It’s Tuesday morning here in beautiful Hope Town, Abaco and I am now less than a week away, weather permitting, from my departure for home.  With my crew Chris and Ian arriving on Friday evening, we should be ready to shove off, weather permitting, over the weekend or Monday.  There are provisions and fuel to get on board and then we have to make our way north through Whale Cay Passage (I wrote about this passage recently), across the banks and out into the Gulf Stream for the run north.

I have been worrying that I would have made all these arrangements, have crew arrive and we would be stuck in port due to strong unfavorable winds.  Of course, with everyone in place the last thing we would want to do is to sit and cool our heels for a week w-a-i-t-i-n-g.    When I returned from the Bahamas last May we were delayed in Nassau for several days and then again in Beaufort NC for half a week. Between weather and gear problems, a trip that should have taken a week lasted for two weeks.  I have been fretting that this would be the case with Pandora.

Of course, we won’t know how the weather will look until we get with a few days of departure but, as of now, things are looking good for a fairly easy run north.     The other thing to consider will be gear problems and I am hopeful that we won’t have problems there either.  Fingers crossed.   Interestingly, had I tried to leave this week we would have encountered everything from no wind to gale force conditions as we headed up the coast.  In all likelihood we would have had to wait till next week anyway.  Let’s hope that my luck holds…

My week with my friend Craig, who is visiting me here in the Abacos this week, is going well.  Yesterday and today we are in Hope Town, my third visit here in the last month, and on Wednesday we will head south to Little Harbor, a lovely spot and the home to Pete’s Pub and Gallery.  Brenda and I enjoyed a few days there earlier in April.   It will be fun to be back there again.   By Friday afternoon we will need to be back in Marsh Harbor for crew arrival.

There’s lots to look at here in Hope Town harbor and I was particularly struck by this beautiful catamaran that was moored nearby. Cheetah is apparently a new boat recently constructed in Trinidad.   Interestingly, it is powered by twin electric hybrid propulsion and is epoxy, plywood construction.  This link provides some very interesting background.  I have to admit that I am drawn to some of these big cats as they have loads of living space and, under the right conditions, are really fast.    This one is the best looking that I have seen.

Well, I guess that it’s time to finish up my coffee and head out for a bit of exploring as it’s nearly noon.  Where does the time go?  I guess I am in cruising mode…  I’m in the Bahamas mon…   Don’t worry, be happy!

So far, so good, except for worry about passages north.  Oh well…

I can’t believe that it’s Mother’s Day and here I am in the Bahamas and there isn’t a related mother in sight.  Brenda left on Thursday to head back to the States and The Boys.   I am sure that hey will keep her in good shape for this important weekend.  For Brenda, it’s not about Mother’s Day, it’s about Mother’s Day weekend.  I agree and happily, the boys do too and will surely be doting on her.  That’s good.   I talked to my mother today which was nice.  Brenda didn’t answer her phone.  That’s good too as she was certainly out doing Mother’s Day sorts of things.   Perhaps they are planting up the window boxes.

However, here I am in the crummy (not) Bahamas, feeling a bit guilty for not being there.  Oh well, it is sunny and warm, like a perfect Mother’s Day.  I did see a few mother’s tooling around in boats today, just not mine.

Yesterday my friend Craig and I did a bit of beach exploring on the ocean side.  The beach on Great Guana is quite beautiful and is said to be home of the third largest barrier reef in the world following the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and one off of Belize in South America.    The view of the beach is truly spectacular.And all this great beach to explore and almost nobody else to compete with for finding shells.  Brenda probably thinks that I only look for shells when she is there but I couldn’t help myself yesterday and was again on the lookout for the “perfect shell”.  I am always hoping to find something that qualifies as the “find of the day” and yesterday didn’t disappoint. You wouldn’t expect to find something like this on such a popular beach.  It seems that every day is indeed a new opportunity for a great find.   I have found plenty of these types but they tend to be about 1″ long or less.  This is a beauty.I will have to save it for Brenda.  Perhaps a small Mother’s Day token…

When Brenda and I were here a few weeks ago we visited Nipper’s, a very popular bar overlooking the beach.   On that that visit, a very windy day, we were not very impressed.  However, what a difference there was when the winds were more moderate and there was a less sophomoric crowd at the bar.  Yesterday I thought that the place was actually very pleasant.   There were plenty of colorful umbrellas to brighten up things. 

That’s Craig along with our friends Dane and Ursula.  Ursula has a SAGA 43 like Pandora.  She has considerable sailing experience and spent a good amount of time in South America in past years.   That’s some really blue water in the background.  Pretty amazing. That evening I hosted cocktails on Pandora for them along with a couple from another boat.  We had a very enjoyable visit.  The sunset?  About typical… Beautiful, as always. Today Craig and I headed over the Man-0-War Cay.  I expect that we will do some exploring later this afternoon.  Who knows, perhaps we will spy some mothers enjoying their day.  It could happen…

Today’s weather.  Yes, another sunny day.  Who knew?  Perhaps I will close with one of those “typical” cloud pictures, taken last evening.   You can never have too many beautiful pictures of clouds, can you?  Just a few days till my crew comes into town on Friday.   Time to get serious about watching the weather for my trip north.  I am excited about moving toward home and my mother, of course…

Mom?  Are you listening?  Can you hear me now?

Yesterday at 06:00 I took Brenda to the dock and waiting taxi to begin her journey to our “land home” in CT.  Except for a brief trip home for Christmas, Brenda and I have been aboard Pandora together  for eight months, beginning on September  11^th when we moved aboard, until May 9^th.

Our trip took us a long way.   We experienced most of the Intra-Coastal-Waterway, all the way from Eastern Connecticut to Ft Lauderdale across to the Bahamas and as far south as Rum Cay and Long Island which sit on the Tropic of Cancer.   We made many wonderful friends along the way and visited most of the major areas of the Bahamas and covered nearly 3,000 miles, about 1,000 miles of that in the Bahamas.

While the trip has been remarkable in so many ways, there is no doubt that I share Brenda’s excitement about heading home.  Our plan was to make this trip a long one and then, in future years, split our time between land and see.  Next winter we plan to spend about three months in the Bahamas with a month or two in Maine this summer and next.   In between we will spend some time in eastern long Island sound home waters and the Chesapeake.    I wouldn’t want to miss the Annapolis Boat Show, would I?

As we have been doing for years, I will make the really long runs with crew and Brenda will join me for the duration once the boat is in place.  This approach has worked well for much of the nearly forty years that we have been cruising together.

My plan now is to have my friend Craig join me this Saturday to spend a week sailing in the Abacos.  After that friends will arrive to help me take Pandora north with our hope of leaving the Bahamas on our about May 19^th.

I have been looking at the weather on the eastern seaboard for several weeks now and I am hopeful that we will have favorable conditions within the two week window that my crew has to get back to CT.  The spring winds along the eastern seaboard are generally from the southwest this time of year so, unless there is a cold front passing off of the coast at that time, we should be able to make the run within that time frame and hopefully under sail.  As is always the case with weather, “let’s hope it works!”.   Time will tell.  Making long passages are a lot tougher when you have limited time and visiting crew as it’s not uncommon to find that conditions are not favorable for making a desired trip for perhaps up to a week at a time.   With a couple living aboard, it’s easy to wait for perfect weather but with visiting crew, not so easy.  As has often been said, “the most dangerous piece of equipment on a boat is a clock” and the need to keep to a particular timetable.  It’s always better to wait than to head out when conditions are not favorable.

If we run into trouble keeping to our schedule we will just bail out and head for Annapolis where I can leave Pandora for a week or so and then head back to finish the run.

I still have to find a yard where Pandora can be hauled for a month or two for some repairs and maintenance but that will have to wait until I re-enter US waters where I can easily make cell calls.  While we did get a Bahamas cell phone, using it to call the US is expensive so we have limited use as much as we can.

Having Brenda leave today, even though we have been planning it for weeks, was a bit of a jolt to me and to return to Pandora after taking her to the taxi was depressing.  Returning aboard to see that all of her stuff gone including the shells and other decorations that were out for display was a real bummer.  Pandora has been our home for many months and to see that it no longer looked “homey” was sad.

So, I was aboard, alone and depressed.  What to do?  Brenda predicted that I would clean.  Yup, she called that one right.   So, at the tender hour of 06:30, out came the cleaning materials and for the next three hours I scrubbed away.  I have to say that Pandora was already pretty clean but she is really clean now.  Rugs have been shaken out, floors washed, heads sanitized and dust cleared from shelves and every nook and cranny that I could reach.

There is still plenty to do to keep Pandora in top shape, there always is, but at least as I prepare for Craig’s arrival and ultimately, the trip north in about a week, Pandora will be ready to begin her nearly 1,000 mile voyage home.

Is has indeed been “Bob and Brenda’s most excellent voyage” and while there have been plenty of challenges, it’s been a wonderful experience.

Perhaps a great way to close is with a shot taken on the docks at Fayerweather Yacht Club way back on September 11^th, our first night out.  Fayerweather Yacht Club was a fitting spot to spend that first night as it was our first yacht club and the spot where we kept our very first boat, a 20′ long Cape Cod Catboat, way back in the late 70s.  Who would have guessed that we would one day have a boat capable of crossing oceans and that we would be in a position to take the time, and have the opportunity, to spend many months away and aboard.

To celebrate the close of is amazing voyage and Brenda’s departure, we enjoyed dinner at a local eatery here in Marsh Harbor the night before she left.  What a great way to mark the end of our time together and the conclusion of our first big voyage.It’s been a wonderful time together, mostly with smooth sailing, and we are looking forward to some shore time, a chance to sleep in our bed at home, the one that Brenda calls her “cloud bed” and then come back to the Bahamas next winter.

This sunset from our last night aboard here in Marsh Harbor was particularly beautiful.  Or, is it a sunrise on our new, and more carefree life together?  You decide.

 

Not a lot to report except that we are hanging out in Hope Town, a lovely spot here in the Abacos.

Yesterday we went for a walk up to the north end of the island, where there are a good number of really nice homes, estates actually.  It’s interesting as we walk on these islands and see homes that are so close to the water and yet seem to persist in spite of a number of strong hurricanes coming through the area year after year.  And, that’s all in the face of little or no hurricane coverage for homeowners.  As far as I am aware, there is no flood insurance program here in the Bahamas that’s comparable to what’s available in the US.

I expect that the main reason that homes survive here, storm after storm, is because most of the ocean front homes are built on land largely underpinned by a somewhat porous but very solid foundation of limestone rock.  That is very much different than the US eastern coastline that is mostly sand.  As you can imagine,  the homes built on rock in the Bahamas fare much better than those built on soft sand in the US.

With hurricane Sandy still so fresh in the minds of those who live on the eastern seaboard, the difference of how those in the Bahamas fared verses the east coast of the US is in stark contrast.  To have homes wrecked every few years and to be rebuilt over and over again, using the taxpayer subsidized flood insurance program, is foolhardy.  Thankfully, it seems that some are seeing that changes to this practice have to be made and Governor Cuomo in New York, for one, is recommending that some areas badly damaged by Sandy be condemned and converted to undeveloped coastline once and for all.   Don’t get me wrong, I love the coast and water but to build homes and wreck them and build again, and from an insurance fund that looses money, at taxpayers expense, just doesn’t make sense.

Well, enough ranting about that.  The coastline of Elbow Cay, where Hope Town is located, has some really nice homes and we enjoyed walking by them yesterday.   The north area of the island does not allow motor transportation beyond golf carts and that’s only for those who are residents of the island.  That keeps the dirt roads, sand actually, clear of unnecessary traffic and makes for a great place to spend a few hours walking and enjoying the sights.   As I have mentioned before, the Abacos are more lush and green than the southern parts of the Bahamas and now that we are into the spring “wet” season, things are really looking great.   Pruned hedges, or trees, are a very popular visual break along some of the homes here.   This shot shows how lush things are here.  There’s even grass.  And this is on stark contrast to this shot taken a month ago in the dryer southern Bahamas where short palms are the dominant vegetation.  Growing things in the Abacos is a lot easier, that’s for sure. 
The shoreline here is a lot more inviting.   Nice spot to have a picnic lunch.Great flowering bushes everywhere.   Brenda wants to get one of these hibiscus plants for our patio this summer.
I don’t know what this one is but talk about yellow.  These flowers, about the width of your hand, are on a bush about 15′ tall.  Pretty amazing.   It would have been fun to gather a bouquet although I expect I would have run afoul of the locals.   “Hey you, with the flowers, stop!!!”.The clouds were particularly dramatic yesterday.  How about this roof mounted deck or “widow’s walk” to view the ocean?Along the way we spied this lovely wood sloop.   The contrast in water colors was really dramatic.  What great lighting.
More great gardens along the way.  Everything is just so well kept.
Everyone loves a view of the water and this great spot on the harbor has a perfect spot complete with some comfy Adirondack chairs to enjoy the view.  I guess they have lots of friends or like to change chairs often for a different view.  And, of course, from their vantage point, a great shot of Pandora that those sitting in those great chairs would see of Pandora looking pretty tropical. What post about Hope Town is complete without yet another shot of the lighthouse.  This one is made even better by Pandora gracing the same frame. We spent some time at the marina resort yesterday and enjoyed a beer by the pool.  The resort has two pools and we loved this one which we had all to ourselves.   Love the planters.   The view of the clouds above was spectacular.   It will come as no surprise that with these came a few showers but not enough to dampen things too much.  Glad that we closed the hatches on Pandora when we headed ashore. We are certainly enjoying being in the Bahamas.  What a great shot of their flag flying proudly at one of the north end homes.  Here’s an idea?  We’ll come back next winter!!!We finished up the day with dinner at a local restaurant called Fire Fly.  They are located out of town and picked us up at the dock in a golf cart and a “stretch” cart that seats six at that.  We had a great table on the deck with a view of the sunset.So, today, what to do?  Here’s an idea!  Let’s visit the pool with a good book.  Yes, that’s the ticket.  How about the weather?  Sunny.  Go figure.

It’s Saturday morning and the sun is out.  For the last few days the weather has been uncharacteristically rainy and overcast.  It’s been nice to have Pandora’s decks rinsed clean of salt but having it rainy, overcast and windy hasn’t been too much fun.

A few days ago we decided to head back to Marsh Harbor, not my first choice of harbor as it’s more urban than I prefer, but the provisioning is very good here and we were running out of fresh food.   Throughout our four months in the Bahamas we have found that once you are outside of Nassau, Marsh Harbor and George Town, you can’t expect to find much fresh food.   The exception is that there are generally tomatoes, green peppers, onions, iceberg lettuce, potatoes and carrots.  However in some of the more remote areas we visited, the choice was limited to onions, potatoes and carrots if the mail boat had come in recently.  If not, nothing.  Yes, you can do a lot with those veggies but Brenda loves to add an avocado to that list to round out things from time to time and that just isn’t done outside of the three larger cities.  Interestingly, those particular vegetable types tend to be fairly reasonably priced, unlike most things here.  By comparison, while a head of widely available iceberg lettuce is less a bit more than two dollars, a package of three romaine heads run in the $10 range.  That’s lot of lettuce for lettuce, in my book.

Anyway, enough about salad, how about our trip through the Whale?  As I mentioned in a past post, this stretch of water can be pretty nasty when the seas kick up so coming back from Green Turtle Cay, and through The Whale, a few days ago was a bit anxiety producing for us.  We waited until the winds were forecast to be light and made the trip under engine power.   The seas in the ocean that day were running under five feet, I would guess.  But it was impressive to see them pile up in the passage as the water depth decreased from hundreds of feet to about twenty in a very short distance.  When waves enter shallow water they pile up and break which makes things a lot worse than the same waves would be in deeper water.

As we approached the passage we came close to these waves that were breaking over the shallow reefs on either side of the 800′ wide passage.  These waves, and they look more impressive in “real life”, were only a bit more than a hundred yards away.  As they say, “you had to be there” to appreciate them.  While an 800′ wide cut seems like plenty of space to aim for, there aren’t any markers or buoys to mark the rocky areas.  As is the case nearly everywhere in the Bahamas, rocks and shoals are not marked so you are expected to just see them through the clear water or see waves breaking over them.  Oh, that’s just so comforting.  Not!!!   While this still makes my mouth dry, it’s not nearly as anxiety producing as it was a few months ago, when we first entered the Bahamas.

As we went through the narrow cut and out into the ocean, we passed Whale Cut Cay.  This is where the waves, and they were pretty benign that day, really showed their stuff.  Again, these photos don’t do justice to the power of these waves.  I can only imagine what this series would look like in rough conditions.  We have not seen breaking waves like this in any other part of the Bahamas in a similar sea state.

The wave began to break. Then the full wave hit.  

And receded.  Yikes!!!  I’d hate to be stuck in that…  As you can imagine, putting in the way-point coordinates and staying on course is a GOOD IDEA!!!

These clouds certainly speak to the unsettled weather.  Really impressive.   Notice how flat the water is, until the waves enter the shallows and break on the reefs.This guy, who ran aground on the reef, wasn’t so lucky.  I understand that this landing craft has been on the reef for some time.  I expect a fiberglass eggshell like Pandora would’t hold up for very long in the waves.  

Happily, no such fate for Pandora and her crew.  Ending up like that boat would certainly do harm to my cruising plans and, as our son Rob would say, “that would be a career limiting move Dad.  Stay away from the CLMs with Mom”.  Agreed, good idea.  Cream puffs don’t like to be shipwrecked.

Here in Marsh Harbor the squally weather continued and last evening we had a really dramatic thunder storm.  Happily, we had made it back to Pandora from cocktails aboard this lovely catamaran from South Africa before it hit.  We had been invited by them and a couple off of another cat to talk about our trip down the ICW and the cruising areas of the Chesapeake and New England.  That’s a lot of territory to cover.  Interestingly, this cat was built in South Africa and the owner has sailed extensively.   After sailing the east coast this year they will head to the Panama Canal and on to the South Pacific.   We hope that they will keep a blog as it would be great fun to keep up with their whereabouts in the coming years.  This is a big boat.  She’s nearly 50′ long and 25′ wide, twice as wide as Pandora.   Their cockpit is more like a patio with several seating areas to choose from.  Stepping onto this boat is more like stepping on to a floating dock.  Really nice. The other couple, new to sailing and from Montana, of all places, were on the cat to the left in the photo below.  It has been fun to become more acquainted with cat sailing as they are  so different than mono-hulls.    Sailing on one of these is sort of like sailing around in a condo with a great back deck.  And amazingly, as they don’t heel, you can leave everything out on the counters, including your knife rack.

Not a bad view to wake up to today.  

Actually, these boats make Pandora, who isn’t small, look like a canoe.   As they say, “there’s always someone who is richer, and thinner, than you are”.    Or at least, has a bigger boat.

In less than a week Brenda heads back to the states and I will do a week of sailing with my friend Craig.  After he leaves on the 18th, it will be time for me to bring Pandora back to Essex.  Let’s hope that the weather gods will be supportive, and The Whale will be benign.

I too am looking forward to being home again.  Enough of paradise for one year, I guess.