Breeze On

After the wind finally started to subside yesterday morning we raised the anchor and moved to the northern end of the harbor to the Man Island anchorage. It is a beautiful spot with two nice beaches. It can be quite peaceful if there aren’t too many other boats/mega yachts/jet skis, etc. The southern beach on Man Island was quite busy so we took a ride to the beach at the northern end and had a lovely walk. Off and on during the day we enjoyed watching two turtles swimming near the surface and bobbing their heads up for air. We were on Brreze On and they were close to shore so we were not near enough to take a picture.  This morning we raised the anchor again and moved closer to Dunmore Town. That area is very busy with boat traffic so we stayed just long enough to go ashore for lunch, then moved again to the southern end of the harbor.                                          ...

Early yesterday morning we traveled from Spanish Wells to Harbour Island via the Devil’s Backbone. We have made the 10-mile trip a few times before and yesterday was one of the easiest. We had relatively calm seas and no other boats passing in either direction. It can be nerve wracking if we encounter a boat going the other way when we are in the narrowest part of the route with coral reefs on one side and a beach on the other. Once we arrived in the large harbor we went straight to an anchorage on the W side in preparation for strong W winds that were due to arrive overnight. The winds did indeed arrive last night and are still with us this afternoon.  Today was water maker/laundry day. It was so windy that George rigged up a couple of clothes lines so we could hang the clothes in the cockpit rather than on the lifelines. Even so, I had to run up into the cockpit to rescue a sheet that was coming loose before it escaped off the back of the boat. The sound of a clip hitting the dec...

It seems as if we  have been moving around quite a bit lately. Yesterday morning we left Alabaster Bay and motored then sailed to The Bluff near Spanish Wells. We thought we would have a calmer night in that location with better protection from the S wind. That was true enough until some very loud music coming from shore started at around 8:00PM and continued until late at night. Fortunately our earplugs muffled the noise enough to allow us to get to sleep. Today we moved 2 nm closer to Spanish Wells. The S wind was still blowing giving us a fair amount of chop but the dinghy ride into town wasn’t too bad. Our first stop was Wrecker’s restaurant at the Spanish Wells Yacht Haven. From there we walked to the grocery store for a few odds and ends. Next we dinghied to Pinder’s for fuel then back to Breeze On. We once again raised the anchor moved 2 nm to Meek’s Patch to give us better protection from the now SW wind.  While we were in town we saw that the supply ship was there. We...

In 1960, when I was six years old, my family moved from western New York State to Florida. My dad had recently completed a BS degree in mathematics and was searching for a job. My parents chose Florida for the job search because of the climate. After interviewing for jobs on both the east and west coasts of Florida my dad accepted a position at RCA near Patrick Air Force Base, south of Cape Canaveral. He worked in data reduction, taking the huge volumes of data regarding the trajectories of military ballistic missiles and reducing them to more manageable levels. I consulted with my brother, Dave, about our dad’s work and he said it took them a month to reduce the data from a single launch.  In the late 1950’s the Air Force built the Eastern Test Range; comprised of twelve down-range tracking stations—one of which was on Grand Bahama, another was on Eleuthera. George and I happen to be anchored in Alabaster Bay, which is very close to the ruins of the AAFB (auxiliary Air Force base)...

Today was the first day we have stepped off the boat since leaving New Bight, Cat Island four days ago. Normally I would be climbing the walls after staying on the boat more than three days, but since we have been moving every day it hasn’t been so bad. Yesterday we moved from Poison Point to the W side of the Rock Sound harbor in order to get protection from W winds. This morning the wind had moved to the N and calmed down so we moved to the E side of the harbor and dinghied to shore. We dropped our trash at the corral provided near their lovely dock. Then we walked to the grocery store in search of fresh fruit. When we last visited Rock Sound in November their main road was under construction. They have since finished the road and it is probably the nicest road we have seen in the Bahamas. They even installed reflectors! Of course there are still no sidewalks so walking along the busy road can be quite an adventure. After shopping we stopped at Louis Delights for lunch. George has be...

We left the New Bight anchorage yesterday morning and had a lovely sail 20 miles N to Bennett’s Harbour, Cat Island. We had one squall shortly after we left New Bight and dodged another one just before we anchored. In the evening several heavy squalls passed over us. During the night the wind shifted to the SE causing the anchorage to become rolly. We eventually gave up trying to sleep, raised the anchor, and set sail for Eleuthera. We had purposely picked today as our day to sail to Eleuthera because we thought we would have enough wind for sailing. We certainly did have the wind but we also had quite lumpy seas. We started out with 4’ seas with 4 second periods (4 seconds apart), increasing to 5-7’ with 8 second periods. After we rounded the southern end of Eleuthera the seas finally calmed down a bit and moved behind us which made the ride more comfortable. After nearly 60 miles we anchored at Poison Point, just outside the Rock Sound harbor, where we have some protection from the S...