Current Position 41 27.3N 070 35.9W

Weather, weather, weather…what can I say? We’re holed up here in Vineyard Haven on Martha’s Vineyard waiting for a long enough weather window to make the last passage home. I guess that “holed up” isn’t exactly the right term, but we’ll get to that later.

Green Turtle Cay to Beaufort NC

Amazing as it seems, our plan for leaving the Bahamas (at least, our final plan) worked perfectly. We left Man O’War for Green Turtle Cay on Sunday May 9 ahead of a forecast cold front. Yes, it’s true, contrary to all rumours we have in fact left Man O’War. Our docklines were not so barnacle encrusted that we couldn’t undo them, nor was the boat stuck fast to the bottom.

When we left Man O'War, we knew that we would be stuck in Green Turtle until the front passed, but at least we would be on the right side of the Whale for our departure. We spent a relaxing couple of days in Green Turtle walking on the beach (you remember, the beach where the dogs run for miles) and getting the boat ready for her passage back to the States.

The forecast looked good for a Wednesday departure in 15 to 20 knot easterlies, with the wind lighter the further north we went. And it looked good enough to get us all the way to Charleston, although Beaufort didn ‘t look feasible as a cold front was forecast to hit there about the time that we would arrive. We planned our route to head north out the Bahama Banks, then head to the centre of the Gulf Stream where the current is strongest, and ride it up towards Charleston. Once we were off Charleston in two days time, if the weather for Beaufort looked better we would stay in the Gulf Stream following it northeast to Beaufort, otherwise we would duck in to Charleston. We didn’t want to take the straight line route from the Bahamas to Beaufort because then we would have no fallback route. And while the straight line distance is shorter, the increased speed from the Gulf Stream just about makes the routes equal time-wise.

Wednesday morning arrived and the forecast still looked good, so off we went. We had a lovely sail up the Sea of Abaco towards the Bahama Banks. As we passed through the north end of the Sea the VHF came to life – “Ketch sailing by, this is the schooner Joss - just wanted to say that you look beautiful". Not seeing any boats around, I had no idea if he meant us or someone further away. After another minute or two, the radio came back to life with "Ketch by Crab Cay, this is the schooner Joss - she looks fantastic". Well, now I knew that he meant me, so I replied with a thanks, had a chat and carried on. After a few more minutes it dawned on me that there were no other boats around, so where was this schooner? Back on the radio and I learned that he was anchored between Crab Cay and the "Mainland" and saw us sail past. Cool.

We continued on our way, making it onto the shallow Bahama Banks around 11:30pm. The seas weren't too bad and the sailing was good. We crossed over the edge of the Banks and into the Atlantic at around 9:00am and set our course for the Gulf Stream. By around 2pm we were hitting the edge of the Stream and the seas became very rolly with not enough wind to sail. As we motorsailed into the Stream our speed picked up from 6 knots to 8 knots and finally to over 9 knots – we were in the thick of it! We were making good speed but it was a very uncomfortable ride with rolly seas and little wind. By evening things had settled down and the ride was much better.

Friday morning we listened to the 6:30 weather forecast and things had changed. It now looked like the front forecast for Beaufort had stalled and we would have enough of a window to make it all the way, arriving Sunday morning. We spent the next two days sailing, motoring and motorsailing finally arriving in Beaufort almost exactly 4 days after we left Green Turtle Cay.

As we made our way in the Inlet a small boat headed out towards us – it was our friend Mike in his lovely little fishing boat the he designed and built to escort us in. Well, not only did he escort us in, he also invited us to his house for dinner that night. Delicious food, great company and it came complete with pickup and delivery service – not too bad. Little did we know that this was just the beginning of our social events!

On our way into Beaufort we called “Homeland Security” to report our entry. We didn’t realize that there are not supposed to be security threats on the weekend so the Beaufort office was closed. We finally reached someone who took our information and told us that while we were not officially cleared in, we were free to leave the boat. The agent would show up the next morning to complete the formalities. Since we had to be at a dock for customs, we decided to splurge and take a dock for the night. Shortly after we tied up another small boat approached, but this time we didn’t recognize the people. Well, it turns out that our friends the Barr’s had told their friend Jim in Beaufort that we were arriving that morning (which they knew from our Spot track). He came by to offer us the use of his dock, a little further up the river from the marina. Needless to say, we took him up on his kind offer.

Next on our social calendar was a dinner invitation to our friends Pete and Jennifer’s on Tuesday night and lastly a fresh fish dinner Wednesday at our host Jim’s house. Not bad – four nights in Beaufort, three at friends and the other a delicious take-out pizza! But alas, it was time to move on. Thursday morning we made a 12 hour trek to Bellhaven, anchoring just before dusk. Up early the next morning, we had another 12 hour day to Elizabeth City. Needless to say, after our troubles in Elizabeth City on the way down, we made sure to tie to the wall where there were TALL pilings. Even though the weather was calm and settled, we weren’t taking any chances!

Beaufort NC to Elizabeth City NC

We took a day off and stayed at Elizabeth City, relaxing and, of course, visiting our favourite pub “Thumpers” for a beer and nachos. Donna mentioned to her parents that our plan was to arrive in Hampton on Monday and stay for a couple of days. Well, the next thing you know we received an e-mail from Donna’s Dad that they were going to drive down and meet us there! It worked on the way south, so why not?! We planned a couple of easy days to get to Hampton, rather than one long one. We left Elizabeth City Sunday morning in time to make the 11:00 opening of the first lock in the Dismal Swamp. From there, we motored to the second lock but rather than going through at the 3:30 opening we tied up to the wall before the lock and stayed the night. Monday morning we locked through at 8:30 and carried on to Hampton, arriving around 1pm. Donna’s parents showed up as planned and we had a nice visit for a couple of days.

Hampton VA to Cape May NJ

Our original plan was to leave Hampton for Cape Cod but the weather just wouldn’t cooperate. The forecast was not good for the foreseeable future so we went on to Plan B. We contacted friends in the Annapolis area and arranged to meet them Saturday night. From there we would move on to an anchorage in the Magothy River just north of Annapolis and meet some other friends on Sunday. Thursday the weather looked good so off we went. We decided that if the weather was good we would just keep on going through the night, arriving in Annapolis in the morning. Because it would be the Friday of Memorial Day weekend we knew that it would be crowded in Annapolis and the earlier we got there, the better.

All went well until the weather radio started broadcasting a severe thunderstorm watch for the area that we would be traveling through overnight. Here’s the dilemma that we faced – the watch was valid until 9pm. We would arrive at the Little Wicomaco River, our last potential anchorage spot before dark, at around 8pm. If we continued on with the watch still in effect, we could get hit with severe weather. If we stopped and the watch was cancelled, we would miss an opportunity to continue on. We decided that if the watch had not been cancelled when we arrived at Little Wicomaco we would go in and anchor until conditions changed, then if all looked clear, continue on. We had been in Little Wicomaco previously and it’s a fairly straight channel in and out, so we felt that we could do it in the dark.

Unfortunately, we left one thing out of our plan. Crab pots. Hundreds of them. As we pulled in to the river it’s all we could see. We left the channel aiming for a small clearing in the pots where we could drop the hook. Just as we were ready to anchor the wind piped up to 20 knots and more (we have a handy, dandy wind instrument now!). The anchor didn’t hold well on the first try so rather than try again in the same spot in the failing light, we turned back towards the channel and found another spot. This time the anchor grabbed and we were set. There were only about five pots between us and the channel so we thought that we may still be able to get out in the dark if the watch was cancelled and we decided to move on.

Sure enough, around 9:30 the watch was cancelled. The sky still looked very unsettled and stormy, so we decided to stay put and check again around midnight. Just as I went on deck to see how things looked later in the night, the rain started pouring down. And with the rain came the thunderstorms. We stayed put. We rose early the next morning and carried on in much more settled weather, arriving in Annapolis around 6pm. Luckily we were able to pick up the last mooring available, so we were set.

All’s well that ends well - we met up with our friends as planned Saturday night and had a great time. Sunday morning we headed off for the Magothy River and met up with our friends from Rock Hall. It was Memorial Day weekend and beautiful weather and it was unbelievable to see the number of boats motoring, sailing and anchored. Hundreds of boats everywhere you looked. Every anchorage that we passed was full of boats, with most rafted two and more deep. Our friends had suggested earlier that we raft off of them and it was only after we saw the anchorages that we realized that this was the norm. As we made our way to the anchorage we thought that it would be fairly empty because it was so tucked away but boy were we wrong! There were dozens of boats with more arriving all day. We rafted to our friend’s boat and had a great, but short, visit.

Monday morning it was up early and on our way to Chesapeake City in the C&D Canal. It was a calm, hot day. That is, it was calm until the powerboats woke up. Then it was rough and rolly with all the wakes and no wind to steady the boat. We arrived at Chesapeake City around 2pm to find it full of weekenders and day trippers enjoying the lovely weather. We found a place to anchor between two boats that we knew would be leaving before dark, and sure enough a couple of hours later off they went opening up more swinging room for us. We did learn one thing from our weekend travels – NEVER travel on Memorial Day weekend!

The weather for Tuesday was forecast to be stormy and rainy so we decided to stay put rather than make our way to Cape May. We had a nice relaxing day touring around town and hanging around the boat. Wednesday morning it was off for another 12 hour day fighting the currents of the Delaware up to Cape May. We arrived at around 6pm and anchored off the Coast Guard station. Looking around for somewhere to walk the dogs, the easiest place seemed to be the beach in front of the end of the Coast Guard station, so off we went. As we landed on the beach we noticed the No Trespassing signs up in the bushes above the beach. Thinking that this meant that you couldn’t leave the beach (after all, it was below the high water mark), we landed the dinghy and walked the dogs. A coast guard cutter that had just left the dock made a turn towards us and seemed to be watching us. Sure enough, a few minutes later two armed guards showed up on the beach. Apparently the high water mark doesn’t apply to government property, or so the guys with the guns told us. After taking our information, we were free to go back to the boat. Ah well, it wasn’t that bad, at least the dogs got their “business” done!

Cape May NJ to Vineyard Haven MA

Once again the weather wouldn’t cooperate and we were forced to stay in Cape May another day (now having found another place to walk the dogs). On Friday the weather looked good enough for an overnighter to Sandy Hook, but it wasn’t a long enough period to make it to Martha’s Vineyard. We decided to take what we could get and headed off around 11am.

As we made our way motorsailing along the coast the weather radio once again issued a severe thunderstorm watch for our area. Fortunately no storms developed where we were and we arrived at Sandy Hook around 8:00 Saturday morning. We anchored behind the breakwall at Atlantic Highlands in a very protected area, which ended up being a good thing because on Sunday the wind built to 25 to 30 knots with gusts to 35 and 40 knots. In one of the bigger gusts we dragged a bit but the anchor reset itself nicely. We were, however, a little closer than I liked to the boat behind us given the conditions so we up anchored and moved upwind a few hundred feet. We let out more scope on the chain and held well through the rest of the storm.

We left Sandy Hook with the next decent weather window on Monday June 7, headed (finally) for Martha’s Vineyard. If you remember, back in Man O’War Cay we met Nat Benjamin who is one of the partners of Gannon and Benjamin, a famous wooden boatbuilding shop. At the time he invited us to visit him at their shop on Martha’s Vineyard and promised to clear space for us on the dock. We had been in touch with him along the way and true to his word he encouraged us to come to his yard. The winds were forecast to be west and northwest which meant that if we stayed close to Long Island we would be protected from the waves but have a decent wind for sailing. Well, we were protected from the waves but the wind never really developed. Once again, a combination of sailing, motoring and motorsailing carried us along the coast of Long Island to Montauk.

At the east end of Long Island there are strong currents flowing in and out of Long Island Sound. Once we were off Montauk, which is the easternmost point of Long Island, we lost the lee and the seas were quite rolly and confused. As we passed Block Island the currents eased and the seas became more regular making for a nicer ride. We entered Vineyard Sound at around noon with the current against us, which slowed our speed to 5 knots or so. We arrived at Vineyard Haven around 4pm Tuesday and rafted our boat alongside Nat’s beautiful schooner “Charlotte”.

We spent Tuesday evening and Wednesday hanging around, meeting the people at the boatyard and seeing some beautiful boats. Wednesday night and Thursday were forecast to be strong northeasterlies and since the G&B dock is very exposed to these, we had to leave the dock. Nat put his schooner on his mooring and we took a town mooring behind the protective breakwall for a couple of nights.

With the rainy weather on Thursday we decided to rent a car and tour the island. We circumnavigated, checking out all the highlights (and finding a Laundromat along the way since it seemed we’d be here a while the way the weather forecast looked!). Our favourite was Menemsha, a small fishing community very much like Nova Scotia. When we checked the weather Thursday night things had changed and it looked like there might be a window to leave Friday morning and arrive in Nova Scotia Sunday night so we started planning. It’s not straightforward to leave here to the east because of the shoals and currents. The choice is to either go through Woods Hole to Buzzards Bay and the Cape Cod canal or head east on Nantucket Sound and go through Pollock Rip, which is a narrow channel through the shoals out into the Atlantic. In either case it is best to travel through the areas of strong current close to slack tide. We determined that if we left Vineyard Sound at around 9am we would arrive at Pollock Rip at around slack tide at 3pm.

We prepared as much as we could with the plan to wake up at 6am, check the weather and if all still looked good we’d finish our preparations and head out at 9. Alas, it was not to be. When we checked the forecast Friday morning the window had shortened and it really didn’t look feasible. Back to sleep we went.

Things were abuzz at the G&B yard Friday because they were doing last minute preparations for the launch of a new 28’ double ended sloop on Saturday. Nat moved his boat back to the dock but we decided to move to his mooring rather than the dock so that we wouldn’t be in the way. By late afternoon all seemed under control and it was time for “beer Friday”. This is similar to a non-shareholder’s meeting at Billy’s in Nova Scotia, except that only the boatyard people attend (and invited guests like us!). It was a good time to get to know the people at the yard and hear and tell interesting stories, some of which may have a bit of truth to them. A good time had by all.

Saturday morning we wandered over to Gannon and Benjamin’s other shop, which is much bigger and not on the water. It is also the home of a 45’ sloop that is being built for the other partner of the yard, Ross Gannon. As with all of their work, she is magnificent. The attention to detail and the quality of the craftsmanship is incredible. Her launch date is July 10 and I would love to be here to see it (hmm, better be careful what I wish for!).

Noon was launch time for the new boat. About 50 people attended including (of course) the owner and his friends who had arrived in style the night before aboard their family’s Concordia yawl “Niam”. The yard put on a big spread of food and beer and wine and made quite a party out of it.

Now we’re sitting here on Nat’s mooring, surrounded by the schooner “Juno” (a 65’ schooner built by G&B), “When and If” (a 65’ foot Alden schooner built for General Patton) and “Shenandoah” (a 108’ topsail schooner) waiting for weather. And that’s why I can’t really say that we’re “holed up” here – it really is a wonderful spot to be “stuck”. It looks like the weather may clear up by Tuesday night or Wednesday morning so we may be on our way home by mid-week, but that is definitely subject to change.

Howard and Donna (and Storm and Zephyr)
On board “Malolo”, nowhere near Man O’War Cay, Bahamas

Current Position 26 35.8N 077 00.5W (Look familiar?)

Here we are again (or still), tied to our favourite dock in Man O’War Cay. The weather has finally taken a turn for the better with the cold fronts becoming more spread out and less intense, although it’s still a lot breezier than normal. We’ve been taking advantage by getting out some in our boat and others, and enjoying the nice weather while we can.

Our first adventure began one Friday when we heard a call for us on the VHF from “Tiger Lily”. We were expecting the call. Our friend Gareth is a delivery captain and had let us know that he would be delivering a catamaran down to Marsh Harbour. He called us as he passed Man O’War (somehow knowing that we’d be there!) to let us know that he had arrived. He wouldn’t be staying around long once the boat was safely at dock, so we made arrangements to meet up with him the next day, Saturday.

Unfortunately, Saturday was blowing about 30 knots and we really weren’t looking forward to moving our boat to Marsh and anchoring in the exposed harbour. Plan B - we took the ferry instead, a new experience for us! Twenty minutes or so after leaving the ferry dock in Man O’War we were at the terminal in Marsh Harbour. Much more civilized than beating into 30 knots for a couple of hours! We met up with Gareth, did some shopping and helped Gareth out by allowing him to give us all of the leftover groceries on his boat (it’s ok Gareth, you can return the favour another time!).

Our friend Jennifer and her two kids had arrived in Hopetown and their rental cottage the previous Tuesday as planned, but the winds were blowing so much that none of the boats in the harbour left so there were no moorings available (and there’s no anchoring room in the harbour) so we couldn’t get there to visit. The winds finally died down on Sunday, the day after we visited Gareth, and boats started moving out. Our friends who were in the harbour snagged us a mooring (by putting a “Reserved” buoy on it, not totally legit, but what the heck) and off we went.

Jennifer was waiting for us and we headed to the local beach with her two kids. And two other couples and their eight kids. Did I mention TEN kids in total?! At lunch the five of us went off in Jennifer’s rental golf cart to “On Da Beach” for a bite to eat and then to Tahiti Beach at the south end of the island. The other two couples and their eight kids also went to Tahiti Beach. Did I mention TEN kids in total? We ended our day back at Jennifer’s cottage barbequing a dinner of leg of lamb that Jennifer had brought from home.

On Monday I took Jennifer and her kids to the Hopetown Lighthouse in our dinghy to climb the 102 steps to the top. Fortunately our dinghy is quite small, so no room for the other eight kids! Off to lunch at the Abaco Inn, some more time at the beach (yes, ten kids), and then said our goodbyes as Jennifer was leaving early Tuesday morning. We spent Tuesday hanging around Hopetown, taking advantage of the half price margaritas and tacos at Captain Jack’s and generally relaxing in adult company.

Wednesday morning we headed south to Little Harbour at the bottom of the Sea of Abaco. Little Harbour was settled in the 1950’s by a Canadian/American artist named Randolph Johnston and his young family. He convinced the Bahamian government to give him the land in return for certain upgrades including roads, buildings, etc. Initially they lived on their boat in the harbour, then in the natural caves that surround the harbour and finally in a house that they built. Randolph built a foundry to do his lost wax casting which is now run by his son Pete. Also, and perhaps more enthusiastically run by Pete is “Pete’s Pub”, a bar/restaurant on the beach. We enjoyed a delicious tuna (as in fresh caught) sandwich and a Kalik or two.

While enjoying our sandwich, who should show up but the remainder of Jennifer’s party from Hopetown. They had rented a couple of boats and made the trek to Little Harbour. Did I mention eight kids? You can run but you can’t hide!

We heard that there was going to be a “pour” at the foundry on Thursday so we decided to hang around a second day to see it. It was quite the experience to watch the artists suit up in fireproof space suits, lift the molten bronze from the crucible and pour it into the molds. Of course we had to celebrate with another tuna sandwich (and a Kalik or two) at Pete’s. Friday we had a lovely sail back up to Man O’War and our favourite dock.

When we first arrived in Man O’War in December, our friend Jay had offered to make us a new curtain for the back of our pilothouse, and when we returned from Little Harbour he had some time to start the project. By Monday, we had a fantastic new curtain, with total protection from wind and rain. If we have time before we leave, Jay is going to make us a new sun awning for the cockpit and shade cloths to go over the windows on the new curtain at the back of the pilothouse. If we stay long enough, we’ll also have time to cut down a used staysail that Jay gave us to replace our club footed sail with a loose footed one. Now you see why we can’t leave, Jay treats us too well!

One day Donna, Jay and I were sitting around the cockpit talking about how windy it was and I dug out our handheld wind instrument to get a reading. All of a sudden, Jay took off for his workshop. A few minutes later he reappeared with a Standard Horizon masthead wind speed/direction instrument in its original box. Turns out that he had bought it for a customer several years ago but something happened and he ended up with it. When I brought out our handheld it reminded him about it. He had no use for it so he kindly gave it to us.

Notice in the product description above the word “masthead”. Since our mast is upright in the boat and not lying on its side on the dock, installation involved a trip (actually two) to the masthead by, you guessed it, me! Now I’m not really keen on going up the mast but you gotta do what you gotta do. We rigged up the bosun’s chair and led the halyard to our (powered) anchor windlass and up I went. At the top I removed a stainless fitting that we had made that held the trilight and windex. I wasn’t able to drill through the stainless for the wind instrument while hanging from the masthead so I undid everything and brought it down to deck level. On deck it was easy to install the bracket and back up I went to reinstall it all. On the way down I tied the wind instrument cable to the shroud and we were done. Now we can tell the masthead windspeed from the comfort of the pilothouse!

Our next adventure was a repeat of sorts for me. There is a group of people around the Abacos who race their radio controlled lasers throughout the winter. Jay was the host of an event off his dock here in Man O’War harbour, and since he has two boats, I was able to race. It was a repeat because on our way home from the Bahamas last trip, we stopped to visit friends in Rock Hall, MD and I raced radio controlled lasers there. It was quite a sight to see most of the racers standing on “Malolo’s” side deck while the boats raced out and around the harbour. Ten boats participated and I managed to finish sixth in a series of eight races. Of course, the only people I beat were others who had only raced once or twice before, but it was a lot of fun.

Next up was another fishing expedition, but this time with real fishermen (no offence intended to Ted, my previous fishing buddy)! Dave, a friend of Jay’s, along with his son Travis and Travis’s friend Ben, had come over from their home in Florida to do some fishing. They rented a 20’ boat and were staying in a cottage that Jay and Jan have here on their property. They went out every day, and every day came back with fish. The first day was barracuda, then it was mahi mahi after that. We enjoyed a week of grilled fish, sushi, blackened fish, fried fish and pretty much anything else you can do with fish (except for Jan’s fish salad which we were treated to yesterday and it’s to die for - see why we can't leave, Jan treats us too well!).

I went out with them one evening to the reef on a shark fishing expedition. After about a half an hour of throwing fish guts and heads into the water (called “chumming”, I am told), the sharks and other fish arrived. One took Travis’s hook and headed for Guana Cay, about 6 miles distant. Well, ok, maybe it didn’t get that far but it sure seemed like. Once the reel stopped screaming, Travis started reeling it in. I was just glad it wasn’t my line because it sure looked like a lot of work.

After about 10 minutes of pumping and winding, the line went slack and the fish was gone. Next up was a hit on Ben’s line. His moment of glory didn’t last as long and when he pulled his empty line up the wire leader was all kinked and bent out of shape. I think it was a good thing that that fish came nowhere near the boat. Needless to say, nothing hit my line and that was just fine with me.

Next on the agenda was another trip to Marsh Harbour. The main purpose of this one was for Jay to get a haircut (I guess some people have to worry about such things?!), but also involved various errands and lunch at Snappa’s. Because the tide was too low to get “Malolo” off the dock, we decided to take Jan’s “speedboat”. This is an 18’ open boat with a centre console that was designed and built by Jan’s father Edwin, the builder of “Malolo”. It was ten minutes from the dock in Man O’War to the dock in Marsh Harbour. We wouldn’t even have been out of Man O’War harbour if we had gone in “Malolo”!

That’s pretty much the notable things that we’ve been up to, or at least the ones we can talk about. While I wouldn’t call this part of our adventure a cruising trip, we’ve had a great winter and had loads of fun and interesting experiences.

The one bad thing about the hot weather that we’ve been having lately is that our decks are leaking once again, although not very much and only in very heavy rain. We spent a lot of time and money repairing them last summer and coating them with a product called Coelan. It is a plastic like film that stretches, supposedly 300% so that it moves with the wood in the decks as the wood expands and contracts in the heat and humidity. It worked fantastically until the past few weeks when the weather turned very hot.

The Coelan primer has a tint to it that darkened the decks which causes them to get very hot in the sun. That heat has caused the deck planking to shrink up, opening some minute cracks in the Coelan. It doesn’t leak a lot, just drop by drop, but it’s enough that we have to move things out of the way. I have squeezed some compound into the cracks where I can see them and that has reduced the problem quite a bit. I think that the longer term answer is to put another coat or two of Coelan over top and then paint the decks a light colour so that they don’t get as hot. As much as I hate to lose the look of the laid wood decks, I think that’s the way to go if we’re going to bring the boat back south.

The other bad thing is that it’s time to start thinking about heading north. As much as we love it here and have been having a lots of fun, it’s time to head for home. We hope to get a long enough weather window that we can head straight from the Bahamas to Charleston SC, using the two or three knot northward push of the Gulf Stream to speed us along. If we’re really lucky, once we’re in the Gulf Stream off Charleston if the forecast still looks good, we will hang a right and keep on going towards Beaufort, NC. It should be about a two and a half to three day trip to Charleston, and three and a half to four to Beaufort.

Depending on the forecast, we may head from Man O’War up through “The Whale” and stop at a couple of cays up there that we like before heading across the Bahama Banks and out the north end into the Atlantic. Alternatively, we may just head out from Man O’War, through the North Man O’War Channel to the Atlantic and start our passage from there. Right now it seems that there may be a good window after next Thursday (May 6). If that forecast holds we could head north earlier in the week then wait until Friday (or whenever) to leave, or we could just wait here until the window opens up. Given that it’s Jay’s birthday on May 5 and we’d like to stay for that if possible, I expect we’ll be heading directly from here! We’ll send an e-mail before we leave so that you can put on your favourite Spot watching sweater, pull up a chair and watch the excitement!

This will undoubtedly be our last update from the Bahamas, and if we get good weather for the trip home it may be our last before then. Hope for good weather for us!

Howard and Donna (and Storm and Zephyr)
On board “Malolo”, still tied to the dock at Man O’War Cay, Bahamas but thinking about leaving

Current Position 26 35.8N 077 00.5W

Well, I said that this trip would be a lot different than last time, and it is.

First, the weather has been different. It has been colder and windier than usual. It is normal for cold fronts to blow through the Bahamas once a week or so during January and February. These fronts bring strong clocking winds, starting in the southwest ahead of the front and ending in the northeast after the front. Because of the changing wind direction it is important to be in a harbour with protection all the way around (such as Man O’War, but more on that later).

This year, we have been averaging two to three fronts per week. A front normally brings strong winds for a day in advance of the front and a day or two after it passes. Doing the math, you get the picture. We have been getting maybe one or two decent days followed by two or three high wind days (often 30 knots and more) for the past two months. Needless to say, those conditions make for difficult cruising.

And that leads to the next big difference in our journey. Rather than cruising around the Bahamas, we have been spending most of our time tied to our friends Jay and Jan’s dock here in Man O’War. Our original plan was to use Man O’War as a base while making short cruises around the Abacos. Instead, primarily because of the weather, we have been doing a lot less cruising than planned. On the other hand, because of that we have enjoyed the company of our friends, made lots of new friends and met some very interesting people. With the weather what it’s been, we’ve also had lots of time to work on our indoor projects, including crocheting for Donna and carving for me.

Our first journey away from the dock was mid-January when we went to Green Turtle Cay to meet up with our friends Deb and Dick on board “Ar Sgrail”. They had left their boat on the hard at Green Turtle for the summer and were arriving from Nova Scotia to launch the boat for the season. Our plan was to head past Green Turtle to Powell Cay, one of our favourites, for a night or two then head back to Green Turtle. There was no wind so we were motoring and as we headed past Green Turtle both Donna and I decided that we really didn’t feel like listening to the motor for another three hours and we were anxious to see our friends so we turned in to Green Turtle. After all, we could head north after a visit with Deb and Dick.

Well, unbeknownst to us, the weather pattern that has now been with us for two months had set in. Once we arrived in Green Turtle the fronts started coming through every few days. As Powell Cay is not very protected, going there was out of the question. The other problem we had was that to get back to Man O’War we had to pass through “The Whale”. At Whale Cay the Sea of Abaco is too shallow to cross, other than in a very shallow draft boat. Instead, it is necessary to go out a cut between the reefs into the Atlantic and then come back in a mile or two further south. These cuts can be very rough, particularly when the wind has been blowing strongly from the north or east. A condition known as a “rage” occurs which basically means that there is breaking water right across the cut making it impassible.

We ended up staying in Green Turtle for a week waiting for a break between cold fronts long enough to allow conditions to subside enough that we could make the journey back south to Man O’War. Mind you, we did have a good time while we were in Green Turtle. We met up with Ted Okie and Diana on “Red Head”, a beautiful Maine lobsterboat done up for cruising. Ted is well known in wooden boat circles for all of the boats that he has had built and restored including the 65’ sardine carrier “Grayling”. We had met Ted on our last trip down and it was nice to renew acquaintances. Little did we know at the time how much we would see of Ted, Diana and “Red Head”. We also met Andy Lyon, a boatbuilder working at Gannon and Benjamin on Martha’s Vineyard who was cruising aboard his lovely Crocker sloop “Harmony”. He rowed by one day in his peapod and recognized “Malolo”. He knew her from the days when the previous owner, David Stimson, lived aboard while he worked at the same yard. We had a nice chat, but we too, were to meet again.

While we certainly enjoyed our stay at Green Turtle, it was Storm and Zephyr who truly loved it. A short walk across from the cove where we were moored was a beautiful, long beach with rarely a soul on it. It was about a mile and a quarter to the end of the beach, which was about a 45 minute walk in the sand. The dogs could do the same distance in about 5 minutes if they took the straight line route, but they preferred a more circuitous path and probably covered five miles each way.

At the end of the beach there is a mud flat where the sandpipers love to play. The dogs were pretty sure that they could catch one, if they just tried hard enough. They would chase them at full speed for a good ten or fifteen minutes, into the water, out of the water, across the sand, back into the water. When we finally turned to head for home, the dogs would slowly make their way back to us with their tongues dragging on the ground, but they had fun! Needless to say, they would be pretty quiet the rest of the day.

When the weather finally settled enough, we decided to make the trek back to Man O’War. Ted on “Red Head” decided to leave for Man O’War the same day, so we headed out at the same time. We traveled together for a couple of miles with “Red Head” slowly gaining on us. Not bad, I thought, we’re cruising along at 5 ½ knots or so, Ted was probably doing about 7. Once past us, Ted showed us what “Red Head” can do and sped up to his normal cruising speed of 16 or 18 knots. We saw him disappear over the horizon and met up with him again in Man O’War where he was tied to a mooring just off of Jay’s dock. The next day Ted was having trouble with his electrical system. Jay offered to let him tie up to his other dock and plug in to shore power, so now Jay and Jan had two freeloaders aboard!

Over the next few weeks, we were both pretty much weather-bound to the dock and became good friends. We traveled in “Red Head” to Marsh Harbour for supplies and to Hopetown for a visit. On a couple of the nice days, Ted and I went out fishing in “Red Head” (Diana and Donna stayed behind onboard “Malolo”), and, wait for it, we actually caught a tuna and it was huge. I mean, we could barely reel the thing in, let alone slug it aboard. As we brought it up close to the boat all we could see were teeth that looked about an inch long. Man, this thing was a brute. So finally, with Ted’s help and a big gaff we managed to wrestle the tuna aboard. It was enough to feed an army. We were thinking Japanese buyers and millions of dollars. What a fishing story!

And it was. A fishing story, I mean. We did catch a tuna, but I have to say it was on the small side. Well, small may not be the right word – “tiny” might be more fitting. But it was a tuna and we caught it. I even cleaned and filleted it.

As we arrived back at the dock in our moment of glory we proudly showed off our catch to Jan. She didn’t look impressed. In fact, in her hand (which we hadn’t noticed) was a large bag of fish fillets. It seems that another boat out fishing that same day had caught seven mahi-mahi and had so much that they were giving much of it away to friends. Hmphhhhh. At least we learned from Jan where the other boat fishes so that we would know for next time. We cut our tiny fillets into four pieces, each about two inches square and Ted cooked them up for us to enjoy. Not exactly a filling meal, but it sure tasted good.

On the next nice day, out we went again. This time we headed several miles offshore to the area where the other boat fishes. Sure enough, there was the other boat. We found a line of weed which often indicates a potential for fish (or so I am told) and trolled along it. The other boat obviously saw what we were doing and copied us. Back and forth we went, cursing and swearing to the best of our fisherman’s ability, but no luck. It didn’t seem that the other boat was catching anything either so we decided to put on a show. We made sure that our transom was easily seen from their boat and we put our plan in motion. I grabbed the rod out of the holder and started working it up and down as if Moby Dick were on the line. I cranked the reel, I buckled over, I swung the rod around until almost I was convinced that there was a fish on the line.

When we thought the time was right and that the fish should surely be ready to be hauled aboard, Ted turned the boat so that the side I was working was no longer visible to the other boat and I proceeded to haul the (imaginary) monster aboard. I’m not sure if we fooled them, or even if they were looking, but it sure was fun! When we arrived back to shore and to our bologna sandwiches we learned that the other boat had caught only one fish and we didn’t feel so bad. So much for my fishing career.

One nice calm day (one of the two or three that we’ve had!) we decided to take the dinghy up to the “low place” on Man O’War where the island is so narrow that the Sea of Abaco almost meets the Atlantic. As we approached we recognized our friend Andy’s Crocker sloop anchored off and saw that he was ashore, along with several other people. We landed the dinghy and I started talking to Andy while Donna took the dogs up to the road to wait for me. As we were talking Andy’s friend joined in the conversation. The conversation, of course, was about wooden boats. Andy’s friend mentioned that he owned a boatyard on Martha’s Vineyard. “Which one?”, asked I. “Gannon and Benjamin” he replied. The next obvious question was “And which one are you?”. “Nat Benjamin” came the reply.

Now for those of you who aren’t into the wooden boat thing, suffice it to say that Gannon and Benjamin is one of the foremost designers and builders of wooden boats. As you may guess, Donna walked the dogs by herself while I continued the conversation with Nat and Andy. Nat, of course, also knew “Malolo” from her days spent at his yard and was curious to see her again. He and his family were staying in a friend’s house on Man O’War for a week, so we told him to pop by anytime.

We saw Nat in town a couple of times, but he hadn’t made it over to see “Malolo”. One day, as we came back into the harbour on “Malolo” after dropping our friends off in Marsh Harbour (more on that later), Nat came running down his dock to talk to us. As we talked it dawned on us that, given that our boat stays tied up on Dickies Cay which is across the harbour from Man O’War and given that Nat didn’t have access to a boat, he couldn’t visit “Malolo” – duh! We offered to come back and pick him up in one of Jay’s small boats once we had “Malolo” tied up and he gratefully accepted.

We picked up Nat and Andy and brought them over to the boat. They both were quite excited by what they saw and said that “Malolo” had never looked so good. I don’t care if they were just being nice, I took it as a compliment. Actually, from pictures that we had seen of “Malolo” when Stimson had her, it may not have been saying much! We had a nice chat and Nat said that he would clear dock space at his yard for us on our way home and show us some of the beauties that he has built and maintains. Needless to say, a stop at Gannon and Benjamin is now on the agenda for the trip home.

The same week that we met Nat Benjamin, our friends Ken and Katherine arrived from Nova Scotia for a visit. We picked them up in Marsh Harbour and the weather cooperated enough for us to sail to Guana Cay, Hopetown and back to Man O’War for the regularly scheduled cold front, before taking them back to Marsh Harbour and their return to Nova Scotia. While in Guana, we had another one of those coincidental meetings.

We had just arrived and dinghied ashore when a couple on the street stopped us. Were we the boat from Lunenburg, they wanted to know? Yes, we were. Did we know an old Atkins cutter that had just been brought to the area by a young boatbuilder as his own boat? No, we didn’t. Oh, too bad. Turns out that the boat had belonged to the fellow we were talking to for some 45 or 50 years and was being given a new lease on life by the boatbuilder near Lunenburg.

The boat had been listed in the “Save a Classic” section of Woodenboat Magazine a couple of years ago. The fellow from Nova Scotia came down to see it and fell in love with it. He told our new friends that he would head back to Nova Scotia and see if he could raise enough money to buy it. By the time he got home a couple of days later there was a message for him. “Come and get the boat, it’s yours”, said the message. Our new friends had taken quite a liking to the fellow from Nova Scotia and decided that he should have the boat.

As we were talking, our friend Ken suddenly asked if the guy’s name in Nova Scotia is Brian. Why yes, it is said our new friends. Ken remembered hearing this story from a friend who knows Brian and Ken had in fact met Brian and even made some parts for the boat. The folks invited us back to their house to continue the conversation. They live in a lovely, old small house that was probably built a hundred years ago and is powered by a couple of solar panels. The next revelation was that we were talking to Mac Macintosh, another famous boatbuilder and the brother of Bud Macintosh, the author of one of the boatbuilder’s bibles “How to Build a Wooden Boat”. We had a great visit and hope to head back to Guana again to talk some more.

Meanwhile, back in Man O’War, we’ve been keeping ourselves busy. I’ve done some minor repairs to Jay’s Abaco Dinghy, which is a 14’ boat built by Jan’s father (the builder of “Malolo”) and given to Jay and Jan as a wedding gift 28 years ago. Next weekend there is an Abaco Dinghy race in Hopetown that we hope to participate in (weather permitting!). I’ve also been learning a thing or two about sail and canvas work. Jay is a sailmaker by trade, who now does mainly sail and canvas repair, as well as some new canvas work. With the winds the way they have been this year, he has no lack of work and I’ve been helping him while learning a bit about the trade. Well, I should say that I call it helping him, I’m not sure that he would agree but he puts up with it!

Jan has been spoiling us with delicious Bahamian (and other) cooking. We’ve had feasts of lobster tails (called “crawfish” here, they have no claws), conch fritters, cracked conch, pigeon peas and rice, grilled fish and so much more. The problem is that after tasting Jan’s rendition of these dishes we can’t eat them anywhere else because they just don’t come close to being as good. Ted on “Red Head” is also a gourmet cook and we’ve enjoyed many of his specialties as well.

Jay and Jan have a big screen TV in a room with beautiful views of the Sea of Abaco. We watched the Super Bowl there while feasting on dips made by Ted and conch fritters and a delicious cheese dish made by Jan. We supplied a vegetarian chili. We also watched the Canada/US gold medal game there, while eating a bean dip and delicious conch salad. We’ve definitely set a new standard for watching hockey – big screen TV, beautiful view of all the colours of the Sea of Abaco while feasting on conch salad – can’t be beat!

Next week our friend Jennifer and her two kids from Toronto are staying in a rental cottage in Hopetown, along with two other couples in their own cottages. We plan on spending a couple of days in Hopetown while she is there and hopefully the weather will cooperate enough that we can get out sailing with her.

And speaking of weather, it is possible that the pattern is changing. This is the first time since the end of December that while one cold front is passing through, the next is not on its way. We had a very strong front (50 knots plus) on Tuesday night and the next (a weaker one) isn’t forecast until next Thursday. In addition, the “Bermuda high” which normally has formed by now and blocks the cold fronts from coming down this way has started to take shape. Maybe things will get better from here on. And that’ll be the end of our excuse for staying on the dock!

Howard and Donna (and Storm and Zephyr)
On board Malolo, still tied to the dock at Man O’War Cay, Bahamas

Current Position 26 35.8N 077 00.5W

Well, where to begin?! How about at the end? Here we sit in Man O’War Cay, securely tied to our friend’s dock enjoying the warm (but breezy) weather. What a treat to have shore power, water and Internet, not to mention easy shore access for walking the dogs! And now back to the beginning.

Morehead City, NC to Cumberland Island, GA
Current Position 30 45.8.4N 081 28.3.4W

Morehead City, NC to Cumberland Island, GA

Widget powered by Spot Adventures: GPS Geotagging

The weather forecast remained favourable, so we left Morehead City as planned Monday afternoon. The forecast was for north and northeast winds anywhere from light to 15 knots. Should be a mix of motoring and motorsailing, but not much straight sailing. We motored out the inlet with the current and as the current hit the incoming waves the seas became very large and steep, making it a very rough ride until we were far enough away from the inlet to lose the effect of the current. Once we were on course for Charleston the seas were three to four feet from behind with little wind, making it quite rolly - too rolly to sleep below and too rolly for our autopilot to steer a good course. That, of course, meant that we had to hand steer and spend our off watch braced in the corner of the cockpit dozing.

As the night progressed the seas settled down and by morning it was relatively civilized. At first light we motored through the Frying Pan Shoals “slue”, which is a marked passage through the large shoals that extend for several miles off of Cape Fear. Once through we set the autopilot and spent the day catching up on our sleep.

As we neared Charleston during the night we could finally pick up the weather forecast for the regions south on the VHF. The forecast was for northwest winds, 10 to 15 knots – perfect conditions to continue on to Cumberland Island, another 150 miles or so. We decided to stay close to shore rather than head direct so that we would have a better wind direction and the seas would be calmer, allowing us to travel faster. It only added about five miles to the trip and was a good decision. It was an uneventful journey and we arrived at St. Mary’s Inlet (the entrance to Cumberland Island) at about 3:30am.

Now normally we don’t enter an unfamiliar harbour at night, but because we had been in the St. Mary’s Inlet previously, and knew the Cumberland Island anchorage we had decided that a night approach would be fine. The inlet is large and well marked because it is a ship’s channel. Even so, it is amazing how confusing it can be to try to pick out the right navigation lights against the shore lights. Even determining which of the flashing lights is the next mark (and not one further along) is difficult. Our hopes of having the light of the moon help us were dashed when the heavy clouds blocked any light that had been breaking through.

We made our way up the channel from one mark to the next, until reaching the end where the channel splits. We followed the north channel towards Cumberland and finally followed the shoreline towards the anchorage. As we approached Donna was on the bow looking for anchored boats and preparing our anchor. Now when we were at Cumberland on our last trip there were always lots of boats anchored there, but this time it seemed there were none. That is, it seemed that way until we were approaching our selected spot to anchor and Donna suddenly saw a boat with no anchor light directly ahead. A quick turn and we repositioned ourselves and dropped the anchor (and dropped ourselves to sleep). Why boats anchor with no anchor light showing is a mystery to me!

We realized that the reason the anchorage was so empty was because it was US Thanksgiving and on US Thanksgiving there is a huge cruiser’s party at St Mary’s, a few miles away. We heard afterwards that there were upwards of 50 boats there, which must have been every boat in the area, except us. We spent the day relaxing on the boat and going for short walks ashore.

We awoke Friday morning to an empty anchorage and cold, cold temperatures. We tried to go for a walk on Cumberland but it was just too cold and windy. We retreated to the boat, lit a fire and stayed put. By early afternoon the wind had eased some and the temperature had warmed up so we decided to brave it again. This time we were much more successful and went for a two hour walk – out on the trails and back on the beach. When we returned to the dinghy dock we saw that eight sailboats and two powerboats had anchored while we were gone! I guess the St Mary’s party was breaking up. By Saturday afternoon there were about twenty boats anchored – it was time to move on!

Cumberland Island, GA to St. Augustine, FL to Lake Worth, FL
Current Position 26 45.9N 080 02.8W

Our next stop was St. Augustine FL, only 50 miles away. We could do that in a day by leaving early in the morning, but that would mean arriving at the anchorage late in the day when it is most crowded and hard to get a spot. Instead, we decided to leave Cumberland at night so that we would arrive at St Augustine in the morning, just as the anchorage was clearing out for the day. At about 8:30pm Saturday night we hauled up the anchor and headed out. We motorsailed through the night and arrived at the inlet at daybreak.

Cumberland Island, SC to St. Augustine, FL to Lake Worth, FL

Widget powered by Spot Adventures: GPS Geotagging

All along the southeast coast of the US huge shrimp boats roam back and forth dragging nets that catch the shrimp. During the day it is easy to see what the boats are doing and avoid them. At night it’s a different story. They are easy to see because they are lit up like a city. However, it is virtually impossible to pick out any navigation lights (which I assume they have) amongst the bright white spotlights shining everywhere. They have huge outriggers hanging out all around the boat, strung up with the white shrimp nets. The effect of the white netting and the spotlights make them look like ghost ships all covered in spider webs (ok, lack of sleep helps the imagination).

Because they are trawling back and forth at slow speed, it is very difficult to tell what direction they are going. Several times I would alter course to head astern of one, only to find out that I was actually running alongside him, or heading for his bow. After a few such encounters I decided just to hold my course and see what happened (without getting too close, of course). Well, wouldn’t you know it, we never came closer than ½ a mile to one. It seems that because they are just trawling back and forth they don’t really care about keeping a steady course and were quite happy to steer around us. That sure made life easier!

We arrived at St. Augustine at first light and our plan worked perfectly. Just as we pulled in to the anchorage a powerboat hauled up anchor from the perfect spot and we took his place. The bottom didn’t even have a chance to get cold before our anchor was set. Our friends the Barr’s had left their boat about 20 miles from St. Augustine and were there getting her ready for their winter cruise. We made contact by VHF and they offered to drive to St. Augustine to meet us. We spent a nice day driving around doing errands (theirs and ours) and hopefully will meet up with them again later in the season.

The weather forecast didn’t look too promising for moving on anytime soon so we decided to rent a car and do our final Bahamas provisioning while in St. Augustine. That way, when we arrived at Lake Worth we would be ready to cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas at the first opportunity, or at least that was the theory.

One of the “provisions” we needed was an oil filter for the engine. Now those of you who followed our last trip will perhaps remember our episode with the oil filter in the Exumas. The oil filter developed a leak while we were underway and when I went to change it I found that the spare filters that I had on board were not the right size. It turned out that someone (me or the store clerk) had transposed two digits on the part number. We ended up needing a tow to get through the inlet against the current because we couldn’t run the engine. So here I am at the counter of the auto parts store and I hand the clerk a piece of paper with the filter number written on it (correctly, I might add). He writes the number on his order sheet, transposing the very same digits as he does so! Fortunately I was watching closely and made sure that he corrected his mistake.

We enjoyed our stay in St. Augustine, visited our friend Margo and wandered the streets. Unfortunately, Zephyr didn’t have quite as much fun. You see, there is a fort overlooking the anchorage in St. Augustine and on certain days they perform reenactments complete with muskets and canon fire. The canon is loud enough to scare the bejeesus out of us, let alone the poor dogs. Well Zephyr decided that they were shooting at her and that it simply was not safe to wander the streets lest she get hit by a canon ball or musket. That meant that every time we went ashore it was more of a drag than a walk. Apparently the rental car we had was bulletproof because Zephyr was quite happy in it.

The weather finally settled down giving us a good opportunity to head for Lake Worth, our final US stop before heading across to the Bahamas. We left late in the day on Thursday, December 3 so that we would arrive early in the morning on the 5th. Lake Worth was another inlet that we were quite comfortable entering in the dark. The trip started out uneventfully with not quite enough wind to sail but enough to motorsail at a good speed. By Friday afternoon we were in pouring rain with some thunderstorms and building seas. Friday night was pitch black even though it was only two days after the full moon, with seas four to five feet making it a rolly ride.

At the speed we were making we would arrive at the Lake Worth inlet at pretty much maximum ebb current (meaning the current would be strongly against us) so we slowed down so that we would arrive when the current had subsided somewhat. About eight miles from the Lake Worth Inlet the seas calmed considerably and the ride was much sooner. That wasn’t to last long. As we approached the first buoy marking the inlet channel the waves became huge and steep. Apparently the current was still running out at a good speed causing the incoming swell to pile up. Once in it there was not much we could do except persevere, which we did. It took all my strength and concentration to hang on to the wheel and steer the boat as we were thrown from side to side. Once we rounded into the channel itself things settled down quickly and we could catch our breath. Well, for a few minutes anyways.

As we came through the cut that opens up into Lake Worth a huge rainstorm hit us, reducing visibility to near zero. We made our way slowly from marker to marker until we were inside when as suddenly as it hit us the rain passed over and visibility returned to normal. We continued on to our preferred anchoring spot, dropped the hook and went to sleep.

A quick check of the weather forecast (after we woke up) showed that Wednesday looked like it may be an opportunity to head across to the Bahamas, which would work out perfectly for us. I didn’t want to get too excited because seeing as it was only Saturday I was sure that the forecast would change long before Wednesday. On Monday things still looked good weather-wise so we decided to rent a car again and do some more last minute errands and provisioning.

Wednesday afternoon everything looked good for a nighttime departure. The winds were forecast to be south and southwest at about 10 to 15 knots. The seas were forecast to settle down from the heavier easterly and south-easterly winds that had been blowing for a couple of days. A weak cold front was forecast for Thursday night, but we would be across long before then. Our route for this trip was different than last. Instead of crossing to West End on Grand Bahamas and clearing customs, we decided to head for Memory Rock (north of Grand Bahama), then cross the Bahamas Banks and continue on to Great Sale Cay (an uninhabited island). We would spend the night there, then head on to Spanish Cay in the Abacos where we could clear customs. The best way to do the trip is to leave Lake Worth at night, arriving at Memory Rock in the morning and Great Sale in the afternoon. That was our plan. But that’s not what happened.

Lake Worth, FL to Man O'War Cay, Bahamas
Current Position 26 35.8N 077 00.5W

Late Wednesday afternoon we fired up the engine to head to the fuel dock. The plan was to get to the fuel dock just before closing, fuel up and then stay at the dock until our planned departure time of around 9pm. After the engine had been running a few minutes we noticed a burning smell and saw that the alternator was not charging. A quick check (very quick or my hand would have fried) showed that the alternator was burning up.

Lake Worth, FL to Man O'War Cay, Bahamas

Widget powered by Spot Adventures: GPS Geotagging

Now we had a dilemma. If we didn’t get to the fuel dock before closing, we wouldn’t be able to fill our tanks before heading to the Bahamas which would probably cost us a few hundred dollars in extra fuel costs. If I took the time to figure out what was wrong, we probably wouldn’t make it to the dock in time. Decision made. I disconnected the belts to the alternator and we headed in for fuel.

After filling the tanks I started working on the alternator. The pulley was rattling around quite a bit so I knew that at the very least the bearings were shot. I tried hooking up our spare alternator but could not get it to work. I finally gave up after a couple of hours of trying. Knowing that it would be very difficult to get the alternators repaired in the Bahamas we were forced to put our departure on hold. It was very disappointing as it seemed to be the perfect window for crossing and we were missing it. From the forecast, it would be at least another five or more days before there was another chance. With nothing else to do, we loaded the dogs into the dinghy and went for an hour long walk on Peanut Island. Our Spot track shows us moving to the fuel dock, then shutting down. Sort of like a scrubbed shuttle launch (ok, not quite)!

The next morning I called for a rental car again and took both alternators to the repair shop. The prognosis was good and bad. The big alternator (the one that “fried”) was totally shot. The small alternator (which I couldn’t get working) worked perfectly. I told the repair guy how it was hooked up to work in tandem with the big alternator (as per the manufacturer’s instructions). He told me that he didn’t see how that could work. He was right. I purchased a spare alternator, returned to the boat and installed the old alternator directly to the regulator. It worked fine.

In the meantime, we had been checking the weather and it looked like we still might be able to make it across in our weather window. The cold front was still expected to be weak and was not expected to hit our area until overnight when we would be on the Bahamas Banks which are much more protected than the Gulf Stream (the last place that you want to be when the north winds of the cold front hit the current). Our friend Jay from Man O’War called and confirmed that the Bahamas forecast was also for a weak front, late overnight. Decision made. We returned the car (world’s shortest rental, only about an hour but cheaper than a taxi), got the boat ready and were underway by 2:30pm.

Now before I continue on with the story, here’s a funny thing that we noticed. Out of the five passages that we have made, all that were successful started on a Monday or a Thursday. The two times that we attempted to leave on a different day we have been foiled. We left Plymouth MA on a Sunday but ran into troubles and had to stop in New Bedford, leaving again on Monday. We attempted to leave Lake Worth on Wednesday but were forced to do repairs and leave on Thursday. I’ve heard the superstition about not starting a voyage on a Friday, but never one that said you had to leave on a Monday or Thursday!

Our trip out the inlet and into the Gulf Stream (which is very close to shore in the Lake Worth area) was calm and pleasant. We were enjoying a light breeze, motorsailing at speeds of 6 to 7 ½ knots, patting ourselves on the back for finding such benign conditions. All was well until about 5pm. Looking to the north there was a solid line of dark, ominous looking clouds running from the southwest to the northeast in a perfectly straight line. Apparently the cold front was early and almost on us.

By 6pm the line of clouds was above us. The wind quickly clocked from the south all the way around to the north and pickup up to 15 to 20 knots. We furled in most of the jib until we could determine how strong the winds would get and kept motoring as best we could. The seas built from the north against the Gulf Stream (remember, the last place you want to be in a northerly!) and we were rolling quite a bit. The boat was aimed south of Memory Rock but the stream was still pushing us north of it. Finally we were able to head more and more south, meaning that we were losing the effects of the current, and getting into a little more settled wave pattern. By midnight we were within about 2 miles of the Bahamas banks and the depth went from over 1000 feet to less than 100 feet.

At 12:30am we crossed onto the banks and the depths shallowed to less than 20 feet. The waves were now only two to three feet, but short and choppy and right on the nose. Our speed dropped to around 3 knots, less when we hit a larger wave. By daylight the waves had subsided some and we were able to make 4 knots, increasing to 5 and more as time went on. At 12:30pm we entered the lee of Great Sale Cay and dropped the hook. Yahoooo! We knew it was five o’clock somewhere, so we celebrated.

There were two catamarans in the anchorage who we had heard on the radio leaving Lake Worth on Wednesday evening (a few hours earlier than our planned departure). Well, it turns out that the perfect weather window on Wednesday wasn’t so perfect after all. They had a rough ride across, maybe not as rough as ours but not great.

We stayed at Great Sale for two nights while the cold front blew itself through and the winds turned more favourable. Because we hadn’t yet cleared customs into the Bahamas we were not allowed to go ashore. Fortunately that doesn’t apply to dogs (as far as we know), so they were able to get themselves to shore to do their business (good thing we taught them how to run the dinghy, or so goes our story).

On Sunday we (us and the two cats) left Great Sale heading to Hawksbill Cay, another uninhabited island at the top end of the Abacos. We had a nice sail for an hour or so, then a motorsail the rest of the way. As we were motoring along we heard a squeaking noise from the engine. Guess what? The alternator (our old spare) was making noise from the bearings. We shut down the engine, disconnected the belt and carried on. I think that in my haste to get going I didn’t check the alignment of the belt carefully and it may have been slightly off, pulling on the bearings. Other than that, we arrived at Hawksbill at around 4pm uneventfully.

That evening the sky was crystal clear (like a Stonehurst sky!). Sitting out in the cockpit looking skyward we saw an amazing number of shooting stars. There was at least one every couple of minutes. Very cool.

On our way to Hawksbill we were passed by a large fishing boat towing three “T-top” open boats. Donna and I joked that it was the modern version of the fishing schooner and her dories. Well, it turns out we weren’t too far off. In Man O’War we met a man who was on that very fishing boat. As they passed us he said that he wasn’t sure if our boat was “the Malolo”, but he definitely recognized it as a Man O’War boat and commented on it to his wife when he got home. He said that they fish for lobster, using the small boats to move around the grounds. They dive for the lobsters using “hookahs” (compressors that provide breathing air through long hoses to the diver underwater), picking up the lobsters and putting them in a bag. When the bag is full, the crew on the boat hauls it up and empties it.

The next morning we headed off again. Our plan was to head to Spanish Cay to clear customs, then anchor off of Powell Cay, one of our favourites, for the rest of the day and overnight. The two cats were carrying on to Green Turtle Cay to clear customs. Just before changing course for Spanish Cay we heard on the VHF that customs was not open so we held our course and continued on to Green Turtle with our “buddy boats”. It was disappointing to miss Powell (more disappointing for the dogs because they can run free on long sand beaches on Powell), but we’ll head back up that way in January. We anchored off Plymouth Settlement at Green Turtle (after about 4 tries to get the anchor to set) and headed in to town to clear customs.

We arrived at the customs office to find it closed with a note on the door listing a phone number to call. Now in the States or Canada, that’s a simple thing. In the Bahamas it’s not. There are very few pay phones (which require a Batelco card even if you can find one) and US and Canadian cell phones don’t work. We went to the post office and the lady there called the number for us. “Fifteen minutes” said the customs lady. About an hour later a local fellow showed up who needed to talk to the customs lady. He called the number and after a couple of “Sweeties”, she said that she would be there in ten minutes. This time she was. We cleared with no problem and are good to stay for six months. The interesting thing is that the fishing license (previously the same as the cruising permit) is good for three months and the boat can stay for one year!

As we took the dogs for a walk around Green Turtle we realized that we had a serious problem. We were planning to head to Man O’War the following day, where we would be for at least a few weeks. That wasn’t so much of a problem, but the fact that we had no rum was. You see, Man O’War is a dry island which means that you can’t buy any adult beverages anywhere. We had a couple of cases of Propeller Ginger Beer on board, which, when mixed with a nice dark rum make “Dark and Stormy’s”, one of our favourite drinks. We didn’t have any rum on board because it’s silly to buy it in Canada or the US when it’s so inexpensive in the Bahamas. We altered course for the liquor store and made it just before they closed at 6pm. We lucked out because not only did we get a couple of $10 bottles of rum, we also bought a couple of orders of conch fritters which happened to be their daily special, along with a couple of cold Kaliks, the local beer. We sat on the beach and enjoyed our appetizers.

The next morning we wandered through town, picked up some ice and headed off for Man O’War. Earlier I mentioned our friend Jay in Man O’War. Jay is married to Jan whose father Edwin built “Malolo”. We first met them when we visited Man O’War on “Malolo” in 2008. We next saw them last April when they came to Lunenburg when the Class Afloat ship that their daughter was on came in to town (small world, eh?). We kept in touch via Skype and had been looking forward to seeing them again. Now here we are, tied to their dock. They have headed off to the States to visit Jay’s family for Christmas while we hang out here and look after their dog Licorice.

We are enjoying some R&R here, going for nice walks on Man O’War and puttering around with jobs on the boat. Until late last week the weather had been very hot (in the 80’s every day). On Friday night a very strong cold front came through with winds in the 40 knot range and heavy thunderstorms. Now “cold fronts” aren’t really that cold, more like “a little colder than yesterday” fronts, but they do bring clocking winds which make it hard to find a safe anchorage. Fortunately Man O’War is such a harbour. This cold front definitely brought some cooler weather with highs in the upper 60’s and lower 70’s. Hopefully that will return to the mid-70’s later this week.

Our plan is to use Man O’War as a base to ride out the cold fronts and to do work on the boat (at least until we overstay our welcome!), heading off for cruises around the Abacos when the weather is good. We are hoping to do some fishing, find some good conching grounds and do some snorkeling on the reefs. A different trip than last time.

All the best for the New Year to everyone!

Howard and Donna (and Storm and Zephyr)
On board Malolo, firmly tied to a dock at Man O’War Cay, Bahamas

Current Position 34 43.1N 076 42.9W

Well, as they say, “problem solved”! We’re back in the water in Morehead City after hauling out and repairing our leak, but more on that later.

Hampton, VA to Elizabeth City, NC

Widget powered by Spot Adventures: GPS Geotagging

We left Hampton at first light on Monday, Nov 9 as planned. What wasn’t planned was that we decided to take the Dismal Swamp rather than the Virginia Cut (those are the two routes from Norfolk to the Albermarle Sound). The weather forecast for Tuesday night through to the end of the week looked pretty nasty with 40 knot winds and lots of rain. We decided to make for Elizabeth City to ride it out because it’s relatively protected from the forecast wind direction and they offer free dockage making it easy to get the dogs ashore even in the heavy weather.

We woke up early (as in 5:30am early) on Monday to get in a full day of motoring, the plan being to make it through the first lock of the Dismal Swamp and then on to the second lock so that we would be ready to lock through at the first opening at 8:30 Tuesday morning. From there it’s only about 3 hours to Elizabeth City. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Once the sun started to rise around 6am we realized that the fog was thick as pea soup. We couldn’t even see the couple of boats anchored about 100’ off our stern. There was no way we were going to attempt to get out the long channel from Hampton and cross over the James River, an extremely busy commercial route, to Norfolk in that fog.

So we waited. And waited. There were brief moments of visibility but they quickly disappeared (literally). Finally around 10am the fog lifted, the sky turned blue and off we went. Wrong. We made it about ¼ mile to the turn in the channel out of Hampton where we could see, or at least should have been able to see, the James River. No luck. The fog was still thick as soup. We tied up to an empty wall at the yacht club docks where we could see out. After about another 45 minutes the fog cleared enough for us to head off.

We motored uneventfully, and amazingly enough, alone all the way to the first lock of the Dismal Swamp (called Deep Creek). We were early for the 3:30pm opening so we tied up to the piling and waited. A small trawler showed up and the two of us locked through. The lock keeper was quite a character and quite likes dogs (his is called “U-Turn”, not sure why). He told us that once the water came up in the lock we’d have about 10 minutes before he opened the lock gates so we could let the dogs off to play in the “totally fenced in” lock grounds. So we did. The dogs took off at full speed, quickly finding that they could run across the closed lock gates to the other side of the lock, which wasn’t “totally fenced in”. Once the dogs had made their point, they ran back to us and onto the boat. The lock keeper said that he had never seen a dog (including his own who is there every day) do that before.

Once locked through we tied up to the dock just past the lock to spend the night. The next morning we headed off at about 7am to make the 11am opening of the second lock, then continued on to Elizabeth City.

In Elizabeth City there are free docks that consist of pilings to tie off to and very short (as in 10’ or less) docks. There is also a wall along the waterfront park that you can tie to. We decided to take the wall because with the forecast wind direction we would be more protected. Wrong decision.

The wind blew from the SE instead of NE, which put it pretty much on our beam instead of over our stern. Sometime Tuesday night, which was before it got really bad, our fender popped up and the top of the (short) piling that we were tied to rubbed the sheerstrake wearing the wood down some and making quite a bare spot, but nothing that can't be fixed easily. For some reason we didn't hear it as we slept. The next morning we managed to get our fender board in, along with the fender and there was no further damage (except to the fender board, a 2x8, which lost at least ¼” of thickness where it rubbed against the piling).

By Wednesday, the wind was blowing steady 30 to 35 knots with higher gusts, but that wasn't our real problem. Our biggest concern was that, even though Elizabeth City is not tidal, the water was rising rapidly and the pilings we were tied to were short. We talked to a local marina operator who said that it was very unusual and he hadn't seen anything like it so he couldn't predict what the water might do. If the water came up over the pilings, our boat would be a park ornament (monument?). We wanted to put a couple of kedge anchors out from the bow and stern to hold us off, but our dinghy was not powerful enough to fight the conditions.

We called the local Coast Guard station to see if they could offer help but they said that their boats were not going out because of the conditions. Same for Boat/US and all other operators. We were on our own.

Mid-afternoon the water level had receded some, but was still about 1 1/2 feet higher than when we had arrived. By evening, it was rising again. We worked out an emergency plan as to how we would attempt to get the boat off the wall if the water rose so high that we were going to go over the pilings. We had a boat directly in front of us (with nobody on board, but tied to higher pilings) so we couldn't go forward. We decided that we would spring the bow and power forward to get the stern out into the wind, then go full throttle in reverse and hope that we could swing her around without causing too much damage. I went on "anchor watch" and checked the water level every 1/2 hour. Fortunately, the water never rose above the pilings and we didn't have to put our plan into effect. As Donna said, it wouldn't have been pretty.

I have been in heavy weather at sea that put the boat at risk, but never did I feel so helpless as tied to that wall knowing that we could lose our boat. It was a nerve racking night and next day. Fortunately, all of that is behind us now. The weather moderated, the dogs were happy with their long walks in town, and we're happy that the boat is safe.

The extent of the damage from the storm was incredible. The Coast Guard was putting out warnings (called “Securite” messages) on the VHF radio regarding commercial barges adrift, boats adrift (we counted 15 listed ranging from 65 feet down to a Hobie Cat), a marina whose pier with 25 boats was breaking free, navigation lights washed away and more. The Norfolk Port Captain closed the port (a 30 mile radius) to all traffic. I guess we didn’t have it so bad! We also heard on the VHF that the Great Bridge lock, which is on the Virginia Cut route, was closed because of high water. That meant that the only way past Norfolk was the Dismal Swamp which is limited to less than 6’ draft. On Monday, when we last heard a report, the lock was still closed.

Elizabeth City, NC to Morehead City, NC

Widget powered by Spot Adventures: GPS Geotagging

By Saturday the weather had settled enough that it was possible to head off but we, along with most every other boat it turned out, decided to wait until Sunday. We left early hoping that if we were lucky we would make it to the Pungo Canal, a 20 mile land cut, with enough light left to make it through. We weren’t lucky and anchored near the start of the canal along with one other boat. By the time it was dark, there were 14 boats anchored with us. Unfortunately the “land” around the anchorage is all swamp so there was no place to take the dogs ashore so they had to use their offshore “bin” for their business.

The next morning we all headed off. Fortunately the “pack” quickly spread out and we were pretty much on our own. We arrived at South River to anchor for the night just as the sun was going down. We wanted to get to South River because there is an abandoned town there with the only remnant being the cemetery which has a dock. A perfect spot for taking the dogs ashore.

The amazing thing was that three weeks after leaving home, this was the first time that we launched our dinghy! Normally we would be at anchor using the dinghy virtually every night that we weren’t at sea. This trip, through the availability of free docks, skipping the Chesapeake and circumstance we have found ourselves at a dock virtually every night even though we have only had to pay for four nights. That will change from here south, but it’s been fun while it lasted.

Our friend Mike who lives in Morehead City arranged for us to be hauled out at Russell Yachts, a small local yard that still knows wooden boats so that we could see what was causing our leak. Tuesday we upped anchor from South River and headed into Morehead City, NC (beside Beaufort). We arrived around 12:30 and by 2pm we were high and dry.

The yard that Mike arranged for us is perfect. It's a small, no-nonsense yard. The guy who runs the place is 3rd generation and knows what he's doing. I knew I was in good hands when he pulled out his tool "crate" full of caulking irons, cotton, oakum, reefing hooks and the like.

After some poking and prodding and removing some fasteners we found that a few of the fasteners on the garboard (the lowest plank on the hull) were not grabbing as well as they should. That allowed the plank to work in the heavy weather and push the cotton caulking through the seam and letting water in.

We cleaned out the seams and let them dry for a day. The next day we used braces to push the garboard tight against the frames and drilled for longer, bigger fasteners which are holding well. We also removed some putty that had been used to fill gaps in the forefoot and replaced it with new wood. After letting that dry for a day we recaulked the seams, filled them with seam compound and painted it up with antifouling. The longer term fix will be to pull the plank(s) and fix the underlying wood, but at least for now everything is tight.

In the meantime, we rented a car and booked ourselves into the Holiday Inn Express (the only hotel around that allows pets) and made a bit of a holiday of it. As luck would have it, Tuesday night was a Law and Order “marathon” on TV and Thursday it was House’s turn. We toured around between jobs on the boat (and watching the “marathons” on tv), went to our favourite Back Street Pub in Beaufort for the Friday soup (while our friends in NS were at Billy’s meeting!) and generally made the most of it.

Friday morning we relaunched. It was with great disappointment that when I checked the bow, I could see water. It wasn’t coming in through the seam that we had just fixed, but there was water coming from somewhere. Not fast, but definitely coming in. We decided to keep an eye on it and see what happened over the weekend. Well, good news. As time passed, the wood swelled up and the flow of water has stopped. She’s now tighter than she was at home before we left. Yahooooo! Russell said that we could stay on his wall through the weekend while we wait for another front to pass through (another free dock!).

While we were in Hampton we received an e-mail from someone named Pete who invited us to visit him and his three Portuguese Water Dogs at his home in Beaufort. Now we had never heard of Pete before, but anyone brave enough to have three Porties was someone that we wanted to meet. We weren’t sure how Pete found us, but eventually learned that someone in Plymouth, MA posted about us on a Portuguese Water Dog website and he contacted us from that.

Once we were back in the water in Morehead City we gave him a call. His wife Jennifer came and picked us up and drove us out to their beautiful, 8 acre property for, of all things, a delicious roast beef dinner. The dogs had a great time playing with Miss B, Walker and Schram (who is 14 years old!) and we had a great visit with Jennifer and Pete, and their kids Wil and Jenny who are in the process of outfitting a 48’ catamaran for cruising. What a treat! We always say that while the dogs are often a pain in the you-know-what, they also offer us opportunities that would never have come along otherwise and this was certainly one of them.

Five Porties awaiting ice cream

The weather (at least so far) looks very settled for this week so the plan is to leave Monday afternoon for Charleston, SC arriving there Wednesday morning. As we get closer to Charleston, if the weather still looks good, we may just carry right on by to Cumberland Island, GA (a favourite stop from last trip) which we should be able to make by Thursday afternoon. From there it’s a short hop to St. Augustine, FL or a longer hop to Lake Worth.

Howard and Donna (and Storm and Zephyr)
On board Malolo (back in the water and not leaking) at Morehead City, NC