Breeze On

This morning we sailed south 15 miles from Sampson Cay to Little Bay, on the south side of Black Point. Shortly after we dropped the anchor a Royal Bahamas Police Force boat pulled up alongside. There were several officers aboard, including a customs officer and an immigration officer. They asked how many were aboard, did we have any firearms, and did we have our cruising permit. They were polite and friendly. After George answered the questions and showed our cruising permit they moved on to visit the other two boats in the anchorage. This is the first time we have ever had such a visit. We have heard of other cruisers being visited and even being boarded by the police. We are actually glad that they do this to make sure visiting cruising boats have completed their paperwork and paid their fees.  After dinner we took a dinghy ride to the beach and went for a short walk. On the way back we visited the only remaining boat left in the anchorage—the other boat had left—and had a brief...

The anchor was raised and we were heading out of Rock Sound by 6 am this morning. Within a  few hours we had to decide if we were turning to the SE and going to Cat Island or going SW to Exuma. My preference was Cat Island but in order to get there we would have had to motor into the wind for 50 miles. So we headed toward Exuma. The wind was lighter than expected and we had to motor-sail to maintain a speed of at least 6 knots. George decided to try putting up the gennaker to gain some speed. It worked like a charm. We turned the engine off and had a great sail across Exuma Sound.  When we were within three miles of our waypoint we had a sudden gust of wind, causing us to heel over and round up. We decided it was time to take the gennaker down. It was quite the challenge. Fortunately, George managed to get it so sorted out without falling overboard.  The wind continued to build as we approached the cut. The outgoing current opposed the wind leading to waves of six feet. I...

We dinghied ashore bright and early this morning in order to get to Eleuthera Island Farm when they opened at 9 am. We arrived right at 9 but waited 10 minutes for them to open. Island time, you know. We bought a few gorgeous heads of leaf lettuce, some arugula, and a few other fruits and vegetables—mindful that we had to carry our purchases in the backpack a mile back to the dinghy. George had hoped to buy some eggs there but they didn’t have any. Just before we arrived at the beach where our dinghy was anchored, we saw a small convenience store we hadn’t noticed before. We walked in and bought a dozen eggs for $7.00. Never mind the price, we were just happy to get them.  After returning to Breeze On, George got right to work fixing the leak in the watermaker. George had asked for clarification from the Rainman tech support person in Australia who had responded to his email last night but never heard back so he was on his own. His biggest fear was that in attempting to fix the lea...

We left Rock Sound this morning and motored north 22 miles in light wind to South Palmetto Point. We had two goals in mind—1. Eat pizza at Mate and Jenny’s, and 2. Buy produce at Eleuthera Island Farm. We had hoped to take the dinghy ashore mid-afternoon and walk the half-mile to Mate and Jenny’s. Fortunately, George called first and learned they wouldn’t open until 4:30. We decided to go snorkeling while we waited. Although the snorkeling wasn’t spectacular, it was definitely worthwhile. Our underwater camera isn’t charged yet so no photos.  Mate and Jenny’s was all decorated for Christmas and had Christmas music playing. We ordered our pizza at the window and sat on the porch to eat it. I had planned to order a salad, too, but they were out of salad. After eating our pizza we returned to the dinghy just after the sun had set.  We were grateful there was enough light left to easily find our way to Breeze On between the small islands.  Tomorrow we will go ashore again and...

First of all, we love our new dinghy and outboard. We go so fast and the outboard is quiet and responsive—a big improvement over our last one.  Even better, today is the first day George has said he thinks his arm is getting better. He is still doing his exercises and avoiding activity that he knows will trigger the painful twinges.  We ran a couple of errands today but otherwise took it easy. We took the dinghy to the dock at Frigate’s Bar & Grill then walked the short distance to the grocery store. A very friendly dog walked with us to the store. After shopping a different—but similar looking—dog walked back with us. The dog clearly looked as if she wanted to come back to the boat with us, looking rather sad at the dock as we drove away.  It has been hot and humid here so we took a couple of swims to cool off. The water temperature is just perfect.  The second friendly dog waiting for George to pull the dinghy over to the ladder. She would have happily come wit...

Yesterday we had our second annual Thanksgiving dinner at Wild Orchids in Rock Sound. We were not disappointed. The dinner this year was even better than last year’s. As we were walking from the dinghy dock to the restaurant we met Kathy and Tyson from a boat named Beverley—yes, Beverley!—and John from the boat, Sapphire. Later on we stopped by Beverley to exchange boat cards and a little while later Kathy invited us over for dinner and/or dessert. We accepted the invitation for dessert and had a lovely time with Kathy, Tyson, and John while eating Kathy’s delicious pumpkin crisp.  This morning I went ashore with the laundry while George returned to Breeze On to work on some boat chores. I had a nice, long chat with the laundromat owner, Showboat. His name comes from his days as a baseball player for the Bahamas National Baseball Team. He played for them for ten years and traveled all over the world. He is such a kind, interesting man.  Right now George is trying to fix the le...

We left Norman’s Cay this morning after listening to Chris Parker’s weather forecast. We raised the sails shortly before going through the cut between Norman’s and Shroud Cay. The forecast was for light winds and we weren’t sure we would be able to sail. We were pleased, though, to have enough wind to sail about half the distance to Rock Sound. We have reservations for Thanksgiving dinner at Wild Orchids here in Rock Sound. We will also have an opportunity to grocery shop, dump our trash, and do some laundry while we are here.  Sunset in Rock Sound. 

We took our new dinghy and motor out for a spin yesterday. Yamaha suggests a break-in schedule for the motor and we were working on phase 2. We can tell already that this dinghy is going to be much faster and we haven’t yet had the motor above half-throttle.  In the afternoon we decided to move north to Norman’s Cay. It was a bit rolly at Shroud and we hoped for calmer conditions and better cell service at Norman’s. Before leaving Shroud we discussed taking the dinghy through mangrove creek that crosses the island. It is accessible only at high tide and the timing wasn’t right.  Now might be a good time to review how you can find our location if you are interested. One way is to tap on the “Where is Breeze On?” link near the top of the page. That will take you to our Spot Tracker information. We turn the tracker on whenever we move the boat. Another way is through the Marine Traffic app—or any similar app—that links to our AIS. The AIS information will appear in the app only i...

After George injured his arm we had hoped to be finished with drama for the winter, or at least for a little while. Not so much. This morning when we got up we discovered that we had no electrical. Absolutely nothing worked. George measured the voltage at the house bank batteries and it read 12.2 volts. The battery management system must have shut the electrical down before the batteries were drained any further. We have had a few days of cloudy weather and knew the batteries needed charging. We thought it could wait until today. Apparently not. So George got the portable generator out and started it up. It took a bit of fiddling to get the system charging but now it is. Our lithium batteries are supposed to be able to drop to 10-20% capacity and maintain an adequate voltage. Ours were at 38% capacity this morning but the voltage had dropped too low. It appears we need new batteries. Until we get them we will not let these drop below 50%. Yesterday we left Palm Cay Marina and sailed to...

This morning we borrowed the marina’s courtesy car and drove 20 minutes to the north side of the island to Harbourside Marine. George did an excellent job of remembering to drive on the left side of the road, and managed to avoid most of the potholes. Once we arrived at Harbourside the process of buying the new motor went smoothly. A staff member even took the motor out of the box and helped load it in the trunk. Then, when George tried to start the car, the engine turned over once then not at all. It wouldn’t even try to start. After a few phone calls George was finally connected with someone familiar with the car. She said it was probably the battery terminal. Sure enough, George opened the hood and found one terminal was quite loose. After turning it and tweaking it a few times—we had no tools—the car started. I wanted to stop at the store for some fruits and vegetables but we decided George should remain in the car with the engine running while I did the shopping. We made it back t...

In my last post I discussed the two options we were considering for entering Nassau Harbour. In the end, we chose an entirely different option. We are now at Palm Cay Marina on the SE side of the island. Nassau Harbor is on the north side of the island. We had been to Palm Cay before and liked it. They offer a courtesy car that we could borrow to pick the motor up and indicated they could help get the motor into the dinghy.  Also, we had a new development. On Tuesday evening George took a hard fall when stepping from the boat to the dock at West End. He scraped up one leg but thought he was okay otherwise. Overnight, however, his arm was hurting and he thought it might be broken. We thought it might be easier to arrange to get an X-ray if we were in a marina as opposed to anchored in Nassau Harbour. There are several marinas in Nassau Harbour but none have great reputations.  We left West End at sunrise and set a course for Palm Cay. The winds were very light—at times the seas...

It is not a great idea to have a firm agenda when living on a sailboat in the Bahamas. Because so much depends on the weather we have to be flexible, as our friend Ray told us early on in our cruising life. Our main goal this fall was to get to the Bahamas. There were times when we thought even that was questionable. Now that we are here our one other goal is to get to Nassau and buy a more powerful outboard for our dinghy. After that we will go to the places we like when the wind allows.  So our next stop is Nassau. We had thought we would leave here in the wee hours tomorrow morning and go to Great Harbour, anchor there one night, then go on to Nassau. We learned, though, that neither one of us sleeps very well when we know we have to get up in the wee hours. So George suggested we leave here sometime after daylight and sail overnight to Nassau, without stopping in Great Harbour. I think it is a good idea. We will probably end up getting about the same amount of sleep with his pl...

We arrived in West End, Grand Bahama at 1 pm today after a smooth passage. We are cleared in and there was absolutely no problem with the vessel documentation. In fact, the customs officer didn’t even ask to see it. In addition, she approved us to stay for six months, meaning we won’t have the headache we had last year trying to get an extension on our immigration status. The process couldn’t have been easier and took less than 20 minutes.  We left Brunswick at 3:30 am on Saturday to depart with the tide and ensure we had plenty of time to get here before the marina here closed. We raised the sails before daylight as we left the channel in Brunswick and had a fantastic day and night of sailing. The Gulf Stream was no problem at all. The six-foot, six-second period seas I thought we would encounter yesterday never appeared. Probably because the winds were light then. We did have to motor once the winds died down but I would much rather light winds and motoring over big seas.  L...

The storm has finally passed, the rain has stopped, and the wind has dropped. We believe we have an opportunity to leave Brunswick tomorrow and sail to the Bahamas. We have a call in to Chris Parker asking about sea state. If we like what we hear we will go to the Bahamas, if not we will head down the coast of FL. When discussing our choices this morning we were having trouble keeping everything straight so we made a chart to clarify the options.  We spent the day getting ready to go and think we have everything set. We plan to leave at around 3:30 am tomorrow morning so that we won’t have to fight the current on our way out. The early departure will also enable us arrive at the marina in West End, Bahamas before it closes on Monday. Early to bed for us! Another beautiful sunset.  Our chart. 

Last evening George made an online reservation for a rental car from Enterprise, planning to drive to Green Cove Springs, FL to pick up our vessel documentation today. This morning Enterprise called and said there were no cars available. George then made an online reservation with Hertz. Next he called St. Brendan’s Isle to confirm that they would be closed tomorrow and Saturday. By then the worst of the storm would have passed and the trip would be easier. However, they be closed those two days and there was a chance they would also close early today because of the hurricane. Meanwhile, the weather was getting worse. We had lots of rain and wind overnight and it was getting even heavier. The property at the marina was flooding and we heard reports of closed streets in various areas due to flooding. Once again, it seemed as if the universe was trying to tell us something. Don’t go. So he didn’t. I am relieved he decided not to go because the wind shifted to the east and the boat starte...