Captains Log 05/20/07

Located in South Caicos

The ride today started with calm seas and no wind. Unfortunately, around half way mark, a squall hit and the wind turned on the nose. It was blowing pretty hard so we had to motorsail and talk in pretty steep chop. The ride turned out to be miserable. After we neared the eastern end of the caicos bank, the wind veered a bit more towards SE and we were able to take a starboard tack motorsailing with full gib. This gave us quite a boost in speed but the chop was still very steep and narrow making the ride uncomfortable. Few hours of this and we can turn north towards south caicos. However, the turn takes place after the banks end and deep ocean begins. This makes seas even worst as we found out. But we were able to sail and keep the boat heeled. This made the ride much more comfortable. I tried fishing again but had no luck. We got into South Caicos around 4PM. The anchorage is quite calm and looks like we'll be sleeping good here. We plan on Checking out in the morning and heading for Luperon, DR!!!

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Captains Log 05/19/07

Located in French Cay, Caicos Bank

Today, we had a nice sail/motorsail ride for about 15 NM south, across the caicos bank. We decided to spend the night at French Cay since it was pointless to motor more and more into the wind. We were hoping that the next day would bring more favourable winds. The anchorage was next to nature reserve and it was beautiful. The water was clear and warm, you could clearly see the conch and other small snails on the sandy bottom with scattered rocks. That evening we enjoyed the cold drinks and went to bed with the beautiful sunset. Overnight, a squall came quickly and turned us around. For a second I thought it might be violent but it was not. The winds never got over 13kts. The next morning we got our fishing gear ready for a short ride over the deep water before crossing the south caicos bank and went on to South Caicos.

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Captains Log 05/12/07

Located in Sapodilla Bay, North Caicos

Yes we finally left Bahamas. After spending February, March, April, and beginning of May, we are sad to leave but excited to discover new places. And new it was. Caicos island is definitely like a whole different world. People don't yell the way they did in Bahamas. The influence of hispaniola is definitely felt. We heard a lot more Spanish, spoken on the streets, and marenge and bachata was blasting from a nearby bar where we lounged for the afternoon. The trip to Caicos was pretty good. We still had few squalls that we had to dodge, but overall we are glad to have left because the weather will be deteriorating as the week goes on. We tried fishing but had no luck. Now that all the wire and hooks were properly crimped we expected to not loose any fish, but unfortunately we never got a hit. Weather in Caicos was pretty much the same. The stationary trough was stubborn and kept bringing squalls, rain and clouds. The bay is very bumpy. Unfortunately we have to hang out here and wait for weather to improve before we go across the banks to South Caicos.

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Captains Log 05/10/07

Located in Mayaguana, Bahamas

Today we covered the longest run on our path from Georgetown to Luperon. It was the 120NM or so due SE. We left around noon time, with intention of traveling through the night and arriving at Mayaguana on the next day. The afternoon was lovely with near calm winds. Occasionally the winds would pick up out of the south so we motorsailed in the general direction north of Samana Cay. I had couple of hits on the lure, but unfortunately the mahi was just too big. Lost it again. By the time evening arrived, we started noticing some squall activities in front and NE of us. The entire area of south Bahamas is the epicenter of scattered showers and thunderstorms. They are very much so stationary and easy to spot, but the winds in them are very strong as we came to find out. After talking to Carry Okies and Songbird, the two boats we were traveling with, we decided to head south of Samana Cay. It looked that we could avoid some of the squalls by heading south instead of north of Samana Cay. We rounded the western point late in the evening. Unfortunately the weather deteriorated rapidly after that. Light winds picked up to 15-20 out of the south and it didn't look like we could sneak by on the lee shore of Samana Cay. So we altered tack to head towards Acklins island, near by to the west. The entire area was filled with storm pockets and getting around them required some careful planning in avoiding the shoals around the islands. Heading due S we soon ran into some violent weather. Lightning all around, was fortunately in the upper clouds. We noticed very few ground hits, but we decided to tack and head back due east. We managed to build considerable fetch south of the lee shore of Samana Cay, and decided to try and push through the storm pockets and head east. As the storms kept appearing the wind clocked a bit to SW, which actually gave us a bit of a push. But then the storm pocket would go away and reappear at another location producing backing winds that headed us. In all the storm activity, I was most concerned with staying away from South side of Samana Cay. We had about 2 hours of rough weather riding to clear the eastern shoals of Samana Cay. Those two hours dissipated along with storms by the early morning hours. All we were left with is disturbed, boiling seas, and very light winds. By then we were able to alter course and head for Betsy Bay, on the NW shore of Mayaguana. As we made our way south the waves were subsiding and the winds actually picked up a bit out of E-SE giving us an opportunity to sail. That morning I lost another mahi, and the lure. They are just too big for my equipment. I will have to revisit our strategy on fishing in tropical waters. Line definitely has to be stronger than 80lbs. More like 100 or 200, and wall mart is no longer a place to get all the supplies needed. We'll have to visit bait and tackle shops. The rest of the day went by very smooth and we decided to head all the way around Mayaguana on to its south side and anchor in Abrahams Bay behind the reef. That's where the other boats were heading as well.
The anchorage turned out to be very pleasant and after we anchored, we headed over to Carry Okies for some sundowners. The following day we rested, fished on the reef and had a pleasant relaxing day planning to go to Turks and Caicos on the next day.

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Captains Log 05/06/07

Waiting on Weather in Rum Cay, Bahamas

The next morning I took all of my anger on the smaller inhabitants of the local reef SE of Sumner point. I got me a nice 3 lbs bar jack, which turned out to be quite tasty on the grill. I believe that is a change in fortunes. I am finally catching some kind of fish. I hope it goes better from here on out. There were few sharks circling the same reef along with me. I somehow convinced myself that I am higher on the food chain, so I took their lunch right in front of them, got it up on the dinghy almost instantly and got myself up as well. We'll go again the next day, but next time, for a different fish. That afternoon we visited Rum Cay the untouched jewel of Bahamas. And it really is. As they spelled it "unspoilt" jewel on the big sign at the government dock. The town was dead, appropriate for a Sunday. How is it that a town of not more that 100 people has 2 churches? Two different religions, says Crystal. 2 bars I understand, one marina ok, one grocery and one administrations building (more like a shed) I understand that as well, but two churches I didn't quite get. But never the less we'll spend few days in this wonderful community. The weather is still puzzling and nobody knows for sure when and if this bad storm system is supposed to visit our area. That is kind of important, because I cannot get into the marina and we have no protection from the S through NW winds. That is big opening. But all the forecasts keep insisting on N-NE-E 10 kts winds. So we'll see, we'll keep a wary eye on the weather and act appropriately. Meanwhile its reef time. Oh yea, and drinking piss warm sundowner(a drink at sunset) rum and coke.
The one thing I forgot to mention is that our watermaker is working flawlessly. I don't want to jinks it, but in these corners of the world, water is hard to come by. We are drinking ours and loving and absorbing every bit of the comfort that comes with it. The salinity went down to 500ppm from 700-800ppm. That mans I am drinking it. And it tastes great. Pure clean H2O.

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Captains Log 05/05/07

Located in Rum Cay, Bahamas

Yes, we are still in Bahamas, but at least we are making some serious progress again. I am very upset that we lost 5, I mean FIVE big mahis on today's leg. All the boats traveling in our group caught one, but us. And we had 5 hits, none of which were brought in. Anyway, I am still proud to say that we are the only boat, purely sailing today. Everyone motorsailed because the wind was just too far forward of the beam, and on the nose.
We woke up in the morning flat calm water with just a light easterly winds. By the time I listened the 6:30 forecast, made coffee and omelet, the wind had picked up a tiny bit out of the NE. Just perfect for us to sail off the anchor without ever turning the engine on. It was one of those magical days on which you can just raise the mainsail and the anchor up by hand, and sail off in the morning calm. By the time we rounded the leeward reefs, the other boats were hailing us on the radio, wondering what's the rush. But I knew they would eventually catch up with us as we had to tack for some time, until we managed to round the dangerous reef-infected cape Santa Maria, the northern tip of Long Island. I was determined to not motor at 5$/Gal and 1 Gal per hour, which equates to Rhode Island's minimum wage in 1999 or so. For a while, we contemplated going to Conception island, a beautiful uninhabited and lonesome island just NE of us, but the wind just gave us a better tack to make more progress towards our eventual goal, the DR. So we tacked back to port tack and spend a majority of the day healed to starboard and making great progress just about on the rumb line to Rum Cay. Everyone else was motor sailing and falling off further and further off the wind. Love the C&C for its windward capability, and we'll definitely need every bit of it from here on to the virgins. But back to our miserable fishing day. I think if we had by any chance landed every single one of our hits, we would have had over 100lbs of Mahi onboard. That's a lot of fish. But luck was just not on our side. I think, after consulting with everyone else upon arriving at Rum Cay, I realized that I am setting my hook too close to the little wiggly, rubber, wig-looking green and yellow lure. Those stupid fish go for something so dumb looking…I just don't understand it. But from here on out, I will make sure that the hook is about 4-5 inches away from the lure. New England striper and bluefish fishing doesn't get you far around here. Everything's changed. The nylon is 80lbs test at least, and the lures are completely different.
So our luck just keep on turning sour. The fridge died, and we have to live out of the can which were extremely expensive in Georgetown, and selection was pathetic. The only fresh food we could hope for is some trolling catch. You can imagine the disappointment on my face after that 4-5 foot mahi fell off. It took about 20 minutes of fighting to reel it in close enough to the boat where I was about the hook it with the gaff hook. Crystal was filming the entire ordeal. My mouth was already watering. That fish had some amazing yellow, green and blue colors, along with some very mean facial expressions. And then all of a sudden its gone. The line breaks as I was about to gaff it. I was gonna turn around because the fish was so drained from the fight that I thought I would have a chance to gaff him from the surface of the water if I turned around immediately. But the seas were just too big to have a chance.
So after that, we did have few more hits but the fish came off after about 5 minutes of fighting. Besides the failures of catching the fish, we had no other problems getting in to Rum Cay anchorage. That evening I went to check out the other boat's catches. And it was amazing. Gigantic fish. But I think patience will pay off.

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Captain's Log 05/04/07

Located in Calabash, Long Island

Yes there's long island, Bahamas. We got there today. It was a calm motoring ride across the exuma sound to Long Island's Calabash Bay. We are here with our traveling buddy boats. Some of which will go with us all the way south and some will head back north after Rum Cay.
Anyway, it was time to leave Georgetown and the weather window opened up. There is still an uncertainty as to what the weather will be like in the next 5 days. That is a very bad thing around here. These islands do NOT have an all around weather protection. So if the squall comes you could end up beached up if you don't get out of the death traps or your anchors don't hold. Weather is the most important thing in the islands of SE Bahamas. So we left the protection of Exumas and Georgetown knowing this. And we are here in Calabash. And the funny thing is, against all the predictions from all the weather models and all the experts, the wind turned out of the west and brought some rolly seas in the anchorage. Pinned us right against the sandy beach. But nobody predicted it. At least it was just the day thing. At night the night lee took over, and it was very nice and calm. Tomorrow we are heading on further on our thorny path.

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Captain's Log -05/01/07

Georgetown Exuma
April 2007
Time in Georgetown was pretty nice. We discovered the other side of Stocking island with beautiful water and long sandy beaches. Plenty of swimming, fishing, snorkeling and beach activity. But besides the nature, everything else is pretty disappointing. Spending more than a week or two in this place proved to be a mistake. We got sick of inflated prices, crazy local boaters driving fast through the anchorage, filthy stinky street corners, bad food and stingy bartenders (the one at Chat-n-Chill took the 10 for a 4 dollar Kalick, and never gave me the change). Even the kids are very rude and have no manners. The one pushing the shopping cart from the grocery store to the dinghy dock, regularly smashes everything around. Eggs, juice cans and other groceries come flying down the dock. And these juice prices are 2-3 times more expensive than wall-mart. We needed a fax and quickly discovered that a 1 page fax to US was 8$ at the Exuma Business services? Later on we found out that exuma markets charges 2$ so that wasn't so bad. Gas was 5$/Gal ouch! That probably influences the price of taxi, a bit high, and everything else a bit overpriced. What I dislike the most is how loud everyone is. The only place we were able to find WIFI was Eddy's bar on lake Victoria. But don't dare going there when there's more than half dozen locals there. It turns into a shouting match and I couldn't even hear Crystal talking while sitting next to me. But we got used to all that, and thought that if we adjusted our approach to Georgetown we don't have to be so miserable, and we can actually enjoy the place. We had pretty good time during the Family Islands Regatta the Americas Cup equivalent for Bahamas. There were quite a few boats there. They built tents and plywood bars all along the government docks and it was crazy and wild. It was fun to go there for a day, but that's about all we could take. We got a bad case of diarrhea after eating some ribs and chicken. I think they reheat those during the week of regatta. So if you want some native Bahamian food on the 5th day of regatta, better go to a restaurant and pay 25 per plate. If you get it from the street vendors, it was likely cooked 5 days ago and then just kept there in the tent somewhere with all the flies and other insect crowding it. Then you order it, and it gets reheated on the grill for you.
Besides all the bad stuff we had an awesome time and met few other cruising boats that we hang out with daily. That is what cruising is all about. We had our own little parties on a different boat every night, and it turned out to be lots of fun. But then we had a spell of bad luck. Major issue was the fridge. Seawater got into the cooling loop and ruined the compressor, and the cold plate. So now we are stuck without the fridge and its hot down here. The guy that sold it seems like a nice guy but after spending 1200 on the fridge 3 years ago, I cannot see myself spending another 1200 on a new one. So I have decided to take the DIY route. Kind of like the way I did it with the watermaker.
I learned quite a bit about refrigeration in the last few weeks. I even learned how to spell it correctly after googling it so many times and sending so many emails to the manufacturer of the one that crapped out on us. Bottom line is, it seems that I can either spend in access of 1000$ and get complete new system and have my hands tied. I cannot work on it, nor fix it immediately. If something bad happens like seawater in the system I have no way of knowing until its all over. Or I can spend a bit under 1000, and just get tools, perhaps a compressor and refrigerant and try to get the current one working. If we were on the US soil that would be a no-brainer. But in a place where a can of refrigerant is 30 dollars(5$ can in the US), and a trip to the hardware store usually ends up in spending 100 dollars for small little thing that would not amount to a 20$ bill, I cannot start fixing it. I have to be patient. We just have to wait until we are in a more accessible place and order stuff online. Then I would get some more instruments that will warn me when disaster is about the strike so I can shut the compressor and the pump off before seawater damages everything.
Until then, we are gonna try to live a new life. The one without the fridge!!! Oh we take that little fridge for granted every day. Just expected to work and have ice, cold milk, and juice, meats etc. But one little screw-up and our life takes a 180 degree bad turn. But we are getting used to it. I am getting used to rum and coke at room temperature and starting to like it. No more meats, milk or cold drinks. But we'll see. Its been over a week and its not that bad. We could afford to go to the store and get sandwich meat, at an exploded price of 7$ for a 1/4lbs package of turkey. Ouch, and eat it for a day or two. But now we are under way. No stores around. So we'll have to live out of the can. We'll try eating eggs without refrigerating them and we'll see how long they last. On top of it all, mother nature cast a bad spell on me and I cannot catch any fish. In 3 weeks that we spent in Georgetown I only caught 3 fish. And riding the dinghy to the fishing place was a hike. So I spend about 100$ in gas dingying around and only have Yellow Jack, Grouper and a French Market to show for. At least the yellow jack was awesome. And it needs nothing. Yellow Jack fillet thrown on the grill is about as tasty as best grade tuna.

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