Things That Go Bong in the Night

April 6 - 12, 2008

Sunday, April 06, 2008 - Nassau Harbour Club, Nassau, New Providence
By Tom

Due to the early hour I turned in last night (6:45), I was up and at it by 2:30 am. Man how bad does it suck to be me?

I couldn't even coax the weasels awake until 5:45, so I sat in front of the computer watching Hackers and laughing at how absurd the plot line was. Of course Hackers was also Angelina Jolie's first movie so even thought the movie sucked it was still sort of good.

Anyhow, the weasels and I played in the cockpit until 6:30 and then we tuned in the weather dude. As he was wrapping up, I sent the ferrets up to our cabin to launch a sneak attack on Amy to get her to wake up so we could get under way. Ten minutes later she was ready and we hauled up the anchor, set the spinnaker and took of towards Nassau.

An hour into the trip, we crossed paths with Pete and Tina on Scud. Pete was one of my volleyball buddies from Georgetown and he and Tina recently finished a three year circumnavigation. They are on their way to the Chesapeake and then the north east to ride out hurricane season. We spoke for a while on the radio and Tina took a bunch of pictures of us under spinnaker. Pete said he'd email them to me when he gets a chance, so hopefully you'll see them posted here soon.

We said our goodbyes and parted ways. Five hours later Nassau appeared on the horizon right where it was supposed to. We entered the harbour, fired up the motors and dropped the spinnaker. We had hoped to stay at the Nassau Yacht Haven, but when I called them they said they were full. We ended up at the Nassau Harbour Club instead.

As an aside, the Harbour Club is under going a total face lift and as such, it was kind of in a bit of disarray, but when the work is finished it should be quite nice. Unfortunately, the only slip they had for a boat with our beam (18+) was really exposed and we rolled all night long. Shitty death!

I mean, I don't want to bitch, but when your paying $68 a night without water or electricity, you expect to at least be comfortable, but it was not to be.

Anyhow, we got the boat tied up and took a walk right across Bay Street to the grocery store to get some sodas and Cheetos and then returned to the mother ship. Around 6 pm, we headed 6 blocks down to The Outback Steakhouse where we had buffalo wings and some sort of onion thing as well as a few Kalik drafts to wash it all down.

By 8 we were back on the boat. Amy went to our room to read (sleep) and I sat up in the salon with the weasels listening to a replay of the Nascar race from earlier today in Texas. To bed by 11 pm.

Monday, April 07, 2008 - Nassau Yacht Haven, Nassau, New Providence
By Tom

So we were going to move out to the anchorage here in Nassau harbour so as to avoid another night of rolling all over the place and paying for the privilege. We settled up our tab at the Harbour Club and cast off from their dock.

We motored out to one of the designated anchorages on our harbour chart and proceeded to set the hook next to another catamaran that we happened to know from down island. As we were getting the hook snug, a large squall moved in and started blowing us against the current and it became quite untenable very quickly.

We decided to up anchor and try another spot, but when the wind increased to 40 knots, I called Yacht Haven instead and today they had a spot for us. Sweeeet!

We motored in circles for twenty minutes until the squall blew itself out. We had to do this rather than move into the crowded marina because our boat handles like a wounded duck under motor in heavy winds.

The storm subsided and we slid into our assigned slip without further issue. Once the boat was secure we headed up to the marina office and got squared away. Once business was taken care of, we hiked out to the grocery store and did a final stock up on things we need between now and the US in 7 or 10 days.

We hauled our purchases back to the big boat and with lots of ferret assistance, managed to get everything stowed away. Post grocery shopping, I set out on my own in an attempt to find a replacement sail slide for our main sail. On the run from Blackpoint to Staniel last week we somehow managed to shatter one of the twelve that hold our mainsail to the mast.

I hit all four marine supply stores near the marina on Bay Street and finally the last guy turned me on to the sail loft a mile or two out of town. I hiked out there and for twenty bucks I was able to get four spares. For those interested, this only represents a 400% mark up over US prices.

Speaking of prices, just a brief glimpse of what some things cost down here:

Eggs, 1 dozen, mixed white and brown, small : $ 3.75

Beer, 1 case, 24 cans of Kalik regular : $ 35.50

Gas, Esso regular : $ 5.22

Motor Oil, generic, 10w30 : $ 6.00

Kookaboro Wings, Outback Steakhouse : $ 9.25

Internet Access, 24 hours : $ 8.00

Dockage, 36 foot cat, 1 day, no electric or h2o : $ 68.00

Tomato, red, mildly over ripe and squished : $ 5.99 / pound

Mind you, I'm not complaining, just informing. It is what it is.

Anyhow, I was back on the boat and had the sail slide replaced by 4 pm at which time we went for a walk along the water front. We ended up a mile or two down the road and stopped for a beer at the Green Parrot. It was our first time there and we were both impressed.

We left after one drink and made our way back to the mother ship where I cooked up Nassau grouper fingers and french fries for dinner. Afterwards, we played a couple games of cards and you didn't hear it from me, but I pretty well trounced Amy.

A quick running of the weasels and then we were off to bed. Tomorrow we plan on heading out towards Chub Cay and the Berry Islands. Stay tuned.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008 - Berry Island Club Mooring Ball, Frazier's Hog Cay, Berry Islands
By Tom

I was up at 5 am this morning and actually hauled my towel, soap and clean clothes up to the marina shower where I took a 30 minute hot water only shower. This may sound wasteful to those of you playing along at home, but this is the first hot water I've had in the last 290 days, so if you actually do the math, I have used less than 6 seconds of hot water per day. Pretty damn conservative don't you think?

Anyhow, on the way back to the boat I noticed the marina office was attended even though the sign said it didn't open until 8. I stopped in and got the marina lady to sell me four laundry tokens ($2) and then went back to the mother ship to gather up our laundry.

Amy wasn't really awake, but she promised she'd be my best friend if I would start the laundry and then walk four blocks down to Starbucks and get her a latte. She guilted me into it and twenty minutes later while our laundry spun in circles, I went to get her coffee.

Amy met me at the laundry and she had her coffee and I a soda while the laundry finished. By 10 am we had finished our shore side activities and after checking out with the marina lady, we cast off the dock lines and motored out of Nassau.

There was no wind at all today, so we took advantage of the calm to motor the 35 miles up to the Berry Islands. We chose Frazier's Hog Cay as our staging point for an overnight sail to Bimini in the next couple of days.

During the motor up, we ran our full compliment of fish whackers and managed to land a small mahi mahi and a large barracuda. The mahi became breakfast, lunch and dinner while the barracuda was returned to the wild.

Around 3 pm we were off Frazier's and while we were getting ready to drop anchor, we noticed that the Berry Island Club had a couple of mooring balls and we decided to grab one.

The marina dude came by and collected $15 for the mooring and we hung out for a little bit just talking. He had never seen weasels before, so he came aboard and we introduced him. I think it's safe to say he won't be getting his own anytime soon.

Dinner was the afore-mentioned mahi and afterwards we watched Finding Nemo again before turning in for the night at 8 pm.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - Underway, Ocean, Ocean
By Tom

Early this morning, the wind switched to the north east and built to twenty five knots which directly opposed the current here where we are moored. Because our catamaran is so light, the wind blew us over top our mooring ball where the wind chop proceeded to bounce said ball off our under carriage in quick 5 second intervals.

Bong! Bong! Bong!

Needless to say, we dropped the mooring and decided to just head for Bimini some 90 miles to the west.

As I write this now, Amy is on the 10 pm to 2 am watch and we are 40 miles from Bimini. The wind is still up and we are sailing with just 50% of the head sail and no main in an effort to keep from arriving in the dark

Thursday, April 10, 2008 - Weeks Marin, Alicetown, Bimini Islands
By Tom

We arrived off Bimini at sunrise and headed in to Alicetown. We landed at Week's Marina and tied the boat up. We could have anchored out, but Week's only charges $25 a day to tie up so we decided to splurge.

After the boat was put to bed, we both crashed. While we do try to sleep during long passages, it usually takes a couple of days under way before your body adjusts to the constant motion. As a result we both arrived here exhausted and so we slept until 2 pm in the afternoon.

Once we woke up the second time, we took showers and then strolled down the main street in Alicetown. There is not much here, but the island is very pretty and well kept. There is a huge hotel/marina/casino being built in the far north end of the island, but we didn't venture that far up.

We stopped at a little local bar and hung out with a couple of Bahamian fishermen who are here in between trips. We had a couple of beers with the guys and swapped stories for an hour or two before we returned home and I cooked lobster pasta for dinner.

To bed as soon as dinner was finished.

Friday, April 11, 2008 - Underway, Ocean, Ocean
By Tom

We slept in this morning to prepare ourselves for another over night run as we plan on sailing back to the US to night. As I write this, we are killing a little time so that the tide changes and we can get off the dock here without crushing anybody else's boat.

The plan is to be underway by 5 pm or so and then sail through the night and make land fall at either Fort Pierce or Lake Worth depending on how long the wind holds up and whether or not the engines make it that far.

See you tomorrow back in the US.

Saturday, April 12, 2008 - Lake Worth, Palm Beach, FL
By Tom

We made land fall about 5 am this morning. Around 3 am the wind gave up and we resorted to motoring the last 14 miles in to the Palm Beach inlet. The engines complained some, but kept running. An hour later we rounded up into Lake Worth and dropped the hook in 7 feet of water. Fifteen minutes later we were both asleep. More to report tomorrow.