Living La Vie

We want to thank everyone who has been following us on this adventure. I have really enjoyed documenting our experiences and reading the comments that have been posted. I know this trip sounds like a lot of work, but it is also very rewarding. It is true that boat ownership is like running your own little city. We have the power plant and electrical consideration, water and waste with associated plumbing, trash disposal, logistics, contractors, insurance, immigration and finances to deal with. We are really fortunate that Marion is very handy and can fix so many things and that we are both busybody kind of people. We don't like to sit for long periods of time. So having a boat, with all her issues, gives us something to do and think about. So far, we love cruising and are really excited for our future trips on La Vie. We definitely want to invest in the repairs and upgrades required this fall before taking LaVie to the Virgin Islands next winter. That is still our dream.

If you are interested in seeing more of the pictures from this trip, I plan to have them uploaded to MarionJoanne,shutterfly.com by the end of next week. Thank you all again. I will let you know when we have more interesting stories as we are Living LaVie.

Thursday, June 25

We woke up at 5am as planned for our 5:30 departure. The water here is so incredible that you can see the bottom even in the dark of night and pre-dawn morning. It's amazing! We hadn't moved on our anchor, The two sailboats behind us were already gone, so we had a clear path out and left just before sunrise. We headed out into the open ocean. There was no wind, but there were gentle swells that we thought were around 4-5 feet. It was comfortable enough going northwest, but got really rolly if we headed too close to west. We had reservations at the Pelican Yacht Club in Ft Pierce. The office closes at 6pm, but we could tie up to the fuel dock if we arrived late, we hoped we could make it before 6, but didn't really think we would. We really need the pump out at this point since we thought pressure was building in the holding tank.

When we hit the east wall of the Gulf Stream, the seas flattened and our northbound speed increased. The wind was below our speed so we kept the engine at 2400 rpm and headed toward Ft Pierce. At times our speed got up to 10-11 knots, but mostly we stayed around 8-9 knots to keep the optimal angle to maximize our time in the stream. When we reached the west wall, the waves and wind picked up. We pulled out the jib to maintain 7-7.5 knots and made the entrance to Ft Pierce in record time, just about 12 hours. We called Pelican Yacht Club at about 5:30 and arranged to do the pump-out before heading to our slip.

We tied up the fuel dock and prepared for the pump-out. We expected it to go as smooth as before. However, when Marion turned the cap on the aft holding tank, the pressure released and "stuff" spewed out all over our transom and his hands. OK, five days is too many for the holding tank. Got that. There were two marina attendants helping us. One got out the hose and started spraying down the transom while Marion tried to get the pump-out hose in the holding tank access and I tried to clean things up as he handed them to me to get out of the way. This was definitely not as smooth as the Hope Town experience. In fact, the marina equipment here was not really as good as the portable, dock-side equipment at Hope Town. We finally finished the pump-out. We hope we got it all. The aft head is now closed for repairs!

When we were finished, we headed into the same slip that LaVie has occupied the last two visits here. Finally, we are tied up. Marion scrubbed the back of the boat before he could relax. But now, shore power is connected, the air conditioning is on, the batteries are fully charged, and we expect to have a peaceful night sleep. We feel exhausted. We went to dinner at On The Edge, which is right on the water a block or two away and are looking forward to a day of rest here before heading home on Saturday. We decided to have one more beach & pool day. Once we get home, the chores will be endless for at least a week.

Wednesday, June 24, Part 3

I jumped off the back of the boat first with my pool noodle. I held onto the string that was tied to the boat. I was really glad I did! By the time I surfaced, the strong current had already taken me back to our floating dingy. I grabbed the dingy and pulled the string and kicked hard to get back to the dive ladder at the back. Marion was going to jump in and check the anchor in front of us. I suggested he jump off the bow since the current was so strong. He jumped and immediately drifted to the back of the boat and grabbed onto the swim ladder with me. Laughing, he said there was no way he could swim against the current to the anchor. It was really strong! We clung to the swim ladder, sipping our cocktails, for a good hour, enjoying the incredibly clear, cool beautiful water.

We climbed out of the water, took our showers and started assessing our anchor situation before dinner. We had turned 180 degrees with the current. A rain shower with some strong winds came in also. The anchor alarm was still saying we were good, and our land bearings were still OK. I was convinced we weren't drifting, but Marion was still worried. Once the rain let up, we decided to look at the anchor with the dingy, go in for a fast dinner to say Good-Bye to LeryLynn and get back to the boat by the next current change at 9pm.

We dingied over to the anchor. Marion had attached the orange anchor float that shows us right where the anchor is, but in this water we really didn't need it. We could clearly see the anchor laying on its side on the bottom. We were not set. However, Marion put out more chain than normal and the wind had died down to dead calm, so we decided we'd be OK and headed for the beach next to the marina. We beached the dingy with questionable surroundings, afraid that it might not be there when we got back. Marion took the kill switch for the outboard with us just in case. The motor won't run without the kill switch. We met up with Wayne and Lynn and had a nice dinner at the marina restaurant before heading back.

We were happy to see the dingy on the beach where we left it. We were even happier to see LaVie sitting on her anchor where we had left her. By this time, there were 2 other sailboats behind us, likely staging for early morning departures as well. We raised the dingy and made final preparations for an early departure. I felt secure on our anchor and slept pretty well, Marion was a little more nervous. He slept on deck, partly because he was nervous of the anchor and partly because it was vey hot and there was very little breeze coming into our cabin below.

Wednesday, June 24, Part 2

As we were about to jump off the back of the boat for our last float in West End, Marion heard a sound like radio static. We checked the VHF and stereo speakers. No, it sounded more like a hissing now. We turned on the stern shower and it got worse. Marion opened the lazarette lid at the back of the boat and discovered a valve spewing out hot water. Bad words spewed from his mouth. We just wanted one more peaceful night. After we calmed down, we resigned ourselves to the fact that we have to do something and floating would have to wait.

Marion began unloading things from the rear lazerette. Electrical cables, engine coolant, plastic storage containers with motor oil, extra filters, plumbing supplies, electrical supplies, and our spare starter battery that I could not even begin to lift. He climbed down into the lazerette and found the hot water valve on the stern shower was leaking. After assessing it, he decided he could replace the valve with the plumbing supplies we have on board. So, while he did that, I opened all the containers, dried off anything that was wet, through out a couple of dry pads, and put everything back together. Two hours later, we have a slow drip with a bowl underneath it, everything is dry and back in place and we have one hour left to float before getting ready for dinner.

Wednesday, June 24, Part 1

We left Mangrove Cay about 7am for another long trip to West End, 40 miles. We put the main up before we pulled the anchor, and then the jib shortly after. However, on this trip, we didn't turn the engine off. The wind never got above about 7 knots. The water was so beautiful and I reflected on the feeling we had when we first crossed the bank five weeks ago. It seems like so long ago now. As we motor-sailed along, a couple of dolphins played in our bow wave. We had not seen any dolphins in the Abacos. I stood on the bow and watched them and caught a couple of pictures. For a moment I wished we were going the other way again. We'll definitely be back.

We passed off of the Little Bahama Bank just south of Memory Rock, where we came in. LeryLynn took a different route south. We weren't sure if he did Indian Cay Channel, but the waypoint he gave us south of Memory Rock looked too shallow for us on our maps and plotters, so we took the long way around. We weren't in that much of a hurry anyway. As we turned south we got a glimpse of the open ocean and 4-5 foot swells. We hoped it would be lower tomorrow for crossing. We passed an interesting tug boat pulling a large barge of what looked like piles of sand. We wondered if they dredged somewhere and were taking it to create a beach or something. It looked very strange to us.

We arrived at West End around 2pm. We decided to anchor off the beach to the northeast of the marina. Old Bahama Bay is a nice marina, but it is pricy. Since they don't have pump-out and we plan to leave before daybreak, we decided to try the anchorage. The guidebooks say there is poor holding there, but we dropped anyway to see if we could find a sandy spot. Marion took the dingy to dive the anchor. The current was so strong, he had to hang on to the anchored dingy to not drift away. We set it, but decided to keep a close watch for awhile. I stayed on the boat while Marion went into the Marina to fill our fuel jugs, get ice and talk to the LeryLynn. Lynn was not at all happy with the overnight rolling at Mangrove Cay last night, so they took a slip in the marina. They had decided not to do the crossing with us. Since she wanted the shortest crossing possible, they are heading to Lake Worth. So we arranged to meet for a last dinner tonight. We arranged to meet at 7pm since we wanted to stay on the boat for the next max current at 6 pm to be sure we were holding. We also wanted to fully prepare for the crossing since our contingency plan if we drag was to just cross and arrive at Ft. Pierce early.

While Marion was gone to the marina, I cleaned up the anchoring stuff (technical term), made reservations for 2 nights at Pelican Yacht Club in Ft. Pierce, and prepared to go for one last float as soon as he returned. The water here is amazing! It's even clearer than the Abacos and it's cooler and much more refreshing. When Marion returned, he changed into his bathing suit, we made our cocktails, and headed to the back of the boat. We were rotating with the change in current, but still hadn't moved, so we were feeling good about the anchor.

Tuesday, June 23

It was a long sail to Mangrove Cay, about 50 miles. We kept both sails up the entire trip, but motor sailed when the wind dipped below 6 knots. We caught the tail end of a rain shower, but most of the rain passed around us. We anchored at about the same place we did on the way to the Abacos. The nice thing about Mangrove Cay is the soft sand. When Marion dropped the anchor, he could watch it completely disappear under the sand. We knew we were set well. Even LeryLynn set the first time. We had a quiet evening on the boat. We didn't even drop the dingy from the davits. We had our last BBQ of the chicken I bought in Hope Town. We watched as 3 other sailboats came in and anchored behind and beside us. We expected to sleep really well with the anchor so secure, but the wind started howling and the boat was rocking about 3am. We don't mind the rocking, but it was hard to go back to sleep once we were awake.