Spanish Wells to Warderick Wells

We refueled and left Spanish Wells on Tuesday December 28th. We left around noon in order to time our arrival at Current Cut around slack tide. This is a cut between the sound at the northern end of Eluthera and the southern part of Eleuthera. As the name implies there can be a severe current flowing through the cut. While doing some research on it I found some web sites that claim that this is the best drift dive for scuba divers in the world. At times the current can get up to 10 knots. Our boat won't even go that fast so it would be impossible and dangerous to try to go through when there is a strong current flowing. We arrived at the cut around high tide and went right into the cut having the current flowing with us at between one half and one knot. As we came out of the cut we had to make a ninety degree turn to the right into a narrow channel. If the current is flowing to fast it can carry the boat right into the shallows.

About a mile past the cut on the south side of Current Island we anchored for the night. The weather was calm and in the mid 60's overnight with clear skies. It was so dark we could see stars right down to the horizon. There was only one other boat near us.

On Wednesday we left early for the 40 miles to get to Allen's Cay in the northern Exuma island chain. We made good time and pulled into the anchorage around 3:00 in the afternoon. As soon as we got anchored Steve and Roberta from Chanticleer dinghyed over to us. They are the boat we were rafted up to in Vero Beach. They had arrived from Nassau about 30 minutes before we arrived.

We only stayed at Allen's Cay for one night. On Thursday we headed down to Norman's Cay which was only about a 14 mile sail. Chanticleer was right on our stern as we made the sail. We both pulled into the anchorage at Norman's around noon. We stayed at Norman's for four nights. During our visit we hiked on the island and did some beach combing to look for shells. We also snorkeled the nearby reef which didn't really have that much sea life. I was particularly looking for lobsters to catch. We were able to see fireworks on New Year's Eve from an island to the southeast of us. There isn't any settlement at Norman's and not much really going on.

We departed Norman's on Monday the 3rd of January and motored the 6 miles southeast to Shroud Cay. This is the start of the Exuma Land and Sea Park which extends to the southeast another 20 miles or so. After anchoring we took the dinghy and explored the northern end of the island. We went to one of the beaches and walked on the sand and in the shallows. We found several conch but had to put them back. The park does not allow any taking of fish, shellfish or lobsters.

We just stayed one night at Shroud Cay and then had a nice sail 18 miles down to Warderick Wells. We were able to get a mooring buoy in the north mooring field. There is a cold front coming in with winds predicted to be 25-30 knots from the west and northwest. This is a good protected spot and the moorings were filling fast.

We took a hike to Boo Boo hill and beach and went to some blow holes on the ocean side of the island. It is called Boo Boo hill because it is supposed to be haunted from a ship wreck in the 18th century. Very scenic area with many different colors of the water. I have some great photos but won't be able to get them uploaded until we have a faster internet connection. We also have one of the better snorkel sites just 100 yards from the boat. We have already snorkeled there several times. There are numerous varieties of fish and some huge lobsters. The water is still a little chilly so we have to wear our wet suits when we snorkel.

We will be here until after the cold front passes through and then continue moving southeast.

Moving Southeast

We stayed in Lucaya for four nights and then had a good weather window to move further southeast. We left Lucaya on Tuesday morning around 10 AM. We were heading for Royal Island which is 120 miles away at the northwestern tip of Eleuthera Island. We knew that there was going to be a strong cold front coming thru on Christmas day and we wanted all around protection. There is an anchorage on the south side of Royal Island with a small inlet to get in which gives good protection. On the sail over we had mostly light winds which kept the seas down to 2-3 feet. We were in the lee of Grand Bahama Island and then Great Abaco Island which blocked the north Atlantic swell. There was an area of about 25 miles where we had no protection from the swell and we saw an average of a six foot swell with an occasional ten footer with a period of about 10 seconds. There really wasn't much wind driven waves so the ride was pretty comfortable.

We arrived Wednesday morning around 8 AM and settled into the anchorage. Once getting the hook down we took some naps to catch up on the sleep we missed during the night. There were two other sailboats in the anchorage when we arrived and later that day four trawlers came in.

Watching the weather further it appeared that the cold front was really going to be worse than first predicted so we moved to a slip at Spanish Wells which is a settlement (town) just seven miles to the east of Royal Island. Spanish Wells is on St. Georges Cay. The population here is a little different than other islands in the Bahamas. They are decendents of some British and American loyalists from around the revolutionary time period. There accent is different from the rest of the Bahamian people also. Most of the money on the island comes from lobster fishing. This is where Red Lobster gets all of it's lobsters.

They celebrate Christmas in a similar manner that we do the Fourth of July. There were games and races for the kids in the park and fireworks being shot off everywhere. We went to a fireworks show on the beach at the western end of the island at midnight. Very different custom than what we are accustomed too.

We will be here through the cold front and hopefully be moving south to the northern Exumas sometime mid next week. We won't have very good internet access from here on so postings may be sparse. Merry Christmas to all.

Bahamas!!

Just a quick post to let y'all know we made it to the Bahamas. We Left Vero Beach on Wednesday with 30 degree temperatures and went down the ICW to Jensen Beach. On Thursday we continued down the ICW and went right out the Lake Worth inlet at 4:40 PM. The winds were initially higher than forecast and the seas were somewhat choppy with 3-4 foot seas. Once we got out about 10 miles the seas calmed down and so did the wind. We had a south wind about 8-12 all night and seas were 1-2 with swells and no real chop. The gulf stream was pleasantly pleasantly smooth and it was an east crossing.

We pulled into the Grand Bahama Yacht Club in Lucaya, Grand Bahama about 10:00 AM so it was a 24 hour run. We refueled and checked in with immigration and customs which took about an hour.

Now it is time for a nap. I will post more with photos as we continue down the Bahamas island chain.

Clewie Clip!

Hi all! Things have been going pretty good since I last checked in. You probably read that we had company aboard. I really like it when new people come aboard. I am so cute and a novelty to them that they love to play with me. I know that has worn off my people. Although they do still play with me but not as much as I would like.

We had three days of that noisy motor thing again. I guess I am getting somewhat used to it but I still stay up in the forward bed to get away from it. Now we are someplace where they don't have to make the noise and I really like that.

I was just hanging out and I had this funny feeling that I was being watched. I looked around and to my dreaded surprise there was another one of my kind looking down from the stairway.










My people were saying something about Tiger being our neighbor and I should be nice to him. Well, I will be nice as long as he quits staring at me and doesn't come inside to eat my food. A girl has to have her privacy you know. Now I have to keep looking around to see if I am being watched. I keep looking up in every room I am in. I just never know when he might be up looking in through the hatches or companionway. I think I am ready to move already. Oh, maybe we can be friends!

Well, that's all for now, bye.

St. Augustine to Vero Beach

We left St. Augustine on Monday morning. My brother Dave left the boat for the Jacksonville airport around 6:00 AM and we left the slip at 6:50 AM. We wanted to make Vero in three days on the ICW and the total distance is 174 miles. We had really good current with us heading south. We were making 8.4 knots for the first couple of hours and then started slowing as the current slowed. We were around 6.8 knots most of the rest of the day. There were only a few other boats heading south at that time.

We were behind a boat named Bamboushay that all of a sudden turned sideways in the channel. Sandy was at the helm and immediately went to reverse to stop our forward movement because she thought for sure they had hit bottom, and sure enough they did. There draft is one foot deeper than ours so we didn't have any problem with that area, also we stayed to the green side of the channel which was recommended for that area. Bamboushay was able to back off and get going again.

About 3:15 PM we had the anchor down in Rockhouse Creek which is just north of New Smyrna Beach and just inside the Ponce De Leon inlet. There was a smaller sailboat that had beach during low tide next to the anchorage. I figured they did it on purpose to clean the bottom. The boat was about 25 feet. When high tide came in around 8:00 PM they moved out to deeper water and anchored.

On Tuesday morning we started off at 6:55 AM. There is a bridge that was 3 miles away that opens on the 20 minutes starting on the hour and we wanted to make the 7:20 opening. We made it there with several minutes to spare but they were doing maintenance on the gates that stop road traffic and didn't get the bridge open until 7:50. So much for timing. We had good current this day also although we were not going as fast. We made our second anchorage of Cocoa around 2:50 PM. The weather had continued to be good with the sun shining and temperatures around 75.

On Wednesday we again left just before 7:00 AM and had no problems making the third leg to Vero Beach. We arrived around 2:20 and went into the fuel dock to get a holding tank pump out. While at the dock we got our mooring assignment. We were to go to mooring ball 28 and raft up with a boat named Chanticleer. The mooring field was very crowded with most moorings having either two or three boats on them. Vero is the place to be for a cruisers Thanksgiving get together.

We were looking for our mooring and the boat named Chanticleer. We had to zig-zag between other boats and came to the area where we thought we needed to be. Low and behold there was a Chanticleer boat on our starboard and another one on our port. This could only happen to us. We couldn't see the number on the mooring ball from where we were so we had to pull forward of the two boats to see that we wanted the Chanticleer on our port. We hailed the boat and the couple on it helped us raft up to them. We then talked for about an hour with them and found out they are from Texas also. From the Houston area. They are also heading for the Bahamas and them plan on doing the thorny path south to the eastern Caribbean.

When we came in to the mooring field we saw that the boats Destiny and Song of Pogo were here also. We had been in several anchorages and marinas with them since North Carolina and were offshore with Destiny for 30 hours. We had gotten together with them, Jimmie and Bess and Otis and Marty for dinner in St. Augustine. Our cruising plans are all similiar so I'm sure we will see them in the Bahamas too.

We plan to stay here for a week or so to do our major provisioning and we are still waiting for the pet import papers to arrive from the Bahamas. Once all that is done we only have to head down to north Lake Worth and wait for a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream and over to the Bahamas. I will keep y'all informed.

Fernandina to St. Augustine

We stayed in Fernandina Beach for a couple of days. We stayed out on a mooring ball and had to dinghy to the marina. The current that runs in the river is very strong and with the wind blowing it was a wet ride to shore. The little town of Fernandina is very nice. Lots of little shops where you can get pretty much any curio or trinket you want. We left on Saturday and backtracked north into Georgia. It was only five miles to the anchorage off of Cumberland Island.

The southern end of Cumberland Island is a National Park which was given to the U.S. by Thomas Carnegie. There are lots of hiking trails through the forest which is made up of many varieties of trees. From old live oaks to palms. The live oaks have moss hanging all throughout. We also visited the ruins of the Carnegie vacation mansion, Dungeness. The home and other buildings were built in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The house had been empty for many years when it burned in 1959. There are many wild horses roaming the island that you can get pretty close to without spooking them. We also saw several armadillos that didn't seemed to be spooked either. After visiting the ruins we walked another mile to the beach on the Atlantic side of the island.
































































From Cumberland Island we headed south to St. Augustine. It was a two day trip so we stopped at a marina in Jacksonville Beach for the night. We arrived at the marina early so I was able to hose the boat off with fresh water. The first time since coming in from the ocean. The deck was pretty crusted with salt. We were also able to fill the fresh water tank. The St. Augustine Municipal Marina now has three mooring fields. They charge much less for a mooring ball than a slip.

We picked up a mooring and got to work doing chores. I was able to change the oil in both the main engine and the generator. We also took the bus to the Publix supermarket and were able to restock the galley with a couple weeks of food. Once the chores were complete we visited the town. We stayed here a week in April on the way north and saw the town then but it is always fun to walk around in the shops. We had planned on staying in St. Augustine for a week because my brother Dave is flying down on Friday the 19th to visit for a few days.

On Monday the 22nd we are planning on heading south to Vero Beach. It will take us four days down the ICW to get there. Once there we will do some major provisioning to prepare for our crossing to the Bahamas.

Back in FLorida

From Dowry Creek we proceeded down the Pungo River, across the Pamlico river, through another canal and out into the Neuse River. The winds were very strong from the North and the seas were very choppy with some waves as high as four feet. We stopped in Oriental at the Whittaker Pointe Marina. This is the same marina we had stopped in on the way north in May. It is a very nice facility and has a courtesy van to drive. We were the only transients at the dock so we used the van a lot. We went into New Bern, which is about 25 miles away to the Super WalMart and Harris Teeter grocery. We stocked up on things we were out of, especially meat and fresh produce.

While there I had to get my stuffing box restuffed. It was leaking a couple drips a second even when sitting at the dock. I had to pump the bilge every 8-10 hours. Just tightening it would not solve the problem so I had Deaton Yacht Services put new GFO stuffing in.

The weather turned bad with heavy rain for a couple of days and cold winds. This gave me a chance to continue with the Crazy Ivan problem we are still having with the auto pilot. While going through the system I discovered that the Rudder Angle Transmitter, RAT, that figures, was not installed very well. It was on a flimsy piece of plywood that could wiggle around. I took some starboard, which I got at Deaton Yacht Services and really secured it so it does not budge. So far it has been working good.

When the weather cleared we headed out from Oriental on the ICW. We wanted to go outside in the ocean from the Beaufort inlet to the Masonboro inlet. That would have saved us two days on the ICW. The waves were still pretty high and confused to we did the ICW. The first night we stopped at Dudley's Marina in Swansboro. They had us tied up to a bulkhead and in the morning when we went to leave the current was flowing so fast we were pinned to the bulkhead. It took 3 guys on the dock to push the boat off. We scraped down the pilings but it didn't cause any damage. After 47 nautical miles we stopped in Wrightville Beach. The current there was running about 3 knots with the flow going with us. There is a bridge that only opens on the hour just before Wrightville Beach. It was like a zoo with about 20 other boats trying to maneuver in a small channel with the current while waiting for the opening.

We stayed one night in Wrightville Beach and then did a short 25 miles to Southport Marina in Southport NC. We had planned to go out the Cape Fear River inlet to Charleston the next day. The weather was looking really good for the next five days so instead we stayed at the marina two nights to give us time to set the boat up for an ocean passage. We had to put everything that could fly around in heavy seas away and strap the big items down.

We left on Tuesday and instead of heading for Charleston, SC we headed for Fernandina Beach, Florida. The route is 270 miles and I estimated it would take us 48-54 hours. We had left at 0640 and arrived in Fernandina Beach at 0840 on Wednesday. This saved us about eight days on the ICW. We put our new AIS, Automatic Identification System to the test. It was well worth the money. Going past the Charleston inlet at 0400 we were able to easily track cargo ships coming out and going in. We had one incident where I was tracking a ship that was inbound to Charleston from the south. His track was straight for us as we were heading in a southwesterly direction. The AIS gives us the name of the ship, destination, heading, turning rate, speed and other information about the ship. I called him on the VHF radio to make sure he saw us on his radar. He confirmed that he did and would go to our stern. Well I could see on the AIS that he kept turning towards us as we continued southwesterly. At night the distances are very deceiving. It looked like he was right on top of us and in the dark all I could see was these huge red and green bow lights coming right for us. I was shaking in my foul weather boots. I radioed him again and he assured me he could see us and would go to our stern. I could also see him on our radar and he didn't come any closer than one mile distance to us but at night that is plenty close enough.

There were two other sail boats, Destiny, with Jim and Bess, and Aruba II with Andre, whom we had met at the Dismal Swamp visitor center traveling along with us. It was nice to know that when we are 30-40 miles offshore there is someone else out there too. We talked quite a bit on the radio to pass the night away and help stay awake. Andre has sailed quite a bit and always solo. He sleeps for 20 minutes at a time while the auto pilot is steering.

We arrived at the St. Mary's river inlet around 0500. I didn't want to do a night entry, even though I had been through this inlet before and it is an easy inlet to enter, so we hove to for an hour and a half outside and just north of the inlet to let the sun come up. Once in we tied up to one of the mooring buoys at the Fernandina Harbor Marina. We will stay here a couple of days to rest and make plans for continuing.

Here is a short video I took while we were about 30 miles off the coast from Savannah Georgia.

Clewie Clip!

Wow! so much has happened I don't know where to begin. We were at this place, my people called it The Swamp. There were lots of boats really close together and other people were walking across ours. I wanted to jump from boat to boat but the woman wouldn't let me. I had to be satisfied with just sitting in the back place and watch. When the other people would come by they would all say, "What pretty blue eyes you have", well yeah, I'm a Siamese. Some would come and touch me and I would smell them. The ones that smelled good I would lick. Some didn't smell too good though. From my seat I could see lots of trees, in fact the whole place was trees. I wanted so bad to go out and climb them and pretend that I am the queen of the jungle. Ah, dreams are good.

We left there and went to this place where we were tied up at a park. All I could do there is dream about running in the park. I saw some of the same other people that I saw at The Swamp place. We didn't stay here very long. I heard the woman say something about getting some wine and then leaving. We did stay overnight though.

The next day we had some men people get on the boat and we weren't ever by land. They looked really official and looked all over the boat. At first it scared me but when one of the scary looking man people said, "Ah, you have a kitty on board", I knew we would be OK. We kept going and they got off, I don't know where they went or how but they got off.

We stopped for awhile at some dock and it rained and got really cold. I'm glad we were at the dock so we could have heat. I don't have that nasty long fur like my sister to help keep me warm. It is like icky, she licks it and then barfs. I just laugh.

After a few more of the regular days with that loud thingy they call a motor running we had a really long period of moving. I thought it would never end and my people were mostly up above. Every time they would come down below I would scream really loud, to be heard over the motor thingy, and then rub all up against them to get attention. We finally stopped and now it seems to be a lot warmer. Hmmm, wonder why that is!

Bye Bye for now.
Clewie

Dismal Swamp and South

After leaving the York River Yacht Haven we went south in the Chesapeake and into the Elizabeth River where we anchored at Hospital Point. The winds were high and the seas choppy enroute. We passed the entrance to Saltponds Marina where we spent three months in the summer. Everyone complained about the entry channel being too shallow. There was a sailboat aground in the channel and other boats could not get in or out. We heard they are going to dredge it this winter. Let's hope.

When we arrived at Hospital Point there were already about 20 boats anchored there. The bottom is not real good for holding your anchor and it took us a couple of tries to get ours to set good. It was windy but a pleasant night. Both shores, Norfolk and Portsmouth were all lit up. It was like being anchored in the center of a city, which it was. When we woke up in the morning there was a huge Carnival Cruise Ship moored along the Norfolk side pier about 200 yards from us. We didn't even hear it arrive. There was two police boats patrolling along side it to keep other boats away.

We left Hospital Point around 8 AM and headed down the Elizabeth River and into the canal that leads to the Deep Creek lock at the north end of the Dismal Swamp Canal route. We had to wait about 30 minutes before the lock opened. There were 15 boats total going into the lock. It took longer than normal to get through the lock because the operator wanted to let the water in slowly as to not knock boats around. Here is a short video clip of the locking. It would have been longer but I ran out of space on my card. To see the videos on full screen click on the button on the lower right of the video after you start it.



Once in the Dismal Swamp it was single file up to the Dismal Swamp Visitors Center which was a distance of 18 miles. The visitors center also serves as a rest stop for North Carolina route 17 traffic. I think drivers are amazed when they stop and see these boats there. We seem to be an attraction for them. Many come down and take photos and talk to us.







































There is only enough room on the wall at the visitors center for 3 or 4 boats so rafting is expected. In the picture we are the boat on the inside front. This was taken after 5 boats had already left. There had been three rafted together in front of us.











There is a small bridge that swings open and closed to allow people to cross the canal to visit a small museum about the swamp and also hike on the miles of trails. The Dismal Swamp State Park is North Carolina's 2nd largest state park. We saw deer very near the visitor center.










We ended up staying at the visitors center 4 nights. The weather had turned bad with high winds from the south, rain and thunderstorms. We could have moved on down the canal to Elizabeth City but they were packed with boats on every bulk head, in every slip and filling the anchorage. They were not moving because of the weather so we couldn't move. On Friday we finally headed out for Elizabeth City. It was only a 23 mile run so it didn't take very long. We were able to find a spot on the bulkhead by the city park to tie up to. Here is a video clip of the upper Pasquotank River which is the river we enter after leaving the Dismal Swamp. It goes into Elizabeth CIty and then south to Albermarle Sound.

Video clip of the upper Pasquotank River just past the Dismal Swamp Canal.



We only stayed one night at Elizabeth City. Enough time for Sandy to resupply the wine and licorice stash. I hit the ice cream store, deli and chips stores.

We continued down the Pasquotank River and at the mouth where it meets Albermarle Sound we were boarded by the U.S. Coast Guard. They come up from behind you in a fast rigid inflatable boat. They have you maintain your course and speed while two officers cross over to our boat. They did there normal safety inspection, checking our documents and holding tank settings. It took them about 15 minutes to complete everything and then they leave. The two officers were very polite and treated us with respect. After crossing Albermarle Sound we entered the Alligator River. The entrance is a bit tricky. Shoaling continues to change the route. You cannot go by your charts at all. You strictly follow the buoys. This is where we ran aground in May on our way north. While going through there was a 50+ foot power yacht stuck. A Towboat US boat was trying to pull it off the shoal. We went through without seeing anything less than 10 feet. While continuing on we heard several more boats call Towboat US to get pulled off. I hope they were members with unlimited towing because one tow can cost you up to $800.

We stopped for the night anchored in the Alligator River just before preceding into the Alligator River - Pungo River Canal. We then left at dawn and just went 30 miles to the Dowry Creek Marina where we had to refuel and pump out the holding tank. We will stay here the night and continue to Oriental in the morning.

While at the visitor center we made friends with other boaters and have been going along at the same pace. We all met at Elizabeth City, some were anchored in the Alligator River by us and a few are here at the Dowry Creek Marina for the night.

We're Moving! We're Moving!

All of our engine maintenance items are completed. Chad at Zimmerman Marine did a great job. We had the fuel injectors pulled and cleaned, valves adjusted, belt inspected and tightened, coolant drained, flushed and replaced and we had a small oil leaked fixed. I highly recommend the good folks at Zimmerman.

We left the dock this morning early and went south. The winds were forecast to be southwest around 5. They were southwest but up close to 20. The Chesapeake was really choppy. We were able to sail part of the way and had to motor sail the rest. We stopped in Sarah Creek which is up the York River. We will stay here one night and then complete the Chesapeake transit tomorrow. We will go into the Elizabeth River and stop at Hospital Point. That is in Norfolk right next to the Naval hospital. From there we will go back thru the Dismal Swamp Canal and down to Elizabeth City, North Carolina. That much should take us 5 to 7 days depending on weather. We may sit tight for a day or two. This coming week there are thunderstorms and rain in the forecast.