Old Bahama Bay

Hey folks!

We have about 1/6 of our computer power left, so this will be quick! Half of Freeport has been without power most of the day and we are feeling the effects of the outage. Today is our last day at Old Bahama Bay Resort. It has been an amazingly relaxing layover, but it is time to move on! Tomorrow will be our first good weather window and we are heading to Great Sale Cay. After one night anchoring there, we will be making headway to the Islands of Abaco! Here are some pictures from the last week of our wonderful time at West End. We will be in touch as soon as possible. More soon to come!
-Caitlin

Through hell to paradise!

Well, it was rough to say the least. Nineteen hours in steady 25 knot winds and eight to ten foot seas. The waves were coming one right after another, no break and no time to recover in between the crashing swells. We quite literally were beaten up by the ocean. There were bloody fingers, lashings by rogue ropes whipping in the winds, monstrous bruises galore and Chip even sprained his ankle! Honestly, the night seemed as if it would never end. We left our anchorage off Peanut Island in Lake Worth at 6pm Tuesday night. We had intended to leave around 11pm after a nap, but the anchorage was iffy. There were boats close by that seemed to be dragging anchor and slowly creeping closer and closer to us, so we lifted anchor earlier than anticipated.

Winds were blowing from the east (right from where we intended to go), therefore it took us much longer than we expected to cross over. In addition, we were fighting a three knot current in the Gulf Stream. As the crow flies, it is only 56 miles from Palm Beach to West End, but due to the combined factors of wind direction and current we had to head south for several hours before tacking to the northeast and really covering some ground. The sea swells were menacingly gigantic and made our boat seem very much like a toy. One very cool thing (the only cool thing actually) about crossing was witnessing the full, orange moon slowly rising up from the ocean's horizon. It was magnificent. I have never seen anything like it-so beautiful and awe inspiring.

After about seventeen hours we had to lower the sails. Some of the seams started to tear and we discovered holes developing in the jib and staysail! Not good. We motored the remainder of the distance to West End, although not continuously. I am exasperated to report that we again had difficulty keeping the engine running smoothly. Something in Tranquility's fuel delivery system is screwed up and caused it to die on us three or four times when we were in crazy, rough waters. Possibly the constant, tumultuous waves stirred up sediment from the bottom of the diesel tank which clogged the hoses and starved the engine of fuel. It is worrisome. But, once again Captain Chip pulled out his MacGyver skills and we arrived (frazzled, beaten and exhausted) at Old Bahama Bay Resort around 1pm on Wednesday afternoon.

This place is purely paradise. We cleared customs and immigration with no trouble. The plan was to enter the Bahamas here and move on immediately to the Abacos, but we must get our sails repaired and get the engine working reliably. Chip took a cab to Freeport and dropped the two sails off at a seamstress shop on Friday. Our mechanic here, Daniel, spent all day on Thursday and Friday disassembling our entire fuel system, rerouting vents and checking every possible cause for engine failure. Hopefully we are good to go. So, we will be here for a few more days at least waiting for the fixed sails. Yippee!!!

I love it here. Old Bahama Bay Resort is a five star establishment with a heated pool, casual restaurant, fancy restaurant, tiki bar, fitness center, bikes, hobie cats, kayaks, snorkel trail, and a lovely beach. We are spending our time meeting wonderful people, lounging on sun-kissed beaches, and hanging out listening to the steel drum band that plays for hours every afternoon. Everyone here has a smile and a kind word. The very first person I met gave me a ziplock bag full of fresh caught mahi-mahi fillets. Chili has quickly become somewhat of a celebrity. This morning a couple Chili and I met at lunch yesterday came by the boat with a Valentine's Day treat for him-leftover filet mignon and lobster for the lucky dog's breakfast! This is certainly the good life...
-Caitlin

Drumroll, please!

The last stretch of our Intracoastal Waterway route through Florida was pleasantly uneventful. It has been pretty much a straight shot south. We traveled beautiful waters, manatee zones (though, unfortunately, we didn't see any of nature's couch potatoes-they must have been too lazy to come and say hey!). Since our last post in Titusville we docked overnight at marinas in Sebastian Inlet and Jensen Beach. Speaking of docking, we no longer have the luxury of tying our boat to floating docks; there are just none around because the tide doesn't rise and fall to the extent that it does farther north. Fixed docks are somewhat of a nightmare. It requires mad lassoing skills, which I don't possess, to affix the docklines-two from the bow and two from the stern-to four vertical posts. So far, we have been able to avoid catastrophe and hopefully I'll pick up the trick of it ASAP.

Today we leave the States and sail east for West End, Grand Bahama. We are currently docked at Lake Park Harbor Marina in North Palm Beach. We arrived here Friday afternoon and over the weekend did all of our last minute preparations: one more grocery shop for produce and dairy, Chili to the vet for last minute check-up, big loads of laundry (from here on out we'll be washing clothes in a bucket and line drying), topping off on water and diesel, etc. All three of us have been jogging each morning, taking advantage of hard earth (does it cancel out the exercise if you stop by Dunkin' Donuts everyday on your way back?).

The plan is to leave this marina around 3:00pm this afternoon, motor out to the mouth of the ocean inlet, drop anchor, take a nap, and then at 11:00pm, raise the sails and start moving. It is exactly 56 miles from here to our check-in destination and may take twelve to fifteen hours, depending on the wind direction, speed and wave height. Hopefully, by lunch tomorrow, we will be-finally!-in the Bahamas.

I have no idea what internet access will be like there, but I will try to update this blog as much as possible. Now it should get interesting; I feel like I have bored you all with endless pictures of water and shore lines. Just you wait!! Phone calls will be a real treat: calls to and from my cell phone are $2.99/minute! I will be keeping in touch mainly here (on the blog) and through email-please do the same! Keep us in your thoughts and in your hearts...

Drumroll, please!
-Caitlin

Cruising Florida

Originally, we had planned on one long passage from Charleston down to our crossing-over point in Florida. Then, once we were in the Bahamas, we would start leisurely cruising. We've had a shift in our mentality and are happily resigned these days to slowly creep down the Intracoastal Waterway of Florida enjoying the sights with comfort as a top priority. We are like turtles, carrying our little home around on our backs as we wander the world!

We left Fernandina Beach last Wednesday (Jan. 28th) morning after all of our technical difficulties were resolved and our confidence restored. We decided to take a detour up the St. Johns River to Jacksonville and see what the city had to offer. The Jacksonville Landing is a festival-type marketplace and has 72-hour complimentary docking right in the main downtown area, so that's where we went. Let me first say that the skyline of this city is magnificent: lighted bridges, tall palm trees, interesting architecture-beautiful from a distance. We had a delicious dinner in a riverside restaurant that looked right over our boat, so we could hear people commenting on our sweet vessel! Now, the drawbacks of being on the main drag in a big city. We hardly slept a wink due to the constant whooping and hollering of drunken hooligans right outside our boat. Also, the Landing played really loud 80's soft rock music ALL NIGHT LONG. Now, those of you who know me know I like to whoop and holler with the best of them and will dance to Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston 'til the cows come home. But really, it lasted all night long and was still going on when we departed in the cold, drizzling rain the next morning.

Next on our agenda was a weekend in St. Augustine. I loved it before I stepped foot off the boat. The city is the oldest European settlement in the U.S. and from the Mantazas River you can see Castillo de San Marcos, awe inspiring cathedrals, and cozy, narrow streets lined with antique buildings. One of our best friends, Adam, and one of Chili's best friends, Ringo (another Jack Russell terrier) came from Charleston to stay with us for the weekend. It was delightful to have company and Adam always makes everything feel like a party, so we partied! St. Augustine has it all going on. We had big breakfasts on the boat, then set out to explore in the afternoons. The boys went to the historical landmarks and did the intellectual thing. I broke away from the pack and aimlessly meandered the streets, sipped coffee, peeked in eclectic shops, and sat in the sunshine in parks-yes, actual sunshine! We intended to try different places but kept on finding our way back to A1A Brewery near the city marina. 3 days in St. Augustine and 3 visits to A1A-we were all addicted. Good atmosphere, tasty brews, fresh seafood and awesome live music-doesn't get much better than that. No doubt about it, all of us were a bit blue when Adam and Ringo left to go home Sunday-we miss you!

We left St. Augustine this past Monday (Feb. 2nd) morning and have covered major ground the past two days. Yesterday it was cold and rained every minute. Dreary, the kind of gray where the land and the water just blend together and there seems to be no horizon. Last night we stayed at Halifax Harbor Marina in Daytona Beach and I got off Tranquility just long enough to give Chili some exercise and land-time. Nothing much to report from Daytona Beach-I did get a splinter in my pinky finger :)

Today we covered about 50 miles (seems to be our average) and are currently docked at Titusville Municipal Marina so that we can again have a heat source. Temperatures are supposed to drop into the 30's tonight and the 20's tomorrow night; at least a couple more days of being uncomfortable. All of the locals around here are bewildered by this unexpected cold snap and swear it's never like this! Even as we are dressed in 4 layers of clothing, I finally feel like we are getting close to our warm, tropical destination. The waters are a shimmery emerald green now, the sands are becoming whiter, and the pine wood stretches of home have been replaced with wild mangrove tangles.
-Caitlin