Crossing streams

Put a notch in my belt because I finally got to cross the gulf stream!  I realize this is not a big deal for a lot of sailors but I had been looking forward to doing this for a while. The very unfortunate part of the trip is that Amber could not join me because she had just started a new job and it was opening week. What terrible timing.

So Rick and I flew down ahead of the rest of the crew to Fort Lauderdale early on a Wednesday with the intentions of readying the boat and leaving early Thursday morning.  The best laid plans of mice and men...

I'll preface with the boat. Its a brand new, just delivered 2 months ago, Lagoon 560 sailing catamaran.  A beautiful and intimidating boat that is over twice as long as my H26 and almost 4 times as wide.

The preparations and provisioning Wednesday starts well enough.  There were guys crawling all over the boat installing a new Direct TV HD satellite dish, and custom fit cushion covers.  Rick and I were buzzing all over town trying to check all the items off of his mental list of preparations.

It was later that day when several things happened.  Unplugging from shore power to go get fuel we discovered that the generator was running but it wasn't powering anything. No bueno. We went to get fuel anyway and managed to mangle the ladder on the side of the boat with a piling. Also no bueno. Getting fuel and returning was uneventful except for learning the docking procedures of a new, and larger than i'm use to, boat.  So at the end of the day with no generator, only half of the groceries we needed, and a new ladder to buy we decided to take the Thursday to get properly prepared and leave Friday morning.

Thursday rolls around and we spring into action again.  We bought a new ladder, finished grocery shopping,  and a technician comes out to look at the generator issue.  As it turns out, when the satellite dish was wired up it tapped into a circuit that would draw too much current for the generator to support and it would trip the breaker.  The technician pulled the satellite wiring apart and wired it up correctly.  Great! three things accomplished.  

Then Murphy meddles in our affairs again.  Stepping down on one of the aft steps the wooden plank that is screwed in the metal framework gave way. All the screws came right out.  Not that big a deal to fix but surprising on a new boat to say the least.  Next a metal hook that is the safety support for the tender platform fell into the water.  It was barely threaded and fell out during adjustment.  We were able to source another one from an identical boat for sale in town managed by the same company that manages this one.  This turned out to be unnecessary because Deryck and Rick retrieved the hook later while scraping barnacles that had completely covered the underwater lights and where taking over the prop.

This was less detrimental to leaving in the morning compared to water maker and the chart system issues that also plagued that day.  The water maker would start up try to run its flush cycle and then have an error halfway through.  We could have left without the water maker but it was a matter of if you want to get something fixed Fort Lauderdale is the place to do it verses the Abacos.  Plus we discovered the chart plotter did not have updated maps for the Bahamas. We would be going blind through areas like the west end and around whale key without those detailed charts.

After beating my head against the wall trying to install newly purchased, but wrong chip size, Navionics maps we gave up for the day. We decided to wait until Friday, get all of the final issues sorted out with the boat and leave Saturday morning.  Wow what an ordeal.

Luckily everything ironed out on Friday.  All of the problems were addressed, the weather was spectacular, the seas were relatively calm compared to if we had left on Thursday, and we were completely provisioned.  We did have on technician out Saturday morning at 7 a.m. to replace the processor for the chart system in an attempt to fix an issue with the plotter screens resetting but this did not fix the problem. Oh well. 9 out of 10 isn't bad.

Finally we motored out into the Atlantic and left Fort Lauderdale behind.  Luckily for all of us aboard our flight out of Marsh Harbour (our destination) was early Tuesday morning.  We still had three full days to get the boat to her home in Marsh Harbour.

The wind, annoyingly, was a headwind for basically the entire trip.  We had to motor across the gulf stream to the west end where we stayed docked at Old Bahama Bay marina for the night.  We had arrived at around 4:30 and were able to clear in and fuel up.  We had only used 75 gallons of diesel to get across but it was better to be safe and top up.

Later that evening after a relaxing swim and a delicious dinner the sound of drums and percussion instruments floated across the marina to the top deck where we were relaxing with drinks.  My curiosity got the best of me and I had to go see what was going on.  I grabbed another beer and followed my ears.  Meandering through the dimly lit grounds of Old Bahama Bay the sound grew louder and more intoxicating.  Soon I came up on a junkanoo in full swing at a little bar by the beach.  It was impossible to not be sucked in to the rhythm and beat of the horns, drums, tambourines, and other instruments that i'm not sure I could name if I had to.  I hung out for a while enjoying the music until I decided to go back to the boat and grab another beer and the GoPro.  As fate would have it the party was over when I returned.  I sat in a chair on the beach and listened to one of my favorite songs, the sound of waves lapping on the shore, and finished my beer,

The next morning came bright and early as we motored out of Old Bahama Bay.  The wind was coming directly from the east and we decided we could head north-east close hauled.  We pounced on the opportunity and shook the sails out. This was a magical time in the trip. No motor noise. Amazing scenery. Calm waters. It was only 10 miles or so before we decided that we would never make it to Marsh Harbour in time for our flight.  We reluctantly lowered the sails, pointed east and motored on.

We had trolled lures all the way from Florida to the West End without a single nibble.  It was in the shallows north of Grand Bahama that we started getting bites. Unfortunately they were all barracuda.  Even though they weren't good eating fish it's always a thrill to have a "fish on!"

Pretty soon we decided to pull in the lines or we would never get anywhere.

It was buzzing along later that day that we ran into a phenomenon that we didn't identify until later.  While I was on watch we came bearing down on an extremely shallow looking area in the middle of nowhere.  We thought this was strange and as we got closer the fear of running aground grew more and more.  Finally I made a decision. I clicked the auto navigation off on the chart plotter and took over the wheel skirting around the eerily shallow looking water. An hour or so later when Rick was driving we came across another shallow area but seeing no depth variations on the chart plotter he decided to creep into it. It wasn't shallow at all, just cloudy.  It was later in the trip that I happened to come across an excerpt in The Waterway Guide to the Bahamas. It was "Fish Muds."


We learned something new.

That evening brought us to a a beautiful secluded anchorage on the west side of Pensacola Cay.  When I say secluded I mean secluded from development but not from other boats.  We shared the picturesque cove with 4 other boats.  One of which was a McGreggor 26.  Now i'm not a fan of McGregors because they were described to me as the herpes of sailboats, nobody wants one and once you have one you can't get rid of it.  But I did think it was cool to see one because they are basically the sibling to our Hunter H26.  Its the same size, water ballast, and swing keel.  It was very encouraging seeing this small "category C" boat, just like ours, make it all the way out here.  It gets my mind zooming with possibilities.

The next morning everyone in the cove motored out into the Sea of Abaco and made their way further along their respective journeys. Pensacola Cay was our turning point and we headed south.  The wind was outrageously now coming directly from the south so we continued to motor on.  We reached Green Turtle Cay and decided we were slightly ahead of schedule and a little parched so we should go refresh ourselves at on of the bars on the island.  We anchored, dropped the dinghy, and ended up at the Green Turtle Club for some Kaliks and lunch. Perfect!

The rest of the trip that day went pretty smoothly.  We easily skirted around Whale Cay with the guidance of the chart plotter and continued towards the house at Marsh Harbour.  We made it to the dock well before sunset that day and had plenty of time to relax and drink more Kaliks.  The only trouble came when docking the girthy girl in her U shaped dock.  The dock was built for the old Lagoon 450 and this 560 is considerably wider.  There was actually only 1.5 feet on either side between boat and pilings. Very impressive driving on Rick's part.

The morning came all too quickly and it was time to fly back to the states and resume normal life.  I definitely was not ready to return and would have happily spent more time cruising around on the boat.  The only silver lining to returning home was getting to see Amber. We hadn't spent that long apart in years and it was very hard for both of us. The next trip she has to come too because its not the same when you can't share the adventure with the one you love.

Gary on watch

Rick hanging the courtesy and quarantine flags

Sunrise at Old Bahama Bay

Leaving Old Bahama Bay in the morning

Sails up!

The view through my Costas

Motoring into the cove at Pensacola Cay

Merica!

Like a glove!

Damn I love Kalik!

There are only three kinds of sailors...

As the saying goes there are only three kings of sailors. Those that will run aground, those that have run aground, and those that lie about it.  I was going to lie about it but I already uploaded these pictures and its too much work to click and delete them now.

Let me set the scene for you. We were having a great time on Anclote Key.  We made good time with our Simrad tiller pilot (review coming soon) and were anchored at south east corner of the island just north of the state park dock.  The weather was perfect and we were exploring the beach line, swimming, walking the dog, fishing, drinking. You know, everyday stuff.

It was somewhere in the midst of this blissful afternoon that Amber noticed the boat was rocking strangely where it was anchored.  I reeled in my line in and came over to investigate.  It appeared that she was rocking back and forth on her centerboard.  We sprung into action in a futile attempt to get her back into deeper water.  No amount of pushing, jamming the motor in reverse, throwing out a second anchor and trying to winch us off the beach could prevail.  We were beached like a fat white and blue whale.

The only saving grace was that the centerboard, which sticks down below the hull even when tucked in its trunk, had wallowed out a grove in the sand and the entire weight of the boat was not resting on the centerboard.  There was nothing we could do anyway so we waited and I went back to fishing.

Now that the tide had receded I started to notice all over the beach were are plethora of scallops.  Amber was already planning on cooking chicken that evening so we gathered and shucked about 40 scallops and she cooked those up too. Delicious!

It was during my shucking session that a pretty serious storm that had been raging on the mainland over Tarpon Springs had made its decision to visit us.  We threw everything loose into the cabin and closed ourselves in.  I continued shucking scallops as the storm pounded outside. It was fortuitous that we were beached because we avoided being tossed around in a washing machine.  Everything happens for a reason.

It was after the sun had set and the storm had passed when we started to notice that the boat was rocking in a more familiar way.  We were starting to float off the beach.  We did get free but the boat almost grounded higher on the beach as we negotiated the trio of anchor lines, motor depth, and an abbreviated rudder. There was some very very tense moments followed by whooping and celebration as we barely scurried into the safety of the deep water. 

We had been tossing around the idea of a dinghy or kayaks for a while and now we think it is a necessity.  One more item for the list!

Project Hunter H26: Centerboard Saga Episode 2

Nary is there a sailor (or boat owner in general) that does have small catastrophes happen while out on the water.

We discovered while I was scrubbing the bottom of happy that the centerboard was dragging on the ground as we swung back and forth on the anchor.  The pulleys on the line were tight to the block but the board was not tucked into its trunk.  We weren't sure how long it had been that way but we were lucky there was no damage to the boat, centerboard, or pivoting brackets.  

This most likely was caused from the knots tightening on the new line we installed (http://www.kaseyclyde.com/2014/11/project-hunter-h26-centerboard-saga.html) or perhaps even a small amount of stretching,  It was something we hadn't even thought to check and this is a video of how we fixed it.

Nightly

It's been a while but my local cigar shop, Garvinos, had my favorite cigar, Carlos Torano exodus 1959 box pressed, on sale for only 5 bucks! I had to grab some even though there is no room in the humidor. Delicious!

STCW95 Training Course

Part school, part vacation.  That sums up the week we spent in Fort Lauderdale taking the STCW95 training course.  The STCW95 is a basic course for safety at sea and is required for anyone working on (or wanting to work on) a commercial vessel. This could be any kind of vessel like mega yachts, oil rigs, research vessels, etc, 

The course was split up into 3 basic parts.  Day 1 and 2 covered safety at sea with day 1 being in the classroom and day 2 being practical evaluation in the water. Day 2 was cool because we were in a lake with life jackets and immersion suits, flipping and boarding life rafts, and practicing life saving techniques as a team.

Day 3 and 4 were covered firefighting at the Resolve Maritime Academy with day 3 in the classroom and day 4 actually fighting fires. There is a video showing parts of day 4 below. It really was amazing donning full bunker gear and air tanks crawling around through smoke filled buildings.

Day 5 was introductory first aid. This was something that I had always wanted to learn anyway.  One of our instructors, Rex, was very entertaining and very competent with his knowledge and techniques. It made for a fun and very informative lesson.  I had always wanted to be taught these skills and we all got to preform CPR on dummies.

Besides school there really wasn't as much time for play like we had hoped there would be. Especially on the practical days we were pretty whipped after.  We did eat well though.  We kept trying interesting restaurants around the area.  Some notable ones were 

• Trata Greek Taverna: Which was our favorite restaurant of the trip and Louie the bartender was spot on.
• Burger Fi: with amazing, non greasy, delicious burgers
• Redcow: Pretty good BBQ and interesting decor.
• Quarterdeck: Beach shack with good food
• Da Big Kahuna: A passable burger
• Lulu's Baitshack: Awesome mahi reuben
• Pei Wei: decent pan-asian diner

There were ups and downs throughout the week but overall the experience was fun and memorable. We met a lot of really cool people from all over the world and in all sectors of the marine industry. We wish everyone we met during class the best of luck in their future endeavors!

The Las Olas Food and Wine Festival

Our accommodations were....pretty rough   :)

Spring break kids! To the Boat!

What a wicked awesome time! We had only planned to be out on the Gulf for 1 night and ended up staying for 2. The water was just warm enough for us to get in a do a little swimming and explore Anclote Key.  We can't wait to do this again!

Got a little Captain in you?