04/20/2007, Fernandina Beach, FLA
I cannot help but feel a little melancholy as this trip draws to a close in the next couple of weeks. But experiences had, lessons learned and friends made have made it a wonderful and worthwhile endeavor.
Many of you have been wondering what we've been up to lately... We waited for a 2-3 day weather window to cross to the Carolinas from Lucaya on Grand Bahama, but there was nothing even remotely accomodating in the forecast, so we decided to cross over to Florida, an easy day sail from Lucaya. The day started out warm, with blue skies and we caught two mahi-mahi about a half hour out of Lucaya. But shortly thereafter, the weather turned... the skies clouded over and we found ourselves punching through a predicted "benign" cold front amidst rain, thunder and lightening and high winds. No big deal, right? Once the front moved on through, the skies once again cleared and the wind died, leaving us to motor the remainder of the day. We arrived in Palm Beach, Florida with its mega-estates and chic restaurants just before night fell... a sharp contrast to the Bahamian out-islands we had just visited, where many natives live in small, substandard, partially completed accomodation and in Black Point at Lorraine's cafe, Lorraine decides what you will eat for dinner!
Each day since our arrival in the US, we look for weather to head back out into the ocean to make some real mileage north, but the wind is consistently from the north. Not good if you're heading north, as we are. So we've been putting in long days (90 to 100 miles) on the more protected ICW (IntraCoastal Waterway), enjoying the diverse scenery - endless salt marshes, spectacular dunes at the inlets, rampant development along the waterway.
In Vero Beach, David was Hero-for-a-day as he rescued an old tortoise from inevitable demise as she tried to cross a high-traffic roadway. The kids watched anxiously as David ran out during a break in traffic after several cars and a transport truck had run over the tortoise, wheels narrowly missing the fortunate creature!
We're currently in Fernandina Beach at the northern end of Florida, plying the dunes for shark's teeth, while we wait once again for weather (Sunday or Monday) to head into the open ocean, bound for points north. Wish us luck!
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Comments [2]
04/17/2007, Vero Beach, FLA
Tortoise rescued from certain death on roadway... then released into the wild in a safer location. Sarah/Matthew - just think, your tortoise will be THIS BIG some day!
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04/06/2007, Exumas, Bahamas
There were tears shed over leaving Georgetown, where the kids had made very close friends - Chris and Nick on Second Wave and Rachel on Stardust. But we've finally left "Tarpit Harbour" (as it is sometimes called, I believe for it's ability to hold sailors hostage and take away their will to move on!) and passed through Black Point on our way to Staniel Cay. We anchored off Big Majors Spot, just north of Staniel Cay, which Sabrina aptly renamed Pig Majors Spot due to the proliferation of pigs ashore! The pigs/piglets hang out in the brush behind the beach, coming out when they hear approaching dinghies, greeting the visitors by attempting to board the small boats, presumably searching out food! We fed them our old stores and they seemed temporarily sated... until the next dinghy full of sailors arrived!
Near Staniel Cay is Thunderball Cave, one of the area's biggest attractions, used as filming locations for movies such as James Bond's Thunderball and Splash. Despite a cool, cloudy start to the day, the sun finally appeared as we hit the water, making it more inviting. The grotto was spectacular... the entrance was narrow and current-ridden but once inside, the water was calmer and lit by natural "skylights" above. The sun's rays diffused through the water, lighting the colourful coral and the sensational array of fish - fish so abundant that it was impossible to swim through the grotto without touching them! And these same fish were so accustomed to the presence of humans that they were not adverse to being hand-fed... such fun for the kids as they held crumbs and pretzel bits while the fish schooled around them, eating out of their hands! And to exit the grotto, we swam down several feet and through a small opening in the rock to emerge on the outside - even Sabrina, at only 5 years of age, had to try this!
Warderick Wells, home of the Exumas Land and Sea Park, also provided a couple of days of entertainment for us. Moored in a narrow deep-water channel and surrounded by shallow sandbanks that dry to sand beaches at low tide, we were in a veritable paradise! We hiked to BooBoo Hill (the highest spot on the island at only 45 feet above sea level!) where boaters leave "souvenirs" of their vessels and to several of the island's lee beaches, all with sensationally clear, calm water and white sand. And at the Park headquarters, the girls successfully fed sugar to bananaquits (small yellow and black birds) right from their hands!
We then made a short stop in Norman's Cay, made famous by the drug lords that made it their base for over a decade. We toured through the ruins of their former digs and saw one of their planes which had crashed and is now lying on the bottom of the harbour. We even did some great shelling at a nearby uninhabited island.
We're now sitting in Paradise Island, Bahamas, adjacent to Nassau, in the Marina at the Atlantis Resort... definitely the smallest boat in a marina full of MegaYachts! We're certainly in good company. AND... there's a Starbuck's here! What could be better than that? The kids (and even us big kids!) are having a blast on the waterslides (talk about baptism by fire - Caroline had me go down the steepest waterslide first, a veritable freefall during which the water flying past and over me virtually peeled my eyelids back - what fun!), swimming in the resort's many pools, and seeing the aquariums full of sea life... without having to dive the reef!
The Bahamas has provided us with new friends and great natural entertainment... but the weather is definitely cooler here and we're feeling the need to continue working our way north, toward home. Fortunately, our recent "crew call" posting yielded brave volenteers to help get WildChild home - Dirk Sell, a long-time friend who has accompanied David on other yacht deliveries and helped deliver WildChild from Milwaukee to Port Credit, and Stuart Michielli, another good friend who has considerable race crewing experience... and so we should be making landfall in the U.S. within a couple of weeks to change crew!
(Pics now posted - click on Photo Album link on right)
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03/26/2007, Georgetown, Exumas
CREW CALL
As George Castanza (of Seinfeld fame) once said:
"The sea was angry that day, my friends, like an old man trying to take back soup at the deli."
And so it has been for the past several days due to a front (or multiple fronts) moving through with resultant high winds from the north. Not great when you want to head north. But hopefully the winds will clock more to the east very soon and we'll continue up the Exuma island chain, ultimately bound for the U.S. East Coast and points north.
Which brings me to my next point. We're looking for the cream of the crop of sailing society... but are willing to settle for far less. The girls (including me!) want off the boat in the southern U.S. (Hilton Head sounds good!) and Dave is loooking for a couple of big, strong, handsome men (well, not necessarily handsome!) to help sail WildChild from South Carolina to New York/Toronto. Of course, sailing experience is a definite asset but not altogether necessary. So if you think you can secure time off between approximately April 25 and May 10 and can get spousal consent, send us an email to sailwildchild@excite.com. Mark Twain once said, "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." So although there's no dough in it, take his advice and set this year apart in your memory from all others. Do something different. Carpe diem!
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