Back to Marsh Harbour

Monday March 24, 2014
26 32.783 N
77 03.174 W

Rained cats and dogs early this morning and is quite breezy. Lazy morning. We have been disappointed so far with the local restaurant food, so tried a more upscale place for a light lunch, and we were delighted. Seems like you get what you pay for here also.

Invited crew of a neighbor boat over for drinks and advice on the best routes south to the Exumas. The Captain was Irish with a strong brogue, and his stories of communications with the locals in "English" were pretty funny. I would say that local "English" is very relaxed. Every sentence seems to start with "Hey Man, .... .

It is a bit of a curious place. For example, the rule is that vehicles drive on the left side of the road, I assume a hangover of British colonial days. The silly thing is that almost 100% of the cars come from the USA with their steering on the left.


Tuesday March 25, 2014

Rained a bit last night. The wind really came up in the morning and we are all bouncing around in the marina.Glad we are not out in the anchorage. We pretty much spent the day taking it easy.


Wednesday March 26, 2014

We did very little today. Some old friends (Dick and Dianna) heard us on the radio this morning and made contact. After lunch we biked over to the Jib Room marina and played Mexican Train with Bill & Robin for a few hours. When we returned FedEx had delivered the replacement HotSpot. I charged it overnight. Not much going on! Weather still blowing a bit.

Thursday March 27, 2014

Had plans to venture over to Hope Town but that fell thru. I struggled for a couple of hours to make the new hotspot work, but no success. Asparagus sandwiches for lunch. We are starting to get stir crazy.

Friday March 28, 2014

Apols for late entries. The problem is that there is not much going on. The weather has been a bit poor and we are stuck to the dock. We read.

Saturday March 29, 2014

We "hummed and hawed" about taking Tide Hiker somewhere but never made a decision. I am suffering from a complaint called "dock glue". We should have gone out, it was not that bad. But instead we went on a picnic at the beach at the Abaco Resort. We rode our bikes. On the way back Deidre had a spill. She actually ended up on her head, but had her helmet on. Lost a bit of skin off one knee and hurt a toe, and is now limping.

This evening we walked/hobbled to "Curlies" and met some friends for a "painkiller". That seemed to help her. Then we walked/hobbled to Wallies for dinner.

Sunday March 30, 2014

Storm front came thru last night as forecast. Deidre said there was a lot of thunder and heavy rain. I slept thru the whole thing. (Too many painkillers I suspect). This morning it is quit windy, but the forecast is good starting tomorrow. We are ready! Deidre's toe is still sore but improved, so we have decided it is not broken.

Little Harbour

Saturday March 22, 2014
26 19 655 N
76 59 951 W

Stormy weather is expected to arrive next Tuesday and hang around for a while, so we decided we needed to start exploring sooner rather than later. It took us a while to get organized and we were not underway till about 11:30 AM. We did not have time to reload the dinghy but the forecast was benign so I resolved to tow it. Little Harbour is only about 25 miles away but high tide in the area was about 1:00 PM and we needed to arrive at 1/2 tide or better to make it thru the 3.5' deep entrance.

The weather was a bit more blustery than expected. No big deal for Tide Hiker, but a big deal for the dinghy. If the dinghy was swamped, or flipped over, or if the towing eye pulled out, we would have a big problem. Towing it also slows us down somewhat.

The flag is a bit hard to see on the "middle" boat.

We arrived at the entrance at about 3:30 PM so we had a bit more than 1/2 tide and we made it thru the entrance with about a foot under the keel. The harbour is very well protected but too small to anchor, so there are a few moorings provided by "Pete's Pub" and there was a couple free. Taking a mooring involves a lot of focus, but as we approached Deidre called out "Look, a turtle!" My response was an unfriendly "Where is the bloody mooring?" (Once we are withing 20' I am steering blind and need a stream of input.) She returned momentarily to the task at hand, but then called out "Look, and Australian flag!" and once again my response was "Where is the bloody mooring?" Sometimes I just plain forget that she is the Admiral and I am just the captain.

Looking back at the entrance

Since the dink was already in the water I immediately took of visit the Australian boat. Turns out he was from Beaumaris, so that was a treat. We agreed to go ashore together for dinner at Pete's Pub that evening.

We headed ashore about 6 PM and picked up another couple who were looking for a ride. It was now low tide and we headed for "the beach". Deidre was a bit dressed up so the guys did the gallant thing and jumped over the side as we touched bottom. Much to our surprise we immediately went arse deep into what I can only describe as "sucking mud". I thought I could pull myself out by leaning on the dinghy but my shoes would not let go. Ended up pulling my feet out and them reaching head first into the water to find my shoes.Of course I was now wet and dirty from top to bottom.

Pete's Pub

Pete's Pub was basically a palm front roof and sand floor place. But the food ended up being pretty decent. I was pleased to get back to the boat for a shower and to warm up.

The library at Little Harbour

We had thought about staying two nights. Sunday morning we went ashore again and looked around for about 15 minutes and realized that was "it".

High tide was moving about 1 hour later each day and so departure Monday would have been another hour later and the weather..... so we dropped the mooring immediately after lunch.

We thought maybe we could drop anchor somewhere in the way back, and still be able to get back early to MH if the weather packed up early.

We passed through the "Bight of Old Robinson". This is an area that has "blue holes". These are giant caves in the limestone that connect underground miles out in the Atlantic Ocean. You can see them quite easily. The tide travels through them and so swimmers have to keep away or they can be sucked in. There is one hole here where two kids were drowned.

Marsh Harbour

Saturday March 15, 2014
26 32.819 N
77 03.186 W

This seems to be our new routine. Up at 6:15 AM, underway at 7:00 AM, sunrise at 7:15 AM. We wanted to hit "The Whale" at high tide/slack (7:59 AM) to avoid one potential contribution to rough conditions. The sky was overcast and it was raining lightly on and off. I am starting to like this time of day. The water was totally still in the sound, its quiet (except for the local roosters!) and Tide Hiker glided thru the sound and out thru the channel.

Sunrise

"The Whale" is a passage from the Sea of Abaco out into the Atlantic that we must take in order to progress further south towards Marsh Harbour. The passage has a reputation for "rage seas" caused by large swells arriving from the deep Atlantic at this narrow and shallow passage between islands and reefs.It is worse when wind opposes the tide.

We seemed to be the first boat out. There were 5 or 6 boats following us that we were aware of, 3 of them close behind. We hailed for "local knowledge" without success. I had plotted a couple of the recommended course so we felt confident and we plowed on. As Tide Hiker became exposed to the Atlantic we started to roll in 3 to 4 feet swells, with a bit of chop. I took the binocs up to the fly bridge looking for breaking waves, but all seemed clear ahead so we headed thru the opening, our duckings in line behind us. As we rounded the southern end of Whale Cay we could see big spray on the rocks, but that is exciting as it got.

An hour or so later and a few miles north we headed back into the sheltered Sea of Abaco with only 10 miles or so to get to Marsh Harbour. The weather also improved, the sun came out and the clouds rolled away. We hailed the Marina and were tied up by 11:30 AM. I am not very happy with our spot but it seems safe enough, although our bow is sticking out into a busy fairway.

View to shore

When we were settled, Deidre and I headed ashore for lunch. We seem to be right in the middle of "the action". There are several small marinas clustered together, restaurants and shops on the shore. Looks like fun!

Bought some conch salad from a roadside merchant. Could not have been fresher. It is basically raw, but cut fine and marinated in orange and lemon juice. Tried it for dinner and it was "OK" - and we feel OK this morning



Sunday March 16, 2014

Perfect sunny morning. Unloaded the bikes and headed into town. Not much to see, 99% of the stores are closed. Seem to be a lot of car parts stores, and judging from the condition of most cars they are in the right business. Very much looks like a 3rd world place, not much to see and do for the likes of us. Then we "found" Maxwell's super market! Looks like it was transplanted straight out of Miami.  but everything we will ever need.

Back at the boat I tested the dock water - 700 PPM - just like the water maker man said to expect. We decided to turn on the dock water but just for washing etc and cook using bottles water (plenty at Maxwell's $1.50 gallon.)

The pitch

After lunch we were invited to attend a fund raiser managed by the cruising community to send local kids to college. The attraction was the visiting Bahamas symphony orchestra.  At intermission they lined up the 15 kids who had qualified and made their pitch: "Which one of these kids do you select not to send "by your lack of action"?".

The wind came up later in the day and somehow we "dropped a line". Never happened to me before, but it caused us to drift under the Nordhavn behind us and tear our canvas on their anchor. We started and engine and Deidre drove us off as I lifted the anchor. Re-secured with help

Bloody Rokner

of neighbors but a bit of a bummer. As captain I am 100% responsible, but I had complained about the slip and talked to the dock master today (Monday) and he seemed ready to help. We will see.









Monday March 17, 2014 (David's Birthday, St Patricks Day)

First objective today was to get the hot-spot/hub working. I had purchased an unlocked & "international ready" hot-spot plus we have our Verizon hotspot, and Verizon said it would work with a local SIM card. Deidre's phone is also "unlocked". We headed of to the phone store to buy SIM cards for data and phone. The first thing out of the lady's mouth - "This might or might not work - either way, you cannot return it." So we handed over about $90 for a couple of cards and headed home.

Couple of friends dropped in after lunch and offered to help with the dinghy. We have to drop the dinghy on our starboard side, but that is the side on the dock. So we needed to ease the boat to port and make room. It was a bit windy and the way we are secured is a bit awkward so it was a 4 person job, but all went well so now we have the dink to run around in. We did just that and had a look at our surrounds from the water. All 4 or 5 marinas are full, as is the mooring field and the anchorage. We are expecting a big blow Tuesday and people are looking for shelter.

We were invited to participate in the St. Patrick's Day parade. Just wear something green and walk in the "parade" and get a free drink. We did as instructed and joined about 200 boaters walking down the main street for 1/2 a mile or so making noise. We collected our free drink and headed back. I wanted to get the hot spot working.

Tuesday March 18, 2014

Local critter

Stormy day today. Storm arrived right on time. I spent most of the day trying to get the hot spot to work with no success. At lunch we collected a couple of friends and rode over to the Jib Room, a marina across the harbor. Turns out they do not serve lunch. So a couple of beers later finds us riding back to Tide Hiker in the pouring rain. Quiet night on the boat, we watched one of our 500 movies. ("White Squall")





Wednesday March 19, 2014

Beautiful morning. After listening to the morning "Cruisers Net" we headed into Mangoes for breakfast. Yesterday I had asked for help with the Hot Spot and following a suggestion I rode into town and found a "computer store". Very unsophisticated place but I thought a bit of local knowledge might help. I was there for 4 hours with no success.

The whole town/island is a bit like that. Except for the immediate marina area the place is just shabby. Nothing seems "finished" and in good repair. I watched a couple of utility people fixing something and the photo shows the result. The roads are pretty terrible and most buildings need a good scrape and a coat of fresh paint. The people are friendly and generally happy and helpful and very overweight.

Thursday March 20, 2014

Perfect morning. After wasting another hour or so fussing with the computer, we took off in the dinghy with Magnus and Charlotte (also in their dinghy) to explore around the island and do some swimming.

We had some lunch with us and wanted to find a deserted beach to enjoy it. We found a wonderful spot and parked the dinghies in the shallows. We spotted several large rays and sea turtles in the shallow bay. Rather delightful.

On the way back we stopped at Mermaid Reef and did some snorkeling. The reef was as dead as a door nail but there were trillions of fish which made it fun. We had some left over lunch and the fish enjoyed that too.

That night Magnus and Charlotte came over to Tide Hiker for dinner. We enjoyed cocktails and sunset on the boat deck while I bar-b-qued abd then ate in the Wheel House.

Friday March 20, 2015

Nippers

Another perfect morning. Today we took the ferry over to Great Giana Cay to participate in the Barefoot Man concert at Nippers. The ferry was quite fast and the ride over only took about 35 minutes. The cay had a cute little port town. "Nippers" is a bar that overlooks the Atlantic side of the island. The beach is spectacular, the water a hundred colors of blue. We enjoyed a couple of beers as we waited for the performance to begin. We have been told that the "barefoot man" is the Bahamas answer to Jimmy Buffet

Bill, Robin, Charlotte, Magnus, Deidre on the ferry

The show was "OK" but the place was pretty crowded so we walked to another part of the island and enjoyed late lunch.

The bare foot man and band

Green Turtle Cay

Wednesday March 12, 2014
26 45.699 N
77 19.458 W

I think we are very happy to be here, in one piece.

The weather front arrived on time during the night and we bounced around, but Tide Hiker held well. We were up at about 6:30 AM and underway at 7:15AM. Recovering the anchor took a bit of work. It was really buried and the wind was still blowing, maybe about 15/20. Set off for our next destination – Green Turtle Cay. The wind has been a steady 20/30 all day, blowing the tops off the waves.

Our passages are all “waypoint to waypoint” now. There are very few aids to navigation. The various guide books suggest routes and we are following the suggestions religiously. It’s now about 1 PM as I write this and its really blowing, still from the south. Tide Hiker has quite a heel on her as she plows thru the blue/green water.

The wind got worse as the day progressed. By 3 PM it must have been 40 MPH from the south. Fortunately we were protected by Great Abaco island most of the afternoon, so the seas did not get up more than 4' or 5' but the wind was very strong. Tide Hiker was leaning maybe 10 degrees, which felt a lot. 

We had made a slip reservation via the internet from West End for tonight, and very pleased we had. It was in "Black Sound" on Green Turtle Cay, and the entrance and channel had a bit of a reputation, so I was a bit stressed, waves were breaking around us as we made the first markers, but we made it OK. The least I saw under the keel was 2 feet. We called them on the radio and they gave us a space on the "face dock" which made docking a bit easier. I just stopped the boat in line with the space and let the wind blow us in. The starboard side of the boat is crusty with salt.

Up by the pool, Tide Hiker in the background

We did not make it to town tonight. We got the bikes down and made a start, but it is further than it looked, the road was not so hot and it would have been a bit dicey to come back in the dark. So re returned and ate on the boat. The marina wifi seems to work OK. Pleased that the satellite TV is still working! The marina electricity seems a bit unreliable. I will have to run the gen in the AM.






Thursday March 13, 2014

Yesterday was our second anniversary on Tide Hiker. We headed into town on the bikes about 11 AM. "new Plymouth" was settled by Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution. (Sounds a bit like Canada!) There was an interesting memorial dedicated to the refugees. Apparently all was not "beer and skittles" for the loyalists after Valley Forge!

Deidre riding into town (uphill!!)

The town had a pleasant Caribbean feel with just the right amount of shabbiness to make it authentic. Produce in the stores was almost as expensive as in Australia.

We ran into "Billie" (the lone sailor) in town and he bought us lunch. Turns out he is a "long line fisherman" and it was fun to hear some of his stories. (He reminded me of a mix between Adam Blackman and Nick Nicholas). I had fried conch for lunch, and asked Deidre to remind me not to do that again.


Friday March 14, 2014

Got up early to listen to the football, and now wish I had not. Still windy. Saturday still seems to be the best day for Whale passage, but will seek local knowledge.

Social day today. We met a Scottish couple on a nearby boat yesterday and invited them to "morning coffee". They were from Edinborough and had sailed in these waters for yonks. As they were leaving XXX and Charlotte from "Swede Dreams" turned up in their dink - another cup of coffee - soon followed by Billie (the lone sailor) in his dink. Talked plans for The Whale and dinner.

After lunch we explored the other side of the island on our bikes.

Dinner was arranged for a place in "White Sound" (we are in "Black Sound"). Too far to ride the bikes so we took the dink, hoping we could come back in some light. The wind was off shore so the near shore water was calm, and the couple of mile ride over and back was fast and uneventful. Back at Tide Hiker we prepped for an early departure. Electricity and water lines are back on board and stowed.

The beach

Loyalist Memorial

Great Sale cay

Great Sale Cay
26 58.832 N
78 12.914 W

We are anchored at Great Sale Cay. It offers great protection from the North, West and East, however, the wind is coming from the South. I have put Tide Hiker where the holding is best and away from the lee shore.  When we arrived at about 2 PM the water was aqua, clear and as flat as a millpond. The wind is up a bit now, the water not so flat, but we set the anchor with both engines so we are not too concerned.

This morning we were up early, wanting to be on our way at first light. We planned to take the “Indian Cay Pass” onto the Little Bahama Bank to continue our trek East and South. The wind had got up during the night, enough to wake us. In this area the ocean goes from 2500’ deep to 12’ deep, and so a small wave in the ocean becomes a big wave when it arrived on The Bank.

The Indian Passage is an area of deeper water thru the edge of the “reef” onto the Bank. The pass is about 2 miles long. The cruising guides indicate about 8’ of depth in the passage at low water. We need about 5’ in flat water. Tide here is about 3’ and Hi tide was at 5 AM which was why we wanted to leave as early as possible. There are no markers or official soundings, it’s all “accumulated public knowledge”. I had entered the recommended waypoints into our chart plotter and planned to stick like glue to the resulting course.

We had another boat with us (“Swede Dreams”) and they drew a foot less than us so I asked them to go first! J We approached the entrance is breaking waves, which is a bit spooky. But from afar we had seen a sailing boat go thru and we had Swede Dreams ahead of us. Tide Hiker was a bit squirrelly but we never saw less than 4’ under us as we went in. As soon as we were into the passage the water settled down.  Two miles later we were on The Bank.

From then on the passage was pretty routine. The Bank was a steady 10’ to 15’ deep. The water was a beautiful aqua and we could see the bottom. The waves settled down to less than a foot. Tide Hiker plowed on. At 10 AM I fired up the water maker. It seemed to be working OK and set up a routine to check  it every 15 minutes. It ran without issues for 4 hours – 28 gallons! I tested the water occasionally and it scored about 300 PPM. OK!

We were joined by a third (faster) boat, all heading for the same place. Lots of chatting on the radio about the weather forecast and the best place to anchor. Not very conclusive. We continued to our original target, Great Sale Cay.   

We arrived at Great Sale Cay at about 3 PM. The water was dead calm. We anchored in anticipation of a southerly change arriving that night. When we dropped the anchor I watched it hit the bottom. We backed down on the anchor with both engines and it did not budge. There is no protection from the south, so I gave the boat lots of room. The other boats anchored up in the top of the bay, I could not see the point. We dropped the dinghy and headed over to the other boats for a social hour. On the way we picked up a “lone sailor” on a trawler (“Billie from Texas”) On the way back to Tide Hiker it was quite choppy.

The good news is that the sat TV worked fine. Otherwise there is no radio or lights, just this deserted little island. We watched an old “Law and Order” (with “Lenny”) but were in bed by 9 PM. We were to be up at first light

Old Bahama Bay

Dawn

We were up at 4 AM and underway by 4:30 AM. It was really dark. The screens in the pilot house are just too bright (I have to figure out how to fix this!) and Deidre was not comfortable, at all! But we made it out the main channel OK and took our new course at the final channel light.

Dawn did not arrive till about 7 AM, but we had some light about 45 minutes earlier. It was a perfect day, with maybe a 3' swell and a 6" chop. It was really just a matter of pointing the boat and keeping an eye on the engines.

After clearing customs

We set a course south of the rhumb line to compensate for the current. It was really just an approximation so 2/3 of the way across we just pointed the auto pilot at the target waypoint and let it do the work. We were tied up in Old Bahama Bay marina by 1:30 PM.

The customs and immigration process was fast and pleasant. Deidre was now allowed off the boat. The slip was a bit expensive so we declined the water and electricity extras.

Later, after clearing customs

I had tried to make water on the way across, but kept running into issues. First a burst hose and then the salt water supply seemed to dry up - in the middle of the ocean! (It was about 2,600' deep!) I will have to get advise from the water-maker-man.

The extra charge for electricity was $32! We declined  and explained that "we have solar". In response we were warned that it was a big breach of the rules to start a generator in the marina. (What rubbish!) But the panels have not let us down - 5 hours later the SOC ("State of Charge") is still at 100% and the batteries easily lasted all night

After settling the boat we headed over to the beach. Bliss.

Lake Worth(Continued)

Friday March 7, 2014

Looks like we will be here over the weekend. The forecast for Monday & Tuesday look OK for the crossing. In the meantime it continues to be fine but quite windy. Last night I discovered that the salt water head was leaking.

First job this morning was to change the oil in the generators. We used the small gen to run up the batteries for an hour or so, and then changed the oil while it was hot.

There was no apparent leak from the toilet hoses, so the toilet had to come out. Eventually I got it out and onto the aft deck in an attempt to find the leak. Unfortunately "the guts" of the device seemed in poor shape, and I could not identify the origin of the leak. I suspect the unit is original equipment and I know (from a previous experience) that it is obsolete and parts are no longer available. So I think we might make a donation to the gulf stream and buy a replacement when we return to the USA in June. So we are now a "one seat" boat.

After I decided the fate of the salt water head I took the wash down hose from the deck and hosed down the bilge where the toilet had leaked. Then lifted the float to activate the bilge pump. Nothing!

Naturally, the bilge pump is located in the lowest corner of the forward bilge. To reach it I need to hang thru the hatch at about my waist line. The hatch is too narrow for my shoulders so I have to go thru diagonally, one arm at a time. The only way out is to have Deidre to hold my feet so I can pull myself up. Hanging upside down really plays unpleasantly with my vertigo. Needless to say I was really fed up and just about "done" with boating life. I removed the pump and it tested OK, so the problem must be the float switch. I do not have a spare so I re-arranged the wiring so we can turn it on/off in the wheelhouse. Later that day I called a friend who will be meeting us in the Bahamas and asked him to buy a float switch for us.

I bet their toilet leaks too!

Lake Worth adjoins Palm Beach and is part of the playground of the rich and famous. As I was working on the toilet on the aft deck  a procession of enormous private yachts passed us in the channel.

The wind blew all night. I must say I am pleased with how well Tide Hiker has stayed put. The wind on Thursday must have made it to 40 to 50 MPH. Since then the wind has been strong (20 to 30 MPH) and come from just about all points of the compass. Plus there is a decent tidal current in the anchorage that has put Tide Hiker perpendicular to the wind on several occasions. But she just has not budged.

Saturday March 8, 2014

We slept in till 8:30 AM. The wind had died, the boat was still & quiet. Deidre made pancakes for breakfast. The forecast for Monday still looks good. I ran the gen and took the batteries up to 75% and then left it to the panels. The day was sunny and clear. By 4 PM the batteries were up to 89% despite the fact that the cook used the coffee maker AND the toaster THREE TIMES!

 It was a beautiful day. We had lunch on the aft deck in the sun. I needed this. After lunch we launched the dinghy and explored the "lake" for an hour or so. We paid a visit to what must be a 'super yacht" marina. We Googled one of the boats we saw - it rents for $400K a week and sorry, it is sold out this season.

Sunday March 9th, 2014

Another nice day, a bit breezier than expected. We got all dressed up in our best and took the dinghy to meet friends Wray and Cigna at a local waterside restaurant for lunch. They had a car so after lunch they took us to the local supermarket for a bit of last minute shopping. We made our way back to Tide Hiker and hoisted the dinghy back on deck.

MUSASHI

Several large private yachts passed us in the channel this afternoon. The biggest was MUSASHI - 88 metres (285') owned by Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle. Now we don't even look up when a 100 footer goes past.

Looks like we will have a companion  boat crossing to West End. We have been chatting with Swede Dreams since back in Charleston and made contact with them last night. We just have to agree on a departure time and all will be set. They are a trawler like us, a bit smaller.

Swede Dreams - just arrived.

Lake Worth (Palm Beach)

Thursday March 6, 2014
26 45.465 N
80 02.583W

We were up at 7:30 AM and underway on schedule at 9:00 AM. There is a lot to do getting the boat ready and all the systems operating. It was not a very pleasant morning, a bit strange after 29 days of perfect weather. We decided not to go "outside" but to stay in the ICW. Turns out a good decision.

The storm is bigger than the whole state of Florida.

The 30 odd miles was uneventful, windy but protected. However, as the day progressed the radar started to reveal a very strong line of thunder storms approaching from the west, winds of "up to 60 MPH" and possible tornadoes. We were anxious to get to our anchorage and settled before they arrived, and we managed that with about 15 minutes to spare. I put out just about all 225' of chain and the snubber. It was a bit wild when it hit but the anchor held perfectly. Just wet and calm now.

We enjoyed the ICW as we headed to Palm Beach. The houses and private yachts were spectacular and the ICW was in great condition. We passed under 3 "on demand" lifting bridges and 2 "restricted" bridges that we seemed to time perfectly.