Saturday was a beautiful day to make the crossing from Florida to the Bahamas! We arrived and anchored off south Bimini. Our next stop, Nassau!
From our SAT phone.
|
Comments [0]
An inspiring voice from inside Cuba: Yoani Sanchez, determined to live in freedom and truth, and with links to many other blogs from the inside, many voices seeking to be heard.
|
Cheers,,
Annie & Eric
WeBeSailing.com
Sunday, 17 January 2010, Posted from: Biscayne Bay
We've been sitting at anchor here in Biscayne Bay Miami waiting for a weather window to head east to the Bahamas. It's nice and warm and we've not been bored. Just like living ashore there are always projects that can be done. We made new flotation tubes for the dink, new weather clothes (much bigger than the original ones I made, these will provide better protection from the sea spray that comes hurtling at us when a wave breaks on the side of the boat) and we are making good progress on the Jordan Series Drogue. This is something that Tom researched and decided would be a better storm anchor for us than the parachute anchor.... easier to handle, a line with a bunch of tiny cones instead of one GIANT parachute, and without the shock load potential that the parachute anchor does. The series drogue is new in the last fifteen years and there's still lots of chatter about it in the forums, pros & cons. Time will tell as with anything new. So we bought the kit from Sailrite and have been working on it over the past few weeks, looks like we'll get to finish it up while at anchor here. Together we've been cutting, basting, and stitching 3 straps to each of 107 cones and then attaching the cones to the rode with 963 figure 8's and half-hitches!
The other project, the flotation tubes. I've been meaning to blog for sometime about the tubes on our dink, as it's an idea that is working well for us so far. We've not seen this anywhere else (in our limited experience) but thought other sailors might find it useful. Our dink, affectionately known as Tad, was built by Tom before we left Gambier. He used the Eastport Pram pattern from Chesapeake Lightcraft. I built the sail from another Sailrite kit; so we can sail it or row it. Tom and I noodled for awhile on how to provide flotation for the dink, it had to be tough, easy to inflate and deflate, had to be serviceable, i.e. we could patch it. After lots of ideas in the rubble heap we came up with this... heavy duty kayak flotation. We bought four of the flotation bags (large), two for each side; I stitched up some canvas tubes the length of the dink and just stuffed the bags in then Tom attached them. The canvas tubes, after a season in the muddy waters of the Chesapeake Bay started rotting out so they had to be replaced. What you see there in the photo is Tad sporting his new tubes, made from Emma's old tan bark sails. The tubes keep Tad from banging hard into things and provide stability getting in and out, especially with the heavy loads like bikes and provisions. Also we don't have a life raft on board, as we don't want to rely on some device that is supposed to just magically inflate when we need it; here's the best article we've seen on this. We don't pretend that Tad will be much of a life boat, we hope to never find out... our life boat is Emma and we'll do everything in our power to keep her afloat.
Well, I've been playing on the internet all afternoon, time to stitch up some more of those cones...
MORE PICTURES OF TAD
|
Wednesday, 13 January 2010, Posted from: Biscayne Bay, Miami
There are few things scarier to me, the Captain's Mate, than big ships at night. It's especially scary at night for a couple of reasons, first - we are hard to see, a small boat on a big ocean with an itty-bitty tri-color light at the top of EMMA's mast, bobbing and weaving as she moves with the wind and the waves. Second, although the big ships are easy for us to spot, even in a far off distance (they have bright lights ) it's sometimes difficult for us to discern their course and direction when they are close. As a sailing vessel, we have the right of way on the seas unless the motor vessel is constrained by draft or incapacitated in some way. On the other hand, it's just a good idea to stay out of their way, especially (obviously) when crossing a channel. So we try to make prudent decisions in adjusting our course if and when necessary.
I came on watch at 22:30, it's the captain's turn to sleep, and I notice a ship off our port bow. It's a long way off. I observe that it's heading north steadily (we're heading south, to Miami) and it's traveling on a longitude at least 2 miles east of us, maybe more. This is comfortable. I keep my eye on it over the next hour, it's getting closer and closer but still east of us. Just before it's off our port stern, and as I'm crossing the entrance channel to West Palm Beach, I notice it's changing course, and then it looks like it has stopped altogether. Hmmmmm. So after a moment or two of watching it and my bearing on it has not changed I roust Tom from his slumber and ask him to take a look, turn on the deck lights, hail the ship on the radio. He sights it in the binoculars, it's definitely big he says and while he hails it on channel 16 & 13 I notice that it's getting closer rather quickly now -- but the bearing has still not changed, which means we are directly in it's path. Tom hails the ship twice with no response, and then a third time he gives our LAT & LONG and speed and course and says "if you need me to change my course let me know, this is sailing vessel Emma standing by on 16 and 13". Still nothing. And it's getting closer and it's REALLY big and then oh wow we are crossing it's bow and it's bearing down on us fast. I'm at the tiller and actually not freaking out which is surprising to me, but I am pretty frightened nonetheless, all kinds of adrenalin speeding through my body. I head to wind a fuzz and pick up some speed, we are beam reaching in a very fair breeze and the last thing I want is the sails to luff in front of this monster. All the while Tom is still hailing this vessel "WE ARE CROSSING YOUR BOW, DO YOU HAVE A VISUAL ON US? ... DO YOU HAVE A RADIO? ..." (obvious frustration in his voice). We cross over the path of this ship and we are safely south of it now, and Tom sights the ships letters with the binoculars: PALM BEACH PRINCESS. "Quick take a picture!" I say and that's what you see there in the photo, the cruise ship that just about ran us down.
Replaying this incident... the captain of this ship surely heard us hailing, these ships must monitor 16 & 13 by USCG regulations. And he surely saw us because we flipped our deck lights which light up EMMA's sails quite vividly. Perhaps he heard us and saw us and was waiting there for us to get out of his way (remember when I thought he was stopped?). We hailed this ship in plenty of time for us to change course had the captain asked us to and we could have and would have done so. We hailed him before he was constrained by draft. Apparently he didn't need us to adjust our course. so why not give us the peace of mind that he had us in his sights? Why not give us this courtesy? In Tom's words: "Why not answer the hail? It's a big ocean, a lonely ocean, why make it lonelier?" And if he did hear and see us, why didn't he let us cross his bow before full steam ahead? Answers to these questions are irrelevant now. But this I know: the captain of PALM BEACH PRINCESS on this Tuesday night November 12, 2010 between 23:30-23:40 heading inbound to West Palm Beach was just plain rude and is clearly not a seaman.
One more thing.... Tom and I reflected on this, what could we, should we have differently? What will we do different if this were to happen again? We don't think there's anything we would have done differently... oh wait, except the strobe, Tom says next time we'll turn on the strobe, it would be impossible for someone not to see us. And I add we can do a security call when crossing a major channel to alert all vessels in the vicinity that we are there. A few hours later, as we are crossing the Port Everglades entrance channel to Ft. Lauderdale, Tom does just that on channel 13, in a somewhat gruff voice (and why not, after last night's experience?) "security call security call this is sailing vessel EMMA to all vessels in the vicinity, we are crossing the Port Everglades entrance channel at Morse Alpha buoy, heading south, standing by on Channel 16 & 13". We hope not to ever have to use the strobe but now it's top of mind for us if needed.
Learning, learning, all the time. That's one of the things that makes this journey so exciting, even if it is scary sometimes. We dropped the hook safely in Biscayne Bay, Miami, the same place we anchored two years ago when we met in a sailing class and Tom danced me around the cockpit on New Year's Eve.
|
This is not the first time she's been close to run down. We were returning to Oahu late one night SW of Barber's Point and a submarine surfaced within spitting distance astern of us...physically impossible for the sub to see us in their transition from submerged to surface ops, and we thought we were done for.
To answer your question what to do differently, speaking from a licensed master's perspective there's two things you might have done. First, when you first noticed CBDR (constant bearing, decreasing range) you might have changed course (preferably to starboard) and let him pass down your port side at a safe distance. Second, before it got to extremis, you're obliged to make a sound signal, and you can supplement that sound signal with a flashing light (now I'll grant you there's not a chance in hell that the ship would
I can truly feel pain and fear you experienced. There is not much worst that seeing a large ship bearing down on you.
Steve
Tuesday, 12 January 2010, St. Lucie River
I'm sorry for sounding like a paranoid ass when i talk about visiting Cuba. I'm pretty sure the CIA has better things to do than read our blog, er, well i hope they have better things to do. Fact is we are in a state of emergency regarding the terrorist sponsor state of Cuba. Regardless of the fact that the State Dept (and most sane people) know there is no evidence of the Cuban Govt. sponsoring terrorism, the state of emergency still exists. Like most things with US/Cuba relations, the lack of good judgment is mind boggling. I posted links to the law in my previous post so doubters can look it up. The last time i could find that a boat was impounded for intending to visit Cuba was part of a drama cooked up by some guy in Miami. The feds gave the boat back after he threatened to sue. They must have noticed the lack of anything resembling constitutionality in their law.
So much for that. The sun is shining, it's warm out for a change. We had perfect wind for the 180 NM trip around Cape Canaveral. But damn, was it ever cold, mid 20's overnight. Looks like we are in for a low pressure system to move up from the Gulf this weekend and with enough south wind we could slip on over to Gun Cay then over the Banks and pack our socks back up in the bottom of the locker where the damn things belong.
At some point in the past i tied this blog in with my face book notes, so i think most people see it that way, but if you visit the blog itself, you can see the links and also the google earth map that shows where we are when i can figure it out. Either way you read it, thanks for all the comments.
|
Saturday, 09 January 2010, St. Augustine
Anchored on top of a crab pot, next to a couple of sailboats that look like they've been here since the Spanish left. Who knew that running down the ICW could be so damn slow? There are constant opportunities, near the land, to stop and fix and plan and visit and spend time and money. Other than the fact that it's colder than hell here, no complaints. We've had a great time rolling down the east coast. We've met so many great people, on land and on their boats, seen places we never would have dreamed of stopping. Just this morning we said hasta luego to Eric and Annie on We-Be-Sailing. They gave us charts and directions and help and food and company and we spent an afternoon trying to help them get their boat out of Jacksonville. Beautiful people, beautiful boat, whether we see them again in a few weeks (preferably) or a few years, we have memories of their funness that we can cherish forever. The ocean is (relatively) smooth, nothing over 25 knots and all of it from the N and NW for the next few days. We're planning to head across to Gun Cay then through the banks for Nassau, warmth, rum, new people and friends we've met. Then Cuba. It's scary, the threats from the US government, the language we barely understand, is Santiago de Cuba a port of entry or will we be told to get the hell out? I have no illusions that the ocean is done showing us how incredibly small and insignificant we really are, but I'm ready for something else, new, difficult, scary, and hopefully fun and rewarding. For two years now, I've been sailing to Cuba. First without a boat nor the ability to use one, later with Emma and my lover, Annie, best first mate and deckhand that ever stumbled across a pitching deck in 6 foot seas on a pitch black frozen night with the wind howling through the rigging. As our departure from the states grows inevitably closer (if nothing else, we will freeze to death here in FL) I find I'm not in a hurry, but not hesitant. There is something, many things actually, about living on Emma that teach us to stop planning, stop scheduling, and stop worrying. We are here now because that's where we are and should be. We'll be warm again soon (like tonight when we crawl into our little bed together with 15 pounds of blankets on top), we'll be off-shore again soon, and we'll be in Cuba long before our hypocritical government has the sense or the decency or the balls to allow us to go.
On a rare political note, didn't we just elect someone to the Presidency who vowed to give us change? Something other than constant war, selling weapons as a foreign policy, and inane bullshit like we'll lift the embargo on Cuba when they have democratic elections? Like China, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, etc. or all the rest of Central and South America during the 70's and 80's when we bankrolled the pricks that terrorized, tortured and murdered their citizens for disagreeing with their government? I wonder if the CIA reads my blog and if they will send the coast guard after us. It is actually a crime in this land of the free to intend to visit Cuba, sort of like possession of dope with intent to deliver. How does the government quantify intent? How do you prosecute someone for intending to break a law? How to prove intent? How do you define freedom? The people of Cuba are stuck under the thumb of an authoritarian regime that restricts the freedom of information, freedom to travel, freedom to sell your services, your time to whom you please. I don't support it any more than I support my own country's use of torture, distribution of weapons to favored friends, and consumption of the world's resources at completely unsustainable rates (note the end of all the major fisheries on the planet, either recently or very, very soon).
We rang the bell for the newly-weds this evening. They got married on a pirate ship in St. Augustine harbor, on a sunset cruise with a pirate preacher who called them mateys and land-lubbers and they sang sea shanties. Hope that works out for them, at least it is sure to be a damn good party, and really, isn't that the whole point?
|
Travel to Cuba isn't prohibited, but "trade" is, and is pretty loosely defined. The general idea is something like "go ahead but don't spend a lot of money there". Given that they're unlikely to stamp your passport, and you're unlikely to use your Platinum AmEx card, I don't see a problem. Neither the CIA nor the Coast Guard gives a shit (unless you're doing something else), and the Treasury Department is likely too busy printing greenbacks to give to Goldman-Sachs.
Here are some reference pages:
http://www.forcuba.com/f_amer.htm
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1097.html
I had a friend who went in the late 1970s and attained hero status by sending postcards of Che Guevara with "Send lawyers, guns and money" on the back from Havana.
Scott
Wednesday, 30 December 2009, Jacksonville, FL (wishing we were further south)
We've been spending time lately earning points in our Black Box. To name just a few things -- repairing the leaks, re-installing the line for the 3rd reef point, standing anchor watch (all of this is Tom, of course) and me preparing (and "executing") a "Passage Readiness Checklist" to ensure that we are ship shape Bristol fashion (I just can't shake the Corporate Girl tendency, after 20 years of it, to be completely organized - it does pay off though as I can locate anything, you name it, on our boat within seconds!) After a few times using the checklist we probably won't need it as these things will come naturally. We've also been eradicating mold from the lockers. Yes, MOLD, yikes! I do believe that even killing mold earns points in the Black Box because it is, after all, about keeping Emma ship shape. What's the Black Box? Read here: John Vigor's Black Box
|
Saturday, 12 December 2009, Charleston Harbor
All day yesterday as I motored down the ditch from Georgetown, a running debate raged in my head. Not much else to distract my attention on the ICW. There is only so much time one can think red, green, green, green, red, green, turn, green, green, green etc. So I'm a wimp because yesterday morning we had a beautiful NE wind at 15-20, perfect for reaching down south to St. John's river and maybe some warm weather. It was forecast to last all day and all night. So why were we motoring downwind across Wynah Bay and then scuttling back inside? Eventually we have to go out on the ocean and the weather is never going to be perfect. The wind will never blow the exact right direction for the duration of a passage and the boat is never going to have everything done that could possibly be done to make her comfortable a ready, at some point i'll have to man up and head out a harbor entrance and point away from land. Today was forecast for 30 knot E followed by 2 days and nights of headwinds. It's early afternoon and it's still blowing a perfect NE breeze and i'm pissed at myself all over again. We could be off Georgia by now! On the other hand, we have found already that we can't make any headway into a 30 wind, the waves are too big for Emma to sail to windward in that much wind, and it's really wet. What kind of an asshole takes his boat and his lover out to enjoy temperatures in the mid 30's with 30 knots of driving wind and salt spray on the nose and a lee shore 20 miles off and no chance of making any of the entrances down here in 6-9 foot seas. Well, i don't know. NOAA was wrong (big surprise) and we would have had a fast and rough and wet and cold passage the last couple days. I don't want to be a fair weather sailor either, but having gallons of ocean water hurled at me by 25 knots of wind for hours on end in the mid thirties seems a little much. I'm done with the ditch though. We are going to be here until we feel like leaving at which point we are going to sail right past the entrance to the ditch, about a quarter mile from our anchorage, and head out to sea.
On a completely different note, we talked to Roger Drowne. (Rogerart.com) He is the only vessel we ever passed coming down the ditch. We were anchored next to him in Southport but didn't get a chance to talk as we were too busy cleaning all the salt out of the boat but we saw him motor out down the ditch a couple days after we arrived, wow. Hadn't even realized the thing moved. We passed him coming into Georgetown a week later and he dropped the hook near us so we stopped by in the morning. Someone stole his credit card number and cleaned him out so he's broke until he gets it straightened out, but said he's always been broke so no big deal. Check out the you tube videos of the Earth Ball and the Rainbow House. Peace, love and later y'all.
|
Saturday, 05 December 2009, Southport, NC
We are stuck on a dock. We hoped to leave this morning and enjoy the cold drizzle and the sound of our motor but the drill i ordered to replace my damp one was delivered 3 minutes after the marina closed and they won't be coming back until Monday afternoon. I was pretty annoyed this morning but hey, it happens. We need to replenish some of our provisions, heavy stuff like propane and kerosene and liquor so when Annie came back from the bath house and told me she met a live-aboard who offered us her car tomorrow, i decided it was ok after all. It's hard watching the weather turn colder and the Northerly winds slip by us unused, even though 52 degrees is pretty balmy for an Ohio boy early in December. Southport is a decent little town though and we don't need to be hurrying out to sea again. We did that last week. Tired of being in Beaufort NC, we headed outside for Charleston. The 20 knots on the nose started gusting to 30 after a few hours out but Emma is a tough little boat and she beat into the 5 foot swell with a single reefed main and staysail. It wasn't until about 2 am when Annie was on watch, and i was lying on the settee with my usual nausea, that our situation went down hill. The SW wind had been easing off but still gusting hard for several hours and we were waiting for the promised NW wind to fill in. It did. Not slowly clocking around but instantly, 30 knots. I got dressed and got topside and had her wrestled back through the wind and making our course in a minute or two but the ocean had been over the coamings the entire time and when we tacked, a couple hundred gallons of seawater that had been coming in the cockpit locker lid and building up on the starboard side all came rushing out on the cabin sole. Annie grabbed the trash can and i grabbed the bilge pump and we had her cleaned out in about five minutes. It wasn't extreme conditions, not terribly scary either, just damp and exhausting but everything within three feet of the cabin sole was soaked. Hence my new drill (the old one was pretty worn out anyway), 8 loads of laundry to wash salt out of bedding and Annie's materials, a soaking wet printer and the removal of every item in every locker. We lost one bottle of wine, and Spot the stuffed dog got drenched. Kind of an expensive lesson but the best for learning. Seaworthiness is the ability of a vessel to survive the sea, determined by the sea, and there is no more seaworthy or less seaworthy, she just is or isn't. Emma will be because i don't plan to spend our time creeping slowly up and down the coast, afraid to head outside as so many great folks we meet on the ICW are and with good reason. The locker lids have new gaskets, we fixed a few other leaks, Annie fixed the torn dodger and we both have a better idea of how the three of us can handle the conditions we will inevitably find out in the blue water. Georgetown next to pick up some charts that i had sent ahead then Jacksonville, with maybe a stop or two in between, we'll see.
|
Sunday, 22 November 2009, Belhaven, NC
What a relief to be back home again. The delivery trip to the BVI was exciting and boring and fun and arduous, sunny and rainy, cold, cloudy, hot, blue, windy and calm. The Virgins were beautiful and expensive as I remembered them. We left after a day or so to come back to Virginia, wet and cold. We just missed the onslaught of rain that left the docks where Emma was staying 2 feet under water at high tide, as well as the wind that turned her old flag to ribbons and sheared a stainless steel pin in the wind vane. We got a new flag, an autopilot for motoring that I have yet to install and, after failing to acquire a new pair of house batteries to see us through the next few years, we got out of the wi-fi-less bastion of million dollar sport-fishing boats known as Bluewater and left the industrial wasteland of Hampton Roads behind. 7 hours of chugging steadily along brought us to Deep Creek lock, home of Robert the lockmaster. We were welcomed with a helping hand with the lines, and an offer to tie up on his dock for the night with the promise of coffee and breakfast in the morning. We gratefully accepted as the current coming down the canal made motoring against it a slow ungainly process and made some new friends on the other boats that tied up there as well. The water is curiously brown, clean and not muddy, but brown. The Great Dismal Swamp is beautiful and the navigation fairly straightforward, completely straight in fact but for one turn. We locked down into the River and made Elizabeth City by dark. The next day found us reaching across Albermarle in 15 knots of East wind and then back to the motor when it deserted us at the mouth of the Alligator River. The Pungo River is only 2 days north of Beaufort so with over a week until my family show up there, we decided to spend a little time in Belhaven. We were invited to a wine tasting at the hardware store, ate several of the best meals we've ever had at the Back Bay Café and restocked the wine locker at the same place from one of the best selections of wines I've ever seen as well as getting some new books for the library. Don and Nancy gave us a ride home with our wine and then took us out to the grocery store and over to their home to check out Don's boats and Nancy's watercolors. Contrary to predictions, today has dawned bright and sunny, cool and a little bit of breeze. We hope it will stay this way as we head south after one last meal at the Back Bay Café. Oriental tomorrow then on to Beaufort and Thanksgiving. We've used more fuel in the last week than we have all summer, an entire tank! (16 gal) We will likely burn another before we get off shore. I have mixed feelings about being off shore. Not really looking forward to the nausea, sunburn, boredom, lack of sleep, or pain of moving around a little boat that seems intent on making any movement bruise inducing. So why are we heading out there again? I can't help it. The desire to sail on the ocean just seems to trump all the discomfort and pain. The ditch is fun and easy and safe, the people are great and the towns are delightful, it's just not enough. The very indescribability of the sensation of being in a small boat on a big ocean is likely what has led so many people to write about it. And some of us, once we experience it, can't seem to shake the urge to go. Wherever, as long as it's salty and wet.
|
