Back to Brunswick, Georgia

8 November 2008

We left Fort Lauderdale on Friday, September 12th. We had planned on sailing on the outside (along the coast, not on the ICW) right up to Brunswick. As we left the harbour, however, we met large waves which had built due to a combination of the remains of the onshore winds and waves of hurricane Ike and the outgoing tide. It was far too uncomfortable to travel with these waves on the beam (from the side), so we headed back in and travelled up the ICW to Lake Worth over the next two days. We had been told that this section of the ICW gets pretty bad due to the number of bridges and the boat traffic, but because of the time of year (September being in the off-season), there were hardly any other boats out. The bridges did slow us down, but the nice weather and the scenery of waterfront mansions made for a pleasant trip.

We left Lake Worth on Sunday and travelled north on the outside. The trip from Lake Worth to Brunswick, Georgia, took us two and a half days and was our first time sailing through the night. We ran an unconventional watch schedule where Ruth started her watch at 8pm and stayed up until about 4am. Then Geoff got up and took over until noon, and then both of us were awake and shared the helm until 8pm. Most people break up the night into four-hour sections rather than the eight we used, but we found that this worked quite well for us. The schedule aligns with our natural tendencies - Ruth is more of a night owl and Geoff a morning person. The sail up to Brunswick was quite pleasant, although we were in light winds so we (yet again) motored a fair bit of the way. Of note during the trip was the cruise ship Geoff saw going into Port Canaveral before dawn, the sea turtle we both saw and at first almost missed because its back was the same colour as the ubiquitous light brown floating sea weed, and the painfully slow motor up the Brunswick River and into the marina due to the tidal current against us.

Over the last two months in Brunswick we have cleaned up the boat, reprovisioned, and done some minor maintenance on Geru. It has been really nice to catch up on some items that have been on the list since we bought the boat, such as replacing the exhaust hose and cleaning the years of engine oil out of the engine bilge. Thanks to the cleaning and sorting we have been able to do in Brunswick, the boat feels a lot more organized - although we still feel that she's just starting to get to the state we'd like to have her in. We will be leaving some "stuff" in storage here as well, because we have found that we still have much more on board than we need or want.

One of the great things about our stop here has been the time we've had to catch up with old friends whom we had met during our travels or previously in Brunswick. We have also explored the surrounding "Golden Isles" area with car trips over to Jekyll and St. Simons Islands, and we took day trips to Savannah, Georgia, and St. Augustine, Florida. We had not been in Savannah before, and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit there. It is a beautiful city with quaint streets and many squares canopied by large live oak trees covered in Spanish moss. We took a sightseeing tour in Savannah and learned more about the history of the southern US.

Our plan now is to head off to the BVIs (British Virgin Islands). We are currently expecting to sail directly there with no stops along the way, but this will depend on the weather. We had originally planned to leave a week ago, but a North-Atlantic low and the development of hurricane Paloma have pushed out our departure date. Now everything looks good to go for Sunday the 9th.


The ICW leaving Fort Lauderdale


Space shuttle on the launch pad as we passed Cape Canaveral


The Sidney Lanier Bridge - a Brunswick landmark


Road on St. Simons Island



Shrimper in St. Simons Sound


Sunset over dock 10 at Brunswick Landing Marina


City square in Savannah


Street in Savannah


Backyard in Savannah


Hmmm... I think this exhaust hose should be changed...

Waiting for Hurricanes in Fort Lauderdale

11 September 2008

We spent two and a half weeks in Fort Lauderdale. It was great to be back in civilization after being in such deserted places for so long. We both enjoyed the life and energy which Fort Lauderdale has. We thought we'd left the heat behind in George Town, but it was quite hot in Fort Lauderdale as well. We ended up buying an air conditioner to make it bearable on board, and we spent time exploring the malls and stores during the day to keep cool.

Given the number of hurricanes that swept past the Bahamas during our stay in Fort Lauderdale, we were very glad we had chosen to head back to the US. We felt safer knowing that there would be more resources available here if a hurricane were to hit. Mega yachts passed by the small marina we were staying at in a seemingly endless parade to head farther upriver to (relative) safety when hurricane Hanna was approaching. Fortunately, we experienced no serious weather.

We were once again staying at Cooley's Landing Marina in the downtown area of Fort Lauderdale. We like the bars and restaurants in this area. By comparison, the more famous tourist area by the beach seems quite run down. We enjoyed a few nights out on the patios watching people strut by in eye-catching outfits. Again we were astounded by the amount of obvious plastic surgery! One night we went to "America's Backyard", a place we imagined to be a quintessential spring break attraction, which, even at this time of year in the off-season, drew quite a crowd. The entire place was outdoors with a roofed balcony along one side. The main bar sat in the centre of the open area. It looked like a free-form raised swimming pool. The counter surrounding the bar was tiled like the bottom of a pool would be, and there were pool ladders to help patrons climb up onto the counter to dance up there! We had fun watching the gregarious crowd and doing a bit of dancing ourselves - albeit not on the counters... On another occasion, when looking for a good place to eat, we came across a somewhat unusual restaurant recommended by Gourmet magazine. The place was called Lips, and the dinner included a show as well. The "unusual" part? The waitresses as well as the stars of the evening show were all drag queens! The audience turned out to be a mixture of ordinary folks, men and women, couples, groups and even families. The food was great and the entertainment hilarious.

One afternoon, we had an interesting animal encounter. We were sitting in the boat and suddenly heard some scratching on the cabintop. We'd heard a similar sound in the past when birds walked around on our boat. As we looked up at the forward hatch (which was closed but is essentially see-through), we saw two large clawed feet and a long tail - this time, it wasn't a bird, but an iguana! We both rushed out on deck to watch the iguana wander around our boat. It got scared when it saw us, and it jumped overboard into the water! (Did you know iguanas can swim? - we didn't!)


Our "little" visitor


Three storms on the way!


The projected path for Hanna - just brushing Fort Lauderdale

Back to the US

9 September 2008

After returning from Ottawa, we spent a few days putting the boat back together (sails on, cockpit enclosure back up, etc.) and picking up supplies for our trip back to the US. We ended up spending an extra day or two waiting for tropical storm Fay to pass by and allowing the seas to calm down. We had hoped to sail most of the trip back, however, the winds ended up being fairly light so it was yet another motorsail trip most of the way. We stopped at Black Point (Exumas), SouthWest Allen's Cay (Exumas), West Bay (New Providence), Chub Cay, and Bimini.

We decided we would do as much ocean sailing as we could on the way back rather than staying on the banks, as it is more direct and therefore faster. Our first day out (Monday, August 18) was a good one; we made it from George Town to Black Point. Our second day, however, was a bit much for us as we encountered larger ocean waves. The waves were 6 to 8 feet with a very short period. Swells would have been ok, but these waves were very uncomfortable and a bit scary. As we left the cut from the banks it was clear the waves were large, but we couldn't turn around because of the waves and current in the cut. We kept on going out hoping it might get better a little farther out, but it didn't. At our next chance, which happened to be at Staniel Cay, we ducked back onto the banks and had a much better (although still somewhat rough) day of sailing on the banks.

Our excitement for the day was not over yet, though - as we were entering the anchorage at SW Allen's Cay and turned off the autopilot to resume steering by hand, we found that the boat would not really respond to the wheel! Luckily we had enough steering control to make it in and anchor - we just had to turn the wheel about twenty times. It turned out that one of our hydraulic lines had chafed through (we guess in the rough seas). Geoff was able to put together a temporary fix with Rescue Tape and replenish the hydraulic fluid supply. The fix worked - he thought it might not hold once he repressurized the system, but the Rescue Tape did the job!

SW Allen's Cay was a private spot for us as we were the only boat in the tiny and very protected anchorage, but we did share the island with lots of iguanas which was really neat. They were quite large and almost menacing-looking. When we landed the dinghy on the beach, several iguanas started coming towards us out of the shrubs. We stayed for two nights in this anchorage to have more time to enjoy the cay, to fix the hydraulics, and to wait for Fay to move farther north as we were catching up to her. The Exumas felt deserted by this time. We only saw two other boats in the distance during our stay at SW Allen's Cay.

The next few days of our trip were fairly uneventful. We anchored at West Bay on New Providence Island for two nights and then spent one night at Chub Cay. We didn't go ashore on either island, but we went snorkelling around the boat and scraped marine growth off Geru's bottom.

The route from Chub Cay to Bimini leads over the banks and usually takes two days with an overnight stop somewhere on the banks. It is really quite amazing - 80 nm (about 144 km) without any land, but with the bottom clearly visible only 10 feet below the boat! During this leg of our adventure we experienced the worst "anchorage" yet. On Sunday (August 24), we decided to make it a long day (8:20 -22:50) to make it from Chub Cay to Bimini in one shot to save a day of travelling. Because we arrived at Bimini after dark, we didn't want to anchor too close to shore as we couldn't see anything, so we anchored on the banks just before Bimini. This turned out to be a mistake as we were in the natural channel where the tidal current comes on and off the banks, which, in conjunction with the wind, caused some pretty good waves making for an uncomfortable night of fitful sleep. The light pollution in this seemingly remote place really struck us. Bimini was a dark mass in front of us with a few red lights from the tops of tall masts, but the horizon was very light to the west in the direction of Miami and also to the north toward Freeport (on Grand Bahama Island).

On Monday morning we left the Bahamas for Fort Lauderdale. We had a pretty good motorsail across the Gulf Stream with only two or three small bands of rain getting us wet. The excitement of the day was when we were approached and hailed by a US Coast Guard Frigate. They asked for information about our destination, boat registry, and citizenship. Presumably because we are a Canadian vessel, they didn't ask to board us for a "courtesy safety inspection", which they did to the American boats travelling in our vicinity.

We have now caught up on our Bahamas blogs, photos, and videos. If you missed any of the blogs, they are now in chronological order below.


Leaving Black Point (on the outside)


Geru anchored at SW Allen's Cay


Iguana at SW Allen's Cay


Gull at SW Allen's Cay


Dolphin seen just before Bimini


Coast Guard Frigate that approached us


A good reason to have left the Bahamas...
(Two Hurricanes, one tropical storm and three possible upcoming storms!)

Plans Changing...

As the saying we've picked up goes.... a cruiser's plans are set in jello (and the jello isn't set). So with this in mind we are heading back north for a while. We have found that the isolation of George Town isn't bringing us happiness, and the thought of the path ahead against the prevailing winds while dodging hurricanes just doesn't sound like fun. So we will be heading to Florida and then probably farther north for a while. Once hurricane season is over we will probably head back south again.

ps. We posted more videos on Vimeo recently when we had a good internet connection.

pps. We will catch up with some missing posts sometime...


Tropical Storm Fay

That's why they call it the Thorny Path...

13 August 2008

We had known since last year that Geoff's sister's wedding would be in August, and we wanted to fly back to Ottawa for the event. Since it was hurricane season, we needed to find a safe place to leave the boat (a hurricane hole) with access to an airport. There were two well-known hurricane holes near us - one right in George Town, Bahamas, and one in Luperon in the Dominican Republic.

As our required departure date back to Ottawa was getting closer, we started to think about which hurricane hole we wanted to leave Geru in. The trip from George Town to the Dominican Republic is on what is called the Thorny Path. Travelling from the central Bahamas through the Turks & Caicos, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico to the Virgin Islands takes you in a south-easterly direction, which is against the direction of the prevailing winds. This means that you need to motor much of the time and you will be pushing against wind and waves, which can be very uncomfortable, and you will travel more slowly. All of this earned the route the name Thorny Path.

Looking at the dates and the weather, we decided that we could make it to the Dominican Republic if we left sooner rather than later. We also knew that we would need a few days to get things sorted out once we got there, such as booking flights and securing the boat for a storm or hurricane that might hit while we were away. If we waited much longer, we could not be certain we'd make it to the wedding.

So on Saturday, June 28, we left George Town headed for Cape Santa Maria on Long Island. The winds were forecast to be about 15 knots and waves 5 to 6 feet. As we left George Town harbour and headed out, the conditions at first were about what we expected. However, it became quite rough as we got farther out. We were motoring right into both the wind and waves. Geru was slamming down on the waves with lots of water on the deck - it was quite unpleasant! We turned to each other and asked if we wanted to do this for 5 days straight to get to the Dominican Republic, which we would have needed to do in order to get there in time. So, feeling very frustrated and defeated, we turned around - and we now truly appreciate why they call it the Thorny Path! We ended up having a great trip back to George Town (it's SOOO much better running WITH the wind and waves!).

The next day we sat down to figure out what to do - wait for better weather to try again and risk not making it back to Ottawa, or stay in George Town and fly back from there. Because we did not want to miss the wedding, we decided to stay in George Town and planned to travel to the Dominican Republic after the wedding. This would allow us to take our time for the trip. We also wouldn't have to skip any islands we wanted to see along the way, because we would not be in a hurry. It would also allow for unscheduled stops to wait out weather. The route to the Dominican Republic passes through less sheltered waters, with fewer islands or shallow banks to hide behind for protection. The islands along the way are mostly remote outposts, and most of the trip is over open ocean - with the next stop to the East being Africa!

We spent the next few weeks catching up on the ever-growing list of chores and preparing the boat for a possible hurricane. The Atlantic had already seen two tropical storms this season. We also booked our flights to be in Ottawa for the first two weeks of August.

Our trip to Ottawa was very nice, although being in a big city again after weeks of solitude in the islands was a bit of a culture shock! Our trip was a whirlwind tour - we were running the whole time in order to get everything done. The first week was spent rushing around to dentist, eye doctor, and physio appointments and picking up items we couldn't get down south. The second week was all about Geoff's sister's wedding. We made some time to visit with friends, too, which was great. The wedding went well and, other than a slightly rainy ceremony, it was wonderful. Geoff was one of the groomsmen, and it was quite a change to see him in a tux rather than his usual very casual boat clothes!



A small part of the Exumas from the plane


More of the Exumas


Bimini


The wedding ceremony (Geoff standing on the far right)


Jenny and Steve

Google our Trip

For those of you who would like to explore where we have been, below are some links for the full list of position reports up to today.

If you have Google Earth, download the two KML files below:

• KML File #1
• KML File #2

If you don't have Google Earth you can use Google Maps

Enjoy!


View Larger Map

Fish, Wind, and Unknown Depths

28 June 2008

On Saturday, June 21st, we motored for eight hours to George Town (Exumas) from Rudder Cut Cay, taking the outside route (in the Exuma Sound). The day was quite breezy with the wind almost on our nose, so we didn't sail. Since we were in open water, we decided to try out our fishing handline (a set-up with only a reel of line - no rod) for the first time. As we have more open-water passages ahead of us, we didn't expect much on the first day of trying it, especially because we were just motoring along a chain of cays which were less than a mile away. Geoff thought that the line might not be long enough, because we clearly saw the lure skipping along on the surface behind the boat. Well...Within an hour of putting the line out we had our first fish! We identified it as a Cero (a type of mackerel), and we filleted it on the back deck right away (and ate half of it for dinner at the end of the day). Inspired by our success we put the line back in the water. Two hours later we had another bite! We pulled the fish in close to the boat. It was another Cero. While attempting to gaff the fish, he somehow got off the hook and slipped away. Disappointed but undaunted we dropped the hook in again. This time it took less than five minutes for the next one to bite! Our third fish in as many hours. This fish was an Almaco Jack (we think). His fillets went into our freezer.

As we entered George Town harbour, we noticed that our depth sounder wasn't working - it has had some intermittent problems for a while, but now it just wasn't showing any depth. Because we are comparatively shallow, we generally trust our chart plotter and don't worry about the depths too much. When we anchor, however, we usually try to get as close in to shore as possible to get the most protection from wind and waves. So when we went to anchor off Stocking Island across from George Town, we had to use the old method of a lead line to figure out the depth - an interesting proposition when you care about a one foot error! We anchored safely and added a new depth sounder to our list of things to do. As it turned out, we ended up with a fish finder as that was the closest thing we could find in George Town.

George Town is the largest town of the Exumas, but is still fairly small with little in the way of services. The town surrounds a small lake (Lake Victoria), which is accessible by dinghy via a connection under a bridge to the main harbour. Most of the beach anchorages are across the harbour from George Town along Stocking Island, such as Volleyball Beach, Hamburger Beach, and Sanddollar Beach. We were anchored just off of Volleyball Beach, near the Chat'n'Chill beach bar. During the winter at the height of the cruising season, hundreds of boats stay in George Town harbour (properly called Elizabeth Harbour). Because we were there in the summer, there were only a handful of other cruisers around. We spent a couple of fun days with Renata, Kuno, and Tatiana from Blue Moon.


Geoff with our first fish (a Cero)


Geoff with our third fish (an Almaco Jack)


Dinner!


Geru at Volleyball Beach on Stocking Island


We've come a long way...


Exit from Lake Victoria, George Town - with Geru out front


Some fun on the beach at night (Tatiana and Ruth)