Mother Nature Wins Again

Things were looking a bit better after resting up for a few days at Ronnie’s Mom’s house, so with our son, Ben, Ronnie and I drove back to where we had left the boat, hitched and locked it up to the truck, and as we were pulling it out of the yard a big bump caused the boat and trailer to unhitch and slide across the road. Ben and I jumped out, grabbed 2 jacks to jack up the trailer ( the plastic trailer wheel was no longer functional nor round from grinding along the pavement) , and we managed to hook up the boat and trailer to the truck again. Without further incident we drove to the ramp about 2 miles away. Several hours later, after loading the boat up with enough food to last several trips, we successfully launched Freebird in Manatee Pocket in Stuart, FL.

Ronnie and I spent the rest of the day and all of the next putting things in place. At 11:30 AM on the 2nd day we attached the mainsail and discovered that chipmunk(s) had spent the Fall in our sail eating 9 holes varying from about 1” to 5” throughout the central part of it. After several minutes of dismay, I managed to find a sail loft in Stuart (Mack Sails if anybody ever needs a good sailmaker), and by 5:30 that same day, they had sewn patches to fix the sail and we reattached the mainsail. We left the next morning headed for Lake Worth in West Palm Beach, about 30 miles away. The weatherman had forecast bad conditions until that day, when things were supposed to calm down and the wind was supposed to clock in our favor from the Southwest. We kept on monitoring the weather constantly, since it determines everything about the passage across the Gulfstream.

All signs told us that if we had any weather window at all, it would happen on December 31 or not for quite a while, since a major cold front was moving through the next afternoon. But no one agreed on exactly everything. That night we gave up trying to interpret graphs and predictions, deciding to “stick our nose out” into the Atlantic before dawn the next day and we would decide then what we did.

We went out at 6:30 AM the next day to find moderate winds coming out of the SE not the SW. Since we basically had to go SE that was bad. Making it worse, the seas had not settled down from the fairly high winds from the East previously, being in the 5 foot range. We tried everything we knew, first reefed, then full sail, then motorsailing, but we couldn’t achieve much better than about 3.5- 4 knots of speed. At that rate it would take us 16 hours to get to West End, about 55 miles away. We decided to turn back, and as soon as we did our speed immediately jumped to 11 knots, occasionally surfing at 15+ ( our boat’s personal best).

And then, just to tease us, the wind clocked to the SW. But it also dropped in speed to less than 10 knots (from about 15). So we turned around again and headed for the Bahamas, but with the reduced wind and the still head-on waves, we could only reach 3 knots of speed. Ok, this time we meant it when we turned around and went back in. We got back to Lake Worth 4 hours after leaving, worn out.

After vegetating for the rest of the entire day on the boat, we decided that this trip to the Bahamas was not meant to be. Even if we wanted to try again, the winds were about to kick up the next day and turn to the North (deadly on the Gulfstream, since it runs to the North and causes huge waves) for the next week. So we decided to go to Plan B. We decided to head south to a nice mooring field in the middle of Ft. Lauderdale run by the city. From there Arnie would fly back to Boston for a few days towards the end of January, and then we would head for Miami and maybe the Keys for a while before heading back North to Stuart and home. Not the Bahamas by a long shot, but not too bad either.

So as we were slogging our way through dozens of bridge openings along the ICW going south, we were approaching the only inlet to the ocean, as the inlet bridge opened, the tide was high and the winds were out of the NW. All of that spelled “Get out of the ICW and go sailing”, so we did. The Atlantic never looked so good. It was flat and we sailed the remaining 10 miles to the Ft. Lauderdale inlet (Port Everglades) in short order under sail, not motor. As we got close to the mooring field (with a total of only 10 moorings), we managed to get the last one, beating out another boat by 5 minutes according to the dockmaster. Hopefully, our luck has changed. Today, we bicycled around Ft. Lauderdale and had a great time. We are right on Las Olas Blvd. Sort of the artiest, nicest part of town, and we plan on enjoying it.

Trailering South

Three of us made this trip, Ronnie, myself, and our son, Ben. And it took all three of us to make it successfully. We finally made it to Florida on Christmas Eve after waiting out a big snowstorm and having wheels fall off the trailer twice. A long strange trip.

Our first plan to visit my brother in Virginia was aborted when, with the refrigerator cleaned out and the heat turned down, we took a last minute look at the weather. The biggest snowstorm to hit the D.C. area in years was headed for northern Virginia. With no place to park the rig and little hope of getting it out before the Spring thaw, we decided to not go there and waited at home for the storm to develop.

It developed and then some. We finally abandoned hope of leaving until 4 days later, after the storm had passed and snow plows had had time to clean up the major roads. Good decision, because we lost a trailer wheel (1 of 4) at the 50 mile mark. It took 4 hours to repair, but the service guy tightened the bearing too much on the spare ( I told him that I thought that it was too tight but figured he knew more than I did). 40 miles later a friendly trucker pointed at our rig. We pulled over to find the bearing smoking and the dust cap blown off spraying grease everywhere. We tried to find a dustcap and regreased the wheel after loosening the bearing one notch, but the cap fell off again. We kept on going to South Jersey to visit an old friend late that night.

The next AM, after finding a source for both a new dustcap and a new tire and rim, we had gone all of 1/2 mile when the spare tire blew up. The blowout also destroyed the hub and blew the wheel off again. This time we rescued the wheel, but needed to call Boat U.S. again for help finding someone who would assist us on-site. Our boat is too tall to safely tow on a flatbed truck without taking wires or part of the boat out. 4 hours later we were back on the road again, totally paranoid about any odd sounds, smells, etc. That would continue for the rest of the trip. We made it past Washington, D.C. and into a badly plowed parking lot, where we proceeded to get 2 of the trailer tires locked around a hidden curb corner, with the truck on shear ice. An hour later, after hot water, shoveling and ultimately jacking up one of the axles we freed the trailer and went to sleep.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. We made up for lost time by driving 650 miles from D.C. to Georgia and then on to the Finish Line, a boat dealer friend of ours in Stuart, FL, where we unhitched the boat and continued to Ronnie's mom's house. A great Chinese Christmas dinner with relatives we haven't seen for a while, and we are now looking at launching the boat soon in Ft. Lauderdale to try to catch a weather window that might be appearing in about 3-4 days. Tune in about a week - hopefully for less eventful news.

Preparing for the trip South

We pulled the boat a little early this year to get it ready for the 3 month trip to the Bahamas. That meant bottom painting, cleaning and waxing the hulls and trying to unload Freebird as much as possible for the inevitable extra cruising weight she would have to carry. This boat was meant to sail light and fast, and we hate the extra weight needed for serious cruising - more water, gas, bigger dinghy and dinghy motor, extra anchor, etc. The weight doesn't affect top speed as much as it does acceleration and response to wind gusts, but that could be serious if overweighted. Anyway, she is probably a few hundred pounds more than we normally cruise at. We will just have to live with it.

This is what the rig looks like when we are all hitched up. We bought this 2004 Titan truck ( our first truck) just to pull the boat, and it does a good job of it. The overall length of truck and boat is over 50 feet - about the length of a semi. It's big. We get lots of comments - "is that an airplane?". Close. Our departure date is now 12/17/09.

Returning from the Bahamas

Hi Folks,

This will be our trip’s final episode, and difficult to write, but that is getting ahead of myself. We spent the last day in Marsh Harbour hanging out with Terry and Margaret, a British couple who had come to the U.S. to buy a boat, since the dollar is so cheap compared to the British Pound, and then, at least, in theory, sail it back across the Atlantic. We had become friends a month or so earlier, but we had spent much of that time telling them that the 2005 Gemini (similar to our boat) was not designed to cross the Atlantic safely. Terry has sailed a bit, Margaret is totally new to sailing, but up for an adventure.

We spent the first day, Tuesday, sailing north to Green Turtle Cay, about 25 miles away, before a front was due to blow through the next night that might stop us from proceeding through Whale Passage, which can turn very violent in such blows. We had a nice sail up to Green turtle, and Catatonic pulled into the dock at the Green Turtle Club Marina. I had met the manager of the GTC on a flight a few weeks earlier, and she had invited us to visit with special rates and great food. “Bonnie” decided to anchor out. That night the winds came and blew all night over 30 knots. We were glad to be tied up at a dock. “Bonnie” made it through the night OK, but early next morning she started dragging anchor. With much ado, including 2 small boats zooming out to her assistance, there was minimal damage done – a bent strut for the wind turbine and some chopped up branches on the side of the harbor. Terry and Margaret were fine but shaken up. "Bonnie"

After waiting out the front and its accompanying northerly winds, we set out on Friday with Northeast winds, and sailed all day, from 6:30 AM until 4 PM , to cover the 50 or so miles to Great Sale Cay. The island is uninhabited, but a good anchorage, where many boats stay for a night between long sails, since there are few places to stop going in or out of the Bahamas. That evening, we rowed over to “Bonnie” and discussed the next day and the weather, since everything in sailing is dependent on weather. I suggested that we were probably going to sail all the way to Florida – about 100 miles, because of worsening weather, and that we should start out about midnight after about 4-5 hours sleep. That would bring us in at dawn to a tricky shoal area that we had to cross and before dark to Lake Worth in West Palm Beach, so we could have visuals on that, too. Terry and Margaret refused to leave that early, choosing instead to leave at 7 AM the next day. I had a cold and wasn’t in the mood to argue, so we reluctantly agreed.

We set off at dawn on Saturday morning, just before 7 AM with light wind coming from the North. This was not predicted and we hoped that the northerly wind would subside or clock around, since Northerly winds rub against the southerly current of the Gulf Stream and can cause big nasty waves. The winds slowly built and stayed from the Northeast at about 10-15 knots throughout the day. Motorsailing across the banks with both sails up we maintained a good pace of about 6-7 knots. At one point, as we were trolling a fishing line out behind us, they crossed behind us and we managed to “catch” an 8000 pound fish called “Bonnie”, the other Gemini. We disentangled the line with no damage except for a snapped fishing line.

As we approached West End, Bahamas, the last point of land before the Gulf Stream, we encountered 2 sailboats going the other way. We hailed them and asked how the conditions were in the Atlantic. They reported 4-6 foot waves with Northeast winds. They also reported that the weather was supposed to deteriorate over the next day (we knew this from NOAA reports on the VHF radio which we could now receive), but if we hurried up, we might get across unscathed. We thanked them and proceeded without much difficulty on through the last set of shoals near West End called Indian Passage – about 5 miles of shallow water surrounded by coral heads.

We started into the Gulf Stream and all seemed fairly calm, about 2-4 feet waves with 10-12 knots of wind coming from the Northeast. We were able to motorsail and surf down the waves comfortably going from 6-9 knots up and down the waves. As the sun was setting, we were getting tired but the going was fairly easy. About 6 more hours to go. Sunset in the Gulf Stream

That evening the winds and waves began to increase. The boat was surfing heavily, occasionally causing the person at the helm (Ronnie and I took 2 hour shifts), to occasionally have to wrestle with the steering as a large wave would push our stern sideways. All the time we kept “Bonnie’s” lights in sight, occasionally hailing each other about our heading or just to check in to see if everything was OK. At one point I radioed “Bonnie” that we had just had a flying fish land in our cockpit, but it was too small to keep, and Ronnie insisted that I throw it back.

As we approached the coast of Florida, we saw a huge glow from all the lights on shore. Specifically we started seeing occasional bright lights in the sky that would appear and then disappear. We were 30 miles out and realized that it was airplanes taking off from West Palm Beach airport. Additional strange lights started appearing, and we could not discern the entrance to Lake Worth – just too many lights. There was no moonlight to help and everything was backlit by the lights from the shore. Finally about 1 mile off the coast, with the aid of our GPS, we decided that a set of 3 green lights was probably the entrance to the harbor we had been looking for. We weren’t sure until we got much closer, perhaps 1/4 mile away. Ronnie went up and lowered the mainsail – we had already rolled up the jib earlier, since the wind was virtually behind us and it was difficult to fly it at night with all the wave action. It was about midnight when we hailed “Bonnie” that we were lined up in the channel, but she replied back that they were having some serious problems.

First they could not start their engine, and did not know why (later found out it was a torn rubber washer). Also they could not furl their foresail, it was stuck open. As we were trying to advise them, a pilot boat coming out of the channel hailed us that a cruise ship was coming in and that we had to get out of the channel. The pilot boat’s attitude was nasty, and I considered telling him off, but since we were occupied with Bonnie’s troubles, we decided to sail out of the channel. Also, since the northeast winds and waves were kicking up we were being driven out of the channel anyway. For about 30-45 minutes, we continued to circle “Bonnie”. Finally, they managed to get their jib closed, but were still unable to start their engine. Without any control or power the waves and wind were driving them into shallow water, and we radioed them to throw out an anchor and call Towboat U.S. After they threw out the anchor in about 8 feet of water, it held and they called Towboat. The Towboat was scheduled for about 5 minutes arrival, and Ronnie and I decided that they were safe. Ronnie was not feeling well from all the hours and waves, so we headed in and told “Bonnie” that we would meet up with them the next day.

Having taken over 1/2 hour to shepherd our buddy boat to seeming safety, Catatonic had been driven down the coast away from the inlet entrance by now 6 foot waves and 15 knots of wind. We started heading back to the outer green light, but saw another green light towards the harbor. Our boat has a very shallow draft, and it is almost always safe to cut corners on buoys, where thin water is present. We also knew that it was approaching high tide. In the blackness of the water and backlit by the shore lights, we made a left turn to align ourselves with the 2 green lights that represented the entrance to the harbor. No more than 10 feet from alignment, Ronnie screamed out “ROCKS!, TURN LEFT. TURN LEFT! “ A second later, I saw the rocks – black, about 5 feet high, and very jagged less than 20 feet off our bow. I threw the engine into full reverse, but it was hopeless. The 6 foot waves threw us onto the rocks. Somehow we spun counterclockwise so that our stern was now pinned against the rocks. The waves kept lifting Catatonic and crunching her stern onto the rocks – a horrible sound of breaking fiberglass. The engine died (it actually was pounded off and into the water we found out later) and the lights on our boat started to flicker and then went out. A couple of seconds later, our batteries started smoking and then blew up. I saw that the only way to get off the rocks was to sail off, so I tried to open our jib, but it was jammed. As the boat continued to pound against the rocks, I issued a “MAYDAY” to the Coast Guard on channel 16. They replied quickly and asked for our situation and position. Either Ronnie or I responded at different times as to where we were and our condition. They asked if we were taking on water, and I replied “No, but we are in danger of breaking up”. I raced forward to try to unjam the jib furler and to see the condition of our dinghy – it was well tied down – and I decided that if things did not improve quickly I might cut the dinghy free so that we would have a backup boat. I had my very sharp knife in my pocket. Ronnie continued to talk to the Coast Guard. As I came back to the cockpit, Ronnie had found the entangled furling line for the jib and shouted to try the jib again. I pulled hard, and it opened, filling immediately and pulled us off the rocks. The whole episode on the rocks seemed like an eternity, but was less than 5 minutes.

Ronnie checked on the bilges below, and there was a slight amount of water in the port bilge. By now the Towboat who had been headed for “Bonnie” knew of our situation and was routed by the Coast Guard to us instead. He called out to me to see if we were “Catatonic”. I said, Yes. He came alongside as we sailed slowly under jib alone and threw me a line with a bridle. Since our main cleat is the strongest, I attached it to the center cleat, and he began to pull us in toward the entrance. The Coast Guard hailed us to see if everyone was alright and if we were taking on water. This time I responded that we were alright, but we were taking on water. I had to reset the bridle to either side of the bow, since Catatonic was slewing all over the place – now we knew we had lost our rudders and unknown until now, our engine was being dragged through the water by only 2 ropes, having been driven off of the transom by the pounding on the rocks.

As we were towed inside the harbor, the Coast Guard boat pulled up alongside us, and repeated the question about whether we were taking on water. I replied “Yes” again, and they then insisted that we get off our boat. It is their job to ensure safety of lives, and water coming in dictates that they took us off. After gathering our passports, money and wallets, we got off. They assured us that we would be able to get back on the boat for the rest of our stuff. They then proceeded to ask us a lot of questions. There were about 6 or 7 of them on board – most in their early 20’s, the oldest one about late 20’s.

Besides standard name, address, citizenship questions, they asked about all of the equipment (mostly safety) that we carried on board, who was at the helm and whether we had taken any boating courses – we had. The chief of the Coast Guard crew concluded that he could not write us up for any citation - we had done everything we could and had our boat in proper condition.

After that some of the crew started telling Ronnie a bunch of horror stories that had happened on those rocks, a tugboat sank there last year, and uninsured sailboat sank there several weeks ago. Finally one guy whispered to Ronnie that they had just missed the rocks themselves at night last week and that “don’t tell anyone, it wouldn’t be too good for anyone to known that”.

We finally got towed into a dock at Rybovich Marine, a famous powerboat builder, where the Towboat captain, Brian, attached an emergency battery pack to our bilge pump to stabilize the water coming in. The bilge pump worked well and went off every 5 minutes or so, meaning it was keeping up with the leak. I later found the other hull leaking and turned on that bilge pump also. By then it was about 3:00 AM and we were all shot. I laid down on Catatonic, totally shot, and fell asleep for a few minutes on an old sailbag. Ronnie went over and found that “Bonnie” had been towed in to the same marina, and they invited us to sleep there for the rest of the night. Exhaustion allowed us to sleep after much conversation over our experience. The conclusion was that we were fine – no bumps or bruises and that was all that was important.
The Morning After tied to a Dock - Note Engine in Water

The next morning, I helped Brian tow our boat around the dock so that she could be hauled, and knowing what had happened to us, he offered his quote of the day to me – “ A friend in need is a pain in the ars”. I laughed and told him that I had thought of that but didn’t say it to anyone. The boatyard hauled Catatonic out and we all saw the damage to her hulls. Very bad as water poured out of the aft section of her. I had remembered that 13 years ago, I had put sealed Coke bottles in her buoyancy chambers in the rear of her hulls just in case she was ever holed there. Well, it happened, and along with sealed chambers above, the Coke bottles ( about 400-600 pounds of flotation in each hull) probably kept her afloat. Port Hull Damage

The final chapter of this saga has not yet been written, but the insurance surveyor and the yard’s estimators came to the same conclusion. The cost of repairing “Catatonic” would exceed her worth. She is very likely going to be “totaled” by the insurance company. We have spent the last week emptying out our personal items and accessories – clothes, safety equipment, etc. Thankfully, Ronnie’s mom lives in southern Florida and we have been able to stay with her. For fun or confusion, we twice went to look at other catamarans for sale, but they are too expensive. We tentatively have decided to somehow “expand” our trailerable trimaran, which is small inside, so that next year we can sail back to the Bahamas and enjoy the wonderful people and weather there.

Arnie and Ronnie

P.S. Terry and Margaret have decided to have “Bonnie” shipped back to England.

Junkanoo and Fair

Hi again,

This week there were two events that were “must see” or at least an excuse to go party and see all our friends – another Junkanoo in Marsh Harbor and the annual Hope Town Fire and Rescue Fair. The junkanoo in Marsh Harbour had been talked about for weeks – a big event in which different islands send their best Junkanoo teams ( for lack of a better word) – Junkanoo is sort of a national sport. All of the islands have groups that dress up and parade and dance down the streets playing drums, cowbells, whistles, horns, etc. We had been to a great one in Green Turtle as we told you about when we first arrived in the Abacos.

Well the day was rainy preceding the evening Junkanoo, and it looked doubtful for a while. The parade was due to start at 6:30 PM, but at 5 it was raining buckets. Then magically the front moved through, it stopped raining, and everyone came out of their boats and took their dinghy to a crowded dock. The clearing sky after the storm

The Junkanoo was a major deal, with all kinds of Bahamian officials giving long-winded speeches. Unfortunately, the parade was also slow, with the little kids going first and then slowly the more senior groups getting going.
Evening Junkanoo in Marsh Harbour
The associated activities – food, toys, people watching were fun, but by about 9PM we decided to retire to our favorite pub with some friends and had some drinks with Brown Tip playing rake and scrape. By the time we got back to our boats around 10:30, the Junkanoo was finally sounding like it was really kicking in. In fact it went until 2 AM, and we heard that it was pretty good at the end, with a group from Nassau blowing the crowd away. As per normal in the Bahamas, timing and scheduling mean nothing here. Next year, we will eat first and then go later.

We left the next day for Hope Town where the local Fire and Rescue Squad was holding its annual fund raiser. This time we decided to anchor outside so we could swim off the boat, since it was pretty hot. That was really nice. The fair was small but neat with lots of things up for auction. The only Pirate we ran into down here
At auction in Hope Town
We ran into most of our friends there and telling them that we were leaving soon, we spent several nights aboard boats saying our good-byes. We spent an hour or so at our favorite bar overlooking the ocean, Hope Town Lodge, and said good bye to the bartender, Gary. Ronnie's favorite frog on the steps to Hope Town Lodge

As we were pulling up our anchor the next day we were visited by 2 dolphins who literally wanted to check us out and play, because they hung around the boat for 10 minutes. It turns out they are the 2 local dolphins who live in the Hope Town waters – one’s name is “Rocky” – other one not sure. But it was a great visit as they looked us in the eye and rolled over as they went under the boat several times. A nice way to say good bye to our favorite place down here.

We are back for our last night in Marsh Harbour, where we got gas ( $5.50/gallon), but it has been the only fill-up we have had in 2 months of sailing down here. We also connected with one of our friends who has the same plan as us to go back via Green Turtle and then cross the Gulf Stream when the conditions are good. This time next week we might be crossing back to Florida. It is tough to leave a place as beautiful as this, having met a lot of really nice people who have a slightly different view on things, like us. We are definitely planning on coming back next year.

See you next week

Arnie and Ronnie

Rebecca and Abbie visit

Hi Folks,

Publishing our blog a little late this week, because we have had our daughter, Rebecca and our niece, Abbie with us enjoying this great place for just over a week. Unfortunately, the weather went downhill in the early part of their visit, but it came back in the end and they went home this AM relaxed and tanned.

We had gotten back to Hope Town last I wrote, but I neglected to tell everyone about the fabulous Key Lime pie made by Vernon, the local grocer and baker. He also serves as minister for a lot of the weddings that happen in Hope Town. It turns out that this is a wedding destination place, because it’s so beautiful. Plus he could make a living on key lime pies alone, if he chose to. The Required Trip to the Top of the Hope Town Lighthouse

We walked around, key lime pie in hand, had lunch overlooking the water at Captain Jack’s, and then went back to sleep and read through the rain and wind that were kicking in. Wednesday morning we awoke to a torrential wind-driven (clocked at 49 knots) rain, but instead of hiding, Abbie was the first to jump outside in a bathing suit to take a shower in our cockpit. We all joined in, to the somewhat astonished looks of other cruisers, moored all around us, but it was a definite highlight.

Then magically the weather improved so much that in the afternoon, we went to the Hope town Lodge on the beach and went swimming in the ocean and lounged at their pool. It got even nicer the next day, so we repeated the same scenario and went snorkeling on a reef off the beach. Visibility wasn’t up to its normal standards because of the recent storm, but it was Abbie’s first time snorkeling and the fish were smiling.

The next day we sailed up to Man O’War Cay and met up with some friends that we had not seen in a while. It was hot, so we took our dinghies out to a sand bar that was about 2 feet deep and set up a bar at the sand bar. Neat.

Saturday was the 22nd annual Man O’War flea market and fair. All of the cruisers were there. A big event with local stuff for sale. Ronnie bought a palm frond bonnet to keep on the boat, Arnie bought a big machete to open coconuts ( having struggled with a hammer and screwdriver the previous night to do that). The best thing was the bbq chicken along with beans and rice and mac and cheese, Bahamian style ( like a pudding cake). Enough food to last us 3 days of leftovers. Hermit Crab Races at Man O'War Fair

After the fair, we sailed back to Marsh Harbour – it was a Saturday night at Snappas, the local friendly pub with Brown Tip, the maniacal DJ. Loud and fun with dancing and rum. Abbie and Becca finished the evening in the heated marina pool where we were staying, dancing to music from Snappas.

Sunday was beautiful and the plan was to snorkel at Mermaid reef. We spent the entire afternoon there doing just that, with the biggest, friendliest fish we have seen down here. A local was telling us that a guy whose house overlooks the reef will shoot anyone he sees trying to catch or spear a fish there. That’s why the fish are so friendly – all they know is that people feed them. That evening we skyped a conference call with our son Ben and Dennis, Abbie’s dad who had just been down here recently, and had a great time chatting. Skyping, for the uninitiated is a computer to computer (or phone) way of calling. If everyone joins, skyping each other is free, otherwise it’s 2 cents per minute to call someone – not bad. A whole lot better than our satphone, which has been really disappointing. We can never get on, because of lack of satellites. We just heard that there is a class action suit starting claiming consumer fraud against Globalstar. For those of you considering buying one, I would have to recommend against it. Abbie and Ronnie Blowing a Conch Horn Duet at Sunset


As I said in the beginning, the girls left early this morning, and we had a great time with them visiting. We already miss them. Ronnie and I cleaned up the boat a bit, got needed food and propane ( for our refrigerator) and are now pondering, with all our friends coming to visit us in the winter, whether we will need a bigger boat!

Talk with you next week.

Arnie and Ronnie

Marsh Harbour week

Hi Folks,

Another beautiful week in the Abacos, although the weather has changed as of last night – we are going to have 3 cold fronts moving through this week, bringing some rain and wind. We can’t complain – it’s been perfect here for 2 weeks. Unfortunately the weather changed just as Rebecca and Abbie arrived to visit, but we are hoping to get some diving in anyway. Both of them are just happy to be in a warm relatively dry place. First night was at Snappas for an abbreviated introduction to Brown Tip and rake and scrape music. Then off to an early bedtime.

Aside from meeting more people – got invited to dinner by a couple who is living aboard a 60 foot ketch – big old fashioned boat with lots of space and amenities. Spent some time at a slip, where we met even more people – ran into a trivia contest and bbq – all people who have been here before and keep on coming back.

Another evening was spent on a “how to make a conch horn” arts and crafts demo. We all brought conchs and some brought dremel tools and other implements of destruction, just so at sunset we can blow our conch horns – a Bahamian tradition. Neat.

On the subject of conch, the local delicacy here is conch salad – fresh conch diced along with peppers, tomatoes, onions, lime and orange juice along with a special secret hot sauce. George, the local conch salad king has been doing this at dockside for as long as people can remember and of course he won’t tell you where his conch beds are or what’s in his secret hot sauce, but he’s a nice guy and fun to chat with.

While we were waiting for a conch salad to be made and talking with George, a waterspout appeared. A big one. Not so rare here, but I had never actually seen one before. Here is a good picture of it about a mile away.

Another night there was a jam session with musicians getting together to play ( for the first time) with an actual audience. Well the music was a bit lame due to the crowd wanting a sing-a-long, but Arnie had fun playing drums on a garbage can and then playing some guitar, too. We vowed to get together and play again without the audience.

Finally the four of us were walking through Hope town again, having sailed here on Monday to show the our visiting girls this pretty little place before the weather really got windy, and we came across a curly tail lizard. They are small and quick and
unique to these islands we think.

See you next week!
Arnie and Ronnie