Toucan Deux

We're back

Still in Brunswick and staying inside, it's cold out there, 59.

Still in Brunswick getting used to 10 foot tides and with no plans.

ETA passed to the south and we are safe and sound.

Oh Oh, we're in SE Georgia

We finally arrived in Brunswick October 23 ready to start cruising but no place to go. We're working on Toucan Deux but COVID, storms and hurricanes, oh my. We'll stay in touch if we ever leave for warmer climes.

Needless to say, this was not a normal year. It started out normal enough. In the first part of November we returned to Toucan Deux berthed at Brunswick Landing Marina. We sailed to Key West in December, returned home for Christmas, and returned to Key West on New Years Eve. Kim came to visit in January. Craig flew out to San Francisco to visit his sister in February, just before Jim and Sharon came to visit. While we waited for a weather window to cross to the Bahamas, we even celebrated St Patrick's Day on a neighbor's boat.

Then the world changed and we weren't going nowhere. At first, the CO (not Craig, the commanding officer of NAS Key West) was going to kick us all out of the harbor, then the boats were restricted to the harbor and if we sailed out of the harbor we couldn't come back. Rumors abounded. Finally things settled down and we just lived on our boats with no problems. As places up north opened up we left for Brunswick.

With all the above we "sailed" Toucan Deux for 166.5 hours of which 70 hours were actually sailing with no motor running. We covered 1,038.7 nautical miles over the ground (eg GPS mileage, discounting the many currents around here). We spent 5 overnights on Toucan Deux sailing from Brunswick to Key West and back, and only spent 6 nights at anchor, a new low for us. Our new Sail Blog gives details on our trips.

We'll see what happens next year, we're optimists.

We followed our 2018 path into the anchorage (GPS breadcrumbs), set our anchor, tidied up and, then, we both took a long nap. This is a beautiful anchorage and well protected except for winds from west to northwest winds. Our winds were predicted to be from the east to northeast. There were two other boats in the anchorage but one left shortly after we arrived, heading south.

After the nap we caught up on email, Facebook and texts; we had been without internet and phone coverage for 3 days. Then, Day called BLM and checked to see if our slip was available and if we could come in on Tuesday. No problem it was open and they would keep it for us.

When we woke up Monday, it was cloudy and our battery gauge showed we had low charges on our batteries and, looking at the sky, our solar panels wouldn't be of much use. Craig then checked the weather. The winds were building today and it was predicted to be much worse on Tuesday. After a short discussion and a call to the marina, we decided to weigh anchor and head to Brunswick.

We found that we did not have to worry about our anchor dragging, it was well set. Craig had to motor forward on the anchor just to pull it out of the mud. Pulling it up, Day saw that the anchor had 20 or more lbs. of mud on it. A lengthy wash down of the anchor would be needed. Fortunately, Day had checked our wash-down pump before leaving. She couldn't insert the hose into the wash-down fitting and had to have Craig do it. As Craig headed out of the anchorage, Day spent considerable time cleaning the anchor.

The 20 nm trip to Brunswick was uneventful. Pulling out of our anchorage, Craig saw two large cruising boats crossing our path about a mile ahead of us. However, as we crossed St. Andrews sound using our shortcut, we caught up to them, which was good. Craig could follow them, figuring they would go aground before he would and provide a warning of shallowness.

As we went by the south end of Jekyll Island, we saw what must have been a Memorial Day celebration as there were a lot of people on the Jekyll Island beach and a lot of boats with huge American flags just off the beach and NO "social distancing". Oh my.

Entering the shallow passage past the north end of Jekyll, we were going pretty slow watching the depth; but there is always someone who wants to go faster, no matter the consequences. The first time we saw the small cruising boat passing us, he was 5 feet off our starboard side. Craig stayed in the center of the channel and didn't move over figuring if he wanted to go faster he could chance grounding. He got by us but never did get by the 2 large cruising boats (they wouldn't move over either). So what did he gain by trying to force his way through, a couple minutes?

We continued on to Brunswick, pulled in to our slip without incident and had a drink to celebrate. Our plan is to stay here, prepare Toucan Deux for the summer (and possible hurricanes) then head back to Chicago until October, viruses permitting.

5/21/2020 -- Thursday

We got a weather window for our 475 nm (Nautical Mile), non-stop trip from Key West to Georgia and we're ready to go. It's not perfect but the weather looks fairly settled with just a few squalls that we can hopefully duck, and light to moderate winds. Richard from Semper Fi and Linda from Troubadour saw us off with Linda, as we pulled out of our shared slip, making sure we missed her boat and with Richard taking the great pictures that are now in our album. A family of dolphins led us out of the main channel where we encountered confused waves and a very discourteous fisherman who went by leaving a maximum wake that rocked us worse than any waves we encountered on the rest of the trip.

Heading east down the Hawk Channel, we actually got to sail for a couple of hours before the wind backed and we had to motor-sail down the channel and out into the Straits of Florida. (Chris, our weather guy, said that the odds of sailing all the way from Key West to Miami are worse than the odds of winning at a casino). After leaving the Key West fishermen behind, the rest of the day motor sailing was pretty uneventful. Then just in case the winds popped up at night, we reefed the main before it got dark. But, even in the light we did a rotten job of reefing the main. We fouled up the first and second reef lines. It looked like it would survive the night so we left it alone.

Day took the first watch until about midnight while Craig slept in the cockpit, much cooler than the cabin. Craig got up and took over about midnight and at about 01:30 squalls started showing up on radar (reason for the early reef) off of Key Largo. Craig was able to steer around most of them but once had to run downwind when he ran into a 31 knot wind -- outflow from one of the storms. After all of the excitement, we noticed that the main didn't "look right". The first reef line had chafed through and let go. Discretion being the better part of valor, we doused the main at least until daybreak. Still dodging squalls we gave up on a watch schedule and slept when we could.

5/22 -- Friday

When we're traveling, we have a routine at 06:30, Craig listens to Chris on our SSB/Ham radio, give his weather forecast for the area we're in, and asking questions if necessary; at 08:15, Day checks into the Ham Waterway Radio Net giving our position and travel intentions (they keep track of the boats at sea and raise the alarm if one doesn't check in); at 08:30, if he thinks about it, Craig checks into the SSB Cruizheimers Net (lets other cruisers know where we are); and finally, if we're underway, Craig posts on our Garmin InReach (to Kim, Corey and Susan via satellite) that we are safe and still underway. With all the excitement, Craig forgot the InReach -- Kim reminded him by sending him a message asking if we were still safe. He responded right away.

After all the above conversations on the radio, Craig had breakfast and coffee while Day snacked on ginger snaps (she was still adjusting to the boat motion) and she took a quick nap. Refreshed and with her safety harness on, Day got up on top of the bimini to straighten out the reef lines. Then she came back down to drive the boat while Craig went up to remove the chafed through first reef line and re-lead the second reef line in its place. With a sigh of relief, we raised the main, still reefed, and sailed off. Just a note: in our first 24 hours we made 148 nm mostly motor-sailing and were just north of Fort Lauderdale.

By 13:40 we added the jib and were cruising in the Gulf Stream at a steady 9 knots over the ground. The nice thing about sailing in a steady wind and riding the stream is that there's not much to do. Despite still adapting to the motion of the boat (haven't done much sailing this year) and even though she only ate ginger snaps until near the end of the trip, Day cooked up meals that kept Craig happy. We did a lot of reading and napping and navigating and watching out for other traffic. There weren't many ships out there but we did see some freighters and, what surprised us, cruise ships. Many were anchored but there were some cruise ships moving about, one even in the Gulf Stream. It made us wonder if they're starting to stage the ships for a reopening of their businesses. Friday night was really dark with no moon but lots of bright stars. While we were heading offshore to stay in the Gulf Stream, we could still see the city lights on shore but not much else.

5/23 -- Saturday

All good things come to an end; we were able to sail until 05:14 Saturday morning when we had to turn an engine on and start motor-sailing once again. Another note: in our second 24 hours, we made 162 nm mostly sailing and were just north of Cape Canaveral. Saturday was more of the same, napping, reading, discussing how far offshore the stream is. The most exciting thing to happen was a family of dolphins decided to play around our boat. Once again we enjoyed watching them play so much we didn't get any pictures. Always flexible, Saturday night, we changed our watch schedule for Saturday night. Craig took the early watch and Day took over at 21:00 and went until she was tired at 03:00. Craig got a good night's sleep.

5/24 -- Sunday

Decision time. At day break we were just south of the St. Mary's Inlet and it was time to decide whether or not to continue on to Brunswick and arrive tired and crabby or stop, anchor off Cumberland Island and take a time out. We decided on the latter. We pulled into the St. Mary's Inlet, motored up the ICW to our anchorage off north Cumberland Island in the Brickhill River. We were anchored by 10:45 Sunday morning, 74 hours after we left Boca Chica and covering 472 nm.

We sailed for about 20 hours, motor-sailed for about 24 hours and motored for about 29 hours.

Just to catch up, a couple of things. First, what we've been doing while "sheltering in place". Guess we should start by saying what we're not doing: Day's not going to yoga any more, no yoga; no more happy hours on the dock though every once in the while we cheat "maintaining our "social distancing"; we don't eat out or go to bars, though we can get take-out, no more trivia at the Navigator, it's closed; and we can't leave the marina and go for a sail - they won't let us back in (since relaxed about a week or so ago but only day sails and you have to file a float plan with the marina office.

So what have we been doing? We can still dinghy around Key West/Stock Island; do boat maintenance, we had to have the frig recharged, Craig had to replace the frig water pump for the second time and we had to clean the bottom of the dinghy - it was gross; we can still do take-out from the Navigator, Dion's Chicken and Burger King (we are so discriminating); Day can visit her doctor via Face Time; and, of course, every walk up the dock takes forever because we have to stop to visit with everyone we pass.

What about Key West? It's strange! There is nobody there. There is very little traffic; this might have something to do with the Road Block (check point) they set up on the only road into the Keys. No one is allowed in the Keys unless they are residents, have property in the Keys, or are essential workers, Emergency responders, etc. No one from Dade or Broward County is being let in. They started repair work on the Cow Key Channel Bridge which is the only way to get into Key West. Before the Lockdown, there was great consternation about what it would do to traffic entering and leaving Key West. After the lockdown, with the great reduction in traffic, you hardly need to slow down to go through the construction zone.

Well it's getting to be hurricane season and many are leaving to head north either by car or by boat. Because of the new regulations regarding long term contracts (long story), many will not be coming back to Boca Chica Marina. It's hard to say goodbye but all of us being vagabonds; we know we'll cross paths somewhere.

And it's also time for us to leave. Look for our next post about our planned trip north from Key West to Brunswick, GA.

We're still waiting in Boca Chica for the crisis to pass. The 16th we took another dinghy cruise (red line), this time to the mythical "sub pens" (Google it). They were dug out by somebody for some reason but who knows why. Interesting trip, most of which in water less than 3' deep, sub pens were 15' to 21' deep.

Last night a DJ (a kid) on a boat in the marina blasted out music for our entertainment.

Trying to stay entertained. At least we have the great outdoors.

We're still sheltering in place but we can go for dinghy rides. This time we circumnavigated Stock Island. It was an interesting ride that we had never done before. The big advantage is that the dinghy only draws about a foot. Boy it is shallow around here. Most of our trip was in waters less than 3'.

We are still on Toucan Deux at our slip in the marina on NAS Boca Chica in Key West. When the Corona Virus changed our plans for going to the Bahamas, we decided to remain in the U.S. and stay in Key West and have sheltered in place on Toucan Deux for 3 weeks now. We could go off base to the commissary, NEX and local stores for essentials.

As face masks are in short supply medical personal asked for homemade masks. Here are a couple of pictures of the making and completion of the masks. As we have some positive cases here in Key West (none on the base), they are requesting that everyone wear a face mask if you have to be closer than 6 feet required by social distancing.

The world is upside down. You now need a mask to enter a bank but ski masks are not recommended.

Last conch blow on the beach before the beach closed and social distancing started. We're hunkered down in Boca Chica waiting for this too to pass. Will report in infrequently. We are isolated on the Naval Base so sheltering in place and social distancing in easier.

After celebrating St Patrick day with a tasty meal of corned beef and cabbage from the Boca Chica Fly Away Cafe on a neighbor's boat, Day had to toast the sunset by blowing her Conch. Last gathering before social distancing becomes a new normal.

Still in Boca Chica waiting for a weather window so that we can sail to the Bahamas

We just had breakfast in Key West. For some reason it's one of Day's favorite places.

With Jim and Sharon staying aboard, we thought about going out sailing. The Dry Tortugas were a little far and it didn't much sense to sail to such a beautiful spot and then sail back without stopping for a couple of days (they had plane reservations). But we had to go somewhere, the Marquesas. We left the dock at about 07:45 and, once out of Boca Chica, tried to put up the sails. A disaster in the making. First, the reef lines wouldn't feed and we took forever trying to get the mainsail up. Then when we finally got the main up and tried to trim it, the mainsheet came untied. Day wasn't feeling that well and Jim was a big help for both of us.

On our trip down from Brunswick, the mainsheet had chafed pretty badly and looked like it wouldn't hold much longer. Craig had replaced the mainsheet but did a terrible job tying up the end to the block and it let go. After much excitement, we got the main under control and started sailing, kind of. The winds were less than 10 knots and our boat speed was less than 3 knots. We gave up after an hour and motor sailed to Marquesas.

We anchored off of Tin Tin Key in the Marquesas, after sailing, motor sailing and motoring for 5.5 hours, 29.8 Miles (25.3 nm through the water, we had a favorable current.) for an average speed of about 5 knots. We spent some time exploring the Marquesas in the dinghy and swimming around the boat, nothing exciting.

The next morning we futzed around and got underway by about 09:30. This time the winds and current were against us so we motored all the way back: 27.3 nm, 4.25 hours for an average speed of 6 kts.

In mid February Jim and Sharon came down to Key West for a week. We had plenty to do visiting the "restaurant" with the best Cuban sandwiches (Sandy's Cafe and laundromat), lobster bought from the local fishermen, a visit to the Schooner Wharf Bar among other establishments. We even went for a sail to the Marquesas. Wind was light but we tried anyway, see following post.

Fun visit and sorry to see them go.

We flew back to Illinois and celebrated Christmas with Kim and Corey at our house in Deer Park. Then, after our experience last year driving straight through with Kim, we decided to fly back. Kim still wanted to join us in Key West (I think, to warm up) but in order to take Davie, her dog, with her she decided to drive down (but certainly not straight through). She left 3 days before we did and arranged her timing so that she arrived 30 minutes before we flew in and picked us up at the Key West Airport.

This year we didn't do much over New Years Eve but we went out to the Hogfish Bar and Grill for, what else, some Hogfish, an ugly but tasty local delicacy. Then, over the following week, we went to the Boca Chica Navigator Bar and Grill, the Half Shell Raw Bar and Grill and the Geiger Key Bar and Grill among other places. Then, to work off some of her overeating, Kim paddle boarded around, the Hurricane Hole Bar and Grill, the Geiger Key Bar and Grill, the Half Shell Raw Bar etc. Notice a pattern here.

Anyway, a fun visit, we were sorry to see her go.

There's always a critic supervising you as you settle into your slip At Boca Chica. He approved and flew off.

A quick summary of our trip from Brunswick, GA to NAS Key West Boca Chica:

The whole trip took us 7 full days: 5 days and 2 nights moving plus 2 days at anchor recovering from our overnights. During our 78.5 hours moving on the water, we traveled 490 nautical miles over the ground (with some additional time fighting the current). We sailed 268 nautical miles in 44.2 hours for an average of 6.07 knots (includes battery charging time of about 4.5 hours). To this we have to add the motoring time (both with and without the sails up) of about 34 hours covering 222 nautical miles.

We made 490 nautical miles in 78.5 hours averaging 6.02 knots.

We're finally on our way to Key West. We had the anchor up by 07:30 and were underway dodging crab pots in the Hawk Chanel heading to Key West. The route is pretty much a straight shot with the only complications being lots of crab pots and large rafts of floating weeds (Sargasso?). The winds were heavy enough to sail but they were off of the stern. Cats don't like to sail dead downwind so we motor sailed the whole way (with a partially reefed jib, it wouldn't unfurl). We pulled into our Boca Chica slip as of 13:00. Another non-exciting trip of 5.5 hours covering 36 nm.

We were pretty much committed to the inside, at least until we got to Marathon. Our normal route was to stay inside until we got to the Channel Five Bridge (first bridge with 65' vertical clearance) or the Seven Mile Bridge (second bridge with clearance) and then take the Hawk Channel to Key West. We left at about 07:30 and motored (we actually got to motor sail 3 hours) under the Channel Five Bridge. By 14:30 we were anchored on the west side of Marathon and toasting our trip with a beer. The trip took 7 hours to motor 44nm.

After a couple of nights peacefully anchored in Biscayne Bay, it was time to move on. But first we had to make a decision: go inside (Florida Bay between The Keys and The Everglades, shallow but well protected, little chance to sail); follow the Hawk Channel between the Keys and the reef, semi protected, chance to sail but few protected anchorages: or go outside the reef into the open ocean of the Straits of Florida where the Gulf Stream flows but in the wrong direction. There was little wind so we chose to go inside. Leaving at about 09:00, we had an uneventful motorboat ride until we anchored off of Butternut Key 46 nm later at about 15:00.

Anchor set easily and we sat back and toasted the day with a little Rum.

We finally shoved off from Brunswick and headed south. Unlike previous years we decided to go offshore and see how far we could get. It was a beautiful day as we motored out of St. Simons sound, past the capsized car carrier Golden Ray. After motoring for 2 hours (14.8 nm), we were out of the channel, set the main sail and started sailing south. Pods of Dolphins, a beautiful sunset, gentle winds (10 to 15 kts) off of the beam to aft quarter, following seas (5' to 6'). This is what it's all about.

The next morning we were south of Daytona Beach -- 143 nm in 24 hours including the time motoring out of Brunswick, not bad. Still sailing, even though the wind was dropping and was getting closer to the stern, when we heard that there was to be a rocket launch off Cape Canaveral and boats were not to enter the "exclusion area". There was a lot of chatter on the radio with the conclusion that the Coast Guard would tell us when we could enter. As we were far enough away we could alter course to miss the "exclusion area" and we were kind of looking forward to seeing the rocket launch. After a while, and after the supposed launch time, somebody asked what was going on? The CG response was typical, the launch was cancelled some time ago and you boats can enter the "exclusion area". I think they forgot about us! We altered course back to original route.

That night the wind changed to directly off of the stern. Day was on the helm and she was having a hard time keeping the boat from jibing (we found out later that the wind direction indicator was way off making it impossible to sail close to downwind, Craig my bad). She got Craig up, we jibed and continued on our way but slower (catamarans don't like to sail close to downwind). Later on we noted that, at our current speed, we were going to reach Miami in the dark. Not a good idea. We motor sailed for awhile then finally throttled up. Even so we got to Miami after sunset but while there was still some light. That was the last good thing that happened on this trip for awhile.

Now for the last couple hours of our trip. As we said we sailed most of the trip until the wind veered and we found ourselves sailing downwind. We poked along for awhile until we realized we'd arrive in Miami after dark. We turned on the engines, took down the sails and still arrived at about sunset. Hearing no security calls from ships arriving or leaving, we ventured in - In the Dark. It went pretty well until we went past an oil tanker that tugs were turning around. We went past the tanker and turned into the channel that leads to the ICW. Then stuff started happening. We didn't see a ferry and crossed right in front of him - he slowed down until after we went by. Then a tug boat went by and yelled at us that our bow running lights were out, they were turned on but not working. Then a cruise ship started coming out and forced us to the side of the channel. Even though we only draw 3.5 feet we bumped along the bottom until the ship passed, mercifully before we went hard aground. Then we heard a call telling us to "pick a side" as we were pointed straight at a huge barge bearing down at us. We picked the shallow end again but didn't hit bottom this time.

We were finally out of Fishermans Channel, as we found out it was called from all of our discussions with the tug boats, and tried to enter the ICW. By this time Craig was so rattled, he almost missed the ICW channel and turned into a dead end channel. We thought we were crazy to try the ICW at night. We were, but not for the reason we thought. Miamians party in Biscayne Bay and they were all returning, with their radios turned high as we were heading out with no running lights. Fortunately they all missed us, though a few said we had no running lights.
Finally, a good, thing, we made it, anchored and, thankfully, went to bed.

Just some numbers regarding our trip from Brunswick Landing Marina to Miami:

• We were underway 58.5 hours without a stop covering 362 nautical miles over the ground and 382 nautical miles through the water(362/382 nautical miles). At times we were fighting a current which probably accounts for some of the difference; instrument calibration the rest of it. Our average speed over the ground was 6.2 knots and through the water 6.5 knots (6.2/6.5 knots).

• For this trip we had the sails up for 48.5 hours covering 292/307 nautical miles. During this time our average speed was 6.07/6.38 knots. While we had the sails up, we sailed for 44.17 hours (includes some battery charging going on for 4.75 hours) and covered 268/280 nautical miles. Our average speed sailing was 6.07/6.33 knots. We then motor sailed for 3.92 hours before giving up in the light following wind and taking the sails down.

• Including the time motoring out of Brunswick (2.2 hours; 14.8/13.1 nautical miles) and to/through Miami (8.05 hours, 60/58 nautical miles), we motor boated (no sails) for 10.25 hours, 75/71 nautical miles

We left Toucan Deux in Brunswick and on the way home decided to stay at the Marine Corps Beaufort air station. Then, with nothing to do, we decided to celebrate our anniversary at a nearby seafood restaurant. While we were sitting at the bar, a couple we were talking to got a notification that Beaufort was going to have a mandatory evacuation starting tomorrow. Great another new experience.

Dorian's coming. Saw the forecast, jumped in the car and drove 1,000 miles straight through to get Toucan Deux ready for the coming hurricane. Hopefully got it done, talked to our neighbors who were staying and got out of Dodge, hoping for the best.

Though it started out with a little excitement, we had a fun year. When we got back to Brunswick Landing Marina, the first thing we saw was a hurricane warning. Hurricane Michael was heading our way but fortunately he went west of us, giving us just a little rain and wind.

After Michael passed by, we got to work preparing Toucan Deux for her trip south and finally got underway by November 3rd. We first attended the Seven Seas Cruising Association Gam in Eau Gallie and then we had an appointment to get Toucan Deux's bottom painted in Port Canaveral. With a freshly painted bottom, we set sail for Key West and our new slip at Boca Chica. A good time was had in Key West, attending pot lucks, going to Christmas parades, showing Kim (our daughter) the sights of Key West especially New Years Eve, etc.

We had talked Susan into visiting us in the Bahamas and we had to get going to be able to meet up with her in George Town. We left Key West March 2nd and arrived in George Town by March 17th but, due to circumstances, no Susan. No problem, we enjoyed George Town for awhile, then cruised over to Long Island, then back to George Town before taking off for Cat Island.

By this time, it was time to start heading for home. We stopped by Eleuthera and the Berry Islands before crossing nonstop to Vero Beach, FL. Customs let us back in to the US of A and we headed up our timeworn path to BLM arriving May 5th.

With all the above we "sailed" Toucan Deux for 310 hours of which 70.5 hours were actually sailing with no motor running. We covered 1,761 nautical miles (over the ground e.g. GPS mileage, discounting the many currents around here). We had moored in 5 different marinas (Scorpion Marine getting the bottom painted, NAS Key West Boca Chica, Blue Water Marina Bimini Bahamas, Vero Beach (mooring ball) and St. Augustine (mooring ball) and spent 63 nights at anchor in 28 different anchorages. We also spent 4 nights on Toucan Deux sailing on overnight passages. Our Sail Blog gives details on our trips.

We're looking forward to next year.

5/5/2019 -- Cumberland Island to Brunswick Landing Marina Dock 2-I
We rose early and headed off to BLM, our marina for the hurricane season. We've done this trip so many times we can almost do it blindfolded. It's 31 nautical miles to the marina and takes about 5 hours motor time.

Before settling in for the summer, we pumped out, settled our mooring fees for the month and picked up head keys. It was an additional 13 minutes to our slip.

We're in transport mode. Time to get home.

04/28/2019 -- Vero Beach City Marina to Honeymoon Lake

We left Vero Beach to see if we can get to Titusville for a rocket launch that is supposed to take place on Tuesday (4/30) at 04:00. We have the time but there is talk that it might be rescheduled.
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04/29/2019 -- Honeymoon Lake to Mosquito Lagoon

Another quiet night at anchor. The anchor was very secure and Craig had to help break it free with the engine. When the anchor when lifted, it was covered with mud and shells. After we left, we noted that the depth (important) and speed (not so important) were not reading. Backing up cleaned the weeds off the transducer as well as the keels and props and we were good to go.

This motoring up the ICW is getting boring. Nothing to report except we were able to anchor in one of our favorite spots with a clear view of the Cape Canaveral launch pads.
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4/30/2019 -- Mosquito Lagoon to Ft. Matanzas

No rocket launch, it was postponed, so we moved on. Another day of motoring up the ICW. Same, oh, Same oh.

The motorboat trip up the ICW was quite normal. No surprises. We did see lots of dolphins, in pairs or threesomes, possibly a couple of manatees in the shallows, ospreys with babies (on ICW markers) and a loon on an ICW marker. A USCG boat visiting a small boat near an island and a helicopter flying around that area for awhile was the only excitement.

We anchored next to Honeymoon Lake (on the west side of Merritt Island) about halfway between Patrick AFB and Cocoa Beach.

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05/01/2019 -- Ft. Matanzas to St. Augustine North Mooring field #2

A short trip this day, only 13.3 nm. The only excitement was that we were assigned a mooring ball north of the Bridge of Lions bridge and we had to wait for the bridge to open up before we could tie up to our mooring ball.
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05/02 to 05/03/2019 -- St. Augustine comments

We didn't do much of anything while we stayed in St. Augustine. We went out to eat at Anne O'Malley's -- 2 beers and a Ruben for $13.05 plus tip. The next day, we went to Harry's for lunch (one of our favorite luncheon places) and ice cream from a small ice cream shoppe for desert.

We did not go inside the fort this year. We had planned to go on Friday but there was lots of rain around us so we just read and relaxed. We did see a lot of dolphins playing/fishing around Toucan Deux.
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5/4/2019-- St Augustine to Sea Camp anchorage, Cumberland Island

Tired of the ICW we decided to go off shore up to Georgia. We were out of the inlet and into the ocean by 07:45. Unfortunately we motor-sailed the entire trip. Nothing exciting but is much easier to motor offshore as the autopilot takes care of the steering and you only have to watch out for freighters. We were anchored off Cumberland Island by 16:00 and covered 59.3 easy nautical miles.

Vero Beach maximizes the capacity of their mooring field by "allowing" like boats to raft up to a single mooring ball (and double or triple their revenue). We actually enjoy the rafting routine; it's another way to meet people. I only remember one time, when we were a little uncomfortable with our mooring ball mate. This time we were tied up to what used to be a sailing catamaran but Hurricane Matthew destroyed her rigging, etc. Since the boat was self insured for hull damage; they elected to remain a "motor cat".

As we mentioned, we were beat from our trip and were too tired to go in and pay when we first arrived. The next day we finally made it in to pay ($52 & change for 3 nights) for our shared mooring. While we were in Vero Beach, we decided to reserve a car and try to get our pickup from Key West. When we called Enterprise for a pickup from the marina they abruptly replied that there were NO cars available and we were #8 on the list. The local personnel were very hard to deal with and could not explain why they accepted a reservation without telling us we were on a wait list. We then called the airport location. They were much more helpful and explained the situation but still no car.

Oh, well, Vero Beach has a great, free, public transportation system. A bus picks you up at the marina and can take you all over the city and beach. Saturday, we took the free bus to the farmer's market on Oceanside, wonderful tomatoes and potatoes. We had breakfast at Cravings -- super breakfast sandwich, scrambled eggs, cheese and sausage on toast -- then hopped back on the bus (stop was right by Cravings) and went to Publix across the river for a few perishable items. We finished our evening with dinner at Riverside Restaurant for Happy Hour, a short 10 min. walk by the park and under a bridge. We ate at the bar as usual and had 2 beers and 2 rum & cokes plus 4 appetizers for $32 plus tip, not bad. We then walked back to the boat and watched Lawrence Welk, really, and Midsomer Murders on PBS over broadcast TV. What a day.

We had planned on staying a day or two in the Berry Islands but weather was coming towards us on Saturday (4/27) and we needed to find a harbor protected from a west wind on/or before the evening of April 26. Today, we had a weather window of 2 days which would allow us to reach Ft. Pierce and the next favorable weather window would be a week or more away so by mutual agreement we decided to leave.

We finished breakfast, waited for a higher tide, made water, and added 5 gallons of diesel to each fuel tank for the trip. While weighing anchor, we noticed that, overnight, we had drug the anchor a short distance through weeds, guess we slept too well. With a little help from the engines to free the anchor (after dragging a little bit it really set), we retrieved our anchor and motored through the inlet to the Northwest Providence Channel and headed north to round the Berry Islands. Since the passage is narrow and filled with rocks and reefs, we did not hoist our sails until we were out of the inlet. There was traffic, of course, a tug was towing a rusty freighter to who knows where; AIS said Nassau, but the tug was towing it north; Craig altered course to go behind the tug.

We were able to sail for a couple of hours until the wind dropped and we started the starboard engine to keep our average SOG at 6 knots (we use only one engine at a time when on a passage), it was going to be a long passage. We motor-sailed up the east coast of Great Harbour Cay and over the top of Great Stirrup Cay toward Freeport on Great Bahama Island. While passing Great Stirrup Cay and Little Stirrup Cay, we saw several cruise ships anchored at their "private island". At this time, we were able to sail for another 40 minutes but, unfortunately; we had to motor-sail the rest of the trip. Hey, the weather was settled. We did keep both sails up to help reduce fuel consumption and for stability.

We do keep watches, kind of. Since Craig's usual bed time is 21:00 and he is usually up at 06:15 for Chris's weather at 06:30, he gets to "sleep" from 20:00-24:00 or 21:00 to 01:00, it's kind of loose. Day is a night owl so she gets to nap until 20:00 or 21:00 then stays up until around 24:00 or 01:00. Then Craig takes over until about 04:00 or 05:00. The rest of the day we trade off and take naps whenever we can.

Closing in on Freeport, Great Bahama Island, Craig noticed on AIS there were 13 freighters anchored with another 9 freighters passing through. As Craig went off watch at around 20:00 he told Day to keep a watch on the AIS and check the freighters' movements, saying "The freighters will miss you". With Craig asleep, Day steered around all of them and then, passed between 2 freighters that appeared to be moving her way. They were actually anchored and she passed within 3/4 nm of each one's bow (one was pointed north and the other one south. At least the boats were anchored 2 miles apart. Such excitement while Craig slept. After he woke, he noticed that, overnight, the topping lift had frayed in two spots. Afraid that it would break when we lowered the main and drop the boom on our solar panels, he was able to tie knots in the two spots to hopefully take the load when we finally lowered the mail. It worked as a temporary repair.

Once out of the Bahamas and in the Gulf Stream, we adjusted our speed to make sure we arrived at Fort Pierce when the tide is flooding, i.e. low to high; ocean to ICW. Fort Pierce Inlet has a swift current and we don't want to go against it. After braving the inlet, our timing was good; we headed north to Vero Beach and were lucky to catch the 13:30 Fort Pierce North Bridge opening. One boat had lost his engine and the bridge tender could not open the bridge even if it was an emergency. The USCG had made the openings every half hour, 24/7, before that it had been on demand.

While motoring up the ICW to Vero Beach, Craig nervously tried customs new ROAM app to check in. He used the app on his memory challenged phone to call the customs agent, video conferenced through some questions, pointed the camera at Day when instructed and we were cleared to enter the US of A. Whew, it worked as advertised.

We made it to Vero Beach, tied up to our mooring ball and collapsed. Our trip covered 198 nm and took about 29 hours, from our anchorage in the Berrys to a mooring ball in Vero Beach.

We got up early, listened to Chris Parker's weather report, hoisted the main, weighed anchor at dawn's early light (06:46), and sailed away from the anchorage at 06:56. After the anchor was stowed, we set a course to Egg Island (an exit point from the reefs and islands surrounding Eleuthera). With the main and jib trimmed for our course, Day went below, made coffee, and heated water to make our breakfast of oatmeal.

After clearing Egg Island, we headed for the Berry Islands on a broad reach, sailing all the way. Waves were 1-2 feet at 08:00 with a 2-foot swell from the NW with 10+ second period. The autopilot steered and we sat back and enjoyed the ride.

Using waypoints from paper Explorer Charts, the Chart Plotter and comments on the anchorages by sailors who have been there before us, we were supposed to go midway between Devil's Cay and White Cay past several reefs and rocks to our planned anchorage which was to the south. But Day got nervous about the 3 rocks between the 2 Cays in the passage. Since the sun was ahead of us, it was hard to determine what was in the water and it was easier (and safer) to head north and anchor in White Cay's small beach. But there was a boat there, so we decided to go a little further in and anchor next to Fowl Cay. The anchor seemed to set well, (in the grass) but Craig still swam out to the anchor and declared it secure. The reason we didn't go here in the first place was that the cruising guides said there is usually a surge in the area where we anchored. We only noticed minimal waves/surge at flood tide at night. We slept well.

The next day, we decided to explore the area by dinghy and see if we could take Toucan Deux to the area in the south where we had originally planned to anchor. There were some catamarans and other sailboats there and we discovered that we could probably get there but we would really have to pay attention to the tides. It was a nice trip by dinghy. This would be a nice place to stay awhile and explore.

We covered 53.9 nautical miles in 8 hours 50 minutes anchor to anchor, once again mostly sailing.

We sailed away from the anchor again -- this is becoming a daily event -- and sailed on a beam reach to close reach to the entrance of Current Cut. We had some large waves in the morning but nothing Toucan Deux couldn't handle.

Current Cut, the opening between Current Island and Eleuthera Island, got its name because, depending on the tide, it has a very rapid current channeling through it, sometimes as much as 9 knots. To pass through the cut you have to time your arrival so that the current is pushing the boat or it is slack tide. We had timed our arrival so the current would be pushing us but we took our sails down anyway. We could have left them up but it's better to be safe than sorry. After passing through Current Cut, we had to make a decision: we could anchor there (like we have done before) or continue on to Meeks Patch, getting a jump on our trip tomorrow. We continued on, motoring into the wind to the south side of Meeks Patch.

While Craig was "steering" e.g. watching the autopilot steer, Day was down below making Gumbo in her Thermo Cooker (a slow cooker that doesn't use electricity). She finished up in the morning and while it "slow cooked," she watched Craig watch the autopilot. Since supper was made, and after we anchored on the south side of Meeks Patch with 2 other catamarans for the night, we could relax and watch the power boats play with their toys (south Meeks Patch has a nice beach and it's close to Spanish Wells, a kind of large town) until they all left around dark.
Today, we covered 46.5 nautical miles in 7 hours 23 minutes most of which was sailing.

Easter Sunday, we got a later start than usual. We had originally planned to stay another day in Rock Sound, but then, after much discussion, decided to leave and get a head start sailing west. After all of the rain we had, when Day raised the main sail at anchor more than 3 gallons of rainwater that had collected in the sail pack showered Day. She was not happy. We could not sail away from the anchor so we used the engines to motor-sail until we were out of Rock Sound Harbour and were headed north up the west coast of Eleuthera Island. We had a good wind so we turned off the engines, unfurled the jib and sailed until we had to motor in to Kemps Bight and anchor for the night.

We anchored just south of the farthest north side of the Kemps Bight which gave us protection from NW to SSE winds. It was so peaceful after a beautiful day on the water. We even saw a beautiful sunset. To top it off, we had to share our nice serene anchorage with only one sailboat (a T37, Jamoco).

Today, we covered 23.9 nautical miles; we sailed 4 hours and 19 minutes and only motored for 37 minutes, Sweet.

While having lunch, we had a slight to moderate chop and the wind was building from the NNW. We wanted more protection so we decided to move to the north side. Most of the other boats that had been with us had already left either heading to another harbor or heading to town on the north side of Rock Sound Harbour.

At 13:40 we weighed anchor and motored into the northeast part of Rock Sound. We anchored the farthest north of any boat and we were the nearest to shore in 8 feet of water.

After we were sure the anchor was set, Craig settled down for his afternoon nap and Day with her book. A few minutes later, a squall (thunder and lightening) came through with heavy NW winds ahead of the rain. The rain was so heavy for 75 minutes or so that the shore to the north of us was not visible and we could barely see only a couple of boats to the south of us. There were a lot of nervous cruisers on shore. They had left their boats at anchor and went on shore for an Easter weekend of festivities. All ended well.

Rock Sound Harbour is a large harbor. We motored 3.64 nautical miles from our anchorage in the south side of Rock Sound Harbour to our anchorage on the north side of Rock Sound Harbour.

Unknowingly, we had anchored just west of a "loading dock" which was carved out of rock. We found this out when Champion III a "landing craft" like freighter pulled in. He did a masterful job missing most of the cruising boats anchored between him and the dock, the others had to move but there was no yelling or horn tooting. We found out later as we went for a dinghy ride to check things out, there was a road leading into Eleuthera from the dock. After the freighter offloaded his load of lumber, he moved back out and anchored in amongst the cruising boats, following every anchoring courtesy regarding separation. That night a beautiful full moon rose over the anchored freighter.

During the next few days, we dinghied around our refuge: we went into an area where we thought about anchoring -- way too shallow, took the dinghy over to where Champion III unloaded lumber and other building materials and we explored a large rock island that we were anchored east of (at low tide the rock had a "face" where we could see an inverted nose, a hollow eye but no second eye). We even swam and did some snorkeling. At night the full moon provided several picturesque moments, especially April 19, Easter.

While we were exploring our anchorage, even more boats motored south from the north anchorage, where it was quite rough, and joined us. I guess we picked a good, well protected anchorage.

Rendova, a monohull sailboat, was anchored off our stern. The owner, who is sailing single handed, is sailing with "Arrow", an orange tabby male cat who has been trained as a boat cat and to come to the sound of a clicker. Arrow rides to shore on the bow of the dinghy; gets off the dinghy and goes into the woods. His captain leaves Arrow on shore for an hour or more as he goes back to Rendova. Then he goes back to shore uses his clicker to summon Arrow who comes back out of the woods and they go back home. Today, on their way home, they stopped by Toucan Deux and, as we chatted, Arrow decided to join us in the cockpit and Day got her cat fix. One word from his captain and Arrow climbed back into the dinghy and off they went.

Another good day for sailing. We left around 7:00 to get out of Half Moon Bay before the next cruise ship showed up, and headed for the north anchorage in Rock Sound, Eleuthera. But it started to rain. Being wimps we stopped in the south part of Rock Sound. There was really another reason we anchored off Poison Point. The wind was from the south and the anchorage at Poison Point was better protected. That said we had to pay attention to where we anchored as there were lots of shallow areas and numerous rocks. It also rained Thursday night and Friday morning so we stayed put. We weren't the only boats watching the wind. Only one boat was anchored with us when we anchored but soon nine other sailboats anchored around us.

It was another good day for sailing. We sailed for 4 hr. 35 min.; motor sailed 1 hr. 20 min.; and motored for 1 hr. 33 min. Overall, we covered 40.7 nautical miles in 7 hrs. 28 min.

There was a good breeze today so we put up the main, weighed anchor and sailed out of The Bight. As we were sailing away from Rollezz Villas Resort, Carl called us on the VHF Radio wished us good bye and hoped to see us again in 2020 or whenever we came back to the Bahamas. We said we would be back.

We were headed for Half Moon Bay, Little San Salvador, one of the cruise lines "Private Islands". They are spread throughout the Bahamas; where the cruise ship anchors offshore and takes their passengers via shore boats to shore. All these "Islands" have a large variety of activities for their passengers to take part in. Then, in the afternoon the passengers are taken back to the ship and sail off abandoning the harbour.

We had a wonderful sail to Little San Salvador. When we arrived the the cruise ship, Voldendam, was still anchored off Half Moon Bay and was transferring their passengers back to the ship. We took down the jib both to slow down and to evade the Voldendam, as they sailed off. After the mother ship left, the shore crew packed up and headed back home to come back the next morning leaving the harbour open for us cruisers.

After Voldendam and everything else was clear, we pulled into Half Moon Bay and anchored. There was one other sailboat near us and a couple of other that anchored nearer the cruise line's buildings. There were even some of the boats from Cat Island with us. The northward migration had begun.

Today, we covered 38.5 nautical miles in 8 hours. We sailed for about 7 and one half hours.

It was a beautiful night at anchor.

Since we arrived late in the day and anchored in the Old Bight area at the south edge of Rollezz Resort, we remained on Toucan Deux and relaxed. Duende (the boat that followed out of Long Island) once again followed us to Cat Island but this time they went to New Bight area at the north end of The Bight. At the south end of The Bight, we had fairly good protection from southeast wind and waves. Further north they had more waves and several boats came south. By the next day, there were 6+ boats around us of which there were only 2 from the US. The rest were from Ontario. There was also one of those huge private yachts, whose captain and crew were taking a week off.

The next day after breakfast and after we listened to the weather report from Chris and Stormy (always important), Day checked in to the Waterway Net and Craig checked In to the Cruiseheimers Net (our normal morning routine), we decided to go for a dinghy ride. As we saw other boaters heading into the Resort we decided to stop and see what was there. We received a warm welcome from Carl Rolle, resident manager, and spent a couple of hours talking with him. He really welcomed all the boats (including the huge yacht, who had been there before and came in to the resort) and Carl wanted to know what might make our stay more enjoyable. He said we were welcome any time and spent time telling us about the area. They still haven't recovered from Hurricane Joaquin on October 2, 2015 and Hurricane Matthew on October 6, 2016. Fortunately, Irma had missed them in 2017. There is a lot of farming in the area and the island has 4 or 5 elementary schools and 2 high schools. The South High School has about 100 students and the North High School has about 250 students. But, the population of Cat Island is dwindling because the students graduate and leave the island.

Carl asked us if we needed anything supplies/fuel and Day asked if there was somewhere to get bread. Carl offered to take her to get "bread fresh out of the oven" if Day could be in by 10:00 the next day. He had to pick up the woman who cleaned his cottages and Day could ride along. The drive was mostly gravel roads until they were on the main road which was paved. On the way Carl stopped to pick up a woman who was walking and gave her a ride to her house. At the bakery, Day found out the bread was not ready and she should come back in the afternoon. Since he would be taking his employee back around 3 or so, Carl offered to take Day back in the afternoon to get bread.

We spent some time walking around the area and exploring. The resort has 11 cottages but only 2 cottages were occupied while we were there. Planes fly to the island from Fort Lauderdale and Carl picks up the guests.

A little excitement, while we were ashore, during the rising tide, the dinghy decided to drag its anchor. It had not gone far and Day retrieved it easily.

Carl was planning an evening meal for his guests and invited everyone anchored in Old Bight area to dinner. It was superb. Then, we were entertained by Rocky, an older local musician. He was later joined by one of the boaters who played a plastic trumpet (it sounded good). To top it off, that night was beautiful on the water. It was nearly a full moon with no clouds and as we dinghied out to Toucan Deux, we could see the bottom as if it were daylight.

We didn't sail out of Kidd Cove as we would have had to tack/jibe our way through the 50 boats anchored all around us. Finally, out in "open water" we raised the main and motor sailed through the Conch Cay Cut, then unfurled the jib and sailed all the way to Cat Cay. During our sail, Craig tried fishing. He used a "yoyo" fishing reel (a round plastic reel designed for hand fishing) for the first time. We hooked one fish but it jumped, broke the line and took Craig's lure. A couple of sailboats came into the anchorage and were on the radio discussing the numerous fish they had caught. Day thinks Craig needs more practice.

After sailing for 6 hours 24 minutes, we were off Cat Cay but still had 5 miles to go through a bunch of coral heads which we had to miss. Day put on her polarized sunglasses and guided Craig through them to a beautiful white sand beach between Rollezz Resort (to the north) and Joe Sound Creek (to the south). No problems finding a place to anchor.

Today, we traveled 53 nautical miles in 8 hours 51 minutes anchor to anchor.

We left Calabash Bay because heavy winds from the west were predicted for Wednesday, April 10th and there is no protection in Calabash Bay or in other bays next to Long Island. We sailed away from our anchor and had another day sailing without the motor running (except to weigh anchor and re-anchor).

A little after we left, Duende, a 46 foot Lagoon, using her main and jib followed us out of the anchorage and started catching us. That would never do! We unfurled the jib and sped up 1 to 1 1/2 knots. The rest of the trip, we stayed fairly even with Duende, she was only 0.1-0.2 knots faster than we were and we had a big enough head start (AIS isn't only for avoiding freighters, it gives us the speed of our "competitors"). At the North Channel Rocks we abandoned the "race", furled our jib and headed into the southern entrance of Elizabeth Harbour. Craig wanted to sail as far as we could. Jibing both the main and the jib with a two man crew can be too exciting.

We had been on a broad reach the entire passage from Calabash Bay until we reached the North Channel Rocks. Then, we jibed our way in through a 5 nautical mile route full of rocks, coral heads and coral reefs from Middle Rocks to the southern end of Sand Dollar anchorage. There we turned on the engines and doused the main sail so we could head west for Kidd Cove (on the west side of Elizabeth Harbour next to George Town, Great Exuma Island). We motored around Rolle and Moss Cays and into the shallow Kidd Cove as far as we could. We finally anchored in 6 feet of water. There were lots of boats around us but they were off our stern, so we didn't have to listen to their wind generators (we don't have one).

We traveled 27.4 nautical miles in 4 hours 38 minutes anchor to anchor; sailing for 4 hours and 12 minutes.

We didn't do much while we were anchored in Kidd Cove but we did go out to eat one night. We had heard that there was a BBQ buffet at the Peace & Plenty with a Rake and Scrape Band playing that evening. Then since we were out and about, we broke down and bought a gallon of frozen Goombay Smash -- a rum punch for $50. We had to buy it before we went out to eat at Peace & Plenty because the liquor store would be closed before we finished dinner. Then, since our dinghy was docked at the very public dinghy dock, we were concerned about our expensive Goombay Smash just sitting out in plain sight in the dinghy. Craig then saw another dinghy with 2 cases of beer in plain sight in the dinghy next to us and decided that we didn't need to worry, much. Both the beer and our punch were still in our respective dinghies when we returned.

After leaving our dinghy at the public dock, we got to Peace & Plenty early so we could have a seat at the Bar. At the bar we continued our conversation with the bartender we had met on our previous visit (we like this bar), talked with people from the Illinois area who were staying at the resort, enjoyed talking with other "locals" or long term residents of the area, feasted on the BBQ buffet and listened to the Rake and Scrape Band (but didn't dance). Late that night, we strolled through the empty streets of George Town back to our dinghy with its precious cargo intact and managed to find Toucan Deux in the dark. Time to head north.

Once again, we sailed away from our anchor. It is a lot easier to put up the main at anchor rather than waiting to be away from the other anchored boats. We sailed northwest to Calabash Bay under main only. It was nice to have a peaceful sail with the engine off. We were able to sail until we were about mile from where we anchored. Calabash, Long Island is a beautiful anchorage in an east wind (not so much in a west wind). There were only 3 sailboats anchored there so we found a spot to anchor with good view of the sunset. Ultimately 4 more sailing catamarans and one motor cat joined us and, as always, one anchored blocking our view of the sunset. Since west winds are predicted on Wednesday and there is no protection here, we plan on leaving early tomorrow for George Town.

We sailed, with a little motoring to anchor, 24.6 nautical miles in 7 hours 30 minutes anchorage to anchorage.

We anchored in a popular, well protected spot in Thompson Bay (AKA the Salt Pond), Long Island and found there were as many things to do as there were in George Town. It even seemed like old home week as a few boats came in from George Town and anchored near us. There was a Cruisers Net at 08:15 (the land based net moderator must have looked over the bay as she knew the new arrivals), a grocery store within walking distance of dinghy dock, happy hours on the Beach on Tuesday, a fresh food market on Saturday morning, happy hours in the bars on Friday, etc.

The fresh food market on Saturday morning sold a little bit of everything. Eggs were from free range chickens. We bought a couple of dozen and there was not one shell that was white (they were brown, light brown, orange, green, yellow and other colors). There was also a fellow at the dinghy landing selling Hogfish and Grouper. Basel said it was the end of season and he heading to east side of island and has to switch boats so this was the last chance to buy fish from him, bought pound of just cleaned Hogfish and a pound of just cleaned Grouper for $20 total.

At the Happy Hour on the beach on Wednesday and Happy Hour at SouSide Bar & Grill on Friday, we met a lot of our fellow cruisers and some locals. We obviously had a lot in common and Craig even talked to a lot of people. Some were heading to the Caribbean via the Turks & Caicos, others were heading north and others, like us, had no idea where they were going.

One morning, on the Cruisers Net, a couple asked if anyone wanted to share a rental car and tour the island. Why not. We made the arrangements with Russ and Jane from Starry Night, a J44 who were from Canada, met them at the dinghy dock, walked up to the car rental place and took off. We had decided that Long Island was too long to do in one day so we decided to head south through the salt flats to Dean's Blue Hole. Dean's Blue Hole is said to be the deepest inland blue hole in the region and is said to be spectacular. The only problem was we had a hard time finding it. Not a lot of signs and a lot of dirt roads heading toward the ocean. We missed it the first time and had to backtrack. We then drove down a well-worn dirt road and came to a "y" with no markings. We chose wrong, found a place to turn around, took the other branch of the "y" and found it, yea. The Blue Hole was well worth the trip. You had to be careful wading around the blue hole. The beach went from 3-4 feet deep to 663 feet with no warning except visually (the watercolor went from white to deep blue (no pun intended). There were monuments on the shore for 3 people who drowned, 2 were young children. There were high cliffs around the Blue Hole. Families were jumping off cliffs into the hole and having a great time, except for one girl who lost her nerve at the top of the cliff (she finally jumped and survived). We didn't even think about it.

We continued on to Clarence Town, got lost again and driving around found and visited an old Anglican Church. Throughout our trip, Jane & Russ were also looking for free potable water for their boat. They're Canadian. They found it in Clarence Town. A bit of history, Clarence Town (Slave Canal) was built by slaves brought to the island by the Loyalists for the purpose of allowing water from the ocean to flow into ponds to make salt.

We were getting hungry and found the Flying Fish Marina for lunch. After a great lunch we were walking back to the car and saw a shark feeding frenzy at the fish cleaning station. A fisherman was cleaning his catch and throwing the offal into the water. This is not allowed in the States. And the Bahamians wonder why they're starting to have a shark problem. While we watched the sharks feeding, two men in their dinghy came into the harbour. One man lost one of his flip flops near the sharks and was determined to get it. He reached in his hand near the sharks, timing it right, and got his flip flop and kept his hand. Whew!

We finally found our way out of town and headed to a beach at the very south end of Long Island. It was beautiful and worth the trip. Now it was time to head "home". On the way home, there were land crabs all over the place and lots of poorly maintained cemeteries (at least one in every town), we finally tired of taking pictures of them.

Saturday night we ate out at Tinys Hurricane Hole and Happy Hour which had a very Interesting entry to their docks. That evening we met the owners, several locals, a couple of boaters like us, and 2 couples from Duluth, staying at a house on the island and who were very fascinated with the idea of living on a boat. The owners, one from the islands and the other from California, just returned to the islands and bought the bar, resort and laundry (only for guests at the resort). We had a very enjoyable evening.

Then Day found a cockroach on the boat and immediately informed Craig that we had to get a roach trap. Fortunately we found one at the Hillside grocery. After installing the trap, we had to go, once again, to the SouSide Bar for to calm her down. Happily for our budget it was still happy hour.

So much to do, so little time, but we should get started on our way back north.

The anchor was covered in sand and our wash down pump was not working. The switch was on and Day was looking at cleaning the anchor by hand. Finally Craig looked at the thru hull fitting; it was closed, pump fixed. It is part of the SB head thru hull fitting which we keep closed to prevent flushing the toilet bowl with salt water (only use fresh water for flushing). With the valve open, Day calmed down and was able to wash the anchor.

The above was the only exciting thing that happened today. We once again motored the entire trip before anchoring in the north end of Thompson Bay, Long Island. We made 36.6 nautical miles in 6 hours 27 minutes of motoring.

With all this motoring, we needed diesel. The problem is that the only diesel sold in George Town is at a gas station on the one way highway going through George Town. After we added 12 gallons to each of the fuel tanks, from our jerry cans, we dinghied 4 of the empty jerry cans (we didn't have enough room for all 7) to the town gas station dinghy dock. This trip includes crossing the harbour (a 1.5 mile trip, one way), going under an old stone bridge (only 10 feet high and narrow, inbound dinghies have priority) into Lake Victoria, tying up to the gas station dinghy dock; carrying the empty jerry cans up 4 concrete steps to the gas station, waiting for an open diesel pump, pumping the diesel into each of the jerry cans, paying for it, carrying the full cans back to the dinghy, motoring back to Toucan Deux, hoisting the full jerry cans using our motor block and tackle and storing them. Whew. We'll fill the other 3 when we head back to "town." Diesel was $4.78 per gallon, this motoring is getting expensive. We paid cash and, as we found out, the attendants expected they would get the change as a tip (they only had paper change). We tipped them.

Lots of boats come to George Town for the winter, generally arriving anywhere from December to February, staying for the cruising regatta in March and don't leave until after the Family Island Regatta for Bahamian Racing Sloops in April. There may be a total 500 to 600 boats in Elizabeth Harbour at any one time; anchored throughout the 6 anchorages on the west side of Stocking Island or any of several on the east side of Great Exuma Island. Some people come and go while others spend their whole time anchored. When we left at the end of March the number of boats was down to around 200 to 300. However some boats that were still in the northern Exumas southern Bahamas would probably return to George Town for the Regatta in April.

Along with the gas station (must be the only one given the cars that lined up), restaurants, bars, etc., George Town has 2 grocery stores. Exuma Markets is just up the hill from the dinghy dock (the larger of the 2 and has a greater variety of food desired by cruisers). Shop-Rite is a short dinghy ride or a short walk to the opposite side of Lake Victoria (smaller but Day's preferred store). While Day shops, Craig stays with the dinghy "moored" on a launch ramp across the road from Shop-Rite and takes his daily nap. Shop-Rite is the grocery store most of the locals use and has more of the traditional meats and produce. One of the local women even told Day she should buy a certain vegetable (Day still doesn't know what it was), then proceeded telling her how to cook it. Prices and selections tend to be reasonable, for the Bahamas. In 2018 we learned they have bulk bologna (5 lbs) at less than $2 a pound. Now our go-to favorite in George Town.

It was time to do laundry. Other cruisers suggested Mz. Lee's Corner Laundromat which has a one day drop off service and is a short walk from the dinghy dock. We dropped off our laundry, ran errands and explored while our laundry was washed, dried and folded. The total cost was $25 and we didn't have to spend 2 hours "working". It was worth it.

While our clothes were being taken care of, Day went back to Vanria's for a haircut. Vanria had done a wonderful job of cutting it short in 2018. After her hair was short again, we went to eat at New Eddies Edgewater and then stopped at Batelco to top up our data and set up voice mail. After we visited with customer service, we put money in our account and chose a new plan. For $11 a week we now had a plan with 30,000 seconds (500 min) of phone time, lots of texts and 2 gigs of data and any unused data is carried over to the next week if we renew before the plan expires.

Now for the trip back to Toucan Deux. Luckily we brought extra plastic bags to double bag our clean, dry clothes because as soon as we got in the dinghy, it started to rain and continued to pour until we were back to Toucan Deux. Because the dinghy was full of water and wouldn't plane, it was a slow 1.5 mile trip. At least the rain cleaned the clothes we were wearing (with the warm rain, we don't need no stinking rain gear).

They have yoga everyday at Monument Beach, only 2 miles away by dinghy. Day wanted to go but she couldn't start the engine so Craig decided to take her, but the engine wouldn't start for him either. No yoga for Day as we ended up paddling back to Toucan Deux. Craig spent the rest of the day working on the carburetor. He finally got it running but he must have spent every other day working on the engine to keep it running. Finally on March 30, after spending 4 hours working on the engine, he was ready to give up. Extremely frustrated, he told the engine we would just have to get a new engine and he would dump this one in the sea. Then, of course, it started, engines understand mean words. Carrying through on his threat, we checked with Mimms and found out we could get a brand new Yamaha 9.9 HP, 2 stroke engine for $1,950+ VAT with no extra cost for a credit card. But then our Nissan straightened up and kept running for the rest of the trip. Craig scared it.

Heading back to Toucan Deux, the wind and waves had increased making for a rough, wet ride. We were soaked when Escapade (a 44' Lagoon) slowed down so that we could shelter in their wake all the way back to our boat. A big Thank You!

Still in Elizabeth Harbour with a now working engine, we took a long dinghy trip to Prime Meats (a small meat store with some groceries) in Hoopers Bay. However we got lost and went into the wrong bay. Using Craig's IPad (with GPS and Charts) we found that we were a mile away by land. Looking around where we were, we saw a Napa store and couldn't pass it by without buying something (carburetor cleaner plus some other stuff). Back to the dinghy and, with 2 other dinghies that had also stopped too soon, motored to the correct bay. Checked meat prices and bought some spices but no meat.

We next dinghied to Fish Village, an area where there are several outstanding restaurants. We beached the dinghy next to some rusting barges that have sunk, and explored the village and restaurants. We decided to eat at Shirley's, where we had a very good fish dinner. We then went back to the dinghy and explored some more. We finished up by going to Peace and Plenty for drinks. We sat at the bar, got to know the bartender and enjoyed the view.
Another evening entertainment was trivia at the St. Francis Resort every Sunday night (George Town is like a retirement community (with younger residents and on the water). One time we played trivia, we actually won 4 beers (4 per team) and another time did fairly well but the Canadians beat us. They knew all of the Canadian provinces and we missed one. (North Channel cruising helped us that night).

One thing we didn't miss was carrying water from the dinghy dock (free water is available) back to Toucan Deux. Thank goodness for watermakers as we now don't have to carry water.

We left with a falling tide but the combination of the outbound current and inbound wind and waves made for an interesting passage through the Cave Cay Cut. The outbound current was over 4 knots (our boat speed was 2.2 knots and our speed over the ground (GPS) was 6.6) and the waves were around 6 feet. At least the waves weren't too steep but they were high enough that spray came over the cabin top through the dodger and got Craig, but not so high to send spray through the open hatch over our berth. Day rushed to close the hatch before the berth got wet. We're still trying to remember that these passages out to the open ocean can be rough even though the weather and seas are nice. We must close hatches and wait for slack tide. Once we were through the Cut, the waves decreased and we were out of the current. Offshore, we had a couple of large waves every 20 seconds or so but they weren't a problem and we motored on (again!).

We entered through the Conch Cay Cut which is to the north of Elizabeth Harbour and followed Craig's GPS breadcrumbs from 2018. This passage into Elizabeth Harbour can be a challenge especially if there are heavier waves from the north. Entering Elizabeth Harbour, we have to turn at various points to miss reefs blocking the entrance and the route through Elizabeth Harbour. We successfully completed the complicated route and now have clear motoring to Sand Dollar Beach, our anchorage last year, and we found it to be less crowded and well protected in all but heavy west winds.

We settled in at Sand Dollar and celebrated our two week trip with beer, then contacted Craig's sister. Unfortunately, due to circumstances, she would be unable to join us. We are disappointed that we won't be able to share one of our favorite anchorages but, hey, we are in one of our favorite anchorages.

Again we motored the whole way. This time covered 29.4 nautical miles in about 7 hours anchor to anchor.

Craig had seen a few boats sail away from their anchor so he wanted to try it. Craig started the port engine running it in idle so we could use the anchor windlass to retrieve our anchor and the 75 feet of chain rode. Day would have much trouble retrieving it all by hand. (Craig drives the boat while Day does all of the foredeck work, a holdover from our first days sailing when Craig was even less nimble on his feet). Leaving both engines in idle (safety first, last and always), we raised the main (jib is still furled). Day then retrieved the anchor and secured it while Craig began sailing out of the anchorage. He did a great job maneuvering thru 6 monohulls, 1 catamaran and 2 powerboats without ever putting the engines in gear. Once we were out of the anchorage we unfurled the jib, shut down the engines and headed south towards where we thought we might stop for the night, Farmers Cay. We got to Farmers Cay way too early (sailing too fast?) so we continued on south to Cave Cay. Once we were off of the entrance to Cave Cay, we turned on the engines, doused the sails, and motored our way through the islands to Cave Cay near the Cave Cay Cut to the ocean.

It is a glorious day of sailing to a lovely anchorage but we had a bit of a problem anchoring. According to the chart, there was a nice shallow area but it was too shallow and too rocky to anchor. No problem, we merely backed off and anchored in another spot, a little nicer and it had a sand bottom and was prettier.

It was 17 nautical miles in 4 hours anchor to anchor, most of which was sailing.

Black Point is so close (9.4 nautical miles), so we didn't leave until after lunch and, Excitement!!!, we put the sails up (for the first time since we started to Bimini). We sailed for an hour and a half. It was but fun, fun, fun. We stopped sailing because we had to change course and motor directly into the wind to anchor in Black Point.

It took two hours to go 9.4 nautical miles but we enjoyed the sail.