Thursday, November 17, 2011
We arrived in St Augustine yesterday. Forecast is for heavy weather and were advised to take shelter. So here we are. The last five days have been a blur as I have learned that I am definitely not a sailor but I am a good sport. For the first few days my life was watch from 8 – 12 and then sleep, then watch from 8 – 12 and then sleep. I had a really good watch schedule as it let me get at least 6 hours sleep at a stretch which is a GREAT BIG deal. My problem was I did not feel so great so it was all I could do to cover my watch and then relief ahhh sleep. It did get better as we went on as your body gets used to it. I AM NOT COMPLAINING, just stating my view of the conditions. No one else seemed to have near the problems I did.
Our boat did fantastic. I wondered why she did not break into a million pieces from the pounding and beating that she took. We were into the wind and waves the whole way from Norfolk to here and the ride was most uncomfortable at times. It seems like when the forecast says winds diminishing and seas calming, they pick up like no other. Some times the seas were so calm you could hardly believe that you were 30 miles out in the ocean and other times they were like a roller coaster.
Lots of fantastic sights like
Deep blue water
Dolphins swimming with the boat (kirk took video’s and if we ever get a blog they will be on there)
First morning watch I saw two sea turtles and 2 snakes. Boy were the snakes fast zig zaggers across the water top.
Seeing dolphins swimming with the boat at night. They are so social. If they see you they come over to swim with you. At night they leave a stream behind them like a wake of a boat. In the blue water it is a light blue that is hard to describe.
We have had to motor due to the head winds and so we had to get fuel, so we went into bald head island. That was a interesting stop with the ferry boats zooming from one inlet to another. We got to rinse salt off the boat so that was great as the salt makes to the boat slippery as ice. Even the hand holds get so slick. Makes it tricky at night.
A few simple pleasures I noted in the log were
Only having salt on your food
Not flying off the head (toilet) unless you intended to
Clean unsalty clothes
Tricky things to deal with so far
Not jamming into things to avoid bruises ouch I have a couple of good ones
Shipping channels at night around busy ports
Fog so thick that you could barely see the end of the boat and you had to clean your glasses every 15 seconds AT NIGHT.
Watching a huge fishing boat disappear into the fog in a matter of 10 seconds.
Trusting the radar to get you around the fishing boats and ships
Inlets with breakers on both sides
Last night we crossed highway A1A to go to dinner for all the jimmy buffet fans
Sad day coming up as we are losing Elizabeth as a crew member. She has been fantastic and will be sorely missed. Not sure of where she is going to fly out of yet but pretty sure she is not going to cross the gulf stream to the Bahamas as that might stretch into thanksgiving and she wants to be home for big fam turkey day . thank you bif
Kevin and Theresa are sticking with us which is a God send. Theresa and I have had night watch together from 10 – 12 and it has been a hoot. One night I went face first off the seat onto the floor. ( I must have dozed off, bad bad bad) she makes boring times bearable and fun times a blast. Kevin is steady kevin and you just have to love him for that. He has much knowledge and is always willing to share and teach and so that is fantastic. Love and appreciate both of them so much.
You would not believe how busy you are when you aren’t sleeping. There are a ton of things that have to been done. A entry log for after each watch. That was a hard one for me in the first few days cause looking down and writing was not a good idea.
Time to work on laundry… ahhh clean clothes yeah!
Friday, November 18, 2011
We had a lovely visit with niece Christin Litty and her friend Zach last evening. Sat in the aft salon and visited drank wine and had great snacks prepared by Theresa. Then we went into town to get a bite.
This morning was a peaceful one. Outside was blowing 25 knots and kirk and I sat in the main salon and shared coffee and chatted. Perfect! We had to move the boat in 15 – 20 knot winds that had us pinned to a dock and that was a procedure, but with kirk and kevin’s expert planning we were able to get off and move to another slip. The dock hand or marina guy complimented me on my boat handling skills. Whoowee hot shot There is a festival going on in town and on the grounds here in the marina. We are going to town now. Nice town. Touristy but nice.
there are these crazy little shrimp here called pistol shrimp who snack, crackle and pop on the hull of the boat. At first I thought water was running and kirk and I spent some time looking for the water and then ole mr, smartie looked in I pad and found a post in a sailing blog about them. It was posted by evans starzinger. Small world. Thank you evans!
Saturday, November 19, 11
Beautiful morning this morning. Warm and sunny. We moved out to a mooring ball. I did not do such a hot job of getting of the pier this time. Had to do it all in reverse and the wind took the bow of the boat turning the stern back into the pier. No hits so no harm just a little toooooo close. Had to go through the bridge and the bridge tender called me skipper, I thought that was kinda funny. He then called kirk skipper when we got through. Is funny how you talk on the radio also. Roger over etc. whole new world and now more new language. Also kirk just told me that if we got into the inland waterway the rrrr changes. That is right on red returning. It has something to do with north and south.
I am pretty sure we are going to be heading out tomorrow. Oh fun in the ocean again.
Today kirk and I worked on fixing the port aft head. Actually he fixed and I cleaned all the parts he brought out. No room for more than one person. We are now waiting to see if our fix job did the trick. We poured some cranberry juice in the head to see if pink shows up anywhere.
We are waiting for the shuttle to pick us up. We are going to try to make it to the fort before it closes. It has been firing off it’s cannons all day. They are much louder outside of the bridge.
November 21, 11
We did have a lovely time in town. Saw the fort and that was most interesting. What was disturbing is how the natives were wiped out by the Spanish. The Indians were demolished. The same thing as in the us with the American Indian and from what I am reading the same thing in all these carribean islands. Is rather disturbing about humans. I guess not much as changed. Bummer.
We are now in west palm beach after a rough ride down from st Augustine. I was no help as I got sick and was in my bunk for 12 hours. It got really rough and I was not prepared and wham it hit me like a brick. I am going to start on bomine tonight to see if that helps as we may plan to cross the stream tomorrow. Today should be a get ready day. Hopefully we will find groceries and laundry and get stocked up for the Bahamas. We are anchored in front of mega yacht marina. Billions of dollars worth of yachts just sitting there. Whew is mind boggeling. I watching the sun come up and shine on the yachts and high rise buildings. Pretty. On the other side of where we are anchored (lake worth) are fancy homes and I believe a golf course. Luscious green, palm trees fancy. We saw huge (90 ft) fishing boats heading out of the inlet on our way in.
Kevin and Theresa continue to be saints and are still with us.
Everyone was exhausted last night so we had early dinner and to bed. In fact we were all a little punchy. So there was silly laughter which is good.
Even in this busy skinny channel we are in the water is beautiful. I am so sorry for our bay
Can’t work on the blog cause no wifi. Soon.
November 22, 2011
Still in west palm beach. Water is still beautiful. That is a plus. Unfortunately we have a rub mark on the dingy that caused an issue in the am, we then decided that we would cross the gulf stream tomorrow (Wednesday) as it looked like our best chance for who know how long. then kevin and Theresa decided to stay to cross the stream with us and poor kevin was on the phone getting tickets out of Bahamas for over two hours. Much stress in the am.
We then all set out to find groceries and get rid of trash. That was a hoot. We landed on the fancy side of the channel where a publix grocery store was to be carrying our trash. Theresa had a big black bag of trash and I had a little one. At one point she turned and asked me if she looked like a bag lady. We found a trash can and got rid of trash only to find the publix was not opened yet. Mission only partly successful. So back to the dinghy where kevin and kirk were patiently waiting and more exploring down the intercoastal waterway in search of groceries. We found a beautiful new marina that would have been lovely to stay if we had only known about it. Problem was two skinny bridges with lots of current. Was a ride going under them in the dinghy. We hiked about 6 blocks, found a grocery store bought supplies and then carried them all back to the boat. Got ice at this beautiful marina and back to the boat. Had a great dinner on the boat.
November 23. 2011
We made it. Pinch kirk, thank kevin and Theresa for hanging in there with us.
This was a great day. The sail across the gulf stream was fantastic. Best sail we have had. Even had the sail up. Saw tons of flying fish. They are a blast to watch. The water was that deep blue that you can’t describe. Got into our slip at old bahama bay marina, kirk checked us in through customs and immigration and we were set. Washed some of the salt off the boat and then set off down the beach ah beautiful of course I had to put my feet in the clear water with fish and crabs and conch and starfish (heaven) to the beach bar to have a celebration rum drink. Came back to boat cause of bugs and needed some food to soak up booze then to dinner and bed. Kirk was so tired we thought he was going to fall asleep at the restaurant.
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