Trailer Tri Adventures

We’re at Great Harbour Cay Marina in the Berry Islands. Our friends on Sarayu and Dark N Stormy are here too (we helped Don deliver Sarayu south to Florida over New Years from North Carolina).

Last night we enjoyed a delicious community supper of BBQ ribs, chicken, rice and peas etc. Joined by Darlene and Bill from the power cat Carolina Girl.

This morning we’re heading out in the dinghies to explore Shark Creek – a mangrove Creek that leads to the other side of the island. Maybe do some snorkeling. First the guys have to install a new anchor chain on Sarayu.

@sailboatstory we spotted your stickers by the marina office!

Two days ago was our last day anchored off the settlement. Hoped to catch rain and it worked! But we moved inland yesterday to anchor just outside Great Harbour Cay Marina yesterday. [Hint: Click Here to check out The Rest of the Story about why we moved to Great Harbour Cay Marina]  We’ll get a slip in the marina this afternoon for a week or so as more heavy winds are coming. Hoping to explore the island with the free marina bikes, hit a beach and maybe even golf nine holes nearby!

The lights are the boats anchored and a couple buildings ashore last night. It was a lovely peaceful night in the anchorage once the brisk winds of the day calmed down. We are anchored in about 1.5 metres of water on grassy, mucky bottom….the tide goes down about 80 cm. All we need to float is about 50 cm so we pull both the daggerboard and the rudder up and we’re golden.

I forgot to mention in my last post but when we were at the marina yesterday, we saw a really big Manatee swim by. Guessing it was a male, the manager said he was looking for a fresh water outlet. Like us, manatees need fresh water to survive.

Then last night there was a lot a splashing around the boat and I thought I heard surface breaths like a manatee does and grass being ripped out. We’ve anchored in the manatees paddock!!

Took a walk two days ago over to the Marina from Bullocks Harbour settlement. About 45 minutes one way on asphalt roads with potholes you could lose a subcompact car in!! Marina is very laid back, very protected. Enjoyed the fish burger a lot!!

But I enjoyed Ronnie Brown’s Conch Salad even more!!! He’s a great guy who can tell lots of stories and cares for the condition of our oceans. They are careful not to over harvest conch. His pile of conch shells is three years’ worth of making conch dishes. Yum!!!

Went ashore today at Bullocks Harbour to scout out the town. Pretty tough life here but we met some really nice people. They just want to know if we’re enjoying our time in the Berry Islands.Many folks work at the islands around the corner owned or leased by cruise lines. One fellow says one line (NCL) doesn’t treat the locals well because of the colour of their skin. Geez. Hate to hear this.I didn’t take pictures of the rough condition of town. Hurricanes and poverty must take a toll. It would be nice for cruise lines to sink a little money into where the workers live! What would they do without them? We plan to share our money around in little restaurants shops etc. They’re just so happy to see us!!

Moved south to anchor by Bullocks Harbour to get out of strong south wind.

Saw a nurse Shark in the shallows as we crept over them at high tide.

Now we are close to town but in our own tiny Bay. The big trawler is sitting in white caps but we’re in a great calm spot. Just enough breeze to keep the no seeums down!

We’ve learned that our central dodger window snaps down by the companionway to become a windscoop! Helps to cool the boat. Planning on a swim after lunch.

By the way. In the photo that looks like a crowd of people on a beach, it is. But there are pigs there too! Adults and piglets. I think the cruise lines are trying to do their swimming pigs thing!!

Plus, one of the SeaDoo guides – a local – stopped by and said he wants to do what we’re doing in a few years. He liked that we were “just chillin'”.

Sail from HELL from Moores Island today. Delayed departure because we donated some stuff to the community. A pastor helped us out. More on Bishop Nixon Simms later.

Sail started off ok… A bit lumpy but sunny. Maybe 15 knots. Winds increased so we double reefed the main sail (reduced sail area a lot) and had a scrap of jib (front sail). The winds built. Brought in the jib. About 7 miles to go the waves began to change. Grew larger from 2m to maybe 4m and breaking at the top. I just kept thinking surfers are nuts.

Jim hand steered then and we slid into Great Stirrup Cay and Great Harbour with relief. The pic of the standing wave when we entered the harbour was not indicative of the rough conditions we had come out of!!

Found a nice place to anchor out of the wind and marvelled at the cruise ship version of the Bahamas…wow.

Met a lovely couple and two kids from Brazil who anchored near us on their Gemini 105.
We’re anchored in clear sand, 1m of water, a big starfish and a ray or Shark to greet us. Now sleep.

Thanks to the late Ian Farrier for designing a strong boat. Good night from the Berry Islands.

Our friends Nathalie and Brian on SV Timmies Run spent a little time in the Abaco Islands recently as they sailed by. Their pictures showed the massive destruction wreaked by Hurricane Dorian back in September. But folks are trying to rebuild as best as they can with the help of volunteers like Nath and Brian.We’ve spent the last 5 days at uninhabited islands north and east of Grand Bahama where hardly a green leaf is to be seen. Mangroves which thrive in salt water look dead with no leaves. Are they alive or did the 20′ high storm surge that flooded Freeport get them? Huge trees were just pulled from the ground and thrown into ragged piles by the immense winds. Others were snapped off at the trunk.We can’t imagine the horrors which those folks who stayed experienced. I don’t think I want to know.Here at Moores Island, almost every building in the tiny settlement of Hard Bargain has a tarp on the roof. Though it’s Sunday, we can hear some sounds of construction. It’s quiet though. Kids laughing, the odd potcake barking (local dogs, stray or not).Our boat is covered with salt from our rather lively 25 nm sail here across the shallow Bight of Abaco. It was kind of like sailing on Lake Erie as it was so shallow! But Lake Erie doesn’t have the dolphins which came to greet us either!!They came leaping toward the boat as we motored out of a skinny, shallow, nail biter of a channel to get into the Bight. 7-10 lovely dolphins. Some large, some smaller, all very busy. Were they fishing? Who knows but wow they were amazing.They stayed for about 20 minutes, then they were gone.We pulled out the jib (our small front sail), set the Autopilot and sailed the Bight to Moores at about 6 knots average speed.Now the Skipper is resting and I’m thinking about supper and how damn lucky we are.Bye for now!

Checked in to the Bahamas at West End at Old Bahama Bay Marina. Had a shower and enjoyed a $70 lunch 😲 Then took off across the top of Grand Bahama island hopping. Average 23-35 miles per hop at around 7-8 knots. West End was fine but the little islands to the North have been decimated.

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day. It began as a foggy day in Manatee Pocket anchorage in Stuart, FL.  We decided to head out the inlet to make our way south to stage for the crossing to the Bahamas.  The wind seemed great so we thought if this steady 7-9 knots of speed keeps up, we could make the northern Bahamas tonight!  Wrong….the south east winds began to die as the powerful Gulf Stream kicked in.  Soon we were lucky to be making 3 knots in the relatively flat seas.  The Gulf Stream is a warm current which travels along the east coast of North America right up to PEI!  It’s speed can be up to 4 knots and trying to sail or motor against it can be frustrating.

The ocean, once your are offshore, turns a wonderful deep indigo violet.  Jim hoped to see flying fish and lo and behold, he did! We also saw two large loggerhead turtles and a vibrantly purple Man O’ War Jellyfish…you don’t want to touch those guys.

The sun was shining but I knew our weather window to cross was very small and our angle of sail against the current with no wind was no good. We bailed out and headed for Lake Worth Inlet at Riviera Beach.  The forecast had called for the wind to clock around to the north – which it did- around 5:00pm.   The skies grew dark as the front closed in behind us.  We put on our rain gear and raced downwind at 7-8 knots to the inlet.  We flew in around the corner and almost ran into a cruise ship coming out!  I know that there was probably a lot of room in the inlet but wow did it seem tight!  We hung another quick right into the shallows on the east side of Peanut Island.  This is where the Kennedys had a bunker in the 60’s! It’s now a park with some camping too.

The shallows between Peanut Island and the Blue Heron Bridge were littered with wrecked or seemingly abandoned boats.  Very sad.  There was also an interesting assortment of houseboat or tiki boat type craft, some just sitting on the bottom until the tide would rise again.

We went under the Bridge, which incidently is one of the top diving and snorkeling locations in the US, and anchored in one spot, but then moved to another as the holding was tenuous.  There is one poor sailboat here whose mast is the only thing we see of it. There is a big monohull beside us with lots of damage to the bow and one spreader is hanging over the side.  Must be a storm damaged boat I guess.

For now, we’re hooked in rock solid and are waiting out a front to pass by.  We could be here for a couple of days or we may try heading further south down the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). Not sure yet. But we are safe and near to amenities. It’s a great place to continue to work on getting the boat together too.

Until later…..