Southern Hospitality

We, of course, stopped in Belhaven, North Carolina, one of our favorites.  We were again rewarded with the kindness of strangers.  On our way to the Food Lion supermarket, which by our standards is a short walk, we were offered and accepted a ride.  We were walking with a French Canadian couple, so three of us rode in the back of his pickup truck.  The next morning, we were off to fill a propane tank. Walking through town, we were met on the street by a guy who offered us his car.  Since the propane business was a pretty good distance away and the tank would be heavy on the return trip, we gladly accepted his car keys.  Arriving at the propane facility, we were disappointed to learn no one was available to fill our tank.  Just as we were turning away, a propane delivery truck returned.  The driver had seen us walking through town and returned to help us out.

We finally tied up at the town docks in Elizabeth City.  (Last fall, it was too crowded) This, beyond any doubt, is the most cruiser-friendly stop on the entire ICW.  We were greeted by Sam. There is always a greeter waiting during the day.  After getting settled, Sam made sure we knew what was available.  Our highlight for the afternoon was visiting the museum.  This is a large modern building dedicated to the history of the Albemarle Sound and the surrounding area.  It is well done and recommended for anyone visiting the area.  Like the town dock, it is free.  At 4:30 pm, we were invited to a wine and cheese party, which Elizabeth City is famous for.  The mayor joined us, along with the tourism staff and the Rose Buddies.  While they do this every night when there are at least 5 or 6 boats, they made us feel very special.  Another tradition is that each woman is given a rose, and pictured is Linda receiving her rose from the mayor.

Visiting Bob And Hattie, Ocean Isle, NC

We stopped at a marina at Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach, the first time in a marina since early December.  This is a popular stop as it is in the heart of a tourist area with outlet stores, restaurants, and the House of Blues and Alabama theaters immediately nearby.  While all interesting, our purpose was to stop near my cousin Bob's home in Ocean Isle, North Carolina.  We had not seen Bob in many years and had never met his wife, Hattie.  They drove down the 15 or 20 miles to pick us up so we could spend the day together.  We had a wonderful time catching up.  While in Ocean Isle, we found a marina within about a mile of their home. It is a stack and store place for small power boats, but they have a transient dock that will accommodate us.  We have made plans and are already looking forward to stopping by to see them again in the fall.

Georgia Georgia

We are working our way north at a leisurely pace, which is about 30 miles each weekday. We completed the entire ICW through Georgia for the first time. This completes for us all of the ICW between Norfolk and Fort Lauderdale. In Georgia, we have to travel during mid-tide and higher, since the tidal range is 8-9 feet. With our short travel days, we just plan around the tide table. We have had to deal with an onslaught of No-See-Ums. These are particularly nasty insects since the screens that keep out almost all pests are not fine enough to stop the No-See-Ums. Any screen fine enough to stop them will also stop airflow. It has been rare for us to encounter insects, so we are not really complaining.

The wonderful aspect of the Georgia coast is that it is mostly undeveloped. Much of it is as pictured. This picture was taken at high tide.

Return To The US

We had planned a return from the Abacos to Port Canaveral, which would have saved a couple of days on the ICW. Our backup plan, should the conditions deteriorate, would be Fort Pierce. We left Great Sale Cay at 4:00 am, and with strong breezes, we were making a steady 7 1/2 knots. We usually assume a speed of 5 1/2 to 6 knots when planning our trip. As we approached the east wall of the Gulf Stream, we realized that, with our good speed and the added benefit of the Gulf Stream current, we would arrive at Port Canaveral too soon, and the lock would not be open. We decided to divert to Fort Pierce. Even though we would arrive at night, we had been there before and felt we could navigate to our anchorage. We did get safely anchored, but it was a challenge, to say the least. None of the day marks on the short stretch of the ICW were lighted, and the side channel was also not lighted. With our flashlight and a careful watch of the depth, we inched our way in without hitting anything or running aground. After several months of wide open seas, it feels like walking on a rail, navigating the ICW. We intend to stay on the ICW all the way north this spring. There are parts of Georgia we have not covered, and some stops we would like to explore a little more now that we have some time.

We used both current analysis and sea surface temperature to plan our crossing route.

Pictured is the sea current analysis we used to identify the location of the Gulf Stream. The color scale ranges from blue, indicating no or very little current, to bright orange, indicating current over 3 knots.

Passing Through the Abacos

We are making a quick pass through the Abacos, revisiting our favorite spots from last year.

Pete's Pub and Gallery

New paint on Hope Town Lighthouse

Weather Forecasting

In the US, numerous weather resources are readily available. For the mariner, it is as easy as tuning the VHF radio to the nearest NOAA weather station. NOAA continuously broadcasts marine and other weather products. Once you leave the US, it is a whole different story. Our primary means of obtaining accurate, reliable weather information is our SSB radio. Chris Parker provides weather and routing information each morning (except Sundays) for the Bahamas and the entire Caribbean. Chris is a sailor and broadcasts from his Morgan 34 'Bel Ami' in Florida. Equally important to us are our GRIB (Gridded Binary Data) files, which we download daily for our geographic area. These are data files from forecasting models. We use the GFS (Global Forecasting System), which is NOAA's forecasting model. There are other models we sometimes use, such as WW3, which forecasts ocean wave dynamics. We view this data with GRIB Explorer from OCENS. A GRIB file contains a lot of data, and presentation is important for the analysis. We download barometric pressure, wind, wave, and precipitation at 6-hour intervals for the next few days, usually five. There are longer forecast time frames, but the accuracy deteriorates significantly. With Chris Parker's forecast, particularly his synoptic forecast, and the GRIB files, we usually have a high confidence level in the forecast for the next 2 - 3 days. One of the nice benefits of weather forecasting is that you can evaluate forecast accuracy fairly quickly.


The screen print of a recent GRIB file shows the Abacos, outlined in white. Our position is the red cross. Wind barbs show the wind direction and speed at 2:00 pm. The solid lines are barometric pressure, and the dashed lines are wave height.

Visiting Eleuthera

We returned to Warderick Wells, moving about 28 miles south of Normans Cay after saying farewell to Warren and Karen. With the forecasted wind direction, we wanted to improve our wind angle for the crossing to Eleuthera. The move paid off big time. We turned the engine off as soon as we cleared the cut and had a wonderful sail all the way over until we were on the bank at Eleuthera. Every place we visit is unique. Eleuthera receives far fewer visiting cruisers and, therefore, cruisers are not really part of its economy, as is the case with many of the islands. We made three overnight stops on Eleuthera. Our plan was to stop at Spanish Wells, just north of Eleuthera, but with a forecast of approaching high winds, we did not want to get pinned down. Near Spanish Wells is Royal Island with a great anchorage, but the island is private. There really are no good anchorages in the crowded harbor at Spanish Wells. Not wanting to spend a week on the boat waiting on the weather at Royal Island, we pushed on, and at that, we were cutting it close. The winds were forecast to build in the afternoon and to be almost directly on our nose. We left early and pushed hard, and the winds came in exactly as predicted, but we arrived at Little Harbour at our planned time, which was near high tide. The passage into Little Harbour can be challenging, and for us, the waves were breaking about halfway across the cut, but we had no difficulty. We wanted high tide so we could enter the protected harbour just inside the cut. We saw a low reading of 5'7", which isn't too bad for us. We will have to leave on a high tide as well. It is great to come back to familiar territory. Pete's Pub is at Little Harbour and is one of our favorites. This is a great place to wait for fairer winds.

McDuffs on Normans Cay  (Warren)

Norm made friends with this little guy on his arm.

Not everyone wanted to be so close.

As it turned out, he didn't want to visit with anyone else anyway

(at Pirates Lair, Warderick Wells)

Every town of any size in the Bahamas has a BaTelCo tower for communications. Rock Sound, Eleuthera

Methodist Church - Rock Sound, Eleuthera 

very friendly

Last Days In Exumas

Picking up plastic - the ocean side of all the cays is awash in plastic - this is on Shroud Cay in the Exuma Land and Sea Park

Trash accumulated for park rangers to haul away.

The entire center of Shroud Cay is mangroves with some channels accessible by dinghy during high tide - Karen stepping over mangrove roots while returning to the dinghy

Plane wreck at Normans Cay

Starting The Return Trip

We are working our way back up the Exuma chain. Our plan is to cross to Eleuthera, explore there, and then head north to the Abacos to revisit the places we spent time at last season. We stopped one more time at Black Point Settlement, our favorite destination in the Exumas. On Saturday, the primary school held a fundraising fair, with food, music, and games. Karen from Sand Castle and Norm partnered up in the egg-throwing contest and did quite well, but were no match for the Bahamians. Sunday morning, we attended church services at a Baptist church. While the congregation was small, you would never know it from the beautiful sound they generate. We felt so welcomed there. Absolutely everyone made a point to greet us with either a handshake or a hug.

Ariel at Exuma Land and Sea Park

Feeding Time

Big Majors Spot

A group of pigs lives on a small beach on Big Majors Spot. These are just ordinary domestic farm pigs, but they are accustomed to being fed by the cruisers. As you approach the beach, they come out to see what treats you have. We offered bananas and sweet potatoes. They get a little excited and act like they will climb into the dinghy. Once they know the treats are gone, they return to the beach to lie in the sand and wait for the next feeding.

Diane (staying at a safer distance), 

Staniel Cay

At Staniel Cay is Thunderball Cave, after which the James Bond movie was named. At low water, you can enter the cave without diving under. At high water, it is just a short stretch through the entrance. The fish expect to be fed. The fish pictured were impatient for me to open the ziplock bag to release their food. It only took seconds for them to devour all the food I brought.

Really Busy In George Town

We have had quite a change of pace since returning to George Town. We met Gerald and Diane off Thyme Off from Ottawa, and through them, Marty and Debbie off Bay Pelican from Chicago. The six of us have been almost inseparable, sharing meals and playing dominoes on each other's boats in the evening and participating in activities during the day. We have taken walks ashore, spent time at Volleyball Beach, tried different restaurants for lunch, got engaged in French Day, sponsored by the French Canadians, and learned how to play Bocce Ball. One evening, we had an ABBA night, watching and enjoying an ABBA DVD together. Marty and Deb are heading south to Trinidad this season, so we parted with them. Gerald and Diane need to be in Nassau toward the end of the month to pick up her brother, so we decided to travel back up the Exuma chain with them for a while before returning to George Town for the beginning of the Cruisers Regatta. As of this writing, we are at Black Point Settlement. It was good to see Lorraine again and introduce Gerald and Diane to her. We were her only guests for dinner last night, so she decorated our table for a one-day late Valentine's dinner.

Diane, Marty, Gerald

Willie Rolle

Willie's Garden of Eden

Loraine at Loraine's Cafe

Gerald announces sundown on the conch (being a trumpet player, he is very good)

After gracefully entering the dinghy

French Day Gerald and Diane

Bocce Ball

French Day

Linda, Norm, Debbie, Marty, Diane, Gerald

Yoga on the beach each morning (not shown - guys just hanging out)

Gone Fishing

Until very recently, we did not have fishing gear aboard. Norm wasn't sure what he needed or wanted, so he procrastinated for over a year. The biggest obstacle is that there is no room on the stern to set up a trolling rod and little spare room aboard to store fishing equipment. Shortly after we arrived in George Town, Norm attended a fishing seminar put on by a cruiser who was very knowledgeable on the subject. This really filled some huge knowledge gaps for him and inspired him to get moving. In George Town, the prices on the fishing gear, as with most everything else, were too much. He found the fishing gear prices at a marine supply store on Long Island to be comparable to US prices and 1/3 to 1/2 less than in George Town and Nassau. He had decided, given our cluttered stern situation and otherwise limited space aboard, to go with a Cuban YoYo, which is a hand line. Our first opportunity to use the new gear was on our return from the northern tip of Long Island to George Town. This route crosses very deep water where the fishing is best. We had our line out for about one hour before we got a hit. We were under sail at about 7 1/2 knots, so first we had to slow the boat down. We rolled in the jib and then turned slightly into the wind. The Mahi Mahi on our line was absolutely beautiful, swimming and fighting in the crystal clear water. As soon as a Mahi Mahi is pulled from the water, they lose their beautiful colors.

We were traveling with Demon Du Midi, so we immediately invited them to a fish dinner. They subsequently caught a smaller Mahi Mahi. It was an all-around good day of sailing and fishing, finished with an excellent dinner and good company.

Exploring Long Island

We are exploring Long Island with Remy and Dominique from Demon Du Midi and Brian and Jan from Wind Chaser. We are taking advantage of a long stretch of good weather without west winds, as there really isn't any protection from the southwest in particular. We traveled as far south on the west side of Long Island as reasonably possible with our draft. We have been in Thompson Bay near Salt Pond for several days. It is a beautiful location. We rented a van with Demon Du Midi and Wind Chaser to explore the entire island. Long Island is about 80 miles long and about 4 miles wide. At our current location, we are below the Tropic of Cancer, so we are now in the tropics.

Roadside lunch spot

Cave just off the beach in Salt Pond - yes, they are bats.

Old Spanish Church - thought to have been built by Spanish settlers in the 1700's

St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church - built by Father Jerome after he converted to Catholicism

Brian and  Dominique

Remy and Brian are collecting coconuts