Category: Sailing Return 2021 – 22

The 2021-22 sailing season has officially come to an end with the haul out of Crimson Kathryn on Monday, April 25! We spent 12 days at the pier getting the boat ready for storage and I can say without a doubt that this was the most thorough cleaning and storing job we have done so far. It’s always a process getting the boat in and out of the water but this haul out we managed to relax and enjoy (most) of the process.

The last few days have been a whirlwind of activity – sails washed and stored; dinghy motor lifted off the dinghy and secured to the boat’s stern rail; dinghy hoisted onto the bow; interior fabrics sealed in vacuum bags, etc. The inside of the boat was a bit of a disaster with stuff being stored in the v-berth and main cabin but we were still able to cook and relax!!

We moved the boat over to the Holland Marine haul out dock around 8am on Monday. This early haul out worked perfectly for us to get the rest of our storage jobs completed in good time. We were hauled at 9:30 and it took about 1 hour to get the boat secured on its jack stands. Once in place, we went onboard to finish packing up the last items. We took down the enclosure and the final job was to cover the boat with 3 tarps and our big shade tarp.

Now all that’s left is to drive home!! It’s been a great season!!

Our storage work began in earnest just after our arrival on the Reynolds pier. The job list is definitely shorter then the launch list but there are still many things that have to be cleaned and stowed. A salty storage environment inside the boat leads to some nasty surprises when we return in November.

Probably the biggest job is rinsing the boat – outside and inside. The goal is to remove as much salt as possible to slow down the mold growth. This year I am treating all interior surfaces with a water and vinegar rinse and then a spray of Concrobium (a mold and mildrew killer). You might remember the photos from November – so much mold!! We don’t want a repeat of that!

Mark’s first big job was putting holes in the boat!! Our boat has drains on the deck with about a 4” wall beside the drains. These drains clog easily which is not a problem when we’re onboard but terrible when we aren’t here. So to help with deck drainage, Mark drilled 2 large holes in the side above the drains to help disperse water. Mark barely finished sealing around each tube when we got a really heavy rainstorm. The new side drains worked perfectly and we had excellent drainage for a change.

Unfortunately not all boat jobs go as planned! On Friday (Good Friday) I was cleaning our cockpit and it’s enclosure. I took off the dodger (it’s like the windshield in a car) to get better airflow into the cockpit to dry it out. I put the dodger on the top of the enclosure (which I’ve done many times before) and went inside the boat to work on cleaning the v-berth. There was a big gust of wind and that gust took our dodger over the edge and into the dirty water of the St. John’s River. It was about 2 hours later when I noticed the dodger was gone. Mark dove for it but visibility in this water is zero! So now we have to get a new dodger made for our enclosure!! Not what we wanted but that’s the way things go. There’s a woman right on-site here who does canvas work so we’ve already booked her for November.

We have now booked a haulout date – Monday, April 25th. There are lots of jobs to be completed by that date but we’re confident we’ll have them all done in time. We both have our lists and each day we’re ticking things off!! It’s not all hard work – Jane and Steve are still here and we’ve had happy hour with them. And yesterday (Monday), our friends Julia and Brad arrived so now we have more people to chat with!

It’s been over a week since my last post and a lot has happened in that time. We’ve travelled over 400nm, leaving the beautiful Bahamian shores behind and returning to our safe harbour at Reynolds Park. There’s lots to share and I’ll try to get it all down for you.

Our departure from Great Harbour Cay marina went perfectly. We got off the dock at 8am and the weather was good for our crossing. As we got away from the island, Mark set-up all the lines for our spinnaker. This was the first use of our new to us spinnaker and we were able to fly it all day. We eventually took it down when it was getting dark – we were very close to West End, Grand Bahamas at that time. The rest of our night crossing went smoothly. Unfortunately we didn’t get the predicted wind so we ended up motor sailing most of the night. We did get a great push from the Gulf Stream and were seeing speeds in the high 11 knots. We even saw over 12 knots at one point – a new record for us!!

Our plan was to cross to Fort Pierce or if all was going well, continue north to Cape Canaveral. Well with the Gulf Stream push we decided to head for Canaveral! Why not – that got us even further north on the outside which meant less time on the ICW (intracoastal waterway). The only problem was that we arrived at the Port of Cape Canaveral during the restricted hours. There are 2 bascule bridges and a lock to transit to get from the ocean to the ICW. The bridges are closed to boat traffic for rush hour – 3:30 – 5:30 (roughly). It was a bit of a drag to be so close to our anchorage for the night but unable to continue (especially because we were tired)!! So we slowed down and starting looking for a spot to tie up to while we waited for the bridge to open. We got super lucky!!We had barely reached the free dock when a tug and barge radioed to the first lift bridge to open for it. The bridges must open on request for all commercial vessels. The tug was in the lock and heading east so after it went through the bridge, we were allowed to pass through going west!!! Excellent! The lock was all ready for us so we made it through both of these in great time. Now we were cruising along the Cape Canaveral barge canal, heading to the next bascule bridge and then to our anchorage! We came around the corner before the bridge and found out that second bridge was also on restricted hours!! So we dropped anchor right in front of the bridge and did our clear in to the USA with their app. Again we got super lucky because another tug and barge came along (this time heading west with us) so we were able to pass through the bridge right after them.

We had decided before we left the Bahamas that we would take our time getting back to Reynolds. We spent one night on a mooring ball in Titusville where we met up with our friends Julia and Brad Pilon. We had been trying all season to meet them in the Bahamas but it never worked out. It was great to see them and we ended up travelling north with them all the way to St. Augustine. We left Titusville on Friday, April 8 and as we headed north, we were able to watch a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral. Very cool and very noisy!! That night we anchored in Daytona.

The next morning, Saturday, Julia and Brad left early trying to get to St. Augustine that night. We decided to go as far as the Matanzas Inlet. The day started off very nice – sunny but a bit cool. It progressed to be one of the most windy days of our whole sailing season! We were seeing sustained wind in the 20 knots ranged with gusts in the mid 30 knots. As we got close to the Matanzas Inlet (and our anchorage for the night) we got a radio call from Julia and Brad. Turned out there was no room in the mooring fields at St. Augustine so they were anchored where we were headed. We had some fun anchoring in the strong winds – it was a bit stressful but within 2 hours, all was calm!!

Our next stop was St. Augustine. We travelled up the ICW on Sunday, April 10 with Julia and Brad and stayed on a mooring ball for 2 nights. It was Palm Sunday so there was a blessing of the fleet that afternoon. It was very interesting – boats were decorated and they paraded by the fuel dock to receive a blessing from the Bishop.

We had fun in St. Augustine but were eager to keep heading north so we left Tuesday morning and sailed on the outside up to Jacksonville. We had another good day motoring in the light winds, but by 2pm we were able to sail the last hour on the ocean and right into the St. John’s River inlet. We made good time because we came in with a flood tide and got all the way to just before the Main Street lift bridge in Jacksonville. We anchored for the night and left around 8am this morning – again with a flood tide so we made great time the rest of the way to Reynolds Park.

As we approached the pier, we saw our friends Jane and Steve waiting to give us a hand with our lines! It was great to see them and to have their help. Jane and Steve arrived at Reynolds Park last Thursday and have been working to get Daydreams ready for storage. That is our job now – get Crimson Kathryn all ready to be stored for hurricane season. Lots of work but we’ll take our time!!

We’re almost at the end of our 2022 sailing season. One last night at Great Harbour Cay marina and in the morning (April 5), we’ll be sailing back to the USA. We went for a nice walk today into Bullock’s Harbour (the village just north of the marina) and enjoyed the Bahamian landscape one last time.

Next post will be a few days from now, once we’re back at Reynolds Park. No wifi for awhile as we make our way up the coast of Florida.

Here are some last photos of the lovely Bahamas!

Well here we are at Great Harbour Cay marina at the top of the Berry Island chain. You might be wondering how and why we are so far north so soon. Things in the Bahamas can change quickly and so can our decisions on how to proceed.

We left Nassau around 8am yesterday (Saturday). The winds were predicted to be fairly light but in a good direction for a spinnaker run. We got our spinnaker ready the night before so we would be good to go the next day. Well that wind never presented itself. We ended up motoring (with the jib out) all the way to White Cay (basically in the middle of the Berrys). Jane and Steve (on Daydreams ll) left before us and were already anchored in the White Cay area when we arrived at 2pm. It was so nice to have another boat to help us get settled. This anchorage had a few challenges – limited good anchoring spots (you have to find the sand) coupled with current (so your boat moves with the tide). We eventually dropped anchor in a good spot and were secured for the night.

We woke up this morning (Sunday) and after a discussion with Jane and Steve, realized that we had a great Gulf Stream crossing coming up on Tuesday (April 5). The winds are in a favourable direction for the next 3 or 4 days but on Friday, they will turn to the north. So at about 11am this morning, we decided to pull up anchor and head to Great Harbour Cay.

The sail north to Great Harbour was about 28nm, so we knew it would take us until 5 or 6 pm to get into our next anchorage. We were very lucky that the wind picked up and we were able to sail a good part of our 28 nm. We also decided to get a slip at the marina at Great Harbour Cay so we didn’t have to worry about anchoring. As we reached the north end of the Berrys, we were greeted with a squall. We saw winds over 30knots and quite a bit of rain but it only lasted about 45 minutes. We were able to continue to our destination and actually ended up getting to the marina almost an hour ahead of our originally predicted time.

We are now in our slip at Great Harbour Cay marina. It’s super nice and we are able to run our air-conditioning so we’re nice and comfortable. Tomorrow (Monday) we will check out of the Bahamas (this is a new procedure) and then we will be ready to leave on Tuesday. If all goes well, we will be back in the USA by Wednesday April 6th. It’s a bit earlier then we had planned but we’ll take our time getting back to Reynolds Park and getting the boat ready for storage.

So I’m not sure when I will be able to post again. We will not have wifi as we cross to the USA, but our inreach will be working. It might take a few days before we have wifi again but I will post as soon as I can! (Having trouble uploading photos so I’ll try to send more tomorrow).

Lots has happened since my last post and we have travelled more than 70 nm in the last 5 days! We were hanging out with the Aga Khan (well anchored near his island) on Sunday, March 27th and now we’re in Nassau at Nassau Harbour Club marina.

Our sail up from Bell Island to Hawksbill Cay on Monday, March 28, was awesome. We had good wind in a great direction and were able to sail the whole time. There were lots of boats on the move and we had fun catching some (we had all 3 sails up and were moving) and being passed by others. The weather was great and with the strong winds, we reached our anchorage at Hawksbill Cay around 1pm. We had a bit of fun getting into the anchorage because we arrived at low tide. The boat actually rubbed the sandy bottom twice on the way in but we ended up anchoring in about 7ft of water. The anchorage was quite lovely and it was very calm. We spent 2 nights here and on the second day (Tuesday) our friends Jane and Steve came in for one night. We did a fun dinghy ride that day and relaxed for happy hour on our boat.

After a bit of discussion with Jane and Steve, we decided to use the upcoming south winds to move all the way to Nassau (a bit earlier then originally planned). We needed to go to Nassau to find a part for our navigational network system. So early Wednesday (March 30) we pulled up anchor and sailed the 45 nm from Hawksbill Cay to Rose Island.

We had another great sail although it was a bit more rolly because the wind was mostly behind us. We were seeing some awesome speeds as we rolled down waves and managed to reach Rose Island by 2pm that afternoon. Our plan was to anchor one night at Rose Island and then head into the marina for 2 nights. Well that one night at Rose Island was a very long one!! We had all kinds of swell (waves that are left over from previous weather) surging into our anchorage from the east and it caused our boat to rock side to side all night long. It’s very difficult to sleep in this kind of motion, so it was a very long night. Needless to say, we were up early and heading to the Nassau Harbour Club marina by 8 am on Thursday March 31.

We have stayed at this marina several times in the past and it is nicely located across the street from a very good grocery store, a Starbucks, a good liquor store and there are several marine stores in walking distance – everything we needed!! We headed to the marine store as soon as the laundry was done and our water tanks were filled. We got super lucky because the first store had the part we needed!! Excellent! Next we stopped at Starbucks for a coffee and then did grocery and wine shopping! We ended the day with a pizza from Dominos!!

One of the best things that happened with our early arrival in Nassau was that we were able to meet up with Mark’s sister Christine!! Christine and her husband Rob arrived at Paradise Island (on the north side of Nassau Harbour) on Monday March 28th. Also travelling with them was their daughter Kathryn and her son August. We spent a few hours with them today (April 1) at the Atlantis Resort. The resort was very impressive – lots of hotels, shops, big mega yachts, water slides and of course beaches. Christine gave us a tour of the resort and we got a chance to catch up on all the news from home! It was great to chat and share lunch with them. It was a wonderful way to end our visit to Nassau!!

In the morning we will be heading further north to the Berry Island chain. It should be a good day of sailing with our spinnaker (if the winds are as low as predicted). We’ll spend a few days exploring this area before we continue to move north, looking for that good crossing window!

We’ve had 3 great days in the O’Briens Cay area and have truly enjoyed everything we’ve seen here. We have explored O’Brien’s Cay, the Pirates Lair at Warderick Wells Cay and swam in the caves at Rocky Dundas. All these adventures required some long distance dinghy rides – always a lot of fun.

Exploration number 1 was on O’Brien Cay. We took the dinghy to the north end of the island and walked across the island to the sound side. There were no beaches on that side but some very interesting rocks! From a second beach (just beside the first one we stopped at) we discovered an interior pond that you really couldn’t see from the water. It was super cool and we walked all the way around it. We were here at low tide so it was very easy to get in and out.

On Saturday we took our longest dinghy ride and travelled about 4 nm up to the south east anchorage at Warderick Wells Cay. This area is called the Pirates Lair. The story is that pirates would anchor and go ashore in this area because the island has fresh water wells. The anchorage itself was very pretty with deep water but also lots of current. It was quite protected from wind and there were 3 mooring balls for cruisers to use. We went ashore and walked across the south tip of the island to Turtle Beach. We saw a few fresh water wells as we walked along the trail. There was one catamaran in the anchorage – we had a brief chat with the man and found out they were from Montreal! Lots of Canadians down here!

Today we decided to leave the O’Briens Cay mooring ball and headed very slightly south to anchor in front of Bell Island (the island owned by the Aga Khan). From this new spot, we took another dinghy ride over to Rocky Dundas – 2 small islands near Compass Cay that have great coral and some caves. There were 2 dinghy moorings so we tied our dinghy to one of them and went exploring. We snorkeled into the 2 caves and were so impressed by what we saw. I only wish I could have brought my phone in to take a few photos – it was quite spectacular! The coral on the outside was also very cool!!

This will be our last night in this area and I feel like we have done a great job exploring it. In the morning (Monday), we’ll be heading north again, this time to Hawksbill Cay. This will be our first visit to Hawksbill so that’s exciting. We’ll probably be there for a few days but may not have wifi.

This has been a very interesting few days as we’ve explored areas of the Exumas that are new. Our first stop was Pipe Creek – Thomas Cay anchorage. We joined our friends Jane and Steve in this anchorage on Tuesday March 22. It’s a tricky spot to get into because of shallow water but we had no trouble (came in at high tide). It’s also a challenging spot to anchor- relatively narrow with lots of current. It took a few tries but we finally got settled in a spot we thought was good. Later that night, the boat turned with the tide and we swung very close to the catamaran beside us. Mark stayed up to wait for the next tide change just to keep an eye of our position (we were fine).

In the morning, we went for a good walk on Thomas Cay with Jane and Steve. This island has several good trails that lead out to the Sound side. It’s always interesting to check out the views from the different cays. As we approached the second beach, our progress was halted by a big male goat. He stood quite still and watched us, ready to give us a good chasing if we got too close to his family – a female and 2 kids. We gave them a wide berth and continued along the trail to the next beach. No shortage of places to walk on this island.

After much discussion, Mark and I decided to leave Pipe Creek on Thursday, March 24. The current is very strong and our full keel boat was doing some crazy moving – including drifting into shallow water and then riding over our anchor so it was behind the stern. We left around 12pm today with the high tide and motored our way slightly further north to Cambridge Cay. We arrived at Cambridge only to find the anchorage very busy so we decided to continue even further north to O’Brien’s Cay.

So here we are – in another new location! We’re on a mooring ball and are the only boat around! This spot is very close to the aquarium – a deep pool that has amazing coral and fish. We plan to swim the aquarium and maybe dinghy back to Cambridge Cay at some point. We’ll probably be here for the weekend so we have time to explore the area.

Now that we are over halfway through March, we are making our way north, up the Exuma Islands. It’s time to get ourselves back to Grand Bahamas so we can cross back to Jacksonville. This has been an awesome season and we still have more exploring to do on the trip north.

After our cave adventure, we headed up to Black Point Settlement on Great Guana Cay. I have talked about this place earlier because we stopped here on our way down. We did some laundry and had a lovely brunch at one of the restaurants in town. The anchorage was packed with boats when we arrived on Saturday but by the time we left Sunday afternoon, about 1/2 of the boats had departed. Like us, a lot of boats are heading north!

Today we are happily anchored back at Big Majors Spot which is the large anchorage next to Staniel Cay. We came in yesterday afternoon and found a great place to anchor that is fairly close to shore – nice and protected! We went into Staniel Cay this morning to do a bit of shopping and on our way in, we saw a dinghy rowing, with some difficulty, towards the shore. We went over to see if the couple needed help and sure enough, their dinghy motor had quit on them. We towed them into Staniel Cay Yacht Club and then did a bit of shopping with the woman, Jane, while Jane’s husband John, tried to get the motor fixed. It was our good deed for the day.

It was a really good thing that we went shopping this morning because we had a doozy of a rain storm this afternoon. We had about 3 squalls with lots of rain and a bit of strong wind (a few gusts 20 knots). The best part was that we were dry inside the boat and the decks got a much needed washing!! Our anchor held well – the manson is desperately trying to redeem itself after the Cat Island fiasco.

In the morning we are making our way a whole 7nm north to Pipe Creek (a new anchorage for us). Here we will be reconnecting with our friends Jane and Steve on Daydreams ll. This is one of their favourite anchorages so we look forward to exploring the area. We have a few days of strong winds coming up so our next move is still undecided. We are aiming for a mid April return to the USA (April 18 is the next full moon and if it’s visible, it would make a nice crossing environment!) so we have to be up near West End, Grand Bahamas Island before that time.