Breeze On

George and I have both had a lot of ups and downs (more downs than ups) through this medical crisis. Last night and this morning he seemed to be getting worse instead of better and I was really worried about him. Although this morning’s x-ray still shows a blockage there have been a few small signs of progress. I respect the conservative, non-surgical approach to clearing the obstruction but it is so hard to wait. Especially since he may end up needing surgery anyway. The surgeon just placed the order for his nasogastric suction tube to be clamped for 12 hours. If George tolerates it he can start to eat and drink. If he feels pain or nausea during that time, then he will need surgery. He has been doing laps around the floor trying the help the process along. Since he hasn’t had anything to eat for five days I wonder how he has the energy.  Our friend, Ray, and his friend, Scott, are going to sail Breeze On the 90 plus miles to Ft Pierce. Ray and his wife, Dawn, recently visited us ...

George was admitted to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale two days ago. His diagnosis is small bowel obstruction. We have no idea how he ended up with an obstruction.  He doesn’t seem to have the right risk factors for one, but here he is. The treatment has involved inserting a nasogastric tube for drainage. That is supposed to relieve pressure and allow for the obstruction to clear on its own. A surgeon told us yesterday that 80% of these cases do clear and do not require surgery, 20% do not clear and do require surgery. George’s case is right on the edge. There have been some good signs, but there is still too much drainage to pull the tube and allow him to eat. They are going to give it more time to clear.  The treatment has been torturous for him. He has always had a strong gag reflex and the tube really triggers that. He had a test yesterday, a small bowel series, that made him want to die. He had open heart surgery 19 years ago to correct a hole in his hear...

We had a fast and bumpy sail from Nassau to Bimini. The winds were in the low 20’s and we moved along at 8 kn much of the time. The trip was 130 nm and it took just 20 hours. We left Palm Cay Marina at noon and pulled into Bimini Sands Marina at 8 am. There was another cruiser on the dock to help with our lines. When he and George made their introductions we learned that he was Bob from Her Diamond. We had heard a lot about Her Diamond through the Trekker’s Travels blog. Her Diamond has been buddy boating with Trekker for the past 6 months, all the way from upstate New York. What a small world!  Her Diamond recently turned around to start heading back to the US while Trekker continued on in the Exumas. We crossed paths with Karen and Hugh on Trekker (their Hanse 415) at Big Majors Spot.  We follow their blog and they follow ours so Bob and Sheila had heard all about us. They instantly recognized our boat and knew who we were when we pulled in 2 slips down.  After George f...

We are preparing to leave Palm Cay Marina around mid-day today, heading to Bimini. We plan to stay in Bimini two nights and then cross the Gulf Stream to Florida. Since it is still fairly windy we may have another relatively fast sail. We don’t want to leave too early because we want to arrive in Bimini after the marina opens tomorrow morning. The trip is 130 miles and should take us anywhere from 20 to 26 hours, depending on our speed. This is the first time we will be sailing overnight since we arrived in the Bahamas. We both used the marina WiFi to download podcasts to listen to on our night watches. We have some frozen dinners ready to pop in the oven for dinner while we are under way.  After Dawn and Ray left on Tuesday we did a few loads of laundry. It was a very good thing we started early. The laundry has just 2 washers for guests and the 2 dryers are shared with the staff washing linens from the pool and condos. By the time we finished there was a line waiting to do laundr...

We left Big Majors Friday for a short, very pleasant sail to the anchorage at the abandoned DECCA Station on Pipe Cay. We don’t know what DECCA stands for but it apparently served as a navigation system post World War II, prior to the advent of LORAN. The abandoned transmitter towers are still there and resemble large channel markers.  While we explored the nearby beach we met Franciose from the only other boat in the anchorage. He told us that the snorkeling off of a point at the northern end of the anchorage was good. We were able to pull the dinghy into a small shallow cove nearby and put on our snorkel gear while standing in the shallow water. The snorkeling was fantastic, with numerous fish of many colors and varieties. Several were fish we had never seen before.  Franciose had also invited us to join him and his partner onshore at sunset for a bonfire. However, by the time we returned from snorkeling, showered, and ate dinner we ran out of time.  The next day we enj...

Dawn and Ray, our friends from Cambridge, MD, flew in to Black Point on Valentine’s Day. It is a very good thing they are both pilots who are comfortable on small planes. It was a very small, full (and old) plane.  After they landed safely we started the 15 minute walk into town, turning down two offers for rides. People in the Bahamas are so nice.  We stopped at DeShamon’s for a very nice Valentine’s Day surf and turf dinner.  Yesterday morning we raised the anchor and sailed to Big Majors where we met Hugh and Karen on Trekker and Ruth Ann and Fred on Shooting Star. We first “met” Hugh and Karen through our blogs. They read our blog and we read theirs. They also have a Hanse 415 and we used their idea for an arch to hold the solar panels and dinghy. Ruth Ann and Fred also live in Cambridge. Although we were all in the Bahamas this winter we haven’t crossed paths until yesterday. It was great to meet and catch up. 

Little Bay anchorage all to ourselves Sargent Major fish

I write the blog on my iPad. The app I use can handle just two photos at a time. I have tried writing it directly through Blogger but I can’t seem to access my photos at all that way. So, here is a post to add a few photos that I didn’t post before.  Pam snorkeling at Sea Aquarium A rainbow so close we could almost touch it. Big Majors Spot. 

After Pam and Brad left on Saturday we spent some time reattaching bungees to the reworked salon hatch awning. I had already sewed together the two awning pieces that had been attached either side of the boom in version one.  I had also removed the stainless steel rings and attached new patches and webbing. We put the awning under the boom and attached it to the boom vang. So far, so good. Saturday evening we went to a happy hour at Pirates’ Beach (aka Cruisers’ Beach). As always, it was fun to chat with old and new friends.  On Sunday I removed the stainless steel rings from the v-berth awning. We replaced them with dyneema line rings. They will be much quieter in a strong wind. Early Monday morning we had another squall and both awnings seemed to keep the rain out. Hooray! After buying fuel at Staniel Cay Yacht Club Monday morning we left Big Majors and had a jaunty sail down to Black Point. The anchorage and laundromat were quite crowded, it seems as if a lot of other peopl...

We said goodbye to Pam and Brad this morning after a great week of sun, snorkeling, sailing, reading, beaches and games of Mexican Train. We thoroughly enjoyed their company and already miss them. The wind across the Staniel Cay harbour created quite a bit of chop leading to very wet dinghy rides. Because we didn’t want to send them off drenched in salt water, we made a plan to move Breeze On closer to town just long enough for them to get ashore. Plan A was to tie up the the Staniel Cay Yacht Club fuel dock. Plan B (in case someone was already at the dock) was to anchor in a tight anchorage near a beach in town. There was indeed already a boat at the fuel dock so we dropped anchor near the beach. It was a short and, thankfully, dry dinghy ride to shore where Pam and Brad had a 15 minute walk to the airport. The tide was going out and the depths are shallow in spots so we said our goodbyes and did not accompany them to the airport. We returned Breeze On to the same spot we had left at ...

Yesterday we went back to the Sea Aquarium for more snorkeling. Much to my surprise it was even better than the day before!  There were so many fish of so many varieties. I saw some of my favorite, Queen Angelfish, and also some relatively small needle-nose fish that had snouts that seemed as thin as actual needles.  After returning to Breeze On, Pam and Brad jumped in to take a salt water bath. Just after they got out of the water, and before they had a chance to rinse off, they spotted a 6 foot shark swimming right by the swim platform!  Yikes!  It looked like a nurse shark, but even so...  I am so glad it waited until after they got out of the water. A large ray swam by shortly after the shark. George opted to take a very quick salt water bath but I showered inside.  This morning we sailed down to Staniel Cay. After anchoring at Big Majors we took a very wet dinghy ride over to Staniel Cay Yacht Club where Pam and Brad treated us to lunch. From there we ...

Last year the weather didn’t cooperate when Pam and Brad visited us in the Bahamas. It was very windy, often cloudy and cool (by Bahamas standards). They made the best of their week here and we all had a great time. This year the weather has been much more cooperative. In fact, it has been one of the best weather weeks of the winter. Pam and Brad have been taking full advantage of it.  Monday morning we moved from Black Point to Little Bay. Pam and Brad loved the beautiful, secluded beaches and spent a few hours relaxing and reading on the beach. We were lucky to have the anchorage all to ourselves. After lunch we all dinghied over to the snorkeling spot by the Sandcastle house. We saw lots of fish including several of the Queen Angelfish.  Yesterday morning we raised the anchor and sailed north to Cambridge Cay. It was an ideal day for sailing with just the right amount of wind. Breeze On was one of many boats sailing on the banks. After picking up the last available mooring ...

It has been an eventful few days. Our daughter, Pam and her boyfriend, Brad, flew into Black Point in a small, and I mean small, airplane. The plane left from Nassau and had room for just 15 passengers. It actually had 5 passengers, a pilot and a co-pilot.  There was no partition between the pilots and the passengers. Fortunately the flight was very calm and the landing was smooth. George and I walked 15 minutes from the dock to meet them at the airport. We stopped at Scorpio’s for dinner before taking the dinghy back to Breeze On. Yesterday George took Pam and Brad to the dock and they walked a few minutes to the beach facing Black Point harbour. It was a beautiful day for the beach and they had it to themselves for most of the time. After they returned we had a light snack before heading to Loraine’s Cafe for a Super Bowl party in the late afternoon. Loraine’s was crowded and noisy but we were able to find a table with views of 2 large screen TV’s. The crowd seemed evenly divided...

The wind finally subsided and we were able to leave Long Island early yesterday morning. We sailed a relaxing 60 miles and anchored as the sun was setting at Rocky Point on the “Sout’ Side” of Great Exuma Island. George pulled the water maker out and filled the water tank. He was finished by 8:15 but found that the starter cord wouldn’t retract. It took a long time to take the water maker apart to discover why. A small metal ring through which the cord passes had become dislodged and stuck in the mechanism. It looks as if a small piece of plastic in the hole where the ring sits had broken. George put the ring back where it belongs and crimped it. By the time everything was put back together and stowed it was after 10 pm. We had a restful night in the anchorage and once again got up early to continue on to Black Point. The winds were light and we had to motor sail all day. We arrived at Black Point in the early afternoon and headed right for (you guessed it) the laundromat!  George ...