Back in Tennessee

We made it to Fernandina Beach late last Saturday, May 18, hauled the boat on Tuesday, unloaded it and left on Friday. I don’t believe we could have found room for another toothbrush in the truck when we left. The only difference between us and the Clampett’s (Beverly Hillbillies) was that we were missing the rocking chair in the back. We took so much ‘stuff’ off the boat that will not go back on – things we didn’t use this trip and took up way too much space - space we can use for more important things, like cases of beer at US prices, and peanut butter. You can tell where our priorities are!

In any case we are back home in Tennessee for a few days. We will be leaving to go back down to Orlando for my Mother’s wedding – she is marrying her first love from high school and we don’t want to miss that!

When we left here last September we left our home in the hands of total strangers (Leo & Kathy) who house-sat for us. This was our first experience with house sitters and we were naturally nervous about it, but we were very impressed with the care they took of our home and property. They left us yesterday to head to Ohio to housesit for another couple who are going cruising.

We have a very long list of upgrades and additions we want to make to the boat before next cruising season. This being our first season to cruise proved to have a very steep learning curve. Things we thought would not be important turned out to be very important and vice versa. The Bahamas (the Abacos) exceeded our expectations and we are not sure yet where we will go next season, maybe back to the Abacos – who knows. Everyone we talked to late in the season coming north from the Exumas told us the water was prettier down there – how can that be?? Maybe we will just have to find out for ourselves!

This will be our last post for the season. Feel free to email us @ crjr180@yahoo.com. Now that we are home we have a reliable internet connection and are posting the following pictures summarizing the trip.

Back in the US of A

I know some of you were wondering ‘where are they – should we call the Coast Guard?’ We are fine, life is good again, and we are safe in the Harbourtown Marina, in Fort Pierce, Florida. We have not had internet service for, oh I don’t know how long. As a matter of fact, I just looked at the bottom of my computer to see what the day of the week is – Saturday, May 10. What a handy tool!

We crossed from the Bahamas and arrived here Thursday afternoon, about 4:00pm (by way of TowBoat U.S.) We did not have a good crossing! We were planning to cross from Great Sale Cay, but the wind came to a screeching halt and we were becalmed and the no see ums were very present, so decided to leave there, with another boat (‘Tarshish” – Bill & Ruth) and head to Mangrove Cay, about 20 miles closer to the Bahama Banks. We arrived there late afternoon (in time for a storm to skirt by us that had a waterspout in it), had dinner and grabbed a 2 hour rest before leaving at 10pm to cross over ‘to the other side’. We were expecting 10 – 15 knot winds, building to about 20 knots in the late afternoon after we would arrive in Ft Pierce, with 2 – 3 foot seas. What we had were very confused seas in the 3 – 5 + foot range with winds building well above 20 knots. We were motoring at this point, Jeff didn't want sails up before daylight, but we decided to put out the jib (or part of it) at about 3am to try to stabilize the boat and keep it from wallowing so bad – but it didn’t help much. It wasn’t so so bad during the night on the banks, but as we entered the ocean we were wallowing from side to side, and then it would be from back to front. I did manage to take a nap from 5 to 6 am. And then it got nasty. Obviously our fuel tank was getting shook up pretty good, because the engine decided at about 7am that it could not go any more. The seas had become too big by now for Jeff to work on the fuel filters, so we put out another sail and sailed the rest of the way to Ft. Pierce. We had Boat US tow us from outside the inlet into Harbourtown Marina. Wow, did our unlimited towing insurance pay off. The Ft. Pierce inlet was very ugly. If our boat had been smaller and lighter weight I think we would have broached coming through. The tide was running out at 3.5 knots against 30 knot winds. The result was 8 – 10 swells/waves from the port quarter. You can’t imagine what that does to the inside of the boat. As a friend of our says “Our boat threw up”. I had put away all the usual things before heading out and most things decided to relocate to a different place. I’m still looking for a couple of things – where did they go?

Jeff worked on the engine yesterday, changed both filters, got the engine running, and all is well. We will leave here this morning and head north. We will be hauling the boat out at Fernandina Beach, Florida.

We were sad about having to leave the Bahamas – we put it off as long as we could, but at the same time we are happy to be back ‘home’. We take so much for granted living in the US. We have used more fresh water in the last 24 hours (because it is available) than we would have used in a week in the Bahamas. I did laundry yesterday and only paid $2.50 a load, compared to $8 a load. The real eye opener will be when we go to the grocery store for the first time, although I’ve been told that groceries here have increased in price substantially since we left. One of the good things in the Bahamas is that they have no taxes, period. If the price is stated at $135, then it is $135, not $135 plus 9 1/4% tax.

Enough rambling – we are back, and heading towards the end of our journey for this year. We hope everyone that has been traveling with us, by way of the blog, has enjoyed the adventure as much as we have. It has been unbelievable. We have truly enjoyed ourselves and met so many great people and made many friends that we look forward to seeing again next time.