From Snead Island to Nassau, Bahamas

Our big adventure really took off on December 2nd, as on the first day away from the marina, we only we went up to Snead Island, so we could get an early start the next morning to make our destination of Venice, Florida. We got up at day break, the wind was pretty strong, but we went anyways. As soon as we left the protection of the river, the waves started building, and we got tossed around a fair bit. But not knowing any better, we kept going. I got a bit seasick, not just from the motion, but I guess from nerves as well, as I was scared. Come to think of it, I been scared for most of the trip down, but that comes with the territory. "No pain no gain" , or "no scare no sail"!  After a few hours, things got a bit more comfortable, less wind, an we started to enjoy the sailing. Sometime during this first day at sea, a pod of dolphins came to join us and swam alongside the boat, a beautiful sight to see. We overnighted at a marina in Venice, as there were no proper anchoring spots. Next day we moved on down the coast on the Gulf of Mexico, our destination Charlotte Harbour. We anchored on the ocean off off a beautiful beach, nobody around, we were all alone. We had been listening to the weather, and knew that there was a "weather window" coming up soon to cross the gulf stream. We felt we needed to get to Marathon, Florida Keys, sooner than later, so we could catch this window. So we decided to dare our very first overnight passage. (remember, it get's dark at night). We sailed from Charlotte Harbour to Marathon in about 29 hours. We had to time our arrival at the Seven Mile bridge just right (this bridge is near Marathon connecting the various Keys down towards Key West), we needed daylight and a low tide, so we would have enough clearance to go through. Our mast is 62 feet, clearance is 65, should be enough. 
Sailing through the night was nice, but makes you real tired. We took two hour "watches" each, made it through Seven Mile Bridge with no issues and arrived at Marathon around noon. We refilled with diesel, and then took a bit of a rest. We thought we would be in Marathon for a while, but it turns out, our "window" was right in front of us, and we had to decide when we wanted to tackle the oh so scary Gulf Stream. We left the next day at noon, with our next destination of Cat Cay, in the Bahamas. Go ahead, look it up, I dare you! It's just a fleck of a place in the middle of the ocean, not even the "real" Bahamas yet. 
The crossing, as everyone calls it, went well, with a few minor inconveniences. For a couple of hours during the early part of the night, we got some fairly large rollers (waves) hitting the side of our boat. (It's called on the beam of the boat). Those rollers tossed some stuff around, although I had stowed better than on the first day, still not good enough. It's all a learning curve, and I am getting there. But again, after a few hours it all calmed down and we had a very pleasant night. We arrived at Cat Cay tired, so after checking in with customs and getting our clearance, we decided to take the next day off to recuperate. Bad decision!
The next night, the cold front we successfully avoided in the Gulf Stream, had caught up with us. 5 AM, we woke to see our anchor had dragged, in direction of shore, towards a rock wall. We quickly pulled anchor up, drove out a bit further, tried to set anchor again, waiting and watching, but the winds were very strong and we did not hold. We asked the marina if we could have a birth, but Cat Cay is a private Club and we were send packing. Another boat asked if they could buy diesel, they were sent packing, too. Warren said we were going to go back through the cut (a cut is a small opening between two Cays) and find shelter on the other side of the island. I was very scared, mostly of going through the cut. The waves were large, the wind was howling, gust up to and over 30 knts! We made it through no problem, and found a very good spot, the anchor held and we waited for 3 days for better weather. No internet, no cell, no nothing. (But lots of food, water, and wine). Hardest was not being able to contact family to let them know we were safe. Once the weather improved, we took off towards Nassau, a two day trip from Cat Cay. We are now here inside Nassau Harbour, at anchor, right across from the famous Atlantis hotel. The next week or so we are relaxing, catching up with boat cleaning, emails, blog, laundry, and excursions around Nassau. Once the weather looks right, we will head off towards the Exumas, more about that in my next post!

First day out on the open ocean, rough weather, and not stowed properly, my laundry soap fell and spilled. Boy did the boat smell good! Thankfully it happened in the "head" (wash room)

Our chart plotters, a Garmin and a B&G. We also have as back up two ipads, and several stand alone GPS's. You can never have enough back-up!

 

The sun is setting, soon it will be dark and we are sailing through the night. We need those instruments!

Our first dinner on passage. I prepared a double portion of spaghetti the day before, so all I had to do is warm them up. Worst case, we could have eaten them cold!

Seven Mile Bridge, I was glad to see daylight, and happy once we were through.

Cat Cay, just a little speck within a big, large ocean

Taking down the "yellow courtesy flag" (when entering foreign waters you put up the yellow flag until you have been officially cleared into the country) and putting up the Bahamas flag. We are officially in!!!

And now we celebrate! We are very proud, made it all the way from Palmetto down the Gulf and across the Gulf Stream....

Approaching Nassau Harbour, you can see the cruise ships from a few miles out...

...and here we are anchored safely inside Nassau Harbour, right in front of Atlantis!

Thanks for following along, see you next post!

Last days in the marina and the christening of s/v BETULA

The big push towards December 1st was on, that's the date we were planning on leaving Regatta Point Marina. But first we needed to test our at anchor systems, speak: the anchor, the battery system, water supply and so on. We decided to sail up to Snead Island, it's still on the Manatee River just before Tampa Bay, and so off we went. The hardest part is always leaving the slip, but Warren is doing pretty good by now, and off we went. Once at Snead Island, we pretended to be "real cruisers", so we lowered the dinghy and went for an excursion right on Snead Island. We found a wonderful park, very ancient, with beautiful trees, so we went for a nice long walk, the first "leasure time" we had since arriving in Florida. Once back on the boat, we enjoyed a sensational sunset, a very peaceful night at anchor, and up early the next morning to catch the sunrise. We were quite pleased with our adventure, and excited to do much more of this kind of living once in the Bahamas. But first we needed to finish our prep, and the countdown was on. 

All the systems on board were looking good, but Warren made sure so changed all the various fluids for both the motor and the generator, also belts and filters. Very messy and hot work. Meanwhile, I kept on provisioning the boat, by the time I was done, pretty much every spot on board was filled. (Not only alcohol, also some real food!!!) The last couple of days we spent mostly shopping for food, alcohol and spare parts. So glad we had the car, no idea what we would have done without it. 

As December first approached, and all our paper work was in place, we also wanted to do a boat christening. We invited our broker and his wife Lynn to come and help us celebrate. Gary has been so very helpful, and it was only fitting to have them come and be part of the renaming ceremony. He also invited us out for dinner afterwards, and it was a lovely evening. 

We also had to say good bye to our dock neighbours, everyone was so excited for us. 

December 1st arrived, and we did our last few chores in the morning, and at 10:30 am we loosened the dock lines and set off for our first leg of the trip, down to the Florida Keys. More about that in my next post :)

At anchor, Snead Island ...

Sunset at Snead Island ...

Beautiful walk on Snead Island...

American Thanksgiving, I cooked a chicken in my oven... turned out great!

Applying the new name to the transom of the boat ... 

Christening of s/v Betula, we cracked a bottle of Champagne on the bow....

Hoisting of the Canadian Flag, Betula is now a Canadian boat!

Going out for a celebratory dinner with Gary and Lynn....

Last provisioning, one cart wasn't enough, it took all day...

...just a couple of cartons of wine and beer, but I found spots for all of it, believe you me!

Early days, lot's to learn

Our first days (actually weeks) on the boat are intense. We get up early, work all day, fall in bed exhausted. No time even to take many pictures. We check out every nook and cranny, I am making an inventory list of everything we find on board, and where it is stowed. After that, we, well, mostly Warren, figure out all our systems. Engine, generator, air-con, heat, water, plumbing, lighting, batteries, the list goes on and on. One of the big projects Warren wanted to tackle right of the bat, was the water maker. The boat came with a water maker, but it was listed as needing "assembly". Well, on our trip through all the lockers of the boat, we did find all the parts for it. Now the assembly part started. And went on, and on, and on. Almost 10 days of water maker installation hell. Meanwhile, the boat is in shambles, as all the floors are opened, and hoses, clamps, motors, filters, you name it, everywhere. That means that I can not move around the boat, I am disabled. What is a girl to do in such a situation? Off to Walmart!!!! Actually, I did go to Walmart, many times, because I have to provision the boat for our trip to the Bahamas. We want to take along as many provisions as possible, many items are hard to get down there, and often more money than Walmart. So while Warren was rolling around on his stomach and back, I had the fun job of shopping at Walmart.
After 10 days, the water maker was still not finished. It required countless trips to Home Depot and Lowe's, eating up a crazy amount of time. But those of you who know Warren will know, that he will not give up. But the project was temporarily put on hold, so we could take the boat out for a spin, up the Manatee River and into Tampa Bay. We had almost been on the boat for two weeks, and it was high time to give this "sailing thing" a try. Off we went, on our first excursion, I was so nervous, mostly about navigating through the buoys correctly, but also about getting in and out of our slip. But all went well, and once out in the bay, we even used our Jib and sailed! (the jib is the sail at the very front of the boat). (we decided to leave the main sail for another trip)
We were also excited to welcome our very first visitors on board. Willie and Brigitte from Germany, we know them from our trip to Southern Africa. We took them out up the river and into the bay, had a wonderful afternoon together. Once safely back in our slip, we celebrated with a nice bottle of bubbly and then had a cozy dinner together.
Next day, back to work. Warren had been mulling this water maker thing around, and figured out some solution. And sure enough, it's all good and working. We actually had a very big surprise, a fitting end to this saga. Water makers are reverse osmosis systems. They have a "membrane" to treat the salt water into drinking water. But membranes are fussy, and when they are not in use, have to get "pickled". We didn't even think that we had a membrane, so when we tested the water, we were really surprised to get "sweet" water, we expected salt water. (we were only testing the system to make sure there were no leaks in the system) Turns out, we had a pickled membrane, a $400.00 dollar saving, and the water tested perfectly fine, yay!!!
After a high, there is always a low. Next on the testing list was the generator. Should have been a rather straight forward thing, but not so. We just could not get it started. Actually, it started fine but would quit running as soon as you took your fingers off the start switch. Not very handy. Long story short, after 1 1/2 days of searching for the problem, Warren found a loose wire and voila, generator purrs like a kitten. Things were looking up and becoming a bit more easy, so we planned our first over night trip, more about that in my next post.

Checking out the dinghy.... all is well.

If you are too busy to sail the actual boat, you can always go for a spin in the dingy....

Our very first trip out, to test the motor, and test the chart plotter and navigator (me :))

Willie and Brigitte, our very first visitors, we had a wonderful time! Thanks guys for visiting!

A well deserved happy hour! A bottle of bubbly served by a pro!

Enjoying a lovely dinner together...

Warren investigating the plumbing ...

He is only smiling because I asked him to! Working on the engine, or water maker, or generator or some other darn thing. Access to all these items is impossible!!!

Thanks Warren, you are a trooper !

Finally, the adventure begins!

WELCOME TO MY BLOG! 

I am writing this blog for various reasons: to keep a record of the things we will be doing and to share it with my friends and family. Two years ago I wrote my first blog on a trip to Southern Africa, and it was very well received  (here is a link to my Southern Africa blog). So when people started to hear about this adventure, I was asked to write about it as well, so here it is. Please feel free to send comments and questions, it is nice to know that you are all "out" there and following along.


It is Friday, October 28th, the day we decided to start our adventure and leave Winnipeg for Florida. It is a very long awaited day, several years of planning and dreaming. So let me back up a bit and give you some background info....

We have a cottage at Betula Lake in the Whiteshell, and about 6 years ago we bought a small dinghy, a Laser 1. Warren took to sailing very quickly, and two years later we upgraded to a 16ft CL16. Things were going well, so we decided to take a proper sailing course down in Florida, and we both got our bareboat sailing certification. Bareboat means that you can charter a boat without a captain! We did do just that, first on Lake of the Woods and then, two years ago, in the Bahamas. 

This past January, things started to get a bit more intense. We had been looking at boats on the internet for some time, but really had no idea what they would look like in real life. So we went to Florida just to get an idea as to what we might like. We kept looking and around April, Crab Louie came up for sale. We hemmed and we hawed, but finally flew down  at the end of May to take a closer look. We quite liked what we saw, so we proceeded with the next step, survey and sea trial. For that we had to come back to Florida another time, so down we flew again. 


We bought Crab Louie, and she (boats are always female) is waiting for us at Regatta Point Marina. So here we are now, living on the boat and getting her ready for our cruising. More on that in my next post!

Two days before departure I decided to bake Christmas cookies, for Melanie and Justin (daughter and son-in-law), Kevin (son), and for ourselves to take along.... as if I wasn't busy enough with all the other stuff!!! 

All our stuff lined up in the fron hall, it's getting more real by the minute, will it all fit in the car?

Our adventure begins, October 27th, at 5:32 AM. We were so excited, we both slept lousy, so we got up and left earlier than planned...

....and three days later, we arrived at Regatta Point Marina. 

And this is the view out of my port "bedroom window". Not too shabby...