Bimini to Bird Cay

Since our last post in Bimini we have done a ton. We left early early Tuesday morning from Bimini en route for Bird Cay. We had 90 miles to go and we weren’t gonna get much help from the wind. It was a very long uneventful sail. At the end of it we arrived at Bird Cay dropped the hook, ate some dinner, played some Phase 10, and laid down for a looong deep deep sleep.

Bird Cay

Bird Cay is a few miles east of Chub Cay, a popular sports fishing destination. It is a privately owned island that is currently for sale. It was originally developed in the 1940s by Francis Francis heir to the Standard Oil fortune. The island has played host to numerous kings and other celebrities. Most recently the island has been neglected. We took the dinghy over to check out the housing complex and were disappointed at what we saw. The half dozen or so servants quarters were in complete disarray and the waters close to the island suffered from lack of circulation. Some really nasty algae was growing and foul odors were abound. This once posh getaway for the ultra wealthy needs a lot of attention. Gillian and I decided the $12M price tag is far too much for what you get. We wouldn’t even begin to think about it until that was cut in half

Despite the dilapidated housing we did find some wonderful snorkeling on the southeast tip of the island. Large schools of yellowtail snapper, numerous conch, sea urchins, and beautiful reef fish clustered along the coral enjoying the warm shallow waters. We couldn’t stop reminding each other that we now really are here. And apparently it only gets better!

We spent two whole days here resting, enjoying the scenery, eating fresh conch, and completely disconnected from the world! On the evening before we were leaving to head to Nassau, we got some company. Three boats arrived about the same time. Two of them were headed to Nassau, Good Omens and Julie Anne. We poached the weather off Good Omens since we couldn’t get our sat phone to work. The next day we all pulled up anchor and set out at the same time.

Nassau

Before we left Bimini I used the Internet there to get in touch with our contact in Nassau to let her know we would be there on Friday. Sheree is a college friend of my mothers and I have been talking to her for the past 6 months. Her father was a world class sailor and she was raised a sailor herself. Not only is she an experienced sailor and boater overloaded with tips and information, but she lives in Nassau! How convenient for us!

Pulling into the busy Nassau harbor was quite a trip. Before we could enter we had to contact Nassau Harbor Control on channel 16 to request permission to enter. After a brief exchange with them we were granted permission and we were all set to enter. As we entered the west end of the harbor the amount of traffic was out of control. The west end is where all the cruise ships are docked. As we are coming around the corner we have cruise ships in front of us, Royal Bahamas Defense Force power boats zipping around, giant ferries full speed passing us, sailing vessels trotting in, jet skis roaring by, and all kinds of music blasting and people partying. It was a complete overload. After a stressful entrance, we motored under the bridges from New Providence Island to Paradise Island and ended up at the Nassau Harbor Club.

Club Pyfrom

Sheree and her husband Richard had invited us to stay with them at their house for a few nights. We were thrilled with the invitation because it has been a very long time since we had slept in a king size bed in the AC. I was able to get ahold of them using Skype on my iPhone and they came and picked us up and took us back to their house. We hadn’t showered since Monday in Bimini so first things first we showered up then headed off to the Poop Deck for dinner. Our accommodations and hosts at the Pyfrom Manor were spectacular. When we were shown our quarters we about lost it. A cool 72 degrees blew from the vents, the bed was a giant king size cloud of comfort, TV with hundreds of channels waited for us to view, the bathroom was wonderfully large, and every last inch of the room was spotless. The Pyfroms really know how to treat guests. After our delicious dinner at the poop deck we made it back to the house just in time before Gillian and I fell asleep standing up.

The next morning we awoke to the aroma of pancakes drifting in from the kitchen. I know, they really are the best people in the world. We got fueled up on pancakes and started planning our next six weeks out with their help. Gillian’s brother is getting married on Union Island in St. Vincent and the Grenadines on June 8th. We were hoping to make it there, but we couldn’t accelerate our schedule so we are going to fly. We have to juggle this with paying proper attention to the Exumas and making it to Luperon before hurricane season kicks into high gear. We have it figured out now though. We will spend the next two weeks in the Exumas then fly from Nassau to St. Vincent. We’ll be there for two weeks then fly back to Nassau and head straight for Luperon. That’s the plan anyway.

The rest of the day our tour guides Richard and Sheree took us all around the island from east to west. They showed us Palm Cay where they keep their boat (and where we will keep ours while we are gone to the wedding), taught me how to drive on the left side, took us to Goodfellow farms for lunch, to Stuart Cove where flipper was filmed, and to the US vs Costa Rica beach soccer match. The Americans won and headed for the finals the next day!

The next day I tried to put some of my skills to use by working on their wifi network. Their house is made of cement and rebar so the radio waves have a tough time penetrating. I got another access point into the mix so we’ll see how that does. Then it was off to the finals of the beach soccer. The Americans won! Now the real challenge for me was to begin. They let us borrow their car so we could get around town and check out paradise island on Monday. I had my first solo driving experience from their house to the harbor club. With Gillian’s help navigating we made it safely to the harbor club and parked for the night. Whew. No big deal.

The Atlantis / Small World Pt. X

Monday we headed to Atlantis. Gillian had seen on Facebook that a college friend of hers was on a Disney Cruise to the Bahamas. It just so happened they were going to be in Nassau at the same time as us! We made plans to meet at the Coral Towers at 11 am, but we didn’t find each other. Without our communication devices its really hard to inform people when your plans change. What a bummer but that wasn’t going to stop us from enjoying what Atlantis had to offer. We headed to the aquariums and saw some incredible fish and sea life. Then we went to lunch at the BBQ place where they served us way too much food. Great tasting but way too much. So it was off to the beach to let our lunch settle down. When we arrived we were bombarded by young Bahamians trying to rent their jetskis to us. A little haggling but no deals could be made. Oh well, it was fun. Once we were cooked we headed back to the “mainland” to drop off the car with the Pyfroms and retire for the evening.

The Exumas

We have some work to do today and tomorrow to get ready for the next two weeks in the Exumas. We don’t plan to have Internet so there probably won’t be any posts for a while. You can keep track of us on the Map tab though. That stays up to date with our current location. This was a long one, but as usual a lot has happened since we last checked in!

Logan and I woke up in Bimini, The Bahamas. We did it. We got off our old friend, mooring ball O1 and headed northeast to paradise Saturday morning.

Gillian’s Story:

Saturday we enjoyed the best day of sailing yet in Hawks Channel. The winds were 15-18kt and we sailed a broad reach the whole way. We decided to give the autohelm, now named Otto, (we can’t seem to stop naming parts of our boat!) a break and I steered the boat downwind for most of the day. It was exhilarating. ZZ Top was jammin’ and Stella was zoomin’. We arrived at the Rodriguez Key anchorage in record time for a short nap before our 4am departure to get across the Gulf Stream. Nothing to report about the anchorage, the holding was great, we rocked and rolled all night, but managed to get a few winks.

I slept amazingly well considering all the movement and the excitement that was building up. The Chris Parker weather forecast said that crossing looked “fantastic” (I’ve never heard him say anything like that before), but the NOAA forecast stressed the NNW winds at 15kt and seas 4′-6′ with an occasional 8′swell. 8 feet?! For some reason that I still don’t quite understand, I wasn’t scared at all. I felt prepared and pumped up. So I woke up at 3:30a and put on the coffee. By 4:15a the anchor was up and we were on our way into the dark ocean. I stood at the bow for a while with the Q-beam to watch for shallows and reef markers…this was starting to feel like a real adventure. There I was, hanging onto the shrouds looking out over the dark Atlantic waters. We hoisted the sails in the dark so that we could enjoy the sunrise and get moving. After our speedy sail the day before, we knew sailing as early as possible was the way to go. We set our course to 78 degrees, turned on Otto and had some breakfast. Ready, set, go!!! With the wind at a broad reach and the current pushing us along, we saw 10.5kt on our boat speed!!! We were flying. The crossing was an uneventful one aside from the big swells. We sang Rockin’ and a Rollin’ Barbara Ann (Beach Boys) for while. The best part of the trip for me was the bonding experience that I had with Stella. She sliced through the big swells and seemed to know exactly what she was doing. I felt safe and secure. There is a lot to be said for trusting your boat I think. Everyone keeps saying that the boat can handle anything, it’s people that have a hard time with the conditions. It was just a kick ass day.

We decided to get a slip at a marina here in Bimini. We knew this trip would be a mentally and physically exhausting one and we wanted to get a good nights rest. As soon as we set up camp here at Browns Marina, Logan went off to immigration and customs, and then we jumped off the boat in search of our first Bahamian rum drink. Conch sandwiches and rum drinks on the beach at sunset… I’ll say it again, we made it.

Logan’s Story:

As I sit here this morning and reflect on our passage yesterday it seems far less significant than it did at the time. We’re sitting in a marina with power, water, and Internet. It doesn’t feel much different than when we were in the states. My cell phone doesn’t work, but these days, with iMessage, Facetime, email, and blogs, I can keep in contact with everyone — when we are in port.

The passage yesterday was nothing shy of epic.

We left Marathon and had an excellent sail to Rodriguez. We even logged a new record on the GPS, 8.5 knots. We anchored, hung out, then went to sleep early (8ish). I slept hard for four hours then at 12:30 I was wide awake, ready to go. I tried to sleep for the next three hours but it wasn’t happening. At 3:30 we got up, finished our chores, got the coffee on and brought up the hook. We were on our way, in the dark. I had Gillian up on deck spotting in a few areas where it looked to be shallow according to the chart. No problems, plenty of water. Once we got past the shallows and into 20+ feet of water, the sails went up, in the dark, another first. Sails up, engine off, drinking coffee, making great speed, everything was going well. Slowly the winds started to inch higher and all of a sudden we found ourselves in the gulf stream. The seas were building and our speed was increasing. I kept an eye on Gillian to make sure that she was ok. She was fine! She had a, “no big deal” look on her face. And so it went for the next 8 hours 4-6, we think, foot swells with some chop on top, surfing the waves, crashing into some, and rolling over a few. We hit our top speed coming down a wave around 11 am: 10.5 KNOTS! Now that’s cruising.

About four hours into our passage we were in the middle of it so to speak. The winds were in the upper teens out of the northwest, the seas were bigger than either of us had ever been in, we were out of the country, and we were sailing amongst cargo ships nearly 500 feet long. The adventure part had finally begun. As I sat at the helm I started thinking about the different emotions I had. I was excited most definitely. I had no fear, SB was more than taking care of us. More than anything I felt a sense of accomplishment. Yesterdays passage was the culmination of nearly a years worth of intense work and training. We did it! Holy cow, we did it! Now it’s time to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Tomorrow morning we are heading out at 3am to sail across the Bahama Banks to the Berry Islands, then on to Nassau a few days after that. We have the cruising guides out and are excited to explore this country.

Sailing Away

Baylor Flag a Flyin’

Gillian on the way to Rodriguez Key

Our last look at the US – Sunset at Rodriguez Key

Sunrise over the Atlantic

Logan at the helm crossing the Gulf Stream

This is the real color

Bimini Harbor Entrance

Stella Blue at Brown’s Marina

Sunset Dinner at Sherry’s

My First Kalik

Logan and Gillian in the Cockpit

Small World Pt. 1

Last week we had a rap on the hull. I came out and said hello and met our new friend Josh Knox on S/V Kuhela. Josh is a young Australian guy who flew over in February to buy a boat and take it back home. He came over to us because he couldn’t believe his eyes when he entered Boot Key Harbor and saw SB’s memorable blue grey hull. He had been in contact with Baxter and Molly to buy Stella Blue at the same time we were! Josh is on a 3-5 year trip back to Australia in his Downeaster 38. This is his first boat too and we have been able to regale each other with tales (read mistakes) of our first two months of boat ownership. Hopefully we’ll run into him again some time in the future…it really is a small world as we’ve found out.

Small World Pt. 2

This week actually turned into a fun and busy one while we waited for the gnarly weather to clear out. Sunday night my aunt Jeanette and her boyfriend Mike sent me an email. They just happened to be in Ft. Lauderdale for a couple days on vacation and decided to head down to The Keys to see us. We took them to Sombrero Beach, Big Pine Island, and Key West Monday and Tuesday. They left early Wednesday after giving us a ride from the grocery store. We tuned into the cruisers net as usual at 9 and after the net we were hailed by S/V Chandara. Figuring it was another vessel looking to cross with us I changed channels to 71 and they asked if we were the ones on the interesting looking Tartan 37. Sure we are. “Hey Logan! It’s Baxter!” What are the odds? For those of you that don’t know Baxter and Molly are the previous owners of Stella Blue. Baxter was down here with his friend Steve (S/V Chandra) and they are bringing Steve’s boat up the east coast to Deltaville. We met up with them in the afternoon and ended up in Geiger Key then Key West for a really fun evening. Key West, unplanned, twice, in one week

Bahamas Bound

Our window is finally here. We’ll be leaving tomorrow morning for Rodriguez Key then on to Bimini. Our patience finally paid off. Listening to Chris Parker this morning it sounds like Sunday is setup to be a wonderful eastbound sail across the gulf stream.

Why We Waited

Yesterday we had an incredible storm roll through. We saw sustained winds around 25 for at least an hour and gusts right at 30. This is what he did not want to see while we were making our first big passage. I took a little video to try and capture it. The video doesn’t really do justice to the storm, but to give you an idea.

Josh Knox of Kuhela

Logan Gillian and Baxter at Marathon City Marina

Jeanette @ Sombrero Beach

Mike in the Companionway

Logan and Gillian @ Sombrero Beach

Jeanette in Key West

Mike in Key West

Nasty thunderstorm May 2, 2013

Mangrove and Lane Snapper, Baracudda, Jack Crevalle caught on Live and Frozen Shrimp

Another sunset

Sombrero Beach

Logan and I are sitting in the City Marina community lounge area today setting up plans for the next week or so here in Marathon. Yep, we are still on mooring ball O1 here in Boot Key Harbor. We had set our sights on wrapping up the to-do list and setting sail Saturday April 20th…until that cold front that swept through the US last week and brought some nasty squall action to the Bahamas. We decided to postpone our passage for a few days so the weather could settle down. The new plan was to set off tomorrow, April 24th…until the wind picked up and shifted around to the north creating choppy sea conditions with high swells in the Gulf Stream. The NEW plan is to leave in the next “weather window”. The good news is that everything is packed and ready to go, so when the weather decides to cooperate, we will be ready. As eager as we are to move along on our journey, we have decided to make this first big passage as smooth and safe as possible. In the mean time we plan to tackle some minor boat projects and hang out on Sombrero Beach.

The past weeks we have been busy provisioning and knocking out chores, but we found plenty of time to enjoy the Keys. My parents made their way here to squeeze in a visit before we sail out of the country the weekend before last. It was a fantastic vacation…for all of us. We explored Key West (with a cheesy yet informative trolley tour), Big Pine Island (with the tiny Key Deer and No Name Pub), chartered a fishing boat (with no fish), and went out for a day sail (with fish!). Later that week, Logan made his first big catch! He went out with Princess Ding-a-ling and brought home a 31″ black tip shark. We celebrated with the tastiest fish tacos ever. I finally broke out my hemp jewelry making box and made myself and anklet.

Our big event for today is to get Logan’s hair cut so a walk down to the Easy Does It Hair shop is in order this afternoon. Let’s hope the weather straightens itself out so that we can splash around in those warm Bahamian waters soon.

Stella at the Casa de Addison dock

Showing off my skills

Logan explaining the chart plotter

“Head into the wind!”

My dad and Logan

There ARE fish in the ocean!

Dad with fish and fancy sun head dress

Our manatee friend (aka Earl)

Logan and me on the trolley

The END!

No Name Pub (we found it!)

Family bar time

Key Deer – super cute

Logan’s first big catch!

Things are going great here in Boot Key Harbor. We’re just a few days away from leaving the country. Yesterday we said good bye to our first visitors, Gillian’s parents. We all had a blast. Here’s one of many highlights from their stay. More to come soon.

We left Marco Island on an eerie morning. The weather looked like it was going to make for an uneventful motorsail all the way to Little Shark River…looked like. There was some fog that morning in Factory Bay where we were anchored, but fog lifts as the sun comes up, right? The further out into the gulf we got, the thicker the fog became. Before long we could barely see 1/4 mile in front of us (or in any direction for that matter)! This was getting ridiculous – Logan was glued to the radar looking for boats and I was glued to what water I could see to look for those darn crab pots. It was exhausting but just when we thought that there was no end in sight, we started to be able to make out the horizon. Whew! Before we knew it, the wind had picked up, the sun was out, our sails were up and were were on a perfect beam reach on our way to Little Shark River to anchor for the night.

As we approached the anchorage, several other boats were also making there way in for the night. We all sort of lined up to enter the channel and find a spot to anchor, it almost looked choreographed. This spot got great reviews for holding and the serene natural landscape, but we were warned of terrifying amounts of mosquitos and no-see-ums. We dropped anchor right inside the inlet in an attempt to minimize getting eaten alive, and hopped in Princess Ding-a-ling to explore the protected mangrove park before sunset. Wow. So so pretty. It’s one of those places that makes you feel like you are the first person to ever see it, completely untouched. As the sun was setting we realized that we hadn’t gotten a single bug bite, really?! Could we have gotten that lucky? Maybe we had those frigid temps to thank. We slept great and left first thing in the morning for the final leg of our passage – Marathon, a city in the middle of the Florida Keys.

So, that brings me up to today: We have been on mooring ball O1 here in Boot Key Harbor for about a week now. While I was flipping through the welcome packet, I saw the tagline: “Marathon…Where Mooring is a Ball” and just about lost it. Anyone who knows me well knows that I love cheesy plays on words, and when I read that, I knew that this was going to be a great place to call home for a while. Marathon is full of people living the cruising lifestyle and the whole community structure reflects that. The staff is unbelievably friendly and helpful, the showers are super clean, the dinghy docks are ideal. Everything is just well organized and swimming with good vibes. Every morning at 9am, we tune into the cruisers net on VHF channel 68 to welcome new arrivals, swap advice and buy/sell/trade everything from charts to bicycles. Marathon is basically the perfect place for us to prepare for our trip across the Gulf Stream – we rented our ball for a month! (We don’t plan to stay that long – it was just the best deal). My parents are coming in for a visit today, so we will get to do a little sight seeing. Then we will get our new to-do list done and watch for the weather to cooperate.

Everyday is full of firsts here on the boat, but yesterday we had a big one. I went up our mast for the first time! I got in the bosun chair and Logan cranked me up so that I could retrieve our video camera that we had mistakenly hoisted…anyway… Ever since we watched the surveyor go up there, I had been joking about how excited I was to go up. I was actually pretty terrified. It turned our to be pretty fun. Next time I will be less nervous and take a camera with me – it’s really really high

Fog Advisory

Logan with a morning cup of joe

Little Shark River

Mangroves

Gillian in the dinghy

Logan steers while standing

Stella happily anchored

Little Shark River Sunset

7-Mile Bridge in sight!!

The cold is gone and the heat is on!

We ended up spending a couple extra days in Fort Meyers Beach. It’s a great little beach town. Spring Break must still be going on because the beach was packed with people. We made our way to all the local spots that were recommended to us: SOBs (Shrimp Oyster Brewery), The Cottage, and Petey’s Upper Deck at the Matanzas Inn. All of them were great. We also made it to the Friday FMB Farmers Market. Not a huge event, but some great produce at fair prices and Gillian picked up some some spicy pickles. Our last day there, we went out to the Capt Ron’s favorite Colombian place with him and Ken and Joanne from the boat yard. The five of us shared some authentic Colombian cuisine and swapped sailing stories. We said our final goodbye to Captain Ron – we will miss him a lot, but hope to meet up with him later this season in the BVIs.

Yesterday we left FMB for Marco Island. Shortly after our 8 AM departure we were making headway southbound in the wide open Gulf of Mexico! It was an unbelievable feeling to have all the space in the world to do with whatever we wanted. Well, except for one thing, sail. The wind was right on our nose so we decided to motor and see if the wind would fix itself. Eventually we decided we might as well get some sailing in even if we would have to tack back and forth towards Marco Island. There is nothing quite like the sound of the water rushing by when the engine finally stops making all that racket. We put the sails up, killed the engine, and Stella took off at a speedy 6 knots. We spent the afternoon hours doing some good tacking practice and getting a good feel for how close SB can sail to the wind – we are really starting to understand what she likes. At about 4 PM we pulled into an incredibly busy harbor and made our way up the channel to the anchorage. Gillian took the helm and I went up to the bow to perform our first solo anchoring. Communicating over our walkie talkies, I helped Gillian slowly move us into place. Once we were there I dropped the hook and we were here. It worked!

Oh, but I left out one important event. I had been dying to try out my new fishing gear and with all that open ocean, it was finally time. I got my line all rigged up, threw the lure overboard and let out about 200 feet of line. We were trolling along and I was content knowing we had a line in the water. This went on for some time until finally reel started whining like crazy and the pole was doubled over. This was it! Finally a big old mackerel to fight. Gillian took the helm and put the engine into neutral while I wrestled the pole out of the rod holder. This thing was gigantic. It took off and showed no signs of slowing down soon. AWES….it’s a crab pot. Crap. We turned around went back and got the hook off the damn thing. Now we hate them just as much as everybody else. At least it wasn’t the prop!

We spent today exploring the sights of Marco Island and had lunch at the Snook Inn with a friend who drove down from Naples. Tomorrow it’s off to Little Shark River.

Fort Myers Beach Mooring Field

The dinghy dock!

Spring Break at Fort Myers Beach

Motoring into Marco Island

Turquoise water at Marco Island Beach

Logan’s toes in the sand