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Monthly Archives: April 2013

Settled in at Golden Isles

Posted on April 22, 2013 by ScottMacDApril 23, 2013

One week on the hard at Cracker Boy Marina was enough. It is a safe, friendly place but waking to sanders and the hoist each morning gets tiring. 4:30 Monday afternoon we launched. It also happened to be approaching low tide and Cracker Boys lift slip has shoaled somewhat. It took quite a bit of manhandling to get the slings past the stabilizers but after unbolting one of the slings we slipped out and anchored a quarter mile away.

Tuesday morning brought beautiful weather with light, NE winds. At 7:15 AM we weighed anchor and proceeded out Ft Pierce inlet to start our 250 mile trip up the Florida coast. The weather held throughout the day and the auto pilot steered us past Cape Canaveral. The shoals off the Cape extend out several miles and as we rounded we were treated to 8 dolphins swimming beside and in front of our bow. Cath took the first night shift and watched offshore cargo ships till 1AM. I picked it up after that and had not a single boat appear within 8 miles on the radar.

Dawn broke and the weather changed to colder NE winds. We approached St Marys entrance and heard the Navy warning all boats to stay away from a nearby Lat/Long position as they were practicing live fire. We stayed away. St Mary’s entrance is long, stretching over 8 miles from the first entrance buoy to the front range marker. It is well marked  along its path as it serves the Kings Bay Naval Base. Our destination was the anchorage on the west side of Cumberland Island. We dropped the hook about 4:30 in the afternoon. It was our longest single trip to date and all went well.

Sea Camp Dock Cumberland Island

Sea Camp Dock Cumberland Island

We left Cumberland Island for our final destination at Morningstar Marina St Simons, Georgia. The weather was cool and rainy but the trip up the ICW was superb. The 36 miles was well marked until you entered St Andrews sound. A couple of greens were missing providing some navigation excitement.

Green marker stuck in sand below abandoned light house. South side of St Andrew Sound

Green marker stuck in sand below abandoned light house. South side of St Andrew Sound

Cruising up the ICW

Cruising up the ICW

Shrimper in St Andrews Sound

Shrimper in St Andrews Sound

By 2:30 we were safely tied up at Morningstar Marina, Golden Isles. This will be Big Smiles home for the next six weeks or so while we empty out the house in NJ. We had time to spend two nights on board before driving north. Morningstar has an awesome seafood restaurant attached to it and we enjoyed a dinner there. On the next dock was a beautiful 169′ Trinity motor yacht the “Norwegian Queen”. A quick google search identified it as having lots of custom Italian Murano colored glass which can be seen in the photo below.

Norwegian Queen

Norwegian Queen

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Crossing back to the States

Posted on April 11, 2013 by ScottMacDApril 12, 2013

Watching the weather forecast helped make our departure decision easy. The best crossing day was Monday which meant we needed to be at Great Sale Cay by late Sunday afternoon.

We had left Marsh Harbor in brisk winds out of the northeast. We had not heard a “Whale” report but knew it would be tough. Since we were towing our dinghy we stopped at Bakers Bay just prior to entering the Atlantic to hoist the dink to the flybridge. No easy task in the now 20 knot + winds. Approaching the Whale we got a call on 16 from a sailboat a few miles behind us. They wanted to know what we saw ahead. We were too far off to offer any immediate advice.

The cut or “Whale Cay passage” has experienced more boating deaths and accidents than all other Bahamas locations combined. It is not to be underestimated. As we made the turn to port from the Atlantic to approach the center of the cut we could see short, steep seas but they were not breaking. An outgoing tide with an hour left to slack did not help. We surfed through the cut safely but it was rough. We radioed back our experience to the sailboat behind. Once through, sea conditions improved and we made Green Turtle by mid afternoon.

Relaxing at Green Turtle Cay

Relaxing at Green Turtle Cay

Sunset at Green Turtle Cay

Sunset at Green Turtle Cay

Great Sale Cay is a popular jumping off spot for the states. It is a 60 mile trip to Great Sale from where we were anchored at Green Turtle Cay. The ride was spectacular with bright blue skies and perfect northeast winds. We passed two trawlers heading east and then a Gozzard sloop passed all of us.

Gozzard sloop passing us by

Gozzard sloop passing us by

We were treated to a family of dolphins swimming in harmony alongside our boat. We counted five in all. They stayed with us for about ten minutes and then were suddenly gone. We never saw them again.
_DSC6912_DSC6921-Edit

Of course we tried our hand at fishing and had great success. Our first catch was easily bested by our largest catch of the trip. We took turns reeling it in and was just in the process of bring it on board when the leader snapped. You can see below the size of the Mackerel we “had” on the line.
DSCN0266

King Mackerel

King Mackerel

We left from Great Sale Cay at midnight on Sunday. The weather forecast was perfect, and spot on, and we crossed the Little Bahama Bank in the inky blackness. Our radar tracked two other boats all night long nine miles off our position and going in the same direction. We did not catch a glimpse of them till well after daybreak.

We made the edge of the bank around dawn. The ride had been incredibly smooth throughout the night and only got a little bouncy when we entered the gulf stream. Winds from the east kept the seas flat.

Along the way we decided to try our hand at fishing one last time before our late afternoon approach to Fort Pierce. And we got a great strike.

DSCN0288

We entered the Fort Pierce inlet at 5PM and anchored for the night just south of Harbor Isle. At 8AM we pulled into the lift slip at Cracker Boys Marina and their new 75 ton remote travel lift easily plucked us from the water. We expect to be one week on the hard getting the bottom painted, fluids changed and other minor work before we splash and head to St Simons GA for a six week layover at Morningstar Marina.

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Green Turtle, Great Guana, Elbow Cay and MOW Cay

Posted on April 4, 2013 by ScottMacDApril 4, 2013

Currently at anchor off Man O War Cay. Our Rogue Wave Wifi antenna has picked up an open channel which is good since Bahamas Wimax is either out or doesn’t reach here.

Boat in Man O War Harbor

Boat in Man O War Harbor

Methodist Church on Man O War

Methodist Church on Man O War

 

Hopped from Green Turtle Cay to Great Guana to Elbow Cay. Weather has been nice but only in the 70’s. Winds have clocked around to the east over the last week bringing lighter breezes.

 

Settlement Harbor Green Turtle Cay

Settlement Harbor Green Turtle Cay

Easter Sunday found us anchored in Fishers Bay on Great Guana. Nippers was having their usual Sunday pig roast plus an Easter egg hunt both in the sand and water. The day was perfect and the place was packed.

Easter Sunday at Nippers

Easter Sunday at Nippers

Nippers

Cath having a Nippers special

 

Spent two nights at Sea Spray Marina on Elbow Cay. Wonderful little marina with a pool, bar and beautiful restaurant. Dock Master “Junior” runs a great establishment. Easy 3 mile bike ride into Hope Town. Golf carts are the main mode of travel on Elbow Cay but for $50/day the bikes work fine. Took the dink out for a 15 mile sight seeing adventure including a trip to Cracker P’s on Lubbers Quarter for lunch. Weather was perfect with light winds so rode out thru Tilloo Cut into the Atlantic. Anchored at Tahiti Beach with several other boats.

Low tide at Sea Spray Marina

Low tide at Sea Spray Marina

Tahiti Beach

Tahiti Beach

Moving on today to Treasure Cay. Strong winds are expected out of the southwest and we want to find an anchorage with less fetch.

 

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