6 Months In

We said we would assess our adventure at each critical juncture, which also happens to be every 6 months. Our 6 month anniversary was two days before going to the Bahamas, without question a critical juncture as the degree of difficulty jumps fairly significantly. Tellingly we did not even have the conversation. We are thoroughly enjoying the adventure and the lifestyle and think of nothing but continuing.

Looking back I think the largest surprise has been the equipment breakdowns, something we did not expect with a new boat. However overcoming these has sometimes leant to the enjoyment but also helped us to understand all of the systems on our boat better. I have also been surprised by the way the kids have adapted to the boat as "home". They have adapted to the much smaller space and differing rules (life jackets for example)quite easily. I commented to Rae Ann that the kids seem quite happy to spend a couple of days just playing in their cabin, and she pointed out that this was no different than any "real home" for them in that a couple of days playing and staying inside is quite plausible. I still view the boat as something to get off as soon as possible once in port.

Rae and I agree that Maine has been our favorite stop in the first 6 months, closely followed by the Chesapeake, though for quite different reasons. Maine had the type of somewhat isolated destinations, with hiking and beach combing that we like. While the Chesapeake gave us the opportunity to visit some great places (D.C., Baltimore, Annapolis, Williamsburg).

We did not enjoy the intra coastal waterway (ICW)due to the constantly shallow waters, though we had some interesting stops, just difficult moving about. Total groundings was 4 in the ICW for us, though in all instances we were going slow and could back off, ultimately finding deeper water.

I have a much deeper respect for those who voyage at sea in small boats. We had a very rough passage from Beaufort N.C. to Georgetown S.C., particularly once we had rounded Cape Fear. We were in 20-25 knots of wind (forecast) and 6-8 foot seas (forecast to be smaller) fortunately all from astern. However, it was enough to make the whole crew in varying degrees seasick as well as instill a sense of profound loneliness on my part during the night hours. We did set our speed record at 10.4 knots though surfing one of the larger waves. I might note that the wind and sea state above is not considered very problematic. Lets say we are now a little more careful about forecasts looking for that magic 10-15 knots and 3-5 foot seas that seem to agree to all. We wonder though what it will be like when we have no choice as we will on longer passages (greater than 3 days) if we are forced to face even rougher conditions.

Last note, we have sailed 2,500 nautical miles, about average for a cruising boat.

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Happy Thanksgiving

Checking in from Chub Key in the Berry Islands. We crossed the Gulf Stream, a notoriously difficult body of water, on Tuesday morning. The forecast was for variable winds and small seas. We definitely got no winds, but the seas were very lumpy and confused, residual from 3-4 days of high E-NE winds. We headed for a point about 12 miles south of our intended landing on the Banks, which worked nearly perfectly as the 3.5 knot current was not quite that strong to the north, thus we were able to come to our planned arrival point with no need to buck the stream. We crossed onto the banks about 2:00 pm and continued on motoring in light winds until 4:30, at which time we anchored on the Great Bahamas Bank in about 15 feet of water. No land in sight, and a light roll from the ocean. We took a nice swim, cooked dinner and fell into a nice sleep. We awoke at 5:00 am and continued on the Banks, picking up wind about two hours later allowing us to sail the remainder of the way on a beam reach to Chub Cay, where we checked in.

Chub Cay, is lightly inhabited, as are most of the Berry Islands. There is a posh resort under construction with a marina, that provides clearance services. Reportedly these services were $25, but we were charged along with another boat, $100 per boat. A little rich, but if we did not pay, we would have had to go on to Nassau and miss the Berry Islands altogether, which we did not want to do. We will spend the next couple of days exploring the Berry Islands and decide Saturday whether to run ahead of an approaching cold front to Nassau or to wait it out in the Berry's.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.

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Bahama's Baby

We are currently underway crossing the Grand Bahama Bank, having crossed the Gulf Stream early today. An uneventful day though lumpy in the Gulf Stream. We are going to anchor tonight on the Banks and then sail to Chub Cay of the Berry Islands to officially check in to the Bahamas. I can confirm the water is clear - we see the bottom as we sail over it, the weather is warm (80 degrees) and we are all smiling.

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Miami

We departed the Cape Canaveral area for an overnight run down to Palm Beach where we waited on weather for our next leg to Miami. The Palm Beach area was a little disappointing because you get off your boat/dinghy right at US #1 so a very busy highway, and an area where one needs a car to get much of anything done. We did find a Turtle sanctuary where they were taking injured sea turtles and bringing them back to health. They had several turtles undergoing treatment including a large loggerhead. They also had several hatchlings waiting for release. We got our weather window Thursday and continued offshore overnight to Miami. We are staying in Coconut Grove and will see friends over the weekend. We are finishing our last bit of provisioning and boat projects with all eyes on the Bahamas. The weather looks good for a crossing Tuesday or so next week, we are very excited.

So a rather mundane week. The sailing though has been very good. We have had NW winds with 2-5 foot seas. We have been going south to southeast so had everything on the stern. With 8-14 knots of wind we have been able to make anywhere between 6 knots and 8 knots, by keeping the wind closer to the beam and jibing a couple of times. The crew has felt good, and by concentrating our passages in the overnight ours the kids sleep allowing mom and dad a more relaxed sailing. A very interesting contrast to three days of motoring in the ICW last week. We can sense our level of experience and confidence building the more we get out there.

Hope to be writing from the Bahamas next week!

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Forts & Space Shuttles

We left the St. Mary's & Cumberland Island area early this week after our friends on s/v Free@Last caught up with us. The kids (they have a 3 year old boy) have had a great time playing together for the week. We had southerly winds for the week, so we elected to stay in the ICW and ultimately motor south, trying to get to Titusville by Friday so we could see the planned space shuttle launch. This would mean three very hard days of motoring. Fortunately the ICW in Florida is much straighter with much more reliable depths than the Carolinas or Georgia, so other than many many many bridges to negotiate it was relatively easy. We only went aground once trying to get into an anchorage at Daytona Beach, but were going slowly so able to back off quickly and find deeper water in. Along the way we stopped in St. Augustine taking a self guided 4 hour sprint tour of the oldest settlement in the U.S., enjoying the Castillo de San Marcos the most as the kids had the run of the place especially the cannon battery for shooting at the sailboats in the harbor.

We made it to Titusville on Friday, along with several other boats. There were camps set up in the town for the land going types to come out and watch. Very festive, with much anticipation about whether the shuttle would go off or not. The locals assured us that the launch was a go. We spent the evening on Free@Last having a little to much to drink. We worried that we would not know where exactly it would take off from and thus miss the early part of the launch. As we were chatting and drinking, Rae Ann looked at her watch and said "hey guys its 7:53", launch was in two minutes, we hustled to get cameras and turn on the radio just as T-45 seconds was given. Then the sky lit up like a sunrise, I get goose bumps even writing this. The rumble could be felt aboard the boats some 10 miles away. The shuttle was visible for about 10 minutes, you could see the drop of the booster rockets, and then follow it into space as a very bright star. To say we all feel very lucky to get to witness something so spectacular is a huge understatement. Isabelle woke the next morning wanting to see another shuttle "pulease".

We head off down the coast, our last major hop south, on the back of northerlies today/Monday, and then begin looking for the weather window to cross to the Bahamas.

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Happy Birthday Isabelle

We had a very nice 5 day weather window starting Wednesday afternoon to sail from Beaufort S.C. Preparations were made to sail to the Abacos in the Bahamas. I tried a weather service, Commanders, to assist in the passage planning as the expected transit time was 4 days, by far the longest we had ever undertaken. Commanders issued their report on Tuesday, confirming our view about the weather window, but noting a low pressure disturbance in the Caribbean to by wary of before crossing to the Bahamas, which was something that other weather reports were not covering.

We departed as planned Wednesday afternoon and had one of our best offshore passages, with wind aft of the beam at 5-10 knots. We flow our spinnaker throughout able to maintain about 6 knots average speed. During my middle of the night watch (1-3 am - Rae and I go two hours on 2 off) I down loaded the weather reports. The disturbance had organized into a tropical storm and was expected to strengthen to a hurricane, which it ultimately did becoming Paloma. The forecasted track included the Bahamas. We decided to abort our attempt to make the Bahamas as our likely arrival on Saturday was only two days ahead of the forecasted arrival of Paloma. We elected to come in at St. Mary's anchoring at Cumberland Island GA.

As we went ashore Thursday afternoon on Cumberland, Rae and I looked at each other and said - well this is pretty darn close to the Bahamas. Cumberland is a national park protected from development as a gift from the Carnegie family. There are several trails along the island, almost all sand, with oak,palm trees, Spanish moss, armadillos, wild horses, turtles and many different birds. The beach side facing the Atlantic is a beautiful powdery sand. We had not been in such a setting since Maine and it was very enjoyable.

We left Cumberland for a short trip up the St. Marys river to the town of St. Marys. A small village really with a nice park and waterfront area and another nice secure anchorage.

Beaufort S.C. was fun, the downtown area being almost entirely on the national historic register, was populated with many antebellum homes, absolutely stunning. There was no doubt you were in the south, with confederate flags lining the graves in the cemeteries and pace that was just a little slower and more enjoyable.

Isabelle turned 3 today. She is a budding princess, so I worry about the day she discovers I am not a king and therefore her anticipated lineage is not to be. Fun age though still innocent but understanding just a bit more each day.

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Georgetown - an ode to equipment

Well we spent a very nice week in Georgetown S.C., unintentionally. The day that we arrived from Beaufort N.C. our inverter/charger broke down. While not a critical piece of equipment it was still under warranty so we decided to take the pain. After some tests we sent it in, the turn around diagnosis, was quick - need a new one, but the new one took 4 days to arrive coming in only at 5 pm Friday night. We did get it installed and were able to catch some very nice weather on Saturday to sail south to Beaufort S.C.

This jump offshore went much better than the previous, winds were from the ENE at 10-15 knots and the waves were about 4 ft in swell. Using a combination of winged genoa, spinnaker and ultimately for the overnight ran downwind jibing the main/genoa. A much happier crew, although the kids for the fun of it I guess elected to sleep on the floor of the salon again.

Georgetown for a place to be stuck for a week, was excellent. A nice small town feel with a restored water front district. They did a very nice Halloween party for kids as well with a large turn out.

We will spend this week poking about Beaufort, S.C., Hilton Head and Savannah. Ultimately with a good weather window we will jump down offshore again, either to Florida, or possibly to the Bahamas.

An Ode to Equipment - well one is fully versed in the latest saga, however, those dedicated readers will note that there was only one untested system, the water maker. While 3 weeks ago I gave it a shot. It leaked. Bad. The brine discharge which carries all of the waste non-potable water overboard from the water maker, which is a considerable quantity. The brine discharge hose is connected to a plastic fitting which is threaded and screwed into the metal housing of the water maker. When I noticed the leak, I let the water maker shut down, then tried to tighten it, with barely laying my hand on it, it came off entirely. Apparently during installation it had been over tightened and the plastic threads torn. Now laying in front of me was the inspection report from Hallberg Rassy stating that the unit ran without problems... hmm ... now I know from experience that when you strip threads as happened here - the actor knows it, therefore I can only suspect/conclude that the person doing the installation and the inspector chose to ignore this problem at Hallberg Rassy.

Now the fix was problematic. The unit is in the bilge and the connection is at the bottom of the unit. The threads were torn about a 1/8 inch inside the housing - so decision time - disassemble the unit, get a replacement fitting, back out the torn threads or 5200 (for non-boaters this is glue that is full proof but very permanent). I slept on it, got up and with a masters hand applied a bead of 5200, held the fitting in place for 30 minutes and got a perfect set, works very well. This is a low pressure outlet so the risk in the above approach was just getting a bad set that leaked anyway but was now firmly glued.

I guess we are shaking everything down........

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