2023-05-14 Offshore trip and Georgetown, SC

Change of plans, so we left Sunday night from Cocoa Beach, FL to head offshore.  Joined by our current buddy boat Breathe, and a nice surprise Indie II, a Manta 38 we met in Georgetown Bahamas was in Cocoa when we arrived, and decided to join us for part of the offshore trip, as they were heading to Charleston, but we wanted to make it further.  This would be the longest offshore for both boats, so they were both keen on travelling as a group.

We motored from Cocoa Beach up to Cape Canaveral, through the locks, under the bridge and out into the briny blue.

Indie II in front, then Breathe, then us.

Quite a bumpy trip out, directly into the wind for 7 miles or so, then we were able to turn north and start sailing.  Seas were not too large, but a bit confused, so a little lumpy, but had calmed down by the morning.  As we try to do on overnight trips - a nice morning treat always helps.

Had a few nice dolphin visits.  You can hear Dean whistle in the background on this one.

Really great in the gulfstream, adding up to 2.5 knots of speed at times.   

Charm was the fastest of the three boats, so we did hang back a bit with some sloppy sail trim to keep the same pace as our buddy boats - but it was nice to have the company so we did not mind.  It also kept our wave surfing speed lower, so a bit more comfortable of a ride at times to go slower.  We still made great time, averaging over 7.4 knots for the entire trip.

Had to clean off a few flying fish from the boat and inside the dingy in the mornings.  

Poor little fish, trying to avoid a predator, and ended up in our cockpit.  Did not see until the morning, and then the fish was quite dead.

Coming into Georgetown harbor

Georgetown is a cute little town, so we took some time to explore, and walk the streets.  Breathe joined us, and we had a good day.

Had to put this photo in.  We drug our son Derek through the Caribbean, and each island always had some old cannon.  He got tired of looking at cannons.  Now each time we see an old cannon, we think of our son and smile.

Nice clocktower in downtown, that still chimes

Well restored old buildings, with nice cafe's

Georgetown has many well kept up older homes

Always something interesting to see, beautiful gate here.

Nice fountain in waterfront walking path

We walked by a couple of old nice churches, one was open, and we were invited to visit by a church member doing some reconstruction on a statue insides, and on the second church, the priest was just opening and invited us in.  Gave us a nice tour and history of the church.

Inside first church.  Nice ceiling architecture.  Unfortunately, on this church the bishop sold off some of the original wood, and pews when the church was "updated" in the 70's.

Stained glass windows brought over from Germany

Second church had more original features kept, like the organ

Also had pew boxes - which had a lot of carved into the wood graffiti, some of it quite interesting, like one person complaining that the frost took three of his hens.

We stopped at a café for lunch, and to our surprise, got a text from our friends Ed and Cathy of What If.  They were in a car driving by, and saw we were in Georgetown, so stopped for a visit at the café.   Great to see them.

Left to right - Jason and Monica of Breathe, Kris and Dean of Charm, Cathy and Ed of What If

Kris enjoyed the humor of the sign on this bowl set out for dogs in Georgetown.  It reads "Water for your dog, or short people with low standards - we don't judge"

Next two days we motored north on the ICW, as offshore winds were not favorable for us. Then a short offshore hop up to Carolina Beach.  

Pretty section of ICW near first night anchorage

Had to have a couple bridges open for us.  Pretty little swing bridge

The further north, the more populated along the ICW

Getting into the expensive area in Myrtle Beach

Had a few go fast boats passing us

Breathe sailing along on a very calm offshore day

Now anchored in Carolina Beach, NC.  Will head in this morning for some famous donuts at a local shop here.  - Life is rough 😁

2023-05-06 Projects, projects, groceries and more errands

After a day of errands in Vero Beach, it was time to get busy on projects.  Our friends on Breathe had asked us for help installing some DC-DC chargers for their engines, as step one of the Lithium battery upgrade they have planned for in the fall.

Charm rafted next to Breathe in Vero Beach.  Being rafted together made working projects on their boat much easier for us.

Vero Beach mooring field early in the morning

Kris spent a few hours over the next 4 days installing the wiring and chargers for them.   Dean worked on a project on our boat - to have the toilets have the option of a salt water flush - as we learned when we were short on water with the watermaker broken, that toilets were the the largest consumer of water we have on the boat.  Sorry no photos - forget to take them when busy.

Treated to a nice view in the evening, watching a launch of a Falcon Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral.

Nice view, with reflection on water

Unfortunately, every night at Vero we were ran indoors due to no-seeums, which were out in force.  So evenings we cowered inside, randomly hitting ourselves when we felt their bite, but these little guys were impossible to see inside with dim light - so we mostly looked a little crazy randomly hitting ourselves.  Thankfully, itching was a minimum with the bites.

Kris continued to work on Breathe's project, and Dean worked on Breathe as well, assisting Monica with removing their mainsail for a sewing project, and helping Jason install a new water pump on their generator, and helping Kris pull wire through the boat.

We did find time to go over and see our friends Scott and Tina who own Sangaris - an Manta 42.  We met them in 2012 in the Bahamas, and they live in Vero Beach.   Scott had some issues with VHF whine, so we went to see if we could help diagnose that.  Found some bad grounding wires, so went back later to help again, and take care of crimping some large lugs on wiring for him, as we have a nice large lug crimper.

Sounds like lots of work - but were well taken care of with lunch or dinner out, mooring paid for, and use of Scott and Tina's car.   Excellent barter system.  We even got to have a nice lunch with Jason's parents who drove down -and were very nice people.

Our new brushes for the watermaker arrived, so Kris took the motor apart again, and cleaned it and prepped for new brushes.

Old brush on left which was in "good shape" and not the one we were cobbling together, still looks bad compared to new brush on right.

We were able to make time to go out for a nice dinner at a local Mexican restaurant, which was great fun, had a really nice time.

Left to right - Scott, Jason and Monica, Kris and Dean, and Tina

We finished Breathe's electrical project, and took Friday off - to run back to town, got some more groceries, and returned some Amazon packages, and did laundry.

Saturday found us moving again, heading north on the ICW.  

Breathe behind us on the ICW

Typical view on ICW

Osprey in nest on channel marker.

Still see lots of sunken or grounded boats from hurricane damage from a few years ago.

We plan on heading out to the ocean on Monday, for a two night trip up to Georgetown, NC, or further if weather allows.

2023-04-30 Change of plans - back to the USA

We have been "fixing" our watermaker brush every 5 days or so, to keep us in water, but finally after two months of limping along - the brush is truly done, and any fix would involve a bit of redesign - so we made the call to return to the U.S about two weeks earlier than planned.   

Since we were buddy boating with Breathe, we had a backup for water, so did a bit more exploring while we had time, and glad we did.   We stopped at Davis Point, where there was supposed to be an old abandoned logging camp, and we thought it would be interesting to see, but the great part of the trip were the dolphins.  

What amazing animals

We had a pod of 3 or 4 coastal bottlenose dolphins come and check us out as we were taking the dinghy into shore.

Hard to take good photos, shooting underwater from dinghy

They came within 2' of the dinghy

OK - enough dolphin photos - I have many more

After our dolphin encounter we headed to shore to explore the logging camp ruins.  We were unsuccessful.  Found a concrete block, some trash and rusted metal, but no path inland where the main camp was supposed to be.

The concrete block

Don't think this little guy sees many humans, as he was close and very curious

Jason walking rocky shoreline, looking for a path

After our explore, we decided to head further north, as the anchorage was exposed, and not great.   We headed up to Randall's Cay.

Next day went for a shore explore - not a lot to see.  Low lying island, lots of rock with neat layers, and mangrove swampy land.    

Breathe and Charm in anchorage

Calm day, exploring the area

Went for a snorkel at Jones rock, preparing for disappointment, as we have not seen a lot of life except a few fish and the dolphins of course.  We were pleasantly surprised.

Lots of large angelfish

Nice school of little guys.  Fun to snorkel through

Bar Jack (I think) and Porcupine fish

Dean relaxing in dink after snorkel, Jones rock in background

After the snorkel, Dean jumped in the water, and found that our starboard prop hub had some play in it in the fwd/aft motion - not good.   We decided to press on north under one engine and in the next anchorage, with calm seas, take a better look.

We had a nice sail, and short motor through a cut up to Little Cave Cay.  Next morning Jason came over with his dive hookah, and Dean and Jason removed our prop and hub, found the issue, and were able to fix it.  It seems an additional spacer was needed, as the old hubs had been modified for line cutters, that we removed.  Luckily we had saved our old parts, and had the spacer on hand.  Port side had a new hub, so no issue on that side.  Funny is that we have been using the hub/prop as is since September, and this issue had been present since then - and we have had no issues - so it was probably fine, but always concerning when parts move a direction they are not supposed to.    We could not have done the work without our buddy boat Breathe and their help with the dive hookah.  Jason also did a great job assisting Dean underwater - so a big thanks to Jason and Monica.  And yes - we have started shopping for our own dive hookah.

Jason and Dean working on the prop/hub

On shore at Little Cave Cay

Net in dead branches

Calm weather, dinks anchored while exploring ashore

We left early in the morning on the 27th, headed for the USA.  

Done with the Bahama flag - 5 months of wear and tear.

Light winds, and nice sail for about 8 hours, then got rougher, and we hit the open seas between the Bahamas and the Florida coast.  Had good wind, but lumpy seas, and then around 2:00 a microburst, with 30 knots hit us.  Handled that OK, but then the winds just died, so motorsailed in somewhat lumpy seas until came to Ft. Pierce inlet, then just motored.

Nice sunrise as we approach the USA

Approach to Ft. Pierce - not in the Bahamas anymore

More boats and people than we have seen in the last few months

We headed up to Vero Beach, as we know we can get items shipped in there.  Breathe is with us, and we will spend part of the week upgrading some of their electrical, and doing projects on our boat.  Our friends Scott and Tina have a home here, and they graciously offered a use of their car, so all day Saturday we did the American thing - and spent money.  We went to a Auto parts store for new batteries for Breathe, Home Depot for plumbing parts and some wood, Wal Mart for groceries, Lowes for other plumbing parts, Goodwill to drop of clothes and bedding we no longer need, Ace Hardware - looking for parts we did not find, McDonalds for lunch 😀, and Publix (large grocery) for more groceries.    Had to make a trip back to boats to unload part way through, as we ran out of room in the car.

Also did a couple loads of laundry - big stuff like mattress pad and blankets that are hard to wash on the boat.  Watched a little bunny hop around while waiting on laundry.

This little guy must live near the marina.

Next week will be project week - but also fun times visiting with our friends Scott and Tina, and more.

2023-04-23 BMMRO and traveling the Bight of Abaco

We are continuing to buddy boat with Jason on Monica on Breathe - a Manta 40.  They take much better photos than us - and you can view daily photos and their blog on their facebook page.   We left our nice anchorage at Hawksnest Cay in the Berry Islands on Monday sailed the 30 miles up to Sandy Point, on Great Abaco Island.  Winds much higher than forecast, so bit of a bumpy ride.  Did have a nice sunrise to start the day.

 Sandy Point is on the SW corner of the island.  We went there as there are new Manta catamaran owners that have a house there.  The boat they bought is located in Anacortes, Washington, and they will head there to spend some time on it, and eventually bring it through the canal over to the Bahamas.  We wanted to say hello to them, and also learn about their work with Bahamas Marine Mammal Research Organization. (BMMRO).  Charlotte and Diane pretty much are the BMMRO, and study several different variety of whales, dolphins, manatees in the Bahamas.  They have done some fascinating work.  We went over to their very nice home on the beach on Sandy Point for dinner on Monday after we arrived.   Had a good time and great conversation.   The anchorage was a bit bumpy, but forecast winds were to switch around to the NE and die down.

Next day turned out to be a boat day, as the winds forecasted did not happen, and we ended up spending a very lumpy day on the boat with swell and wind not the same direction, so very confused waters.

Next day we were able to get off the boat, and had a nice walk into town.  The town is quite small, but clean and nice for the most part.

 

Very small community, surprised to see a fire station - old trucks but appear to still work.

Nice school, with some pretty nice murals on the building

Stopped at small grocery and got a few supplies.

Nicely maintained roads

Nice palm on the beach

On Thursday, we went again into Diane and Charlottes home, where they showed us the varied bones from marine mammals, and explained more about their work, which is quite fascinating.  Learn more here: http://www.bahamaswhales.org/home.aspx

Small seahorse sitting on sperm whale tooth  (tooth is about 6" long)

Diane, showing the skull collection, and educating us 

Charlotte in the computer lab/office with more interesting information

They then took us down to Rock Point, where they knew there was good snorkeling, and they were right.  Lots of fish, and healthy corals.   Had a great snorkel.

Beautiful large area full of sea fans

Healthy coral, nice to see

There were lots of healthy Elkhorn coral, and lots of fish

A truly beautiful spot to snorkel.

Later in the evening we met Charlotte and Diane for dinner at a local restaurant for a nice dinner out.

Left to right on top row: Monica, Jason, Diane.  Bottom row left to right: Charlotte, Dean, Kris

A change in winds forecasted so we left early Friday, and sailed about 25 miles north into the The Marls.

 The Marls are a large area  of shallow water  and low lying small islands  dotted by mangrove stand.  It is a popular area for Bonefishing, and is supposed to be one of the most unique and productive fisheries in the Bahamas.  We did see some fish, and turtles, but there is lots of hurricane damage still, and not as much wildlife as we thought there might be. 

 

We will move today and do some more exploring in The Marls for a few more days.

2023-04-15 Some good rain, exploring the Berry's.

We went for a nice snorkel on Monday at the north end of Bonds Cay.  Not much coral to see, but some large parrot fish and quite a few of them.  Took the dink to land, but did not see any good trails on the island.  

Had  a nice rain on Monday, got about 15 to 20 gallons in the tank, and boat was nicely washed off.  We motored up to Hoffman's Cay, as strong northeast to east winds projected - with rain.

We sat on the boat for the next two days while the winds blew 25 plus knots, and it rained.  Good time to read books, relax, watch movies, and make bread and cookies.   Went over to Breathe for a delicious taco dinner, with chocolate lava cake for dessert - so yummy.  Made the dink trip in the rain worth it (plus the company was nice :)

The rain stopped and the sun came out on Thursday.  We got off the boat and went for a hike to a blue hole, some ruins, and the ocean side of Hoffman's.

At the Blue Hole on Hoffman's Cay, unique overhang on west side.