Mirasol Cruising Blog

Where have we been?

2011-11-19T05:47:00.005-05:00

Well, we're still in Grenada and been so busy that the blog has really taken a back seat. I am still updating the photo gallery on svmirasol.com fairly regularly, but Gregg has just not had time to blog. And now that his hard drive crashed, it may be a while yet.

I'm not much of a writer, so I generally don't blog. The latest news, however, is that we are finished cruising after this season. Within the next couple weeks, we will begin moving north eventually reaching Fort Lauderdale, probably in May (see our updated tentative schedule to the right). We will be selling the boat (hopefully quickly) and making the transition to living on land, i.e., buying cell phones, a car, a house, etc. Busy, busy, busy. While we still have fast wifi here in Grenada, we have begun the process of house hunting and are looking seriously at Virginia.

We have had a lot of fun in Grenada and hope to return some day. Maybe for the 1000th hash?

Web Site Issues

2011-08-03T07:24:00.007-04:00

So, Google has fixed whatever issue was going on with the embedded google earth app that I was using for our position pages. So, cleaning that up is now on the back-burner. However, I have recently started using Google Chrome, and duh, the object I was using for our photo gallery only works properly in IE. I'm working on changing it so it will work cross-browser, but it's going to take some time. I found a flash gallery I'd like to use, but it costs like $80, so I think I'd rather just develop something using java, but... like I said... that will take time. Non-IE users, please be patient with me. I'm aware of it and working on it.

UPDATE 5:40 PM: I have found a nice java app to modify for our photo gallery. Check out the latest photos at http://www.svmirasol.com/photos_current.htm. I finished updating St. Vincent & the Grenadines '11, and both Grenada pages.

UPDATE 0730/Aug 4: I am continuing to work my way backward. St. Lucia '11 is finished. I am very pleased with this new photo gallery and I hope you are, too. It even has a slideshow feature.

UPDATE 2300/Aug 12: Still working on converting all the photo gallery pages. Working backwards, I have finished through Guadeloupe '10. I know there's an open space in the gallery list, I will adjust everything when I have finished.

UPDATE 0500/Aug 27: I'm almost finished migrating all the photo galleries to the new format. I only have 2 left at this point, The Bahamas '09 and Charleston-Norfolk '09. Hopefully I can get those wrapped up in the next week or so. Then I'll begin working on changing the video player I use and getting our clips active again.

Dominica 2011

2011-07-25T14:33:00.009-04:00

Dominica is my favoirite island in the Leeward Islands, and possibly in all of the Lesser Antilles (Bahamas, Leewards and Windwards). I've read that when Christopher Columbus was attempting to describe the island to the King and Queen of Spain he crumpled up a sheet of paper to illustrate the rugged terrain. That is a very good illustration. There are 365 rivers and countless waterfalls winding their way through deep gorges and between steep volcanic pinnacles, all of which are draped in lush rain forest. With the exception of a small cruise ship dock, there is no mass tourism and the locals are happy to meet cruisers.

Once out of town, the roads are mostly unimproved, single lane with enough extra space for the occassional oncomming car to pass you if you both hug the shoulder... really hug it. As for guardrails, generally there are none in spite of the fact that the road may be carved out of the side of nearly vertical mountainside. It's prudent to sound your horn as you approach a blind curve and listen for an answer so you can swing over in time.

The main roads of the island are in the process of being improved to undivided 2 lane highways by the Chinese. The Chinese government pours a lot of resources into Dominica and other Caribbean islands in order to secure political votes in the UN. There are also prominent donations by Chavez of Venezuela in the form of schools and other public facilities.

Rosseau, our destination in Dominica, is the largest town on the island and is located on the southern end of the west coast. There are many mooring balls for hire, which is good as the anchorage is quite deep and holding is rather poor. On arrival we radioed Sea Cat, one of the two prominent boat vendors in Rosseau, to arrange for a mooring. Once tied up to the mooring, I hired a boat vendor to give us a lift in his brightly colored open boat to the customs office. The anchorage had a 2 foot chop so the ride to customs was much more comfortable in a heavy deep-V fiberglass boat than in my little dinghy.

Customs is very easy. You clear in and out at the same time, there is only one short form to fill out, and the fee is only 5 Eastern Carribean Dollars (about $2 US) per person. This is refreshing after the numerous forms and high fees required by The Bahamas, The British Virgin Islands and Antigua.

While in Rosseau, we joined Sea Cat for a land tour. We were introduced to Octavious (Sea Cat) by Randy and Susan Williamson of Windward Passage during our last trip down island and were eager for a repeat. We saw several of the highlights of the last tour - Emerald Falls, Trafalgar Falls, and the Carib Indian villiage (not in a touristy enclave but friends of Octavious who welcomed us into their homes and showed us how they live). While there, we were shown how much of the food they needed could be found in their "back yard". There were coconuts, mangos, breadfruit, papayas, cacao trees, many herbs, and lots of chickens. Fish were brought up into the mountains by the local fishermen. The fish and chicken were smoked over home made charcoal as a preservative as they had no refrigeration.

The villagers offered us samples of the smoked fish. Pulling the meat off of a fish carcass while holding on to the head or tail took a little getting used to, but it was delicious. Quinn loved it and asked for more. Octavious got a huge grin and returned with half a fish all for Quinn, who devoured it, picking the bones. The smoking clearly works as I believe the fish we sampled was smoked days ago and stored in hot, humid rainforest conditions without packaging or refrigeration.

In addition to the familiar stops from last year, Sea Cat took us to a pair of waterfalls that required some serious scrambling. We found ourselves climbing up 40 foot, 70 degree inclines with the help of a rope where tree vines and roots were insufficient. Other times we were walking on paths no more than a foot wide with a nearly sheer drop into the river gorge on one side. These were virtually unimproved paths through the rain forest and it was a phenominal experience. Quinn did fantastic as usual. He listened and moved cautiously (most of the time) and managed without any problems or nervousness. When we return to land I'm going to have my hands full building a tree house or backyard play set that will interest him after having hiked and climbed through Caribbean rain forests and jungles!

We're here

2011-07-04T16:06:00.003-04:00

We made it to Grenada almost 3 weeks ago. Gregg is still looking for his muse to catch up on the blog. He keeps saying he's only 4 countries behind. We've been pretty busy since we got here and have been catching up on sleep and chores. I'm not the writer in the family so I'll leave it at that.

The website has been updated with photos and our position in Grenada. I've been working on upgrading the google maps api used on the position and log pages as apparently, google no longer supports the old api that most of our pages use. It's taking some time and the only pages I have finished thus far are the current position and the 2011 Windwards page.

Southern Guadeloupe

2011-06-06T18:21:00.008-04:00

From Deshaies, our plans were to sail south along the coast to Basse Terra, located on the southwest coast of Guadeloupe. When we arrived there with Oceana, they were concerned that the swell would be uncomfortable. We understood their concern as we've seen how a swell can cause mono hulls to sway like pendulums. The day was still young, so we decided to continue on to the Saints, which is a scenic group of small but tall islands just south of Guadeloupe.

Oceana off Basse Terra, Guadeloupe

We had been motor-sailing in the lee of Guadeloupe with a slight sea breeze until we reached Basse Terra. As we left the lee of Guadeloupe, everything changed. The wind switched from less than 10 knots out of the west to high 20's from the east in about a minute. This is something that you get used to in the lower Leeward and Windward Islands. As you leave the lee of the island, the trade winds are accelerated as they squeeze around the tall island and hit you full force from the east. If you are not looking at the sea state in front of you, you will have no warning. Depending on the conditions, you might have 10 knots of sea breeze from the west and then an immediate switch to 25 knots from the southeast in as little as a few seconds.

We saw the white caps and lumpy seas ahead and quickly shortened sail. Then Jen commented... um, where did the Saints go? Up ahead the Saints, which were clearly visible only a minute or two ago, were hidden by haze and rain. It was a wet and brisk sail to the Saints. Being a weekend, the anchorage close to town was quite full and we couldn't find a suitable place to drop the hook. Instead, we moved to another location in the Saints that we had anchored before and were happy to drop the hook and let the rain wash off the salt we accumulated crossing the channel from Guadeloupe.

The next morning was a fine day which we spent exploring the town and sampling the local beverages, food and of course, ice cream.

A view of the Saints from the town dock

From the Saints, we sailed back north to Point A Pitre, the largest city in Guadeloupe. Oceana had gone ahead to refit with new house batteries. We joined them a day or so later in the Marina Bas du Fort where we enjoyed a couple of nights on the dock. Laundry, some mechanical maintenance and other chores more easily accomplished on the dock were taken care of. Then it was back to the Saints, which was a good staging point for the jump south to Dominica. On the way back to the Saints, I caught two largish Barracudas which I released since they aren't so good for eating. Note the big pointy teeth!

Deshaies River Scramble

2011-06-01T16:21:00.000-04:00

Our second day in Deshaies we returned to the botanical garden about a mile walk up the road. We had visited it the last time we were here, but it's worth a return visit. Quinn's favorite part is the aviary.

On the third day we decided to try a hike up a river that is recommended by our guide book for this area. Kathy and John from Oceana joined us. The guide book describes the hike as "a cool shady scramble", and it certainly was that.

It was a quiet little river, but it was clear that it would grow into a raging torrent when it rained. It was strewn with large boulders that showed recent evidence of bouncing off other rocks. The banks were very steep on both sides, and the forest very thick so the easiest path was to scramble and jump from rock to rock and wade where necessary. It was great fun and the scenery was very lush. There was no sign of habitation or litter anywhere and the river was covered with a thick canopy of trees.

After several hours of scrambling up the river, we were concerned that we had not seen the road that the guide book promised would lead us back to town. We had been working our way up river for considerably longer than suggested by the guide book, and although we were slowed a little by hoisting Quinn up and over the more difficult stretches, it still seemed that we had come a long way.

Eventually we did find a road. Just as we were considering if we should turn back given the late hour and ominous sky, John scouted ahead a little and found the road. This was fortunate, for if we had turned back we would have been forced out of the river due to a heavy rain that started shortly after we gained the road. Our "shady scramble" would have been transformed into a difficult slog through the forest in the rain! Happily, it was just a 20 minute walk down a very steep road in a torrential downpour.

By the time we returned to our boats it was still raining heavily, so we took advantage of all that fresh water and had showers out on the transom. Jen was a bit shy of a near by boat until she noticed its French flag. "What the heck, they're French. They don't care!"

Tropical rain can be something to see. In this case, virtually no wind, but the warm rain coming down as if you were standing right under a strong shower head. Cup your hands and they would fill in 20-30 seconds.

It was a very fun day that ended well (and clean).

Guadeloupe - Arrival in Deshaies

2011-06-01T15:49:00.000-04:00

After a fast sail from Antegua accompanied by our friends on Oceana, we arrived in Deshaies in early afternoon. Deshaies is one of my favorite anchorages. It's narrow bay that is well protected from all directions but the west with good holding. The sides of the bay are steep hills and cliffs tapering down to a picturesque town at the head of the bay. I've included a picture, but it doesn't do the anchorage justice as you can't see the high walls on the sides of the bay.

The town is a small strip of small shops and restaraunts along the shore with scattered residences that pepper the hilside as it rises steeply behind the town. One of the shops in town is an internet cafe where we are to clear customs and immigration. The French islands make clearing in and out very simple. You find the cafe hosting the customs computer, fill out a form on that computer and print the form. Someone at the cafe signs and stamps the paper and you're all set. The only down side is you don't get a stamp for your passport.

By the time we set the anchor, let it soak for a while and took the dinghy ashore, most of the shops and restaraunts were closing for the afternoon siesta, the internet cafe hosting the customs PC being one of them. Knowing that at least one restaraunt or cafe is always open during siesta we strolled down the street and found it without any problems.

Soon we were sitting in a cafe and I was drinking chilled Cote du Provence Rose. I got the idea from the Rasta man sitting at the ajacent table chatting with his friends. The French islands are intriguing this way - Rasta mixed with the French cafe - perfect!

After a few beverages in the cafe, a nap semed in order to recover from the daybreak departure from Antigua. We headed back out to the boat and relaxed, watching several other boats arrive and find a place in the anchorage.

Early in the evening, we returned to town to clear in and have dinner. On the way in, we were treated to a bright rainbow stretching from one end of the town to the other. Gorgeous.

After clearing customs we wandered around until we found a restaurant we liked and joined Oceana for dinner. We enjoyed a wonderful sunset overlooking our boats at anchor while we ate. By the time we were returning to our boat it was quite dark with no moon, but the stars were very brilliant and lit our way back to Mirasol.

Blog Catch Up Day

2011-06-01T15:44:00.000-04:00

I keep telling myself I need to put aside some time to catch up on the blog, so here goes. We just arrived in Schoelcher, Martinique, which is a couple of islands south of where the blog is. We dropped the hook and have a few hours to burn before we go ashore, so now is a good time.

Quinn's inside watching Star Wars, Jen's sitting in the cockpit reading and I'm up in my hammock with my laptop watching the boats and sailboards from the nearby sailing school putter around the anchorage. If I can hold off a nap, maybe I can come up with a few entries...

Antigua

2011-05-31T21:24:00.006-04:00

Our original plans were to sail direct for Guadeloupe from the BVI, a passage requiring two nights at sea. However, since we're not in a hurry and the winds were right for it, we decided on stopping in Antigua for a few days. This shortened the trip from BVI to only one overnight, and then a day sail to Guadeloupe.

Antigua is a fun place to stop. We've been here twice before and are pretty familiar with it. On previous visits we visited Jolly Harbor, St John, English Harbor, Falmouth Harbor, and some anchorages on the east side. On this visit, we limited ourselves to Falmouth and English Harbors.

English Harbor was at one time a key port for the

English. It was strategically located to provide for easy harassment of the French islands as well as an excellent anchorage for weathering hurricanes and performing major refits on the ships.

These days it is a haven for sailors of all sorts. There are live-aboard sailors with three anchors down who haven't moved their boat since three or four hurricanes ago, cruisers like us, racing fanatics, and of course the super-yacht and mega-yacht crowd. If you are into sailing, racing sailboats, or just checking out the yachts of the filthy rich, you can find it here.

In between regattas, it's pretty quiet, but still interesting. There is a lot of history here to discover and some pleasant places to kick back and relax. The cruise ship crowd isn't much of a presence here since the ships dock in St Johns, which is on the other side of the island.

So, we arrived, checked in, did some boat maintenance, some relaxing in the shade and some hiking and touring. Quinn won a wager on a crab race at a charity event and came out with 20 dollars. He promptly spent 5 of it on ice cream and socked away the rest in his allowance jar. Good man!

We heard good things about the zip line here and decided to give it a try. You strap yourself up to a pulley on a cable crossing a 300' gorge in the rain forest. Sounds like fun! Quinn and I are admitted adrenaline junkies. Jen is adverse to heights, but a good sport. So, accompanied by Kathy and John from Oceana, we tried it out. I was a little concerned about Quinn freezing when it came time to step into the void, but he was a trooper as usual. Nothing but giant grins from the whole crew.

About six days after arrival, the weather looked good for the run to Guadeloupe. Deshaies, Guadeloupe is about 45 miles due south from Antigua. It was a great sail. We were doing over 7 knots most of the way on a beam reach in 15 or so knots of wind.

Good Rum = Bad Spelling

2011-05-24T17:20:00.003-04:00

For all of you who read my previous post before I made use of a spell checker (at the gentle encouragement of my dear wife), my apologies for my abuse of the English language. As I wrote it, I was enjoying the delights of the local Rhum Vieux which we had just obtained in Deshaies, Guadeloupe. It is quite good.

British Virgin Islands - Disney Land for Sailors?

2011-05-20T15:43:00.008-04:00

We like the BVI. It has a lot to offer. There are a dozen or so islands and cays surrounding the Sir Francis Drake Channel, anchored by Tortola and Virgin Gorda. This layout provides for fairly sheltered sailing, line-of-site navigation and plenty of destination anchorages to keep you interested for a while. Add in the great diving, snorkeling, and rich history typical of the Caribbean islands, it's a fun place to be.

But that's the catch. It's too convenient! The sailboat charter industry has blossomed here like no place in the Caribbean. Folks looking for an ideal sailing vacation can fly in for a week and spend a few hours a day sailing from anchorage to anchorage - each with entertainment ashore and beautiful surroundings. The locals have embraced this bounty and make the most of it. Just about all anchorages have a bar/restaurant close at hand, along with the ubiquitous gift shop. In all but the largest anchorages, the good and even fair anchoring ground has been peppered with mooring balls, leaving only marginally viable anchoring ground if you aren't willing to pay the $25 TO $30 per night to use the moorings (or trust your anchor better than their moorings).

To be fair, the moorings have their place. Given the huge number of charter boats in service here, the moorings allow an anchorage to accommodate many more boats than if everyone were anchored. Also, anchoring safely while avoiding damage to coral or grass beds is an acquired skill which most chatterers have not had the opportunity to develop. In the party party party atmosphere of many of the chartering groups, it's all they can do to safely tie up to the mooring ball and get ashore without a mishap. After all, they aren't aboard their floating home containing all their worldly possessions. They're on a rental boat for a fun vacation. So they party and we try to stay out of their way, lend a hand where needed, retrieve the odd escaped dinghy, and enjoy the show.

Sunday afternoon is always fun in an anchorage with a sundowner in hand watching the newly arrived charterers pick up a mooring ball for the first time of the vacation. We make a point of being on board around that time.

So, the BVI has its place as a sailing destination. For the charterer, it's a great destination for the newbie or the moderately experienced. For a cruiser, it's a good place to rest a bit after the thorny path or a long offshore passage from the US. But for this cruiser, it's a little surreal... like a Disney Land for sailors. Time to head down island!

Off to the British Virgin Islands - April 23rd

2011-05-18T14:33:00.005-04:00

After our stay in Ponce, we were eager to get moving. We had a four day window of very light air and flat water ahead of us, so we chose to beat feet for the British Virgin Islands. We spent one more day working our way along the south side of Puerto Rico, anchoring overnight in the lee of a barrier reef and mangrove cays.

The second day we rounded the southeast corner of Puerto Rico and transited the Spanish Virgin Islands. We overnighted on a mooring ball on the west side of Culebra. The Spanish Virgins looked very enticing, but with the calm weather and the holiday weekend crowds from Puerto Rico, we decided to keep moving and spend more time exploring here during our return trip next year. The third morning we continued on through the Spanish Virgins and US Virgin Islands. By early afternoon we were tied up to a mooring ball in Soper's Hole, British Virgin Islands.

We cleared in to the BVI and relaxed on board for the remainder of the afternoon. Soper's Hole is a very protected bay on the west end of Tortola. It was once a haven for privateers and buccaneers (i.e. pirates) of all sorts - English, Dutch and French.

After a relaxing afternoon watching the charter boats careen through the harbor (more on this later) we went ashore for supper. On receiving the $105 bill for two medium pizzas, chicken wings and two drinks each, I realized the pirates had moved ashore and opened a restaurant!

While at dinner, Jen pointed out that we were back in the BVI almost exactly one year after we left. We departed the BVI to return to the United States in early May last year. It hardly seems like a year and a few thousand sea miles have passed by.

Quiet Night On Anchor - South Coast of Puerto Rico

2011-05-16T21:39:00.002-04:00

Midnight, anchored in a sheltered bay, mangrove cays to seaward. The quiet thrumming of an orange glowing sodium-lit power station on the distant shore does not intrude on the peace of the anchorage or the quiet shush...shush... of ocean swells breaking on the barrier shoals.

The dichotomy of the ancient sea sounds layered intermixed with the the modern power plant's throb sings a melody which transfixed me. From our anchorage, the distant sodium lights of the power plant look fragile. Delicate. The humidity of the evening has dissipated after the heavy showers, but the stars are still obscured by the clouds. The air is fresh and clear, but not crisp like winter mountain air. Good, rich, clean sea air. One day I will miss this.

Ponce, Puerto Rico

2011-05-16T21:16:00.002-04:00

Ponce is located in the center of the southern coast of Puerto Rico and is one of the largest cities in Puerto Rico. We had several days to kill while we waited for the engine seals to arrive so we made the best of it and rented a car. The first day with the car we did some serious shopping. Groceries and cloths for Quinn were the order of the day. We also picked up a digital camera for Quinn. We'll be posting his pictures on his own web page soon - so keep an eye out.

The second day with the car we drove north across the island to San Juan. It was a beautiful drive through the mountains and rain forests of Puerto Rico. San Juan is a wonderful city, full of history. We were awed by the enormous fort that makes up most of Old San Juan. That it was built without any modern machinery is amazing. We had a great time wandering around the old streets. By late afternoon we were ready for the trip back to the boat. San Juan was a fun visit.

Back in Ponce, the parts had arrived and Luis, our mechanic was ready to go. The repair went off without a hitch and I was glad I had paid someone to do the work. The repair was simple enough, but it required shifting the engine block forward 6" or so and I didn't have the equipment to do that. Mirasol's boom doesn't reach that far so Luis used a small strap winch to take the load off the engine while they shifted it out of the way. I think I need one of those things!

The repair complete, we left Ponce the next day. We had a forecast for very light winds for the next four days so we put it in gear and headed for the Virgin Islands.

Do You Smell Oil?

2011-05-14T13:25:00.000-04:00

On our third day of early morning coasting along Puerto Rico's south coast, we were heading for Cayo Aurora, better known by the locals as Gilligan's Island. Rumor has it that the locals gave it that name because it looks like the island in the TV show and one of the local fishermen looked like Bob Denver. Silly but true?

Anyway, when I told the mechanic I was at Cayo Aurora he responded "where???". So I tried "Gilligan's Island", and he replied"Oh, yeah... you'll have no problem getting to Ponce then". So, regardless of what the chart says, it is called Gilligan's Island. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We were within about a mile or so out of Cayo Aur... er, I mean, Gilligan's Island when I started smelling something I did not want to smell, in fact I tried to convince myself that nah, it can't be THAT. (Can you say "denial" boys and girls?). Gear oil. Synthetic gear oil has a smell that is hard to mistake. It stinks. So, I started wandering around the boat... first forward to see if the smell was coming from somewhere in front of us. Nope. So it's us. Maybe I didn't clean up the motor oil I spilled when topping off the engine... but it doesn't smell like engine oil. It smells like gear lube. Jen noticed my preoccupation as well as the smell and asked if we were burning oil. No, I said, not burning, but something's not right. We throttled down that engine a little, made the anchorage off Gilligan's Island and I started checking things out. The sump under the engine had a small pool of greenish smelly synthetic gear oil. Our upper sail drive gearbox shaft seal was shot.

While Jen and Quinn joined Kathy and John (our friends on Oceana) exploring Gilligan's Island, I poked around the engine a little to confirm the problem, called a mechanic I knew in Ft Lauderdale to get his opinion, and then began the chore of finding a mechanic in Puerto Rico. My first call struck gold. I called the Ponce Yacht and Fishing Club and asked them for a recommendation. I received two. The first recommendation was Luis Santos, and I had no need to call the second. After about 15 minutes on the phone I was convinced I'd found a good mechanic. He had a good understanding of Yanmar sail drives as he asked me all the right questions to confirm that I had diagnosed the problem correctly, he was happy to discuss the problem with me, and spoke very good English, which was a big help to me since my Spanish is awful.

So, with a slip reserved in Ponce Yacht Club for the repair and a mechanic lined up for the following week, we motored on over to Ponce to get the shaft seal repaired.

It has been said that the correct definition of Cruising is: "fixing you boat in exotic locations". So it is at times.

Coasting at Dawn

2011-05-05T23:10:00.006-04:00

We had a great weather forecast for transiting the south coast of Puerto Rico. The trades were light, 15 knots or so from the east. In addition, we had at our disposal the wisdom of Bruce Van Sant in the form of his "Gentleman's Guide to Passages South". Distilled from decades of experience in these waters, Bruce's advice for transiting the Thorny Path can be very helpful.

As with all advice, written or otherwise, a mariner is best served by weighing it against their own circumstances and heeding it only with caution. In our case, Bruce's advice proved very helpful for the most part. As for transiting the south coast of Puerto Rico, Bruce's advice was spot-on.

The south coast of Puerto Rico is littered with fine anchorages protected by cays and barrier reefs. With time on your hands, the most comfortable way to work eastwards into the Trades is to leave just before dawn and motor for 3 or 4 hours along the coast, no more than a mile or two offshore, being cautious of the reefs. Before the winds pipe up, say by 9AM, tuck in to an anchorage.

The Trades blow continuously, regardless of day or night, but around big islands you get interference from the hot air rising from the islands. In the few hours before and after dawn you can take advantage of the still air and seas provided by this "night lee". If you are interested in how you can parlay this into a comfortable passage straight into the Trades, read his book. If nothing else, the book is an interesting insight into the cruising lifestyle and if you don't take his considerable egotism seriously, quite amusing.

The "Dawn Coasting" plan worked very well for us. We would get up, raise anchor and be on our way as the first glimmer of dawn warmed the eastern sky.

By 9AM we usually had the anchor back down. The rest of the day would be spent exploring the anchorage and nearby town (if there was one.) At least it worked until I was just a little too pleased with myself and how well things were going. But then, a little adversity is good for the spirit, right?

My Discovery of Mofongo

2011-05-05T22:37:00.008-04:00

We stayed about a week and a half on the west coast of Puerto Rico. The first three nights were spent in the Marina Pescadaria, Puerto Real, adjusting to the local ambiance and resting from the passage from Turks and Caicos. We felt very welcome and Quinn found someone to play with almost every night.

One evening we ate a local family-run restaurant and had a great meal. I ordered Mofongo, mostly because it was fun to say "Mofongo, por favor" after I'd had a few Medallas. Mofongo is a dense pile of mashed plantains and garlic, stuffed with your choice of seafood, chicken, pork or "meat"(beef). It is usually served smothered in a delicious sauce with rice and beans on the side. I had a shrimp mofongo that night and it was delicious. It turns out that Mofongo is a dish found on most menus in Puerto Rico, and each one is a little different. I had fun sampling Mofongo as we worked our way along the Puerto Rican coastline. It was never a disappointment.

We discovered there would be a big fish festival in town in a few days, which sounded too good to miss, but we didn't want to stay in the marina a full week. We arranged dockage at the marina for the festival and then moved south along the coast to Boquerone. Boqerone is a town that caters to the weekend party crowd, and was pretty quiet the two weekday nights we anchored there. The anchorage is quite large and about a third of the boats seemed to be anchored there on a permanent basis. A few, I'm certain, had marine growth securing them them firmly to the ground, making their anchor superfluous.

After two nights in Boquerone we returned to Puerto Real for the fish festival. It was a lot of fun. Street vendors, music, dancers, etc. I bought Quinn a couple of boxes of party snaps - the little harmless fire crackers that make a snap when you throw them on the ground - which he loved. He was delighted when he could share them with a little girl he met at the marina.
Kathy and John on Oceana caught up with us while we were in Puerto Real for the Fish Festival. Their short visit to the Dominican Republic was a great success, and they convinced us to visit the DR on our way back north in 2012.

We enjoyed the last day of the Fish Festival with Kathy and John, and went to dinner with them that evening. This time I ordered a freshly caught snapper in tomato garlic sauce. Yum. They know how to cook in Puerto Real.

The next day we left Puerto Real at dawn and returned to Boqueron, this time accompanied by Oceana. We spent a night in Boquerone, and then moved a little south to El Combate. The weather was blustery and rainy so we decided to relax on board Mirasol for the remainder of the day instead of heading ashore.

Again at dawn we departed El Combate and headed south to the south western cape of Puerto Rico, Cabo Rojo. There we found a large inviting anchorage... littered with fish trap floats. We spent about a half hour picking around the small bay and neither we nor Oceana were able to find somewhere to drop anchor without being surrounded by the fish traps. Our plans being to leave before dawn, we didn't want to be picking our way through fish traps in the dark. Instead, we elected to return to El Combate for the night.

El Combate was a busy place with lots of families hanging out on the beach. We had lunch on the beach (I had chicken Mofongo - delicious). Quinn had fun playing on the beach for a little while after lunch, and then we headed back to our boats. At dawn we planned to round Cabo Rojo and start our exploration of Puerto Rico's southern shore.

Puerto Rico - Arriving on the West Coast

2011-04-29T16:43:00.002-04:00

I'm falling behind in my blogs so in the next few postings I'm going to try to cover a lot of ground, so to speak.

On arriving in Puerto Rico, I found I liked it immediately. The rich green rolling hills climbing towards the volcanic peaks in the eastern half of the island was a great contrast to the flat landscape of Florida, The Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos. The people were also very welcoming, as I worked out how to clear in.

Being a US Territory, clearing in to Puerto Rico for a US Citizen is pretty straight forward. However, if you don't participate in the US Customs Local Boater system, it's less convenient than most Carribbean ports of call. US Customs is located downtown in Mayaguez, about 15 miles north of Puerto Real. We chose not to stop in Mayaquez to clear in because it is a commercial port and not very comfortable for small vessels like Mirasol. Instead, the procedure is to call an 800 number on arrival and provide your information over the phone. I tried to do this with my satellite phone, but the phone system wouldn't accept an international call into the 800 number.

A local saw me trying to call customs and offered his cell phone for my use. He introduced himself as Fernando from Salinas and ran a small convenience shop in the marina complex. He proved to be an excellent source of local info, anchorage recommendations for the western and southern coasts of Puerto Rico, and best of all, $0.93 ice cold beers. I asked him where I could find a good chart for the anchorages he mentioned, and he dug out an old marked-up chart and gave it to me.

Anyway, back to clearing in. Customs took down our passport and vessel information over the phone and then told us we had 24 hours to present ourselves at the Customs office in Mayaguez to complete the process. The president of the marina, Jose, arranged for a car to take us the 15 miles up the coast to the Customs office. We were cleared in without any hassle and also signed up for the Local Boater program to avoid having to present ourselves in person in certain US ports in the future.

On the way back to Puerto Real, the driver stopped at a grocery store and we loaded up on groceries, and a little local rum and beer.

Speaking of the local rum and beer... Don Q is the local rum, and I find it the best silver rum I've tasted, certainly better than Bacardi Silver. The local beer favorite is Medalla, pronounced Mediiya, and it also quickly became a favorite on board. It is served in 10 oz ice cold cans, often so cold ice is frozen to the side of the can. When I first arrived in the Caribbean last year I found that 10oz cans and bottles are commonplace, and as we approached the summer months the reason for this is evident. It can be HOT here, especially if you're sheltered from the trade winds. You will want your beer ICE cold. The smaller 10oz cans are easy to finish off before that last bit gets warm. At $1 a beer, I can live with the smaller can. As I will be reminded later in our voyage, the smaller can doesn't come with a corresponding smaller price tag as you move south down-island. But that's for another blog.

I suppose I didn't cover much ground in this post. I'll do better in the next, or I'll never catch up! (We’re in the BVI as I write this).

Turks and Caicos to Puerto Rico

2011-04-18T23:59:00.005-04:00

We left the sheltered water of the TCI banks for deep water around sunset on Wednesday, March 23rd. We had waited two weeks for this window and were eager to go. The weather window was a little shorter than we wanted, but with the winter cold fronts becoming rare, we took what we could get. It turned out to be a challenging but rewarding 462 nautical mile passage

As anticipated, we were motoring into a fairly steep 6-8 foot swell accompanied by 3-4 foot wind waves. The winds had been blowing 20-25 knots on Tuesday, were now 15 knots, and was supposed to continue to diminish. While motoring into these wind and wave conditions is unpleasant, it was necessary to set us up for a few days of light south easterly winds in which we could make our way east to Puerto Rico. Normally, the Trade Winds would be blowing 20 knots out of the east, making this run impossible, or at least extremely miserable.

The wind and wave conditions did not diminish as quickly as we had hoped. About 18 hours into the passage our friends on Oceana decided to divert south to the Dominican Republic. The opposing wind and waves were chewing up their fuel, putting Puerto Rico out of their range. They turned south on a comfortable beam reach sail to Puerto Plata, DR, and arrived safely the next day.

Mirasol was also burning fuel at a high rate, but we were confident we could make it stretch to Puerto Rico by sailing due east rather than heading directly for Puerto Rico. This kept us from heading straight into the southeast winds and seas, and set us up for a fast beam reach sail due south once we reached Puerto Rico's longitude.

By mid day Thursday Jen and Quinn were both dealing with cases of mal de mare and the wind and seas had refused to lay down. When the trades winds were finally stalled by the cold front just north of us, we continued motorsailing due east in more comfort. We were motoring with one engine and a full main to conserve fuel, but we were fighting a 1.5 current so we were only making about 3.5 knots. We gave up on any hope of a Saturday arrival and figured on mid-day Sunday.

On Friday evening we were 200 miles due north of Puerto Rico's west coast. It was finally time to turn south. We put the helm over, rolled out the jib and shut off the engine. We were a sailboat at once again. Friday night and Saturday we enjoyed ideal sailing conditions with gentle seas and the wind on the beam. By midnight on Saturday, we were well into the Mona Passage between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

We discussed risking a night time arrival, but in spite of our eagerness to complete the voyage, we fell back on our rule of avoiding unfamiliar landfalls at night. To set up a dawn arrival in Puerto Real, Puerto Rico, we ghosted along on a furled jib and no main through the rest of the night. We entered Puerto Real's picturesque harbor as the sun broke over the hills. It was one of our prettiest landfalls. After the sparse vegetation and arid terrain of the Bahamas and the Turks And Caicos, the lush, mountainous vistas of Puerto Rico were amazing.

This was our most challenging passage to windward, and we were happy to have it behind us! Jen took this picture of Quinn and I as we approached the west coast of Puerto Rico. A tired but happy crew.

Turks and Caicos Islands, March 2011

2011-04-18T23:49:00.002-04:00

We spent 14 lazy days in the Turks and Caicos. After spending time in the Exumas and other out islands of the Bahamas we were ready for some access to grocery stores, restaurants, laundry, barber shops and other niceties of civilization. Accordingly, we chose to spend the time in a marina. The anchorages were all quite remote from any towns or facilities.

We made South Side Marina on Providenciales Island our home for those two weeks, and had a very enjoyable time. While on the dock we took several excursions to the touristy side of town. Our first night on Provo, Jen and I had a delightful dinner in a wine bar while Kathy and John Reager from Oceana watched Quinn for us. Another memorable excursion found Jen, Quinn and I on a day-long walk along the Grace Bay Beach, checking out all the beachside resorts. Jen and I were very impressed with the beach, as it was miles long, clean, and protected from the big ocean swells by a barrier reef about a mile out. Snorkeling, diving, windsurfing, tube rides, parasail rides, and catamaran booze cruises were among the many activities available. Anyone looking for a fun beach getaway should consider Provo's Grace Bay in the Turks and Caicos!

The diving here is quite good, and I did two dives off of West Caicos island. They were both wall dives and were a lot of fun. The most interesting thing was seeing barrel sponge coral spawning. They were all doing it at once, which is something to see. Imagine large smoke pots as the spores swirled up and out of the huge barrel sponges in reddish-brown clouds. I've never seen anything like it before. We also saw three large sharks cruising the wall, a few barraccuda, plenty of coral and reef fish plus the usual critters. The dropoff was spectacular as it dropped from about 50'to 3000' straight down. Now that is a wall dive!

It was a bit of a walk to town from the marina, but the marina staff were happy to provide a ride when they had time available. The ride was a pickup truck and was in high demand by the other boats in the marina, so we were usually in the back hanging on. Riding in the back of a pickup truck is old hat for Jen and I (thanks for all those rides in high school, Matt) and Quinn loved it.

Every evening at 5:00 the marina organized a happy hour where everyone would gather with sundowners, substancial appetizers and plenty of stories to share with the other cruisers. The Turks and Caicos is a hub for cruisers heading either north or south at this time of year, so we met several cruisers who were also heading for the Windward Islands for the rest of the season and a few working their way back north.

There actually was some work accomplished during our stay. I took care of a lot of mainenance items while we had the convienience of a marina. Propane refills, engine oil changes, fuel filter changes, water maker maintenance, and general upkeep items. Jen did some serious spring cleaning, tons of laundry and knocked off several pages of scrapbooking.

Other cruisers had more serious maintenance issues. Our friends on Oceana have a substancial stainless steel davit assembly on the stern which supports two large solar panels as well as their dinghy. Two key support welds had failed requiring attention from a local welder to put right. A Lagoon 380, Lucy, arrived missing one propeller. Appearantly one of theirs fell off in transit from down island. Go figure. The replacement prop arrived via Fed Ex, but the custom cone nut did not. After several days of trying to track down the missing shipment, Lucy's captain lost patience, stated that Lucy was a sailboat after all, and resumed their voyage to Ft. Lauderdale with one engine missing a prop.

One day I was determined to walk to town. I had an errand to run and needed the exercise after all those happy hour appetizers. I took Quinn with me and we settled into the walk. We had made it only about half way before a local stopped to give us a ride. When dropping us at the store they asked us if we wanted their number to call if we ever needed another ride. Same thing on the way back: we weren't half way home when a car stopped to give us a ride and we were again offered a phone number. Nice folks here.

After about a week in the TCI we were ready to move on, but we needed a good weather window to beat 400 miles southeast against the trades. On the 14th day it arrived (sort of), and we were off to Puerto Rico.

The Thorny Path

2011-04-02T13:49:00.007-04:00

Travelling by sailboat from Florida to the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean is called the "thorny path" to the Caribbean. It has this name because it entails travelling about 950 miles southeast straight into the trade winds. That is a long, long way to go upwind.

One way to do this is the offshore route. You depart Florida, swing north of the Bahamas and head east until you are due north of the Virgin Islands. Once you have made your easting, you can turn south and enjoy a beam reach into the Virgin Islands. Since you're already quite far south, most of this trip requires beating into the upper edges of the trade winds to make your way east.

If you have the time, a more enjoyable (and marriage-preserving) route is to island hop. You make your way through the Bahamas, take a short passage to the Turks and Caicos, and then a longer one to Puerto Rico, sometimes via the Dominican Republic. Once in Puerto Rico, you have short day sails as you coast along the south side of Puerto Rico and on into the Virgin Islands. It sounds straight forward, but there are a few prickly thorns in that route as well.

The first part of the journey is pretty easy, and only requires one or two overnight passages. We sailed from Miami to Bimini, then on to the Exumas where we spent a fair amount of time. From the Exumas we sailed to Rum Cay, in the out islands of the Bahamas.

Once you get as far south as Rum Cay, you have dipped your toe into the trade winds, which blow with remarkable consistency from the East. At the same time, you are leaving behind the many sheltered anchorages of the Bahamas, and the short daylight passages they provide. Ahead of you lay larger stretches of open ocean.

The solution is to take advantage of cold fronts rolling off of the southeast coast of the US that tend to stall just south east of the Bahamas. These cold fronts tend to shut down the trade winds between the Bahamas and the Virgins, providing a weather window in which you can motor or motor-sail to the next staging anchorage in light easterly winds. If you time it right, you can enjoy gentle rollers, light easterly winds of under 15 knots and wind waves under 3 feet on the nose. Without these windows, you are faced with head winds over 20 knots and steep eight foot or more seas on the nose. A recipe for broken boats and very unhappy crew (meaning, a furious wife).

Our passage from Rum Cay to the Turks and Caicos was our first leg in this difficult portion of the Thorny Path. We left Rum Cay after a whopper of a cold front blew through. There were 8-10 foot rollers on our beam, but they were gentle and spread out. The wind and associated wind waves had laid down and we had a pleasant first half of the passage. By midnight, however, the wind picked up on our nose and we ended up pounding for several hours until we found ourselves in the lee of the Turks and Caicos. We probably would have waited a few days for a longer window, but we were very eager to catch up with our friends on Oceana, who were already in the Turks and Caicos.

The entrance to the Caicos Bank is a 200 foot wide cut called the Sand Bore Channel. It is the only access to the well protected Caicos Bank from the west. Passing through the channel, we left behind the deep blue ocean and found ourselves in 10 feet of beautiful turquoise water as far as the eye could see. It was an astounding change.

The Turks and Caicos are a part of the British Commonwealth and are located south east of the Bahamas and about 80 miles due north of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic). The Caicos islands and cays surround the Caicos Bank, which is a very flat plateau resting about 3 to 15 feet below the water and is sprinkled very liberally with coral heads and shoals. The Turks lie 50 miles to the east of the Caicos Islands, separated by ocean water over a mile deep.

We were excited to be in the Turks and Caicos. Friends, miles of beaches, and world renowned diving awaited us.

Rum Cay, Far Bahamas

2011-03-23T08:26:00.002-04:00

The trip to Rum Cay from the Exumas was a pleasant, if moonless overnight passage. We arrived late morning and threaded our way into the harbor. We were expecting a cold front to arrive on our heals so we decided on staying in the marina rather than in the anchorage, which we expected to be rolly and uncomfortable during the frontal passage.

The harbor entrance is exceptionally well marked by Bahamas standards. It is a good thing since it is a twisty route through many coral heads which brush the surface. On arrival we topped off our fuel and found our slip in the marina. It is a very small and quiet marina, which is fitting for such a remote island. Water was unavailable and power was very expensive, so we stayed in "anchorage mode" keeping our power and water use low and did not hook up to shore water or power.

The island itself is small and only has sixty or so inhabitants. It sports two groceries, one the size of a two car garage and one the size of a modest walk-in closet. Provisioning was not much of an option however, as the mail boat did not bring any food so the shelves were mostly bare with the exception of some canned goods and staples.

The day after our arrival the marina filled up with other boats hiding from the cold front and the owners decided on hosting a pizza party. The pizzas were home made and cooked in a wood oven. Very tasty, and it was fun chatting with the other cruisers.

The next morning, we took a long walk to the north east side of the cay for a tour of part of the old salt flats where they used to harvest salt. On the return trip we took the beach route back. Jen found some interesting sea glass and Quinn found several very nice shells. I found an intact plastic garbage bin with a sticker declaring it was the property of a town in Martinique. It had drifted hundreds of miles up the equatorial current to wind up on the beach of Rum Cay. It'll probably stay there until the next storm and continue it's journey north.

Quinn caught his first fish while we were in Rum Cay. It was a 10" Jack, and would have been good eating had we not returned it to the sea. Jen already had dinner in the works when he caught it. He was quite proud. He caught it on a little 24" toy fishing rod that was bent double while he reeled in the fish. We'll have to find him something more suitable now that he's graduated from toy fishies to the real thing!

Rum Cay is a very pleasant and quiet destination, but we have friends waiting in the Turks and Caicos, so we stayed only as long as needed to let the front pass and the winds and waves settle. We left the marina the day before our departure from Rum Cay to stage ourselves in the anchorage. We planned a midnight departure and did not want to thread the coral heads in the dark. This was our first night time departure from an anchorage, and we had no moon or lights from shore so it was a little disorienting in the pitch black night. All went well, and we were off the Turks and Caicos.

Black Point, Great Guana Cay Exumas

2011-02-25T14:51:00.001-05:00

After a three day stay, we left the Big Major's Spot anchorage near Staniel Cay early in the morning and headed to Black Point. Since the wind was not in our favor, it was a 10 mile motor. On arrival we dropped anchor, loaded up the dinghy with three big bags of laundry and headed for Rockside Laundry.

Leaving Jen with the laundry, Quinn and I returned to Mirasol to fetch the five boxes of school books we picked up in Ft Lauderdale. The Seven Seas Cruising Association organized a small fleet of boats to bring school books donated by Florida school districts to various islands of the Exumas. We were happy to volunteer. The organizers did a thorough job putting it all together and must have put in a great deal of effort. Since we were already going to the Exumas, I suspect the delivery was the easy part.

Laundry and book delivery complete we retired to Mirasol for lunch and a short nap. Jen spied the weekly Mail Boat arriving, which means fresh produce at the grocery store. We piled back into the dinghy and headed back in to shore to see what we could find. While Jen vied with the other cruisers for the limited supply of fresh veg, Quinn and I walked up the road to see what was going on at Lorraine's Cafe. It was very much like we left it two years ago. A very friendly place where you can get access to the internet, sip a beverage and catch up with the world a little bit. We found out that there was a BBQ buffet planned for the following night so we signed up and headed back to the grocery to find Jen. Jen had some success at the market so we grabbed the booty and headed back to the dinghy.

Since the Mail Boat was in, so were all the cruisers and the dock was quite crowded with all their dinghies. I had to climb over several to get to ours. As I was about to step onto ours, the dingy I was standing on started to drift backwards. I chose to make a jump for it... and chose poorly. Fortunately, I had nothing much in my pockets as I splashed down chest deep next to our dinghy. Jen, Quinn and the crowd on the dock all found it very amusing. Oh well, after 3 years of clambering around on dinghies it was about time, I suppose!

The following day we hiked to the east side of the island to explore two of the ocean side beaches. Jen found a bunch of sea glass and Quinn found several shells he liked. Once finished with the first beach, the sky looked a little threatening so we skipped the second beach and headed back to the boat. As six o'clock rolled around it was back to shore to Lorrain's Cafe for the BBQ. We met a family of four on the way and they decided to join us for dinner. They were taking a year sabbatical and enjoying the islands and it was fun comparing stories. Quinn had a lot of fun with their two boys, one 3 and one 5. As usual, Lorrain's food was delicious and the beer was cold.

We'll stay one more night here in Black Point, and then we think we'll move a little further south to our favorite anchorage in the area, Hidden Harbor. On our last visit, we spent several days there and had it almost exclusively to ourselves.

It looks like we might have a good weather window to get to Rum Cay next week. Rum Cay is a good spot from which to jump south to the Turks and Cacaos, and it's time to start thinking about that. The longer we stay here in the Exumas, the less favorable the weather becomes for getting to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and it's still a long way to Grenada.

Staniel Cay, Exumas

2011-02-25T14:37:00.000-05:00

We had a great sail south from Warderick Wells to Staniel Cay. It was about 25 miles and a broad reach or run most of the way. We had plenty of company heading both north and south as it was a beautiful sailing day.

We arrived at the Big Major's Spot anchorage just north of Staniel Cay in mid afternoon and dropped the hook. The following day we went in to Staniel Cay to pick up some fresh produce from Isle General Store. We were in great luck and found carrots, broccoli and eggs along with some canned juice. While at the store Quinn found some kids playing in a fort just around the corner and joined in with a big grin. Heading back to the boat, the tide had gone out and I had to pull the dinghy through the shallows of the river to get to deep water. I seem to be timing the tide wrong on our land excursions lately!

We skipped the traditional pastimes at Staniel Cay - Thunderball Grotto and Pig Beach. Thunderball Grotto is very cool, a hollow islet that you can swim into via a short submerged tunnel. It was the location for the closing scene from the 007 movie Thunderball. However, the water was pretty choppy during low tide and I decided to give it a pass this year. I'll be sure to snorkel it on the way back north.

Pig Beach is just that. Wild pigs on a beach. Cruisers like to go ashore and feed them, and it sounds fun. We did it last time and I learned my lesson. Pigs aren't nice and are pretty aggressive. We watched from the boat this year.

Warderick Wells

2011-02-19T00:25:00.003-05:00

We've spent the last three days at Warderick Wells, one of the jewels of the Exumas. It is in the heart of the Exuma Land and Sea Park and has many things to keep you busy. For us, the most attractive feature of the area are the hiking trails.

On our first day, we repeated a hike we took during our visit in 2009. We visited the blow holes on Boo-Boo peak, which were quiet as we arrived too close to low tide. We searched for and found the board we left two years ago on Boo-Boo peak, where it is customary for cruisers to leave a piece of driftwood marked with the boat's name and date of visit. Then we continued down to the beach on the Exuma Sound and then back across the Cay to some beaches on the Yellow Banks side of the Cay where we were moored. These beaches are among the best I have seen anywhere. Talcum-fine white sand, turquoise waters and live starfish, conch and other sea life in abundance.

That afternoon, we joined about 20 other cruisers for drinks and snacks down on one of the beaches. Quinn was very happy to find Glen, another 5 year old to play with and they spent 2 hours playing on the beach and in the surf. Unfortunately, Glen's family were headed north to the Abacos on a tight schedule so we couldn't spend more time with them. The afternoon was fun and we met several cruisers who we expect to see more of over the next several weeks as we are all working southward.

Our second day we went for a longer hike to the south end of the cay. We saw ruins of the abandoned loyalist settlement founded during the US Revolutionary War, a hideout used by pirates with a fresh water well, as well as several more beautiful beaches and great vistas. The "trails" were very rugged, often requiring stepping from jagged boulder to boulder, skirting 20-foot deep holes in the limestone. Quinn did very well, but was happy when we were finished with the rough trails and could stick to the beaches the rest of the way back to our dinghy.

Speaking of the dinghy, when we beached the dinghy in preparation for our hike I thought it was low tide. This assumption was supported by the fact that I had to row the last 100 yards in to the beach as it was very shallow and flat. Concerned about a rising tide, I dragged the dinghy up to the high water mark on the beach and tied it to a tree. As it turned out, I needn't have bothered. In fact, it was not low tide when we left the dinghy, but WAS when we returned several hours later. When we crested the rise by the beach where our dinghy was secured I was dismayed to find that the water that I had rowed over had disappeared and our dinghy was stranded 100 yards from any water.

We had three options. One was to swim out to Mirasol to wait for the tide. As Mirasol was about a quarter mile away and we were tired from the hike this was a poor option. The second option was to sit on the beach and wait for the tide to come in. Since this would probably be several hours, it was clear that this wasn't Quinn's or Jen's favorite idea. We were all hot, tired and thirsty.

The third option entailed dragging the 250 pound dinghy, motor, and fuel across 100 yards of that wet talcum-fine white sand. I mentioned that we could sit and wait for the tide, but apparently Jen and Quinn felt that I was simply making a poor joke and waited for me to start hauling the dinghy to the water. Oh, and they took pictures of course.

I did manage to float the dinghy without damaging anything important, (the dinghy made it afloat unscathed as well). We arrived back on Mirasol and I quickly availed myself of our stores of gin, tonic and lime.

Our third day was more leisurely. We hiked back up to the blow holes on Boo-Boo peak. This time we arrived near high tide and they were blowing strongly. We also climbed up to the peak and updated our driftwood marker with the year 2011. Boo-Boo peak get's its name from the sound of the blow holes when there is a strong on-shore swell at high tide. The cay is rumored to be haunted by a shipwreck castaway and some attribute the noise to his ghost, others to the blow holes. I'll reserve judgment as I haven't been to the peak at night and I imagine it's pretty spooky on a full moon.

We hope to come back to Warderick Wells one more time in 2012 as we make our was back to the US. It is a fun place to visit.

Valentine's Day at Shroud Cay

2011-02-15T17:07:00.002-05:00

As expected, the cold front arrived a day early and we were happy with our decision to shift our Exuma landfall to Shroud Cay. Shroud gave us less protection than we had hoped, but it was better than we expected Highborne to be in N-NE winds. The cold front stalled on top of the Bahamas, giving us lots of rain and 20-25 knot winds for a couple of days. Mirasol was pretty salty from the last couple of passages so the heavy rains were welcome.

After two days of hanging out on the boat we were ready for a trip ashore when the weather broke on Valentine's Day. We climbed on the dinghy and motored around exploring the tiny cays that surround Shroud Cay. Quinn had his first try at driving, and did very well. By the time I had to take over as we approached land he was comfortable enough with it to be screwing around with the throttle, pestering Jen and making me happy I had the kill cord strapped around my wrist.

We beached on Shroud Cay and followed a trail for a short hike. We found a natural fresh water well that really surprised me. It was 12 feet in diameter and full of fresh water - not brackish at all. This was very surprising to me since Shroud Cay is made of porous limestone and is no more than 10 feet above sea level. There were small fish swimming in the well, and Quinn asked how they got there. Good question... how did fresh water fish show up in a well hundreds of miles from any sizable fresh water habitat? I'm stumped.

We found a tidal creek that wound its way through the mangroves across the north end of the cay all the way to Exuma Sound. We followed it in our dinghy, motoring and rowing as required. On reaching the Exuma Sound I had to jump out and pull Jen and Quinn in the dink across the shallows where we beached it and tied off to a very small mangrove tree along the shore.

Crossing the barrier dunes, we found a beautiful deserted beach on the Exuma Sound where we relaxed for a while while Quinn played in the surf. We named it Valentine's Day Beach.

Once back on Mirasol Jen started on a batch of bread while Quinn swam off the transom.

On to the Exumas

2011-02-12T13:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in the Exumas after a wonderful 33 hour sail from Bimini. We left Bimini at dawn and motored south straight into 15 knots of wind. The waves were steep and right on the nose, but fortunately this was just for a few miles as we made our way to Gun Cay where we would turn East onto the shallow waters of the Great Bahamas Bank.

Once on the shallow smooth waters of the Great Bahamas Bank, we had wind on our beam. We shut off the motors and blew across the banks at 7-8.5 knots. It was a fantastic sailing day. With only 3 to 15 feet of water under our keel, I kept a close eye out for coral heads, but never had to change course to avoid them. We were following a route from the Explorer Chart Book and this is well traveled route we found it to be carefully plotted to avoid the hazards. I saw many coral heads on the banks, but all passed safely to either side of us.

I was very pleased with Mirasol’s performance. Even loaded down with every cabinet stuffed to overflowing with provisions and gear, we were able to overtake a monohull with a 10 mile lead and keep ahead of a larger catamaran following behind, although he would have overtaken us if he had a few more hours.

At sunset, we left the 6 to 20 foot water of the banks and entered the Tongue of the Ocean which is the deep water between the Great Bahamas Banks and New Providence. The drop-off is sudden – our depth finder which has a range of more than 350 feet and measures every second, lost the bottom with the last reading being 24 feet. A glance at the chart we were suddenly in 2600 feet of water, and would soon be in water over a mile deep. The topology of the Bahamian waters is simply amazing.

Over night, we sailed most of the way across the Tongue of the Ocean. The sky was clear and the moon was out so it was a bright passage. The wind settled down to about 8 knots, and we were fighting a 1.5 knot current so our progress was a modest 4.5 knots through the water and 3 knots over ground. It worked out just right, though as we arrived off of Paradise Island, New Providence just before dawn and would need daylight to pick our way onto the Yellow Banks just past New Providence.

As we approached New Providence, we could see the lights of the massive Atlantis Resort and other hotels on Paradise Island, and kept an eye out for the many passing cargo and cruise ships. At first light we picked our way through the scattered Cays and coral heads that guard the north east corner of New Providence and turned south onto the Yellow Banks. The Yellow Banks, like the Great Bahamas Bank is a huge expanse of very shallow water, generally less than 20 feet deep that runs the entire western length of the Exumas.

By mid afternoon on Friday we made Highborne Cay in the Exumas, which was where we had planned to anchor for the night. However, as we approached we learned that the cold front we expected to arrive the following evening had sped up and was now expected that night. The anchorage at Highborne Cay didn’t offer much protection from a strong North wind, so we changed plans and headed a couple hours further south to Shroud Cay.

The Shroud Cay anchorage is gorgeous, dotted with tiny cays surrounding Shroud Cay on the East and the turquoise waters of the Yellow Banks on the West. At Quinn’s suggestion, we toasted our arrival in the Exumas and then went about the business of squaring away Mirasol after a passage. By sunset the three of us were lounging on the bow, very happy to be back.

Exploring Bimini

2011-02-12T12:50:00.000-05:00

We spent four days and five nights in Bimini at the Blue Water Marina while we waited for weather for our hop to the Exumas. We spent the time exploring Alice Town, building sand forts on the beach, fishing off the boat and a little minor boat maintenance here and there.

We had arrived on the Saturday before Super Bowl Sunday and Jen was happy to find that the owners of The Big Game Club marina were big Packers fans and were hosting a Super Bowl BBQ. Late Sunday afternoon we headed for the Big Game Club, both Jen and Quinn sporting their Packer gear. Since the Bears didn’t make it, I settled for cheering for the Packers, but refused to wear any Packers gear. The waitress at the door harassed me a bit for being a Bears fan, but let me in anyway. The BBQ was fantastic. Jen went for the chicken, Quinn for the ribs and I for the jerked pork loin. Delicious! Bahamians know how to throw a BBQ! Since the Packers won the big game, we celebrated with a big slice of chocolate cake, probably the last desert of that type we’ll find for a few months.

Monday Jen went searching for sea glass while Quinn and I built a huge sand fortress, complete with an outer wall, a moat, and a secret escape tunnel in the back. It has been many months since Quinn’s been on a beach like this and he put it to good use!

Alice Town was a pleasant place to visit, with very friendly locals. Quinn made several friends, including Craig, the BBQ master & bartender at the Big Game Club. The town is well kept and painted bright pinks, blues, and yellows. I was sorry to find that the Complete Angler Hotel where Hemmingway spent a lot of time had burnt down in 2007. Maybe I’ll read Old Man and the Sea again soon.

Arrival In Bimini

2011-02-12T12:36:00.002-05:00

We’re back in the Bahamas!

The crossing from Miami to Bimini was bouncy but pretty quick. We were in a pack of six boats making for various entrance ports of the Bahamas so we had plenty of company. We worked our way slowly through the pack and were the first of the three boats to arrive at Bimini. Not that it was a race…

On arrival at the cut between North and South Bimini, we found that the entrance did not resemble our electronic or paper charts. There were two large brand new channel buoys that were not on our charts and none of the buoys that were on our charts. The only thing that seemed in agreement was the note about shifting sand bars on the charts and the breakers we were seeing just beyond those fancy new buoys. We motored very slowly between the entrance buoys and confirmed the water in front of us was full of breakers so we turned around and headed back out to deep water to regroup and visually plan our route in.

We were hailed by another boat that just arrived who wanted to know what we found in the cut. They had been here before, but said the markers were all new. They had waypoints plotted from their last visit, so we let them lead the way. As we headed in, we were hailed by someone with local knowledge who advised us to ignore the new buoys and head straight towards the southern shore and follow the beach in through the cut. On the bow, Jen said that route looked the best and we headed that way. The boat we were following didn’t heed these instructions, I assume being more comfortable with their old waypoints, and ran afoul of one of the sandbars. They were being very cautious so didn’t ground hard and were quickly moving again. We both then followed the beach in through the cut and were safely in the North Bimini channel off of Alice Town.

We took a slip in Blue Water Marina, cleared Bahamas Customs and Immigration, and settled in for a relaxing evening.

Bahamas Bound 2011

2011-02-03T00:04:00.003-05:00

Jen's elbow is getting much better and we've decided to continue on with our 2011 cruise. Tomorrow we will head down the New River and out into the Atlantic for the short hop to Dinner Key, Miami. The plan is to stay on a mooring ball at Dinner Key for a couple of nights and then make the jump across the Gulf Stream to Bimini, Bahamas on Saturday.

We'll clear customs in Bimini and then head on to the Exumas as weather permits. Jen is hinting at us staying in Bimini for a week so we can watch the Packers in the Superbowl. We'll see how it works out when we get there (my favorite method of planning).

We made good use of the unexpected extension to our stay in Ft Lauderdale. Quinn is a proud owner of a new bike, we crammed at least another couple hundred pounds of provisions in our bulging lockers and cabinets (hey, beer is expensive in the islands!), visited some museums, and completed numerous chores on the boat that had been postponed until "a better time".

So, off we go on the next stage of our 2011 Cruise. Our long term plans are to spend some weeks in the Exumas and then begin working our way south through the West Indies until we reach Grenada in late June. We'll stay in Grenada through the 2011 hurricane season, and then start working northwards come November. Eventually, we'll make it back to Ft Lauderdale sometime in May or June of 2012.

Holidays on the New River

2011-01-06T21:59:00.004-05:00

We've been here for three holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. Thanksgiving was a treat when we cooked our first full turkey on the grill. We weren't sure it would fit, but it did. In the past we've done Cornish hens. Jen completed the feast with hericot verts (snobby green beans) stuffing, fancy sweet potatos and home made cranberry sauce.

In anticipation of our trip to Disney on the following Sunday, I picked up the rental car the Friday after Thanksgiving. Since I had a car and the weather was nice, I decided to do some quick shopping for Jen's Christmas presents. It says something for my current level of detachment from the normal US society that I didn't realize that I was venturing out into the evil cauldron of "TheDayAfterChristmasShoppingMadness". I made it home alive (and without much to show for my efforts) and told Jen how nuts it was out there. She just laughed and asked me why I would ever go out shopping on Black Friday, given my dislike of crowds. My response was a sheepish "Ooops, I guess I forgot about that.". Ah well. It's a good thing, really.

The Disney trip was a good holiday for the crew of Mirasol. We left the boat for five whole days of hotel living and gratuitous Quinn spoiling. We spent time at the Magic Kingdom (Quinn's favorite, of course), Animal Kingdom, Epcot and Hollywood Studios. We did the Micky Christmas Party, which was a lot of fun and Quinn hung in there right up until they kicked us out at midnight. Going the week after Thanksgiving was perfect as the crowds were very light. We were able to avoid waiting in any lines longer than about 20 minutes, most much less than that. The only place where lines were a problem was Hollywood Studios. We always let Quinn decide if we would wait for a ride, and anything over 20 minutes to a half hour he always chose to find something else to do. That's my boy! Lines suck. ;)

Christmas was full of the usual excitement for Quinn and the whole family. Quinn now has great confidence that Santa will find us wherever we are. Jen outdid herself once again with the Christmas Eve Feast. We had a roast beef tenderloin with a delicious port wine reduction, asparagus, taters and a yummy cherry compote over ice cream for desert. Quinn set out the cookies and milk for Santa and went promptly to sleep after admonishing me not to stay up too late. It was good advice. Christmas morning came EARLY.

New Years Eve was a blast. We were joined by our friends Brian, Shannon and Cooper Hermann. The six of us wandered around the festival across the river from Mirasol for a few hours, stopped for some great burgers at Tarpon Bend Restaurant and then retired to the boat for a few games of Mexican Train. Once midnight rolled around we gathered on Mirasol's bow to view the ball drop and fireworks which were shot off directly across the river from us. Brian and Cooper spent the night, it being Cooper's first overnight on a boat. Quinn was very pleased to share his bunk.

We're hoping to be in the islands for the next holiday!

Ft Lauderdale stay extended

2011-01-04T22:08:00.010-05:00

December was a busy month with boat maintenance, visits with family, holidays, a trip to Disney and lots of provisioning.

As for maintenance, the problem with the fuel line turned out to be a severely cracked fuel pickup tube inside the starboard fuel tank. It is likely it's been cracked since it was installed and has gradually worsened as time went on. It took a lot of looking to find it. Pickup tube cracking wasn't on my short list of causes for a fuel problem. It is now.

Other maintenance chores included repairing and cleaning the grill in preparation for holiday feast grilling (love that Magma Catalina grill, we give it a real workout), some minor but useful enhancements to our navigation light switching, gear oil changes for Mirasol and the outboard, new wire harness for the dinghy, replacement of the cockpit cushion padding (worn out from too much loafing, I suppose), water-maker servicing, etc.

Family visits included a trip to Ft Myers to visit with my parents in their new home as well as a visit with my sister Anita, her husband Todd, and son Riley. Both visits were a lot of fun.

Provisioning the boat for an extended trip to the islands has taken up much of our time... and budget. We recently decided to spend the hurricane season of 2011 in Grenada, which is very exiting for us. This means we'll be out of the country for almost 18 months instead of 8 months, making provisioning more complex. Once we're out of the US, we'll spend 95% or more of our nights at anchor, with months between any stay at a marina.

Jen has stocked the freezer with vacuum-sealed meat, cabinets with canned goods, bow lockers with paper towels ($4 a roll in the islands) and our bilges are stocked with dozens of quarts of UHT Milk, Juice Boxes, and little soda and several cases of beer. At $80 a case for Heineken in the islands, it pays to bring a few with us! No need to stock rum, of course!

In the room remaining, I've stashed spare parts for every major system on board. It's impossible to carry enough spares for all possibilities without breaking the bank and sinking the boat, but we do have most critical systems covered as best we can. We're also loaded up with as much consumables as I think we'll need. Lots of filters... oil and fuel filters for three diesels, belts, gaskets, oil, gear lube, joker valves and rebuild kits for the heads (ick!) water maker filters, blah blah blah. I need a spreadsheet to track them all, and where I've stowed them.

Our current plan is to tour the out-islands of the Bahamas this winter. Come spring we'll work our way south through the Turks and Caicos, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the West Indies until we reach Grenada in late June. We're not sure which islands we'll stop at on the way down, but we'll be in the neighborhood of the British Virgin Islands, Antigua, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St Lucia, Bequia, and the Tobago Cays. We plan on staying in Grenada through November, and then begin a leisurely return journey north, ending up in Florida in early summer, 2012. We hope to enroll Quinn in school while we're in Grenada, but we're not yet sure if that can be arranged.

We selected Grenada as our home for the hurricane season as it is generally safe from hurricanes (or not), and is a very beautiful place to spend some time. Trinidad, 90 miles south-west of Grenada, is a better bet for avoiding hurricanes. However, it's not a desirable a cruising destination. It is a very good place to leave your boat on the hard for the summer season, but for live-aboards, it's not so great.

Well, that was our plan. At some point I must have forgot to say "or not". We've had a minor delay.

A little over a week ago, Jen hurt her elbow badly. Had she not hurt herself, it would have been a funny story. As it is, she has considerable pain and bruising and we're not allowed to laugh about it yet ;). It's unclear if there is a fracture involved, but the doc says she has to rest it for a few weeks or she'll end up needing surgery. When told of her plans to head for the islands, he said something along the lines of "you're not going anywhere for several weeks" as the work involved with sailing the boat is just about the worst she could do for her arm. We hope to find out next week if there is a fracture and get a better handle on how long we need to extend our stay here in Ft Lauderdale. It's a bit of a shock as we were all set to leave for the Bahamas this week, but at least we're stuck in a nice place!

Back on the New River

2010-11-27T07:36:00.002-05:00

Gregg can go more into specifics about the "engine" problem. I will nutshell it by saying there was air in the fuel line and the fuel pump was not the problem. He got it working well enough to transit the New River last Tuesday. So, we are finally off the fuel dock and safely tucked away on the New River at Sailboat Bend. It's a nice spot directly across the river from the Museum of Science and Discovery, which Quinn points out to me every day asking when I'm going to take him there.

Our next stop may or may not be Miami, enroute to Bimini. We're in no hurry to leave Ft. Lauderdale as we have friends in town and plenty of tasks to accomplish. Since we've moved to the river, I've mostly been catching up on provisioning, cleaning, and today, laundry. School for Quinn has temporarily been put on hold while we take care of some things, but hopefully we'll get back to it soon.

Thanksgiving on the boat was nice - we roasted a whole (6.5 lb) turkey on our little rail-mounted marine grill. It turned out beautifully. Kathy and John (Oceana) had intended to stop by for some Mexican Train after dinner, but we all needed naps.

Last night we went (with Kathy and John) to the "Get Lit" festival on the Riverwalk where the mayor officially flips the switch on the Christmas lights. The Riverwalk is particularly lovely this time of year. It was a fun night and Quinn even got to put in a couple requests with Santa. There are photos posted on the website.

I have been slowly working on the website as wifi here is terrible. I have added a couple more photos to our St. Augustine page and updated our position, in addition to the Ft. Lauderdale photos.

Well, off to the laundry.

Ft Lauderdale... at the Fuel Dock

2010-11-19T16:43:00.000-05:00

The passage from St Augustine to Ft Lauderdale went without any drama... almost.

Wednesday afternoon and Thursday were very nice. We had decent wind, if a little light, so we did some motor sailing and also had a chance to use our light air gennaker sail.

Late Wednesday night we passed Cape Canaveral about 3 miles offshore and I was able to make out Space Shuttle Discovery on it's launch pad. Discovery is scheduled to launch early Saturday morning so we slipped through before they closed off the area to marine traffic. It wouldn't do to be sailing along as booster rockets dropped into the sea around us. But what a great view it would have been!

Thursday evening the wind piped up giving us 20-25 knot winds and 5-7 foot seas. This was a bit more than forecast, but it wasn't on the nose so I had no complaints!

By early Friday AM the seas built to about 6-8 ft and became confused. This was due to the Gulf stream being WAY inshore and piling up against the strong North wind. Now I did have something to complain about! From Lake Worth all the way south to Ft Lauderdale we were fighting 3 to 4 knots of current from the Gulf Stream. We tucked in as close as 1 mile from shore, but it didn't help.

With the wind directly on the stern and Mirasol slewing about in confused seas, it took only a few unplanned violent gybes to convince us to drop the main sail. So, with both engines running and a little jib flying we were doing 8.5 knots but only making 4.5 knots headway.

We arrived outside Port Everglades' (Ft Lauderdale) channel entrance just after dawn on Friday and slowed down to wait for a cargo ship to transit the channel. As soon as the engines were idled, the starboard engine died. A few attempts to re-start failed. The engine would start and then die again after a couple seconds. I figured we had clogged fuel filters from gunk in our tanks being stirred up from rough weather. This was disappointing as I am very careful with the fuel we select and take a lot of care to avoid any water in the tank which would lead to algae growth.

We motored through the channel and into the ship turning basin which is just inside the entrance channel. While Jen turned circles in the ship turning basin keeping well clear of any ships, I changed both fuel filters on the starboard engine. The port authority kept coming by to tell us we couldn't be there and Jen kept begging engine problems. In the 15 minutes I took to change both fuel filters, the Port Authority had threatened us with a $50,000 fine and jail time if we didn't move. Nice.

(In the light hearted spirit of this blog, a rant concerning the harassment of my family while we were on a sailboat experiencing engine trouble... has been deleted. However, the words Police State came to mind.)

The filter change didn't solve the problem. Not desiring to be incarcerated, we left the area on one engine, transited the 17th St Causeway Bridge and carefully navigated up the busy ICW to the Bahia Mar marina.

Now a catamaran runs just fine on one engine when your going in a straight line at speed, but at slow speeds you tend to go in a circle. That's not much help with docking or maneuvering in congested areas with lots of current. As there were no available anchorages or viable slips, we talked the marina into letting us camp at their fuel dock. Very nice of them as we are crowding their business a little. Thank you Bahia Mar!

Once on the dock I continued my trouble-shooting with no success. My best guess was a bad fuel pump or some type of blockage so I called in the pros. Multi-Tech Marine, a firm with which I've had good experience in the past, arrived within an hour and a half of my call and determined the problem was with the low pressure fuel pump. They were surprised, and said that "those never fail". An unfortunate result of the "never fail" status was that in all of Ft Lauderdale, there was no replacement part available. Really? In Ft Lauderdale??? So, we're stuck here at the fuel dock until Monday when the part will arrive.

The mechanic said I might be able to bypass the low pressure fuel pump so that we could leave the fuel dock and get into a slip, but the results would be unreliable. Hmmm... "unreliable" is a bad thing for an engine to be when negotiating the New River in Ft Lauderdale where the river is narrow, busy, has a fast current, and throngs with very, VERY expensive yachts. So we're camping on the fuel dock for the weekend. But hey, it's Ft Lauderdale and it's 80 degrees and sunny. We'll manage just fine.

St. Augustine, FL

2010-11-16T15:03:00.003-05:00

Our unexpected stop in St Augustine, Florida turned out to be a great visit. We spent 6 nights here and had a lot of fun. Our only difficulty was deciding where to eat dinner. Many, many tasty options.

We spent the first two nights on Anastasia Island and toured the light house and an alligator farm. The light house was built in 1874 and is still in operation as an official aid to navigation. Jen took Quinn to the Alligator Farm while I took care of some maintenance chores.

After the two days on Anastasia Island we moved over to the St Augustine City Docks. St Augustine has a wonderful waterfront district with a lot of things to see and do. Quinn and my favorite is the Castillo De San Marcos fort. This fort was built by the Spanish to protect St Augustine from the British and French as well as pirates in the late 1600's. It is still in excellent condition and is maintained by the US National Park Service. The best part was watching as one of the original cannons was fired over the bay.

We were lucky to discover it was Pirates Weekend this weekend in St Augustine and we enjoyed that festival quite a lot. Magic shows, pirate skits, a climbing wall and lots of bouncy things to climb on kept Quinn very entertained.

Yesterday I spent the day waxing the starboard hull. I had waxed the port hull in Norfolk. This is NOT my favorite way to spend a day, but since this is the last floating dock we'll be on for a long time, it needed to be taken care of.

Kathy and John of Oceana arrived yesterday afternoon and we joined them for dinner at The Tasting Room. Fantastic tapas and the service was very good. If you like tapas, don't miss this place if you come to St Augustine.

Tomorrow we leave for Ft Lauderdale. The huge system that was creating all the big seas is gone and today's cold front should give us favorable winds.

St. Augustine, FL - A Convenient Detour

2010-11-10T18:20:00.002-05:00

After posting the previous whereabouts blog I downloaded the latest weather via our satellite phone. What popped out at me right away was the updated forecast including 10-12 ft waves for Florida south of Sebastian Inlet... which would have been more or less on the beam until we rounded Jupiter Inlet just north of Ft Lauderdale. Since we will be hugging the coast to avoid the Gulf Stream we'd be in shallow water which means the waves will be steep and stacked up close together. Yuck.

We were just off of St Augustine Florida when I read this. Suddenly we remembered that St Augustine was supposed to be a wonderful port to visit and wasn't it a shame that we would miss it if we went straight to Ft Lauderdale! Back out comes the satellite phone and two minutes later we had reservations at Conch Inn Marina. Jen put the helm over and I hoisted all sail and gunned the engines. Only two and a half hours until sunset and St. Augustine's inlet is a little tricky for a first visit with shifting shoals and breakers on both sides. We needed to make time.

We made the inlet with a little time to spare, are now tied up at the marina are enjoying snacks and beverages. Tomorrow we'll explore St Augustine and start watching for the next weather window that will take us to Ft Lauderdale.

Charleston SC - Ft Lauderdale FL 2010: Day 1

2010-11-10T13:16:00.000-05:00

The first day of our passage from Charleston, SC to Ft Lauderdale, FL went very smoothly. Quite literally smooth sailing (well, motor-sailing anyway). The light North winds that were predicted were overwhelmed by land and sea breezes generated by the heating and cooling of the east coast landmass so we generally had light wind on the beam mixed with 2-3 foot rollers from the north.

Today we are a little further out to sea and aren’t affected by the land and sea breezes so we’re getting the 5-10 knot North winds now. That’s not much to sail with so we’re motor sailing once again. Tomorrow the winds are supposed to pick up and by tomorrow night we’ll probably be in 20 knot North winds with 7-9 foot following seas building to 8-10 footers as we reach Ft Lauderdale.

All three of us are doing well and are looking forward to packing away the cold weather clothing.

We were visited several times by dolphin pods. On the first visit, the pod was especially playful. Several would jump clear out of the water beside our boat while others were swimming and playing off the bows. Then we saw something new to us. One of the dolphins would swim upside down beneath another dolphin and they would “tickle” each other’s belly with their fins. We’re not sure if they were playing or flirting, but it was fun to watch!

This morning Jen was greeted by a very large pod of dolphins. She estimates there were at least 30 swimming all around Mirasol. She grabbed the camera and took a nice video of some of them playing off the port bow. We’ll post that on the web site when we get in. Jen also saw a large sea turtle this morning.

One other remarkable bit of sea life we saw were thousands of globular brown and tan jellyfish. They were floating near the surface just outside of Charleston. For the first several hours of the voyage, you could look anywhere around the boat and see dozens at any one instant. I think it is a seasonal thing as I recall seeing something like this the last time we sailed south from Charleston in November.

That’s all for now.

Norfolk VA to Charleston SC, 2010

2010-10-24T21:07:00.004-04:00

We're now in Charleston at the Charleston Maritime Center. Charleston is a great place to hang out and we're planning on staying here through the end of the month. We're expecting Halloween to be great fun as Charleston is known for it's haunted buildings. We're booked on a ghost tour for Halloween evening.

We stayed in Norfolk a little longer than we wanted to since the weather wasn't cooperating for a passage around Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Since the Cape can be a nasty place to be in bad conditions we are quite particular about the weather forecast when we go.

We skipped one weather window that looked good, but had the potential to leave us offshore in 45 knot winds if the system accelerated, which wouldn't be a pleasant thing. As it turned out, the system slowed down and we could have had a great passage, but it wasn't worth the risk.

A week later, the weather looked pretty good. Not perfect, but pretty good. The weather for the turn around Cape Hatteras looked fine, but once we made the turn the forecast was for us to get south west winds at 10-15 knots for about 6 hours. Southwest winds would be right on the nose, but 10-15 knots doesn't produce much in the way of waves and we could motor straight into it.

Or Not.

We left on Wednesday morning. Wednesday and Wednesday night went as planned with a bumpy ride out of the Chesapeake Bay followed by an easy ride down the Virginia and North Carolina Outer Banks on a broad reach. Cape Hatteras treated us kindly and we passed the Diamond Shoal light sometime around 8 AM on Thursday in moderate winds and seas.

As we rounded the Cape, the wind slowly picked up and backed to the Southwest, right on our nose. This was expected and we hoped that it would clock around to the north soon, as NOAA's forecast predicted. It wasn't to be.

By Thursday afternoon we were pounding into 5-7 foot waves and 20-25 knot winds. Not the best point of sail for Mirasol and Captain and Crew were, um, displeased. We had expected a brief 6-10 hour stint of beating into 10-15 knots of wind around Beaufort, but this was getting very old really fast. In all, it was about 18 hours of 20-25 knot wind on the nose in big steep 5'-7' seas leaving Mirasol and crew very thoroughly crusted with salt and somewhat dissatisfied with NOAA's forecast.

Finally, on Friday morning around 4AM the cold front we were waiting on passed through and blessed us with a welcome 10 knot North wind. We left the motors running for several hours and motor-sailed with the jib only. The big main sail would slat back and forth too heavily in the light winds and confused seas. We used the time to have a nice lunch, wash down the cockpit to get the 1/8th inch of salt crust off everything, and successfully test the water maker after a summer of sitting idle. A pod of about 15 dolphins came to welcome us back into the Atlantic and played about the bows for a half hour or so. They were a welcome site and cheered the crew almost as much and the wind shift!

By 1pm motors are off, seas are abaft the beam and crew was relaxing to the "Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" on the TV.

Friday night continued with moderate north winds and we sailed and motor sailed the rest of the way to Charleston without any more drama. Early in the evening, about 30 miles off the coast a small bird landed on our decks. It was exhausted and very small, so we're not sure where it came from, possibly a passing ship. It was certainly too young to fly all that way as it was not a sea bird and couldn't rest on the water.

While birds and I don't get along very well (due to the mess they make on our decks) I was unwilling to deny passage to the poor little thing. We decided to give it passage to Charleston and not shoo it off the boat. Unfortunately, it did not survive the cold night and exhaustion so we gave it a burial at sea. (Indoor accommodations were out of the question!)

As we arrived in Charleston, another Lagoon 420 was just entering the channel, and we were pleased to see our friends Linda and Rick of MakeItSo, who were also heading for the Charleston Maritime Museum. They were arriving after a passage from Baltimore. Jan and Mark of Seas The Day (yet another Lagoon 420) spent the summer here and we are glad to see them as well. It will be a lot of fun catching up with everyone.

Farewell to the Chesapeake Bay

2010-10-05T10:59:00.005-04:00

Fall has arrived and it's time to head south once again. The leaves are changing and the air is chilly. The siren songs of the turquoise waters, beaches and coral heads of the Caribbean are beckoning. It's time to go!

We spent August and September tied up to a dock in our favorite Chesapeake location, North Point Marina in Rock Hall. Rock Hall is a fairly quiet town on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. With the decline of the fishing industry they throw some fun festivals to keep the tourists coming in. We were in town for Pirates Weekend and the Fall Fest this year. Both were a lot of fun.

North Point Marina is a great place for us to settle in and catch up with some friends we haven't seen in a while. Aside from the socializing, we took care of routine maintenance items, brought the sails to a sail loft for some minor repairs and went on a couple of road trips. Quinn played in the pool, worked on his bike riding and took a couple of horseback riding lessons. As it was a very hot August, we were happy to be tied to a dock so we could use our air conditioners all we wanted.

This summer we took a few road trips. While in Charleston, we drove to West Virginia to visit family at Lindsey and Seth Tinkler's wedding. While in Rock Hall, we drove to Chicago for a visit with many of our old friends there and stayed with Frank and Jen Krause's family for several days. Quinn had the opportunity to get reacquainted with his friend Abby and Jen was able to play in a real kitchen. We also took a trip to Delaware to visit with Randy and Susan Williamson, who took us on a tour of Philadelphia's Ben Franklin Museum as well as Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA. Longwood is an incredible botanical garden and conservatory founded by a member of the DuPont family on one of their estates. Check out Jen's photos on our web site. If we lived in the area, we'd certainly visit often.

Even with all these cross country road trips, I'm happy to report that we logged many more miles on the water than on the road in the past year. We sailed Mirasol over 4,600 nautical miles during our winter of '09-'10 tour of the Caribbean islands.

A big reason for spending the summer in the Chesapeake is the hope of avoiding hurricanes. So far, so good. Over the past three summers we've had a couple of brushes with tropical storms and one hurricane scare: this year's Class 4 Earl, which happily stayed well offshore as it passed by.

Several days ago, the remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole ran right over us in Rock Hall. It was supposed to be just a little breezy and rainy, but it turned out to be a little more than that. There were some peppy gale-force winds for half the day and gusts as high as 52 knots. The winds were out of the South all day and stacked the water up in the north side of the Bay. At low tide Thursday night the docks and parking lot were under water and there was concern of flooding in the marina office come high tide. Luckily, by high tide, the wind had swung around to the North and pushed some water back down the Bay, preventing further flooding. As far as I know, there was no damage to the boats or the marina.

Friday morning, we woke to find the water back down to a reasonable level. As Jen prepared Mirasol for an overnight passage to Norfolk Virginia, I helped clear out some of the cubic yards of debris left behind on the docks and parking lot by the receding tide.

After saying good-bye to our friends, we slipped the lines and left North Point Marina around 11AM. It was a bittersweet departure. While we were itching to start south for another season in the Tropics, this was probably our last summer stay in the Chesapeake. We have found very good friends in North Point Marina and will miss them all.

The trip down the Bay was breezy and a little bouncy. Happily, the wind was on our stern most of the way so the crew was pretty comfortable. The northern half of the Bay was full of debris from the storm and in spite of keeping a close lookout we hit a log with a resounding thump. Fortunately, it caused no damage to Mirasol. She is a sturdy vessel.

We arrived in Norfolk on Saturday morning in time for a children's festival at the waterfront. Quinn had a great time and was pleased that there were no "grown-up things" to do, only "kid stuff". Since then we've been busy visiting the local Naval Museum, Children's Museum and doing some shopping in the downtown mall.

Come Saturday, we'll be ready to head for Charleston as soon as we get a solid 3 day window. The Norfolk Beer Fest on the waterfront is on Friday, so we have plans in the meantime!

Long time... no post...

2010-08-21T10:40:00.003-04:00

I know it's been a long time since we've blogged. We've actually been pretty darn busy.

It was a whirlwind trip up the Chesapeake, stopping for just a couple days in Norfolk, then for just a few days in Yorktown (where we were fortunate to see our friends on Simplicity). From there we had an overnight passage up to Rock Hall and have mostly been settling into our spot there ever since. Gregg's parents were in town for a week of that time and we've been busy catching up with everybody at North Point.

As I write this, I am sitting (drinking coffee and recovering from last night's party) at the home of some good friends (the Krause's, for those of you that know them) in Cary, IL, which is a northwest suburb of Chicago. We got to see a lot of our Chicago-area friends last night, most of them for the first time since we left two years ago. They are definitely what I miss the most about Chicago.

Anyway, we actually drove out as it was cheaper to rent a car for a MONTH, than for the three of us to fly and rent a car here for a week. The added and obvious side benefit is we have access to wheels for a month - a huge treat when the nearest well-stocked grocery store is about 20 miles away and the only nearby small grocery is 1.5 miles away.

Our plan is to stay here until probably Tuesday morning then we'll make the drive back to Maryland. It's not a lot of time to spend here, but it's a little unsettling to leave the boat for so long.

Gregg is a better writer than I am, so I'll wrap it up here. I'm sure he'll post as soon as the muse is with him again.

Charleston, SC to Norfolk VA - Day 3, Arrival

2010-07-14T12:42:00.001-04:00

We arrived at Waterside Marina in Norfolk this morning a little after 10 after a 425nm passage. The last day of the trip was the best, as we had beam winds, following seas, no storms, and no need for the engines except for the trip up the Elizabeth River to Waterside Marina. It was certainly our best passage up or down North Carolina's Outer Banks.

Waterside is a good stop for us as it is close to groceries, a mall, a park, a children's and maritime museums, and lots of restaurants. My only beef with it is the 2+ hour motor to get in and out of the place. It's also a fun place to meet folks doing the Inter-Coastal Waterway thing.

After securing Mirasol at the dock and settling in, Jen took Quinn over to the fountain by the marina for Quinn to burn off some energy. I suspect she's enjoying a cool beverage as well. It's a neat fountain designed for kids to play in during the day and at night is lit with changing colored lights, making it functional art, I guess. To get the idea of it, think of a 20' by 40' sidewalk with a couple dozen nozzles built in that shoot water up in timed intervals. The kids love it - running through it and screaming. When I was a kid my version was running through the sprinkler. I didn't have fancy lights though.

Charleston, SC to Norfolk, VA - Day 2

2010-07-13T12:31:00.000-04:00

Day two continued to be a motor sail with very mild seas well into the afternoon. Late afternoon found us off Cape Lookout, NC with winds increasing to the low teens and the waves staying moderate at 2 – 4 feet. As evening arrived, so did the “scattered” thunderstorms. They were marching one after another, right up the Gulf Stream to our starboard. We were happy that we elected not to swing further offshore to take better advantage of the lift from the current since that would have placed us in the path of all this rain.

As darkness fell it became evident that there was quite a lot of lightning activity, with many stunning ground (sea) strikes, making me even happier that we weren’t another 10 miles offshore. It was quite the light show.

Around 3AM this morning as I came back on shift, our luck dodging the squalls gave out. We found ourselves wet and nervously watching the lightning strikes all around us. My laptop, the sat phone, a spare GPS and VHF all went into the oven in the hope they would be protected in the event of a strike. Jen happily went off shift to catch some sleep while I sat at the helm running over a mental to-do list in the event of a strike on the boat. The lighting activity was so frequent and brilliant that I found myself using the light of the lightning flashes to look for passing ships since the after-images had ruined my ability to see anything in the dark.

After a tense three hours, the squalls moved off a bit and the lightning became a glorious lightshow again, instead of a threat.

The end of our second full day at sea found us just off the Diamond Shoals Light of Cape Hatteras in a minor thunder shower. After that the skies cleared up and we’re on a sunny downwind run up the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Tomorrow we should arrive in the Chesapeake Bay.

Charleston, SC to Norfolk, VA - Day 1

2010-07-12T13:50:00.000-04:00

Day one was much less eventful than the first day of the passage from Ft Lauderdale to Charleston. Weather was as forecasted and quite mild. We motored and motor-sailed the whole time as the wind was consistently under 10 knots on the stern and we wanted to average a minimum speed of 5.5 knots. Seas have been extremely mild with a slight swell from the SE and wind waves under 2 feet, and while we had a good lightning show from a storm offshore, we stayed dry and had no concerns with thunderstorms in our vicinity.

I saw several pods of dolphins busy fishing and one small pod came over to swim with us for a little while. Early this morning Jen spotted a very large sea turtle with a brown shell. We passed within 15 feet of it and she estimated the shell to be almost 3 feet in diameter with a head about the size of her forearm. Quinn and I missed out as we were dozing.

As I write this we’re being investigated by a US Navy helicopter based either on a cruiser that is about 3 miles off our port or maybe an aircraft carrier nearby that we can’t see. We have several very large blobs on our radar that are too far away to identify. I was seeing a hit very close by behind us on the radar that wasn’t there a minute ago so I grabbed the binoculars to investigate. No ship, but one big helicopter heading straight for us. They veered off about a quarter mile away and headed towards one of the unidentified blobs. Nice diversion from an otherwise quiet day at sea.

Charleston SC to Norfolk VA - Departure

2010-07-11T11:37:00.002-04:00

We left Charleston, SC this morning around 9 AM after fueling up. The skies are clearing and we have virtually flat seas with the exception of a very slight swell from the southeast. The forecast is for scattered T-storms today and then fair weather for the next day or so. We might catch some rain Tuesday and Wednesday. Today and tomorrow will be mostly motoring but we should be motor sailing tomorrow and sailing by early Tuesday morning. It looks like it is going to be hot passage, as it was already 80 degrees at 7AM this morning. The rain when it arrives will probably be very welcome... as long as it arrives without too much drama.

The plan is to arrive at Waterside Marina in Norfolk sometime Wednesday. We'll stay there for a couple of days and then head to Yorktown, VA where we plan to celebrate Quinn's 5th birthday at Busch Gardens.

The passage is about 425nm and will be our third time rounding the Diamond Shoals off of Cape Hatteras. When we arrive in Norfolk that will have closed the circle on our Caribbean adventure of 2009-2010.

We spent a whole month in Charleston this time, and enjoyed ourselves quite a lot. While here we made a side trip via a rental car to West Virginia where we attended the wedding of my cousin Lindsey to Seth Tinkler. It was a nice wedding and we were able to visit with a lot of family we haven't seen in a long time so it was great fun.

Ft. Lauderdale To Charleston, SC - Arrived!

2010-06-12T05:03:00.002-04:00

The rest of the second day was an easy motor sail. With anywhere from 5 to 10 knots on the beam it was a very comfortable ride, but too little wind to just sail when we have perfectly good motors and plenty of fuel. We passed a die-hard who was sticking it out without motoring and he was making about 2 knots. In 85 degree weather, that's not much fun to me.

Mid afternoon we were lucky to be visited by several pods of dolphins. Two pods numbered at least 15 dolphins and we saw others off and on until dusk. It always brings a smile when I see them and Quinn and Jen love them as well.

We were careful to fine tune our arrival time in Charleston by adjusting how much motor assist we used. This was important to us as we would be docking at night without dock hand assistance in a marina that has up to 2 knots of current mid-tide.

As it turns out, we timed it well with only about a half knot current. That timing was fortunate as the slip we were assigned was only 6 feet longer than Mirasol, with a big Cat behind us the dock in front of us and a finger pier one slip over. We slipped in and wiggled Mirasol back and forth about a dozen times and worked her into the slip. Doing that in a 2 knot current would have been a bit touchy. Anyway, I'm sure the Cat behind us will be surprised when they wake up to new neighbors.

Time for some sleep. Later today... RIBS!

Ft. Lauderdale To Charleston, SC - Day 2

2010-06-11T15:47:00.000-04:00

The trip north to Charleston, SC from Ft Lauderdale has been an interesting one so far. We left Ft. Lauderdale around 4:30 in the afternoon on Wednesday with the intention of arriving in Charleston in the early afternoon on Saturday. The weather forecast was pretty good with the exception of 10 – 15 knots of wind just North of East for the first few hours of the trip in the Gulf Stream. However, it was supposed to die down and shift south Wednesday evening. The Gulf Stream flows due North by Ft. Lauderdale, so we thought the very small northerly component of the wind would not mean much chop in the Gulf Stream. We were wrong. So was the forecast. What we found was 15-20 knot winds from the North-Northeast with 3-5 foot wind waves plus a steep fast moving ground swell from the Northeast. After about two hours of uncomfortable bashing and rolling about in the Gulf Stream, both Jen and Quinn were getting green and we decided we’d had enough. We turned due west to get out of the stream as quickly as possible and within about a half hour things were improving. Within a mile of shore we turned back north in much more comfortable seas but without the lift of the current.

By the time we reached Lake Worth, about 20 miles north of Ft Lauderdale, we were no longer able to avoid the stream as it runs right up along coast. Fortunately, the winds had decreased enough to make the seas tolerable in the 2 knot current. We didn’t get the predicted shift to the south until much later on Thursday. Most of the morning Thursday was spent with Jen and Quinn just holding off being seasick as the seas were still very lumpy and confused with a persistent and steep NE swell. The afternoon was an improvement, but still uncomfortable. When the wind did shift to the South on Thursday evening, it just about shut off.

All Thursday night was a motor as we were whisked north by a 3 to 3.5 knot current in glassy water. After all the washtub action of the previous 24 hours, this was a welcome improvement. It was also very eerie and beautiful with a clear sky full of stars.

At dawn on Friday the wind picked up from the West and we set sails and shut off the engine. With the current we were doing better than 8 knots with less than 10 knots of wind on the beam. Quite nice! This lasted for about three hours until the Gulf Stream started to set to the Northeast which forced us to beat into the west wind to compensate.

Mid morning on Friday we found ourselves being overtaken by a US Navy Aircraft Carrier going 20 knots and conducting flight activities. After a jet fly-by at about 200 feet, they called us on the radio and asked us politely to turn to starboard and maintain a minimum of 5 miles CPA (Closest Point of Approach). Well, we tried our best to get out of the way, but the best we could manage was 3 miles CPA by the time they were passing us. That earned us another fly-by, this time by a helicopter, but they didn’t call us on the radio to complain. I doubt we looked too threatening. We did get a fun show of several jets making training runs: taking off and landing on the carrier as well as a number of touch-and-go passes. If my Top Gun movie recollection is correct, it’s called a bolster. Or not. Anyway, it was fun, and worth the 5 mile detour East.

As I write this we are passing out of the Gulf Stream as it turns Northeast around South Carolina and North Carolina and we are heading due North towards Charleston. We could see the border of the Gulf Stream as we approached it. The wave action and color are quite different, and there is a fringe of seaweed and debris right at the border.

We are well ahead of schedule right now and may end up arriving in Charleston sometime very early tomorrow AM rather than in the afternoon. We’ve visited Charleston a couple of times already so we’re comfortable with a night time landfall. If it works out that way, it would be nice as that will give us an extra day in Charleston before we have to head north again. I’m already looking forward to the tasty rib dinner that has become tradition on landfall in Charleston.

Check our Current Position link on svmirasol.com to see where we are. I think Jen’s uploaded a lot of new photos for the Ft. Lauderdale visit as well.

Ft. Lauderdale, Spring 2010

2010-06-11T15:44:00.000-04:00

It was a busy time and lot of fun in Ft Lauderdale once again. On arrival, we cruised up the New River enjoying the sights of the fabulous riverfront houses and mansions. What a fun place to live if you can afford it. This time around it was a lot less intimidating transiting the New River as we were familiar with the current, bridge protocol and heavy traffic. We were met by Matt the dock master at our slip along the New River between 3rd Ave and Andrews Ave. We like this spot a lot. It is close to the marina office, is two short blocks from a great supermarket and right across the bridge from museums, cinemas, restaurants etc on Los Olas Blvd. After one day on the New River, we moved up the river to the Lauderdale Marine Center where we were scheduled to haul out the next morning.

LMC is a massive boatyard and marina. The boatyard services modest yachts on up to mega-yachts. Since Mirasol's beam is over 24 feet, we had to use the huge (and expensive) 300 Ton travel lift to get hauled out. It was fun to be surrounded by 100+ ft mega yachts all blocked up on the hard, all getting our bottoms cleaned and painted. While on the hard we had the bottom and saildrives cleaned and painted as well as the shaft seals on the saildrives replaced. The seals seemed to be in good shape, but given the cost and inconvenience of a haulout, we decided it was wise to replace them anyway. While the pros were dealing with the messy work of cleaning and painting the hulls, I took the opportunity to remove, clean and reinstall the transom rub rails which have been slowly working themselves loose.

Jen and I discussed doing the painting ourselves, but it didn't make much sense. We don't have the vacuums, sanders, ladders, and other materials required to remove the old paint and put on new. Plus, since boatyards and 4 year olds don't mix, Jen would be watching Quinn and unable to help with the work so it would have taken several days. Given the cost of renting the equipment we needed and the additional cost of lay days in the boatyard, hotel and rental car expenses, it was only a little more expensive to pay someone else to do it. Oh, and a lot more fun for someone else to do it too...

While the pros were working on the hull and I was working on the transom, Jen and Quinn went to see Shrek 4, visited a Children's museum and did some shopping. On the third day my work on Mirasol was finished and I took Quinn to the beach. Everything went well and we had no rain delays so Mirasol was splashed only three days after being hauled out. We motored back down the New River to our spot by Andrews Ave where we stayed for about two weeks.

While on the New River we took care of a lot of chores that needed done such as doctor appointments, cleaning, provisioning and maintenance. We also sampled some of the local restaurants and spent a wonderful day with our friends Brian, Shannon and Connor Hermann in their backyard. Conner is about a year younger than Quinn and they got along very well.

Maintenance items we accomplished while here include replacing the fresh water pump on the port engine, replacing coolant, thermostats, belts and raw water impellers on both engines, replacing the starboard engine's exhaust mixing elbow, clearing out a clogged head (what fun!), reprogramming a malfunctioning Raymarine ST70 instrument, and replacing the broken Raymarine VHF. Quinn got to visit another museum, a couple of parks and did a lot of bike riding. Maybe we'll take off the training wheels in Charleston.

Back in the USA

2010-05-20T16:56:00.001-04:00

Dock lines are ON!

We're tied up on the New River where we spent Christmas in 2008. Matt, the Dock Master here remembered us and came out to greet us as we pulled alongside to tie up.

We called in to US Customs to clear in and they took our info and that gives us 24 hours to appear in person. This policy makes arrival in a big port like this much more convenient. We'll take a taxi tomorrow morning.

It will be a busy week here. Tomorrow we will move the boat further up New River to the Lauderdale Marine Center where we will get the boat hauled out for new bottom paint and other maintenance. I have a lot of chores I want to accomplish while the boat is out of the water and getting them done without interfering with the guys sanding and painting the boat will be interesting.

Once the boat is back in the water we'll move her back down the New River to where we're docked now and spend a few days getting ready for the trip to Charleston, SC. I enjoy spending time on the New River with all the incredible mega yachts that get towed through here, and easy access to ANYTHING you might need for boat maintenance. However, we do need to move on soon. We're pushing a little to be sure we make it to Norfolk, VA in time to leave the boat there so that we can attend a wedding in Kentucky late in June.

Our trip ended with a bang, but fortunately the bang was not ours. As we were waiting for the 17th ST bridge to open so that we could enter New River, a catamaran that had followed us into the channel passed us and headed straight for the bridge. I was surprised as it was about the same size catamaran as Mirasol and we are 10' taller than the bridge clearance. Jen exclaimed that they weren't going to make it, but when I looked at it I figured looks are deceiving whenever approaching a bridge and since they were not slowing down at all they must know they can get under it. Nope. BANG! With at least 5 feet of their mast unable to pass under the bridge, the catamaran's bows rose out of the water and the boat tipped back at least 30 degrees before the forestay snapped and the whole rig came down, folding in half as it went. We were stunned. No one appeared to have been hurt as the entire mast fell to the port side of the boat.

I can not imagine what the captain had been thinking. The bridge is a massive structure that could not be missed, it's clearance is clearly marked on the charts, and there were at least 2 other sailboats ahead of it who had pulled to the side to wait for the bridge to open. Either he didn't see the bridge for some reason or he felt he could easily clear it as he did not slow down at all and hit the bridge at about 5 or 6 knots. All I can guess is the captain went below and left a guest at the helm without giving them instructions to stop before the bridge. What a mess!

With this reminder of how a good day can turn bad fast, Jen and I were very happy to get the dock lines tied on and the ice cold beer opened at last!

BVI to Ft Lauderdale - Day 7

2010-05-20T13:04:00.002-04:00

The past 24 hours have been a pleasant motor-sail through the Northeast and Northwest Providence Channels of the Bahamas. The winds clocked from East to Southwest so we went from a dead run to a beat, but winds were mostly under 10 knots, so it was a motor-sail the whole way. We were frequently able to see land during this part of the passage, which is a treat after 5 days of an unremarkable horizon.

We also saw lots of ships while transiting the Bahamas. The New Providence Channel is a busy shipping channel for both cargo and cruise ships. We always had a ship in view or at least on radar. At one point last night around 3AM Jen commented to me that she felt like an air traffic controller as she had 5 ships on radar, all in close proximity to Mirasol.

At about 5:00 AM this morning we rounded the northern tip of the Great Bahamas Banks and entered the Straits of Florida. We set our course for Miami so that as we drift north with the Gulf Stream during our crossing we should end up somewhere around Ft Lauderdale by the time we get to the Florida coast. As I write this, we have a 3.4 knot northerly current and a whopping 4 knots of wind from the east. I am glad our port engine continues to behave itself.

We’ve seen quite a few sport fisherman fishing boats boiling across the Straits on their way to clear in to the Bahamas at Bimini for a long weekend of fishing. I must admit a twinge of envy knowing they will make the crossing in under 2 hours instead of the leisurely 8 hours we will require for the same distance. I do not, however, envy their fuel bill!

Once we arrive in Ft Lauderdale and clear customs, our plan is to find a slip for the night along the New River. Quinn will be excited to see the Jungle Queen – a brightly decorated double-decker river boat full of tourists that cruises up and down the New River. He would seldom let it pass by without running on deck and waving during our last visit in December 2008. All three of us will be excited to step foot on land and spend some time off the boat. Jen has already decided that she wants pizza for dinner tonight. Yummy.

BVI to Ft Lauderdale - Day 6

2010-05-19T11:09:00.001-04:00

Welcome to the Bahamas, Mon! Most of yesterday we were working our way up the Atlantic side of the south eastern islands and cays of the Bahamas. Just now we made the turn around Eleuthera Island and into the Northeast Providence Channel. The Providence Channel is a large body of deep water that runs generally East-West and separates the Abacos and Grand Bahama to the North from the rest of the Bahamas to the South. We can see Eleuthera Island to our port and it’s nice to be in sight of land for a little while after 5 days at sea. Jen and I wish we had time to make landfall here and enjoy a few weeks in the Bahamas, but we just don’t have the time. Between the haul-out in Ft Lauderdale for new bottom paint and the need to get north of the hurricane box we need to give it a pass this time around. If we return to the Caribbean next year I expect we’ll be sure to leave enough time in the schedule for several weeks in the Bahamas on the way back north.

We have been motoring for the past 24 hours as the winds have been under 10 knots directly on the stern, giving us only a few knots of useful wind. Normally we motor on only one engine to conserve fuel, but about 14 hours ago fuel became a secondary concern. I downloaded a weather update using our satellite phone and discovered that the winds are expected to pick up from the North mid Friday and continue blowing from the N-NE through Sunday. North winds will make the Gulf Stream crossing lumpy and uncomfortable, so Jen made the call: “light the fires and kick the tires, honey” and since then we’ve been making our best speed towards Ft Lauderdale. We have sufficient fuel to motor the whole way, but I’m hoping that won’t be necessary.

Those of you paying attention might notice that we are motoring on both engines. The problem with the port engine overheating has not reoccurred. We’re keeping our fingers crossed and a close eye on the exhaust water stream and with a little luck we won’t run into that again on this passage. As a precaution we’re running that engine at 2200-2300 RPM instead of our usual 2400-2500 RPM cruising range. Once in Ft Lauderdale I’ll go over the entire cooling system very carefully and if I don’t find anything I’ll replace the coolant temperature sensor. I’ve always wished for engine temperature gauges on Mirasol instead of lights that give you no warning that something is starting to go wrong (my Dad calls these “idiot lights”), so installing gauges might become a summer project.

We currently have about 185 nm to go so we are hoping for a Thursday landfall in Ft Lauderdale. All arrival times subject to change without notice!

BVI to Ft Lauderdale- Day 5

2010-05-18T16:57:00.001-04:00

Yesterday and today have been somewhat eventful. Yesterday was our 7^th wedding anniversary. We celebrated with a steak dinner of Steak au Poivre with sherry mustard sauce, green beans and basmati rice. Alas, no wine as we maintain a dry boat when on a passage. We’ll revisit the celebrations once we are in Ft Lauderdale.

With light winds, we had the Gennaker up yesterday morning until around 10AM when gusty winds and local squall activity prompted us to roll it in. We managed to get it in a “figure 8” while furling it, which is a bit of a pain. Of course I was quite collected about the whole thing and only shouted when necessary for her to hear me from the bow over the wildly flogging sail. Once we managed to clear up the mess and furl the sail, Jen mentioned that I was shouting at her. My reply that “you couldn’t hear me from the bow unless I shouted” was noted, and then I was reminded that I continued to shout when she was standing right next to me. Apparently I channeled Captain Bligh again. On our anniversary. Oops. Jen was pretty nice about the whole thing, though.

For the rest of the day and evening we made good time with winds in the mid teens and speeds of 6.5 – 7.5 knots. By 1AM this morning the wind died down and we cranked up the port engine to keep our speeds in the low 6’s. Sometime early yesterday we passed our halfway point.

At 7:30 this morning, the engine over-temperature alarm went off and we shut it down. After inspecting the strainer and finding no debris, noting that the coolant overflow was at the normal level and the fan belt is ok, I elected to restart the engine to see if we had raw water flow instead of opening the raw water impeller plate to inspect the impeller, which involves wrapping oneself around a toasty warm engine. The engine started, the over-temp alarm sounded and then shut off, and we noted that plenty of water was ejecting from the exhaust. Hmmm. Maybe it was seaweed or a plastic bag blocking the intake, which subsequently fell off. So we hoped.

About 2 hours later the over-temp alarm went off again. Same drill, only this time I went overside to visually inspect the raw water intake. It looked normal (and the surrounding water was the most amazing deep blue). We restarted the engine and it’s raw water flow is once again just fine. We’ve discussed our options and we decided to continue running on the port engine for a while to see if the alarm goes off again. When it does, we’ll check the exhaust for water flow prior to shutting down the engine. If water flow is not OK, then I believe we have some blockage inside the sail drive that is getting stuck in the seacock upstream of the raw water pump, and then falling back down the sail drive when the engine is shut off, effectively but temporarily unblocking itself. I feel the impeller and heat exchanger are not faulty as we have very good raw water flow when we restart.

If the raw water flow is OK while the alarm’s sounding, we’ll leave the engine off overnight to cool completely down and I’ll check the coolant level in the heat exchanger. The overflow tank is at the proper level but maybe something is preventing it from feeding the coolant back into the engine and we have a low coolant problem. That will be easily corrected. If neither of these are the problem, I’ll poke around the plumbing of the cooling system and coolant pump as best I can to look for a problem. Failing that, we’ll rely on the starboard engine for the rest of the trip, transferring fuel from the port tank if and as required. We’ll leave the port engine off except for when we need it for maneuvering. It’s nice to have two! (except when working on the maintenance list).

So, as I write this Jen’s showering (jealous of my swim, I suspect), Quinn’s napping, and I’m fantasizing about an ice cold beer. Mmmmm.

BVI to Ft Lauderdale - Day 4

2010-05-17T08:33:00.001-04:00

Sunday (Day 3) turned out to be a very nice day and night for sailing. The wind moderated enough for the seas to settle down to 6’-7’ easterly swells and we made good time. At dawn we shook out the reef in the main and by 8AM we had the Gennaker up. Around noon we had to drop the Gennaker and switch to the Jib as the winds picked up into the low twenties. At dusk we tucked in a reef to the main and the overnight sail was uneventful with the exception of a few ships passing us on their way to Puerto Rico.

We saw a couple of ocean going tugs pulling cargo ship-sized barges loaded high with shipping containers. It always surprises me to see such a small vessel towing barges so large they dwarf many cargo ships. The towing cable appears to be between a half to a full mile long.

We’re expecting today, our fourth day at sea, to be the slowest sail so far. The winds have dropped down into the mid teens and are now nearly dead astern.

Our satellite phone either has 112 minutes left, or only 12, we’re not sure. So, if you don’t see any more updates, it’s because we’ve run out of minutes! Check our web page for our current position, about 60nm North of the Caicos Islands.

BVI To Ft Lauderdale, Day 3

2010-05-16T13:09:00.001-04:00

Our third day a sea finds the crew in good spirits. Everyone seems to have found their sea legs and no one is now suffering from mal de mare. I am still fighting the last of a chest cold, but Jen and Quinn are over their colds now.

Day two was a bit of a challenge as everyone was still getting used to being at sea and still fighting colds. The winds stayed in the mid 20's until early afternoon when they dropped into the high teens, still in the East. The seas remained in the 7-9 range, gradually abating to 5-7 overnight. We maintained sailing with a reef in the main until dawn as we were making decent time and there was still a risk of squalls.

Just when I came on shift at 2:00AM, the GPS data went a little haywire. Our position suddenly jumped 10 miles to the southwest, which caused François (the autopilot) to go into gyrations to get us back on course. Resetting the GPS and the navigation system did not help. After about five minutes, our position error jumped back to within a half mile southwest of what we thought was our correct position. Then, about 20 minutes later our position slowly drifted northeast, eliminating most, but not all of the remaining "error". This drift once again gave François fits as he tried to correct for what he was treating as a HUGE current pushing us sideways.

During both of these GPS position changes, our GPS showed that it was locked on to a minimum of 8 and sometimes 10 satellites. After considering the behavior of our navigation system, I've decided the error must have been in the data being received by our GPS antenna. Uncle Sam must have been making some adjustments in the GPS system. I've encountered erroneous GPS data on several occasions and have confirmed it using one of our backup GPS handhelds. The last time this happened we were just exiting English Harbor, Antigua and our position jumped a mile inland. Great Fun.

We did not have any more boarding seas yesterday, however last night we did have a boarding flying fish. He flew right over my shoulder while I was at the helm and landed in the cockpit. This was a big one, about 10 inches long with a 6 inch wingspan. I briefly considered frying him up for a late night snack, but it seemed more trouble than it's worth and so back to the sea he went.

This morning at dawn we shook out the last reef on the main and raised the Gennaker as the winds are continuing to abate and clock to the South East. You can see our 8:00AM positions on the Current Position page of our website.

BVI to Ft Lauderdale, Day 2

2010-05-16T13:06:00.001-04:00

We did leave as planned on Friday around 8:30. As it was a Friday, we performed the obligatory counter-clockwise circle to ward off the bad juju of leaving on a Friday. I’m not sure where this tradition originated, but that’ll be something to look up when we get to Fort Lauderdale.

So far the passage weather has been as forecasted by NOAA and Commander’s Weather. Winds in the mid to high 20’s out of the East and seas 7-9 feet on the beam, which makes moving about the boat quite challenging. The winds are moderating slightly today and should remain in the low to mid 20’s for the next 24 hours or so. As the week progresses and we move north, the winds and seas are predicted to quiet down gradually.

We ticked off 157 nautical miles in the first day, which is a little slow for these winds, but we were sailing with an extra reef tucked in due to the forecasted fast moving and strong squalls. As we are sailing shorthanded we are being quite conservative with the sail plan. We did encounter a few squalls overnight, but the strong ones missed us.

We did have a few boarding seas , one of which broke well above my knees as I was standing at the helm (5’ above the waterline and 4’ inboard.) This is far and away the most water we’ve taken into the cockpit but the scuppers did their job nicely and no water made it into the salon in spite of the open door between the cockpit and salon . As usual, Quinn took it completely in stride and thought it was funny!

Check the Current Position page on our web site for our 8:00 AM position.

BVI to Ft Lauderdale, Day 1

2010-05-16T12:57:00.002-04:00

And we’re off! About 1000 nm, route will take us up the eastern side of the Turks and Cacios and then along the eastern side of the southern Bahamas. We’ll cut through the NE Providence Channel and then NW Providence Channel of the Bahamas and then across the Gulf Stream to Ft. Lauderdale. We’ll keep the blog updated as weather, technology, and the authors disposition dictates!

Our position updates can be seen on the Current Position page of svmirasol.com.

Dominica Land Tour

2010-04-28T14:23:00.010-04:00

We recently spent a few days in Dominica, a beautiful and rugged island. These days were filled with three fascinating tours of different aspects of the island: a guided road tour, two scuba dives, and a guided river tour.

We arrived in Roseau, Dominica along with Randy and Susan on Windward Passage and their guests Ken and Dodi. Randy, a veteran cruiser here in the Caribbean, arranged for a land tour with a local who goes by the name Sea Cat.

Sea Cat's real name is Octavius, which earned him the nickname octopus, or Sea Cat as they call octopuses in Dominica. Anyway, Sea Cat is a local who has built a business around providing services for cruisers including moorings, water, arranging laundry, arranging parts shipments, and also providing guided tours of the island.

Sea Cat grew up on this island and is well known and well respected by others here. At 9:00AM all seven of us piled into Sea Cat's van and he began our whirlwind tour of the island. It was very much an insider's tour as Sea Cat seems to know everyone on the island. He frequently would stop and chat with someone on the street. While this might seem like it would be annoying for a tour guide to stop to chat during our tour, it actually made it more fun as he was so friendly with us as well.

There were several main attractions Sea Cat wanted us to see: two waterfalls, thermal springs, the rain forest and a Carib Indian settlement. While driving across the island to get us to these he would frequently abruptly stop the van, jump out and bring back fruits, spices and other goodies.

As there were three large cruise ships in port, Sea Cat did his best to time our visits at the big attractions so as to avoid the cruise ship crowds. He did an excellent job as we never did run into any of those crowds. Our tour started in Roseau and we headed northwards up the western coast.

The first stop was at his uncle's house, which was a very small shed of corrugated steel with no doors or windows located in the woods right off a side rode. His uncle provided us with some sugar cane, which Sea Cat chopped up with a machete. Quinn and I very much liked chewing on the sugar cane, especially after Sea Cat returned from the brush with some freshly picked limes and squirted lime juice on the cane. It was better than candy. Sea Cat also retrieved a papaya and an unripe coca bean pod for us to sample. The coco bean pod contained the coco beans embedded in a gooey and tart membrane that was very different, but yummy. Sea Cat called them Jungle M&M's. After the snack we all piled back in to the van with our sticky fingers.

From there we visited the Emerald Pool, which is a 50' waterfall in the rain forest, a Carib village where we purchased several hand woven baskets (superb work at very low prices) and Trafalgar Falls. While in the Carib village we stopped at one of their houses to drop off a small shark Sea Cat had picked up from some fishermen the day before. In exchange, the Carib woman shared some roasted breadfruit, smoked chicken and home made chocolate (from the local coco beans). All of this came from trees (and chickens) around her home. Her house was a one room wooden building on stilts. The kitchen was a 6'x8' shack of corrugated steel with no running water or electricity. The stove was a fire on a stone table. The delicious chicken we ate had been smoked as they have no refrigeration. The kitchen had one window and a doorway, but no glass or door.

At Trafalgar Falls we were hot and ready for a swim but had no swim suits. In spite of this technicality, Randy, Quinn and I stripped to our undershorts and climbed over the boulders and into the pool at the bottom of the 200' falls. With a little struggling, we made it to the base of the falls and enjoyed the cold water crashing down around us . Quinn was quite brave about the whole thing. After retiring from the falls, Sea Cat led us to a thermal spring about 50' from the falls. Randy, Quinn and I were still in our shorts so we decided to relax for a few minutes in the natural hot tub formed by the spring.

Refreshed, we hiked back to the van and Sea Cat sped away to the next stop, which was a thermal vent from a volcano. Sea Cat took a 3' stick, jammed it into a soft spot of the ground and pulled it back out in a couple of seconds. It came back out too hot to handle. It is really amazing to see all the active volcanic activity in these islands.

As I mentioned, Sea Cat would frequently slam on the breaks to chat with someone on the road, yell up to a house by the road, or to jump out and clamber through the brush to come back with neat stuff to taste, smell and or eat. As far as we can remember Sea Cat fetched us samples of the following: sage, peppermint, oregano, thyme, cinnamon bark, bay leaf, tarragon, basil, coco, coffee bean, lemon grass, grapefruit, passion fruit, crab apples, love apples, apricot, tamarind, guava, bananas, sour sop, almonds, cashews, nutmeg, mangoes, papaya, sugar cane, lime, green coconut, ripe coconut, and breadfruit. We didn't stop for lunch but no one was hungry with all the snacking we were doing along the way. We returned to Roseau after dark around 7pm. What a tour!

If chance brings you to Dominica, you should spend a day with Sea Cat. He loves his island and this comes through as he shows you what you would never see on a cruise ship tour.

In the next blogs I'll tell you about the scuba dives and the river tour.

The perils of ignoring the Admiral's advice

2010-03-22T17:29:00.011-04:00

It was an interesting day the other day. We said goodbye to Saint Vincent and sailed north (sigh, don't like sailing north) to Saint Lucia. As we worked our way up the Saint Vincent coast we ducked into Wallilabou Bay to see part of the set from the first Pirates of the Caribbean film. The dock and scaffold (or hoist?) where Captain Jack Sparrow makes his escape from the English at the beginning of the movie is still there, as is the natural stone arch that Jack passed on his way into port. It was fun seeing these and we look forward to watching the movie again to pick out sites that we've seen on our trip so far. After leaving the lee of St Vincent we had a brisk sail up to St Lucia.

We arrived in Soufriere, which is on the south west coast of Saint Lucia at the Pitons, around 1:30. The Pitons are magnificent. They are inactive volcanoes formed about 40 million years ago. Here's a photo of the Pitons:

We had planned a fairly early arrival with the hope that one of the few mooring balls in the bay would be available. This desire to moor rather than anchor (I generally prefer to anchor) was driven by simple geography. The Pitons are mostly vertical... both above the water and below. In other words, the bottom in Soufriere Bay is mostly rock and coral, and drops to China within a few yards from shore. Unfortunately, when we arrived we found all the moorings occupied.

Soufriere is a customs port and we needed to clear in, so we didn't really want to move on to another anchorage. With no other choice, we tried to anchor on the steep slope next to the moorings with the intention of running a stern line to shore to avoid dragging into deeper water. Unfortunately, as we tried to set our anchor, it would catch but then start dragging. The scraping feel transmitted up the chain told me the bottom was either hard sand, sand on rock or just plain rock. As we were trying to anchor in 60 feet of water we couldn't see the bottom to be sure. It would probably be OK, but I wasn't willing to gamble as you have a very rocky lee shore a few yards away and I was unfamiliar with the weather in this bay. After 4 attempts to set the anchor, we saw a boat leave one of the two large yacht moorings and we grabbed it. The ranger said it was no problem staying there, but we were asked to move the following morning since a 100 foot catamaran was booked in to use it. Fortunately one of the small yacht moorings had opened up as the folks using it moved on to another anchorage.

The seven moorings available for us small yachts are lined up about 150 feet from shore. They are quite close together so you must run a line ashore to avoid bashing into your neighbor as winds and tides shift. It is an easy swim or dinghy ride to shore to tie off the stern line to a palm tree, or you can allow one of the boat boys to do it for you for a small charge. I dropped the dinghy and headed ashore towing our stern line. Once ashore, I left the dinghy outside of the small surf and tied it's bow line around a small rock hoping the dinghy would play nice, stay outside the surf and not wash up on the rocky shore. Unfortunately, the wind had other ideas and kept pushing it in onto the rocks. Keeping one eye on the dinghy and realizing my line wasn't quite long enough to reach the tree-line, I spied a convenient fallen huge palm tree log that seemed well jammed up in the rocks. I tried to shift it and it wouldn't budge. Perfect, I thought. I scrambled back down through the rocks to push the dinghy back off shore and back up to the log to tie off the line. That accomplished, I pushed the dinghy back off the shore again and jumped aboard to find Mirasol pointing the wrong way on the mooring ball.

Jen was standing on the bow yelling something at me that I could not understand over the outboard engine's noise, so I replied a little huffily (never a good idea) that "wasn't she supposed to be turning the boat stern-to the shore instead of yelling things at me?". I used the dinghy to help push the stern around to face shore and then climbed on board to a somewhat chilly look from Jen. I finished tying off the line to shore and then asked Jen what she was shouting at me.

"Well, I was wondering if you thought that tying off to that log was a good idea." After all the work of getting the stern line secured this was the last thing I wanted to hear, so my reply was something along the lines of "Well, if I didn't think it was a good idea I wouldn't have tied it to the log, would I have?". I should have mentioned that I would have preferred to tie off to a tree but I didn't have enough line but I was grumpy and a little put off that she should question my judgement as she was 200' away standing dry on Mirasol at the time.

After that pleasant exchange, Jen retired to the salon and I stood in the cockpit, both stewing a little and both watching the log as wind and wakes pushed Mirasol about. Then the log betrayed me and shifted, but surely it was just settling in. Of course, I said to myself, that is all it is. Then it shifted again and dragged a couple of feet. "Crap", I thought. "Now I have to go tell her she's right. There'll be no living with her after this." With a mouth full of crow I went inside and let her know I needed to lengthen the line and move it to a palm tree. To Jen's credit, she didn't gloat... much... and I haven't heard about it in at least 12 hours.

A day in the life of Tobago Cays

2010-02-26T23:12:00.001-05:00

Hi all. We’re still in Tobago Cays and having a grand time. Today we started our day with fresh croissants (Jen’s was plain while I and Quinn indulged in chocolate filled) and a local papaya we brought with us from Bequia. Walter, our boat vendor of choice, stops by every afternoon to get our order and then delivers them around 7AM. He is a very nice guy and we’ll have a photo posted with the next update to the web site.

After breakfast we piled into the dinghy and motored over to the reef that protects the anchorage and snorkeled for almost 2 hours. Quinn is getting quite good with the snorkeling and I seldom need to give him any help at all. He still wears his lifejacket while snorkeling as he’s not comfortable being out in open water without it yet. It won’t be long though. He is experimenting with diving below the water like Daddy does, but doesn’t get far with the lifejacket on, of course. The snorkeling was very good, although the coral shows a lot of damage from being scrubbed and coated with sand by a recent hurricane. We saw lots of fish and on the way back to the boat we saw a couple of large sea turtles. It is no wonder they have been hunted to near extinction. Their shells are incredibly beautiful.

After the swim I lounged in the cockpit finishing up a book while Jen gave Quinn a hair cut on the transom steps. Many of the folks on the boats anchored nearby were quite amused as Quinn stood naked on the steps while being rinsed clean of hair trimmings and singing at the top of his lungs “I’m washing the stink off my BUUUUUTTTT, I’m washing the stink off my BUUUUUUTTTT!”.

After the haircut and lunch, it was naptime for all three of us. Jen and I woke up and played a few games of cribbage while snacking on some yummy French cheese and the baguette which was delivered this morning. Quinn woke up and joined us in the snacks and did his usual puttering about the boat before dinner. Suddenly we heard his panicky “Daaaaady!!!!” cry which always means he’s dropped something overside. This time it was his sweat rag, which he’s become quite fond of. Easily retrieved, and the unplanned swim was refreshing after a hot afternoon on the boat.

As we had snacked quite a bit, we decided against the fancy duck dinner Jen was planning. Instead she whipped up some pork and beans. Tomorrow we’ll have the duck.

After dinner Jen worked on the photos we took while snorkeling today and Quinn and I played a few hands of UNO. To his delight, he beat me 3 out of 4 games. As Quinn was getting ready for bed, Jen noticed that we are now pointing northeast instead of southeast. Not a problem other than there is a boat on a mooring ball close to where we’re anchored and with the change in wind direction we’re way to close to them. I pulled in a little scope as the wind has settled and we don’t need so much chain out, but it’s still too close. Tomorrow first thing we’ll haul up the anchor and move over a little.

Randy and Susan left the anchorage yesterday to return to Bequia where they will pick up a couple of friends who have flown down for a visit. We expect them back here Monday or Tuesday, but no firm plans have been made. All three of us enjoy their company quite a lot so we hope they can make it back down here before it is time for us to move on.

Life is good in the Tobago Cays. We look forward to sharing some of our photos when we get high speed internet access back in Bequia or St Vincent sometime next week.

South!

2010-02-23T15:48:00.001-05:00

We’ve made it to Tobago Cays, which at 12° 37’ North Latitude is as far south as we plan to venture this winter. We arrived yesterday afternoon after a short but fun day-sail from Bequia. The 15 – 20 knots on the beam with moderate seas made for a fun sail at 7.5 to 8.5 knots the whole way. When we arrived at the Cays, it was like being back in the Exumas with the beautiful turquoise waters. We are joined here in the Tobago Cays by Susan and Randy Williamson on Windward Passage who have been down here in the area for over a month now. Quinn is quite excited to have Miss Susan around to play with!

The Tobago Cays are now a designated marine park in the Grenadines, which is a group of islands south of of St. Vincent and Bequia. The anchorage we’re in is sheltered by a huge horseshoe coral reef and has good soft sand perfect for anchoring. The marine life is abundant, as the “no take” policy is strictly enforced. After squaring away the boat after the sail, Jen and Quinn joined me for a swim to cool off and we saw many reef fish, several puffer fish and a couple of large stingrays in the first few minutes of the swim. We also found a Heineken can which I dove down to retrieve and toss in the trash. Happily, we almost never see garbage of any sort during our snorkeling and diving.

I am really enjoying this anchorage. The big horseshoe reef protects the anchorage while leaving the view of the open Atlantic and the cooling trade winds unobstructed. The view out our front windows starts with the turquoise waters of the anchorage, then breakers on the reef, then Petit Tabac and open Atlantic. Petit Tabac is the small Cay which starred in the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean, The Curse of the Black Pearl” as the tiny island where Captain Jack Sparrow was marooned. Given the many sea turtles we’ve been seeing here, Jack’s tail of escape using sea turtles seems almost plausible.

This morning we breakfasted on plain and chocolate-filled croissants which were delivered by one of the boat boys that do a good business here. After breakfast we picked up Susan and took the dinghy across the anchorage to the beach that is popular with the turtles. Quinn practiced with his new fins, mask and snorkel (is taking to it like a fish), played with his new boogie board, and of course, played in the sand. It is a very nice beach. There are large iguanas hanging out by the beach, and a lot of turtles just out past the surf. I was able to swim right up to them without them being bothered. They put up with it for a minute or so and then swam slowly but deliberately away to munch on some more sea grass. We’ll have some photos posted soon. On the way back to the beach I swam up on a small (3’) reef shark. I didn’t have the opportunity to take pictures as we surprised each other and he made a quick exit.

As this anchorage is quite remote, we have no WIFI. Pictures will have to wait until we can get access to it. I’m posting this update via the satellite phone, which has a built in modem that transfers data almost as fast as I can type it! So updates need to be limited to text and xml files for the web site’s blog and “Current Position” sections. We hope the updates work correctly as Jen has no way to test the updates. If you encounter a problem, we’ll get it fixed when we are next in civilization of some sort. If you wonder what it looks like here and can’t wait for our pictures, watch the Pirates movie and you’ll see for yourself. (The palm trees seem to have recovered nicely from the rum bonfire, by the way.)

We plan to stay here a good while as there are many beaches and lots of coral reef to explore! Time to wrap this up as I need to flag down the boat boy to order tomorrow’s croissants and baguettes. Yum.

When the volcano blow

2010-02-12T16:35:00.003-05:00

Quinn noticed it first. Daddy, can I have a paper towel? My firetruck is dirty and I want to clean it. I got him a paper towel, thinking it was odd his new firetruck was so dirty he felt he needed to clean it, but didn't really pay any attention. Then, 10 minutes later, he's asking for another paper towel and so I decided to see what the big deal was. He's usually not very interested in things being kept clean! Sure enough, it was covered in grit. Hmmm. Odd. Then Jen noticed that their was a lot of grit building up on the generator hatch out in cockpit and I saw the dusting of grit on the floor by the open door. Suddenly it clicked, and we groaned. With the light winds, we must be getting ash from either the inactive (but smoking) volcano on Guadeloupe, or from Montserrat.

We buttoned the boat up tight and watched as ash built up all over Mirasol's decks. It was still coming down at bedtime and we retired with the hope that it would stop by morning. Happily, when dawn came we weren't getting much of anything settling on our decks although the air was still hazy with ash.

A quick exploration of the decks showed that we had collected about 1/16th inch of very fine grit ash on every surface of the boat, including the mast, standing rigging and lines. WHAT A MESS!

Since the grit would scratch just about anything it was rubbed against, we kept Quinn inside while I started the long process of removing the ash. While Jen and Quinn had a very good session of school (Quinn learned to add 3 to numbers 1-10), I pulled out the hose, flipped the wash-down pump to seawater and started washing Mirasol down.

I am SO happy we have a wash-down pump on board that we can switch from seawater to fresh water. While most the other boaters in the anchorage were using buckets to wash down the decks I had the advantage of being able to hose the boat down. Sluicing the the boat from top to bottom with seawater made me cringe but it was the only way to get her clean, and we certainly didn't have enough fresh water on board to do the job. It took about 3 hours to do a first pass and then a quick rinse of the stainless fittings and winches with some of our fresh water to get her clean enough to operate. We moved into a marina this afternoon so we'll have plenty of fresh water to finish the job. First stay in a marina since mid December.

Jen will post pics soon.

Deshaies, Guadeloupe

2010-02-02T14:29:00.006-05:00

We had a fast, wet, and salty passage south from Antigua to Guadeloupe a couple of days ago. We had 25 - 30 knots of wind and 8' - 10' waves, all on the beam, which made for a fast and exciting ride. With 2 reefs in the main and one in the jib, we were hustling along at 8 to 9.5 knots the whole way.

Weaving our way between fish trap floats hiding in the white breaking wave tops we dropped sails and turned into the bay at Deshaies, on the west side of the island of Guadeloupe. We found a place to drop our anchor in about 35 feet of water after looking for an open spot in shallower water. We had hoped to snug up closer to the town, but the anchorage was a little crowded in there and Jen and I prefer plenty of room between us and other boats when anchoring. This is the first time we've had to let out all 200 feet of our chain rode. With 35' of water plus the height of the the deck at 5' above the water, we needed it all to give us the 5:1 scope I like to have in 20 - 30 knots of wind. Although Deshaies is on the lee side of the island, there is a valley that cuts across the island that funnels the trade winds right down into the Deshaies harbor.

The anchor took hold on the first try and didn't budge while backing down hard with both engines. With the gusting winds we decided to stay on the boat for a little over an hour to ensure the anchor was truly stuck before heading in to clear customs. Clearing customs was very easy at a cyber cafe right in the center of of the small town. Later that evening we were treated to a delightful moon rise over the hills of Guadeloupe (photo).

Another boat had less luck in this exercise yesterday. They arrived, dropped anchor and the captain promptly disembarked to row ashore. While he was away, his catamaran broke free and started drifting through the anchorage, heading towards a few other boats and then open sea. Jen and I were on deck watching and it seemed odd that there were several people on board the wayward cat but their engines were not running and no one was trying to retrieve the anchor. Then the reason became clear as we saw the captain rowing franticly trying to catch up with his drifting vessel. Our guess is that he was in a bit of a hurry to clear customs before they closed and left the boat with the engine keys tucked in his pockets. His crew was helpless to do anything without those keys, or knowledge of where the spares might be.

A helpful cruiser with a vested interest (the drifting cat was heading for his boat) jumped in his dinghy and quickly towed the captain back to his boat. Sure enough, as soon as he was back aboard, the engines fired up and the anchor was retrieved. As far as I could see they avoided any serious damage to their or other's boats, with the possible exception of a significant dent their rum provisions once safely again at anchor.

Nonsuch Bay, Antigua

2010-01-19T20:38:00.003-05:00

Today is the third day we've been anchored in Nonsuch Bay on the windward (East) side of Antigua. It's a great place to hang out away from the busier anchorages of English and Falmouth Harbors and St Johns.

We're anchored in about 15 feet of water about 300 yards behind a barrier reef that protects the bay from the rollers coming off of the Atlantic. Behind the reef the water is completely calm in spite of the brisk trade winds. It's a beautiful place.

Quinn and I spent this morning on the nearby beach on Green Island while Jen did some laundry on the boat. She couldn't bring herself to pay the $13 (US) per load that the local laundry charges, and so has spent the last few days building up her arm muscles doing our laundry by hand in a big bucket.

Back at the beach, Quinn played in the surf for a while and then picked up all his sand toys, loaded them into his bag and dumped them at the feet of a young English lady sunning herself on a beach blanket about 50 feet away. "Do you want to play with my sand toys?" he asked as I rushed up to apologize for the interruption. Happily, Nina and her sister and father were bored and welcomed the distraction. We chatted while Quinn built Nina a little sand castle and suggested I make several errands to the dingy (to obtain Nina's undivided attention, I suspect).

After the castle was completed Quinn and I took our leave and launched the dingy for the short ride back to Mirasol. On the approach I noticed just how bad the growth on the waterline had become and decided it was time to do something about it. I had planned on snorkeling the reef this afternoon, but that will have to wait.

After a quick inspection it became clear that Mirasol's anti-fouling paint is losing it's effectiveness and I had quite a rash of barnacles to deal with, and not just a quick waterline scrub. Plastic scraper in hand, I started with the propellers and then worked my way to the bow of each hull. It's a long tedious process, but not very hard work. Along with the barnacles and other critters, there was the usual green slime that grows along the waterline to deal with. As all the scraping fell away from the boat, it attracted a big school of bluefish who swarmed around gobbling it all up. It was nice to have company.

While under the hull, I also inspected the zincs and it looks like I'll need to replace the zincs on the saildrive housings soon. I have the replacements on hand so it's time to start looking for a good place to change the zincs. The procedure requires removing the propeller, so I'm hoping to do it in a nice shallow (5' to 8') anchorage with clear water and a sandy bottom. Given that I will be doing this while holding my breath, I want to be able to retrieve anything I drop in the process of diving down, doing something quickly, and then lurching back to the surface to grab a breath. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to locate a dive shop nearby a suitable anchorage so I can rent the scuba gear to make the whole thing a lot easier... Time to dig out the cruising guides and see what I can find. Something tells me another blog will come of all this!

Haiti's Earthquake

2010-01-13T13:35:00.004-05:00

Just a quick note to let everyone know we're well away from the earthquake in Haiti and weren't affected by it.

We are in Antigua, which is several hundred miles to the East of Haiti. Tied to a mooring in Falmouth Harbor, we didn't feel anything or notice any change in water level around the time of the quake. We haven't heard anything to suggest the quake caused a tsunami, and it would have been here by now if it had. From what I've read the quake was quite devastating.

The volcano on Montserrat was pretty active the past few days when we sailed around the SW coast of Antigua to get to English and Falmouth Harbor. I don't know if that activity is related or not. We are northeast of that volcano, so if the earthquake in Haiti sets it off, the ash shouldn't be a problem here as we are upwind.

Its a good day when...

2010-01-10T20:45:00.008-05:00

...you have sand in your pants!

Quinn and I had a fun time at the beach today. It has been a couple of weeks since he's had a good beach to play at and he made great use of this

one today. He spent half the time building a sand castle and defending it against an incoming tide (which is definitely more fun than with an outgoing tide - more challenge!).

The rest of the time he played in the surf and got plenty of sand in his pants, ears, nose, mouth, etc. Big smiles all around!

Jolly Harbor, Antigua

2010-01-08T07:52:00.010-05:00

Hello from Antigua! Wednesday afternoon we cleared St Maarten customs and exited the lagoon during the 11 AM bridge opening. The passage to Antigua was expected to take between 16 and 18 hours, so we decided to make it an overnight run. To avoid a pre-dawn arrival in Antigua, we anchored in Simpson Bay for a few hours before leaving St Maarten around 4 PM. Simpson Bay was open to a moderate swell from the south east and was very rolly, but tolerable for the few hours we needed to stay there. As we departed St Maarten, we passed Philipsburg on the south side of the island. We counted 5 huge cruise ships in port, along with one small one. Quite a sight!

Antigua lies about 90 nautical miles ESE from St Maarten, directly into the trade winds. We had planned our departure to catch a window of lighter winds, and it worked out as we had hoped. The trip went very well with winds under 10 knots and a lumpy mix of swell from the southeast and north. We encountered a number of cruise ships along the way, as well a few sailboats on a night passage from Antigua to St Maarten. The cruise ships are very easy to see - they are lit up like Times Square, even in the wee hours of the morning and also show up well on radar. The sailboat lights and radar return are harder to see and with the light winds everyone is right on the rhumb line between the two islands. We kept a sharp lookout and altered course twice to stay well clear oncoming sail boats. I saw a few showers on the radar, but they stayed clear of us. Come to think of it, a shower would have been handy to wash some of the salt spray off the boat.

We arrived in Jolly Harbor, Antigua around 9 AM and tied up to the customs dock. I put on one of my few collared shirts (mostly used for clearing customs) and checked in with customs and immigration without any complications. Jen and I were both tired, so rather than head out of the harbor to find a suitable anchorage, we scooped up a vacant mooring ball. After a brunch of smoked salmon sandwiches and this really yummy juice blend from South Africa, Jen and Quinn settled in for a nap while I took the dinghy to shore to pay for the mooring ball and explore a little. From what we've seen so far, Antigua is going to be a fun place to get to know.

Daddy, LOOK!

2010-01-03T20:35:00.005-05:00

To start off, It's important to note that Quinn has been an exceptionally well behaved little boy on Mirasol. Of course we've had all the usual three and four year old antics, but when it comes to being a little sailor, I couldn't ask for more. He's fearless, smart, doesn't complain and always makes me proud when it counts.

But as for the 4 year old antics... well... Yesterday he decided it was time to ignore the DON'T PLAY WITH THE DINGY LINE edict, with unpleasant repercussions for Daddy.

Yesterday afternoon Jen "suggested" that I replenish our water supply. Hauling water wasn't way up there on my list of things to do that afternoon (loafing was a strong contender), but as the water tanks were both reading empty and we all needed a shower, I decided she had a good point. As noted in a previous post, we can't use our watermaker as the water here in the lagoon is a little gross. Or maybe a lot gross...

So, I loaded the four 5-gallon water jugs into the dingy and headed for shore. Mirasol holds 80 gallons of water so I had a few trips ahead of me. It's a fun process. Motor to shore in the dingy, unload the water jugs, walk up to the gas station office, pay for the water (20 cents/gallon) and retrieve the key to the water faucet lock. Fill the jugs and haul them back to the dock. Return the key to the office. Load the jugs into the dingy, cursing the engineer responsible for two of the jugs as he designed the caps to pop off and bounce out of the dingy at the slightest touch. Motor back to the boat. Haul the jugs up on deck and fill the tanks, jug by jug. Repeat, usually with a beer mixed in there somewhere. Tedious, but not too tough. Especially if the beer is cold and the harbor isn't too choppy.

After the second trip, Quinn was in the "help Daddy" mode and wanted to help with the filling of the tanks, the handling of the empty jugs, etc. What I didn't know was that he had also been helping with the dingy line while I was busy filling the tanks. As I was walking back to grab another jug off the dingy, Quinn ran up to me, grabbed my hand, pointed astern and cried DADDY, LOOK!

Much to my dismay, I saw our dingy floating about 100' behind Mirasol, and drifting quickly away in a brisk breeze. "How are we going to get it back?" cried Quinn in a panicky voice. "Were you playing with the dingy line?" I asked. "yes" he whispered, looking ashamed. I sighed, looked warily at the green nasty water we were anchored in (see last post), stripped off my shirt, dove in and chased down the errant dingy to the amusement of the other boats anchored in the vicinity.

Jen supplied me with a few shots of Tequila - one to gargle with and spit out and the other two to pickle whatever might have made it into my stomach during the swim through the choppy water. Feeling fortified, but gross, I used up some of the hard-earned water in the form of a very soapy shower. Grumbling a little, I came back on deck where Quinn gave me a big hug with a sincere "sorry Daddy". All was well.

St Maarten

2010-01-03T19:24:00.004-05:00

Hi all. It's been a while since I've posted any updates, so lots of news.

The last I wrote we were in the US Virgin Islands with the plan to re-enter the British Virgin Islands while waiting for a weather window to St. Maarten (or St Martin if you're on the French side). Well, we found our weather and made it to St Maarten without issue. We left after dinner and sailed overnight for an early morning arrival. We anchored in Simpson Bay to clear in to St Maarten and then found a good spot in the Simpson Bay Lagoon to anchor.

Simpson Bay Lagoon is a great place to anchor if there's a big swell from the north, which is what we've had for the past 2 weeks. Those lovely snowstorms have rolled off the US east coast and have been sending us 8 - 12 foot swells from the north. Not so good to anchor out in the bays. Can you people please keep your nasty weather to yourselves?

So, we're here in the Lagoon, which we had thought would be a great place to hang out. It has been pretty convinent and at first very cool, but the shine has worn off and we're ready to get the heck out of here. You might have caught that from Jen's last post. ;)

The lagoon has the advantage of being well protected from any waves as it is 100% land locked, accessible through only two very narrow canals. It is about 1 mile in diameter and hosts at least a hundred boats. It also has a very busy airport which really detracts form the nice quiet Caribbean anchorage mojo. The other big issue is that it is a land locked lagoon with over a hundred boats... with no pump-out facilities... but the poo has to go SOMEWHERE! So, let's just say the lagoon doesn't provide the relaxing afternoon swimming venue we are used to. Jen's been calling it poo-water, which isn't too far off.

So given the less than pristine quality of the water, we don't use our watermaker and instead I haul water from shore in the dingy in 5 gallon jugs. We have four, and it takes several trips to fill the tanks. Well, something has to fill up the day, and the sun is shining and the view is cool. In fact, we're anchored just off of Witch's Tit. Got to love the salty sailors who named things back in the 1700's. No politically correct silliness then! Oh, and if you're wondering, it's a fair description.

So while we're on the topic of things that aren't great about this anchorage, well, all the nitrogen in the water from the boat effluent has encouraged a robust growth of weeds, which are NOT conducive to secure anchoring or restful nights when the wind pipes up. We have dragged anchor and watched many other boats drag in our stay here. We seem to have a good stick now and as a precaution, we used our engines to test the anchor today after a wind shift to ensure we're still well stuck.

On the positive side, it is a very cool place to be. This is a duty free port with very well stocked marine supply stores, which we needed. I purchased over 200 feet of line to replace line chafed badly during the passage from the US, a worn main halyard clutch wedge that I thought I was unlikely to replace before returning to the US (also damaged during the passage) and lots of miscellaneous stuff that comes up.

More interestingly, with the French and Dutch influences here, the bread, pastries, quiche, deli meats and cheese here are amazing and we're doing our best to sample it all. Morning dingy excursions to the patisserie for croissants and quiche for breakfast, grabbing fantastic stinky cheeses and fresh crispy breads for lunch and snacks... They have the good stuff here! During Quinn's naps we've taken to leaving the cheese and bread on the galley counter while we play cribbage so that we don't eat too much of it. In between hands we "get some exercise" to go scarf another bite of great stinky cheese, prosciutto and bread. Yum!

We took a $1 taxi ride to the other side of the island to hit a CostCo lookalike to pick up two more water jugs and some other goodies we needed (and could fit in our laps in the taxi-van on the way back). Nice system here - $1 per person per ride as far as you want to go, but the taxi-van stops whenever someone wants on or off so it's more like a bus ride. Works great.

We've taken the dingy across the lagoon to the French side several times. No customs required as long as you've cleared in with either the Dutch or French. We've explored a hilltop fort from the early 1800's built to protect the anchorage from the British privateers, eaten in some yummy restaurants, and explored the street markets. Lots of fun there. There is a great anchorage there in Marigot Bay, but is exposed to the swell from the north, so we haven't moved there as we had hoped to.

We look forward to returning without the northerly swells and being able to anchor in the coastal bays. Meanwhile, we're planning our crossing over to Antigua, which is about 90 nm ESE from here. We hope to leave Wednesday.

Sint Maarten

2010-01-02T14:00:00.006-05:00

I know it's been a long time since we've posted anything. WiFi here is sporadic at best, so getting online has not been a priority. I will try to get ashore to post the latest photos to the website as soon as I can.

We've been on anchor watch with the high winds and crappy holding in weeds here in the lagoon at Simpson Bay. Winds finally let up late last night so we were finally able to get some sleep. We're staying in the lagoon, though, because of the swells in the bay. Plus we love the sound of jets going overhead. Side story - we're anchored off the end of the island's airport runway. Sometimes the planes appear so close that you could step up onto our bimini and grab the landing gear. Quinn's enjoying it, even though he's started to cover his ears.

Today was exciting for Gregg and I'm sure he'll want to comment further on his, I think, 3rd adventure in the series, "Not enough soap in the world". I just hope the tequila shots he drank killed everything he may have ingested.

We're mostly just hanging out here in St. Martin, running errands, shopping and EATING. There's a fancy and fairly inexpensive little gourmet grocery a very short dinghy ride from the boat, so I've been going almost daily buying French cheeses, baguettes and then pastries from the French bakery across the street. We need to get out of here and go somewhere with clean water so we can swim and get some exercise before we grow out of all our clothes!

We've managed to get over to the French side of the island a few times for the street market and for a hike up to the fort ruins. Again, photos forthcoming soon, I hope.

We're looking to leave Sint Maarten sometime in the next few days. We will probably go straight to Antigua, which will be an overnight sail (or motor), but from what I could tell, most of the prime anchorages between here and there are subject to northerly swells, which is what we are currently suffering. Antigua should be great and we're really looking forward to moving on with our journey.

Wifi... Finally!!!

2009-12-14T14:41:00.002-05:00

The main website photos and position/log pages have been updated. It's been a nice week away from the internet, but it's also nice to have access again.

Quick Update

2009-12-13T12:02:00.000-05:00

We’ve been away from any wifi for the last several days on St. John, USVI, so sorry the web site and blog have been idle for a while. This update is via our satellite phone.

We sailed west to the US Virgin Islands on December 8^thto wait for a weather window to go East to St. Martin. We reached our 30 day limit in the BVI so we had to leave or pay a $200 fee to stay longer. Since we haven’t seen the USVI yet, we decided to explore St. John for a few days. Most of St John is a National Park donated by Laurence Rockefeller in 1956. In 2001, by presidential proclamation, George W Bush added almost 13,000 acres of adjoining submerged land to the reserve in an effort to preserve the coral ecology surrounding St John. It was badly needed as the snorkeling and diving I’ve done so far has shown that the coral has been heavily damaged. Hopefully the new rules will be followed and the coral will slowly recover. The coral in the Exuma Cays of the Bahamas was in much better shape, but it’s a lot harder to get to the Exumas, so it’s experienced a lot less damage from tourists and cruisers.

For those of you wondering why it’s harder to get to the Exumas than the Virgin Islands when the Virgin Islands are a 10 day offshore passage and the Exumas are a few overnight hops, it’s a matter of logistics and infrastructure. The Virgin Islands have two international airports, deep water harbors for cruise ships and an enormous charter fleet. The Exumas are a collection of 350 islands and cays that have only a handful of airstrips suitable for a small prop plane, no resorts, no charter industry, and only a handful of cottages to rent if you come by air rather than boat. The only deep water access for a cruise ship was abandoned in the 1980’s as it wasn’t navigable whenever a cold front blew through. So, visitors are limited almost exclusively to those who come by private boat.

We’ve really enjoyed our stay in St John. The beaches are very nice and free of any garbage (as in the BVI) and all beaches have public access (not like the BVI). The snorkeling is very good as far as seeing cool fish. We’ve seen several sea turtles and sting rays of all sizes, barracuda, blue tang, purple squids, a blowfish, and all sorts of reef fish.

We went on a longish hike yesterday with Susan Williamson to get up to Rams Head Point, which a 200 ft bluff overlooking the Caribbean Sea. A great view. Quinn wanted to try climbing down the cliff, but we declined.

Tomorrow we’ll head back to the BVI and pay our $200 so we can stay longer. The Christmas winds are in full swing and it’ll be a rough beat to windward to get to St Martin without the help of a low to stall out the trade winds. We had planned on spending Christmas in St Martin, but aren’t willing to take a beating to get there, so we’ll hang out in the BVI for a while more and maybe shoot south to St Croix (USVI) for a few days. As soon as our low shows up, we’ll head for St Martin and points south.

Randy and Susan Williamson came to the USVI at the same time as we did so we’ve been exploring the island together. Jen dusted off her cribbage skills and beat Randy by 2 games (skunked him twice) after a lot of trash talking from both sides. Was a lot of fun to watch, even though I have no idea how to play the game.

Expect a big update to the photos on the web site in the next few days as we’ll have better access to wifi when we get back to the BVI. The USVI National Park doesn’t have much in the way of wifi hotspots.

Full Moon Party and Cooper Island

2009-12-05T19:21:00.004-05:00

After our stay at Leverick Bay, we headed for Trellis Bay to catch the Full Moon Party at Trellis Bay Village. We arrived by about 12:30 to find the mooring field completely full with a couple of other boats threading their way through it looking for an open mooring ball. As there is no place to anchor due to all the mooring balls, we gave up that idea and moved about a mile across to Marina Cay where there were plenty of space, but quite rolly. As we pulled out of Trellis Bay, we saw Windward Passage (friends from Rock Hall, MD) pulling out of the mooring field with the same idea.

We enjoyed sundowners with Randy and Susan and their guests, Christine and Mary. Then, at dusk Jen, Quinn and I piled into our dingy and motored across the bay to Trellis Bay Village. The party was lots of fun. It was a Tom Sawyer wonderland for Quinn, lots of low trees on the beach with nets, ladders, ropes, etc to climb on. Lots of kids too.

After a very enjoyable West Indies BBQ (BBQ and Jerked chicken, grilled fish, ox tail stew, peas and rice, etc). Jen and I traded watching Quinn play while the other explored the "village". It struck me as a throwback to a 60's conclave, centered around an open-air art studio - Aragorn's Studio. The art studio specializes in ceramic and metal working. The big fireballs were some of Aragorn's work. Check out the photos of the party on our web site. they were very cool.

After a very wet and salty dingy ride back across the bay (Jen swore I was doing it on purpose when the waves broke over the bow into her lap, but it was really bouncy!) and a rolly night on the mooring ball we were happy to slip the lines and head to Cooper Island. We've spent the past two nights here and will leave tomorrow. We spent several hours on the beach yesterday and today we snorkeled off the dingy by a reef. Quinn's getting quite good at swimming with his face in the water so that he can see the "fishies" and coral. He really wants a snorkel and fins. We're on the lookout for some his size.

Back to Leverick Bay

2009-11-28T13:10:00.003-05:00

We did a four hour motor in light air on the nose back to Leverick Bay. Motoring was OK since we needed to make water anyway. We now have 2 tanks of tasty water.

We'll stay here for three days while I do my PADI certification dives. One day in the pool and then two dives on Monday and two dives on Tuesday. Should be a lot of fun.

Right now we're relaxing to Pink Floyd's Pulse. Quinn asked for his currently favorite song "the clock song". (Time, for those of you who didn't listen to the radio in the 70's, 80's or 90's.) Good stuff.

Jen and Quinn are sitting on the transom splashing with Quinn giggling. Time for me to go for a swim.

Thanksgiving 09, Sopers Hole, BVI

2009-11-27T09:09:00.004-05:00

Thanksgiving went off very well. Quinn and I started off the day with a nice swim after breakfast. I took the opportunity to check out the port saildrive to look for any damage from the dock line incident the other day. Aside from some missing anti-fouling paint, everything looks OK.

After the swim and a transom shower, Quinn and I settled down to some serious Lego building while Jen started on dinner prep. We skipped lunch but snacked on some yummy appetizers - foie gras pate and brie served on little french mini-toasts. This was Quinn's first try of fois gras and he liked it, but stuck mostly with the brie and toasts. We broiled three Cornish Hens and the green beans on the grill and Jen made her delicious bourbon sweet potatoes. We cooked the hens stuffed with a little onion and fresh thyme and sage in an aluminum tray so we had lots of tasty drippings for gravy. Dessert was pumpkin mousse. We had a mid-afternoon dinner and then settled down for a family nap.

We all woke up around dusk and watched Gabriel Iglesias' "Hot and Fluffy" comedy DVD and then Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving. A few games of Trouble wrapped up the day. It was a fun and mellow Thanksgiving.

Ooops!

2009-11-25T13:40:00.003-05:00

We spent a couple of nights back in Road Town in an attempt to score my replacement RAM for my laptop. No luck once again. Tired of waiting I sent off a grumpy email to Dell and we prepared to leave the Village Cay Marina.

This was to be a new undocking experience for us as we were Med-Moored for the first time. I was familiar with the process of Med - Mooring (read about it) where you back in to a dock, drop the anchor a ways out and then continue backing in until you can step off your transom. The anchor keeps you off the dock and you tie the transom to the dock. In this case, there were mooring balls spaced every 30 feet apart, 60 feet off the dock. You use the mooring balls instead of your anchor to keep you off the dock. The only thing is there are no ropes on the mooring balls and you have to back in, stand on your transom steps down by the water and loop a line through the eye-bolt on the top of it. Then as the helmsman backs up, you walk the line forward and cleat it off at the bow.

Jen handled attaching the line to the mooring ball (fastest bowline in the west) and walked it forward as I slipped Mirasol back to the dock. It wasn't too shabby for our first time.

Leaving the dock was pretty straight forward. We freed all the dock lines from the transom and Jen ran up to the bow to free the bow line and walk it around as I brought Mirasol forward and then backed back around so she could untie it from the ball. That went off like a charm and just as I said "See honey? Easy Peasy!" I heard a very disturbing whackwhackwhackwhack noise coming from the port hull. I immediately stopped the port engine and we found what I feared was the case: I had failed to pull the port dock line all the way on deck and it got sucked down and into the prop. The whackwhackwhackwhack noise was the dock line whipping around with the prop, striking the hull as it went by.

Jen gave the fouled dock line a tug and found it was quite stuck. We were in the middle of two long docks with expensive yacht bows armed with pointy anchors on either side. The plan was to try to get Mirasol to turn to starboard and out of the dock area where we could drop anchor long enough for me to free the line from the prop. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing from the starboard side and getting a catamaran to turn starboard while only using the starboard engine is difficult. As we had no headway, the rudder was useless and with the wind on the starboard it was hopeless.

Another option was to turn to port, but there wasn't enough room to clear those pointy anchors. The last option was to try to back into a concrete dock with only one engine, and no dock hands. That being the only choice, I risked a worse tangle by reversing the port engine for just a second in an attempt to free the prop. Lucky us, when I went to test the line it came free with only a slight tug. I tossed the offending, mangled line on deck and ran back to the helm and drove us clear of the pointy anchors and out of the marina.

So as we were motoring out of the harbor, I was busy grumping about how I managed to leave the dock line trailing in the water, and not paying enough attention to the depth gauge. While I was in the marked channel, I was well on one side of it and grounded the starboard hull on a sand bar. Getting my head back in the game, I threw both engines in reverse and walked her back off the bar without too much trouble. Sigh.

With my head hung low I took us the rest of the way out of the harbor and pointed us towards Sopers Hole and said "Honey, why don't YOU drive!"

We made it to Sopers Hole without further incident, tied up to a mooring, rescued an errant dingy (not ours) and headed to shore for much needed sundowners.

We're staying here for Thanksgiving (Cornish hens instead of turkey) and then maybe off to Peter Island. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

New Photos Posted... Finally

2009-11-25T06:11:00.003-05:00

It's taken me a day or two to get to it, but I finally uploaded photos to the main website from Bitter End, the Jumbies show, and the Baths. The BVI gallery was getting large, so I split it into two parts, the first one ending with Spanish Town (just prior to the Baths) and the second one beginning with our trip to the Baths.

http://www.svmirasol.com/photos_current.

The Baths, Virgin Gorda BVI

2009-11-24T17:36:00.012-05:00

Yesterday we spent the morning at the Baths on Virgin Gorda. We had planned on visiting the Baths on Sunday, but as we were getting ready to ride our dingy from Spanish Town to the Baths, a giant sailing cruise ship, Club Med 2, dropped anchor a few hundred yards from us.

Rather than deal with the hoards from the cruise ship, we decided to loaf for the day instead.

Here's a photo of the Club Med 2 anchored close to us off of Spanish Town and the Baths.

The Baths are a stretch of coastline on the south west side of Virgin Gorda that is piled up with hundreds of huge granite boulders. The BVI's are volcanic in origin and the granite boulders were once encased in less durable volcanic rock

which has eroded away.

What is left is a pile of boulders, many of which are 40' or more in diameter. They are piled up along the coastline, there are lots of tunnels, saltwater pools, and arches that are a lot of fun to wander around in and explore.

Quinn just loved it. He saw pirates and monsters around every twist and turn.

Jumbies!

2009-11-21T07:33:00.003-05:00

We had a great time last night partying at the beach-side Jumbies Bar in Leverick Bay, Virgin Gorda. Every Friday they host a BBQ buffet with a live band. We joined the crew of Windward Passage at a table overlooking the anchorage and enjoyed the local BBQ ribs, chicken and roasted suckling pig. The sides were all local as well, and I enjoyed my fill of island-style macaroni and cheese, which is very spicy and cheesy - just like in the Exumas.

Later in the evening the Jumbies arrive! This is a local (I think family) group who dance on very tall stilts. Quite the show. They sit on the roof to strap on the stilts and then start parading in to the beat of island party music. After a few warm-up songs they start to pull in the guests to dance, and chase those around who are too shy.

Quinn found a friendly 4-year old to play with early in the evening, and they were inseparable. Big games of chase all night. Neither boy wanted to head back to the boat when the Jumbies show ended. Here's Quinn and Axel at the end of the show (the only time we could get them to get close to the Jumbies!).

The Virtues of Loafing

2009-11-17T19:04:00.002-05:00

Well, I feel like I'm finally back in my cruising groove. We've been hanging out in Leverick Bay on Virgin Gorda for the past three days and doing very little except relax. A welcome change after the 10 day passage and then the cleaning/maintenance/provisioning jobs at the marina in Road Town Harbor, Tortola. Here on Virgin Gorda (Fat Virgin) there's been some snorkeling, pool swimming, sandcastle building and a lot of general loafing. I've particularly enjoyed the loafing. Marinas are all well and good for provisioning, recovering, and maintenance... but we really do enjoy ourselves most on the anchor or on a mooring ball.

Mooring balls seem to be our lot here in the British Virgin Islands. The BVI has an astounding number of charter boats, and many folks that charter have little experience or interest in anchoring (this is my guess/assumption based on some observation, charter folks please don't be offended if I'm misrepresenting you!). So, the locals have met this market demand by filling most anchorages with mooring balls. It's a good source of income for them and simplifies the life of the folks who fly here for a week of low risk sailing with beautiful anchorages and plenty of night life. It's a little inconvenient for us since all the choice anchoring spots are clogged with mooring balls (and charter boats, more on this later) but so far we've been content to pick up a mooring ball for $25 a night. That usually comes with a bag of ice and pool privileges, so we don't mind too much.

The BVI is a small group of islands and cays grouped in a rough oval, with all of the major islands within a very short sail (2-4 hours) of each other. Since they are arranged in an oval, the water in the middle is very sheltered and the sailing is attractive to those looking for easy sailing and line-of-sight navigation in idealic tropical environs. Think of it as Tropical Sailing on Training Wheels and you'll get the gist. I'm hoping that as we move south through the Leeward Islands there will be fewer charter boats, more cruisers, and a minimum of mooring balls. Does that make me a cruising snob? Maybe.

Quiet Day

2009-11-16T17:03:00.002-05:00

We spent Saturday night at Trellis Bay along with the Windward Passage crew (Randy, John, Kathy and Charles). Charles had an early flight out yesterday, then it was off to Leverick Bay at Virgin Gorda. We anchored for a while and did a little snorkeling with Randy, John and Kathy, then moved to the overnight moorings across the bay. We all went ashore for swimming in the pool, drinks and dinner at the Leverick Bay Resort.

Windward Passage had to head back to Trellis Bay so Kathy and John can get their flight out tomorrow. I know they are anxious to get back to their boat (Oceana) and get started on their own adventure in the Bahamas.

Today, it rained all day so we just hung out on the boat at Leverick Bay and had school. Not sure what we're doing tomorrow yet - depends again on the weather. We will be heading back over to Road Town sometime this week to pick up a package, then probably back to Virgin Gorda for the Jumbies on Friday night. I will post a photo of the "Jumbies" if we get to see them.

Exploration of BVI Begins

2009-11-14T07:00:00.002-05:00

John left for home this morning. He's taking a ferry to St Thomas of the US Virgin Islands and then a flight home to Des Moines. We're glad he was able to join us for the trip down to the islands.

After 4 days at dock here in Road Town, we're anxious to start exploring the BVIs. We'll leave today sometime before noon and head East around the southeast tip of Tortola and either pick up a mooring ball or anchor in Trellis Bay on Beef Island. Snorkeling and beaches are on the agenda for this afternoon and tomorrow.

Road Town, BVI

2009-11-12T16:36:00.006-05:00

We made it!

The winds continued to blow around 25 knots well into the night on Monday and we continued to make great time. While sailing at 8+ knots is all well and good, it was going to deliver us to the BVIs around midnight. Aside from the hazards of a night time arrival to a strange location, we wanted to enjoy a morning landfall. To slow the boat down we dropped the main and furled the jib until we only had a tiny hank of it out. In that configuration we were sailing at about 3-4 knots through out the night.

At dawn we were approaching Anegada, one of the out islands of the BVI, and their only coral atoll. The wind had diminished to the around 18 knots and we shook out the full main and jib and headed in.

As we approached the main body of the BVI, the mountainous islands rose up out of the mist of a warm tropical morning. It was exciting to see and smell land again after ten long and strenuous days at sea.

Check out the pictures as we post them on the web site. The landfall was marvelous.

We've spent the past three days in Village Cay Marina in Road Town, Tortola. Road Town isn't much of a destination as far as cruising destinations go, but it is a great place to recover from a long passage, fix the stuff we broke on the way and plan our exploration of the BVI's.

Today I went up the mast to inspect the rigging. Happily I found no damage other than a busted up block for our port lazy jacks. (Lazy Jacks are lines run up the mast from the boom to keep the main sail from flopping all over the deck when we drop the main. Not critical hardware, but makes life easier.) It must have broken as we reefed the main in high winds with out letting enough slack on the lazy jacks.

Quinn and I went on a walk to find a replacement. We found one that should work OK at the local rigging shop. One more trip up the mast tomorrow to install it. I was happy to be able to find what we needed here. We'll have to wait until we reach St. Maarten to replace the reefing lines we wrecked.

Tonight Jen and I will figure out where we'll head off to tomorrow. John leaves either tomorrow AM or Sunday AM. Now that we're in port, he's getting anxious and feeling the effect of living with a family and a 4 year old. I figure we'll head to a local anchorage and do some swimming or hit a beach. We'll let you know in the next post.

Norfolk - Tortola BVI 2009, Days , November 1- 9

2009-11-09T19:21:00.001-05:00

Day 1, Oct 31: 164 nm

Gulf Stream crossing.

Day 2: 128 nm

Today started out with light and variable winds. We motored and then motor-sailed. Then at around 10AM the wind picked up to around 20 knots and we were making good time. The wind was from the South so we sailed Southeast towards Bermuda, and worked as much South as we could manage. The crew was still recovering from the very rough passage across the Gulf Stream so heading to windward wasn’t very popular, but we had no choice. Today we noticed that we had almost chafed through the 1st reef line in the main sail. We set the 2nd reef and will change the 1st reef line when the seas are calmer. Today the seas were mostly 5’-7’ from the South.

Day 3: 158nm

Overnight continued to be very windy and the winds continued throughout the day from the South and Southwest. Seas were 4-6feet increasing to 6-8 feet.

Day 4: 130nm

Today started with a nice respite from the rough sailing we’ve had to date. The front we’ve been racing south caught back up with us and gave us light NW winds. We rigged the sails for downwind sailing and set about straightening up and getting some rest. We replaced the chafed reef line and took some much needed hot showers! Love the water maker! The day ended up with the wind filling in from the Northwest, giving us 20 knots of fair winds and following seas.

Day 5: 143nm

Today started out windy with the Northeasterly winds, but then we appeared to catch up with the front we’ve been playing tag with (or another one, it’s hard to keep track) and the winds clocked around to the South and died off. We fired up the motor to help out and did some fishing. Didn’t catch anything this time. I guess the fish were hanging out in the deeps.

Day 6: 141nm

The wind continued clocking around to the Northwest and we had a nice downhill ride all day. Winds were around 20 knots and the seas were 6 foot rollers on the stern.

Day 7: 162nm

We’re getting some early Northeasterly Trade Winds now and so we’ve got plenty of wind forecasted for rest of the trip. We had Northeast winds in the high 20’s and 8 – 10 foot following seas the whole day. Two reefs in both the main and jib. We were over-reefed, but doing so to keep boat speed down to the low to mid 7’s. There were large cross swells which caused a very bouncy ride when boat speed was in the 8+ knot range and Jen and Quinn were not pleased with that!

Day 8: 171nm

Tried to keep boat speed down, but even with 2 reefs in the main and three in the jib we spent most of the morning going 8 knots or more in 30 to 35 knots of wind. Big following seas. Hard to estimate in the dark, but seemed to be in the 10 to 14 foot range. We were frequently surfing down the front face at 10 to 16 knots. Exciting and a bit nerve wracking as this is the fastest I’ve ever sailed Mirasol (or any sailboat for that matter). Once again we had heavy cross swells from a distant system that were causing us some interesting moments. At one point we got slammed in the beam by a cross wave while surfing down a big following sea. Mirasol swung around hard sending items normally very secure on their shelves flying. I’m glad that only happened once.

As a treat after the long night, Jen made the crew some yummy Brittany Trawler Hash for breakfast. In the middle of the prep work we were tagged by a beam wave that knocked the coffee press flying. Fortunately, most of the coffee and grounds were confined to the galley counter and the worst casualties were a couple of brand new dish towels.

Day 9: In progress

Good winds on the beam. 18 to 25 knots of wind with 10-12 foot following rolling swells. Right now we’re going at 8.2 knots in 25 knots of wind with 2 reefs in the main and jib (approximately 40% of our sails up) We’re on track for a dawn landfall in the BVI. (Or Not). If it looks like we’re going to get there early, we’ll slow the boat way down overnight to ensure a daylight landfall. We’re all looking forward to dawn tomorrow!

Norfolk - Tortola BVI 2009, Day 1, October 31

2009-11-09T10:00:00.001-05:00

We cast off the lines at Waterside Marina in Norfolk, Virginia at 2PM on Saturday, October 31st. We were planning on leaving on November 1st, but with the weather window closing in we decided to leave as soon as John arrived on the boat. Since Quinn had already had a great time Trick or Treating a few days prior, we didn't feel bad leaving on Halloween.

The sail up the Elizabeth River and out of the Chesapeake was uneventful except for a beautiful full rainbow and a few up-close buoy inspections by our helmsman, John. Jen offered to break out the green paint to touch them up as we passed by.

Once through the Bay Bridge - Tunnel and into the Atlantic, the race was on. We needed to get across the Gulf Stream before an approaching cold front overtook us and changed the winds to an unfavorable and possibly hazardous direction. The far side of the Gulf Stream was about 150 miles from Norfolk, about 24 hours away. The front was expected to overtake us just as we finished crossing the south wall of the Stream.

Although we motor-sailed to make the best possible time, the front accelerated and overtook us before we reached the Gulf Stream. This was bad news as it caused the wind to clock around and blow directly opposite the flow of the current, creating very steep and confused seas. In addition, we found that the predicted ground swells from both the Northeast and Southeast further confused the seas.

The witches brew of opposed wind and current mixed with moderate swells from both the NE and SE generated the wildest sea state I've ever experienced. The sea state reminded me of a full washtub that someone had worked into a frenzy with a toilet plunger. The waves were very steep and seemed to come from all directions, with the wave crests more like pyramids than anything else. By 1PM on Sunday the wind had been blowing from the NE at 25 - 30 knots for some time and I estimated the waves to be 8 to 12 feet and nearly vertical at times. This made for a pretty uncomfortable ride for the 6 or so hours we took to cross the 40-mile wide Stream.

I'm happy to report our autopilot managed the confused seas better than I expected. The most disconcerting moments were as rode down the face of a large wave and got smacked in the aft quarter by a breaking wave from another direction. This would fishtail us around so that we were sliding sideways down the face of the wave we had been riding. Within a few seconds, Francois (our autopilot) got her under control and back on course. This took my breath away the first time it happened, but we soon got used to the motion as it happened two or three times every hour while we were in the Stream.

Once out of the current, the seas calmed down quite a bit and to our relief the pyramidal waves disappeared. The front that had overtaken us ahead of the stream stalled on the south side of the stream and in another five hours we had passed back through it. The wind abated to the mid-teens and the seas mellowed to 5-7 foot easy waves for a comparatively comfortable start to Day 2.

Norfolk - Tortola BVI Passage Post 1... FINALLY!

2009-11-08T14:38:00.001-05:00

Hi all. We were looking forward to being able to post updates on a daily basis during our passage from Norfolk, VA to Tortola,BVI but it didn’t quite work out that way. The first two days were a bit of a train wreck crossing the Gulf Stream and it was too bouncy to work on a blog. Then, in the middle of the night on the second day, I dug out the laptop, fired it up and started putting together my first offshore blog message. To my dismay, just as I started work on it, my computer gave me Microsoft’s equivalent of the Finger… the blue Stop Error screen also known as the Blue Screen of Death. I was displeased. No matter, a quick reboot should set things right.

Not so much. On reboot, all I got was a blank screen and a flashing Caps Lock key. Sigh. So, I put it away for a calmer day to diagnose. (We were still in pretty rough weather and I wasn’t keen on gutting my laptop in those conditions. It took me a couple of sessions in milder weather to figure it out. It turns out one of my memory cards is bad. I took it out and I have a functional, if dreadfully slow, laptop again!

So instead of several daily offshore blogs, you’ll see only a few since we’re most of the way there now. The next entry will have a summary of our first 8 days at sea. Once in the Caribbean we’ll continue to post notes as interesting (to us, hopefully interesting to you too) things happen.

Be sure to check out the “Our Position” link on the web site for an updated map of our progress.

Update on Gregg, Jen and Quinn from Mom

2009-11-06T18:53:00.000-05:00

Courtesy of Mrs. / Shelby Merkel

Hi,

Gregg called at 2 pm EST, said they are doing well, on course, making great time, currently at 29 degrees 26 min N, 66 degrees 5 min W, about 185 miles S/SE of Bermuda. He said the seas were 8-10 ft. last night but glassy today. Surely was good to hear from him :>)

Frank Krause

Update via Frank

2009-11-03T19:19:00.001-05:00

Gregg and Jen's computer is down, and they asked me to post this update.

They are through the Gulf Stream and about half way to port. Current position as of this post is 32 deg 53 min North by 68 deg 24 min West.

All are well. Gaich is hoping to be promoted from Bilge rat to cabin boy soon. Jen says don't count on it.

Frank Krause
M 847-858-6046

Great Photos & Great People

2009-10-27T12:12:00.005-04:00

Thanks to Mike & Anne, Northern Express, and Dave & Barbara, Knot Again, we now have some excellent shots of us underway aboard Mirasol. I really appreciate your efforts and I'm already working on getting the photos and the video posted to the website.

I would also like to thank Kathy & John, Oceana, for delivering a variety of items from North Point, including the CD of the photos, a Halloween bag of candy for Quinn from Miss Lori, and a new hatch from Lagoon.

Passage Updates

2009-10-27T01:11:00.004-04:00

As Gregg mentioned in his latest post, we will try to make daily updates to our position map on the main website on the Current Position page, http://www.svmirasol.com/map_currentpos.htm. I'm not sure what time of day these updates will happen, but my plan is to do it sometime in the mid-morning. The map is an interactive Google map, so you can double click to zoom in, or use the tools provided in the upper left hand corner of the map to navigate. The markers will contain our position and date/time stamps. We will also try to update the blog while we're underway, so check in with us periodically here as well.

5-ish Days and Counting!

2009-10-26T21:57:00.009-04:00

Five more days in Norfolk and then, weather permitting, we're off to Tortola!

John arrives on Halloween and we'll be ready to go on November 1st. Quinn will have his Halloween booty, Mirasol will be ship-shape and well provisioned, Christmas gifts and decorations purchased and stowed, and an eager crew ready to set sail for Tortola.

All we need is the right weather. Happily, it's looking pretty good for a sail date of 11/1.

Tortola is the largest of the British Virgin Islands and is one of the most Northwestern islands of the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean. We plan to spend several weeks in this area before venturing further South and East.

As the bird flies, Tortola is about 1250 nautical miles (1450 statute miles) from Norfolk, Virginia. Aboard Mirasol, we expect to sail about 1400 nautical miles.

For our landlubber friends, this circuitous route deserves a little explanation. It's all about the Trade Winds. Once we get down to the latitudes of south Florida, the winds start blowing very predictably from the South East. Further south, they blow always from the East. These are the Trade Winds. If we head straight for Tortola, we'll run right into the Trades and be faced with an upwind slog for many days. That is a recipe for a very, very grumpy wife and son. Since I don't want a divorce or to sell the boat in November, we won't go that way.

Instead, we'll head towards Bermuda. Once we're about 100-200 miles southwest of Bermuda, we'll turn almost due south for Tortola. This should keep the wind on our beam and the family smiling!

We hope to make the trip inside of 10 days. A lot will depend on the weather we get, and how much wind. Right now, the forecast for our departure from Norfolk is for very light winds so we'll probably have to motor-sail for the first couple of days. The first leg of the trip is a little tricky as we have to deal with the Gulf Stream and coastal weather. I'll go into that on the next post once I have a better grip on the weather for next week.

Once we're offshore, we hope to make daily posts of our location to our web site and a short update to the blog. Stay tuned!

Bright lights, big city

2009-10-23T23:22:00.002-04:00

It's nice to be back in Norfolk. I love the location of the marina - we are right downtown and the waterfront is absolutely beautiful. Lots of restaurants, things to do & see, even a mall. I know this isn't Gregg's favorite spot, mostly because of the noise and because of how dirty the boat gets here. But for me, it's nice to be in a fairly large city. I've even managed to get a haircut and a pedicure! And Quinn thinks it's the COOLEST to have pizza delivered to the boat (well, that and the ferry rides).

We're glad our friends from North Point, Kathy and John (Oceana), made it in safely today. (Thanks again, guys, for bringing our new hatch down with you!) It'll be fun to hang out with them for a while before the passage to the BVI's. They are also heading south to Tortola on another boat (Windward Passage), then they are returning to Norfolk to take their own boat to the Bahamas.

Anyway, after dinner on the boat with Kathy & John tonight, I spent the evening updating our main website and hemming Quinn's Halloween costume pants. He is adorable, by the way, as a little super hero/muscle man. The festivities begin tomorrow for the little ones with a Halloween party at the Children's Museum, then "safe" trick-or-treating for a couple hours in Portsmouth (a ferry ride from here). We'll let him do it for a while, then go to dinner at the Biergarten. Last year, there was trick-or-treating at the mall in Norfolk on Halloween, so I will check and make sure we can do it again this year. I know trick-or-treating in a mall sounds lame to those of you with actual neighborhoods, but I tell ya, the Godiva and Lindt stores hand out the good stuff. I'm trying to figure out how I can borrow a few more kids!

Yorktown

2009-10-10T21:40:00.002-04:00

We've spent the past couple of weeks in Yorktown, both in a marina (York River Yacht Haven) and at anchor in Sarah Creek, just down the way from YRYH. It started out with a busy week with lots of boat maintenance and boat cleaning. Mirasol looks fantastic inside and out, but my shoulders will take a few days to recover from all the cleaning and waxing I did on the hull. The locals at the marina had great fun standing around watching and commenting. Sigh.

We also spent a day in Busch Gardens and a day wandering around historical Yorktown.

The day in Busch Gardens was a lot of fun. They had the whole park decked out for Halloween and since we went on a weekday, the park wasn't very crowded. Quinn got to ride the Elmo roller coaster over and over again with no wait, great seats at the shows, and just about no wait at any ride he chose.

Jen rode the very cool Griffin roller coaster on a double-dog-dare, again with no wait. I missed out on the ride because shortly after her ride, it was closed for maintenance and the line got long.

After dark the fog machines and a spooky soundtrack came on and trolls, witches, goblins and skeletons started sneaking up and scaring the passing crowd. They were pretty gentle with Quinn, but still scared the pants off him a couple times. He had a blast, but I can live without riding tea cups again for a while!

The second week has been much more leisurely. Small chores, maintenance, and a Lego-cleaning marathon (don't ask), but a lot of reading and relaxing too.

No firm plans for the next few days. By mid next week we plan to be near the southern mouth of the Chesapeake to un-pickle the watermaker and make sure it's working and ready for the trip south. We can't use the watermaker in the Chesapeake since all the silt and algae in the water would plug filters quickly. We fill it with preservative chemicals for the summer, a process called "pickling". We're hoping the water at the mouth of the Bay at high tide will be sufficiently clear to avoid trashing too many filters during the recommissioning.

From there its on to Waterside Marina in Norfolk, VA for last minute provisioning and preparations for the trip to Tortola.

Thank You North Point

2009-09-26T22:32:00.003-04:00

A second summer in the Chesapeake has come and gone. Once again it was made particularly special by our stay in North Point Marina in Rock Hall MD. Thanks to all the good folks there for making us feel so welcome! Jen, Quinn and I were graced by good fortune when we stumbled on this wonderful place when looking for a base of operations for our first season on Mirasol in 2008.

Our return in July 2009 was like a homecoming and we enjoyed our time there so much that we extended our stay by a month! After being on the move for a year it was nice to tie up to a familiar dock and settle in for a while. The marina has a pavilion with lots of tables and grills on the docks were everyone gathers most evenings for dinner. Most days there are at least two or three boats represented at dinner, and weekends are always full. Lots of fun! Quinn loved bringing his bag of toys and making himself the center of attention. Thanks to all who "played" with him!

Anyone looking for an excellent marina with a wonderful community of boaters will find a warm welcome in North Point. We look forward to returning in 2010. Thanks everyone, and we'll see you next summer!

Sandy Point, VA

2009-09-25T08:14:00.002-04:00

Other than the fact that there's not a whole lot to do off the boat here, we like this spot (our exact location is plotted on our website on the "current position" page). The holding has been great for us (we weathered a gale here last season) and seem to be stuck pretty well now. With the expected winds for the next couple of nights gusting 20-25 knots, we are planning to stay here until Sunday.

Good thing I loaded up on food & UHT milk (and beer/wine, etc.) - it's already been a week since I've seen a grocery store. Thanks again, Kathy, for the use of the Passat! Can't tell you how cool it was to get to drive my old car again! Anyway, we're running out of fresh veg & fruit, but I have a freezer full of proteins, a locker full of *sigh* canned veg, and I still have potatoes, carrots, some citrus, and some bananas that are turning brown. Might get to go shopping on Monday?

We're not terribly busy... Having school with Quinn, catching up on our reading and some chores, maybe even a little guitar hero when we run the generator today (it's overcast so the solar panels are doing nothing for us). Our real constraint is going to be the tanks. Waste tanks are getting full, water tanks are getting low. We are enjoying the quiet, though. There's only one other boat here with us.

Last night, the water here was like glass, so we took the dinghy out for a long ride and found a place to go for dinner. Being stuck on the boat for a couple days will get us a little crazy, but we've done it before. We'll be quite ready to step on shore again on Sunday (hopefully).

and we're live...

2009-09-04T14:43:00.004-04:00

The new design of http://www.svmirasol.com/ is finally in production. I still have a few things I'm going to add in (videos, etc.), but I just got tired of looking at the old site. RSS is working so you can now subscribe to our site, we've got a nice new current position map which we believe we will be able to update while we're at sea using our sat phone, and there are lots of new photos. Also, I have been looking at other options for the photo gallery, including a flash gallery, but I haven't found a workable solution yet. The one I'm using does require Active X so you will need to enable it (you should get prompted it for it when you load the page) to view the gallery properly.

If you look at the site and find any broken links or other problems, please let me know.

Redesign in Beta

2009-08-23T15:34:00.002-04:00

I just finished (I think) with the redesign of our website. Please feel free to take a look around and comment, especially if you find errors.

http://www.svmirasol.com/home_svmirasoltest.htm

I'm working on it!!!

2009-07-25T09:04:00.002-04:00

I know the main website hasn't been updated in a while. I've been working on a redesign. It's not ready and it's taking longer than I thought, so logs & photos from the last couple weeks (including the Krause visit) will be up shortly in the old design. Hope to have the redesign finished within a week or two.

A Curious Conversation

2009-07-01T22:02:00.007-04:00

"Honey?..."

"Mmmph?" I respond, pretending to pay attention to the question while I'm reading a book. A bad habit I have.

"You've always wanted to do a circumnavigation haven't you? It's always been a dream of yours, hasn't it?"

"Hmmm... what? Oh. Yes, well I wrote that off when I decided I wanted to get married. It was a good trade off." To myself I add, especially since she's here on the boat with me for a whole year now and we're looking forward to at least one more, which I never expected to happen.. Figuring that was the end of the conversation, I dove back into my book.

A few minutes later: "How long would it take?"

"Huh? What? Take to do what?" Obviously I wasn't keeping up with the discussion.

"To sail around the world." she said.

"Oh... um... about 3 or 4 years I think." Depends on which route you take and how long you mess around along the way." Ok, now back to the book, it's a really good part... wait, did she say something again?

"What was that sweety?" I said a little strained this time, it really was a good part in the book.

"I said, why don't we do it then?" She repeated.

After a few seconds, I scrape my jaw up off the floor and wipe what was probably a pretty silly look off my face. "Really?" "Are you serious?"

She's serious. Wow. Really WOW.

So, we dug out Jimmy Cornell's encyclopedic "World Cruising Routes" and got to work.

A couple months have passed since this conversation and the planning has raised some timing questions. To avoid hurricane season in the South Pacific, we need to transit the Panama Canal sometime in the spring, probably in April. So, we have a decision to make: return to the US for another summer after this winter's trip to the Caribbean or turn left and head for Panama and the South Pacific. We have a lot of prep work to do and the summer is half over. So as not to rush things we may wait a year. This would also give Quinn another year so he remembers more of it. We'll probably make the timing decision by the end of August.

I'm still pinching myself.

Did I mention I married the coolest lady in the world?

Lagoon Escapade - A Very Good Time!

2009-06-29T23:50:00.000-04:00

Last weekend Lagoon America and The Catamaran Company coordinated a weekend rendezvous for Lagoon catamaran owners. It started with a cookout and cocktails in Annapolis on Friday evening to get everyone introduced. Saturday morning we gathered again for breakfast in preparation for our sail across the Bay to St. Michaels where we would anchor for the night and enjoy a crab dinner at a local restaurant.

Unfortunately, the weather closed in and several of the boats decided not to make the trip to St. Michaels, or to do it by car instead. Jen and I weren't bothered by the forcast and joined the other three boats that made the sail to St Michaels. It was a bit of a rainy trip across the Bay, and we motor-sailed about half of the way, but it was still fun.

We had two guests aboard for the trip: Nick Harvey, Director of Lagoon America, and Brian Hermann, our friend / broker from The Catamaran Company. We really enjoyed having them aboard and it made the sail just fly by, in spite of the rain. Having two experts on board I was a little self-consious of my sail trim, but either I did OK or they were too gracious to mention any gaffs.

As We dropped anchor off St Michaels, the sun broke out as Jen broke out the home-made guacamole and the Wet-n-Salties. For any new readers, the "Wet-n-Salties" are the official Mirasol beverage, and are essentially a fancy margarita - but better than any other I've had. Jen worked out the recipe during our Bahamas cruise this past year.

After a few cocktails the five of us piled into our dink and headed ashore for a yummy crab dinner. These were our first Maryland crabs of the '09 season, and they were delicious!

Nick and Brian had to return to Annapolis by car Saturday evening so it was just the usual Mirasol crew anchoring out overnight in St. Michaels. We ended up staying in St Michaels for 5 days, enjoying the town as well as a couple nights in a marina so Jen could get some laundry done and Quinn could spend some time in the pool.

Somebody Help Me!!!

2009-06-18T16:10:00.003-04:00

I'm dying of BOREDOM! I'm looking for ideas for things to do during my overnight watches to keep myself awake. Let's keep it clean, please.

I can't read underway (or do detail work like sewing, for example) because I get seasick. I've tried practicing knots, but that gets old quick (at least I can do a bowline, figure 8 and even a monkey's fist now without having to stop and think about it). Can't really play loud music because I need to be able to hear the boat if something changes and I don't want to keep other crew members awake. Oh, and if it wasn't obvious, it has to be something I can do sitting at the helm.

Bahamas - A Blast!

2009-05-18T14:26:00.004-04:00

We're back in the US now, and as we treat ourselves to a few of the goodies not available in the islands, we've been reflecting back on all the fun we had with the wonderful people, beaches, towns and beautiful anchorages we were privileged to enjoy in the Bahamas.

To help with my reflection, I thought I'd pour myself a touch of the delicious island rum... in the form of a tasty Bahama Mama. But it's COLD here in Charleston today! When we arrived two days ago it was as warm as it was in the Bahamas... but it was a TRICK! Today we're being pummeled by a strong Nor'easter with 50 degree temps and 30 knot winds. Brrrrrrrr. I think I'll make that rum drink a hot buttered rum... be right back.

Mmmm yummy. Even better with the rum we brought back. Great stuff.

Where was I... oh yeah, the Bahamas. For us, the Bahamas were a big surprise, even with all the research we did. If you've ever been to Nassau or Lucaya, that's only a very small aspect of the islands. What you see there is Cruise Ship Strip Malls and resort facilities. It isn't at all what the Bahamas are about. Once you get away from the easy to get to tourist areas, the Bahamas are exquisitely lovely.

The Exumas are a chain of tiny islands they call Cays (pronounced keys), about 180 of them. They run in a line roughly northwest to southeast. On the east side of the cays is the Exuma Sound / Atlantic Ocean. Within a half mile of shore you are in thousands of feet of water. On the west side of the cays you are on the Great Bahama Bank. The Bank is thousands of square miles of emerald water less than 25' deep. Most of the time we were sailing in water between 8' and 12' deep. This added a little excitement to the whole thing since scattered around the banks are coral heads that grow to within 3' of the surface. Our boat draws 4' 2". Fortunately, most coral heads are more than 6' below the water. When in shallower water, it pays to have someone on the bow "reading the water", looking for the telltale black circles that means a coral head, or the light tan color of an unmarked sand bore.

To get between the banks and the ocean you must pass through one of many "cuts" between the cays. There are a handful that are navigable in good weather and with the tide. None are to be risked in strong winds or large swells from distant weather systems. In those conditions, called a "rage", the breaking seas are extremely dangerous.

Many islands in the Exumas have someone living there, but there are many uninhabited. There are a few cays that have small towns, such as Black Point on Great Guana Cay, Staniel Cay, and Little Farmers Cay. These towns generally have two or three grocery stores (generally about the size of a 1 or 2 car garage in the US), one school (all ages), a one or two room municipal office, one or two restaurant/bars, and maybe a laundry. There are no banks in the Exumas with the exception of George Town at the southern tip of the chain, everyone else runs on a cash and barter basis. Some businesses take a credit card, but there is a 5% fee to do so, and their phone has to be working at the time.

All the houses and buildings are painted pastel colors. Conch shells are the favorite yard decoration, and there's usually at least one woman baking bread for the islanders and cruisers out of her house. If you wanted to eat a a restaurant, you needed to make reservations, not so that you could get a seat, but so that they would make enough (delicious) food. The people were without exception gracious and friendly.

Just about every cay had at least one beach on either the ocean or banks side, or both. On the ocean side, the waves are big and there's lots of shells. On the banks side, there are usually little or no waves and the sand is white and is often almost as fine as talcum powder. We almost always had the entire beach to ourselves.

We spent two very happy months in the Exumas, almost exclusively at anchor. We only stayed a a marina once, for two days. Beaches, snorkeling, exploring the cays kept us plenty busy.

We also wanted to see the Abaco Islands, on the northeast side of the Bahamas. We sailed from the Exumas to Nassau, re-provisioned in Nassau and then on to the Abacos. The Abacos have a busy tourism industry with most of the islands having lots of small villas for rent. People fly in to the Bahamas via Nassau and then take a 6 or 8-seater prop plane to one of the islands, and then a ferry (25' motorboat) to their cay. Lots of charter power and sailboats are available as well. This area is more what you probably were thinking the out islands of the Bahamas are like. There's plenty of infrastructure support, Internet is easily available and the phones usually work. Groceries and restaurants are bigger and better supplied. However, the water isn't as clear and it's harder to get a beach or anchorage to yourself.

Between the two, we liked the Exumas the best, but it's picking between two wonderful places for sure. I hope they remain as wonderful for years to come. It helps that its difficult to get there, especially the Exumas. Maybe next time we'll check out the Ragged Islands south of the Exumas. Now those are REALLY the out islands.