Crimson Kathryn and her crew

We’ve been on the dock now for a week and it’s been super rainy. We’ve only had one day where it didn’t rain (Dec. 17th) during the day so I was lucky that I picked that day to do laundry. There’s only a solar dryer here – lots of clothes lines!! The days are pretty low key as we open and close our hatches and cockpit many times with the intermittent rain. Jobs are progressing but few are completed yet. The new cockpit compartment is probably one day away from being done. The pulley job on the main engine is proving to be more difficult than Mark had anticipated. Lots of parts not wanting to come off and others needing special tools Mark doesn’t have! Fun stuff.

One job that has been completed is the installation of 2 little 12volt fans in our cabin. With all this rain, the aft cabin has been quite warm at night. Mark mounted and wired the fans back at Reynolds and now he has added speed control switches for each one. It was a mostly comfortable job, reclining on our bed!! It took a bit longer than expected (a typical boat job) but last night we used a little fans! And it was marvellous!!

The two French Canadian couples left on Monday – heading further south to the Exumas. We’ve now moved onto the dock so no more climbing over the big power boat. Not going to miss that!! It’s nice being on the dock. We will stay here now until we leave sometime in early January.

Our 5 pm happy hours are continuing each night and we’ve had a chance to meet everyone who is staying here right now. (There’s only one other occupied boat here at the moment). Allison and Jack are on a 51ft catamaran and their 2 sons have joined them in the past 2 days. We’re heading out for dinner tonight with them and Carolyn and Nick (our hosts) to celebrate Allison’s birthday. Should be fun.

Our jump down to New Providence was quite good considering the wind and wave conditions. We left Bond Cay on Dec. 11 around 8:30am and we expected our trip to take about 7 hours. Leaving Bond’s south inlet was a bit tricky because we were heading to low tide. It’s a bit skinny (shallow) through that passage and we did move some sand at one point! Once out in the deeper, wider inlet, the waves were piling up and we had a bouncy ride until we got into deeper water. We had a lovely day – bright sun and very warm. Although the wind was on our nose (it was a motor trip), it decreased in strength over the day which helped the waves lay down a bit so our motion was smoother.

Our original plan was to anchor for the night and head into the dock on Thursday morning. It turned out that we made good time crossing south so we went straight to the dock on Wednesday at around 3pm. It was very calm by the time we entered the channel to our dock space and Mark had no trouble pulling along side our power boat rafting buddy. Right now there are 6 boats here, rafted up in twos. There are 2 French Canadians sailboats in front of us and one of the couple from those boats helped tie us up to the power boat. The 2 French sailboats will be leaving soon – they’re just waiting for the strong winds to die down a bit. Once they leave, we will be moving to dock wall. The owners of the power boat are gone right now and when they return on Dec. 25, they will be leaving soon we can’t still be rafted to them.

So we have 10 days on the dock before we leave! What will we do with all that time?? You guessed it – boat jobs 😁. We started yesterday (Dec. 12) with a job that I didn’t even know was on the list. It’s a fun, smaller job that (for a change) has easy access and good light!! We’re adding a new compartment in the cockpit. The original wind, speed and depth instruments were housed right beside our main companionway. The access to the back of the instruments (to turn them on) is a small compartment that is near the galley area. These 3 instruments no longer function so we decided to remove them, cut a hole and put a nice new hatch to cover the space – instant waterproof compartment with access from the cockpit and inside the boat!! Very cool! We’re going to add a 12volt usb power supply so we can charge the inreach, our communication headsets and our wifi box. We’ll also be able to store small items in there! The job is going well but will require a few more days until it’s complete.

Other jobs on the list include installing the air conditioning units and the new pulley system for the main engine. If it stops raining (we’ve got a rainy week coming up), the rest of the teak can have semco applied and we can start working on the non-skip paint for the deck. We’ll see if the weather cooperates for us!

One of the nice things about this lovely dock space is that it’s at the home of a British couple who have lived in the Bahamas over 50 years. They are super gracious hosts and always have a happy hour each night at 5pm. We’ve had 2 happy hours and have now met everyone who is currently here on their boats. It’s a very fun hour or so where we share stories and experiences and just relax. It’s a nice way to end our day!

We left Great Harbour on a calm Friday (Dec. 6) morning and motored the 35 nm to Bond Cay. As I said in my previous post, we’ve spent some time here at Bond over the years so we’re quite familiar with this area. This time around we decided to get as close as possible to shore so we’re nicely tucked in at the south end of the cay.

It looks like we’ll be here for a few days due to the wind direction. We also don’t want to get down to Nassau too soon (a week or so before our flight is enough time on the dock). While we’re anchored at Bond, we decided to get some jobs done and the # 1 job was to get our new water maker running! When we bought the boat it came with an installed water maker. We used it for our first few seasons down here but when our generator died after our Covid hiatus, we got rid of that old water maker. It wasn’t working very well and needed the generator to operate. Lots of boats down here have a Rainman portable water maker and we’ve heard great reviews about these systems. It is easy to buy water in the Bahamas but now that we’re heading further south, it was time to invest in a new system. We went with a Rainman but got the “naked” version, which means it’s not portable.

The first part of the installation I’ve already talked about because it was done at Reynolds. This part of the installation required some ingenuity. Mark had to make some brackets and supports for all the levers and gauges that needed to be mounted with the compressor unit. Mark gathered all the necessary supplies, including our portable generator and we loaded it all into the dinghy so Mark could do the metal cutting and grinding on shore instead of on the boat. It took him a few hours but all the newly created brackets and supports worked perfectly. By 4 pm this afternoon (Dec. 8), we were making fresh water for the first time – very exciting!! It’s a bit noisy but the fact that we can make about 35 gallons of water in an hour is worth the noise!

So tomorrow Dec. 9th will bring another day anchored here at Bond. We have a few more jobs to pick away at. I started applying the semco to our exterior teak today so I’ll continue with that job. Mark will spend a bit of time working on the wiring to our wind instrument – it quit today so that needs a bit of attention. We’re watching the wind very closely because we’ve got a northern system moving in on Thursday that won’t subside until the beginning of next week. If possible we’d like to scoot down to Nassau this Thursday, just as the strong winds are starting. Time will tell!!

It’s been a lovely couple of days anchored here at Great Harbour Cay. The wind has been strong from the north but we’ve been nicely protected in our anchorage. The biggest challenge for us is to get into the island mindset – slow down!!

On Tuesday the wind was down enough for us to head over to the beach on Cistern Cay. This was a 2 part adventure. Firstly we wanted to get off the boat and walk around a bit and secondly, Mark had a job to do (of course). The hoses to the toilet in the forward head needed some attention. Salt water and urine combine in the hoses to create calcium chloride deposits which constrict the flow of water. Every couple of years, Mark takes the hoses off and beats them up a bit to loosen the stuff. It’s a messy job but at least it’s only needed every couple of years. Our beach destination was perfect for this job and for a little walk – little being the key word. It was a small beach.

With cleaner hoses, we left the beach and did a dinghy tour around the area. First we stopped at the plane wreck which was hard to miss as it was sticking out of the water. The plane, a DC 3, was apparently a drug running plane that crashed years ago. That’s the story anyhow. It was interesting because it was very visible. We next went around to the west side of Cistern Cay and saw a few boats anchored there. It was a bit bouncy so not sure why those 2 boats chose to stay in that anchorage. Our last stop was the blue hole. A blue hole is a very deep spot amongst shallow water. This one is well over 100 ft deep and it is surrounded by water that’s about 3 ft or less at low tide.

Today, Dec. 4th, we decided to go into town. The settlement on Great Harbour Cay is called Bullocks Harbour. It’s a laid back town (like most of the Bahamas) and we were able to walk all around with little traffic. The plan was to get a good walk in and also check on the supply boat. The boat usually comes in on Wednesdays and Fridays but it hadn’t arrived yet today. We walked to the grocery store and were told that the boat didn’t come today because of the weather but should be here tomorrow. Okay – we were planning to leave tomorrow but instead we’ll stay and hopefully get some fresh produce on Thursday.

After our visit to town we decided to dinghy over to the marina which is just south of the town. We tied up there and went for a really good walk all the way out to the airport. It’s a small airport but does have an international arrivals side so there are flights from the USA. We were looking at the runway when Mark commented that they must be expecting a plane (there were a few waiting cars and people around). Mark had barely finished saying those words when a little plane landed just behind us! He was right!!

Tomorrow we’ll head back to the grocery store if the supply boat shows up. On Friday we’ll be heading south to Bond Cay. We spent a bit of time at Bond Cay last season waiting to cross to Nassau for our February flight home for Evelyn’s defence. Our goal for this stay at Bond Cay is to get our water maker up and running!!

Our jump down to Great Harbour Cay was exactly what we expected!! We had strong northeast wind that pushed us along at speeds ranging from low 6 knots up the low 8 knots. It was a gray, cloudy day but the rain held off which was nice. We left Ginn Sur Mer around 6:30 Saturday (Nov. 30) morning and arrived at our anchorage in the dark at 7 pm. We’ve anchored here before in the dark so it was easy to drop the hook into a good sandy spot.

The first day of December was a very rainy one here. Great way to clean off our salty deck from the sail down. We had decided the night before that we were going to do absolutely nothing on Dec. 1. We have been going hard without a true day long break since we left Canada on Oct. 27!! And we’ve travelled over 420 nm in 8 days. Some time off was definitely needed!! We started our day with a super slow breakfast. Mark made himself some French toast and topped it with some whipped cream! We drank our coffee and relaxed with our devices.

The extend of my activities for the day was to do some dishes, clean up the cockpit from our travels and lastly I decorated the inside of the boat for Christmas! Mark ran the Honda generator which we greatly needed after a long sailing day that had no sun and not enough wind to keep up with our energy expenditure. It sure felt good to not travel somewhere and to not do boat jobs.

Our anchorage is fairly large but well protected from the northeasterly wind we’re getting for the next few days. There are 2 other boats with us – one large power boat from Canada and one other sailboat. It’s very quiet here and with the rain yesterday and the strong winds today, we haven’t seen anyone moving around. Hopefully Tuesday will be a better weather day and we will be able to explore the area.

This is the first time we have crossed to the Bahamas in such low wind. No sailing but boy was the ocean calm. We left Vero Beach at 8:30 am Nov. 28th and had a great ebb current moving us south to Fort Pierce. It’s always nice when the current works with you and not against. We were going out the Fort Pierce Inlet by 10:50 am.

We’ve also never crossed to the Bahamas from so far north. Normally we go to Lake Worth or further south because of the north flowing Gulf Stream. We had been given some advice about the directions to cross from Fort Pierce, so we created a course on the plotter that started with a heading of 140 degrees (southeast), then turned 90 degrees (east) when the current got too strong and the last leg was 150 degrees (south east). We got as far south as St. Lucie Inlet when our speed was dropping too much as we entered the Gulf Stream. We made our 90 degree (ish) turn and headed across the stream.

It was a very peaceful motor across Gulf Stream. There was very little traffic and with the light winds, there were no waves to impede our progress. After a short time we saw another sailboat heading our way so we kept tabs on that boat the whole way across. It can get a little boring so it’s fun to watch the AIS signals on the water. This automatic identification system (AIS) gives lots of info about the vessel including name, length, speed, type of vessel and very importantly it gives you the closest approach distance and the time to that approach. At night this is super helpful when tankers and cruise ships appear to be heading straight for you!! We had some fun watching 2 small pleasure crafts play chicken with 2 tankers!! At one point, the 4 AIS signals (which appear as green triangles on our plotter) were almost one on top of the other. Of course when you zoomed in on the plotter, you could see lots of space between all the vessels.

We made our turn to the south around midnight and were still getting some current from the Gulf Stream. It didn’t take long before we were in the faster Bahamian water and our speed picked up. It was a very dark night but as we approached West End, we could see the onshore lights – a very comforting thing. We decided to anchor just north of West End until morning. We got into the anchorage a little before 3 am.

This spot is known for poor holding and it proved true for us. Our anchor wasn’t grabbing so Mark decided to lower our second anchor just to make sure we didn’t drag when the tide changed. We were off to bed by 3:30 am.

Up early on Nov. 29th, just before 7 am. We had a great breakfast and then prepared to head into Old Bahama Bay Marina to clear into the Bahamas and to buy our SIM card for our wifi. We started the process of raising the 2 anchors around 8:30 and after much effort and a bit of struggle, both anchors were onboard by 9 am. We headed into the marina and by 10am we were cleared in and approved!! Unfortunately the shop that sold SIM cards didn’t open until 12pm and then the card had to be driven out to us from Freeport so it took until 2pm to finally have our wifi up and running. 

We’re now anchored at Ginn Sur Mer and happily relaxing for the night. Tomorrow we’ll jump down to Great Harbour Cay with some nice north east wind. It’s another long trip – about 80nm, but we’ll stay there for a few days and finally chill!!

There’s a phrase I wasn’t expecting to hear during our Reynolds Park to Vero Beach passage!! But heard it I did from Mark early Monday morning as we got close to Cape Canaveral.

Before I tell you that story, let’s go back to the first part of our journey. We had a very good motor north to Jacksonville on Saturday, Nov. 23. The wind was still blowing quite strongly at 9 am so we delayed our departure until 11:30am when the wind died down enough for us to get off of the pier. The river was fairly empty and we had no trouble getting to our anchorage on the north east of the city. We were anchored at Blount Island by 5:30pm. The only problem that first night was that a dredging operation arrived during the evening and started running around 10pm. The machinery was opposite us on the west side of the river but it was very loud! It kept me awake most of the night!!

By Sunday morning I was very eager to get going so we pulled up anchor around 9am. We had the ebb current and were doing about 9 knots down the St. John’s river to the ocean. It was great fun zooming along and again the river was fairly empty. It was a very good way to start our 24 hour motor on the outside down to Cape Canaveral.

The wind prediction was spot on for Sunday and Monday. The ocean was flat as a pancake and we motored along at our usual 6 knots with barely any rolling. It was a very pleasant passage. As the day progressed, we heard a coast guard announcement about Cape Canaveral – a space x launch was happening at 2:32 am Monday and the security zone would be in effect until the fuel booster was collected. Okay what does that mean for us?? We get to see a launch from the ocean – up close and personal!! It also meant that we had to do a slightly wider approach to the Cape Canaveral inlet to avoid the security zone. No worries!

2:30 am rolls around and we’re close to the launch area. We’re all ready with our phones to take photos. We’re pretty sure we see where the rocket is on the launch pad! We wait…and nothing happens!! After waiting about 45 minutes, we decided the launch was probably cancelled. Oh well! So we go back to overnight routine of taking turns napping. A little before 5 am we were both up and all of a sudden this bright orange light pierced the sky right infront of us. And Mark says “WHAT THE HECK IS THAT”. Well you guessed it, the rocket launched! It was spectacular and loud!! We had front row seats and it was super cool. It only lasted a few minutes and then the rocket was out of sight.

The rest of our journey into Cape Canaveral was uneventful, just the way we like it. We stopped at a marina to get a bit of fuel and then continued all the way to Melbourne where we anchored for the night.

Today (Nov. 26) we made the short 32nm trip down the ICW to Vero Beach City Marina and we’re now on a mooring ball for a few days. It looks like we will be crossing to the Bahamas very quickly. There is a no wind crossing this Thursday and Friday so we’re aiming to leave here on Thursday and arrive in the Bahamas on Friday! Crazy fast!

We’re leaving the dock today Nov 23. The wind has lessened and the ebb current is slightly pushing us off of the pier. This is a very quick post just to give our plan. Tonight we’ll be on the east side of Jacksonville. On Sunday we’ll jump on the outside and motor (no wind for the next few days) all the way down to Cape Canaveral. That’s about a 24 hour journey. After that it will take one more day to get down to Vero Beach. We’ll have wifi again when we get there and I will do a longer post!

The days are flying by as we work towards leaving the dock and heading south. The jobs are also quickly getting either completed or completed enough to get underway. We start each day with a list of things to accomplish and so far we’ve been meeting our goals!

It’s a good sized list of jobs we’ve managed to check off our list since moving over to the pier. The first unexpected job was to get the water heater working. After a bit of trouble shooting, Mark discovered that the heating element in the water heater wasn’t working so it was replaced! He also spent a bit of time flushing out the tank which was greatly needed. All water maker parts are secured in their new homes. We removed our old safe – that was a heavy job!! We used the main halyard to hoist the thing from inside the boat over to the pier. Mark has completed all the engine checks (tested the new fuel pump, changed fuel filters and oil, etc).

We’ve also done some outside jobs. The Bimini (top) of the enclosure has been waterproof – something we haven’t done for many years. All the sails are in place after a huge struggle with the jib which was supposed to be a quick easy job! It wasn’t. For some strange reason, the halyard (which attaches to the swivel head that leads the jib up the forestay) kept twisting as we hoisted the sail. We’d get about halfway up and the line would become so tight around the forestay that the sail couldn’t be hoisted any further. We tried so many different tricks to get the line to stop twisting and none worked! Finally for the last trick, Mark used a slip knot with a long rope attached to connect the spinning shackle to the stationary shackle on the furler swivel. That worked and we managed to hoisted the jib to the top and then furl it tightly around the forestay! And the dinghy motor has been mounted on the dinghy transom and the motor started well!

Another big job was to figure out all the hoses, connectors and special parts we need to finish the air conditioning and water maker installations. Mark spent several hours measuring and drawing out the installations so he could create a list of all the parts we would need. We then headed to ACE hardware and Home Depot to purchase all the bits and pieces!

Lastly, we spent today (Nov. 20) provisioning for our 5 month trip! This is the longest we’ve had to buy for and our freezer is bursting! We couldn’t buy all that I had planned because we just couldn’t fit it all in! We went to 4 grocery stores – Costco, Aldi, Publix and Winn Dixie and of course the ABC (liquor store). It’s one happy boat right now!

We still have things to do before we can cast off but we’re hoping to be heading down the St. John’s river by this weekend. It’s all coming together nicely.

Finally we’re back on the water!! It’s been a long week living on the hard and to top it all, our final night on the hard was spent in the travel lift slings, suspended about 10 inches off the ground. The very last spots under the stands needed to be painted and left to dry for 10 hours – that’s why we spent the night just hanging there.

The good part about the wait for the propeller shaft was that we were able to focus on a lot of other jobs and had time to complete quite a few! The days have kind of all blurred together but there has been a few stand out moments.

It’s been the time of the saw! The old air conditioning units have been removed and that required some cutting of copper pipes, wrestling with heavy units and motors plus lots of wire cables being moved. The new units have been put in place but are not connected yet – that’s a job for later down the river. The aft unit went into the new spot very easily with lots of room to spare. The spot for main cabin unit, which is larger than the aft cabin unit, needed a fair amount of adjusting – out came the saw again. It was a noisy, messy job but with some ingenuity, Mark managed to get the unit to fit.

The new inverter took a bit of time to install. It fits perfectly in the old inverter’s spot but the wiring for the new one was a challenge. Mark managed to get all the wires connected and the inverter box was secured in its new home in just a few hours. That job lead to the purchase of a new microwave! Our old one was all rusty and disgusting so we decided to look for a new one. Lots of choices and they’re cheap!!

Our final big jobs were all done on the last day (Nov. 14). We started the day by moving the 2 heavy water maker boxes onboard. We used our main halyard to hoist both boxes onto the deck and then into the cockpit. One box contained the 2 – 45 inch membranes and the second box contained the pump. We next moved onto clearing out the compartment under the floorboards below the main cabin table. This compartment held one of our original water tanks. That tank got holes several years ago and we ended up cutting the top of aluminum tank and placing a rubber bladder in there. Now the bladder is gone and the whole top of the old water tanks has been removed. The two membranes are secured in this space and the pump will be going in another storage compartment under our cabin seats.

While this job was ongoing, the propeller shaft arrived!!! So the water maker job stopped and we went to work on the new shaft. Before we could start work on the shaft, we quickly had to remove the forestay because the travel lift was heading to us to complete our bottom paint job. The cutlass bearing had been installed at the beginning of the week so we were good to put the shaft back in by ourselves. Mark added a “dripless shaft seal” that complicated the job a bit. Fortunately the new shaft was a perfect fit and the re-installation went well. As we were working on the shaft, the final bottom paint was going on the spots where the boat stands were placed and under the keel. At around 4pm, we went back to work on the membrane install and then cleaned up the main cabin! It was a long, very productive day.

It was an early morning today (Nov. 15) – up at 6am and moving to the water by 8 am. Our launch was smooth with no problems. Once tied up at the launch dock, Mark started the engine (always a bit of a tense moment) and it ran like a charm!! We had a very windy morning so getting off the launch dock was a challenge but getting onto the pier was even more fun!! We had wind and current pushing us into the pier. Good thing we had Brad and Julia helping us with lines and muscle power. It took some strength to keep us off the wooden platforms on the pier and to get our fenders in position. In the end we tied up at spot 12 and sighed with relief!! We’re back in the water at last.