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Boat Harbor Marina (Marsh Harbor)
Well, here it is December 15th, and we are in Fort Lauderdale, anticipating another adventure. This time it will be a little more relaxed I think. In a couple weeks, we’ll be heading to the Bahamas. I’m thinking we will have to learn to sit back and relax a little, maybe getting into the Jimmy Buffet thing if two fogies can do that. No more busy little East Coast ports, no more lobster pots, no more noise and crowded marinas, just sit back swim, snorkel, read, drink margaritas, relax and enjoy. Can we do that? I don’t know, but we’re going to have 3 and one half months of it. Will we want to come back to civilization or just stay and turn into tropical bums? So far, we’ve got one full commitment of friends wanting to become boat bums for a week at least and a few others that are tentative on the list depending on work schedules and the regular constraints of the civilized life. This trip we will finally sit back and take it easy I hope. Larry is a little worried about the shallow waters and coral reefs as we haven’t had the best of luck with them in the past nor any real experience in sighting the waters which is a necessary skill I guess to travels these shallow waters. Once we went aground temporarily on a coral reef in Honduras. I think we’ve never really learned to read the waters as they say. I still haven’t figured out how we got inside a reef at Glover’s Reef just north of Honduras and East of Belize. We had captain Jim Kelly aboard and he said we used “parrallel navigation” which I think was some more of his kidding to get my goat. He was always full of stories, funny as they were, I never knew whether he was teasing me or telling the truth. I guess we’ll find out if we CAN “read the waters”. Once we get it figured out, I think we’ll be more confident and relaxed and able to do the Jimmy Buffet, relax and enjoy the slow pace. It sounds so impossible to us, as we’re not the laid back relaxing types. We got here the unimaginable way with Ziggy and that was to fly. I think we’d been worrying about flying him for months. Poor Ziggy, he’s only what we’ve made him, plus 110% of Jack Russell crazyness thrown in, so we can only blame ourselves for the spoiled rotten lovable dog that he is. We ablige him more than any other insane Jack Russell owner but he is our buddy and you do what’s right for a buddy. This time though, we’ve had it with driving across the country for his convenience. We’ve been living and functioning like the days before commercial air travel with him. I must it’s been fun seeing the country that most Americans only know by flying over. Having traveled at a snail’s pace all the way from Santa Barbara, south, through the canal, up the Carribean to Key West, and continuing on up the East Coast as far as Maine, as a pace no faster than 9-10 knots and then twice going home and both times driving across the country both ways at 65 miles an hour plus we kind of forgot what it was like to step on a plane and within hours be someone that might take us weeks to get to. At first after getting off the boat after being on it for months and getting in a car, it seemed unreal to go so fast but this time we just drew the line and hopped on American Airlines, using up a small portion of the millions of airline miles that Larry has accumulated during his working life, that probably at some point in the near future will pooff, turn into dust, as the financially strapped airlines struggle to survive. All of us have talked about using airline miles we’ve accumulated, knowing there’s a more than likely chance that we’ve got to use them or lose them. ZIGGY FLYING ACROSS COUNTRY So poor little Ziggy was drugged and mislead as we put him in his carrier and left him with a nice muscular black porter at the airport named Andre, saying “We’ll be right back Ziggy, just going to get something to eat”. We lied to him because that’s what we always say to him when we leave and hopefully he thought we’d be back soon as he stared at us through the small wired window of his new brown plastic airline carrier which had markings on the outside saying “cuidado con perro por favor” and “fragile my name is Ziggy” and the cell phone number, in case, God forbid, someone needed to contact us. I stopped to think of a scenario why someone would need to contact us. Let’s see, Ziggy, sometimes, known as “Houdini” could escape and run around the tarmac looking for us, or Ziggy could escape and was run around lose inside the luggage compartment of the jet. All sorts of scenarios came to mind. He’s a determined little dog and was always amazing us with his abilities to escape and find us no matter where we were, including the time Larry had his gall bladder out and Ziggy’s name was announced over the loud speaker of the hospital; “will the owner of Ziggy come to the front desk of adminissions as we have your dog here”. He had escaped out of the carefully cracked windows of our truck and found his way out of the multi level underground parking garage into the hospital, headed first straight to the emergency entrance, then the gift shop, cafeteria and finally the front desk looking for us. I could tell many more examples of his expertise of finding us in equally intersting circumstances, so you can imagine my concern. We were also just worried for him being in the hull of a big jet and the noises and pressure of the strange foreign surroundings all by himself. That is Ziggie’s biggest fear and that is just plain to be ALONE. Well, within hours the whole ordeal was over. He made the trip alive and whole. I’d say fine but I just don’t know what went on in his little but powerful mind. I do know that when we picked up his carrier someone along the way behind those airport walls had put some strong unremovable plastic straps to triple secure the door. I could see that he attempted an escape manuever, as the wire door, that was coated with some kind of black coating stuff, to prevent rusting, was knawed free of coating and one of the water dishes was completely ripped off it’s mounting on the door. I guess one of the people moving Ziggy to and from the cargo area, behind the walls, decided he was an escape threat too and double strapped his escape hatch. Ziggy did have a wild Dr. Jekellish look on him when we found him, you know a kind of crazy look in his eye. I think it was a combination of the strong traquilizer that our vet Dr. Faro gave him (knowing well Ziggie’s ways and strong will) and the idea of being trapped in a crate in the belly of a jet with strange noises and forces. Ziggy must have wondered what kind of restaurant we went too that took 6 hours and dumped him off in a different climate. Anyway, all is well; Ziggy is alive and happy now. It’s amazing how quickly your worries disappear. All those worries over Ziggy flying were gone. The minute we left the airport all is forgotten and our thoughts begin about a new adventure ahead of us. It’s also amazing how you can in a matter of a few hours be transported from the hideous chaos of LA and it’s airport to step off into an immediate immersion into the tropical air of southern Florida and it’s widely paved highways, lined with palm trees and pastel colors. We negotiated the wide highways and fast drivers, making a few wrong turns, but eventually finding our temporary home where Knotty Dog was up the New River. The marina was called Yacht Haven which I sort of diasgree with its definition of “haven” abut apparently it served as a pretty safe hurricane hole for Knotty Dog. I was truly amazed the moment we got here to see the extensive damage, still visible from Hurricane Wilma that came through here a couple months ago. Her path was very visible from the airplane as it took almost our same flight path evidenced by the blue tarped roofs that we passed over. Once in the car the remains of fallen trees, broken awnings, missing signs were everywhere. YACHT HAVEN We turned into the marina and the adjoining RV park where Knotty Dog was. The park’s big sign had blown away and a temporary one was up showing us the way to “Yacht Haven”. It is a rustic place, a little community of trailor homes. There were trailers of all sizes and shapes and designs. Little old silver Air Streams, all the way to several hundred thousand dollar rock star buses. Many had the looks of just arriving and beginning to get set up with patio furniture, awnings and astro turf grass over their small concrete slabs that represented a patio, and others, were completely decorated with chotsky, mostly Christmas decor and lights and some looked like they lived here year round. As we walked Zigg I did hear some talking to each other about the ice storms predicted up north where they live, so most must be winter get-aways, or snow birds as they call them. We found an empty parking spot, where an empty trailor lot was, still not occupied and unloaded our luggage. Knotty Dog looked great having survived the havoc of Wilma. She had a new canvas bimini replacing the one that was completely ripped off during the high winds and Padero, a local Puerto Rican has been taking good care of her. She was polished and clean and the inside was the first time in months that I’ve seen her so free of Ziggy dog hairs. Wow, it looked good. Now the pressure is on to keep her that way. I think it will be impossible but I’ll try. Yacht Haven is a little like Humphrey Bogart and Ernest Hemingway rolled into one and to imagine it’s just minutes from Fort Lauderdale Airport and the hectic high rolling marinas of Fort Lauderdale and Pier 16. We were tied up to a rustic wooden dock that used to be straight but now is curvilinear from the boats banging it in all sorts of shapes from the forces of Wilma. We had a good spot facing out into the main channel and occasionally a huge mega yacht would slowly motor by in the small channel coming from the huge boat yard a ¼ mile away. Last night we were touching bottom as the tide went down and the boat was at a slight slant for a few hours that kind of put us off kilter getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I forgot we’re back to the trials and tribulations of the ICW and its shallow shoaling undredged waters. We heard strange noises in the night and soon realized it was the jungle zoo across the channel from us. The zoo eminated wild screeching monkey and bird noises that we eventually learned to take for granted as they put us to sleep every night. I mentioned it to Larry in the morning and he said “yes he heard them too and when he took Ziggy out for his nightime walk, there were strange noises in the grass and bushes, like little Geckos and things”. I said “yes, and probably little snakes and things” as I watched his eyes get wide-like. I said “remember the snake we saw slithering across the asphalt parking lot in Fort Lauderdale mall two years ago?” I guess he’ll be taking Ziggy out for earlier evening walks now or for sure staying high out of the grass on the rickety wooden dock. STRANGE MIX OF OCCUPANTS No matter how populated Florida is and how covered in asphalt parking lots and 12 laned boulevards, the wild animals and birds still have a strong presence and evident in the most unlikely populated places. We see signs throughout the marina to watch out for the safety of manatees, and saw a big turtle swimming around one morning. Green parrots were picking dates and yakketing it up on a palm tree nearby one morning and then flew away wildly across the river squeeching and flapping their wings, heading over to the wild animal zoo. Larry said they must have escaped from there but I think they are just wild here. If they escaped why would they be flying back? Each morning on our morning walk we would see a huge resident iguana but definitely a wild iguana. He and his family would roost on top of a big broken hurricane ravaged tree across the river. He would watch us go by each morning. There also is a strange species of a bird here that seem to have equal rights to humans here at the park. They are most everywhere you look and invade everybody’s property, picking and pecking, and pooping. They are something between a cross between a goose, duck, turkey, and vulture, all in one. I never saw anything like them. They have the body of a big goose, feet of a duck, head and beak of a turkey and feathers black as a vulture with a few white specs thrown in. They waddle around the place like they own it and are pretty darn ugly. They strut around the park with certain prescidence over dogs. Yes, we’re in the tropical “paradise” of Florida. Off our bow across the channel is a pastel yellow sports fisher with two black bahamian type guys constantly hosing it off and polishing and primping it. The boat is called “Bubba” and another around the corner is called “Topless”. Only here would you have names like that. The area is kind of bohemian. There are two old wooden boats across the river docked next to the jungle zoo. One is partially covered in an old weather beaten tarp. I can’t see the whole thing but it certainly is about hundred years old, the other is some aborted sort of personalized homemade tug, that’s been modified so much it looks like a cartoon character instead of a sea going vessel. They all have character though. It fun to see these funky boats mixed in with the mega yachts. Every so often we’ll see a huge yacht going by, coming from the nearby boat yard. Some are self driven by their multi-person crews and others are towed in front by a small annodized aluminum miniature tug or US Tow Boats with another small tow boat in the back. The boat in the back is keeping her stern in place and runs backwards up the river. It’s quite a sight to see as you don’t think there really is room enough for these yachts to go up the narrow river and make it through the narrow little area where the railroad bridge is. Every so many minutes we here the roar of the airport, as we are fairly close to it. I remember saying to Larry, we’re so close to the airport when we flew in as he pointed out where Knotty Dog was. He said but it’s OK because you don’t hear it. When I got on the boat I immediately noticed that you DO hear it and I said “what do you mean, you can hear the airport?” and he suddenly realized the reason he didn’t hear it on his earlier visit was because the airport was closed down because of Hurricane Wilma. We laughed. Though nation wide Wilma was not important enough to be covered much on national news, it certainly took it’s toll here. I’m amazed, as still, after two months, they are still recovering from up rooted trees and thrown branches, boarded-up broken windows, missing signs, damaged street lights, ripped and missing awnings, and the boats that are damaged just goes on and on. You just get used to seeing the damage it after awhile and it becomes part of the scenery. You can definitely see it’s path of terror as you drive the streets of Fort Lauderdale though but people go on as if nothing happened, heading to shopping in malls with store signs missing and roofs covered in blue tarps and traffic signals missing creating long waits for a break in the traffic to cross over the muli-laned boulevards to get into a store parking lot. It was all kind fo exasperating to us.
Try provisioning for a three month trip on a boat, in the holiday rush. It’s crazy. I’m standing in hideously long lines at Whole Foods, compeiting for position with my cart loaded with cereals, pastas, and soy milk, while they are loaded with holiday cheer, turkeys, hams, gourmet cheeses, wines, champagnes for the holidays. The street lights are the longest we’ve seen yet. You spend half you time traveling, not traveling I should say, waiting at the longest signals on earth. They were so bad that we thought we should brings things to do in the car while we waited for the lights to change, like maybe a book to read, or a manicure kit to file your nails, etc. It’s a lot of wasted time. This Florida is one huge mass of humanity moving in multi laned boulevards with flashy cars, and boom boxes vibrating your car as you sit next to some flashy guy jiving in the car next to you. So many guys have souped up cars, and windows blacked out, with those cell phones that hook on to your ear with a cigar hanging out their mouths. Women are driving through parking lots while talking on hand held cell phones, looking for a rare free spot to park, narrowly missing the pedestrian shopper pushing their car back to their car, that is if they can remember where they parked it in the huge parking lots and malls that all look identical with the same chain stores that look identical. Last night was the Christmas Boat Parade. As we were working on the boat yesterday we could see boat after boat heading out draped in christmas lights heading for the ICW. We thought it would be really something to see the Christmas Boat Parade here but when we heard things on the radio like directions where you had to park and the shuttles to take and times to take to get to a place where you could see it, and passed numerous electric signs everywhere notifying people in advance of the traffic closures and to expect delays, we decided a nice quiet night on the boat would suit us just fine. Well, it wasn’t so quiet as the boats paraded by, unlit, heading to the parade and then off course coming back late the night, drunk and noisy and a few here and there that thought it was funny or exciting to see how fast they could go in the channel by the boat, creating dangerous wakes. What a contrast from Maine and the classic old boats, and schooners and lobster boats, to the mega yachts, cigarette boats, and sports fishers here, all very flashy. I’m always amazed at how humanity is so different from place to place. I gaze out into the channel, glancing at a dark round ball, which is a coconut floating by and in Maine it would be a brightly colored lobster pot marker. WEATHER SEMINAR FOR CROSSING THE GULF STREAM AND CRUISING THE BAHAMAS One night, we went to Bluewater Books for a weather seminar with Chris Parker, the weather czar for cruising the Bahamas. If you haven’t heard before, Bluewater is the premiere book store for boaters. They’ve got everything you’d ever need or want to cruise anywhere on this earth; books, travel books, charts, good sea faring novels, naval history books, charts, cruising guides, nautical accessories like clocks and barometers, sea themed music CDs and DVD’s. Tonight though, we were here to learn about weather. It was a pretty good seminar as I learned things I never knew; like heat rising off the land, from the heat building off the sand and asphalt of the mainland, creating cumulus clouds that as they rise higher and flatten out on the top they move out over the ocean, giving us the commonly expected “afternoon breeze”. The quicker the rise and the more moisture, the worse the boating conditions. The seminar was mostly geared to sailboaters but I think Larry picked up a few things he didn’t know. Another thing that seemed to be common knowldege is if the weather report has an “N” in it you don’t cross the Gulf Stream over to the Bahamas. I didn’t know exactly what they meant until, they said “North winds” thus the “N”. But Chris disagrees with that common scenario and says if it’s a NW wind and the LI is not in the negative you can make a pretty comfortable crossing if you head out early before the waves have a chance to build. He also recommends heading south along the Florida coast quite aways from a parallel destination and then making the crossing, saying that it will be a little faster and easier because you won’t be crabbing so much against the current but riding with it to your destination. I learned a lot but also gained some newly found respect for the Gulf Stream. I also was able to understand much better the terrible squall we got caught in two years ago. It was all this rising of warm moist air building clouds filled with precipitation and “activity” as it rushed towards us as we headed up against the Gulf Stream. The winds did a full turn around and it was frightening. Hopefully we know much more now, but you can never truly predict, even Chris says the NOAA wave reports have to be adjusted and increased if the winds are coming out of the north and reduced if coming out of the south. Now I’m confused. Oh well, we’ll watch it for a few days before we go and see if we can get a good understanding of it all. I forget that we have a very sea worthy boat and much of the warnings are designed for much smaller day boats. PROVISIONING I have to admit my idea of provisioning and getting ready to leave just before Christmas was not the smartest idea. Everything is a struggle. We shipped a lot of things from California too, like books, charts, clothes, etc. and UPS as everyone knows gets overloaded at this time. We had a few packages that we were concerned might not make it in time but so far all is well in that department. The traffic and huge stores are the other difficultly. Everything is BIG and WIDE here. The main boulevards are 12 lanes wide, well, that includes two center turn lanes on each direction and another lane to turn right at the light on each side. But they are big and it takes a long time to change. They are moving major traffic here in Florida. It’s just a mass of humanity. Everything is “flag ship” here as they call it. It’s a “flag ship” West Marine, the biggest you’ve ever seen, and a “flag ship” Target, and K-Mart, and well you get the picture. I don’t need “flag ship big” I just need a store with things that I need in it. I don’t need to walk miles in every store, up and down aisles, to find out that they have or don’t have what I need. I don’t need to drive miles to the next mega parking lot and mall to fight for a parking space to find one item that wasn’t at the last place. And just our luck, we needed things like beach chairs, water floats, snorkels, swimming goggles, swim suits, you know, summer things. But at Christmas here, in Florida, that stuff is all put away to bring in the Christmas decoration stuff. We thought of all places in the US, this would be where we could pick up that stuff. No way, so it’s been a bit frustrating as we can’t and don’t want to wait the three weeks until all the Christmas stuff is put away, and the play in the water sun stuff comes back. Hopefully they will have the stuff to buy in the Bahamas to fill our needs or we are going to be looking pretty ratty. I did find some swim suits at Target, by a famous designer of all things, but there were 100 of the same color and style and poor quality and I just couldn’t bring myself to even go into the mad house of a dressing room to try one on. So we’ll just concentrate on food provisioning and supplies and hope for the best when we get there. This trip to the Bahamas, we hope, will be relaxing for us; just fun in the sun, swimming and snorkeling, and eating out, and enjoying nature. We have always been on the run so much with this boat, off to see everything, that it will be hard to just slow down, and now that we decided to slow down, relax and have fun, we can’t find any of the toys to do it it with. Oh well. HOLIDAY ALONE BUT READY TO
GO Finally I think we are near the end of our lists, but somehow there is always something else to get. At some point you just have to draw the line and leave, no matter what else you can think of to get. That’s where I’m at right now. All of a sudden you are done and then you realize it’s the morning of Christmas Eve. Though it’s exciting that you are about to leave on an adventure, you are also suddenly struct with the fact that you are away from home and friends during the holidays. It’s just the three of us, now, no Christmas tree, presents, decorations, and no friends or family to reunite with and toast the holidays. But we have a sunny day with thoughts of events to come and that in itself is good. I still think our Christmas will be spent vacuming, packing, planning, inventorying and anticipating getting ready to go. Ziggy has no idea one day from the next whether it’s Christmas or not, except for the fact that a pork roast is cooking in the oven and delicious aromoas are filling the air most of the day. Ziggy loves the smell of meat roasting in the oven, well, who doesn’t for that matter? He comes into the galley frequently to check on the progress, and every so often and if he’s lucky, he is sometimes rewarded with a tid bit of roasting meat. Well, we’ve got meat and frozen veggies packed and vacum packed to fill two freezers. Cereal, boxed milk and soy milk stashed under the salon seats along with canned goods of all varieties, pacakages of nuts for snacks, and a last trip today for fresh produce. We’ve got bug spray, sun screen, and multiple supplies of things like shampoo, dish washer soap, detergent, extra tooth brushes, rolls and rolls of marine toilet paper. We just happened to find a “flag ship” water sports store and did get some new folding beach loungers, umbrellas, goggles and fins, you name it we’ve got it, plus a list of books to read, and a slew of guides and charts. Larry has put in way points for the next three legs to the Bahamas. He’s been watching the weather reports and thinks the FRONT will be through the day after Christmas Day, just in time to leave on a fairly good day to cross the Gulf Stream. He’s checked and double checked the engine, polished the fuel, emptied and readied the water maker, filled the tanks with water, and the boat is scheduled to be cleaned today. What else? The chores go on and on. All the repairs from the hurricane damage are done, including the placement of a new bimini. I think we’re ready but oh, we forgot, we’ve got to get the bicycles down to see if they are OK and not too coroded by the salt air and we still have to make one more run to the store to get a beard trimmer for Larry. He dropped the blades to the last one over the brink in Maine and today he’s got two days of growth going so I guess it’s a necessary item. I hate to even think that we’ll have to go out one more time and fight the last minute holiday shoppers and big boulevards again. We thought for fun we’d make one last stop at the “flag ship” Outdoor World, not to buy anything today, but just to look at the amazing store without the pressure of searching for something on the list that has now dwindled to a few measely items. In the midst of the provisioning rush, we realized Whole Foods charged us $30 dollars for blue beans. What the heck are blue beans, we certainly didn’t buy them so I guess for $30 we need to fight our way back to the store and settle that one just out of principle. We think the clerk mistakenly punched in blue beans instead of Fuji apples. Though we got it settled, we managed to spend even more money there again on more goodies. What a wonderful store but terrible on the wallet. I’m totally addicted to Whole Foods, I wish they’d come to Santa Barbara. I think we’re finally done with the grocery receipts that are a yard long now. And hurray we have been looking for months now for astro turf mats for Ziggy. They are his mats of choice for going potty on the boat. Thank God! CHISTMAS WAS QUIET We still were fighting the crowds down to the last minute. I sent Larry on an impossible errand Christmas Eve afternoon and he didn’t return until after 4:00 PM. I was imagining all sorts of terrible things had happened to him but he was on a mission almost impossible though I didn’t know it. I had found a liquid bath soap that seemed to cut through all the hard water on the boat and smelled terrific, leaving the bathroom and stateroom with a nice fragrance. It was a luxury that I just wanted as it’s hard to smell “pretty” on a boat. It just made me feel like a human being again which sometimes after a long time on a boat can be difficult with all the engine smells and salt air smells. It wasn’t anything expensive, just some Clairol Herbal Brand that I had found at the local Walgreens a few days ago. I told Larry it would our boating trip much more enjoyable if I had a few jars of it. It lathered up great too which may not be ecologically minded but I sure enjoyed it from time to time. Well his mission turned out NOT to be easier said than done as the saying goes as he soon found out it was only sold at a few Walgreens. Fortunately there are a lot of Walgreens in this mega land of malls and national chain stores, so, Larry, God love em’, was determined to find it, and after driving to five different locations bought the last three bottles on the shelf, and probably the last three bottles in the nation. When he finally got back, he proudly handed them to me as I handed him a glass of wine and he said “Merry Christmas! This took more effort than any present that I could possibly have bought for you so Merry Christmas and enjoy!” Actually it was a perfect present and I appreciated the trouble and effort. We had a wonderful quiet dinner on the boat; pork roast, roasted fingerling potatoes, parsnips, carrots, sunchokes, carrots, onions, and all roasted in a little apple cider, dried prunes and fresh sliced apples. I slaved over the stove all afternoon delicately cooking a whole head of sliced red cabbage down, to a tender pan full of delicious sweet and sour cabbage with bits of crisp meaty bacon for a garnish. That with steamed brussel sprouts and a nice light gravy was our Christmas Dinner, and mixed berry pie for desert, with plenty of everything leftover for the next day. Christmas Day was a day of relaxing and snoozing on the boat, knowing we had a new journey ahead of us and as far as we were concerned we were done provisioning and checking on things even if there were a few loose items. As all you boaters know, you are NEVER done provisioning, even up until the last minute you can still think of something else you need. It’s kind of a curse that we all experience. Once that car rental is taken back though, you now KNOW it’s the end. I’m just waiting for Larry to return from taking the rental car back and then the engines will start and off we go, heading out the New River to our overnight destination which will be Pier 66 and the beginning of a new adventure. The weather looks good for an early morning departure across the Gulf Stream tomorrow. BIG MISTAKE I made the big mistake of reading the cruising guide before I went to bed last night. For me, I should never do that. My eye balls popped out at the detailed page after page describing the dangers of corssing the Gulf Stream and volatible cruising grounds of the Bahamas. I wonder how anyone could even think of going to the Bahamas after reading that stupid cruising guide which I won’t list the name of. I was glued to the book as Larry snoozed down below, and read until late into the night. Visions of “elephants on the horizon”, images describing huge seas, buoys moved hoping that you will wreck your boat and the locals can make some money salvaging your wreck, and the glorious descriptions of how the charts and GPS are unreliable, and that the area has never been reliably charted, only for commercial shipping. There were pages of colored pictures photographs of minutely different colored sea water that you were supposed to be able to identify the depths when they all looked pretty much the same to me. How can we possibly survive over there I’m thinking? I’m go below and am ranting on to Larry about I shouldn’t have opened that book and he says that it’s all written for little open boats, 20 to 30 feet and less. He said we’ll be fine, no problem. I’m always much better when I don’t read these darn cruising books until after I reach our destination. We left Yacht Haven yesterday afternoon and weaved our way out New River past mega yachts who were still stored in the protection of it’s banks, and past houses on the banks with swimming pools and lawns, past River Walk with it’s multitude of high rise condos, and restaurants and finally out on the ICW and into Pier 66. Larry wanted to be situated as close as possible to the inlet to the Atlantic for an early departure the next morning. We settled in and had a quiet dinner on board and went to bed early for a long day the next day. ON OUR WAY Well, we’re on our way. What a beautiful sight. Larry woke me at ten after six with a hot cup of coffee placed on my nightstand. It was badly needed after I had an almost sleepless night after reading that stupid cruising guide. While it was still dark, Ziggy and I zig-zagged around the parking lot and he quickly did his duty as he somehow figured we were on our way and there was no time for his usual dilly dallying. There was only one other lonely soul walking the docks as it was still dark and chilly out. He had his hands tucked in his pockets and hunched over, trying to keep warm as he was still dressed for warm weather, as he headed for the marina restrooms. Typical boater, no matter what the discomfort, will still head to the public restrooms to save that bit of water and space in the holding tank. When we headed back down the dock, after a successful duty, we could see Larry was waiting for us; head set on and had already started the engines. He was anxious to get going as early as light made it possible so we’d arrive at the West End of the Bahamas with good daylight to see through the shallow water. Though I still wasn’t awake quite yet, I hopped to. I’m thinking to myself, “sorry folks” about our next door slip neighbors as I know we must have interrupted their sleep with sound of the engines as we have been awakened many times in our travels as those before us, have turned on their engines and hollered out orders, leaving early, to get to a destination at a certain time, usually before dark or afternoon squalls. Larry untied the lines off the hurricane ravaged dock at Pier 66 and I stood on the Portuguese Bridge waiting for his instructions to take her out of the dock. Once all the lines were thrown on the boat, he stepped back onto the boat side walkway and latched the door and said “take her straight out”. I ran her out from the Portuguese station and still was a little groggy. Once the stern passed the two outer slip posts he said to turn her starboard and head out into the channel. It was still dark but I could see everything pretty well. I took her on out of the marina and into the main channel heading towards the huge 17th Street Bridge. Larry was pulled the fenders in and stowed them and then he to the helm to take her out, by now I had changed stations and was running her from inside the pilot house. I went outside to finish stowing the lines and making sure everything was secure.
Out to the East, just off our bow, we could see a glowing ember, like from the leftovers of a fire. It was the sun beginning to come up over the horizon. The moon was still in the sky shaped in a perfect crescent but would soon loose its importance as the sun took priority. There are some clouds over the horizon and they buffer the brilliance of the sun, giving an electric outline to the top curvilinear edges of the ruffled clouds. The rays of sun peaked through breaks in the clouds creating an almost religious sight. Just as the sun reached and stretched itself for a full awakening a huge cruise ship passed in front of it on the horizon. It was a picture of the perfect ad for the cruise liner. It couldn’t have been a more beautiful departure. Ziggy was excited and I had to close the hatch to deck on the bow area as he wanted to ride on the tip of the bow sprit and it was just a little too dangerous for me to watch. He loves to see everything, be right in the center of it all and what better spot he thought than perched out there watching the waves created by the bow. We have a perfect weather forecast; winds south 5-10 knots, seas 2 feet or less. But I must say when we got a few miles out; the waters weren't what they had forecast. I CAN see those elephants running across the horizon and the winds are coming 10 knots from the north. It’s not bad but the swells are big and you can see how this could be a dangerous place under the right conditions. We haven’t reached the Gulf Stream yet. Larry is heading a little south of his waypoint counting on the fact that once we hit the Gulf Stream it will carry us slightly northward to make up for the off course position. One of the big sport fishing boats that was a head of us on the way out gunned his motors and took off full force. He was leaving an amazing huge white spray behind him. The seas were rough so it wasn’t a smooth spray more like a frantic duck scared across the water, flapping its wings, trying to get a quick take off. We will see what the seas do once we get a few more miles out. We’ve got about 70 miles to traverse today so at the most we’d be only 35 miles off shore in either direction. The seas were pretty nice and seemed to level out the
farther out we went and the more we crossed the Gulf Stream. It was great to be
out on the ocean again and the waters suddenly became a beautiful indigo blue.
They look luscious like a wobbly unreal Jell-O. We began to see flying fish
again, flapping there way across the waves ahead of the bow. Several fast boats
sped past us as we plodded along. We watched them come upon us on the radar
screen and then speed ahead leaving huge white waves as they planed through the
waters burning fuel like it was easy money. One trawler followed up from behind
most of the day. Many boats were headed south too, probably to Nassau Larry
says.
It was so calming out there with the gentle rocking that I actually slept most of the way on the pilot house settee although I could hear Larry playing with the radar and checking the settings. He could hear some chatter from buddy boats talking and looking forward to reaching the islands for gambling and fishing. Ziggy did pretty well but kept looking up at us questioning what we were doing and where we were going with a little look of fear. Next time we thought we’ll give him a little calming cookie and see how that works for him. As we got nearer to the Grand Bahama I awoke. I could sense the boat handling different, perhaps we were on the outer reaches of the Gulf Stream as the stabilizers were suddenly working differently. It awoke me after a good sleep from that silly worrisome sleepless night. I could see the landmark to the West End, nothing more than a rusty water tower sticking up out of the water but that all except for a few sailboats and power boats on the horizon line. There were no elephants on the horizon today “just dogs” Larry said. Soon we could see a mirage effect of the low lying trees and buildings of Old Bahama Bay Marina and Inn where we were headed. As we got closer, it seemed like there were several boats all arriving at the same time. The radio was overwhelmed with the cacophony of boaters hailing the marina for their slip and instructions. It was kind of silly listening to everyone stepping over each other on the radio like it was a race to get in before the other. Some, we were surprised to hear, had no reservation. I can’t imagine coming over here without a reservation especially when the marina filled up very quickly. There wasn’t an easy place to anchor nearby if they were full. As we got nearer you could clearly see the cottages of the Inn and the little radio tower out on the breakwater that identifies the breakwater entrance. It’s difficult to see the opening though until you are right on top of it. We could hear one boater having difficulty and they called the marina several times for help finding the opening. Also there was a large dive boat that kept calling to the sail boaters to keep clear of his divers. It was kind of chaotic to say the least. We were lucky to watch with our binoculars to see where the trawler having trouble finding the opening finally went in, so we knew exactly where it was. It wasn’t difficult though as everything is really pretty clear cut if you follow the charts and the cruising guides which give you good pictures of the opening and instructions. As we got near the opening all these boats suddenly
appeared and As we backed off a little at the entrance, it defeated our objective and three other boats behind took the opportunity to crowd in and butt in front of us. One sail boater just cut us off and immediately after him a fast sports fisher got right on our tail and then a trawler. We decided to go on in because if we didn’t at this rate, we’d never get in with everyone racing in and cutting each other off to make a mad dash inside. If we had had to stop or slow down, those that were behind us were following so close they would have been on top of us. They were having trouble maneuvering around behind us and also trying to keep from missing each other. It was ridiculous. So Larry waved one guy off and said we’re going in, so we slowly entered the breakwater and watched ahead thinking what ever happens behind us is not our problem now. I looked back and the sports fisher and the trawler we right on our tail. How stupid, if any problem occurred, how would they maneuver in the narrow channel? There was an open area right inside the breakwater before you reach the docks but the two sailboats were waiting there for slip instructions. We waited there too and I looked behind to see these other boats just piling up behind like a bunch of kids that can’t wait. We all eventually got in our slips and suddenly all the tension and anger disappears as we all chit chat with each other on the docks. Funny how boating is. We got a nice slip assignment in the last slip near the end of the dock with great views of the ocean and beach and a short sailboat was on our other side so we had a good view out over them also. We didn’t feel crammed in. We were greeted by a friendly cheerful Bahamian dressed in a khaki uniform. He was laughing and friendly and considering all the chaos with these boaters all arriving at the same time it was amazing. He got us settled in quickly and made us feel right at home. Our quarantine flag was up and so was the multi colored Bahamian flag. Larry got his customs papers and walked over to the customs office to clear us in. I’m sitting on the fly bridge watching Larry as he walked over to customs and glanced around at the area. It was truly amazing how beautiful it was here.
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We were coming to Florida to
get on the boat to miss all the holiday hoopilah but we’re still in the midst of
it as masses of cars move back and forth from one mall to another. I don’t see
cars loaded with christmas trees strapped to their tops, or christmas tree lots,
but plenty of palm trees in yards and plastic palms trees lighted with christmas
lights. The trailer park is decorated to the hilt with Christmas chotsky. It’s
funny to see artificial snow men and santa claus’s, usually the blow up kind,
dressed in fur lined suits when we are barely surviving the heat and humidity in
our shorts and t-shirts. There are plenty of snow birds here and I don’t mean
the feathered kind as we do our morning walk and overhear them speak of the
terrible ice storms that their home state is suffering as they are sitting on
their plastic patio chairs on their astro turf covered concrete 10x10 porch,
under their retractable canvas trailor awning. 
It was a magnificent sight out. The bridge was lit
dramatically as were the tall buildings of the nearby hotels and the magnificent
mega yachts were lit too, even though, who would see it all at this time of the
morning? The light from the soon to be sunrise was starting to take over and
cast a pinkish lavender light to everything. We passed under the bridge and a
sleepy heron perched on top of green marker 29 barely gave us a glance. We were
following others heading out taking advantage of the good weather forecast. We
passed the monolithic cruise ships shining brightly like brand new Christmas
presents. Ziggy perched himself as a hood ornament on top of the storage locker
on the bow. An early morning jet departing from Fort Lauderdale airport pierced
the pink sky and Ziggy gave it a howl. We headed out the channel and finally
back out to sea. Once we were past the outermost channel marker, Larry changed
course toward the West End of Grand Bahama Island which would be our one and
only waypoint today though we would be traveling about 8 hours.
converged on each other. Others that were faster than us came upon
us from behind. It was a mad rush to get inside the breakwater for some silly
reason. We were following this really,