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 6 - 22 Great Exuma

31 March 2014
March 6 - 9
Emerald Bay
The forecast called for good wind from a fair direction for us to sail to Emerald Bay with a chance of afternoon showers. So we left at 7:00 a.m. with Cerulean and had to motorsail in very light wind for the first half of the trip. Finally we were able to turn off the engine and make about 5.5 kts. and very full now due to a cold front expected tomorrow. By the way, a cold front is not cold temperature-wise in the Bahamas but the winds clock around and you need to be in a place protected from all directions. We brought our drinks to a cruise happy hour and horse shoe game on shore. Dale, the manager, surprised us by bringing in delicious leftovers from a wine tasting at Sandals. Afterwards, we visited Ben on Loon who has been here close to a week.
One of the many nice things about the marina is free laundry. Fran tried to get an early start on Friday but it was already full (4 washers, 4 dryers). Sue on Sans Cles was next in line and she was kind enough to let Fran have one of the first two available washers. So Fran did four loads, one load at a time. Other nice things about the marina are free WIFI and free, nice showers. Went to dinner at Big D's with Cerulean and had delicious gilled in foil grouper and a very nice fresh conch salad. Great location - right on the beach.
Saturday, went to lunch at the Grand Isle Resort with Ben (Loon) and Sue (Sans Cles). Walked the beautiful white sand beach including the stretch owned by Sandals. The marina and Grand Isles Resort were owned by one company but they were sold off separately. Grand Isles still has a deal that for $35 per person, someone staying at the marina can come and use the infinity pool, beach chairs and towels. It is a gorgeous resort where the $500K+ villas are owned individually (not time share) and can be rented out. Back at the marina, we finished the day in the air conditioned club house playing Mexican Train with Cerulean and Ralph and Staci on LaSala.
Did one last load of laundry Sunday morning. Spent the afternoon lounging by the pool at Grand Isles. The pool was great - very relaxing. We met the Canadian owners of one of the villas and the owner of 40% of the villas, Peter Nicholson who also owns half of the Sunset Bar on Little Farmers Cay. This was a fun, relaxing stop.

March 10 - 22
Georgetown
What to say about Georgetown? It is known as Chicken Harbor or Adult Daycare. It refers to Elizabeth harbor which is huge, about 1 mile across and 4 miles long. Hundreds of boats are here at any given time during the season and many spend the entire season here. The island is Great Exuma which is referred to as the Mainland by other Exuma islands. GT is a good size town and cruisers can get what they need here or sent in. There is a nice grocery store, a few tourist shops, produce stands, 2 laundromats, several good restaurants, pharmacy, etc. A great new addition is a deli that sells sliced to order lunchmeats and cheese, frozen fish, deli salads, fresh rolls and brownies. They are a little ways out of town, but they pick up cruisers three times a week in a pickup truck. The prices were reasonable and everything looked very fresh. What a treat; we visited twice to stock up. There are cruiser activities of all sorts that you can participate in or not such as volleyball (Harry played twice) and basket weaving (Fran learned). Texas Hold Em is also big and held at the St. Francis Hotel twice a week. Fran made it to the finals table once!
Since another cold front was coming, we took a mooring ball for a week on the east side of the harbor near Volleyball Beach. Our friends Tom and Cathy were on a mooring nearby. Ben came along and also picked up a mooring. It is a pretty spot for GT although we did get wakes during the day.
We joined the library, run by volunteers, for $3. Some books are available to keep and others you can check out with no time limit. We checked out Out Island Doctor which is a great autobiography of a man who retired from teaching in Indiana in the 1940s and settled in the Bahamas. He became a medical practitioner (not an MD) and traveled by sailboat to remote settlements to treat the people. His adventures are amazing and it is interesting to read how primitive the settlements were 60 years ago.
The front blew in as expected. One of the city mooring west of us dragged (that's not supposed to happen) into another boat. They put out a call for assistance and immediately about a dozen dinghies were there to help get the boats apart. Then the boat that dragged, Walkabout, from Carbondale, CO, tried to pick up a mooring near us and was having difficulty with the high winds. Harry got in our dinghy and helped them secure their line.
The main reason we go to GT is to renew our immigration. For some reason, they only give you 90 days when you enter even if you ask for more. And the places to renew are Nassau and GT but nowhere in the middle. No problem getting the renewal for 60 days.
We participated in a St. Patrick's Day potluck which enabled Harry to have the traditional corned beef and cabbage. Fran was assigned dessert and made a delicious key lime pie thanks to an easy recipe from Cathy.
Moved the boat to Monument beach. Interlude introduced us to Jan and Mark on Seas the Day and we joined them on their large catamaran for happy hour and Mexican Train. Jan lent Fran a book and CD, A Cup of Yoga which is a fifteen minute easy to do anywhere, even a boat, routine. Fran has been doing it daily ever since.
We also met Jim and Nancy. They are on a nice large catamaran that they bring down to the Bahamas for the owners. They own a canal boat in France. They showed us some pictures of their trips. We are interested in chartering a canal boat.
Our next to last day in GT, we met Cerulean on shore. They are staying at Emerald Bay marina on the north end of the island and had a rental car for the day. We went with them to the deli which had a few more things this time including frozen mahi mahi and ahi tuna. We had lunch at the Wildwood Café which was a nice change of pace from the typical Bahamian dishes. The dinghy ride back was terrible, directly into the wind, but we managed to stay mostly dry with our ponchos.
On our last day, we swam at Flip Flop beach and had happy hour there later with Interlude, Seas the Day, and others. GT has a lot to offer but it is time to move on and slowly make our way north towards home.
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