A bad beginning. We were ready to go at 6:30am but the engine wasn’t. Fred did a fuel transfer from one tank to the other yesterday. Related? We don’t know. He changed fuel filters, used all the techniques that in conjunction seemed to have worked lately and 2 hours later we were on our way. We were too late to make Daytona Beach – our target destination. And 4 years ago on this same stretch of ICW we had both engine difficulties and our alternator burn out the next day – so we had sour memories of St. Augustine or stopping at Palm Coast. But our first alternative was to get through the Bridge of Lions Bridge and then anchor in the southern anchorage. We made the bridge opening at 11 am (otherwise it would have been 1pm) and stopped for fuel at St. Augustine Municipal Marina. Worried about the engine, and seeing that the anchorage was very crowded, Fred also got us a slip for the night. We asked about further nights – Thursday would be ok, however 3 clubs were due in for the weekend.

After lunch, we walked to West Marine, (still in search of filters), stopping at Oyster Creek Marina to see if Caribbean Soul (Nick and Deanna who we’d met in Annapolis) was still there. Nope. But we were successful at West Marine and also stopped at a Winn Dixie for a few items and carried our stuff back to the boat. By now it was after 3, one of the museums we wanted to see would close at 4, and the last trolley tour was at 3:45. Let’s just walk. We explored many shops and streets that we hadn’t seen 4 years ago. Fred was quite taken with Faraway Places – an eclectic furnishings store. We both picked Columbia Restaurant (Cuban/Spanish cuisine) for dinner and enjoyed our meals. Back to Windwalker for wi-fi and cable. We’d hoped to get home in a few outside hops but the weather forecast was for very strong winds and even higher seas for the next several days. What to do?

Up at 4am for a Frosty seizure, then again at 5:10 to get ready to go. We left the marina at about 7:15 with help with the current and wind by a kind dockhand. We were almost run aground by a large motor yacht who had passed us. Fred was following him when the yacht made a hard left turn. Our depth sounder was beeping and the equally large boat behind us swerved to the left as well. All of us were out of the channel. That woke us up! The forecast was for gale force winds and seas of 12-15 feet outside with very rough conditions inside. No great anchorages near Daytona for gale conditions so we opted for a marina. Iris called Halifax Harbor Marina – the largest in the area. Sorry – can only take you one night, clubs coming in. That wasn’t going to work for us so Iris tried Daytona Marina and Boat Works and they could accomodate us for two nights and possibly more. We motored along, passing Bonnie Lass. Fred spoke with them saying he tried to contact them during the passage night. They said they had VHF difficulties.

We got to the marina channel at around 3. The marina staff directed us deep into the powerboat filled slips. A guy directed us to back in to a tiny space with unknown draft. Iris was ready to leave and made sure everyone knew it ;-). Fred attempted to get us into the slip and did, however it really was for about a 30′ boat, we did touch the ground and there was no way to tie us up securely for even mild conditions let alone the forecast conditions. We said this was unacceptable and the dockmaster went to see if we could tie up near the fuel-dock. We got tied side-to at what was a fairly exposed site, but seemed ok for northerly winds. We were right next to the outside deck of a beautiful Chart House restaurant. Several people had observed our docking drama and remarked to us later that they couldn’t understand why the staff was trying to put a sailboat in such an inappropriate place. Cable didn’t work – but Fred and one of the staff found a splitter and attached it. Nope that didn’t work. Iris followed the cable and found it wasn’t connected to anything. The dockmaster found the correct place and viola – we had cable. Wifi – not working properly. We saw a trawler we’d been behind in Port Royal during that storm, “Christmas”. They yelled as they passed us – “you’re pretty fast for a sailboat!” (Of course we’d done an overnight passage). We had an expensive but excellent dinner at the Chart House and returned to Windwalker to prepare psychologically for the blow.

Where’s the wind? Iris awoke Fred around 8:30 – and within a few minutes the wind started to kick up. We had a big breakfast. Then still worried about the engine, Fred tried starting it. It didn’t turn over, and then it wouldn’t fire. Fred finally got it started then changed the oil and filter and restarted it. This time it sounded good. The wind was getting stronger and stronger. Mid-afternoon, when we felt the boat was as secure as we could get it, we went for a walk, exploring West Marine at Halifax Harbor Marina, and then continuing on to Old Daytona Beach. The winds were extremely strong, there were wavelets on the ICW and it was difficult to walk. The Beach Road was closed in preparation for an Art Festival tomorrow. We saw the artists struggling with their shelters. Wow – this is going to be rough for an art exhibit. But – maybe we should stay an extra day and see it! We decided to spend another night, since the forecast wasn’t improving and we needed some diversion. Dinner aboard, with an evening ending with Battlestar Gallactica 😉

We’d seen a nice place to go for breakfast near the art festival. However we had chores we wanted to do as well and it was about 1/2 mi away – so Iris made a big breakfast instead. Fred started the engine, although it sounded bad. The winds were moving more to the east (not good for where we were tied up) and forecast to move even more southerly which would pin us to the dock. We were concerned. Mid-morning, we walked over to the Halifax Art Festival and saw a nice display of all kinds of media, and listened to a soft acoustic guitar group called Acousticon. After a couple of hours, we walked back and headed a little in the opposite direction – finding an old historic neighborhood as well as a 7/11 just up the street from the marina. Ice cream! Back at the boat we tried reading in the cockpit – but the 25 knot winds were blowing directly into the cockpit and it was cold! Dinner, showers, tv. We hope to get off early if we can get the engine started and can get off the dock. The forecast was still bleak.

Iris got up at 5:10 but neither of us slept well – we were both worried about the engine starting and the more southerly direction of the winds pinning us against the dock. Waves were crashing against the hull overnight – peaking at around 3am. Fred started the engine after turning it over some by hand to improve starting compression. Iris got the payment receipts from the dockmaster and told him that we might need some help with the lines. He came over and helped fend us off the dock as Fred manuevered against the wind. But we were off successfully at 7! All the other cruisers must have made the same decision to move today. Lots of boats (power and sail) were underway – including at least 4 powerboats from the same marina. Near Sebastian Inlet there were apparently some shallows. The water did get a bit thin, but we didn’t have any problems although we saw a sailboat ahead of us run aground. It wasn’t clear if he strayed from the channel, however. While it was windy, the chop wasn’t too bad on the ICW and the wind was mostly behind us. Since it was Sunday, all of the bridges we had to go under were unrestricted – so we pushed to clear all of them so as to not have any issues in the morning. We anchored immediately after the last bridge at around 3:15pm. About 20 minutes later another sailboat (Winsome) anchored a bit closer to shore. Other than that, we remained alone. There was enough chop to make it a little uncomfortable, but much better than we would have fared had we remained in the marina. We would have kicked ourselves if we hadn’t kept moving!

Iris called Vero Beach Marina to see if they took reservations for moorings. They did and she made one for tomorrow night. It would be another long day, but without bridges to delay us. We started listening to a book on CD after dinner.

Two dolphins poked their heads out of the water next to the boat and smiled at Fred as we raised anchor. We were on our way by 6:30, under power with just a bit of main out. Today was much more unpleasant than yesterday. The winds were stronger and more on the beam – which normally would make for good sailing – but the ICW channel is narrow enough here and with enough twists and turns that sailing would just increase our risk of running aground. So we endured the stiff breeze and the whitecaps. We were passed by several power boats but saw no cruising boats the entire day. This may be because they were stuck with the bridge restrictions. Dolphins continued to be everywhere, bringing a bright note to an otherwise very rainy day. The day was uneventful except for our approach to a high-rise bridge where a barge blocked most of the center span. As we approached a tug pushed another barge into the remaining room in the center and stopped. Now what? A power boat behind us asked what the guy was up to. The tug hailed us and told us to go to the span to our right. We let the power boat go ahead of us and made our way through the other span.

We picked up our mooring at 4:15. Almost immediately, a guy from the catamaran next to us (didn’t get his name or the boat’s name, unfortunately) dinghied over. He recognized Windwalker as a Valiant and said that he was from Lake Texoma (where they are made). While he and his wife were currently based in Destin, FL (west coast), they were going to have their boat shipped back to Texas after seasoning in the Bahamas – returning once again to Lake Texoma. He gave us the scoop on what was around and offered to dinghy us over to check in. But we wanted to explore and thanked him but declined. Between rain showers, we put the dinghy in the water, got our shower gear together and went in search of the dinghy dock. The moorings here are a bargain compared to other places in FL – total for the mooring plus 2 showers was $13.91! Looked like a great laundry room as well. No wonder so many cruisers hang out there for weeks at a time – often waiting for crossing weather to the Bahamas on a mooring. The mooring field was much smaller than we’d expected, however.

The only walkable restaurant was also dinghyable (is that a word?). The marina staff said it was easier to walk and so off we went in search of the place. A few wrong turns, but we found the Riverside Cafe under the bridge and had a pleasant dinner. Since we hadn’t planned on staying out so late, we didn’t have our dinghy running lights or a flashlight and made our way back to the boat in the dark. We had to decide whether or not we’d stay another day. If not, we wanted to get the dink back up on board for an early start. After deliberation – we just wanted to get ‘home’, so we put the dinghy and outboard back on board by the light of the nearby sports field. Our cellphone signal was great, and wi-fi for a fee was available, but we didn’t log on.

6:30 and on our way – following two sailboats ahead of us. We were motoring again, entertained by dolphins everywhere. We heard a bridge contractor say that the Indiantown Bridge (thus the ICW) would be closed …2:30. Did he say until 2:30? At 2:30? In order to blow up the old bridge. Then we heard other conversations about loading dynamite. Fred tried to reach the bridge contractor on channel 9 but we were too far away. We’d find out when we got there. As we negotiated the Ft. Pierce high-rise bridge the current was amazing and Fred used flying cross-wind techniques to get us under the span as Iris cringed because it looked like he was aiming for a pier instead. She of little faith… We approached the Indiantown Bridge and finally understood what was going on. They were loading dynamite and had the main span closed – diverting boats to a slightly lower span (except for a couple of sailboats who needed the center). We had to fit between two old supports from the old bridge (they claimed 45 feet but it looked more like 30 feet wide) and then go under the span. At 1:30 they were going to close the ICW with the explosion to be at 2:30 and the ICW re-open sometime thereafter. It was only 11am so we were free and clear. We continued on and anchored at Peck Lake, a spot we’d always wanted to stop at as a potential weekend destination, at around 12:30. Other than two derelict boats at anchor, and another off in the distance, we were alone. Unfortunately it was a gloomy day and we weren’t motivated to dinghy ashore and explore the beach or walk the short distance to the ocean. After some chores, and getting our dock lines together for tomorrow, we listened to the radio and the book on CD and ‘vegged out’ on our last day of the trip. A trawler entered the anchorage at dusk, took 3 tries to set their anchor but got a good set. We ran the generator a bit after dark.

A cat fight awoke Iris at 2:30. That, and anxieties about weather and mechanical problems of the last couple of weeks bummed us out and made for a sleepless remainder of the night. We planned on continuing to get up early because we can only get into our slip between 2 hours before or after the high tide and high was at 11. We still were about 2.5 or 3 hours from there depending on the 4 bridge schedules ahead of us. We had a nice sit-down breakfast – our last of this segment of the trip. Fred went to start the engine at 6:30 and it didn’t start. Worse, it looked like we had water in the engine – similar to the anti-siphon issue we had back in Salt Pond, Virgin Islands 6 years ago. It was hard to rotate and Fred could clearly hear water moving into the muffler. We were both beside ourselves – we’re so close. Are we going to have to get towed home? But Fred got it purged and some modicum of compression going and the engine started and we were on our way at 7:30 – well within our margin of tide opportunity. We’ve had a bad impression of a couple of the northern Palm Beach County bridge-tenders and this time was no exception. The 707 bridge operator opened for power boats right away, but when we showed up, made us wait. At least current wasn’t driving us into the bridge. About half an hour later we made our turn into our dock with the winds making it difficult to turn Windwalker around. But Fred had everything under control as we approached our pilings. Iris had trouble lassooing her piling, but got a line around it. Fred got his piling and we were stopped. A bit more machinations and help by Jacquie, the homeowner, on shore and we were secure. She kindly gave us a ride to get our car and we returned to start unloading perishables, etc.

Rather than feeling accomplishment and elated at the end of phase 1 of this trip, we felt tired and dejected. The engine problems and weather issues of the last couple of weeks both played a part. But hot showers and a little rest improved our perspective and moods. We’d covered a lot of miles and packed a lot into these almost 4 months!

Projects before heading to the Bahamas in late winter include work on the engine, head, watermaker, brightwork, dodger, upholstery and probably a survey and hunt for an insurer that covers the Bahamas. Insurance issues redux….
**************This will be the last entry until we resume the log in phase 2 of the trip *********************

We’d been bringing stuff to Windwalker for what seemed like days. Refrigerated food is always the last to come aboard. So after scurrying around town completing last minute chores, we left our home around 3:30pm with the last of our cold stuff and quickly stowed everything aboard. Ran the fridge and freezer (always separately), using a laser thermometer to check the plate temperatures since the gauges were reading high.

We’re transitioning to the boat – no going back! All packed and ready to go. But let’s go out to eat first. So we headed to Outback, had a nice dinner, visited with some dock neighbors and went to bed early. Tomorrow we leave the dock – that’s the plan and we’re sticking to it!

Up at around 7am after a sleepless night. We had a quick breakfast, decided which lines to leave at the slip and which to take, unplugged the power and left our slip in time to make the 9:30am PGA Blvd Bridge opening. What’s this we hear? A sailboat called Tamure is calling the Donald Ross Bridge. Sure sounds like Kitty of the Valiant 40 Tamure. Scott and Kitty, 2 time circumnavigators had shared some adventures with us in the past and often come to the West Palm Beach area. We confirmed by radio that it was ‘our’ Tamure just after going through the Parker Bridge (and they the PGA Blvd Bridge). We said we’d touch base by phone later.

We were headed to the northern part of Lake Worth, the Old Port Cove anchorage, to do some last checks on both the dinghy outboard and for Fred to do a more thorough bottom-of-the-hull scrubbing. The dinghy outboard worked smoothly after an overhaul by Fred a couple of weeks earlier. We had lunch and decided to go for a short ocean trial to check out the wind/wave conditions and see if they matched the forecast. Raising anchor, the chain jammed on the windlass. Iris went below to the v-berth to free the ‘chain castle’ that had formed in the chain locker, and completed stowing the anchor. (For the remainder of our trip, Fred would bring in the chain to about 30′ remaining in the water, while Iris flaked the chain below, and then she would come up to the bow and finish. For future trips, we need to re-flake all of the chain differently, or better yet – remove the nylon rode from our other anchor and stow it elsewhere – freeing up the entire chain locker).

Conditions out the inlet looked viable. We came back in and anchored at our usual spot south of the inlet. We re-checked the weather and decided that it’s a ‘go’ for tomorrow morning. Iris made reservations at Old Bahama Bay marina for the following evening. We called Tamure to see if they were available for dinner, but they were further down in WPB and were not heading to the Bahamas – we’ll see them again when next they’re in our area! Iris called her mother, sent out a float plan note. A last check of email; an e-book we’d been waiting for was ready for check out! Yeah! Book 5 in the Game of Thrones series! Iris downloaded to both of our tablets. It was the final sign that it was time to go! 😉

We had a nice dinner in the cockpit. It was cool, we had a full-moon, we’d prepped for ‘passage’ with jacklines installed, safety equipment readied(harness/life jackets) and ditch-bag loaded. We plan for a day-time crossing so will get up at 4:30am.

The alarm was set for 4:30 but Iris got up at 4. The anchorage had been very calm, but the boom groaned all night keeping her awake. We raised anchor – oops – another chain castle to clear. We finished messing with the anchor at 5:15am and were out the inlet at 5:30 – on our way!

We had ENE winds and seas of 2-4′ with an occasional 5 – just as forecasted. We motor-sailed and it was probably one of our best gulf-stream crossings wave-wise. Enroute we saw the Bahamas Celebration plus about 5 freighters, 2 tug&tows, all identifiable via the AIS on our VHF radio. It was great to be able to see the CPA (closest point of approach), TCPA (time to closest point of approach), bearing, heading etc. It made it easy to identify whether or not the traffic was a factor and how to avoid it, if necessary.

When we saw some birds mid-way through the stream it was time to do some fishing. Iris got a hit pretty soon afterwards and reeled a 4-5lb. fish that looked tuna-like but wasn’t familiar to us. It had a large eye, but didn’t look like a jack. We should have taken a picture of it, but instead just released it right away. We wanted dolphin but it was not to be. The seas got choppier soon after and Iris gave up on her fishing effort.

We docked at Old Bahama Bay at around 3:30 with help from the attendant (slip c18). Fred went to deal with Customs/Immigration and to check us into the marina while Iris closed the float plan via email (using free wifi) and texted via gsm roaming on her phone. The marina required that we pay for water, so we hosed off the salt-encrusted boat. Then we took showers to hose off the salt-encrusted crew 😉 We had dinner at the marina restaurant (so-so) and then took a walk about the marina grounds, stopping to chat with a couple on a large trawler who had just made a crossing as well. Two of the sailboats near us were clearly west-bound. Our plans were to head east via the Indian Cay channel in the morning.

Iris got up at 2am to adjust one of the fenders when she heard rubbing noises of the boat against the dock. We got up at 6 and left by 7:15 (according to Fred) or 8:15 (according to Iris). The sailboat in the slip next to us, Zube, was also going to go via Indian Cay Channel. He was going to leave about 30 minutes later to make more of the tide assistance needed for this shallow route.

One of our new ‘aids’ to navigation was an android tablet app called Marine Navigator, coupled with downloaded versions of all of the charts in the must-have Steve Dodge’s “The Cruising Guide to Abaco Bahamas 2013”. We’d downloaded both a couple of nights before leaving since we were concerned that our ‘vintage’ 1999 Raymarine chart-plotter was becoming flaky. (The tablet/app/chart combination became an integral part of our routine for the rest of the trip whenever entering/departing harbours or anchorages and when our chartplotter decided to reboot arbitrarily.) Just as we were heading to the Indian Cay channel, we powered on the tablet and its gps and turned on the app – it made going through the channel simple and we never saw less than 7′ of water.

The seas on the banks were very uncomfortable with the wind ‘on our nose’. Our clean boat was once again salt-laden. We anchored around 1:30pm. Two other (probably west-bound) boat were already in the anchorage. We could see Zube continued on towards Great Sale Cay. After lunch – the afternoon was ours! We read. Iris swam on the anchor, which was set very well. There was a continuous 1 knot of current and we experienced the wind against current situation in which the wind comes across the beam and makes for much more wind in the cockpit, as well as unusual behavior with respect to the anchor. After dinner, we ran the water-maker. The salinity reading was 438ppm when we started to put it in our tanks and around 384ppm after 30 minutes. Higher than Iris likes, but she’d get used to higher yet 😉

The night was a quiet one, except for our howling mast. The mast slot (for in-mast furling) acts like a flute when the wind angle and speed is ‘just-right’. So our boat sang all night – including making chord-like noises. We got underway at 7:15am while the other two boats headed west-ward. It was another very choppy day with unfavorable winds, forcing us to motor once again. Based on the wind direction, we checked out an anchorage on the NW side of Great Sale Cay, but it was apparent that the waves were whipping around the northern point of the island. We opted instead to go to our tried and true anchorage inside, in great holding in sand at 1:10pm. Lunch, a lazy afternoon reading in the cockpit, a quick swim on the anchor and joy baths – all with the anchorage to ourselves. Alas, it wasn’t to be for long as a Canadian pilot-house sailboat came in and anchored. More boats arrived later in the evening. Still – it was calm, there was no current and the afternoon was beautiful.

Iris broke a plastic peg for the shower handle. Minor issue. This was followed by a more major issue later in the evening. When it was time for our generator run, Fred determined that our generator starter battery was dead. He used jumper cables to jump-start the generator from the house-bank of batteries. He’d noticed that the battery was down a day or so prior to leaving but thought it was just from lack of use. Unfortunately, not the case. Fred was starting to get concerned that the voltage on the house bank wasn’t looking to healthy either.
Watermaker salinity 435ppm at 5 minutes/354ppm after 30 minutes.

Iris got up at 4am to the singing of the mast, but was able to fall asleep and awoke again at 6. The other boats in the anchorage had already left or were underway, all west-bound. We left Great Sale at 7:30 and after our first way point, were ready to finally do some sailing in more favorable conditions. Iris was unable to unfurl the main; the switch would only turn the sail in one (the wrong) direction. She took the helm while Fred manually rotated the furler to get out the main. We motor-sailed and then sailed until around 10:45. Iris was eager to make contact with her mother and as we approached Foxtown, Little Abaco, we were in sight of two cell-towers. She sent out two text messages and also left a phone message for her mother. This was again gsm roaming on Sprint on her Motorola Xprt. (more details on phone coverage to come)

Waves picked up as we headed east. This was our choppiest day yet – with SE winds 15-20 knots. Our new instruments give us true wind speed/direction as well as apparent wind speed/direction – another welcome addition to our onboard data. We decided to head for Allans-Pensacola. We’ve had mixed experiences there with holding in the past. We pulled out our Dodge charts/tablet combo and used it to assist in picking a good spot. Our anchor got a good set on first try at around 3pm. We were the only boat there but anticipated that would change. We have cell-phone coverage (and can see Foxtown about 10 mi away). Perhaps we’ll stay a couple of days. Another boat came in late in the afternoon – No Hurry out of NC. They dinghied by later and we discussed the weather and plans briefly. It looked like significant rain to the west. We stayed aboard and read in the cockpit, instead of putting the dinghy in the water. Dinner in the cockpit, serenaded by the mast. Iris asked Fred to insert the slot-cover that usually stops the racket, but it didn’t work. Only solution – less wind! Fred jump-started the generator once again to get our evening run going.

Watermaker saility 412ppm at 5 minutes/361ppm at 25 minutes.

It was a windy night with winds from the SE. Iris got up at 5, thinking that it was later and went back to bed. Over breakfast, we discussed what to do next. If we stayed, we’d have to run (read ‘jump-start’) the generator for refrigeration. What if we put the dinghy/outboard down and did a quick shore trip and then head out? Fred was concerned that we were could be experiencing failure in our main battery bank too and so he was reluctant to keep jump-starting the generator That required that we get to somewhere where we could purchase a generator battery. Decision made – let’s just leave and come back here on our return trip. We departed the anchorage at 8:45 headed ‘south’ – with the usual wind mostly on the nose and scattered showers. But the main-sail furler was working and we raised the main as well. We heard Zube and another sailboat hail marinas at Green Turtle Cay. We could no longer get VHF weather from the US and were too far from Marsh Harbour to get weather and Whale Cay passage information from the daily 8:15am channel 68 net. Nor did we hear anyone discussing what the sometimes impassable Whale Cay passage looked like.

While we’d hoped to stop in Green Turtle (White Sound) on our way, our battery situation now made it more important to get to Marsh Harbour. We decided to head for the Whale Cay passage and try it. The worst that could happen is that we turn around if it was impassable. The ocean swells were 4-6′ but otherwise, the passage was ok. Just as we got through the Loggerhead Channel, it started to pour. Iris had worked hard on water-proofing the bimini – but it failed in short-order giving us a very wet ride. We ran the refrigeration prior to entering the harbour, so that we wouldn’t require the generator in the evening. As we entered the Marsh Harbour anchorage, we saw what looked like a Valiant 42 called Caneel from Ft. Worth, TX. It was a very pretty boat and as we were to find out several days later, was a Valiant 50! We anchored at around 4:45pm. Holding in Marsh Harbour is always excellent and this time was no exception.

We put the dinghy/outboard in the water and had dinner below. It was a very quiet evening with no wind. Iris – the internet junkie, quickly signed up for a week of Bahamas Wimax coverage (Bahamas Wimax) and we surfed the net to check email and weather and news. Our connection was iffy and although we had several hot-spot choices, we had to continously re-connect. But it was a major improvement since we’d last been here in 2003!

We listened to the ‘net’ at 8:15. There is a big ‘low’ west of FL which will impact the area and another deepening low off the NC coast. Rain and higher winds are predicted around Friday and Saturday. Time to go ashore in search of batteries and to check things out Iris, ever concerned about trash, was eager to go to Long’s Landing dumpster. So we brought about 5 days worth with us in the dink. But where did the Long’s Landing dock go? It was a wreck, with a sunken boat and shattered wood (destroyed by Sandy). Now what? We saw a couple of other dinghies headed towards what we found out was a fairly new dinghy dock at the Union Jack landing. Very nice dinghy dock – but no dumpster. That wasn’t our order of business – getting a generator starter battery was. Our first, and last, stop for this shore adventure was National Marine – where Fred got his battery. We went straight back to the boat – where Fred hooked up the battery in order to do our generator/refrigeration run. After an early lunch, Fred installed the battery (last replaced in 2006).

Time to go ashore again – while it rained on and off. Iris was on a mission to get a BTC Bahamas (BTC Batelco) SIM card for her cell phone. Research ahead of time confirmed that a)the Xprt had the right GSM frequencies b)Sprint confirmed that the Xprt was unlocked for international use c) that international calls, texting, local calling and data were very reasonable. As we walked towards where we thought the BTC office was, we spoke with some other cruisers who told us that the dumpster was still near Long’s Landing about 100 yards from the Union Jack dock. The Batelco of 2013 was a major improvement from 2003. The security guard outside welcomed us and told us to go to the cashier. The cashier sold Iris the SIM for $15, $10 of prepaid calling, and a 30 day/1GB prepaid data plan, usually for $30 but on sale for $20. Then, the customer service/sales person in the main part of the store configured Iris’ phone with great proficiency and professionalism. Iris had selected the Xprt a couple of years earlier because of it’s world-phone capability and finally she was getting to use it! The phone would provide us with email capability when in anchorages without WIMAX hotspots and GSM coverage was available throughout the Abacos from Little Harbour all the way to Allans Pensacola and Foxtown. The internet junkie was satisfied.

We stopped off at Standard Hardware and explored, primarily because it was pouring outside. It is a very well stocked store. We looked for a replacement peg for what Iris had broken a few days earlier, but Fred said he’d make something when we get home. We returned to pick up our trash at the dinghy dock, dropped it off at the Long’s Landing dumpster and walked along restaurant row to see if there was anyplace we’d like to check out for dinner. We stopped at a small convenience store for some ice cream and then headed back to the boat.

During the afternoon, we read and surfed the internet. Iris used her ‘new’ phone to make reservations at the Jib Room at Marsh Harbour Marina for 7:15. Wed. night is Barbecue night with choice of Ribs, Chicken or Fish. (see Iris’s review at:
Jib Room). We hadn’t gone on prior stays in Marsh. The evening was enjoyable enhanced by the Rake N Scrape band and the twice weekly limbo show/contest. Back at the boat after dinner, we were unable to get a good Wimax connection. Tomorrow’s plan – head to Tahiti Beach. Tahiti Beach on Elbow Cay is favored by several cruisers we knew, and we’d never anchored there.

Another quiet night. Iris got up at 5:30 and looked at email and weather in the cockpit. Rain and wind were still in the forecast. After breakfast, Fred looked at the main battery bank voltage and was not pleased. The batteries were not holding a charge. This was similar to the failure we experienced back in 2003 after several days of hard motoring. Then, it led to a battery hunt throughout Puerto Rico. We listened to the Net while we discussed options. We clearly were NOT headed to Tahiti Beach. We used the phone to call several places that might have the Group 31 Gel cell batteries we needed. Only one place thought they might have something that fits – AID/NAPA hardware. We went ashore at noon to look at what AID had – not gel but would/could fit in the space and they were sealed batteries and they had 3. Iris spoke with one of the sales people who said that they’d give us a ride to the Union Jack dock, when she enquired about putting a deposit on a shopping cart’. While close to the BTC offices once again, Iris went to customer service to register her phone number which would enable her to create an online account so that she could add to her prepaid minutes online. They also told her that she still had 1 GB left (so she’d barely used anything in phone surfing).

Back at the boat for lunch, we continued our discussion – go or stay? Tahiti Beach offered us what we came here to do – swim, snorkel, walk, make water and a good anchorage for the forecast winds from SE/S/W. But if the batteries totally failed while there, we’d have to jump start the engine from the generator. We decided to stay and buy two of the batteries. This was going to be another expedition. (The batteries are very heavy and we had experience doing this in Boqueron in PR.) The young man who had assisted us earlier had gone to lunch. The cashier attempted to reach him regarding his offer to drive us to the dinghy dock. Iris once again pursued renting the shopping cart – but the cashier said no – let’s find the guy (and now the truck). She came up with an alternative solution – another local customer (who works on cars for a living) gave us a ride to the dock. He was quite tall, and quite strong – lifting the batteries out of the shopping cart and into his mini-van as if they weighed nothing. Fred manhandled each battery into the dinghy and then had the difficult task of lifting each battery onto the boat, then down into interior. Fred immediately tested the batteries’ charges; when he asked that they be tested the salesman said ‘all of our batteries are charged’. It didn’t appear to be that way. One of the two was way down. Fred installed them and we found a place for the two ‘used’ batteries against the mast. We only replaced two of the four batteries in the main bank. That means we’d be at 50% of capacity for the remainder of the trip. However Fred estimated that with our four batteries failing, we were at 10% of capacity – so we’d actually improved our situation. We ramn the engine for awhile to partially charge the batteries. We read and internet surfed in the evening.

Iris got up several times at night. We had fairly strong winds – up to 28 knots when she checked at 4am. We finally got up at around 7:30. After running the generator (charging the main bank) and running the engine a little more as well, Fred decided that the batteries were good. We handled correspondence and websites, spoke with Iris’ mother via Skype and stayed aboard all day due to the blustery weather. We couldn’t swim in the harbour so availed ourselves of showers below, and discovered that our shower sump pump switch was difficult to engage. We thought about leaving in late afternoon, but decided to wait til the morning. Dinner in the cockpit and our first try at one of the big ‘boxed’ wines. Actually pretty drinkable and convenient!

Wind and very heavy rain overnight. Iris saw 20 Knots+ on wind-speed but no lightening. She got up at 6 and did email at 6:30. After breakfast, Fred dinghied ashore for a trash run. We’d decided not to use our salt-water hose on the anchor and Iris regretted it; we raised a huge ball of clay and clams and it took awhle to shake it off. But we were off around 9:30, headed to Water Cay (half-way between Marsh Harbor and Treasure Cay). Winds were projected to be from the west, and the anchorage purportedly offered some wreck snorkeling. We motored over and saw another sailboat already in the anchorage. The crew dinghied over to us just after we anchored in what were NE winds with small waves whipping around the corner. They said that they had been there overnight and had explored what looked like beaches, but which were in fact rocky coral. They’d not known about any wrecks but hadn’t seen any. We did see a wrecked pier as the area had been a conch farm previously. OK – scratch that idea – we turned it into a lunch stop and then raised anchor, headed to our original intended destination of Lubber’s Quarters Cay/Tahiti Beach in the opposite direction. We motor-sailed part of the way. Our chart-plotter kept failing so we relied on our backup tablet app/charts described previously and approached the beautiful anchorage already occupied by two trawlers and a catamaran. Our anchoring was less than elegant as we dragged a significant distance prior to setting. By evening the trawlers left and were replaced by another sailboat. We both swam and Fred scrubbed the hull some more. We plan to explore tomorrow as the area is new to us and we could see the gorgeous sand-bar a short distance away. The skies were dark with more rain on the way.

The new house batteries were performing well. Fred disconnected the two remaining originals (Bank 2) from the charger. We had a great internet connection and discovered that our primary email id had been compromised sometime during the week we hadn’t had access. Time for a password change drill. Finally we could also make water again – Watermaker: 430ppm after 5 minutes, 370ppm after 30 minutes.

Iris got up at 6. We’d had very heav rain overnight. While we’d hoped to dinghy ashore and walk the 1 1/2 miles to Abaco Inn for Sunday brunch, we decided to forego the hike and had our own ‘Sunday breakfast’ aboard. Since we hadn’t been able to make water in a few days, we ran the watermaker with the morning generator run. Watermaker: 460ppm after 5 minutes, 380 after 30 minutes). The ppm was starting to creep up – directly sea-water temperature related. On prior trips Iris had freaked out over the higher ppms, but a couple of nights ago she found an in-depth article on the Nordhavn website (Making Water) describing US drinking water standards allowing up to 600ppm, World Health Org. standards considering drinking water to be 1000 ppm, and the relationship between sea-water temperature/watermaker output/water ppm. The sea-water temperature had been creeping up to the mid 80’s.

It was time to explore. We dinghied around Baker’s Rock and beached the dink. We spoke with a young woman with 2 children who was staying with friends on Elbow Cay while awaiting her husband and another friend who had just purchased a 50′ sailboat and were sailing it up from the southern Caribbean. We walked around the tip of Tahiti Beach. Iris stayed near the beautiful sands while Fred headed around the point to see the Atlantic side. There were many folks – some arriving by electric carts, others by boats, wandering on the sand bar or wading in the warm, wave-free waters. Shell-hunting was good as well. We sat in the shallow water and enjoyed the view, after which we decided to check out the roads towards White Sound and Abaco Inn. The colors and shapes/styles of the (rental) cottages and the variation in landscaping made for very pretty surroundings.

Back at the boat and after lunch, we did our swimming and joy bath thing as well as reading and web-surfing. Around 3, between rain showers, we decided to check out Cracker P’s beach bar on Lubber’s Quarters Cay. It was a long, planing dinghy ride and it started to rain when we were half-way there. After tying up at their dock, we climbed the stairs to their bar/dining room. The bar-tender (owner?) told us that peak season is June-July and that currently dinner was only served Thursday and Saturday. (see Iris’ review at: Cracker P’s Review). After pina coladas and their hot fish dip, we took a stroll down their nature trail. Iris bailed at the last 200 yards of deep muck on the trail, but Fred continued to the western shore of Lubber’s Quarters Cay. Mosquitos were in full force and we made a quick trip back to the dinghy, and a fast trip back to Windwalker. Using our internet access plus Skype-to-landline, we checked phone messages and made some calls. As we planned tomorrow’s destination, we took into account continued forecasts for West winds. Since prevailing conditions are easterly, we’d be heading to new-to-us spots. Our evening watermaker run stats: 447ppm after 5 minutes, 385ppm after 30 minutes. A beautiful blue ketch anchored in front of us at dusk.

Overnight, the wind kicked up from the North – the worse possible direction for our anchorage. The boat was moving around with stern to shore and/or to Baker’s Rock. We debated moving prior to breakfast but since our anchor was set well, we decided to wait. Fred pointed out that the ketch that had come in last night was much closer to shore than we. I went into the cockpit to see and the situation for the ketch was even worse. It was no longer in the anchorage but aground in about 3′ of water on the Tahiti Beach sandbar. We had just passed high tide so this was the worst possible scenario for the ketch. Their engine was still running, no one seemed to be taking any steps to put out an anchor or kedge off. Nor did anyone seem alarmed or called out on the vhf for help – otherwise we would have attempted to assist them. We brought up our outboard, raised anchor and were on our way by 8. The forecast winds were to be from the NW, so we planned to check out Sugarloaf Cay and if that didn’t pan out, go on to Snake Cay. Sugarloaf looked interesting, but there was some wave action, so we continued on to the northernmost of the two Snake Cay anchorages indicated on our chart and anchored. The shore looked very Maine-like with rocks, sand beaches and tall trees but with 83 degree water! We were the only boat there at 10am.

We dinghied ashore around 11. There was a dirt road leading to a BBQ area. In the opposite direction we followed the road quite awhile passing tall Bahamian pine trees and seeing and hearing many variety of birds including woodpeckers and red-wing black birds. Continuing to explore by dinghy, we went over to Cormorant Cay, (frightening a turtle who rapidly swam off) but there was really no place to walk after landing a dinghy. We saw several red and black starfish and small conch in the clear shallow waters. After lunch we read and Iris used her phone to check msgs and email. We saw cars and trucks in the distance at the southern Snake Cay anchorage site. We’d been a little disconcerted to see quite a few shot-gun shells near the BBQ area ashore and Snake Cay was clearly accessible from the ‘mainland’. We both swam on the anchor at around 2. It wasn’t a great set, but good enough. We saw lots of fish sheltered under a big box. We also saw what looked like a PVC bimini structure under our chain – perhaps an issue when we would have to move? As we were swimming another boat anchored and by dinnertime there were 3 other vessels in the anchorage. As with any dream anchorage – there are always negatives. In this case, we were attacked by biting flies that resembled deer-flies while in the water and in our cockpit. Meanwhile, below-decks, regular black flies decided our salon was just dandy. Time for the fly-swatter. We were later to find out that Snake Cay (southern point) was a major oil depot for awhile and even earlier, a lumbering facility with a significant economic impact on the Abacos. Just like we’d seen in the Chesapeake – towns come and go with industry – and clearly Snake Cay was not thriving now. Watermaker run: 414ppm after 5 minutes, 380ppm after 30 minutes.

We enjoyed a quiet, calm night. After breakfast we decided to dinghy explore a bit more as there was a passage to interior creeks and islets. The area still looked like Maine and was quite lovely and lake-like. We passed a couple kayaking into the area as we departed; a kayak would be perfect for more intimate exploration of the shallow waters. We raised anchor at around 9:30 and motored by the southern Snake Cay anchorage looking at both sides of the point which was bulkheaded from its prior history. Our goal, given the winds, was to attempt to anchor at Sandy Cay and finally snorkel what many say is the best reef in the area at the Sandy Cay National Park. We’d tried a couple of times on previous trips and the anchorage is very rolly and where the small boat moorings are was usually rough as well. This time was no different and after waiting a few minutes to see if we were willing to attempt it, we opted to backtrack to Bucaroon Bay. Bucaroon Bay was another ‘new to us’ anchorage good in west winds. We hated to interrupt the privacy of the other sailboat already in the anchorage, but using our tablet app/chart combination we worked ourselves much closer to shore and were nowhere near the other sailboat. After lunch we dinghied ashore and explored the pretty beach strewn with conch shells and lined with more tall pine trees. We did not approach what probably was a wrecked house. As we continued to explore by dinghy, we saw a ray startled by our approach as well as many more starfish and potentially conch 😉 We’d read how starfish actually eat conch by jamming one of their legs into the conch shell, inhibiting the conch from retracting its foot. Then the starfish extends its stomach around the conch’s muscle and starts digesting in place. Pretty disgusting, really.

We spent the afternoon relaxing and reading in the cockpit. 3G data coverage was flakey but Iris’ phone signal seemed strong. She checked her prepaid call balance (*44) and found that she had $5.43 remaining. Time to swim/snorkel. Iris pointed out a conch to Fred – but it was far too small – there were other types of shellfish as well. Mid-afternoon a 3rd sailboat arrived, It was a very large catamaran that we were to see again in several anchorages. Dinner in the cockpit (sans flies). Watermaker run: 423ppm after 5 minutes; 380ppm after 30 minutes. Bucaroon Bay was a totally lovely place.

Plans change with the winds. At around midnight, the winds shifted to the SE. The forecast predicted S/SE for several days. We’d hoped to try again for Sandy Cay and then move on down to the Bight of Old Robinson. We could already see whitecaps. Iris suggested Tavern Cay, just south of Lubber’s/Tahiti Beach and Tiloo Cut. We’d anchored there on our last time in the Bahamas. We raised anchor at 9am and were anchored at Tavern at 10:15, arriving a few moments after another sailboat anchored in the vicinity. The attraction was going to be some boat-accessible snorkeling spots. After we anchored we looked towards Tahiti Beach and were surprised and saddened to see that the blue ketch was still on its side, aground. Someone was still aboard her, as we saw the dinghy go to/fro the boat. OK – it’s time to snorkel. We weren’t too far from the rocks marked as the snorkel spots and checked on the anchor. Oh oh – the reason it was so easy to set the anchor was that we’d snagged a submerged (but not buried) cable running from the tip of Tavern Cay to what looked like a gazebo on Tiloo Cay’s northernmost tip. Definitely not in the Dodge book. We can’t stay here and need to free ourselves right away! Fred kept diving on the anchor until he was able to lift it and get the anchor and chain free of the cable. He nominally hand-set the anchor. Now we were both in the water with our boat not well anchored if at all. We returned aboard, and Fred started the engine and reversed on the anchor. We dragged many boat lengths prior to the anchor grabbing. At this point we were quite a distance from the rocks we’d planned to snorkel on. But we both felt we could do it and strong current didn’t seem to be an issue. (We were about 1/10th mi away when we measured on a chart later). As we passed our anchor we saw that it was a classic, perfect set. The point was down and the anchor was buried. Good thing because dragging had brought Windwalker pretty close to shallows. The small reef was pretty with many small fish and small barracuda. As we continued on, both Fred and I stopped and backed up in a hurry – that barracuda with its jaws open was one of those black ocean-going 6 footers. Enough snorkeling – we have a long swim back, once again without any conch. Joy baths back at the boat. After lunch, Iris signed up for another week of Bahamas Wi-max. Perhaps she should have waited. After making her payment, we had a lousy connection. By late afternoon we were surrounded by around 8 other boats. Not again – we also had Northerly winds – not in the forecast and not good for this location. Watermaker: 428ppm at 5 minutes, 401ppm after 30 minutes.

We slept poorly, both upset over something that had happened back at home that we learned about via the internet the prior evening. But it was actually a nice night at anchor. We were up early and raised anchor at 8:40. We noticed that the ketch was gone. Great! It must have gotten off the prior evening at high tide! Iris called ABC moorings ahead of our approach to Hope Town (best choice for the predicted winds). The going rate for a mooring was $20/night. We were told to just pick up a mooring and the owner would come by 9am the following morning if he didn’t see us around in the evening. We picked up one of the ABC moorings in the SW part of the harbour and got ready for our shore excursion. We had only been to Hope Town once previously, about 13 years earlier. Our first stop was the Wyannie Malone Historical Museum (see Iris’ review Hope Town Museum). Afterwards, Iris had picked out On Da Beach as the place for lunch. We walked and walked (and perhaps this wasn’t within walking distance?) and ended up passing the Hope Town Lodge, an elementary school in session and ended up at a cemetary. Fred was getting hungry and was tired of searching for this place. So we turned around and ended up at Harbour’s Edge with a nice harbour view. (see Iris’ review Harbour’s Edge) Refreshed, we headed towards the northenmost point of Elbow Cay. Or that was our intent. We gave up and later saw on a map that the road we were on wouldn’t have gotten us there anyway. We explored the town some more and then returned to Windwalker. By then Iris felt overheated and heat-sick. While she cooled off, Fred worked on bills and correspondence online. Some friends had suggested we go to Hope Town Lodge for rum-runners. Around 6pm we dinghied ashore but their beach bar had already closed. We didn’t want to go back to Harbour’s Edge so ended up at Cap’n Jacks (see Iris’ review Cap’n Jacks) for drinks and conch fritters. Time for ice cream! Fred had decided we needed an ice cream fix so we made a straight line for the Sugar Shack featuring Edy’s Ice Cream. Back for the night, Iris corresponded with her mother. We’d discovered that none of the text msgs Iris had sent in the last couple of days had been received. Iris’ fault – she needed to make sure +1 was inserted for the international text. No watermaker run in an enclosed harbour.

We’d heard on the net that Hope Town had cruiser trash pickup somewhere on Wed. and Fri between 8:30am and 9:30am. Fred, together with six days of trash, headed off in the general direction of docks which might be the place and found the trash truck at the government dock. Right as he was returning to the boat, a young lady with her dog in a hard dinghy, came by to ask if we’d paid for the mooring the night before. We said no and handed her our $20. We were ready to go – although Fred noticed some water in our bilge and was concerned. We released the mooring at 9:30 and motor/motor-sailed to Great Guana Cay. We saw that Caneel – the Valiant was in the anchorage already. Right after we anchored and Fred was on deck putting on the chain snubber, Jerry Stadulis (the owner) introduced himself. His crew was Mary Wesley Harvey. Caneel was 2007 Valiant 50 -114. They were headed into Settlement Harbour. We opted to stay aboard for lunch and then walk to Nipper’s to snorkel on the nearby reef. So we collected our snorkel gear, beached the dinghy at Grabber’s Beach Bar and walked to Nippers. We weren’t sure exactly where the reef was. The surf was quite rough. Fred pointed to a very rocky area. Iris climbed the steps back up to Nippers and inquired. The waitress pointed to both the location Fred said as well as another to the right. Iris balked at the leftmost reef and the rough surf – but eventually we snorkeled in poor viz on the rightmost rocks. There were fish when we could see them. But it wasn’t especially pleasant. On shore, a tractor was rebuilding the sand dunes. Dunes throughout the area had been severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy the previous autumn. We dried off and climbed the Nippers stairs to reward ourselves with drinks. Jerry and Mary Wesley were up there and we chatted some more. Jerry mentioned that they planned to take a dive/snorkel trip with Dive Guana tomorrow and we said we’d be interested. Jerry was concerned there wouldn’t be enough folks so was eager for us to join in the fun. Fred bought us Nipper’s signature house drink (see Iris’ review of Nippers Nipper’s) – which was a potent concoction with rum. We walked back to our dinghy at Grabbers while Jerry and Mary Wesley availed themselves of the Nippers shuttle to Settlement Harbour. Enroute back to the boat, we stopped at the Dive Guana dock and made reservations for tomorrow’s 1/2 day trip to Fowl Cay national marine park. They told us to arrive between 9:30 at 9:45 for a 10am departure. Back aboard, Fred snorkeled on the anchor and we both took joy baths. We had excellent internet coverage. By evening we counted over 17 boats in the anchorage. For some reason, the anchorage was very rolly. Watermaker: 458ppm at 5 minutes; 418ppm at 45 minutes. Creeping up (as is the water temperature).

Iris slept poorly once again – due to the rough water and noises. She turned on her phone’s anchor alarm app and also checked our position but all was well. Up at 6:30am – we rushed in a generator run for refrigeration between 8am and 9:20 and then headed over to Dive Guana’s dock. We enjoyed our snorkel on Fowl Cay – stopping at Grouper Alley and Parrotfish ? (see Iris review: Dive Guana Review). Back at around 1 or so, we dinghied over to Grabbers for lunch. Watch out when you drink the trademark ‘grabber’; it’s pretty potent! (see Iris’s review: Grabbers Review). We made a side-trip over to Caneel to hand them one of our boat cards, as we’d gotten Jerry’s the previous day. We were stuffed and wiped out from our exercise and the Grabber so had a late, light dinner. There were over 30 boats in the anchorage – perhaps all looking to go to Nipper’s Pig Roast early on Sunday.The winds are clocking once again – perhaps Tahiti Beach again tomorrow since we want a place with internet access to call Iris’ mom for Mother’s Day. Watermaker: 465ppm after 5 minutes, 427ppm after 50 minutes water temp over 85 degrees.

Another rolly, noisy night as the mast sang through the night. Up at 6:30. Iris made a big Sunday breakfast since we’d decided to pass on Nipper’s. We left at 9:30 hoping that Tahiti Beach would be the right spot for the forecast frontal passage and strong SE/S/W winds. We motored (as usual) and were the only boat in the anchorage. Our first attempt to set our anchor was unsuccessful. We tried again and set at around 12:15pm. Alone for now but don’t expect it to remain that way. We did chores and cleanup and after a light lunch, decided to head back to the sand bar. The outboard went back on the dink and off we went. Unfortunately, as we were sitting in the shallows, two young men who had arrived on a jet-ski decided to kite-surf around us with several close calls. Figuring we’d have a better swim at the boat, we dinghied back and already wet, decided to swim on the anchor. Both Iris and Fred arrived at the anchor and stared in horror. Another submerged, but not buried cable – this one leading between Lubber’s Quarters and Elbow Cay just in the Baker’s Rock anchorage in 7′ of water lay under our chain. We hadn’t hooked it but would upon raising anchor. Once again, Fred lifted the anchor and chain over the cable. Once again, we were not anchored. We quickly swam back to the boat and met with another obstacle. Another ocean going big black barracuda was swimming under the keel. It then placed itself right under the swim ladder. He didn’t look like he was going anywhere soon and we needed to move. Fred got into the dinghy and helped hoist Iris aboard like a beached whale 😉 We got aboard our boat and Fred started the engine. We selected another spot far from the cable and reanchored in 8′ in grass and dragged until it set. Iris swam on it – no barracuda and a safe set. But we were getting upset with these unmarked cables. As Iris followed the chain to the anchor, she finally spied a full-size, mature, queen conch trying to get away from the movement of the chain. She told Fred that here was our chance. But if this poor conch had survived the winter cruising season, it deserved to live. Fred later swam on the conch, picked it up and also decided to save it. Another couple of boats arrived early evening, a trawler setting his anchor close to the cable. Iris made her Mother’s Day call via Skype but no one was home. She finally got through later in the evening. Watermaker: 470 ppm at 5 minutes, 454ppm at 30 minutes.

We left at 9. Fred’s day had already gotten off to a rocky start when he was adding oil to the generator while a powerboat pass closeby and ‘waked’ us. The oil spilled everywhere in the engine compartment – big mess. As we departed the anchorage we saw the trawler trying to raise anchor and then the crew going to the bow. Perhaps they had snagged the cable. Menace. We motored to Marsh Harbour and once again saw Caneel at the mouth of the harbour. We planned on taking on fuel at Marsh Harbour Marina for our return trip, since it was a BoatUS participating marina. However the fuel dock was occupied by a huge yacht, so we radio’ed Conch Harbour and took on diesel and outboard gas there. We anchored closer to the Jib Room, hoping to get a better internet connection. Poor Fred had another oily disaster as he was adding oil to the outboard gas tank and was once again hit with a wake. After lunch, our task was to rid ourselves of more trash, and to top off our provisions at Maxwell’s supermarket – a new to us addition. Wow – the store was amazing by Bahamas standards. It had everything and was well stocked. We hauled our purchases in 4 canvas bags back to the dinghy and then to the boat. The wind, meanwhile, had shifted from the S to W. The forecast frontal passage was in progress. It cooled things off. We enjoyed our new Windwalker drink concoction (V8 Fusion strawberry/banana w rum and a twist of lime). Iris added $10 to her prepaid account via BTC Batelco online and immediately received a text confirmation. Everything about the BTC experience had been very professional. We stayed aboard for dinner and Fred spent the evening doing some PC/internet work. After dark, a large catamaran came in flashing a spotlight to find an anchoring spot. Our neighboring sailboat turned on his deck lights as did we, until they’d put down their anchor elsewhere.

The front passed overnight with strong winds. After breakfast we discussed the pros/cons of leaving or staying. Our new position brought us uncomfortably (but safely) close to the single-hander sailboat that looked like it had been in-place a long time. We went ashore for an enjoyable lunch at Mangoes (see Iris review at Mangoes Review) and then a hike over to Boat Harbour Marina to see what had changed since we’d last been there. We had a great view of the Sea of Abaco from there and could see the choppy conditions. As we were leaving Mangoes, the Caneel crew (now with a 3rd person who would be joining them for their passage back to the US) was parking their dinghy. We told them of our plans to go to Treasure Cay tomorrow for Iris’ birthday. They were thinking about going to Hope Town to give the new crew-member a taste of the Abacos as well as familiarize her with the boat. We had an extremely wet ride back to Windwalker. Iris did some research on where to eat at Treasure Cay – and set her heart on Treasure Sands Club based on TripAdvisor reviews. She made reservations for the restaurant, as well as for a slip at Treasure Cay Marina. We were going to splurge! At around 4:30 the sailor on the boat next to us sat in his cockpit and glared at Iris sitting in hers. She went below to Fred and said “I think he’s trying to send us a message that he wants us to move”. Fred called out to him, but the man didn’t respond, just kept staring. OK – it’s time to move. He was there first and anchoring etiquette would have us move if the boat there first was unhappy with our position. We did so at the expense of our expiring internet connection. Iris had made plans to call a friend in CA via Skype but was unable to leave more than a garbled message. The winds remained high over night.

Fred had a birthday card out for Iris when she awoke. Nice start to her birthday. After breakfast we raised the outboard and put the dinghy on deck. That would make docking easier at the marina, as well as making our anticipated Whale Cay passage the following day easier. We raised anchor around 9:30 and motored/motorsailed/sailed to Treasure Cay. Another sailboat passed us just as we were entering the channel, and docked immediately before us in the slip next to us. We were docked at around 12:15 or so. Iris checked us into the marina – we took water and power (splurging) and were pleased to see that we’d also have free wifi. This avoided needing to re-up on our expiring Wimax contract. Iris asked the dockmaster if the water was potable. He replied that it was the city water and some people put it in their tanks. We tasted it (was ok), and tested it (450ppm) and then put it in the tanks along with some chlorine. . Fred hosed down the boat and then we went to the beach bar to sample their pina coladas and conch fritters. Afterwards, we started to walk on beautiful Treasure Cay beach towards Treasure Sands Club – which was 3 miles away. Everyone we spoke to told us we couldn’t walk there and we confirmed it after walking less than half way. We returned to the marina, wondering if we should cancel the reservations. A stop at the golf-cart rental place made us decide to continue (see Iris review of Treasure Sands Club including our driving experience Treasure Sands Club). We took showers at the Marina and enjoyed unlimited hot, running water for a change! Back aboard, Fred worked on pc stuff while Iris read. We got dressed up and left around 6:15 for our drive to the restaurant. After a thoroughly enjoyable evening, and after returning the golf-cart, Iris used the internet to reach all of her friends/family for birthday calls. We’d thoroughly enjoyed our day at Treasure Cay and decided perhaps we should do something like this once per trip.

The marina told us that checkout was noon but we could stay longer if we liked. Iris was up at 6 wanting to avail herself of the wifi to get out an email mailing. She’d hoped to finish by 7, but the connection wasn’t great and she took a break to make breakfast and then resumed – finally finishing at 8:45. Fred took a shower while Iris got rid of trash and purchased ice – altho’ she still had some from home 3 weeks ago. We left the marina at 10:30. If the Whale looked passable then we planned to go through. Otherwise, we’d anchor at Baker’s Bay, Great Guana Cay – although since it became a resort we had no desire to see what had become of one of our favorite places. As we approached the Whale it looked like 2-4′ swells. Better than our prior trip through. We motor sailed through the Whale and then sailed on to Manjack. Iris did a bad job of furling the main just prior to anchoring. We dragged in our first spot and the anchor caught on our 2nd attempt – with our position exactly on the Dodge guide’s anchor symbol 😉 We put down the dinghy and outboard and dinghy explored mid afternoon. The tide was going out however and we didn’t want to get stuck. We walked a bit on Crab Cay and passed the two wrecks and limestone bluffs noted in the cruising guide. We’d anchored here before but hadn’t dinghy explored. More to do tomorrow.

Quiet evening with dinner below and reading late into the evening. Watermaker: 445ppm after 5 minutes, 433ppm after 15 minutes.

We had a very quiet night and a lazy morning. We decided not to move to the northern anchorage but to explore some more. We ran the generator and then took our first trip of the morning. Since the dinghy and outboard were performing so flawlessly so far on the trip, we took the 2 mi ride up to Manjack Beach and landed the dinghy near the wrecked docks. Picnic tables on the beach were labeled as reserved for Brendels (dive guides). We took some of the trails (now with signs) King’s Highway to Bay to Bay Blvd to N Bay (which came out at the northern anchorage we planned to go to next) and then walked around the cay via the beach. New to us was a small yellow house on the beach at N Bay. It was a slightly more wet return to the boat against the wind, but not bad. Lunch aboard and then it was time to take advantage of the incoming tide to explore the mangrove shallows and other beaches. The mangrove shallows were very pretty and the ‘creek’ was very wide. We saw a house and mast towards the end, but didn’t want to impose on the privacy of the owners, so turned around. Going in the opposite direction, we walked on the beaches of both Manjack and Crab Cay, then dinghied over to the closer of the two wrecks and snorkeled. Lots of pretty small fish protected from human predators by the Crab Cay Marine Preserve. Back to the boat for snorkeling for conch (no joy) and Joy baths. Manjack is great! Later in the afternoon Fred made a dinghy repair, lubricated one of the rope clutches and refurled the mainsail properly. Iris, meanwhile, did some more housekeeping down below. Watermaker: 467ppm at 5 minutes, 443ppm at 20 minutes.

Fred is getting ansy and wants to be home-bound. The weather looks like it’ll be changing by the end of the week as well. So we blow off back-tracking to Green Turtle and decide it will have to wait until another trip. Raising anchor at 9am, we motored very slowly to the north end of Manjack so that we could complete our refrigerator run. The north end anchorage can be a bit rolly, as it is right at a pass to the Atlantic. We had also had difficulty anchoring there on past trips. We couldn’t set in the grass on our first attempt, so we moved and tried again with more scope and just waited. This time we set. Once again we were the only boat in the anchorage but as usual – that was not to last. Five minutes later a small rental boat came in – many more would throughout the day. Dive operators feed sting-rays at a corner of the beach and people come to ‘play’ with the sting-rays (a la Sting-Ray City in Grand Cayman). We went ashore at around 10:30, taking Bay to Bay Blvd to Ocean Blvd to Kings Hwy to the Beach, ending at a strongly built gazebo with some roof issues. We walked the beautiful beach and spoke with a cruising couple from Naples. A ‘new to us’ house faced the beach and the couple said that in 2007 when they were last there, the owner was actively building it. Clearly something had happened as it was incomplete. We asked them how he got his materials to the site. They said that construction materials and prefab sections came by boat to the Sea of Abaco side and then were trucked down King’s Hwy to Ocean Blvd.

Our return hike was via Kings Hwy to Bay to Bay Blvd to Poisonwood. The trail ended at the yellow house facing the northern anchorage. The house and its out building were posted with signs listing all the items that were NOT stored there, so as to discourage vandalism. The pretty yellow house attracted two hummingbirds. The anchorage was now fully active – several day-tripper vessels as well as a large motor-catamaran and another sailboat. We swam off the beach for a little while and then snorkeled on the anchor (and alas – no conch), took our joy baths and had a late lunch in the cockpit. Lazy afternoon. Two boats left. A trimaran arrived; another sailboat (catamaran) had difficulty setting anchor and tried several times before success. After dinner we were visited by an assertive laughing gull. He/she sat on our dinghy outboard and begged. Iris found some bread and it caught most of our throws. We tired of the game and the gull went to check out another boat. Watermaker: 468ppm at 5 minutes, 434ppm at 30 minutes.

As expected, we experienced a rolly night wihout much wind. We raised anchor at 8:45 and motored over to Powell. There were rain showers as we left the anchorage. Powell is another place that can have iffy holding due to grass – We found a sandy spot and felt a good set at 10:15. There were two power boats and two sailboats in the very large anchorage area. The weather is forecast to deteriorate on Tues-Wed with significant rain. We’ll probably try for Allans Pensacola tomorrow and Angelfish Point/Crab Cay on Tuesday – for wind protection. Powell is another anchorage with hiking trails. We beached the dinghy near the wreck of an old dock towards the northern end and looked for the memorial for a young woman who loved Powell and died many years ago. We walked to the northernmost point we could on the western beach; Fred found a little cave he couldn’t resist entering. We hiked the well-marked (by strategically placed flotsam) trail to the oceanside – noting how much the terrain changed while crossing the island. Iris’ Tevas had worn blisters on both her feet, so she hung out by the dinghy and checked out the fish and a small barracuda, while Fred did the bluff trail.

Back to the boat for lunch, then time to explore the southern end of the cay. There is another well marked trail to the east side where we took a long walk on the beautiful, but heavily sea-weed laden shore. We came back via the same trail and did some swimming and wading off the beach with the dinghy before returning to the boat to snorkel on the anchor and do our joy bath routine. Fred continued to scrub the hull trying to remove the green fuzzy stuff that seemed to grow only on a patch on the port aft quarter – weird stuff. We were surprised that other boats hadn’t come in. It was clearly pouring on Great Abaco. To leave or not to leave for FL? West winds were forecast for W/Thurs through Friday and there aren’t a lot of great anchorages choices. We used the phone data to check weather on Barometer Bob frequently. We could get to Mangrove Cay tomorrow and do our crossing on Tuesday. Watermaker: 495ppm at 5 minutes, 454ppm after 25 minutes.

Iris woke up adamant – she didn’t want to be crossing the Gulfstream with major thunderstorms forecast. After heated discussion, we decided to head to Allans-Pensacola and we still could get to Mangrove on Tuesday and cross on Wednesday – or if plans changed, wait at Great Sale. In any case – it was time to leave and we raised anchor at 8 and got to Allans at around 10:20. Another spot with poor-holding and it took us two tries to set in the shallow water. It started getting dark and began pouring just as we completed anchoring. Maybe today wouldn’t have been such a great day to head for Mangrove or Great Sale. We stayed below for lunch and a game of dominoes while we waited for a break in the weather. Around 2:30 we jumped in the dinghy and headed in search of the trail to the ocean side. It took a couple of tries, but we found the shell-marked trail entrance. It was nowhere near as pretty as we’d remembered it from 2003. Nor were we recognizing the Atlantic side. We had at least one picture on our website with the signing tree – which had spread to include several. However we thought we remembered a pretty beach and all we saw was a fairly rocky, coral stretch with perhaps sand much further down. Either our memories were faulty (likely), or perhaps storms had washed away sand and made for no beach at high tide? We’ll have to check when we get back. The water wasn’t inviting back on the anchorage side and we returned to Windwalker at around 4.

The weather forecast is unchanged. We have a window Tues.-Wed. and then the winds shift and we can’t tell how long they’ll stay westerly and northerly. It’s not a great window since there have been severe thunderstorms in FL and in the straits of FL. But once we leave Allans Pensacola we’ll have to rely on VHF (or use the SSB and weatherfax). It’s been great using the phone/data to see the radar and the forecasts. We’re going for it – so we bring up the dinghy and the outboard and stow all the related paraphernalia. Since Iris had call dollars and over 900mb left on data, she called her mother with a float plan and sent an email float plan to her and Fred’s sister, Lynn – both listed as epirb contacts. We checked our various websites and phone messages and get ready for an early start. Iris is not entirely ready to leave yet – there’s still more than 10 days to the end of the month!

Iris checked the weather several times during the night. There was a giant blob of high-intensity thunderstorms between Florida and Grand Bahama Island, heading east. But by her check at 6am, the blob had broken up and the weather looked a bit better. We raised anchor at 7am. After we’d left the Cay, we lost our tach – and continued to do so for the rest of the day. There was a loose connection in the wire-bundle which Fred would jiggle and we’d be charging the batteries once again. Not great. Later in the day, the chart-plotter started acting up as well.As we passed Foxtown, Iris sent ‘final’ text messages. That would be it for her Bahamas phone coverage. Sailing was too slow. so we ended up motor-sailing towards Mangrove. We’d decided to forego stopping at Great Sale which would result in losing a day, and forged ahead. For much of the day we saw thunderstorms but of course we had to go through one as we reached our anchorage. The winds were clocking, probably due to the storms in the area, and we saw W to N to E to S. We did the refrigeration run using the engine so that a generator run wouldn’t be necessary in the evening. There was only one other boat when we arrived – a catamaran anchored quite far away to the south. By evening there were 8 boats – 5 sail and 3 power. At dusk, strong winds from another thunderstorm caused a couple of the power boats to drag. One in particular kept resetting and put himself right in front of us (possibly over our anchor). Fred took some pictures of the boat just in case he dragged into us during the night. We planned to be off at 4am – so prepared for sea. Jacklines installed, harnesses ready as we’d be leaving in the dark, ditch bag ready, flashlights ready for raising anchor. The forecast seas seem fine – it’s the thunderstorms that pose the potential problem. But we’re not staying here!

Iris got up at 3am and got Fred up at 3:15. We raised anchor smoothly in the dark. As we motored away, we saw that two other vessels had departed awhile after we did – we saw their running lights. We raised sail (as it was our hope to sail all the way back – which was part of our motivation for taking this window). That was the end of the smooth part of the day. About 30 minutes after leaving the autopilot failed – the wheel would only turn in one direction. We tried various combinations of turning it off, using a different console, to no avail. We were out of practice and had many, many hours to go. Could have been worse – we could have been on a multi-day passage! It just made for a more tiring passage as one of us had to be at the helm at all times. We saw very little traffic: one westbound sailboat, several small eastbound power boats and lots of thunderstorms around us. AIS proved quite useful – freighter traffic was easily identifiable as not a factor and in a particularly close tug/tow approach which would have been much to close for comfort – we altered course. Particularly frustrating was seeing the shore for several hours but making only 3 knots and little progress. We’d reefed due to the storms, the wind was unpredictable, the seas were lumpy and it was getting late. We were surprised at how few fishing boats were out – probably due to several days of very lousy weather. We did see a rainbow :-)! Iris once again did a refrigerator run during the last hour of the engine to avoid the evening generator run. Fred had hoped to get to our slip upon arriving, but we only reached the inlet at around 7pm and anchored by 7:15 at our usual spot.

We closed our float plan. Since we’d gotten back prior to our (significant) anniversary milestone – Iris made the anniversary dinner while Fred called CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) to check us in. We now had 24 hours to report to CBP in either Riviera Beach or the airport. Nice dinner, we unwound. Not so fast! We had a ‘firedrill’ as Fred thought he’d lost his glasses overboard somewhere enroute. We tore apart the boat and couldn’t find them. We faded fast – it had been a tough way to end the trip.

We had a quiet and calm night. But compared to the Abacos, it was very hot and humid. Iris asked Fred to describe where he would have put his glasses when he went below. He said the nav station. She searched again and found them lodged behind the radar display – they probably had flown around during the passage. All is good! We had a leisurely breakfast before raising anchor at 9. As we approached the Parker Bridge – a sailboat in front of us radioed and asked that we go ahead since their draft was deep and there was shoaling on the other side of the bridge. Iris called out as we passed, asking what they drew. They replied 6 feet. I said we were 5 1/2. They said there was a big problem up ahead. We’d noticed that we touched near the center of the channel last time we went through. We did see 8 1/2 – which at high meant there is a developing shoaling problem at the bridge. Our return to our slip was awkward as well. The winds were westerly and there was a very large motoryacht across the channel – so it took a few attempts to get into the slip. In addition, we’d left some of our lines and one on our port aft piling had fallen into the water and then fell off completely. What should have taken a few minutes instead took about 1/2 hour. But we were back, we were safely attached and now the clock was ticking to get to CBP. Showers, clean clothes and at noon – we headed off to Riviera Beach. The most interesting part of the experience was entering the small lobby with a few seats and a window/counter for service and clearly a two-way mirror. The sign said to push the button (which looked like a small doorbell button on the counter that didn’t seem to be attached to anything). After a few minutes the agent came to get our information and then she disappeared. We both felt like we were under observation. Soon she was back and we were officially back! We had a great trip and are glad we went. Now the projects begin.