Finally - a decent picture of my canine neighbors - Lilly and Sadie (along with one of their humans - Cal)! Sadie is doing the "dignified lady" thing while Lilly engages in her favorite boating pastime - bow wave watching. It doesn't take much to use up a Cocker Spaniel's available brain bandwidth!
I borrowed Lilly the other day for a kayak paddle together around the anchorage - as Cee Cee and had done so often in the past. Lilly wouldn't sit down and relax but she certainly was not at all scared or nervous. We had a nice paddle - the "cute factor" was at highest wattage. All the other boaters would point and exclaim "Ohhhh - How Cute is that?" Very.
I am enjoying my time here in Georgetown.
This is a risky place for a cruiser. Vero Beach, in Florida, is known to cruisers as "Velcro Beach". Cruisers arrive and just stick. The same name has been applied to Georgetown - with good reason. It is having that effect on me. My initial plan was to spend 2-3 weeks before moving on. I arrived lon Tuesday, Jan 25th and am starting to think that it may be March 1st before I leave.
Here is how this kind of thing happens.
I went to a lunch gathering of the HAM radio group at Hamburger Beach the other day. My intention was to try to gain a bit more knowledge on SSB HF radios. I have been unable (or unwilling) to move forward with any decision on a long range communication system for the boat. It was a good session capped by the realization that for a very small fee and with a significant but not lethal amount of studying, I could take the Ham License test on Feb 26th and have one major requirement out of the way. Seems like a good idea no matter what my radio decisions may be - if for no other reason to exercise whatever aging brain cells have survived rum fueled cocktail hours every night and cold beers at Volleyball Beach during the day.
That, of course is just one example. On a more day to day level, however, the schedule fills and stays filled. Last night there was a Haiti Benefit Concert put on by the local people - a good cause and a fun concert. Today there is a front moving through and we area all hunkered down on board hoping that 1. We don't really see 30-40knot winds and 2. That we get a good hard rain - the boat really needs a rinsing! Tomorrow, there are several choices of Superbowl parties to attend. Monday is a provisioning/laundry/water/fuel day for me (I am anchored by town for the blow today anyways). Tuesday is mostly unplanned but will end with an ARG meeting (Alcohol Research Group) on Hamburger Beach. Later in the week is a gathering to discuss Celestial Navagation. You get the picture.
Georgetown is where we "Rugged Individualists" rejoin society and decide that we really like it.
I enjoyed a wonderful dinner with Cal and Nancy and "the kids" the other night. The food was excellent - the company even better. Thank you. Sadie has decided that I am a good ear massager and presents her head for lengthy massages on a regular basis. Lilly, even less subtle, just rolls over, legs flopped out and presents her belly for extended rubbing. Not during dinner, of course.
So - things are good and I continue to enjoy my winter.
My plans for the future: I will undoubtedly leave here some day, probably around March 1st - perhaps. But then the Cruiser's Regatta starts March 3rd. I really should stay for that. And - the Bahamian Family Regatta is in early April. Also, I hear that the summers are nice here. It would be great to be here in the fall, of course. And then there is NEXT winter. I will definitely leave - some day.
Best to all.
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Comments [2]
After spending the better part of a month moving only 40 miles - and thoroughly enjoying the slow pace - I decided to jump on a great forecast and sail direct to Georgetown from the Staniel Cay area on Tuesday. That's 57 miles in 9 ½ hours - a great sail!
My time in the Staniel area was nice. I moved the boat around a bit, anchoring in three different areas depending on the expected winds. Each area had its charms as well as a new group of cruisers to enjoy getting to know/share cocktail hours/tell stories etc etc.
Highlights included some great snorkeling on the Sound (think ocean) side when conditions settled for a couple of days - spectacular!; great paddling and dinghy sailing; and the ubiquitous cocktail hour- on board as well as on the beach. Wonderful days - all special in their own ways - and yet they tend to blend together in memory. Just a bunch of "shitty days in paradise" I guess.
I was able to find a link to download the 2010 Nautical Almanac. I had Googled it previously and not hit - not sure what was different this time. Perhaps Google was just having a better day?
Anyways, with a PDF version of the Almanac on the computer, I was now ready to try taking some real sights with the sextant and to calculate and plot some Lines of Position. And - it worked! Amazing (and somewhat magical). While I have to admit that these first sights were taken from the deck of a boat securely anchored in an absolutely flat, calm anchorage, it still was encouraging to get two LOP's to pass within 2 miles of the actual boat position. The two others that I plotted were 4 and 10 miles away respectively - not so good but still adequate to make a landfall - even in the Bahamas with its flat, featureless islands. The next day I was able to get a noon sight yielding a latitude within 4 miles of the actual. Not bad.
I was ready to do some "combat" sights and the sail down Tuesday was my opportunity. The seas were lumpy, the boat anything but stable. I was able to get two sights in the morning before the sun was high enough to be over the islands (obscuring the horizon line). When the sights were reduced and plotted - the older LOP advanced along the DR line to the time of the later sight - I had a fix - Within 1 ½ miles of the actual position! I doubt that I'll ever do much better. Perhaps I should quit while I am ahead.
Georgetown is THE great gathering place in the Central Bahamas. The picture shows one small portion of just one of the five major anchorages in the area. I haven't heard a boat count but am sure that there are over 200 boats here already. The numbers will grow as the season progresses.
Happy Hour was at the Sand Bar last night - and was well attended. That was my first chance to see who was around and catch up with old friends - Steve and Barbara on Tenacity last seen in St Marys, John and Diane on Spirit last seen here two years ago, Christine and Peter on MyTyFine (their beautiful PS40) along with many others.
The highlight for me was when Cal and Nancy off I'Nida Wind II showed up with Silly Lilly and Sadie (their Cocker and Springer Spaniels respectively). I had fallen in love with both the goofy puppy, Lilly, and the more ladylike Sadie when I met then in St. Mary's at Thanksgiving. I joined them for a long walk today. Great fun - I miss walking with a dog and throwing sticks and picking burs out of paws etc etc. I was glad, however, that the wet, smelly dogs and all of the sand they were wearing weren't coming back to KR with me.
I'll stay in this area for the next few weeks. There is always plenty to do - including, hopefully, some kiting. I realized that the last time I had the kites out was on my last visit here two years ago.
Best to all.
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As I type this, I am anchored in Pipe Creek, just a couple of islands north of Staniel Cay. I'll post this from the Yacht Club there tomorrow. We are expecting this week's pestilence sometime this afternoon; nothing like last week's, thankfully.
The forecast was right last week. We got blown around with consistent 30kn winds and much higher gusts. With the combination of winds and current, it was certainly festive. The mooring that I was on was solid and KR was never in any danger. She was being driven forward very hard on the mooring, however. Apparently the mooring line or ball got under the boat far enough to damage the knot meter sender (a little plastic paddle wheel) so the knot meter is out of order for the duration. No disaster but unfortunate. All things considered, not much of a price to pay considering the conditions.
I moved down here on Tuesday and have had a lovely week of paddling, swimming, beach exploration, kite flying (just my sport kite - I haven't done any kite boarding yet) etc etc. A couple of minor boat projects got done and I have made good progress with learning Celestial Navigation.
Two years ago, when I last visited the Bahamas, I ran into a long term cruising couple who were at the end of their cruising life and who had a sextant that they no longer needed. We were able to make a deal and it has been on KR ever since - waiting for the right opportunity. I decided that this winter was the time. Bob and Jean gave me a how-to book and Sight Reduction Tables with the sextant as well as an out-of-date Nautical Almanac. So - every morning this week I have spent an hour or two studying or doing sample problems and am starting to feel fairly competent with the procedures. I will say that I would have flunked out of my college engineering program if I had made even half of the silly arithmetic mistakes that have plagued my efforts this week. Apparently retirement does turn your brain to mush!
I have also experimented with the sextant. It is a nice unit - as old as I am and made in the UK. It may well have some collector's value but, more importantly to me, it seems to be working properly and has only a very small Index Error. I have yet to take any real sights since there is seldom a useable horizon in most harbors and since I don't have the 2010 Nautical Almanac anyways. I could easily have picked one up in Fort Lauderdale when I was there but suspect that it will be harder to find one here in the Bahamas. I may try to find a cruiser with one on board from which I can copy a month or two of pages. In the age of GPS (I have 4 on board!) celestial is unnecessary (and cumbersome). However, it is interesting and it does make sense to have a completely non-electronic navigation alternative.
I just finished reading "The Artic Grail", a history of artic exploration primarily in the 19th century. I found it at a used bookstore sometime during my last cruise - I have no idea where. It finally hit the top of the reading pile this week. It is a good book, well written and on a very interesting subject. I enjoyed the read. The irony of reading about explorers struggling and freezing in artic gales and 60 degree below 0 temperatures while I lounged in the cockpit sweating in my now permanent t-shirt and gym shorts was, however, not lost on me. I decided that I am NOT sailing KR there.
The days of the week tend to run together - one day much the same as another. I often find myself having to look at my watch to figure out what day it is.
Sunday, however, is a bit different. First, it is the day that we all get to sleep in. On all other days, Chris Parker's first weather broadcast starts at 6:30am. I set the alarm clock feature on my Grundig short wave receiver to go off promptly at 6:25am and it wakes me up with a blare of static every morning. On Saturday nights I get to shut the alarm off. This morning I slept in until almost 7:00! A leopard can't change his spots, I suppose.
This morning was an especially good one. When I am down to the last bit of the previous batch of bread it is French toast morning - and that was today. The next batch of bread is on its final rise as I type this. I was thinking about making cookies also but it is warm today and the incoming front has pumped some major humidity in to the air. Not a good day to be running the oven for an hour or two.
I am looking forward to going to getting to Staniel Cay tomorrow. The yacht club not only has free wifi internet, it has cold Kalik's and very good food. I noticed the other day that when Jmmy Buffett came on the stereo singing "Cheeseburger in Paradise" I started to salivate; Pavlov's sailor I guess. A cheeseburger in paradise, fries and cold beer sounds wonderful right now and is definitely in the plan for tomorrow.
I'll probably move a little faster now- there is less that I find interesting between Staniel and Georgetown. Still in no hurry, though.
Best to all.
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