Captains Log 04/08/07

Located in Georgetown Exuma

Yes we finally arrived to the cruising mecca of the east coast. We heard lots of stories about Georgetown and I can understand why the place is called the Chicken Harbor. There are all kinds of boats here. I am looking forward to spending few weeks here. Crystals friends are coming next Saturday, and we have plenty of time to do all the errands we wanted to. The ride here was great. NE winds 10-15 with 2-3 foot waves and autopilot steering the entire time. We pulled a barracuda that was too big to eat so we threw it away. The one great thing was that we could see the bottom in 80 feet of water. Just amazing. The day ended up passing by much faster then I anticipated. With great weather traveling is very comfortable. We’ll try to do this the remainder of the thorny path.

Captains Log 04/07/07

Located in Galliot Cay Exuma

Today was a great day of traveling like a true gentlemen. I am beginning to uynderstand the concepts of Bruce Van Sant’s book. The wind was out of the NW and started 15-20 but soon dropped to 10-15. We took the opportunity to make our way all the way through exuma cays and to the last point where we can make an exit into exuma sound, Galliot cut. It proved to be a good decision as we sailed most of the way. Crystal steered during the exciting morning leg of 20knots of wind, and the autopilot did the rest in the afternoon. Entering Galliot Cay from the banks was tricky. We had to slow down in order to get there after low tide. But the chopped had died down and even though I anticipated touching the bottom, we actually made it through only reading 7s and 8s for minute or so. Galliot cut was magnificent. We anchored in a 15 feed of clear water and bottom covered in conch. So even though we are not supposed to take them, I took a larger one just to try the salad. It turned out to be great. We spent the night there and the next morning we were ready to head to exuma sound and to Georgetown.

Captains Log 04/03/07

Located in Normans Cay Exuma
Next few days we spent in the cays in exuma. It was great. Swimming, snorkeling, spearfishing and exploring. We ended up spending few days at Normans cay. There I would spear a nice grouper almost every afternoon. We got to see the sunken airplane, and some ruins, the remnants of Norman’s Cay’s notorious drug days. We had an exciting shark experience. One evening as I was cleaning the grouper, a large one, Crystal though she saw something large swimming in the water. The current was very fast at the time. So just to prove her wrong and that it was not a shark, I tied a strap through the mouth and out the gill of the large grouper head, and I let it float in the current. Net even a minute went by and three large blacktip sharks were circling the stern. Scary moment. The largest one was about 6 feet. Very aggressive but very cautious. After approaching the head for the 4th or 5th time it took one fast aggressive move and she ripped the strap out of my hands. I’ve never seen so much energy come from a fish. But I realized that sharks are still cautious, and afraid of us. From now on whenever we go snorkeling we will swim with the dinghy. This way if we do get surrounded by sharks, we can just hop in and drive away. I don’t think a shark will immediately attack. As I realized from this incident, it will circle around for quite a while before making any aggressive moves. This gives me enough time to get my ass into the dinghy. Anyway, the next day weather had opened up and it was time to head for Georgetown.

Captains Log 04/01/07

Located in Allen’s Cay Exuma

Yes we made it to Exumas. It was a long a exhausting day of only 30Nm made good. But we encountered all kinds of strange conditions and obstacles. Leaving the dock was a night mare. I had to reverse out against wind and current. It was hard. Wind generator blades almost slammed into the top of one of the pilings. I think we missed it by about an inch. That would have been a costly mistake. I just wasn’t paying attention to how high the pilings were. Anyway we got the lines loose one by one as I slowly gave more and more RPMs in reverse. The hard part was keeping the boat going straight and not falling off to the side. The first attempt was a disaster and I had to shift to neutral and let the boat find its way back into the slot between the pilings. The problem was that the stern was just not going backwards, but more like sideways. We would have ended up on the cement wall with current and waves pressing us on to it. So on the second try I kept the rudder straight and gave more power. We started straight and kept on exiting the slip straight until we were far enough to turn the boat and get away from all other docked vessels. Exiting the harbor was tough. We got 3 knots of current against us. We should have left 2-3 hours earlier and not at 10:30. The trip to Allans Cay was only 30NM long but at about half way, there is a bank with many scattered coral heads. The only way to get through there is to have sun up high or at your back and steer around the dangers. That was according to the guide. So I wanted to arrive to that point in mid afternoon as opposed to late morning. Late morning would have had the sun shining in our face and reflection in the water would have made things difficult to see. So leaving at 10:30 on a day where the forecast wind was supposed to be NE-E 15-20 was perfect. Unfortunately the wind was E-SE and on the nose as we exited the harbor. The first 10 miles were horrible. With these winds over the banks that were actually much deeper than Abacos the waves built up considerably. We pounded like never before close hauled and motor-sailing to keep the course over the easiest part of the coral head mine field. Unfortunately after the wind veered even more we had to bear off, and take what she gives us. That left us heading for more dangerous section of the yellow bank with many scattered coral heads. The guide book says: Read the coral heads and steer around them. One good thing was that by the time we got to the bank the waves and wind died down quite a bit. But the mine filed was very tough. Both Crystal and me were yelling and screaming. There is something very nerve wrecking when you see these black monsters rise to the top of the water surface. The wind picked up a bit just as we were crossing the worst section. On top of it all, the engine started overheating so that made it very hard to steer around the coral heads. In fact we could steer downwind but never upwind to get around. To make matters worse, I had to go down and plot our position every 15 minutes. The engine had to remain at 1000 rpms, which gave us 180F running temperature. Anything over and the engine would overheat. I never really believed in murphy’s law, but ever since we left I am getting reassured that if something is going to break, it will do so in worst imaginable time. And so it was. We couldn’t turn back because then the sung glare was in our face. So all we had left is to try our best to navigate around the obstacles. Even worse, the yellow bank got pretty shallow. I was reading 10s and 9s. This was consistent with the chart so I was not paying much attention to it. After an hour or so of dodging disaster, I started getting some 14s and 15s and after plotting our next position, I realized that we went through the worst forest of coral heads on the chart. The rest of the area was still dangerous but with water getting deeper and deeper, the going got a bit easier. But the wind was not cooperating. It turned out of SE and the only direction we could steer was about 170 magnetic. I was dying to find our why the hell was engine overheating. So Crystal was sailing and I took a look at the most likely cause of the overheating, raw water strainer. The dirty Nassau Harbor had something to do with it. The strainer was full of crap. It took a bout half hour to clean it all up, and I was very happy. It was very nice to now I got to the bottom of the problem on my first try. Soon thereafter, we got the engine running and were motor sailing in a bit better direction. I was starting to get worried because all the problems with coral heads, wind and engine got us side tracked we were still good 15NM away from a good overnight anchorage, and the sun was getting lower and lower. So we decided to tack and see what the starboard tack would give us. We were heading due east and pretty soon we could see the exuma islands. I still wanted to have a relaxing sunset which meant getting there by 6-7 at the latest. Since we were motorsailing, I fired up the new and improved watermaker, now firing on all cylinders. I put the second membrane in and now we were back to about 35-40GPH. The first membrane was giving 20, but second one was giving only about 15. Still that’s plenty of water, and with clean raw water strainer the engine was running cool at 160F. The rest of the afternoon went by without a glitch. We dropped sails and motored dead into the wind the last couple of miles. That gave me time to sort things around the cabin. All my books, and charts went flying around while we had that first section of hard beating into the wind and waves. Coolers were all over the place and poor Bella pooped on our newly washed bed sheets. We just had them done and I found hard clunks of poop while cleaning the cabin. Later on Crystal found the wet spot so she must have peed in there as well. Normally that deserves a little spanking but the pounding on the waves was so bad that her tray got thrown around the cabin. She actually spent the entire time in the V-birth noticeably seasick. But all the exhaustion and bad experiences were completely wiped away from my mind as I jumped in the water to hook the anchor. We found a calm little spot very close to land in comfortable 20 feet of crystal clear water in which you could see every bottom detail. As I got in I realized why many consider Exumas the best cruising grounds in the world. I’ve never seen water so clear before. Amazing!! That night we had a full moon and details of the bottom were clearly recognizable. And we are in 20 feet of water. Just incredible. I can’t wait to get in the water next morning with my spear. This is gonna be good.

Captains Log 03/19/07

Located in Nassau harbor

Today we made the quick run around the island to get into Nassau Harbor via the main anchorage. With the NE wind that was now a steady 25 knots I didn’t dare navigating “The Narrows” or “Porgee Roks” channel on the east side. We were actually very close to them but the currents were just too strong and with the winds intensifying through narrow channels, I took the long but deep way around into Nassau Harbor. This route got us back to the outside and exposed to even larger swell. We sailed passed the casinos and hotels admiring the long sandy beaches. Entrance was just around the corner but we still felt uneasy as the waves were just too big. There was no one outside and the few large sport fishing boats constrained themselves in the lee of the salt cay where we anchored the night before. But luckily the main entrance to Nassau harbor was not that bad. They built breakwater out of old barrels. It worked as it provided nice, calm water just behind the entrance. Nassau harbor is interesting since all vessels must first request permission to enter harbor from harbor control. So we did and I was glad that they didn’t have us wait outside in these bad conditions. As we got in we motored around a bit and found what turned out to be a good spot. But due to strong currents we ended up setting a stern anchor. I spent that afternoon reinforcing the dinghy and reorganizing the cabin and deck in preparations for my sisters arrival. The next day we did laundry and groceries. And finally Wednesday came around and it was time to go to the airport. Yeah.

The week with Iva went by faster than I had hoped for. I was glad to see her and that she got away from all the Providence/Cambridge euphoria and rush. We spent time swimming, site seeing and drinking rum and coke. We spent a week in Nassau. But Nassau is the kind of city that I could not take more of. One week was more than enough. The city is very dirty with many bad sections. Even the construction on the nearby casino had the dust blowing everywhere. Our cockpit got ruined. Deck and rigging was even worse. After Iva left, we took the dok at Harbor City Marina for few days to make things easier with groceries, laundry and cleanup of terrible dust that was everywhere. Iva brought bunch of items that I ordered online, one of which was the gentleman’s guide to passages south. A great book and a must have to everyone, embarking on a thorny path to Caribbean. It just makes a lot of sense and we’ll follow it as closely as possible.

Captains Log 03/18/07

Located in Salt Cay (New Providence)

We started the day a bit late. My intention was to beat the sun, but by the time I woke up, it was already light out. I wanted to have a coffee and wake up with a slow morning routine but it was not to be. I raced against the sun to get the mailsail up, make coffee and raise the anchor so that we can start at sunrise. We were about half hour late. Leaving Cherokee sound gave us a nice lee to sail with. As we sailed further and further away NE swell and N winds were picking up and I could feel the rolling of the boat get stronger and stronger. That got Crystal up and about the cabin. She made a quick bite for us to eat before it got too rough. As the morning wore went on I plotted our options for Eluthera, Royal Island and even main harbour in Nassau. Still, the best option was Salt Cay, just in front of hotel Atlantis. The thought of fishing came to my mind several times but the swell was just too great to be comfortable running around the cockpit. We just had to gut it out motorsailing in what turned out to be huge swell. Some of the waves were breaking and were over 7 feet. Crystal handled it really well. Towards the last part of the leg, she was at the helm while I tinkered around with the usual stuff, electrical and mechanical equipment. Steering the boat helped her fight the seasickness that was slowly creeping up on me as well. But by the time we saw the first hotel buildings we felt much better. She kept the helm for the entire afternoon all the way to the very dangerous entrance to Salt Cay. The breakers were very big and the entrance was completely exposed. But according the charts there were plenty of water and just behind the reef, there was protection in the lee of Salt Cay. I was tempted to take over simply because of adrenaline rush and because its usually me that steers near rage seas. However I wanted Crystal to get the hang of the reef waters, currents, swell, and all the other heart pumping and nerve wrecking action that comes with entering the cut. I was telling here where to go and she was steering. And we watched the depth meter go form .00 meaning very very deep beyond the range, usually 2-3 thousand feet, to teens in a matter of minutes as we came to less than ½ mile from the cut. The nice thing about large breaking waves is that they give off the location of all the reefs. I was hanging on to the mast trying the get the picture of the shoreline based on the breakers. Then I would verify it against the charts we had, before telling Crystal where to go. It worked good. Even when we got to less than 15 feet of water I was not worried. Very soon we made the turn and found ourselves in the lee of Salt Cay. Just in time for the sunset. The water was just as clear as in the Abacos and I got my mask and fins to do the usual, anchoring maneuver of digging the tip of the CQR into grassy bottom. By now we got very good at it and it took only few minutes to anchor. The next morning we were gonna take the Nassau Harbour entrance and find a good place to spend the next week with my sister. She is coming in few days. I am very very glad that we made it here because the weather was starting to deteriorate rapidly. The next few days turned out to be very gusty and in no way would we ever be able to make this leg a day or two later.

Captains Log 03/17/07

Located in Cherokee Sound, Abaco

Time flies and so did the week with Maki and Christine. My sister is coming to Nassau on the 21st so we have to make our way south. The forecast is tricky. Chris Parker on Caribbean weather net gave some good forecast this morning that made me change plans and head out early. Last night we got the usual squall with 30 knot winds in Marsh Harbor. We had a lousy night. The squall came at low tide and what woke me up was the 30degrees of heel, howling winds and lightning. I thought for sure we dragged anchor. But we didn’t. As the strong cold front made its way through the winds clocked form SW to NW and picked up. All the boats swung, but us. We were on the ground due to low tide. So I turned the engine and helped a bit. After about 30 minutes we started floating again and lined our selves up with the rest of the boats. I was a bit concerned that the cold front was strong and winds were strong 20-30 and then 20-25. Mainly northerly. But after listening to Caribbean Wx net I realized that Monday and Tuesday were going to be even worse, so I decided to head for the south most anchorage on Great Abaco Island, Cherokee Sound. With Northerly winds, this place offers good protection, aside from the swell from the east that comes in around the Cheeroke Point. Besides, we had couple of other options in North Bar Channel, and Little Harbor to get back in and spend the night in case it got nasty outside. And so I quickly packed up all the snorkeling gear off the deck while Crystal was busy down below. In less then an hour we packed the dinghy, outboards, had some food, filled the gas tanks and found home for most of the items that would otherwise fly around the cabin. Off we went in strong 15-20knots NW winds. My main choice for the exit point was North Man-O-War channel but because the winds were more from the west, I decided to take the more tricky, South Man-O-War channel. We took the time and reefed the mainsail in protection of Man-O-War Cay. The inlet looked very good. Barely any breakers. But as we were approaching the deep water and the last of our waypoints, the sky darkened quickly. Luckily it was just a passing shower. For a second it looked like a squall but it was hardly dangerous. The winds did pick up to about 25 knots out of N-NW and with the #3 gib out we were making fast progress. I was excited to see 8s 9s and even 10s for speed on the handheld GPS. With winds astern, sailing was fast, exciting and rewarding. We blew passed Hope Town, North bar channel, and while we were approaching the little harbor the winds moderated a bit. I decided to go all the way to Cherokee Sound. Unfortunately, south of Little Harbor, winds were veering forward of the beam, so we had to reef the gib as well. The ride got a bit bumpy and I ended up re-checking the charts and protection at Cherokee Sound. I was a bit nervous since I wasn’t sure what kind of protection awaits. The wind picked up around the point to over 25 knots out of NW. After reaching our last waypoint we turned north, dropped the mainsail and slowly inched our way towards the anchorage. Plenty of water and pure clean sand was what awaited us there. Unfortunately the place was bumpy. But only slightly, and until the evening. At sunset the winds moderated to about 15 knots and we went to bed anticipating a long 70 mile journey to Nassau the following day.

Captains Log 03/03/07

Located in Marsh Harbor, Abaco

Because the winds were clocking to south and soon to southwest we decided to leave Great Guana Cay and head for a harbor with better protection. As is usually the case wind was on the nose and blowing 20 knots. With main reefed and a #3 geona all the way out we sailed close and fast along the Great Guana Cay and North Man-O-War channel. I saw that charts were indicating a sand bar just inside and to the north on the North Man-O-War channel so I paid close attention to our depth sounder. And there again soundings were in single digits. Watercolor was pretty consistent lighter and darker shades of green, reminiscent of 10+ feet of water over sand or grass. But after the 9s started turning into 8s, I decided to at least slow us down by heading up unto the wind more and more. This gave us less heel, better overall progress towards Marsh Harbor and lower speed in case we do bump the sand. I just hope there are no obstructions on the seafloor. After I completely exhausted my patience and anxiety with 8 and 9’ readings, and got a few 7-somethings, I decided to tack, and proceed on a heading towards Great Cistern Cay. Soon the reading got a bit better 10s and 12s. Wind remained in the 15-20 out of SW and we were on the west shore of the sea of Abaco in less than 30 minutes. After that it was time to start the engine, lower the sails and get the ground tackle ready. We were arriving on the last half f the rising tide in mid afternoon. I was surprised to see the anchorage completely full. Some familiar faces and boat names were there, but finding a spot was tough. We ended up squeezing through just SW of the second red marker to find 6 feet of water and come to a complete stop on the mud/sand bar. Later on a gentleman next to us shouted that its very shallow there. Well the tide was rising so I just dropped the anchor and muscled my way in reverse to try to hook it. Unfortunately and mud was stirring up and I knew we cannot stay here because at low tide (spring tide was the next evening) we would probably heel about 20 degrees. So I left the boat and put on my snorkeling gear, got into the dinghy and went around the boats talking to people and looking for 8-9 feet of water. I drew that usually disbelief on people’s faces. “You draw over 7’ and you came to the Abacos”? Good luck. But I eventually did find a spot and before dark we got the anchor up and moved to a place that was better. At least here while still touching the bottom at low tide, we did not heel, and did manage to move around as the wind clocked along the cold front. Marsh Harbour is very nice. We kind of used it as a hub and did day trips to where ever we can find good shelter and plenty of water. Then after my cousin came with his girlfriend, we spend a week on the west side of Man-o-War cay eating grouper, snapper and spiny lobsters, enjoying sunsets and warm clear water.

Captains Log 03/01/07

Located in Great Guana Cay, Abaco

We left Bakers bay in search for a better protection form the SE winds. We sailed hard into fresh SE breeze for few hours, tacking once and arriving at Great Guana Cay. Calm anchorage with some moorings and a nice little island offering protection. Winds did pick up in the afternoon and I am glad we arrived here. After the usual procedure for hooking the anchor with me in the water and Crystal at the helm, we enjoyed the place. I went snorkeling while Crustal was making reading. That evening we went into town to a small bar on the other side of the island, facing the east and the coral reef. This is the third largest coral reef in the world. Its very nice. We forgot the camera that day, but will be sure to take photos of the reef on the next occasion. They were serving some funky cocktails that got Crystal pretty tipsy and at te end sleepy. I was just drinking the Kalik (pronounced more like click) Bahamian beer. It was “party hardy” and we woke up the next day hangover. I was glad to meet all the locals that live on the island.

Captains Log 02/28/07

Located in Bakers Bay, Abaco

Today we motored for few hours traversing the Whale Cay passage. It went quick with no surprises. O the outside the swell was felt but nothing to bad. This passage is the worst one in Abacos and I am glad we went through it. I used the engine runtime to also fill up watertanks. We are still running the watermaker on one membrane so production is only 20GPH. Bakers bay is not as nice as on the pictures. They are building a golf course and some kind of a private resort there so you couldn’t go out and explore.

Captains Log 02/27/07

Located in Green Turtle Cay, Abaco

Today we did a quick hop over to Green Turtle Cay. All the hops in the Abacos will be quick. We motored through the tricky shallow area and then sailed downwind to the outside of the harbor. Once again we were the lonely boat outside as we didn’t dare going in in fear of running aground. That evening we got a lightning show. The cold front that came through brought some vicious thunderstorms. They were all around. At one point the wind was blowing hard, over 30 knots but only for few minutes. Thank god I had dove in to dig the anchor. It held pretty good. With all the lightning we didn’t get much sleep that night. Me made up for it the next morning. But because of the cold front, and the fact that the water was calm we decided to traverse the dangerous whale cay passage. According to some cruisers you can get stuck for a month waiting to rage seas to subside before going through this channel. And that’s the only way to pass through and on to the rest of Abacos.