2017-Florida Bound

We arrived in Fl Oct 11^th after delaying our trip by a week due to hurricane Mathew hitting our area. Uncertain of what we would find we were pleasantly surprised to find our home and boat in great shape. Not so for many marinas and boats in the area. The sailboat we share a slip with sits on the bottom with a huge hole in the bow after her spring lines parted. A neighboring 40 ft sportfish also has much damage from beating against pilings.  When 70 mph winds veered west the waves swept into our normally protected harbor, thankfully Apres Ski was stored 25 miles inland where winds only reached 40 kts.

sad site in slip next to ours

Back in the water Nov 2

After a quick cleanup Apres Ski is back in the water and secure in our slip close to home in Jensen Beach. The only major project has been replacing our house battery bank. This included adding 2 more batteries for a total of 6 golf cart batteries. Hopefully with all the improvements made last year this will make life easier while living aboard. The weather this winter has been fantastic and we have spent many hours daysailing along with a few overnites to favorite anchorages.

CRUISING IN LUXURY

For a much more pampered style of cruising we usually take a cruise on a real ship and this fall we found a few deals to good to pass up. A week on Royal Carribean’s  Majesty of the Seas took us around the Bahamas, this was followed by 2 seperate weeks aboard Fathom’s Adonia to the Dominican Republic.  This was a different type of cruising as the ship only holds 700 passengers and specializes in what they term impact cruising. The ship docks in the DR for 4 days and passengers can volunteer in the community thru various organized programs. We rented a car for both trips and had a great time exploring this beautiful Island. The highlite was the 27 waterfalls national park where a guide leads you sliding thru cascades and jumping off waterfalls. We had such a great time we returned during our second visit.

View from our balcony

BAHAMAS BOUND

Feb 27, 2017- Having skipped our Bahamas trip last year we are anxious to be back on the water and have set March first as our target date to head out. With the boat provisioned for 3 months it looks like we have a break in the weather by mid week so we head out to stage for our crossing in Lake Worth(Palm Beach) a day early in case we encounter any delays. This portion of our trip takes across the gulf stream where the current flows north at up to 4 kts and if there is any amount of north wind the seas build to incredible heights. As typically happens our 3 day weather window shortens until the evening prior to departure it looks like we will have only about 30 hours before the north winds build and we need to be in a protected anchorage which is 100 nm away. We normally break this trip up into 2 days but decide after much discussion to head out during the early morning hours so we can be anchored before dark. In case you think we are risking being caught out in bad weather we do have a back up plan to detour to a marina in West End which is only 6 miles south of our projected route and only 55 nm from Fl.  As we sit at anchor close to the inlet we are amazed at the number of boats arriving with plans to cross during the night. Long time sailing friends Kitty and Scott aboard Tamure arrive and we are pleased to have friends along for the trip. Their tentative plan is to continue to Green Turtle Cay to be at a marina for the upcoming weather. This adds another 50nm to the trip that we wouldn’t even consider.  They are long time sailors having twice sailed around the world in their younger days and have great stories to tell.

CROSSING THE GULF STREAM

Thurs March 3rd-As is common for me I find myself anxious and unable to sleep so I wake Chris and we up anchor at 2 AM. Many of our neighbors had left at 11 PM but Chris doesn’t like being out at nite so this was my compromise. We also wanted to give the seas time to calm down from the previous days winds. Calm winds and only a bit rolly as we motor into the dark night. Very few ships cross our path and we were able to easily avoid them thanks to our radar and AIS. We approach Memory Rock and the Bahama Banks by 10AM with the wind building and a few showers around. Finally roll out the jib and we motor sail with a building swell. Arrive at our destination Great Sale Cay at 5 PM to find only 3 boats anchored, we made great time averaging 6.5 knots.

As we drop anchor we are hailed by our friends on Tamure and invited over for cocktails. They decided to stop here and only beat us by an hour. After launching the dingy off the deck where we store it for ocean passages and mounting the outboard it refused to start so since it had been a long day we settled in for a quiet evening.

GREAT SALE CAY

Fri thru Wed- As predicted by early morning the north winds are howling and will only build as the days progress. We up anchor to poke out into the open seas but decide to stay put rather than fight the building seas. Our friends on Tamure carry on but the are a much larger and heavier boat.  By Sat morning winds are 25 to 30kts gusting to 40 but we are quite comfortable in our protected anchorage. Our new wind generator is working like a champ keeping our batteries fully charged.

This uninhabited island is very low lying and inhospitable with ironstone shoreline and thick mangroves. The only landing is across the harbor and a very choppy dingy ride to get there so we spent the first couple of days aboard reading and working on some delayed maintenance items. Fought with dingy motors (neither wanted to cooperate) finally getting both running good. Sunset cocktails 2 evenings with neighbors Rex and Reba aboard Moonraker made for a fun couple of evenings. Had a great time fishing as hundreds of barracuda were hanging out in the shallows and the clear water made it fun to try drifting up on them. Even the small ones give a great fight and I kept a few of the smaller fish making a fine dinner plus freezing a few meals along with making a batch of chowder. As the winds subsided slightly we were able to get off the boat for hikes to a nice beach on the far side of the island.   

GREEN TURTLE CAY

Thursday March 9^th- Calm winds and flat seas make for an easy motoring trip for the 50 nm to Green Turtle where we will clear customs. Arrive late afternoon and spend a quiet nite anchored in the outer harbor.