January 2016

It’s Thursday afternoon and I am still here in Ft Lauderdale.  Yes, I mentioned in my last post that it would be my last from FL and the next would be from the Bahamas.  However, things change.

Actually, Brenda and I were finishing up purchasing fuel on Sunday when Brenda got word that her oldest friend had lost her son to a drug overdose.  I can’t even imagine what it would be like to face such a thing.

So, as you can imagine, we scrubbed our departure and Brenda flew home to be with her friend.

I thought about what to do next and decided to head over to the Bahamas so Brenda could join me there and invited my brother to spend a week with me.  We have not had much time together for many years so at least one small thing will come out of this horrible tragedy.  Having him with me is a treat.

Bill arrived on Tuesday and we are now waiting for a window to cross, which looks like it will be Friday evening or perhaps Saturday morning.  He flies out of Nassau on Wednesday next week, the same day that Brenda flies in.

The last few days have had some pretty heavy rain and today is no different.  We did get some time to walk around between showers yesterday but today has been pretty steady rain. I started thinking to volunteer at the Legacy Healing Facility.  Earlier today, as we were getting a bit stir crazy sitting around on the boat, we decided to take a tour of the commercial ship terminals in Ft Lauderdale, rain or shine.    It was pretty neat to see the big ships loading and unloading all sorts of stuff.

Interestingly, as we were waiting for one of the bridges to open, a harbor pilot boat pulled up along side and stopped.  A “pilot” is someone who works in a particular port and is called upon to meet incoming ships, climbing aboard and guiding them into port.   Anyway, the pilot pulled right next to me and rolled down his window, greeting us with “who designed your boat?”.  I answered him, Rodger Martin in Newport.  He then told me that he really liked my boat which was quite a compliment coming from someone who spends his life on the water and goes out in all conditions, regardless of how rough it is.

There were two ships with yachts on board.  One boat was launched as we passed by and immediately headed south, probably to the upcoming Miami Boat Show.   It was raining, sometimes in torrents, so this shot is a bit dark.I always enjoy tugboats.  This one is of the modern type that has rotating drives, sort of like a pair of outboard engines that poke out of the bottom of the hull.  They can rotate 360 degrees so that they can maneuver in any direction with a joy stick control.  Amazing machines. We also enjoyed the antics of the local iguana population.  There is a tree near the water that is covered with these lizards, each vying to be “king of the hill”.  It’s amusing to see the constant effort they make to prove who’s the “baddest” of all.  This guy is one of the larger ones, about 4′ long.  The other day, Brenda and I saw one of the colorful crabs that climb out of the water to sun themselves at low tide.  Well, it’s nice to have Bill with me for the week but the opportunity to spend time with him came up for a very sad reason.   Fortunately, it was possible for Brenda to jump on a plane so she could support her dear friend.  I look forward to having Brenda with me again when she comes to Nassau next week.

I guess that’s all for now.  Hopefully Bill and I will have a good run to the Bahamas in the next day or so.  Fingers crossed for a good trip.

It’s Saturday mid day and it’s blowing like stink here in Ft Lauderdale.  We have now been here for ten days waiting to cross to the Bahamas and while there was actually a weather window a few days after we arrived,  we just weren’t quite ready with provisioning the boat and were still collecting all of the items that we had shipped here in advance of our arrival.  As we flew down this year, instead of driving, we had to send things ahead as we wanted to limit the number of bags that we had to schlep on the plane.  That meant that we had a parade of stuff arriving at the local UPS store.  They sure loved us at $5 per package.

Anyway, we are ready now and all that has to happen now is for the wind and seas to settle down following the cold front that’s passing through today.  According to Chris Parker, the weather router, we expect that things will improve sometime tomorrow, Sunday afternoon..    The best departure time is a bit fuzzy as if we leave when the wind drops on Sunday afternoon we will still have to contend with some residual seas in the Gulf Stream as it takes some hours for the wind driven seas to subside once the wind drops.    A Monday morning departure would actually be a lot more settled but there is a risk that we will then have to contend with building east winds as we cross the Bahamas Banks, on Tuesday before we reach our destination about 20 hours after we leave Ft Lauderdale.

So, the choice seems to be rough seas in the Gulf Stream with a Sunday departure or building head winds in the final 6-8 hours of our crossing the Bahama banks if we leave on Monday.  It’s a tough call and I am not sure which will be the most comfortable or should I say, least uncomfortable for Brenda.  Perhaps taking our lumps in the early hours of the trip and having the rest be more settled is the best option but Brenda’s surely not going to like a “washing machine” at the beginning.  One way or the other, we have to move or we’ll be here for yet another week, something that neither of us wants.

Today is a terrible day in the Gulf Stream with seas running in the 15’ range with gale force winds.  Now that would be horrible and something that I don’t even dare contemplate, with or without Brenda aboard.   Here in the harbor, sustained westerly winds are expected to peak around mid day at nearly 30kts.   We are paying very close attention to everyone around us to be sure that we don’t end up tangling with another boat.

There is one big ketch in particular, with nobody on board, that I have already had to up anchor to get out of his way at least once.  He has a small anchor and short scope so he’s been dragging slowly around the anchorage with each wind shift.  It’s amazing how cavalier some people can be about leaving a boat unattended.   I sure hope that I don’t end up my dink pushing him away from us if he drags yet again.  I guess we’ll have to keep our fingers crossed and dink ready.

Anyway, how about this?   What’s a post about Ft Lauderdale without a few shots of some of the “big boys”.   Nice “dink” aboard this one.  “Off to the market James and quick.  We are just about out of Grey Poupon.”Of course, if you’re yacht is “mega” it just has to have it’s own garage for your toys.How about a peek inside?  Amazing display of wealth.In a post recently I mentioned that I was submitting what I believe is the last item needed to complete my approvals to go to Cuba, a form required by the U.S. Coast Guard.  I filled it out with the date of my departure port in the US, my plan to visit the Bahamas, when I’d be arriving in Cuba and where I would clear in.   I also indicated when I’d be returning to the U.S. and what my arrival port would be.  The next day I received a call from a USCG officer stating that I must submit the form a minimum of two weeks prior to departing for Cuba.  Oops, I was leaving in four days.   However, with further discussion she agreed that my actual date of departure was the date that we will be leaving the Bahamas, over a month from now, to head to Cuba.  All well and good but I still had to resubmit with corrections.  Great!

The problem is that the form isn’t up to date with the current laws, which are changing quickly.  So, like a good law abiding citizen, I filled out the form again and sent it in a second time.  And, that might not be the end of it.  If any of our dates vary from those on the form by more than 5 days, I have to do it all over again, and two weeks in advance of those dates.  Yikes!  It’s nearly a “catch 22”.

Are you kidding me?  I have submitted each form at least twice and it’s taken months to sort through everything.   And, it’s not over yet…

A few folks have commented on all of this, both on this blog as well as my posts on Facebook, stating that I should “just go”.  I have asked officers in the various departments I have been dealing with what they thought of that and the answer is universally, “good luck with that”.   The fact is that Cuba is still off limits to us and the only way to be sure you won’t get in trouble is to carefully follow the ever changing rules, as annoying and tedious as the process may be.

So, as we prepare to head to the Bahamas I am hopeful that I have indeed “crossed all of the T’s and dotted all of the I’s.  Well, for now fingers crossed that I have done this right.  If not, it won’t be for a lack of trying.

I expect that the next post I do will be from the Bahamas.  Until then, I’ll close with a shot of some of the locals listening with rapt attention to my every word as I described the approval process to them in the park the other day.  Ok, ok, one more photo.  This one of of a lovely sunrise a few days ago.  Yes, this is the mood I am looking for.For now, it’s blowing like stink but here’s to a “reasonable” crossing.  Fingers crossed.

It’s Wednesday morning and we are still here in Ft Lauderdale. It’s been a challenging week with terrific wind and a few nasty fronts, complete with some impressive gusts over 40kts and tons of rain.  We even had the fun of re-anchoring in the wee hours, which is always good for a laugh or two.  Brenda particularly enjoys those special moments together.

Actually, yesterday might have been the first day since our arrival that I didn’t have to bail out the dink at least once.   Happily, we are getting some respite from the wind as it’s supposed to be pretty light until perhaps Friday when it’s expected to get “sporty” again and blow at near gale strength.   I guess that this is par for the course in early winter in Florida when the “fun” returns every few days.

It’s pretty cool too.  No, I won’t say cold as it will just make my brother irate as he lives in northeast PA where cold means something.  So far, the “sunny” in “sunny Florida” has alluded us as we have been here for more than two weeks and I can only count a couple of days when the sun as shown it’s face for more than a few hours at a time.  So much for “solar power” ruling the day.  However, it’s nice to see that the sun is, sort of, out in force as I write this.

I spoke with Chris Parker, the weather router, both yesterday and on Monday with the hope of “getting out of Dodge” and crossing to the Berry Islands today but the wind is a bit strong from the east than we’d like and with so many miles to go against adverse winds and seas, we opted to wait until the next “window”. Unfortunately, this means that we will be stuck here through the weekend.   However, he feels pretty confident that we will be able to head out perhaps as early as Sunday evening to make the 125 mile run to Great Harbor Key where we will be treating ourselves to a stay for two weeks or so in the marina, something that we have not done in the past.  We are really looking forward to it as we have heard that it’s a fun spot.

The “window” that we were going to use this week was a narrow one, lasting less than 24 hours.  We could have made it over to Bimini but once there, we would have been stuck through the weekend anyway and would have had to check into a marina at about $100 per day.  The rates for a marina are much higher if you only stay a few days than if you plan a longer stay.  Once you have stayed ten days or so, the rate for a whole month isn’t much different.

So, the plan now is to hope for the best and plan on leaving Sunday or Monday.  That’s fine I guess, as we have been struggling to get everything done prior to leaving the States.  I just found out that there are two more forms that I have to deal with in order to complete our plans to visit Cuba.  It seems that we need to submit a form to the U.S. Coast Guard to let them know of our plans and itinerary.  They also need the particulars of the approvals from State and Commerce.   Oddly, these forms have to be faxed verses e-mailed and must be printed out and signed.  I can’t say that the “nautical fax” machine is active on Pandora. However, we do have a printer.  There is also some sort waiver form from OFAC, the Office of Foreign Asset Control, that I have to submit to avoid a 180 day waiting period before we can re-import Pandora.   Not sure about that one.  I’ll need to do some work on that today.

We also will be getting some Canadian currency as it has a better exchange rate in Cuba as the Cuban government imposes a 20% tax on Greenbacks.   There’s Fidel sticking it to the Yanks.  I guess fair is fair.   However, he did start it with the whole “revolution thing”, right?

Anyway, Ft Lauderdale is nice but I am so looking forward to the Bahamas with warm clear water.  Besides, our daily runs to the store for “one more thing”, have to end at some point or I’ll have to haul Pandora again and raise the waterline.  Just how many y0gurts do we really need?  Bottles of wine?  Well, that’s another question entirely.  Besides, a boat does need ballast, right?

Through all of this I have ordered plenty of last minute items including a hand held depth finder, that arrived yesterday.  It will come in handy as we pick our way through unfamiliar waters in Cuba.  There are times when we want to enter a spot and aren’t sure if it’s deep enough so having a portable depth finder that I can take ahead in the dink will be very useful.  It’s pretty neat and even has a thermometer in it.   “No Bob, we can’t go in there, the water is not warm enough.  Check over there.  It looks warmer over there, yes to the right.”

We have also purchased courtesy flags for the countries that we plan to visit and just for fun, I laid them out in the cockpit the other evening.  Of course, the middle one is our own Essex Yacht Club burgee.   In clockwise order, Cuba, Jamaica, Bahamas and The Caiman Islands, all spots that we may/will stop along the way.  Last night over an “adult beverage”, I remarked to Brenda that, when we were sailing Long Island Sound way back when in our 20’ Cape Cod Catboat, that I never imagined that we’d ever visit these places by boat.   Her reaction wasn’t completely clear.   Was it a smile or grimace.  Hmm…  You know, she was the one who came up with Pandora’s name.   Anyway, cool photo.

As  I reminisce, I should mention that we had a lovely visit with our long-time, notice that I didn’t say “old”, friends Linda and Richard.  Linda worked with me for perhaps a decade back in one of my “previous lives” and we try to visit her when we are passing through West Palm Beach, where they live.  Linda is the keeper of the last remaining stand of “Bob the banana”, offspring of a plant that Brenda and I grew from a shoot that we purchased back in the 70s while we were dating in high school.  We kept it alive for many years, in our home and later in a greenhouse that we kept for over 20 years.  When we moved away from NJ, four years ago, we tossed the last of our “Bob”.  However, he lives on with Linda and Richard as they planted a shoot that I gave to Linda when they moved to Florida almost ten years ago.  Here’s a shot of me, Linda and “Bob”.  He’s doing well, I would say and pays his way by producing hundreds of bananas a year.  Don’t we all look so cute together?  “Bob loves it there!”  Me too.So, for the next few days Brenda and I will finish up last minute details and I’ll try to figure out exactly what else Uncle Sam wants to be sure all is in order for our visit to Cuba and perhaps more importantly, our return to the U.S.  I guess I had better sign off or we won’t be ready by the weekend “window”, if it arrives after all.

Signing off from Sunny Florida for now and enjoying a day that actually is as advertised.

 

It’s Saturday morning here in Ft Lauderdale and it is shaping up to be a really nice day.  That’s particularly good news as the weather has there hasn’t been much sun here since we arrived in FL in late December.  It’s been very cloudy and rainy with temperatures lower than you’d expect for “sunny Florida”.   And no, I don’t expect any sympathy from my “buds” up north who are experiencing a “real” winter.   However, you can take some solace in knowing that while you were snoozing all warm and snug in your bed the other night, I was out in the cockpit for hours on anchor watch lest we drag in the squalls and strong winds that roared through the anchorage at “0-dark-30”.

Anyway, today is a beautiful day and makes up for all the rain that kept us cooped up on Pandora yesterday.  This is the view that greeted me today as the sun rose over Ft Lauderdale.  Beautiful.  What a difference a day makes.Rain or not, yesterday was a big day as it was Brenda’s “real” birthday and the culmination of the “celebratory period” that began back in November when I threw a party dubbed as “Brenda’s not even close to 60 years old, birthday party”.   We had to begin celebrating early as I wanted to be sure that she’d enjoy her special day with old friends, well not really that old, while we were still in CT, knowing that we’d be aboard Pandora on her “real” birthday.   It is worth mentioning that she shares that day each year with Martin Luther King, as well as the national holiday that is held in their honor.

As we watched the weather forecast for the week we also saw that her “real birthday, day”, yesterday, was likely to be rainy, and it sure was, so we celebrated ashore for “happy hour” a few days ago.    This photo is supposed to document that we are more “hip” than old with the stage lighting pulsing in the background.  Not sure that the photo offers definitive proof of “hipness”.  I guess you will have to be the judge.  Never the less, it was a lot of fun and there were plenty in the bar that were even less hip than we.  Well, I cling to that belief.  I won’t mention that it wasn’t even dark out when we arrived.  Pretty pathetic.    Question: What did we do before we had “selfies”.  Hmm…So, yesterday was the “it” and Brenda enjoyed a quiet day aboard while the wind whipped us and everyone else around the anchorage.  However, due to my excellent advance planning, I was ready.  Well, almost ready, as I didn’t have any ribbon to tie up her present.  Not to be deterred, I found some “designer cording” and a “natural fiber decoration” plucked fresh from a local shrub.    How many cruising boats have a supply of wrapping paper and tape on hand?  Like most everything aboard a cruising boat, one needs to improvise.Another big event yesterday was receiving the “final final” approval from the Commerce Department that included the definitive “you go Bob” notice that givs us approval to visit Cuba aboard Pandora.   It was a long time coming as I began exploring the process of visiting Cuba back in early summer with a call to my congressman’s office to learn what the process for visiting Cuba looked like.   Well, here we are in mid-January and it finally came.   I won’t bore you with all the details but it was a long and involved process.   I have to say that, as I downloaded the approval document today, I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t accompanied by a “trill of brass horns” as I opened it on my screen.  However, everything is now in place.  Amazing, actually.

I say that everything is “in-place” but we still have plenty of provisioning to finish up with and one of Brenda’s prescriptions was wrong from Express-Scripps and getting that corrected will take a few more days, at least.  Getting three months’ extra supply of medications is no simple feat and getting it right, and sent to the correct address, well that’s nearly impossible.  Did you know that when you use a UPS store as a drop point, it costs $5 per day per package once it has arrived.  Yikes.  When I visited them yesterday I was presented with a bill for $185 as some packages had been there for a while.   Fortunately, they took pity on me and I ended up paying somewhat less.  I won’t make that mistake again.

This morning I listened to Chris Parker, the weather router, and there may be a window to cross over to the Bahamas on Wednesday and if that doesn’t happen, we might be another week till the forecasted strong cold fronts have passed and another window presents itself.   The prevailing winds are from the east, as are the Bahamas, so getting there can be tough.  For every day that’s good for “easting”, there are many more that are unfavorable.  I won’t go into details on that except to say that making the run across the Gulf Stream can be tough and “tough” doesn’t play well with Brenda, self-described “creampuff” that she is.   Actually, she’s a lot tougher than she lets on but I had better not push it as there’s a lot of water to be crossed until we get to Cuba.

For now, I’ll focus on getting ready to go so if we get the go-ahead from Chris in a few days, we’ll be ready.

It’s hard to believe that we finally have our approvals in order to visit Cuba, a country that has been off-limits to U.S. citizens for as long as I have been alive.   It’s safe to say that when we first thought about making this trip, I never thought it would actually happen and now it is.  I guess that there’s nothing as consistent as change and changing it is.

So, that’s my report.

It’s Monday morning and we are in West Palm Beach where we will spend a few days seeing the sights and decompressing from what seemed like an endless number of “to do’s” aboard Pandora.  With most of the packages we have ordered waiting for us here with my friend Linda, who we hope to see later today, or in Ft Lauderdale at our favorite UPS store, we finally feel like things are settling down a bit.   There’s plenty more to do to prepare for our run to the Bahamas and on to Cuba but the “heavy lifting” is about done so we can relax a bit.

The last few days since leaving Ft Pierce have been fairly routine as we motored down the ICW on our way south to Ft Lauderdale where we will stage Pandora and prepare for our crossing to the Bahamas.   We did have a “fun” moment though in the middle of the night on Friday when we dragged our anchor during a thunderstorm.  When we anchored earlier that evening I did feel that the bottom seemed very soft and that the anchor didn’t set quite as well as I had hoped. Perhaps I should have anchored once more, but we backed down and I assumed that it was “good enough”.  Not…

Anyway, we both enjoyed a late night “BVD Shuffle” as we dragged around the harbor and re-anchored two times till I sort of “got it right”.    Even then I didn’t feel that the holding was all that good.  However, with shallow water all around us there wasn’t much risk in damage to anything beyond my ego and our “marital bliss”.  No, Brenda didn’t enjoy it at all.

Happily, the holding here in Palm Beach is great so we are all snug.  And, that’s a good thing as the current whips through on the ebb and flood with the tides so the anchor has to reset ever 7 or so hours with the current switches.

West Palm is a beautiful city with a dramatic skyline and wonderful restaurants.  It’s also a short walk to the grocery.  And, perhaps best of all, they seem to like cruisers as there are two huge and very nice public docks to land a dink on.  Given how unfriendly the cities in South Florida are, it’s refreshing to be well treated here.   And, as an added benefit, there aren’t any derelict boats so clearly the city is enforcing the laws to keep the waters uncluttered and leave room, and the welcome mat out, for visiting boaters.

When we arrived yesterday there was a car show in full swing with literally hundreds of fabulous cars, mostly on the exotic side.     Of course, who doesn’t like a “fleet” of Vets?  I know that my son Rob would love this show. And, of course, what about your “inner Bond”?  You can look, but don’t touch. Most of the cars were exotic sports cars but this “Big Healy” was one of my favorite.  The owner spent six years restoring it himself.  He rescued it when he found that it was being towed to the dump as a total wreck.  Pretty impressive car and in perfect shape.  I’d love to have one of these, and it’s the PERFECT color.  Wow!If I could have whatever I wanted, this Jaguar would be perfect.   Elegant and in mint condition.
Of course, there were plenty of “super cars” for those who want to make a statement, perhaps, “mine is bigger than yours, much bigger”.   Brenda would say that cars like this make up for something else?  Hmm…  Glad that I don’t want one. Well, I don’t want one really badly.  Yeah, that’s it. One way or the other, there was certainly something for everyone at this show.  Well, at least everyone with at least $100k to spend on a toy.  But hey, we are in Florida and that’s where the money goes to be spent in the winter.

There are plenty of massive homes and boats along the way and it’s clear that to live here you have to have plenty of “green” and be very willing to spend it.

Oh yeah, a cold front came through last night and it was in the 40s when we got up. It’l go up to the low 70s later today so don’t feel so bad for us.  Not that you do…

Stay tuned, more to come and I promise that it will include boats next post.   Honest!