Raise the Roof and More

 

Since returning home from The Bahamas in mid April we have been working very hard on our cottage renovation. Rob spent a good deal of the first 6 weeks doing the prepatory work for Jurgen our builder. Rob saved all of the cedar timbers from the roof and hopes to re-use them as trim on our windows and doors. Jurgen, along with his helper John have just finished our green steel roof. We can finally be dry once again. Rob is busy preparing to do the plumbing and electrical while Jurgen and John are building decks this week. The next major thing will be putting in the new windows and doors and doing the insulation.
It is a very exciting time for us. As for me...I am the site manager,cook, gopher, cleaner upper and designer. It is very neat to see what one has drawn come to life, albeit a bit scary at times too. I don't enjoy the process quite as much as Rob does; however I am thrilled to see my cottage dreams come to life.

Three Years and Still Smiling

We took the afternoon off from working on the cottage to celebrate our three years together in Bayfield at The Black Dog Restaurant. After a most enjoyable lunch we returned to the cottage for a champagne happy hour. Three years and the honeymoon continues.

Snorkelling Delights

Sergeant Majors are a popular reef fish. I took this picture in the Sea Aquarium in the Exuma Land and Sea Park. They were nibbling at my arms hoping for soggy bread crumbs.

We saw this small stingray snorkelling at Pipe Creek in the Exumas.


One sees quite a few large stingrays buried in sand for warmth. This one was resting along a reef in our Bell Island anchorage.


Rocky Dundas is part of the Exuma Land and Sea Park. Rob took this picture of Christine in one of the grottos.


Rob caught this clown fish being inquisitive.


The colours can change with the sunshine.


This green turtle is sleeping. We were able to get quite close to him without disturbing him. We found a gorgeous reef within swimming distance in our anchorage at Bell Island.


Rob dives down and takes most of our underwater pictures. I stay on the surface because of my ears and only occasionally have a camera.


Parrot fish are so pretty. If you follow them around you can watch them bite off pieces of coral and if you are very lucky you will see it come out the other end as sand...recyling so to speak?!


Lionfish are spectacular fish to look at but divers are encouraged to kill them all over the Caribbean. They are a tropical tank fish with poisonous barbs; evidently good eating but you have to get by the poisonous barbs. They have invaded the reefs in The Bahamas and elsewhere in the Caribbean and they kill off many of the indiginous reef fish. No one knows for sure how they got south but many believe it was the dumping of fish tanks in the ocean that started the problem. We saw them most everywhere we dove so they are thriving.


One sees schools of yellow grunts on most reefs.


This Sergeant Major almost came up and kissed me at the Sea Aquarium, a snorkelling spot in Exuma Park. I have a theory that the fish are less afraid of divers in the park because they know that they are safe. We do see far more fish, turtles, rays and nurse sharks in the park than elsewhere so the conservation is working. I have also seen my one and only lobster in the park.


This is the airplane that missed the runway at Norman's Cay during the Carlos Lehder drug heyday. This plane would have been flying in illegal cocaine from Columbia. At Norman's it was made into crack cocaine and flown in small airplanes to Florida.


The airplane has turned into a nice reef for fish as it has been underwater for over 30 years. It is within swimming distance of the anchorage in Norman's Cay so it is a great spot to go. We often see stingrays around the wreck too.

The Bahamas has some of the best diving in the Caribbean because the water is so clear and relatively warm; although a wet suit is desirable if you are going to be more than a few minutes in the water. We thoroughly enjoyed our diving this past winter and look forward to seeing some new reefs next season.

Planes, Ferries and Automobiles

The Green Turtle Ferry is the first leg of our journey after our short car ride into Green Turtle from Abaco Yacht Services.



Highschool kids take the ferry to the mainland from Green Turtle to Treasure Cay and then a bus to Cooperstown.



Treasure Cay is a sleepy little airport in The Abacos.




The waters of The Bahamas look beautiful from the air.




The pictures of Fort Lauderdale are taken from the 8 passenger Cessna.



Yellow Air is our airline of choice for our trip between Fort Lauderdale and Treasure Cay.



This mahi mahi at the Fort Lauderdale Airport was the one that got away?!



The first day home was as warm as The Bahamas but we knew it wouldn't last!?



I could hardly wait to get to the hairdresser!

From Fort Lauderdale we flew to Detroit with Spirit Airlines and were met at the airport by Brian who runs Ontario Shuttle Service. He delivered two very tired passengers home to Bayfield just before midnight. As always it is good to be home but we always remain grateful that we have had the opportunity to continue our sailing honeymoon.

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.