Update 5/26/2008 - Vero to Hilton Head

It’s just amazing how fast these weeks go by! We had a great trip up the ICW from Vero Beach accompanied by Lamb Chop and Suzy Q. Sun Cat is now at Hilton Head where she will spend the summer.

We spent 3 days at Vero Beach doing some shopping and boat projects but also managing to get in a dinghy expedition to the park and several long walks on the beach. We were joined one evening by Bob and Allie from Bali Motu whom we had traveled with for over a week from Chicago down to Kentucky. It was great to catch up with their adventures after they completed the loop in December and we had a nice dinner with them and Tim and Jan from Lamb Chop. We also found (with some help from George on Time Out), a new restaurant on the beach that had a great happy hour which turned out to be dinner a couple of nights. In addition we went to the “cruiser’s breakfast” one morning. The cruisers turned out to be mostly folks who had moved ashore in Vero as the four of us were the only ones from the marina. It appears that we are somewhat behind the bulk of the cruisers headed north as there were no boats rafted at Vero and lots of empty moorings.

From Vero Beach we went up to Titusville and anchored just above the bridge for the night. The next day we pushed up to Daytona where we spent 3 days at Seven Seas Marina. The marina facilities there are pretty limited but its two blocks to Daytona Beach and we enjoyed walking the beach and swimming in the warm Florida waters for several afternoons. After Daytona, we continued on up the ICW, passing St. Augustine and anchoring at Pine Island for the night, There were a handful of other boats there as well.

The next morning we delayed our start to try to time the bridge opening at Jacksonville Beach. The drawbridge there was replaced with a high level bridge and they had a work barge blocking the ICW channel that opened for traffic only between 1200 and 1300 each day (or 1800 to 0700). However, when we got to the bridge they were a day ahead of schedule and they were no longer blocking the channel. We proceeded on to Cumberland Island where we had a rendezvous with George and Miriam on Time Out, Fred and Judy on Amarse, Pat & Pat on Salty Dog and Larry and Sue on Suzy Q IV. We had not seen George and Miriam since early December and it was especially good to see them again. Amarse and Salty Dog left the next morning after a party on Time Out and the rest of us had a great four boat raft up for a couple of nights and a nice tour of the island starting with a long beach walk and then a tour of the ruins of the Dungeness mansion.

Time Out left the next morning to go to Brunswick. We had really enjoyed traveling with them last summer and had hoped to travel some with them as we headed north but the timing just wasn’t working. The rest of us went south again to Fernandina Beach so Tim could pick up a package. While there we visited with Tom and Jerry of Sea Night and had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant that Tom knew. The following morning we took a walk around town, admiring the fine Victorian houses and visiting the farmers’ market. Then the three boats headed back to Cumberland Island.

While underway, Larry called and informed us his dinghy motor was missing. It apparently had been stolen in Fernandina Beach the night before while the boat sat on a mooring. Sue and Larry went back to fill out a police report and the rest of us went for another long walk on the island, mostly on the beach.

Cumberland Island is one of our favorite stops on the ICW. It has beautiful roads and trails for walking, a beach that goes for miles, the ruins and a small museum. It also has lots of wildlife including several hundred wild horses and armadillos. It is the only place we know of on the east coast to see these latter animals and we saw quite a few during our visit there.

From Cumberland Island we went to Jekyll Island where we used the courtesy bikes to go to the historic district and tour the “cottages” which were built by the multi-millionaires of the early 20th century as well as the Jekyll Island Club itself. Our tour was cut short by a threatening storm which dissipated by the time we got back to the marina. We consoled ourselves with a trip into the hot tub! Tom and Jerry drove up to join us for dinner and they also loaned Suzy Q and outboard to replace the one that was stolen.

Our trip out of Jekyll was a bit tense. The channel is very shallow there and we were met by a tug and barge just as we got to the worst part. We communicated with the Tow operator and made it through ok but not without kicking up a fair amount of mud. We then went to the Frederica River where we anchored off of the fort. There was no water at the dinghy dock so we set up the deck chairs on Sun Cat’s foredeck and relaxed for most of the afternoon.. The six of us then had our own “howl at the (full) moon” party, complete with Bahamian music, dancing and rum drinks. The next morning the tide was up enough to get to the dinghy dock so we toured the fort and the ruins of the village that surrounded its land side. The history was very interesting as they did a good job explaining how people lived there as well as the military activity that stopped Spain from claiming part of Georgia.

From there, we went up to the Duplin River where we anchored behind little Sappello island. We tried to take a dinghy expedition further up the river but the wind was too strong and that made the river too choppy. After a quiet night’s sleep, we then proceeded up to Walburg creek where we anchored again for the night. On the way there, Sun Cat was boarded by the Coast Guard for a routine inspection which we passed with no problems. We were traveling between Lamb Chop and Suzy Q so why they picked us is somewhat of a mystery. The anchorage at Walburg was good and we had another quiet night’s sleep there, accompanied by only one other cruiser.

After that, we proceeded through Florida Passage, Hell Gate and the Skidaway river to Turner Creek, which is just before Thunderbolt, Ga, a Savannah suburb. We’d never been into Turner Creek but it turned out to be a good anchorage and we rafted once more. That evening, we went into the marina with the dinghy and walked ashore on Wilmington Island, checking out the various restaurants as we wanted to have a little celebration as it would be our last anchorage together.

The six of us must have been a strange sight as we walked (with no sidewalks) down one side of the street and back the other, checking out menus as we went, because as we approached the last restaurant a car stopped and asked if we were looking for something and could he help. He reviewed what he knew about the various places and recommended a Greek restaurant down the street. We thought that sounded good (and it was) and then he gave all of us a ride to it! We had a very nice meal there and later saw him there dining with his wife. Apparently she thought it was a good idea also!

The next morning we said goodbye to Tim and Jan as they were going to take the bus into town that day and tour Savannah and would then be picking up their pace considerably to get back to Ontario. We had been traveling with them for over four months and we had had a great time together. We set out with Suzy Q across the Savannah river and through Field’s cut to Hilton Head where we also sadly said goodbye to them as they headed toward Beaufort and points north. We had been traveling with them off and on since last summer also.

Our docking at Hilton Head went well and we proceeded to prepare the boat for an extended stay. It seemed strange to be preparing a boat for summer storage! I understand what I have to do to winterize a boat but this is different. We cleaned, ran fresh water through the generator, engines and outboard, lubricated metal parts, polished and coated the stainless steel and packed up the things that we hadn’t used in a year or were duplicates, or that we needed on Trader. Saturday afternoon, we were joined by Pat and Pat from Salty Dawg and we all took a break at the pool followed by a nice dinner at a Mexican restaurant we like.

The boat projects went well and we were able to take some time off for another trip to the pool and a bike ride. Today we left the boat for the first time in over a year and half and started our drive back to Maine where we are looking forward to seeing friends and family. For the record, we’ve traveled over 7000 nautical miles in this time, visiting three countries and 17 states in the process. We’ve also made many new friends and learned a lot about the history and geography of the places we visited.. The adventure isn’t over however, as we plan to sail Trader for much of the summer and then return to Sun Cat in the fall.

Included with this update are pictures mostly from Cumberland Island showing the beach, an island road and our crew. In the picture Larry,Sue, Steve & George are in the front row and Jean, Jan and Miriam in the back row. Also included is the layout of the original town of Frederica. Blow this one up to read it better.

Best wishes to all for a pleasant summer!

Steve & Jean

Back in the USA -update 5/5/08

We are back in the USA after a very good crossing on Sunday. Our stay in the Bahamas was a lot of fun and we really hated to leave but it was time to move on if we were going to meet our insurance requirement of being north of 32 degrees by June 1.

Our last week or so in the Bahamas was as good as the rest. After a short walk on Man-O-War we went to Guana Cay with Lamb Chop. There we walked the beach, went for a swim, had drinks and appetizers with Bob & Gerry, did more walking, had lunch at Nipper’s and went to another “Pot Luck” night at Grabbers.

We then went to Treasure Cay where we spent 4 days walking the beach, enjoying the pool and taking in the entertainment at the resort. We also had drinks and desert with Wanda and Phil of Amazing Grace at the condo they had occupied there.

The following day we set out for Green Turtle Cay via Don’t Rock channel accompanied by Lamb Chop. However, there were waves breaking in the channel so we decided to go around Whale Cay instead. There were 4-6 foot waves but we made it through ok with nothing breaking in the channel but waves breaking on both sides. There was plenty of anchoring room in the harbor. Our stay at Green Turtle was a lot of fun. We took the dinghies over to the settlement, enjoyed the pool at the Bluff House and walked the ocean beach. The highlight was Wednesday night when we attended another performance by the Gully Roosters. It turned out to be a lot of fun dancing and crowd watching.

Manjack Cay

The following day we traveled a whole 10 miles to Manjack Cay where we anchored and took the dinghies ashore. The island has several hiking trails and we walked to both the ocean beach and “Coco Beach” which was on the inside. Both were beautiful and the walk was good for us as well.

Alas, it was time to leave the Abaco’s so the next day Sun Cat and Lamb Chop traveled to Mangrove Cay where we anchored in the lee of the island for the night. We were the only boats there. We left fairly early the next morning and went though Indian Cay channel on the rising tide. We went into Old Bahama Bay Marina at West End where we were able to confirm that the weather for a Gulf Stream crossing would be good the next day. We also enjoyed the pool and the fine Bahamian weather for one more day and had a nice dinner in the restaurant that evening.

The next day the wind was forecast to diminish as the day wore on so we delayed our start until 6AM and were thus able to leave in daylight. The crossing was very good. We had 1-2 foot waves to start out, diminishing to less than a foot by 9AM. The roughest part of the trip turned out to be the inlet at Fort Pierce where the outgoing tide was running hard against the incoming waves, creating a nasty short chop. The only real excitement was a US Navy ship which appeared to be doing training exercises in the Gulf Stream-right in our path. In all, we did the 82 mile crossing in less than 9 hours, getting a 2 plus knot push from the Gulf Stream current.

However, when we got to Ft Pierce it got interesting. First, the current was running hard against us. Second there were boats everywhere, some fishing in the channel, some beached on the adjacent shore and some running in all directions. Finally, when we got to the dock, there was a big dock party going on at the slip they guided us to. Its enough fun to back the boat into a slip with winds and current but we didn’t really want to provide entertainment for 20 or so people as well! Fortunately, the docking maneuver went well and we were able to clear Homeland security with just a phone call and no hassles. We were able to join the dock party and then had another nice dinner at the marina.

Everything went well as you can see except that there was apparently a wiring problem on the dock which wound up burning out my 50 to 30 amp splitter. Luckily after some anxious moments and some testing, we were able to determine that the inverter had correctly assessed the situation and shut down the 110 volt system on the boat, preventing a problem from developing with the systems inside the boat.

The next morning, we went for a short walk while Tim and Jan went to the airport to finish clearing in. We then went up to Vero Beach to spend a few days getting organized and relaxing after which we will begin our trip north up the ICW.

The pictures which start this include the group at the pool at the Bluff house , the Gully Roosters band and a waterspout we saw from the beach, all at Green Turtle Cay. In addition, there is a picture of the pool at Treasure Cay and the beach end of the trail at Manjack Cay.

Still having a wonderful time enjoying the warm weather and sunshine!

Steve and Jean
M/V Sun Cat

Update 4/21/08 - It's a tough life in the Bahamas

Time sure goes fast here in the Bahamas. For the most part the weather has been great, temperatures in the 70’s that have been good for walking, swimming etc and comfortable for sleeping at night.

From Tavern Cay we went back into Marsh Harbor for a couple of days to ride out some strong winds. During that time we did some shopping, relaxed, used the pool, snorkled on mermaid reef and spent an enjoyable Sunday visiting and playing cards on Salty Dawg.

We then went over to Guana Cay for a couple of days where we enjoyed a nice dinner with our friends, Bob and Gerry Sylvester at their house there, we spent the next day walking the beautiful beach at Guana, had lunch at Nipper’s and then met Bob & Gerry again for the “pot luck “ dinner at Grabber’s. The pot luck occurs there every Wednesday night and is attended by both island residents and cruisers. It was a lot of fun.

After that, we went back into Marsh Harbor to prepare for the arrival of my brother Ron and his wife, Brenda. While waiting we walked and shopped, took in the “box car” races on Saturday, went to steak night at the jib room with Lamb Chop and generally relaxed, used the pool and took it easy, We attended a “low country boil” at the marina on Sunday night accompanied by Tim and Jan from Lamb Chop and Paul and Claire from Our Turn. When Ron & Brenda arrived on Monday, we made sure they enjoyed the pool, had dinner on board and then took them to Curly Tails for some island entertainment.

Tuesday and Wednesday did not go as planned because a front went through and the winds were more than I wanted to travel in. So we changed plans (all of our travel plans are usually set in Jello), rented a car and drove down to Little Harbor where we walked the beach and had lunch at Pete’s Pub. The next morning we drove to Treasure Cay where we walked the beach and toured the marina. Driving on the left handed side of the road was an interesting challenge. That evening we went to Rib night at the Jib Room where they serve a mammoth rack of ribs and follow that with island music, dancing and a limbo contest (its more like a show as the “limbo king” always outdoes everyone.

The winds finally subsided somewhat so we headed off for Hopetown. At Hopetown we climbed to the top of the lighthouse, walked the beach and took a swim, and then went up to the Hopetown lodge where we used the pool. We had planned on an evening at Captain Jack’s but all seemed tired so we didn’t go there. The next morning we called the Abaco Inn and they came down and picked us up to go to the Inn for breakfast. It was a nice breakfast in a very scenic location and the ride there gave Ron & Brenda an opportunity to see a part of the island we couldn’t walk to. After that we toured the Winnie Malone Museum which told the history of Hopetown, took a long beach walk and took a swim in both the ocean and the pool.

The next day we motored over to Guana where we took a long beach walk, swam in the ocean (the waves were a lot of fun) and had lunch at Nipper’s. We then went back into Marsh Harbor and did steak night again at the Jib Room. Ron & Brenda really enjoyed that. The following day we did another snorkle trip to Mermaid Reef, accompanied by Tim and Jan from Lamb Chop and Bill from Calypso. It was then time for them to take the plane home and we proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon in the pool. We then joined Bill and Valarie from Calypso to watch the sunset with Doug and Lynn on BFB. BFB is a 1975 Huckins with classic lines. We were given a tour by Doug - it’s a very pretty boat . The sunset was spectacular that evening also.

Today we left Marsh Harbor and motored down to Tilloo Bank but the wind became unfavorable to stay there so we motored up to Man-O-War and picked up a mooring right off the marina. We expect to be here in the Bahamas another week or so and will then head back toward the states.

Someone is posting comments to this blog that say "Please Click Here". Clicking on this link activates my anti virus software so do not click on a comment like this if you see it. I've brought it to the attention of the blogmasters and they deleted the most recent one.
We hope everyone is enjoying the spring. It's become beautiful here. I've added some pictures of the box car derby, Jean & Jan raking and scraping, Hopetown Harbor, Ron and Jean dancing at steak night. 
Steve and Jean
M/V Sun Cat

Update 04/05/2008 - The Bahamas

Little Harbor

Wow, I just realized that almost a month has gone by since I did the last update! That must mean we’ve really been enjoying the Bahamas for the past month!

We wound up spending 4 nights at West End, walking, biking and enjoying the pool. The last night we had a big dock party which was attended by most of the cruises present. The next day we were in a virtual parade from West End to Great Sale as everyone headed east through Indian Cay pass and out onto the bank. That evening, Ted and Nancy hosted a happy hour on their boat Aloha Friday for a number of the cruisers and we had a good night at anchor there at Great Sale.

The next stop was Allen-Pensacola Cay where we spent 2 days accompanied by Gypsy Time and Lamb Chop. The first day was beautiful, we found the path to the other side, walked the beach and found the tree(s) cruisers hang mementos of their visit on. We intended to return the next day but the wind changed around and we spent a rough day working on the boats after an early morning anchor drill.

The next day we went to Green Turtle Cay which is one of our favorite stops. We wound up spending a week there. We took the dinghies into the settlement at New Plymouth where we played tourist and shopped a little. We walked all over the northern end of the island which has long, beautiful beaches .We also spent considerable time at the Bluff House and Green Turtle Club pools. One day we rented golf carts and explored every road on the island (including some that turned out to be long driveways. We also took them over to the settlement and had a picnic on the beach. The picnic was fun, even in the 25 knot winds. On Wednesday, we danced and partied to the music of the Gully Roosters a (the) local band.

After Green Turtle, we successfully negotiated the Whale Cay pass and went into Marsh Harbor where we spent several days shopping, walking and playing tourist. We spent one evening at Rib night at the Jib Room. On rib night, they serve a large rack of ribs plus salads and desserts and your favorite beverage. The meal is followed by island music and dancing and a limbo contest. One night we also participated in Trivia night at the marina. Trivia night consists of happy hour, a pot luck dinner and then a trivia contest. The Teams consist of 6-8 people and our team actually won.

From Marsh Harbor we headed down to Little Harbor which is at the bottom of the Abaco’s . The wind was still in excess of 20 knots so the trip was a little rough when we had to cross a couple of the passages that lead out to the open Atlantic. The harbor is well protected and interesting to visit. We walked on the beach, explored a cave that the first settlers lived in when they first got to the harbor. We also found the foundry where they cast sculptures in bronze. It was not operating on that day, however. We had dinner that evening and the next morning Pat on Salty Dawg led a dinghy expedition consisting of the crews of Salty Dawg, Sun Cat, Gypsy Time, Lamb Chop and Silver Foxes. The expedition took us into some shallows behind some mangrove covered islands. On the way there we saw several large sea turtles and some large starfish. We also saw some big rays, a shark and a number of smaller fish. Behind the islands we also found a “blue hole”. A blue hole is a place the water suddenly gets deep. This one was about 30 yards in circumference and dropped from 5-6 feet to over 30 feet in less than a yard.

The wind was forecast to increase again so we felt it best to leave there and proceed back across the entrance to the passages rather than have a rough ride back. We stopped at and anchorage on the edge of Tillo Bank where we anchored off a nice beach in 5-6 feet of water over bright sand. It was my first opportunity to see how the bottom of the boat looked and I swam along the sides where I could see the entire bottom. The zincs looked like new and running gear looked good but there has been a considerable amount of growth so I’m going to get it cleaned before we head back to the States . It actually looked really good considering nothing has been done to it since early last January.

The following day we went back into Marsh harbor as the wind was building as predicted and the anchorage was not well protected. We spent a couple of days there and then headed out again to Hopetown on Elbow Cay. At Hopetown we again rented golf carts with Gypsy Time and Lamb Chop and toured the southern half of the island, spending part of two days at Tahiti Beach. We also spent an afternoon at the pool at the Hopetown Lodge and took in the entertainment at Captain Jack’s.

That brings us up to today. Gypsy Time headed to Man o War Cay to begin their trip back to the states and we headed to Tilloo Bank again with Lamb Chop. Unfortunately, the wind direction was not good to stay there so we anchored off of Tavern Cay. I took a swim to check the anchor and discovered that our anchor was well set but was only 10 feet ahead of a power cable. If we dragged anchor we would hook it for sure. So we picked up the anchor and set it again. This time when I swam torward the anchor, a big ray crossed my path. It was a bit disconcerting to find myself swimming with it!

On the Blog version of this I’ve added some pictures. They are Jean with Tim and Jan from Lamb Chop on the beach at Green Turtle, a pretty road scene at Green Turtle, a picture of Little Harbor looking over the top of Pete’s Pub, part of our crew at the entrance to the upscale dining at Pete’s Pub in Little Harbor, the Limbo King performing at the Jib Room ( we didn’t try this!), and Jean enjoying a dance at Snappas in Marsh Harbor.

We don’t have internet access here so this probably won’t get sent until tomorrow. In any event, you can see we are staying busy and still having a great time.

Steve & Jean
Aboard M/V Sun Cat

update 3/06/08 - To the Bahamas

Hello to all,

Its been a very busy month or so and a lot of fun! We very much enjoyed our stay in Marathon, swimming almost every day and taking a lot of bike rides as well. I also got a fair amount of boat projects completed.

We had a good super bowl party with the resort letting us use one of the empty units for the party. The wrong team won but Jean did well with the pool, having the right score two quarters and for the game. We had about 25 people in attendance.

We also had a surprise birthday party for Jean on Dubhe III. It was one of those milestone birthdays. Later we had a pizza party to celebrate Tim’s birthday and followed that with a Mexican night. Our cooks are certainly versatile! Combine this with several pot luck dinners and a number of trips to Sparky’s as well as a few dock parties and you can see there was no lack of entertainment!

While in Marathon we had some company as well. Our friends Larry and Cathy Clough and Dick Hodskins visited us from Maine and Son Bill and Stephanie visited us as well. Bill and Steph traveled with us from Marathon up to Ft Lauderdale

West End Marina

We also took in a number of the local tourist attractions. We toured the Pigeon Key historic site and museum with the crew of Carol Ann,. Pigeon Key was the primary work camp for the laborers who built the railroad that ran from Miami to Key West. With Larry and Cathy we went to the Crane Point Nature Preserve and the Bahia Honda State Park, and we took Bill & Steph to the Dolphin facility. We also went to the Miami Boat show.

On March 1, we left Marathon, accompanied by Gypsy Time, Lamb Chop and SueSeaQ4. Our destination was Fort Lauderdale where we would wait for an opportunity to cross to the Bahamas. We traveled inside of the Keys from Channel 5 all the way to Miami. It was a part of the trip we had been unable to do with Trader 2 years ago as the water was too shallow to travel on the inside and we had to use Hawk Channel on the outside the entire way. Water depths have not improved and we kicked up a lot of sand as we traveled.

Our first stop was an anchorage in Tarpon Basin which is near Isamaralda. It offered good protection from the NE winds and we had a nice quiet night on the anchor. The next night we spent in Hurricane Harbor near Miami. It seemed full of boats when we went in but by the time we had sat a while there, there were only a few other boats.It was another nice night on the anchor.

The weather was threatening the next day so we went to the Haulover Park Marina in North Miami. We could see heavy clouds to the north and the weather radar showed heavy rain over Ft. Lauderdale. At the park, we walked the beach and had a good party on the dock. The next morning we traveled the remaining 15 miles to Ft Lauderdale, spending a night at the (swimming) Hall of Fame Marina to reprovision and get prepared for the crossing which was planned for Thursday. We had a good party to see Bill and Steph off that evening. The next day we picked up moorings at the Los Olas Municipal Marina which is my favorite jumping off place for the Bahamas.

In my last update, I reported that we had officially closed the loop when we crossed Trader's wake in Marathon. When we reached Ft. Lauderdale, Sun Cat crossed her own wake. Thus Sun Cat has now done the entire loop as well as the crew. During this time, we traveled 5613 nautical miles which includes approximately 500 miles to the Bahamas and back.

Thursday started early as we were up at 0430 and moving before 0500. We were crossing with Lamb Chop and Gypsy Time and the forecast was good until late in the day. The trip started out very smoothly and we were quickly into the Gulf Stream where we picked up 1 to 2 knots of speed for most of the rest of the trip.
The last 20 miles turned out a little lumpy with 1-2 foot rollers coming at us on the beam. All in all, however, it was another very good crossing and we arrived at West End around 1330.

Our plan was to only spend one night here but the weather has not co-operated. The winds have been averaging over 20 knots since and are close to 30 today. The accompanying picture shows why we are staying put for another day! It’s a nice resort with a great pool and good walking and biking. Yesterday there was a “manager’s party” at the beach bar with free drinks and snacks. As you can see we are not suffering by waiting !

Still having a great time!

Steve & Jean
M/V Sun Cat