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.