Life on the HARD

Monday morning bright and early Celebrian was lifted out by the travel lift and put on the hard at Abaco Yacht Services. While Celebrian was finding her summer spot the captain was in Green Turtle Cay renewing our cruising permit and the admiral was doing laundry. Everything on the boat has to be washed before we leave for the season... from the life jackets,wet suits ,snorkel gear, bimini curtains to the sails and seat cushions that have to be rinsed with fresh water. All of the blankets, pillow covers, any clothes that have been worn, even if only once, and all of the regular laundry has to be done. Salt is the culprit and anything left salty or dirty will mildew and we definitely do not want mildew. Rob had been kept busy doing all of the mechanical "summerizing" on Sunday....pickling the water maker, flushing Mr. Yan's rad and changing his oil, servicing the Honda generator as well as Mr. Johnson our powerful 3 HP motor and what Rob calls making love to our batteries...the heart of Celebrian's utility system. If you have ever lived off of the grid you will understand why this is such an important thing to do.
This picture shows Rob in the process of removing the 6 gallon hot water tank.
After he returned from getting our permit and we were on the hard it was time to get the deck clean and ready for the circus tent and lastly hoist Goldberry up on the deck. We were grateful that we had booked the cottage for the last night. The cottage is part of AYS and used to be rented out weekly to anyone; however they have decided to rent it out to their boat yard clientele and use the cottage yard for extra boats. It is very nice and has a full kitchen, huge screened in porch and is tropically decorated. It took the stress out of the last day in the yard knowing that we could get Celebrian all put away including the tent tied on and then relax for the evening. Last year Rob ran out of time to finish tieing on the cover and we had to leave. This year was much more relaxed and we had a pleasant evening in the cottage. The admiral even had a bath?!!The next morning we were up early finishing our packing and off to catch the 8:00am ferry for the journey home.

Manjack Cay....One of Our Favourite Islands

We left First Edition in Fowl Cay on Friday April 2nd and headed north to Manjack Cay. It was a glorious day for a sail and the 15 miles went all too fast as we knew this would be Celebrian's last sail of the winter. On our way we sailed by the boat you see in this picture.



Spring is the time that the mega yachts come to The Bahamas and this one was at least 200 feet long. Doesn't it make you wonder who might be on board?


Manjack Cay is a favoured anchorage for cruisers and up until recently it was the source of a very powerful free Wifi signal and has been for the past 5 years. Bill and Leslie who have lived on the island for 17 years have been very cruiser friendly since they were cruisers at one time themselves. The sign on the shore says welcome rather than come ashore only if you have an invitation. I met Bill one day on one of the trails and he said that he had been asked to shut down their signal by the local service providers in Green Turtle Cay. Understandably the Wifi companies want the cruiser's business so in all fairness to them Bill did what they asked. I had planned on getting lots of blog updates done while we were in Manjack; however I did get a jump on lots of boat "summerizing" jobs while Rob put on five coats of varnish.
In the afternoons we tried to take some time off. All work ...no play makes the crew grumpy. Bill and Leslie have made trails all over the island.





They are happy to share them with the cruisers who stop here and the cruisers try to give back by picking up garbage along the beach and putting it in the bins and garbage bags that Bill and Leslie provide. You wouldn't believe what the ocean washes in? The amount of plastic is staggering. On the Sea of Abaco side of these islands once finds more glass but the ocean side is primarily plastic. Garbage is a big problem in The Bahamas and unfortunately much to our chagrin they are still not instituting much in the way of recycling. The Bahamian way is to burn but as you and I know burning glass is not too effective a way to dispose of it.

Lynn and Peter joined us in our favourite Coconut Bay Beach anchorage on Easter Sunday.

The admirals put together a potluck Easter dinner of tenderloin, sweet potatoes, asparagus, bean and tossed salad and the captains co-BBQ'd. Since Peter is Jewish he does not eat much in the way of pork but he had agreed to give the tenderloin a try and he quite enjoyed it. Lynn is delighted because this gives her another food group so to speak for meal planning. Meal planning is a little more of a challenge on a boat as one has to have all of the ingredients on hand. IF you don't have what you need for a recipe you don't just pop out to the convenience store to pick it up!?

Lynn and I did some shelling one morning together collecting sea urchins. We have great craft plans for these very delicate but pretty skeletons.



Seabear is busy deciding what urchins should be wrapped carefully in paper towels and flown home. It is a challenge to get our shells home without breakage as we can't carry all of them in our hand luggage. The sand dollars and urchins are especially delicate.

All in all it was a good week at Manjack and now we are at the dock at Abaco Yacht Services. We went out to dinner at Emily's Blue Bar for a fabulous lobster dinner...the best restaurant meal we have had all season. We asked Bruce, a fellow dock mate to join Peter, Lynn and ourselves for happy hour and dinner.


It turned out that Bruce and his wife have sailed much of the Caribbean so we picked his brain about his travels.




We have spent the weekend folding sails,doing inventory, cleaning and packing, and today Rob is taking our hot water tank out. We only have hot water when the engine is running but we have had to shut the tank off because it has developed a leak. It looks like we may either have to have it welded or buy a new one. There is always something to fix or buy when you live on a boat. In between uploading pictures to the blog I am bleaching lockers. Scott provides a signal here for ten dollars a day so I bought the signal for the weekend. Tomorrow I will be too busy doing laundry so today will be the last update until after we get home.

We fly home this Wednesday April 14th and look forward to a busy and pleasant spring in Ontario. As always we will miss our cruising friends but if all goes well First Edition and Celebrian may sail to the Western Caribbean next season. If we do go west we will likely leave Celebrian in the Rio Dulce in Guatamala and fly home from there.

A sailboat is a magical vehicle and we can go wherever we want to.....the honeymoon sail continues.



I am sent up in the bosun's chair to retrieve a wayward halyard.



The captain gives Mr. Johnson some tender loving care.

Home to the Abacos

A cold front welcomed us home to the Abacos.



The ocean sail back to the Abacos kept the crew busy at the helm; although steering is often the best place if you are feeling the least bit sea sick.



After our long day on the ocean we were happy to be in a safe and comfortable anchorage for the front that arrived the next day. We had quite the electrical storm and the view of the cloud formations provided our evening's entertainment. The storm spawned a tornado that hit the Freeport area and two people were killed when the crane they were working on at the boatyard was lifted by the force of the winds. Peter said that the wind speed on his indicator reached 33 knots and that was plenty.

The next morning we did a little beach exploring and picked up some more conch shells for Rob's bowl making and then left to head up to Boat Harbour. Boat Harbour is on the eastern side of Marsh Harbour and is a great place to anchor if the winds are from the north or west. The Tuesday before Easter Sunday marks the Jewish Passover and once again we were honoured to celebrate the Sedar with Peter and Lynn on First Edition. Lynn is amazing. She stores everything from matzah balls and the Sedar service books to jamachas (not sure of the spelling but I call them the little hats that the Jewish men wear.)



After our service we dined on roast beef, mashed potatoes and broccoli...it was quite the feast. Even Sea Bear came to the celebration and he doesn't get out much?





This morning we are on our way to Man O War to pick up Celebrian's summer cover from the sailmaker. Peter and Lynn decided to come to Man O War with us for the day and do a little browsing in the shops.

We had lunch at the Dock and Dine and wandered around the town. Man O War is another all white, very religious community on a dry island with no liquor. The island is well known for its wooden boat building and Rob enjoys chatting with the men. It is quaint and probably has no more than 200 citizens. The island is spotless and the people are very industrious. We picked up the cover and headed over to Marsh Harbour for the evening. Tomorrow would be a busy day of errands.

I spent two hours at Out Island Internet in Marsh Harbour trying to figure out what has gone wrong with the wifi. Rob had to take apart the system on the boat so that we could rule out any problem with the on board equipment. The good thing is there is nothing wrong with the on board equipment; however there is some concern that I don't have enough memory with this small netbook and that that is affecting getting a signal on the boat. If all it take is buying more memory then I am willing to go to Best Buy and buy another chip for this computer. For the time being I am very frustrated that I can not use the on board system but the good thing is that we are near the end of this year so I will have to make due with carrying the machine ashore.

After a busy day of errands we left for Fowl Cay Reserve, an underwater park near Man O War. We had hoped to stay the night but there was a surge so we moved to the lee of MAn O War for the night. The next day we met First Edition at Sandy Cay and went out to the reef snorkelling. The reef is quite pretty and we saw two green turtles which was just great. After lunch we left to go north to Manjack Cay where we are anchored for the week. Lynn and Peter will join us tomorrow for Easter dinner and then they will be heading north and looking for a window to sail across the Gulf Stream. We are going to spend the week getting the boat ready for storage. Today Rob has spent varnishing while I am cleaning lockers. The next week at anchor we will be in boat yard mode. Things would be so much easier if we weren't living in a salt water environment. The good thing is that we are anchored in our favourite spot at Manjack...Coconut Bay Beach. If you have to do boat yard work....this is the place to do it. We even shared our bay with First Edition for a couple of nights; however Lynn and Peter were anxious to get to Green Turtle Cay to pick up a mooring before the next front. By the time this next front gets here we will be safely at the dock at Abaco Yacht Services.

Harbour Island....An Island of Contrasts

Dumore Town has narrow streets with cottages dating back to the 18th century.




Walking the pink coral sand beach is a must do in Harbour Island.




Our anchorage off of Dumore Town in Harbour Island, Eleuthera.




A storage area built right into the hill.





Dunmore Town waterfront is quite quaint.



School volleyball is played outdoors....of course in this climate!




Harbour Island is an island of contrasts....one of the most beautiful coral sand beaches on the east ocean side and sewers and garbage on some of the west side ....quaint village homes dating back as far as 1797 in the village and grandiose beach houses worth millions on the coast....hotels with rooms costing thousands per night to Bahamian homes missing second stories and windows....marinas with mega yachts (100 feet plus) to small wooden local fishing boats....playground of the rich and the famous but home to many locals eaking out a living fishing and working in tourism. I always find it hard to see the division of wealth between the haves and the have nots. That being said the locals would not likely be fairing as well if it were not for the tourist dollar.

Harbour Island is called Briland (so-called because the locals have trouble pronouncing the letters "H" and "R".) Dunmore Town has a population of about 1,500 and harks back 300 years. The town was laid out in 1791 by Lord Dunmore who was governor of The Bahamas at the time. Much of the village seems to be in a time warp and the cottages are being preserved which is wonderful to see. We enjoyed strolling around the streets looking at the architecture.

The first evening Luke and Bobbie on Latitudes hosted the "We conquered the Devil's Backbone" party. They were the only boat that could host ten of us in their cockpit for cocktails...a 42 foot Hunter. We decided as group that we would get together the next night at Ma Ruby's Restaurant, the restaurant that our pilot Bandit had recommended. Rob and I shared a seafood platter that was very good and everyone had a good time. We had gone a little early so that I could do a blog update as seen in the picture. The Acer netbook is so much smaller and lighter to carry to shore if there is Wifi available.


While at Harbour Island we did a lot of walking and exploring and did manage to get a brief snorkel in off the beach. The coral was sand covered with few fish but it was nice to get cooled down nonetheless. We have finally had some warm temperatures. We had to go and see the Pink Sands, said to be one of the most unpretentiously chic resort hotels in the world. It was beautifully landscaped and the 21 guest cottages are secluded among 16 acres of land spilling down to the beach. One can see why it would appeal to some of the more shutterbug-shy celebs and despite our visit we were unable to see either Christie Brinkley or Richard Gere??

The next day after doing laundry, sending a few more pictures from the local cafe and a little shopping we motored down to the southernmost part of the harbour.c
We were expecting winds from the south and wanted to get protection plus this anchorage is the jumping off spot for our sail north to the Abacos. The 2 mile wide span of water between mainland Eleuthera and Harbour Island makes a great harbour and by moving around you can get protection from wind in all directions. There is a tricky narrow spot that one needs to transit before going to the cut to the Atlantic Ocean so since it was high tide we decided to run it and see for ourselves what the depths were. We had 8 feet under the keel most of the way so we were confident that we could leave safely Sunday morning just after high tide.

For the next couple of days we enjoyed sailing Goldberry while waiting for our weather window to sail the 60 miles north to Abaco.
We had cocktails with Michel and Carole on Emotion 3 along with Peter and Lynn on our first night. Michel and Carole were a lovely fun loving couple from Montreal who are doing the great circle loop in their 36 foot Carver power boat. They have taken a year's sabbatical and will return to work in August. They had quite the stories from their journey down the Mississipi. We had a tour of Emotion 3 and it is like living in a cottage after living on a sailboat. We took Michel and Carole for dinghy rides the next day and for Carole it was the first time she had ever been sailing. They are staying for a few more days so we said our goodbyes for now at happy hour on First Edition and then it was back to Celebrian to make sure everything was ship shape for our ocean passage the next day.

Sail Fast....Live Slow


Yesterday we left Harbour Island at 7am and put the anchor down at Black Point Cay on the Sea of Abaco at 6:30pm. It had been a blistering sail for most of the day averaging 7 knots until the last couple of hours where we slowed down to 6 and high 5s; however the 8 foot swell and 4-6 foot wind chop were brutal. We were borderline sea sick with both Lynn and I taking Stugeron.
Peter wasn't able to eat anything all day but Rob and I were living on trail mix, fruit and lots of fluids. We generally would have anchored at Lynyard Cay, the first landfall but we pushed on in order to find a more protected anchorage for the night. We are here for today Monday March 29th and expect to sail the ten or so miles to Marsh Harbour tomorrow. We need to pick up some things for Celebrian in Marsh Harbour as well as get her mended summer cover in Man O War. It will be my last chance for good lettuce as well. From Marsh Harbour we will head north around The Whale and back to the Green Turtle Cay area. The Whale is our last hump so to speak as we need to have fair winds to transit this area as it is open to the Atlantic and is notorious for its high seas. We certainly lived up to the captain's t-shirt of sail fast yesterday and today we are living slow.

The Pink Sands of Harbour Island

The honeymoon sail continues!



The Pink Sands Hotel....vacation spot of the rich and famous. Cottages start at a thousand dollars a night and go up from there!!!


This is the lobby steps leading in to the famour Pink Sands Resort.


This beach is three miles long on the ocean side.


My first day on the pink sands beach.



This is the Blue Beach Bar that is part of the famous Pink Sand's Resort. This is where we had hoped to have a drink with Christie Brinkley and Richard Gere?!?


AAhhhhhh....soft pink sand between our toes...and warm ocean waves.



We took our snorkels one day to check out the reefs but the reefs near shore were covered with sand and very few fish. One really has to go out the furthest reef in order to get the best coral.


The first day on the coral pink sand beach of Harbour Island.

The Devil's Backbone to Harbour Island

The wagon train of five boats leave Spanish Wells for Harbour Island through the Devil's Backbone of north Eleuthera. The pilot was at the helm of First Edition, followed by Celebrian, Bobbie and Luke on Lattitudes,Mattie and Charlie on Pegasus and Michel and Carole on Emotion 3. We had cocktails with everyone the first night we were in Harbour Island to celebrate our conquering of the Devil's Backbone.

At times we were very close to the beach along the one and one half hour trip.

Our pilot Bandit...fifty dollars a boat to take us through the Devil's Backbone.

The Spanish Well's dolphin one more time!!

Eleuthera Delights

Eleuthera Delights
We left Rock Sound at 7am on Saturday March 20th for the 50 mile passage across the banks to Current Cut on the western side of Eleuthera. Current Cut is the name given to the cut through between the two islands of Current and Eleuthera. Sailboats have to time their transit through current cut because of the tide. We were fortunate that we hit the tide on its ebb and had a 8-9 knot ride through the cut. It is much easier to go with the flow than to fight upstream as long as you have good control. We anchored on the west side of Current Settlement for the night and had a nice quiet evening. The night before we had unenjoyed several hours of loud bar music outside of Rock Sound settlement so we were grateful of the peaceful anchorage. The next day we had a deightful sail to Spanish Wells where we are on a mooring waiting for the next cold front to pass so that we can go to Harbour Island.
We had been to Spanish Wells two years ago and had enjoyed our time here. It is an unusual community ...about 800 hundred citizens, all white, very religious, very affluent,hard working and most of the men and their sons work on huge lobster boats. Spanish Wells supplies well over half of the Bahamas' commercial crop of lobster, conch and fish. It is difficult for a 16 year old boy to say no to a job that can bring him a hundred grand a year...why would you stay in school? As for the girls they marry the young boys and continue to live here and have their families. There are about 8 main surnames for the phone book so most everyone is related. The last time we were here was after lobster season and the boats were all here; however this year the boats are all out of port until the end of March. We are hoping to buy some lobster but unfortunately it will likely be frozen.
Yesterday we went for a walk around the island called St. George's Cay...about 2.5 miles long by a quarter mile wide at its largest section. Most of it is the settlement of Spanish Wells. Evidence of the island's industriousness and economic prosperity is seen in the well kept homes, both modern and historical, as well as the heavy vehicular traffic of scooters, motorcycles, cars and trucks. It seems out of place to see a sport's car here instead of the usual golf carts. The name of Spanish Wells is derived from an early explorer who found fresh water here and Spanish galleons drew water here before returning across the Atlantic. The community dates back to the 17th century when the Eleutheran adventurers left England looking for religious freedom. On our walk we met Rita, the local manatee who spends a fair amount of time at the town dock. The locals come and feed her lettuce and she gets a little fresh water from time to time. Lynn had never seen a manatee and before she was through she had poured most of her water bottle out for Rita. One of the locals said that fresh water was like cocaine to a manatee. I do remember them in the marina in Titusville, Florida. They were lured in by the fresh water being used by boaters to wash their boats off. The marina didn't want the manatees coming in because they get hit by boat propellers but they had no way of keeping them out. We hadn't realized that there were manatees here in The Bahamas. We also met one of the local dolphins that hang around Spanish Wells while we were dinghying into the dock and walking the waterfront. It was like being at Sea World only better because both Rita and the dolphin were wild.
Speaking of dolphins....I have on my list of things to do before I die ...swimming naked with dolphins. Since coming to The Bahamas I have always been thrilled everytime I have seen a dolphin or had a chance to get a picture. When we were anchored on the western shore of Rock Sound two large dolphins swam by Celebrian. Rob called me up from the galley to see them and I made the comment that how I wish I could swim with them. Rob quickly handed me my goggles and fins and without another thought I jumped into the water. By then the dolphins had swum away but when they heard my splash they turned around to see what the sound was. They swam back to within about 15 feet of me and then turned around and continued fishing. I was so delighted to have been that close to them so I guess I can stroke off swimming naked with dolphins; however I would love to have another opportunity to do it all over again.
To go to Harbour Island from Spanish Wells takes you on the north coast of Eleuthera known as the Devil's Backbone. It is highly recommended that you hire a pilot to take you through the intricate coral reefs. We have hired Bandit who also looks after the moorings that we are on. Bandit says that he hopes that we can go on Wednesday so it looks like we will be here for another day. Today we have been getting torrential rain....the first wet front that we have had all season. We have topped up the water tank and the boat has had a good wash. It is wonderful to get the encrusted salt off the decks and hardware. I went ashore this morning hoping to do a little craft store shopping but got caught in the rain...oh well it's fresh water.
Harbour Island is the island of the rich and famous and Rob is hoping to have cocktails with Christy Brinkly but I am thinking more of Richard Gere....we will just have to see? Perhaps we will get to see Jimmy Buffet? The island is approximately 3 miles long by a quarter mile wide and there is a pink sand beach that runs down the whole ocean side. It is the tiny grains of coral and shell that gives it its rosy colour and everyone says you have to see it to believe it. Dunmore Town is the island's only settlement and is primarily a first class tourist resort. There are first class hotels, restaurants, shops and straw market so we will have lots to see and do.