H is for Happy in The Exumas

Happy is being in The Exumas instead of Nassau.

Pipe Creek is a favourite place for us.

H is for Happy in the Exumas We are so happy to be in The Exumas instead of Nassau. We have spent the last couple of days at Warderick Wells snorkelling and paddling. We finally feel like we are cruising. There are usually a lot of boats around the park; however there were only 8 boats in the main north anchorage and none on the moorings at Emerald Rock where we anchored. We paddled over to what is called the Ranger's Garden and drifted with our kayaks in tow. The last time we had seen 8 eagle rays flying in formation. This time I counted 14 huge rays flying under us as we drifted in the current. It was a sight we will never forget. You can only drift dive there at slack tide or the current gets too strong. The tide becomes slack about an hour before and after it changes so you have to time your dives carefully. The next day we moved Celebrian out to Malabar Cays to snorkel the reef there. We did find a lobster and a nurse shark but no turtle on this dive. The weather was so calm and settled that we stayed out at Malabar over night. What a wonderful couple of days we have had. Chris Parker was talking about a strong cold front reaching us on the weekend so we hoisted anchor and moved down to Pipe Creek. Pipe is one of our favourite stops along the Exuma chain. There is lots to do here....paddle, shell, walk and even find a few pieces of sea glass if you are lucky. The only down side of Pipe is that you have a fierce current here and you have to time your paddling and swimming carefully. The current rules here and sometimes the wind is blowing from one direction and the boat is lying to the current. The tell tale sign is the flag blowing toward the boat instead of away. The other concern we have is with Big Bruce and how he is doing with Celebrian`s pirouhettes. Sometimes an anchor can trip itself with the chain so today I snorkelled out to see what Big Bruce looked like. Gratefully he was dug in well and our chain was stretched out and doing fine. We are expecting very high winds tonight and tomorrow so we need to feel confident that the anchor will hold. My snorkel was like swimming in a wave pool. I would not have wanted to try doing it without my fins. Last night we had high winds and wild current changes in the night. The anchor chain thumps and clangs when we are tacking back and forth in the current. Needless to say it makes for a night of awakenings; however once again Big Bruce was our hero and continues to be so today as we are still getting winds in the 25 knot range. We are hopeful that tonight won't be as crazy as last. We have been doing some boat jobs as well as reading out books. Yesterday I made a raisin cinammon loaf from a recipe that my friend Jane, a sailing neighbour at the condo gave me. It definitely is a keeper and will become one of the staples on Celebrian. Today is Sunday February 12th and we will be here until tomorrow when we hope to sail down to Black Point. We will do our laundry and go out for conch pizza at Deshomon's Restaurant where I will get a wifi signal to do some internet. From Black Point we hope to go to Georgetown, the fourth largest settlement in The Bahamas...population 1,000. We haven't been to Georgetown since the first year that we sailed to The Bahamas so it will be interesting to see if there are many changes. Georgetown has a huge protected harbour and during the cruising regatta in March there can be several hundred boats there. This murex had a tenant so we took his picture and let him go. Those of you who have received sand dollars will be happy to know that we have managed to collect a few more for next season.

The rising moon is beautiful.

G is for Good Sailing and Good Grief Too

We had a very good sail from the Abacos to Eleuthera.

This picture was taken in Man O War before we headed back to Marsh Harbour. They are famous for wooden boat building in this community.

Sights of Man O War

This green turtle hung out at the local Sail Shop.

One more major shop in Marsh Harbour and we were ready to head to The Exumas. G is for Good Sailing and Good Grief Too We returned to Marsh Harbour for the top up shopping and last minute things that needed attending to. In a day and a half we managed to do three trips to two grocery stores, three trips to the liquor store, several hardware and bakery stops, a shoe store, one trip to the laundromat, propane tank filled, happy hour with Richard and Carol on Kalissa and Harry into the Honda dealer for a check up. It was quite the frenzy; however we were trying to get to Lynyard Cay to stage for our trip to Eleuthera as it sounded like Friday was going to be our window for our ocean passage to Eleuthera. Our ocean passage to Eleuthera was a sleigh ride in 20 knot plus easterlies with Celebrian with a double reefed main sail, her new stay sail and yankee moving us along at her hull speed of 7.5 knots for most of the day. It was boisterous and wet but we made very good time and we were going so fast that we hooked our first dorado. Unfortunately before we had a chance to reel the fish in it managed to get off the hook. Nonetheless that was our first dorado. Before the day was gone something else bit our hook and took the whole lure...stainless steel leader and all. We were just as glad that whatever it was got away or it might have slowed our speed down. As we turned to make our approach to Eleuthera we had difficulty getting the engine started. It did finally start but it was a little anxiety producing. The last hour was brutal as we had to power into the wind to reach our Royal Harbour anchorage. We had had an exhilirating day but were plenty exhausted. The good grief occured when we realized that the valve to our water tank had been left open during our sail and our water tank had filled with sea water. The only saving grace was that we only had about 15 gallons of fresh water in the tank. It took our little pump 45 minutes to pump the 100 gallons of water overboard. Such is the sailing life. The captain is working on the engine today. He has just commented that he is tired of working on the boat...fixing things in exotic places comes to mind once again. The admiral can say that she is tired of living in chaos and clutter as a result of the captain having to fix things. We were hoping to continue south across the yellow bank to The Exumas tomorrow; however we need to stay until Rob can figure out what is wrong with Mr. Yan. Today it is howling with plus 20 knot winds and squalls. We are hoping for a squall that will fill our poor empty water tank. Once again we are grateful for our three emergency water jugs. We will use them until we can make water. Rob spent a second day trouble shooting our engine. We think that the problem may be related to the alternator and the battery charging system and it may some how be connected with the new wind generator? It looks like we may have to go to Nassau and have a mechanic help us out as Rob has done has much as he can to sort out what can be causing our charging problems. Nassau is an easy day sail of 35 miles from Royal Harbour so we set out for Nassau the next day. After the engine was on for several minutes Rob checked the volt metre to find that it was charging the batteries as it should. We immediately made a course change and headed for the northern Exumas delighted that we did not have to sail to the big city. The interesting thing was that the wind generator had been turned off while we listened to Chris Parker's weather forecast on the ham radio. It causes interfere with the frequency of the radio bands. We still are uncertain as to what is going on; however if the wind charger is off while we are motoring we are able to charge our batteries normally. When we anchor we turn Hal back on and he is happy to continue to charge the batteries. We were a very happy crew as we anchored at Ship Channel Cay in the northern Exumas. Not only did we not have to go to Nassau, we were able to make water for most of the 8 hours that we were under way to The Exumas. We now will have close to half a tank of water. Unfortunately we were not able to pump all of the salt water out of the tank so it is still slightly salty, but gradually becoming less so as the water is diluted. We have vowed to never ever have that happen again. Thank goodness for the water maker and the engine that is now able to run Anthony. We are hoping that we can now begin to feel like we are cruising instead of working in a boat yard. We spent the first day in Ship Channel Cay catching our breath. In the morning we did some cleaning and organizing and in the afternoon we did some exploring around the cays. We had anchored here before but never taken the time to paddle and explore the area. Powerboat Adventures from Nassau bring a boat load of tourists here every day for snorkelling, lunch and an afternoon at an island beach. They take them over to Allen's Cay in the morning to see the iguanas and then along the coast to their spot at Ship Channel for the afternoon. It's about 40 miles to Nassau from here but the boat can probably get them here in an hour...a little faster than we travel?! Today is Wednesday February 8th and we are heading south to Warderick Wells, the Exuma Land and Sea Park. We hope to snorkel at Malabar Cays where we saw the large sea turtle and nurse sharks the first time that we snorkelled there.

Ship Channel Cay welcomed us back to The Exumas.

The Powerboat Adventures have a great spot at Ship Channel Cay. What a great day trip for people holidaying in Nassau.

What an incredible sight and we couldn't even get them all in the picture.

This eagle ray was about 6 feet across.

The nurse shark was resting in the coral at Malabar.

Celebrian anchored at Malabar Cays at Warderick Wells.

A beautiful Malabar Cay sunrise greets us in the morning.

F is for Frustration

This is the before and after picture of our pullman berth while the captain is trouble shooting our water maker Sir Anthony. As you might have guessed the water maker is under the berth forward and beside our 100 gallon water tank. In order to work on the system we have to remove everything from the berth...covers, mattress, mattress cover and that which is stored at the foot of the berth. These things then spend the day in the salon. Things are never easy on a sailboat?!?

Once Sir Anthony was up and running it was time for the captain to turn his attention to Harry the Honda generator. Harry had an operation at the end of last season so we aren't sure why he seems to still be in recovery. We are going to talk to the Honda dealer in Marsh Harbour and see if they can offer any suggestions or better still take a look at him.

While Rob was working on the water maker I took a paddle around the anchorage and area outside of Marsh Harbour. After three days of trouble shooting, hours of frustration and working on Sir Anthony we have had success. The problem seems to have occured as a result of the pickling solution not keeping things clear in the lines. It is like Anthony had atherosclerosis and needed a good arterial cleaning. The captain made a solution of lye and salt water and pumped it through the system and Sir Anthony has never run better. It couldn't have come at a better time as we were scraping the bottom of our one hundred gallons purchased at Abaco Yacht Services. With a little help from Mother Nature just in the nick of time in the form of a rain shower we were able to keep from dipping into our emergency supply. We carry three 6 gallon jugs on board for emergencies; however we managed to get up and running before having to empty our jugs Such are the joys of being your own public utilities. We are happy to say that the wind generator Harold the Happy Hummer is working fabulously and we are pumping out an average of 15 amps in good trade winds which is more than enough to keep our fridge and other electrical systems running. Of course the other great thing about wind power is that it runs over night, unlike solar which can only generate power during the daylight hours. As for our sewerage system we are glad to say that our macerator in the bilge which had been submerged in brine water during the hurricane is still working. This was a great surprise and a tribute to pumps made by Whale. So as of today....Monday January 30th we can report that the hydro, water and sewerage systems are up and running.

The Hopetown lighthouse at sunrise from our anchorage near Marsh Harbour. We are anchored back across at Man O War for this next cold front of 20-25 knot winds from the north and east. The previous three days we spent outside of Marsh Harbour in an anchorage that Peter and Lynn introduced us to. In fact it seemed strange to be there without First Edition. We miss them but we know that they will be enjoying their new retirement home on Chesapeake Bay. While the captain was working on the water maker I went for a little paddle around the area. There are quite the homes built on the peninsula. We prefer to stay away from Marsh Harbour until we have to do specific jobs. The harbour gets particularly busy when there are fronts forecast and people feel the need to be surrounded by protection on several sides. We will go into the harbour if the front is going to clock rapidly; however our preference is to move around the Sea of Abaco finding anchorages that protect us from the prevailing wind. Thus for the most part we are often the only boat around; however even if another boat joins us in the anchorage there is lots of room.

A break from boat jobs and a paddle around Man O War....one home even had a zip line for entertainment. Before the wind piped up yesterday we had a chance to go paddling and take a breather from boat jobs. That didn't last long and today the captain is busy trouble shooting Little Harry, our Honda generator. Harry is not as critical a crew member now that we have Hal, but we do need him as a standby crew member. We are hoping that he will be easier to fix than Sir Anthony. Our plan is to return to Marsh Harbour after this front, do our top up shopping, laundry, internet and be off to Lynyard Cay staging for our ocean passage to Eleuthera on the weekend. As you know this can change daily but one has to have a hopeful plan. Even though the job list has had its frustrations we can now feel ready for the next adventure.

E is for Electricity

E is for Electricity

The newest crew member of Celebrian is Harold(Hal the Happy Hummer)who has been a most welcome addition!

The painting of the post for the wind generator took place on shore in Marsh Harbour. The captain took the opportunity to spruce up our cowl vents as well. Cowl vents allow breeze into the cabin through the deck but not water.

Of course once the painting is done you have to find some place to let it dry?!?

After the pole was erected it was time to fit the braces of stainless steel. Most people put wind generators on their boats before they go cruising and we can understand why.

After everything was put together it was time for the wiring and sending the captain up in the bosun's chair to assemble the tail and the wings. we picked a day when the wind wasn't blowing too hard as you might imagine it was quite the procss. We were all by ourselves in an anchorage on Elbow Cay so we didn't raise too many eyebrowsc

The Hopetowm lighthouse is a real landmark in The Abacos. The first year that we cruised in Abaco we climbed to the top.

While the captain was wiring the wind generator I took the opportunity to kayak around White Sound and check out how some of the ex pats live. The beach has been bull dozed up on quite a grade for ocean protection. we see signs of Hurricane Irene wherever we go.

If I was looking for a place to holiday I must say I could be happy staying at this spot....The Abaco Inn. Guests stay in little cabins right on the ocean beach complete with your own hammock. We had wanted to celebrate Rob's birthday here; however we had to move anchorages because of the weather and it was back to the Marsh Harbour area. We hiked down to CJs Welding to pick up the stainless steel struts for the wind generator. These struts will brace the now, white and beautifully painted post hanging across Celebrians'bow drying. We decided that we needed a break from busy Marsh harbour and headed over to Man O War for a change of venue. The winds are settled trade winds of 10-15 knots so the protection over at Man O War is perfect. I did some stainless steel polishing while Rob worked away at the logistics of the generator and its new braces. We got it assembled and ready for the next step. We spent a quiet and lovely evening in one of our favourite hub area anchorages. Today we decided to head over to Hope Town, famous for its candy striped lighthouse. Once again we picked an anchorage with good protection from the easterlies. There are large beach houses along the coast of Elbow Cay, but few seem to be occupied. We often find this the case. People must be too busy making the money to own these places and have little time to spend here. Once again we feel blessed that we are here and have the time to cruise. Today's challenge is to get the post with the generator up and braced. For the time being we are busy with getting all systems up and running. As is often the case we find ourselves with problems to solve. Little Harry, our Honda Generator had major surgery at the end of last season and is refusing to start. The captain has not had time to trouble shoot with Harry so for now we are relying on the engine to charge our new batteries. Of course the wind generator will help our cause once it is up and running and that project for the time being is upper most in the job list. We tried to run our water maker today and Sir Anthony Watermaker the Third is giving us grief so he has been shut down and put on the captain's list. You will recall the definition of cruising that I have written about before..."Cruising is fixing things in exotic places." We are not sure what is wrong with Anthony; however he too is on the captain's list. It is times like this that I get off easy; however as head computer technician I have my trials and tribulations?? Until all our systems are up and running we can not leave for Eleuthera. We were hoping for a weather window this coming weekend but time will tell.

We will be back in Marsh Harbour later this week to do our final provisioning, laundry and any other jobs that need doing. I will hook up to Bahama Wimax to send out my blog entries, check email and make phone calls. Then it may be a couple of weeks before you hear from us again as we will be on our way to Eleuthera and The Exumas. As is always the case when cruising the best laid plans are subject to change. The weather is not cooperating and we are likely to be another week before leaving The Abacos for Eleuthera which will make our departure early February. The good news is that our wind generator is up and spinning. For entertainment we can watch how many amps are going into the batteies. It should get very exciting over the weekend as we are expecting a cold front with winds of 25-30 knots. It was very satisfying to get the wind generator going and now the captain has to turn his attention to Sir Anthony. This means tearing apart the pullman berth and moving everything to the salon area while he trouble shoots the system. We also have to run several gallons of water through the system to clear all the pickling solution. The pickling solution is done to keep the system purified over the summer. If all goes well we hope to make water while we motor over to our next anchorage. The next blog entry tells the story....F is for Frustration.

And through it all the capain keeps smiling as he celebrates his birthday!

D is for Dead in the Water

Last sailing season we limped along on our five year old Surette batteries. This year we knew that we would need to spend the money and buy four new golf cart batteries. The new ones are called Trojan so we are hoping that we can get at least four years of power out of them in the tropics. We are our own hydro electric power generating station and you wouldn't get computer blogs if we didn't produce electricty. Needless to say the tropical environment is hard on batteries especially the extreme heat over the summer. The captain had some re-wiring to do after the batteries were installed but we seem to be up and running. No fear of being dead in the water on Celebrian. The four old batteries at 77 pounds a piece had to be rowed to shore and the new ones rowed back....ahh the restful life of cruising?!?

After the captain rowed home with the new batteries he was off to pick up the new post for the wind generator mount along with some Bahamian beer. CJ's welding welded two five foot posts together for us so that the generator can be up 10 feet off the deck. This wind power should help to keep us charged and the new batteries should like those constant amps. There should be some very interesting pictures in our next blog...design and painting.

It is best when the captain tears the boat apart that the admiral goes to shore. There is usually a constant list of things that we need while we are in Marsh Harbour. Once we head to The Exumas there is little to buy so as the captain says "It becomes a come as you are cruise."

C is for Cash and Carry in Marsh Harbour

Celebrian is at home in Marsh Harbour waiting for the crew to load her with provisions.

Marsh Harbour is a one stop shopping town for Celebrian and her crew. At population five thousand it is the third largest community in The Bahamas after Nassau and Freeport. Most of the cruisers who stop here are just topping up their provisions as they have left Florida with their boats full; however we have to do our major provisioning here. Just to give you a feel for pricing a box of Triscuits is $6.29 so on the average groceries are at least twice as much as at home. I always say I am not going to complain about prices in Ontario after a season here. Everything has to be imported from the United States so the pricier groceries are just the cost of living here.

Sea Bear is assisting in the storage operation. It is quite amazing how much we can put into Celebrian's lockers; however keep in mind that when we want supplies we have to remove all the cushions on the settee, wear a head lamp and dive for dinner!!??

The captain loves his cereal. We added to the cereal that we flew down from home and now we are good for several months!?

While hiking around Marsh Harbour we noticed this mural. It is good to see that they are trying to encourage both Bahamians and visitors to leave the smaller lobsters and conch. If they don't reach maturity they can not reproduce and the numbers will decrease.

B is for Boat Launch

It is always exciting to watch Celebrian get picked up and taken to the launch well. I have to take the same picture each time she is launched. Notice Stafford being a ham in my photo. He is over eighty and still working here at Abaco Yacht Services.

We are tied up at Abaco Yacht Services for the weekend getting Celebrian seaworthy and ready to sail to Marsh Harbour.

Here ia a picture of the captain up at the top of the mast. He needed to replace a bulb in our anchor light fixture among other jobs. The masts are left up in The Bahamas so the only way to get things fixed is to climb to the top. He wears a safety harness and I tail the winch to keep him safe.

Goldberry had some TLC from the captain and was launched today.

A is for Abaco

We didn't have much snow before we left Canada but just enough to remind us of what we would be missing. After landing at Treasure Cay, Abaco we took a few minutes to eat some snacks before heading to the grocery store for supplies. The beach at Treasure was all but deserted.

Our luggage is always quite interesting. This year we flew down Celebrian's new staysail along with a wind turbine, assorted other boat parts, and of course.....cereal. We are happy to report that none of our things were taken by security this year.

We had a good night at The Ramada in Fort Lauderdale....last of the creature comforts.

We used to fly with Yellow Air Taxi in a 7 seater vintage Cessna; however they are no longer in business. This year we tried a new airline called IBC Travel and flew in a 14 seater turbo prop. It certainly felt like flying in a tin can; however they took all our luggage and we made it safely so that is what matters.

After we land at Treasure Cay Airport we get a taxi to take us to the Golden Harvest Grocery so that we can pick up a few things to get us started in the boat yard. By the time we land at the Green Turtle Ferry dock we are quite the sight with all our luggage and supplies.

We were anxious to see how the boat was after Hurricane Irene. So far the only victims seem to be my Bahamian cell phone and our depth sounder. Gratefully we have a depth sounder on our radar so we can manage. As you might imagine a depth sounder is the most critical piece of equipment on one's boat. Some of the other boats were not as fortunate as Celebrian. She was incredibly dirty but dirt can be cleaned. There was salt and sticky grime were the sun don't shine.

The first few days on the hard are incredibly tiring and very busy. They don't call it life on the hard for nothing. We had a great flight with West Jet to Fort Lauderdale and even got to watch satellite TV. I find it hard to believe that the plane is receiving TV signals ...all this at 39 thousand feet. We must have been on a flight corridor because I saw 8 other aircraft during our less than 3 hour flight. We also watched the full moon rise over the clouds....it was spectacular. After a good night at the Ramada we had a fast flight in a 14 seater turbo prop with the new airline IBC Travel. All in all it was our best trip south especially after last year's horrendous journey. We were anxious until we saw Celebrian after last August's hurricane Irene but our only major damage seems to be the cover and our fish finder depth sounder which is full of water. Thankfully we have a depth sounder on our radar screen. The boat is extremely dirty with sand and salt crystals blown in where the sun don't shine?! I have had to spend far more time cleaning than I usually do and things are sticky not just dirty; however things could have been a lot worse. The guys in the yard said that the winds were up to around 140 mph when they hit Green Turtle. The locals close their cisterns off because there is so much salt in the rain that is coming down that it would poison their tanks. Four boats fell over in the yard damaging 3 others but considering how high the winds were it could have been much worse. Stafford, one of the men that works here had about two feet of water in his house but everyone else escaped with little damage, just a lot of cleaning up. We are polishing the hull and scraping the bottom of last year's growth. They are dirty and tiring jobs but they have to be done before she is launched. Rob is doing some epoxy work on Goldberry and then we want to paint her. It is always a busy week getting ready to launch. The weather is quite warm (high 70s F/mid 20s C) so it is hot work on the pavement but that is life on the hard. It cools down for sleeping so we are not suffering too much at night and besides we are so exhausted that not much would keep us awake. We plan on spending the weekend at the dock getting sails on and other jobs that require being on the dock. Next week it will be on to Marsh Harbour for provisioning and to get the parts for our new wind charger.