Category: Sailing 2022 – 2023

As I write this last post for the 2022-2023 season, I’m sitting in my living room relaxing after a long drive home. We had a few challenges leading up to our haulout day and the biggest one was the weather. It was very hot and super windy from Sunday right through to our haulout on Tuesday, making lots of our final jobs way more difficult.

Our original plan was to leave the pier and head over to the haulout dock around 5:30pm Monday (May 1) when it was slack current. It’s much easier to get off the pier when it’s slack or when the current is pushing you off the pier. Unfortunately the very strong wind was pushing us onto the pier, making it almost impossible to get off safely. No problem – we were first haulout on Tuesday (May 2) morning so we’d just have to get off the pier around 8am.

We woke early on Tuesday morning and the wind was down – yippee!! Julia and Brad volunteered to help us get off the pier and then get us onto the haulout dock and they arrived right on time (around 7:30am). Unfortunately we had to get off the pier with a flood tide which meant we were being pushed onto the pier. We were all ready to spring our stern off the pier by keeping a dock line on the bow but the current was so strong that we had a lot of trouble prying off. After several tries, Mark just revved our engine as hard as he could – we blasted (well it is a sailboat so it was a slow blast😁) off the pier. It was crazy!!! I was on the bow looking back to see our solar panel and outboard motor getting closer and closer to the pier as Mark tried to move us away while the current pushed us in!! We made it off but it was tense. We slowed down and headed for the haulout dock where Julia and Brad were waiting to take our lines. It was much easier getting onto this dock because the current was pushing us in but it still was a challenge. Mark did a great job maneuvering around 2 boats at the end of the dock to get us into position for haulout.

The haulout went perfectly and right on time. We were safely secured on our stands by 10am. We were placed in the far end of the Reynolds yard with about 6 or 7 other sailboats. It’s not a bad spot – power and water are right at the boat, but it is a long way from the lounge (laundry and washrooms). It seemed to take us a long time to do all the final storage jobs this year. We had a few new jobs that we haven’t had in previous seasons – holding tank pump out, installation of a new wooden frame and tarp over the forward deck and cockpit plus a few other smaller new jobs. It all wrapped up by 4:30pm and we were on the road to home by 5pm.

We left Reynolds Park and drove as far as Florence, SC. We stopped for the night there and got up early Wednesday morning to do the rest of our drive. We had the best border crossing ever at around 10pm – no one waiting and the border guy took about 2 minutes to let us in!! We got home around 10:30pm!! I’d forgotten that we left all our Christmas decorations up so it’s Christmas in Kingston still!!

This was a fantastic season. We had the girls visit us together for 2 weeks and the weather was perfect for doing all kinds of exploring! We hung out with old friends and met some new ones along the way. It’s now time to relax and start planning for next season!

It’s Monday May 1st and we’re just about ready to haulout tomorrow. We’re doing all the jobs that need to be done last minute but right now my jobs and Mark’s are in the same location. So I thought I do a post that features some of the photos that didn’t make it into all the other posts this season. I take hundreds of photos and only a few actually make the cut!

I’ll try to do one last post after we’re hauled tomorrow and are on our way home! But for now, enjoy these random photos from our sailing season!!

Things are progressing nicely as we enter the last week before haulout. We’ve been picking away at jobs. Sails were washed, packed and stored on board. The cockpit plus all the cushions had a good wash and now the cushions are all in the v-berth. Mark completed the electrical cabling job and has now moved on to storage jobs.

The inside of the boat is becoming rather congested with all the cleaned stored items. The v-berth is jammed full of stuff and it’s getting harder to find places to store items while we’re still onboard. It feels like we are ahead of schedule but there’s always lots of last minute items that can’t be done until we’re out of the water.

We have had a bit of fun time in between all the jobs. Last Saturday we had a spaghetti dinner with other cruisers. We had a lot of ground turkey remaining from our season so we decided to invite our friends on the dock to a dinner in the lounge. Mark and I made the spaghetti; Julia and Brad brought buns and butter; Sharon and Rick did appetizers; Barb and John (on Mojo) made brownies and Everett (a solo sailor on the floating dock) brought a carrot cake. It was a feast and we had a great time relaxing in the air-conditioned lounge!!

Mark and I also took off Sunday afternoon (April 23). We drove to a creative pop-up at Jacksonville Beach. We thought it would be lots of local artists’ booths but instead it was a fancy flea market – not the best. We left there and went to Jacksonville’s Museum of Contemporary Art. That was very good and we enjoyed the mostly American artwork.

The dock is starting to empty now. Sharon and Rick on Orkan were hauled out on Monday and they left for Ontario today (Wednesday). Barb and John on Mojo were hauled out yesterday (Tuesday) and they left that afternoon for New Jersey. We’ll be hauled out this coming Tuesday (May 2) and we’ll leave the same day. That will leave just Julia and Brad on Alizarin – they will be hauled out on May 10 and will head back to Ontario a few days later.

It’s hard to believe but we’ve already been on the pier at Reynolds for 11 days. We only have 11 more to go before we’re heading back to Canada. It’s super great to have all this time to get the boat ready for storage. We definitely are not rushed. Mark has been doing some jobs that he says are either for this upcoming November or things that didn’t get done last November. Either way, some very important projects are getting completed.

On our last morning at anchor, the deck wash connection broke. The deck wash is used to spray the chain and anchor as they’re hauled back aboard so it’s important to have it working. That was Mark’s first job which turned out to be more challenging then expected. The inside attachment point for the deck wash was in the anchor chain locker in the v-berth, which is incredibly difficult to get inside. After much struggle (and many bruises) Mark got the new connector secured and working. While he was in that compartment, he took out the electric motor for the windlass (the machine that hoists the anchor) because it was making some not so funny noises that need to be addressed. The motor will come home with us!

The next big job Mark has been tackling is replacing all the 120v electrical cables in the boat. These cables are 43 years old and their age is showing. There has been lots of pushing and pulling to remove the old cables plus parts of the main cabin had to be taken apart to get access to the old stuff and put in the new. It’s another job that really need to be done!

We are getting some storage jobs completed too. The v-berth has been washed and the mattresses have been wrapped so now I can start vacuum sealing stuff and storing it up there. We vacuum seal all fabrics, clothing items, electronics and any other items that stay on the boat. I’ve spent a few days washing all the interior surfaces with both Pinesol and vinegar. After our “Covid” storage mold disaster, I do extra cleaning to remove salt and dirt and then use vinegar and a mold spray to keep the mold from returning while the boat is on the hard. The last 2 days I’ve worked on the exterior wood (this is called brightwork), giving it a new coat of Semco (a teak sealant). The wood was in rough shape by the end of this season so it really needed a good coating of Semco. Looks great now!

We have had some time to relax and enjoy ourselves. On Saturday, April 15 we drove to St. Augustine to have dinner with Julia and Brad and Sharon and Rick. Both couples arrived at Reynolds on the following Tuesday and we’ve had a happy hour to celebrate the end of the sailing season. We’ll plan a few more get togethers before we all head home.

It’s great to be back along side the Reynolds Park pier, safely tied with multiple lines. Our stay at St. Augustine wasn’t exactly what we had planned for! Our thought was that we’d have a nice quiet visit and enjoy some of the sights and sounds of St. Augustine at Easter. Well we ended up spending Friday recovering from our sail across and we had a nice lunch out!

Saturday was spent trying to get a phone plan for my phone. It was very frustrating and we left the Verizon office without a plan. We did a bit of grocery shopping and then headed back to the boat. The Sunday and Monday weather predictions were looking pretty rough – rain and wind! The prediction was dead on – the winds started Sunday morning and so did the rain. We were tied to a mooring ball in the north field and unfortunately we faced directly into the inlet when the wind started blowing from the north and northeast. We had sustained winds in the high 20knots with gusts up to 35knots. We bounced and rocked with the waves coming in from the ocean and at times, the strong current turned us sideways to the wind (that’s not much fun).

As night rolled around, Mark thought we should check our 2 mooring lines (just to be safe). It was a good thing he checked – one line was broken and the other was chafed!! It was kind of scary to think about it. We were hanging onto the ball with a damaged dock line and there were at least 5 boats behind us. Mark used our snubber line (this line gets attached to the chain of the anchor to stop the chain from rubbing when you’re on the hook) and 2 other dock lines to secure us for the night and we checked the lines every 3 hours!! It was a long night but all lines were still attached on Monday morning.

The weather continued to be windy and rainy on Monday. We delayed our early Monday departure from St. Augustine until the wind died down a bit. We managed to drop the mooring ball around 11 am. It was a very interesting 40nm trip north – visibility at times was terrible but at least we didn’t have to content with lots of boat traffic. We were mostly by ourselves!!

Tuesday we made our way along the St. Johns River, through Jacksonville and down to Reynolds Park by 4pm. We had one bad squall roll through just as we were approaching the Main Street Lift bridge in Jacksonville so we had to coast for several minutes while it blew by. When we arrived at Reynolds, we were super lucky to have help from 2 fellow cruisers on the pier. They took our lines and helped us get secured! We now have 3 weeks to get the boat ready for haulout and storage. We booked our haulout for May 2 so that gives us lots of time to get all the work done.

It’s been a crazy few days for Crimson Kathryn and especially her crew! We were up very early (3am) on Wednesday, April 5th and were underway around 4am. The moon was bright and we could clearly see our way out of Ginn Sur Mer. We had a long 234nm trip ahead of us but the wind was predicted to be fairly strong (12 – 18knots) from east/southeast.

The first 8nm of our trip was very rolly – the wind was on the stern and we only had the main up. Once we turned onto the longest portion of our crossing (about 150nm), we put up all sails and had a great broad reach course. This sail was amazing!! We set our sails and didn’t change them for the whole 150nm! The wind was as predicted and once we entered the Gulf Stream, we were really moving! Our speed was mostly in the low 8knots but we saw 10.5knots and 11knots!! We were halfway to St. Augustine by 7:30pm Wednesday.

Unfortunately our great speed and excellent wind direction both disappeared when we made our turn to head into shore. We made a 30 degree turn and that took us out of the Gulf Stream and made us sail downwind. This course was a bit rolly but mostly it was just slow!! By 8am Thursday the wind started to die down. We decided to take the sails down and just motor the rest of the way.

As we approached the St. Augustine inlet, we were greeted by several dolphins who swam along with us on and off for about an hour. It was lots of fun watching these guys swim towards us and then under the boat and up to the bow.

We arrived at the St. Augustine Municipal Marina a little after 2pm and were secured to a mooring ball before 3pm. After some well deserved showers and some Wi-Fi time, we ordered some dinner and took it back to the boat. We celebrated with a bottle of bubbly and went to bed early!!

Now that we are so far north, it will only take 2 more days to reach Reynolds Park. Our current plan is to leave here on Monday and arrive at Reynolds by Tuesday. Then we start the job of getting the boat ready for storage!

The Bahamas portion of our 2023 season is quickly coming to an end. We left Crab Cay a day early – on Friday March 31 and had a wonderful downwind sail to Great Sale Cay. Our friends, Julia and Brad on Alizarin travelled with us and we had some great opportunities to photograph each other as we made our way west. We were also joined by a pair of curious dolphins who swam in our bow wake for several minutes!

We arrived at Great Sale Cay around 3pm and we ended up anchoring right beside Orkan (Sharon and Rick). It was a quiet night but a bit bouncy in the anchorage. We were up early Saturday morning and started sailing immediately after the anchor was up. All 3 boats (us, Alizarin and Orkan) were heading towards West End – a 54nm trip, so we wanted to get as far as possible while the wind was still southeast. The first half of this trip was another great sailing course. We had all 3 sails up and were making great time until we had to turn more into the wind. We took our sails down and ended up motoring all afternoon. As we left the Little Bahamas Bank and turned south towards West End, the wind and waves from the south took their toll on our speed! It was a very long, rough 4nm to reach our destination- Ginn Sur Mer.

We are currently anchored in Ginn Sur Mer with Alizarin (Orkan went into the marina at West End). This area is an abandoned development that was supposed to be a housing and resort spot with nice canals. The canals were built and a few houses went in but then the whole thing shut down. It’s a bit creepy but works well as an all weather hiding spot and a great place to wait for good crossing weather.

So here we wait!! Looks like Alizarin will be leaving for Fort Pierce Florida early Tuesday morning (maybe around midnight). It’s about an 84nm trip for them so they should arrive in the early afternoon on Wednesday. Our plan is to leave around 5am on Wednesday and sail 230nm all the way to St. Augustine, arriving around 3pm Thursday. Fingers crossed both our crossing windows hold!!

We’ve been inching our way north and west over the past few days and it looks like we’ll be aiming for a good crossing window next week. It’s been a great few days – travelling with Julia and Brad (Alizarin) and Sharon and Rick (Orkan).

After a very calm Monday night anchored near the Treasure Cay airport, we moved about 6nm north to the top end of Manjack Cay on Tuesday morning. We’d been told that there was good snorkeling on the ocean side of this cay but you need settled weather for that. Well we were lucky to have that kind of weather so we anchored and went exploring. There were several reefs in the area with lots of fish but the coral wasn’t very healthy. Lots of sand covering the coral heads but the fan coral was coming back.

When we returned to the north Manjack anchorage, Alizarin had joined us! We both pulled up anchor and moved along – we went to Powell Cay while Alizarin went to the west side of the Sea of Abaco to find a good anchorage for the night (we were expecting west wind overnight). Powell Cay was a good spot with lots of beautiful sand. We only spent about an hour there, exploring by dinghy but will definitely go back sometime to explore the island itself.

We left Powell and headed across to Coopers Town (on Great Abaco Island) to join Alizarin and Orkan. It was another calm anchorage and we enjoyed a 3rd happy hour on our boat this time. It’s been great fun getting to know these fellow cruisers and to learn from their experiences. We also spent a bit of time planning where to go next!! The wind has picked up over the past few days and it’s expected to get windier so we were looking for a good place to ride it out!

Wednesday morning all 3 boats headed farther north to Crab Cay. This spot offered us good protection for the north east/ east wind that we’re starting to experience now! We had a nice happy hour on the beach last night with all 3 couples – our last because Orkan took off this morning to head to West End. They plan to cross to Florida on Monday.

So we’re still anchored at Crab Cay with Alizarin. We’ll do a dinghy ride this afternoon and relax until Saturday. It looks like we’ll be heading to Great Sale Cay on Saturday and then to West End maybe on Sunday. After that we’ll watch the weather – could be a good crossing on Tuesday or Wednesday! We’ll just wait and see!!

It’s been a few days since I last posted – we’ve been having a few wifi issues but mostly, we’ve just been relaxing and taking it slow! Our visit to Hope Town was fairly short – arrived on Sunday (March 19) and we left on Friday, March 24. It was a great stay and we had fun with Julia and Brad plus 2 new friends – Francois and Josee.

During our stay at Hope Town, Mark had the opportunity to participate in a race as crew on a large 45ft catamaran. Our friend Brad joined Mark aboard the cat and they raced against 7 other sailboats. They did 2 races in the Sea of Abaco. The captain of the catamaran was an avid racer but in the first race, he cut the corner too close and picked up the race marker (a very large float) and dragged it about 100ft!! They came in second last in that race!! But they redeemed themselves in race 2 by winning!! Mark and Brad had great time!!

On Friday, March 24th, Crimson Kathryn and Alizarin (Julia and Brad’s boat) left Hope Town and headed only 1.5nm south to anchor near Firefly Resort. There we met up with Rick and Sharon on Orkan. Orkan is another boat from our boatyard and they are from Ontario! We had a wonderful dinner at Firefly – good food and great conversation!!

On Saturday we all headed north – us and Alizarin went to Marsh Harbour while Orkan went to Great Guana Cay. We managed to get our laundry and shopping done quickly and we left Marsh Harbour just after lunch. We headed north to an anchorage called Red Bay. This spot gave us good coverage for the south wind that was predicted. Both Alizarin and eventually Orkan joined us in this lovely anchorage that was calm and wonderful!

Sunday morning we woke to find our wifi box (it’s a cellular device) dead!! No wifi for us! We tried everything to get it to work but the 4 year old device was done!!! It’s a super good thing that we were only about 1.5 hours from Marsh Harbour so we could easily head back there to get a new device on Monday (of course they’re not open on Sunday – it’s the Bahamas!!).

That leads me to today – Monday!! After 2 great days at Red Bay, we pulled up anchor early this morning (before 7:30) and headed back to Marsh Harbour. The Aliv store (Aliv is the phone provider we deal with here) was about a 30 minute walk from the dinghy dock so we were prepared to spend our morning in Marsh Harbour. We arrived by 9:30 and barely got off the dock when we saw an Aliv outdoor stand! Crazy! They were hanging out by the dinghy dock to help cruisers (and anyone else who happened to go by)! It was awesome!!! We had our new device and were all done in about 15 minutes!!! We thought it would take at least 1.5 hours to do this job – we got so lucky!!

We left Marsh Harbour just after 11am and immediately pulled out our main sail and jib. We had a fantastic down wind sail all the way to the whale cut. We even managed to have an excellent video chat with Evelyn and Caroline as we sailed through the whale cut! The wind direction and speed was great and we managed to sail the entire day, right up to our anchorage!

We are now anchored just west of Green Turtle Cay and it is so calm!! Alizarin is at Green Turtle Cay and Orkan is still on the south side of the whale cut at Great Guana Cay. I think we will all meet up again on Wednesday when we head to Powell Cay.

Our time in the Bahamas is quickly coming to an end for this season. In the next week or so we will be looking for good crossing conditions. For now we’re having fun exploring parts of the Abacos that we haven’t visited in the past!

It’s been a very fast couple of days since we left Spanish Wells. On Friday, March 17th we motored over to Egg Island so we could be ready to make the 59nm trip to the Abacos early Saturday morning. Egg Island was small and offered good wind protection for the south east predicted wind. We were one of 4 boats when we arrived around noon and by night, there were 9 of us.

It was a very long night!! Although we had some wind protection, we had terrible swells and waves wrapping around and into the anchorage. We bounced and rolled all night! The only positive thing I can say is that we were able to leave at 7am Saturday without hesitation because we were wide awake from all the rolling!!

Our sail north to North Bar Channel (an inlet at the north end of Lynyard Cay, Abacos) was crazy! We were expecting good wind from the south (and a bit from the east) and waves about 1.5m in size from the east. We ended up getting way more!! Winds were in the high teens most of the day and the waves swelled up to 2m by midday. We did some crazy surfing down waves as they crashed in behind us. It was a “sporty” ride and that kind of travelling is very tiring (especially when you haven’t slept well the night before). The fun part was heading north with lots of other boats. We even passed 2 of the boats that were in the same anchored as us! We cleared the North Bar Channel a little after 4pm and made it to our next anchorage by 5pm. We were in the Abacos!!

Today (Sunday) we motored the 8nm to Hope Town and were super lucky because our friends Julia and Brad got us a mooring ball in the harbour! It’s great to be back at Hope Town and really nice to be on a mooring ball. A fairly good storm is predicted for the next couple of days so we feel very safe and secure here in the harbour. Time to relax for a few days!