A Very Special Anniversary

 For much of the past couple of months I had been planning our trip to the Bahamas. I had thought it would be really cool if we could celebrate our anniversary over in the islands. I never told Kim what I was thinking, because I did not want to get her hopes up and I needed to make the safest decision on our schedule not based on that date. As it turned out, the weather was perfect to make it work. We arrived in West End, Bahamas on January 17th. Our 43rd wedding anniversary was on January 19th. 

On January 18th, we awoke to fairly calm winds and beautiful sunshine. It cost $100 to stay in the marina at West End for the night, so we really did not want to stay a second one. Our friends had a few things to do before they left, so we were the first boat out of the marina. We went north about a mile and then went through a narrow cut in the reef called Indian Rock Cut with about 6 feet of water in it. We draw 4.5 feet so we made it through the rocky cut and finally into the open water of the Little Bahama Bank. The Bank is all of 7 to 12 feet deep, but it is beautiful clear water. We had the sails up and tried to sail for about half of the day. The wind was right on the nose, so we had to take a line to the north of our target. We finally tacked and came back down to the original rumb line. We took the sails down and motored the last 14 miles to a little island called Mangrove Rocks. We ended up having 7 boats anchored there for the night. The rocks offered a little protection from the east winds, but they were pretty light anyway. 

I took this shot of the 6.5 foot deep and very clear water in Indian Rock Cut.

We could see the bottom all day out on the Little Bahama Bank. The black blob is the shadow of our boat on the bottom.

Two of our buddy boats and a beautiful Bahamas Sunset

This is our friends Rich and Laura on No Doubt. We had originally met them in Washington, NC back in November. 

The next day was the 19th and I had a plan. We left or group and headed for Little Sale Key. It looked like a beautiful uninhabited Island. The rest of the group went to find civilization. 

We sailed about 24 miles in very light wind to get to Little Sale Key. When we arrived, we put the hook down in a beautiful anchorage with just one other boat about a half mile away. We we later joined by another boat, but we still pretty much had it all to ourselves. 

We got the dinghy down and went ashore. We saw some very interesting things both natural and some not. The main thing is we took a long walk on the beach, which is Kim's favorite thing to do. There it is, that was my plan. Take Kim to a very secluded Bahamian beach and go for a walk. That was her Anniversary present. I did grill up some nice steaks for dinner and agreed to watch a romantic comedy with her that evening, but how great of a wife do I have? That is all she needs to be happy. It was a great day!

We saw this "chug" on shore. This is how desperate people are to get out of Cuba and Haiti. They build these barely sea worthy boats and try to make it to the Bahamas or the US. 

I noticed that it had a rope wrapped up around the propeller. I wonder if they knew that?

Here is the Kim on a beach picture.

We did meet this very cool Canadian couple on the beach that took our picture. They were about 10 years younger than us, but also have 4 adult children. We talked for quite a while and sailed along side them for most of 3 days as we both headed East across the Bank. 

 

We had a super calm night on our anniversary. This other boat is called Exit Strategy. He is a single hander (that means he sails that 37 foot Tartan all by himself). We have seen him a number of times on our trip. He is moored about 100 yards from us as I write this. 

Well that is about it for the anniversary edition of this blog. It is always so cool to make them memorable. We will never forget where we were on our 43rd. The question now becomes what do we do now and where do we go. The weather had been very calm for the first few days we were in the Bahamas, but that was about to change. In my next entry I will write about how we keep us and our boat safe. 

The Adventure Begins - Destination Bahamas

The crossing from Florida to the Bahamas is all about one thing - The Weather. The crossing is only a bit over 50 miles, but right in the middle, is the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream is a warm current that moves north at as much as 3 knots. When we move at around 6 knots, that is very significant. The main concern is that you never want to have wind over the top of an opposing current. That situation will cause the waves to get very large and very steep. It is not uncommon to see 30 foot waves in the Gulf Stream off of Florida. The key to a successful crossing is to have no northern component in the wind. Ideally, we want a SW wind and fairly light. We can just motor across, but I sure would like to sail.

This image is kind of sideways, but you can see the significance of the Gulf Stream.

I have been studying the crossing for at least 3 years. I have watched to understand how it all works. But now it was different, it was not just studying, it was for real. I knew I had to get this right. I spend at least a half hour every morning studying the weather. I had been watching with renewed interest since we had the news that we were free to head to the Bahamas. I had been watching a weather window that looked very good for a couple of weeks and much to my surprise, when we got the news, it was still there. This time of year those crossing windows do not come very often. Some times you have to wait 3 weeks or more to get the right conditions for a safe passage. 

On January 10th, I asked Kim if we could get ready in 5 days. Of course her answer was, YES!

The plan was to depart Vero on Sunday, January 15. We would only have to travel about 13 miles to the inlet at Ft. Pierce. That would put us in position to do a sail on the outside on the 16th, from Ft. Pierce to West Palm Beach. We had to do that trip on the outside because a bridge across the ICW just north of West Palm Beach was inoperable, and we have to open it to get through. There were a large number of boats that were waiting north of the bridge (it had been down for 2 weeks). We would then check the weather again and depart West Palm before sunrise (5:30 am would be perfect) to catch the outgoing tide and to give us plenty of time to make the crossing and arrive at West End on Grand Bahama Island before dark. 

We did not need to depart our marina in Vero Beach early, so we took our time getting the final preparations completed. We went over our checklist again and then started undoing lines from our mooring partner. All went smoothly and we were off to the fuel dock to top up our water tank and pump out our waste tank. We left the marina just after Steve and Judy left in their boat. They were also heading to the Bahamas, but were planning a different arrival point. They had been over 5 times and I had asked him too many questions since we met about 2 weeks earlier.

This is a shot I took just as we were heading out of the marina. We were so excited!

 We made the easy 13 nm motor trip to Ft. Pierce and found a place to drop the anchor. The currents are very strong in the inlet, but we got set and were ready to get some rest.

This was our anchor spot in Ft. Pierce just as the sun sets. 

We were up before sunrise on the 16th of January. The inlet can be rough, but there was almost no wind and we had an outgoing current. The only concern was the swell forecast. They were forecasting 10 foot swell out of the NE at 11 seconds. 10 foot sounds big, but the 11 second interval should make it comfortable. Should is the key word in that sentence. 

We had no issue using the lights of the inlet to get to the outside and then make the turn south. 

It was a cool morning as we headed south. We had the sails up and we were motor sailing at around 6 knots. 

We had to keep the motor on because I wanted to get into the West Palm Beach/Lake Worth inlet before dark. The trip was right at 50 miles. As it turned out the swell was very comfortable and we had an enjoyable day on the water. We were glad to know that the conditions were comfortable because we were expecting about the same the following day.  The funny part of the day was the line of boats that were making the same trip. Our friends Steve and Judy were behind us, but so was 15 other boats. We had two more in front of us. It seems many boats had been waiting to make this trip and this weather window was welcome to all of them. We came into West Palm Beach with plenty of daylight to spare, and found a place to anchor in Lake Worth.

This is a shot of the Port St. Lucie Nuclear plant. My brother Alan, who is a Nuclear Engineer, has visited this plant. 

We were now ready to make the crossing. I was a little nervous, but mostly excited to finally be going for it. I decided to get up at about 4:45 to get the boat ready and get out of the inlet. 

I got on deck at right about 5 am and got the boat ready to go including raising the mainsail. I did not want to have to do that in the open water. It was kind of difficult picking our way through Lake Worth in the dark with the many moored boats, but with Kim on the bow with a large flash light, we got to the inlet. I was then able to keep the red to port and green to Starboard and head out to open water. In the distance I saw a lighted ship, but I did not see it on AIS. As we headed out I determined that it was actually much further out than I first thought. It was a cruise ship and it was on AIS and was not one light, but a lot of lights.

Those Cruise Ships move out at over 15 knots. We stayed plenty clear of each other. 

We had very light wind, so we motor sailed under full sails.

It was a beautiful sunrise as we passed the cruise ship

I really wanted to sail, but I thought I needed to keep my speed up to make it across in daylight.

I started out by heading SE to then give up some ground north when I got into the strongest current of the Gulf Stream. 

This was our track across. It worked out perfectly.

Just as forecast, about half way across the wind started to pickup out of the south. We were making very good speed at about 6.5 knots. Then the wind got a bit stronger and I shut off the engine. It may have been a bit of current at that point, but SHIFT took off like a horse heading to the barn for dinner. Before long we were cruising at close to 8 knots and heading directly on course. Soon we were making our approach on West End. We had planned on anchoring out in the bay, but the wind made that impossible. It was about 4 pm, so we decided to go into the Old Bahama Marina and see if we could get checked in to the Bahamas. As we came in, a guy yelled at Kim on the bow and asked if we wanted a slip and we said sure. So our first night in the Bahamas we were tucked into a marina. It felt AWESOME! We had made it!

SHIFT in attack mode. Full sails and we were moving.

I now got my paperwork together and went to check in. I had done all of the click to Clear on line and even paid the $300 fees for our cruising permit and fishing license. My first check in to a foreign country with our boat went very smoothly. 

A strange part of the crossing happened just as we were about 2 hours out of West End. We heard on he radio a dive boat operator asking for help. He had lost two divers and feared the worst. Just as we approached land we saw a big US Coast Guard C-130 aircraft roar overhead. He was communicating with the dive boat guy. In about 20 minutes the C-130 had found the divers alive on a small rocky island. The marina sent a boat out to bring them back. 

Just as I exited customs, they were bringing the guys in. I talked to them for a bit and got the entire story. Wow are they lucky. Thank God for the US Guard!

On my way back to the boat, we saw a couple that we had met way back in Washington, NC. They had also just finished their crossing an hour before us. We decided to join them at a small tiki bar for a drink to celebrate. 

Kim and a few new and old friends. That was a fun night.

Old Bahama Bay Resort is very nice

You can rent condos. It was almost empty this time of year.

SHIFT resting in her slip after the crossing. I love this boat!

Bahamas blue water. The clarity is amazing.

We were finally in the Bahamas. Now what do we do? Well, I had a plan, and Kim did not know anything about it. I will tell you all about it in my next entry.  

Velcro Beach

 Many cruisers call Vero Beach, "Velcro Beach", because cruisers like it there so much they tend to get stuck and don't leave. It is a great place for us in this lifestyle mainly because of the easy access to on-shore facilities and a great cruiser community. The management of the marina is also very cruiser friendly and easy to work with, unlike the very antagonistic management in Marathon. Probably the best thing at Vero is the bus system. The city bus system stops right at the marina and provides transportation all over town. And did I mention it is totally free? The bus drivers are very helpful. I have gotten to know a couple of them by name, but the star of the show is a driver named Ian. He is an awesome guy that is from England and used to drive a school bus in Forsyth, Missouri for a few years. 

After our first night of great sleep, we went out to dinner with Bob and Sheila and a bunch of other cruisers celebrating one of their birthdays. On New Years eve, we went over to Bob and Sheila's boat to watch the National Championship Semi-final Football games. They are from Georgia and were hoping to see University of Georgia go for their second National Championship in a row. We had an awesome time watching the two unbelievable games. We stayed up until after midnight as the decisive play in the Georgia win was right at Midnight. We haven't done that in many years. Thanks Bob and Sheila for the awesome time!

We then got some news that could have possibly changed our plans. We are in the process of selling our ranch in Missouri. We are part owners in this ranch. We use it for storage, so if it sells we need to go back and get organized and then move our stuff. Our stuff includes our 39 foot 5th wheel, F-350 truck and Kim's Mustang as well as my motorcycles and tools. Before we could even list the property we had a potential buyer. That drama went on for about 2 weeks, before it turned out to be a false alarm. 

While that was all going on, we kept busy by playing Pickelball and hanging out with new friends. We met another couple on a Island Packet from Wisconsin named Jon and Sue. We went to the beach and rode the bus all over town finding the things we needed to get the boat ready to go. I did oil changes and other needed maintenance on the engine. I was able to finally order some parts and have them delivered to the marina. I also shipped my bad alternator (that failed up in North Carolina) to a place in Ft. Lauderdale to have it repaired. 

We have to have a Kim on a beach picture.

Vero has a nice beach, but much of it was washed away in the recent hurricanes. They are doing restoration by trucking in sand and they have to fix the stairs from the boardwalk down to the beach. 

It is easy to change oil on my engine with the built in extraction pump.

A shot of the beach from the boardwalk.

We had some nice days while we were in Vero.

 Once the issue with the ranch sale was mostly resolved, we got serious about provisioning for our trip to the Bahamas. We knew we needed a lot of food. We were guessing well over $1000 at Walmart Prices. And yes, our boat will store all of that food with Kim's excellent organization skills. 

Our plan was to make multiple trips on the bus. We had done two trips of as much as we could carry, when our boat neighbor offered us his car. Thank You Stuart! We gladly accepted. We loaded his minivan down and then brought all of that back to the boat in the dinghy. With all of that food, we exceeded the $1000 mark, but knew we would save a lot of money by not buying food, other than fresh while we were in the Bahamas. 

I had made a list of all that needed to be done. That list was now complete, except the alternator was not ready. No big deal, ours has been working fine, so we decided to just ship it to my son Mark's house in Missouri and we would get it later. It was now January 14th. We were excited, nervous and a million other things. 

The only thing left to do was to say good bye and start the trip that we had been dreaming of for more than 3 years. We will start that adventure in my next entry. 

St. Augustine to Vero Beach

 I am still trying to play catch up on the blog. We have been enjoying the Bahamas and it has been hard to take time to write while being surrounded by such beauty. Today, February 4th, (my Brother, Brian's birthday) is a windy grey day, so I have some time to write. 

We left St. Augustine on December 27th after spending a week in mostly cold weather. We were very excited to make some miles south. We had a 4 day trip that we would do in 4 consecutive days, just because we wanted to get there. Vero has been the place that we had been thinking about since the beginning of this trip. That would be the place that we would finally stop and rest. Then we would wait for our weather window to cross for the Bahamas. 

The departure required some planning. The currents are very strong in St. Augustine and we were North of the Bridge of Lions, that we would have to open. Sunrise was around 7:30. The bridge will not open at 8:00 to allow rush hour traffic to move through. We were moving before sunrise and called the bridge. We were happy to hear they would open right up for us. By the time we were at the Bridge, 4 other sailboats were waiting to go through. All but one waited their turn, and we made a smooth pass through the narrow bridge in the swift current. 

We were then on our way with current behind us. For the first two hours we were moving at over 7 knots over ground. That was perfect because we wanted to make it 47 nm to Daytona that first day. We had one shallow spot, near Matanzas pass, but we followed our tracks and made it through without seeing less that 6 feet of water. The day warmed some, but we were still in long pants and coats as we moved south. We made it to Daytona, with plenty of light to spare and dropped the hook in the downtown anchorage. 

Nice calm sunrise on the 28th as we left Daytona

Our anchorage in Daytona. Lots of boats that serve as liveaboard homes, but don't look like they move much.

We saw lots of damage from Hurricane Ian and Nicole along the ICW. If you look closely you can see two sailboats in this picture up on the rocky shore. I expect they were anchored boats that broke loose during one of the hurricanes. 

On the 28th we were up and moving, but not nearly as early. We had made it 47nm that previous day, but were only planning about 40 on this day. It was an easy cruise until we made it to New Smyrna Beach and the Ponce Inlet. There was strong current there, and we had to wait a while with the current behind us to open a bridge. We and one other boat made circles for about a half hour until it was time to go through. From there on, it was a nice cruise up Mosquito Lagoon. We even had the Genoa up for much of it to give us a little extra push. We made it to our next stop, Titusville, at about 3pm. We decided to anchor south of the main bridge. It was very calm with almost no wind. 

This was our sunrise view as we left Daytona

Just after our trip through the Haulover Canal, which requires a bridge opening, we saw this island that was populated with White Pelicans and many other birds. The smell was significantly bad. 

Sunset in our anchorage in Titusville.

You can see a few other boats in the very large anchorage, just south of the bridge.

We could look out and see Cape Canaveral. That large building is the 53 story Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the cape. That is where they assemble the stages of the rockets before they are taken to one of the launch pads. 

We were very motivated to continue our trip south. The weather was noticeably warmer as we left Titusville and headed south on the ICW. We now had two easy days and we were in Vero. The first was a 30 nm day to Melbourne. It was a very chill day and we were able to sail almost half of it. We arrived in Melbourne at around 3 pm.

Oh look! There are palm trees. They were not the first we had seen, but I took that as a sign that we were getting to warmer weather. This was our anchorage in Melbourne. 

This is a very large open body of water, but we had very little wind and had a nice night. 

On December 30th, we made our final run into Vero Beach. The trip was easy down the ICW until we got to the more narrow parts of the Indian River. The boat traffic picked up significantly and we were dealing with lots of wakes and even water skiers. It was a nice day, but just before we got to Vero we had a small squall come over us and we were putting warm clothes back on as we got hit with wind and strong rain. It cleared just as we entered the Harbor at Vero. We were so happy to get a wave from our friends Bob and Sheila on Sails Call as we entered. Bob did not have a shirt on and Kim and I had coats on. Clearly something was about to change. We went to the Fuel dock and got filled up for the adventures ahead. We then got assigned ball #37, where we would raft up with Stuart on Tentagel. 

This is our pile of warm clothes that we have not needed since December 30th. Yeah!! Kim was able to wash them at Vero and put them in storage.

This is how you do it in the Vero Beach City Marina Mooring Field. Two boats per ball. It is a great way to make new friends. 

This is us rafted up with Tentagel, a nice Cape Dory 36. Stuart is an awesome guy that has crossed the Atlantic 5 times on a sailboat. 

The Vero Beach City Marina has great on-shore facilities and is a very popular place for cruisers to take a break for a while. 

The feeling that came over us after we arrived with one of accomplishment and exhaustion. We had been working our way south from the Chesapeake Bay for over 2 months and this had been my goal that entire time. I love Vero and could not wait to catch up with some old friends and make some new ones. I will write about our time in Vero including a potential huge change of plans, in my next entry. We slept very well that first night. 

St. Augustine for Christmas

 Kim really wanted to spend Christmas in St. Augustine, so we reserved a mooring ball for a week from December 20th to the 27th. When we arrived, we had beautiful settled weather. That did not last long. 

The second day we were in St. Augustine a strong northern came in with winds around 30 knots and much colder temperatures. The good news it only lasted one day, but it was a day that we could not safely get of of the boat to get to shore in the dinghy. 

We had wind out of the worst possible direction. It was coming right in the inlet off of the Atlantic ocean. We had white caps and swell in the mooring field. 

The following day was a totally different picture. We had no wind and calm conditions. We even took the dingy across the bay to Vilano Beach. It felt good to get the dinghy up to full speed and up on a plane. That was the easiest place to get provisions. 

It is amazing how much more comfortable it was. 

Vilano Beach and the S. Augustine inlet beyond

Vilano Beach looking north

The forecast for the 23rd through Christmas looked very bad. The winds were going to be coming from a better direction than a couple of days earlier, but we were expecting lows at night below freezing and highs around 40 degrees. We had one more day before the second front would arrive, so we took a walk around town.

We started the walk with a tour of the Castillo de San Marcos. 

We toured the fort last May, but it was very hot. This time it was much more comfortable.

The view of the harbor from the fort. SHIFT is the third boat from this end.

This is Flagler College

The inside of the dome was awesome.

Kim in front of a Christmas Tree

This is the old St. Augustine Town Hall

The cold arrived as predicted on December 23rd. We did all that we could to say warm. We were very cozy under covers in bed and under blankets on the main couches in the salon. It was a bit warmer out on the water than in town and we never saw below freezing temperatures. It was cold, but we did just fine. On Christmas day we went to shore to go to church after taking a much needed hot shower. 

The Basilica of St. Augustine

We then took a walk through the old city. The older building were built right along the streets. This building was built in the 1600's during the Spanish period. 

Kim decided to stay at the marina on the 26th and do laundry and not go for a walk. I had an area of the city I wanted to learn more about. Did you know that the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's began in St. Augustine, Florida? I didn't. There is an area just south of the old city called Lincolnville. This area was settled by emancipated slaves in the 1860's, Many of the churches that were established in the area became the meeting places for planning early demonstrations at the beginning of the movement that lead to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Many of the old churches are still there and are being restored. 

This is an AME Church that Martin Luther King Jr. came to and spoke.

This old church is being completely restored. 

Being a Catholic, I was surprised by the history of the Black Catholics. The local Sisters of St. Joseph convent had three nuns arrested in 1913 for educating young black students. 

 I found this day to be both educational and emotional. That is why we don't erase history, we learn about it and learn from it. 

Well, that is about it for St. Augustine. We were now very ready to get further south and warmer weather. The way I figured it, we were 4 days from Vero Beach. That has been the objective from the beginning of this trip. In my next entry, I will write about the final move south.