrow at 8:30 AM and we could pay the $300 then. Starting to sound suspicious but as long as my $300 is still in my pocket I’ll play along. We are told that we are virtually cleared and can drop our quarantine flag and raise our courtesy flag which we do.

About 30 minutes later another official arrives looking for the boat that needs to check in. I told him that we were that boat but that it already happened . . . mostly. He seemed shocked and told us that he was the ONLY person that checked in boats for Customs on the entire island. Uh oh. I explained what had occurred and asked him what to do if these guys show up in the morning. I’m to just tell them to contact Mr. Burns. Hmmm...

Well, I smell scam but I still have all my money so I figure someone has a problems but it ain’t me!

The next morning the young guy comes back, not Mr. Burns. Uh oh. I already am planning to give this guy no money. He comes to the boat and is very apologetic and tells me that I must go with him and we’ll take care of the ‘business’ back at some office. Am I in for a one way ride after which I am $300 lighter and find myself sleeping with the fishes? Um, maybe one too many Chicago movies there. He has a badge and everything so I go with him. As we are walking to the car we strike up a conversation (Bahamians LOVE to talk...FAST!)

Now get this...for the next 20 minutes we did nothing but talk about...ready?

Physics

Yes. It came up that I was a retired physics teacher and that just launched him into a thousand questions including but not limited to...

Q: Would it really be possible to produce artificial gravity as they do on Star Trek?

Ans: Probably not. Gravity is the force that we actually know the least about and the lack of gravity is also the most expensive special effect to duplicate so easier to just write a fiction about ‘generated gravity’ as long as you are writing fiction anyway (Ever notice how every thing goes to hell on the Enterprise including shields (no stronger than Mark Prior’s arm), life support, and engines but NEVER their gravity.).

Q: I understand that there are such things as black holes but what of worm holes?

Ans: Worm holes are theoreticians with too much time and pencil lead on their hands (nice mental image there.) They just mess with the equations and see if there are any solutions that would include popping out of a black hole if you happened to fall into one.

Q: What about transporters?

Ans: According to the book “The Physics of Star Trek” (ok, we’ve all read this, right?) the teleportation of physical objects let alone an entire functioning (non-republican) human being is totally out of the realm of even the most mind bending science fiction.

Q: According to the treaties of blah blah and blah blah it is certainly legal for ANY country to produce their own nuclear power, right? So how do we make sure that they are not also producing weapons grade uranium.

Ans: You’re way ahead of me on this one.

Needless to say the rest of the check in process went fine and Kevin the Customs officer drove me back to the boat as soon as we were done. Funny. I rarely get to talk physics any more and today I did...with a government bureaucrat!

You have to always be prepared to be surprised.

Florida to Nassau!

This will be a long installment as we have been out of computer service for some time now. So grab a cup of coffee, settle in and read it...and leave comments! We LOVE comments. This is the exciting story of Scott and Sue finally leaving the country!

Part I - Hurry up and STOP!

Anybody who’s been reading this blog for a bit knows that the captain tends to get just a little (his head blows up) antsy after staying in one spot too long. After nearly a month in Marathon (Don’t miss the Overseas Lounge!) I was really ready to go and even more excited to actually start looking for a good day to jump of to the Bahamas.

On Saturday 2/10, we said goodbye to our friends Joe and Peg, weighed anchor, took on fuel, water, and gas and headed up the keys for an anchorage called Channel 5. We’ve been there before and it is a little 25 mile run from Marathon. OK, we were a little rusty...forgot to undo the reefing lines before trying to raise the sail, misinterpreted the GPS and thought we were nearly aground, then nearly went aground due to bad piloting. Sheesh! Finally we got out a ways and turned to the east. We set the sails and kept the engine on for a while to charge batteries and keep our speed up. It was a beautiful sail. We pure sailed for about an hour in the middle of the run and then back to motor sailing when our speed got below 4 knots and stayed there.

We found our way easily into Channel 5 (last time there were some near misses as we got too close to the shoals on the east side). We anchored where we had before, a couple miles east of the bridge amongst a nest of crab pots. Nice. Somehow being on the move changes everything. Same boat. Same us but somehow different as well. And, VERY different from the ‘cozy’ anchorage in Boot Key...we’re the only boat here! The bad part about the anchorage is that it is wide open to the north and that’s where the wind is from but it is pretty light and we’re not worried. We began to worry around midnight with the wind shrieking through the rigging and the boat rocking up and down on 3 foot waves. Anchor didn’t drag but not much sleep that night.

On Sunday, 2/11, we decide to stay so as to maybe leave for Bahamas right from here. It is about an 80 mile shot from here to Riding Rocks at which point you can simply enter the Great Bahama Bank and continue east toward the North West Channel and Nassau. Although it is farther from here to the Bahamas the northerly push we will get from the Gulf stream should moderate that somewhat and allow us to make good time. Monday might have winds clocking to the south-east so that would be perfect. We’d leave around noon, sail through the night and arrive at Riding Rocks around 0800. Could work...now just keep an eye on the weather!

As we had gotten little sleep Saturday night I stole some time to take a nap. While dozing I heard someone holler something about Chicago and then heard Sue say, “ART! What are YOU doing here”? I went topsides and sure enough there was good old Art from Stem to Stern Yacht Care in Fort Lauderdale. He was fishing with a buddy and saw Enee Marie and said, “ I know that boat”. Nice and weird to see him here in the middle of nowhere!

As I was listening to the off shore report in the afternoon Sue came down the companionway and said those words you don’t like to hear, “We’re dragging”! Sure enough the wind had shifted to the east and while that gave us better protection and smaller waves it also twisted our anchor completely around and out of the dirt. We started the engine and I went to the bow to tend to the anchor. I put my hand on the snubber and I could feel the anchor dragging along the bottom. Suddenly it pulled tight and jerked the boat about. The anchor had re-set itself. Thank you! We’re not where we were but we’re still clear of most of the crab pots so we decide to do nothing.

It was a wonderful night. Very calm and crystal clear and we took advantage and caught up on the sleep we missed the night before. Maybe tomorrow we head to the Bahamas. . .

2/12 Monday - No. A line of thunderstorms came through our anchorage starting about 0700 and rained and blew and lightning and thundered and threatened water spouts for the next 5-6 hours. It rained 8 inches on Long Key very near us. This is tedious. There is nothing to do really except to watch our position to see if we are dragging and to wet our pants if we feel our hair stand up on end! A tense morning made more so by the way NOAA gives locations of things. For some reason everything is relative to ‘Craig Key’. Sue and I poured over our charts and guidebooks and could not find ‘Craig Key’. It was infuriating - “. . . a line of thunderstorms some with waterspouts as big as Jupiter have been sighted 3 miles from Craig Key. . . “ Are we near that or not! I called friends back in Marathon but they were not around. I called my brother-in-law up in Indiana and put him on an internet search for Craig Key. He called back a little later and said it was right between Fiesta Key and Long Key and was really tiny. We look at the charts again...let’s see, Fiesta Key. Got it. Long Key.....got it...HEY! We are anchored about 1 mile off of, you guessed it, CRAIG KEY.

WHO KNEW!?

Some navigator!

It is Monday afternoon now and the rain is finally stopping along with the wind. We filled two 5 gallon buckets with fresh water just by putting them out on deck. Oh, and there’s about 100 more gallons in the dingy which we were towing for a change to maybe clean her bottom a little. Well, maybe we’ll put some soap in the dingy and call it a washing machine and rinse in the buckets. (I wonder if I could lower the outboard into the dingy and start it up to provide some agitation? Hmmm...better not!)

We may have a weather window for the Bahamas tomorrow. Wind is supposed to be south east going south and then south going south-west and west on Wednesday. That would be perfect. It is more a matter of what is the weather that we will be heading into when we get there and we are trying to get as much of that information as we can before we take off. No sense going on a 20 hour sail just to get your butt kicked at the other end!

2/13 Tuesday - While everything was not going on we had Leah sign us up with the Caribbean Weather Service. This is an SSB deal that is run by a guy named Chris Parker and it is WORTH it. He comes on the air at 0640 every morning with a general weather report for the Bahamas. After that boats can call him on their SSB and ask for specific weather for their next intended sail. He spends about 10 minutes with each caller giving very detailed predictions of wind and waves. Well, we called him this morning and he recommended that we wait one more day as there were still some squalls around in the gulf stream and a pretty stiff west wind when we would approach the banks which can make the transition from 2000 foot deep water to 15 feet deep water a little exciting. So . . . one more day on the anchor. We did little except read. The boat is ready to go and so are the crew. One more day. . .

Part II - Actually Sailing Stuff

Wednesday 2/14. We call Chris in the morning and he thinks this will be a great day to cross and no problem with the night sail. Wheeeee....We make final preparations which is easy as we don’t want to leave until around noon which should provide for an early morning arrival at Riding Rock. Only 92 miles!

Alligator Reef light at left

At 1130 I couldn’t stand it anymore and we weighed anchor. What a baby! It’s a beautiful day but very light winds. We get the main up right away and motor out under the Channel 5 bridge. After clearing the shoals we set a course for Alligator reef. From there we’ll make a slight course correction for Riding Rocks. The wind is almost dead behind us and very light. Yeah....inflated and deflated genny. Still we’re getting some push from the sails even though they do a lot of flapping. We keep them up. It’s a SAILBOAT damn-it! We are on course and making 5+ knots with a little help from the engine. So GREAT to be on the open ocean. When we pass Alligator shoal light the bottom drops out from under us. The depth sounder goes from 20 feet to 100 feet in about 20 seconds. Bahamas here we come!

And a beautiful night sail ensued. We sailed much of the 90 miles and motor sailed the rest. For many hours we went wing and wing making 6+ knots. What a great evening. Except for the freighter. As we all know running lights can get confusing late at night when you’re tired. And anyway, who can remember green is starboard and red is port? Lights have no distance and you never can actually make out the shape of the ship to get its line as to which direction it is actually heading. Sue was at the helm and asked for help in passing the approaching freighter. It seemed far away and heading south. We could see it’s green running light which would be the STARBOARD one right, Scott? At first it seemed we could pass easily in front of it but then Sue looked at the radar again and said, “hey, this guy is CLOSE”. (note to you young sailors out there: If you can hear his engines he is VERY close.) OK, pass green to green but ...green...starboard...port wine, red, green, I’m tired...mommy! We drove around in a figure 8 pattern in front of the oncoming freighter trying to get our bearings. He (yeah, like these guys look out the window ever) must have thought we were playing some sort of game of marine chicken. Finally, Sue said, “THIS WAY” and we did manage to pass green to green by about 100 yards! Not much sleeping after that...too busy cleaning underwear!

2/15 - Thursday - The rest of the night was uneventful. Crossing the gulf stream is an old physics teachers dream come true (well, one of them...). Once we were totally into it (about 20 miles off shore) we had a heading of around 110o Magnetic and a course over the ground of around 75oM. How’s that for relative motion! We didn’t totally shake the effects of the stream until about 5 miles off the Bahama Banks.

It was at about this point that Sue said, “You know the depth meter is stuck at 74 feet”. I turned it off and on again (isn’t this how we fix everything now...reboot!) Now it went to 0.0 feet. Great. We are about to enter a realm where the very deepest part is about 15 feet and we show up with no depth sounder. The other one wasn’t working either. Hold on...two things don’t break at once. I checked the chart for our current location. OK! The water here is about 2400 feet deep! No bottom as far as the sounders are concerned. When we got on the bank they worked fine.

Quite a moment for us. We successfully crossed the gulf stream and sailed most of it. Now we were in our first foreign land (Finally! Thanks for your patience!) We passed the rocks that are named South Riding Rocks and entered crystal clear water about 15-20 feet deep. From here it is a 42 mile shot straight across this Great Bank to a place called Northwest Channel. Here the ‘Tongue of the Ocean’ meets the bank from the east and it is these waters that connect you to Nassau. So, now what?

Well, first of all, it seemed the boat was going slower than it should for the number of RPMs we were running (there was NO wind now). After about 10 miles of motoring/sailing we dropped the hook and I dove down to look at keel/propellar to see if we were dragging anything. Nothing there. I scraped off a few more barnacles off the prop while I was there. What I did notice was there was a significant current dragging me backwards which probably explains why our speed over ground seemed to be too slow. (Our knot meter is broken which would show our speed with respect to the water. With that I could have saved a swim. )

So, go on? Stop? Where to now? Our original plan was to continue on and anchor on the Bank at the other end and then head for an anchorage tomorrow. We talked with Chris Parker the weather master in the morning and he suggested taking a rest and putting in another night sail to make Nassau the next day. No wind he told us until after midnight anyway. Staying put for a few hours sounded good to us so we took naps and relaxed the afternoon away.

Now, about this great Bahama Bank. Understand there is nothing here. Nothing. Pure horizon 360 degrees. The water is amazingly clear and flat. It reminded me of one of those calm summer days on Lake Michigan. . . without the flies. When we dropped the anchor I watched it go all the way down in 15 feet of water like it was right there on the deck. Sue saw a dolphin swim to the surface and down to the bottom again without taking a picture (Sue didn’t take the picture not the dolphin..ok, neither Sue nor the dolphin took a picture. Syntax police are going to fine this.) She has to pick up the pace. We see NO other boats. I am surprised. For all the talk of coming and going to the Bahamas I expected to see some other sailboats. Nope. Just us as far as the eye can see.

So back on it at 1600 hours. Hope to make Nassau in about 20 hours putting us in around noon. We’ll try for a slip at one of the marinas as the weather is supposed to get very windy Saturday and Sunday. Onward!

No wind when we left our ‘anchorage’ but we motored along slowly and marveled once again at the water and the fact we are the only boat...apparently on the entire planet of WaterWorld! In the early evening we were able to start motor sailing and then pure sailing and it was perfect. Except for the unexpected brown/black streak of water ahead. It was about 2 hours until sunset and the sun was behind some clouds when we noticed this dark patch ahead. The depth was a consistent 15 feet at least and the charts showed no markings of anything less. What is that stuff? Sue looked through the binoculars and could tell that it wasn’t grass floating on top. It was something below. Do we go ahead and sail over it believing our charts? Sue says NO! We tacked and sailed by it seeing rocks/coral below. Yikes! Now what. We notice several more dark streaks ahead. We can’t tack through all of them. As we come to the next coral/rock place we hold our breath and easily cruise over. Whew! Maybe we’ve been sailing over these rocks all day and just now noticed them because of the late day lighting. Hmmmm. Anyway now we do trust our charts and continue on. The rest of the evening had just enough wind to keep us going 4.5 - 5 knots on flat seas. Not much to do at the wheel except nudge it a little every once in a while. I could lean back against the main sheet and enjoy. Stars came out full force too and I remembered once again why I got into this retirement business. Sue made a tasty pasta dish and we dined under the stars with the water sliding under the keel. Best waterfront restaurant on the banks! What a night!

We made our way to Russell Beacon (which doesn’t work - like a lot of the ‘beacons’ down here’. ) and then on to North Channel Light which does work. A little apprehension here as the path around the light is a little narrow and we are going through around midnight. No problem though (Sue was able to keep us right on course which is different that my window of 20o either way from the rumb line!) and we once again step off into crazy deep water called the Tongue of the Ocean. Not much wind anymore as we begin the final 50 mile leg of the journey to Nassau. We’re both really tired and go for 2 hour shifts instead of 3. During my 10 - midnight shift it seemed like there was beginning to be a little wind so I unfurled the genoa (We usually keep the main up and reefed for sailing at night wind or no wind.) and got a little boost in speed. Wind was on our port quarter enough to keep the sail filled. We motor sailed this way most of the night. During Sue’s 4-6 shift she got me up because the wind and seas had risen and now Sue was doing her favorite thing: steering in following seas at night. It IS creepy as you can’t anticipate the waves coming under and twisting the boat. Enee is a very forgiving craft though. Kind of like the big, goofy, easy going kid at school that you just can’t piss off.

Engine off now we sailed hard (YAR!...More CANVAS!) all the way to Nassau. The predicted weather for the weekend is for nearly gale force winds on Sunday so we hope to get into a marina for the weekend and hunker down. Sue stays busy on the radio trying to contact marinas without much luck. The biggest one, which is the one we wanted, was full. She finally made contact with Hurricane Hole Marina (that should work!) and got a slip reserved there. Good deal. Outside the entrance to the harbor area you have to officially ask for permission to enter the harbor on VHF channel 16 which we received after spelling ‘ENEE’ a couple of times. The harbor area of Nassau lies between the town of Nassau on New Providence Island and Paradise Island. Cruise ships (5), lots of boat traffic and a reversing current. Not a great place to anchor but lots of boats are.

Lighthouse marking Nassau with Atlantis in the background.


There are two 65 foot high bridges very close together that span this waterway and connect Nassau with Paradise Island. Our marina runs the gas dock between the bridges. We are to stop there for fuel and also to receive our customs papers. There is not a lot of room to maneuver between the bridges and the current is running very fast. I pull up as best I can to the face of the gas dock as Sue stands by with the dock lines. I notice a woman slowly get up and come to the dock to get the bow line that Sue throws her. She better hurry as the wind is blowing off the stern but ‘hurry’ is not in this woman’s vocabulary nor is ‘how-to-tie-a-knot’. I tried to encourage her to hurry as the stern is easing farther and farther from the dock. She still seemed puzzled and slightly entertained by her own knot tying efforts. When I was nearly perpendicular to the face I told her to untie me and I’d come around again. She seemed genuinely disappointed and a little insulted. She’d worked so hard on that macramé’ piece she had constructed with my dock line. When we came around again a young man had come down to help and we were in and fine.

It’s funny, when we are on a long run like this I always spend some of the time that I dedicate to worrying that I’d screwed up my calculations and that we would run out of diesel at some critical time. Remember we have no working fuel gauge but have pretty good data that we use 2/3 of a gallon per hour. Still...you’d like to look at a fuel gauge in the middle of the night and see that you have plenty of fuel. So after being ‘on it’ for 48 hours with lots of sailing but lots of motoring as well we used...16 gallons of diesel. We carry 75 gallons! I got to find other things to worry about! World hunger maybe.

We got the boat into the slip with no problem and lots of help from the dock hands. We are so happy! We have finally moved this little adventure up another notch and have cut the thread connecting us to the good old USA. We are also sooooooo tired. Of course we took turns sleeping for the two days but we never slept more than 2 hours at a time and you don’t sleep all that well on the go anyway. We look forward to exploring Nassau a little, a little re-provisioning, a little hunkering down when the front comes through on Sunday. Life is good...good and SHORT!

Finally, I went to the office to check in and pay for the slip. A very nice lady gave me a very BIG bill. In my tired state I just looked at it the way I used to look a differential equations - puzzlement and awe. Finally I said, “The slip is $2.50/foot, right?”. Wrong. Here’s a little tip boys and girls...either use updated cruising guides or double check the cost before making the deal. Our guide is 3 years old. The slips here are now $4.00 per foot. Yikes. Oh, well...only money. I’ll get more. We dined at the Green Parrot Bar right here at our marina. Cheese Burgers and Kalik beer. Yum. Better than the hard tack and weevil infested biscuits that we eat when we are at sea. Now for some real sleep.

It is Saturday morning now as we post this blog. We’ll post again before we leave for the Northern Exumas on Monday and then as we find other places with internet which I suspect won’t be often.

Above - Enee proudly flying her Bahamian courtesy flag.

Dont forget to COMMENT!

They're Crossing...RIGHT NOW

Hello agin Scott and Sue followers.

The weather was nice.
The wind was in the right direction.
There wasn't lightning coming down inches from their boat (exagerration...maybe as the weather has been really bad down there....although really after the storm that Chicago saw yesterday they can't really complain)

and so today is the day the sailors are heading across the Atlantic Ocean on their way to the Bahamas. The plan is as follows:

• Leaving Channel 5 today at noon
• Arriving South Riding Rocks around 8am tomorrow morning.
• From there they will continue across to Russell Beacon, where they will anchor Friday evening.
• On Friday they will continue onto either Frasier's Hog or Morgans Bluff (what are these names....Frasier's Hog...really?).
• From here they will head to Nassau where they will first and foremost find a phone to let me know they are safe and sound.

Stay tuned for an update on Saturday from either me or the Sailors!

And....They're Off!

Hello all from Chicago.....this is Scott's Daughter, writing to update you on the sailor's progress. This morning they took off from Marathon to head north along the keys. They will be crossing over to the Bahamas within the week. They are somewhere on the map on the left between Marathon and 'The Bahamas'. The green arrow is at Nassau....I think......which is where we are flying to in 4 weeks.

Stay tuned for updates and plan on hearing from Scott and Sue when they are in the Bahamas!

We Still Love our BEARS

What a wacky trip! We got to Chicago late Saturday morning after spending the night in the Miami airport (Motto: Welcome to the rudest F_____ airport workers on the planet) and took the Blue Line 'EL' to the Damen stop. Right at that stop is the Blue Line Diner and right in that diner was my daughter, her husband and, bonus, my newly married niece and her husband. We had had no sleep so a bloody mary was in order along with a BIG Chicago breakfast. Yum.

After that Sue and I napped in Leah and Jason's apartment. The temperature in Chicago was single digits. WOW! That brings back memories of waiting for buses and fixing flat tires. The temperature in Leah's apartment MIGHT have been double digits but we had no measuring device.

Saturday night we spent with our best friends, Kay and Gary, out in Brookfield and a giant game of RISK broke out. That was a surprise and great fun.

Time to get serious...game day...HOO! Well, we know how it ended but how it started was with us going to the first bar I ever walked into when I moved (hitched) to Chicago in 1972 - Bernies,- Across from Wrigley Field. Strangely it is Bernie's grandsons who now own it . . . but I knew Bernie. What happened? We went at noon knowing it would be crowded. Yeah...no seats. Damn! I'm usually TOO early. We walked on up Clark street to a joint called YakZies and they had a table right by the giant screen TV. We settled in with the Sunday Trib and a deck of cards. Leah and Jason's friends Mike and Barb joined us and we had fun playing the waiting game. Later, Leah and I walked back to Bernies and found good old Will! Bartender extroidinare and best man at our wedding. Leah got a free hat from 'Uncle' Will.

As to the game itself all I can say is that the opening kickoff was about the most exciting thing I had ever seen in Chicago sports. . . and I was there for Burt Hootens' no hitter! Bears are young and they'll be back but I'm not going to say W_ _ _ 'T_ _ _ N_ _ _ Y_ _ _...That's a Cub thing.

Our trip back to Florida was long and mostly uneventful (Not counting that we almost got on a charter Greyhound with a choir from a Baptist church before we figured out that that wasn't our bus!) Only took a ride to O'Hare, a plane to Miami, Greyhound to Marathon, Cab to the marina, and a dingy ride to our boat. Talk about planes, trains and automobiles!

Enee was fine although there had been a LOT of wind. As such our snubbing line had chafed through so we were pulling directly on the anchor chain. That, in turn, caused the anchor chain to try to open the anchor locker all by itself but all it managed to do was rip out one of the hinges. There's a new project! A neighboring boat owner came over this morning to tell me that his anchor had drug the night before and he bounced off our our boat a little but he couldn't see any damage. Me either but what a nice guy to come over and tell me.

We put off fixing frig until tomorrow for which we are going to a marina. Too tired to mess with all that today and it is still really windy. Me docking this beast in a heavy wind is perhaps a video that should be made ...but not now!

Weather is still ripping out of the north and then east. We will probably be waiting until at least Friday for a window to the Bahamas. That's ok...always have chapters to work on!

OH, one more thing. My daughter and her husband are coming to visit us in the Bahamas (yes, we WILL get there in time!) and then they are going to DC to lobby for funds for physics research. This is all early to mid March. As such, Dagney, the greatest little cat in the world (aren't they all) could use some TLC boarding (not the hockey kind!) while they are away. Any ideas just e-mail me. (listed on the side)

marathon to Chicago...easy

We began our trek to chilly Chicago by taking the Greyhound from the Marathon airport (yes there is one) to the Miami airport. We called Greyhound before leaving to see if we needed cash and the person said no, plastic was fine. Off we go. Our friend Joe dropped us at the 'airport'. The airport is barely there. No cars. No planes. Nobody working the gates. Just two guys working the rent-a-car desks. I asked if there was in fact a Greyhound and they said yes and that you just pay the driver. Hmmmm...I wonder how the plastic part works? The bus finally came about 10 minutes late. I told the driver where we were going and pulled out my credit card. He just looked at me like I was some sort of boob. I explained that we called and asked. Well, no...he has no way to process a credit card. Of course. So the fare is $62. I count out my money...I have ...no kidding

$63

Whee....a whole dollar left over for Miami.

The bus made a 20 minute stop at a Burger King so that took care of dinner. We arrived at the airport arount 10PM. This was the best we could do for a flight leaving at 8:20...THE NEXT MORNING. We had some hope that maybe there was a late flight that we could switch too. There was...sort of. It had left at 9:30. Oh well. We had more or less planned to spend the night in the airport and that's what we did. That's what a lot of people did. I guess this is somewthat typical in airports but I had not had the pleasure before of seeing bodies strewn all over the place in all sorts of contorted positions.

Sue took the opportunity to do our taxes as there was a fine (but not free) wifi signal in the airport. I listened to iPod, failed to do some Sudukos, walked around and started drinking large quantities of coffee.

The airport started coming back to life around 3:30 and by 4:00 we could check in AND get moved to the earlier flight than our 8:20. Now we're waiting to board and I'm squeezing every cent out of this wifi that I can!

Can't wait to cheer the Bears on to VICTORY!

(Better not have lost our luggage...the long underwear is in there!)

Bear Down

As will happen this time of year, you strike up a conversation with someone and at some point they might say, "So, where are you going to watch the Superbowl"*? Well, we tell them we're flying to Chicago to watch the game and we just get a faraway stare from a Floridian. It's as if they are waiting for the punch line or like I just spoke that sentence (not this one...the one in question) in German. I guess it is a little nuts. People down here, though, are really sensitive to cold. They can't imagine being subjected to a little cold for even a few seconds let alone a weekend. Lately they've been giving the local weather and when the evening temps are to be in the low 60's or (heavens!) upper 50's they start talking about wool socks and muc lucs (whatever those are!).

But what the hell. Part of being retired is being FREE. I'm not just sailing around, I've cut the ties to secondary education and I'm FREE! Not rich but I got a hundred bucks for an airplane ticket!

And from all reports it looks like Chicago is going completely nuts for this team. Why not? Work is hard. Traffic sucks. You wish you'd picked a different carreer. Who's that woman you married? Whatever. Now, for a couple of weeks, none of that matters . YOUR team is going to the superbowl. A very nice diversion. Maybe we're shallow to get all excited about a professional sports team. Maybe this is why we are hated by so many countries (contries that will be tuning in the Superbowl.). For sure, education, terror alerts, stock prices, and Hillary are more important. So what? So for a brief time in Chicago you forgive your boss, you ease up on the workers, you put old grievences on the back burner. You dig out that old Bear's jersey from the 85 season...good old number 34!

Maybe the Bears will win and maybe not. Either way, Chicago is a GREAT place to live.

CLICK HERE to see what it's like in Soldier Field



*I'm using the word Superbowl with NO permission!

Getting it Done in Marathon

Yes we are still in Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida. We are waiting for a last part for the SSB and using the time here to get valuable work done on the book.

We have the outboard working fine again (it was missing a piece...since when?). I seem to have fixed a slow leak in the dingy with a patch on the fabric bottom. We had a guy out to recharge the refrigerator but as near as I could tell it worked the same as before even though my wallet was $118 lighter. I may give up on this one as I hate throwing good money after bad. The guy said if it didn't take he needed to put a vacuum pump on it to get all the air out and for that I'd probably have to be at a dock (not free) for shore power. Not worth it.

Yesterday a storm came through followed by steady 20+ knot winds in the harbor. It is a very crowded harbor and many of the boats recently arrived did not anchor into this north wind. Result? Boats dragging and wandering about the harbor and much stress. We too were dragging our anchor but got on it while we were still a good 3 feet from the boat behind us. It was still raining and cold for down here as we tried to re-set the anchor. I was in just my bathing suit and was pretty cold. As we set the anchor and began to lay out chain a guy hollered from a nearby boat. "MORE CHAIN". Thanks. Like I wasn' already doing that. Besides, I'd like to let out more chain but then I would have been right back into the boats I was trying to avoid. Everyone's an expert!

More exciting was a nearby boat who when they pulled up their anchor found another anchor attached to it...from another nearby boat! I and some others dingyed over to help out from the water side. We finally got them untangled and put with their appropriate boats!

When it was raining really hard I went out and scrubbed the port side of the deck. Why? Well, then I plugged the scupper on that side and opened the fill to the fresh water tank. Free water! and lots of it. I filled the tank in just a few minutes. Yum.

This weekend we have volunteered to feed and pet a couple of cats on another boat in the harbor while the owners go away for the weekend. Having been in this spot ourselves with good old Gracie we know how this is are a looking forward to helping out.

This latest cold front is supposed to make for northerlies all week so no going to Bahamas yet. That's ok though because we are going to go to Chicago to watch the Superbowl! Airfare going Miami to Chicago is cheap...I would guess that it is not the other way around! So out of here on Saturday, Superbowl Sunday, Back to Marathon on Monday! GO BEARS!

Finally, if you are real bored I have an article in the Feb. issue of SAILING.

holding on in Boot Key...GO BEARS

Looks like at least another week in Boot key for us. We've ordered an antenna for the SSB for the DSC feature. (I wonder what that stands for...?) What it DOES is allow you to press one button and an emergency message goes out automatically giving you latitude and longitude and other boat information. Besides the antenna I'll have to connect the GPS to the radio as well. Oh, none of that should be hard or take too long...

We seem to be in the evil repair triangle while we're here. My new little Mac is on the fritz and looks like it will need a new logic board (probably using the old logic?), The outboard is back to how it was when I paid Salty Sam in Ft. Myers $200 to 'fix' it. It is off to the repair guy today as will be the computer. As to the quality of Salty's work, I took the cover off when the motor began acting up and found that all the bolts were finger tight. Thanks Salty!

Everything else that is broken is still broken so that's good.

Anyway. . . HOW ABOUT DEM BEARS!

We watched the game at the Overseas Bar and Grill with a bunch of Saints fans. Still fun but not as much as I know they were having in the bars in Chicago! We may sail up to Miami and anchor just to hang out with the team.

No other news as we wait for various repairs.

GO BEARS!

Night of the Long Knives

Last night as we were sitting in the cockpit enjoying the calm evening we noticed the local sheriff and fish cop (Nazis) going boat to boat. Of course they have very bright lights and black uniforms. This has been proven over the years to be the best way to roust undesirables. Apparently this happens on occasion here in Boot Key harbor and of course they are just “doing their job” and “checking on stuff”. I didn’t really want any part of this sort of behavior so I locked the companionway with an external padlock and slipped below through a hatch. We sat below quietly in the dark. Are you thinking of Anne Frank? I was. How ridiculous. Of course this couldn’t happen in the daytime...no drama there and you wouldn’t be able to use the really bright lights. Anyway they DID come to our boat. We saw the lights shining through the ports but laid low. They knocked, “Fish and Wildlife!” Boy that will strike terror in the hearts of terrorists! Oh no! Fish cop...RUN! Then I heard one of the crew say, “Oh, they’re not home, I can see the padlock”. Genius.

Imagine your local police going door to door in the middle of the night to “just check on your documentation”. To see if you have fire insurance perhaps. Imagine the outrage that would ensue. But if you live aboard your boat apparently you have somehow surrendered your right to unlawful and unnecessary search as promised in the constitution. Remember the constitution? It seems few do these days.

One of their excuses for this jack-booted behavior is to prepare for the death of Fidel. You do see how that could send shock waves through the anchorage here in Marathon don’t you?
They’ll probably be back tonight but we’re not going to hide. We may have a problem in that we’ve never registered this boat in Florida because we keep meaning to leave. We’ll see how much trouble that makes for us tonight. Sue is ashore sending in registration documents and making copies just in case.

The Bahamas beckon more than ever.

GO BEARS

Enee Gets a Clean Bottom

Mission accomplished! We took Enee to the Marathon Marina and Boat Yard (actually goes by the new name now - Cay Club Marina) around 9 AM on Monday. The boys were ready for us and like so many boat yards, the workers seem happy with their jobs and friendly to the customers. We pulled up to the wall by the pit for the travel lift and the main guy gave me the bad news. . . Yes, I would need to BACK the boat into the pit. Not my specialty but after about 3 tries I got her in to the slings. It is a little tricky hauling this boat because the aft sling has to go in the narrow region just aft of the keel but before the propeller. I used a picture of Enee in the slings from Ft. Lauderdale to show them how to arrange them. No problem. Up she comes. The boys gave her a good power wash and there was some nasty stuff growing down there. I know Enee is an old boat but should she really be growing a beard? After setting her down on the tarp we spent the next couple of hours preparing the surface for painting. Sue washed the whole thing with a scrubber to get the last of the little green stuff off. I sanded here and there, patched a few places, and gave Sue plenty of direction.

We also took advantage of being out of the water to replace the zinc. Wow, that was time! I also dissasembled an old through - hull that wasn't being used (for the non working air conditioning) and put a cap on it. One less leaky valve to worry about.


We had about a third of a gallon of paint left from last time in Ft. Lauderdale. At that time I found this very expensive paint on sale for half price and bought it. Now I need to stick with the paint and, of course, it ain't on sale now. So, I bought 1 gallon . . . ah but first a West Marine story. . .

Before leaving Ramrod key we called the West Marine in Marathon to see if they had the paint we wanted. Yes they had one can. We asked if they could hold it for us and they said, 'No problem'. You see where this is going, right? We went to West Marine on the day we said we'd be there to pick up our paint and, yeah, they had sold it. The guy seemed surprised that I was upset. I really don't care whether they can hold stuff or not just don't tell me one thing and then do the other! I was reminded of Seinfeld and the 'holding' of the car reservation. Needless to say I put down the other items I was going to buy there and left. Luckily our friends Joe and Peg have a car here and we used that to drive all the way back to Stock Island (almost all the way to Key West) to get our paint.

I thinned the paint as much as I thought I should and we managed to almost stretch it to make one coat. I left a little 2' x 2' patch on the starboard quarter uncovered. Another coat would have been nice but $$$$$$$$$ so we'll go with this for another year and see what happens. I think we'll be fine if we stay out of Ft. Myers and if we keep moving and not sit so much and that certainly is the plan. Looks good. . . from about 20 yards away!

Today we should get a new thermostat for the frig in the mail and see if that fixes the darn thing. Schlepping ice is not so bad but it would be nice to have the option. Also hope to play with my SSB some more now that it is working.

Another front has come through so we are experiencing the usualy 20-25 knot north winds probably through the weekend. Earliest departure for the Bahamas then would be Monday. Won't that be fun!

Radio Head!

Yes! At last I have the SSB that I bought about 11 months ago working. This is thanks to Capt. Marty Brown, author of "Marine SSB Radio for 'Idi=Yachts'. She anchors here in Marathon and she walked me through several steps via telephone until we figured out (shockingly) that the weak link in my set up was the coax cable that I soldered up myself. I bought a ready-made one from Radio Shack for $10 and I am ON THE AIR. This morning I was able to communicate with a guy in the Bahamas (where ever THAT is!) So happy days.

In a little while we get hauled out and will begin the painting process. Stand by for pictures of Enee's naked bottoom!

Rodger doger over and outta here!

New Found Harbor to Boot Key. . . Wheeeeee!

On Friday we once again set sail. The wind had been east and heavy for a few days but it looked like Friday it would swing to the south-east and if so allowing us a nice run to the ENE to Boot Key. NOAA wasn’t wrong this time. Before leaving we spotted a water spout snaking out from under a cloud. Never got near the water though but still . . . .

After taking able seaman Jeff D. on board as crew beer delivery guy we got going around 1000. We went just about straight south on a port tack to get an angle on Boot Key. We tacked about 3-4 miles out and headed for Boot Key. What a great day. Made it all the way in one reach. Enee was heeled over with her rail touching the water and sea water coming up the sink drains. Wheee! Seas were only 2-3 feet so it was a pretty fun ride. About half way there we finally put a reef in the main for a little more comfort with no loss in speed. In fact, Enee seemed to go faster as the day went on perhaps scrubbing her own bottom!

Great to have our own driver!

Made the drawbridge into Boot Key harbor around 1530 and dropped anchor soon after that. What a great day. It’s been awhile since we’ve had a truly good sailing day as our runs on the west coast of Florida were either on the inside or on the outside with dead air or wind on the nose.

We have the usual list of boat issues while we are in Boot Key. Number one is getting hauled on Monday and painting the bottom. It’s been about a year and the bottom took a beating from the Barnacles in Ft. Myers. Float switch on the bilge pump went on the fritz during the sail yesterday so that either needs fixing (right. . .) or replacing (more likely). We’d also like to order a new thermostat for the fridge to see if that fixes it and hope it won’t take too long to get shipped.

We already met up with our old friends Joe and Peg who we first met Nov 1 of ’05 at the start of the ICW. It was fun to sit with them last night aboard their boat and catch up a little.




Looks like another cold front will be moving through in the coming week causing winds out of the north which is no good for crossing the gulf stream. So, we’ll probably be here for a week at least.

Stay tuned

Back up the Keys

Good bye Key West and here we go back up the chain of Florida Keys. We had a great stay in Key West and I got a lot of good work done on the book. On Tuesday we sailed to New Found Harbor but not alone. Not at all! We were joined by our good friends from Burnham Harbor Chicago - Larry, Pat and Jeff. (That's Jeff and Larry sailing Enee. Good Crew!) Also along was Larry's brother Mike and their friend Marv. Mike lives in New Found Harbor about 28 miles along the chain of keys. Marv and Mike trolled all the way up but not a strike. Just like when I would go fishing with my dad! We had anchored out by Mikes place last spring when we were south bound. It was sure great to be able to take everyone sailing . . . and no breakdowns this time! The wind was pretty light but we were able to keep both sails up while we motor sailed up the Hawk Channel. Plenty of pilots on board to help us negotiate the shallows into the anchorage about a half mile from Mikes place on Ramron Key. That's Pat enjoying a day at sea. Nice.

This coming Friday we will probably make for Marathon and Boot Key Harbor. We have arranged to have a haul-out there so we can throw a coat of paint on the bottom. It has been nearly a year since we painted her in Ft. Lauderdale and getting all barnacled up and scraped in Ft. Myers has probably not done the paint job any good at all. I'm excited and scared to see my bottom!





While we're out of the water I hope to cap an old seacock that is only for the air conditioning which I'm sure will never work anyway. It is a scary looking arrangement and I don't like worrying about that old seacock.

Our friends, Joe and Peg, who we met way back when we started the ICW in fall of '05 are anchored there now and we look forward to hooking up with them.

WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING

Now then. . . for any of you that remember me promoting Coffee Plantation in Key West as a nice internet cafe. . . I take it all back. I take it back because I was summarily kicked out for not spending enough money and sitting around too long. What an ass that owner is. I always bought something because that is fair. If there is a money or time limit then they should post it. I wrote him to tell him how embarrased and tricked I felt. He told me that the final straw for him was when he saw Sue put napkins in her purse! First of all, I've known Sue for over 20 years and in that time she has never even OWNED a purse. Needless to say I've not known her to steal napkins either. So this owner needs to really calm down (his name is Theo). If you go to Key West enjoy the town but there are other places to get coffee and internet. Free at the library and they don't kick you out. Go to any of them but please skip Coffee Plantation or take plenty of money.

Christmas in Key West. . . and the weather is lousy!

Happy Holidays to all!

Our Christmas 'surprise' was that my dad and step mom's cruise ship arrived in Key West on Christmas Eve! (Can you tell which one is me and which on is my dad?) We rented one of those 4 person golf carts that are everywhere on the island and took them on a little tour of the island ending up at Pepe's for lunch. Pepe's has been there since 1909. . . and it looks it! It was great seeing them and getting a chance to visit at
Christmas time!














Yes, Christmas day in Key West was a bit of an adventure. The day started out just fine and we had decided to have a pleasant 'boat day' for Christmas (Newton's Birthday) and not go to shore. Storms were predicted for late afternoon/evening and boy were they right on this time!

We had pulled up dingy, messed with the anchor lines (2 down), and generally prepared for storm conditions. It was getting darker and darker in the west-north-west and we could hear the rumbling of far off thunder. At one point Sue said, "What's that noise"? I thought it was my wind generator but no. . . maybe the neighbor's. . . but no and then we saw the wall of rain coming our way. We were hearing the rain before feeling the rain. We had to hustle to get hatches and ports closed.

Then the rain REALLY came and so did the wind. It was raining sidways in buckets and blowing about 35 knots. The seas turned that ugly color and got mighty confused. Our anchors held just fine though and the boat stayed mainly dry except for one leak that came oozing from between the two shelves that form one of the double beds in the salon. All dry above that area. Must be some sort of leak around the toe rail.

As we huddled in the companion way watching the storm and listening to the nearly continuous thunder, our neighbor on a big Beneteau was out scrubbing his decks! Of course. Fresh water is at a premium and here's the chance to give the boat a good scrubbing and continuous rinsing. . . as long as you don't get a kabillion volts on your head! He finished up by giving himself a good scrubbing although not with the deck brush.

It calmed down after about an hour and seas were very calm when we went to bed. I got up at around 1:00 AM as I heard the wind begin up again with a little rain. Glad I did. When I looked forward there was a little trawler about 6 feet off our bow! I thought maybe they'd just swing away but, no, they were getting even closer. I felt bad but I had to let them have two blasts from the old air horn. I hollered a couple of times as well and they came out and saw the situation. In a few minutes they were underway and off my bow. We watched them re-anchor, thankfully, far from us. The rest of the night was pretty rolly but without further incident.

So merry damn Christmas!

In optical phenomena news. . . A few days ago we were preparing to launch the dingy to go into town when I looked up and saw the rainbow pictured here. I hollered at Sue, "Look, look, look"! To which she replied, "Where, where, where"? I couldn't believe she couldn't see it and then realized she had her polarizing sunglasses on. Light from a rainbow, like glare off of the sea, is polarized and so her glasses were making the rainbow invisible! I hollered, "Take your sunglasses off"! She said, "Wow".

The other neat thing about this rainbow is how low to the horizon it is. Usually you see rainbows in the evening when the sun can shine under the clouds and reflect off the rain. Rainbows are always viewed 42 degrees up from the tip of your own shadow (yes we each see our own personal rainbow!). So at noon (which it nearly was) shadows are short and 42 degrees up is not very high in the sky. This will certainly make it into the book!

We plan to keep writing and living in Key West through New Years and then work our way up to Marathon to stage for crossing over to the Bahamas. Onward!

Key West and Life is Good

As planned we are making a little stand here in good old Key West while I try to write the bulk of the book. Mornings are usually spent at the keyboard followed by a trip ashore. We check our email at Coffee Plantation and maybe do a little research for the book. A walk along the wharf or a stroll along Duval street in the late afternoon. In the early evening we’re back on board. Some cheese, snacks and a cocktail drink. We note the comings and goings of new boats and boats that had been here when we arrived. Almost everybody in Key West is from somewhere else and they’re all going somewhere else. What a crazy place!

We’ve made a friend (or a pet) of our nearest neighbor, Jeff. He lives aboard a 26 foot sloop with no sails and comes and goes on about a 16 foot dingy off of which he has only fallen once but we are still counting. He’s a good guy and maybe a ‘typical’ Conch if there is such a thing. He’s younger that us by 20 years (who isn’t) and came aboard via his own invitation one night. He was married and running a construction company up in Rhode Island. The part about Rhode Island is believable based on accent. Got divorced, sold the business and is now living and NOT working in Key West. He does a great Capt. Ron impersonation and I fear there may be more Capt. Ron in him than is good for anybody! Such are the characters that we meet on occasion.

We’ve also befriended another Canadian couple who are here for the first time. As we can help them find things in Key West they have lots to tell us about the Bahamas, our next destination. We look forward to going over charts with them and taking lots of notes. Cruising guides are great but you really like to talk to someone who has been there recently. We’re especially interested in making our way through the reefs at night when we leave Rodriguez Key. Doesn’t look all that tough on the charts but you do need to do it at night so as to arrive at Gun Key or Bimini in daylight. Another sphincter squeezer!

We’ve found a boat yard in Marathon that will haul us out and let us paint our bottom ourselves. This apparently is becoming rare. Two out of three yards wouldn’t let us do the work ourselves. We’re anxious to get a couple of coats of bottom paint on before heading to the Bahamas where we will probably scrape it all off again! We should be up that way in early January.

It rained for just about three solid days through Saturday recently. Got a little cabin fever but not too bad. Endeavour Enee is big enough for us to comfortably write, work, read, and relax without going to shore for some time. Sue’s new awnings on the bimini make the cockpit still useable even in a steady rain.

We have been enjoying the freedom of NOT having refrigeration for some time now. After working my butt off to get it installed last February it is now not working. But, we buy ice every few days and only buy fresh meat when we intend to eat it and this is turning out to be more easy going than constantly checking battery levels and running engine twice a day which is what was required to keep up with the refrigerator. They have 25 lb blocks of ice at the market by the wharf and one of those lasts us nearly a week! Better than the deisel I’d have to burn to keep up with the refrigerator. With the refrigerator off line and the nice breezes here to spin our wind generator we are hardly running any diesal at all. Nice. Well, live and learn. Anyone want a slightly used Cold Machine (may need some work)?

We still miss Gracie the sailing cat but hesitate to adopt another. They’re great but can become a real puzzle when we leave the boat for extended periods of time. We’ll see what the future brings. Maybe I can find a six-toed kitten. . .

That’s about it from Key West. Happy holidays and happy Issac Newton’s birthday which we all celebrate (December 25).

Hurry Up and Stop!

Scott Says:

This time of year there is a regular progression of fronts that descend upon Florida. When they come they bring stiff northern winds and cool temps. Just such a front was due to come late Thursday or early Friday to the Keys. So, we decided that we could safely leave Marco Island on Wednesday afternoon to arrive in Key West Thursday morning (Oh boy...a night sail!) before the front could stir up the waters. So off we went at 3:00 pm on Wednesday. We were a little worried that there might already be rolly conditions and a wind at our back but no. We had a little east breeze on our beam but not enough to make our desired 5 knots. So back to motor sailing which we’ve learned is not that uncommon. There was enough wind to keep both sails mostly filled and we gained some speed by leaving them up. Still, it was a beautiful night. When the moon got high in the sky it had a perfect, giant circle around it. Hmmm...we also had a very nice sun dog to look at right before sun down. Related? Must research this. I think they are but stay tuna! Sue and I broke the night up into 3 hour hunks. I did 6-9 and 12-3 while Sue did 9-12 and 3-6. Three hours is a long time to stare at the compass/GPS. Our autohelm is on the fritz and we are saving for a new one rather than repair the Autohelm 4000. I’ve now had 3 of these things and I’ve never had one work well. Well, that’s another story.

One of the tricky parts about sailing at night is trying to dodge the crab pots! As we left Marco Island they were pretty thick. We hoped that they would thin out as we progressed south and they did but they never did really go away. I didn’t want to imagine me in the dark water trying to cut loose a crab pot in the middle of the ocean. I could imagine Sue doing it though. She must have imagined it as well since she spent over an hour laying on the bow sweeping a beam light across the dark horizon hoping to spot the pots before our propeller did! She finally returned to the cockpit when the moon rose high enough to shed some light on the problem. We couldn’t believe that we were still seeing (thought barely) crab pots in over 50 feet of water.

As we had planned we reached G1, the green bell marking the entrance to the north west channel that leads to Key West, at 0730 on Thursday. All night there had been a light on the western horizon that we had been keeping our eye on. (In fact it was the only thing to look at on the entire horizon. Love those night sails.) As we approached G1 so did he and he was a tug pulling 2 barges like a two car train. It looked like we were going to arrive together so we jibed and more or less fell in behind him. Once in the channel proper we actually got some real wind so we FINALLY got to turn off the engine for a very nice arrival into Key West under pure sail as it should be.

Once we rounded sunset key there was the usual busy harbor of Key West. A giant cruise ship was docking, the coast guard was out in force, boats coming and going. Neat. Now’s a good time to drop the sails. Start the engine! Nothing...no whine no chug no nothing. This engine just ran all night...16 hours! Well, we are almost used to this sort of thing. We did roll up the Genoa and Sue sailed us up and back a bit on the main only while I crawled into the engine room. Just have to jump the starter motor with a pair of pliers. I hate this because even though you don’t want to you always jump when you make that sparky connection (and sometimes yelp like a lady . . . but not me.). Once I jumped and put my knee into the fins of the alternator. That was bad. Well, she started right up and this is a real puzzle.

The puzzle... If you follow the wires away from the starter motor you find an external solenoid, key switch, and push button start. All of those things have been replaced so I’m at a loss (for now) as to why jumping around these things even helps. I can’t even make it be bad...it just does this sometimes which is always the hardest problem to track down. Any hints/ideas would be appreciated.

Back underway we dropped the main and headed for Conch Marina. Usually after a long sail we are tired and just want to get the hook down and take naps. What happens then is a couple of days later you find yourself saying things like, “Boy we should have stopped for fuel or water or pump out or all of those. . . “ and then you don’t feel like hauling up the anchor and going through all the gyrations of docking the boat. Remembering this sort of thing we took care of business before anchoring. So, after taking on fuel (24 gallons) and fresh water we turned north to the anchor field just west of Flemming Key. Fairly crowded but always room for one more boat.

Knowing that the wind was going to come ripping out of the north I wanted to set my all chain anchor, the CQR, to windward. It’s is tricky here because the wind was north but the tidal current was flowing from the south. This means that as we backed downwind the boat would try to turn to point up current! Well, with a couple of tries, a little swearing, and a promised lashing, we finally got her set. Because of the reversing current we wanted to anchor “Bahamian style”. This means you put two anchors out 180 degrees apart with the boat in the middle. This way as the current reverses the boat only swings in a little circle instead of a big circle. I tie a ribbon to the chain so I can tell where I was. The idea is to let out more chain as we back further down wind. I don’t want to disturb the anchor I’ve already set. Ideally I’d double the amount of chain out and then drop the second hook. Then when I go back upwind and reel in this chain to the ribbon I’ll know the boat is in the middle of the two anchors. This worked pretty well. I probably have 160 degrees (180 is an ideal) and both anchors set well.

As the wind came up on our first night I thought I would have been smarter to set both anchors to windward in a V shape. The current is not able to dominate the wind right now so we are not making any circles. If the wind gets real strong I’d feel better having that second anchor holding me in place rather then trailing off down wind. Upon watching the two rodes though I think this is ok. They both stay tight and we are basically rock still in this position.

We could hear and feel the wind start to come up that first night. In the morning it was blowing a good 20 knots and gusting to 25. Anchors are holding well but we neglected to launch the dingy and mount the motor when things were calm. Now we are in 2-3 foot seas and no way am I going to head down the ladder with the motor in those conditions. Looks like we’ll be aboard for awhile. . .

Sue Says:

Still aboard in Key West

Yes we are still aboard in Key West. Not a bad place to be at all. But there is nothing still about the Key West anchorage we’re on. Today is Saturday. The winds are still in the mid-20’s gusting to 30s and the waves are too high and rolly to launch the dingy much less to lower the motor onto it. We wouldn’t be comfortable leaving the boat in these conditions anyway. Yesterday we noticed a nearby sailboat was slipping from its anchorage. There is nobody aboard and luckily the anchor reset itself though far away from the anchorage field avoiding going out to sea. Go ashore and worry about our boat dragging anchor? No Thank You.

So we are still aboard in Key West. Although we haven’t set foot ashore since arriving Thursday morning (not counting Scott paying for our fuel at the marina and picking up a much deserved 6 pack to go). So why did we leave Marco Island 3 days ago knowing that a cold front was coming through and would last several days? Hmmmmm. Well it was a trade off. Scott has been champing at the bit ever since leaving Ft. Myers Beach (this was the most recent champing anyway) and I don’t think he or I would have survived sitting on anchor in Marco Island for another week waiting for weather to change.

So we both decided that moving on to Key West was the best. We were excited to get here again. What’s not to like about Key West. We are Still aboard in Key West although most likely it will be 2 more days until we are able to comfortably go ashore. (I haven’t been off this boat since Tuesday afternoon. If we don’t get ashore until Monday it will be a full week of only 40’ Enee for me.) But I’m okay with waiting. I spend much time in the cockpit watching the dolphins (you can actually see them under water here) reading, writing, sodukoing. And listening to the next new sound that these intense winds and waves bring to our boat. So far everything has been identifiable and nothing has broken.

Still in Key West and Duvall street is calling our names. Watch out when shore leave arrives!

A final note from Scott

A book deal has finally come through with a publisher out east. We’ll be staying in Key West for about a month while I (hopefully) finish the book. The working title is “Sailing Through Physics” but that will probably change. The book is about all the interesting (really!) connections between sailing, maintaining a boat and just being on the ocean with the basic physical laws of nature. I hope it is interesting, entertaining and speled corectly and that all of you buy a copy (or two!) when it comes out next fall! Look for it right here.

Sailing Again

Good news...the boat still floats and we can still make the pointy part go forward! On Saturday we finally threw off that mooring line and chugged out of Ft. Myers Beach at first light (of course). Wind was south east or south west when there was any so we just motored with the main up for the 30+ mile run south to Marco Island. Interesting, this is the first anchorage we have returned to since the trip began. Of course we've sat still for some significant time in there but still...

So great to be at sea again. While we were under way we lucked out and both saw a dolphin leap at least 6 feet clear of the water...and then do it
again! Wow, what a lucky camera shot we got this time!


We also spotted birds on top of the sea. There must have been 500 birds - a mix of gulls and pelicans sitting and feeding on top of the water. We don't know what was there but suspect that maybe a fisherman had discarded some bait.



Now that we are anchored by Marco Island there is a bit of north wind blowing and making seas a little rough down by Key West (our next stop). We will probably have to wait for Tuesday or Wednesday to leave. As we did on the way north, we will leave in the afternoon to arrive in daylight in Key West. It is a little over 80 miles and should take about 16 hours. Wind on those days is supposed to be 10 knots or so and from the north east. Could make for a very pleasant night indeed.

In the meantime, we finished the long awaited awnings for the bimini. Thanks Kay for the use of your sewing machine back in Chicago. With much banging and swearing we finally got all the snaps installed yesterday and attached the awninings for more shade and protection from rain.















Left picture shows the awning being installed. At the right, Sue is swinging the hammer to no avail. Imagine some real sailor type swearing right here....

As a bonus we find that we can detach these flaps from the rail and fold them up on top of the bimini when they are not needed.

Well, on to Key West - one of our favorite places in the solar system! We'll probably spend a few days there and then head up the Keys to meet our friends Joe and Peg in Boot Key and then look for a window to sail to the Bahamas! Yes! New places are just down the road.

Up North and Back

We are now back on board good old Enee Marie after a perfectly wonderful 5 weeks in Chicago!
How strange it was to be on land for so long. What is perfectly normal for 99% of the population seems somehow just a little off. A little confining. A little complicated. We truly enjoyed spending much quality time with our many friends and family in the Chicago area while at the same time have longed for our simple days aboard our boat.

The boat was fine upon our return on Monday. Engine started right up. Batteries were at about 60%. We did learn while we were away that the mooring field in Ft. Myers Beach is no longer operated by Salty Sam’s Marina. That was a bit of a shocker as we had come to know them well and felt ok leaving the boat more or less under their watchful eye. Now it turns out that the city of Ft. Myers Beach as taken over the operation! One always worries when a government tries to run anything but we’ll see. Many of the fine marinas we’ve seen over the years are municiple marinas and they are typically cheap and well run. Today I went down and re-registered with the new operators. They seem friendly enough but are perhaps not prepared for this endeavor. Not many boats in the mooring field anyway so they probably have time to get better organized. It is being run out of Mantanzas Inn right by the Mantanzas pass bridge. Their "facilities" consist of an emptied out motel room for bathroom and shower. That means there is ONE. Well, like I said maybe it will be better when they get going more. I do miss our friend Dale who used to cruise the mooring field everyday just to check on boats, perform pumpouts and say hi. Everything changes.

Anyway, while we were up north we especially enjoyed having large hunks of time to enjoy my daughter and her husband and knock around their Chicago neighborhood with them. We never ran away from Chicago...we love that town but, rather, we are running toward other lands and adventures. Win. Win. My daughter lives in Ukrainian Village neighborhood in Chicago which if you don’t know is quite the city for neighborhoods. This one is in transition from the truly old world Ukraiinian motiff to the upscale, young, artsy crowd. Most interesting in its transition. There is a very nice little cyber cafe up the street along with a Ukraining Deli nearby where one can read NONE of the lables on the food. Buy by pointing. Sue and I took some long walks down Division Street and were amazed by the new and the old and the ever interesting. My kind of town!

The talk of the town of course is DA BEARS! We were lucky enough to get some tickets from my nephew and then were forced to watch the Bears completely fall apart against Miami. Damn! I also discovered at the game that I’m no longer so good with large crowds. Who knew! No big thing but just an answer to my frequent question as to how the adventure might be slowly changing Sue and I. The press of humanity was a little off putting for me and I don’t remember it being so before. I'm reminded of the Michael Smith song, "How does the Sea Change the Sailor".

Of course the highlight of the trip was watching the Chicago Marathon as reported here earlier. Just about Chicago’s biggest party. The run goes through many of Chicago’s ethnic neighborhoods and everyone turns out to line the streets along the entire 26 mile route.

Back in Florida I find that the outboard that I left with the yard to fix is still dying. We thought it was running fine and went to get groceries yesterday only to find ourselves paddling back! Good thing it was slack tide because there is no paddling the inflatable against it. Tried that. They are working on it now and think maybe the oil sensor (4 stroke) may be sending false information and shutting down the spark. We'll see.

Winds are to be south east for a few days so we'll wait for something a little more in our favor for sailing down toward either Marco Island, Everglades City or maybe all the way to Key West. We'll see.

A final sad note, we learned that while we were away Gracie the Cat that Sails checked out of this mortal coil. I'm glad she got to have a little AC before that. She was fun and we do kind of miss her.

October Notes...

The weather has finally changed! After surviving repetitious days of low to mid 90’s, thunderstorms every afternoon and still, muggy nights in the low 80’s we slowly switched to warm days, less humidity and nights in the 60’s! Wheeeee! Florida is not the place to be in July, August, and most of September! I think our wind scoop was the best thing we ever bought for the boat.

Barnacle issues continue. We have a deal with a local diver to scrape the bottom of the boat once a month. Each month the hull is pretty much re-covered with the little critters. We took the dingy over to a little beach near our mooring to clean off its bottom. The barnacles were about 3-4 barnacles deep and this dingy is mostly NOT in the water as we raise it up on davits at night. We gotta get out of this place....

Big News: We finally sold Catalina Enee! Yes. Let me tell you, it is no fun owning two boats. We left Catalina Enee up in Baltimore when we bought the Endeavour Enee (All boats are named Enee Marie for us). The brokers up there said, “Oh we’ll have no problem selling a fresh water Catalina 30”. That was a year ago and I ended up firing them and selling it myself. Boat Brokers/Pirates? Any difference? Discuss.

We made it to the Chicago Marathon on Sunday 10/22 (no, not by sail) to watch my daughter and son-in-law run their second Chicago Marathon. Last year they ran together in 4:20. This year their goal was to beat 4 hours and they DID! Jason ran in 3:57 and Leah in 3:45! Nice job. A bunch of family and friends had fun watching them and then jumping on the El and trying to find them again. This actually worked as we had two teams of fans so that the kids could see and hear their cheers about every 5 miles. Read more about the exciting marathon by reading Jason's report and Leah's report

Thank you to the Catalina Fleet 21 in Chicago for inviting us to speak about our first year experience as cruising sailors. It was fun to share our route and some memorable moments along the way. It was great to see so many friends, old and new, and to meet Stan from San Diego! Thanks for coming one and all!!

Plans are afoot for returning to the Keys and from there across to the Bahamas. The boat is in good shape and the crew is getting pretty antsy. Once under way, expect more frequent and, hopefully, more interesting blog updates. In the meantime Sue is working on making ‘awnings’ for our bimini top. It is barely as wide than the cockpit so when it rains the bimini actually funnels the rain into the cockpit. Sue is making 30” snap on extensions for those rainy days at anchor. Scott is trying to get a publisher for a book he is working on called Sailing Through Physics. He has one positive response from a publisher and looking for more responses in a few days.

Thanks to all our faithful readers and like your standing rigging.... STAY TUNED!