Crazy Johnny

Location: Nassau
Position: N25 04.737 W077 19.855

We had an early start on Saturday, just as dawn was starting to break. With 60 miles ahead of us and winds on the nose we knew it would be a long day. We moved off the shallow Grand Bahama Bank and back into deep water named The Tongue of the Ocean. Mark was inspired and decided to get out his fishing gear. We had a nice sail in increasingly strengthening winds all the way to Nassau. Not wanting to strain the temporary steering repair, we motor-sailed and kept our sails reefed.

As we got closer to Nassau Mark decided to reel in his line and as he did a fish took the lure! Finally! We had a few minutes of excitement as he reeled it in, but alas, it got away before we managed to get it aboard. We’d have had a difficult time getting it up and dressed, anyway, as the boat was healed about 20 degrees by this time. Our new friends on ‘Suzanne’ managed to catch 2 15lb Mahi Mahi!! After we arrived, they invited us over to share some. They were absolutely delicious, giving Mark added incentive to work further on his fishing skills.

We’re currently anchored out in Nassau. We arrived here at about 3:30pm on Saturday then spent the next two hours looking for, and finally finding a place to anchor.

On Sunday we dinghied ashore and had a lovely walk through town. We’re expecting to explore some more as we will probably be here for a couple of days fixing our steering gear.

A bunch of us who all came over from Miami in the same weather window decided to get together at a local bar to watch the Super Bowl. Several of the crews were from the Boston area and were hoping to see history made. We picked a bar named “Crazy Johnny’s”, mostly because it was a short walk from the marinas where some of the boats were staying, had a big screen TV, was running a special – three Budweisers for $10 (beer is more expensive than rum here), and promised free appetizers at half-time.

We got settled in and the owner (hairy, tattooed, wiry, and surprisingly named Johnny) came over, introduced himself, and thanked us for coming. He didn’t seem too crazy. Then, just before the game started, he jumped from a balcony to the rafters and did 10 chin ups about 15 feet above from the floor , hung from his knees, and shouted “The night’s still young!” We knew then that we were in for an interesting evening.

At various points during the game he would jump up on the bar, take a huge swig of rum, and, with butane torch in hand, spout a huge fireball out over the floor. Or he’d jump up onto the frame holding a speaker and do inverted sit ups. Or more pull ups. Or flop himself on the floor and go spasmodic, hollering and whistling all the while. Or jump on the bar and parade up and down, shouting “Go Jets!” (for those of you not in America, the Jets and the Giants are both New York teams. The Giants were playing, the Jets weren’t. This made his “Go Jets!” funny).

We’d planned to leave at half time, but the game was so good, the beer was ice cold, and the ‘entertainment’ was so interesting, we decided to stay put until the end. We’re glad we did! Even though the Patriots lost, it was one of the best Super Bowl games we can remember. Julie is even starting to get the hang of some of the rules – finally.

After the game, Crazy Johnny came over and gave our table a ‘consolation’ bottle of champagne, thanked us again for coming, and once again appeared to be sane and gentlemanly. Then he turned off the TV, cranked up the music, jumped up on the bar, and started marching around shouting, whistling, and screaming again. It was time for us to leave ending a fun and entertaining evening.

Go Jets!

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel

http://svRachel.blogspot.com

Anchored out. Way out.

Location: Great Bahama Bank, about 5 miles NE of the Northwest Shoal light
Position: N 25 32.956 W 078 09.364

It’s a mass exodus from Bimini harbor Friday morning with everyone wanting to get across the banks while the weather holds for the next two days. When you are cruising whatever schedule you may or may not have is almost always governed by the weather. If you need to get somewhere and the wind is good, you go, or you may have to sit around for another couple of weeks waiting for another weather window!

The Great Bahama Bank is an enormous area of shallow water, surrounded by DEEP ocean water. We are heading for the Exumas, which is completely on the other side of the banks from Bimini. We could go around in the deep water but it’s much further. The banks were a bit intimidating for us ‘first timers’ as they are only about 25 feet deep in the deep bits and 0 (or less!) feet deep in the shallow bits. The good thing is that the water is so clear that you can always see the bottom and the deeper water is a darker shade of azure. As long as we stay in the darker water we are fine. So we spend the day, most of it out of sight of land, traversing the Banks along with several other sailboats and two trawlers. We holler at each other from time to time over the VHF radio, sharing stories of fish caught, wind strength and direction etc. Alone but still together!

Not long after we pull out of Bimini we notice that the steering feels a bit funny. Nothing really bad, but Mark goes down to check it out anyway. He doesn’t see anything obviously wrong so we carry on. The steering gradually worsens, but with nowhere to go by this time except the anchorage with the other boats, we carry on. At least it’s calm and there’s almost no strain on it.

After 12 hours and 70 miles we pull off the main route and several of us drop anchor for the night, the remainder carry on through the night to Nassau. We dig everything out of the ‘basement’ to get better access to the steering quadrant and Mark dives down headfirst to see if he can figure out the problem.

Mark: “Holly molies!!”

Julie: “What?”

Mark: “Two of the four bolts that hold the steering quadrant together are hanging loose! They’ve stripped out and only the two on the other side are holding it all together!”

Julie: “How could that have happened?”

Mark: “Hmm… Remember that clunk we heard in Bimini when the tug’s prop wash was pushing us around? I bet it slammed the rudder all the way over, and the strain stripped the bolts out.”

Julie: “It’s a wonder it lasted as long as it did.”

Mark: “Yeah. Whew. Hope we can fix it.”

We drag out all the spares and dig through the piles to see if there are 2 bolts with the same thread that are a bit longer than the stripped ones. We find one that should work perfectly and another that we think can be rigged to work. Off Mark goes back down and somehow manages to get the whole thing back together. We think it should last long enough to get us to Nassau, anyway. We arrange to make a pre-dawn departure so we can accompany a couple of other boats for safety’s sake.

We tidy up the tools and stow all the stuff from the basement down below in the cabin so we can maintain quick access to the quadrant in case something goes wrong again. We finally get to eat dinner sitting in the cockpit looking up at the stars. It is so dark here away from any civilization - the stars are really bright and we can see skillions of them!! If we weren’t so worn out we’d get out our constellation book and lie on deck and identify them. But we’re pretty beat so we’ll have to save that for another night.

Bimini

Location: North Biminii, Bahamas
Position: N25 43.469 W079 17.864

The crossing to the Bahamas went well, except the wind was forecast to be from the south and it actually was northeast. North wind is not good for crossing the Gulf Stream, but the winds were light and we motor sailed across into a pretty good swell. We arrived in Bimini Wednesday afternoon, got a slip for $30 a night, and cleared through customs and immigration into the Bahamas. Several of the boats that crossed over with us are in the same marina – the price was too good to pass up and the anchorage is reputed to be fair to poor holding.

That night (at about 2:00 am) a barge that was being towed into the harbor ran aground. The tug was working on it for about an hour, throwing prop wash through the harbour. We woke up bouncing then heard a loud “clunk” and felt a shudder. Mark jumped out of bed and rushed on deck. The prop wash from the tug was pushing Rachel’s stern away from the dock, forcing her bow in. He hung three additional fenders to protect her. The captain of the boat across from us also got up. One of the cleats on the dock his boat was tied to had ripped nearly all the way out of the dock. We figured that was the clunk. The tug finally got the barge off the bottom and proceeded up the channel. Not a very relaxing night.
The next morning we had a lovely long walk around Bimini. Everyone was friendly and said ‘Good Morning’ to us as we walked by. As we passed a school the kids were out in the playground. We love the colourful school uniforms: boys wear bright purple trousers and white shirts; girls wear yellow and purple plaid skirts, white shirts and bright purple vests.

North Bimini is only 7 miles from top to tail so transportation is mainly by golf cart. We were surprised however how many cars and trucks were on the roads also. Today happened to be the day that the mailboat arrived, this is the lifeline for all the islands. We saw trucks full of fresh produce, TVs, parts, anything that anyone may have ordered from the mainland.

In the afternoon we rented a golf cart with another couple to tour the island. We got most of the way out to the uninhabited end and the batteries started running down. As we headed back to town, the cart was running slower and slower. Whenever we got to a hill Mark would hop out and push a bit to help it over. Still slower. Only about a mile to go. Mark pushed with one leg like he was riding a skate board. Half a mile to go. He gets out, pushes, and jumps back in. Rides for a few seconds, jumps out, and pushes again. OOH! A small downhill run to the rental place! We made it back just as the battery gave it’s last gasp, having just enough juice to get us off the road. Mark negotiated a half-price deal, the trip only costing each couple $5.

A bunch of us made a package deal with a local fisherman for some lobster tails, delivered right to our boat. As a result, we decided to have a ‘seafood soirée’ Thursday evening. We all got together and grilled the lobster and had a pot luck dinner, sharing crossing stories and favourite Bahama stops.

The weather looks like it will cooperate for us to cross the Bahamas Banks tomorrow and then on to Nassau on Saturday, so we’ll probably head out at dawn and spend the night on the banks, then get up early again and head to Nassau. More later.

Preparing to leave for the Bahamas

Position: N25 47.560 W080 08.814
Location: South Beach, Florida

We moved yesterday (Saturday) so we could do some last-minute provisioning. The plan was to go shopping in the morning, then go for a sail in Biscayne Bay in the afternoon and anchor in No Name Harbour (how about that for a name?). When we dinghyed in to the store, we met some other cruisers and they told us there was a happy hour gathering on Monument Island in the middle of the Venetian Islands between Miami and Miami Beach. Being good cruisers, we remembered that plans are made to be changed, and we ended up sticking around for the party.

It was on a lovely beach on a tiny island, and we met several other people who will also be crossing to the Bahamas at the next opportunity. We all agreed that, if we leave in the same weather window, we’ll stay in touch via radio during the crossing in case anyone runs into trouble. And, while it’s a bit early to tell yet, it looks like we may get that weather window on Tuesday evening or Wednesday. We’ll keep you posted. Woohoo!

She IS a sail boat!

Location: Marine Stadium anchorage, Miami, Florida
Position: N25 44.727 W080 10.116

We’d been wondering for a while if we and Rachel all still knew how to sail. Turns out we do, even though our skills have atrophied somewhat. How long has it been since we’ve sailed her? Too dang long, that’s for sure.

We leave Lake Santa Barbara Thursday morning and make our way slowly through the fog down to Ft. Lauderdale. The vibration problem is all gone, thank goodness, with Mark’s removal of the plastic bag from the propeller. We rush to make the opening for the last bridge before the inlet, hard on the heels of another sailboat. We call the bridge and no response. There’s a ton of VHF traffic on the bridge channel – the tow boats are using it, someone else is chatting on it, and there are several bridges in range, with everyone requesting opening times, etc. We try a couple more times, but the bridge tender doesn’t answer.

The other boat goes through. We have about 100 yards to go and the bridge starts closing!! AARGH! Now we have to wait another half hour for it to open again. We try to figure out what went wrong and finally get it. We used the wrong name. It was the correct name when our 2007 guide was published, but it’s not the correct name any more. Some bridge tenders are really nice, and others are on power trips. This one decided that, since we didn’t use the new “correct” name, he’d ignore us. What a rotten thing to do! Especially since we really wanted to make that opening so we’d have more time to sail!

We finally get close enough to read the new name on a sign, hail him on the radio and he puts us “on his list”. We circle slowly, waiting for the 10:30 opening. The bells start clanging, we line up, ready for the bridge to open, and … nothing happens! After about 5 more minutes he hails us on the radio – his barricades aren’t working and he has to call a mechanic to come fix them. AARGH!

Another 45 minutes and the bridge is fixed. We finally get through (bridge tender a bit apologetic) although it’s over an hour after we arrived, seriously cutting into our sailing time. AARGH!

Anyway, we have a nice sail down the coast of Florida to Miami. Our current anchorage is right across from downtown Miami. And we’re not only close to Miami, we are surrounded by a park with trails and trees, and the local rowing teams are out practicing in the evenings, too.

We sit in the cockpit in the evenings, have dinner, enjoy all the lights from the skyscrapers. In this new life of ours we savour these precious times and wonder how much it would cost in ‘the real world’ to buy such a great dinner with this awesome view.

Captain redeemed

Location: Lake Santa Barbara, Florida
Position: N26 13.421 W080 06.018

We finally got going again! A late start (last minute laundry, paying our bill, etc.) resulted in a relatively short day yesterday, ending with us dropping the anchor in the North Lake Worth anchorage for the night (N26 50.363 W080 03.298).

We were really looking forward to going out of the Lake Worth inlet and getting down to Fort Lauderdale on “the outside”. Unfortunately, the predicted 5-10 knot easterly winds didn’t happen. Some ominous clouds were building offshore, and the weather forecasters couldn’t make up their minds what that meant. So Captain overruled Navigator and decided that discretion was the better part of valor. So we (one more time!!) began slogging our way “down the ditch”.

Of course Navigator took every opportunity to point out that it was not raining and the sun was shining gloriously. And of course Captain took equal opportunity to point out that the wind was indeed coming from exactly the wrong direction and what about those really big clouds that were still building out over the ocean? So the day progressed. Interspersed with the 17 (“Go ahead, count ‘em!” says Navigator) bridges we had to negotiate today.

One was tall enough to go under, three were “on request” (meaning that the bridge tender will open for you as you approach the bridge when you ask nicely – most of the time….) and the rest were on a fixed schedule. It appears that if you can maintain between 6 and 7 knots, you can make the openings on time. That is, assuming that one bridge doesn’t open late and the next doesn’t open early. Or, if you are barely late and there are no other boats waiting for an opening, the bridge tender can say “you’re a minute late – you’ll just have to wait a half hour for the next opening.” Even if (and this happened to us today!!), by your GPS time you’re 2 minutes early. Grrr. If it weren’t for Rachel’s glorious new engine, we’d have been out of luck for much of the day.

Once, as we were waiting for a bridge to open, slowly drifting toward it with the current (Captain, having timed it about as close as humanly possible to arrive exactly at the opening time) a 70 odd foot power yacht tried to pass us about 15 seconds before the bridge opened.

Capt.: (shouting across 20 feet of water and up about 20 feet to the bridge of ‘Big Yacht’) “What the heck are you doing?”
‘Big Yacht’: “We can either pass you now or we can pass you after the bridge.”
Capt.: (Appropriate Language Toolbox (ALT) accessed, but not documented) “After the bridge would be fine.”

Our captain was once told that he was intimidating. And who knows, maybe it’s true. ‘Big Yacht’ backed down and let us, and the ‘small trawler’ following us, pass ahead.

We felt vindicated at every bridge after this. ‘Big Yacht’ was made to wait for us and ‘small trawler’. Every single time until we stopped at around 4:00 pm without exception – that was very, very cool.

The low point of the day occurred when we were waiting for a bridge to open - we had arrived early. We had to do a bit of “fancy footwork” to keep the current from bringing us down on the bridge too early. After we cleared the bridge:

Capt.: There’s a new, funny vibration.
Navigator: What do you mean? And why aren’t you laughing if it’s funny?
Capt.: Feel the wheel – there’s a vibration in the drive train.
Navigator: Oh… My… God… Last time that happened we spent 3 months on the hard!!!
Capt.: I (Appropriate Language Toolbox) know.

The high point of the day occurs when, after the anchor is dropped, the Captain dons flippers and goggles, dives on the prop and finds a garbage bag wrapped around it and the prop shaft. A few minutes with a knife (and, of course, the ALT – “blurble bub blub bubble fweet foont!!”), and we manage to avoid another 3 months on the hard. Captain is redeemed and is rewarded for his valiant efforts with a hot shower, a big umbrella drink, and a tasty dinner.

Making slow progress but still happy,

Still in Stuart

Location: Stuart, Florida
Position: N27 12.033 W080 15.688

Our first night here on the mooring we’re woken from a deep sleep and hear a sound in the distance – a sort of wailing siren that rises and falls. “What the heck is that?” we ask. Then we hear a low rumble that sounds a bit like a freight train. It grows louder. Could it be some sort of bad weather? “I think tornadoes are supposed to sound like freight trains.” We bolt out of bed, throw open the cabin hatch, and climb out on deck to see what the heck is going on. Oh. It actually IS a freight train. Crossing the automated railroad bridge - it’s usually up, and the alarm warns boats it’s getting ready to close when a train’s coming.

We are lucky enough to be at the edge of the mooring field that’s closest to the bridge and the freight trains rumble by two or three times every night. Now that we have been here for 2 weeks we rarely wake up any more.

“Still in Stuart?” we can hear you saying, “Sheesh!!” Yeah, yeah, we know. You might think we are just messing around. Well, we are, sort of, but this cruising life can be really time consuming, too. Not that we’re in any great hurry, thank goodness.

Mark had ordered some spares for the new engine and Julie had ordered some sewing supplies. We’ve learned that some vendors and shippers are not all that great at actually getting things shipped out and delivered as fast as promised at order time.

The good news is that, because we still haven’t left the US, we were here when Mark’s son Jeseph and his daughter, Tiger Lily, flew in from Hawaii. They had scheduled the trip a couple of months ago, but we thought we’d already be in the Bahamas and wouldn’t get to see them. As luck would have it, our delayed deliveries kept us here longer than expected. So we rented a car last week and drove up to Wilmington, NC for a quick, but very fun visit.

The last of our parcels finally arrived while we were gone. Now we’re finally ready to head further South and get positioned for our crossing to the Bahamas when we get a good weather window.

Of course now the weather here is stinky. A cold front is blowing through with high winds and seas so we are stuck here for a couple more days before we can leave. “Schedule” is a bad word in the life of a cruiser - “you can pick where or you can pick when, but you can’t pick both”. Leaving port in bad weather is one way you can run into trouble, so here we sit, hoping to be on our way soon.

Have we mentioned there are probably 15 or more different ways to play dominoes? We’ve been slowly working our way through the list.

Seriously, though, we have met some great people here and have had fun exploring, reading, walking, doing boat jobs, and generally getting in a bit of R&R.

Stuart

Location: Stuart, Florida
Position: N27 11.517 W080 16.060

Not a lot of news. We headed south from “Velcro Beach” on Sunday the 6th bound for Stuart, FL. It was a beautiful morning that became rainy and windy and rather unpleasant. Topping off the day, there was a red mark missing at our turn from the ICW into the St. Lucie River and we managed to find the bottom again. We backed off easily and found the channel, much closer to the temporary green marks than expected.

We’re now in the anchorage across from the Southpoint mooring field in Stuart, once again waiting for some parcels – hopefully the last batch before we head to the Bahamas. We have some friends here from back in our “Raven” days (our previous sailboat). We hadn’t seen them for several years so we’ve been having fun getting re-acquainted and seeing the town.

The City of Stuart has revitalized the old downtown area, with lots of restaurants and shops in interesting old buildings. A wonderful park and boardwalk meanders from the dinghy landing all the way around to downtown, about a 15 minute walk. Since we arrived the weather has been great and we are making more new friends. Can’t ask for more than that!!

'Velcro Beach'

Location: Vero Beach, Florida
Position: N27 39.567 W080 22.290

We are beginning to see why Vero Beach has been renamed ‘Velcro Beach’ by the cruising community. What a great place!! We can stay on a very protected mooring here for $12/night, use all the marina facilities, laundry, showers, receive mail, get water, etc., etc. The town has a great FREE bus service which takes us to all the shops we want or need, picking us up right here at the marina and dropping us off at the dinghy dock so we don’t even have to walk very far with our purchases!!

We’ve been doing some last minute boat jobs, restocking the larder and making a lot of new friends. We never thought we’d get burned out on "happy hour", but, take it from us, it CAN happen. We’re spending this evening having a simple dinner together and listening to the wind that is doing at least two things for us – making it too ‘bouncy’ to go visiting, and spinning our wind generator to recharge the batteries.

We’ve been here for almost two weeks now (time flies when you’re Velcroed to the mooring) and we’re getting impatient to get going again. We have enjoyed sunny 80 degree days, walks on the beach and visits from our Virginia friends. A strong cold front has blown through here for the past few days, 20-25 mph winds gusting to 35 mph and nighttime temperatures near freezing – BRRR!. It looks like we’ll finally be heading out again on Saturday. Some parts we ordered haven’t shipped yet, so we’re having them routed to Stuart where we’ll wait (again!!) for them to arrive. At least we’ll be another 50 miles further South.

Happy New Year,

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel

Merry Christmas!!

Location: Vero Beach, Florida
Position: N27 39.567 W080 22.290

Christmas is finally here.

It’s easy get out of touch with what's going on in the world living on a boat when it's just the two of you and the VHF radio. We've been exchanging Christmas wishes with the few bridge tenders we contact via VHF and the few boats with which we've had conversations over the past week. We finally stopped moving last Sunday and have been enjoying being in one place for the past couple of days. Yesterday we finished up our last-minute Christmas shopping. We were a bit hesitant about shopping on Christmas Eve, something we usually try hard to avoid. It turned out to be a nice day, however. We were pleasantly surprised while out and about; no apparent greed, no rush to the register, no impatient huffing in line - everyone we saw on the bus and at all the stores was smiling and wishing everyone else a Merry Christmas. We picked up some decorations for our mast "tree" - even the treetop ‘angelmoose’ has baubles hanging from his antlers. Now that we have a ‘tree’ with gifts under it, we’re finally home for the holidays. (Check out the blog for pictures)

Last night a boat that was decorated like Santa's sleigh w/ Santa and a team of reindeer in harness all made of lights cruised through the anchorage. You could almost not see the boat - it really looked like Santa was doing a slow pass. Mark hailed them on the VHF: "Santa, Santa, Santa, this is Rachel" to which was replied "This is Santa, Rachel. Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas!"

This is our first Christmas in years without immediate family. We miss sharing it with our kids, especially the last few years with Charlotte, Kelly, Alex, and now, Emma. We miss the preparations, the sleigh bells ringing outside Alex’s window to remind him Santa won’t come until he’s asleep, the lazy breakfast, making the gift opening last into the afternoon. The mooring field here at Vero Beach is pretty crowded - there are two and three boats on almost every mooring. We are rafted up to a boat that has a family with two children aboard - Brandon is 6 and Phoebe is 3. We awoke this morning to the sound of their excited voices and laughter through the forward hatch above our berth. It brought a happy / sad tear to the eye.
Now it's raining and still, and the anchorage is awash with smells of baking ham and turkey and who-knows-what-other wonderful dishes as our neighbors all around prepare their Christmas dinners. We've been invited, along with some other cruisers, to dinner with Rachel's previous owners, our appetite's are already growing and we're looking forward to a wonderful afternoon.

Rachel's crew would like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.

Peace,