Ft. Lauderdale to West End and Bahamas!

We were so glad to leave Ft. Lauderdale and  all of its hustle and bustle.  While the anchorage at Lake Sylvia was nice, shore access was a challenge  - especially finding a place to take Salty.  We did move to Sunrise Lake for a night so that we could access Coral Gables Yacht Club - that was better with a public park just across the ICW.  But still - this is not the "cruising" we were seeking.

On Friday, February18 (Janet's birthday), we left Ft. Lauderdale at the butt crack of dawn, making the 6am opening of the 17th street bridge.  It was a lumpy start as although winds were now favorable, they had been blowing hard for several days.  after an hour or so we got sails up with about 15kts on the beam.  Using the full main and code zero, we were making 7.5, 8, 9kts depending where we were in relation to the gulf stream.  The ride improved with every hour and was a darn good crossing.  We averaged over 7.7kts from anchorage to dock in West End.  We got a dock at Old Bahama Bay - which was very quiet.  Several boats came in about the same time as us.

Janet's Birthday

We cleared customs and immigration having completed the new on-line visa for everyone, Covid testing, and Click2Clear.  The process was fairly straightforward - with the exception of a few questions on Click2Clear.  So my advice - start early, use a computer not phone, and have reasonable internet access.

Bahamas is currently requiring a Covid test on day 2 of arrival, but there seems to be no way to report results - so rather than paying for a Bahamas test, we used our own rapid tests from home and photo-documented our results.  Let's see what happens!

West End to Great Sale Cay

On Saturday, conditions were good, but light wind several boats headed out towards Great Cape Sale.  We were first in to an empty anchorage.  Several closely followed including  Tra-Sea, new friends on Southern Breeze and Mirage.  

We had passed through Great Sale before, but with only a brief stop.  We needed to get Salty ashore and on the East Side access was very poor with gnarly limestone banks.  But we made it in for a brief walk.  The following day, we found the "Landing" marked vaguely on the charts which proved to be a rock wall (probably where a dock had been at some time) with a pathway to the nice sandy beach on the west side of the island.  We saw remnants of a NASA tracking station that was apparently used many years ago, but was likely destroyed in one of the hurricanes.  

West Side - Great Sale Cay

Great Sale Cay to Pensacola Cays

Salty at Pensacola Cay

After a beach walk, we loaded up for the next leg which was to take us to Pensacola Cay/Allens Cay.  It turned into a 33 mile beat into 20 kts wind and very lumpy 2-3 ft seas at about 2 second period.  Yuck!  But Pensacola cay is a way better stop and it looks like we may have a few more days with East winds.  But the crew I think is ready for a down day, so we will check weather and come up with a plan.  This afternoon, we plan to make the walk across the island to the Atlantic side.

We made the treck to the Atlantic side through the mangroves - it was really quite fun!  We made signs for our boat names and hung them in the memory tree there.  Unfortunately none of our previous ones had survived the hurricanes of he past few years!

Marco, Cape Sable, Key Largo, Miami and Ft. Lauderdale

With the weather warming up and the Keys almost in sight - I replaced the AC pump that had gone bad and we were off.  Before leaving Naples Yacht Club, we perused some gorgeous antique cars in the parking lot - my favorite, the 1961 Rolls Royce convertible!   We spent a night in Marco Island at a marina in Factory Bay and had dinner in old Marco.  The next day we headed out for Cape Sable

Cape Sable

We had a good sail to Cape Sable, passing by the Ten Thousand Islands and Everglades.  We were a little apprehensive about a stop at Cape Sable for two reasons: we planned to anchor off the beach which can be very exposed, but it was a north wind and I figured we could get just around the cape anchoring at Middle Cape with some shelter from swells; secondly, last time here we saw saltwater crocodiles on the beach and were almost cut off from the dinghy by them...........and we have Salty!  So we played it safe and took him for his beach walk with close lookout and made sure it was before dark.

Middle Cape - Cape Sable

From Cape Sable, we had planned to go to Marathon for the obligatory night in the Boot Cay mooring field - just to prove that we would not get trapped there like so many do!  However, I talked to another boater already in there and found it was packed.  He had waited 10 days on anchor to get a spot in there - not sure why anyone would do that, but each to his own.  Given this, we elected to take the marked channel from Cape Sable to Key Largo across Florida Bay.  Wow it was shallow but we had a great sail.  Typical depths were 6-8 ft, but we saw 4.5 and somehow, we didn't touch the bottom..

Beach at Cape Sable

Midnight Sun in the morning Fog off Cape Sable

Key Largo

We made it to Snake creek in great time and then decided to anchor by Ocean View Pub.  This was a nice anchorage, wide open with lots of space and a dinghy dock for pub customers.

We found the pub to be very pet friendly - so Salty was happy he made a new friend who apparently lives on the bar!

Pet friendly bar!

Ocean View Pub Anchorage

Moving right along, our next stop would be Miami.

Miami

We were very fortunate to get a mooring at the Coconut Grove Sailing Club.  Located just inside a small island, this is the most sheltered mooring field in Miami - way better then Dinner Key which is outside of the little island and completely exposed.  We stayed for 2 nights here as we were ahead of schedule and meeting our friends Larry and Tracy who were now on their way south from Brunswick to join us in Ft. Lauderdale.

CGSC Mooring Field

We had a good time in Miami, did some provisioning, and found a couple of wine bars!

The local Fresh Market proved to be well stocked, and was very close to the mooring field.  We decided we will try to go back this way after Ft. Lauderdale to stage for the Bahama crossing.

Ft. Lauderdale

We met up with good friends Annie and Phillip in Ft. Lauderdale.  They were anchored in Lake Sylvia so we decided to join them.  Located near 17th street, this is a lake set amongst multi-million dollar homes! but very protected.  However, anchoring was a bit of a challenge doe to a mud bottom and many boats.  But we did it.  And while here, another repair was needed - the watermaker was not working but I suspected a broken impeller on the raw water lift pump.  Sure enough - that proved to be the issue and I had a couple of spares!

Fixing boats in exotic locations!  or at least in expensive neighborhoods.......

Sarasota, Venice, Cabbage Cay, and Naples

We had an easy trip south from St.Pete's to Sarasota.  Once again, we took advantage of our yacht club membership and got our "free night" at the beautiful Sarasota Yacht Club.  Unfortunately it was Monday and the club facilities were closed, but the docks were open and the staff as great as always. 

Venice

I had planned to sail from Sarasota in the Gulf for the short trip to Venice,  However, I was advised by a member at Sarasota YC that the inlet there was badly shoaled.  For that reason we reluctantly continued on "down the ditch" Nonetheless, it was a great relaxing trip passing through several Bascule Bridges along the way, including Blackburn Point swing bridge - a railroad brige that pivots from the center, making for a narrow passage (on a cat).

We also caught up with our friend and SSCA Cruising Station Host, Melinda Schell who had kindly allowed us to ship a pump to her.  Yes, first significant breakdown was the seawater pump for 3 of the AC units.  While we didn't need AC, it also serves as a reverse cycle heating system.....but fortunately we had a couple of space heaters on the boat.  However, we will need it soon and Melinda was kind enough to bring us the pump.

Cabbage Cay

Our next stop was the delightful Cabbage Cay  - we did get to sail most of the way, coming inside at Boca Grande.  Cabbage Cay has a wonderful nature trail where you can see huge turtles and many other forms of wildlife.  The restaurant/bar there is excellent, but pricey.  Surprisingly, the small marina is reasonable at $1.95/ft - so we did take a slip for the night.  It was a little tight getting in....but nice!

Cabbage Cay

Restaurant at Cabbage Cay

Guest Ted and Ebba enjoying Dinner

What a Surprise!

Naples

The plan was to stop at Ft. Myers Beach..........but - the mooring field was full with 40 boats ahead of us on the waitlist.  Every marina I called was  full - until April.  Geez - what's going on!  So i made a decision to head straight for Naples and we got a spot at the Naples Yacht and Sailing Center.  A dock was more convenient as daughter Helen was making a surprise visit, and Ted and Ebba were leaving Saturday.  So all things work out well!  We arrived at the YC at 6:20pm as the sun had just set - but crap - there was a boat in a our assigned slip and the dockmaster had left for the day.  But Amanda was great and found us an alternative slip, so all was good!  We will be her until about Sunday and then push off towards Marco Island.........well that's the plan.

Janet and our oldest Daughter, Helen

Making Good Progress! - Bahamas Bound

 Moving Right Along

We saw a seemingly good weather window to make the longest leg of the trip to the Bahamas - this, surprisingly is the trip across the "Big Bend" of the Florida Panhandle.  From Apalachicola, we motored up to Dog Island on the ICW, just inside St. George Island.  There, we made an appropriate "pitstop" for Salty so he could relieve himself on Dog Island.  We walked the beach for an hour or so for him to run off some energy.  We left Dog Island at around 4:30pm so that we would have a daylight arrival in either Anclote Key or Clearwater. 

A brief stop at Dog Island

It was a cold day, but the wind direction was favorable from the NE to NNE.  I looked at 6 weather models.  Now I must say that to me the forecasts for this part of the Gulf have always tended to be a bit iffy, but the models were reasonably consistent.  I think discrepancies happen on this area because there are not many observations in the area.......and many of the weather buoys in the area are not operational, or have gone missing in storms - so the models have few data points.  Anyway, 4 models showed wind strength from 10-15kts - on the beam so perfect.  One showed 14-18, and one showed 15-20.  At least the directions were consistent.  What do you think we actually got?  Well, when we left, we were struggling to make good speed with winds at 6-8., so we put out the Code Zero.  Soon we were at 10-12 kts of wind - perfect, smooth calm conditions and moving at good speed.  But of course things changed after dark.  

Winds built and we switched from Code Zero to jib.  Winds built, seas got lumpy with 3-5 ft waves but

Salty finds a stick!

at about 4 seconds period - yuck!.....crash bang, bumps in the road!  For the majority of the trip we had winds in the 18-26 range, with some significant periods of 23-25 kts.  Well although it was bumpy, we were going fast, averaging in the high 7s and 8s and peaking at 11kts.  We slowed down for the last few hours with wind decreasing to below 14 kts, and direction moving behind us.  So we switched back to the Code Zero sail to maintain about 6 kts in speed.

Sunset over Big Bend

Since we were making such good time, we elected to go directly to Clearwater as we had made a reservation for a night at the Clearwater YC.  We made it in by about 2:30pm making for a great time for the crossing.  The total trip from Apalachicola was 164 miles, and about 144 from Dog Island - so 145 miles in about 22 hours - not bad  going!

After a night in Clearwater (staying at Clearwater YC), we continued on to Tampa Bay, then back up to St. Pete's as a gale watch was coming into effect bringing cold frigid air our way.  Wait - wasn't Florida supposed to be warmer??

We decided to have a little downtime so elected to stay 3 nights at St. Pete's YC.  So for anyone reading and thinking "why stay at Yacht Clubs?" - there's a very good reason.  We are members of Pensacola YC which is a member of the Florida Council of Yacht Clubs.  One amazing benefit is a free night at any Florida Council YC, and with dockage at at $3-4/ft at commercial marinas.....this is a great deal!  Of course we will anchor in some locations, but in urban settings with things to do ashore, the marinas are more convenient.  And the people and staff at the YCs have been so helpful and friendly so far - thank you Clearwater and St. Pete's!

Sunshine Skyway Bridge

On Monday, we will head for Sarasota!

Headed to South!

Boat Prep - Done

Oil Changes - Done

Convert main head to fresh-water flush - Done

Install iPad at Nav Station - Done

Provision - Done

Create Bahamas Profiles and apply for Pet Permit - Done

Wow!  It must be time to head out!

Bahamas Bound!

Well with the most tentative of plans and all written in the sand at low tide, we have pushed off the dock and are headed south (well actually east at the moment).  Our plan is to head to the Bahamas  - but given all of the uncertainties in the world and in our immediate lives, I hesitate to say anything but “let’s take it a day at a time and head towards the Bahamas”.  We tried to get there last year, and found that Janet’s dad was terminally ill, so had to make the decision to turn around in south Florida.  Sadly, Don passed away, but Janet was at least able to spend some quality time with her Dad.  We are thankful for the time we had, but of course wished for a different outcome.

This year, although we are optimistic, we still have a couple of things that are kind of “looming”.  Of course, in this new world that we live in, there is always a risk that the Covid situation may change limiting our ability to travel to the Bahamas.  Secondly, our amazing dog Salty has been diagnosed with a blood-borne cancer.  We were fortunate to spot a change in his mood and activity and he had a large tumor on his spleen that required emergency surgery.  Fortunately he recovered extremely well from surgery, but unfortunately a biopsy of the tumor revealed the presence of cancer.  After heart-wrenching discussions with our excellent vet, we have decided to enjoy every day we have with Salty and live as normal a life as we can.  There appears to be no viable treatment with a good chance of extending a quality life for him.  He is currently in great health having recovered  amazingly quickly from his surgery and is back to his normal, happy self..  As a precaution, we had him checked by the vet a few days ago and he is healthy and an ultra-sound indicated no current issues - so fingers crossed and as I said -  one day at a time as every day is a bonus day.  So for anyone sharing our journey, and especially if you know Salty and know how much he loves to be on the water and on a new beach every day….please share him a thought and a prayer as we embark on this adventure.  If you know him, I am sure he has touched your life.  For me this guy has changed my life.  He is the most intelligent dog or animal I have ever come across and is truly this man's "best friend".

Leaving Pensacola

Yesterday, we did the final loading of the boat - thank goodness it was at the house as the system was less than organized…..but we have what I hope we need for a several moth trip.  We left the house and headed to Ft. McRee for the evening.

It was a cold night with temperatures just below freezing.  We set the alarm for “early”.  The following morning, Salty got a pre-sunrise trip to the beach, then we loaded up and were out of the anchorage as the sun was starting to rise.  The Gulf was pretty calm. And with a north wind of about 10kts, we are on a beam reach headed for Panama City, making 6.5 kts.  After a few hours, the wind lighted up and moved west of north, so needing to make good time we started motor-sailing.  Our hope is to make Panama City as soon after sunset as we can (its about 85 miles).  We planed to anchor just inside the pass near Shell Island  so that we can get an early departure in the morning. This all worked out!

We set off on Monday headed for Apalachicola.  Another log day, but not quite so early a start, and we arrived by 4pm.  We went offshore to Cape San Blas, then along our favorite route up the ditch and Jackson River to Apalachicola.  It is always such a wonderful ride on this stretch of the ICW which is so remote and wonderful!

As of 4pm, January 24, we are docked in Apalachicola.  Bad weather tomorrow - so a down day and already things to fix!

But that is Cruising!

Edisto Beach to Brunswick, GA

Well I have got behind on the blog, but felt I needed to close up this trip.  The last leg consisted of a couple of short hops.  Edisto Brach to Hilton Head, then Hilton Head to St. Catherine's Island, and then on to Brunswick, GA.

We had good weather for the remainder of the trip.  We stopped in Hilton Head and were able to get an Uber to the Laundromat and catch up on the essentials.

  

British Open Pub - Hilton Head

St. Catherine's Island

St. Catherine's was one of the more picturesque stops on the route.  Still very "low country" and marshy, we anchored close to the island and took a nice dinghy ride and  beach walk.  tHe island shores had some spectacular drift wood and weathered trees.

We even saw some nesting Bald Eagles close to the shore!  What an awesome sight!

Brunswick, GA

It was a short sail to Brunswick - the final stop on this trip.  Larry and Tracy have decided to leave SV TraSea here until January so they can get on land and await the arrival of new grand-baby.

Brunswick Landing is a great staging marina - very well protected and has great facilities with many live-aboards or transients waiting out the seasons.  We did get to see the last stages of the salvage operation from a sunken cargo ship that was transporting new cars and sunk on the harbor entrance

Brunswick Light

Salvage Operations

Special equipment used to cut the ship using a large chain

We had a wonderful time the past 5 weeks or so with Larry and Tracy.  Thank you for your hospitality and of course always - your great friendship!

Carolina Coast to Charleston, SC and Edisto Beach, SC

Wrightsville Beach to Georgetown, SC - Halloween!

Our voyage continued south from Wrightsville Beach.  We saw what looked like a weather improvement in the afternoon of Sunday November 31.  Ok, it was Halloween and we should have known better right?  Remembering back to November 31, 2015 when we were dismasted in the 2015 Pensacola to Cuba Race on our previous boat "Midnight Sun II" - yes, I should have known better than to tempt fate again.

Link to 2015 Cuba Video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjSCoyaORFw  

Link to 2015 Cuba Race Blog: https://midnightsunii.blogspot.com/2015/11/cuba-adventure-good-bad-and-ugly.html

But that's an aside to todays post - no we were not dismasted, thankfully.  I can say been there, done that, and I don't need another T-shirt.  The sail started out very ralaxed....then too relaxed as we had to motor, then - yes the wind blew and the seas got bigger - reminding us all of the same night in 2015.  We had winds in the mid 20s, gusting to near 30, clocking (of course) in front of the beam; seas quartering, building to 6-8 ft.  Arghh.... and we had promised the girls it wouldn't be like that - but here we were again.  But I'm happy to say, SV TraSea handled it in her stride, even if her stride was rather heeled and bumpy.  The good thing was that we were fast!  and we made it to Georgetown in great time.  We saw several boats coming out of the pass being tossed around quite badly as wind was against tide.  But once we made it through the inlet, we had a leisurely motor up the river to get to Georgetown.   

Georgetown, SC

Georgetown is another sleepy town on the South Carolina Coast that I had actually visited several times on business several years earlier.

It has a wonderful "Harborwalk" with several bars and restaurants  - but it was Monday and most were closed.  However, we did find a place to have lunch, later a beer, and a great meal at an Italian Restaurant called Alfresco Bistro on Front Street.

It was a short stop-over of one night, but we met some nice cruisers - even if they were on powerboats! We headed out the following morning bound for Charleston, SC

Georgetown Lighthouse

Charleston, SC

We arrived into Charleston Harbor as the sun was setting.  Charleston harbor is wide open with no real protected anchorages, so in anticipation of approaching weather, we found the best spot we could find just off the South Channel Range.  We had been calling the few marinas that we could get to (due to bridge heights, and were wait-listed.  I guess all spots had filled as others saw the weather approaching.  We were on a wait list at several places, but none seemed to be freeing up.  We sat at anchor the following day, as we didn't see an easy way to get into town.

Charleston - so near but yet so far!

We saw a number of other boats that seemed to have the same idea with several others anchoring near us.  While there was an anchorage near the marina with better city access, we had heard that many cruisers had issues with anchors fouling and had needed to hire a diver to retrieve them.  So we didn't risk it.

The following day (Thursday) , the weather didn't seem much different.  It had deteriorated a bit, but not terribly.  So we discussed our options - stay put and maybe see if a marina would open up; or poke our nose out of the harbor and see if we could continue on south, without too much discomfort.  We decide on  the latter.

Schooner under sail - Charleston Harbor

Moving on to Edisto Beach, SC

We got underway mid morning after checking the weather and options.  Looking ahead at the weather for Saturday and Sunday, we needed something protected!  - see screenshot from windy.com 

Predicted weather for the coming weekend

We had some entertainment leaving the harbor - two container ships passing in the main channel and a sailboat nonchalantly ambling along in the path of both!  What was he doing?  Each ship and the pilots were trying to contact him on VHF, and each ship was giving him 5 horn blasts indicating danger.  Finally the guy answered and he was royally chewed out by the pilots.  And rightfully so!  He finally changed course and narrowly missed being in the news!  I have no idea what he was doing or thinking to get into that situation.

Anyway, when we poked our nose out in to the Atlantic, things actually seemed better than predicted.  We were sailing downwind; seas were probably 4-6 ft. but quartering -  so not bad at all.   We made good time, called ahead to a small marina at Edisto Beach and got a spot.

We arrived mid afternoon and had an easy passage into Edisto Beach.  Depths were deeper than shown on the charts and we had at least 20 ft. of water (at low tide) even into the marina.  The marina is small and friendly and in great condition with floating docks.  It's reasonably protected - at least as well protected as it gets in the Low Country of South Carolina.  Looking at the weather, its looking like we will be here until Monday (Nov 8, 2021).