Sailing Sirius

Vessel Name: Sirius
Vessel Make/Model: Sabre 34
Crew: Harry Mertz and Fran Pellikan
About: from Castle Pines, CO
Extra:
2011 - 2012 Bahamas pictures: http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/share/p=595301325265875953/l=3801663028/g=2093690028/cobrandOid=1000/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/otsc=SYE/otsi=SAER Pictures of our Fall 2011 ICW trip can be found [...]
31 March 2014
28 February 2014
19 December 2013
11 December 2013 | Hone Sound, FL
03 December 2013 | Vero Beach, FL
19 November 2013 | St. Augustine Nov 12 - 14
10 November 2013 | Green Cove Springs, FL
07 November 2013 | Green Cove Springs
30 October 2013 | Green Cove Springs, Fl
18 May 2012
27 April 2012
11 April 2012
05 April 2012
Recent Blog Posts
13 June 2014

Apr 23 - 29 Getting back to Florida

April 23 – 24

26 April 2014

Apr 14 - 22 Palm Cay Marina

April 14 - 22

20 April 2014

Mar 23 - Apr 13 Heading North

Williams Bay, Little Farmers, and Heddys Land

31 March 2014

Mar 6 - 22 Great Exuma

March 6 - 9

28 February 2014

Feb 2 - 20 Eve's Visit

Feb 2 - 20 Eve's visit

Mar 23 - Apr 13 Heading North

20 April 2014
Williams Bay, Little Farmers, and Heddys Land
March 23 - 27
Motored in light wind to Rat Cay and took the inside route to Williams Bay on Lee Stocking Island. We were the only boat here; what a change from Georgetown. Peaceful and quiet. Grilled ahi tuna for dinner, watched the sun go down and star watched on the foredeck, all in wonderful solitude.
Had hoped to sail to Little Farmers but motored again in light wind on the nose. Arrived near slack tide as planned to pick up a mooring off Farmers Cay Yacht Club. The six yacht club moorings were filled by the end of the day. There are other moorings there but they are not to be trusted. We have heard many tales of dragged moorings; one boat even dragged out the cut to the ocean side while the crew was asleep. Stayed a second night through the west winds and light showers. We walked into town but the store and Brenda's food stand were closed. Walked to the Sunset Bar on the bank side. The banks were rough with 15 kt west wind. Tuesday 3:00 - 6:00 is happy hour and we had $3 strong rum punches and free conch fritters. We were the only customers in the place. We had dinner at the Yacht Club.
Wednesday brought 15+ kt winds from the NE. The anchorage was a little rough and the current was holding us crossways to the wind which is never comfortable. We needed to wait until afternoon to move to get a high tide and travel north from the anchorage.
We watched a large catamaran try to anchor and then try to pick up a mooring in the fast current. They finally snagged the ball from the stern but then it got stuck in the middle between the two hulls. It took a long time for them to move the ball outboard and then then forward. While they were working on moving the ball, the mooring dragged (not a yacht club mooring) and they did not notice for a bit since they were focused on the work at hand. They looked up just in time before hitting a large trawler.
We left on half tide and rising to get over some shallow spots charted at 4.9 ft. The lowest we saw was 8.2 ft. We motored to Heddys Land, a nice spot recommended to us. It was fairly flat in NE / E winds.
Nest day, we went ashore to the small beach and walked a path to the ocean side. Huge wave waves were rolling in with 20+ kt east wind. Waves crashing against a rocky wall sent high plumes of water that could be seen from the west side anchorage. We found a small corner of beach that contained lots of sea glass. Our best find yet.
The winds started to go a little more SE and the anchorage got a bit rougher. We thought it would be OK to stay the night. It got rougher yet; still safe but we ended up sleeping in the main cabin which is midship and rocks less than the V berth.

Blackpoint and Staniel Cay
March 28 - April 3
Blackpoint
Friday morning Harry woke up Fran saying "we have to move". Not scary just too rough. We had a quick breakfast of cereal and started the engine at 7:00 a.m. It was a quick downwind sail to Blackpoint. About 40 boats are here. We have been here so often and like it so much it feels like a second home. Something new: Captain Joe on Glory Days has been running a cruisers net on the VHF for about a week. Met Captain Joe who is a retired school teacher and plays guitar. One evening he played at Scorpios during happy hour to the delight of all.
Another week in BP doing the usual: laundry, BBQ at Lorraine's, happy hour at Scorpios, pizza at DeShamone. Reconnected with some of our friends. Ben from Loon is here and Cerulean came up as well. Also Rejoice, Sans Cles, and Allure.
A highlight was attending Gethsemane Baptist Church. It was a happy upbeat ceremony with lots of singing. Lorraine's mom read a bible passage and gave a spirited sermon. Lorraine led some of the hymns. As visitors, we were asked to introduce ourselves. Captain Joe also attended.
We rented a golf cart for the afternoon to explore the failed marina and resort south of town. It would have been nice had it been completed to have a marina nearly to weather out fronts. There was a lot of excavation done and the large equipment is still there rusting away. There are large signs showing the layout of lots, restaurants and hotels. In another way, it is good that this has not completed because it could change the down home feeling which is what we love about BP.
We reluctantly left BP for the season full of water, mom's bread, local tomatoes and Lorraine's guava duff.

Staniel Cay
April 4 - 5
Had a nice downwind sail to Staniel Cay and anchored west of Thunderball Grotto. Went ashore looking for our mail which we had forwarded to the yacht club. We were expecting the boat registration stickers for Sirius and the dinghy but they had not arrived. Visited all three grocery stores for fresh provisions since the supply boat had just been here. Scored yogurt and cottage cheese from Isles General! We are now well stocked for a couple of weeks.
We were surprised to see a 100 passenger cruise ship docked at the yacht club. The Blout ship cruises various locales including Belize and is managed out of Rhode Island. This trip is out of Nassau through the Exumas. Strange to see these cruise ship people wandering around the island.
Stayed a second night. Still no mail. We had a wonderful four course dinner at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club. Our friends on Interlude are at Blackpoint and will be joining us up at Cambridge for the next front. By now the fronts should be less to none but they have continued at almost one per week. I guess this is payback for our trip two years ago which had very few cold fronts and the ones we had were weaker than usual.
April 6 – 11
Cambridge Cay
Checked again for our mail at Staniel but still not there. Tom and Cathy will check when they come by in a couple of days.
Winds predicted to be east at 10 kts. We had ESE at 5 kts or less so we had to motorsail the entire 3 hour trip. Happy to see 6 open moorings when we arrived; they were all filled by evening with one catamaran anchored. Tony on Inspiration is now the park host. Our friends on Seas the Day came in and snagged a mooring. Good to be here secure for the next blow. We heard from Ben on Loon that he is on a mooring at the park headquarters, Wardrick Wells. Interlude joined us the next day and had to anchor since no mooring balls were available.
We stayed six nights through the cold front and several very windy days after. Walked the beaches, played Mexican Train aboard Seas the Day, seared ahi tuna for happy hour. Jan surprised us by making (and having Mark deliver) some delicious pecan cinnamon rolls (her mother’s recipe). YUM!
Seas the Day went back to Staniel to pick up parts for their watermaker. Our mail was finally there, so they forwarded it to Vero Beach city Marina.

April 12 – 13
Shroud Cay and Normans Cay
An easy sail north to Shroud Cay with Interlude. We took Tom’s dingy across to the ocean side via the salt creek which is really cool. Nice trip on the high tide.
Next day was another easy sail north to Normans Cay. We all went to lunch at the old McDuff’s Restaurant with is now the Norman Cay Beach Club. No menus. Tom and Cathy had hamburgers that turned out to be $25 each; rather steep even for the Bahamas. A small glass of ice tea was $4 with no free refill. We split a Caesar salad with a nice piece of grilled mahi which was also $25. Lunch was good but overpriced. The restaurant and beach are nice but not a five star resort. We had intended to stay two nights here but it was noisy due to construction on the runway. Also Interlude was rolling too much for comfort so we moved on.
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