West End, Grand Bahama

This beginning will be a repeat for those I sent an Email. I still love the comment that waves in the Gulfstream are measured by Ronald McDonald's feet!

We crossed over from The Lake Worth Inlet at Palm Beach. We left at 4:38 in the morning, a touch later than we wanted and hit the inlet at 5:30. New friends, Jon and Mimi in motor vessel Sandy Paws was to follow a couple hours later. It was disconcerting going out the channel in to pitch black. As the waves hit we thought maybe the weather was wrong. It was not real bad so we forged on and we had the weather reports saying it would improve. Oliver did not agree.

Once we got to the Gulfstream, things changed. Waves increased from the 2-4 variety to the " big" variety, they came from the north yet and the winds were from the east, therefore the seas were confused.  We motored on into the winds and once it was daylight we at least could see what was going on out there. The Gulfstream is a current that travels north at about 3 knots. To cross over, you point your boat southeast to offset this push. With the current and winds we were going 3.8-9 when the boat was trying for 6.5. It was going to be a long day. The other issue we had was an overheated engine. We noticed the gauge go up , so we shut off the engine, put the sails up, I sailed us south and Dale worked on the engine. This happened 4 times. Jon and Mimi were in radio contact some, so we were not totally without anyone. By 4:30 in the afternoon the weather finally matched the forecast for moderate winds and seas.

The sun is coming up

oh darn, more clouds, please no rain

We made it into Old Bahama Bay marina at about 6:30. Jon and Mimi were there to helps us tie up to government dock. Customs had since closed, so we flew our quarantine flag and got Oliver illegally on land. The next day, Dale checked us in to Customs and we pulled into a slip. Rest and putting the boat back together from the waves rearranging a number of things was in order. The resort is pretty and we did not mind being stuck here waiting for another weather window. We went out to dinner one night, had nice walks around the property and beach and met more sailors headed our way. Every one had tales about the awful crossing and the weather not cooperating this year. It wasn't what we would have wanted for our first time, but we survived. Next time will be better (keep believing).

Old Bahama Bay lights, coming in at night (not recommended)

Oliver's forms import forms for customs. Sorry it is sideways and will not rotate.

Government dock the next morning

Customs office

The next part of the voyage called for 2 days of good weather to cross the Little Bahama Bank. Many boats took off Friday and got caught in a windy front the next day. We left Sunday, the 19th to anchor at Great Sale Cay. There was suppose to be a dog landing in the harbor. It was a calm anchorage and the anchor held well. The dinghy ride to shore put us on rough coral and a ledge about 3 feet high. Luckily we have a ramp for our old guy, Oliver, so he could take care of business. It wasn't the cleanest area (remnants of parties) but it worked. The sunset was beautiful that night.

The next morning after taking Oliver to shore, readying the boat and dinghy and grabbing a granola bar we were off by 7:30.  We wanted to make it to Green Turtle Cay, a protected harbor before the next windy cold front came in. It would be a trip of 56 miles. We were told by the Cruiser's net that White Sound should be dredged to 7 feet mean low water to get in. We need 5 1/2. Well, it was low tide and we bumped a couple of times, but made it through to the Bluff House marina . There is also a Black Sound here, but that is less water and rocky. We did not want to go bump there.

These are pictures from Old Bahama Bay, West End, Grand Bahama.

our morning walk

S/V Old Sam who we traveled to Great Sale.

We are staying here in Green Turtle Cay to check things out before we move south. Actually, by the time I post for the blog with this wifi, we will be leaving and going farther south. The internet here is not the best!

Pictures of Green Turtle Cay coming next.

Happy New Year!

We are currently at the Loggerhead Marina in Palm Beach Gardens waiting for the weather to cooperate for a crossing to the Bahamas. We need at least a full 2 days of settled seas, preferably 3 if something should happen. We look for winds with a southerly component so the Gulf Stream is not "thorny" as they say. We almost had a window last week, but it closed pretty quickly. Today the seas are 9-11 feet with a blustery north wind. Oliver is our important crew, so we will wait for the waves to be  below 4 feet. We prefer that also. If it doesn't occur, we will head farther south in Florida.

Oliver hanging out on the dock. 

Oliver is happy with the dogs here. They are larger and do not have the Napoleon complex of. "attack".

We were so proud of our Spartans winning the Rose Bowl. We wore our shirts , turned on the green lights and enjoyed the moment.  It was so cool!  I am sure my friends and nephew, Jason who attended, had the best time. I know I did in '89.

For those who do not follow Facebook, we had a horrible journey down here. Day one was smooth, day 2 was anything but! We woke up to howling southeast winds.Where were anchored gave us no protection and a large body of water pushing against us. Dale had checked the anchor twice and we were Ok. I poured my first cup of coffee and went upstairs to look, screamed "we're dragging" and the games began. We started the engine, Dale on the bow getting the anchor up, came up with someone's old anchor (not easy) tried to reset, but we're blowing back so fast, we took the anchor up and kept motoring. Then we tried the other side of the causeway but there was not enough depth. Poor Oliver is wondering when his morning dinghy ride would occur. We thought of going down to Stuart, but saw an anchorage called Peck Lake. It was more protected, had a beach. Got there, boats were anchored close to shore, but the dredging equipment should have been a clue. We followed charts and went from 9 feet to 3 feet in a second. Oops, grounded, couldn't get off. So we wouldn't get sand in the engine, we shut Nautical Dreamer down and called Tow Boat US (we have insurance for this). I said to Dale it would be thirty minutes, so we decided he would dinghy Oliver ashore while I waited with the boat. Dale finally got Oliver to shore at 10:00. Poor puppy. I then noticed Oliver back in the dinghy and Dale trying to start the engine. Then he was working on something which I found out later was the gas cable which had a leak. They couldn't get back. The Towboat shows up and I asked the gentleman to go save my husband and dog first so he towed then back to the boat.  Ok, progress. He then pulled us off the shoal and we were on our way. Finally, we are making our way down the ICW on a Saturday which is a busy day as people are off work enjoying the weekend. There are lots of  powerful motor vessels that create quite a wake. When they fly by the waves created rock a sailboat back and forth, sometimes rather violently where things fall. Well, of course that happened multiple times, we are just about to Jupiter where you make a starboard turn to the next drawbridge. There is a hazard can placed for a shoal as you make the turn. We were 10-12 feet off the can, should be Ok but powerboats from the other direction are not leaving us much room to navigate and yes, we grounded again. The powerboats kept flying by as Dale tried to get us off this one. As he was getting us off, a large boat started cutting right in front of us so I went to the bow and waved him off, saw his wife say something to him and he immediately turned and stayed on his side of the channel. We got off and then had to sit waiting for the next bridge for 20 minutes while boats sped by. Dale kept us off anymore shoals as wakes pushed us constantly. Anyway, we finally made it to the marina. Mind you, the winds are still howling and docking a sailboat is not easy under those conditions. It took the dock hand and myself,  who jumped off the boat to help to get us tied enough, then the dock hand hopped on the boat to help Dale get the pilings in back. Florida has many finger piers that only are 10-12 feet long. You then try to lasso the back pilings or use a hook if you can. It is a pain! Anyway, we are here and safe.

Oliver keeping watch as we travel.

All tired, need a nap.

Sunset the first night at anchor.

Who would have thought we would wake up to "hell"

Low tide on the ICW.

Nothing much around. I walked over a mile one day to check out the CVS and little strip mall. The grocery would be a bike ride as it is more than 2 miles. It is not the distance, but the stuffed backpack and bags that make it a work out coming home. Glen, the harbor master arranged for a ride, so I  lucked out.

Walking back over the bridge. Marina is the distance. 

Goodyear blimp headed south to the Orange Bowl. 

Happy New Year. Michigan family and friends, sat safe.

Velcro Beach

This is the nickname for Vero Beach. They claim once you are here you do not want to leave and therefore do not. We are velcroed (is that a word?) here due to Oliver's health. Do not get me wrong, it is a lovely city, we have met some wonderful people and the marina is great for dog walking. However, we would like to travel, but Oliver is more important right now.

To update, we went for his health certificate and had his blood work updated. The tests revealed that his creatinine levels for his kidney disease had gone up from 3-4.2. It is exponential, so it is more than one point, but they did not say what is the exponent. Remember math where 2 squared is 4, well it is along those lines. Anyway, we went back to Ft. Lauderdale  to his specialist, Dr. Cannon. We increased his enalapril which could cause more failure or help. She also added a sodium bicarbonate prescription. other meds stayed the same. Then we waited for 2 weeks trying to coax him to eat, take his pills and walk. We went the 10th to update his blood work and his creatinine is now up to 4.6.  We were waiting for the specialist to call and recommend what to do. She was on vacation a week for the first time in ages, so we continued to wait and see. She has since returned and called to keep doing what we are doing. She wants monthly blood tests to see where we stand and if we need to change his meds. He has perked up mostly. The vet said he has "reset" to his new normal.  He is eating more, sometimes takes a good walk and seems happy to meet and greet anyone or anything that goes by on land or sea. Here he is hanging out on the boat.

Every morning I wake up to birds chirping and cawing. They love sailboats so they can roost. Now, think of what comes out of birds. We have found they enjoy eating blueberries. Blueberries stain white boats. So every morning when I hear them I jump out of bed and shake the stays and get them off as quickly as possible. What an alarm clock!

 There are some cool birds here too. These are "White" pelicans Oliver and I saw on one of our walks.

Meanwhile, we decorated a little for Christmas. Remember I only have a shoebox sized plastic container for all my holiday decorations. Also, when you sail, you heel over. I use putty to stick things on walls and counters for that purpose. It is like being a teacher again. So each holiday item I chose to bring are small, mostly unbreakable and somewhat flat. For Christmas, I brought nautical ornaments, Michigan State candy canes, some bows and 2 lights strings. This year we bought some solar lights, since we expected to be at anchor. We also added a evergreen swag for the bow since we are here longer than expected. The neighborhood around the Marina is adding lights each night we go for our evening walk. It is weird without snow, but pretty none the less.

Grand Harbor

Some of the ornaments

The sand dollars from St. John, St. Maarten and St. Thomas.

MSU candy canes

The Treats boat decorated

Merry Christmas!

Anyway, that is where we stand.  We hope to travel soon. Enjoy the season and remember the reason!

Halloween to the present

We are on hold in Vero Beach. The boat is ready for cruising, but alas, Oliver is not. We went to get his health certificate the Bahamas require and had his bloodwork updated. We found out his kidney disease had progressed significantly. We are working through a vet here, but they are taking direction from his wonderful vet internist/specialist we used in Ft. Lauderdale. She is wonderful helping us through this. Her name is Alison Cannon if anyone should ever need her. Anyway, the course of action is to raise his one medicine Enacard, which could cause acute renal failure short term or work for the long term. So far, we have made it 24 hours doing this. We have to monitor him and look for appetite issues and lethargy. We were stunned by the results as he was walking a mile in the morning and late afternoon, all bodily functions working well and he was hanging around the docks happy as a clam. Of course, this is the dog that fooled 3 vets when he was in heart failure, soooo...

What have we been doing?

We provisioned the boat and readied it to go, oh well.

Dale did some wiring and then we cleaned under the floor.

Oliver supervising with his dolphin.

Halloween was nice. We had trick or treaters on the dock.

Ollie waiting for them to come to our boat.

The Beck family, Andy, Robin, Maddie and Peyton

We have been watching the weather which is not cooperating. Lots of windy northerlies that make waves very high. We have had days up to 13 feet. We do not want to be out sailing in those.

We went to the Sebastian Clamfest. They have fried clams, steamed clams, clam chowder as well as other foods. It was yummy. They also had a craft fair and informational booths set up.

We have been keeping up with our Spartan football and basketball games when we can get them. For some reason ABC here  rather show SEC and ACC games here and our direct TV satellite is based in Michigan, so we haven't been able to see all the games. We listen on the computer and do Gamecast on the ESPN app.

My new Spartan Burgee

The marina hosted a Thanksgiving potluck, so we have now had 2 celebrations , one Canadian and one American. (sorry, no pictures)

Small remote sailboats race on a pond on Sunday afternoons.

Last night, Oliver was thrilled to see 2 dolphins in the marina. He barked from the docks and one swam right over, snorted through his blowhole right below us and them swam under the docks and a boat. They have some kind of connection. They did not go near the people. Oliver was ecstatic! I was holding him so did not get any pictures. I do not want the iphone to go in the water.

Watch the plethora of birds around here.

So anyway, here we are. We go for another blood test for Ollie next Tuesday when we will know how he is doing. I will keep you posted. I finally joined Facebook, so I try to update that.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Oliver is ready for the next holiday. 

The Canadians are here!

After house sitting our days here at Loggerhead Marina have became routine. Oliver and I need to drop a few pounds, so we walk at least 2-3 miles a day, split up for him and the heat yet. I try to exercise more depending on how far he goes. Then we may run errands, go to the beach, swim, knit (me), or do a boat chores ( more Dale).  The 2 washing machines were usually free, the bathrooms and captain's lounge hardly used. Then the marina population doubled with the influx of Canadians last week.

October 14 was the Canadian Thanksgiving, so they put together quite a feast. We were one of the few Americans invited. The food is the same as our Thanksgiving, the traditions pretty much the same without football and their landing was in Nova Scotia.  It was a wonderful time and after our Thanksgiving at anchor in the Supalo River alone last year, it was nice to celebrate with others. ( Pictures below)

Speaking of party, the Canadians have this mastered, on a daily basis from what I can tell. I thought sailors loved happy hour! Well we do not hold a candle. They are all friendly and love life.

Unfortunately a couple more little dogs arrived also. We had 4 others we had to avoid, but they were always on a leash. I have named the game "dodge dog". Oliver has been tormented by small dogs all his life. He was first bit when he was a puppy. Luckily he isn't a fighter because at his size he could do damage. Just the past couple of years has he learned to growl. Anyway, he has been attacked by these 2 two nights in a row. The last one occurred as we walked off our boat and the dogs launched themselves down the dock at Oliver , off leash, and bit his leg. They were yipping and nipping at him until the owner who was sitting with friends having a sundowner wine got up and grabbed them. I was blocking with my foot and Oliver, the gentle giant tried to hide behind me. No real damage, but Dale came charging off the boat and Oliver and I have more gray hair. Oliver also stepped on my foot so I have a bruise from the big lug trying to save himself.  Another sailor, walking her nice little dog, witnessed the whole thing in horror. I spoke to management today, but the boss is gone, so next week we will see. For now we avoid the "little killers". Last night Ollie saw them coming and quickly scooted up his ramp onto the boat. He then proceeded to act tough on the bow barking at them. He is pretty bright knowing they couldn't get him.

I have found a  Presbyterian Church here I like. Very traditional, the minister has a sense of humor and the people are friendly. The Cherub choir sang last Sunday as did 4 middle schoolers that were great. The Chancel Choir is maybe 5-6 men and 13-15 women. I feel young compared to the majority of them if you know what I mean. They do a variety of music and use organ and piano.

Also, a woman I met that lives here took me to the Grand Harbor Beach Club. We chatted in the beach chairs, walked the beach, and had a delicious lunch. It was a nice day at beautiful facilities. The pool is amazing.

We are hoping to cross over to the Bahamas in November . I have inventoried all our provisions and have been supplementing as things are pretty expensive over there. Dale has been readying the boat and ordering spare parts. Now just pray Oliver stays healthy. He needs to get a Health Certificate to go with his import permit when Dale checks us in to Customs.  We will keep you posted.

another beautiful sunset

Oct 1 for Breast Cancer Awareness

Oliver looking for his cat friend. Cat stays up there and hisses. 

Walking the boardwalk, saw dolphins yesterday

Hanging under his favorite palm tree. 

My vacation church

Grand Harbor Beach Club

more Beach Club, see how the other half live?

Canadian Thanksgiving

New Canadian friends

my Ode to Halloween

Love to all!