Clarencetown – Feb 4th

We decided to give it another go Feb 3rd about noon and try the 80 miles to Clarencetown. We figured if we averaged 5 knots, we’d get there around sun up on the 4th. An overnight sail, but a short overnighter. The first part of our sail was glorious. We broad reached in 20 knots and 8 foot seas, but the motion of the boat was ok. The Caliber 40 just loves a reach, and the 3rd was no exception. We had it up to 7.8 knots over water with just the reefed main and the staysail. The boat reached along with a snarl on her face and a bone in her teeth.

We celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary in the cockpit making jokes and recalling old times. Not better times, just older ones. The fact that we were wearing full foulies and knew we were in for a nasty beat when we turned the corner of Long Island didn’t seem to break the mood.

At 10:00 pm, while running the motor to charge the batteries, the fuel filters clogged again. This problem has haunted us since, well, the beginning. We changed filters, using the very last of our spares and crossed our fingers.

The rest of the night was miserable. After getting a brief respite from the waves while rounding the southern tip of Long Island, we received the full brunt of 25+ knots and steady long 10 foot rollers, while beating upwind. The staysail and reefed main left us just a bit underpowered in the lulls, but the jib would have been too much. So we did the best we could; sometimes making 6.5 knots, sometimes only 5, and tacking through about 100 degrees to a destination that was directly upwind. We took turns sleeping in the cockpit and driving.

About 3:00 am, Dana decided to play a trick on us. After tacking the boat without waking anyone, she playfully released the starboard side staysail sheet so that the staysail flogged the shackle off the clew and ripped the leech line. Then after we woke up to the flogging noise, she jibed the boat a few times in the pitch blackness to add to the confusion. Boy, she really got us with that one. As George Bush might say, “Fool me once, I won’t get fooled again.”

After the staysail demolition event, we sailed for a few hours under reefed main only. Hint to all you Caliber owners out there: The boat does not like this sail configuration. It may be comfortable, but you ain’t gonna go upwind. It was like driving a square rigger built in the 1682. We tacked through about 150 degrees. And it was way too windy for the jib. After a few hours of this, we gave up making Clarencetown under sail and spun up the Yanmar. The plan was to motor sail the rest of the way to Clarencetown.

But with the breakers of Clarencetown Harbor in sight, and the early morning sun raking down on a storm tossed sea, the fuel filter plugged again. The diesel coughed, sputtered, and died. There were no more spares. We were tired. We’d been sailing all night. Although the motor would restart, it would not run at anything other than idle. And it ran rough at idle. We were going to have to sail into the marina.  Did we mention it was blowing 25?

Oh well. We’re sailors right? Let’s just do what we do. We stationed Sam in the cabin to watch the vacuum pressure gauge and tell us when the motor was about to cut out. Dana at the mast preparing to drop the main. David at the helm with the main halyard and the main sheet in one hand, the wheel in the other, and adjusting the engine controls with his teeth.

We radioed into the harbor and discovered a friendly boat, Nikita, listening in. They told us about some specific coral heads to watch out for when we entered the harbor. We romped dead downwind into the harbor entrance, came up 80 degrees and reached towards the marina on starboard tack. And our docking experience went a little something like this:

Me: Be ready for anything!
My Beautiful Bride: What?
Me: Be ready for anything!
My Beautiful Bride: Take the main down?
Me:Aaaaargh. No. Not yet!
My Beautiful Bride: You’re wet?
Me: DO NOT TAKE THE MAIN DOWN YET!
My Beautiful Bride:Jeesh. Ok. You don’t have to yell.
Me: When I start the motor, the main comes down.
My Beautiful Bride: Got it.
Me:A few more seconds… ok, now. Motor on. Main down.
Motor: Vrooom!
My Beautiful Bride: Halyard!
Me: Easing.
Our Precocious Son: Vacuum pressure is red.
Me: Already?
My Beautiful Bride: We’re not gonna make it.
Me: I’ve giving her all she’s got!
Motor: cough. sputter. wheeze.
Me: We might be able to drift into the slip with this weigh on. When you throw the rope to the dock worker, do not miss. You might only get one chance.
My Beautiful Bride: Got it.
Me: Fuel pressure?
Our Precocious Son: It’s far red. About to die.
Me: If this doesn’t work, the insurance company will not be pleased.
Motor: sputter. sputter. die.
My Beautiful Bride:
Me:
Our Precocious Son:
My Beautiful Bride: Here. Catch.
Dock Worker: Nice throw.
Our Precocious Son: We’re gonna live!
My Beautiful Bride: We’re gonna live!
Me: F#ck me. We made it.

Jumentos – Johnson Cay, Feb 2nd

We did not intend to spend the night at Johnson Cay. After several days in the Jumentos however, we were running low on food and water. We needed something good to eat. So we set out that fine Monday morning for Clarencetown, Long Island, 80 miles away. After about an hour in the sound, it became apparent that we might not make it. The seas were running 8 to 10 feet. And the forecast right shift had not yet fully filled in. So we were beating into the big seas. We were well on our way to being seasick, especially Sam.

Discretion being the better part of valor and all, we tuned tail and ran back to Johnson Cay, but not before dropping a line and hooking a 3 foot Mahi. We anchored, fileted the fish, and had a wonderful dinner. The swell in the anchorage was difficult to deal with, but at least our stomach were full of fresh fish. Yummy.

If we’ve had bad luck (some would say a lack of talent) spear fishing, we’ve had great luck fishing conventioanlly; with a line and a pole. We have one lure that seldom stays in the water for more than 30 minutes. It’s a 5 inch black and red skirt lure on a steel wire leader. I guess technically it’s Walter’s lure. Regardless, the thing is magic. It tends to catch Barracuda in the shallow waters of the Banks. But it is an absolute Mahi slayer on the Sound side.

Jumentos – Racoon Cay, Feb 1st

On the morning of Feb 1st, we all went for a run on the beach on the west side of Bueana Vista Cay. The beach here is at least 2 miles long; the longest beach in the Jumentos. Sam proved conclusively that he is now the fastest memebr of the family. Only 11 years onld, and we’re never going to beat him in a foot race again. Except maybe the 5 yard dash.

The wind clocked to the east and moderated to only 17 knots by noon. We pulled anchor and headed another 5 miles south, to the west side of Racoon Cay. We slept well with very little motion on the boat.

Jumentos – Buena Vista Cay, Jan 30th

We motored 20 miles south to Buena Vista Cay on the 30th. We were unable to sail much because the wind was on the nose, and we were unwilling to deviate too much from the Explorer waypoints; too many uncharted coral heads.

Buena Vista provides decent protection from north winds, and a norther was almost on us. When we arrived, the small anchorage was crowded with 6 other boats that had the same thought as us regarding protection from the norther. So we didn’t get the ideal spot in the anchorage, but we survived a rolly anchorage for 2 days. The anchor held well in 30 knots gusts in the thick sand bottom.

Days like this, you’re pretty much stuck on the boat. Which is fine if you have a nice book to read or a project to do. It’s not so good if you want to go for a walk or a beer, or talk to someone besides your immediate family. If you’re stuck on the boat for more than about 3 days, the crew becomes slightly agitated. We think Dana may be getting a little resentful of the XBox.

Jumentos – Jamaica Cay, Jan 29th

We sailed 20 miles south to Jamaica Cay on the 28th, mostly under jib alone in 20+. We made one brief stop at Flamingo Cay to explore a cave that we could dinghy in to. Pictures on my bride’s blog. We also had to move the dinghy onto the deck because the big waves were slowly swamping our dinghy as we towed it.\

We anchored at Jamaica Cay around 2:00 pm and a remora promty showed up and attached itself to our keel. Sam spied several grouper in the coral near the boat, so we piled into the dinghy with the spear and went for a hunt. A big barracuda chased us off the first reef, so we retreated back to the boat and resigned ourselves to kill some grouper for dinner. Alas. Another big barracuda appeared and scared us out of the water before any of the grouper wandered in front of the spear.

We suck at spear fishing. We ate beans and rice for dinner.

Jumentos – Water Cay, Jan 28th

We motor sailed to Water Cay on the 28th, more to charge batteries than anything else. We anchored on the west side of the Cay in hard sand at 16:00; too late to hunt for food.

Long Island -Thompson Bay, 22 Jan

There is only so much organized fun a person can take before they remember why they went cruising in the first place. We’d spent a full month in Georgetown, and Sam could have stayed forever. The kid network is well entrenched and extensive. Sam was becoming popular with the girls. Not a situation an almost 12 year old boy wants to leave.

But we finally jerked the slime encrusted anchor out of the deep sand and pushed off for Thompson’s Bay, Long Island, about 25 miles away. We had a beautiful sail, alternately beating and tight reaching in less than 10 knots of breeze. We raced our friends on Rio Dulce, a 47 foot Katana with 3 kids on board, most of they way to Thompson Bay. To give them credit, I’m not sure they knew we were racing. They had the music blaring and were dancing on the trampoline and in the cockpit most of the way, while we were actively trimming the jib and taking every little puff down on the reaches.

We arrived at the anchorage with a little slice of Georgetown. 4 boats from Georgetown took advantage of the good weather to make the trip to Long Island, Liberty, Rio Dulce, 3 At Sea, and ourselves. All 4 boats had kids aboard, so we were familiar with all of them. 3 At Sea hosted a big party on their Nordhaven trawler to celebrate crossing the Tropic of Cancer. We’re not partial to trawlers, but this thing was an absolute palace. It had a generator, bow thruster, wing motor, dry stack, integrated electronics everywhere, real staterooms, and a big screen tv in the main salon. On the other hand, it also had a 1500 gallon diesel fuel tank, and we get the feeling it needed the fuel. Our fuel tank on More Cowbell is 45 gallons, and it seems huge. We refill about once a month.

On the 23rd, we rented a van and explored the island with the crew of Liberty. We saw the Columbus monument, erected at the north end of the island. Columbus probably came here 3rd, after San Salvador and Rum Cay. We explored Hamilton’s Cave, the largest cave in the Bahamas. It’s a limestone cave that extends for 1600 linear feet underground with many live stalactites, stalagmites, and lots of bats. the highlight of the day however, was diving a 660 foot blue hole on the sound side of the island, but in a small protected bay. they have deep diving contests in the blue hole, and someone has positioned a float in the middle of the hole. A line extends downwards from the float, presumably to the bottom. Of course we had a little contest of our own. Dave, from Liberty, dove the deepest, probably reaching 35 or 40 feet. We could have gone a little deeper maybe. but it’s dark down there and scary. And we think we saw something move.

We ended the day by visiting the Catholic and Anglican churches in Clarencetown. Remarkably, the churches were built by the same priest, who had a mid life crisis in 1898 and converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism. Then we ate possibly the worst hamburger of all time at a local restaurant. But the service was abysmal, so that made up for the hamburger. We guess the view was good.

 

The Best Things About Cruising In No Particular Order

• the stars man, the stars
• fresh free fish
• no one is responsible for you but you, and all the associated risks and problems stemming from that statement
• we get to sail. every day if we want
• morning coffee in the cockpit
• sundowners in the cockpit watching the sun set
• it’s 5 o clock somewhere
• Freedom isn’t free! (that one is for you, Neil)
• snorkeling in a life size aquarium
• fellow cruisers out here think like we do – slightly bent, but refreshing. and their priorities? Sheesh. We could write a book.

Things We Miss About Civilization, In No Particular Order

• climate control
• on demand refrigeration
• lights – and turning them on when you want
• staying up past 8:00 pm
• long hot showers
• route 44 vanilla diet coke
• beef fajita taco combo, w/ a 3 oz side of guacamole
• microwave popcorn
• a big fluffy bed that does not move
• never ending water/electricity/gas supply
• trash pickup
• Dallas Cowboy games

Grandma Betty

We got word on Jan 4th that David’s grandmother, Betty, died in the hospital that morning. David flew back to the states to attend the funeral in Tyler, Texas, while Dana and Sam stayed with the boat.

Rest in peace Betty. We love you. We miss you.