In Treasure Cay Hiding from the 30 Knot Winds

Day before yesterday, Monday, January 12th, we left Green Turtle Cay and motored just a little south to Treasure Cay. Going south from Green Turtle requires a little bit of sea travel around Whale Cay where the ocean is known to "rage" from time to time. Weather was predicted to be a very calm day so we set out and--sure enough--Whale Cay passage was easy and rageless! There were, however, no winds for sailing so we reluctantly ran the motor for the first time since we got to the Bahamas.

Yesterday, Jan. 13th, the winds piped up a bit. We dinghied to the Treasure Cay Marina from our mooring here and walked over to a beautiful beach. I had a Goombay Smash and a conch burger--yummm--at the beach side restaurant. Below are pictures of the beach. Folks say this is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world--it certainly is pretty. This is a resort sort of place that just happens to have a protected anchorage. Everything here is new and pricey--but we continue to live at little or no cost.

Yesterday, we went grocery shopping for the first time since St. Augustine, Florida weeks ago. We still have lots of food supplies on board, but we are thinking about going back to buy some frozen lamb chops we saw. We visited other shops but the island power was off everywhere except the gocery--guess they had a generator.

This afternoon I handwashed some clothes and hung them out on the lifelines. Wow! It doesn't take clothes long to dry in 15 to 20 mph wind! The trick--as you may have guessed--is using enough clothespins to hang on to the clothes.

We have no plans for tomorrow--we'll just wait and see what the weather brings.

Enjoying Green Turtle Cay from Jan 9-12, 2009

Can't even begin to tell you what a wonderful place Green Turtle Cay is. And, the strangest things happen there. As we sat blogging you guys at Pineapple's Bar and Grill, we spied a bright yellow catamaran cruising past. Folks commented on the boat and John & I said we thought we knew that boat. Sure enough, when we got back to the Caribbean Soul, there was a note from Bob and Laurel of the Sunburst. We dinghied down to say hello to Bob and Laurel who we first met in November at Leslie and Andrew Porter's house in Marshallburg!

Then the other night we were trying to find a tv in the village that would pick up the Carolina basketball game when another interesting thing happened. We were at Sundowners and this fella said he had just sailed in from Florida. "Oh yes," we said, "the little black sailboat we saw motoring in today." Well, yes, and the fellow was Terry from Norfolk who knows Chris and Annie from Beaufort. Ahhh small world.

Here are pics of Pineapple's--a lovely spot in Green Turtle.

Also, here are random shots of the village of Green Turtle Cay. Nice to see all these flowers in January!

On Sunday, I went to the same little Anglican church I attended 10 years ago when I flew down to visit John. The little cinder block church is being replaced as one of the hurricanes did serious damage. We worshipped in the building next door as the new church won't be ready for a couple more weeks. The priest was at a conference in Nassau, so the lay folks were running the service--very interesting. They used the West Indies prayer book, but the liturgy is very similar.

Cheers!
Penny and John

In Bahamas and Catching Up on the Blog

Hope you haven’t given up on this travel blog. These entries should get us all caught up and forgiven by those of you who thought we’d quit sharing our trip. We’ll go back to where we left off—St. Augustine, FL.
Day 31 (Jan. 2)-- We left early from St. Augustine, FL and headed south down the ICW to Daytona Beach, FL. The weather turned chilly (in the 50’s & 60’s) so we bundled up, weighed anchor and headed out. Our buddy Bruce left just ahead of us heading north to Jacksonville, FL. It was great to spend some time with him and he lent us a laptop, GPS sensor, and a chart plotter program. Thanks Bruce!
We motored all day down the Florida ICW and spent the night anchored near Daytona Beach, FL.

This is our last look at the St. Augustine waterfront—what a great place!
And here are some scenes along the ICW: Some pretty condos and an impressive rookery of pelicans.

Day 32 (Jan 3)-- Although the ICW in Florida was a dream compared to the ICW in Georgia, the Caribbean Soul (and her Capt. & Crew) were ready to do some ocean sailing again. Also, the weather reports were predicting another cold front coming through in three days! If we could get to the West Palm Beach area before the cold front, we could possibly get to the Bahamas a week sooner than if we continued to move slowly down the ICW and would have to lay over in Florida waiting for the front to pass. So on day 32, we headed out Ponce de Leon Inlet into a nice, sunny ocean. The wind was right on our bow so we motored. We did put the main sail up to add a bit of stability. Pictures are of Ponce de Leon Inlet with Daytona Beach in the background and the ubiquitous brown pelicans watching us leave.

Day 33 (Jan. 4) We put a couple of reefs in the main sail and motored on through the night. Waves were 3 to 4 feet and my scopolamine patch behind my ear worked great. We took turns standing watch for 2 or 3 hours each throughout the night. Got to the West Palm Beach area midmorning and settled into Lake Worth, FL. We topped up everything—diesel fuel, gas for dinghy, and fresh water—in preparation for our passage across the Gulf Stream. After anchoring in Lake Worth, FL, we stayed a board and started studying the marine weather reports in earnest. The truth is that no predictions are 100%, so deciding when is the best weather window to cross from Lake Worth to the Bahamas is a bit of a guess. John guessed that we should head out at 10:30 PM on January 5th in order to beat the front coming through the following evening. And, a good guess it was—seas 2 feet or less and SE winds of 8-10 knots. In ten hours of beautiful night sailing (motoring) we arrived at Old Bahama Bay, West End, Grand Bahama Island and cleared through customs. This was quick and easy as we seemed to be the last “Snow Bird” coming over from the states! We sailed for the next three days without seeing another boat close up—only a few in the distance.

Day 35 (Jan 6)—John hoisted our quarantine flag as we entered Old Bahama Bay, West End at 8:30 AM. After we cleared customs and changed the flag from yellow quarantine to pretty Bahama ensign, we sailed to the closest cay (pronounced “KEY”) to anchor for our first night in the Bahamas. This was a tiny cay called Mangrove Cay which might be hard for you to find on your maps/charts because it is so small and uninhabited, but it was just what we needed to get caught up on our sleep.

Day 36 (Jan. 7th—Happy Birthday Finley!) Our second day in the Bahamas was wonderful. Our task was to sail to Sale Cay which would protect us from the big bad front what had been threatening us for days. It was a great sail—main sail and jib full of wind—Caribbean Soul maintaining a boat speed of 6-7 knots! The clouds whirling ahead of the front dropped some rain on us for short periods of time, but we got to Sale Cay well ahead of the front. We tucked into an anchorage that provided good protection from the heavy W-NW winds we expected. Early that evening, the storm passed over us, but Caribbean Soul bobbed happily in her protected spot. Happy Day and a good night’s sleep.

Day 37 (Jan 8th) Our third day in the Bahamas was ABSOLUTELY OUR BEST SAILING DAY EVER! Not only did we figure out how to fly our spinnaker, but also we sailed wing-and-wing with the main and spinnaker. It’s hard to say it in words and we’re not sure the pictures give you the total feeling, but it was wonderful to have all these powerful sails out front and the beautiful blue of Bahama skies and seas all round us. Ahhhhhh! This is really what we signed up for!
These pictures were taken before we got all the kinks out of the spinnaker—but you can see how huge the spinnaker is.

This is the CENTER OF THE WORLD ROCK. At least that is what the chart says.

These shots hopefully give you a feel of the joy of spinnaker sailing in the Bahamas! Try a little “Buffet” music in the background and a tropical beverage. Ahhhhh!

Truth is that we didn’t do the tropical beverage part until we got to Green Turtle Cay the next day. On this day we anchored at Powell Cay for the night.

Day 38 (Jan 9th) We delayed leaving for Green Turtle Cay because the entrance to Black Sound where we planned to anchor is shallow and needs to be transited at high tide. While we waited, we cooked a great breakfast of Mary’s eggs and biscuits. The cockpit was sunny and the water was crystal clear. Then, we decided to bake up the Chili Chocolate Brownie mix Nancy and Tom sent from Tucson. Oh—yes—good stuff! Thanks Nancy and Tom!
We had a slow sail (3 to 4 knots) to Green Turtle Cay and motored carefully into Black Sound without running aground. We tried to anchor but the grassy bottom made it impossible for our anchor to grab hold. So, we picked up a local mooring, pumped up the dinghy and headed out to Pineapple’s Bar and Grill—our first time ashore in a week. Just so we remember that not everything is perfect in paradise, the dinghy outboard quit on us and John had to row the last hundred yards to the dock. Sorry we don’t have pictures of Pineapple’s yet—but certainly will have some later. It is a tiny little shack all painted bright yellow. A fresh-water pool is right between the bar & grill and Settlement Creek. We hit them at happy hour and sat at a bright yellow picnic table watching the sun go down near New Plymouth, Green Turtle Cay. We met two couples who fly here each January to bone fish—one couple from Richmond, VA and the other from Raleigh, NC—small world.

Day 39 (Jan. 10)—We got up early to listen to the Abaco Cruisers’ Net. The Net is broadcast on VHF channel 68. Cruisers call in with weather, sea conditions, social functions, arrivals, departures, ball scores, local dinner specials, requests for local information & spare parts, and whatever! It is broadcast from Marsh Harbor about 15 miles from here, so we couldn’t hear all of it. We heard enough to know we are truly back in the Bahamas—mon!
Pictures are of John working on the outboard (and, he fixed it!), me working on this blog posting, and shots of Black Sound.

Happy New Year from St. Augustine

The Caribbean Soul is still in St. Augustine. We are just about ready to move further south, as the weather is cooling here and we continue to search for those illusive tropical days. Leading up to New Year's Eve, we've been busy with chores. John changed the engine oil and all the filters. Sorry I didn't snap a picture of him squeezed into one of the lazerettes covered with yucky oil, but I was busy sorting through our winter clothes. What we discovered is that we packed too many sweaters and we don't have much storage space. Although it has been cold on and off, you really can't wear more than one or two sweaters at a time.

After John got cleaned up from the oil change, we packed up 8 or 9 sweaters and hiked in to the St. Francis House which is a shelter for the homeless in St. Augustine to make a donation. Then we ventured out to the Walmart. For those of you who really dislike Walmarts, you might like to skip this part. We discovered a city bus that would transport us directly to the front door of Walmart for $1 each. Inside we resupplied such vital items as citronella candles, deodorant, engine oil, oranges and fresh meat. The same little city bus brought us back near the Municipal Marina where our dinghy was docked. Oh yes--we've also purchased new charts and guides for the Bahamas, which we found at the well stocked 1st Mate Ships Store here at the Marina.

Last night (New Year's Eve) a friend from Beaufort, NC --Bruce--came over for dinner and later joined us in downtown St. Augustine. What fun it was to spend some time with Bruce and get his thoughts about sailing these waters. The New Year's revelers were out in force last night. At midnight, fireworks went off all over the place and lots of boats in the harbor sounded their horns. We got back to Caribbean Soul just at the stroke of midnight, so we got to see and hear it all! Yay--2009!

Thanks to our fabulous land support (Mom/Jean Ferguson), we have gotten the Christmas cards many of you have sent with all your news and pictures. Maybe you can see your cards/pictures here below. Thank you all --it's my favorite part of Christmas!

Here are some St. Augustine birds who came to visit. They seem to be ruddy turnstones in their winter plumage. The bird book says they prefer rocky tidal shores, so the Caribbean Soul must look like a big ol' rock of some sort.

Happy New Year!