Category: Sailing 2020 – Bahamas/Turks and Caicos

Well Caroline’s vacation has ended and she has returned to Toronto. We had a great visit with Caroline and explored Spanish Wells and Harbour Island. Lots of sun, fun and laughs (also lots of food and drink!)

Our journey continues with Jim as crew. A cold front has moved into the area so we decided to head to the northern part of Eleuthera where there are some really nice anchorages that have good protection from north to south east. We headed out from Rose Island on Friday (March 6) and had an amazing downwind sail. We used the spinnaker and the main sail in the light winds and made great time. We also did some fishing and caught what we think was an amberjack (or banded rudderfish). The fish was awesome – we had quite the feast last night!

We are currently anchored at Goulding Beach, a nice settled spot in these strong northeast winds. It’s great to be back on Eleuthera. Mark and I explored parts of this island last year but not this section. Today we walked to the Glass Window (a bridge that allows you to see the ocean on one side and the Great Bahamas Bank on the other) and the Queen’s Bath. Both are amazing examples of the power of the ocean and the environment.

There is a nice restaurant close to our anchorage called Daddy Joes. We had lunch there today and it was very good. Our server was very chatty so we found out lots about her and the Bahamas. It’s always interesting talking with Bahamians and getting their take on tourism this year. Tourism is down everywhere in the Bahamas – Hurricane Dorian has made a big impact and now the Coronavirus is causing people to stay away. Not great for a country that relies on tourism as one of their main source of revenue.

Lots of photos for you this time! Enjoy

The best part of having a sailboat is being able to share our adventure with family and friends. Caroline joined us at New Providence Island on Feb. 23. We were anchored in West Bay during a very windy front coming in from the north. It was so rolly that it was difficult to sleep at night. Once Caroline arrived, we quickly realized that the anchorage was not a great place to stay, so we moved into a marina.

Nassau Harbour Club Marina was recommended to us so we decided to move there until Jim arrived on Thursday, Feb. 27. The marina was very nice with a pool (which Caroline really liked!) and a very nice restaurant. We had a great rest at this marina (especially after 4 nights of intense rolling) and we did laundry, grocery shopping and a bit of sight seeing.

After Jim arrived on Thursday, we headed to Rose Island (about 7 knots away) for a night. After that we sailed east to Spanish Wells on Saturday, Feb. 29. The day started with major burning smells from the engine room. Turns out the new alternator Mark bought in Nassau couldn’t handle the load of our battery system (it’s a car alternator not designed for our batteries). Mark had to disconnect the alternator so we could use the engine to get sails up. It was a rough sail with high winds and waves about 5 – 6 ft on the side. We were all very happy to get into our anchorage at Spanish Wells and with the big wind, we were anchored by 3pm.

We spent today exploring Spanish Wells. Unfortunately, it was Sunday and very few things were open, except for the 2 liquor stores! We had a great lunch and spent some time on the north side beach. It was a very good day.

Tomorrow we plan to visit Harbour Island (where the pink sand is) and maybe spend a bit of time in Spanish Wells. Tuesday we will head back to Rose Island and then we’ll be back at the Nassau Harbour Club Marina to get Caroline on her flight home on Thursday. Time sure does fly when you’re having fun!

It’s hard to believe that it has been a week since we left Ocean Reef Marina. We were very lucky to get a good weather wind to head south from Grand Bahamas to the Berries. We had north wind and all sails up which got us into Great Habour Cay by about 5 pm Saturday, Feb. 15.

It’s an interesting anchorage that is very wide open but also quite weedy. We had a difficult time setting our anchor and as it got dark, we were still fighting to get a good hold. It was a windy night but eventually our anchor grabbed and we were good for the night.

Since that crossing, the winds have gone back to the prevailing direction, mostly east, but with relatively low speed. We took advantage of this to travel east and south around the islands of the Berries. We spent one night at Soldier Cay. This was a very interesting spot. It had a nice beach and lots of marine life. We saw turtles, sharks, a stingray and lots of fish. Mark also went up the mast to install the pulleys for our new Mack Pack sail covers. While up at the top, Mark took some awesome photos!

Unfortunately Soldier Cay was quite rolly so we left Monday after lunch and headed further south the Bonds Cay. Bonds Cay had a large anchorage that looked shallow on the charts but in reality had lots of depth. This spot was perfect for us to spend a few days and wait for a good north (ish) wind to sail down to New Providence (the island that Nassau is on).

So here we are in West Bay at New Providence. We had an awesome sail yesterday with good wind in a nice direction. We arrived here just ahead of a cold front that has now moved into the area. It’s windy and terribly rolly. We are getting strong wind from the north/north east but the swell is coming from west/north west. Sometimes we roll so aggressively that we have to hold on and stuff goes flying. It was very difficult to sleep last night but the good news is that our anchor is holding well!!

The exciting news is that Caroline arrives in Nassau tomorrow!!! We’re super excited to have her on the boat for the 3rd time. We’ll probably spend a day here and then travel a little further east to Rose Island. We can’t go too far because our friend Jim arrives on Thursday. Once Jim is onboard, we’ll head up to Spanish Wells on Eleuthera. Very excited to have guests onboard!

We made it! It seems like a long time coming but we’re finally here. We had an interesting journey from Fort Pierce to Grand Bahamas. I’ll try to remember it all for you.

Our sail down from Fort Pierce to Lake Worth was awesome. We had all 3 sails up and we’re able to sail all the way to the Lake Worth Inlet and we entered that inlet on the ingoing tide in the daytime – couldn’t have been better. We anchored just south of the inlet opposite the “big boat” marina. Man oh man, these boats were crazy and all lit up at night.

We decided to take the ICW from Lake Worth to Fort Lauderdale. This was a first for us because the last time we went on the outside. Well I can tell you it will be the last time we ever go on the inside for this stretch! There were 20 bridges- all bascule which means a lot of waiting around for the bridge to open (18 out of 20 opened at specific times so if you didn’t make the opening, you had to wait for the next one). We also made that trip on a Sunday! If you’ve ever been on the water on a Sunday then you’ll understand what I’m talking about. Now imagine all those crazy boaters in a fairly narrow river racing from bridge to bridge. It was exhausting.

Our plan was to do the approximately 40knots over 2 days just to give us a rest. The first day we did 12 bridges and stopped in a crowded anchorage (for lack of a better word – it was a small shallow bay surrounded by apartments and expensive homes) in Boca Raton. This was not a great experience! Just as we were cooking dinner, our anchor let go and we started to drag!! Thankfully Mark looked out and saw us getting dangerously close to a large motor yacht. We then spent about 45 minutes trying to settle our boat into a good spot away from other boats and where the anchor would hold. It was also super windy that night – needless to say, we didn’t sleep well that night.

The next day (Monday) went much better and we reached our anchor in Fort Lauderdale by about 1pm. We had a good rest that day and got going slowly on Tuesday because we were planning on sailing overnight from Lauderdale to Freeport, Grand Bahamas. We left our little anchorage by 2pm and caught the outgoing tide which made getting out the Port Everglades Inlet much easier. We got out on the ocean, put up all sails and turned on course to Freeport. Well the Gulf Stream had other plans for us! Our boat was pointed at Grand Bahamas but the Gulf Stream was taking us sideways, further north making it difficult was us to sail with the winds coming from east/south east. We ended up motor sailing and doing a very large arc to get across. At one point, it looked like we were heading to Bermuda, then West End and finally we curved around and were headed for Freeport. We made great time and had to hang out near our inlet until the sun came up!

We are staying at a resort called Ocean Reef Yacht Club and Resort. It’s very nice with 2 pools and lots of other amenities. Before we could tie up at the marina, we had to sail 2 knots further east to another marina called Grand Bahamas Yacht Club to clear into the country. That process took a few hours (waiting on a form that the office didn’t have) but once completed, we headed back to Ocean Reef. It was so good to finally tie up and relax. Our friends Jane and Steve are here so we had a great reunion and a nice lunch on their boat. Then Mark and I returned to Crimson Kathryn and slept!!

Now we’re making plans to get to Nassau for Feb. 23 to pick up Caroline. The God of Winds has been working hard against south board sailors this season. Lots of people are complaining that they can’t get any further south because the wind won’t cooperate. We think we’ll be able to jump down to the Berries (or the Banks) on Sunday (Feb. 16), that’s about 60 knots. This will leave us a whole week to travel the remain 50 knots (or so) to get to Nassau – very doable.

Our stay at Harbortown Marina in Fort Pierce has been a welcome break from our journey south. The marina is very nice with lots of luxuries. There is a restaurant at the top of our dock (we didn’t eat there this time but have and it’s good), a pool and the nicest individual toilet/shower rooms I’ve ever seen ( they have granite counters and ceramic tiles everywhere!). The docks are well kept and our neighbours are very friendly.

We now have 2 new batteries (adding to the one good one) and are ready to continue our path to Fort Lauderdale. We’re leaving here in the morning and going on the outside to Lake Worth. The weather looks good for us to sail along the coast to Lake Worth. It will be great to get the sails out!

Most likely this will be the last post until we reach the Bahamas. We’re still planning to get to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday and then sail to Grand Bahamas as soon as weather permits. Unfortunately we will not have wifi again until we reach the Bahamas (unless we go into a marina in Fort Lauderdale).

Here are a few photos from Stuart, Florida and a repair of our wind meter (this repair deserves its own blog – maybe later!)

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Well this has been a crazy start to our 2020 sailing season. An injury to my back before Christmas delayed our return to Crimson Kathryn by almost a month. Fortunately, the marina she has been resting in, is excellent and they were very willing to let us stay an extra month.

We returned back to our winter home on Jan. 25th, after taking a slow drive down (it was better for my back to do short days so we stopped twice – spreading our drive over 3 days). It sure is nice to be back aboard and getting ready for our journey to the Bahamas.

Our plans have changed quite a bit because of our delay in returning to the boat. We are still heading to the Bahamas but not Turks and Caicos. Caroline and our friend Jim Ryan are joining us at the end of February. They both changed their flights to Nassau from Turks and Caicos. We will probably spend the bulk of our time in the more northern part of the Bahamas. We’ll visit New Providence (that’s the island Nassau is on), the Berries and Eleuthera. Not sure we will make our way down through the Exumas but we might go to Cambridge Cay.

We have spent the past week getting ready to leave Jacksonville. We did our provisioning yesterday (Friday, Jan 31) and that was lots of fun!! Our boat has added several pounds – of food, alcohol and water, and we are now ready to head south along the ICW (Intracoastal waterway). We hope to make our way down to Fort Lauderdale by next weekend and then jump across to Freeport, Grand Bahamas as soon as the weather permits. Our goal is to get to New Providence before Feb. 23 – that’s when Caroline arrives. We have given ourselves lots of time to get there so now we just need to get the weather to cooperate!!

It’s so much fun to be in the USA at the end of November – we can celebrate Thanksgiving again! Today I cooked a turkey (13 lbs) and we had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner! It was a beautiful day – sunny and warm (sorry) and we spent the day doing smaller boat jobs.

The generator job is finally completed but not as successfully as desired. There is still an oil leak but it’s much less and it looks like the leak is coming from a place that can’t be reached unless the generator is removed from the boat (and that’s not going to happen this season). So the generator is going back into its place and Mark is moving onto other jobs.

Sometimes moving onto maintenance jobs can lead to more jobs. Our attention moved to the dinghy – we put it in the water and reattached the outboard motor to it. While doing this job, Mark discovered that the pulley in the davit on the motor side is broken, so now that needs to be fixed! It seems to always be that way, take one job off the list and add another!

I said it is Thanksgiving but more importantly, it’s the Christmas season and that is made very apparent by all the decorations going up in the marina and in the town. We went to St. Augustine to see their “Nights of Lights” festival. It was pretty and there were lots of lights but they were all white (and I’m not a huge fan of all white lights – I like colour!). We went with Jane and Steve (who left this morning, heading to the Bahamas) and had a great night out.

Our favourite thing to do is to chat with Evelyn and Caroline. We try to do an audio or video chat with the girls once a week using messenger. It’s so much fun to catch up on their week. In our last chats, we had some huge laughs with Evelyn as she told us about her conference in Washington. Our chat with Caroline involved some deep talk about wood and wall construction as Caroline works towards making a gallery space at her home – very cool and exciting!

It looks like we will be leaving Reynolds Park in the beginning of December to move to Berkman Plaza Marina. We’ll be storing the boat at this marina while we are back home for Christmas. We’ll probably be here at Reynolds for another week or so and then we’ll move and head home.

(All mizzen mast hoisting photos courtesy of Jane Holler – thanks Jane!)

It’s been a very productive week and we are starting to check off some of our jobs! Mark is working hard on the generator to fix the leaky oil pan. So far the crazy thing is still leaking and Mark is getting a little frustrated with it. The pan is fixed but there is still a leak and it looks like the chalking and paper gasket might be the culprits! Other new parts have been been installed (including 2 new mounting rails) and as soon as the leak is resolved, this job will be very close to done.

Exterior wood on a boat is lovely…most of the time! At the end of last season, our exterior wood was in bad shape. We decided to switch from the stain/varnish we were using (it was called cetol) and change to a teak sealer called Semco. The Semco product is very nice but in order to apply this liquid, all the old varnish had to be removed. We did the rub rails and cap rails in April and I applied a new coat of Semco to the 2 sets of rails early last week. Now I’m working on the other wood parts – it’s a long process but so worth it (check the before and after photos below!). I’ll be very happy once all the exterior wood is switch to Semco because maintaining it is so much easier.

One of the cool parts of cruising is meeting new people. The first week we were down here, we met a very nice couple from Wiarton, Jane and Steve. It’s been lots of fun getting to know them and sharing our job stories! It’s amazing how sailors have so much in common and can talk about sailing and our boats endlessly. Jane and Steve are heading to the Bahamas soon and are on their last jobs before leaving Reynolds Park. Hopefully we’ll see them somewhere in the Bahamas this season.

Just a few photos for you this week.

We’re at the end of our 2nd week and the weather has slowed down my outside jobs (I’m putting another coat of Semco on our cap rails) but Mark is picking away at the inside jobs. It’s been cold, rainy (but no snow – thankfully) and very windy – pushing us up against the pier and heeling us over (a very weird sensation when your sitting at a dock).

We have managed to do some things off the boat to give us a break from boat jobs. On Remembrance Day (or Veteran’s Day here) the Fort in St. Augustine had free admission, so we decided to visit it. We love St. Augustine – it’s one of the few Florida cities that has a “small town” feel about it. It also has a very distinctive Spanish style. We did a bit of shopping (West Marine and Ace Hardware – boat stuff of course), had lunch in the old city and then visited the Fort (just in time to see them fire the dreaded cannon that we heard last season!). This Fort is the oldest remaining fortification in North America and it’s quite small.

We have found another marina to move to for December and beginning of January. It’s basically downtown Jacksonville but it is just docks (no other facilities) which is okay. We’re still hopeful that we can stay here if the pier isn’t too full when December rolls around.

Mark is more than halfway through the big generator repair and it is going well. The oil pan is off and the little pinprick holes are being fixed. It’s a big job but should be completed in the next few days. After that, it’s time to move onto the routine maintenance things. Always lots to be done at the start of a season! This year our boat improvement is to get “Mac packs” for our sails. These things are sail covers that attach to the boom and stay in place all the time. Our current sail covers are big pieces of sunbrella (fabric) that we take off to use the sail. You’ve probably noticed them and if you’ve ever helped us put them back on, then you’ll know why we want a different system. These new covers will make protecting the sails so much easier. You just lower the sails as usual and once they’re down and in place, you just zip up the Mac pack cover – that simple (hopefully!). These bags won’t arrive until mid December so we have a job to do when we return in January.

While we’ve been busy with our jobs, others have been making plans to visit us this season. Caroline is confirmed again to spend 2 weeks with us in Turks and Caicos. She joins us on Feb. 23! Our good friend Jim Ryan will be meeting us also in T&C on February 28 and staying until March 13. John and Sadhana are looking into joining us at the end of March (again in T&C)! So we will have a boat full of visiting fun this season.

The weather has been pretty nasty so I don’t have a lot of photos this blog.

It’s that time of the year…sailing season has arrived. We left Kingston on Nov. 1 and drove south to Green Cove Springs, Florida. We made good time on Friday, stopping in Charlotte, NC that night and then making it to Reynolds Park Yacht Centre by about 2pm on Saturday, Nov. 2.

The boat looked great and the new cover we put on stayed in place! We spent Sunday and Monday getting all the out of the water jobs done. It was fairly easy to get ready to go back in the water (not like last season!). Tuesday’s launch was set for 9:30am. We arrived really early (7:30am) to get the dock lines and fenders all set and then we waited for the travel lift to come get us. It was after 11:30am by the time the lift was ready for us. By 1:30pm, we were in the water and tied up at the big Reynolds Park pier. We have a great spot – very close to the gate. This makes getting a wifi signal so much better – we can actually stream Netflix (but still can’t do a decent video chat).

Now the big boat jobs are underway! Probably the most challenging job is replacing the oil pan for the generator. This hasn’t started yet but there are plans on how to do this job. Mark has been working on other smaller things for the moment and I have been slowly cleaning the interior of the boat. (I hurt my back on the first day while pulling a bucket of water up to wash the cockpit and have been slowed down by it). We can only stay at Reynolds Park for a month, so we are looking for a new marina to leave the boat for December when we go home. Lots of fun!