Wind, Wind and more Wind

This little girl just wanted to be in the photo. This is Joan and Bob S/V windwalker. They are from Canada and are just hanging like us. The photo is from Nippers on Great Guana Cay.

I am not trying to say we are not having a good time, but the weather here is just one cold front after another. We have been getting about one nice day a week and the rest of the time it is low 60s and winds in the 30s. We left Treasure Cay two days ago and the first thing that happened was we ran onto a sand bar(I won't point any fingers), we really quickly let our headsail out and timed each wave to hit our stern and give us a big push toward deeper waters. We started at about 3ft and with every wave pushing us 5 or so feet the depth started to climb and after five minutes of this we were in deeper waters. Kasidah was just amazing she moved and plowed through the sand and gave all she could to get us off. The boat would heel over about 45 degrees each time side to side and we would have to position ourselves for the drop. Once off we both just sat there and looked at each other for some time then began to laugh.

We are now back at Great Guana Cay and resting after a long night with winds clocked at 44kts all night long. On Tuesday another front is suppose to arrive with even more winds than the last and lasting even longer.

Treasure Cay

Once again the weather is coming in and a new location needed to be found, so Treasure Cay is home for our anchor and us for the next few nights. It was a short sail from Great Guana, into a small bay with 20 boat all at anchor. We came in and set right where we wanted to be and the big anchor and chain set right in. They have a HUGE Marina here for $1.75 ft or $10.00 per night to anchor. With showers, free WIFI, trash dump and one of the top ten beaches in the world it’s a no brainer. Well the wind did come in about 11PM and man did it howl. It took 4 hours for it to turn the 180 degrees that we were promised and just like they said 35 mph gusting to 45 plus with a driving rain. Several boats did drag and needed to reset their anchors about midnight. Some of them are charter boats and the people are not real familiar with the boats and it makes for a better show than hanging out at the state boat launch on the weekends. I slept in our dry cockpit with the anchor alarm, free WIFI and XM radio. Stairway to Heaven at midnight always takes me back to my twenties. I was up till about 3 or 4 AM and then fell asleep. This morning the wind is still blowing and going to keep it up all day long. We have two more fronts coming in Saturday and Tuesday and they look just as ugly so we will move Friday and then try to do the Whale Cut Monday and hope for a weather opening to start our way back to the US.

You might remember (young) Captain Chris who helped Schyler and I deliver Kasidah from Myrtle Beach to Stuart Florida. Well he has a 42 ft Hunter that he is delivering to St Martin and will be going through the Abacos and we might see him this weekend at some anchorage, how cool would that be!

Thanks for watching.

Great Guana Cay

So we took the dock at the Marsh Harbor Marina. They were almost empty, and then they lowered their price and BOOM they were full. They have a Rib night on Tuesday, Great! Wednesday is cruisers meet and pot luck with 2 for 1 drinks.









Thursday we took a local water ferry to Hope town with Mike and Barry from Blind Faith. It was a 20 minute ride and we spent the whole day there walking to get to the Hope Town Light House. I mean it’s right there. All you had to do was walk around the bay and it’s well…….. 2 hours later we find out that you can’t get there by land. Everybody just kept pointing,.. that way mon. So we found a great bar and Grill, Captain Jacks. After the Ferry ride back, the walk back to the boats was questioned because we had hitched a ride in the morning and didn’t pay attention to where we were going. And after walking all of Hope Town looking for the frigging light house, well we did make it. Friday we went to a Junkanoo (Parade) (look it up) of school kids. They had street food and 4 schools with all of the costumes and music. It took 4 hours for 2 schools to get it together and march a ¼ mile. We just couldn't stay up any longer, it was murder I tell you.













We left Marsh Harbor Saturday Morning with a flock of other boats All headed for Great Guana Cay. We picked up a mooring ball in Fishers Bay and can sit for a couple of days. We have been to Nippers Bar and grill on the beach. www.nippersbar.com
And plan on spending the day here today swimming and snorkeling. The singer “Barefoot man” sings of this place like Jimmy does of Key west. He has a tree from here on his CD and nippers is in many songs too. Check it out.
More later.





This is the poisonwood tree that is like poison Ivy and right next to it is the antidote tree for it.

This is "Charlie", He invited Sarah to is house for some drinks and to share is toys. They had a good time while we talked to his owner "Bob"

Last minute move

This is the hours of the only bank on Green Turtle Cay:).
They did have lots of the food I love the best for Valentines day.

Jon and I were having some drinks and conversation with Eric and Ellen on S/V C/:Esc, they were leaving Monday morning early to pass through Whale cut, since the weather was going to be good for a day and you really need to take this one cut very seriously and only travel with the calmest of weather. I joked with Jon about just going with them and do the lower Abacos. He obviously took me seriously because he was up and ready to go by 7am. The weather was fine and we only saw some large fun swells at the Whale cut. Heading to Marsh Harbor the water took on every color from light blue to vibrant Turquoise with an average depth around 10ft. I put some line out in hopes to catch dinner but no luck today. The trip took us about 5 hours and the wind was right on our nose the whole way so we did a lot of motoring. We set anchor among about 60 boats, we were told that the bay could hold 2 or 3 hundred boat but this year’s weather has slowed the traffic down. It was a nice day with plenty of daylight left and S/V Blind Faith stopped by to say they were going snorkeling, so we grabbed the gear and off we went. The wind picked up over night and by morning it was blowing 25-30 out of the North West. We held fine but as we were looking around we notice Blind Faith started to drag so they pulled in the anchor to set in another place. We decided we would do a few island by ferry so we have pulled into Marsh Harbor marina for 65 cents a foot for a night or two. This way we can leave the dogs on board and not worry about the boat and the few storms that will be arriving in the next couple nights. I spent the first day washing everything down on Kasidah with fresh water. Jon was trying to get the watermaker to work but with no success so we will have to send it back to the company to see if they can figure it out. He also was trying to repair a few leaks that popped up in the front water bladder, we think they came from all the swishing around on the crossing.
We will be leaving here this weekend since it looks like some nice weather for a day or two and will head to Treasure Cay (they are suppose to have some of the best beaches in the world) and then back up to Green Turtle Cay or Nunjack to start to plan our trip back across the Atlantic.

Another Round of Filling in via GPS

This is Jill filling in for mom and dad again because I don't know when they will have internet again.

At about 800 hours on monday (2/15) mom and dad left the Green Turtle Cay and headed south east between Powell cay and Great Guana Cay and continued on a general southeastern direction to Great Abaco Island, at Marsh Harbour. They anchored here around 1215hrs and stayed there the rest of Monday and today. Although they did swing around in the harbour a little bit. But the anchorage looks very nice a cute town surrounding it. Looks like they have lots to see and do, hopefully they get internet up so they can show me video's on skype of the pretty beaches while I'm stuck here in the cold, snowy, windy, Brockport weather; vicariously living through their warm weather!

I will keep you updated. Here is a satellite image of where they are from their GPS.














~Jill (The Water Lover)

Fun in the Abacos

We are having a lot of fun here in the Abacos. The weather is in a pattern of very high winds four or five days then calm for maybe one or if really lucky two days. We have been told that the cruisers are just not here this year. We have a hard time finding a place for the ability to connect to the internet but the places that we can are paradise. Sunday night we hit two places for the Super bowl. The Green Turtle Marina was the first which had several cruisers, then at Half time went to Sundowners which is locals and cruisers.
This morning we woke up and needed to do some repairs. Yes we had to think about all the little things that needed to be fixed on Kasidah. Jon did a little repairing of some wiring that came apart when the microwave leaped across the galley, and then I need to bring the headsail to the dock and mend the leading edge which took a beaten during the crossing.



We love reading all the stuff that people email us to let us know either what’s going on back home or just to talk about the sailing we are doing. It keeps us in touch with the real world.
The dogs are doing fine and really love the beaches when they can go off their leads and explore. Sara has noticed a new creature but they seem to be getting bigger and bigger, some times she will be sleepin

g and the

y will go right up to her nose. When she opens her eyes she runs after them and it is a hoot to see them run from her.

Final Destination?

We left West End on Grand Bahama Island, Tuesday morning and had to decide what cut to take onto Little Bahama Bank. We could go on the outside about 16 miles north and take the Memory Rock cut with plenty of depth or we could get a little gutsy and take the Indian cut which was a ¼ mile north but had 5ft MLW in many areas. Well we felt lucky and decided to take the Indian cut. We had to time it just before high tide to give ourselves a little room under our keel. Some of the boats waiting went north and seven of us choose the short cut. The shallower drafted boats went first and the deeper ones went last (that’s us). All of us kept the radios on and would report depths every minute or so. It was very nerve racking but we got the hang of it right away, “been there, done it”. Our first stop was Great Sail Cay which looks like a giant wishbone with one side broken and the crotch facing south. We all anchored in the northern part of the crotch in about 8ft of water. There was not much of a beach not much time to land the dog, so we picked the best part with lots of rock and a small amount of grass, all the dogs managed to find a spot to do their thing.
The next morning we all left about the same time to head for different places. We were headed for Powell Cay which is a private island but uninhabited for now, we anchored in 8 ft of water. The beach was one of the most beautiful beaches I have been on. The dogs got to finally do a little running off their leads and we did a little exploring. Berry and Mike of S/V Blind Faith anchored with us, they are the father, son team from Oswego. We had a few drinks that night and planned out the next day.
Thursday we woke up to another nice day in paradise and our last leg of our planned destination was finally upon us. We only had to travel twelve miles to Green Turtle Cay but had to enter just before high tide because the entrance can only carry 4 ½ @ MLW(we are 6 ft draft) and High tide was at noon. There are two sounds in Green Turtle and we were going to go into white sound but it was a little crowed so we opted for black sound which was probably the better choice because town is within walking distance from here. The entrance was narrow but no problems going in.
We walked around town with the dogs and had a few drinks, we met up with Berry and Mike who had a golf cart for the day so took a quick ride with them, and then headed back to the boat. You really have to watch the local dogs because they seem to know that Sara and Blue are foreigners and they are right over them if you don’t watch it.
We listened to our first Cruisers-net on the radio this morning; they are cruisers that talk about the weather and things to do on the islands. The weather is not that great right now and should be like this till at least Tuesday or so. We will need to stay put till better stuff arrives.

Filling In

This is Jill, filling in for mom and dad.

The weather was terrible down in the Bahama's where they where and it was only forcasted to get worse yet. Raining and a high seas warning mom and dad were planning to stay where they were until it let up next Monday and then leave for great sale cay. However, a boat with them (i don't know their names) left around 6 this morning and headed out, around 8 the hailed mom and dad telling them the weather and seas were not too bad. So mom and dad packed up and headed off with a couple other boats. They will be out of contact until Thursday or Friday. I will attempt to keep up posts of where they are.

Jill

ADDITION: Mom and Dad arrived at Great Sale Cay and it looks like they are anchored in a nice little cove protected from the coming weather.

ADDITION (February 3rd) :Tonight they arrived and anchored in Powel Cay which is just east of north Abaco island. Still without internet. From the satellite image it looks very pretty, I hope they took photos :D

ADDITION (February 4th): Today they sailed to Green Turtle Cay which is just south east of where they stayed last night. They are anchored, (or docked) in a nice little bay in the island that looks very cute with a small (unnamed) town surrounding it. They may get internet access tomorrow.