Friendly Black Point Settlement on Great Guana Cay

Sailed and motored on down the Exuma Bank from anchor outside Sampson Cay to pass Staniel Cay with all of its new years visitors to anchor off the beach at Black Point.  What a friendly small community of Bahamian folks!  We found Lorraine's Cafe and Internet for lunch and Jay got connected.  Lorraine used the cruiser donations and has created a little side room to the cafe set up for cruisers.  

Lorraine's Mother bakes breads to sell and takes you right into her kitchen to bag your your purchase.  She even buttered a sample and shared as we chatted.

Weaving palm plaits was also a busy pastime for her - no idle time on her hands.  She and various helpers weave a 5-6 inch wide band yards and yards long.  She trims the pointed edges that stick out.  She rolls up the woven band and sells it in Nassau where they make it into place mats, mats and whatever they choose, she said.  She says she just does the first step and she is quick - a foot woven every 2-3 minutes, I estimated. Her weaving was done in an out building from her house. She was happy to chat, share and answer all of my questions.

The mailboat from Nassau arrives in Black Point on Thursday and the little village comes alive.  Golf carts and pick up trucks and people fill the little dock to get what they ordered and help unload.  Even though the community is small and everyone knows everyone else, we are not sure how they keep track of where things go and to whom. We are hopeful some fruit and veggies get unloaded for Adderly's grocery store and we'll check this morning but there are 7-8 boaters anchored in the harbor all hoping for the same thing, we are sure.

Christmas at Warderick Wells Cay

Jay is all dressed up in his party shirt and preparing the dinghy to visit the Park Warden's residence for Christmas Day Pot Luck dinner. He is pumping some air into the inflatable tubes of the dinghy.  Park Warden Henry turned out to be also quite a chef.  It is a Thanksgiving and Christmas tradition that he prepares chicken, turkey, ham, and mac & cheese for the boaters who are visiting the Park's moorings. We enjoyed talking with the other boaters.  Although boaters brought pot luck dishes, Warden Henry filled everyone up. It was a very thoughtful tradition we all appreciated and enjoyed.           

Monday we walked the many hiking trails on Warderick Wells Cay that go along the ocean and back along the Exuma Bank beaches. Along the way we found a piece of bamboo driftwood on the beach to carve Priority's name on . We hiked back up Boo Boo Hill Trail overlooking the Ocean and added it to the collection of other visiting boat plaques. The Park says to take photos and memories but only leave behind your footprints and your driftwood boat plaque. It was fun to look at all the different plaques left over many years of visitors.

Exploring the Exuma chain of Islands

Leaving Nassau Harbor on Tuesday morning you can see one of two bridges crossing from Nassau to Paradise Island.  Our marina where we cleared Customs was on the left but we spent Monday walking over the bridge to enjoy Paradise Island for the day. 

Can you guess what this is? It is a "lookie" bucket view of our Rocna anchor buried in the sandy bottom on the west side of Highborne Cay where we stayed on Tues. night. The lookie bucket is a 4 gal plastic bucket that we cut the bottom out of and caulked in a clear plexiglass bottom.  We can hold it under the water's surface and clearly see if our anchor is in a good spot and buried to hold for the night. Our day's route took us south over the White Banks which were more free of coral heads versus the more direct route over the Yellow Banks.  We chose that route due to 20kt east winds blowing mostly on our nose and clouds rolling over the sky making it impossible to "read" the water to check if a coral head was in our path.  It was a tough travel day but we made it safe and sound.

After some chart and trip planning, we decided we are beginning a new phase of our trip as we explore the Exuma Islands.  We decided to move south at our own pace and explore as we go much like we did traveling down the ICW.  If we miss a place, we'll have a chance to visit it on the way back north in the spring.  So Thursday we traveled on to Norman Cay and anchored on the north west shore by a beautiful beach/inlet and sandbar.  All of the colors of the water were spectacular as we dinghied around Norman and Saddle Cays.

Friday we anchored all alone off the western shore of Hawksbill Cay.  It is part of the Exuma Land & Sea Park so we enjoyed the beautiful beach and explored a lagoon leading us on a trail hike to the Sound (ocean) side of the cay.  There's our dinghy and Priority anchored in the background.

Jay led us along the trail on Hawksbill Cay following the cairns, stacked piles of rocks to indicate the correct path, from the Exuma Banks where we were anchored across to the Exuma Sound on the Ocean side of the Island.

Finished our hike and headed back to the boat for showers and dinner before dark.  It was the darkest night we have seen so far with no moon, no shore lights, no other boats in sight but there were millions of stars.  Even the little stars looked bright!

Today, Sat., we came to Warderick Wells Cay which is home to the headquarters for the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park. It is a large horseshoe shaped anchorage of dark blue deeper water surrounded by the white sand and lighter color blue waters.  The Park has mooring balls that you call to reserve ahead of time.  There are about 15 or so boats staying here. We snorkeled on the coral reef and hiked over a few trails on the Cay this afternoon. 

Priority is the boat on the left mooring ball # 20. The Park warden invited all the boaters to gather for a Christmas Pot Luck Meal tomorrow at his residence, Peggy Hall, on the Cay.  It will be a fun opportunity to meet the other cruisers.

Arrived in Nassau on Sunday (updated video clips)

A beautiful sun rose four hours after we left the anchorage in Biscayne Bay, Florida on Saturday morning.  Crossing waves from a  leftover north wind and a new light east breeze made for a lumpy ride.  We did mostly motor to keep us moving at least 5 knots. If we had sailed, we would still be making the journey since winds were light and blowing right on our bow. The front did come through today as predicted with very strong winds from the north and east which closes the weather window to cross the Gulf Stream and the Great Bahama Banks.

 

   

Jay had some time to record our trip although it is a bit out of focus.  He says this is what happens when he gets up too early in the morning!  You can get the idea with his video that the panoramic view shows all water 360 degrees around - no shore, no boats -just us on the Gulf Stream.  The engine worked well since we were really being a powerboat.  But I got a promotion in rank!!

About Sat. noon you could tell we had arrived on the Great Bahama Bank by the color of the water.  Temperature of the water cooled back down to 82 degrees instead of 91 degrees in the 45 mile wide Gulf Stream.  Many cruisers crossed as we did leaving from every Florida inlet on Sat. morning.  Nassau was a busy place this morning as cruisers began showing up from whatever route they had taken.

 

Another of Jay's videos shows the "lumpy" seas as we motored east.  The old saying "one hand for the boat" was very true to be sure you kept yourself in place. 

 

Early Sunday morning the breeze stopped and the water flattened so it was easy to follow the dolphins as they played and swam along with us as we motored on. It is tough to actually catch them with a camera but Jay did.

 

We hoisted the yellow quarantine flag to the spreader when we got on the Great Bahama Banks. 

Nasssau was having a boat "traffic" jam when we arrived earlier than expected on Sunday morning. Six cruise ships were lined up to be docked with the pilots help inside the harbor.  Then we got permission to enter and we found a marina slip at Nassau Harbor Club.  The Customs agent came to each marina and met with each "foreign" boat to check their boat papers and documentation.

Here we go - crossing over to the Bahamas!

A weather window opened up for us.  We moved back over to anchor outside No Name Harbor for Friday night.  Very early Sat. morning we'll be on our way east.  We are rested and ready.  It will be a fun adventure.  We'll post a new blog entry as soon as we can get connected wherever we end up checking in the Bahamas. We took a moment in Coconut Grove to find a pretty poinsettia and a palmetto palm to wish everyone warm sunny holiday greetings.

Exploring Biscayne Bay while we wait for a weather window

Since the northern winds are still blowing strong and crossing the Gulf Stream is still not an option for us, we moved a bit north up Biscayne Bay to anchor outside Hurricane Harbor to explore a different anchorage. We used the time to sand and varnish all the exposed teak to give it new protection against the strong southern sun.  Here Jay sands the teak trim around the lid edge of the propane tank locker. We dinghied inside Hurricane Harbor to find it is very protected to all but west winds with more beautiful homes all along the shores. 

 Wednesday morning we came across to the western side of Biscayne Bay to motor in Dinner Key Channel to Coconut Grove. Coconut Grove Sailing Club offers moorings inside the protected anchorage between shore and a spoil island.  The island was created to make a safe refuge to moor the Pan American clipper seaplanes flying to the Caribbean and South America and later for the US Coast Guard. Today private marinas and sailing clubs call it home. The moorings are  tightly packed to make the best use of the harbor.

The usual shore chores were done one more time in hopes of a weather window opening soon -laundry, fill water and fuel tanks, find fresh produce, refill a propane tank.  The captain even got a new crab net (the black net on aluminum extendable handle) which we most often use to retrieve things that fall overboard.  Norma hated to part with the old wooden handled rusty one that has nostalgic 30 year old memories attached so we'll carry it as a spare for a while. Coconut Grove is another unique community just south of Miami.

Several moths, new sailing boats to us, were flying across the Bay as we motored in the Channel. We got a close look as five of these moths sailed back into the Sailing Club where we are moored. They appear to give a high speed ride while providing an athletic workout. You can actually watch how they ride on foils on top of the water on the following youtube video.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCY1EAp9FfY

Watching the forecasts & the lights in Biscayne Bay, FL

Moving outside No Name Harbor to anchor alongside the State Park shore with 5-6 other sailboats on Friday afternoon achieved three goals. First, there is more wind to keep us cool outside the protected harbor. Second, we wanted to check Priority's underwater hull and felt it better to do so in the open water. Third, the Christmas boat parade is coming and everyone had to clear out of the harbor for Sat. night anyway. Jay dove to find the brown underwater hull looked pretty clean but the zincs needed replacing.  Zincs are sacrificial medal pieces that protect the other underwater metals from corrosion.  He found the two smaller zincs on the two grounding plates had totally disintegrated so he replaced those by repeated dives to remove the bolts, sand the areas and install the new zincs.  The larger zinc on the end of the propeller was about 50% disintegrated so he replaced it, also.  We carry extra zincs on board expecting to have to replace them.  You can see the new silver prop zinc sitting on the transom next to the partially disintegrated one that Jay just removed.  Norma's job is to wipe down the hull and as far as she can reach underwater around the waterline.  Jay is the diver.

Dec. 10th was a full moon and we caught it peeking out of the cloudy skies. Clouds roll across the sky all day and night. Brief rain showers usually during the night make us close the ports and hatches for awhile.  We do not leave the boat opened up when we leave during the day; it would be sad to return to a rain soaked boat interior. 

The marine police flushed all anchored boats out of No Name Harbor by 6pm Sat. so the Key Biscayne Yacht Club could entertain folks on land and on anchored boats outside the Harbor. We thought the sailboats won the decorating contest but they did have the advantage of having the extra height to help them make a show. This is a decades old tradition here in Biscayne Bay.  Lots of fun to watch and we enjoyed hearing the Christmas tunes being played in the Harbor.  The warm weather makes it hard to realize it is the holiday season.  Norma just feels like we are on a summer vacation that hasn't ended yet.

Moving south down Biscayne Bay, FL

Even though a weather window has not opened we decided to raise the anchor and move south leaving Miami Beach.  We motored on down the ICW to pass Miami on the right and into southern Biscayne Bay.  Motoring on out the Cape Florida Channel we will travel when we depart for the Bahamas gave us a chance to check our computer waypoints were correct since we plan to leave in the early morning when it is dark.  The water looks much different in the dark with buoys all blinking different light patterns than they do in the daylight when you can clearly see each buoy. It was a practice run. We returned to anchor Priority behind us in No Name Harbor which is part of  Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. 

The state park has a hiking trail overlooking Stiltsville which used to be a community of houses built high on stilts or pilings 1 mile south of Cape Florida back in the 1930s accessible only by boat.  Once the six remaining houses you see in the photo are no longer standing the area use will be reclaimed by the Park.   Stiltsville is a unique Miami story you can learn more about at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stiltsville

We saw many of these Zebra Longwinged butterflies throughout the park.

We climbed Cape Florida Lighthouse in the park which is still lit but the Fowey Light offshore has replaced it as the official navigational aid to mark the southern tip of Cape Florida. It has a grand entrance way called the Avenue of the Coco Palms.

Cape Florida Lighthouse has a beautiful view from the top of the green and turquoise colored ocean water.

The lightkeeper's house has been restored and is open for visiting. Although it is peaceful now, one lightkeeper and his wife had eleven children which must have filled this little house and made for lots of busy times.

The evening brought our first "sundowner" as the anchored boaters all brought a snack ashore to the Park pavilion to share as we met new friends and got reacquainted with folks we have met at other anchorages along the way south.  We watched the sun go down and enjoyed fellowship with friends before heading back to our boats.

Traveling Miami Beach, FL

Closing Lincoln Street to traffic and opening it to pedestrians, bike riders and storefront eateries is a clever way to create an oasis in the middle of a busy city on Miami Beach.  Lincoln Street uses lush green landscaping to create the atmosphere and it made a shady walk on a hot day to catch a bus to the UPS package pickup center.

As you can see, our package did made it to Miami Beach  and we decided to walk along the beach back toward the boat since it wasn't far enough to justify the bus ride. Stormy clouds offshore brought rain out over the Gulf Stream but the sandy beach was busy with people swimming and building sand castles.

Back on board Priority, we put the new ice cube tray to work in the freezer. Norma used the afternoon boat time to reorganize the food storage.  We quickly unloaded the home kitchen back in October, brought it all on board and have been using that food to date.  Since then we have stocked up in Jacksonville and Titusville when we had access to a car to help carry groceries. Now we have the foods much more organized and inventoried.  This should help the cook. We expect common staple items will be available in the Bahamas, but non-perishables like nuts, cranraisins, cereals, soups, crackers, and paper products are much more expensive to purchase. Jay worked to back up the computer and netbook with hopes that all will continue to work well.

Feeling at home in Miami, FL

This is the view from our anchored boat to where we go with our dinghy to get to shore.  There are several places for boater's dinghies to tie up depending on where you want to go or what you need to do.  

One place to tie up the dinghy is along this canal which serves the city as a drainage swain.  Norma watched a huge manatee just wallow down the canal one day as we tied up the dinghy but you must watch closely or you would never see it since the manatee moves so slowly and only surfaces intermittently to breath. Jay is tying a small plastic fender to protect the rubber dinghy from the sharp razor clams that grow along the walls. He will lock the dinghy from the stern to a guardrail post with a steel cable and lock just to help keep folks honest.  We really have one of the oldest dinghies and outboard motors so a thief could pick a much nicer dinghy if they really decided to take one.  However, it is the only dinghy we have so we lock it when we leave it.

So you ask "Why are you waiting in Miami- why not travel on across the Gulf Stream?"  The immediate reason is this ice cube tray.  The longer range reason is a favorable weather window to make the passage. Jay designed and built a wonderful refrigerator/freezer and we can make ice cubes with this tray which we enjoy very much. However on Monday morning we determined the tray had developed a hole and was leaking. SeaFrost, the maker from NH, sent new trays to us in Miami but with an "almost correct" zipcode. The trays were delivered to Palm Beach instead of Miami. So we decided to wait for them to come on Wed. We have spares of lots of parts on board but left the spare tray at home.  So now we have a few more days to make preparations.

Jay and his new favorite fix it tool - Gorilla tape. He mended a hole in the air pump for the dinghy and he temporarily mended our leaky ice cube tray with it. 

The long range reason to wait is to use these kinds of weather maps available at passageweather.com and windfinder.com to determine a favorable 2-3 day window of winds and weather to leave No Name Harbor in lower Biscayne Bay,FL and sail across the Gulf Stream to Triangle Rock below Bimini and then sail on to Nassau.  That's the plan but we will have lots of alternate possible routes to use in case things change along the way.  You can see the different current strengths of the Gulf Stream in this sample.

This one shows the surface winds off Florida's southeast coast where we'll depart and the Bahama islands where we'll head.  Lots to study and ponder -pretty fascinating to watch it change each day and for the forecast. We'll keep watching and keep you posted when we see a window open up for us with the right winds and weather.

Moving south to Miami, FL

Thursday's weather forecast was perfect for traveling south down the ocean coast from Lake Worth/Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale - clear skies and building north/northeast winds during the day. We had to pause exiting the Lake Worth Inlet in early morning to allow this Tropical freighter to come in the Inlet and dock.  The pilot boat is making sure we stay out of the way.

It was refreshing to be out in the ocean and feel the ocean swells as the waves and winds moved us southward.  The view of resorts and condo plazas was an interesting change from the ICW views of individual homes with their yachts docked in front. We sailed wing and wing (genoa sail on one side and the mainsail on the other side of the boat) until mid afternoon.  Increasing winds caused us to shorten sail and take down the mainsail.

You could see the four red and white stacks of the Port Everglades Inlet long before you could see the actual inlet entrance.  We sailed in the Inlet to Ft. Lauderdale and then motored north to anchor in the Middle River just before dark.  Getting into the anchorage late in the day meant that we had to snuggle on the edge of about 10 cruising boats already anchored but there is always room for one more!  Norma is again glad Jay insisted that we change from using rode (line or rope) to using chain to anchor.  It allows us to anchor in a smaller area and not need as much room to swing at anchor.  

Friday's forecast of 20-25kt winds made us decide to travel the more protected ICW from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami.  It turned out to be a very pleasant passage even with all of the bridges since fewer boats travel it.  There is a fixed bridge with a 56' vertical clearance so many of the larger cruising boats can not fit under and must travel the ocean path to go south.  Priority's mast is only 51' tall so we were able to fit under. The famous blimp that homebases tethered near Ft. Lauderdale was flying low along the ocean coastline as we motored south.

We carefully sounded a path for Priority turning east after coming through the West Venetian Causeway bascule bridge in Miami. We explored the Venetian Causeway islands inhabited by beautiful homes and decided to anchor at the far east end since we would be taking the dinghy ashore and the winds were blowing.  Using the tall high rise buildings as wind blocks sounded like a good idea to us traveling ashore in our small dinghy. Our anchorage currently holds about ten cruisers like the one above, some boats that look more permanently anchored here and a few derelict boats that need some loving care.

On the hook at Lake Worth, FL

Look at the gorgeous turquoise colored water we found coming down the ICW toward Jupiter, FL. Jupiter Lighthouse was standing guard at the Inlet as we made the turn to follow the ICW toward Lake Worth. 

After going under seven bridges with busy weekend local boat traffic we arrived to anchor in the northwestern corner of Lake Worth, FL on Sunday afternoon with about thirty other cruising boats. We learned that the experienced cruisers do not travel on weekends due to the busy local water traffic. We are getting some boat jobs done that we can only do at anchor. The stainless steel stanchions and bow and stern pulpits should sparkle since Norma removed the saltwater spray and polished them.  

Jay spliced a new anchor snubber line to hook on the chain so the boat will be suspended from a bridle instead of a single line.  We ran the Honda generator (red box behind Jay sitting on the transom) to charge our batteries since we have been at anchor for a few days and have not run the engine. Jay did some electrical jobs like repairing a 12V plug on an computer inverter.

Jay hoisted me up to the spreaders to run the flag halyard through the pulley so we'll be able to raise the quarantine and Bahamian courtesy flag once we arrive. We also spent time studying the Bahamas charts and guides.

Wednesday we landed and locked the dinghy with other cruiser's dinghies by the bridge.  We walked a few blocks to catch the public bus into Riviera Beach for our afternoon appointments with the US Customs & Borders office.  We had applied online for the LBO-Local Boaters Option which will allow us a quicker and easier re-entry to the US in the spring.  Today we had to appear in person for the presentation of documents (boat papers and passports) and an interview (be fingerprinted and have photo taken).  In the spring when we return, we should be able to phone the Customs office, give our LBO # and not have to wait for a Customs visit or appear at the Customs office to clear us.

We arrived early to be sure we knew where the Customs office was located, so we had time to explore.  Riviera Marina was nearby with pelicans waiting for the scraps from a cleaning fish station.  The US Customs office was just across the water from Peanut Island and the Lake Worth Inlet.   The weather looks good for Thursday with north/northeast winds so we plan to go out the Inlet and sail down the coast to Fort Lauderdale.