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With winds picking up we went back inside to the marina at Great Harbor for a couple nights. While there we got our second covid test as Bahamas requires retesting at day five. Since the nurse came right to the marina it couldn’t have been easier.

Leaving Great Harbour Cay we had to travel north to go around the east side of Little Stirrup Cay and out into the Atlantic as the west side was way too shallow for our boat. On the north side are the “playgrounds” for some of the cruise ship lines. They apparently stop for the day and offload passengers to play at their version of amusement parks. With the cruise ships closed down the playgrounds are empty and rather forlorn looking.

From there we set our sights on Highbourne Cay with overnights at Bird Cay and the west tip of New Providence. Both were a little rolly so it was nice to get to Highbourne and a peaceful anchorage. Having been there on a previous trip we knew to go to the marina restaurant hungry and were not disappointed. The food is amazing. We grabbed some gas for the dinghy, said hi to our favorite parrot and then continued onward to the Exuma Land and Sea Marine Park. To get there we went through the cut at Highbourne to the Atlantic and down to Norman’s Cut which took us back to the west side of the island chain. Both cuts are narrow but Norman’s is the real challenge as it is also an anchorage so we wended our way between boats always careful to stay in the channel so as not to go aground.

First stop was Shroud Cay which is now my favorite in the Bahamas. If it weren’t for the fact that we had absolutely no cell phone connectivity we could have stayed there a week or more. It was that stunning. The kayaks came down and we checked out several of the creeks that are simply too shallow for the dinghy. We found turtles, small sharks, several herons and lots of little fish.

 

At dusk we were treated to a romantic get together of two large turtles not far from the boat. At first we couldn’t figure out what was going on as we kept seeing a large flipper extend straight up into the air and lots of turbulent water. Once we saw the second turtle we realized that rather than it being a turtle in distress it was two turtles in bliss. No pictures as it was a private moment.

We found a different critter under the boat later that night. In the evening we usually turn on the generator for a couple hours to charge up the batteries. This seems to be a siren song to sharks who come hang out waiting for leftovers and scraps that are thrown overboard. The food hit the water and there was a pronounced chomping going on. In the moonlight we saw a 5-6 foot reef shark enjoying the last of a baguette that had gone moldy along with other scraps.

The water is so crystal clear that pictures don’t do it justice. One morning I was looking off the side of the boat and saw what looked like a log on the bottom but the sand was disturbed in a pattern. I was trying to figure out what was going on when I realized it was our anchor almost totally buried in the sand and sitting right next to the boat. No wind or current so the boat was just wandering.

Alas 48 hours seemed to be our limit with no connectivity so we headed down to Pipe Cay, another pristine island. We took the dinghy down and ran over to the marina at Compass Cay looking for lunch off the boat. Unfortunately with the lack of tourists this past year the restaurant and market were boarded up. We could have grabbed a burger or hotdog off the dock but they charged $10 per person just to step on land so we headed back to the boat taking a circuitous route, only grounding the dinghy twice (it’s a little shallow in the Exumas).

Back at the boat we made the call to head further south to Staniel Cay and settle in for awhile. As we were anchoring a welcoming committee came out to say hi. Three nurse sharks and a remora friend just looking for a handout.

We left Ft Lauderdale on Monday afternoon about 1:30. A couple hours earlier than we planned but we always seem to be anxious to leave. Great Harbor Cay, in the Berry Islands, ended up being our entry point because we’ve never been there and they have a marina where we could check in with the new Covid protocols.

Our night transit was interesting. Although we missed seeing the water turn from dark blue to that amazing Bahama turquoise, we were treated to seeing all the cruise ships at anchor just off Little Stirrup Cay. We had seen them in the spring when we came back from the Dominican Republic but now there are twice as many, about two dozen, and at night they are lit up like Christmas trees. We spent about 3 ½ hours wending our way through all the ships usually passing within less than a half mile. Quite the site as they can be seen from miles away.

Getting into the marina at Great Harbor was another interesting event. It’s a hurricane hole and well disguised. Unless you are following the charts you will never see the entrance as it is narrow and heavily treed. We originally thought we would have problems getting in. Approaching the cut we had to wait for a 100+ foot yacht to leave which reassured us that we would have no problem.

Once docked at the marina customs and immigration came directly to the boat to check us in. The only other place this has happened is in the DR. Usually we have to get off the boat and go hunt up the c& i offices. So now we’re feeling spoiled.

 

Once customs and immigration was done we had an inspection of another kind to get through. It’s not unusual to encounter “marina cats” on the docks but this was the first time we’ve been boarded and inspected by one. Beauty jumped on board and walked all around the outside of the boat. Only then would she acquiesce to some petting and chin scratches. She wanted to check out the interior but that was a no-go. When the hose came out to wash off the boat she casually left only to return later in the evening with a friend. They spent the night sleeping on the aft cushions. Normally I would put food out for them but they are very healthy and well cared for so no need to give them anything other than a treat or two.

Right now we’re anchored outside enjoying a day or two before heading back into the marina for our followup covid tests on Saturday and probably another Beauty visit.

A note about the Bahamas and Covid. They have a good system that is extremely responsive. When I first read about the process I was skeptical because, well… it’s the Bahamas. Attitudes are usually lackadaisical and follow up can be non-existent but they are taking this seriously. Before leaving we applied online for our health visas. Once we uploaded our negative covid test results we were approved for entry within an hour or so. Present a copy of your approved health visa on entry and you’re good to go until the five day follow up rapid test. Easy peasy.

There is a facebook page, “Bahamas, Land and Sea” that has up to date information about protocols and ever changing requirements. It seems that in the few instances where there has been a glitch in the system a phone call has been all that’s necessary for resolution.

Looking forward to a nice winter!

That’s right. We’re getting ready to head off to the Bahamas. Finally! We’re at the boatyard in Dania Beach finishing up a couple repairs that were started prior to Christmas, provisioning, scheduling our Covid tests and we should be out of here Monday. We had a nice two day run back up from Key West. Calm seas and pleasant winds.

Looking at an overnight cruise leaving here Monday afternoon, arriving at Chubb Key Tuesday morning bright and early. The Bahamas is requiring a negative COVID test five days prior to arrival so we have to get tested, obtain results and upload to Bahamas health visa website for approval before we depart and still arrive within five days of testing. So finding the weather window is the critical first step. Wish us luck!

January 1, 2021

As I sit here this morning, we are anchored out just north of Key West proper. It’s a balmy 76 degrees with a steady 20 knot wind. That’s right. It’s pretty but pretty windy. This is why we are anchored here instead of further up the keys. It will be like this for a few days so we’ll stay until Sunday and then make a two day run back to Ft Lauderdale.

Christmas was nice. Key West is always decorated and the restaurants are open so we enjoyed ourselves.

It seems last night our boat had too much to drink as we wandered all over the anchor and ended up in places we haven’t seen the past few days. This has happened before but usually the first night and not after being at anchor for four days. 

We’ve been using this down time to do little projects on the boat and give it a good clean. I’ve gotten my fishing gear all sorted for the crossing into the Bahamas and managed to catch a little white grunt yesterday. Not big but enough for a fish taco or two!

 

This is an interesting anchorage and we see a lot of action during the day. Tour boats going out of Key West, what we call “covid cruises”, jet ski groups several times a day, and even a kite surfer took off and ended up back at the sail cat next to us.

Our visit to the Dry Tortugas for Christmas just didn’t work out due to weather. We could get there and we could get back but while there we would have had 6-8 ft seas and it just didn’t seem like a fun time. It was also too cold to go diving.

On to plan B. We went out to the Marquesas for an overnight for our anniversary. The stars were magnificent and only outdone by the sunrise the next morning. With a storm coming in we had a full rainbow that was a double on one side. We skedaddled back to Key West again and anchored out another night waiting for a marina slip at The Bight. We’re here for five days which will give us time to get some fresh provisions, eat at a couple restaurants and walk around town looking at all the holiday lights.

We left Dania Beach yesterday after a quick meet up with the fuel barge to top off the tanks and then headed to Biscayne Bay for an overnight and the beginning of our holiday adventure.

As we were leaving Biscayne Bay it was one of those misty, calm mornings where the water is like glass. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day. But I get ahead of myself…

You may remember from previous posts that Stiltsville resides in Biscayne Bay. These were offshore speakeasies erected during Prohibition and are now owned by the park service. There are seven structures still remaining although one is missing a roof. As we left this morning we took the long way around and cruised between the buildings for an up close look and some pictures.

From there we headed down Hawk Channel towards Key Largo. The day started misty and overcast but as we moved into the channel we got fogged in and visibility was less than a quarter mile. We are radar equipped so we could identify anything around us and the water continued to be calm so it wasn’t bad. A large trawler passed us at one point with no AIS and no radar and we can only wonder what they were thinking.

The fog burned off about 11am and we were treated to a glorious day the like we only see once in a great while. Blue sky, puffy clouds and zero waves. Zero? We’ve only encountered this a couple times most notably on our passage from Turks and Caicos to the Dominican Republic a couple years ago. The ride was so smooth it was nicer than riding in a car on the highway. If it were always like this everyone would be on a boat!

Afternoon saw us at Travernier Key where we anchored for the night. With calm seas and virtually no wind it was a very pleasant stay. Before we could leave the next morning we had a couple monsoon rain showers come through to wash off the boat.

The next day we made it as far as Loggerhead Key where we again anchored. Having drinks on the aft deck we were treated to a huge turtle playing. Guess we know why it’s called Loggerhead Key now. We’ll be anchoring out for the next several weeks so I’m in my happy place! Although I thought we would have a laid back morning and not hurry (Key West was only about twenty five miles away), Gary decided that we had to anchor up quickly as the work boats were coming in to check the crab pots and we were right in the middle of them all.

We made it to Key West and are now anchored out at North Fleming Cut just on the outside of the mooring field. The wind has kicked up, the temperature had dropped to seventy degrees, the sky has clouded over and we’ve had to reset the anchor because when we rotated 180 degrees the anchor dragged. Looks like it’s going to be a windy couple of days here. We’re watching the weather closely as we want to continue on to the Dry Tortugas for Christmas but it’s not somewhere to be when the weather isn’t friendly. 

The last few nights we’ve had clear skies and have been treated to the closing conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter with a waxing moon. The stars have been incredible and hopefully are a portent of what we’ll have for the next few weeks.

 

We left Charleston after a fun dinner with friends we haven’t seen in over a year and headed down to Hilton Head where we finally, FINALLY, anchored out for the night on Skull Creek. It was peaceful, pretty and soothing for my soul.

Of course after not using the windlass for six months it was a little cantankerous and didn’t want to release. After a few tries we got the anchor to catch on the muddy bottom although it wasn’t a very secure situation. No surprise when at 9PM Gary told me the anchor was dragging and we would have to reset. Grab the flashlight (the really big one), turn on the spotlight and fire up the engines. Within about 15 minutes we had a really good set on the anchor and went to bed. Although Gary kept getting up periodically to check the anchor I slept like a baby.

The next day we cruised into the Marina at Skull Creek and picked up Gary’s sister and brother-in-law who were in the area. We spent a couple days with them playing golf and having an early Thanksgiving dinner. One evening I heard a racket outside the boat and went on the bow to check it out. I surprised a large heron who was sitting on our bowsprit. He had been having a conversation with the pelican sitting on the piling next to us.

We waved family off Thanksgiving morning as they headed back to Alabama and  moved down to the north end of Jekyll Island for another night at anchor. An incredible sunset, beautiful star studded night and even a shooting star!

 

From there we did another overnight cruise off the coast and arrived in Daytona Beach for a couple days to catch up with more friends we haven’t seen in too long.

We’re slowly working our way down to Ft Lauderdale where we need to have a couple things looked at on the boat and find someone to replace one of the flybridge windows but we don’t need to be there for another week or so.

We left Wilmington NC on November 18th heading for Charleston SC to visit friends we hadn’t seen in over a year. We decided to fuel up and then depart about 2pm to take advantage of the current going down the Cape Fear River. Since it would take 18 hours to get to Charleston going offshore that worked out just fine. But we soon realized that with the current behind us on the river as well as the Atlantic we would arrive a little earlier, say, 5am. Since it’s never a great idea to arrive at a new marina in the dark we slowed down our speed. Not a problem as it was a beautiful transit with calm seas. Good news was we didn’t use hardly any fuel.

We caught the Coast Guard doing some buoy work on the Cape Fear. It’s a massive job and you need to give them a wide berth and a slow pass out of courtesy if not safety. It’s always a good idea to stay on the good side of the Coast Guard.

We’re now on the “Mega Dock” at Charleston City Marina. It’s definitely different from Wilmington as the “transients”, that would be us, are bow to stern along one very long dock. There is no protection from the boats transiting along the river so we get some rocking and quite a bit of noise. We have noticed a high percentage of larger trawlers here though so we’ve been checking out the Grand Banks, Flemings and Kady Krogens. Quite different from what we were used to in the Caribbean and Bahamas. An interesting group to be sure but we already miss our dock mates from Wilmington.

We’ve also been here for four days tied up at a dock. I told Gary last night I feel like I got all excited about leaving only to not really go anywhere. Oh well. We leave tomorrow for Hilton Head and we’ll finally get to anchor out at Skull Creek again to enjoy the peace and quiet.

Meanwhile here’s a few pictures from our last couple months in Wilmington.

We started hearing about it about a week out. Invest 98 was heading to the Caribbean and would then take a northwest route and visit the States. Four or five days out it was Tropical Storm Isaias, could possibly turn into a hurricane. Don’t know where it’s going exactly but be prepared. Okay.

So we started prepping the boat. Take in all the cushions and pillows, (who knew we had so many cushions and where do we put them?), move the teak chairs inside, tape all the hatches, windows and several doors, cover the instrument panels on the flybridge and the dinghy with plastic and tape, remove all the enclosure windows on the flybridge. Do we need to take down the Bimini cover on the flybridge? No, it’s only going to be a tropical storm and we’ve weathered those before with no problem, just take the windows out so nothing crashes thru and shreds them. Tie extra lines to the boat. Where we would normally have out five lines we now have eight or nine. Move the fenders around so we’re protected from the piling at the bow and the side fenders are lower in the water so they won’t pop up with the wind. Tie down the access stairs to the dock (loosely) so they can’t blow up and hit the boat. Are we ready? Sure!

Now it’s going to make landfall south of us and pass to the west of Wilmington starting about 5 or 6 o’clock on Monday evening. Oh and it’s a Cat 1 Hurricane. Being on the east side of the hurricane means we’ll get the full brunt of the winds. Fun!

We decided to stay on the boat thru the storm. We’ve anchored out in gale force winds before, the docks in the marina were built for storms like this and we were confident that the Laa-Dee-Dah would be a safe haven. Of course there was something we didn’t take into consideration. Hurricanes can bring some nasty tornadoes. As we were sitting on the boat at 9 or 10 o’clock in the evening, a couple hours into the storm, we started getting tornado alerts all around us. We were being instructed to go to our “safe spot”. We don’t have a “safe spot” on the boat. Hmmmmm. One tornado ripped up the other side of the river about a mile or two from us. Maybe staying on board wasn’t the smartest idea we’ve had. Maybe we were just a little naive.

As the winds started really gusting, our neighbor boat lost their Bimini cover. It was not as robust as ours and we were confident ours would hold. Until that really big gust hit. As the stitching started ripping away from the zippers holding it to the frame, our Bimini started bunching up and flapping around. Not good sounds or visuals. Yet in the middle of the hurricane there was nothing we could do except watch it rip more, and do the math in my head for what it would cost to replace it.

Lessons learned:

-Always take down the Bimini. Ours wasn’t damaged beyond repair but now we have to take it down anyway to get it fixed.

-Prep the boat as best we can and then go stay at a hotel. Although we never lost power or wifi during the storm and the boat came thru like a champ, there are just too many variables that could have negatively impacted the outcome. We don’t want to be responsible for jeopardizing someone else’s life to save us.

Although we came thru it all okay, a new, 65′ Hatteras sank on the outside dock of our marina. Apparently the swim platform was bolted to the boat. One of the bolts was missing and it weakened the setup just enough that with a big gust the swim platform was ripped off the boat tearing a hole in the transom which sank the boat. Southport Marina a few miles downriver from us had their pilings give way and ended up with a pile of boats and docks in a mess that will take weeks to sort out.

 

Hopefully that is the only hurricane we get to experience with a boat. If not, you will find me at the bar in the hotel, waiting for it all to be over with.

 

One of the things we’ve been fairly conscientious about is the level of repairs and upgrades we do to the boat. Nothing has been done “half way” and quite frankly, whoever buys this boat down the road from us is going to get a great boat, in much better condition than when we bought it.

Some of the repairs/upgrades/replacements we do ourselves, some we hire professionals to do and sometimes it’s a combination of the two. And that’s where we are today.

We decided a while ago that the carpeting had to be replaced. On a boat you have the option to tack it down with furring strips as you would in a house, or binding the edges so the carpet can be moved. Earlier owners had chosen to tack it down. Unfortunately they covered over a couple hatches and the hatches that they left access to didn’t have any grab rings to open them necessitating using a large screwdriver to get under the edge and lift up. Not a great thing in an emergency and it ultimately frays the carpeting at the edge of the hatch cover.

So we opted to bind the edges of the new carpet. Advantages are that 1) you can just lift the carpet to get to ALL the hatch openings quickly, 2) dirt will not get in the crevices of the hatch covers and the carpet will not get frayed from repeated opening with a screwdriver and 3) if you have a massive water leak as we did the first year of ownership, the carpets can be moved to the bow to dry out instead of having to set up box fans for days on end and “hoping” everything dries out. Sounds reasonable, right?

Once we started pulling up the old carpet and all the furring strips (such fun!) we discovered that in the several carpet changes over the eighteen year lifespan of the Laa-Dee-Dah someone had the bright idea to glue the padding to the floor. What a mess. In addition, to make the hatch covers fit with carpeting around them, they shaved the edges of the covers so now without carpeting they rattle and do not fit snugly.

So, while the carpeting is out at the binders we will sand down the floors and paint them so they are back to their pristine “new” look. We will also attach foam around the edges of the hatches that need it.

Another thing that Gary is doing is refinishing the anti-skid on the bow, flybridge and companionways. This involves sanding down the existing paint and then taping off and painting with a special skid resistant paint with fine sand particles in it.

It’s a lot of work but the end result will be worth it. Besides, with Covid what else are we going to do with our time? After playing golf a couple times a week and going to the grocery store that leaves many, many days for boat projects.

Next up are replacing the two salon chairs and installing privacy blinds in the bedrooms. But that’s just a matter of picking out the stuff and having someone else do the work. Yeah!