↓
 

MV Big Smile

 MV Big Smile
  • Home
  • About
  • Our Tracks
  • Photo Galleries
  • The Boat
  • Video
<< 1 2 … 4 5 6 7 >>

Author Archives: ScottMacD

Post navigation

← Older posts
Newer posts →

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

Posted in Uncategorized

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.

Posted in Uncategorized

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.

 

Posted in Uncategorized

Fishing under way

Posted on March 29, 2013 by ScottMacDMarch 29, 2013

Over the last two days we covered approximately 120 miles from West End Grand Bahama to where we are currently anchored at Green Turtle. On the way we tried our hand at fishing. We are complete beginners and are winging it as we go. Prior to leaving the states we bought a great book ” Sport Fish of Florida”. It has 250 pages with beautiful illustrations and descriptions of all the fish we might encounter in our travels. Well it proved its worth in the first two days as we successfully caught, identified, and released three different species shown in the photos below. We are experimenting with different lures and purchased various frozen bait back in Stuart to try out in the next couple of weeks. Next up? Learning how to clean them.

King Mackerel

King Mackerel

Bar Jack

Bar Jack

Cero or "Painted Mackerel"

Cero or “Painted Mackerel”

Bar Jack putting up a fight

Bar Jack putting up a fight

 

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized

Old Bahama Bay, Again

Posted on March 28, 2013 by ScottMacDMarch 28, 2013

After more than two months at Sunset Bay Marina we finally untied the lines and left for our expected trip to the Bahamas. But like the start of the year plan changes are the rule of the day and that’s how and why we are at West End Grand Bahama again. After a final dinner in Stuart Saturday night with our dock neighbors, Gary and Terri we awoke at sunrise. A quick fuel up and we headed down the intracoastal for a Sunday ride to Lake Worth. As it was a beautiful Sunday and the end of the Palm Beach boat show the ICW was busy and we did a bit of waiting for bridges to open. Some open on request while others open on the quarter or half hour. A leisurely motor got us to Lake Worth at 2:30 where we anchored in the large lake basin amid many sailboats.

I must give kudos to the entire staff at Sunset Bay. They were polite and professional and made the entire stay enjoyable. Kudos too to Bobby and Mary McKee, our dock neighbors and owners of Mary T Yacht Services. Under Bob and Mary’s direction Big Smile was washed, waxed and had all the teak stripped and refinished with 12 coats of All Spar and Awlbrite. All caulking between teak and other finishes was removed and recaulked. It looks superb and we highly recommend them. I can’t forget Danielle Heaton owner of Alpha Diver who came on a Saturday to scrape and clean the bottom and replace zincs as required. Great person.

Two blue Selene 53’s, Jimmy Buffets old Nordhavn and a beautiful Marlow.

Bob and Mary McKee

Bob and Mary McKee

We left Lake Worth early Monday morning to head across the stream. Monday was the day as a weather front was arriving and would delay us for at least three days so with a decent forecast we weighed anchor. We arrived at Old Bahama Bay Marina after a relatively easy nine hour crossing from Lake Worth. The wind picked up to 15+ knots but the seas remained on our port quarter so not too much rolling. We pulled in to an almost empty marina which surprised us as last June the place was packed. There were 5 mega yachts side tied and they were impressive. The tie up and customs procedure were easy. The dock master hands us the forms after he gets us tied up and tells customs I will be over in a few minutes to clear us in. The process is simple except for shelling out the $300 cash for cruising in the Bahamas.

Mega Yachts

Mega Yachts at Old Bahama Bay

We are hear again instead of heading to the Exumas because of events back in New Jersey. Several weeks ago we put our home on the market expecting 3 months or so to sell it. We had four offers in two days and signed a contract on the third day. Now this of course is great news but it forced us to stay much closer to the US and shorten our Bahama excursion. So right now we are spending a second night at Old Bahama Bay and spent part of the day on the phone with our attorney and sending emails to our realtor and others involved in the sales process. So far, so good. We will need to find decent internet access again in a couple of days as we will push out of here tomorrow.

The new Dahon Jack folding bike

The new Dahon Jack folding bike

Cath's Dahon Mariner

Cath’s Dahon Mariner

_DSC6787-Edit

 

Posted in Uncategorized

Retirement Starts: Off to Stuart FL, January 2013

Posted on February 9, 2013 by ScottMacDFebruary 9, 2013

My last day of work was December 21. I had been planning for this day for two years and its arrival seemed anti-climatic. Nonetheless I cherished the moment and looked forward to many good days ahead.

Christmas was around the corner and we hosted the annual Christmas Eve dinner. Twenty Two of us celebrated and all had a good time.

Christmas Eve secret Santa

Christmas Eve secret Santa

Christmas morning in NJ

Christmas morning in NJ

The new year, as planned, was rung in with the usual amount of cheer and “Linie Aquavit” at the Landgrove Inn in Vermont. Linie Aquavit is a Norwegian liquor aged per Norwegian law in oak. Linie sends their Aquavit off on a 19 week voyage in the holds of ships that crosses the equator twice. The spirit sloshes around with the movement of the waves, and the barrels—formerly used to store sherry—swell and contract in extremes of heat and humidity, imparting the character of the wood and polishing the flavor, so we are told. Suffice to say it is strong and delicious.

Carl: Master of the Aquavit

Carl: Master of the Aquavit

My two best friends from grade school arrived, one with family and one sans family. I had some volunteer mountain guide commitments at Stratton Mountain during the stretch but everything fell into place and the snow cooperated. We received nearly two feet between Christmas and New Years making for great skiing.

New Years Eve at the Landgrove Inn

New Years Eve at the Landgrove Inn

On the 7th Cath and I hopped in the car for a quick trip to NJ to pick up warm weather items. We quickly continued on to Ft Pierce FL where Big Smile had spent the last nine months. Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart FL had reservations for Big Smile from January 12 thru March 12. We had motored down in August to check out the marina and liked what we saw. The plan was to spend January in Stuart and February back in Vermont. I needed to fulfill my volunteer duties at Stratton and Cath needed to finalize the details for our NJ house sale which was to be listed in early March.

Unfortunately a sad turn of events occurred as my brother in law passed away unexpectedly in mid January. He was 57, one year older than us. We flew home to NJ for the funeral and Cath decided to stay to help her brothers wife. I flew back and while it was not the January I expected I enjoyed the marina and the city of Stuart. I had many boat items to attend to as our plans have us leaving for the Bahamas in mid March. In my brief stay at Sunset Bay I met many wonderful boaters all with different tales and agendas. Sunset Bay is a five minute walk to the historic downtown of Stuart. We had planned to see “Gaelic Storm” at the historic Lyric Theater. I went alone and enjoyed their mix of Irish folk and rock music. We will need to return another year to enjoy the marina and city together.

Tied up at Sunset Bay

Tied up at Sunset Bay

We did have time to do some exploring by dinghy and followed the St Lucie canal up to the first lock. From there the canal takes you to Lake Okeechobee. Crossing the lake brings you to the Caloosahatchee Canal for the trip to the Gulf of Mexico.

St Lucie Lock

St Lucie Lock

St Lucie Canal

St Lucie Canal

Sunday afternoon band in Stuart

Sunday afternoon band in Stuart

It’s now February 9, one day after the “historic” nor’easter. Well in VT it was anything but historic. I was hoping for feet of snow and woke up to 8 additional inches on the lawn. Barely a snowstorm.

Tomorrow I start my month of mountain guide duty and then back to Big Smile.

Posted in Uncategorized

Furuno TZ Touch and other upgrades

Posted on October 25, 2012 by ScottMacDOctober 25, 2012

One of the joys (and expenses) of boat ownership is that new technology is always arriving on the scene. This technology can be as simple as a new Ipad mount or as complicated and sophisticated as touch screen plotters and radar. The later is what brought me back to Big Smile for five days this past week. I had contracted with Whiticar Marine, specifically Darrell Zeran, formerly of DZ Performance Marine, to install two new 14″ Furuno TZ Touch monitors and a new 24″ HD radome. During our initial review of the project Darrell had recommended upgrading the Sirius weather system with Furuno’s latest generation weather receiver.

The existing original Furuno Navnet 2 system was working fine. What I decided to do was bring half the system up to current technology ie. HD, digital, touch screen technology introduced by Furuno at the Miami boat show last winter. I had played with the new system at their Miami booth but I had two concerns that needed to be addressed. First I did not want to be the first on the block with new, untested equipment and second I wanted to make sure it could all be interfaced with the analog system already in place. I followed the blogs and equipment reviews online but unfortunately did not have much luck finding anything helpful. I was assured by Darrell and Furuno that the systems could be interfaced using NMEA 0183 to NMEA 2000 adapters where necessary. In September I made the decision to do the install.

To make room for this equipment one monitor each from the flybridge and pilot house had to be removed. The new 14″ Furuno TZ fit perfectly in the pilot house with no woodwork needed. The Nauticomp monitor with black box interface was left in its original position.

Pilot House with new TZ touch

The flybridge panel required some rework to get the new 14″ in place. Whiticar fabricated a simple black face panel and moved the original plotter to the left. Unfortunately that interfered with the hinges so new hinges are on order.

Flybridge with TZ Touch

The new Furuno DRS4D Ultra High def 4kw 36NM 24″ radome easily replaced the 24″ analog version on the same mast bracket. We had previously decided to keep the 48″ open array and leave it hooked up to the Navnet 2. A new digital gps was mounted halfway up the mast instead of on the antenna farm atop the pilothouse.

As previously mentioned the Furuno weather module was to be replaced. A new Furuno BBWX2 weather system with antenna replaced the old Furuno BBWX1. While the pilot house and ceilings were apart the old stereo/Sirius system and speakers were removed and a new Fusion 600 system with integral Sirius radio and Ipod dock was installed in the same location as the old one. However this left two, 1 inch holes that now need to be covered by some piece of equipment.  A remote was installed on the flybridge. All four original speakers were replaced and two were added in the salon. My wife and I have had Sirius radio for years now and love it. The account transfer with Sirius was simply a phone call and within minutes the radio and weather were up and working.

Pilot house as now configured.

The system was 95% up and running. The weather for Saturday and Sunday was perfect for a 20 mile run down the ICW single handed. While the channel is tight the auto pilot gave me time to play with the new equipment. Unfortunately the flybridge chart plotter was not reading the card. This it turns out two days later was simply a result of the SD card not being pushed completely in the slot. Other than that the system worked perfectly. Being a Mac pro and Ipad user I am very familiar with the two finger touch screen approach. It worked flawlessly on the TZ.

TZ Touch screen

Navnet 2

The 22 nautical mile run from Ft Pierce to Hooker Cove is a pleasant and easy three hour afternoon jaunt. Hooker Cove is a simple anchorage to enter. Busy during the day but quiet at night it is not a place for nightlife ashore. Kayaking is a good way to sight see but be mindful of the currents.

Anchored in Hooker Cove

Posted in Uncategorized

Oregon and Washington

Posted on October 1, 2012 by ScottMacDOctober 1, 2012

While not a boat related post we did just spend eight great days on or near the water in Oregon and Washington. Reason for the trip was to attend a wedding in Gearhart, Oregon. Where is Gearhart? That’s what we asked ourselves when we received the invitation from Peter and Shannon. Peter is the son of our Lake George neighbor and friends Bob and Tibby Christenberry. The decision was easy. Sure we will go.

Gearhart it turns out is on the coast approximately 1.5 hours from Portland, Oregon. We flew in on a Friday and stayed at a great B&B in Seaside three miles to the south. The wedding was Saturday at the “Lodge at Little Beach”. While the wind was up and a chill was in the air the setting and event could not have been better. The funky band played for hours under the tent and Cath and I had a blast. Thank you Peter and Shannon. Hope your trip was fun.

Peter and Shannon

The Oregon coast is wet and wild. Just to the south of Seaside was Cannon Beach and Ecola State Park. Cannon Beach had the gray clapboard homes that reminded us of Rhode Island. A long day trip after the wedding took us to Fort Stevens State Park at the very northern tip of Oregon. Standing on the shore one can view the often deadly entrance to the Columbia River. Known as the graveyard of the Pacific the waters around the Columbia River mouth have claimed nearly 2000 wrecks and over 700 lives. On the shore at Fort Stevens sits the remains of the Peter Iredale. Wrecked in 1906 only the skeleton of the bow is still visible. Several miles up river lies the historic town of Astoria. Known originally for its canneries and logging Astoria now hosts visitors for dining and its museum. The Columbia River Maritime Museum is well worth the visit. A small movie theater runs a 10 minute show describing the power and might of the Columbia River and its glorious past.

Ecola State Park

Wreck of the Peter Iredale

Mouth of the Columbia River

We spent the next day driving up the Columbia River gorge stopping at every waterfall along the way. As scenic as I had read we were however surprised at the lack of boat traffic. There were some wind surfers and the occasional commercial boats but nothing else. The river actually seemed quite serene compared to the depiction in the movie.

 

Multnomah Falls

Columbia River Gorge

 

We spent two nights in Yakima WA. A decent venue for visiting Washington wine country. We were disappointed in the wines of this region as they tend to be Reislings, Syrahs and Cabernets but not much in the way of Chardonnays. Our second day trip from Yakima found us at Mt Rainier. What a spectacular National Park. Rising to 14,410 feet Mt Rainier is the most glaciated peak in the contiguous US. There are several visitor areas and we chose Sunrise, the highest elevation available by car. A long hike provided awesome scenery and the siting of a bear. A couple from Idaho said it was a grizzly but we learned later that grizzlys don’t inhabit this part of the US so it had to be a brown “black bear”.

Mt Rainier

Black Bear

From Yakima it was on to the Olympic Peninsula for a three day stay at the George Washington Inn. The inn, a replica of George Washington’s Mount Vernon sits on a bluff overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The host and owner Janet was wonderful and provided breakfast each morning on a glass enclosed porch with view of Vancouver BC.

 

George Washington Inn

Strait of Juan de Fuca from George Washington Inn

Olympic National Park rivals Mt Rainier park for its beauty. Over the course of two long days we traveled to the Hoh Rain Forest, took a guided walking tour to learn about Marmots, (groundhogs in NJ) and hiked to Third Beach on the Pacific. Janet had recommended the historic (circa 1916) Lake Crescent Lodge for dinner. We were able to eat on the porch and watch a beautiful sunset. Lake Crescent reminded us of our own Lake George.

 

Olympic Mountains

Third Beach

While it is unclear whether we will ever cross the Columbia River bar on “Big Smile” we did promise ourselves a return visit someday.

Posted in Uncategorized

Return for a week

Posted on August 24, 2012 by ScottMacDAugust 25, 2012

It has been well over a month since we returned from the Bahamas and drove back home to NJ. Since our return we spent most weekends at Lake George and had the pleasure of having my Aunt, Uncle and cousin with family renting down the road for a week. We transitioned from big, heavy, slow trawler to speed boat and jet ski. Several weekends of skiing and tubing are now over and we flew back down for a week on Big Smile.

During our shake down cruise in the Bahamas I had noticed that the batteries were losing charge too quickly while underway. In fact during our 12 plus hour return trip to Ft Pierce I had to run the genset twice as voltage dropped and battery capacity rapidly depleted. Dave Arnold of Dave Arnold Marine is our mechanic and also watches the boat while we are away. He discovered that the alternator was not putting out the amperage and voltage per spec and thus not keeping up with the electrical draw from the instruments and other accessories.  He replaced the alternator and also traced and fixed a non functioning volt meter on the electrical panel. So among many other things planned for this week we will check out the new alternator.

Our dock neighbors and friends Capt Chris and Alyse showed up Friday afternoon and said they had a five day training session starting the following day. They invited us onboard for desert that night and we ended staying for dinner including the couple who were starting the training. Nothing better than eating dinner on the aft deck.

Saturday morning we gave a tour of Big Smile to the couple before departing for Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart. The plan was simply to check out the marina and town for three days and decide if we wanted to spend the coming winter there. The trip down the ICW was new to us and while only 28 miles you need to pay attention as the channel does shoal especially  around “the crossroads” where the St Lucie inlet, river and ICW meet. In fact at high tide we had just 1′-6″ under the keel just west of the crossroads. It was a beautiful Saturday and the many shoals and spoil islands near the mouth of the inlet attracted hundreds of boats; fishing, rafting and otherwise enjoying the day.

St Lucie River real estate

We turned up the St Lucie River and headed for the marina. Many interesting homes grace the river and most looked deserted for the summer.

Two Bascule bridges and one fixed concrete bridge just before Sunset Bay Marina

Sunset Bay Marina is relatively new with nearly 200 slips and 69 moorings. I have read many good things online about the staff, “residents” and area. After hailing the Roosevelt Bridge for an opening we motored into the marina and called the harbor master to confirm slip assignment and request a line tender. Ten minutes clear of the bridge we were tied up and electric connected.

Sailor’s Return restaurant at Sunset Bay

Sunset Bay Marina also has a lively restaurant. It being the middle of August the Saturday night crowd was not that boisterous but it definately caters to a boating crowd and offers side tie for diners arriving by boat.

 The historic downtown of Stuart is a five minute walk from the marina. Many of its original buildings have been restored and it provides a lively area of entertainment, shops, a Sunday farmers market, small band stand on the river and a historic restored theatre. The “Lyric Theatre” was built in 1925 and served many functions over the years including as a non-denominational church for nine years. In 1987 during the redevelopment of the historic district the theatre was saved and became a significant part of the redevelopment effort. We made it to the farmers market Sunday morning and while it did not rival the market we go to in Londonderry Vermont it was still enjoyable. We were told by a husband/wife vendor that it livens up considerably starting in the fall.

We both agreed that this would be a good place to hang our hat for two months and signed up with the Marina starting in early January. After that we’ll see.

St Lucie Nuclear Power Plant

The trip back was uneventful and since it was a week day we passed only a handfull of boats. Half way between Ft Pierce and Stuart sits the St Lucie Nuclear Power Plant. Commissioned in in 1976 it is a twin nuclear power station run by Florida Power & Light.

Harbour Isle Condominiums

Harbour Isle with its glowing orange tile roofs can be seen for many miles and is an easy landmark to spot. The entrance channel is an easy mile off the ICW and in good weather affords a nice anchorage. Tuesday morning prior to leaving for the airport I met with Darrell of Whiticar Marine North. He specializes in electronics installations and does many of the Krogen Express’s that get commissioned at Harbour Isle Marina. I have commissioned him to install new Furuno TZ touch screens, 24″ digital radar, Rogue Wave, and a new stereo system. It’s on the schedule but  won’t be complete for a month or more. Something to look forward to.

Back to Newark.

Posted in Uncategorized

Shakedown Cruise June 2012

Posted on July 1, 2012 by ScottMacDJuly 10, 2012

For the first time in my career I took three consecutive weeks off. We knew we needed and wanted to take a shake down cruise and decided that early June would work. So we packed up our newly purchased kayaks into our pickup truck and once again drove to Ft Pierce FL. It is a relatively easy drive except for the Washington/Virginia corridor. I think every shovel ready highway project is taking place within 50 miles of the Capitol. We arrived on Sunday June 3 and spent Monday provisioning and getting the boat ready for a quick departure.

Our destination was the Abacos. We had not been there since 1985 when we chartered out of Hope Town. Our goal was to make it to Hope Town before time forced us to turn around.

We decided to run outside down to Lake Worth and cross over from there to West End, Grand Bahama. The 50 mile trip down to Lake Worth was uneventful however we awoke Wednesday morning to a ferocious hail storm. 1/4 inch hail pelted the boat so we waited an hour for a break. The weather was not perfect and Miami radar showed severe thunderstorms looming. I made the decision to go calculating we would be ahead of the next round of storms. Turned out to be correct and we pulled into Old Bahama Bay Marina around 3PM. Storms passed behind us all day but nothing touched us.

Old Bahama Bay Marina is an interesting story. Originally Jack Tar Marina it was renovated and the name changed about 2001. A developer by the name of Bobby Ginn envisioned a $4.9 billion master plan including 1400 single home sites, 4000 condos, two golf courses, and airport and many more amenities. Some  220 lots were sold between 2006-2008 when the bottom fell out of the world economy. Ginn sur Mer as it was called defaulted on a $675 million loan and the resulting fall out has kept an army of lawyers busy. Much can be read online.

Our plan was to spend Wednesday and Thursday night at the marina and take off Friday. Unfortunately a cold front dropped down forcing us and others to sit tight at the marina and watch fierce thunderstorms and cloud to ground lightning pass West to East several miles north of the marina all day Friday. It was a spectacular show.

The extra day did provide us some time to explore and we borrowed two bicycles from the marina and rode for what seemed like miles through the defunct development. Maybe a dozen homes were built but the infrastructure is in place providing a strange riding experience through empty neighborhoods.

Night time at Old Bahama Bay Marina

 

We finally got underway early Saturday morning. Our first stop was Great Sale Cay. While it is possible to cut off a few miles  by taking Indian Cay Channel our 5’9″ draft and low tide forced us north to Memory Rock before we could turn east to Great Sale. We had a perfect run under beautiful blue skies and reached Great Sale mid afternoon. A phenomenon that occurs in the Bahamas quite frequently is what’s called “Fish Muds”.  Our guide book says that a school of fish will gather, and while spawning, fan their tails near the bottom. This causes great clouds of sand and mud to become waterborne. This creates a false impression of a sandbar or shallow area in the water. On our approach to Great Sale we encountered our first fish mud. We motored around it even though the chart indicated plenty of water. The fish muds can be a mile wide so it took some time to get comfortable driving through them.

Fish Mud

 

From Great Sale Cay we motored to Powell Cay arriving mid afternoon. We anchored on the southwest side off a spectacular beach. We were the only boat and we immediately launched our new kayaks. I did not take any photos as I decided to use this kayak excursion to try out the GoPro video camera we had purchased on our way down to the survey last March. It is a superb little device and we had used it during our sea trial. I wish I could upload a video of the bluff we hiked at Powell Cay. Unfortunately when we landed on the beach to snorkel I forgot to put the waterproof back on the housing and immediately fried the camera and SD card. An expensive, stupid mistake. I will replace it though.

However the snorkeling was good and Cath ran into a reef shark prompting her to run from the water. I did not see it but saw others during our trip as they are ubiquitous in the Bahamas. Below is a photo I pulled from the web. They can look scary up close under water.

Caribbean Reef Shark

 

From Powell Cay we continued on to Green Turtle Cay a short 2.5 hour motor east. Green Turtle is home to the Green Turtle Club and Resort and also has a small town called New Plymouth. New Plymouth as two small groceries, a hardware store and importantly a large garbage bin at the public landing dock. We opted to have lunch at the Green Turtle Club and launched the dinghy for the short ride from the anchorage to White Sound Harbor. After lunch we explored Black Sound Harbor and Settlement Harbor eventually landing the dinghy at the town dock. Cath was desperate for an internet connection and we found one at the tiny public library. $2 for 10 minutes. Expensive I thought but it worked.

Anchored off of New Plymouth

Bahamian Sunset

 

From Green Turtle our next destination was to be Great Guana Cay. Although a short trip our route would take us through Whale Cay Channel out into the Atlantic and back into the Sea of Abaco through Loggerhead Channel.  Whale Cay Channel or “The Whale” as it is called can turn quite nasty and it is important to watch and listen to the weather. Seas were calm for this first adventure through “The Whale” and we pulled into Fishers Bay less than three hours after departing Green Turtle. Fishers is a protected bay just west of Settlement Harbour. There is a pretty beach establishment “Grabbers Bar & Grill” but we had our minds set on Nippers Beach Bar & Grill. To get there required launching the dinghy and motoring around the point to the town dock in Settlement Harbour. Nippers is worth the effort if you have to swim to the town dock. Nippers opened in 1996 and sits above one of the most beautiful beaches in the Bahamas. It is a short walk from the town dock and a very popular destination. We were told by several people that the Sunday pig roast can be a wild time. Nippers also makes a mean frozen concoction worth trying.

 

View from Nippers

Cath has a frozen Nipper

Settlement Harbor town dock

 

We enjoyed the beach so the first day we decided to stay one more. Two days or 85 degrees and brilliant sun along with miles of beautiful beach is hard to leave.

 

It’s tough

 

We needed some provisions so from Great Guana we motored to Marsh Harbor. I called ahead on the vhf to see if Marsh Harbor Marina could take us for a night and they said no problem. Since we had plenty of time to get there we dropped our speed to 4 knots and trolled with our newly purchased boat pole. We are not fisherman. We had tried several times at 8 knots but no luck. We got one although I have no idea what it is.

Our first fish

 

The owner of Marsh Harbor Marina guided us in and helped us tie off. Marsh Harbor is the third largest town in the Bahamas behind only Nassau and Freeport. It has everything for the boater including, I was told, the largest grocery store in the Bahamas. Maxwells was located on the other side of the harbor so late in the afternoon we decided to walk around the harbor to find it. Big mistake. 95 degrees, high humidity and no breeze made the 1.5 mile walk unbearable. We found another smaller grocery and grabbed a cab back. The next morning I borrowed a bike from the marina and did find Maxwells. It is huge and well stocked so we managed to get everything we needed.

We met a very nice couple from FL who tie up their trawler at the marina for a month. Convenient we guess but no way we could stay more than a few days at a clip when there is some much more of the bahamas to see.

We left the marina at 1PM and were anchored outside of Hope Town, Elbow Cay behind Parrot Cays by 3PM. Hope Town is one of the most picturesque settlements in the Bahamas. Its candy-striped lighthouse was built by the British Imperial Lighthouse Service in 1863. It still uses a kerosene fueled mantle and rotating glass fresnel lens that beams a light visible for up to 20 miles. The town was founded by loyalists in 1785. Hope Town provides two town docks to tie up and we took a long walk through town. The Hope Town Harbor Lodge is a beautiful, small, beach side resort that would fit the bill for any wedding. A wedding happened to be going on that night so all the golf carts were rented and we were not able to see as much of the island as we had hoped. Reason to return.

Hope Town Harbour LighthouseOcean beach to the east of town

 

Hope Town Harbour Lodge

 

It was time to start heading back so from Elbow Cay we returned to Great Guana Cay. I had been monitoring the weather for a few days and knew that the wind had kicked to the northeast. This meant a potentially rough passage through “The Whale”. We were able to pick up the weather report from the Green Turtle Club and a boat had mentioned that the passage was rough. We left Great Guana at 10AM and hit the whale and hour later. It was rough but “Big Smile” handled it well and we dropped the hook at Manjack Cay just after noon. Manjack is a small Cay with several homes. The chart showed a mangrove creek near the anchorage. We launched the kayaks and spent two hours kayaking the shallows and found a small beach on the Atlantic side with good snorkeling.

Manjack Cay

Snorkeling off Manjack Cay

 

We now had a major decision to make. The weather for the next several days was not looking good. A tropical storm was brewing in the Gulf of Mexico and the winds had shifted to the north creating potentially hazardous gulf stream crossing conditions. Weather models and the forecasts I was receiving from my weather forecaster Chris Parker showed a potential crossing for Tuesday with deteriorating conditions beyond. We elected to make a 70 plus mile run to Mangrove Cay on Monday leaving us a 95 mile run from Mangrove to Ft Pierce over the White Sand Ridge of Little Bahama Bank. The run to Mangrove Cay was beautiful with a following sea. Mangrove provides little wind protection but it does eliminate the fetch of an east wind.

Cath dropping the hook at Mangrove Cay

Sunrise at Mangrove Cay

 

We weighed anchor at 6:30 AM. Crossing the Little Bahama bank was uneventful and we saw only two boats in the first six hours. The last weather report we had heard called for ENE winds 15+ with seas 4-6 feet up to 8′. We left the Bank and its 20 feet of water and entered the Atlantic. Seas immediately built to the forecasted 6′. Our course to Ft Pierce had the seas too much on the beam so we altered 10 degrees to the south. I figured that would be a better ride through the gulf stream and once through we could start to head north. It worked and we had only one large wave push us more than I liked. The stabilizers performed flawlessly and the autopilot held course for the 12 hour 15 minute crossing. My last concern approaching FT Pierce was the entrance itself. The wind had been blowing strong from the ENE all day. Fortunately the tide was coming in and we raced though the channel at over 12 knots. By 7PM we were comfortably in our slip at Harbour Isle Marina.

It was a successful shakedown cruise but of course way too short. We spent two days cleaning the boat and packed the truck for the return to “ugh” New Jersey.

Posted in Uncategorized

Post navigation

← Older posts
Newer posts →

Search for post

Archives

  • October 2020
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • May 2019
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • May 2018
  • March 2018
  • November 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • April 2017
  • January 2017
  • October 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • October 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • May 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • October 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012

Links

  • Panbo
  • Windyty
  • NOAA Hurricane Center
  • National Data Buoy Center
  • Cruisers Net
©2023 - MV Big Smile - Weaver Xtreme Theme
↑