Sunday Brunch

Today was a relaxing day at anchor. Ginny made bagels from scratch (with her green mascot, Dorthy). They were formed with loving hands by Roger. David's addition was three excellent Bloody Marys. The day was casual with David kayaking around the harbor and Ginny and Rodger taking a dingy tour.

Hope Town Arrival - Finally!!!!

Today we motored from Marsh Harbour to Hope Town - our original, final destination...
The trip was fine, except that we had to get up for high tide at 7:50 am (left at 7am to get to Hope Town at high). The difficulty is that the water at the entrance to hope town is very shallow (5ft) and we haven't been in with Wind-Lass before. We followed the routes for the deepest water and found that at anything but low tide, we should be able to get in.

The shallowest water is between the Parrot Cays and Hope Town - I mention the Parrot Cays since our good friends Maggie and Charlie stayed there many years ago when they were first together. Charlie tells the story of a cottage and a friendly landlord that basically let them have the run of the place...

Upon arrival in Hope Town, we grabbed a Hope Town Marina mooring - we knew which one they were form our friend Doug and Betsy on Surfsong - whom we met last year when we chartered out of Hope Town. Then came the ominous dingy to the marina office to straighten out our lost mooring contract. The proprietor, Rudy, was very nice, apologized for his brothers booking a mooring he didn't have and explaining that he was full. The best we could do was sit on a mooring while his other boats were out and hope someone canceled. At least he honored our deposit from last year!

So we have no home base, but Roger is easing into the nice cruising life here in the Abacos. Marsh Harbour provides a very nice and protected anchorage to use in bad weather, and not in bad weather - well, there are hundreds of beautiful places to go and see!

Since we arrived early we had the whole day. The captain finished his MURI proposal, but alas there are more proposals due in the coming weeks :( Around lunch time the gang dingied in and took a walk around town and bought some groceries. There are two stores on island - Vernan's and Harbour View. Vernan's has fresh bread and a good selection of cheese, Harbour View has a little more variety - just to orient everyone, 7-eleven has 2-4x the amount of stuff this place does! We also found a nice coffee shop and the fresh fish shop.

Later that afternoon the crew split up, the captain taking his kayak, loaded with a beach chair, towel, and book and kayaked around the harbour. He then went ashore (this is very tricky to get out of a kayak in the water and climb a ladder at a pier!!) to find some fish. Fresh snapper and grouper ($13/lb) and fresh lobster tail ($16/lb). he bought a few pounds of grouper and then paddled back to the boad - while loading he realized that he was a bit slower than the go-fast boats, as they waited not so patiently for him to get out of the way - they were hoping though, that he would fall in!

In the meantime, Ginny and Roger went for a long walk in town. The captain went back ashore and to the beach, which is just 1 block from the harbour, to sit and read his book.

The crew assembled at Capt'n Jack's for happy hour - very nice and low key, booze is cheap for the islands. Then back to the boat ( a little shnockered ) and the captain made fried rice and indian-spiced, sauteed grouper.

Marsh Harbour - Boxing Day, 2009

Today we spent a leisurely day at anchor. The captain continued working on his proposals for work, but took a late morning kayak trip around the other end of the harbor to a small cove, with 1 ft of water and all sand bottom. It was beautiful, and except for the million dollar homes, was deserted!

Ginny and Roger continued their email and photos, with a late Christmas skype with their daughter Beth and son Ben.

In the afternoon the crew all went for a walk in town - however, being Boxing day, everything was closed. They got the layout of the town, however, and ended up at Snappa's, a local bar on the waterfront, for an appetizer of conch fritters and drinks. Tomorrow we will go to Hope Town (about 7 mi) to check in an see what happened to our mooring. The marina changed hands and our reservation, paperwork and deposit disappeared....

Dinner will be the remains of the lasagna from Christmas - always better the next day, and a large salad (fresh vegetables are always hard to get!)

MERRY CHRISTMAS, 2008

Today the crew spend a leisurely Christmas Day aboard Windlass. In the photo to the left you can see the Captain's Christmas present to himself - a 12 foot inflatable kayak. It has an internal aluminum frame which makes it paddle like a hard bottomed kayak. He spend the afternoon kayaking around Marsh Harbor while Ginny and Roger sipped wine and emailed their friends and family photos on the new internet service they signed up for!!

Everyone took some time to skype with their family. Ginny and Roger were able to reach there grandkids. In honor of the Rickett's tradition, Ginny made a wonderful lasagna that evening. While it baked, the crew had a bottle of champagne and watched the sun set. The lasagna was stellar - with a little bit of linguica to spice it up. Unfortunately, the great food and plentiful wine too advantage of the crew and they were all in bed by 8pm!

The crew aboard S/V Wind-Lass wish all of our families and friends very Merry Christmas greetings from Marsh Harbour, Abacos, Bahamas. May you all enjoy this wonderful day! We are thinking of you all and wish you could be here with us!

The captain enjoying a glass of wine at sunset. Note the most excellent hat, purchased in Charleston from a lovely hat shop in the market district. The hat was chosen by a very forward, and charming daughter of the hat shop owner. She gladly told you what looked good - and what didn't!






Christmas sunset in Marsh Harbour - a view of our traveling friend Song of Pogo, a Freedom 40 schooner.

Green Turtle Cay and New Plymouth

Today we stayed at anchor in White Sound in Green Turtle Cay due to large seas at Whale Cay (see previous post). After a pot of coffee and a workout by the captain (his trainer would be so proud), the captain and crew dingied out into the Sea of Abaco towards Black Sound, where the settlement of New Plymouth is. Only getting Ginny and Roger a little wet (sorry!) we tied up at the public dock and took a walk around the small town. Out main goal was to buy ingredients for Christmas dinner - we are doing lasagna in honor of my families tradition (my mother always made the best lasagna at Christmas - and not we aren't Italian!).

Below are a few shots from the town, including some scarry guard animals...

A typical street



Looking out from town



The guard animals




And finally, what would Christmas Eve be with out caroling!!! On the morning cruisers net (this is a morning radio broadcast that the cruisers organize in the area - mainly weather and activities) everyone in Green Turtle was invited for caroling aboard the catamaran Peace, anchored outside of the sound. Peace is a custom build catamaran that moores in the summer in... East Greenwich, just down the cove from Wind-Lass! (small world). Only the captain ventured out, as the crew just got internet access and were busily looking up photos of the grand kids and skyping with them. It was a bit of a treacherous dingy ride as it is over a mile out and in a little bit of rough water - and at night! About 35 of our neighbors made it (Peace is over 20ft wide, so there was plenty of room). We ate pot luck appetizers, drank whatever we had brought with us and sang Christmas carols until the food and drink were gone and all of the songs sang. For those who know the captain, he becomes particularly vocal at Christmas time since those are the only songs he can remember. A little alcohol and some good cheer and he was in rare form - never did "Five golden rings" sound so deep and full.... Seriously, there were some a bit shy at singing and the captains jolliness and loud voice seemed to bring the meekest of them out!

We all saw Santa's sleigh tonight - a falling start drifted below a faint cloud to create a bright streak of light over the Abacos. We all had each other as our presents, though!

After a safe dingy ride back, the captain found the crew still interneting away! Bed early, as we have to leave at sun up to catch the high tide to get out of the harbor - going to try to make Marsh Harbor tomorrow (across the Sea of Abaco from Hope town - can't get into there until the next daylight high tide!). We will spend Christmas at anchor and be baking lasagna!

A picture of Peace as we entered Green Turtle:

Spanish Cay to Green Turtle Cay

So today we followed the many cruisers who leave Spanish Cay every day and headed south. Ideally we would like to go around Whale Cay and on to Hopetown - our final (near term) destination. Unfortunately, the Abacos are a chain of Islands with a barrier reef separating them from the Atlantic ocean ( I believe it is the largest or second largest reef in the northern hemisphere). For most of our travels we can sail within the islands and reefs in the Sea of Abaco - this is the bay between the outer islands/reefs and the main island of Abaco. For those who would like a look-see at the layout, here you go (arranged from north to south, each map connects with the one below - little overlap though):





The difficulty is that at a place called Whale Cay (top of second map), the water inside of the islands is too shallow for us to cross, and we must go outside of the island (Whale Cay) and back into the bay, crossing out into the reef area. The water channels are deep enough, but large swells from the Atlantic often break over the reef and the passage around Whale Cay. This is called a "Rage" and makes the route unpassable. From the picture at the top of the this posting you can see the rough weather on the passage from Spanish to Green Turtle - it was blowing 30 kts in 3ft chop - one of the bouncy-est rides since Annapolis!

Given the poor weather we decided to duck into Green Turtle Cay. There are two harbours, both of which with very shallow inlets. We decided to brave White Sound (the other harbour is.... Black Sound!) entrance. It is marked 5-6 ft. at low tide. Wind-Lass draws 5.5 ft, so we are cutting things close, especially when the depths are not very reliable! We went in 2 hrs before high tide (should be a foot or two above the low tide depths, i.e. 6-7ft.) Right as we were entering the depth sounder started dropping from 10 ft....8ft...7ft..6ft...5.8ft!!!! and then back to 7 ft. We followed the buoys into the harbour, however they end just before the channel opens up into the harbour. Luckaly, the boat ahead of us (which draws the same amount of water as us) ran aground to the right of the channel....so we decided to go to the left side! (They got off fine after about 15 min). We anchored in 10 ft of water in 25 kt winds with boats 100ft from one another. Good thing Wind-lass crew is experiienced in Block Island! (The anchoring there is windy, poor holding, and lots of wind too!!). It took us 3 tries, but we got it and settled in for the night...except for the captain who heard that there was a live band at the Green Turtle Club Resort that evening! The music was typical Island, upbeat tempo and simple rhythms - kind of like a steel band, but with vocals and electronic instruments. Lot's of dancing, but not by the captain - he seemed to straddle the age groups by 15 year (older and younger!).

Arrival in Spanish Cay, Bahamas

Today we arrived in Spanish Cay in the Abacos. You can check out aerial shots of many of the Abaco islands, just scroll down till you see Spanish Cay.

We left Great Sail Cay this morning around 7:30am, following the 14 boats that were anchored in the harbor (we were second to last - guess we were sleeping in!). The seas were very calm and the only excitement was a discrepancy between my electronic chart and the Abaco cruising charts. The cruising charts had a waypoint that appeared 3/4 mi from a big rock, on my chart that waypoint was .1 mi from the rock and in 3ft of water!! We rerouted and continued on. Attached are a few pictures of our travels that day.

We arrived around 2:30pm and cleared customs with a very pleasant customs officer - she was very busy since the good weather this past weekend lead to many boats crossing.

Spanish Cay Marnia is a typical Bahamian marina/resort. Simple docks, small pool, bar and restaurant, and water views everywhere!

The adventures of Dorthy continue and can be found on Ginny's Picassa page.

The evening ended with David chatting up the locals at the bar and Ginny and Roger relaxing on the boat.