We're getting weary of travelling. Lots of miles covered and lots of islands and anchorages. I've gone back to making notes every day because when I sit down at the computer I have to keep asking Randy where we've been.
So. We stopped a day or two in Governor's Harbour on Eleuthra. Big doings there - a huge bike ride, Ride for Hope, was starting the day after we got there. The incidence of breast cancer is about five times higher in the Bahamas than in the US, and a lot of that is about screening and access to treament. This ride raises funds to address these issues in the islands. People come from everywhere, and their bikes arrive by ship in containers and are ready to go when they get there. Local businesses are ready with food and drinks and entertainment. We watched from the boat as the whole town readied for the boat to arrive from Nassau with participants. A policeman was there to direct traffic, we thought, but basically, he just waved at every car that went by. Not directing traffic at all.
Nice grocery store in Governor's Harbour. First time I've bought fresh green onions secured with scotch tape. From someone's garden nearby for sure. We also needed diesel, and for some reason, the fella at the pumps thought it would be a good idea to fill the jerry jugs up to the brim, even when he was asked not to. Randy and Charlie had a hell of a time tranferring fuel from the jugs to the boat tanks. Both boats smelled like diesel until we got it cleaned up.
Governor's Harbour to Royal Island via Current Cut. We squirted through the cut at 8.5 knots. Quite a ride. Royal Island is under development - still a nice anchorage, but at one end of the bay there's containers, fences, docks, security lights, and at the west end of the island, there's a very snazzy small resort. I felt myself yearning toward its charms as we motored by in the morning.
Fishing has been unproductive, so I'll just get that out of the way. Nothing to report, and fishing is over. I'm considering how the lures will translate into christmas decorations....
Royal Island to Lynyard Cay (lots of boats, 30-40) and on to Marsh Harbour. Also crowded. Time to get used to more people and more boats. And wifi! And a cruisers' net that deteriorated very quickly into ads for local businesses, endlessly. We just shut it off, since we weren't going diving or out to dinner.
Marsh Harbour to Allan's Pensicola, where we met up with Trioconbrio with Bill and Dave aboard. Had a drink on ND to catch up, and make plans for heading on. Weather was not conducive to heading ashore for a beach walk, which is too bad, cause I remember a great windward beach walk on the way down.
Press on. Great Sail Cay was our last anchorage in the Bahamas. Michelle and I did our last beach walk, joined by BIll and Dave. Bill was shadowed by a small black-tipped shark as he sloshed along at the edge of the water, and we wondered at great swaths of the beach that looked rooted up by large pigs. We headed back to the boats at dusk before the pigs came back out to play.
My last beach walk, and the only shell I pocketed reminded me of a Port Maitland beach mussel shell. I'm ready to be home.
Great Sail to a spot on the Bahamas Bank - a huge expanse of shallow water that provides a place to anchor before heading across to Florida. Unless you get there, and there's a horrible wind chop and the boats are hobby-horsing and yanking the gear and the crew all over. Randy got more and more agitated and finally said, we're better off crossing tonight instead of tossing around here. Bill and Dave chose to go too, and Mi Amante decided to wait it out. After the fact, it was a toss-up as to who did better.
Long night, motorsailing, with just screwy enough motion that neither of us was able to sleep. Around four am, there were squalls moving in from the south, and one got bigger and bigger and started shooting lightning and thunder. Trioconbrio and ND chose to back off and head out to sea until it passed, and that took years. It's a horrible situation to be eight miles from rest and safety and to turn back out to sea while the lightning flashes are all you can see. I hid my eyes and squinched up in the corner under the dodger while the cold rain and spray ran down my neck and my knees into my pants. Randy steered and watched and decided which way to dodge, and got soaked through because our foulies aren't waterproof anymore, and he got us through safely.
By the time we headed in through the inlet at Fort Pierce, there were piles of wet clothes on the floor inside. We headed for the first anchorage, the same place we anchored in 2006, and found out that it has silted in since then. We went hard aground, with the tide falling and more rain pouring down, and Trioconbrio was unable to pull us off. Towboat US did, for a small fortune, and I'm not kidding about that. We finally anchored south of the south bridge, drank hot tea with a shot of rum, showered, found dry clothes.
No rest yet - we put the dinghy in and went ashore and Bill and Dave picked us up in a car they borrowed from a friend and we went to the airport to check in. Grocery store for STEAK, MUSHROOMS, WINE, SALAD!!!! Back to the boat, consume major calories and to bed. Nothing was broken (loosened all the teak in the bowsprit), nobody was hurt (just a few more bruises), and we never have to do that again.
The next night we had steak and mushrooms and wine and salad again, just because we could.
Spent a day or two catching our breath and then on again. Vero Beach for two nights, long enough to do four loads of laundry, get the free bus and do some shopping, and long enough for SB to get pretty much coated with no-see-um bites. Flying teeth - those little buggers love me and it takes days for the bumps to stop itching. I hates them. Then, off again. Tonight we're anchored in Eau Gallie, and enjoying wifi courtesy of the local library. Heading north again tomorrow.
We plan to be in Green Cove Springs, just south of Jacksonville in about a week. We're fine. Tired. Randy is used-car-shopping on the web. I'm hoping for something red with a manual transmission.
Lots of photos to follow when we get a better connection.
So. We stopped a day or two in Governor's Harbour on Eleuthra. Big doings there - a huge bike ride, Ride for Hope, was starting the day after we got there. The incidence of breast cancer is about five times higher in the Bahamas than in the US, and a lot of that is about screening and access to treament. This ride raises funds to address these issues in the islands. People come from everywhere, and their bikes arrive by ship in containers and are ready to go when they get there. Local businesses are ready with food and drinks and entertainment. We watched from the boat as the whole town readied for the boat to arrive from Nassau with participants. A policeman was there to direct traffic, we thought, but basically, he just waved at every car that went by. Not directing traffic at all.
Nice grocery store in Governor's Harbour. First time I've bought fresh green onions secured with scotch tape. From someone's garden nearby for sure. We also needed diesel, and for some reason, the fella at the pumps thought it would be a good idea to fill the jerry jugs up to the brim, even when he was asked not to. Randy and Charlie had a hell of a time tranferring fuel from the jugs to the boat tanks. Both boats smelled like diesel until we got it cleaned up.
Governor's Harbour to Royal Island via Current Cut. We squirted through the cut at 8.5 knots. Quite a ride. Royal Island is under development - still a nice anchorage, but at one end of the bay there's containers, fences, docks, security lights, and at the west end of the island, there's a very snazzy small resort. I felt myself yearning toward its charms as we motored by in the morning.
Fishing has been unproductive, so I'll just get that out of the way. Nothing to report, and fishing is over. I'm considering how the lures will translate into christmas decorations....
Royal Island to Lynyard Cay (lots of boats, 30-40) and on to Marsh Harbour. Also crowded. Time to get used to more people and more boats. And wifi! And a cruisers' net that deteriorated very quickly into ads for local businesses, endlessly. We just shut it off, since we weren't going diving or out to dinner.
Marsh Harbour to Allan's Pensicola, where we met up with Trioconbrio with Bill and Dave aboard. Had a drink on ND to catch up, and make plans for heading on. Weather was not conducive to heading ashore for a beach walk, which is too bad, cause I remember a great windward beach walk on the way down.
Press on. Great Sail Cay was our last anchorage in the Bahamas. Michelle and I did our last beach walk, joined by BIll and Dave. Bill was shadowed by a small black-tipped shark as he sloshed along at the edge of the water, and we wondered at great swaths of the beach that looked rooted up by large pigs. We headed back to the boats at dusk before the pigs came back out to play.
My last beach walk, and the only shell I pocketed reminded me of a Port Maitland beach mussel shell. I'm ready to be home.
Great Sail to a spot on the Bahamas Bank - a huge expanse of shallow water that provides a place to anchor before heading across to Florida. Unless you get there, and there's a horrible wind chop and the boats are hobby-horsing and yanking the gear and the crew all over. Randy got more and more agitated and finally said, we're better off crossing tonight instead of tossing around here. Bill and Dave chose to go too, and Mi Amante decided to wait it out. After the fact, it was a toss-up as to who did better.
Long night, motorsailing, with just screwy enough motion that neither of us was able to sleep. Around four am, there were squalls moving in from the south, and one got bigger and bigger and started shooting lightning and thunder. Trioconbrio and ND chose to back off and head out to sea until it passed, and that took years. It's a horrible situation to be eight miles from rest and safety and to turn back out to sea while the lightning flashes are all you can see. I hid my eyes and squinched up in the corner under the dodger while the cold rain and spray ran down my neck and my knees into my pants. Randy steered and watched and decided which way to dodge, and got soaked through because our foulies aren't waterproof anymore, and he got us through safely.
By the time we headed in through the inlet at Fort Pierce, there were piles of wet clothes on the floor inside. We headed for the first anchorage, the same place we anchored in 2006, and found out that it has silted in since then. We went hard aground, with the tide falling and more rain pouring down, and Trioconbrio was unable to pull us off. Towboat US did, for a small fortune, and I'm not kidding about that. We finally anchored south of the south bridge, drank hot tea with a shot of rum, showered, found dry clothes.
No rest yet - we put the dinghy in and went ashore and Bill and Dave picked us up in a car they borrowed from a friend and we went to the airport to check in. Grocery store for STEAK, MUSHROOMS, WINE, SALAD!!!! Back to the boat, consume major calories and to bed. Nothing was broken (loosened all the teak in the bowsprit), nobody was hurt (just a few more bruises), and we never have to do that again.
The next night we had steak and mushrooms and wine and salad again, just because we could.
Spent a day or two catching our breath and then on again. Vero Beach for two nights, long enough to do four loads of laundry, get the free bus and do some shopping, and long enough for SB to get pretty much coated with no-see-um bites. Flying teeth - those little buggers love me and it takes days for the bumps to stop itching. I hates them. Then, off again. Tonight we're anchored in Eau Gallie, and enjoying wifi courtesy of the local library. Heading north again tomorrow.
We plan to be in Green Cove Springs, just south of Jacksonville in about a week. We're fine. Tired. Randy is used-car-shopping on the web. I'm hoping for something red with a manual transmission.
Lots of photos to follow when we get a better connection.
posted by Susan at 9:10 PM
3 Comments:
This is for you and likely not for posting though if you want you can tell the world it is snowing in Cape Breton -- again! We're just back from a freedom trip "south" to Freeport, Maine. Spring not much further advanced, but no snow. On the way home, ran into Sue Phelan in the Dragonfly Cafe in Antigonish, fortifying herself on her way to pick up & bring home Katherine at St. FX. Katherine had a wonderful year, and so did Sue & Les in their empty nest. Sue was lamenting the re-filling of the house.
Glad you're ready to be home. We're ready to have you.
-- OXOX SMZ
We fully support you desire to go red and manual. We are loving our convertible and looking forward to the drive home. We plan to be home May 3 so if you're passing by between then and May 13, we'll have a spare bed with warm sheets and a fridge with cold beer.
I just found this blog Sue! Fantastic, you will treasure this when you are 80 and can't remember anything about the trips! I am passing it on to my sailor pals
Safe trip
Vick xo
Post a Comment
<< Home