Snug in Little Harbor

Picture of Hope Town Light House.



We hope everyone had a nice Christmas. We spent a quiet day together on the boat listening to Christmas music and calling family. For Christmas dinner I fixed ham, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole and Key Lime Pie. Key Lime Pie is not traditional Christmas fare, but it is Wayne's favorite.

Friday the 26th was Boxing Day, which is a holiday celebrated here in the Bahamas. We decided it was time to move to another anchorage. We needed to take the trash to the dumpster in Marsh Harbor before we left, so Wayne put the kayak in the water and kayaked to shore. After a day on the boat he appreciated the exercise he got from kayaking ashore. We raised the anchor and headed to Hope Town, which is about 8 miles away. One of the Boxing Day Events is the first Abaco Yacht Club sailboat race of the new season. Any and all are welcome to join in the event. For part of our trip to Hope Town we paralleled the race course. We could see the boats that were taking the race seriously because they were healed over and giving it their all. Others were just enjoying being out sailing. We counted over 30 boats participating in the event.

We anchored outside the entrance to Hope Town and dinghied in to explore town. We walked all over Hope Town and took pictures along the way. We are trying to take more pictures this trip. Other entertainment was watching the race boats get stuck in the shallow channel at low tide as they returned to Hopetown. The weather for the next few days looked good so we decided that on Saturday we would go to Lynyard Cay.

On Saturday morning while I was making yogurt Wayne took the dinghy into Hope Town to get gas for the dinghy. After he got back we put the dingy and motor up and were prepared to get the engine started when Wayne noticed that the dinghy on Mary Kathryn, the boat next to us, had broken loose. I tried to hail them on the VHF radio but they did not respond. Wayne was thinking fast and put the kayak in the water and paddled out to the dinghy which was floating out into the Sea of Abaco. I was still trying to hale Mary Kathryn. When he got to the dinghy there was no rope for him to use to pull it back. I was yelling at Mary Kathryn to try and get their attention. Wayne paddled to Mary Kathryn and got the key to the dinghy and then paddled back out. He had trouble starting the engine but was finally able to get the dinghy engine started. He drove the dinghy and towed his kayak back. Gail, Bob, and Patti on Mary Kathryn were very grateful for Wayne's rescue of their dinghy and gave him a nice bottle of wine as a thank you.

After putting the kayak away we made the 13 mile trip to Lynyard Cay. Lynyard Cay has a few houses scattered on it, but we could not tell if any had people in them. We took a cruiser path over to the beach and picked up miniature shells and sea glass. Sea Glass is broken glass that has been tossed and turned in the ocean and on the beaches, this smoothes out the edges. It is used to make jewelry and in Marsh Harbor I saw a print of a water color that had been covered in sea glass. For now I am enjoying finding the sea glass and putting it in a jar and will try to figure out how to be creative with it later.

Sunday we took out both kayaks and kayaked to the north end of Lynyard Cay. There was a pretty beach so we beached the kayaks and walked around. We followed a newly graded road for quite a while. We found out later that they are going to make a resort and marina at that end of the island. Mary Kathryn had also come south and had anchored near us while we were kayaking, so we stopped to talk to them. After lunch we kayaked to the beach just in front of our anchorage and walked the beach and around the shoreline of that end of the island. We felt like we needed to change the name of our boat because we were anchored with Pamela Jo, Mary Katherine and Shirley Mae! Luckily Pearl, Kachou and Merlin later joined us.

Monday we made the long journey of 2 miles, over to Little Harbor. We had heard so much about Little Harbor but had never been here. Little Harbor lives up to its name, it is very small. There are maybe 25 mooring balls, a dock for the restaurant/bar/gallery and a few private docks and not much room for anything else. We got a ball and went ashore to check it out. We paid for our mooring ball, which is $15 a day or 4 days for $45, we decided on 4 days. We walked through the gallery where they sell bronze castings by the late Randolph Johnston and his son Pete as well as paintings by other artists. The castings are made in their foundry here. Randolph started an artist’s colony here in 1952. He wrote a book to tell of his adventures called an “Artist on his Island, A Study in Self-Reliance”. We then walked up to the lighthouse. There is a ruin of the old care takers house and a modern solar powered light that now serves as the “light house” to warn of the rocky shore. We also walked a portion of the beach.

Tuesday we kayaked to the mangrove pond that is used as a hurricane hole for local boats. We also kayaked to the cave where the Johnston’s lived while building their house. They were made of heartier stuff than I am because I am not sure I could have lived there. It was fun watching a small sea plane land using the entrance to the harbor as a runway, then go to shore and anchor at the restaurant. After lunch we walked the beach in the other direction all the way to point. When we got back to Pete’s Pub, which is Little Harbor’s bar/restaurant, Bob and Patti from Mary Kathryn were there. They offered to buy us a drink. We enjoyed talking to them as we enjoyed our drinks.

Today Wayne did his first end to end splice. It has been on his “to do list” for quite some time. So we now have a brand new roller furling line for our stay sail. He did a great job! We will spend a quiet New Year’s Eve on the boat since “cruisers midnight” is around 9:00, we will bring in the New Year tomorrow morning with a nice cup of coffee.

Wishing everyone a VERY Happy and Safe New Year!

Merry Christmas from Marsh Harbor, Abaco, Bahamas

Merry Christmas from Marsh Harbor, Abacos!!!

These pictures are some of the Christmas decorations around the town of Marsh Harbor. The mermaids have on Santa hats when it is 78 degrees outside. The bougainvillea are in full bloom and have icicle lights behind them. The town has Christmas trees on many corners as well as the decorations at the ONLY stop light in Marsh Harbor

We have been anchored in the harbor at Marsh Harbor for 5 days. It is a well protected harbor from most directions and a very comfortable anchorage.

Marsh Harbor is the 3rd largest city in the Bahamas and the capital of the Abacos. The Abacos have a population of just over 14,000 of which 5,100 live in Marsh Harbor. There are wonderful grocery and hardware stores here and you can find about anything you need in the stores. Standard Hardware has everything you need to build a house!

We have been walking around town and exploring. It was nice to find fresh cilantro in the grocery store so I could make Chinese Cole Slaw. Tuesday was very windy, which makes for a very wet dinghy ride to shore, so we stayed on the boat doing little projects and straightening up. It is amazing how messy things can get in such a short time!

XM satellite radio has 3 stations that have 24 hour Christmas music. We started listening to them around the middle of December, so we now know all the words to every song by heart. Today the Smooth Jazz station is doing 12 hours of Christmas. Wayne is happy to have the break from the other stations! We have decided the white Christmas we are dreaming of is the ones with white sandy beaches and 78+ degrees. And as we say "Life is good...on a boat".

Love and hugs to everyone from Jill and Wayne on Born to Cruise. Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and safe travels!!!

Three Days at Powell Cay

Wayne is holding one of the many starfish we saw near the beach at Powell Cay. Starfish move so slow it is hard to tell when they are alive. This starfish was alive and happy to be put back in the water.

Wayne is wearing his Tilly Hat. We both got big brimmed hats to wear while walking the beach.

Tuesday at Manjack we went over to Coconut Tree Bay and followed a very nice path over to the Atlantic Ocean side of Manjack Cay. We enjoyed exploring the beach. Among the treasures we found were two hamburger beans and a glass ball. We think the glass ball is a fishing float, the valuable floats are Portuguese. We will have to do some research to find out more about the one we found. After lunch we put on our short wet suits and snorkeled around the boat and then out to the anchor. The water was chilly but OK in the wet suit. It felt great to swim.

Wednesday we moved Born to Cruise over to Powell Cay, about 10 miles. We had never been to Powell Cay but had read that it was a great place to explore. We found a short path to get over to the Atlantic Ocean side and had a nice walk on the beach. We found a hamburger bean and also a purse bean. Purse beans are more rare, so it is exciting when you find them. We also found a nice Partridge Tun shell about 4" long, this is the biggest of these that we had ever found. This beach was also covered with Sea Biscuits, which are fat sand dollars. The sea biscuits were everywhere along with sea urchin shells and white clam shells that had both sides attached. Wayne also picked up a conch shell which he is going to make a conch horn out of. You blow the conch horn at sunset to end another beautiful day.

Thursday we walked the short beach on the banks side of Powell Cay. When we were headed back to the boat for lunch we stopped and talked to Bill and Bettie Sue on "Teamwork". We had seen them walking another path and wanted to know how it was. They said it needed clearing but it took you to a beautiful beach. We decided to let other people clear it before we tried it, maybe on our way north. They used to own a surf shop in Folly Beach, SC which is near Charleston. They enjoy coming to the Abacos to fish, snorkel, do underwater photography and surf when they find a big enough wave. That afternoon we went back to the Ocean beach we had walked the day before. Can you tell I love to walk beaches ?

Today we washed a load of clothes and I made yogurt. We are getting back into the boating life.

"Teamwork" had told us that the wreck near the beach was a fun place to snorkel. We dinghied over to the beach, put on our long wet suits and went snorkeling. The wreck was a steel hull sail boat. This was our first chance to try our underwater camera. Our underwater camera is a regular Olympus Digital Camera with a waterproof case. We took lots of pictures, it worked well. It is hard to see the screen on the camera, so you just point and shoot. The hard part is staying still and not floating to the surface while you are taking a picture and of course the fish do not pose well. We actually took some pretty good pictures. I will post some of those pictures on our photo page. You can get to our photos by clicking on the icon of the camera from our home page www.borntocruise.com or by going to this link http://picasaweb.google.com/svBorntoCruise

After lunch we moved Born to Cruise back to Manjack Cay so we could have internet and be in position to move to Marsh Harbor on Saturday.

Cloudy Days in the Abacos

This is the beach at Gillam Bay on Green Turtle Cay. We walked this beach on Friday afternoon. It was a little cloudy, but a great day for walking the beach.

Thursday night we had dinner at the Green Turtle Club. They truly outdid themselves! Our food was superb and the service was excellent, as usual.

Friday afternoon we rented a golf cart and toured a little more of the island. We think we went on every road on Green Turtle Cay by either bike, golf cart or walking. We went to Gillam Bay and walked the beach. This is known as Sand Dollar Beach. I found one whole sand dollar, unfortunately it broke when a wave hit me. We were wading in the water up to our knees and bending over to dig in the sand. Wayne found two live sand dollars and put them back. We went into several stores in New Plymouth. The supply boat had come that morning, I was happy to find bananas and Romain Heart lettuce at the grocery store.

We once again had dinner at the Green Turtle Club. We had put in a special order for Caesar Salads with Shrimp and Conch Chowder. We could not continue to eat those big fancy meals and still fit in our bathing suits. Sheena was our waitress again. We began talking and mentioned that we were going to be grandparents in July. As we talked she said, "I guess I can tell you" and she preceded to say that her coworker had just asked her today if "she was heavy" ? She said that is what you asked when you thought someone was pregnant in the Bahamas. She thinks she may be "heavy" and was going to the doctor soon to find out. I'm not sure that terminology will ever catch on in the US.

Saturday it was time to leave the Green Turtle Club. The winds had changed so we could comfortably anchor in Manjack or Powell Cay. We said our good byes, filled up the water and diesel tank and headed out. Can you tell we like the Green Turtle Club ? The dock is safe and tucked in away from strong winds, the restrooms are clean, food is wonderful, the staff is great and going through customs was easy. We will defiantly visit there again.

We are anchored in Manjack Cay as close to the shore as we could get to be protected from the predicted wind. We spent the afternoon on the boat putting things back where they belong and resting.

Sunday & Monday have been overcast and rainy so we have stayed on the boat. I rearranged our clothing lockers putting the winter clothes on the bottom and the summer clothes on the top. Wayne installed a new light, our new radio and two new speakers. We now have surround sound in the salon! We are enjoying listening to Christmas music on XM radio. Wayne just put the watermaker in service and it is working great! We have a new membrane but the old one is working fine, so we can save the new one for later.

On our first trip to the Bahamas we did have much rain, so it seems odd to have had two cloudy rainy days. The good news is that all the salt is now washed off the boat. It is supposed to be sunny and 78 tomorrow, we are looking forward to exploring the beach.

Customs and Green Turtle Cay

After a restful sleep at Manjack Cay, Tuesday morning we made the 4.7 mile trip to Green Turtle Cay and the Green Turtle Club. Wayne is pleased with how well the steering tracks even without autopilot. We have never been to Green Turtle Cay before, but it had been recommended by several of our cruising friends. We can now say that we agree with them.

Our first order of business after getting tied up at the dock and having lunch was to clear customs. In Nassau customs came to us, at Green Turtle Cay, you go to customs. Customs is in New Plymouth, which is the only town on the island and is also at the other end of the island from where we were. There are several ways you can reach the customs office. You can dinghy, which takes 10 minutes, but we had just come from that direction and knew the water was a little rough and it would be a very
wet dinghy ride. You can rent a golf cart for $35 for half a day, we tried and she was out to lunch. You can walk, it is about 3 miles. Or you can take a bicycle. We had been sitting on the boat not exercising much for over 5 weeks, so we decided to rent bicycles, $15 each for 24 hours. With all necessary papers in the backpack we peddled to town. I think of beaches and islands as being flat. Green Turtle Cay is not flat. By the time we got there I could tell it had been a while since I had
been to the gym.

The customs office was a single room. The lady who was our customs officer was very nice and made quick work of getting all of our forms processed. There is a $300 fee for a boat greater than 35 feet. This gives us our permit to be here, plus a fishing license for everyone on board. You have to request special permission to use a spear, which we were granted. Wayne is optimistic that there are lobster dinners in our future!

With business out of the way it was time to explore town. The buildings are all painted vivid colors that make me think of Easter or sherbet. They are pinks, yellows, lavender, orange, lime green and bright blue. The house across from customs is the old home of Captain Roberts. A save the reef group has restored the home and it is now a free museum and information center. There are things that used to belong to Captain Roberts and they have instructions on how to save the reef. We saw the Memorial
Sculpture Garden. At one of the grocery stores we bought bread and bananas. The loaf of Arnolds 12 Grain bread was $4.75. (We took lots of pictures around town and will post them when the wifi connection here at the marina is working again.) Town is maybe 5 blocks long and 3 blocks wide. The churches are the tallest buildings in town. We bicycled down each of the streets stopping to take pictures along the way.
On our ride back to the Green Turtle Club we stopped to check out the beaches on the ocean side and to look at Black Sound. Green Turtle Club and Bluff House are on White Sound. Green Turtle Club and Bluff House both have marinas and resorts that include pools, laundry, four star restaurants, bars, and cottages to rent. From September to March, since it is the slow season at the marinas, they offer a deal that you get a credit for the restaurant/bar for the amount of your dockage, this is known
as "eating your dockage". Tuesday night we enjoyed an elegantly prepared meal of grouper almandine, salad, rice, green beans, corn salsa and orange slices on the screened in restaurant patio. The service was great and we were stuffed! It was nice meeting people from several of the other boats.

Wednesday we still had time left on our 24 hour bicycle rental. Bluff House lies at the opposite end of the island from New Plymouth beyond the Green Turtle Club, so we explored in that direction. The road in that direction was dirt and just as hilly. After we reached the end of the island we decided to go back to walk one of the beaches we had seen the day before. We picked up a few shells. It was great to have our toes in beautiful white sand again and be walking along the turquoise water.
We decided to have lunch at the restaurant, Wayne had a grouper wrap and I had a shrimp and avocado wrap, yummy. The afternoon was spent doing laundry. Our jeans and winter things are clean and we can finally stow them in the bottom of the locker. We love the 78+ degree days, this is how to do winter.

This morning we hung our Christmas wreath from the arch. When we were in Vero Beach I bought a string of white LED Christmas lights and have put them in the salon. We have a small tree, but will wait to put the up later. We walked to another ocean beach and found 2 heart beans and a starnut palm, two Ram's Horn Squid shells along with a sea urchin test and spines. So our shelling season has officially begun! Tonight one of the entrée choices is Rack of Lamb, which is one of my favorites, so
we are headed to the restaurant for dinner tonight. Wayne will have Grilled Mahi Mahi with Lobster and Seafood Sauce. It is a tough life…but someone has to do it.

Our Crossing to the Bahamas

After a sound nights sleep at Great Sale Cay in the Abacos, we are feeling well rested and ready to go this morning.

After listening to the weather and studying passageweather.com we felt we had a good window to cross over to the Bahamas. The prediction was that the wind would shift after midnight, but by then we would be on the Bahama banks where it would not effect us much. We decided to leave from Vero Beach at 7:30 Saturday morning and headed out. There were dozens of dolphin playing on the waterway, which is always a fun way for us to start the day. Morning is still our favorite time on the water. We went
down the intracoastal waterway to Fort Pierce and got cheap fuel at Port Consolidated (sometimes called Port Petroleum). It was only 2.34 a gallon for diesel if you paid cash or wrote a check.

We went out the Fort Pierce Inlet into the Atlantic. Fort Pierce is a little too far north to make a good crossing so we went outside south to St Lucie before we took a left and headed for the Bahamas. The sea was calm with waves less than 2 feet. We put up the sails and were really enjoying the trip. Around sunset we saw the front coming in behind us so we took down the sails. We never had any rain, but the wind shifted just as the sun was going down. We had a bumpy ride. We reached Mantanilla
Shoal, the edge of the Bahama Banks around 9:30. The seas were a little easier, but still rolly.

Around 2:15 in the morning, while Wayne was at the helm and I was just waking up from a nap, Otto, our Autopilot, alarmed, gave us an an error message, and turned off. The manual steering was acting goofy in the heavy surf. We tried doing a 'bleed and feed' of the hydraulic steering fluid, but it did not seem to work. By this time it was 3:30 in the morning and we were exhausted. The water there on the banks was only 18 feet deep, we decided to anchor until daylight. We tried to get some sleep
while the boat rocked and rolled in the choppy seas. We were awake at sunrise after a restless time of trying to sleep. We did another bleed and feed on the hydraulic steering fluid and the manual steering was working fine, but the autopilot was still not working.

Great Sale Cay was only 10 miles away, so we headed that way. We anchored in Great Sale Cay around 10:00 in the morning. We enjoyed the safe anchorage and caught up on our sleep. When we anchored here on our first cruise, it was our last stop in the Bahamas before heading back to the US. Last time we shared this anchorage with almost 30 other boats. This time there were only 6 of us. This is where we took the picture we used for December for our 2008 calendar. The sunset was pretty last night
but not as photogenic.

We have a spare linear drive for the autopilot, Wayne installed it. Unfortunately, we got the same error message. The user manual for the autopilot does not show the error messages, so we will need to get an internet connection to do some research and hope to find out what is causing our problem. Wayne will also check all of the connections to be sure nothing has come loose or gotten corroded.

Today is a beautiful day and we cruised from Great Sale to Manjack Cay and are anchored between Manjack and Crab Cays. The manual steering worked well all day with no problems. Wayne learned more about our new GPSMap 540 today, it does a lot of neat things. The GPSMap came with the charts of the US and the Bahamas. The Bahamas charts are more up to date than the ones we have on the computer. It is nice to have the GPSMap in the cockpit.

Our plan is to go to the Green Turtle Club tomorrow and clear customs.

Born to Cruise "Done Reach"

Born to Cruise "done reach" the Bahamas.

"Done reach" is an old term used by the Bahamian's. On our first cruise, our friends on Beans loaned us the book called "Out Island Doctor" by Evans Cottman. It is the true story of Evans Cottman who served as a doctor for the islands of the Bahamas when no other doctors were available. When Dr. Cottman arrived on an island word would spread that "the doctor done reach". It is a great book, we now own a copy so we can share it with others.

The water is as beautiful as we remember and it is warm!

We will be anchored at Great Sale Cay to rest today, it's been a long night. I will do another update soon to tell you about our crossing.

Days slip by quickly in Vero Beach

This is sunset as seen from our boat in Vero Beach. Yes, it is easy to slip into the relaxed life here at Vero Beach.

We have been doing small boat projects, buying a few more provisions, and yes even get a few more boat toys.

It has been fun catching up with the cruisers who are here. Three other boats from Northwest Creek Marina came in this week, John and Madeleine, on Chanceux, Bill and Margaret on Margareta and Bryan and Sonya on Flash II. We all went to lunch Monday at Panera. It was fun catching up with what everyone had been doing since leaving NC.

We have also enjoyed catching up with first season cruising friends, Jocks Lodge, Endoxi and Winsome. We helped Ann and Mike, on Beans, move their car. We had the use of the car for a day and shared a provisioning run with Salty Paws. It was wonderful to see the "Beaners". We are looking forward to seeing everyone again in the Bahamas.

The weather has finally moderated and we have pulled out our shorts! The weather is also cooperating to allow for a crossing window this weekend. Our plan is to leave Vero Beach on Saturday morning, take the waterway to Fort Pierce. We will go out the Fort Pierce Inlet and head for the Bahamas. The seas are predicted to be 3 or less and the winds calm, a perfect motor boat crossing day, which is what we prefer. The winds will pick up after we get on the banks and allow for some slow sailing. We will head to Great Sale Cay in the Abacos and check in at either Spanish Cay or Green Turtle Cay.

We are going to be Grandparents!!!!!

We are going to be Grandparents! Jenny and Steve are expecting and due in mid July. This will be our first grandchild so it is very exciting news. Jenny is doing well and they are studying all of the baby name books.

We are still in Vero Beach. The weather has been warm and sunny until today. It is windy and rainy ahead of the cold front. The rain is good because it means that the salt should all we washed off the boat. We have been working little projects around the boat. Wayne changed the engine oil today. A dirty task but one that must be done. He also looked at the saildrive oil and they both look PERFECT!!!! We have NEVER seen the oil look this clear.

We are now looking for a weather window to cross over to the Bahamas. Hopefully we will have a window in the next week or so.

The picture of us was taken by Jim Austin on "Salty Paws" as we were leaving in the dinghy to go on one of our many trips to town. Jim is a professional photographer. You can check out Jim's web page at www.jimages.com. I think this may be the first professional picture ever taken of Wayne and I other than at Steve and Jenny's wedding. We are rafted up to "Salty Paws" and are enjoying getting to know Jim, Bentley and their Corgi Crew of Petrol and Ethyl. Petrol and Ethyl have trained me well and I am feeding them dog biscuits daily.

Thanksgiving at Vero Beach

We had a nice Thanksgiving here in Vero beach that we shared with 100+ other cruisers. The picture is of the tables as people were bringing in food. Our "pot luck" included all of the the traditional Thanksgiving favorites. We met new friends and went back to the boat full of turkey and pumpkin pie.

Vero Beach is a cruiser friendly town. The city buses are free, donations are accepted. The buses have seats for 24 passengers. They come through the parking lot of the marina every hour during the business day, M-F, and until 3 on Saturday. No service on Sundays or Holidays. The buses take you to restaurants and shopping including the mall, Walmart and West Marine. The marina has a nice dinghy dock, lounge and laundry. It is easy to see why Vero Beach has gotten the cruiser nick name of "Velcro Beach" because cruisers come here and get stuck by falling into the routine of catching the bus and enjoying the company of other cruisers and spending a little more time here than they had originally planned.

We are settling into once again living on board and are enjoying the time here to meet new friends and catch up on some boat projects....yes, there are always boat projects. We are listening to the weather looking for opportunities to cross over to the Bahamas. A cold front has come through and the high will only be in the low 70's today. The 80's that are predicted later in the week sound a lot better to us.

Finally far enough south for it to be warm

This picture is of something very rare...boats actually sailing on the ICW! They were ahead of us for several days. We put our big genoa up too, and gained up to one and a half knots of speed!

I can tell that Wayne is back in retirement mode because he keeps asking me what day it is. We have a calendar in the salon that I mark off the days just so we can keep up. Life is good.

We traveled several long days. Saturday we went from Daytona to Merritt Island and Sunday we made it to Vero Beach. The current was in our favor most of the time and the wind was helping us along. We just wanted to get south. We have seen lots of dolphins. They love to dive under the boat. I used to worry about them getting hurt but the design of our hull is such that the keels and the rudder protect them from the sail drives. The dolphins just like to play.

Near NASA we saw an island that had white pelicans and pink flamingos. It is times like this that I wish I had a camera with a fancy telephoto lens. We could see them nicely through the binoculars. The white pelicans are really pretty, for a pelican that is.

Sunday was Wayne's birthday, it was a travel day, so we celebrated by going out to lunch today in Vero Beach. He got several cards, emails and phone calls with well wishes.

We are at Vero Beach City Marina on a mooring ball. Here, as it gets crowded there may be up to 3 boats on a mooring ball. We were alone last night, but had two other catamarans join us today. Our new neighbors are Salty Paws and Gypsy Rose. We plan to be in Vero Beach for at least a week or more, so I will tell you more about Vero Beach later.

We are happy to be where it is warmer. It was nice to wake up this morning and find the temperature 62 degrees inside the boat, much better than the 42 we had last week. We were hot wearing jeans today, so tomorrow we may have pull out our shorts.

Daytona Beach

We had a nice quiet night at Pine Island, just north of St. Augustine. It is a good anchorage. We were anchored there with two fellow Northwest Creek Marina cruisers, Grateful Attitudes and Margarita. They invited us over for dinner, but we were just too tired. Yesterday we also spoke to friends on Chanceaux and Jockslodge. It is definitely migration season. In Daytona we are once again anchored near Grateful Attitudes.

I forgot to mention in my last update that Wayne did very well during our bumpy ocean ride and did not even get queasy. He used his seasick patch and two different types of wrist bands. He had ginger ale with his dinner and ginger snaps as a snack. We are not sure if he would have gotten sick without all of the precautions, but it is nice to know the patch did not make him goofy (which is a possible side effect). We also don't know which precaution worked, we are just happy he did not get seasick.
I was fine and only had the ginger snaps.

We have been checking our "gas mileage" and are very pleased that it has improved since our last cruise. We have the new alternators, rebuilt fuel injectors and new props which all help. Diesel prices have not been too bad. Lowest we have paid is $2.79 in SC and only paid 2.89 in St Augustine.

We are still trying to move as quickly south as possible. The weatherman is predicting another cold front coming through in the next day or so. I guess we can't put away our winter clothes yet.

The Sunshine state welcomes BTC!

The Georgetown, SC anchorage was ok, but very crowded. We were there on a cold, rainy, windy night and did not leave the boat. A couple of boats dragged anchor, but we were fine. The boardwalk looks nice and stores, etc are easily accessible if you want to spend a day or two there. We were up and on our way by 7:00 AM. It was sunny but very cold. We saw lots of clusters of birds on piers and trees. Maybe they were together to stay warm, I kept joking that since it was Sunday maybe they were
there for church services. We managed to catch the currents right and made it all the way to Charleston.

We stayed at the Charleston City Marina on their Megadock! It deserves its name, that place is HUGE! It is almost half a mile walk to get to the dock office, and that is walking on the docks! We were on the dock with the 100+ foot yachts. We felt VERY small next to most of the boats there. We arrived in Charleston in time to take a shower and then have dinner with Steve and Jenny at Fleet Landing. Monday we had a lazy morning and then walked over to Caviar and Bananas, where Jenny works. We
had lunch there and then borrowed her car to run errands. We picked her up at 3 when she got off work and went home with her. We spent a fun evening with Steve and Jenny playing Wii. Wii is a computer game where the computer can follow your movements. We played sports games and tried the Fitness program. I laughed so hard I cried while watching Wayne trying to do the hula hoop! Wayne is great at sports and was really good with the Wii sports games too. I was ok with bowling and yoga but was
not willing to try the hula hoop after watching Wayne. We spent the night with them and got back to the boat around 9:00 on Tuesday morning. We fueled up and were on our way. We just missed the 10:00 opening of the Wappoo Creek Bridge, so we put down an anchor to wait for the 10:30 opening. The current there is terrible.

It was a very COLD day. The wind was gusting to 30 and blowing at a constant 20 knots or more. With the high temperature of only 50, it made for a chilly day. We anchored in the South Edisto River for the night. The weatherman had freeze warnings and said there was a possibility of breaking the record low temperature. He also said the wind would continue until sometime on Wednesday. Luckily he was mistaken about the wind, it calmed down around dark. I made enchiladas for dinner to use the oven
and left it on a little extra for the heat. By the time we went to bed about 9:00 it was 52 in the boat. We have lots of comforters on the bed, so we actually slept well and were warm. When we got up, the temperature in the boat was a chilly 42 degrees. Making coffee on the stove brought it up to 50 before we got underway again. The high today was predicted to be 50 but without the wind it is not bad at all. We had our easiest and best crossing ever of the Coosaw River this morning. The current
was in our favor and there was very little chop. We saw a few of the Blue Angels and also Fat Albert, which is their supply plane, doing touch and goes at the base in Beaufort, SC. Just as we were approaching the Lady Island Bridge in Beaufort, a crow decided to come along for a ride. He sat on various parts of the bow rail for almost 10 minutes. We have also seen a turtle and dolphins. It is supposed to be in the 30's again tonight but then the temperatures should be warming up. We are trying
to travel as many miles as possible during the day to get south as quickly as possible. This means we are trying anchorages we have never been to before and we are happy to finding some nice new places to stay.

When we passed Beaufort, a cruiser from our home marina at Northwest Creek, Chanceaux, hailed us on the radio. They were waiting until 1:00 to "go outside" in the ocean to go overnight to Fernandina Beach, Florida. We said we would meet them there in a few days. The more we thought about the slow trip through Georgia and our timing of the tides, the more we thought they had a good idea. Georgia had not had the money to dredge their portion of the waterway. The current is so strong that shoaling
is bad. Tides are over 9 feet, often you are only able to travel through certain places during high tide. Our timing on the tides was not good and we would probably have to wait until noon to travel for the tide to be right. It takes about two and a half days to get through GA when the tides are in your favor. Wayne listened to the weather and we decided to go for it. We went out into the ocean at Calibogue Sound, just south of Beaufort, SC around 3:30PM. The ocean was calm. We have been in the
Neuse River when it was rougher. At 9:00 PM it was no longer calm, the wind, water and tide were fighting each other. We had a very bumpy night, the boat rolled from side to side with winds on our nose. But we made reasonable time and expected to be in Fernandina, Florida early in the morning. At 6:20, Wayne woke me when the starboard engine quit. He figured out that the raw water pump was not working and discovered the impeller had gone bad. He had the engine up and running again by 7:30.
We arrived at Fernandina at 8:45 AM. As we entered Fernandina we heard boats we knew talking on the VHF, Jockslodge, Grateful Attitudes and Margarita were all heading south from Fernandina. Chanceaux had made it safely to Fernandina just ahead of us. They too, said it was a rough night. We are still debating whether missing all the hassle in Georgia was worth the rough night. Wayne and I had both slept at least 5 hours during the night so we decided to continue down the waterway. We quickly started
removing the extra layers of clothes we had been wearing to stay warm. By midday it was 71 in the salon of the boat. That is the warmest it has been in over a week even when the oven was running! Tonight we are anchored at Pine Island, which is one of our favorite Florida anchorages.

Our theme song this week is "Boat Drinks" by Jimmy Buffet. For those of you who are not familiar with the song, it talks about being tired of the cold and snow and a line that is in the chorus and also the last line of the song is "I want to go where it's WARM". Every mile we go further south we are making that happen.

Born to Cruise is in South Carolina

Once again we had a good experience at Bock Marine. Kenny and his staff do a great job. You are hauled and launched as scheduled. We also had Larry and Randy of Bock, sand and paint our hull and saildrives. They do a great job and do it quickly. They charge by the hour, so quickly is good. We will visit them again when it is time for our next haul out.

There were a lot of dolphins playing in Core Creek and the current was in our favor as we left Bock Marine on Wednesday the 12th. It was overcast but still a good day for a sailboat ride. While we were at Bock we watched LOTS of boats going south, it was nice to finally be one of them. Taking the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) you plan on motoring. Sometimes in the big bays and rivers you can sail. When the wind is in the right direction you can put up a sail while motoring to increase your speed.
We had the mainsail up for 2 hours today which increased our speed by up to one knot. We average around 5.5 knots so that means we see an almost 20% increase in speed. We love watching the dolphins and seabirds as we travel, they are very entertaining. We anchored for the night in Mile Hammock with 10 other boats. We were back on the hook for the first time in a long time, it felt good.

We woke up Thursday to rain, wind and fog. We headed out slowly and sped up as the fog burned off. We had three bridges on Thursday, which slow you down but are part of the challenge/fun of traveling the waterway. When we anchored on Wednesday, it appeared that our new LED anchor light was not working. When we anchored at Carolina Beach it was calm, so Wayne climbed up the mast. The light was working!!! It was good to know our fancy new bulb was working, we just can't see it from the deck.
It was a quiet night at Carolina Beach with rain and once again we awoke to fog.

Friday we started out in rain and fog again! The good news is rain and fog means that we have had a warm night. Wayne had studied the current and determined the best time for us to leave would be around 9:00 to take advantage of the current through Snow's Cut and crossing the Cape Fear. While we were waiting for the time to be right, Wayne replaced the strainer on our fresh water pump, which has resolved the leak we had. We made good time across the Cape Fear even in the fog. The real challenge
of the day came when we reached the bridge that is under construction at Oak Island. They had posted the schedule on Salty Southeast Cruisers Net of when the crew would be working and when boats could go through. They should have finished for the day well before we arrived, but the rain must have slowed them down. Between the barge and the shore there was a small opening to go through. We were not sure we could make it, but the bridge crew was telling us it would be at least an hour before the
barge was moved. Three mono-hull sail boats went through before us. One had a 5'6" draft, so we felt ok about the depth. Each of the three said they had clearance on both sides so we decided to try it. I stood on the bow while Wayne slowly steered BTC through the opening. We had about a foot clearance on each side. Half way through we ran aground! Wayne was able to back up,he moved just a little closer to the barge, we now had about 6" of clearance on the port side, he came through a little
faster and we made it. Neither of us wish to do that again! We crossed over the NC - SC line and anchored in Calabash Creek.

Today is Saturday and there was finally no fog. The currents have been running with us all day. Prior to this we have been averaging about 43 miles a day. Today we are headed for Georgetown, SC which will be 56 miles which is a lot of miles for days that are growing shorter ! It helps that the bridges open on demand or we timed it perfectly so there was no waiting. We have never anchored in Georgetown, SC before, but have heard it is a favorite of many cruisers.

We are happy to say that all of the electrical work Wayne has been doing is working well. The new high output alternators are charging the batteries while we are motoring, which then lasts us through the night. YEAH! The solar panels are putting in some power even in the rain! The solar panels will be further tested when we are at anchor in the Bahamas and not using the engines. The best news is the new seals on the starboard saildrive are working great! There is no water in the oil. YIPPEE
!!! I don't think I mentioned that when Wayne changed the oil in the port alternator, it too was free of oil, this is a first for us. We are happy!

Born to Cruise is back in the water!!!

In this picture Wayne is installing one of our new props. Notice the new bottom paint and the blue paint on the sail drives.

Our props came in today and Wayne had them installed in no time. They had time to put us back in the water today so at 3:15 Born to Cruise was back in the water! We are "parked' in the haul out well until in the morning when we will be on our way. The good news is that we can have heat tonight!

While waiting for the new props we have finished everything on our to do list. The bottom was sanded and painted. The sail drives sanded and painted. The seals changed in the starboard sail drive. Oil changed in both sail drives. New zincs everywhere. New props installed The hull cleaned and waxed. Wayne polished the stainless steel bow rollers and swim boarding ladder and removed all the rust. The fenders and dock lines have been washed. The salon and cockpit windows have been washed. Touched up the Cetol on the rub rail. The water tanks are full. The deck has been washed down. Everything went really well. We are tired and happy to have it all behind us.

Wednesday we will truely begin crusing! Life is good.

Thank You Dennis !!!

Dennis of S/V Celebration working on our starboard saildrive.


I don't know of any boat owner that likes to have their boat hauled out and do work in the boat yard. Dealing with the known issues is not fun, but there is always the dread of the unknown that you will find or accidentally break when you are doing something else that makes everyone dread the yard. It is a time feared by most of us.

Our biggest unknown and fear for this haul out was to replace the seals on the starboard saildrive. We knew the seals were leaking because we had water in the starboard sail drive oil. If you will remember on our first cruise, the port sail drive was leaking. We stopped at St Augustine Marine to get it fixed. They not only did not fix it, but broke the upper housing of the sail drive. Do NOT ever go to St Augustine Marine !!! We can highly recommend Helseth Marine Services in Vero Beach, Florida, who fixed our port sail drive, however we could not find anyone in NC who came highly recommended to work on our sail drive. So that left this task up to us.

Wayne was having nightmares about the problems he could run into while replacing the seals and did not feel comfortable taking this on alone. We are very fortunate to have some very talented and knowledgeable friends. Dennis, on S/V Celebration, is one of those friends. Although his expertise is not saildrives he knows how to work on engines and machines. He agreed to help us.

Dennis and Wayne studied and planned prior to the haul out to determine what needed to be done. Saturday it was time to replace the seals. After taking everything apart, they determined that the shaft would also need to be replaced...it's a boat so you expect problems. Luckily we were prepared and had all of the necessary parts. It was a long, all day project, but it was successfully completed. I wish that I had had a video camera to record the smiles on their faces, the high fives and the "happy dance" they did when everything finally came together! Thank you Dennis we could not have done it without you!!!

Len and Bev from S/V Louie Louie joined Dennis, Wayne and I for a bon voyage dinner in Beaufort.

There are still tasks to complete while we are here in the yard but the major one is behind us. So the rest of our time in the yard may not be so bad and we will be ready to go when our new props arrive.

In the Boat Yard

We had a beautful day to start our second cruising season. We even put the sails up for a while. The trip to Bock Marine from Northwest Creek is a little over 26 miles. We arrived at Bock a little after 1:00, they were waiting on the dock ready to haul us out. The picture above is of Born to Cruise in the sling that they use to haul boats. You cannot see him but on the left side there is a seat for the driver to sit to control the lift. BTC came out with no problems. They power washed the boat and had it blocked by 2:00.

We decided after examing the bottom that we definitely needed paint and we also needed new props. Today we borrowed the Bock Marine "loaner" car and went in search of props. We were able to order props, they should be in on Monday, Tuesday at the latest, so it looks like we will be in the yard until Wednesday. While waiting for the props we will be able complete more projects from our list.

Larry and Randy sanded the bottom and got one coat of paint on today, they will put on a second coat on Monday. We hope this paint will last 3 years, if we are lucky. We also have new hull zincs.

Wayne has been working on replacing engine zincs, we need these because our engines are salt water cooled. He also drained the oil out of the starboard sail drive. I have been cleaning up. I washed windows today. I also put RainX on the inside and outside of the windshield. We have real glass in our windshield and we have found that RainX really helps.

Cruising again !!!

CLOD no more! On November 1st we moved back aboard Born to Cruise. So we are no longer CLODs (Cruisers Living on Dirt). It is great to be home again !

We have been busy finishing up projects and getting everything put away. The weather has been a little crazy with a subtropical storm off the coast but it should be ok today, sunny with highs in the low 70's.

Today we are leaving Northwest Creek Marina with plans to return in the spring. We have a haul out scheduled with Bock Marine early this afternoon. Born to Cruise will have the bottom sanded and get new bottom paint, sail drives will be sanded and painted, the saildrive oil will be changed, new seals will be put on the starboard sail drive and the hulls will be waxed. And of course their are other projects on the "if we have time list". With any luck we will be ready to go back in the water on Monday and be headed SOUTH!

Born to Cruise is officially in cruising season number 2!!!

Arch is done !!!

At long last our arch is done and so is the painting! I added more pictures

http://picasaweb.google.com/svBorntoCruise/BTCMajorProjects2008

We are very pleased with our “new boat” at least our new looking boat. Wayne only has 3 more Mondays to work. We can hardly wait to move back aboard on November 1. We have an appointment to get hauled out on November 4th to paint the bottom and do sail drive maintenance. When those tasks are completed we will be headed south!

The solar panels are all connected. Sunday we unplugged from shore power for a test and they were working great! We could see the controller doing what is was supposed to do, as the fridge would run, the controller would allow more solar charging to make up for the usage. It is WONDERFUL to see it all finally coming together. Wayne will finish the lifelines and add the wind generator blades next weekend.

We still have to do some work to enclose the cockpit and restructure the canvas to incorporate our new “solar roof”. The cockpit enclosure may not be perfect this year but we have a solution that will work for now which will keep out the bugs and rain until we have more time to do something better. Over the winter we will try to come up with a brilliant idea for a better enclosure and will plan to fix it next summer.

I will start updating the journal/blog again on a regular basis beginning in November.

Only 9 more Mondays!!!

Only 9 more Mondays! Wayne is counting down his remaining time at work; October 30th will be his last day. November 1st we will be boat people again. Wayne was originally supposed to be done on September 12th but agreed to a short extension of his contract. Refreshing the cruising kitty and buying LOTS of new “toys” for Born to Cruise has been wonderful, but we are both ready to get back to the much simpler way of life on the boat.

It is a good thing that “cruisers plans are made in Jell-O” because it certainly makes them easier to change. Our plans have once again shifted and we are now working on Plan 2B or 2C, I can’t remember which. In discussing our plans to go to Mexico we kept returning to the 3 day crossing from the Florida Keys to Isla Mujeres, Mexico and the question of whether or not Wayne would get seasick. There are seasick medications but most are antihistamine based, Wayne is allergic to antihistamines! After a lot of discussion, we decided we needed to resolve the seasickness issue before attempting that trip. So we have delayed our trip to Mexico and are now going with plan 2B or 2C which is to go to the Out Islands of the Bahamas for the 2008-2009 cruising season.

There are so many beautiful islands in the Bahamas, we are excited to have a chance to explore more of them this year and revisit a few of our favorites. We plan to visit Eleuthera, Cat, Conception, Crooked, Long Island and hope to see others. We will also go back to the Exumas for a little while when Jill’s Mom and sister, Sandy, visit. Jill’s brother, Jay, also plans a visit but wants to help us explore the Out Islands.

One of our goals will be to go off shore more and test seasickness remedies while also improving our sailing and night sailing skills. When Wayne had his physical he got a prescription for the seasick patch, so he will try those. He has also purchased what I call “shock therapy”, it goes on your wrist and sends out impulses to nerves in your hands. The ad says it works on most people. So with these two potential remedies and lots of ginger we will perform tests this year and hopefully be going to Mexico, Belize and Guatemala for our 2009-2010 cruising season.

Next week I will give you an update on all of the projects we have been working on while we have been ‘dirt dwellers’. You can see some pictures by going to our webpage or directly by clicking on this link http://picasaweb.google.com/svBorntoCruise/BTCMajorProjects2008.

Test of email to update blog

February 21, 2008

The internet is a wonderful thing, but I guess we all know that. This
is a test to see how updating our blog via email works.

While we are sailing on Born to Cruise we are able to send email via
our Ham radio using a Pactor Modem. It is slow and is text only but
it allows us to keep in touch. With our new blog allowing email
updates that means we can update from where ever we happen to be which
is really neat.

There are trees starting to flower here in Cary, which means spring is
definately on the way!!!

Happy Valentines Day!

We seem to stay busy. Wayne with work and me with working out at the gym. I am getting in better shape, but the scale seems to be very slow at going down. They tell me I am building muscle. I sure must be strong !

I have given our webpage a new look. I even added a new page, yes I know it still needs some pictures and some refining. I am thinking about adding at least one more page (about us), and maybe another about where we are going. Now all I need is some time and some artistic inspiration.

Wayne has been working on the wiring for the solar panels even though they are still in boxes in the apartment. We have spent several nice weekends on the boat and are enjoying all of our friends there. I put our canvas back up and sprayed it with water protectant. The salon is warmer with our enclose cockpit which we call our "sunroom" back up.

We are keeping track of all of our cruising friends and trying to enjoy the Bahamas through their adventures this year. I often pull out our log book to see where we were at a particular time last year. It is fun to remember and enjoy it all over again.

Our plans to go to Mexico, Belize and Guatamala for our 2008-2009 cruising season are becoming more real. We are studying webpages and guides, organizing charts and have purchased the necessary courtesty flags. No additional visas are required. Wayne will need to update his passport. I will probably start provisioning when I find nonparishable things on sale. What I really should be doing is going through all of the boxes we have retrieved from storage and determine if we really need to save their contents or donate them to a worthy cause. There is one thing for sure a cruiser can always find plenty to do.

Wishing you love and hugs on Valetines Day!

Born to Cruise Under Sail in the Bahamas 2007

Mark on Intuition took this picture as we were sailing to Long Island, Bahamas. Long Island has some of our favorite beaches in the Bahamas and will be on our list of definite places to visit again.

Happy 2008 to one and all!!!

One of my goals for 2008 is to refurbish our webpage so don't be suprised if you come back and it has changed. Also be patient with me as I don't have much experience with webpage stuff and chances are it will be a lot of trial and error

2008 finds us doing well. Wayne has been working a little over 3 months, building the cruising kitty and buying new boat toys. Our biggest and most exciting purchase so far are 6, yes that is six, solar panels! They are in the apartment waiting for their supporting arch to be built, which we hope will begin in February. Jill worked for 3 months, but has decided that 2008 is the year to get in shape. So she quit work to become a gym rat. Wish me luck.

We are counting down the days until we can move back aboard Born to Cruise. To help pass the time we are studying books on Belize, Guatemala, Mexico and the Honduras Bay Islands which we hope to visit during our 2008-2009 cruising season.