Another Crossing Under the Belt

November 3, 2005

Friday, October 28, 2005 - Mooring Field, Vero Beach, FL
By Tom

So we didn't leave today. I'm not sure why.

We did fill up our water tanks and take the opportunity to do what laundry was lying around. I almost ended up running Mila through the washer as she was asleep in my shirt, but thankfully Amy checks pockets and she found Mila before the rinse cycle. Ferret disaster averted.

In the afternoon we took the bus down to the ocean and walked on the beach. Afterwards, we stopped at an open air beach front bar called Mulligans and had a drink. We were the only non locals there, but no one seemed to mind.

While we were sitting at the bar, the bar tender women tried to give away a frozen rum runner that had been made in error. She stopped at local #1, 3 seats down from us. He said no. Local #2, 2 seats down from us said "Uh, thats a girlie drink" and he passed. Local #1 right next to me agreed with Local #2 because he didn't want to seem gay. She finally stopped in front of us and before she could offer it I said "Hell yes, we're sailors." Remember, leave no drinks behind.

Afterward, we enjoyed a nice 1.5 mile walk back to the marina. Tomorrow we're out of here

Saturday, October 29, 2005 - Manatee Pocket, Stuart, FL
By Tom

We left the mooring field today. It was another mega-windy day and we sailed down here under head sail alone at 9 knots. It was a short day and we had the hook down before noon.

After a lunch break, we assembled the dinghy and went in to West Marine to get a couple of things. High on the list was another VHF radio as the one we have in the cockpit stopped receiving. After much debate we got the West Marine brand, only because that was all they had, and by sundown I had it installed and functioning. We'll see how long it lasts.

I may have forgot to mention the other day when I was ranting about how bad the Vero Beach Municipal Marina staff was, but when we settled up our bill, the idiot behind the counter rung up our week long stay at the dock as a week long stay on a mooring ball. This took our bill from $550 down to $106!

Less you think I tried to scam him, I did say we had stayed in a slip, but had moved backed out to a mooring ball after the hurricane. Now, I did only say it once, but it's not my fault he was a total pud. Saving $400 bucks brings that facility way up in my mind.

Sunday, October 30, 2005 - Manatee Pocket, Stuart, FL
By Tom

We spent a day down today so I could catch up on some boat maintanence. I also had to update a bunch of my logs, so the day was a mix of greasy oil hands and quality time with my laptop.

I had to make another trip into West Marine to return a part from yesterday and to pick up a few other parts. If I haven't mentioned it, the anchorage here at Manatee Pocket is pretty nice and you can dinghy to within 200 feet of West Marine.

In the afternoon, I got Amy to go into a little water front bar near here. They had a fresh off the boat Jamaican Reggae band that Amy loved and they also had 12 brand new 56 inch flat screen tv's with the NASCAR race and assorted football games playing. We watched the entire race and all four sets from the band. Total damage $32 bucks. Nice.

Tomorrow we'll move down to Lake Worth. A weather window is opening up starting Tuesday night and we intend to jump through it

Monday, October 31, 2005 - Lake Worth, Palm Beach, FL
By Tom

We picked up anchor this morning and negotiated the 30 miles and 7 (that right) opening bridges to get down to Lake Worth. Our expected weather window is still on the horizon, so we hope to do last minute fresh veggie shopping here and then jump across to the Bahamas.

Between here and Fort Lauderdale was pretty much ground zero for Hurricane Wilma and it shows. Power is back on, although I hear that it happened just this morning and lots of places are still without. The effects of no power showed on the local Publix grocery store. All that was available until today were canned and dry goods.

Fortunately for us, while we were in Publix the fresh veggie trucks rolled in and the melee ensued. I covered point and fended off the old people with a large cucumber while Amy went hand to hand with a small blue hair for rights for the last surviving avocado in all of Florida. We should have brought the ferrets in with us. Milo excels in trench warfare and Mila is good with ranged weapons.

We loaded up as many fresh and slightly bruised veggies as we could hold and ran for the exit.

After unloading the spoils of victory back at the boat we returned to town to attend happy hour at the local sports bar. Two for one happy hour and free fresh made chips are always a sure fire winner.

Later, back on board, I made steaks on the grill and french fries. A late afternoon check of the forecast revealed our window starting to fall in on itself. NOAA is not a good carpenter. (Window, get it?)

Tuesday, November 01, 2005 - Lake Worth, Palm Beach, FL
By Tom

We went back into Publix just on the off chance that they received a meat shipment last night and lo and behold there was meat. And it was good.

We purchased several family sized portions of various meat products. We usually subdivide a family portion into 3 or 4 Amy and Tom sized portions. This makes them easier to store in our small fridge or our minuscule freezer.

We were back on board with the dinghy up by 10 am. We motored the 6 miles down stream taking on 10 gallons of fuel and half a tank of water before anchoring right behind Peanut Island and the entrance to the Lake Worth Inlet.

In a bizarre coincidence, we also met DreamCatcher's former owners. It seems they own a condo off the ICW, saw our boat going by, and thought (correctly, I might add) that no one other than they would do a boat in Miami Vice colors.

They caught up with us at the fuel stop and took several photos of us and the boat. They seemed glad to hear that she is getting good use and their various equipment choices are, for the most part, holding up well. We didn't tell them about the upcoming change in paint scheme we have in mind.

Our weather window isn't as good as I'd like, but if it doesn't get any worse, I think we're going to at least try and go. Our current plan is to leave here around 5pm tonight and sail overnight arriving on the banks about 2 am and making land fall on Great Sale Cay sometime around first light on Wednesday.

Another crossing coming up. Stay tuned and see you on the other side.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005 - Great Sale Cay, , Abacos
By Tom

We left out of Lake Worth at 5 pm last night in rain showers and limited visibility of about 3 miles. The winds were north at 15 knots or so. We set our main and rolled out the jib. Holding on our course to the banks we were making between 6 and 7 knots.

It's interesting to note that because the gulf stream moves so quickly north here we had to turn 35 degrees further south than what our compass indicated to hold course. Kind of wild to watch how fast the stream was moving.

Anyway, we had changing wind conditions most of the night and we were constantly adjusting head sail and main sail combinations. Despite the on again off again rain, it was by far the best stream crossing we have ever had. Even better, we only used 5 gallons of fuel the entire trip! Wew Who!

We had to negotiate around several large freighters during the night, but other than that the trip across the ocean was un-eventful. Just the way we like it.

Dawn arrived and found us well onto the banks in 15 feet of water ripping along at 9 knots. We reefed the head sail down to just a scrap to try and slow the boat down and make the ride somewhat more comfortable. We passed Mangrove Cay at first light and by 9 am we were off Great Sale Cay.

We stopped in Great Sale last year and knew from experience that it offered excellent protection for the prevailing conditions. We had the hook down by 10 am and after a celebratory arrival rum runner, we layed down for some serious sleepage.

Little wet ferret tongues woke us by 3 pm in search of food and so we got up and I made steaks on the grill and a fresh salad for all of us. It's good to be back.

Thursday, November 03, 2005 - Great Sale Cay, , Abacos
By Tom

We decided last night to spend another day here. The wind has come around to the east so it would be a pounding motor if we moved on today. We're both fine with just sitting tight.

I broke out the sewing machine and fixed all four eye patches on the salon windows. They were starting to get a little ragged. Next I moved onto making a new hatch cover for the one that blew off back in Oriental. After that I had to restitch some of our bimini that ripped on the crossing. A very busy sewing day. My mom would be so proud.

While I played seamstress, Amy worked on her computer. She was writing something, but I'm not sure what. The ferrets alternated between helping me sew and helping her type. They were extremely helpful as you can imagine. For some reason Milo has it in his little wicky head that he should be able to sit on the sewing petal.

In the afternoon a 50 foot sport fish showed up in the anchorage. He was towing a 25 foot boston whaler. I guess thats got to cut down on his fuel efficiency. We assume there were people on board, but we never saw them. We did however get to listen to his generator run all through the evening. Power boaters can be so rude.

Speaking of power, we have been making a ton. So far we haven't been able to run the wind generator for more than about 5 hours a day. I have even turned the base setting on the fridge up to 4 from 3. We are now making a plethora of ice for happy hour!

The marked increase in power must be due to the new batteries we installed this past fall. We haven't changed anything with our solar or wind systems, so the larger capacity batteries seem to be accepting more of the energy we can generate. Most excellent.

Around 3 pm or so, we loaded into the dinghy and headed out to look for somewhere to dive. The pickings were slim and we returned to the boat after about 15 minutes. For some reason the water is really cloudy. I'm sure it will get better in a few days.

We are planning on heading towards Allen or Pennsecola Cay tomorrow and end up in Green Turtle Saturday or Sunday.