West End, Grand Bahama Island, part II

January 22, 2007

OK, so we finally made it to the Bahamas. Yipee!!! The crossing was bumpier than expected, with somewhat confused seas, so we ended up motorsailing the whole way. All in all, the trip took us almost exactly 12 hours, 2 hours less than we had expected.

When we arrived Hans tidied up the boat and Kristen went ashore to do the necessary paperwork associated with clearing in two people, one sailboat, one cat (who eats for two), one dingy, and two bicycles. (Yes, we all now have official Bahamian cruising permits, even the bikes).


sailing along in 600 meters/1800 feet of water.... kind of makes you think twice about going for a swim.




Land Ho!

After some nice showers to wash off the salt, we treated ourselves to a nice dinner out here at the Bahama Bay Marina where we are spending the night. Now we're off to bed, (after all, it's already 8.30pm!) Tomorrow we'll head across the Little Bahama Bank to either Great Sale Cay or Grand Cays.

Parents and other intrested parties: It is unlikely that we'll have phone or email access for the next couple days or so. Don't worry, we'll be in touch as soon as practically possible. There is a cold front moving through the area around Thursday or so, so we might be anchored at some deserted Cay for a few days waiting for the wind to die down.


Kristen takes the yellow quarantee flag down and hoists the Bahamian courtesy flag in its place. The "Q" flag is flown by a vessel that has not yet cleared customs and immigration.

Bahamian courtesy flag flying from Whisper's spreader

West End, Grand Bahama Island

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we made it across safely. We left at 4 am and got in at around 4pm. The trip was uneventful, winds were 15-20 knots from the southeast, shifting to the south, and seas were about 4-6 feet. We will write a more complete update later.

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

January 21, 2007

Good Luck Patriots!

We've had an interesting time in Ft. Lauderdale over the past week and a half. We've spent the majority of our time running back and forth between Sailorman, West Marine and the boat working on various projects and getting a new (to us) SSB transceiver installed. On Thursday we pulled the anchor up and went for a sail on the ocean to make a practice run through the inlet in the daylight and to test out our self-steering at various points of sail. We were by far the smallest boat out there and our major obstacle was not the 4 foot northerly swells but the seemingly 8 foot waves put out by wakes of overtaking and passing mega-yachts.

The 17th Street Bridge in Ft. Lauderdale.

A cruise ship at dock in Ft. Lauderdale.

When we returned to our anchorage we were greeted by the Ft. Lauderdale Police--marine division, who informed us of the 24-hour anchoring restriction on the waterway in Ft. Lauderdale. We were prepared for them and Kristen waved a new law passed by Jeb Bush which overrules any anchoring restrictions for non-liveaboard boats. We then engaged in a lively discussions on semantics and, as usual, you can't argue with the police, so we moved the boat. On their behalf, they were just doing their job as their chief requires of them, and they were as agreeable as they could be in that situation. We are now staying at a mooring ball at Las Olas Municipal Marina where we have full use of showers, internet and an on-site laundromat. Luxury! (at a price, of course...).

It is unfortunate that Ft. Lauderdale is so unfriendly to cruising sailboats. It boasts that it is the "Boating Capital of the World," yet the marinas are all priced extremely high and there are only 10 mooring balls that cost $30 a night (most mooring balls along the east coast are $10-15 with $20 in Annapolis, although you can anchor as long as you want in Annapolis). The city itself is wonderful for any kind of boat because the saying is true "if you need something for your boat, and you can't find it in Ft. Lauderdale, then it doesn't exist." It is just a shame that the most useful city in terms of boating on the eastern seaboard also is the most inaccessible and most inhospitable city for all but the largest mega-yachts, powerboats and sportfishing boats.

All of our Ft. Lauderdale woes, however, will soon come to pass. We are leaving for the Bahamas on Monday morning at 1AM! Yes, just 14.5 hours from now! The winds are steadily shifting to the south right now and will blow from the southeast and then the south at 10-15 knots while we are out on the water. The seas are forecast to be 2-4 feet. From everything we've read, it appears to be ideal conditions for the crossing. Our first stop is Old Bahama Bay Marina in West End where we'll spend a night at the marina, check in with customs and then proceed onwards across to the deserted cays we've been looking forward to!


Hans pre-haircut, acting very nervous.


Hans mid-haircut.

Post-haircut.

Kristen at work sorting out all the spares on Whisper.

Key Lime Pie

January 21, 2007

Key Lime Pie is the pride of Florida bakers; it is also Mandy Brown's (SnowDay co-captain) favorite dessert. On our way to Ft. Lauderdale with Snow Day, almost two weeks ago, we stopped in Lantana and all enjoyed the best Key Lime Pie in Florida (as featured in Bon Apetit magazine). Well, on Friday, we rented a car to make our final provisioning runs, and we just had to provision our stomaches with some more Key Lime Pie. Mandy, we thought of you...don't you wish you were going to the Abacos so you could have stayed with us in Ft. Lauderdale?



mmmmm...



mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!



mmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Going north is not such a bad idea, sometimes!

Skype

We've downloaded Skype onto the computer with hopes that it will provide us with free phone calls to family and friends. However on the first try, it appears that we don't have a strong enough internet connection, which seems odd since we're at an internet cafe. The guinea pig was Kristen's sister, Angela, and she got 3 hang-ups and then 2 10 second phone "conversations" with Kristen, before the connection quit.
So, for all the skype users out there, is this our connection giving us difficulties, or is there some skype trick that we need to learn? I called the 800 number for UPS to test it and I was able to get a 30 second phone call.

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

January 15, 2007

It looks like we’ll be stuck here in sunny Ft. Lauderdale for at least another week waiting for a good weather window to cross to the Bahamas. Snow Day weighed anchor yesterday morning towards Miami and Key Largo where they’ll cross to the Exumas. We’ll all meet up again on an deserted cay somewhere in the Bahamas. We’ll magically have frozen pina coladas and cold key lime pie when we arrive! Until then…fair winds & following seas. It will definitely be a little lonely without Snow Day and her crew, we’ll miss them tons.


Two iguanas sunning themselves on a dock. These iguanas are wild and everywhere...of course we didn't notice them until Matthew and Abbey pointed them out to us.

The crew of Snow Day dinghying to town and checking out the iguanas. Abbey and Matthew have taken over the duties of Captain for the dinghy, including getting the engine started (it's not a turn-key operation, but a pull-start, like a lawnmower), no easy job and mighty impressive for an 8 and 10 year old!


Kit Kat "helping"


Snow Day weighing anchor en route to Miami. Bon Voyage!

Goodbye Snow Day, see you soon!

Silver Surfer

Silver Surfer (sil-vur sur-fur), noun. Gray-haired, slightly immobile individual, male or female, of the species homo-sapiens, engaged in the practice of operating small inflatable watercraft while in the upright position, utilizing the left hand for bracing and the right hand for operation of the craft. (see illustration below, Plate 3.7)

First observed in their natural habitat in Vero Beach, Florida, Silver Surfers have been reported along the eastern seaboard of the United States, extending into the Bahamas and the West Indies. It is suspected this practice evolved from the sub-species’ desire to remain dry whilst powering their vessels over bodies of water at low speeds. Scientists suspect that the life-span of this sub-species will be short since the behaviour itself will eventually result in capsizings and drownings.



Plate 3.7 Silver Surfer, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, sighted 15 January 2007 (note the distinctive gray markings near the head which gives the sub-species its name).

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

*Kristen*
I'm sitting at Southport Raw Bar in Ft. Laurderdale. I finally got fed up trying to get wifi on the boat and took it to the bar. We're on the outskirts of Ft. Lauderdale, about a 10 minute dinghy ride to this bar which has a dinghy dock and is also close to a grocery store and marine stores. On Tuesday we'll rent a car to drive up to Palm Beach to get the last of our mail and to make some final food provisioning runs. Snow Day is leaving to head further south tomorrow morning so we'll part ways until we meet again somewhere in the Bahamas. Until we get our weather window, we'll be messing around on the boat, working on odd projects and twiddling our fingers until the wind blows gently from the south.
Keep checking the blog and soon the pictures will be of coral heads showing through aquamarine waters (if you want those pictures now, check out Voila's blog! Maybe, just maybe, we'll meet them in the Abacos!).

Lantana to Ft. Lauderdale (or, A tour of new mansion on the waterway)

January 10, 2007


*Jan. 13--*Happy Birthday Roger!!* (Hans' dad)

I finally got a connection long enough to load pictures!*

We left Lantana, Florida this morning at 7:45 AM, ready for our day of 14 bridges, the majority of which are restricted in their opening times. We calculated our speed and the distance between the bridges so we could avoid circling around just north of bridges waiting for the next opening. We got most of the timings right, with an exception 7.5 mph push from Boris to make the last bridge and we dropped our anchor at 2:30 PM in Middle River, on the north end of Ft. Lauderdale. Snow Day (and two other cruising boats arrived) shortly thereafter. We hope to stay here until the next weather window when we can cross to the Bahamas, probably in one week, although we’re unsure if there are anchoring restrictions here. I guess we’ll find out when the police boat pulls up alongside!

Our trip today took us through a highly developed section of the ICW. Below are some photos displaying the architectural styles along the way. Not exactly our cup of tea for a house, but probably pretty comfortable inside. Kristen approves of most of the pool/tiki bar/lounge chair area/tropical garden landscaping. Some of the houses were so big that they we couldn’t tell if they were hotels or single-family compounds. Matthew, on Snow Day, was trying to guess how long it would take to walk from one end of the house to the other.








It's not just the houses, the condos are massive too!

Before we leave we still have a few projects that we’d like to finish and also a little shopping to do. On Friday we’re planning on going to Bluewater Charts to stock up on guide books and charts of the Caribbean that we think we’ll need in the next year or so. We’re both very excited for that shopping expedition, Bluewater Charts will be excited to see us no doubt, however our checkbook will groan!


The Goodyear Blimp!




Kristen and Hans hamming for the camera while steering. Hans in his favorite hat and Kristen in her new John Deere t-shirt.

Lantana, Florida

January 9, 2007



Some scenes from manicured Palm Beach. Lots of Palm trees, lots of big houses, lots of fancy cars.

We’ve been spending the last couple days in Palm Beach, Florida where we’ve met quite a few letters and packages in the mail. Snow Day joined us on Saturday, however we were kicked out by the Palm Beach Police yesterday afternoon for anchoring in a “unmarked, secondary channel, not on all charts but, nonetheless, still a channel where anchoring is prohibited.” (read: bogus). Well, the riff-raff was kicked out of Palm Beach and we’ve relocated to Lantana, which has a great tiki bar and a key lime pie which was written up in the January 2007 issue of Bon Apetit magazine. It was delicious. Not too rich, not too sweet, perfect. We’ll arrive in Fort Lauderdale tomorrow afternoon where we’ll do final outfitting and work on all those pesky projects. On Monday we’ll rent a car to go back up to Palm Beach to get our final mail and also run around town to the grocery store and various marine chandleries.






drum roll...everyone make their appointments at Salon Ericsson. After 2+ months of dealing with tangled, knotty hair, Kristen was very brave and let Hans cut off a good 4 inches. It came out fairly well, just a little uneven in places.

Last night we invited Matthew and Abbie over for hot dogs and a sleep-over. We pigged out on hot-dogs and nachos and then played a game of pictionary. Around 10PM we were all worn out so we turned out the lights and went to bed. Both Abbie and Kristen woke up once in the night to the sound of sirens, but besides that, everyone slept well. Breakfast by Hans was stellar: hot chocolate, toast with Nutella and pop-tarts. He wanted to make sure everyone got their USDA recommended daily allowance of sugar!

The sleep-over funnies:



Matthew & Abbie jammed their faces in the mainsheet block & tackle to look scary.





The sleepy crew trying to wake up in the morning. Here's an idea: sugar will help!

Palm Beach, Florida

January 6, 2007

Is there such a thing as a perfect anchorage? Probably…probably somewhere in the south Pacific. But we’ve found a great anchorage here in Palm Beach. We’re the only boat here, it’s in a no-wake zone so it’s pretty calm, we row the dinghy about 3 minutes to land it on a small beach and tie off to a palm tree, and then it’s just a 5 minute walk to the grocery store, 7 to the Post Office and 10 to the beach! We’re only protected from South and East winds, so when the wind turns to the north on Tuesday, it will probably be a little rough.

Palm Beach is exactly how I (Kristen) imagined it to be: huge houses, fancy condos, luxury cars, clean streets, manicured lawns, etc. Yesterday we walked to the beach, picked up some mail at the PO and then returned to the boat to start on the list of projects. Hans installed speakers in the cabin (yippee!), Kristen replaced the leaky fresh and salt-water faucets with new, hopefully dry, faucets, Hans started working on new lines for the outhaul and Kristen started working on the new preventer system (both jobs required eye-splicing double-braid line which is a skill neither of us are close to mastering!). Our project list doesn’t seem *too* long, and we’re steadily working our way down the list. We’ll be looking out for Snow Day today in hopes they arrive in Palm Beach this afternoon.


Yet again, kitkat hard at work.

Kristen dancing to the music coming from the new speakers.



Ice cream, ice cream, ice cream! KC & Dan sent us an ice cream making ball--our first batch was raspberry. It was sooooo good! Then, for good measure, we made rum/pineapple juice slushies.

Meow meow, MEOW! (part 2)

Greetings from purgatory. Yes, I was able to get my mitts on the computer again while they were motoring through bumpy seas. Didn’t they know I was trying to get my daily 23 and 1/2 hours of beauty rest? Oh well, at least I get a chance to vent my many frustrations. They’ve taken to locking up my food by duct taping the locker shut, which seems very inefficient since I was doing a very good job at opening the lockers and feeding myself before. I’m still very hungry all the time and seem to get in a lot of trouble when I decide to enrich my diet with calcium from the stick of butter that is sometimes left unattended. If my food woes aren’t enough to keep me unhappy, we spent the last week in the company of two, yes TWO, dogs and a cat. Humph. The dogs seemed to be rather unthreatening and stupid (typical canines), but the cat, however, was much larger and male and had a way of yelling at me that I did not appreciate. The only good thing that has happened in the past week, is that they have decided to leave the boat open while they are away so I can explore my dominion as I wish. They are threatening me with an ocean passage but the only way this furry body is crossing any oceans is in first class on a 747. Negotiations are underway. Please, if you get this message, send food. I’m hungry.

Palm Beach, Florida

January 4, 2007

Greetings from Palm Beach, Florida! We’ve made it to our jumping-off point for the Bahamas after a full day of motoring from Fort Pierce. Since we have a shallow draft, we were able to anchor in a spot which doesn’t seem to be used by other people, but is perfect for us. There are a couple sandy beach areas to dock the dinghy, and it is only a couple blocks from the Post Office and the downtown Palm Beach area. Today’s trip was rather rough as we were motoring directly into 10+ knot winds with an opposing current, creating rough seas. Our trusty Beta engine, Boris, kept on chugging and we arrived in Palm Beach shortly after 5PM. Snow Day will be a couple days behind us as they weren’t entirely ready to leave Vero Beach yesterday, but we’ll all meet up again in Palm Beach in a couple days. Our trip today took us through highly developed portions of the waterway with massive houses and equally impressive yards and boats docked alongside. The boat traffic picked up and we had to contend with the wakes of many passing and overtaking powerboats and “mega-yachts.” We also passed under at least five opening bridges which was tricky at times with the strong currents and heavy boat traffic. We’ll make a run to the PO tomorrow and start our preparations for the Bahamas!



Here is a selection of monstrous homes (and a yacht) along the Florida ICW








The lighthouse at Jupiter Inlet


Kristen on our new ratlines

KitKat hard at work

Kristen hard at work (at making the new ratlines)

Sunset in Palm Beach, FL