Author: crimsonkathyrnandcrew

I recently read an article that highlighted 50 tourist destinations around the world that are not worth visiting and the Swimming Pigs at Staniel Cay made the list. Many tourist come to Big Major Spot to see pigs – they’re just pigs! As we sit here anchored in the late afternoon, it’s finally quiet – no tour boats or planes (yes float planes bring tourist to swim with pigs – I kid you not!) are visiting the pigs.

We rode out the weekend north blow at Cambridge and that was a great decision. I need to talk about our anchor right now. At the end of last season, we were both unhappy with the performance of the 80lb Manson anchor we bought from a couple at Reynolds. We thought it would be an excellent anchor (it’s huge!!) but instead the anchor was difficult to set and it dragged a few times. We’ve already had chats about replacing this anchor for next season. Well I think the anchor has been listening to us (and Mark has figured out some tricks to make it work well). So far it has been rock solid!! It’s been setting well and holding in strong clocking wind and also in strong current areas where the boat rotates directions with the current. It is definitely redeeming itself. Will it be enough – the jury is still out on that one!!

We decided to leave Cambridge on Monday (Feb. 13) to head to Staniel Cay. We really needed more fresh veggies, milk and bread and Staniel is the closet settlement with little grocery stores. We had a great downwind sail on Monday and made the 12 nm trip in about 1.5 hours. When we arrived at Big Major (this is the closest large anchorage to Staniel Cay) the north wind had created a bouncy, rolling mess!! We decided not to anchor there and instead continued to the east side of Big Major which is called between the Majors. This is a channel that runs between Big Major and Little Major. It was a great decision and we had a fairly calm night.

This morning we made the move over to Big Major. The wind had died down and all was calm! As we came into the anchorage we slowed and started looking for a good spot – keeping an eye out for the crazy tourist speedboats as well as other cruisers coming in. What we weren’t looking for was a float plane that landed about 30 ft off our bow!!!! I can’t even begin to explain how surprised we were – a plane landed in front of us – so now you have to check the sky too!!!!

We did get into town for a few groceries and we took the dinghy out for a spin around the islands here. We’ll only stay tonight – tomorrow we’ll head down to Black Point for awhile!

We left Rock Sound on Tuesday, Feb. 7 with excellent north east wind. We were hoping to be underway around 7am but the starter motor for the engine had another plan. We were all ready to start the engine and pull up the anchor – I turned the key and nothing happened – not even the “dead battery” sound. Mark went into his home away from home – the engine room – and tried several different things to get the engine to start. After 20 minutes of trying various things, Mark just bypassed the starter switch and started the engine. Not the best way to begin a 48 nm trip but at least we could leave the anchorage.

Our first stop was at Cape Eleuthera Marina to fill up our water tanks. Last year when we got rid of our diesel generator, we also got rid of our old water maker and we haven’t replaced it yet. We are very fortunate that our water tanks are large – we can carry over 250 gallons of water in our 3 tanks. Last time we filled up was in Vero Beach on Jan. 17th and we only took on 140 gallons at Cape Eleuthera Marina!! That works out to about 6.5 gallons of water a day!!

Our sail across the Exuma Sound was amazing. The wind was on our aft port quarter (left side at the back) and we had all 3 sails up with a reef in the main sail (reefing makes your sail slightly smaller – we had a lot of wind!). We had wind in the low 20knots for the whole trip and we were cruising along nicely with boat speeds in the low 7 knots. We did see one 9.3knot speed but that was only for a brief time. With strong wind you also get larger waves! The waves were mostly in the same direction as the wind so we were being pushed around a bit from the stern. It was a spirited ride – or some would call it a bit “salty”. We arrived at Cambridge Cay by 4pm and ended up anchoring close to the shore. Lots of boats were in this anchored when we arrived but it’s fairly large and there was space.

It’s Thursday, Feb. 9th and the wind is still blowing but from the east now. Mark spent yesterday fixing the starter switch – it turned out that the bracket holding the solenoid that starts the engine had rusted, causing the solenoid to disconnect. Mark made a new bracket for the solenoid and replaced some of the cables and the engine started like it was brand new!! We relaxed for the rest of the day and just watched boats come and go from the anchorage. Today we walked across Cambridge Cay to the ocean side and watched the waves roll in! With all this wind, the Exuma Sound is very rough! Glad we’re not out there today!

We’ll probably hang around Cambridge for a few more days – we’re expecting strong wind that will be clocking around from east to north over the next few days.

On Friday morning we went for a walk around Tarpum Bay. It was a very pretty little town that has been nicely kept up. Local fishermen were bringing in their catch for the day and many other locals were walking around. Everyone was super friendly and wished us a pleasant day. We did a little bit of shopping and then headed back to the boat.

Our plan for the day was to get into Rock Sound (a short 14 nm trip south of Tarpum Bay) early Friday afternoon and dig our anchor in for the predicted blow on the weekend. Mark fixed the water pump pulley the night before but Friday morning was the first time we started the engine after the repair. It started perfectly but within a few minutes, the tachometer stopped working and there was a terrible smell coming from inside the boat. I stopped the engine and Mark went to work (again). We were fortunate that the wind was coming from the south so I pulled out the jib and we managed a slow 3kts sail. After several attempts to fix the problem, Mark determined it was better to disconnect the alternator all together and just motor into Rock Sound as quickly as we could. Without the alternator, we can’t charge our batteries (leaving wind and solar to charge the batteries). Our batteries were slightly depleted from the night before and with the low winds we’ve been having, our wind generator hasn’t kept up with our energy consumption.

We arrived at Rock Sound by 1pm Friday and took the day off to relax and regroup. The predicted winds showed up on Saturday along with a little bit of rain. Mark spent the afternoon on Saturday diagnosing our alternator problem. It turned out not to be the alternator that melted but the external regulator (it’s regulates the output of the alternator helping it charge our batteries more efficiently). The smell was coming from it!!! When the water pump pulley fell off, it also disconnected part of the charging system. This disconnection led to the end of the regulator. Good news – the alternator was fine and it had a built in regulator. We’ll be running on this for awhile to see if our batteries can be charged well enough. Luckily it’s been very windy here so with the combination of wind and solar, we’ve managed to break even with charging our batteries and our consumption.

It sure has been a rough few days for Crimson Kathryn and Mark! Lots of problem solving going on and repairs on the fly! Not really want you want but at least Mark is excellent at this stuff. It’s also a bit disappointing that the things that are breaking now are not old – they don’t make things like they used to!!

We’ll be in Rock Sound until Tuesday morning when we’ll sail across to Cambridge Cay in the Exumas. The weather prediction for that day shows some good sailing wind so we’re hoping for an excellent sail to the Exumas.

The time came for us to say goodbye to Hope Town and continue our journey south. We left after lunch on Jan. 30th and sailed south to Lynyard Cay. Just as we were leave Hope Town harbour, we noticed a small sailboat named T for two leaving ahead of us. We helped this solo sailor (Mark from Ottawa) pick up a mooring in Hope Town and we’ve chatted with him a few times onshore. We radioed him and he decided to tag along with us down to Lynyard. That night we had a little happy hour on our boat with Mark and we came up with a plan to buddy together across to Eleuthera on Wednesday.

At 7am Wednesday morning we jumped off from the Abacos heading to Egg Island, Eleuthera. We had a super calm day which meant a very long motor! Lots of tankers were out and also a few sailboats. Mark on T for Two followed behind us and we were occasionally in contact via the radio. His little 28ft boat was powered by an outboard motor so he had a hard time hearing our radio hails.

During long passages like this one, Mark likes to get the fishing rod out. We had been underway for a few hours when Mark hooked something really big! I have never heard the reel feed out so quickly!! I thought we would run out of line! Mark quickly grabbed the rod and started to haul the fish in. I saw it jump out of the water once and it was a big one! Moments later the darn thing broke the wire leader and took off with our lucky lure! It’s actually kind of fortunate that this fish got away – not sure how we would have got it onboard!!

About halfway through our 52nm trip, Mark and I decided to not stop at Egg Island but to continue on to Current Cut. This would set us up nicely to get across the bight of Eleuthera and into Rock Sound before a big blow that is predicted for Saturday-Sunday. Our friend on T for Two decided to stay with the original plan so we left him at Egg Island. We continued to Current Cut and anchored there on Wednesday night.

Today (Feb. 2) started off with an easy pass through Current Cut (this cut can have a strong current if you don’t time your passage well). It was another bad wind day so we had to motor again. We decided to head for Tarpum Bay – an area of southern Eleuthera we haven’t seen. All was going well until we were about 2 nm from our anchorage. Mark was down below and I was at the helm when the engine started making an unusual sound (never a good thing)! Within minutes that sound abruptly stopped and the engine temperature soared upwards!! Quickly I turned off the engine and Mark scoped out the damage (in the incredibly warm engine room). It turned out the pulley fell off the water pump. This is very fixable but not when the engine is hot. So you might be thinking well it’s a sailboat – just start sailing!! If only we could have but unfortunately the wind was on our nose and useless for us! So Mark did the best he could to reconnect the pulley (basically hammered it back on) so we could limp into the anchorage. What should have been a 2:30pm arrival, turned into a 3:20pm arrival and a big challenge to set our anchor without our engine. It took some ingenuity on Mark’s part to set our anchor (he used the dinghy to pull the boat backwards to dig in the anchor) and here we are! It’s a lovely little settlement and we will do some exploring tomorrow morning!

There’s a term given to a few harbours in the Bahamas that you just never want to leave – Velcro harbour! Well Hope Town harbour is one of those places!! We decided to extend our stay here because there’s so much to see and it’s such a lovely spot!! We’re also enjoying our visit with Julia and Brad.

A few days ago we had the opportunity to explore an area south of us called Snake Cay. Crimson Kathryn and Alizarin (Julia and Brad’s boat) sailed down to this cay to explore the mangroves. Sea turtles, sharks and rays have all been known to gather in the mangroves so we were excited to see some of this marine life. It took a little over an hour to get to the island and anchor. Aboard our dinghy, we entered the once lush mangroves to find a significantly depleted area. Hurricane Dorian’s impact is everywhere!! Although the mangrove had a long way to go to return to its former glory, you could tell it was recovering. We saw lots of turtles and a few rays zooming along. The seas turtles are mostly green turtles and these guys can move!! It’s hard to get close to them. We enjoyed our visit to this area and headed back mid-afternoon to avoid low tide.

Yesterday (Jan 27) Mark and I walked to the north end of Elbow Cay. There was a lot of cottages in this area and some pretty spectacular homes (mostly on the ocean side). The majority of these places have been rebuilt since Dorian and some have added substantial concrete walks to help with the erosion of the sand. It’s hard to believe people would rebuild in the same spot after a major hurricane but they certainly have and there’s still more houses being built! Our path back to town was along the ocean beach. We were the only ones walking the beach (it’s was a cool, blustery day) and it was very relaxing!

This morning (Saturday) we headed to town for a farmers market. Unfortunately the market didn’t happen so instead we went to the Elbow Reef Lighthouse. The lighthouse was built in 1864 and is one of only a few operational kerosene lighthouses remaining in the world. You can climb the 101 steps of the spiral staircase to the lantern area and from there you have an awesome view of the harbour and island. The lighthouse has just recently been repainted and it is the pride and joy of the Hope Town community.

So we’re here for a few more days. We’ll explore more of the area and wait for another weather window to head south.

We made the decision to come to Hope Town because we wanted to visit Julia and Brad. Who knew that this little spot would be such a gem! Not only do we get to hang out with our friends but we get to experience probably the nicest town in the Bahamas.

We arrived on Sunday (Jan. 22) around noon and Mark got the dinghy down. We discovered that our dinghy motor wasn’t working. We also still had our macerator pump malfunction to deal with so the beginning of our stay in the harbour was shaping up to be filled with boat jobs. Mark spent a bit of time working on the motor but by happy hour, it still wasn’t working. No worries – we had oars and Julia and Brad were right beside us so we rowed over to their boat for happy hour (which turned into a lovely dinner).

The next day Mark went back to work on the dinghy motor and found that the pickup hose inside the fuel tank had disconnected so the motor wasn’t getting any fuel – no wonder it wouldn’t run! In no time Mark had a new hose in place and we went for a little harbour tour to test things out – worked perfectly. Next on the job list – take apart the macerator pump to see what’s wrong. Turned out that the pump was pooped (so to speak 😁😁) – too far gone to repair so we needed a replacement. Brad had offered his spare pump to us but we decided to go to Marsh Harbour to see if we could buy a new one.

In the afternoon on Monday we went for a walk in Hope Town. What a beautiful place! It has small, narrow roads that wind along the narrow island. Lots of the houses in town are rentals and they are nicely maintained. Hope Town was hit badly by Hurricane Dorian in 2019 but they have recovered well. There is still ongoing construction plus shoring up of the hillside on the ocean side of the island. But for the most part, the island is quite prosperous.

On Tuesday Mark and I took the 9:30am ferry over to Marsh Harbour. We walked from the ferry dock into town and were shocked by the state of Marsh Harbour. We were fortunate to visit this town in the spring of 2019 before Dorian crashed through the area. Marsh Harbour has not recovered as well as Hope Town or other areas in the Abacos. Lots of building have not be repaired and many stand vacant and neglected. The owner of the marine shop we went to explained that NGOs were helping with the rebuild process but then Covid hit and they all left. Many people just left the island (no insurance and unable to afford the costs of rebuilding). It’s quite sad to see what this once striving town has become.

Our visit to Marsh Harbour was successful though – we bought a new macerator pump and did some grocery shopping for produce. The prices are high here so we only bought a bit of stuff. We returned to the boat on the 12:30pm ferry, had lunch and then Mark began the fun job of installing the new macerator pump. I won’t go into details but I will say that it probably wasn’t great being downwind of us!! The new pump didn’t go in easily and it was a rough afternoon!! But it did eventually come together and with the wonderfully windy day we were having, the boat aired out well!! A good thing too because we had Julia and Brad over for dinner that night!!

Today we headed out of the harbour at high tide (the entrance into Hope Town is quite shallow) to test our new pump! It worked perfectly!!! Our holding tanks are nice and empty and the boat is floating a little higher now 😁. Hurray!!

We have another day in the harbour and will spend it going up the lighthouse and doing laundry. Friday we’ll start our journey south to the Exumas, slowly making our way to Staniel Cay for the February 27th arrival of Evelyn and Caroline!!

After a restful night at the Old Bahama Bay marina, we were up early to catch the high tide for our crossing through Indian Rock Passage to Great Sale Cay. High tide was at 6am so we were on the move a little after 7am (with the sunrise).

It was a super calm morning with very little wind so once we were through the shallow pass, we decided to put up our spinnaker. It’s always a process the first time this big sail is deployed. Lots of additional lines need to be run because this sail uses the whisker pole to help it catch the wind. But all the effort was well worth it as we were able to sail (slowly) for 2 hours – no engine!! Unfortunately the sailing bliss didn’t last long as the wind died off and we needed to motor again.

Lots of boats were on the move that day – most heading in our direction but some heading west (maybe heading back to the USA). As it got closer to dusk, boats were finding their anchorage for the night. Most stopped at Great Sale Cay but we decided to continue slightly further north to Little Sale Cay. We were all alone at our spot and it was a very peaceful night!

The next morning we were off early (again), heading east. We had discovered the day before that our macerator pump was not working (this pump empties our septic holding tanks – no pump out services in the Bahamas) so we needed to get to either Green Turtle Cay or Marsh Harbour to solve this problem. It was another calm day so we motored all the way. We stopped for the night at Crab Cay and decided we would push on to Hope Town the next day. The wind prediction for the next few days was showing southwest/west wind and the Hope Town harbour is totally protected from all wind directions!! We had also been in contact with our friends Julia and Brad (who have been at Hope Town since Dec. 23) and knew there were some available mooring balls.

Sunday morning we left our anchorage at Crab Cay and headed to Hope Town. There’s a cut called “the whale” that is notorious for being dangerous. It’s a relatively short outside crossing (on the ocean) but if the wind comes from the north at all, this area can produce “rage” water conditions (not a good thing!!). We were super fortunate because the wind on Sunday was from the southeast and didn’t cause an unfavourable crossing situation. The conditions were fine and it was an easy passage.

We arrived at Hope Town just after lunch and Brad was there to guide us into the harbour (in his dinghy- with their dog Finn) and onto the mooring ball. It’s great to see them and we will definitely enjoy our next few days in the harbour.

It’s been a very busy and fast few days after leaving Vero Beach. We were on a mission – get to the Bahamas – and the weather actually cooperated with us!!

Our first stop was Fort Pierce and it was a quick 2 hour motor down the ICW. We encountered very little boat traffic that day and arrived at our anchorage by mid-afternoon. It was nice to relax and get to bed early because we knew we had an early morning the next day.

Wednesday 3:30am – we pulled up anchor and headed out the Fort Pierce Inlet. I was at the helm and guided us out onto the ocean. The night was clear and the channel was very wide and well lit. We had no problem getting out and turning south to Lake Worth. It was a very easy motor south – definitely one of the smoothest ocean passages we’ve done in awhile. The passage was great but passing through the Lake Worth inlet was crazy!!! We entered the inlet before noon and all was going smoothly until this stupid sport fishing boat came barreling into the inlet beside us!!! This was a narrow, short inlet and these guys didn’t care at all that their wake would toss us all over the place. It was nuts!! The worst waves we saw all day! Fortunately Mark was able to steer us into the wake of that boat and had enough time (and room) to turn back for the second boat coming at high speed. This boat must have seen our chaotic swerving because they slowed down and gave us an easy pass!! We no sooner got passed these two power boats when the border patrol boat pulled up beside us to ask about our cruising permit – really!! Did they not see us getting rocked silly by these power boats!! We answered their questions and kept going.

We were up early this morning (Thursday at 5am) – the weather was looking great for a windy crossing to West End, Grand Bahamas. We were underway at 6:20am and I took us out again. We got close to the narrow part of the inlet and of course were swamped by those darn sports fishing boats! At least 6 boats passed us in the entrance (or exit) of the inlet. It was a good thing we were ready for them and Mark zigzagged our way out of the inlet as each boat passed us.

Our crossing went really well. The first third was a bit rough – wind almost on the nose and some big waves in the same direction. We did a bit of pounding into the waves for awhile but eventually the wind and waves smoothed out and we made good time (although we had to keep the motor going even with all 3 sails up). We really wanted to make it to West End in time to clear through customs and immigration so we could continue our journey to the Abacos tomorrow (Friday). We were successful!! We got into the marina at 4 pm, cleared through and also managed to get our wifi box working all before dinner!!

We’re now relaxing at the dock at Old Bahama Bay marina enjoying a bottle of bubbly. We’ll head northeast in the morning to Great Sale Cay (not sure if there will be cell reception there – we need cell for our wifi). We’ll be continuing east to Green Turtle Cay on Saturday.

Our time at Vero Beach has come to an end! We’ve had a great week on the dock and have enjoyed visiting the area. We explored parts of the city that we didn’t see last time we were here so that’s really good.

We had a chance to visit with Matthew, Margie and Oliver on Friday night and Saturday. It was so good to have them onboard. We did a lovely dinner Friday night and on Saturday we looked around the beach area of Vero Beach. Margie did a bit of shopping and we had a nice lunch out. We returned to the boat in the afternoon and had a nice little dinghy ride around the harbour. Before we knew it, the time came for them to drive back to Orlando. It was a short visit but I’m so happy we got to see them before their return to Australia.

It’s been very cold here for the past 3 days (okay not Ontario cold but crazy cold for us folks on a boat!). We do have an air-conditioner / heater onboard but it’s not working. Sleeping has been fine because we have really good comforters but the morning temperatures have been about 10 degrees in the main cabin. We’ve been using our propane stove top to heat the main cabin each morning. It’s a good thing we have lots of propane onboard! Tonight (Monday) should be the last of the cold nights – here’s hoping the weather guys are right!!

On our last full day in Vero Beach, we rented a car and did our last bit of provisioning. We drove up to Melbourne to shop at the new Costco and also went to a few other stores. Our freezer is so full now that I’m kind of afraid to open it! We also went back down to the beach stores we were at with Matthew and Margie. Mark bought me a lovely glass vase for my birthday that is now wrapped up in bubbly wrap until we get home.

Tomorrow morning (Tuesday) we will be leaving Vero Beach and heading just a few miles south to Fort Pierce. Our plan is to jump out on the ocean early Wednesday morning (around 1am) when the wind will be light and not on our bow to get down to Lake Worth. We are seeing a weather wind on Thursday that will allow us to sail (hopefully) to West End, Grand Bahamas. We’ll clear in to the Bahamas there and then travel north east to the Abacos. Unfortunately we will not have wifi until we reach Marsh Harbour and can get our Aliv wifi device up and running. We will have our inreach device working so will send short messages for the next little while. Hopefully we’ll be wifi accessible by next week!

Definitely one of our favourite places on the east coast of Florida is Vero Beach. Last season we spent about 6 weeks at Loggerhead Marina in Vero Beach and enjoyed exploring the area. So it made a lot of sense to stop here for a week – it is also a perfect location to visit with our family members who are in Florida now.

Our trip down from Titusville was exactly what you wanted – totally uneventful!! We left around 9 am Monday morning (Jan. 9) and stopped for the night at Melbourne. We had a very easy 24nm trip the next day to get into the Vero Beach City Marina. We arrived at the marina around 1pm on Jan. 10 and tied up on the south dock after checking in at the fuel dock.

This is a new marina for us but we’ve met lots of cruisers who visit this marina every year. The nice thing about the marina is that they have a very large mooring field and they will double (and sometimes triple) up on a single mooring ball. The north mooring field has 57 mooring balls but most of the time, there are double that number of boats because there are 2 boats/mooring ball. It’s kind of crazy to look at the mooring field- so many boats!!! This marina also has access to the free bus system in Vero Beach. It’s super easy to get from the marina to shopping areas.

Today we visited with Mark’s brother John and his wife Sadhana. They are staying just south of Orlando and drove out to us. We had a wonderful lunch and then explored the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge (there’s a name!). A short walk brought us to a lookout of the intracoastal waterway area – the Indian River. It was so nice to see protected wildlife areas in an area of major urbanization. We had a great walk and more importantly, a wonderful visit with John and Sadhana.

On Friday (tomorrow) Matthew, Margie and Oliver will be heading to Vero Beach and we’ll spend Saturday with them!! It’s hard to believe that their 4 week vacation is coming to an end and they’ll to flying back to Australia on Monday!!

Our next job is to start looking for crossing windows to the Bahamas!!! We’ll soon be in the land of clear blue water and sandy beaches!