S/V Geru

Information from our Talk Series

2010-04-04T11:40:00.004-04:00

We have updated our previously posted document. The new version contains all the information from the previous document, plus we have added sections on the Canadian ship registry, US customs, canal and ICW information and books, charts and cruising guides, along with a couple of details in our gear list.

For a copy of the updated document click here.

Upcoming Talk on Our Adventures

2010-03-01T21:05:00.007-05:00

Cruising Lifestyle Seminar Series


Advantage Boating is pleased to offer once again this 3-part cruising lifestyle seminar series. Come and hear Ottawa’s own Ruth Beyerlein & Geoff Roddick talk about their 2-year round trip Caribbean adventure aboard their catamaran from boat selection & purchasing to bringing the boat back to winter in Canada. This three-night seminar series can help get you on course for your cruising adventure or simply help you escape the winter chill.
OPTIONS One, Two or all Three Nights
FEE $40.00 for all three nights $30.00 for any two nights $20.00 for a single night Advanced registration is required with Advantage Boating.

Session 1: The Dream Takes Shape What initiated this Trip? Why a catamaran? Bringing as US boat into Canada. Gear Selection, Boat Preparation, Provisioning Monday, March 6; 7:00 - 9:00 pm at Britannia Yacht Club **The BYC Galley will be open at 5:00 pm for dinner beforehand!


Session 2: The Voyage - Ottawa to the Bahamas All those Canals... Crossing the Gulf Stream The Bahamas Monday, March 22; 7:00 - 9:00 pm at Britannia Yacht Club **The BYC Galley will be open at 5:00 pm for dinner beforehand!


Session 3: The Voyage Part 2 - Bahamas, South Eastern Carribean Running from Hurricanes The Thorny Path The Islands Ocean Passage Making Our return home! Monday, March 29; 7:00 - 9:00 pm at Britannia Yacht Club **The BYC Galley will be open at 5:00 pm for dinner beforehand!

tel: 613.721.8683	info@advantageboating.com
© Advantage Boating, 2010

Winter

2010-01-03T20:12:00.004-05:00

3 January 2010

Happy New Year to all!

Winter has arrived here in Canada.

Geru not so happy with this cold white stuff around her!

Ruth wishing she was with our friends sailing down south

Updates

2009-10-25T19:16:00.006-04:00

25 October 2009

We thought we should post an update here for all the people we've left hanging for months. We are now set-up back in Ottawa in an apartment downtown.

Over the next months we plan to back-fill the posts and upload photos we were unable to post on our rushed trip back North.

In the meantime Geoff is looking for a Job, know of anyone looking for an Application or Sales Engineer, Technical Marketing Manager or Product Manager committed to delivering world-class customer service?

Sunset on Ottawa River

Back in Ottawa

2009-08-28T18:53:00.001-04:00

28 August 2009

On Sunday August 16th 2009 we arrived back in Ottawa after the long rush north to get "home".

Back in Ottawa

Home

Geru on the Canal in downtown Ottawa

It's been a long trip home

Volcano!

2009-03-06T21:10:00.017-05:00

6 March 2009

We left St. Barts on March 2nd and headed towards Montserrat. Because we were tired from the rolly anchorage in St. Barts, we decided to stop in St. Kitts and Nevis on the way. We briefly visited the town of Charlestown on Nevis. When walking around, we visited a local farmers' market, which had a large roof for protection from the sun and rain. To our surprise, a sign on the structure revealed that it had been funded by CIDA (the Canadian International Development Agency) and the European Development Agency. This was the first time we'd seen an international development project. We hadn't really thought about it that way until then, but we were travelling in the second/third world now. The produce sold at the market was (for us) a mixture of the familiar and the unfamiliar; tropical fruits and vegetables, such as plantains, yucca, mangoes, and coconuts, were on display alongside potatoes, onions and cabbages.

When we got to Montserrat, we went on a tour of the island with a few other cruisers. Our tour guide used to be the chief of police! It wasn't possible to walk anywhere, because the only anchorage on the island isn't near anything. As it turned out, nothing is "near anything" in Montserrat ever since the southern volcano erupted a few years ago and buried the capital town of Plymouth. During the tour we saw the construction effort to rebuild a main town from scratch on the north end of the island, safe from the volcano which is still considered active. We really enjoyed the tour. The absolute highlight of our trip to Montserrat, however, happened as we were sailing away from the island the next morning. We were one of the last boats to leave the anchorage heading south. We passed the remains of the town of Plymouth and marvelled at the destruction it had seen. Only the skeletal burned-out remains of some buildings stick out of the thick layer of grey ash - a modern-day Pompeii. As we passed by, we smelled the sulphur from the volcano. We took some photos but stayed two miles offshore - the prescribed exclusion zone around the volcano. As we were passing the southern point of Montserrat, Geoff suggested putting up the sails. Ruth took another quick glance at the island - and noticed an odd cloud forming above the volcano! The cloud was growing rapidly. The volcano was erupting, and we were still almost downwind from it. For 15 minutes or so we didn't know if the cloud of ash would reach us or not - we motored at full speed and watched - there wasn't anything else we could do. In the end, the plume passed a couple of miles behind our stern. We missed being engulfed in it by about half an hour. Later we ran into one of the boats that had left ahead of us - it had looked to them as if we had been caught in the cloud, and they were quite worried about us! Looking at the Montserrat volcano website a few days later, we found out that what we witnessed was actually a full-blown pyroclastic flow event. Needless to say, this was a bit more excitement than we were looking for. Who would have thought that the closest call on our trip so far would have been an erupting volcano!

This was a golf course!

Plymouth, Montserrat

Montserrat Volcano

PDF of Montserrat Sequence #1

PDF of Montserrat Sequence #2

St. Martin, Sint Maarten & St. Barts

2009-03-02T21:09:00.010-05:00

2 March 2009

From the BVIs, we motored overnight to Sint Maarten in the company of Charlotte. The trip started out poorly as our main laptop with our navigation software on it died. This meant we no longer had electronic information about the freighters and cruiseships we might encounter out there (for the cruisers: no AIS). We didn't run into any issues with shipping, though, and our trip went fine. We started out in rolly seas which got calmer as we travelled. We arrived in Sint Maarten in time to catch the morning opening of the bridge, one of only three openings a day into Simpson Bay Lagoon. We were anchored in the lagoon surrounded by megayachts, both motor and sail. The island of Sint Maarten/Saint Martin is half Dutch and half French. We spent most of our time on the Dutch side which we didn't find nearly as nice as the French side. Unfortunatly, we found this out the day before we left when Charlotte offered us a ride across the rather large lagoon to the French side in their fast dinghy.

We spent three days in St. Maarten and then headed to St. Barts. The island are pretty close together, and the trip over was supposed to take about three hours - it took us five because it ended up being a bash into wind and waves. It was a very rough trip on both the boat and us. The only consolation was that Charlotte was still travelling with us and shared our misery. We arrived at Anse de Columbier (a bay in the north end of St. Barts) feeling beat and with new leaks on the boat that we hadn't had before. We spent the next day resting a bit and enjoying the beach, which had a large surf from the swell rolling into the bay. Late that afternoon we moved around the coast to Gustavia, the main town on St. Barts.

Just before Peter from Charlotte and Geoff returned from clearing in with customs in Gustavia, Ruth heard a loud 'clunk' from the back of the boat. It turns out that this was the sound of the ball-and-socket joint holding our hydraulic steering ram to the rudder tie bar falling apart - meaning a complete loss of steering! We were so thankful that this happened when it did rather than shortly before when we were motoring around in very close quarters looking for a place to anchor. The joint was badly corroded and must have been hanging on by only a hair.

The anchorage at Gustavia wasn't great. It was very crowded, a long way to town by dinghy and rolly due to the swell. Thankfully, for our first few days Charlotte offered to shuttle us to and from town to keep us dryer than our small and soft-bottomed dinghy allowed for. Gustavia has a small but well-stocked marine store, and after a few days of going back and forth with them we sorted out our steering problem. In the end we were able to get a part that wasn't perfect but worked. A new one will be put on when we are back in the US/Canada and have the funds to pay for it. There is a saying that the definition of cruising is fixing your boat in exotic places... which does ring true as we have had a few major fixes in "exotic" places already!

We made it to St. Barts in time for their carnival celebrations. The main festivities were held over two days. On Fat Tuesday, we watched the parade through town, which was reminiscent of the Halloween parade we had seen back in New York City - just on a much smaller scale. There were some of the Caribbean-style costumes we've seen in pictures of the Trinidad carnival, but, for the most part, the costumes were more like Halloween costumes in Canada. It was interesting to see what people had come up with. On Ash Wednesday, the 'Brule Vaval' was held, where a man made made of straw was paraded through town in a funeral-like procession and then hung and burned on the beach. We still aren't sure of the story behind this - we are assuming it is a European French custom.

Overall we enjoyed St. Barts, but we left there rather exhausted due to the rolly anchorage preventing us from getting a full night's sleep.

Port of Gustavia

Port of Gustavia

Cheeseburger in Paradise (from the Jimmy Buffett song)

Carnival in St. Barts

The US and British Virgin Islands

2009-02-17T20:34:00.015-05:00

17 February 2009

On Sunday January 25th we motorsailed from Culebra over to the town and harbour of Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. We anchored just in front of the main town - right where we had seen boats anchored a few years ago when we arrived by cruise ship - what a diffrent feeling arriving on our own boat!

Our friends on Charlotte were in Charlotte Amalie as well, and one evening Peter mentioned a movie night at Honeymoon Beach. Kirsten and Alden had flown home for appointments, so we joined Peter for the trip over in his dinghy, as our dinghy just isn't up for the distance. Upon arriving at the beach we found a sheet strung between two palm trees and rows of chairs set up. Behind the chairs was a row of golf carts belonging to local islanders. Next to all the chairs was a small concession stand selling beer, popcorn, and other snacks. We thought this was quite the event - and it kept getting better. Along with a countdown to the main movie and notices to turn off cell phones (believe it or not, they're prolific here, too, even on more remote beaches!), they showed a short pre-movie 'loony toons' cartoon. The movie itself was 'Vantage Point', which we all enjoyed. Movies on the beach - just what you might think of in the Caribbean.

From Charlotte Amalie we headed over to Great Cruz Bay on St John. Great Cruz Bay is not large, but it is quite deep and filled with boats on moorings, leaving little room for a boat to anchor. Luckily, as we were motoring around looking for a spot, someone on another boat pointed out a not-so-obvious spot sometimes used by catamarans, and it worked out well for us.

Great Cruz Bay was the first - but definitely not the last - of deep, crowded anchorages. In fact, the British Virgin Islands (BVIs), where boats full of inexpericenced charterers are let loose, are thought to be a very easy cruising ground. Ironically, right from day one this is where we encountered difficulties we had not had to deal with before. After a brief stay at Great Cruz Bay we wanted to head over to do some snorkelling at Trunk Bay which is supposed to be wonderful. As we approached Trunk Bay we realized that this was out of the question as a large northerly swell had set in. Huge waves were crashing onto the rugged shoreline making snorkelling impossible.

We went to Jost van Dyke to check into the BVIs and found it to be a poor anchorage - we tried three times to anchor before our anchor set, but we didn't trust it enough to be comfortable staying overnight, which we had originally planned. We motored over to White Bay which is known for good holding, but, due to the east-south-east winds it had large waves rolling through the anchorage. So we now had to find a new place to anchor for the night that wasn't exposed to the northerly swell and was protected from the east-south-east winds - a tough challenge as it was getting late in the day. Soper's Hole on the island of Tortola looked like the only viable option we could reach before dark. Soper's Hole, however, is another deep and crowded anchorage with pay-per-night mooring balls. We ended up having to take a mooring, which we don't like to do as anchoring is free. To make up for the frustrating day, we found out that Idyll Island was just a couple of mooring balls away. We had last seen them in Salinas, Puerto Rico, and it was quite a nice surprise to see them again.

Ever since we left Ottawa, the BVIs had been one of our goals for the trip. However, our first full day of sailing the BVIs was not at all what we had expected. From Soper's Hole we motored (not sailed!) into the wind, waves and current up to Road Town. During this trip we had our first wave come not only over the bow of the boat, but roll up over the cabin top, drenching Ruth at the helm! What an introduction to the BVIs!

We spent a few days in Road Town, Tortola. The highlight of our time there was meeting Christine and John on Timentide, a Prout 34. They had spent considerable time in the BVIs and had a daughter living on Tortola. They took us on a tour of the island by car, and they not only showed us the sights but also gave us a very different view with insights into the politics and inner workings of the island.

After visting Norman Island, we had a wonderful sail up to Trellis Bay to go to the Full Moon Party (held, as the name implies, on each full moon). We arrived in a throng of boats, and the anchorage/mooring field was packed. There didn't seem to be any room between the boats already there, but it looked like it might be possible to anchor close to the beach in front of a line of catamarans. We were just able to anchor there - in four feet of water! Oh, how nice it is to have a shallow cat. As we sat at anchor, other catamarans would motor towards us and then suddenly hit reverse when they saw the depth as they usually draw four feet or more. Over the next few days we did touch bottom gently in some of the larger waves, but we were on soft sand so we weren't concerned.

The Full Moon Party at Trellis Bay was very well attended. It is put on by Aragorn's art studio, which is located right there. People sat at tables along the beach with torches providing a romantic light. The centerpieces to the party were the fireballs, which are metallic spheres with artistic cut-outs. The fireballs were sitting on supports in the shallow water at the edge of beach and filled with firewood. The fires set inside them illuminated the cut-out designs. They were a beautiful sight at night. The event brought out lots of cruisers and locals. We had a great time in the relaxed party atmosphere.

From Trellis Bay we motored over to the Baths on the south-western shore of Virgin Gorda for the afternoon. Other than having to deal with other boats pushing for the few mooring balls, the Baths were great. They are probably "the" tourist sight in the BVIs - and rightfully so. Huge bolders are perched on top of each other creating caverns and crawlspaces between them. Because they are right at the water's edge, you wade through water in some of the areas. We both loved wandering through the Baths.

That evening, we moved up to Savannah Bay, which was a wonderful anchorage. It is not only relatively shallow but also empty because charter boats aren't allowed to go there due to an outlying reef. We did end up having one neighbour in the large anchorage, a huge mega-sailing-yacht.

We left for Anegada the next day. We had a good sail over. Anegada is a low-lying sand and coral island which reminded us a lot of the Bahamas. We only spent one night at Anegada since we wanted to take the next weather window over to St. Martin later in the week. We did, however, take in one thing Anegada is known for - its lobsters. We had a great Valentine's Day dinner at the Potters by the Sea restaurant, right on the beach.

From Anegada we sailed over to Gorda Sound in order to pick up some fuel. Here we met up again with Charlotte, whom we hadn't seen since St. Thomas. We had to anchor three times in order for our anchor to catch - this should have been a sign to us as our anchor usually catches easily. In the morning, Geoff found it awfully hard to pull the anchor up. Eventually he saw why - we had snagged a thick underwater cable that wasn't marked on the charts! After a few attempts of lifting and quickly dropping the anchor while motoring away from the cable we were finally able to get ourselves free.

Because we enjoyed the Baths so much the first time, we spent the afternoon before our departure to St. Martin wandering through this natural marvel again.

Street in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI

Anchored in shallow water in Trellis Bay, Tortola, BVI
(yes, that's Ruth standing behind the boat!)

Fireballs at the Full Moon Party, Trellis Bay

Anegada Valentine's Day Lobster Dinner

The Baths on Virgin Gorda, BVI

The Baths

Puerto Rico - An Island of Contrasts

2009-01-25T18:44:00.019-05:00

25 January 2009

Puerto Rico was one pleasant surprise after another. We knew little about this US territory before we arrived. The surprises started as soon as we saw the island. Puerto Rico is very hilly with lush vegitation and many houses and towns dotting the hillsides - a completely different vista than the Bahamian ones we'd grown accustomed to for so many weeks. Because Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States, we had to clear in with US customs. The agents were really friendly, even offering us advice on what to see during our visit to Puerto Rico - this is not typical coming from US customs agents!

After clearing in in Mayaguez we moved to Boqueron on the south coast. Boqueron was a wonderful introduction to Puerto Rico for us. It is a vacation town filled with Puerto Ricans on holiday. When we were there, a lot of the Puerto Rican vacationers we met were actually living on the US mainland and had come "back home" for a visit over the christmas holidays. Every evening loud music wafted over the bay to our boat. Boqueron is where was saw the first of many contrasts. In town in the evenings, people were out in the streets partying, but there were families with kids everywhere in the mix so you felt very safe. An equivalent after-dark street party in Canada or on the US mainland would have felt very different. The locals we met were all very friendly and helpful and often suggested places for us to visit, just like we had seen earlier at customs.

From Boqueron we hopped along the south coast to Salinas. The town of Salinas with its protected mangrove-lined bay is a favourite cruisers' stop as services such as groceries, marine stores, and laundry are nearby and you can safely leave your boat for inland tours by car as the anchorage is very protected. The water was pretty murky, but this was made up for by several manatees swimming next to our boat every day.

We rented a car for two days in order to see Puerto Rico by land. On our first day we went to see the Arecibo Radio Observatory, which is the largest radio telescope in the world. It was featured in the 007 movie 'Golden Eye' and in the movie 'Contact'. The drive to Arecibo was fairly long. Initially, we were on a great four-lane divided highway, as good or better than any in North America. This quickly changed to a two-lane highway that went through towns and was stop-and-go. It was a great way to see Puerto Rican life, but not to get somewhere quickly. Finally, after four hours (we'd expected a two-hour trip!) we made it to the town of Arecibo where we had to turn off the "main" road. On our third attempt (due to poor signage) we found the road up to the observatory. The radio telescope was HUGE and very impressive. There were some informational displays to explain its workings and history.

Because it had taken us so long to drive around the island to get to Arecibo, we decided we would take the more "direct" route back across the island. The trip back was indeed faster, but the roads were rather interesting. The hilly central region of Puerto Rico is a Karst landscape, which is characterized by deep, almost crater-like valleys surrounded by large steep hills, all arranged in a random pattern. The roads wind through and around this landscape. Because they often go along steep hillsides, they are narrow - just wide enough for two cars with a cliff up on one side and down on the other. There wasn't a lot of traffic, but the little that was there was going fast, making for a hair-raising drive around tight blind corners! The scenery was stunning, just so hilly and very lush and green. As we left the center of the island and got closer to the south coast, the vistas changed dramatically to gently rolling and arid hills with sweeping views of the ocean.

On our second day with the rental car, we visited the El Yunque rainforest, which is the only tropical rainforest in the United States park system. We had another great drive there through the hills and up into the rainforest. This time we knew what to expect from the roads, so it was an enjoyable drive seeing the local homes and countryside. In El Yunque, we visited one of its famous waterfalls, which was right next to the main park road. Unfortunately we didn't have time to hike in to see the larger falls, but the one we saw was pretty neat. We then drove on to an overlook tower, which allowed for a spectacular view of the cloud forest in the park and views out to the Atlantic Ocean. Our drive back took us close to Puerto Rico's capital, San Juan. We had visited San Juan a few years ago on our cruise ship vacation, so this time we opted to stop at the Bacaradi Rum plant, which is situated across the harbour from Old San Juan, for a tour. Now we know the history of a 'Cuba Libre' and that, officially, it must be made with Coke (not Pepsi or any other cola) and Bacardi Rum (no other brand)!

During our time in Salinas we met up with two other boats which were also travelling east. Cathy and Derek of 'Idyll Island' are a couple from Vancouver Island who have been sailing in the Caribbean for the last year or so. We had initially met them briefly earlier in Ponce, but we got to know them in Salinas. The second boat was 'Charlotte' with Kirsten, Peter and their 6-year old son Alden from Seattle. We ended up travelling for a few days with Charlotte as their plans matched ours.

From Salinas, we hopped farther along the Puerto Rican coast. Once past the mainland, we headed to the island of Vieques in the Spanish Virgin Islands (which belong to Puerto Rico). As we arrived in Sun Bay, we were hailed on the radio by Charlotte as they were already anchored there and saw us coming in. They had left Salinas the day before us, and we hadn't expected to catch up to them. Charlotte and Geru were the only boats in the huge round bay with a mile-long beach.

We spent two days exploring the nearby town of Esperanza and enjoying the beach. The highlight of our stay at Sun Bay was a nighttime dinghy ride with Kirsten, Peter, and Alden. One bay over from Sun Bay is Mosquito Lagoon, which holds the 'Guinness Book of World Records' record as the most bioluminescent in the world! The trip over in the dinghy was an adventure as we were going through swells of 4-5 feet in the dark. As we motored into the lagoon, we didn't see much until we shut off the engine and swished our hands around in the water - the motion caused the water to light up in a bright glow. Kirsten jumped in for a swim and looked rather eerie with this glow surrounding her entire body as she moved around. When we left the bay, we could see fish darting away from the dinghy leaving underwater zig-zag trails of light.

From Sun Bay we moved to Ensenada Honda, another even larger bay. For those of you that know the BVIs, it was the size of North Sound in Virgin Gorda - about two miles across. We shared it with just Charlotte and one other boat. The bay is surrounded by mangrove swap and completely uninhabited. There were no signs of civilization except for a brightly painted red and white observation tower on top of a hill which used to serve as a base for military training exercises. The main reason that the Spanish Virgins are so undeveloped and have these beautiful pristine anchorages is that the US Navy used the islands for live firing manoeuvres for decades. They have only recently stopped this practice and are still clearing unexploded ordnances from various places. Ensenada Honda has been officially cleared, but our electronic charts still showed a pattern of little explosive symbols all over it!

From Vieques, we motorsailed over to the island of Culebra (still in the Spanish Virgins), where we found ourselves back in the cruising crowd. We spent a few days anchored by the town of Dewey. We met several cruisers there who arrived but never left. We could see why - it was a very pleasant, layed-back town on a small island, but yet it is only a short ferry ride (for a dollar!) away from the major town of Fajardo on the mainland of Puerto Rico. One of the main attractions of Culebra is Flamenco Beach, which is supposed to be one of the nicest beaches in the Caribbean. We took a minivan bus over with Charlotte and we all agreed it was a gorgeous beach but it had too many people on it! We have gotten used to very isolated beaches. Nevertheless, we spent a wonderful day there talking and playing in the sand. There is actually an old rusty tank there, sitting right on the beach around the corner from the main bay!

Puerto Rico has been one of the highlights of our trip so far.

Boqueron

Boqueron

Manatee at Salinas

Bacardi plant tour

El Yunque rainforest

El Yunque rainforest

El Yunque rainforest

Arecibo Radio Observatory

Ensenada Honda

Ensenada Honda on the chart plotter

Beach at Sun Bay

Frigate Bird

Dinghy Restaurant / Bar in Dewey

Flamenco Beach

Wonderful Weather Window

2009-01-02T09:52:00.007-05:00

2 January 2009

At Rum Cay we finally got a break in the weather - a large weather window of calm winds which looked long enough to get us all the way to Puerto Rico! We left after filling up all of our jerry cans with diesel as well as the main tank. Our first day out was a bit rough as the waves were still pretty high from the previously windy days. Thankfully they did calm down later on as forecasted. We saw quite a few flying fish. In the larger waves, two of them ended up on the boat, one on the side deck and one right in the cockpit! As we had most of our cockpit enclosure up, we realized that the fish must have come all the way from the front of the boat and over the cabin deck, probably as we bashed into a wave.

We arrived at Grand Turk in the Turks and Caicos Islands on the third morning, having taken 47 hours to motorsail there. Hurricane Ike had done considerable damage to the island this past fall, including wiping out fuel docks. The fuel was now being delivered to one of the large commercial docks by truck. As the weather was still great, we didn't plan to stay in The Turks and Caisos this time around, and we just wanted to quickly refuel and head out again. However, the fuel truck would not give us fuel until we checked into the country, so we waited for the customs people to arrive by car (their dockside office had also been taken out by the hurricane). As we were sorting out the fuel truck, we heard Zanadu Sea on the radio. They had left a day before us but spent a night at anchor along the way. They met up with us and also got fuel. We ended up spending a total of two hours at Grand turk, which included checking in an out of the country at the same time and refueling. We left just after lunch with Zanadu Sea following close behind. We think we will stop at Grand Turk in the T&Cs on our return trip back north as it looks like a nice place to visit. The water was the clearest we had seen anywhere. As we were anchoring, Geoff saw a ray glide past underneath our boat in about 40 feet of water!

Our trip southeast from the Turks and Caicos started out with some nice slow swell which slowly turned into an oily calm. We realized that, in these conditions, we could make the BVIs with the fuel we had, so we parted with Zanadu Sea, who were still heading for Puert Rico. Ruth was on watch at midnight (Eastern Standard Time) on the 31st, and we were at 21° 03'.880 N, 070° 04'.118 W when we passed into the New Year. Ruth quietly sang 'Auld Lang Syne' to herself as we motored alone on a dark calm ocean with the stars twinkling overhead.

On New Year's Day we had a slightly frightful experience. Both of us had been below for 15 minuutes or so - we were motoring over open ocean in calm weather. Ruth popped into the cokpit for a quick horizon check for any boats and there was a large buoy off our starboard (right) bow, just a few boat lengths away! The buoy was completely unexpected - our charts didn't show any on or near our path. The first thought was that our Autopilot had shut itself off (which it does occasionally), and we had gone way off course - but the Autopilot was fine. Then Ruth looked at the chart plotter to check our current position. This caused another gasp of shock, as the display showed a large-scale map centered on the middle of the Atlantic! It turns out that Geoff had earlier bumped the controls. We recognized the buoy as a cardinal buoy, which are used to mark shallow spots in the water. It was important to figure out where around the buoy the shallows would be. After some frantic fiddling, Ruth got the chartplotter back to where we were - there were no charted buoys for miles around. In fact, we were in 13,000 feet of water! We believe that this was a buoy that broke free from its mooring and was randomly floating around the sea. On closer inpection, the buoy showed some damage. It seemed to be missing its top portion, including its light. If it would have been dark, we would not have seen it at all. As it was, we could have easily run into it in broad daylight on a calm day - it just goes to show that you need to keep a good watch out there at all times!

As we passed north of the eastern tip of Puerto Rico, the winds started picking up and the accompanying waves followed shortly thereafter. They were, of course, right on our nose. We quickly decided that we didn't want to beat into the wind and waves as it was getting uncomfortable and we were tired, and so we changed our course back to Puerto Rico. We arrived at Mayaguez (on the eastern shore, in the Mona Passage) just after midnight, the trip from the Turks and Caicos having taken 41 hours. Making a landfall at night is difficult, and, counter to what one might think, it is made more difficult by a brightly lit shoreline. The city lights drown out the usually much smaller and dimmer navigational nights on the dark water in the foreground. There is no way we would have found the anchorage without our chart plotter. As it was, we didn't see the red and green channel markers leading us into the port until we were right between them! We anchored as best we could next to a few other cruising boats (including Zanadu Sea) to get some rest before checking in in the morning.

The trip overall was long and tiring. It took a day to get at least partially adjusted to the watch/sleep schedule. We then had a few nights of poor sleep as we were beating into the waves. Once in Puerto Rico, it took us a few days to get fully back on our feet from the lack of sleep. It was interesting that we saw mainly cruise ships out at sea on this trip (and mainly on Ruth's watch during the first part of the night), as opposed to freighters or other sail boats. We were very happy we found the weather window we did - we were able to get past a bunch of "thorns" by skipping the Dominican Republic on the way south. The DR will be easier to visit on the return (if we choose to).

For those of you that like photos: we finally have some good wi-fi and have uploaded a bunch. Click over to Flickr for our photos.

Oily calm at sea

Errant buoy

We aren't alone at sea

Flying fish

Cruise ships at Grand Turk

On the Thorny Path

2008-12-29T11:24:00.017-05:00

29 December 2008

We spent just over a week at Cat Island. We stayed a bit longer than we had originally planned waiting for weather - a common pastime on the Thorny Path to the Caribbean. Cat Island is interesting, and it seems that not many cruisers visit here - most head down to George Town instead. During our stay at Cat Island, we didn't see a single other cruising boat (in fact, we didn't see many boats at all, only one or two local motor boats!).

We were anchored just off the settlement of New Bight for most of our stay. Like we had encountered on other Bahamian islands, the town has no obvious town centre; instead, it is spread out along one road which roughly follows the shoreline. The police station and government office are located at one end and the grocery store is at the other, 1.5 miles away. Along the road there are a fair number of houses. They are mostly very small (by our standards) single-story homes. In between the occupied homes there are many ruins of older houses, usually overgrown with bushes and greenery and with the roof missing. It seems that the locals don't bother (can't afford?) tearing down the old homes, so they just build beside the ruins or elsewhere.

Any visit to Cat Island would not be complete without a visit to Father Jerome's hermitage. Father Jerome was a priest/architect who built many of the churches in the Bahamas. His hermitage on Cat Island, which was his retirement home, is the most famous. The hermitage, which is a small building complex with a chapel and living quarters, is built on top of the highest hill in the Bahamas (63m!) with stations of the cross along the steep path leading up to it. What a feat to have built it on the top of this hill without the modern tools we have today!

On our walk up to the hermitage we saw our first Bahamian farm, and it was unlike any other farm we'd ever seen. The farmers had cut down larger trees to about 4-foot tall dried-up slender trunks, and they had left all the rocks in the ground. They simply planted in the small pockets of earth in amongst the rocks. We saw watermelons, tomatoes, corn, and breadfruit growing. During our stay at Cat Island, we met Reverend Johnston, who is a school teacher and a farmer. He spoke of the old days when they would go on horseback to collect bat guano from caves on the island to fertilize the plants. Today they simply buy commercial fertilizer from Nassau. We bought a very tasty and juicy watermelon from Reverend Johnston.

We left Cat Island for Rum Cay on Saturday, December 20th. We left at dawn and arrived just after sunset, anchoring in the dark. It was a long day. We motorsailed the whole way. The wind and waves were just off our bow (i.e. almost from the front), which made for an uncomfortable trip. Things improved during the day as the waves died down a bit.

We spent just over a week at Rum Cay (again waiting for weather), including Christmas. It was really odd being there for Christmas as it did not feel like Christmas at all. There were virtually no decorations, music or even mentioning of Christmas. The island was pretty quiet with only a few people around. Some of the locals were "off island" for the holidays, presumably visiting with relatives and friends. Initially we anchored out in the bay, but after a few days we took a slip in the protected marina as it was pretty rolly in the anchorage with the ocean swell coming in over the reef. Besides, it was Christmas, and so we treated ourselves to the convenience of being at a dock.

While at Rum Cay, we saw our first cruising boat in a long time. 'Zanadu Sea' is a Canadian catamaran with a retired couple on board who are also heading down to the Caribbean islands. We spent Christmas with Cliff and Rosalind enjoying a cruisers' Christmas dinner on the 25th. We did quite well given the limits of the pantry on a cruising boat! It was nice to be with other cruisers for christmas, especially given that when we first arrived at Rum Cay the anchorage was empty, and we thought we'd be spending it alone.

One evening, Ruth saw (Geoff missed it!) the fabled "green flash" at sunset. This is a bit of a rite of passage among cruisers, as it appears to be a rare event and usually requires having sat through many sunsets (where the sun is setting over water from the viewer's perspective) looking for the elusive green flash. We had read that it is an atmospheric phenomenon that occurs under specific circumstances, where a reflection of the setting sun appears as a bright green flash on the horizon. Ruth said it looked like the very last bit of the top of the sun suddenly turned bright green for a second or two before it slipped below the horizon.

While we were at Rum Cay, we watched many a cruise ship go by late in the evening. Holland America has a "private" island not far away where their cruise ships anchor for an afternoon and the guests get to enjoy the beach. We also really noticed how many stars you can see when you are away from all the city lights - just amazing!

Customs House at Smith Bay, Cat Island

Geru off the beach at New Bight, Cat Island

Geru off the beach at New Bight, Cat Island

Houses on Cat Island

Old Ruin on Cat Island

Entry to Father Jerome's Hermitage

Second Station of the Cross on the way up to Father Jerome's Hermitage

Stations of the Cross on the way up to Father Jerome's Hermitage

Father Jerome's Hermitage

Pew for One at Father Jerome's Hermitage

Farm on Cat Island

Farm on Cat Island

Some Ingredients for a Cruisers' Christmas Dinner

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T10:24:00.000-05:00

24 December 2008

We wish you all a merry christmas and a very happy new year from Rum Cay in the Bahamas.

Back in the Bahamas

2008-12-12T18:56:00.002-05:00

12 December 2008

On Friday, December 5th, we moved down to Key Biscayne to be closer to the ocean for our crossing over to the Bahamas the next day. On Saturday we left for our fifth crossing of the Gulf Stream. Thankfully, it was uneventful and we were back in turquoise waters on the Great Bahama Bank at Bimini just before sunset. As we continued on through the night, Ruth, who was on watch, had an unnerving experience. As we were approaching Mackie Shoal, which is a very shallow area on the bank, there were two boats anchored close to the lit shoal marker in a way that forced us to pass between them and the marker. Because it was night and depth perception is poor in the dark, Ruth had very little feel for how close we were to those boats, so she motored along, anxiously keeping an eye on them. When we finally passed them, she could see the hulls in the ambient light, and we ended up motoring just a few boat length in front of one of them.

The next morning, just after we left the bank, we were approached by a large motor boat of the Bahamian Defence Force who asked to board us. After one of their officers stepped onto our boat (not a small feat in the rolling seas!), we were informed that we should have cleared in at Bimini, our first possible port of call. After informing them that this was not mentioned in any of our guide books and that we were planning to go straight through to Cat Island, the officer said it was okay - this time. Later on that evening (we were now on our second night of non-stop travelling), as we were passing south of New Providence Island, Ruth was sitting in the salon when the whole boat was lit up by a strong search light - another Bahamian Defence Force vessel! This time they did not board us, but took the paperwork from our last boarding and copied it. Papers were passed back and forth between our boat and theirs, again in rolling seas and with their boat coming dangerously close to hitting ours. Most people never even see the Bahamian Defence Force, and we had them visit us twice - we guess this is what happens when you travel at night where most innocent cruising boats don't!

We were pushing to get to Cat Island but the weather started deteriorating. We ended up stopping at Highbourne Cay on Monday morning, and we immediately went to bed as we hadn't slept well during our night passages due to the waves rocking the boat in a rather uncomfortable manner. We spent four days in the Highbourne/Allens Cay area waiting for weather to cross over the Cat Island. The night before we left Allens Cay, a squall came through at about 4am. Just before the squall hit, Geoff had woken up because the boat started moving differently in the changing winds. He looked outside and saw that we had rotated 180 degrees on our anchor with the veering wind and that we were getting quite close to two other anchored boats. There was still enough distance so Geoff wasn't concerned. Then the squall hit and we tugged on our anchor, extending our rode to its full length. Geoff checked outside again and was a little alarmed - we had slid backwards to sit exactly between the two boats, each one being only a boat length away! It was really lucky that we didn't run into one of them. The boat to our right was swinging a lot at its anchor (some boats have a tendency to do that - it's called "sailing at anchor") and was getting awfully close. Ruth awoke to shouting on deck in French, as the boat did get close enough that they would have hit us from the side had Geoff and the other owner (who only spoke French) not physically pushed the two boats apart. Because we were the boat in the middle and were too close to both, we started our engine, picked up anchor and re-anchored a few hundred yards away for a rough rest of the night as we were closer to the inlet now and the waves were much larger. All of this happened in howling wind and pounding rain in total darkness! Two hours later at dawn, we left for Cat Island. Our trip over was a smooth but fairly long one - we arrived at 8pm in the evening, anchoring in the dark to the lights of some houses on shore.

South on the ICW

2008-12-05T19:11:00.014-05:00

5 December 2008

Between November 12 and December 5 we worked our way south on the ICW passing by many of the places we'd seen last winter, but it felt quite different this time around. We were more relaxed as we "knew what we were doing", but we were also pushing hard to get south quickly so we could leave for the islands sooner. A few notable events from the trip include:

One evening, we were heading for an anchorage we had picked out on the chart. As we passed a little bay off to the side of the ICW, Geoff suggested we try it instead - it looked very calm and beautiful. It was charted at only 4 feet deep, so we slowly nosed our way out of the channel and towards shore. Well, it turned out to be 13 feet deep, which was deeper than the dredged ICW beside it! It was a great spot - fully sheltered from the wind, in the middle of a gorgeous golf course, and with wifi access!

A few days later, as we left an anchorage just south of Lake Worth at Lantana, the engine started having an odd - and rather violent - vibration. The engine RPM at which the vibration occurred seemed to be changing. We had a rather worrisome two days of motoring, trying not to run the engine at an RPM that would vibrate. Once in Fort Lauderdale, Geoff searched the web and both of us brainstormed on the possible causes - our biggest fear was that it was the transmission. After much more thinking, trying things out ("what happens if I push here while we rev the engine ?"), disassembling and reassembling things and cursing the boat builders, we believe it's a misaligned/loose connection between the transmission and the outdrive. We have fixed it to the point that it only vibrates above our normal operating RPM - we can live with that until we have the time, tools and location to look into this further.

Just north of Miami we had our best encounter with dolphins yet - they we jumping out of the water ahead of us when we first saw them, and, as we approached, they came over to check us out. Standing on the front deck, Geoff had a great view of the dolphins playing between the bows!

We spent a week in Miami Beach and just loved it. Of all the cities we have visited on our trip, it is one of our favourites. South Beach has everything in a small area, from grocery stores to restaurants, from art galleries to cinemas, from art deco boutique hotels to luxury condo towers. Each day we would wander the city picking different ways to walk to the beach and back. We loved the eclectic mix of people - there are the affluent, the artsy, the alternative, and the good-looking, to name but a few. The beach is one of the nicest and largest we have seen - it's huge, both in length and depth, and there was no lack of interesting people to watch.

ICW Lawn Ornaments (!?)

The "golf course anchorage"

The "Vote Boat" seen in Fort Lauderdale

Dolphins just north of Miami

Flowers on Lincoln Road, Miami South Beach (in December!)

Miami Beach

Miami at night

The Long Way South

2008-11-18T20:37:00.001-05:00

18 November 2008

Mid-morning on Sunday the 9th we left Brunswick heading toward the British Virgin Islands. On our first day out we had a great sail in calm wind and seas. We crossed the Gulf Stream overnight and on Monday morning. By Monday afternoon we got unexpected weather reports of rapidly increasing wind and waves (up to 35 knots) in the area we were going to be sailing in. As the wind was supposed to be kicking in from the north/northeast, we would have been "trapped" on the east/offshore side of the Gulf Stream (huge waves build in it with northerly winds), taking away our option to return to the Eastern shore of the US. The remains of hurricane Paloma over the Bahamas took away Plan C - heading there for cover. So we made the decision to turn around and head straight back across the Gulf Stream before the winds set in. Things stayed pretty calm until about 6am on Tuesday morning when the wind and waves began building rapidly. Thank goodness we were out of the Gulf Stream by then. As it was, by the time we got to Fernandina Beach, Florida, at around noon, we had 20+ knot winds and waves of 6-10 feet. We were moving along at 7 knots with down-wave surfs up to 9.5 knots. We actually had a nice sail back, but it was on the edge of our comfort zone and certainly not anything we'd want to do overnight or for an extended period of time. We had now travelled 100 miles out to sea and back again to make it 30 miles south!

After getting to Fernandina, we looked at the weather, thought some more, and decided that we would head down the ICW (and potentially down the coast "on the outside" for some sections) until Miami. From Miami, we plan to cross the Gulf Stream once again into the Bahamas. We expect to continue on the "thorny path" threading our way Southeast along the island chain. Depending on the weather, we may go from island to island or we may do longer hops by going farther out to sea and stopping only every few days, perhaps in the Turks & Caicos and Puerto Rico. As usual, this plan is firmly carved in Jello!

Looking at what the weather has done, we are very glad we turned around. It looks like most of our passage would have been in 25+ knot winds and the accompanying waves. In talking with friends who were out there, we made the right decision as they had a very, very rough trip! Although we are glad we avoided that, we are frustrated that we are still in the US and that, by the looks of it, the weather is keeping it that way for a while longer.

Some of Dock 10 saying goodbye in Brunswick

Gulf Stream currents

Sailing under spinnaker

Back to Brunswick, Georgia

2008-09-19T09:50:00.017-04:00

8 November 2008

We left Fort Lauderdale on Friday, September 12th. We had planned on sailing on the outside (along the coast, not on the ICW) right up to Brunswick. As we left the harbour, however, we met large waves which had built due to a combination of the remains of the onshore winds and waves of hurricane Ike and the outgoing tide. It was far too uncomfortable to travel with these waves on the beam (from the side), so we headed back in and travelled up the ICW to Lake Worth over the next two days. We had been told that this section of the ICW gets pretty bad due to the number of bridges and the boat traffic, but because of the time of year (September being in the off-season), there were hardly any other boats out. The bridges did slow us down, but the nice weather and the scenery of waterfront mansions made for a pleasant trip.

We left Lake Worth on Sunday and travelled north on the outside. The trip from Lake Worth to Brunswick, Georgia, took us two and a half days and was our first time sailing through the night. We ran an unconventional watch schedule where Ruth started her watch at 8pm and stayed up until about 4am. Then Geoff got up and took over until noon, and then both of us were awake and shared the helm until 8pm. Most people break up the night into four-hour sections rather than the eight we used, but we found that this worked quite well for us. The schedule aligns with our natural tendencies - Ruth is more of a night owl and Geoff a morning person. The sail up to Brunswick was quite pleasant, although we were in light winds so we (yet again) motored a fair bit of the way. Of note during the trip was the cruise ship Geoff saw going into Port Canaveral before dawn, the sea turtle we both saw and at first almost missed because its back was the same colour as the ubiquitous light brown floating sea weed, and the painfully slow motor up the Brunswick River and into the marina due to the tidal current against us.

Over the last two months in Brunswick we have cleaned up the boat, reprovisioned, and done some minor maintenance on Geru. It has been really nice to catch up on some items that have been on the list since we bought the boat, such as replacing the exhaust hose and cleaning the years of engine oil out of the engine bilge. Thanks to the cleaning and sorting we have been able to do in Brunswick, the boat feels a lot more organized - although we still feel that she's just starting to get to the state we'd like to have her in. We will be leaving some "stuff" in storage here as well, because we have found that we still have much more on board than we need or want.

One of the great things about our stop here has been the time we've had to catch up with old friends whom we had met during our travels or previously in Brunswick. We have also explored the surrounding "Golden Isles" area with car trips over to Jekyll and St. Simons Islands, and we took day trips to Savannah, Georgia, and St. Augustine, Florida. We had not been in Savannah before, and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit there. It is a beautiful city with quaint streets and many squares canopied by large live oak trees covered in Spanish moss. We took a sightseeing tour in Savannah and learned more about the history of the southern US.

Our plan now is to head off to the BVIs (British Virgin Islands). We are currently expecting to sail directly there with no stops along the way, but this will depend on the weather. We had originally planned to leave a week ago, but a North-Atlantic low and the development of hurricane Paloma have pushed out our departure date. Now everything looks good to go for Sunday the 9th.

The ICW leaving Fort Lauderdale

Space shuttle on the launch pad as we passed Cape Canaveral

The Sidney Lanier Bridge - a Brunswick landmark

Road on St. Simons Island

Shrimper in St. Simons Sound

Sunset over dock 10 at Brunswick Landing Marina

City square in Savannah

Street in Savannah

Backyard in Savannah

Hmmm... I think this exhaust hose should be changed...

Waiting for Hurricanes in Fort Lauderdale

2008-09-11T09:51:00.014-04:00

11 September 2008

We spent two and a half weeks in Fort Lauderdale. It was great to be back in civilization after being in such deserted places for so long. We both enjoyed the life and energy which Fort Lauderdale has. We thought we'd left the heat behind in George Town, but it was quite hot in Fort Lauderdale as well. We ended up buying an air conditioner to make it bearable on board, and we spent time exploring the malls and stores during the day to keep cool.

Given the number of hurricanes that swept past the Bahamas during our stay in Fort Lauderdale, we were very glad we had chosen to head back to the US. We felt safer knowing that there would be more resources available here if a hurricane were to hit. Mega yachts passed by the small marina we were staying at in a seemingly endless parade to head farther upriver to (relative) safety when hurricane Hanna was approaching. Fortunately, we experienced no serious weather.

We were once again staying at Cooley's Landing Marina in the downtown area of Fort Lauderdale. We like the bars and restaurants in this area. By comparison, the more famous tourist area by the beach seems quite run down. We enjoyed a few nights out on the patios watching people strut by in eye-catching outfits. Again we were astounded by the amount of obvious plastic surgery! One night we went to "America's Backyard", a place we imagined to be a quintessential spring break attraction, which, even at this time of year in the off-season, drew quite a crowd. The entire place was outdoors with a roofed balcony along one side. The main bar sat in the centre of the open area. It looked like a free-form raised swimming pool. The counter surrounding the bar was tiled like the bottom of a pool would be, and there were pool ladders to help patrons climb up onto the counter to dance up there! We had fun watching the gregarious crowd and doing a bit of dancing ourselves - albeit not on the counters... On another occasion, when looking for a good place to eat, we came across a somewhat unusual restaurant recommended by Gourmet magazine. The place was called Lips, and the dinner included a show as well. The "unusual" part? The waitresses as well as the stars of the evening show were all drag queens! The audience turned out to be a mixture of ordinary folks, men and women, couples, groups and even families. The food was great and the entertainment hilarious.

One afternoon, we had an interesting animal encounter. We were sitting in the boat and suddenly heard some scratching on the cabintop. We'd heard a similar sound in the past when birds walked around on our boat. As we looked up at the forward hatch (which was closed but is essentially see-through), we saw two large clawed feet and a long tail - this time, it wasn't a bird, but an iguana! We both rushed out on deck to watch the iguana wander around our boat. It got scared when it saw us, and it jumped overboard into the water! (Did you know iguanas can swim? - we didn't!)

Our "little" visitor

Three storms on the way!

The projected path for Hanna - just brushing Fort Lauderdale

Back to the US

2008-09-09T22:40:00.001-04:00

9 September 2008

After returning from Ottawa, we spent a few days putting the boat back together (sails on, cockpit enclosure back up, etc.) and picking up supplies for our trip back to the US. We ended up spending an extra day or two waiting for tropical storm Fay to pass by and allowing the seas to calm down. We had hoped to sail most of the trip back, however, the winds ended up being fairly light so it was yet another motorsail trip most of the way. We stopped at Black Point (Exumas), SouthWest Allen's Cay (Exumas), West Bay (New Providence), Chub Cay, and Bimini.

We decided we would do as much ocean sailing as we could on the way back rather than staying on the banks, as it is more direct and therefore faster. Our first day out (Monday, August 18) was a good one; we made it from George Town to Black Point. Our second day, however, was a bit much for us as we encountered larger ocean waves. The waves were 6 to 8 feet with a very short period. Swells would have been ok, but these waves were very uncomfortable and a bit scary. As we left the cut from the banks it was clear the waves were large, but we couldn't turn around because of the waves and current in the cut. We kept on going out hoping it might get better a little farther out, but it didn't. At our next chance, which happened to be at Staniel Cay, we ducked back onto the banks and had a much better (although still somewhat rough) day of sailing on the banks.

Our excitement for the day was not over yet, though - as we were entering the anchorage at SW Allen's Cay and turned off the autopilot to resume steering by hand, we found that the boat would not really respond to the wheel! Luckily we had enough steering control to make it in and anchor - we just had to turn the wheel about twenty times. It turned out that one of our hydraulic lines had chafed through (we guess in the rough seas). Geoff was able to put together a temporary fix with Rescue Tape and replenish the hydraulic fluid supply. The fix worked - he thought it might not hold once he repressurized the system, but the Rescue Tape did the job!

SW Allen's Cay was a private spot for us as we were the only boat in the tiny and very protected anchorage, but we did share the island with lots of iguanas which was really neat. They were quite large and almost menacing-looking. When we landed the dinghy on the beach, several iguanas started coming towards us out of the shrubs. We stayed for two nights in this anchorage to have more time to enjoy the cay, to fix the hydraulics, and to wait for Fay to move farther north as we were catching up to her. The Exumas felt deserted by this time. We only saw two other boats in the distance during our stay at SW Allen's Cay.

The next few days of our trip were fairly uneventful. We anchored at West Bay on New Providence Island for two nights and then spent one night at Chub Cay. We didn't go ashore on either island, but we went snorkelling around the boat and scraped marine growth off Geru's bottom.

The route from Chub Cay to Bimini leads over the banks and usually takes two days with an overnight stop somewhere on the banks. It is really quite amazing - 80 nm (about 144 km) without any land, but with the bottom clearly visible only 10 feet below the boat! During this leg of our adventure we experienced the worst "anchorage" yet. On Sunday (August 24), we decided to make it a long day (8:20 -22:50) to make it from Chub Cay to Bimini in one shot to save a day of travelling. Because we arrived at Bimini after dark, we didn't want to anchor too close to shore as we couldn't see anything, so we anchored on the banks just before Bimini. This turned out to be a mistake as we were in the natural channel where the tidal current comes on and off the banks, which, in conjunction with the wind, caused some pretty good waves making for an uncomfortable night of fitful sleep. The light pollution in this seemingly remote place really struck us. Bimini was a dark mass in front of us with a few red lights from the tops of tall masts, but the horizon was very light to the west in the direction of Miami and also to the north toward Freeport (on Grand Bahama Island).

On Monday morning we left the Bahamas for Fort Lauderdale. We had a pretty good motorsail across the Gulf Stream with only two or three small bands of rain getting us wet. The excitement of the day was when we were approached and hailed by a US Coast Guard Frigate. They asked for information about our destination, boat registry, and citizenship. Presumably because we are a Canadian vessel, they didn't ask to board us for a "courtesy safety inspection", which they did to the American boats travelling in our vicinity.

We have now caught up on our Bahamas blogs, photos, and videos. If you missed any of the blogs, they are now in chronological order below.

Leaving Black Point (on the outside)

Geru anchored at SW Allen's Cay

Iguana at SW Allen's Cay

Gull at SW Allen's Cay

Dolphin seen just before Bimini

Coast Guard Frigate that approached us

A good reason to have left the Bahamas...
(Two Hurricanes, one tropical storm and three possible upcoming storms!)

Plans Changing...

2008-08-17T19:12:00.005-04:00

As the saying we've picked up goes.... a cruiser's plans are set in jello (and the jello isn't set). So with this in mind we are heading back north for a while. We have found that the isolation of George Town isn't bringing us happiness, and the thought of the path ahead against the prevailing winds while dodging hurricanes just doesn't sound like fun. So we will be heading to Florida and then probably farther north for a while. Once hurricane season is over we will probably head back south again.

ps. We posted more videos on Vimeo recently when we had a good internet connection.

pps. We will catch up with some missing posts sometime...

Tropical Storm Fay

That's why they call it the Thorny Path...

2008-08-13T14:40:00.011-04:00

13 August 2008

We had known since last year that Geoff's sister's wedding would be in August, and we wanted to fly back to Ottawa for the event. Since it was hurricane season, we needed to find a safe place to leave the boat (a hurricane hole) with access to an airport. There were two well-known hurricane holes near us - one right in George Town, Bahamas, and one in Luperon in the Dominican Republic.

As our required departure date back to Ottawa was getting closer, we started to think about which hurricane hole we wanted to leave Geru in. The trip from George Town to the Dominican Republic is on what is called the Thorny Path. Travelling from the central Bahamas through the Turks & Caicos, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico to the Virgin Islands takes you in a south-easterly direction, which is against the direction of the prevailing winds. This means that you need to motor much of the time and you will be pushing against wind and waves, which can be very uncomfortable, and you will travel more slowly. All of this earned the route the name Thorny Path.

Looking at the dates and the weather, we decided that we could make it to the Dominican Republic if we left sooner rather than later. We also knew that we would need a few days to get things sorted out once we got there, such as booking flights and securing the boat for a storm or hurricane that might hit while we were away. If we waited much longer, we could not be certain we'd make it to the wedding.

So on Saturday, June 28, we left George Town headed for Cape Santa Maria on Long Island. The winds were forecast to be about 15 knots and waves 5 to 6 feet. As we left George Town harbour and headed out, the conditions at first were about what we expected. However, it became quite rough as we got farther out. We were motoring right into both the wind and waves. Geru was slamming down on the waves with lots of water on the deck - it was quite unpleasant! We turned to each other and asked if we wanted to do this for 5 days straight to get to the Dominican Republic, which we would have needed to do in order to get there in time. So, feeling very frustrated and defeated, we turned around - and we now truly appreciate why they call it the Thorny Path! We ended up having a great trip back to George Town (it's SOOO much better running WITH the wind and waves!).

The next day we sat down to figure out what to do - wait for better weather to try again and risk not making it back to Ottawa, or stay in George Town and fly back from there. Because we did not want to miss the wedding, we decided to stay in George Town and planned to travel to the Dominican Republic after the wedding. This would allow us to take our time for the trip. We also wouldn't have to skip any islands we wanted to see along the way, because we would not be in a hurry. It would also allow for unscheduled stops to wait out weather. The route to the Dominican Republic passes through less sheltered waters, with fewer islands or shallow banks to hide behind for protection. The islands along the way are mostly remote outposts, and most of the trip is over open ocean - with the next stop to the East being Africa!

We spent the next few weeks catching up on the ever-growing list of chores and preparing the boat for a possible hurricane. The Atlantic had already seen two tropical storms this season. We also booked our flights to be in Ottawa for the first two weeks of August.

Our trip to Ottawa was very nice, although being in a big city again after weeks of solitude in the islands was a bit of a culture shock! Our trip was a whirlwind tour - we were running the whole time in order to get everything done. The first week was spent rushing around to dentist, eye doctor, and physio appointments and picking up items we couldn't get down south. The second week was all about Geoff's sister's wedding. We made some time to visit with friends, too, which was great. The wedding went well and, other than a slightly rainy ceremony, it was wonderful. Geoff was one of the groomsmen, and it was quite a change to see him in a tux rather than his usual very casual boat clothes!

A small part of the Exumas from the plane

More of the Exumas

Bimini

The wedding ceremony (Geoff standing on the far right)

Jenny and Steve

Google our Trip

2008-07-03T13:15:00.003-04:00

For those of you who would like to explore where we have been, below are some links for the full list of position reports up to today.

If you have Google Earth, download the two KML files below:

If you don't have Google Earth you can use Google Maps

Enjoy!

View Larger Map

Fish, Wind, and Unknown Depths

2008-06-28T22:27:00.016-04:00

28 June 2008

On Saturday, June 21st, we motored for eight hours to George Town (Exumas) from Rudder Cut Cay, taking the outside route (in the Exuma Sound). The day was quite breezy with the wind almost on our nose, so we didn't sail. Since we were in open water, we decided to try out our fishing handline (a set-up with only a reel of line - no rod) for the first time. As we have more open-water passages ahead of us, we didn't expect much on the first day of trying it, especially because we were just motoring along a chain of cays which were less than a mile away. Geoff thought that the line might not be long enough, because we clearly saw the lure skipping along on the surface behind the boat. Well...Within an hour of putting the line out we had our first fish! We identified it as a Cero (a type of mackerel), and we filleted it on the back deck right away (and ate half of it for dinner at the end of the day). Inspired by our success we put the line back in the water. Two hours later we had another bite! We pulled the fish in close to the boat. It was another Cero. While attempting to gaff the fish, he somehow got off the hook and slipped away. Disappointed but undaunted we dropped the hook in again. This time it took less than five minutes for the next one to bite! Our third fish in as many hours. This fish was an Almaco Jack (we think). His fillets went into our freezer.

As we entered George Town harbour, we noticed that our depth sounder wasn't working - it has had some intermittent problems for a while, but now it just wasn't showing any depth. Because we are comparatively shallow, we generally trust our chart plotter and don't worry about the depths too much. When we anchor, however, we usually try to get as close in to shore as possible to get the most protection from wind and waves. So when we went to anchor off Stocking Island across from George Town, we had to use the old method of a lead line to figure out the depth - an interesting proposition when you care about a one foot error! We anchored safely and added a new depth sounder to our list of things to do. As it turned out, we ended up with a fish finder as that was the closest thing we could find in George Town.

George Town is the largest town of the Exumas, but is still fairly small with little in the way of services. The town surrounds a small lake (Lake Victoria), which is accessible by dinghy via a connection under a bridge to the main harbour. Most of the beach anchorages are across the harbour from George Town along Stocking Island, such as Volleyball Beach, Hamburger Beach, and Sanddollar Beach. We were anchored just off of Volleyball Beach, near the Chat'n'Chill beach bar. During the winter at the height of the cruising season, hundreds of boats stay in George Town harbour (properly called Elizabeth Harbour). Because we were there in the summer, there were only a handful of other cruisers around. We spent a couple of fun days with Renata, Kuno, and Tatiana from Blue Moon.

Geoff with our first fish (a Cero)

Geoff with our third fish (an Almaco Jack)

Dinner!

Geru at Volleyball Beach on Stocking Island

We've come a long way...

Exit from Lake Victoria, George Town - with Geru out front

Some fun on the beach at night (Tatiana and Ruth)

To the Exumas via Eleuthera

2008-06-22T22:25:00.009-04:00

22 June 2008

On Sunday, June 8th, we motored to Eleuthera and anchored at Royal Island. We had planned on sailing across, but shortly after leaving the cut to the ocean Geoff got quite seasick. There were some fairly large swells (about five feet). We ended up motoring, because it would have been more of a challenge for Ruth to handle the sails alone while also looking after Geoff. Geoff was finally able to get enough Gravol in so that by the time we arrived he was feeling almost normal. Other than the swells, it was actually quite a nice day for our trip to Eleuthera.

We spent Monday at Royal Island for Geoff to recover and install the watermaker (it now works!). Outside of another boat on the other side of the anchorage, we were alone in a large and almost completely enclosed bay. The statement of the day by Ruth was "What a wonderful Monday.... everyone's at work - and we are here!" It certainly didn't feel like a Monday at Royal Island. We are finding that we frequently lose track of the days of the week.

On Tuesday we motored to the northernmost islands of the Exumas chain. We had been hearing since Florida that the Exumas are wonderful. The water is very clear here, so clear that you can see the bottom 20 feet down even with just the moonlight. But the rest of the landscape is very barren and scrubby - not the tropical paradise we expected. We are begining to think many people like the Exumas because during the crusing season (which is over the winter) it is not as crowded as the Abacos.

Over the next ten days, we slowly worked our way down the Exumas island chain. We spent a day at Warderick Wells in the Land and Sea Park for our first real snokeling of the trip. We saw some nice coral and tropical fish. On Sunday we anchored off Big Majors Spot. The cay is famous for the pigs that residents of a neighboring island keep here. The pigs roam freely and are fed by cruisers arriving on boats. We took the dinghy into the beach, and the sound of our outboard engine brought a large pig running towards us out of the shrubs! We brought some cut-up potatoes and got to feed and pet the pig. On Tuesday we toured Staniel Cay which gave us our first feel of an Exuma town. The two grocery stores were really small - they seemed to have less food and household supplies in them than we had in our house in Ottawa! One of the attractions of Staniel Cay is Thunderball Cave, which was featured in both the 1960s Bond 007 movie "Thunderball" and in the movie "Splash". The snorkeling in and around the cave was pretty neat. We brought some cut up potatoes with us (the left-overs from the pig adventure!) and dozens of small tropical fish went into a feeding frenzy - Ruth couldn't see her hands through the fish as she was feeding them! The cave also had some of the best coral we've seen yet.

Sailing on the banks between Eleuthera and the Exumas

Our neighbour at Hawksbill Cay

Hawksbill Cay

Ruth feeding a pig at Big Majors Spot

Beach of conch shells at Staniel Cay

Town of Black Point on Great Guana Cay

Position Reports

2008-06-13T22:14:00.004-04:00

Because we haven't been able to get internet for the last little while, we thought we'd point out that you can always find out where we are by looking at our position report. The link is in the sidebar at the top right of the main page.

Southbound

2008-06-09T17:49:00.009-04:00

9 June 2008

On Tuesday, June 3rd, we left Marsh Harbour for Tahiti Beach, which is located on the southern end of Elbow Cay. Tahiti Beach is one of the neatest beaches we've seen - it only appears at low tide and completely disappears at high tide. We spent a few hours on the beach, then spent some time snorkelling around the boat to clean barnacles and other sea life off the bottom.

The following day was hot and sunny day again as we sailed and motored south to Little Harbour on Great Abaco Island. We tried to put up the stay sail to add a bit more speed today. We had not put this sail up before. It turns out that our stay sail doesn't fit the current rigging on the boat. The last owner broke the original mast on Geru and had a new one made. It appears that when this was done, the attachment point of the inner stay to the mast was moved. Since the staysail predates this modification, it no longer fits - it is too big! So...sometime we will need to get that sail recut.

Little Harbour has a neat little foundry and gallery of cast bronze sculptures (along with other local art), which we visited on our second day there. We had also heard of a nearby beach that is supposed to be full of beach glass (which are shards of glass, often old, that have been smoothed by being tumbled in the surf and rocks). The beach was a mixture of sandy sections and ledges of sharp old rocky coral. We did find some glass, although we'd expected to find larger pieces. One afternoon we walked up to the lighthouse. Today the lighthouse is an electric light on a tall post that apparently works "sometimes". The post sits next to the ruins of the old lighthouse. This was the first time in our travels through the Bahamas (but not the last) that it struck us how harsh life here must have been before the advent of regular food and goods shipments from the outside. It's very barren, there's little soil to grow anthing, and the only fresh water in most places is from the occasional rain. Today many towns have reverse-osmosis watermaking plants that produce fresh water from sea water on a large scale, but most houses also still have cisterns to catch rain falling onto the roofs.

Our next stop after Little Harbour was the island of Eleuthera. The trip from the Abacos to Eleuthera takes a full day over open ocean. This was only our second passage like that - the first being our Gulfstream crossing. We had wanted to leave Little Harbour and head for Eleuthera on Friday. However, the weather didn't allow for it as the wind was blowing right against us and the seas were on the large side. The weather looked more favourable for Sunday. We were faced with a bit of a dilemma, though. The entrance to Little Harbour is a little too shallow for us (and we only draw three feet!) at low tide, which was right when we needed to leave on Sunday morning in order to make our passage in daylight. So on Saturday, we moved half an hour north of Little Harbour to Lynyard Cay in preparation for our sail to Eleuthera.

Tahiti Beach

Little Harbour Gallery

Beach on the Atlantic side of Little Harbour

Little Harbour (view from up the mast)

Pete's Pub in Little Harbour