Guess Where We Are????!!!?!?!?!??!

THE BAHAMAS!!!!! We FINALLY made it!!!

We made the crossing last Monday and my God, what a crossing it was! We left Biscayne Bay just before 4am and SV Echo Echo and SV Pearl had both already left and so we had two boat ahead of us - that was very reassuring. The conditions on the Gulf were nothing like "they" predicted. The forecast was for light winds out of the north changing to east winds around 1-2am. By 5am we were getting hammered by 16-17 knot winds from the north, and there is no way the period to height ratio was 1.5, more like 12 foot waves coming every 3 seconds - you know, the conditions they say not to cross the Gulf in. We motor sailed to cross as fast as we could and also to stabilize the rocking a little. Part way across the Gulf the wind instantly changed to the east - it was like hitting a wall! The sail back winded and the bow lurched under water and the boat felt like it stopped - we fought with the headsail to get it in and kept motoring. We were in constant contact with the other boats out there - all morning you could hear boats radioing each other and updating each other on the conditions where they were - I think everyone took comfort in hearing each other and knowing you weren't alone out there! We got pummelled the entire way - the boat was being pushed left and right and all you could see in the darkness was walls of water on either side of the boat, all you could hear was "glug, glug, glug" as all the water smashing on deck was draining out of the scuppers. Honestly I had a moment where I felt quite anxious and James asked me if I wanted to turn back. We radioed Pearl and they told us the conditions were getting a little better so we pressed on. We both confessed that if there weren't two boats ahead of us we would have turned back. There were boats behind us radioing us to see what the conditions were like because they weren't sure if they wanted to keep going. We all said we were glad it was dark so that we couldn't see how big the waves were! SV Pearl has done the crossing many times and they said they had never experienced anything like this - that this was by far the worst crossing they could imagine. I still can't believe the only damage we sustained was broken eggs in the fridge and split shampoo in the bathroom, especially since all we could hear was banging and crashing! I expected broken dishes everywhere.

Drawers everywhere after the crossing!

I experienced true sea sickness and now I understand what all the fuss is about! It was so bad I briefly thought "well if a wave sweeps me off at least this awful feeling will be gone!". It started with a headache and a dizzy lightheaded feeling - I put on a sea sick patch immediately but I was too late. I vomited for five hours! It was horrid.  I'm not sure if I had some strange paradoxical effect from the sea sick patch but my hands and feet went completely numb and I had black patches in my vision - I was a mess, it was a combo of a migraine and gastroenteritis. In my disasterous state and the violent state of the seas James obviously felt it was not safe to leave me on deck by myself, however after a couple strong cups of coffee he really needed to pee. James turned to me apologetically and said "I'm sorry but is it okay if I pee in a bucket?", to which I responded "I don't care about anything right now". So James peed in a bucket on deck and then tried to throw it overboard - I'll let you guess how well that went. I'm not sure what caused my dire state but the week before I was convinced I had a very minor concussion: I had slipped on some spilt sugar at the grocery store and a can of chickpeas fell off the top shelf and landed directly on my head (what is with tinned beans and this trip!?!). I had been experiencing many symptoms of a minor concussion and assume that played a part in the extreme sea sickness I experienced!

After ten hours we finally made it to Bimini and I started feeling better! We anchored off the beach there and got a little sleep in the very rolly waves. The next morning we set off across the Bahamas Banks toward the Berry Islands - about 75 nautical miles - so we planned to leisurely do it over two days. This would involve anchoring on the Bahamas Bank, which is shallow but has no wind protection of any kind - you are basically out in the middle of the sea. We started sailing at about 8:30am - it was a beautiful sunny day with light winds - we were so excited to be sailing and not motoring! Around 1pm the winds changed direction and were coming from exactly the direction we wanted to go so we knew we would never make it under sail alone so we turned the engine back on. The winds slowly picked up through the late afternoon and evening and we decided we couldn't anchor because it was far too rough.  We decided it was better to continue on and arrive around 1am - that's not exactly how it went down. The wind kept picking up and eventually was hitting us right on the nose at 30knots - the waves picked up and the current was against us. The experience was different from the Gulf Stream crossing in that during the Gulf crossing the boat was rolling side to side, and during the Banks crossing the boat was pitching bow to stern: the pulpit honestly spent more time under water than our rudder! The waves kept lifting us up and the boat just repeatedly crashed down over and over and over again. Every time we checked we were still ten hours away. We took turns napping in the cockpit which is difficult when it sounds like a wrecking ball is bashing into the front of the boat! For a while our speed was a pathetic 0.5knots and we thought we would never get there. To make matters worse, our engine light and buzzer kept going off telling us our engine was overheating so we had to keep easing off on the throttle. We were both so grateful the engine didn't die on us.  It took a whole TWENTY THREE hours for us to reach a place to anchor.
We dropped anchor at 7:30am the next day and both tried to sleep a little before navigating the shallow and narrow channel into Great Harbour Cay so we could clear customs. A few hours later we made our way through the channel and over to the marina - where we were met by tons of Canadians who couldn't believe we sailed all the way there in that weather. All day people came over to the boat to hear the story! You have to go to the marina to clear customs but after the hellish three days we had, we decided to splurge and spend the night at the marina - we had a blissful 12hour night sleep where the boat didn't rock at all.

In the end we were glad we kept moving - we spoke to Echo Echo the next day and they said they thought they were going to loose their boat at one point! When they were trying to navigate out of the Bimini channel - the current and waves were so strong that their boat was swept up and it's so shallow that they were crashing onto the ground! They said their boat was nearly swept into a reef. They along with some other boats have been stuck in Bimini waiting for the winds to die down.

We definitely feel one hell of a sense of accomplishment! I mean when we bought the boat I didn't even know how to flush the toilet and now I successfully navigated us across the Banks at night (James is a great teacher)!

More postings to come about our time in the Bahamas so far but we are anchored at a deserted Island in the Berry's and it is calling our name!

Our boat proudly flying the Bahamas Courtesy Flag

New Feature: Map!

I've been wanting to add a map to the blog for a while and being stranded in Miami has given me that chance. The map gives a good idea of where we've been and where we travelled on the ICW verses on the "outside" - the Atlantic.  The map is interactive in that you can click on the pins to see the location and zoom in and out. I'll update the map as we travel so you can see where we have visited and the route we took to get there! It's not a live map so don't assume we're at the last pin.




Once we're in the Bahamas (and have internet) I will update the map. Speaking of which, here is the latest, and subject to change, Bahamas crossing plan: We arrived at No Name Harbour this evening and man is it peaceful - we didn't realize how loud the highway was at the last anchorage! We even saw stingrays jumping out of the water on our way here! So far the wind tomorrow is light and will be coming from the east (so hitting us in face the whole trip). We're going to leave No Name Harbour early - around 3-4am and hopefully will be travelling with our new friends on Echo Echo. We will catch the Gulf Stream to the north of Bimini and get onto the Bahama Bank where we'll anchor overnight, the crossing should take us about 10hours. Then Tuesday morning we'll get up early to cross the Bahama Bank and anchor overnight near Bullocks Harbour where we can clear customs. From there we'll continue to explore the Berry Islands!

"The Elephants"

Alright now universe we're ready to leave - help us out!!! We've defrosted the freezer, done arts and crafts, obsessively watched the Canadian dollar plummet, played uno, learned two new card games (Gin and Golf) and dominoes, gone for bike rides, I've painted my nails, played hours of Farm Story, dyed my hair, we've even cut each other's hair! It's cold - we're ready to leave. Plus the longer we wait the more conscience we are of the pre-hurricane season time being eaten into. We have to be as far south as Grenada for June which means we've already lost a month of our time in the Caribbean - we're antsy. We keep reminding each other that we can't get so fed-up that we start letting our guard down and choose a risky crossing. We walked down to South Beach the other day - the wind was about 20knots from the north. You can see offshore to about where the Gulf Stream starts - approximately 6 nautical miles offshore and we got a pretty good view of what they call "the elephants". When the north wind is hitting the current of the gulf Stream it looks like a herd of elephants charging from a distance - an excellent reminder to wait out the weather! I think we've resigned ourselves to the fact that a perfect crossing is not going to happen so at this point we don't care about rain or wind on our nose the whole way - we just need safe, not comfortable. Half the battle is the weather once you get there - there have been a couple of 10 hour windows that would have allowed us to cross but then you arrive to 30+knot winds and there is very little shelter in the Bahamas and you're anchoring in sand which doesn't hold as well as good old American mud. We have already heard of a few boats this month dragging in the wind and ending up onshore with considerable damage, so for now we'll get the Uno out again and make another pot of coffee. There have actually been quite a few boats that have decided not to cross until February or March because the wind is so bad this year.

We're in for some more harsh weather this weekend - high winds, lots of rain, and the temperature is going down to 8'C tonight and tomorrow! Now I know for a lot of people reading this that isn't very cold for January but keep in mind we have no heat or insulation and the companionway door is louvered. The weather has made it a bit challenging to re-provision (since we have gone through so many of our previous provisions we had to redo it!). We have restocked our groceries, filled up our water, and have one more fuel run. Our fuel gauge doesn't work and we have learned the hard way that idling the engine to charge the batteries apparently uses more fuel than we realized. There is only one fuel dock near us and it's not easy to get into so we thought we would be clever and dingy to shore and walk to the nearest gas station that sold diesel and just fill up our jerry cans. This brilliant idea has resulted in us hand filling our entire fuel tank - at this point we have carried 200 litres of fuel and we have one  more run to do!

Our new solar panel is installed and operational! Considering how jobs usually go on this boat we were both amazed at how well it went! It took us the better part of a day but nothing went wrong. We had to drill a hole in the toe rail above the transom to feed the wire through - we were apprehensive about drilling a hole in the boat but it was fine. We had to take the panel off near the head of our bed and it took some impressive contortionism to feed the wires from the deck all the way down under the bed and floorboards into the engine room to hook up to our controller. We now have 225watts and on a sunny day we can bring in 80amp hours. I want to add another two solar panels but James looked like we wanted to cry when I suggested it, so perhaps a project for another time.

Running the wiring for the solar panel

We are waiting for the wind to die down and are planning on leaving "Broke Down Harbour" for No Name Harbour tomorrow. No Name is a small protected harbour right next to a quiet channel to the Atlantic - an excellent jumping off point to the Bahamas!!!

One thing I had no idea existed in the Cruising World was business cards - boats have cards made up to exchange with each other. At first we found the idea to be quite strange and resisted it but then started to feel like the oddball when we someone would give us a card and we didn't have one to reciprocate.  So we caved and had some made up. They are actually a great way to keep in touch with people you meet because often you meet people at an anchorage, restaurant, grocery store etc and can quickly exchange contact details. This is very likely the only time I will ever have a business card!


The latest addition to our living room is a giant world map. Some days we feel like we have come so far and then we look at the map and it completely dwarfs our progress. It also inspires and excites us as to where we can go! The black line along the East Coast of the States is our route so far!

James eating the world's largest sandwich

We have photos in our bedroom!! It's starting to look like home :)

Still waiting...yawn

It appears to be true what people had been saying and what we had read - it's hard to cross from Florida to Bahamas in January. Every time we look at the weather forecast (which averages 26 times a day) it has changed. We're still really hoping there is a break in the wind speed and direction for just one day this week and we can make it to the sunny, warm Berry Islands.

Our neighbours took a pic of our boat in the pea-soup fog this week

Rain rain go away, come again after we've left!

There are still many, many jobs we could be doing on the boat but with the cold fronts that keep moving in it's just been to dark, rainy, windy and cool to be on deck getting much done. So we've been busy reading and watching Homeland - FYI season 4 episode 9 is not a good point in the show to realize you have no more episodes!! So any and all book suggestions welcome :) I also made James a new wallet which was long over due since his previous "wallet" was a piece of string used to tie his cards and money together! We found a bag of old sail scraps in the v-berth so I used that in keeping with the nautical theme our lifestyle has taken.

Wallet making

The other bit of entertainment we had was a pair of dolphins who came up to our boat the other evening and spent about half an hour swimming all around our boat. They were fishing and were making quite the display of it - one was swimming along on her back right against our boat, catching a fish in her mouth then lazily rolling over to eat it. The fish were freaking out and started jumping into our dingy!! I climbed down to get the poor things out and the dolphin swam right under my feet on the ladder - it looked an awful lot bigger that close up! James got the fish out of the dingy and threw them back into the water - which essentially was right into the dolphins mouth - I think they thought we were feeding them! They continued to swim on their sides and back all around and under our boat and their eyes were totally tracking us! Of course our camera was dead, other than the 1 second video below you'll just have to take our word for it.

We FINALLY enjoyed a day in Miami!!! We didn't worry about the boat and no one was rude/mean to us - it was delightful. One of the benefits of being delayed meant that I had time to order a folding bike since James got the last one on Amazon when we were at the marina in Cocoa. Yesterday, we set off on our folding bike maiden voyage to explore some more of South Beach. It was early on Saturday morning so the traffic wasn't bad (this made riding on the busy streets with no bike lanes a lot nicer). We biked through the city to South Point Park and then went along the boardwalk. There was a street festival there with food vendors and musicians and a play in the park - it was great! We found an awesome Italian Bakery and had homemade pizza for lunch. If you're in the area you have to check out Buon Panne Italiano http://www.buonpaneitaliano.com/. There are three older guys in the back baking away and two younger hilarious, friendly guys serving out front.  After that we headed out to the beach for a swim before the cold fronts move back in.

Last night we had our neighbours, Neil and Jeanette, from SV Echo Echo over - a really nice, funny Kiwi Aussie couple whose boat we went to last week. We had some much needed laughs and commiserated about being stuck in what we have dubbed "Break Down Harbour". They have also been stuck waiting for repairs and are in the same boat as us (sorry couldn't resist) waiting out the weather.  We're all pretty excited to get out of here.

Today we had some incredible winds. There had been a Tornado Watch issued so we made sure to have everything tied down tight. We sat in the cockpit this morning having our coffee and watching the front move in. Being out on the water really gives you the opportunity to see weather in effect. We could actually see the line of the front moving in!

You can see the line where the cold front moved in and destroyed our enclosure

It was moving a lot faster than we realized so no sooner had we stepped off the gangway ladder than my coffee went flying along with all the dishes in the drying rack! The 43knots of wind beat up our cockpit enclosure a bit. The wind pushed the dodger off the front and then pulled the stainless steel frame apart on one side and bent the screws on one of the fixtures! It wasn't until it was all over that we read a tornado had actually struck on the gulf coast and sadly two people died (parents: they were not on a boat, it was totally unrelated to sailing). The high winds mean we can definitely confirm our wind generator is working!! This 25+knot wind we've had all day has our charge controller reading over 12.7volts and still going - yee haw! We will be in serious power heaven once that other solar panel is wired-in and that hot, hot Caribbean sun is beating down!

Guess we're getting the tape out again

Enclosure no longer coving the wood

Those 2 pieces of metal should be connected

Some very bent screws

The Waiting Game

One of our many dingy rides to shore

We are very happy to report that our engine is running!! We were finally able to get into see a mechanic and he actually knew what he was doing. The leak in our fuel pump probably boiled down to one simple O-ring but as you have probably guessed that did not mean it was a simple fix! Our engine is a Perkins and the company is out of business. For some reason, only known to Perkins, they decided to make their own bolts to use on said engine. These bolts are not the same as any other hence they need a special Perkins tool to remove them. No one has this tool!!! The mechanic was able to order a replacement bolt from a fuel injection specialist - the rubber O-ring is attached to this bolt but the bolt is so finely machined that once it is removed it is garbage. The part itself cost a whopping $25.  What didn't cost $25 was couriers running all over the city trying to obtain parts for our weird engine, the mechanic MAKING a tool to try to remove the bolt, and all the trouble shooting involved. Basically for a $0.10 rubber ring we had a $600 bill and a one month delay - you gotta love boats.

We were hoping the mechanic could also figure out why our engine does not like to start when it has sat for more than 12 hours. Of course in a prime example of Murphy's Law the engine started on the first time every day we were there - something it as never done. It's like when my computer doesn't work and I'm complaining to James that something is wrong with it. Then as he walks towards the computer and puts his hand on it, it miraculously works perfectly.

The other issue we had here was our wind generator was broken and we were hoping to install our new solar panel. We ordered parts for both of these projects from another cruiser who is big into renewable energy and makes all sorts of parts. Our order somehow has disappeared off the face of the earth and the guy we ordered from is on vacation sailing to South America and completely out of reach and only he has the tracking number for our package. After trying to track down the package for two weeks, we finally admitted defeat and got new parts elsewhere so later today is stage one of solar panel #2 instillation. We have already replaced the charge controller for the existing solar panel and you'll never guess what!?! It was broken - shocker. So we had no wind and no solar charging our batteries! Once we have a working wind generator and two working solar panels we might even be able to turn a light on every once in a while. We both feel like our state of energy poverty is a factor in our engine not starting - maybe there isn't quite enough charge to fire the solenoid.

We rented a car this weekend to finish provisioning the boat and to get all the supplies we need for the Bahamas. We were really hoping to make the crossing this past Sunday but then the weather forecast called for a thunderstorm so we didn't leave. Currently there looks to be a good weather window this coming Saturday so fingers crossed. A "good weather window" for our boat looks like this: winds from the south, east or possibly west, calling for no more than 15knots of wind (which could mean 25 when you're out there),  and a ratio of wave period to wave height of 1.5 or more. Why we need to watch for all this is because we have to cross the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream is a current that runs from Cuba to Ireland, taking warm water with it. The Gulf runs south to north and we are sailing west to east. The Gulf Steam is very fast moving and will try to push your boat north. Since the Gulf is traveling north, if you have a north wind it basically crashes into the Gulf creating very rough large waves and very uncomfortable and potentially dangerous sailing. Conversely, when the wind is not from the north you can have a completely flat calm blue sea.  So now we wait, and obsessively check the weather. (Tracy, I know how you love when it gets technical so this paragraph was for you ;).

With any luck the next posting will be coming from the Caribbean where I will be eating johnny cakes and drinking a Kalik!!!

Our tiny little boat garden

Miami Skyline at night as seen from our boat

Going to the mechanic, along the Miami River

SoBe

Well we're still in South Beach (SoBe), Miami and very much against our will. Yup, you guessed it the beast has broken down AGAIN. Within twenty four hours of being here the engine wouldn't start and then when we did get it started the batteries wouldn't charge. Fast forward to us wandering around the city with an alternator desperately trying to find someone who could test it. I wouldn't say troubleshooting, thinking outside the box, empathy or helpfulness are big in South Beach. Turns out eyelash extensions for toddlers and padded bras for six year olds are. Very disturbing. We then took a very long dingy ride to a mechanic who said he could test the alternator - when we got there he said "oh no I don't test it I send it away", hanging in the background was a poster of Osama Bin Laden with bullet holes in it. 

    

 

Before Christmas is not a good time to break down - most mechanics are closed from Dec 23-Jan1. After calling almost every marine diesel mechanic in the city, we did manage to find a very nice marine electrician. He came to the boat and did some rewiring for us and got our batteries charging - we're still working out why they aren't charging as well as before. We also found a couple of rip off artists who were only too happy to come to the boat and mess around, take our money and not fix our fuel leak. We have been told by one mechanic to call back on Monday and hopefully he can fit us in early in the week. 

Homemade Christmas Stockings

When we couldn't get the engine to charge the batteries we were having some really windy days. The wind generator wasn't adding any amps to the batteries at all and we managed to determine what we have been suspecting - the wind generator was broken. After days and days and days of trouble shooting we found we have a broken rectifier. We have ordered a new one and once it arrives we hope we can get the wind to help charge our batteries!

When everything breaks at Christmas, brandy and eggnog is the only sensible solution. 

Cortadito - mmmmmmm

The "agenda" for Miami has gone completely by the wayside but we did get to Little Havana on day one before we realized we had any troubles at all.  We went to the "World Famous" Versailles restaurant and it was incredible. The places seats something like 300 and there is a line up to get in! We had a delicious Cuban lunch with amazing coffee and desert.
We also picked up our cockpit cushions and they fit! We are still hoping to do some early morning beach yoga before we leave for this far away and perhaps imagined land called the Bahamas.

The stockings were hung by the mast with care and we took Christmas off from worrying about the boat and trying to fix the engine ourselves. We went out for breakfast and made a picnic and took it to the beach. We have a great anchorage and are going swimming off the boat everyday.

Elaborate boat Christmas Decor

"Oh Christmas Tree, oh Christmas Tree"

There are lots of little canals here and we can dinghy to different places.  We were out in the dinghy a few days ago and our propeller hit something in the water. It worked fine for a couple of days and we were really hoping that by some miracle that it didn't break but it did. James identified the problem and found a propeller repair place and incidentally the two nicest men in Miami. We paddled the dinghy to the shore (which is no small feat) took the bus to the closest stop to the repair shop and walked the rest of the way. Originally they told us it would be a couple of days to get it back but once we got there and they realized how far we had come they fixed it on site. We thanked them so much and explained how much bad luck we've been having since we arrived. They totally took pity on us - they gave us bottles of cold water, a box of donuts, let us use their phone to try to find a mechanic for our boat. One guy even started calling people he knew to see if they could fit us in. Turns out bullet-hole Bin Laden is "the best mechanic in the city".

The last boat has just left the anchorage for the Bahamas, waving to us and shouting "Good Luck", which in truth is a very hard pill to swallow. However, our boat has a New Year's Resolution .... to stop breaking down. We support her resolution one hundred percent.

Christmas Day on our boat

View of Miami from our Anchorage