Ericson 36C Kasidah

Doing nothing and loving every minute of it...........................

2012-01-25T13:11:00.001-05:00

Jon helping Thyrone out with an electrical problem

Lobster Omelets for b-fast

Long walk at low tide

We have had more fun this trip so far than any of our other trips to date.

We find many recipes to use and dine on our day time kills. Jon caught a large snapper that he fried up like we do perch in New York and it was some of the best.

This is Hawksnet Cay, we walked over to it at low tide so Jon and Rick could do some hunting but after a large Black Tip made three passes very close to them they decided to make it a short trip.
We will do this trip with Amy and Jeremy next week.
Hopefully he will be somewhere else.

snorkeling on the island

No lobster this time

Just Another Week

2012-01-13T23:05:00.015-05:00

Well another week has passed, which puts us at almost the middle of the month. Most of the other boats have left for places south and north of here. Some left in a hurry with a destination and time line, other just left not sure where they would be the following night.

We continue to explore in the dinghy distant and close places.

Arline has had a streak of luck trolling behind the dinghy catching Bar Jacks, Snapper and Baracuda. All on the same lucky lure and every time she put the thing out. The last fish that got away took this lure and we haven't caught anything worth keeping since. She's tried to make one that looks like it but alas, nothing yet. Tuesday was so great, the tide was highest about noon so we loaded the dinghy early, with lunch, fishing gear, and headed toward town and the mangroves. There is this passage that can be done at high tide and it takes you quite a ways north to just south of Little Stirrup Cay. The passage is 20 ft wide average, 10 at some points and you guessed it 30 or more else where. We started off fine and slow like we always do checking our depth, till this 16 ft Boston Whaler type boat with 2 locals came zipping along on plane. They had tee shirts on that indicated they worked for the cruise line on Stirrup Cay and were headed to work. So I cracked the throttle and up on plane we went. We lost them soon after only one corner and I was sure Arline would have me slow down, but she said "Follow the white foam and bubbles" it wasn't hard to see, the bottom was very visible and the depth was 4 to 5 ft. It was gorgeous!

We spent the whole day trolling the shore back south toward our favorite beach, we'd pull in where we saw rocks close to shore to get lobster, fish and we even picked up 2 conch. That old Evinrude ran for 5 or 6 hours that day. We brought an extra 2 gallons of fuel, so we started off with a total of 5. When we got back I was very impressed that we only used 2. And at $6 per gallon on the island that's a good thing.

We even rented a car for a while, the days when the wind keeps us out of the dinghy we plan on being on the other side of the island. Like today and yesterday. It really is relaxing here. Oh I'd like to move and use the boat but being here, living on the boat and having fun isn't that bad.

Our AIS is back in the states being fixed we hope, the company, ACR, out of Fort Lauderdale who built it is fixing it. They've been very good about our correspondences, we'll how they do at service. I'll either be a Big advocate of theirs or I'll be selling the damn thing and buying something else.

That Was Close

2012-01-09T19:56:00.000-05:00

A near disaster was averted by some quick reactions. Arline and I had Mark and Lynda in our dingy as we headed to town and a store. It’s quicker to dingy across the little bay and tie up at an old fishing station and then walk the rest of the way. With a full moon the tide was quite low. We were having an extreme jump onto the place we normally tie up so we decided to off load at a different spot will a little smaller jump up to land. We pulled up next to the spot, the ladies were seated, Mark and I were hanging onto the wall and Mark started to climb over the wall by grabbing onto the top of it. Well the cap of the concrete wall gave away and moved, a 200 or 300 lb piece of concrete was ready to fall 4 ft onto him, into the dingy, or who the hell knows what it would have done. In a split second I screamed PUSH! He pushed on the moving concrete and I pushed on the fixed wall. We were able to push the dingy away from the wall and at the same time he was able to hold and push the monster piece of concrete away from us and it landed in the water missing the dingy and us by inches but soaking everyone when it hit the water. But no one was hurt! From start to finish it was 2 seconds of pure fright, Mark and I thought and reacted as one. He got the brunt of the water, and all of our thanks. That really could have been ugly if it landed on him or bounced into the dingy. Mark is a retired firefighter and quite the fit guy. I can’t imagine if he wasn’t there, sharp and fit as he is. We could have all been hurt.

Happy Birthday to our oldest Daughter Amy .

2012-01-08T10:11:00.001-05:00

Sara love's the Beach

We are really relaxing and having a great time in Paradise. We have been hanging out with many different cruisers this week, Bud and Jill left two days ago to pick up some friends that were flying into Nassau. We said our good-byes and hope we may see them again out here in the future.

A Sponge in two feet of water

We have been exploring and hunting in the water for things to eat which has been really fun with Mark and Linda, they are sitting here for a few days before heading to the Abacos. Mark is a great spear-fisherman so we were getting some pointers from him. We have had lobster and conch the last few nights and the Lobster caught have just got bigger and bigger.

At our Beach cleaning conch

Jeff one of our friends on the island found a ride back to the states for our malfunctioning AIS, When you try to send something from here to the states it needs an agent to bring it through customs it has to do with Homeland security so this will make things much easier to have fixed and then there is no problem with shipping it back.

Now these are Lobster's "Marks the man to hunt with"

This will make me feel much better when we cross back over because we always cross at night, when you only go 5 to 6 knots you end up out there at night. We really don't mind night sailing but it makes us fell more comfortable when we can see the big guy's way before there's a problem.

Fun in the Sun

2012-01-04T17:27:00.002-05:00

Happy hour, Jon made conch fritters for all to try

Bush Tea

We are having a great time here and as the locals say "life is very short mon so have fun while you are still movin". Yesterday we took a group of ten altogether and did some touring on foot this was fun and some of these cruiser have never been here so it was fun showing them around the old golf course and grounds, we even got to see some wild life......a gray snake and a beautiful humming bird. The day was filled with winds blowing 35 to 40 and cold so it was a good day for a walk. Later we went back to the marina and another boat asked us to join them at a fire they started. We went right over and noticed a huge cast iron pot on, which they explained it was aphrodisiac Bush Tea called 21 Gun Salute. ... say no more. Well one thing I have learned is that when we travel we are here to explore and try new things sooooooo Jon and I had a few sips. The only thing we got from it was a visit to the bathrooms at about midnight but that's ok at least we can say we have tried it.

The caves

Overlook at the caves

Today I arranged two vans to come in and take us for a tour of the island and I made a deal with the guy that it would be five dollars a piece and that twelve of us would be going. This trip was great we were introduced to new places that we had not visited before and a little more history about the island.

First full day in Paridise

2012-01-02T14:52:00.001-05:00

I talked to Jill last night on Skype and she had been watching us on both AIS and Spot and the first thing she asked was how close the fast powered ferry boat had come to us about 8:00PM, well that was really funny because that was right after we lost communication with AIS. Jon had just laid down to take a nap and had pointed out all the ships around us and confirmed with me that they were all heading in a different direction, a few minutes later as I was looking over to port I noticed something that looked as if it was a plane or just a flash of light. At that point I tried to focus on it and then looked at radar which did not pick it up, I then realized it was a boat and could make out his red light, by that time he was behind me and by the time Jon got up to look it was well behind us as though it was just a dream.

crystal clear

catch of the day

Our first day has been fantastic so far. We walked the dogs through the golf course early this morning, then headed out to harvest some conch and even managed to stop by my favorite beach before heading back to clean the conch.

My perfect beach

We will be making some fitters for the other cruisers here tonight. There are a few boats in here waiting for this front to come by which should have winds 30 to 35 knots. Tonight should be very interesting.

Great harbour Cay, Berry Islands

2012-01-01T18:22:00.002-05:00

Finally we made it to our first and maybe only stop in the Bahamas this year. We love it here in Great Harbour Cay and feel it's like our home out of the country. We may stay around the Berry's and do some exploring which most people miss because they are so into getting farther south.
Amy and Jeremy will be flying in on the 31st of this month, so we will be here for that and hope for some really nice weather while their here.

Looking for leak (Note the bloody right arm and can you feel the heat)

The crossing took place on the 31 instead of the 30th because once we got out the inlet at Lake Worth, Jon realized we had antifreeze leaking from somewhere, so we shut down the engine and drifted backwards even though we had our sails up for about an hour to try to find the problem with no luck.
At that point we made the decision to head back to Lake Worth and anchor the night while trying to find the problem. If he couldn't find it we would head back to Stuart and make a plan from there. Jon pulled all sorts of things apart and at about 7pm he realized that two bolts on the thermostat housing were loose. A much simpler problem than thought.

eating MRE's just before dark (Thanks Amy) YUK

We gathered our thoughts at that point, and then called our Friends Bud and Jill whom were in Lake Worth to see what way they were heading in the morning. They were heading to West End, so we would just meet them in GHC.
We ended up getting up before dawn to dingy ashore and let the dogs go pee and off once again out the channel. This time all the way over to GHC a total of 27 hours.

All tethered in and taking a nap
Note the 1st sun rise of 2012 in front of us

We did have one causality which was just before dark of course, the AIS stopped working or rather it had a malfunction and could only let us know when ships were within a few miles of us and this doesn't help me much because I try to keep ships away by more miles than that, so when one shows up its too late. I find its always something that's broke when owning a boat............BOAT; you know the acronym!

Jon's morning catch but someone caught him too and tried to bite his tail off

Marina manatee coming to say hi

Bud and Jill arriving to sit with us before their crew show up in Nassau

Anyhow now we are in GHC and our friends are right next to us in Paradise.

We are in Lake Worth

2011-12-29T17:55:00.002-05:00

We are in Lake Worth and will head out in the morning for the Bahamas. Keep an eye out on the "spot" in the morning for about twenty-four hours to see our crossing. If we start to head too far north you might want to do us a favor and call the Coast Guard after a day or so :). My worst fear is always the Cargo ships, because at night they are so much harder to tell how close they are. There are always a few of them showing up on our AIS and Radar at any time.

We are heading to Great Harbour Cay in the Berries and have decided to do some exploring there since we only stayed there last year while the engine was being repaired. GHC Marina is a great place to check in and if you look around there is a lot to do but you really need to explore and ask where to go to see the really cool stuff.

After that we may head back to Florida to do some cruising in the southern part of the state.
We really don't know and don't care this year so it will be exciting just to see where we end up.

Happy New Years to all and will write when we get to GHC.

Merry Christmas to all

2011-12-25T12:09:00.003-05:00

This is the Ireland Clan-Jon grow up with them.

We wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope your day is as wonderful as ours.

Christmas Eve @ Kevin and Chris's place in Jensen Beach

Bud and Jill in Vero Beach on S/V Earendil

We are still in Stuart making our plans for the crossing. The weather looks promising for this week so we will probably meet up with Jill and Bud (our friends that we met in New York at the marina a few years ago) in Lake Worth and head across to the Bahamas. We will try to get there by New Years Eve since we have already made plans with Jeff and Lana to bring in the New Year's cheer at the house.

We have been having so much fun here in Stuart with all our friends that it almost seems as I should just live here all winter. The weather has been in the 80s almost every day so that is a plus too.

Booze run

Mick & Sue from England, they sail in Turkey during the summer

Mike working on the new canvas

One of the biggest reasons we stayed here for so long was Jon had to order all the parts for the engine also we had to wait for the canvas to be fitted and then there was the autopilot that had to be replaced.

Another issue that had to be addressed was a few spots that showed up on my scalp and nose a few months back that would not heal. We figured this was a perfect place to see a skin specialist and deal with it. I was a little nervous about going but knew this could not wait since I have had issues before and
things can turn to cancer really fast. I talked to a few people here that told me about a huge medical place right here a few blocks away that were great to deal with and had specialist for all types of skin problems, so I called and they got me in that day. Anyhow all is well, they froze the areas and said have a good time in the Bahamas see you on the way back for a check-up. The part that floors me every time we go to a doctor for our check-ups or dentist appointments is that when we were running our business in New York our insurance was 13500. a year which was three years ago, lord only knows what it would be now. On our way out we cancelled it and put a large amount away for self insuring ourselves while out here, whenever we go to the doctors we let them know we don't have insurance and are willing to pay cash and our bills so far have been less than any of our co-pays were back in New York. Just for the record this total bill was $43.50 cash.

another day at the store

Now we're waiting

2011-12-21T15:49:00.002-05:00

Well it seems like I've lived this before. Westerbeke has the hoses, and they were ordered on Friday. However, because they are closed for the next 2 weeks nobody got any orders out on Friday because they might have been parting. So no hoses till next year. Thinking and discussing this with other people I inserted a small piece of PVC into the hose that we were worried about. Nice tight fit, installed it on the engine and put all new VERY flexible hoses up to it. I think this was the real problem, that the hose coupled to it was not able to bend and passed the required bend onto the softer hose kinking it. Again the engine is running fine holding it's temp very nicely and pumping tons of water. So we'll run it for quite a while and keep checking the impeller. Looks like a nor'easter is making for lots of wind so we will probably be here for Christmas, which is fine. We have several places that we've been invited to and it's not snowing here.
Dick and Ann on Grey Hound pulled in on Monday and we think they are here for a while too. Not too many people are leaving and lots of boats have been just left here for the holidays, But at least it''s not snowing. Oh I said that already.

A Lazy Saturday

2011-12-17T16:39:00.000-05:00

The new canvas and top are in looking great. We've met may people that we've spent time with last year and the year before. The Auto Pilot is in and needs to have it's sea trial done but it works and will be fine.

The engine gave me a little scare the other day when I heard the exhaust sound a little different, I looked over at the outlet and not enough water was coming out. I knew what this meant, another raw water pump had been chewed up. Upon inspection I found all but one of the six impellers had been RIPPED off and caught up in the heat exchanger, this impeller lasted 10 hours and that's not acceptable. This is what was the start of the problem last winter. Of course when Arline saw this she started dialing the Realtor to buy a trailer or condo here. After a few calls people were telling me I had a water flow problem (DAH)know that the pump was ripping itself apart because it wasn't getting enough water and I should look at all the hoses. I took all the hoses apart and was able to blow through all of them on the suction side, so that can't be the problem right, WRONG. Determined to find something I started pulling them all out. There is a very tight set of hoses that run water through the bottom of the tranny for cooling it. They are up tight against the bunks for the engine and there I found a soft hose with a kink in it. I got that hose out and found it was supposed to have a wire in it to keep it from collapsing, but that had rusted and moved allowing it to kink. So new ones are on the way and should be here Monday. It's such a tight bend and corner that only a premolded hose would work. A trip to a Napa and looking at some 100's of hoses I couldn't find anything with a bend, wire and the right size. So Monday it is.

Back to my Lazy Saturday.

Bud and Jill from Earndale are in Vero Beach having problems with thier new Yanmar, 28 hours and the thing is leaking oil. Bad installation and heads are going to roll according to Jill. I thought we were having a tuff time with things. I won't even tell you what a new 4 cly Yanmar and a custom instalation cost. They've got to get to George Town by the 8th of January so if they get it fixed by the begining of next week we might cross with them, and follow each other to someplace that the wind and current take us. No Big hurries. We might still head to Miami, or not.

Looks like Amy and Jeremy have some time at the end of January and will meet us in Great Harbour Cay for close to a week.

Just enjoying the weather

2011-12-08T17:20:00.001-05:00

We have been doing a lot of walking and meeting up with old friends here in Stuart. The Mooring balls were full when we got here putting us way out on the end with very little internet making it very hard to write in the blog. Now we are much closer to the marina so I have a connection.

One of our last nights at Indiantown Rick, Kasidah's former owner came in on his way to Ft Meyers with a friend on a Dana 24 sailboat and spent the night. We all had a great time, there was much to talk about and there was drinks for all.
The croc did peek up at one point near thier boat to see the dogs.

The trip to Stuart went flawless except the many sudden down pours. It was warm and the boat was running fine so that made the day wonderful.

We have been waiting in Stuart for our new Autopilot and we are also waiting for the canvas shop to drop off our new Bimini and Dodger. This is important for Jon because when he is asked to sleep in the cockpit he should at least stay dry.......

Last year we met a couple from Lincoln, Maine where all of Jon's family is from so we had to go introduce ourselves to them, wouldn't you know it, they know all of Jon's relatives. This year they just happen to be in the marina as we were getting Kasidah ready, so we have been hanging out with them. Don and Betty are a lot of fun and they are closer to 80 than 70, so for all of you that have told us your to old to go out cruising......we say sure you are.

We have been watching the weather and it does not look good for some time to cross so to Bahama, we have made our minds up to head to Miami for a few weeks and wait for weather there to make the crossing. We have seen that there are many places to anchor near South Beach and at Dinner Key.

So Miami here we come.

1st week in Stuart

2011-12-02T23:32:00.000-05:00

We moved Kasidah on Monday and she worked great. The engine was 100% with out any overheating.
We took the last mooring ball at Sunset Bay Marina, and won't give it up. We've been offered money to move, cause there are no reservations and people want in. The weather is holding people here, not able to move onto their next location. The wind has been up pretty good, keeping everybody from moving but keeping my batteries pretty well charged. The autopilot is dead and a replacement from a consignment shop was shipped back because it didn't work. A new, different make, should be here end of next week, and it should be an easy install using the same brackets and other item$.The canvas people are working on the dodger and bimini for the cockpit, Looking forward to having no leaks in the cockpit. Falling into our winter routine on the boat and loving it.

To rock at night on a mooring ball, with everything working right,..priceless.

Warning-Holiday festivities can be dangerous to your health.

2011-11-25T12:05:00.001-05:00

Warning-Holiday festivities can be dangerous to your health.
How true this has been sitting here at the dock enjoying the week long party Indiantown puts on for the entire Marina.

Monday we partied with a Steel band and enjoyed Island food and drinks.

Tuesday we had wonderful Italian cuisine from a restaurant in town which was awesome and then karaoke was the entertainment of the night. I even went up and picked a song I thought would be easy for me "Wipe Out" however I did not know there was a rap remake of the song....................funny funny.

Wednesday we joined in on the dinghy race- poker run then off to Stomp some grapes,taste some wonderful wines, listen to Dr Dave's Southern rock band and then way to much drinking and dancing to end the night.

Click here to see video.
Stomping grapes

Thursday was a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings and a pie contest.
By the end of the night we were totally exhausted and really needed to go to bed early.

We wanted to give our thanks to Scott and Rochelle the owners of the marina and all his staff for all the hard work they did to make all of us feel at home during these holidays when most people are with their families. They really made us feel like part of theirs.

Running Westerbeke by jon

2011-11-24T19:03:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone, I’ll let Arline tell you all about the parties and good times, but here’s the latest on the motor.

Well the injectors were ready on Monday and after a few errands we got back to the boat by 3:00. I finished installing them and a few other last minute items on the engine and wanted to try and get it to run just for a moment. We were scheduled to go into the water on Tuesday and then there was another schedule conflict. It was the beginning of parties here at Indiantown. Tonight the Steel Drum Band was starting at 5:00 and we missed that last year. So for half an hour I primed the system with the fuel boss, and tried to get it to run. I could only get it to run if I put fuel into it from above and then only till the fuel was gone. And the Steel Drum Band was warming up, so I’d have to wait till tomorrow.

1st thing at it had the same results and just couldn’t get it running. Now I’m getting nervous and it was our turn to be put into the water. We pulled Kasidah around the corner to her dock space and I jumped back at it. I thought I should check from the start so as not to miss anything. So I removed the fuel line from the engine at the injector pump and placed a coffee can under it to catch the fuel. I turned the pump on there was my problem,….WATER, no fuel just frigging water. Checking the fuel separator confirmed it was full of water. I pulled about a gallon of water out before good fuel started to flow, I cleaned the separator and fuel filter blew the lines out, then I only needed to get the water out of the injector pump. Now I’m sure the motor was running when we put her away in the spring so I was worried about the pump having water in it all summer. That would have been real bad! So on a recommendation from the guy who rebuilt the injectors, I sprayed WD-40 in the pump where fuel should have been and all the water came blowing out. (Did you know the WD in WD-40 stands for Water Displacement). A little more priming and bleeding and in 2 minutes it was running. It runs cool and never idled as nice.

Westerbeke Again by jon

2011-11-20T11:46:00.001-05:00

Well most of you know that we over heated the engine last year on our way over to the Berry Islands. We were Lucky enough to have landed on an Island that had Great people, charter flights from the states to get parts and generally a great place to hold up. We had rebuilt the engine and moved on last year but near the end of the season we were having another problem with the engine. Air was getting into the cooling system, causing an air bubble that would make the engine over heat again. At the end of last season I had not felt I found anything and woke many times though the summer at Fair Point Marina in a cold sweat thinking and worried about it. Then at the end of the summer I had a head gasket blow on the travel lift in the yard. Now I had just replaced that head gasket last year and thought it was stange,....UNTIL I realized I had not re-torqued that gasket!! Could the same stand true for my Westerbeke? Looking at the manual it says re-torque after 50 hours,.....I didn't do that. The engine ran fine last year for about 75 hours after the rebuild and then the second problem started to show up. It was starting to make sense.

Once at the boat after cleaning it up enough to sleep on it, and cleaning the outside, we put away all stores we brought with us and fired up the batteries, Yeah 12.6 volts, fired up the refer unit, Yeah cold beer. Then I headed straight for the engine, I re-torqued the head and started to adjust the valves, but noticed a lack of compression on # 2 and #3 cylinders. Well the head had to come out of the boat again. As I was taking parts off I noticed the exhaust manifold had unburnt fuel in it, a sure sign of incomplete combustion. As the head came off I was hoping to find a huge hole in the gasket but didn't see it. Eric, the service manager at Indiantown Marina, had a look at the head gasket and right away pointed to TWO spots where there was blow by from the cylinder to the water jacket, #2 and #3. YEAH YEAH YEAH. There were also other signs in the water jacket of anti-freeze being burnt from compression blow-by. Now was the head warped or the block?

The head went to a speciality shop "Blockheads" The report came back great, he too saw 2 spot with blow by, and machined only .008 of and inch off to make it straight. All thinking is that if the head wasn't warped the block would be fine, as the block has a lot more mass to it and a lot more water around it for cooling. The good news to date is that the head job only cost $160.00. I also took the advice from the great guys at Blockheads and sent the fuel injectors to be checked. Another Great small speciality shop looked at them and confirmed "Wow these babies got hot". He showed me how they should work and what mine didn't do. How much to rebuilt them please? $27.00 each plus a 10 dollar part, they'll be ready on Monday. So the bad news is the gaskets and parts were $650.00 with the head gasket alone being $225.00 Ouch.

Well the head is back on and all painted up now we are just waiting on the injectors to come back Monday and we go in the water on Tuesday. We then can really test the engine under a load and get our confidence back in it. Hey if she gets 50 hours on her you want to bet I'd re-torque the head!!

We had visiters here already, Tom Gardener and Terri from Fair Point Marina (Ponytail Tom for all you, theres too many Toms here, people) came on Sunday last week and spent the afternoon here walking around and looking at all the boats here. They also took us out to dinner, then drove home. They are on the west coast of Florida during the winter so it was a 3 hour drive each way for them. It was great to see them and show them around here and Kasidah. They hadn't seen her since we left NY in '09 and all the work we've done to her since we left.

Looks like we'll stay here at indain Town for Thanksgiving, there is 4 days of events, just as a tease there is a real Steel Drum Band playing Monday night and it just gets better from there. I don't think I'll take part in the dinghy ran, roamer has it the alligators win every time.

Thanks for looking.

Ready for the drive to Florida....

2011-11-08T16:06:00.001-05:00

We have been visiting family first in Dover and then in Connecticut for the past two weeks and are now back in Dover.
Wednesday morning we will head out for the long drive down to Florida to start the cleaning and work on Kasidah before our crossing.
We have had a great time visiting but its time to hit the road.
We went to Connecticut last week knowing that we may not have electricity because of the storm, but what we found was way beyond just the lose of power. The place looked like a war zone, there were trees down, power lines down at just about every house and street corner and still lots of snow on the ground when we arrived on Monday, by the time we left this week it started to look a lot better but they will be cleaning up for many months.

While we were there we got to see Kim (Jon's niece) play soccer at her school.

We decided we would stop back in Dover for a night or two because Kasidah won't be in the work yard till Thursday afternoon and we won't be able to stay on her till then, and the last night we were in Connecticut I pulled my back and was in some major pain for the drive here so it was one more reason to stop.

Our next adventures begin....

2011-10-25T11:42:00.000-04:00

We finished up our work at the marina this year and realized just how much work we had completed there. New main docks, fingers and fuel dock was just a few projects we completed.

Once all boats were winterized and shrink wrapped we cleaned out the RV, put the Bike away and packed the Jeep with as much as we could possibly fit in it.

This is some of our great customers at the Marina.

Our first stop was to Schyler and Laurie's house in Skaneateles to pick up back issues of our favorite mag "Lats and Atts." then off to Tully to spend the night with our longest and dearest friend Diane

Last ride of the year....

Jeremy and Amy's back yard...

On our way out the next morning we stopped in to see a friend from the Marina "Mel". She has a very cool restaurant in Syracuse and we decided we would stop for a quick bite to eat.

We are now in Dover De. for a week to catch up with our oldest daughter and husband before heading up to Connecticut to visit the youngest daughter Jill.
Amy may have to leave in a day or two for a mission so we wanted to make sure we got to see her before she leaves.

We have made arrangements to have Kasidah pulled from the storage yard and put in the work yard for us on the 9th of November. Jon will be trying to locate a problem we have had with her getting air in the system and causing her to over heat.

Pirate weekend at the Marina

2011-08-09T21:42:00.001-04:00

We had a fabulous weekend with lots of people joining in on the festivities.

FPM group shot

Nice one

We are just having fun enjoying life on the water every day.....LIFE IS GOOD!

2011-07-29T12:57:00.002-04:00

We are very busy this summer and just felt we would wait to post till we got back on Kasidah and started to travel, but some people have been asking us to post.

We have had a great time visiting with freinds and family and Jon has even managed to ride his bike a few times. The kids and all the dogs came to visit for a week and it was a blast. It was pretty funny that there were as many people as there were dogs but we always had pets and the kids love dogs so it would not be the same without them around. One thing we really were proud of this summer was Amy becoming a Captain.......(we are so proud of you)

Ray,Tim and Jon out for a ride

The projects at the marina have been going smooth this year even though its a lot of work. We disassembled and stripped a whole dock, installed fingers and all new water and electric lines added new pedestals and filled it with customers in about two months. Jon and I were exhausted every night but the reward of looking at it every day is wonderful. Now Jon has started to take apart another large dock which will become part of a fuel dock. He wants it in place before we head out in a few months. Jon has been very busy with service work for the past three weeks also. Jon and I finishing the dock

This is Jill with Ru on her new Kayak.

Just adding to the cruising fund

2011-04-16T11:57:00.001-04:00

We are back at the marina working a little to add to the kitty for our next adventure.

Back in the States

2011-02-28T10:05:00.008-05:00

We had a lot of fun once again in Great Harbour and would like to thank everyone there for making us feel right at home during both our stops there. Joe and the staff at the marina are some of the best folks we have met since our trip began, the locals and landowners are some of the friendliest people and always went out of thier way to help us with things.
On the last day there we rented a golf cart for a few hours and explored the island, at low tide we went to Shark Creek which you can walk to the small island at that point. This was well worth a visit.
We left Great Harbour Tuesday morning at 915 and made the trip across to Lake Worth by 930 the following day, very smooth sailing and just enough wind to keep the sails full. We made a quick stop at the Riviera Marina to let the dogs go potty and stretch then off to Stuart to pick up a Mooring ball and get some well need sleep. We arrived in Stuart at 1600 hours went to shore then back to the boat to celebrated our full trip with a bottle of champagne that the kids had sent us and we had not felt the time was right to drink it till now.
We have been busy here cleaning Kasidah and doing some shopping for parts. We even had a chance yesterday to hit the beach and collect some shells. The temperature is perfect right now and hopefully it will stay this way or a while because our youngest daughter Jill is comeing down next week for a few days.

Lots of Fish Stories

2011-02-20T12:38:00.006-05:00

We are back in Great Harbour Cay waiting for a window to do the crossing. It looks like Monday or Tuesday will be the start off time to cross. If we leave Monday we will have some great sailing and all wind will be behind the beam, but we will have some large seas and in the gulf stream a little more swells but if we leave Tuesday it will be light the whole trip with only 10 knots of wind and under 3 foot seas the whole way over. We decided not to make up our minds till Monday morning after coffee.
Great Harbour Marina is having a fishing tournament this weekend so the place is jammed with beautiful fishing boats from all over Florida and Georgia. They have been bringing in some huge fish and really having a lot of fun at it. The Marina had a big party for them and they invited us to it. I must say we have had a great time here and will be back in the fall. Joe and all the staff are wonderful and always there to help with things. When we arrived last week we were insteantly invited to some dinners and breakfast partys which always makes for a good time and we meet so many more people that way(thanks Jeff).

Home stretch

2011-02-19T16:22:00.001-05:00

Fri 2/18/2011 4:10 PM

We stayed two nights in the anchorage west of Big Majors in Staniel Cay with friends and other cruisers. This is where the James Bond Movie Thunderbolt was filmed. In the bar at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club is a photo showing the film crew of the movie at the bar. I didn't do any research as to who is who in the photo; but Sean Connery isn't in the photo so it really doesn't matter. From Staniel we stayed on the bank and motor sailed up to Shroud Cay which is part of the Exuma land and water park and picked up a mooring ball. Lots of mangroves and bugs, it was also a little rollie as the wind was out of the south west and rolling right into the bay. We were able to walk the dogs, and didn't have much time for exploring. Because of weather we needed to make Nassau by Friday night and that's tomorrow. We got underway early Friday morning with a long day in store to get the last leg to Nassau. The average depth across the bank is about 18ft, about halfway across there is what's called the Yellow banks with has a depth of 14 ft but you have to watch out for coral heads which could be close to the surface. So Arline was up on the bow for an hour guiding our course around dark areas, meaning coral; maybe. We did make Nassau and pulled into a different marina this time. It was a little cheaper AND right across from the markets with a nicer walk for the dogs. A park with Fort Montague with canons on a corner overlooking the bays entrance, fishermen were selling all kinds of fish, lobster and conch.

Saturday we found cheap internet for $6.99 per day. We needed to do some catching up and found out that Bud and Jill from Earendil where at the marina we were at last time. We meet them at Fair Point this past October when we unstepped their mast so they could head south. We also had seen them on the canal and made a detour from Amy’s to see them in Annapolis. We really surprised them when we showed up at their boat. We had dinner with them on their boat Saturday and pizza on our boat Sunday afternoon mmm hadn’t had a good pizza since NY in October. Then we both had to start getting ready to leave on Monday, they are going south and us, well everybody knows its north. Changed the oil and did a few other things. Went to fuel up all I waited was 3 cans filled at the end of the dock just 4 slip away easy right? Until I ask the dock master if I could bother him for fuel and he said at 4pm “NO MAN YOU HAD ALL DAY AND YOU WAITED TOO LONG" .......... really? It was going to be that hard for him to walk over and watch me fill my own tanks. Xxxxoooxox. No problem I'll walk down to the nice store and fill them save money too. Oops the store was out of diesel. On the way back another yard saw me carting my cans had me come in and filled up. I probably didn't need the 10 gallons but I like the feeling of having some on deck. I got back to the boat and was tying them down and it's now 5 pm closing time and guess who walks by to the end of the dock to take the end of day fuel pump reading. I really wanted to say hey don't worry about the fuel, the nice man next door was more than willing to WORK for my 5 dollar tip.,,, JERK. (That’s The Veranda in me coming out, Bill)

Monday morning was very busy it seemed like every boat in Nassau was headed out. We passed Erindale headed West as we where headed East. There was only about 1/2 mile between our two marinas and as we passed I yelled over “I’m sorry we've tried for 6 months and this is all the cruising we're going to do together. BY" it was good to see them. Then we passed another boat with a young couple we meet that Bud and Jill had been traveling with. They waved and yelled over "A boat just like your is right up under the bridge at anchor, a red one.” Well right away we knew it was “San San”. We have been blogging back and forth for 2 years about our boats, adventures, and knew they were close. We where still in the Nassau Harbor but made a 360 turn around their boat and exchanged a few good lucks, looking good and best wishes. That’s the 2^nd 36 like ours that we’ve seen. They are on their headed way down south to Ecuador. Smooth sailing folks.

One thing I’ve (jon) learned out here is that you never know who you will meet next, or that someone think you’ll see tomorrow has pulled up and left never to be seen again. People and boats come and go fast. So when you can you stop, and when you can’t, you can’t, and we all know that. I really wanted to stop and spend time with San San and crew, but they were headed out that day too. I really wanted to give Nassau another chance, but we didn’t have time.

We headed out of Nassau for points north, back tracking to Great Harbour Cay Marina, with a stop behind White Cay in the Berry Islands. The sail northwest across Northeast Providence Channel was 48 miles over deep water, over 3000 meters at its deepest, that’s like 2 miles deep. That’s the kind of water Kasidah Likes, LOTS of room under her, she seemed to like the amount and direction of wind and the amount off sail too, because we were moving pretty good. Leaving Nassau behind us we could see a huge plume off black smoke rising high into the sky, we found out late that some building right down town had gone up and it kept the people from the cruise ships from going ashore because it was so close. We have been keeping the dinghy on the davits with confidence in some larger water, this lets us put up the stay sail and keep the boat moving. Going into the cut at White Cay was straight forward and the anchoring set and buried itself right away. We found only one other boat in the little bay but a few smaller draft were able to work their way further up into skinner water. Leaving early Tuesday we set off and headed out the cut into the deep water and right in the middle of it we heard a screech and thought it was a belt, but looked down at the temperature gauge and it was pegged. We did a 180 in the middle of the cut, with the tide going out, pulled the fuel shut off, popped the head sail and fought our way back into the anchorage running the engine about 30 seconds at a time. After a bit of excitement (Sure glad we practiced dropping anchor under sail) and some calming down I find out auntie is low on coolant. Its pumping water and the coolant was in the bilge, filled it and looked for leaks, non found, waited for a while and its running and cooling fine, got to go, you know it weather is coming in. We had a great sail and the motor ran fine all the way, every other minute, “How’s the temp; fine” Just before we rounded the top of the Berry Islands I was getting ready to take over and the fishing line goes out. Now If you know me you know I am not a very lucky fisherman, right dad? Well you could tell this thing was BIG it took line like I’ve only seem on TV shows it took a good length of time to get hi close to the boat and then he would take it and run back out another hundred feet which I let him do. If he was coming aboard I wanted him good and tried. Finally he came up to the boat and, Barracuda, sorry HUGE Cuda. His teeth were the size of my fingers. He was not coming aboard. So we cut him off but where thankful for the excitement. “Engine Temp Is Fine”

It was nice to pull into the marina and see all the people we met when we were here before. It was almost embarrassing how many people remember us but I can’t remember their names only faces. There is a big boat fishing tournament here with a lot of boats in from GA. We had 2 meals at Jeff and Lana’s house, Man do those people know how to entertain, they are great people. Saturday is the big fishing day where everything counts. A party after the weigh in and I’m told all the locals will be here looking for cuda, or any part of a fish that nobody wants, heads, guts, and so on.

Heading back

2011-02-13T10:39:00.001-05:00

Friday January 4th
We've been enjoying our time here at Little Farmers Cay on a mooring ball across from the government dock. We have a nice beach about 100 ft from the boat that we can walk Sara and Blue mornings with coffee, evenings with wine. The main town area is close enough by dink, and we have several other beaches to hit that aren't too far away either. We've gone snorkeling on a couple of reefs by dinghy ride and got to use our Hawaiian sling spear rod. The Bahamas are being over run with Lion Fish which is not a natural fish to the area. It is poisonous and hides around the coral. There are other things bad about them too but we'll let you do the Internet work on them; there will be a quiz when we get back to NY about Lion Fish. Back to the snorkeling; I eliminated 5 of them from 2 reefs. What you do is spear them; they are very dossal so its easy to put the spear right up next to them and let her go, then come up and fling them as far as you can off the end of your pole. At that point shark, grouper or other fish will eat them. I did miss a couple of nice fish for eating, but that's ok, I'd rather wait for larger ones. We should be able to get outside the bay onto Exuma Sound next week with our dink, where there should be some larger fish. There is a festival on the island this weekend with some Class A local boats racing. Lots of food and all the locals have their music turned way up and with bars every 50ft made out of any piece of wood they can find as a bar and all the bottles lined up, but they all have their government permits hanging in a frame. Cruisers everywhere too. Some of the restaurants are trying to hold some games for the cruisers, it’s been fun. Arline got to be one of the judges for the "Men’s best Legs Contest" I did make it to the finals with my cart wheel.
Met up with Sid and his dog Bo again; we crossed from Florida with him. Sid left us in GHC while we were doing the engine repair to do as he had crew going out that he needed to get somewhere. It was good to catch up with him, wait till Sara finds out that Bo is back. Sara was really in love with Bo to the point of embarrassment.

Saturday January 5th
Today we went for a dinghy ride with a bunch of other people on a mission; to find a cave that one of the other cruises had been to. We got ashore and be said "I think it's a short walk this way". Great! A short while later we found ourselves in the thick of it and Vern still saying; “It should be right here”. It started to feel like the filming of "Club Paradise" until the Boy Scout in me took over and we found the marker he was looking for. Up the mountain with a great view of Exuma Sound and now we're looking for the cave. HEY IT’SOVER HERE, YOU WALKED RIGHT BY IT AND DIDN’T FALL IN!! It was a very cool thing being in the cave, no bats, but there was water in it that one of the ladies got in and swam around. The whole time we were in there we kept saying "I wish Jill was here". I think everybody got a group photo, it was a great time. Then back to the boat, walk the dogs and we zipped over to the sailing races. We watched the first race and got into some nice positions to take photos from the dinghy. Then we saw some other dinks rafted up together and tied up to the end of it as it was near the finish line. Now all of the racing sailboats are headed down to the last leg, close to the wind and weaving in and around all the boat anchored to watch! I thought If I was racing I'd love it if those stupid dinghies would pull up just a bit, but I couldn't convince anybody of the idea. They use boards to hike way out on these rigs and they came so close to us that the guys out on the board had to lift his legs over our dingy as we ducked out of the way! Way a great day it was in Little Farmers. Then there was Dinner, the racing awards, speeches, and music. Oh all of this was held on the runway at the airport, a few planes came and went with people standing 100 ft away from the runway, people drinking, eating, driving and dancing on the runway. I know Amy; FOD would be a huge issue!

Sunday January 06
Quite a number of boats left today for points south and north, we have decided to stay for a few more days because too many boats with all be looking for new anchorages at the same time. So we’ll sit here let them fight it out tonight, move on in a couple of days and them when we show up were they where there should be less boats to deal with. As we are watching Leslie And Dave leave we’re saying that he’s too close to the rocks, and then BOUNCE, BOOM, Water Line is showing, Black SMOKE, then 15 seconds latter he ‘s off. We watched the Super Bowl at the Little Farmers Yacht Club with a few other folks, great game, what was the half time thing suppose to be. I mean the average age of people watching the game is; what? And the average age of the person there, who has spent lots of money, even older and they give the people, what was that anyway. Great marketing research on display there folks.

Tuesday January 8
We dropped of the mooring ball this morning to start heading north to Staniel Cay and the big Majors anchorage. We had studied the rocky cut enough and headed out with confidence. Still another part was going to be more skinny water and we decided at the last second to follow everybody’s advice and keep it in the deep water. So we headed out the cut to Exuma Sound where there was several hundred feet of water. We turned north, had a little bit of wind and put the pole out for fishing. About half way Arline spotted a fish flying across the water being chased by another fish, a Mahi Mahi. We where able watch for a while and I drew a line from where we saw him back to behind our boat and it ran right across our line. Then things travel in schools and 30 seconds later FISH ON!! It didn’t take too long to get him right next to the boat an he was beautiful about 3 ft long. They are brilliant Blue and Green, as he jumped up in the air, spit the lure out and took off.