Amulet underway

Vessel Name: Amulet
Vessel Make/Model: CR Yachts DS480
Hailing Port: Port Madison, Bainbridge Island, Washington
10 September 2017
30 April 2017 | West Palm Beach, Florida
28 April 2017 | Great Sale Cay
26 April 2017 | Man O Jack Cay
20 April 2017 | Abacos
16 April 2017 | Spanish Wells, Bahamas
10 April 2017 | Exuma Land and Sea Park
09 April 2017 | Staniel Cay, Bahamas
31 March 2017 | Great Exuma Island
20 March 2017 | Turks and Caicos
14 March 2017 | Dominican Republic
09 March 2017 | San Jose, Puerto Rico
05 March 2017 | Culebra, Spanish Virgin Islands
04 March 2017 | British Virgin Islands
24 February 2017 | British Virgin Islands
19 February 2017 | St. Martins
14 February 2017 | St. Barths
12 February 2017 | Nevis Island
09 February 2017 | Les Saintes, Guadeloupe
Recent Blog Posts
10 September 2017

Postscript

"Amulet" arrived largely safely at the MarineService Center yard in Anacortes for unloading on May 14th. There was some shipping damage to the port forward cleat, which was bent, and the teak rail below it cracked, which the yard fixed. On our way home from Claire's graduation from the University of [...]

05 May 2017

Going Windward at 60 MPH

Gary and I spent the 1st of May through the 3rd of May taking down sails, the bimini, solar panels, and dodgers, and removing much of the running rigging. Late the 3rd of May, our rigger, Brad Storm (great job-alike last name) arrived to look over things. He will help us take down the mast, standing [...]

30 April 2017 | West Palm Beach, Florida

Crossing the Stream/Back in the USA

We departed Great Sale Cay at 0500, about an hour before dawn, and made our way to Mango Cay, arriving there at 0930. Our next waypoint was Memory Rock. After 50 miles, again in 10-14 feet of water, and we passed it at 1230-excellent timing, better than expected, and with 50 miles to go, we might make [...]

28 April 2017 | Great Sale Cay

The Last of the Abacos

We had a leisurely mid morning departure from Man O' Jack Cay bound for Spanish Cay, some 14 miles to the north. We listened to the morning weather and again, some wind was expected to ruffle the Gulf Stream this coming Sunday (it is now Thursday), so we figured we should plan on crossing the Stream [...]

26 April 2017 | Man O Jack Cay

Getting Further North in the Abacos

After the somewhat disappointing couple of nights at Great Guana Cay, we pressed on a couple of islands north to Green Turtle Cay.

20 April 2017 | Abacos

North to the Abacos

The wind was still howling, with waves breaking over the reef, so there was no leaving. Gary wanted to see Harbor Island, and I had already been there, so he took off on the early ferry on Easter Sunday. I defrosted the freezer and refrigerator, and halfway filled the water tanks (52 cents/gallon, it [...]

Crossing the Stream/Back in the USA

30 April 2017 | West Palm Beach, Florida
John
We departed Great Sale Cay at 0500, about an hour before dawn, and made our way to Mango Cay, arriving there at 0930. Our next waypoint was Memory Rock. After 50 miles, again in 10-14 feet of water, and we passed it at 1230-excellent timing, better than expected, and with 50 miles to go, we might make Palm Beach before dark. We were now finally in deep water, thousands of feet deep in fact. About 20 miles past Memory Rock, we entered the Gulf Stream. We had a satellite facsimile of the Stream that we had obtained the day before departure. It showed three main "fingers" of current, and a flow of only 1.5 knots, which is at the low end of the normal velocity of the Stream. We had been coached to make an "S" pattern, making our way 20 degrees south before entering the Stream, then slowly bringing the course up to the rumb line, and letting the Stream take us north, then in the final 15 miles, heading south again, so that the plotted course looks a little like an "S".

This we did, and arrived through the pass at Palm Beach at 2000, about 15 minutes before dark. We had a berth available at Riveria Beach Marina, but the lady at the marina told us there was a lot of current there, and if we felt a lot inside the pass, to anchor on the east side of Peanut Island for the night. After our entry, which was hastened by the flood tide, we had a lot, really a lot of current, and we immediately know that the anchorage was our only choice, so we did a 180 immediately after entry to make for the anchorage. Unfortunately, the current was too strong for the boat and in our effort to get back into the channel, we ran aground on a sandbank, only about 80 feet from the anchorage. The increasing wind and current had us pinned pretty well against the sand bar, but fortunately the tide was rising. We lowered the bow thruster, and did everything we could to extricate ourselves. Finally, after about 40 minutes, which darkness complete, we wiggled off and picked up a buoy in the anchorage.

The following morning, we waited until the 0920 slack tide to go into the marina, but immediately ran aground on another bank near the one we were aground the night before, 5 minutes later we floated off, then with the directions from a local, found the channel, and headed into the marina, whereupon we ran aground in the middle of the fairway leading into our assigned slip. The marina lady even asked our draft before assigning us our slip. We managed to back out of this latest grounding, and found a slip at the entrance of the marina. Welcome to America......

We called customs to report in, and the guy was very nice, took our information, and cleared us over the phone. As a postscript, we got a warning letter from US Customs 3 weeks after our arrival admonishing us for not reporting Gary's arrival as crew, which I did in the phone call, giving the agent his full name, birthdate, and passport number. Guess he was too lazy to write it down....

Picture is of Mar a Lago, just like we pictured it.....back in the USA
Comments
Amulet's Photos - Main
3 Photos
Created 11 January 2021
Tonga Pictures
17 Photos
Created 11 September 2014
2 Photos
Created 17 August 2014
Our time in Bora Bora
21 Photos
Created 29 July 2014
79 Photos
Created 23 June 2014
Pictures of our time in the Tuamotus
28 Photos
Created 9 June 2014
Pics from mom and my bike ride into town.
5 Photos
Created 25 May 2014
Close ups of "Gracie S." remnants, arrival in Rangiroa, snorkeling by "Gracie S"
15 Photos
Created 25 May 2014

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