Oliver Sails South: April 2013

Yes, that is right, we are staying in Florida. Many reasons: weather squalls keep popping up, waves are okay to cross, but then get higher if we try to leave West End on Grand Bahama to go to the Abacos, prices at most all marinas went up substantially this month so we would be anchoring in iffy weather and dinghying Ollie to shore, winds remain coming from the East right on our nose, we do not have a buddy boat to go with anymore and we only have a month before hurricane season begins and we would not like to be stuck there. We found out rates went up due to fishing season and tournaments occurring. Plus , you have to pay $300 to get into the Bahamas and I want my money's worth being Dutch. Luckily, we traveled often to Caribbean islands and don't feel like this is our only chance. So, we will stay put, not feel rushed to get somewhere or try to push it. That is when "stuff" happens. If the dog remains healthy, we can try again next year when we would have more time. Soon, we will head north to look for places to spend time this summer, hopefully safe from hurricanes. We also would like to check out the west coast of Florida even though we are told it is shallow.

Ft. Lauderdale has been hot and humid. We are in a summer weather pattern. We get storm cells popping up. Oliver takes his long walk at night when the sun goes down. Luckily we are plugged in at a dock running the air conditioner. There was the Tortugas festival here last weekend at the beach. We could hear Kenny Cheasney from the boat. Not sure what it was all about, but between rain, it was 2 days of concerts. This weekend is an air festival. We saw some planes practicing today.

Anyway, that is our little update. Oliver is glad we are not traveling in rough seas for 10-12 hours. Our buddy boats that went had 3-5 footers on the nose with waves breaking over the bow for 13-14 hours. Yuck! They love it there now. Oliver prefers watching the cats, chasing little lizards and being lazy. We even got to watch the Master's tournament as we had local TV channels here. Now, with the Boston Marathon incident, we are praying for all those affected.

Oliver couldn't find the cats

our view down the river

The 5 airplanes practicing sky writing.

We have come full circle. We are waiting in Ft. Lauderdale at Bruno's for a weather window to go the Bahamas or head North for the summer. Before we left Marathon, we went to Key West to get our Local Boater Option cards which means with a phone call we can get back in the US in certain parts of Florida. They invited Oliver right in the customs and immigration offices. They fingerprinted Dale and I and took our boat info and passports.They teased about taking Oliver's paw prints to make sure he wasn't a felon. Also as many of you know, we were going to wait until next year for the Bahamas but Oliver has been doing so well and the vet in Marathon checked twice for pericardial effusion and did not see any fluid. The weather is suppose to be calmer this time of year too.

Our trip from Marathon on Easter was exciting. We had 2-4 foot seas, lots of wind and a rollicking ride about 50 miles to an anchorage by Rodriquez key. We were pretty heeled over and Oliver was not happy until about noon when he found a good place to lay without crashing. We keep him in the cockpit as things below can fall if a large wave hits us funny. It has happened before, so we do not chance it. You think you store stuff away, but something always gets missed by me.

Anyway, we anchored there and got Oliver ashore. It was a windy night , but OK. The next day, April 1, we headed up to No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne by Miami, another 47 miles. We were about 25-30 miles north and the sky looked a touch dark to the north. The iPhone did not show much, but Dale turned on this weather program, Sirius, on our chart plotter. It showed a real strong cell hitting the Miami area. We talked with our buddy boats and tried to be patient and wait it out. It was April Fool's Day, so of course the storm grew and grew and a tail came south, right at us. We all turned south and motored as fast as we could south. The other boats are bigger, with bigger engines, so we were behind, trying our best to outrun the storm. We did and regrouped at Rodriquez Key. With a dog needing to go to shore the only other place to anchor would not have worked because of mangroves, plus we would have been hit by the storm had we stayed farther North. We got dinner at the Mandalay grill that night and then went to bed. Age is catching up with us.

The 2nd we headed North again and made it to No Name Harbor. While there, we did some wash, Brian and Judy got on bikes and went shopping bringing us back bananas and salad, Judy and I walked to the lighthouse and the beach, lots of dog walks between those storms which persisted on and off for a few days and watching boats crash into each other, or nearly as anchors dragged during high winds. We dragged one night during a storm and had to reset the anchor 3 times. We found our anchor had hooked on to a submerged dock ladder, so our hold was not good when the winds picked up. Sweet Escape went to a larger anchorage as they were by a large ketch who put out so much chain, no one else could anchor near him as he swung around. They also were dragging as well as most other boats. Most boaters play it safe.

Wednesday, dolphins came to visit and put on quite a show. They swam around our boat and even flipped there tail flippers on their backs at Oliver. He was ecstatic, running around the boat following them and barking. Many tourists took pictures of us and the dolphins. I was watching that Ollie would not jump in so I could not take pictures, but Dale grabbed a camera and tried. Thursday, we had more storms and the weekend is a zoo. All the locals in 80 foot to 8 foot boats come here to party. They squeeze between boats at anchor trying to get in, take up all the wall space to get ashore with Ollie and party like most 20-30 year olds do. The music choice is not my taste, but they seem to enjoy dancing and yelling at each other over the music. Many boats have children which will all be hearing impaired as adults.

So we sat in No Name Harbor for almost a week waiting for a weather window to cross to the Bahamas. We were buddied up with our friends from Wisconsin, Brian and Judy on Sweet Escape and new friends Ron and Dee on Ursa Minor that also wanted to do a spring crossing of the Gulfstream. The Gulfstream is like a 2-3 knot current that is 20-30 miles wide that you have to cross between Florida and the Bahamas. It runs north, so you do not want to cross when the wind is opposed to the current or you get big waves and lumpy seas. From what we have studied, you want a slow moving high pressure with winds more southerly, but not too strong or you get big waves. So, the prudent thing for us newbies is to wait and watch. Unfortunately hurricane season begins in June and we don't want to delay too much longer.After much discussion, we decided to go to Ft. Lauderdale and our buddy boats left at 10:00 Monday night for the crossing. We had issues with crossing in rough seas at night, the weather not being great for the the end of week when we would transit to the Abacos area and anchor out plus we have a slower and smaller boat. We are glad we made the decision to wait as we had the biggest 2-4 footers and rolly seas just between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. It was uncomfortable for 5 hours let alone 10. We did hear the other boats made it but it was very tiring and rough. Dale and I have been caught in enough junk to play it safe now.

Anyway, that is some of our excitement. All is calm here. Oliver thinks he is at his second home. I will let you all know where we end up. I stay in daily contact with my sister Mary. Love to all.