Mom & Jack's Visit



Gerri & Alan s/v 'Civil Twilight'



Wellllllllll.......... Mom & Jack have come and gone already.  They were here for a week.  We had a great visit even if the weather wasn't the best.  Actually if you went on temperatures and sunshine it was beautiful, but the winds were very strong and always out of the South and Southwest, which makes it very difficult to get to the places you want to go.  They are troopers and had a good time just the same.  We started them off at the Coco Beach Bar as soon as they arrived - we needed to get their livers tuned up immediately although I think they had been working on that before they got here!!  We spent several days in Hopetown which they really liked the last time they were here.  We walked a beach somewhere every day for at least a couple of hours - not many treasures to be found no matter where we walked though.

We had planned on going to the Barefoot Man concert (at Nipper's on Guana Cay) on Friday but it was not to be.  The wind was blowing out of the West and Southwest between 25 and 30 knots.  You can't anchor at Guana in winds like that and the fast boat we had reserved from a local rental company wouldn't let their boats out of the harbor, sooooooooooo we were stuck again and in Treasure Cay, but we couldn't have been stuck in a more beautiful place.  The beach there is one of the ten most beautiful beaches in the world (according to National Geographic).  We were so glad that Mom & Jack had been here before and were able to see a number of the islands and spots that we like to show off since we didn't get to do what 'Sojourner' calls the 'Abaco Shuffle'. 

It is the time of the season that many of the winter cruisers are heading back home and this year is no exception.  Some days it's like a mass exodus.  The anchorage may have 30 or more boats and by morning there may only be 10 left, then another 10 or more move in to stage for leaving and you start all over again. 

We've had to say goodbye to a several of our friends already - Charlie & Chris on 'Wingspread' , Rick & Linda on 'Sojourner' and Gerri & Alan on 'Civil Twilight'.  Others will be following shortly, sadly to say.  But it is interesting to meet people that are just now arriving in the Abacos from Florida.  Everyone is on a different schedule of when they arrive and depart.

I guess you're up to date for the time being.  We are looking forward to Brian and Melanie's visit in a couple of weeks and hope the weather will be in our favor for that week.

Fowl Cay National Park

Fowl Cay National Park is a Bahamian underwater sea park located on the ocean side of Fowl Cay just north of Man-O-War Cay.  The park is a protected area – no fishing or taking of live creatures is permitted.  We finally got a calm day and anchored “Salty Dog” on the west side of Fowl Cay and dinghied out to the ocean reefs.  The water temperature is still in the low 70’s, so we donned our shorty wets suits and a snorkeling we went.   It was our best snorkel experience this season. Saw several barracudas and many tropical fish on the reefs - thankfully no sharks.  Most of the 'dive boats take people out to this reef (on a calm day) and we can certainly see why.  We would have liked to stay longer but the tide was coming in fast and it was getting a little rolly for us.  We'd hoped to be able to get back out there today but not going to happen.  We can see the reef from where we're anchored and the waves are breaking over the reef.  What pictures turned out from yesterday are below.  Photographers we are not!  

'SALTY DOG's' Salty Dogs



Do you have something for us??!!



The pups really are having a good time - and they do love their beach time.  Savannah loves to chase the waves and scavenge for any food scraps that someone may have dropped on the beach from a picnic, or a dead smelly fish that has been sundried - it matters not to her which snack - one is as good as the other.  Yesterday it was half of a peanut butter & jelly sandwich covered in sand - YUM YUM!   Chloe is searching as well, but not quite as efficient as Savannah in her scouting ability.  She has discovered the little crabs that wash in with the waves - they are about the size of your thumbnail.  We only see them on the beach at Guana though.  The first one she encountered was quite funny.  She grabbed it and it hung on to her lip - how funny was that - she was shaking her head and twirling around trying to get it loose - which really didn't take much, but quite funny to watch.  On the boat we get a kick out of them sticking their heads in one of the ports in the galley, which is pretty much anytime they can see either of us in there or smell that something is being prepared.  We have to come to call this port 'the drive-thru window' and we hand out tidbits through this port.  Savannah likes to stand on the cabin top above the galley as well and look down in the overhead hatch, but Chloe can't jump up there.  The problem with Savannah standing over the hatch is if I am indeed cooking or have something that she wants she will drool right on top me - not cool!!

We call this 'The Drive Thru' window

Chloe with a little crab



Chasing the waves!  Get 'em Banna!



So now you have an idea of what the dogs are doing, because we have many people ask us how the dogs adapt to being on the boat and how they like it.  Not sure they really like it, but they don't seem to be suffering too badly!

Abaco Water Colors

The colors in and around the Sea of Abaco and the Atlantic beaches. Photographers we’re not. Our photos really don’t do it justice, but impressive none the less.

 

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!