A long overdue update from Born to Cruise

Yes, I know this update is long overdue. It has been a busy summer and fall for the crew of Born to Cruise. The easiest way to tell you about the last six months is to divide it into 3 parts.

The first part was full of boat work, family and friends. It is always fun to come back to New Bern and Northwest Creek Marina. It is easy to fall back into the routine and feel right at home. We made trips to visit our parents and in between worked on the long list of boat tasks that we had been adding to oue list all winter. There were a lot of projects to be done but they were not as major as the list from our last return from the Bahamas.

At the end of June, we drove Wayne's parents to Columbus, GA for the Miss Georgia pagent. Our niece Emily WON and is Miss Georgia!!! She will compete for Miss America in January in Las Vegas. The scholarship money will be a big help in paying for Emily to go to Law School.

Then we headed to Cary, NC for Brian and Almendra's engagement party on July 4th. Jose and Chella, Almendra's parents, hosted a very nice party in their home and yard complete with some small fireworks. The food was fabulous. Everyone had a great time. We are looking forward to the wedding on July 24, 2010.

After dropping off Wayne's parents in SC we decided to go to Florida. To keep the story a little shorter, we had found out we were eligible for the first time home buyers credit. Whenever we had talked about getting another house, we had talked about Florida because it is warm. We both enjoy tropical weather. In doing research we found that there were some great deals in Florida. We looked at lots of "short sale" homes and made a short sale offer on a house. Then headed back to New Bern. With short sales it is up to the bank to decide if the offer is acceptable and the bank is very slow, we might have to wait weeks just to hear that our offer was not the highest or that it was not acceptable or maybe even that we got it.


When we returned from the trip to Georgia, Cary and Florida we found the refridgerater on Born to Cruise was not working. We called Burt, the local expert, he gave us the bad news that we needed a new one. After getting his quote and checking prices, we decided his expertise was worth it and hired him to take care of ordering and installing the new unit for us. Unfortunately there was a back order on the new fridge. It was going to be at least four weeks before the parts would arrive!!


It was hot on the boat and the A/C was having trouble keeping up. We were waiting for the fridge to be fixed and to hear something about the house, so we decided to take a road trip.


Part 2 - Road Trip - My brother Jay has a lake house in Ogallala, Nebraska where he keeps his sailboat. We had never seen the lake house or the sailboat so this was as good a time as any. We loaded up the car and headed out. It took 3 days to drive to Ogallala with our 600 mile a day limit. We drove through states we had never seen before and enjoyed the variety of the scenery our country has to offer. While in Ogallala we sailed on Lake McConaughy and were there for "kites and castles". Jay and Ginger prepared some nice meals and we had a nice relaxing visit.

After our long weekend at the lake, Jay had to go back to work so we followed him to his home in Nederland, Colorado. Jay's mountain house, as we call it, is located about 15 miles from Boulder, almost straight up the mountain. In July when we were there, the meadow surrounding his home was full of wildflowers and everywhere you looked you saw wonderful mountain views. We spent several days in Boulder and toured the Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory. It was fun seeing "Annie" at the Boulder Dinner Theatre. Rocky Mountain National Park was an enjoyable day of driving up the peaks and down. We hiked every day and took hundreds of pictures.

After a week in the mountains we headed to Texas to see my sister, Sandy and brother, Stuart. They live near Houston. Wayne helped with a few repair projects while we were there. Wayne, Stuart and I visted NASA. The 4 of us also went to an Astros babseball game. The Houston Restaurants were having a charity event and offering a 4 course meal for a set price. The prices were below their normal rates to encourage everyone to try the resteraunts as well as support the charity. We enjoyed three different evenings of fancy dining. After a over a week in Texas it was time to get on the road.

We had not heard anything about our short sale offer, so on our way back we decided to swing through Florida and look at some more houses. Our search started in Spring Hill where we stayed with my Aunt Jan and Uncle Joe. We liked some houses but did not find the perfect one. So we headed back down to Cape Coral. In Cape Coral we made offers on several more short sales hoping one of them would work out. As Wayne was doing an internet search he noticed a few houses that met our criteria in Rotonda West. We wanted to see that area so I called an agent that had one of the houses listed to see if we could get an appointment. We really liked the Rotonda West area. The houses we were looking at were all regular sales. That meant no waiting around for a short sale. We made an offer and it was accepted that day! So we cancelled all of the short sale offers we had pending and got a house in Rotonda West. Our "vacation" road trip ended back in New Bern at Born to Cruise where it began after many miles and a lot of good times. The good news was our fridge parts had finally arrived and Burt had them installed and the fridge up and running in no time. YEAH!

We closed on the house on September 23rd and have been working on it ever since. The house was built in 1971 and needed lots of cosmetic work but it has "good bones" and a great layout. You can see some before and after pictures at this link

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=svBorntoCruise&target=ALBUM&id=5391107443796875281&authkey=Gv1sRgCKzo08GvlYz3yQE&feat=email

We are enjoying seeing the progress and how great it looks as we complete things.

Our original plan was to spend the holidays with family and leave for another season in the Bahamas in January. Right now we are not sure what our plans are. Wayne has applied for some contract jobs and if he gets an offer then we will work and go cruising later, if there is not a job offer then we will cruise in January and look for work when we get back. We are cruisers and will go where the wind blows.

Back to our home dock in New Bern, NC until next cruising season

Sunset over the Atlantic the first day of our Crossing



4/30/09 We awoke our last morning at Folly Beach in time to see Teamwork headed out to go fishing at 6:00 AM. I think they were surprised when we were up and waving good bye to them. (Note: Teamwork sent us an email with a picture showing us all of the Mahi Mahi they caught today…maybe we should have gone fishing, oh well we will visit Folly Beach again and maybe get to go fishing then.)

Because the Folly River is so shallow we had to wait for the tide to come up before we could leave. At 11:20 we felt the water would be deep enough to make it down the river and it was, we had no problems. The current in the Stono River was in our favor so it was a nice trip up the Stono. We saw dolphins and LOTS of pelicans and birds in the marshes along the way.

There was traffic in Charleston Harbor but compared to the weekend it was quiet.

It was nice day on the water. We decided we had time to make it to Graham Creek, which has always been a good anchorage for us. The anchor was down at 6:50. The wind and current played against each other all night so it was a little noisy but our anchor held well.

5/1/09 The Waccamaw River in the fall is beautiful with all of the fall colors and one of our favorite places along the waterway. In the spring however it is hard to enjoy the beauty of the river because the May Flies are BITING!!! In NC they call them Deer Flies, but they are mean!!! I stayed inside the salon behind the screen, but poor Wayne was at their mercy. The cockpit floor and windshield looked like a war zone where he had killed so many flies. He had welts on his back where he had been bitten. We were later told that Deep Woods Off would keep them away, so I have added it to our provisioning list for our next cruise!

On the plus side the dolphins in the area are abundant and several pods played with the boat along the way. Wayne also spotted three different alligators. Each alligator was sitting at a cut where a little stream met the river, trying to catch their next meal in the current. This is also a popular nesting area for the osprey. We saw lots of osprey and nests, as well as cormorants, a hawk, and other birds.

Wayne’s cousin, Bryan, and his family live in Murrells Inlet, SC not far from the Wacca Wache Marina, and when we can coordinate it, we stop to visit them. We had called and found out they would be home. They invited us over for dinner. We decided to anchor in Cow House Creek across from the Wacca Wache Marina. The anchorage guide showed it to be good holding and away from most of the current. Wayne decided to add a trip line to the anchor because of all the logs and limbs we saw in the water. A trip line is a line you tie to the anchor with a float on it. If your anchor is snagged under something can pull on the trip line to help you get the anchor out from whatever it is snagged on.

When we set the anchor is was secure. I sprayed the flies that were still alive and swarming in the cockpit with Ant and Roach Killer which is the only spray I had, it worked. We put the dinghy down and headed for shore. A friend of Bryan’s let us use his the end of his slip to tie up the dinghy. We walked over the Bryan’s house, he had offered us a ride but it was good to stretch our legs for the half mile walk. It was nice to catch up with Bryan, Sam and Olivia over a dinner of Shrimp and Mahi Mahi. Yummy.

We got back to the boat just as it was getting dark. Wayne went to bed early and I stayed up a little while to read. Not long after I went to bed I heard a TERRIBLE noise! When Wayne went out to see what was going on he discovered we had drug into the trees on the shoreline. We had to get out of the tree. When we started the engines the starboard engine turned off, that was not good. Wayne went to the windlass to try to raise the anchor while I tried to drive the boat. The anchor would not come all of the way up, that was not good. We got the boat away from the tree and back in the middle of the creek. It was after 10:00 PM. We decided to go slowly over to the marina and try to tie up to the face dock. We were happy to see a light on in the powerboat Seaquine that was on the face dock. I called out that we needed help. John, a boat captain, who was moving Seaquine north for the owner, came to our aide. Wayne guidrd the boat into the dock with only the port engine, while fighting the current and John helped tie us safely to the dock. The tree had broken a wind generator blade and our solar night light, and that was all the damage we could see. The in-water issues would have to wait until morning.

5/2/09 Neither of us slept well wondering what we would find in the morning. As soon as there was enough light Wayne put on his wet suit and snorkel gear and got in the water to take a look. It was very difficult to see in the water in the Waccamaw River with its rusty brown color. This color is caused by all the rotting leaves and trees that fall into the river. Wayne found that the trip line had snagged around the starboard sail drive, which evidently caused the anchor to trip and the boat to drag. The anchor was hung up in the trip line. When we had started the engines the trip line became tightly wrapped around the saildrive shaft. The propeller looked fine, which was good. Wayne was able to cut the trip line and bring in the anchor. However, the line wrapped around the sail drive was going to take a lot of work free, we needed a diver. We called Bryan who thankfully had a friend, Tommy who is a diver. Tommy was willing to come out at 8:30 on a Saturday morning. Bryan came down to the dock to give us some moral support. Tommy worked for over 30 minutes in the water and was able to free the rope. He checked out both propellers and thankfully there was no damage. We were lucky that there was no other damage. If this had to happen, it could not have happened at a better place, since Bryan was there and could find us help. Thanks, Bryan!!

Wayne rinsed the deck to remove the leaves and twigs. We filled up the water tank and got diesel and were on our way by 10:30.

Today we continued to see osprey nests, lots of birds, and turtles. We were surprised to see 6 juvenile mallard ducks swimming along.

The waterway was crowded with small boat traffic. It was a beautiful warm day and everyone wanted to be out enjoying it. All of this traffic made it a difficult day moving up the ICW. After today I would really like to see a national law that says you have to pass a safety course and get a license before being allowed to drive a boat. I am truly amazed that more people are not killed along the waterway.

We made it to Calabash Creek to spend the night. The shoaling in Calabash Creek where you anchor seems to be worse. Our first cruise 4 or 5 boats could anchor with no problem. Tonight there were only two of us. A third boat tried to anchor but there was not enough good water.

5/3/09 The South Carolina – North Carolina boarder is within sight of Calabash Creek. We got an early start to make the opening of the Sunset Beach Bridge, and we were back in NC by 7:30. It was a very windy day. We timed the Cape Fear River so we were not fighting the current and made good time. We arrived at the turn for the Carolina Beach anchorage by 2:00, and instead of stopping, we kept going. The small boat traffic was not quite as bad today. We have decided that we will not go on the ICW in this area on Saturday and Sunday during the spring. In the fall it was ok because it was cold, so there was less traffic.

Our next anchoring option was Wrightsville Beach. When we tried to anchor we were not happy because of the fetch (waves) from the wind. Even though we got the anchor to set well, we did not like the wind and waves that we were getting. So we called Seapath Marina and stayed at the dock. It blew 25 MPH the better part of the night, it was not comfortable at the dock, but at least we would not drag or have another boat drag into us.

5/4/09 The current going by Seapath Marina is strong. We decided to wait until a dock hand could help us leave the dock. I took advantage of the washing machine at the marina and did a load of laundry. At 7:45 a dock hand helped us get off the dock, it was worth the wait. He knew the currents and what the boat would do, so we had a smooth departure. Mondays are so much better on the waterway. We had three bridges to transit today but it was a nice trip up the waterway. It was a short day but with the predicted winds and rain, we knew we would have a good anchorage at Mile Hammock. After we dropped the hook, another boat from New Bern (Non Linear) came in and we chatted via VFF. They were heading south while we were heading north.

5/5/09 The Onslow Beach Bridge is close to Mile Hammock. It only opens on the hour between 7AM and 7PM. If you get there before 7:00AM then the bridge opens on demand. We were underway by 6:15 and the bridge opened for us and another boat at 6:53. The weather was a little overcast and he had small showers throughout the day but nothing that slowed us down. The current was in our favor and pushing us along until we reached Beaufort. When we made the turn to go up Adams Creek, we no longer had the current but it was still not bad. We stopped by Bock Marine for Kenny to look at our exhaust. Our exhaust currently vents to the inside, we would like it changed to the outside. Kenny said he could do the work, so we will schedule it for later this summer when we do the haul out to do our yearly saildrive maintenance.

We were finished at Bock Marine by 1:00. Our original plan was to anchor at Cedar Creek for the night, but we got to Cedar Creek a little after 2:00 and it seemed too early to stop. So we kept going. When we got out onto the Neuse River the wind was behind us, we put up the mainsail and were doing over 7 knots. I called Bud at Northwest Creek Marina to let him know we would be coming in but it would be after he left. He said I could give him a call when we got to the 1N marker. My estimate at that time, was that we might get here around 6:00. Well, the wind was pushing us along and we were making great time. I hailed Northwest Creek Marina to let them know we would be in not long after 5:00. Bud said that our friend Len would be waiting for us. We pulled into the marina at 5:15 and Len tied us up. Cruise number two had ended and we had come full circle after over 6 months and 2175 miles.

Note: We will be spending our “off season” at Northwest Creek Marina and traveling to see family and friends. Of course we will also be working on the to-do list we have been making for the last 6 months. I do not plan on updating the blog very often, but will let you know when I have posted more pictures.

Friends, Fun and Family at Folly Beach

4/25/09 We were pleased with how convenient and easy checking in with customs was in Charleston. If we ever manage to find such a wonderful crossing window we will definitely try to make it to Charleston again.

Charleston City Marina is a nice facility with free WiFi. Unfortunately the no-see-ums were terrible on the dock! Some people call them gnats. Hopefully they don't last too long.

While we were checking in with the marina, we met Dave and Kathy on Orion. We had heard them on the radio during our crossing, it was nice to put faces with the voices. We were all tired from our crossing and decided going out to dinner was a good idea. It was nice getting to know Dave and Kathy over dinner at Salty Mike's. It was an early evening because we all needed to catch up on some sleep.

4/26/09 We had a good night's sleep. I took advantage of the laundry room and washed two loads of clothes while Wayne washed the salt off the boat. We called our friends Bill and Bettie Sue on Teamwork who live in Folly Beach. They were surprised that we were in SC so soon. They thought there might be an opportunity to go deep sea fishing on Tuesday and invited us to go along. They suggested that we move over to Folly Beach on Monday and we agreed.

To the best of my knowledge, the Abacos does not have a Mexican Restaurant and I really wanted a burrito. We got a little exercise by walking downtown to Yo Burrito which was recommended by the folks in the marina office. It was really good and a nice walk. Even though Steve and Jen were tired they joined us for dinner. We had not seen them since early November. We enjoyed a nice dinner and a quick trip to the grocery store before calling it a night.

4/27/09 After fueling up and paying our bill, we left the marina and headed for Folly Beach. Going to Folly Beach is actually heading in the wrong direction since we came in at Charleston, but we had heard so much about it that we had to go. We managed to get off the dock and through the Wappoo Creek Swing Bridge during slack tide which makes it much easier. There are several ways to get to Folly Beach, we opted for the easiest and most charted, which is down the Stono River to the Folly River. The Folly River tends to shoal so local knowledge is needed the first time you go through the inlets and in some of the tighter spots. Bill, Bettie Sue, Vicky, their friend and Dixon, Vicky's son, came out to meet us in Vicky's boat to show us the way. Bill joined us on Born to Cruise for the ride down the Folly River. We made it in with no problems and anchored near the Folly Beach Bridge. If you have ever been to Folly Beach you have crossed over the bridge, if you looked to your right that is where we were. There is a public boat ramp there so there was a lot of activity. The anchor stuck and held firm so it was a very comfortable and convenient spot to be.

Bill and Bettie Sue invited us over for dinner. We took the dinghy to Vicky's dock and she drove us over to Bill and Bettie Sue's and joined us for dinner. We had a wonderful dinner of fresh Mahi Mahi and an enjoyable evening getting to know Vicky who is a very dear friend of Bill and Bettie Sue. Bill and Bettie Sue have a beautiful home that was designed so they would have a garage for their boat and a place to keep their treasures. The house suits them perfectly! It overlooks the Folly River and has a small dock that is accessible by small boats at high tide. They keep their boats out of the water and use the boat ramp to launch them.

The evening ended early so we could get a good night's sleep to prepare for our fishing trip.

4/28/09 Bill called at 5:30 AM to tell us the weather was not cooperating and fishing would have to be postponed until another day. Cruisers always have a plan B to allow for all types of weather, our plan B was to go to their secret shark tooth finding spot. Bill said they would pick us up at 2:30.

It was time to explore Folly Beach. We took the dinghy to the boat ramp and tied up. We explored town and looked at the beach. The tide was high so we took the dinghy over to Bill and Bettie Sue's. Bettie Sue gave us some fish and she then offered us a sandwich made of the left over fish from last night. Boy was it good! We went back to the boat to get ready for our shark tooth expedition.

Bill & Bettie Sue picked us up at 2:30, as promised. We rode for quite a while in the boat they call "junior" because it is smaller than Teamwork. We anchored the boat and unloaded the bicycles they brought with them. We had to walk the bikes quite a way before the sand was firm enough to ride. It was a nice ride almost 2 miles down the beach to their secret spot. We spent almost 3 hours picking up shark teeth, petrified clams, petrified wood and a few pieces of pirate glass. Wayne even found a piece of a cannon ball. Wayne and I found over 30 shark teeth or pieces of shark teeth ranging in size from a ¼ of an inch to almost 3 inches long! It was a lot of fun and we both hope we can go back there again. We slept well after a busy day.

4/29/09 Steve and Jen would be able to come for dinner tonight. I needed a few things from the grocery store so we walked over to the Red and White in Folly Beach. It reminded me of the stores in the Bahamas and was about the same size. They have what I needed at a price cheaper than in the Bahamas, so it was ok. We stopped for lunch at Taco Boy, it was ok, but nothing extra.

At high tide we dinghied over to Bill and Bettie Sue's so they could help us identify our treasures from the day before. I am still amazed that the shark teeth are millions of years old! The pirate glass I sound was only a couple of hundred years old. They had found more teeth than we had but they are experts with years of experience. They said the weather looked right for a fishing trip on Thursday, but we decided that with the tides we needed to start heading north. We would take them up on their offer for the fishing trip another time. They were going to check out the channel at low tide to see how much it had changed since last year. Wayne decided to ride with them to see what it looked like. After Wayne's trip to see the channel we decided to go back up the Stono instead of venturing into the ocean. The ocean trip would only save us about a half mile.

Steve and Jen came over for dinner. Wayne picked them up at the boat ramp and they took a short dinghy ride around exploring the area. We had a nice dinner of shrimp and fish. After dinner we enjoyed a beautiful sunset and each of us tried to blow the conch horn. Steve is really quite good with the conch horn. We were sad when the evening had to end, but they had a 45 minute drive and both of them had to work the next day. We needed the rest as well because it was time to head north and we would be leaving Folly Beach in the morning.

The Crossing

4/22/09 Today turned out to be a very busy day for us. The weather window was looking perfect for our type of crossing, seas 3 feet or less and wind light only from the south or east. Jay and Ginger caught the 11:00 ferry over to Treasure Cay. We paid our bill at the yacht club and headed out.

First stop was Green Turtle Club to fill up with fuel. We then had a bumpy ride over to Allan's-Pensacola Cay arriving at 5:00PM. We prepared Born to Cruise for crossing and had a quiet evening after watching a beautiful sunset complete with our first green flash of the year. Just after sunset a laughing gull decided to take a rest on our wind generator. (With so much solar power we keep the wind generators tied up unless it is a really cloudy day. ) The gull tried to stand on the base of the blade but could not get his footing. He finally put one foot on the housing and the other on the blade. He stayed perched on the wind generator for almost 45 minutes. The picture in one of the bird books we have showed this laughing gull had his "breeding plumage". I wondered if he was trying to decide if he should build a nest on Born to Cruise. He did not seem to mind that I was taking pictures of him. I was tempted to feed him, but we don't need any pets. After he was rested and evidently decided there were better places to build a nest, so he flew away.

Earlier in the day on the VHF radio we heard our friends, Dave and Beth on Grateful Attitudes going by Green Turtle Cay heading to Great Sale Cay to stage for crossing tomorrow. We decided to call each other nightly at 8:00PM while making our crossing. Tonight on our first call we learned that they had made it to Great Sale late and were getting up early to head out.

The weather predicted was ideal for "our perfect crossing window" starting tomorrow, so it was time to go, so we told Dave we would be going too.

4/23/09 We awoke to a perfect day, gentle breezes behind us and seas 2' or less. It was a go. We had the anchor up and were underway at 7:30 headed to the US. What a beautiful day! Chris Parker, our weather guru, said this was one of the best crossing windows he had ever seen, and he has been doing cruising weather for over 5 years. On our first trip back from the Bahamas, we came into the US at Fort Pierce. With the current weather prediction, we knew we could make it to at least Canaveral with this weather window.

Two large dolphin came up and were playing with the boat. They love to swim in between the pontoons, go under the bow and swim beside the boat and back again. They are such beautiful animals.

Wayne decided with the gentle swell that he would just wear ½ of a sea sick patch. (That turned out to be enough, because he had no problems on our trip).

Wayne was so excited when we found our messages in the bottle that he wanted prepare some bottles too. It was so calm we were able to write a message to put in the bottles and print it on the computer. We prepared three bottles and would drop them off in the gulf stream.

The first day of our crossing was getting across the Bahama Banks. It was so flat and glassy that we could see the bottom! It was nice to have one final day of enjoying the aquamarine waters of the Bahamas. We put up the main when there was a little wind just to help us along, but it didn't do much. It was so calm that we were able to take showers and Wayne was able to be in the salon instead of sitting at the helm. He even played solitaire on the computer which he has never been able to do on previous crossings.

We check in on the single side band radio with the Cruiseheimers Net most mornings while we are cruising and all mornings when we are moving. Dick from St Jude, is the Saturday Net Control. Dick offers a net in the evening at 5:00PM called the Doodah net. Dick follows your track as you cross or helps when emergency contact is needed. We checked in with Dick to update our progress. At 8:00PM we also talked to Dave on Grateful Attitudes, they were about 4 hours ahead of us. Dave said they were headed for Brunswick, GA. Wayne and I thought about this for a while and decided with the perfect conditions we had so far we would go north of Canaveral, either Fernandina or possibly Brunswick depending on how much of a boost we got from the gulf stream and how much fuel we were using.

We had a beautiful sunset over the water and saw our second green flash of the year. At 8:25 we reached the Atlantic Ocean. It was still flat and glassy, just like we like it. We set the course and Wayne went to bed to get a little sleep.

A little after 10:00 PM I heard the Coast Guard hailing a boat by giving GPS coordinates. I responded to verify that it was not us. They were actually hailing another boat called Hawkeye, who was within sight of us most of the day and had been talking to us over the radio every now and then. I was surprised that Hawkeye was not answering. A few minutes later Hawkeye hailed me on the radio and said there was a blue light shining into his boat, did I know what was going on. They had accidentally turned off the radio while trying to fix an electrical problem. I told him the Coast Guard had been hailing him. He immediately hailed the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard wanted to board them for a safety inspection. Twenty minutes later the Coast Guard was hailing us. They wanted to do a safety inspection of Born to Cruise, they asked if we had a preferred side for entry. I told them the starboard side works best and that I would open the gate. I turned on the "landing lights" (our new LED lights on the bottom of the arch), opened the gate and then I woke Wayne.

It is really kind of a neat process. They launch a really fast dinghy. You maintain your speed; we were doing about 8 knots with the help of the current. They pull up alongside and two officers got on our boat. Their dinghy continued at speed while the two were on our boat. They were very polite. They wanted to see the bilges, our life jackets, flares, throwing devices, fire extinguishers, documentation and passports. We passed inspection with flying colors. They filled out a form and gave us the gold copy. They said if we are called again for another boarding that we could give them the number on the form and for one year we were exempt from this type of inspection. This all took about 20 minutes. They left and were off to do another inspection. We were in the gulf stream now, it was time to throw our bottles. It will be interesting to see where they end up and who finds them. It was my turn to sleep for a while, but I was so wound up it was hard to go to sleep.

4/24/09 Around 1 AM the wind picked up a little, so Wayne put up the main sail and turned off one engine to conserve fuel. He had been doing calculations and thought we could make it to Brunswick, especially if we could conserve fuel for a little while.

Every morning while in the Bahamas we listen to the weather, today was no exception. Chris Parker was still predicting perfect weather. We had entered the gulf stream after dark, this morning we could see it. The gulf stream water is an amazing shade of indigo blue. I would love to have a gemstone that beautiful color.

Our normal cruising speed with both engines at 2000 RPM is around 6.5 knots, while in the gulf stream our max speed was 11.7!!! But we were doing between 9 and 10 knots while riding the gentle swells. As they say "it doesn't get any better than this".

After all of our calculations and using one engine and the sail for over 8 hours we determined if we transferred the fuel from the bladder tank and the jerry jugs to the main tank we could make it to Charleston. We had about 20 gallons of fuel in the bladder tank. We pulled out the transfer pump and it would not work, the impeller was bad. Next Wayne tried one of the pumps that attaches to the end of a drill, it did not have enough power. He finally tried the oil change bucket pump and it worked! We got all of the fuel transferred and throttled up the engines. Our course now set for Charleston.

It was another beautiful day on a gently rolling gulf stream. We were able to use our Genoa & main sail for part of the day to add a little boost to our speed. Around 4:30 in the afternoon a small bird flew into the salon. We were 50 miles offshore so we were surprised that such a small bird would be out so far. He sat down for a minute and then flew out the door. We were both glad he left on his own so we did not have to figure out a way to catch him.

Another beautiful sunset! Sunsets are just prettier over water.

4/25/09 It was a peaceful night and the seas were still calm. Three times this morning pods of dolphins racing with the boat and playing with us. They are so much fun to watch. We also saw a pod of small whales off in the distance.

12:30 PM Land HO!!! That's what they always say in the movies. We were within sight of Charleston Harbor. We saw a large sea turtle, but when he heard the engines he went under the water.

We were able to get a cell phone signal when we were 6 miles off shore. We called Customs and Immigration, they said they would meet us at the dock. Then we called Charleston City Marina and made a reservation. Cell phone minutes are free on the weekend; it was good it was Saturday because we made quite a few calls.

We were tied up to the dock at Charleston City Marina at 3:40 and the engines were quiet after 56 hours non-stop. We had traveled 421 miles with an overall average speed of 7.5 knots. We were safely back in the US after what so far has been our easiest crossing and will probably be our easiest crossing ever. The Customs agent arrived within 10 minutes and quickly cleared us in. We were officially back.

Jay and Ginger's Visit

4/12/09 The 11:30 ferry from Treasure Cay pulled in to White Sound, Green Turtle and pulled up to our boat to drop off Jay and Ginger. Talk about service with a smile! They were tired after their trip from Denver. Their flight had departed at 1:30 in the morning! We did not give them much time to rest. We ate lunch and pulled up the anchor. The winds were perfect for an easy sail up to Powell Cay. After anchoring we headed to shore to walk the beach. It was near low tide so we walked the inside beach. There were only a few sand dollars but there were other treasures to find and things to see. The good thing about Jay and Ginger being so tired was that it made for an easier transition to get adjusted to not only to the Eastern time but also "cruisers time". Cruisers midnight is 9:00 PM.

4/13/09 After a rolly night at Powell we moved to Allans-Pensacola. The wind was not as cooperative today so we only put up the main to pretend we were a sail boat. After anchoring and lunch we walked over to the Atlantic side beach. Jay and Ginger added their names to the signing tree. Wayne and I walked to the point to see how the Atlantic side anchorage looked. The wind was predicted to shift during the night. The seas were already starting to lie down. Early in the evening Teamwork pulled into the anchorage. After dinner we taught Ginger how to play Mexican Train Dominoes. Jay only needed a short refresher lesson because he played Mexican Train when he visited us on our first cruise.

4/14/09 The wind was shifting to the south, so we needed to move to the Atlantic side of Allans-Pensacola. Teamwork left before we did and radioed to say that the anchorage looked perfect for the wind. We moved around the island and anchored not far from Teamwork and very close to where we had anchored when we were there before. Ginger had never snorkeled before but wanted to give it a try. We went to shore to let her try snorkeling. Although Ginger is a good swimmer, she has a touch of claustrophobia and is also nearsighted. Because she could not see well out of the mask and felt closed in, she decided that she would not be snorkeling on this trip. She did enjoy swimming around while Jay, Wayne and I snorkeled and explored the white sandy bottom near shore. Later in the afternoon Teamwork called to say they were going out to the reef so Bill could do some fishing and asked if any of us would like to go. Jay and Wayne joined them for a short snorkeling trip before the rain started. Ginger and I stayed on Born to Cruise and I taught her how to play Quiddler. We enjoyed Trigger Fish for dinner. Trigger Fish is a mild white meat fish that is very tasty. The Trigger Fish was from our freezer, Teamwork had given it to us after a previous snorkel trip. After dinner Bill called on the radio to say he was watching the radar and we were in for an evening of squalls and heavy rain. We had a lot of squalls this evening. Bill kept us informed of when to expect them. We played Farkle and kept a close watch on the storms. The boat got a nice rinse and we were thankful when the storms had finally passed around 10:00 PM so we could go to bed.

4/15/09 Teamwork was going snorkeling and invited us along. Jay and Ginger road over with Teamwork. Wayne and I took the dinghy. It was a beautiful reef with lots of fish. The first thing I saw when I got to the reef was a big grouper. I called Bill over and he caught it. Ginger fished some with Bettie Sue, then Jay took her for a dinghy ride using the Looky Bucket. A Looky Bucket is basically a 5 gallon plastic paint bucket that has had the bottom replaced with something that is clear so you can see through it. They really work well to see into the clear Bahamian water. Bill found a small turtle on the reef and pointed him out so I could get a picture. The turtle was not posing well so Bill picked him up so I could take a few pictures. As I was going back to the boat after snorkeling I saw a big Trigger Fish under Teamwork. Bettie Sue put a hook in the water and was able to catch him. There was a four foot barracuda hanging around keeping his distance. When I saw the 9' nurse shark I decided it was time to stop snorkeling for the day.

Earlier in the season Bill had mentioned he would love to climb our mast and take pictures. The conditions were right, so he came over and took pictures from the spreaders.

The winds were going to pick up over-night so we moved back to the main anchorage. After we moved Bill came over to take more pictures, this time climbing to the top of the mast. Bettie Sue had cleaned the two fish and gave us half the catch of the day. I downloaded the pictures I had taken underwater and got some good ones. Unfortunately when I tried to take another picture later in the day the camera would not work. Now we are definitely getting another underwater camera when we get back. After dinner we taught Jay and Ginger how to play Rummy Cube.

4/16/09 This morning Bill was burning his trash on the beach and Wayne and Jay joined him and burned our paper trash. I made granola and shared my recipe and technique with Ginger. After lunch we again snorkeled with Teamwork. We went to a beautiful area of reef on the inside of Allans-Pensacola Cay. I was so disappointed that my underwater camera was not working because I was eye to eye with so many beautiful fish. I guess we will just have to go back next year so I can get my pictures. Bill and Bettie Sue once again caught fish and shared them with us. We had wonderful fresh fish for dinner! When Bettie Sue cleaned the fish she saved the non edible parts, around sunset Bill threw these parts in the water between our two boats. He attracted 4 small reef sharks and a large ray. They enjoyed their snack and we enjoyed watching them. Tonight we played a card game called "oh hell".

4/17/09 The winds were again shifting so it was time to move. Teamwork was going to head north to catch a crossing window and we were going back south. We said our good byes with the promise that we would see each other soon. After breakfast we raised anchor and went to Powell Cay. We swam and snorkeled the ship wreck at Powell Cay. After lunch we again raised anchor and made the trip to Manjack Cay. The winds were already picking up and the water was choppy which made for a bumpy ride. We anchored at Nunjack Beach at Manjack Cay. Tonight it was Dominoes night, so we played Smutchski and Mexican Train dominoes..

4/18/09 Happy Birthday to Ginger! We spent the morning walking the north beach of Manjack Cay. A beautiful beach but not many shells and no sea glass to pick up. We did pick up some trash and put it in piles. After lunch we moved to the main anchorage at Manjack Cay. Jay swam out to snorkel the barge wreck while Wayne and Ginger followed in the dinghy. I made Key Lime Pie while they were gone. Ginger's birthday dinner was steamed lobster, green bean casserole, pasta salad and key lime pie. Games for the evening were Farkle and Mexican Train Dominoes.

4/19/09 Our adventure today was a visit to Bill and Leslie on Manjack Cay. They have 5 acres of property that they have spent 17 years nurturing. They have a beautiful home surrounded by plants and flowers, including vegetable gardens and fruit trees. They have beautiful chickens and feed a variety of birds. Jay fed the little birds in the palm of his hand. Ginger fed the chickens out of her hand. Bill explained bees and their importance to Wayne and me. It was a wonderful morning, we appreciate Bill and Leslie sharing their piece of paradise with us. After lunch Jay and Wayne snorkeled the barge wreck. This evenings games were Triominos and Farkle.

4/20/09 Again the winds were changing so it was time to move. We went to White Sound in Green Turtle Cay and set the anchor but did not like where we were anchored. We raised the anchored and moved to Leeward Yacht Club in Black Sound. Leeward is a new neighborhood with beautiful homes and a new dock. After lunch we rented a golf cart for 24 hours, Thanks Ginger. We explored the Lowe Art Gallery, the town of New Plymouth and got a few groceries. We decided to have dinner at the Green Turtle Club, it was excellent as usual, Thanks Jay. Farkle was the game for today.

4/21/09 It was raining early in the morning. Wayne decided it was time to pickle the water maker for the season. We only use the water maker in the pretty Bahamian water; we do not use it in the US. To pickle a water maker you put in chemicals to clean it out, flush those out and then add a chemical to "pickle" it to keep things from growing in it until you are ready to use it again. This process preserves the membrane so it can be used again. The rain stopped so we took advantage of the hours left on our golf cart rental. We walked a beach, revisited a few gift shops and had lunch at the Wrecking Tree.

The weather forecast was shaping for good a crossing window. Wayne and Jay emptied the fuel jerry jugs into the tank and were going to get them filled. We found out the nearest fuel dock was out of fuel. So Wayne and Jay just took a dinghy ride around Black Sound. Tonight's games were "oh hell" and Quiddler.

4/22/09 Jay and Ginger's flight was scheduled to leave in the early afternoon. They spent the morning packing and figuring out ways to take home shells, sand dollars and a few conch shells. We said our good byes. Once again they had door to door service as the ferry picked them up at the dock just in front of Born to Cruise. They left the Bahamas and found new snow on the ground in Colorado and unfortunately they were back to reality.

Snorkeling and Beach Walking, Life is Good!

Note: I will add a picture when we have a good internet connection

4/4/09 As predicted the winds were picking up, so it was time to move from Allans-Pensacola. We decided to move to Manjack Cay which is 20.6 miles and takes about three and a half hours. After anchoring, we relaxed and enjoyed surfing the internet.

4/5/09 We had a call early from Bill and Bettie Sue on Teamwork asking what are plans were for the day. They were going snorkeling and invited us to ride with them out to an ocean reef behind Manjack Cay. They anchored Teamwork in a sandy place between 5 or 6 large coral beds. We snorkeled them all! They were really beautiful and each one was just a little different. They were also tall and in very deep water. None of my pictures turned out very well. I think I was trying to take pictures
of fish that were too far away. Oh well, better luck next time.

We ate our picnic lunch on Teamwork in transit to the bay at the north end of Manjack. They took us to a place where we could get sea glass. This sea glass was in the water and you had to dive under to grab it off the bottom. The current was pretty strong, so it was a difficult task. In the past I had not done much diving under with my snorkel, but I did it today. Because I float so well naturally, if I am going to do much diving under the water and want to stay down instead of bobbing back up
to the top then I will need to get a weight belt. There was another small reef near the glass and we checked it out too. A great day of snorkeling!

After getting back to Born to Cruise we moved over to White Sound at Green Turtle Cay to be in a good spot for the next front. We slept well after a very busy day.

4/6/09 It was very windy today. We needed bread and lettuce so we took the dinghy over to New Plymouth. Our ride over was into the wind and we both had on our foul weather jackets, but anything that was not covered by the jacket was soaked by the spray coming over the side of the dinghy! Thankfully on the trip back from grocery shopping, the wind was at our back and it was like surfing.

I had broken the clip on my fin when we were snorkeling, so we went into Brendals Dive Shop to see if they had a replacement. They did not have the clip to fit my fin; thankfully we have extra fins that I can use and I will replace the clip when we get back to the US.

We were glad we had gotten a good spot to anchor because the wind was picking up and there were still boats coming into the very crowded anchorage.

4/7/09 This was our windiest day so far in the Bahamas this year. We saw winds of over 40 knots! Our big Delta anchor held well. We stayed on the boat all day. I used the time to make yogurt and granola. Wayne did more work on some new conch horns. One bit of excitement was the fuel tanker, Tropic Breeze, came into the harbor today. Two boats had to move so the Tropic Breeze had enough room to make it through the anchorage. We were thankful we did not have to move. We kept a close watch
all day to make sure no one near us was dragging on their anchor. Several boats did drag, but they were not near us. We left our GPS anchor alarm on so it would tell us if we were dragging and we did not. The GPS records how far you travel; we had swung back and forth on the anchor and covered over 2 miles!!! The winds were predicted to calm over night.

4/8/09 The winds had calmed so we raised the anchor and moved back to Manjack Cay. As we were finishing lunch a dinghy pulled up beside us. Larry on Dana Jean needed help with his computer and Teamwork told him maybe we could help. Larry's computer has a Vista operating system which we are not familiar with. It took us a while but between Wayne and me, we figured out how to resolve his problem.

We had a fun evening aboard BTC getting to know Larry and Dana while teaching them how to play Mexican Train Dominoes.

4/9/09 Once again Teamwork was calling on the VHF asking if we would like to go for a short snorkeling trip before their guests were due to arrive. We readily agreed. Bill found another reef for us to explore. This was a single huge bed of coral. At first we were disappointed that there did not seem to be many fish.then we swam around to the back side and found where all the fish were. We had another beautiful snorkel.

After they dropped us off on BTC we decided to kayak over to Crab Cay to look for sea glass. The "draft" on the kayaks is less than 3 inches but there were places that we still had to get out and pull them through the shallow water an hour before low tide. We went back to the beach where we had found so much glass before. We found some nice pieces but not nearly the quantity we had found before. The recent wind had put a lot of sand in the places we like to look so we think the glass was hiding.
We will go back to this spot and try it again sometime and hopefully find more. The tide was up enough that we had a nice easy kayak ride back to BTC. We were tired after a very busy day.

4/10/09 We once again took advantage of the free wifi offered by Bill and Leslie on Manjack Cay. It was also time to start cleaning and picking up. I am still not sure how the boat gets quite so cluttered and dirty in such a short period of time.

After lunch Larry and Dana joined us for a nice long walk down the beach at Manjack on the Atlantic side. There are some really neat rock formations on the beach that we explored and we found a few nice pieces of sea glass. Dana and Larry had never looked for sea glass, but they quickly learned how to determine a "Class A" rated piece of sea glass. On the way back to BTC we stopped and met Bonnie and Roger on Kokomo. Bonnie is the net control one day a week on the Cruiseheimers SSB radio net.
It was nice to put a face with the voice we had been hearing for 3 years. We did not get back to BTC until almost 7:00! Another nice day in the Abacos.

4/11/09 Time to head back to White Sound at Green Turtle Cay. After anchoring and lunch we dinghied over to New Plymouth to get fresh produce and bread. Once again it was an extremely wet dinghy ride over and I was soaked. Good thing it is warm out. While I put away groceries and did some cleaning, Wayne helped Dana Jean with some sail repair work. Wayne also got more dinghy gas in preparation for the busy 10 days ahead.

Once again Larry and Dana joined us for an evening on BTC, tonight we taught them how to play Farkle.

4/12/09 This morning we washed a load of clothes and are doing some final cleaning. My brother, Jay and his girlfriend, Ginger will be arriving from Colorado on the 11:30 flight. They will fly out on the 22nd. So far the weather forecast is for daytime highs in the 80's..Jay had snow this week so it should be a nice change for him. Now if the winds will cooperate we may even get to sail!

Suicidal Lobster!

Wayne showing off the first and only lobster he has ever caught. Picture by Bettie Sue on Teamwork.

3/30/09 Delay in plans. Well the plan was to get up and head out of White Sound this morning. The fresh water pump had been sounding sluggish, well this morning it died. The pump was at least 5 years old so we were not surprised that it died. We carry two spare fresh water pumps, because we need fresh water! The water pump installation itself is not hard but getting to the pump is a challenge. It is located underneath the stove. Wayne took out the old pump and installed the new one, but it took a couple of hours.

Most days we run the generator to make water. Well this morning the generator would not start. Wayne found out the battery was dead, it is not hooked into the main bank of batteries. He rigged a battery charger and was able to get it started. It has been working since then. Another item to add to the summer project list is to connect the diesel generator battery to the main bank bus.

We watched 25 boats leave White Sound that morning. There was a crossing window coming up and lots of people are headed back. After lunch we raised the anchor and went to Powell Cay. On the way to Powell Cay we had at least three dolphin playing tag with the boat. They are so much fun to watch.

After anchoring at Powell we still had enough time to walk the beach. The tide was low so we walked a loop around the south end of the island. We saw lots of sand dollars but I have so many so we did not pick them up. We also saw a ray, lots of baby conch, and horse conch (which are not edible). We picked up two pretty shells a Partridge Turn and our first Atlantic Figsnail. We were pleased to see that the path to cut across the island had been cleared more since we had last visited.

3/31/09 We were happy when the diesel generator started on the first try and we were able to make water. The wind shift was making the anchorage at Powell get rolly so it was time to move. It was a rainy, sometimes foggy trip over to Allans-Pensacola. We had the anchorage to ourselves for about 10 minutes and then our friends, Bill and Bettie Sue, on Teamwork pulled in and anchored. Teamwork hailed us and asked if we would like to go snorkeling after lunch out on the reef on the Atlantic side. They did not have to do any arm twisting to get us to go along.

Teamwork came by to pick us up and we headed out to the reef on the back side of Allans-Pensicola. I wore my shorty wet suit and Wayne had on his full wet suit, the water was wonderful. Bill is a hunter. We saw lots of lobster and Bill convinced Wayne that he should borrow a spear and try his luck. A suicidal lobster jumped on the spear that Wayne was holding. Today was the last day of lobster season so the lobster was determined, it had to jump three times but finally managed to commit suicide on the end of Wayne’s spear. Wayne was very excited to get his first lobster ever! Bettie Sue caught a HUGE trigger fish and gave us two LARGE fillets plus three lobster that Bill caught to go along with Wayne’s lobster. Yummy! I just had fun snorkeling and watching all the fish. The underwater camera battery died after 4 pictures so we did not get many pictures today.

After putting our catch of the day in the fridge and getting some rest, we waited for low tide. Bill and Bettie Sue showed us another beach where there is good sea glass. We found a few nice pieces but had to leave because it was after 7:00 PM and starting to get dark. We will definitely go back to this spot to look for more seaglass when we are in this area again.

4/1/09 You’ve got mail! The winds were changing again so we needed to move from the main anchorage at Allans-Pensacola. Wayne wanted to walk to the beach to see how the Atlantic side anchorage looked. Again we were pleased to see that the path to the beach had been greatly improved since we had last walked on it. We walked the main beach on Allans-Pensacola and then went across the old airstrip to the first of the back bays. The water looked smooth so we decided that we should move to the Atlantic side. As long as we were there we walked the beach. Wayne was excited when he found a message in a bottle! We went back to the boat and after lunch moved over to the Atlantic side of Allans-Pensacola, very near where we had anchored in January. Teamwork also moved to this side of the island. After anchoring we decided to explore the beaches. The first beach we walked had no treasures on it. Teamwork was on another beach so we decided to go talk to them. As I was searching for sea glass Wayne was searching the edge of the woods and he found ANOTHER message in a bottle!!! This was his second one of the day and our third for the season. We had fresh steamed lobster for dinner, a good end to a good day.

4/2/09 Teamwork once again asked if we wanted to go snorkeling after lunch. We rested in the morning. After lunch Teamwork picked us up and we headed over behind Hog Cay. (I don’t think I have mentioned that Teamwork is a 33’ Grady White fishing boat. Bill and Bettie Sue LOVE to fish, they spend their winters in the Bahamas and the rest of the time at their home in Folly Beach, SC. They enjoy going fishing off the coast and walking the beaches looking for sharks teeth.) We had another great snorkeling trip. The lobster knew that the season was over; they were everywhere looking out of their holes and laughing at Wayne and Bill because they knew they were safe. Today the underwater camera was working well. I took 74 pictures and got quite a few good ones. There were lots of kinds of fish and I managed to get a picture of a turtle. We also saw a green moray eel, unfortunately my camera batteries were dead so I did not get his picture. I will post some of the pictures when we get a good internet connection.

4/3/09 Today was windy. We walked a few beaches in the morning but did not find much. We had a lazy afternoon on the boat. Teamwork came by and we exchanged pictures. They have a wonderful underwater camera. I had taken several pictures of Bill. When he is snorkeling, he quite often appears to be standing on his head in the water as he searches the holes and little caves for sea critters. The winds are shifting tomorrow so it will be time raise the anchor and find another protected shore.

Happy news, we are going to have another daughter!

We were very excited to hear that Brian proposed to Almendra on Monday night! So we are going to have a new daughter! Almendra has been a part of the family for over 6 years; this will just make her an official family member. They have not set a wedding date. Almendra is in the Army National Guard and is being deployed after the training she is currently doing in Texas. Please keep her and all of all those in service to our country in your thoughts and prayers.

3/23/09 We moved from White Sound at Green Turtle Cay over to Manjack Cay. On our trip over we noticed a boat coming our way that looked like our friends Bill and Bettie Sue on Teamwork. It was!!! We hailed them about the time they realized that it was us. We stopped and chatted at sea for a few minutes. They were headed out to the reef to go fishing and invited us to join them after we got settled.

We anchored at Manjack, tucked up close to a rock known as Rat Cay. The tank for the dinghy fuel needed to be filled up if we were going out to the reef. It was pretty windy. When Wayne finished putting fuel in the tank he could not find the little yellow disk that fills the hole in the cap for the gas can. We saw it floating in the water. We quickly launched a kayak and Wayne rescued it as it was floating away.

After lunch we headed out to find Teamwork. Wayne decided the best way to go was the shallow passage between Manjack and Crab Cay. Well, it was REALLY shallow! We ended up pulling the dinghy as much as we rode in it and in the end determined that we could not get through that way to get out to the reef. As long as we were there we decided to walk the beach on Crab Cay. It was covered in sea glass!!! So while I picked up sea glass Wayne did some exploring and found a path that went from the beach where we found the sea glass out to a beach on the Sea of Abaco side of the island.

As we were headed back to the boat we saw Teamwork anchored not far from where Born to Cruise was anchored. We stopped to talk and catch up with what they had been doing since we last saw them. The cruising community by nature is always moving, so you make friends and then go your separate ways. The wonderful thing is that chances are really good that your paths will cross again. After you catch up for a few minutes it is like you had never parted. We talked for hours.

It was great to have a strong WiFii signal again to check emails and make a few phone calls. The word is getting out about Bill and Leslie sharing their WiFi at Manjack, it is really nice of them to share with the cruising community.

3/24/09 The anchorage at Manjack was filling up with boats looking for protection from the wind that was expected for the next few days. Temptation and Whisper both came into the anchorage. Karen enjoys sea glass as much as I do, so we offered to show them the great spot we had found. Earl needed to do boat work, but Karen joined us. Whisper also came in their dinghy. We planned a long outing in hopes of catching the tide so we did not have to pull the dinghy. We took sandwiches and lots of drinking water. Again we found lots of sea glass on the beach. Wayne and Ray explored further in the rocks and found pockets of sea glass in the sandy crevices between the rocks. Much of what they found was actually "black glass" also known as "Pirate Glass" because of its age. The tide was coming in so we had to leave before we could do much searching in the rocks, but I was already making plans to come back the next day.

We still had time before the tide was high enough to get back to the anchorage so we crossed over the inlet and walked on the end of Manjack Cay. There were not many shells and no sea glass on this side. There are some pretty rock formations that we will need to take pictures of next time we walk that beach. The tide was finally high enough and we were able to get back to the boat.

Temptation and Whisper joined us after dinner for an enjoyable evening of dominoes and Farkle on Born to Cruise.

3/25/09 Sea glass hunting would have to wait, we spent a windy day aboard Born to Cruise. Wayne helped Earl finish up his repair work. We had a nice dinner on Temptation followed by dominoes and Farkle.

3/26/09 Happy Birthday to Steve!!!
The wind was shifting, so we moved Born to Cruise closer to Crab Cay to have a smoother anchorage. After lunch it was time to search for more sea glass. The plan was to dinghy around through the Sea of Abaco so we did not have to wait on the tides, and we would cross over to the beach using the path Wayne had discovered earlier. It was a wet dinghy ride over but we did not have to pull the dinghy. Today we were joined by Temptation, Sweet Chariot and Celtic Cross. There was more sea glass on the beach but we immediately headed for the rocks. Wayne and I found almost a ½ gallon of sea glass: many of the pieces were Pirate Glass! As the tide was coming in it was time to head back to the boat.

We invited Temptation over for dinner. We had game night on Born to Cruise with Temptation, Celtic Cross and Sweet Chariot all playing Mexican Train Dominoes.

3/27/09 The wind was predicted to pick up and be clocking so we moved back to White Sound at Green Turtle Cay. It was too windy to dinghy over to New Plymouth for groceries so Temptation suggested we share a golf cart rental and make a provisioning run to town. After stopping at all three grocery stores and the liquor store we had found everything that was on our list. Each of the grocery stores offers slightly different items, but for a small island they have nice stores. We were told that there are approximately 300 permanent residents of Green Turtle Cay and that increases to 700 when the seasonal residents are here. I should have asked if "cruisers" are counted as seasonal residents. After putting the food away there was still time remaining on our golf cart rental so we headed to the beach. The three beaches we walked had no sea glass and only a few small shells. They were still pretty beaches and we were able to get a little exercise. The evening was spent on Temptation playing dominoes and Farkle.

3/27/09 Another blustery day. Two boats drug on their anchors this morning, so we decided it was a good day to stay on the boat. We are confident of our anchor but you need to watch out for the other boats. Our fuel was getting low. Wayne decided to dump the fuel from the jerry jugs into the tank. He then got fuel in the jugs and also added those to the tank. He filled up the jugs one more time to be stored for later use.

Tonight Temptation taught us how to play the card game, Euchre. We always enjoy learning new games. It was the girls against the guys. The girls won by one point!

3/28/09 Oil change day. Wayne changed the oil and filters on both engines and also changed the fuel filters. It took him all morning and he is happy to have the task behind him. Wayne also checked the sail drive oil. We were both excited to see that the sail drive oil was PERFECT with no water!

We joined Earl and Karen for lunch at the Green Turtle Club. They then invited us back to Temptation to play Euchre. The guys won this time. We went back to Born to Cruise to have dinner and shower. The Euchre competition was tied 1-1. We went back to Temptation and played Mexican Train and two games of Euchre. Euchre now stands at 3-1. The guys will have to get their revenge over the summer. Temptation will be heading back to the US tomorrow, the weather window was too good to pass up. We will be leaving White Sound and going up to Powell, Allan-Pensacola, Manjack and maybe Moraine to walk some beaches and snorkel. We had an email from friends who have been back in the US for a week after being in the Bahamas for the winter. They were already missing the peace and beauty of the Bahamas. We will take their advice and enjoy every minute while we are here.

North through the Don’t Rock Passage to White Sound, Green Turtle Cay

Us in our sun hats. Picture taken near the deck of the Bluff House on Green Turtle Cay.

North through the Don’t Rock Passage to White Sound, Green Turtle Cay

3/13/09 - The wind direction was changing and would make the water choppy at Lynyard Cay so it was time to move and head north towards Hopetown. It was bumpy crossing the entrance to North Bar Channel. Anytime you cross a cut (space between the islands) where the Atlantic is on one side there is a possibility that you have a bumpy ride. We have crossed this cut 4 times this year and it has been bumpy each time. However, it is worth the bumps to get over to Lynyard and Little Harbor.

We decided to put the hook down just north of White Sound on Elbow Cay to check out the beach at White Sound. After lunch we changed our minds about going to the beach so we pulled up the anchor and headed for Hope Town. Our favorite anchorage outside the entrance to Hope Town was crowded, so we anchored in front of the light house where our charts showed it to be a good anchorage. Well, that anchorage is located very near the marked channel on the chart. It was a beautiful day to be on the water, so everyone was out in their boat. After we had been “wake” countless times in the first hour that we were there and we could also not get a good internet signal, I decided that was enough, we had to move. We decided to go to Marsh Harbor to get internet and fresh produce. We had a nice sail over to Marsh Harbor. My brother, Jay had sent an email saying he and his girl friend, Ginger, had scheduled their flights and will be visiting April 12th through the 22nd. We are looking forward to their visit.

3/14/09 Saturday morning we went to the grocery store and Standard Hardware. Another clocking front was predicted. The wind was perfect for a nice sail over to Treasure Cay, which is a great place to ride out a clocking front. We found a nice place to anchor very near our friends on Temptation. After dinner we went over to Temptation for a night of Dominos and Farkle with Karen and Earl who were heading to Green Turtle in the morning.

3/15/09 Pattie and Ray on Whisper dinghied up and introduced themselves. They have a Gemini Catamaran. They invited us over that evening to learn a new game of Dominos. We spent the afternoon walking the Treasure Cay Beach. On several occasions we had walked north to the point where all the sand dollars are. This time we decided to walk to the other end toward where the Carlton Settlement used to be. It is a LONG way to the other end of the beach. We went at mid tide and did not find a single shell. I guess the exercise was good for us but I sure needed a rest when we were done. While walking the beach we saw Dan and Deb from Freedom who we had met our first week over in the Abacos.

After dinner we went over to Whisper and learned a new game of dominos, I’m not sure how you spell the name but my best guess is “schmutzski”. It was fun and we enjoyed getting to know Ray and Pattie who are from Boston. During the middle of our game we had to stop to see if we could see the space shuttle launch which goes directly over the Abacos. Unfortunately it was cloudy. We could see the golden vapor trail before it disappeared into the clouds. Then the strangest thing, we saw a white vapor cloud above the cloud cover. It was eerie looking, almost like there was a spotlight pointed on it. It was later explained that ice crystals formed from the water evaporating off the shuttle and the sun was still high enough to light it up. I found a setting on our camera to take night pictures, we had never tried it before. All of the pictures we took of the “launch” are fuzzy; I guess we need to stand a little stiller while taking night shots. Even through the fuzz, you can see the vapor trail and the strange cloud.

3/16/09 The wind had laid down and the tide was right. We wanted to try taking the Don’t Rock Passage to get north of the Whale. Don’t Rock is an alternate route to going through the Whale Cay Passage. We had gotten the GPS coordinates for the Don’t Rock Channel, and Wayne had them all programmed into the GPS Map. It worked great! We went an hour before high tide. The Don’t Rock Channel is VERY shallow; with our four foot draft we saw flashes of four and a half feet of water. It saved us 4 miles on our trip by taking this short cut. When your average speed is around five and a half miles an hour, saving four miles is significant. We will definitely do this route again if the tides are right. We anchored in White Sound at Green Turtle Cay. Karen and Earl on Temptation came over and we taught them the “schmutzski” dominos game.

3/17/09 I decided BBQ chicken sounded good for dinner. We do not carry a grill on Born to Cruise even though we have several grills in storage. We stopped at Temptation to see if Earl would be willing to cook the chicken if we brought it over with coleslaw and potato salad. He readily agreed. We dinghied over to New Plymouth, in search of chicken. There are 3 small grocery stores in New Plymouth and we went to all three. We also checked out all of the gift shops. When we were here in December it was the “off” season. Peak season for tourists in the Bahamas is April, May, June and July so all of the gift shops are stocking up. There are currently also a lot of students here for spring break. We ate lunch at Harvey’s Grill. The fishing season for lobster ends March 31. At the Green Turtle Fish House we were able to purchase some lobster to put in the freezer so Jay and Ginger can have steamed lobster while they are here. We had a nice dinner of BBQ chicken, German potato salad, Chinese Coleslaw and a nice Flan that Karen had made. Dinner was followed by Rummy Cube and Farkle.

3/18/09 Cloudy, Windy and Rainy. The Bahamians are desperate for rain and they got some today. We spent the day on the boat. Wayne gave me a haircut. He is improving his skills as my beautician and did a good job. Wayne took advantage of a day on the boat to sand and put Cetol varnish on some places that needed touching up around the door. It looks so much better. While we were at Mangoes Marina Wayne noticed that the boat beside us had a really good set up on their main sail furling lines. To copy their set up he needed to add two blocks to the outhaul line, he did that today. This should make it work much better. Temptation braved the elements and came over to play Mexican Train Dominos after dinner.

3/19/09 Once again it was a rainy, cloudy, windy day. We are catching up on our reading. We also watched the Steve Martin version of “The Pink Panther”.

3/20/09 Today was still windy but the sun was shining and it was time to get off of the boat. Temptation wanted us to show them where sand dollars could be found in Gillam Bay. We got to Gillam Bay just after low tide but the tide was a little above normal and with the winds from the north, the beach was not a good place to walk. We tried to walk on the Sea of Abaco side but could not really find a beach to walk. It was a disappointing treasure hunt, but the walk was nice and it was good to get a little exercise and get off the boat. Earl and Karen stopped at the Fish House to get lobster. Before coming back to the anchorage in White Sound we dinghied around Black Sound. We stopped and talked to Jack on Breaking Wind. We had met Jack on the Mega dock in Charleston, SC on our trip south. He, like many others, is looking for a weather window to head back to the US. We will look for our window after Jay and Ginger leave April 22nd.

After lunch we went over to the Bluff House to look in their gift shop and see how long they would be offering special docking rates. Their special rates will end at the end of March. We talked to Chanceux and met a few other cruisers. We also dinghied over to the Green Turtle Club to check out their gift shop and rates.

Just before sunset, three huge green parrots flew over the boat. Green Turtle Cay is famous for their green parrots. They were big and they were NOISEY!!! They were not close enough to get a good picture of them but we will keep trying. Karen and Earl came over for an evening of games.

3/21/09 Yet another squally, windy day spent on the boat. We had decided yesterday that we would wash a load of clothes this morning. About the time the washer was spinning the sky started to cloud up. We still hung out the clothes but had to bring them in early as a squall was approaching. I enjoyed spending part of the day sorting sea glass. The book Mom bought me as an early Birthday present is called Pure Sea Glass. It tells you how to grade sea glass it is either A, B, C or D. I was trying to sort out the class A glass. I only made it through the brown, aqua and teal glass. For game night tonight we taught Karen and Earl how to play Mille Bourne.

3/22/09 After spending the day on the boat yesterday we needed to get off the boat today. Temptation suggested walking the beach over by the Bluff House. There was not much to find much on the beach. Bluff House Restaurant is high on the bluff and has a deck overlooking the water. We went up to check out the view, which was wonderful. Earl used our camera to take our picture. We visited the Bluff House gift shop and the Green Turtle Club gift shop before returning to the boat.

Our favorite restaurant in the Abacos is the Green Turtle Club. We decided to splurge and have a belated anniversary/Valentines dinner at the Green Turtle Club. My favorite rack of lamb was not on the menu so I asked if it would be possible to get it. Since I had asked so early in the day they were able to fix it for me and it was wonderful. Wayne enjoyed Grouper almandine. Temptation joined us for dinner followed by a game of Farkle on Born to Cruise.

3/23/09 The winds were changing and coming from another direction so we could leave White Sound. At 8:00 AM we decided to move to one of our favorite anchorages at Manjack Cay and by 9:20 we were underway. More on Manjack Cay in my next update.

Chamber of Commerce Weather

This is a Juvenile French Angel Fish - he was too young to be scared and acted like he was posing for us on the small reef we snorkeled at Lynyard Cay.

3/7/09 With the prediction of “Chamber of Commerce Weather” it was time to find a beach to walk. “Chamber of Commerce Weather” is what Patti on the morning Abaco Cruisers net calls it when we are going to have PERFECT weather, highs in the upper 70’s and light wind, because it is what the Chamber of Commerce advertises in their brochures. We decided to head to Lynyard Cay which is basically a deserted island with nice beaches for sea glass collecting, Temptation decided to join us. After anchoring at Lynyard we had lunch and went to the beach. We found LOTS of sea glass. We invited Temptation over for dinner and enjoyed an evening of Triominos and Uno.

3/8/09 A perfect day as predicted! The morning was spent on the beach picking up sea glass. After lunch was low tide. At low tide you can walk around the south end of the island. We found some sea glass and a few shells. After our walk Wayne decided to get in the water and check out the bottom of Born to Cruise. He cleaned a little on the bottom of the boat and said it looked great!

3/9/09 Another perfect day! The morning was once again spent walking the beach looking for sea glass. After lunch, Wayne and Earl decided to go on a hunting trip on the reef between Lynyard and Little Harbor to look for lobster. They took the dinghy and snorkeled for hours. We had heard that there were lobster in the reef at the end of the island. . They returned empty handed but did find a small reef on the inside of Lynyard that had some nice fish, which made it a nice place to snorkel. Wayne had taken some underwater pictures, a few turned out pretty good. I sorted sea glass and wrote a blog entry.

We were surprised to see our Northwest Creek friends on Chanceux pull into the anchorage. We took the dingy over for a visit and to see how they had enjoyed the Exumas. Today was Karen and Earl’s 35th anniversary, they invited Chanceux and us over to Temptation after dinner for champagne and cake to help them celebrate. It was an enjoyable evening catching up with friends.

3/10/09 Another Chamber of Commerce Day! Karen, Wayne and I went sea glass collecting in the morning. After lunch Wayne and I snorkeled on the reef that he found. It is a little reef on the inside of the south end of Lynyard Cay. To be such a small reef it was amazing to see such a variety of fish. We took lots of underwater pictures. The problem is the fish don’t pose very well, they tend to swim off. We were able to get a few good shots, but we also took a lot of pictures of coral where the fish used to be before they swam away. One problem with all underwater cameras is that unless you have the sun at your back you cannot see the view finder to see exactly what you are taking a picture of, so you just kind of aim and shoot the best you can. We are really enjoying the underwater case for our camera and the few good shots you get each time always make it worth trying again the next time. Temptation came over for an evening of Farkle and Mexican Train Dominoes.

3/11/09 Temptation headed for Marsh Harbor in the morning but we decided to stay and take advantage of yet another perfect day. We decided to wait and walk the beach after lunch at low tide to see if the sea glass hunting was any better. We have decided that the best time to find sea glass at Lynyard is at mid tide while it is falling. The space shuttle launch was scheduled for 9:20 and would go over the Abacos so we enjoyed the fabulous full moon and watched for the shuttle. We never saw the shuttle, later we found out the launch had been postponed until Sunday night, so we will try watching again on Sunday.

3/12/09 Should I mention that it was another perfect day? Once again we searched for sea glass in the morning and snorkeled with the underwater camera in the afternoon. There was not as much sea glass, maybe because we had already found so much! I am not complaining because my guess is that over the past week I had collected close to a gallon to sea glass! I have been sorting it by color. There are lots of colors of glass Kelly green, brown and clear being the most common, but we also have light blue, navy, lime green, gray, pirate black glass, lavender, aqua and teal. Next I will sort it by quality to see how well we did. No matter what the quality, it was fun collecting it.

Barefoot Man

This is the Barefoot Man and his band at Nippers on Great Guana, Cay. And yes he really did have bare feet! His band members had on flip flops

3/3/09 We had ridden out the mild front snug in Treasure Cay, but the weather was improving and it was time to head back to Marsh Harbor. We were able to sail part of the way to Marsh Harbor but the wind was not blowing enough to keep the sails full. After anchoring at Marsh Harbor, we walked over to the Customs office to renew our fishing permit. Our cruising permit was good for a year but they had only given us 3 months for our fishing permit. When we got there the Customs officials explained
that it would be $20 a month to renew our fishing permit. Since we had not caught any fish since we had been here, we decided we could buy a lot of fish and lobster for $20 a month and decided to let our fishing permit expire. We stopped at the store for fresh produce and bread.

3/4/09 Happy Birthday Mom!
It was a chilly, windy, overcast day and we had good internet reception so it was a good day to tackle our income taxes. We had done our taxes online last year and it worked great and online is the ideal way to do taxes from the Bahamas. After all was said and done we get a nice refund from the fed and owe a little to NC so it was a good day. While Wayne was busy double checking our tax numbers, I worked a little on sand dollars. Sand dollars are very brittle. We had been told that "painting"
them with a solution of ½ water and ½ white glue would make them stronger. I can't tell yet if they are less brittle but they are shinier. After calling Mom to wish her a Happy Birthday, we spent the evening playing Farkle and Mexican Train Dominoes with Karen and Earl on Temptation.

3/5/09 Born to Cruise carries three 20 pound propane tanks. We had tapped into the 3rd tank while we were at Treasure Cay and did not think that one tank would be enough to last us until we got back to the US. In Marsh Harbor you can take your tank to the hardware store before 9:00 AM and they will fill it and have it back before noon. Wayne took one tank in to be filled and as promised, it was ready before 11:00. We had lunch and decided to head over to Great Guana to find a good anchoring
spot before the crowd arrived. The 6th, 7th and 8th were going to be busy days on Great Guana; the Barefoot Man was going to be in town! Everyone was SO excited; we had to see what all the fuss was about. We had heard his music, thanks to Sunspot Baby, but we had never heard him live. We were able to get our favorite place to anchor in Fishers Bay, but it was already getting crowded.

3/6/09 The concert started at noon. We packed a bag and headed to shore at 11:30. Karen and Earl on Temptation pulled up as we were getting out of our dinghy. We headed to Nippers where the concert was being held. Stone McEwan and his band were the first to play. They were ok. Nippers was a little crowded and also smoky. Cuban cigars are legal in the Bahamas, and it seemed like all of the male students who were there for spring break had to try a Cuban Cigar. I personally think they stink.
We decided a good place to sit was on the beach, where there was no smoke and the music was at a nice volume. Wayne had to see if there were any more messages in bottles on the beach so we took a walk. There were no messages and no shells, but the walk was nice. Flash II joined us on the beach. The Barefoot Man finally started to play around 3:00, so we all moved from the beach back to Nippers because it was getting chilly on the beach. His music is kind of like Jimmy Buffet but with a Bahamian/Caribbean
type twist. His latest CD contains all of his songs that mention the Bahamas. We enjoyed his music but again the cigar smoke was too much so we left. On the way back to the boat we stopped by Milo's Fresh Produce for zucchini, avocado and bananas. We had an enjoyable evening on Temptation. Karen fixed a new recipe for dinner, which was very good and then we played games. We were tired after a full day.

Great to have Otto working again!

Yes, the sails do work on Born to Cruise! We are enjoying sailing now that Otto is working again.


Monday 2/23 - It is always fun to have compnay but it is amazing how big the boat feels after they leave. After doing two loads of laundry we left Mangoes Marina and anchored in Marsh Harbor. Wayne had installed Otto’s rebuilt linear drive but we were still getting the same error message when he turned on the autopilot. Wayne tested what he knew to test and was still getting the message. It was not looking good.

Tuesday 2/24 - The first order of business was to talk to Pat at Merlin’s Marine Electronics to see what he thought about our autopilot problem. Pat ran through a long list of tests and Wayne had tried them all. Pat then said to try one more test before we did anything else. Wayne tried that test and it worked !!!! We visited Pat again to give him a tip as a consulting fee to thank him for his excellent advice and for saving us the money we would have spent on a new brain for our autopilot. Ann and Pat are both great and we highly recommend Merlin’s Marine Electronics. We ran into Flash II while going to Merlins. We had not seen Bryan and Sonya for a while. We enjoyed catching up and made plans to get together to do some beach walking when the weather allowed for anchoring near shore.

Wednesday 2/25 – With Otto showing no error messages, it was time to test him underway. We decided to go to Great Guana for the Wednesday night Pot Luck. The wind was perfect for a sail from Marsh Harbor over to Great Guana. We had a wonderful sail over, seeing a high speed of 6.6 knots under sail. The best part was that Otto was back and working well!!! Welcome home Otto, we missed you and glad you are well again!

There is a Pot Luck on Great Guana every Wednesday night at Grabbers Grill. Grabbers lets everyone use their tables, and people buy their beverages from Grabbers. It works out well. There were over 120 people that showed up, which was their largest turn out for a Pot Luck this season. Everyone brings a dish to share; the food was good. We sat with Cypraea, Celtic Cross and Temptation and had an enjoyable evening.

Thursday 2/26 – It was a windy day, so we hung around the boat. It was time for another game night on Born to Cruise. At the Pot Luck we had invited Cypraea, Celtic Cross and Temptation to come over for an evening of Mexican Train Dominoes. Eight people are a tight fit around our salon table, but we managed to get everyone in and had a wonderful time.

Friday 2/27 – Happy Birthday to Leta Poston, Wayne’s Mom.

They were predicting a front on Sunday night so we decided to go to Treasure Cay and find a good spot to anchor before the rest of the crowd came in. Once again we were able to sail! Having Otto, our 3rd crew member, back sure makes it easier. After anchoring we headed to the beach to look for shells and sand dollars at low tide. We found a lot of auger shells and various sizes of sand dollars. We spent a quiet evening on the boat.

Saturday, 2/28 – It was the calm before the storm, so Wayne took advantage of the flat harbor to climb the mast to tighten the screw on the wind indicator. While he was there he took some pictures of the harbor. Temptation took pictures of Wayne while he was up the mast. When Mom and Sandy were here and we were exploring the little shops, we noticed that the conch horns that they were selling in the shops had been varnished on the outside to make them shiny. So Wayne varnished the conch horns that he had made. They really look nice.

At low tide we decide to explore the beach at the entrance to Treasure Cay. We did not find much on the beach itself but found LOTS of sand dollars just off shore. We picked up 37 sand dollars and stopped because my collection bags were full.

After dinner, Karen and Earl, from Temptation, came over to play Farkle and Dominoes.

Sunday, 3/1 – Treasure Cay Harbor filled up on Sunday with people looking for a protected anchorage for the cold front. We were happy that we already had a good spot and our anchor was well set. It was interesting to watch the different anchoring techniques of the boats coming in. Russ and Pat on Consort had invited us over for sundowners , with the front approaching we went over early in the afternoon and left just after sunset. We had an enjoyable afternoon getting to know Russ and Pat.

The front came through as predicted on Sunday night but we didn’t think it was as bad as they were predicting. We got a little rain and the wind blew. The only bad part was that it was a COLD front, the same one that had brought so much cold and snow to the US east coast, it dropped our temperatures from highs in the upper 70’s to highs only in the lower 60’s, brrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Monday 3/2 – Chilly day with a high of only 62! The good news is it should be back in the upper 70’s by the weekend. Sandi and Donn on Cypraea love to play games. So we invited them over for games and dinner. They came over at 2:00. Wayne and I learned a new game “Apples to Apples” it was a lot of fun. Then we taught them Quiddler and Farkle and ended the evening at 9:30 after several games of Dominoes. It was a great way to spend a chilly afternoon and evening and we look forward to doing it again.

Once again we have changed our plans….we had thought that when Otto was fixed we would head further south to Eleuthera and then on to the Exumas. We have relaxed and are enjoying the ease of cruising in the Abacos, so we have decided to stay in the Abacos for the rest of the cruising season. We let my brother, Jay, know that he should make his airline reservations to fly into Treasure Cay and we will show Jay and his girlfriend, Ginger the beautiful islands north of the Whale.

Mom and Sandys Visit

I wish someone could explain the weather phenomenon that causes the weather to be beautiful the weeks before and after guests visit and not so good when they are here. My Mom and sister, Sandy, came for a visit during a week that the winds seemed to be always clocking and it was quite breezy and cool on most of the days, but we made the best of it.

We all like to play games, so our evenings and between times were spent playing bridge, Scrabble, Quiddler, Dominoes and Farkle. Wayne shared his new tradition of blowing the conch horn at sun down. Each evening everyone had to try to blow a conch horn. Mom and Sandy both did a good job of blowing the horns and took horns home so they could practice.

On Monday the 16th the forecast was for very windy weather so we decided to stay tucked in at Mangoes Marina and explore Marsh Harbor. Mom, Sandy and I checked out the local shops in the morning while Wayne installed the rebuilt linear drive for our autopilot and put a new patch on the dinghy. In the afternoon we walked the other direction down the street to see the shops in that directing and visit the basket lady. Since we were going out to dinner and did not need the table until breakfast time,
we had time to do a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle. On Monday evening Mom treated us to a nice dinner where we two of us had lamb and two of us had grouper at Mangoes. Thanks Mom!

Tuesday the weather was looking a little better, so we decided to head to Hope Town. It was a bumpy motor boat ride. We were lucky to be able to get a mooring ball in the very crowded Hope Town Harbor. After lunch we walked around Hope Town and explored the shops. It was too windy to walk the beach. We had a tasty dinner of fresh steamed lobster on the boat.

Wednesday we explored a few more shops and walked along the beach. There were not many shells on the beach because so many people had been walking the beach. After lunch we climbed to the top of the Elbow Cay Lighthouse to see the panoramic view and take pictures.

Thursday we visited the Wyannie Malone Historical Museum (1785) which has exhibits of early life on Elbow Cay. After lunch Wayne and Mom went kayaking. Mom, who will be 79 on March 4th, had never been kayaking. She did really well.

The Abaco Inn is on White Sound several miles south of Hopetown. They will give you a free ride to the restaurant. They agreed to pick us up a little early so we could explore. We walked the beach and I found some nice pieces of sea glass. Sandy treated us to a very nice dinner at Abaco Inn, Thanks Sandy!

Friday the winds improved enough that we could take a motor boat ride to Treasure Cay. After lunch we walked around the shops at Treasure Cay and went over to the beach. It was high tide so there were not any shells, but the white sandy beach is pretty.

Saturday morning we decided to go to Man of War before heading back to Marsh Harbor. The wind cooperated and we were able to sail for an hour on the way to Man of War. We saw 6 knots under sail, which is a good sail for Born to Cruise. After anchoring we walked around Man of War and visited the local shops. It was then time to raise anchor and head back to Marsh Harbor. Once again we were able to sail, with Sandy trying her hand at the helm.

We again docked at Mangoes Marina in Marsh Harbor. On Saturday night we went into town to watch our first Junkanoo Parade. Everyone in the area came to town for the festivities. There were lots of food stands selling many different kinds of Bahamian favorites. There were five groups participating in the parade. Each group had a float that was pulled by 2 people, colorful costumes, dancers, and drums. One group had a brass band playing with the drummers. Many of the drums were homemade; some
of them were made from 55 gallon cans. It had been a busy day, the event started at 8:00 PM, so after we saw three of the groups we were all tired and headed back to the boat.

Sunday was a lazy day on the boat, playing games and packing until Mom and Sandy left at 3:45. We were pleased with how well they adapted to boat life. They both did great getting in and out of the dinghy and climbing the ladders at the docks. We enjoyed their visit.