GOOD MORNING!!  Another day in paradise awaits us!  We just seem to be wandering through the weeks aimlessly.  And what's wrong with that!!!!

We haven't done anything earth shattering or even very important.  At the moment everything on the boat seems to be working great, so no major repair jobs to undertake, just routine care and maintenance - thank goodness!!  We did have a major snaffu a couple of weeks ago, which was my fault, and I hate to even have to fess up to it but I must.  Our 20HP Honda, which we use to power the dinghy, went swimming and it didn't float!  We retrieved it and Jeff worked his 'majic' again and it is running better than before!  Another miracle!!!!!!!  Who'dathunk??!!



Parrot Fish

 We did some snorkeling on one of the reefs recently and saw some really pretty fish, although I'm not a very good underwater photographer, as you will notice.  That was the first time we'd used our masks since we were here in 2008 and since we left them on the boat in the hot hot weather, which we now realize was not a good idea at all, we are going to have to search for replacements very soon.  That is easier said than done for Jeff since he needs to have a prescription in his mask - at least down here.



The full moon last week





Under Mizzen & Spinnaker

 A couple of nights ago the Dept. of Tourism hosted a reception for the 'Winter Residents' here in the Abacos, and we attended with numerous cruisers, as we are 'Winter Residents', at least this winter.  We all shed our bathing suits and dressed respectably for the event.  We hardly knew each other!  Had a good time even if they did run out of food and liquor before everyone got theirs.


In our dress-up clothes



Hopetown Lighthouse





We've already been here 6 weeks - how can that be??!!

I’ve again been reminded that it is time to make an entry to the blog. We got one especially lengthy complaint – “I would like to log a formal complaint in that the people in the real world would like to see how you are managing your terrible situation. I personally feel that one update per month is not meeting expectations. Due to this sub-par performance, the blogging frequency should be increased to at least a bi-monthly status and monitored for effectiveness. Given the current lack of feedback to the real world, you may not even know what day of the week or even what month it is, so it may be helpful to periodically look at a calendar to ensure that you are meeting the new increased blogging frequency. “  Thanks Brian!



One of the beaches the dogs make us walk - what a pain!



We’ve been traveling around the Abacos and moving every few days from one anchorage to another as the wind moves or our mood changes. This is a little more troublesome than moving your chair on the beach and takes a little more time than that, but we’re trying to cope with the many demands on our time. There are numerous beaches we have to walk and scavenge for ‘beach treasures’, as well as happy hours aboard other boats that we ‘must’ attend. Days like yesterday when we had to go in and drop off our laundry (and go back and pick it up later in the day), as well as a trip to the liquor store, and then the dogs made us take them for a long walk on the beach, PLUS we had a happy hour to attend aboard ‘Sojourner’ – that was a particularly taxing day for us – so much to do in one day – we dropped into bed at 10:00pm totally exhausted and it was past our bedtime!!! Days like that kinda make us think we’re really pushing ourselves too far. I know all y’all that are reading this can sympathize. We’ll try to start slowing down a bit and enjoy ourselves.


Lunch @ Grabbers with friends



Man-O-War Anchorage



I'll try to tell you about a few of the places we’ve been lately and ‘try’ to post a few pictures. Pictures seem to be especially troublesome to post for some reason.  I'm not sure if they will be in the correct places or not - all I can say is that there will be pictures. 

We watched this ship go aground - it was no easy task to push & pull it back into deeper water!

We finally had sufficient good weather and winds out of the east so that we could make it down to Lynyard Cay – one of the sea glass beaches that we like to visit. And yes we finally found some sea glass, but not a lot. And certainly not any big pieces. We spent a pleasant 4 days down there, with only one other boat in sight. I take that back – there were several others that came in late one day and left early the next morning, heading out of Little Harbour Cut for Eleuthera and the Exumas. We watched them go through the cut with 4 – 5 foot rollers and waves pretty much breaking all the way across. We would lose site of the boats and only see their masts when they would go down between the swells. It was making me seasick to watch!


While we were at Lynyard Cay we dinghied over to Little Harbour and Pete’s Pub, the only place at Little Harbour, and were reminded of their slogan – “Where the Elite Meet to Eat in their Barefeet”. That will be ‘the place to be’ on Feb 5, as it is Pete’s birthday party and it is an annual ‘event’.

Happy Hour aboard 'Sojourner'

We spent a few days at Snake Cay with two other boats, ‘Wingspread – Chris & Charlie’, whom we met three years ago and really enjoy spending time with, as well as some new friends Jim & Beth on ‘Mad Cap’. ‘Mad Cap’ has since gone south, heading towards Cuba. Chris & Charlie led all of us on a dinghy tour through the river/creek at Snake Cay. It was very pretty back there – we saw Rays, large sea turtles and it seems to be a great place for conch hunting.

We’ve been back to Guana Cay, for the Sunday afternoon Pig Roast, Treasure Cay, and Man-O-War Cay. We anchored on the north end of Man-O-War where we had just a little bit of land between us and the Atlantic Ocean – we could look off the bow of our boat across the little piece of land and watch the waves break on the other side – pretty cool.

Today we are heading south again with ‘Civil Twilight’, Alan & Jeri, and will each try to remember how to fly our spinnakers. We had a long discussion/laugh last night about how long it had been since our spinnakers had been out of their bags – we’ll see how we do. Civil Twilight is a far faster boat than us so they will no doubt be waaay ahead of us in no time. Hopefully we can each get some good pictures of the other on the way.



Sunset @ Lynyard Cay

 We make no promises at this point to post any more frequently than we have been – as it has been pointed out to us we are slackers, and proud of it!! 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

  

 We sincerely hope everyone of you had a great Christmas and New Year’s.

 

As we said in our last post, the next best thing to being with our family at Christmas is being able to spend it with friends, and we’ve been surrounded by friends since we got to the Bahamas, both old and new. Christmas day was spent with about 40 or so other cruisers as we had a pot luck lunch. One of the local dive shops, ‘Brendall’s’, sets up table in their yard for us to sprea out our goodies, and what an assortment there was!! – from lobster chowder to turkey & dressing to Cajun sausage to run buttered bananas. I say tables loosely, very loosely – an old L-shaped countertop and a couple of 2 x 10’s propped up. But once they were covered with tablecloths nobody was the wiser. I almost forgot – the dessert table was set up across the back of a golf cart. We sat on old dinghies, the ground, each other, and wherever we could find a place, or just stood up! Santa even joined us for lunch!

We endured a seriously strong cold the Sunday and Monday after Christmas, with wind up to 40 knots. Nobody left their boats for fear of their anchors dragging. A big sigh of relief was heard when it was over, although no one wanted to trade it for the snow at home.

We spent several days last week at anchor off Manjack Cay, one of our favorite places here. We took long beach walks every day and found many sea beans that had washed up in the storm.  No sea glass yet.


New Year’s Day is Junkanoo on Green Turtle Cay (GTC) and Elbow Cay (Hopetown). We attended in GTC and what a colorful parade they have. All the costumes are hand made by the participants. Some even make shoes! This was our second Junkanoo on GTC and it was not as large a parade as before or were there as many spectators, but just as much fun! No Junkanoo is complete without eating and drinking the local fare and we certainly did our part! There were locals set up on the front porch of the Miracle Church of God, outside the jail, in side yards and just about anywhere they could fit a few tables, grills, and cookers. There BBQ Chicken, BBQ Ribs, Fried Chicken, Conch Fritters, Conch & Rice, Conch Salad, Mac & Cheese to die for, Coconut Ice Cream and much more!!! Plus all kinds of drinks – most especially Goombay Smash! The day was topped off with beautiful fireworks. The residents on GTC are celebrating the fact that they now have a public water supply. It was just completed and they finished smoothing (not paving) the road across the island on Christmas Eve day. We don’t know how lucky we are in the USA – we take everything for granted. Imagine having to build a cistern and catch rainwater – that’s what they used to do – you can see why they’re celebrating!  If you want to see more Junkanoo pictures you can go to our Facebook page @ Cindy'nJeffRinne.  It's way easier to post pictures on there.

 





  

Today we are chilling on the boat and nothing more. Savannah is totally exhausted from running around the boat barking at the fireworks and chasing other boats as they zip by us. Chloe is in chill mode all the time.

Tomorrow we will leave the northern area and head around Whale Cay, which is a very short ocean hop around to the southern area of the Abacos. We are looking forward to meeting up with cruisers we’ve only been able to talk with on the radio – some we haven’t seen in a year or more.

Coming to you from the Abacos



Bahamian coutesy flag on Salty Dog spreader



We’ve made it across to the Bahamas. We left Lake Worth (Palm Beach) last Friday morning at 4:45am with our buddy boat, S/V Autumn Wind (Ken & Kay). We had gentle seas and wind, unlike our last crossing. Cindy hooked a big Mahi Mahi about 8:30 in the morning. Big enough that we couldn't reel it in on the Penn 750 offshore spinning rig and the  stainless steel leader broke. It did jump up out of the water long enough for us to see the coloration and identify it. We motor sailed until 9pm and anchored at Great Sale Cay (pronounced key).  Ken and Kay told us after we’d gotten anchored that two hours prior they had hit something BIG and they thought it was a whale. They were a little shaken up, but other than that they were fine and Autumn Wind was as well. Got up Saturday morning and came the rest of the way to Green Turtle Cay, where we will remain until after New Year’s.

There will be a Christmas Day potluck dinner here with many cruisers in attendance. Haven’t decided what I will take yet, but there will be so many different dishes and we do so love these get togethers. We will miss being with our family on Christmas, but the next best thing is being with friends, both old and new.

We cleared in through Customs earlier today, so we are now legal to wander around and gladly display our Bahamas courtesy flag (picture above).



South African schooner - skipper aloft in 30K winds



Boat flying Austrian flag

 While we were waiting in Lake Worth for an opportunity to cross, and the wind was howling so much for a couple of days that we did not get off the boat, we had to find something to entertain ourselves – so one day we got out the binoculars and tried to figure out how many different countries were represented in the anchorage, by the flags they flew, as this is an area of staging for boats wanting to head to the Bahamas, as well as other islands south. We probably didn’t get all the countries, but here are the ones we did get; US; Australia; Switzerland; New Zealand; Canada; South Africa (believe it or not there were 3); Austria; Sweden; Norway and France. The next day, because the wind was still howling, we decided to count the boats that were dragging their anchors and had to re-anchor. That count got up to 9. Our anchor did not budge – thankfully. Some days you are the entertainment and some days you get to watch the entertainment.


We wish everyone of you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Waiting for the illusive 'Weather Window'

We’ve meandered down from New Smyrna Beach to Cocoa to Vero and are now in Lake Worth (Palm Beach), anchored behind Jack Nicklaus’ house, or at least it is rumored to be his house – who knows?!

Vero Beach

Our humble Christmas Tree

We were in Vero Beach for a week and ran into a number of boats that we’d seen three years ago and many more that we didn’t recognize. We did get to view the Christmas Parade of Boats while there, as they came into the anchorage and turned around right in front of us – we couldn’t have had a better seat. Also managed to get to Riverside Café to watch the Auburn vs. S. Carolina SEC Championship game – GO AUBURN!!! Hopefully we’ll be somewhere we can watch them play for the National Championship in January.

Jeff’s gotten many of his projects completed, although as I’ve said in the past, for every one that is completed two more go on the list. We seem to have a terrible leak around one of the big windows on the port side of the boat, along with both large overhead hatches, which we found during the all-day rain last Wednesday. Today’s project is to dig out all the caulking and re-caulk before the rain comes in Sunday night.

The view from our cockpit last night

For the last couple of days it has actually been warmer – in the 70’s. That will come to a screeching halt – the warm weather that is – as the next cold front moves in.


Our plan is to hang out here in Lake Worth until the weather is right to cross to the Bahamas. Our course takes us out the inlet here and then across about 54 nautical miles of open ocean including the Gulf Stream to the banks. If the wind is from the North, the north flowing Gulf Stream kicks up high seas. So we need light winds from any direction but North for the Gulf Stream seas to settle down and enough time before the next cold front to be in a safe anchorage in the Bahamas. Best guess is conditions may be right next Friday December 17. Perhaps the next post will be coming to you from a tropical island!

Salty Dog is floating again and On The Move!



I know, I know, I know…………….I’m very tardy at posting.


Cumberland Island







Cumberland Island Beach









We launched the boat two weeks ago today and after a brief stay at the Fernandina City Marina we’ve made a stop at Cumberland Island National Seashore Park, which is always a great place to be – the beach is endless and it doesn’t seem to matter how many boats are at anchor and how many campers are ashore because you rarely see anyone else on the beach. We didn’t find any shells that we didn’t already have this time. Believe me when I say we have bags and bags from the last visit.



We also stopped at St. Augustine for the night and went ashore to see the Christmas lights downtown. The city had the lighting ceremony the night before we got there. They were beautiful, but I forgot to take the camera with me, so no pictures there.



Next stop was New Smyrna Beach, where we spent Thanksgiving with our family. My sister, Mindy, who you may remember is married to Jeff’s brother Carl, have good friends who own two condos out at Ponce Inlet. They graciously let Mindy and Carl have the use of the biggest one for the week – what a place!!!!!!!!!!!!! It has a million dollar view. It is a corner unit on the 8th floor, so you can see the ocean, the inlet and the ICW. It is a view you could never tire of. Thank you Donny & Shannon!!! We had a crowd of 17 for Thanksgiving Day and had a wonderful time. My sisters Mindy and Tina, as well as my Mom and brother-in-law Rodney did all the cooking and it was spectacular! What cooks they all are. We took a cruiser couple, Rick & Linda s/v Sojourner, with us for the day. I believe they enjoyed being with our crazy family, and Linda certainly pulled her turn at the kitchen sink – no one else was allowed to have her sponge! What a treat!! We met Rick & Linda 3 years ago when we were cruising and have stayed in touch with them since. They were passing through NSB and stopped for a few days.



Our Family



Rick & Linda s/v Sojourner



Last Friday was the lighting of Canal Street in New Smyrna, so a few of the boats in the NSB marina got into the mood and put lights on their boats as well. Salty Dog is sporting Christmas lights as well.



Canal Street @ NSB



We will be in anchoring in Cocoa this afternoon, then on ‘souther’ to wait for a weather window to cross to the Bahamas. Let’s hope that it isn’t a looonnnngggg wait.



Salty Dog w/ her Christmas lights





Some of you already know this and some do not, but we have a new passenger aboard this year – Chloe is a teeny tiny chocolate and tan wiener dog and weighs in at just over 6 lbs and is 9 years old. She is precious and doing quite well on the boat. She has been very quick to pick up on the way things are done on the boat. She knows exactly what the dingy is for – getting her to shore and grass. The morning we were leaving Cumberland Island I went to the back of the boat to raise the American flag and Chloe followed me back there, stood and looked at the dinghy in the raised position and then looked at me as if to say ‘I’m ready to go!’. I responded to her by saying that her car was not leaving the garage and she would need to go to the front of the boat and potty. She hung her head, turned around and went back in the cockpit. She knows where the potty area is, and has used it, but she’d rather not if there is a chance the dinghy is going down, but Savannah is the same way. Did I tell you that she also has napping in the cockpit down to a science.

Our new passenger

Perhaps now that I’ve broken the ice, so to speak with the blog, I will do better about posting.

Remember - you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

later









SALTY DOG has been ‘Put to Bed’ for a few months



 We are back home in Tennessee again – this time for several months. We hauled the boat out at Tiger Point Marina in Fernandina Beach, last Friday – which is where we’ve hauled it before. All went well, thank God! We were so proud of ourselves – we had everything off the boat and all our chores done by the time the yard guys came to lift us out. What an improvement over last time!! Now we just have to figure out what to do with all the ‘stuff’ we took off the boat and brought home. So far there are seven large rubbermaid containers sitting in the dining room – which we like to refer to as the “warehouse” and we haven’t unloaded everything from the truck.

It was sad to leave our new friends at New Smyrna, but we will see them again this fall on our way south and perhaps we can entice at least a couple of them to come along with us to the Abacos.

Sorry about the craziness of the pictures and the fact that one is on here twice - blogspot is all screwed up right now and I'm tired of trying to figure it out - I can't seem to move them or delete the extra one or put a caption on the last one - so I guess we'll just live with it!!!!!!!!!!



Larry - our social director





Savannah - just hanging out on the deck





Lisa - my kayaking buddy





John & Rick
our Dockmasters





Rick, Lisa & Dave





Jim & Cindy @ Jim's place (Malony's)



Now that we are home we have to start on the ‘at home projects list’. You probably won’t see any new posts to the blog after this one until we are getting ready to leave in the Fall.

Y'all have a good summer!!!

Manatee mating herd

WOW!!!!! I went kayaking this morning with Lisa (m/v Reel Lucky) and we always seem to have a good time talking and just communing with nature, but this morning we saw something neither of us has ever seen before. Lisa was out on the water by ‘Bird Island’ waiting for me and watched a large number of manatees (10 – 15) swimming right towards her heading for the edge of the island. That in itself was pretty cool since we usually only see one or two at a time. By the time I got out there the manatees had reached the shallows and were in a huge pile and I mean HUGE. We paddled pretty close and got a few pictures. I even had one manatee come right up to the kayak and stick its snout out of the water and look at me – I could have touched it had I not had the camera in my hands. I had heard it is mating season, but didn’t know about mating herds. Came back by the island on our way back to the boats, about 1 1/2 hours later and the ‘pile’ was still in the same place, then broke up abruptly with lots of thrashing and splashing. Glad we weren’t close when that started!

According to the ‘Save the Manatee’ organization this pile generally consists of one female and a dozen or more males. The female swims into shallow water trying to get away from the males. The female is ‘in heat’, so to speak, for up to 3 weeks and the herd will stay with her for the duration.

‘Bird Island’ is a very small bump in the water covered with mangroves and home to hundreds of Pelicans, several species of Herons and Ibis’. It is also breeding season for these birds and since I’ve never seen baby Pelicans I have been watching them with a great deal of interest. The adult Pelicans seem to keep the very young ones covered up and I’ve had to sit there for quite a while just to get a peek at them. They are all getting pretty big now and are fuzzy and white – not grey like the adults. Cute, cute, cute. Got some pictures of them this morning.

Last weekend we saw hundreds of ‘cow nosed rays’ out in the river. There were so many of them that the color of water appeared to be brown.  You guessed it – mating season for them too.  No pictures – sorry.


And that concludes today’s lesson on local wildlife.

GETTING READY TO SAY GOODBYE TO NEW SMYRNA BEACH

I’ve gotten a few reminders that we have a blog and I am not holding up my end of the bargain to keep you ‘informed’ - sorry. 

It’s almost time to say goodbye to New Smyrna Beach. Sadly, our time here is quickly coming to an end. We certainly have settled in and are quite comfortable. We have been here long enough that we are referred to as regulars in some of the places we go.

Living in a marina is pretty good. I should probably say at this point that it has been idyllic until a couple of weeks ago when the ‘local’ kids got out of school and began looking for something to do. There have been two dinghies, two bikes, numerous bicycle seats and all the lights and ringy-dingy bells stolen (off bicycles). One dinghy was recovered by the owner only because the thieves stole it during broad daylight and someone happened to see it going up the river, but the kids weren’t caught with it in their possession.

It looks like this entry to the blog is just going to be a hodgepodge of random thoughts about things around here and y’all know that I can ramble on with the best of them and not say much.

We’ve gotten some more of our projects crossed off ‘The List’ – man I love to cross things off!!! The only problem is that for every one we complete and cross off there are two more added – how does that happen??

It is pretty warm here and the a/c runs continuously. 'Salty Dog' has her summer dress on now. We’ve never used this awning, but don’t know what we would do without it now that we've discovered what a difference it makes. Thanks Dick & Judy  – we love it!!!!


Last Sunday Jeff’s brother and my sister (Mindy & Carl), brought their boat over here and we went out in the ocean several miles so Carl could feed the fish. We saw 4 or 5 large sea turtles and several stingrays – that was pretty cool. Came back in and stopped for a few hours at a place the locals call 'Disappearing Island', which is exactly what most of it does at high tide. It is a very busy place on the weekends and you can only get there by boat. It was estimated that on Memorial weekend there were 1000 boats out there, but I’m not sure I believe that, even though it is quite large. It is amazing how much stuff some people bring out there with them. There is all the usual stuff – umbrellas, fold-up canopies, chairs, grills, games of all kinds, but we came upon two groups that were noteworthy. I wish we’d had a camera. The first group had all the usual stuff and lots of it, as well as their own homemade portable bar – what a hoot! The framework was 2 inch PVC pipe with 90 degree fittings and couplers, none of which were glued together, just pressed in place. The frame was probably 6 – 8 feet long x 2 feet wide. The top of the bar was a piece of plywood that was rounded off to match the frame – a hole cut in the middle to accommodate the large beach umbrella that was being held in place with a 5 gallon bucket filled with beach sand. There were about 6 people leaning on the bar as though they were at the local pub - hey, gotta get your priorities straight. Mindy then pointed out that you have to break everything down and haul it off in the afternoon when it’s time to leave and haul it all away in a BOAT. I bet those people made two or three trips. The second group didn’t have the ‘usual’ stuff, but had a large hard plastic slide on a wooden frame. The slide was about 6 feet tall or so. The kids and dog were having a wonderful time being lifted up to the top so they could slide into the water. Don’t know how they got the slide there, as they didn’t seem to have a boat big enough to do so.

New Smyrna is home to one of the oldest Dairy Queen’s – bet you didn’t know that did you? It looks like DQ did back in the 60’s.


 

This is a picture of a McDonald’s (as if you couldn’t tell) in NSB as well – it also looks very much like the one I remember going to as a kid. Just thought I would share these pictures with you.


OK – I guess I’ve rambled on for long enough - gotta save something for the next time!