Sailing Adventures
Aboard Serendipity!
Update: 6/07/07
It has been a while since the web site has been updated. We are in China and Serendipity is on the hard back in Florida. Once we finally got settled here, we found out that we did not have access to our web site (for viewing or updates). It started working last night (this morning in the US & Caribbean). We will have a more complete update in a few days... Jeff
Update: 2/19/07
Check out many new pictures in the photo album for Culebra and Culebrita, but also under the George Town & Dominican Republic sections, and on Jillian's family page! I'm working on more as we travel north! We are presently in George Town, Great Exuma, after making brief stops in Culebra, Puerto Rico, Turks & Caicos and Mayaguana. Keep looking for new updates in the weeks to come!
Update: 1/25/07
Greetings from St. John, US Virgin Islands. We finally are making our updates to the website, so look for new pictures! We are leaving the Virgin Islands tomorrow, to sail to Culebra (the Spanish Virgin Islands), and then on to Puerto Rico. We will make steady progress from there back the reverse route we traveled more than a year ago, past the Dominican Republic, through the Turks & Caicos, and the Bahamas, to the Florida Keys.
Our last few months have been truly amazing! We left Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela, October 5th, so that we could spend Rachel's 14th birthday at "Isla Tortuga" (Yes, the very island where Capt. Jack Sparrow found his crew!!!!). We traveled there with new friends we made in Puerto la Cruz, Buddy and Melissa on Indigo Moon. For anyone interested in a more thorough journal of what cruising the Caribbean is really like, I highly recommend Buddy and Melissa's website www.indigomoon.us. They do a wonderful job of making you feel like you're right out there with them! We had a marvelous sail north to Tortuga! Jeff caught a nice dolphin fish, and we were greeted by a pod of dolphins as we approached the island. We counted at least twenty-two dolphins, with several juveniles. They swam by the bow of the boat for twenty minutes, and just made a spectacular introduction to a beautiful island. We anchored just west of Tortuga, at Las Tortuguillas (the Little Turtles). Rachel had a marvelous birthday morning, at the beach and a wonderful crystal-blue lagoon, swimming and snorkeling. We moved that afternoon to Cayo Herradura, an amazing strip of beach with varying colors of indigo, azure, and aquamarine blue water. What a gorgeous spot! We explored the lighthouse, and the fishing camps, which included beautiful shrines to the Virgin. Another dozen cruisers were anchored here, so we caught up with Respite, and JJ, two other boats we had met in Puerto la Cruz. The dolphin fish was a superb birthday dinner, and the full moon in Rachel's honor was a perfect end to the day!
We liked Cayo Herradura enough to spend another three days there, then we had good weather for continuing northwest, and left at 10 pm for the 12 hour overnight sail to Los Roques. For once, we had the wind behind us, so at sunrise, we put up our spinnaker sail (for the first time since the dock in Florida!), and really enjoyed the sailing! Los Roques are a group of small islands interlaced with numerous reefs. The islands are for the most part deserted (except for the town on Gran Roque). This area is actually a 14 by 25 miles wide National Park, and stretches out like a bracelet thrown in the sand, full of incredible reefs, beautiful beaches and indescribable views. It was a new experience sailing here, through channels between reefs, sometimes with only sand mounds, barely above the waterline, nearby. We sailed from island to island, and sometimes just reef to reef, to snorkel or dive with our Third Lung. We really loved it here; it is one of the highlights of the past year for us. We meandered from Boca de Sebastopol (the Southeastern entrance to the Los Roques) to Boca del Medio, to Francisquis, then past El Gran Roque to Sarqui, then Cayo de Agua. It helped that we had such good company, and enjoyed many hours snorkeling, swimming by the beach, and gabbing with our traveling companions, Mike and Gloria from Respite, and Buddy and Melissa from Indigo Moon. Two other boats we had met in Venezuela also showed up in Los Roques, and joined us for a bit, Blueprint Match and Helen Louise.
I also started baking bread in Los Roques, since Gloria was kind enough to get the girls and I started. I know many of you will chastise me for this! Baking bread is another one of those things that I had planned to do all along, but just never seemed to get around to, so it was a real treat to bake and then break bread with our friends! It was also a necessity, because we were out of bread for the first time... this was the longest time we had been away from even a basic grocery store during our entire trip! To clarify, there are some groceries available on the main island of Tortuga, and on Gran Roque, but we preferred those isolated, deserted spots, so we didn't feel the need to go to the more civilized spots (yet).
Finally, after almost two full weeks in Los Roques, we decided we had to continue west, and sailed eight hours with Respite and Indigo Moon, spinnakers flying again, to a small group of islands called the Aves. On our approach, we came upon the easternmost island, Isla Sur (Aves de Barlovento), which has a huge population of boobies, a particular species of sea bird. We got to see the boobies up close and personal, when a dozen of them suddenly descended upon our fishing lures! Two ill-fated boobies immediately entangled themselves in the fishing line, before we could do anything about it. Now, for any of you fishermen out there, this probably would not sound like a big deal. Unless you have three animal-loving girls on board (make that four)! There was much shouting and panicking, and flailing of arms, while Jeff dutifully reeled the unfortunate boobies to the boat. Jeff and I proceeded to disentangle and disengage the birds from the lines and hooks, and watch them make their way safely out of range again. It made for an exciting afternoon! Jeff also caught a rainbow runner, which was excellent eating! We finally anchored just west of another delightful, tiny, deserted island called Saki Saki (Aves de Sotavento). I really like the deserted islands, can you tell? This one is small enough to walk around in twenty minutes, with nothing in sight in any direction, except ocean and other deserted Aves islands. You really feel like you are in the middle of the ocean, away from all the things of man! Again, the water is so clear and inviting, it is hard to leave!
However, we had some friends we wanted to catch up with in Bonaire, so we continued west to Bonaire with Indigo Moon, after one fabulous day at Saki Saki. Indigo Moon had a very serendipitous day, with a whale traveling in front of them shortly after sunrise. We were just able to make out the tail slapping through the water in our binoculars. This was another great trip, because we actually had some great wind for sailing as we turned north at the southern edge of Bonaire, and "screamed" up the coast to the town of Kralendijk (don't ask me to pronounce this!). What a nice, nice ride! By this time, the town, with its restaurants, shops and the much-needed garbage bins, was a very inviting and welcome sight! In Bonaire, you must pick up a mooring ball at the designated mooring field west of Kralendijk, since the entire island is surrounded by quite deep water and various protected reefs just offshore. Of course, the real attraction in Bonaire is the excellent scuba diving!! We couldn't wait to get in the water, but the first order of business was going in for a hamburger with our friends on Maker's Match, Chuck and Teri. Soon after clearing customs, though, we jumped off the back of our boat on top of a very nice reef, starting from 20 feet down to about 80 feet deep. Very nice!!!!
Rachel and Jeff took the first dive trip the next morning with Chuck, Teri, Buddy and Melissa, to a spot on the smaller island of Klein Bonaire, just west of the mooring field. They rented tanks for this dive, so that Rachel could get some more experience with tank dives versus the Third Lung that we have on the boat. Jeff and I did a dive that afternoon on the southern tip of Klein Bonaire, at a very nice reef called Nearest Point. From that point on, we used our Third Lung to do our dives, and just couldn't get enough of it! Diving at Bonaire was definitely another highlight of our trip. The water is exceptionally clear, and the coral formations and fish populations are truly amazing! We just loved being in the water here. Marcie and Jillian snorkeled with us on and off. There was a great little reef just in front of our boat that was very shallow, and had an enormous quantity of cool fish and a few sea snakes. The girls loved that spot as well as the reef just behind the boat! Jeff, Rachel and I took turns, and dove as many different spots around Bonaire as we could. I think our favorite was 1,000 Steps, far to the north from the mooring field, just under the radio towers. Just amazing coral formations! I will keep updating pictures, I promise, so that you can see some of the sights we enjoyed!
Our friends on JJ were in Bonaire as well, and Respite arrived the day after us. We enjoyed our time with them. We did quite a bit of walking, too, checking out different dive shops and stores. We thoroughly enjoyed the restaurants and shops in town. We found great pizza and Argentinean beef and ice cream! Another special event was going horseback riding to Lac Bay, past the mangroves with flocks of pink flamingoes. It was surprising to pass vast cacti fields, not something I expected here. The neatest thing about the horseback riding was that once we arrived at the bay, we unsaddled the horses, and actually swam with them in the bay! That was a unique experience that I know we will never forget! Bonaire is part of the Netherlands Antilles, and we saw the Queen of the Netherlands, when she visited the island. That was pretty interesting to watch, too. She was very popular!
Then, there was more diving and eating to be done!! The girls had a great response trick-or-treating up and down the mooring field with their friend, Kyla, from the boat Dagmar. Several days later, our British friends on Iceni Warrior, arrived from Curacao, and the kids got to spend a lot of time with their children, Fraser and Hannah. You may suspect that with all this going on, the girls were not doing school work. They actually did very well keeping up with their school assignments in the mornings, then snorkeling and playing by mid-afternoon.
All good things must come to an end, or so they say. We were very conscious of the dreaded "Christmas winds", which are high, inhospitable winds that generally kick up during December, and wreck havoc on anyone's plans to sail back north. Boaters routinely get "stuck" in the Caribbean for several weeks, waiting for sailable weather to return north. We didn't want to get "stuck", so to speak, and decided to head out of Bonaire when a good weather window presented itself the second week in November. That was a difficult decision, because we enjoyed Bonaire so much, we felt like we could have stayed much longer. Even harder, was our change in plans, to sail straight back to the Virgin Islands directly from Bonaire. We had planned all along, to return back through the Aves, Los Roques, Tortuga, Margarita, to Grenada, then north from there through the Eastern Caribbean islands we had missed on the trip down. However, it became apparent that if we took that route, we would be in for some long, serious, unfriendly sailing right into lots of wind! After much thought, we agreed to do one long trip directly up to St. John, US Virgin Islands, which gave us a much better sailing angle to the wind, in a single, two and a half day trip. The hardest part of this was knowing we wouldn't get to see some of the cruiser friends we had counted on seeing on the original route back.
The other benefit to taking the faster option, was the idea that we could spend lots of time in the Virgin Islands, Bahamas and Florida Keys before returning to the states and getting back to that job reality! In the end, we had a very good sail back to St. John, once again traveling with Indigo Moon. The first night out of Bonaire we felt a little bit like we were in a washing machine, but by the next morning things had calmed down quite a bit. It was smooth sailing and almost flat seas through the second day, picking up the last six hours as we encountered squalls coming into the Virgin Islands. We felt very fortunate to have had, yet again, such a good crossing, with no major problems!
I will finish up with our time in the Virgin Islands, in my next update, and get those promised pictures completed! Please keep checking!! Pam
Update:12/22/06
We're updating this webpage and our picture album presently! The next time we have Internet access, we will be moving pictures into the album! Check out the girls' pages; Rachel and Marcie have been working on their pages as well. Meanwhile, we have had a wonderful time traveling through the coastal islands of Venezuela (Tortuga, Los Roques and the Aves), and then the Dutch island of Bonaire. I will give details of that, as well, in the next update. We have made the trip north from Bonaire back to the Virgin Islands, and will be spending the holiday in St. John. Happy Holidays to all our friends! We hope everyone is healthy, happy, and enjoying family time as the New Year begins!
Update: 9/26/06
Time flies... we have been in Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela for the past six weeks. To bring you up to date, though, we spent over six weeks in St. Martin, and enjoyed it tremendously! We anchored in Marigot Bay and explored Marigot, and both the French and Dutch "sides" of Simpson Bay thoroughly by dinghy. Everything you could want is available, cheaply or very expensively! Jeff flew back to Vermont for Jamie's high school graduation, and returned the same day my cousins arrived from Maryland for a week's vacation. We had a fabulous week with them, enjoying some great restaurants, Grand Case, Orient Beach, and some of our already favorite spots in Marigot. We rented a car for a while so we could get from Marigot to their hotel at Orient beach easily, but also explored the whole island, going to Philipsburg several times as well. We had considered moving the boat over to the east side of the island, but the weather made the water a little rough over there, and we liked Marigot Bay. Jeff made another trip to New York for a potential computer contract, and then we ended up moving the boat into Simpson Bay, and thinking about possible spots to leave the boat if we went to NY for awhile. That ended up not coming together, which was just as well, because we really didn't want to leave the boat there during hurricane season! But in the meantime, we enjoyed Simpson Bay and the boaters we met there a lot!
By the time we headed south, hurricane season was in gear, and we wanted to be out of the danger zone. We sailed quickly down to Grenada, stopping briefly in Dominica, and St. Lucia. Dominica was beautiful, but we didn't even stay overnight there, because we were taking full advantage of our weather window for going south. We did spend two days in St. Lucia, and enjoyed that very much. We spent a week in Grenada, catching up with some friends, doing some needed boat maintenance, repairing some rips in our sail, and checking out the fish and fresh markets in the town of St. George's. It was very nice there as well!
There is much discussion among cruisers about the safety of going to the northern coast of Venezuela. We have kept abreast of the developments with Chavez and Bush whenever we have had internet access. We also listen to the security net and other cruisers as far as what has been happening where. We are cautious people, but our impression has been that it is like other areas we have visited. In other words, you have to know where it is safe to be and where it is not. You have to lock up your dinghy, and be careful and sensible about your personal activities. We really wanted to experience going as far south as we could in the time frame we have, even if it could only be a brief introduction to South America. We know we will going back to the states before next hurricane season, and we want to see and do as much as we can in the interim.
From Grenada, we sailed overnight to Isla Margarita, north of the Venezuelan coast, but officially a new continent!! We spent ten days anchored at Margarita, a very friendly spot, with many boats, a good modern mall, and very low prices, including 8 cents for a gallon of diesel fuel. Can't beat that! While we were there, Jamie was there as well, vacationing with a Venezuelan family (their daughter was an exchange student at her school the previous year). We had a wonderful visit with Jamie and her friends, and enjoyed Margarita very much! Filled up with diesel and gasoline to the brim, after hearing from friends that diesel was not available to foreigners in Puerto la Cruz.
We left Margarita at 4:00 am to sail to Puerto la Cruz, on the northern coast of Venezuela. This was a beautiful 10 hour sail! The coast of Venezuela surprisingly looks like mountainous desert.... not what we expected. You do feel like you are in a different world, though! We arrived in Puerto la Cruz a little apprehensive, but assured that the marina was very secure. We have found it to be very nice here, and very safe if you are aware! (I should clarify that the neighborhood adjoining the gated marina is not safe to walk alone in at night!) There is a beautiful canal system here that looks a bit like Ft. Lauderdale, with some very modern shopping malls, and nice restaurants. I think we were expecting it to be more like Luperon, in the Dominican Republic, but it is not. There is easy access to almost anything you need. You can take your dinghy through the canal system to the mall and grocery store very safely, and there is a whole cadre of taxi drivers available who all speak English, know where to find what, and will stay with you and translate for you. Of course, the only down side of this is that we are not speaking as much Spanish as we did in the D.R.
We have reunited with some friends that we hadn't seen for awhile, including Evensong (currently in Maine for Sue's daughter's wedding) and Maker's Match (heading west), and Suzanne and Howard on Leadership, who now have an incredible nine month old little boy named Sam. We really enjoyed spending time with that baby before they flew off to the UK for a visit. We've also made new friends in the marina, like Buddy and Melissa from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Indigo Moon. There are many other boaters here who have been west of here and/or in the Pacific, and they have incredible stories to tell. We had a huge 85 foot catamaran beside us for several weeks, Lone Star, which made our 48 footer look puny. The owners spoke French and Spanish, and the crew spoke French, Spanish and English. We feel so unworldly!
As usual, we are doing some more boat projects while we have shore power. Jeff has gutted and is remodeling our shower room, which involves blood, sweat and tears! I am cleaning out and reorganizing all of our storage areas. The girls are enjoying the AC units jammed above the nav station and in the galley hatch (it is quite hot here!), the fresh baguettes every day for 1,000 Bolares (about 40 cents), the dozen marina cats that each have their own territory and food dish, the book exchange, the nice pool, and the other boaters with children (some French, some Dutch, some British, as well as the South Americans). We also have adopted a new kitty that needed a home. So we now have a dog from California, a cat from Florida, and a kitten from Venezuela! We have been to Barcelona for yellow fever vaccines, and to Lecheria where they held the Virgin of the Valley festivities. By the way, the Virgin actually appeared in a valley on the island of Margarita, but it is celebrated everywhere. There have been fireworks here on and off the entire month, at all hours of the day and night. Makes it hard to distinguish from the gun shots!
We plan to leave here next week and head further west to Tortuga, the Aves, Los Roques and Bonaire, and possibly Curacao. We are really looking forward to the snorkeling, diving and scenery in those areas! Still lots of great places to experience! At some point we really will need to turn around and head back east and north!
I can't say enough good things about what this experience has meant to all of us as a family. I think it has just been an incredible adventure for the girls. They have met so many different kinds of people from so many cultures. They have seen places and things that many people will not encounter in their entire lifetime. And they have learned things about themselves, and what they are capable of doing, that I am not sure they would have learned in the traditional classroom setting. It had been an amazing odyssey! By the way, Jamie is in Orlando, Fl now, in her freshman year at the University of Central Florida.... loving it! More to come.... Pam
Update: 6/1/06
We have spent the last couple of months traveling from Puerto Rico to Culebra and Culebrita (Spanish Virgin Islands), then through St. Thomas and St. John (US Virgin Islands), and Jost Van Dyke, Tortola, Peter Island, Norman Island and Virgin Gorda (British Virgin Islands). Have had an absolutely wonderful experience in all these islands! Gorgeous scenery, great snorkeling, and lots of charter boats out here with people on their week's vacation, who can't believe we live on our boat full-time. We have liked so many things in the Virgin Islands - favorite spots include the beach and reefs at Culebrita, Christmas Cove outside of St. Thomas, Nanny Cay in Tortola (where the kids enjoyed some of their friends for a long time, while we had the boat out of the water to have the bottom painted), and the Bitter End and the Baths in Virgin Gorda. We will spend another couple of days around Peter & Norman Islands, and Virgin Gorda, then leave the BVIs and head for St. Martin. We have family coming there in mid-June, so we are going to join them for a few days. The plan is to head south from there, through the Leeward and Windward Islands, down to Venezuela for hurricane season!
Update: 12/13/2005 thru 03/16/2006
We left Luperon and had an easy 45 hr. sail across the North coast of Dominican Republic and the Mona Passage to get to Boqueron in Puerto Rico. The view of the North coast was just incredible, and our weather was perfect. This was our longest and potentially the trickiest passage we had to date. So we were just delighted with our luck. We even caught a potential fire in the cockpit before it became a problem (a battery cable was severely corroded and burnt through causing a lot of smoke). There were 6 other cruising boats from Luperon that arrived in Boqueron within a 24 hour period. We all hit Customs / Immigrations in Mayaguez at the same time. The officials were very professional, helpful, and understanding. Then we had several days of celebrating including Happy Hour jam sessions, Texas Hold-em poker, swimming and kayaking (finally) and several trips to the Mayaguez mall (for the first English books store for 6 months and Christmas shopping).
After a week (or so) in Boqueron, we sailed around the Southwest coast to be (finally) in the Caribbean Sea and headed to La Parguera. This town actually had a real grocery store and ATM machines. The town was a very nice quaint little place. The shore was lined with homes and businesses built on pilings over the water. There was no public dock, but one of the Dive Operations allowed the cruisers to tie up to his docks. It was a refreshing change and we spent Christmas and New Year's there.
We dragged our feet to leave La Parguera, but we finally left and spent a day at Gilligan's Island (we didn't find any of the castaways). The next leg got us to Ponce (Puerto Rico's second largest city). We anchored off La Guancha (the harbor front boardwalk and the Ponce Yacht and Fishing Club) for a week. We moved to the Yacht Club dock to secure the boat for our trip back to Florida in January. We spent 3 weeks visiting Colleges, Doctors, shopping, and getting school evaluations completed. After coming back with several bags of boat projects, we stayed on the dock for awhile, fixing heads (toilets), installing a new water maker, and getting some dental work done! Meanwhile we met our British friends in San Juan who just had a new baby boy. We also explored the island, visiting the Arecibo Observatory (largest radio telescope, used in the movies: Contact and GoldenEye), Rio Camuy cave park, and the El Yunque rain forest. Jeff
Update: 07/03/2005 thru 12/12/2005
We arrived in the Dominican Republic on July 3rd after an interesting passage from Big Sand Key in the Turks and Caicos. One of the boats that we were crossing with had several systems fail and needed a rescue from the US Coast Guard. A helicopter from the Bahamas and a Cutter from Puerto Rico responded to tow the boat to the Dominican Republic and hand them over to the Dominican Navy. It was an incredible response from the US Coast Guard to help this Canadian vessel...
Our stay in Luperon on the North coast, has been interesting. The country is absolutely beautiful!! Amazing, lush trees and mountains and beautiful seascapes. There is Internet access, but it is at best 'dial up' speed. The country has electrical power, but only for 10 hrs. or so a day. We didn't see many accidents, but rules of the road were mostly just suggestions. Public transportation is everywhere and we were able to use it to go all over the island for very reasonable rates. It is a little more expensive if you want to have some room to yourself. The 'motor conchos' (motorcycles) could have up to 7 people on them. The 'Gua Guas' (minivans) could hold up to 27 people (maybe chickens, pigs, and/or shellfish as well). All of the local Dominicans that we met were extremely friendly and helpful. They made an effort to help us with our Spanish and would check our progress the next time that they saw us.
The harbor provided excellent protection from hurricanes and since none came within 200 miles of us, we didn't have to test that theory. It is surrounded by high hills and the entrance makes a 90 degree turn to keep the swells out. The country itself had huge mountains that break up the storms before they get to the North coast. Pam really enjoyed the contrast with the Bahamas. The Bahamian Islands were basically flat. In Luperon, we could watch the clouds and their shadows roll across hills around us in the harbor. Although it was a very safe harbor for hurricane season, the harbor itself wasn't a place where we would want to swim.
The girls loved riding the waterfalls and the local horses, and playing soccer and softball with the Dominicans. They also really liked visiting the larger cities, Puerto Plata, Santiago, and Santo Domingo, where they had 'real' stores. The local stores had the basics, but we had to go to the bigger cities to really provision.
The harbor was filled with some wonderful cruisers that we became great friends with over the 5 months. We are keeping track of everyone's progress, as most are spread out across the Northeastern Caribbean now. Jeff
Update: 06/21/05
It's been busy the past ten days! We left Rum Cay on schedule, and sailed fifteen hours to West Plana Cay. This is farther than the Acklins, but we had a good tack sailing southeast, so we bypassed the Acklins. Anchored at ten pm, up close to another beautiful beach! Just spent one day there, then started out for Mayaguana, due to storm fronts heading our way. We started out expecting this to be a seven hour trip, but our weather data gave us incentive to head south as quickly as possible. We encountered many squalls which we tacked around, and by the time we approached Mayaguana, it looked even worse there. So, we continued sailing through that evening and night, dodging squalls on our radar, and going through one thunderstorm, arriving at the north side of Provo (Providenciales), Turks & Caicos, at seven am. (We spent exactly three months in the Bahamas...time for another stamp in the passports!)
It was a tiring 24 hour sail, but we were happy to be south of the storm front. Mayaguana continued to get even worse weather the next few days, while we were exploring Provo. We had a day or two of gray clouds and quick rain showers, but those are perfect days for snorkeling... the fish are out in excess! The girls and I did some snorkeling where all the tourists fly in to snorkel, and really enjoyed it. Jeff, unfortunately, was walking miles to get an alternator rebuilt for one of our engines. Such is the cruising life... We tried to make it up to him later!
When the weather was stable again, we headed east to cut through a shallow passage to the south side of Provo, and then east across the Caicos Bank (see second map on Maps page). However, in order to make it through this channel, you have to have enough light to see the water, shoals and coral heads well, and you have to be going at high tide (that would mean about six inches of water below our keels in this spot). On that particular day, the conditions weren't right for us to make it through (or maybe we were just too cautious?), although our friends made it through, and are now a day ahead of us!
We ended up having to backtrack, and go around the west side of Provo, as shown on the map. The next day, we attempted to make the 43 mile trek across the Caicos Bank, but with uncooperative waves and wind, couldn't make enough speed to cross before dark. This is one spot where you can't navigate in the dark. Again, you have to have good light to steer clear of the numerous coral heads spread throughout the area. So, we are now sitting on the south side of Provo, waiting for a good day with the right weather conditions to make it across the Bank, and then continue on south to the Dominican Republic.
Update: 06/11/05
Left George Town last weekend, and sailed to Conception Island. Spent a few days there enjoying the beautiful crescent beaches, and snorkeling. Once again, had one or two fishermen anchored beside us (the marlin are running now!) Sailed a few days ago from Conception south to Rum Cay. Just happened to arrive during the Savannah Billfish Blast! (In other words, a dozen fishing boats competing in a Georgia Good 'Ole Boy Marlin Tournament) Had a lot of fun watching the fishing boats come in each evening, and listening to some fish stories. They release the marlins they catch, but some came back with wahoo (an 80 pounder!) and tuna they caught along the way! (I didn't mention that I was a Gator!) We will be leaving tomorrow morning for the Acklins, and then on to Mayaguana. It feels good to be heading south again into new anchorages!
Update: 05/20/05
We left George Town over two weeks ago, and sailed to Long Island, farther east and south. We are traveling with another catamaran with a family that we met in George Town. Long Island is a 76 mile-long island, with many small, well-kept communities spread throughout. They also host a regatta, so Jeff had the opportunity to crew on one of the Class C racing boats one day. It was a thrill, even though the boat he was on didn't do too well! We spent time in three different anchorages there, and rented a car one day to explore the whole island. My favorite part was the World's Deepest Blue Hole at Turtle Cove. This was a breathtaking view! We snorkeled there, and jumped down from the rocks above. The reef nearby was great! We also enjoyed all the small, friendly restaurants on the island, like Harbour View, Midway Inn, and Max's Conch Bar. There are many old, beautiful churches there, and beautiful scenery.
From Long Island, we headed south, but west again, to the Jumentos Cays. All the locals at Long Island told us this was the place to go to really do serious fishing. We wanted to check that out and catch some fish! We hadn't had any luck fishing around Long Island. We caught three barracuda trolling off the back of the boat on our way to the Jumentos, but lost all three before we could get them on the boat. We figured out quickly that we needed to perfect our technique! It goes something like this: fish on the line, slow down the boat immediately, net and gloves ready, reel him in, no children in the cockpit screaming "Dad, don't get bit!", no dog barking and trying to eat the fish!, throw fish into the cockpit (thereby not allowing him to swim right off the swim platform!), then deal with getting him into the cooler.
We anchored on our own private little beach at Water Cay, just past the half-dozen fishing boats who regularly anchor at the north end of the cay. The fishermen were very friendly, and I got a good view of their huge tub full of grouper, snapper, grunts, etc. We traded with them for some fish, then we jumped into our dinghy and went conching. This involves racing from cove to cove, throwing out an anchor, jumping over with your snorkel and fins, and pulling up as many conchs as you can find. Between our two boats, we ended up with nineteen conchs, which we considered ok, since the fishermen conch there every day, and clean it out.
Jeff and I had planned to stay there a day or two and do some fishing, but heard about the tropical storm approaching from the southwest. We decided to head back north to George Town to get in an anchorage with all-around protection. We ended up leaving the next morning without doing the fishing. We had 30 knot winds and some squalls on the way, but caught a Spanish mackerel on the way. We were so proud of ourselves, and it was delicious! The girls liked it, too, and recommended we try to catch more of them, just "bigger" ones.
So, we're back in George Town, safe and somewhat sound, ordering parts to repair the various things that now need repairs. We'll be here through the storm, which we expect Monday. We didn't anticipate having Internet access for another couple of weeks, so at least while we're here, we can get this updated. Everyone be well! Pam
Update: 05/03/05
We arrived in George Town, Great Exuma, several days before the beginning of the Family Island Regatta. The girls have been very happy here because there were about 150 cruising boats here during the regatta, and we've met other cruisers with children on board. The regatta was amazing to see. There were events in town, and races throughout five days. It was my first experience at a regatta close-up, and it was breathtaking, exhilarating and scary all at the same time. Sometimes we would take our dinghy to the race lines, and then speed ahead to the next tack line, and so forth. It was very exciting to be close and see the crews yanking up their anchors, raising their sails, and sitting on their boards, dipping into the water as they sailed.
George Town itself is smaller than we expected, but still a neat place. There are several beaches right here, and lots of activities for boaters. We have met so many people here, and have enjoyed every minute of it. Everyone has incredible stories to tell about their travels! Many people are heading farther south from here, or have been south through the winter, so we have heard so much about Mayaguana, Turks and Caicos, Hispaniola, the Dominican Republic (Luperon), Puerto Rico, Culebra, and Venezuela.
Of course, in addition to telling their sailing and fishing stories, the cruisers are all pretty relaxed, happy people. No stress in the islands! We are all loving it. The girls are doing really well with school work, and really enjoy seeing what the island towns are like. They love meeting other kids and hearing about their backgrounds, exchanging books, and travel stories. Of course, they still miss their other friends, but it's made it easier now that they've made some new friends, too. We've added lots of pictures to the photo album, so check it out if you're interested! Pam
Update: 04/19/05
Here is a long overdue update! We have now been out "cruising" for over five weeks. It has been wonderful, educational and always interesting! Right now we are anchored out at Staniel Cay (pronounced 'key') in the Exumas, Bahamas. Just to the north of us, we can see from our boat the mooring balls outside Thunderball Grotto, where scenes from Thunderball, Splash and Cocoon were filmed. We went snorkeling inside the grotto yesterday, and it was pretty cool to see. A large school of fish are waiting for snorkelers at the entrance, knowing that most have some bread for them. Once inside, it is larger than you expect. You look up through the holes in the rock where the sunlight shines down into the grotto. No Sean Connery, Tom Hanks or Darryl Hannah, though!
We also have a prime view of the marina here to the east, where the mega-yachts are docked. It is a small dock, so only a handful of boats can be there at a time, so it's interesting to watch them come in and out, with their entourage of tenders, wave runners, and floats. We've seen several places now that many of these larger yachts have a large tender that arrives ahead of them to mark the way in the shallow waters going in the channel. Some of the big boats do anchor out with the "cruising folk", then tender in to the dock for dinner at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club, which is a delightful combination of bar, restaurant and marina office. As we've experienced everywhere, the people here are all extremely friendly. Tomorrow we may visit the famous swimming pigs nearby, although we've heard so much about them that we feel like we've already seen them!
We came here from the Exuma Land and Sea Park at Warderick Wells Cay. This was a wonderful place, which the kids loved. The Land and Sea Park extends 22 miles, encompassing 15 large islands and numerous tiny ones. The Park's purpose is to provide a safe haven for Bahamian-native wildlife, and to educate the public in saving their incredibly beautiful environment. The park is a no-take zone, where fishing, shelling, destruction of any marine mammals, birds, plants, coral or beach sand is prohibited.
The headquarters for the park is located at Warderick Wells. This cay also has many beautiful trails that were cut by various volunteers over the years. We hiked from one end of the island to the other, through the various trails. It was absolutely beautiful! From our mooring ball, we could easily see Boo Boo Hill, where legend has it missionaries from a nearby shipwreck congregate to sing and call to one another on moonlit nights. At the top of Boo Boo Hill there is a cairn where, for years now, boaters have left plaques with their boat name, or some memento of their boat. This is the only place on the island where you can leave anything other than your footprints. It is pretty amazing to see all the creative ways people have come up with to leave their mark here. Many plaques are made from driftwood, some painted, some stitched, some etched out. We also saw a spear-gun, flags, T-shirts and shells. Many signs had dates, and often there were several dates to mark each return visit.
The girls loved Boo Boo Hill, but liked even more the beach area to one side of our boat, and the sand bar to the other side, which only emerged at low tide each day. They would kayak over, or just swim over, and play there for an hour or two every day. That is where we spent Marcie's 10th birthday afternoon, burying her in the sand with a mermaid fin! We got used to the sting rays that would come by the boat often, and the appearance of Bubba, the resident barracuda who liked the shadow of our boat, as did the yellowtails!
Before Warderick Wells, we anchored at Norman's Cay and explored the beaches there. Were there for our first thunderstorm during the night, which was a little scary because there were a dozen boats in the anchorage, and we all seemed to be swinging around wildly through the storm. Jeff was out there in a torrential downpour, worrying about our anchor and everyone else's!
Allen's Cay, which was our stop between Nassau and Norman's was pretty cool. This anchorage was a group of three small islands, where they have a colony of iguanas found no where else in the world. Because boats from Nassau come here with tourists to see the iguanas, the creatures are used to being well-fed, and will run down the beach towards you as your dinghy arrives. (There were dozens of them, some quite big.) They have an amazing beach area at SW Allen's, where we saw tons of starfish, and more iguanas. We had a great time exploring there, but the current was strong, so not much snorkeling. I should also mention the "fingernail" or "thimble" jellyfish that we have seen everywhere in the Bahamas. They are tiny, tiny jellyfish that supposedly don't sting, unless they get underneath loose clothing, and get "caught". Jillian learned this the hard way, but was never bothered by her rash. At Allen's Cay, there were thousands of these jellyfish in the water.... a little freaky for swimming, but we got used to it.
Of course, the kids loved our visit to Nassau and the impressive Atlantis hotel and aquarium. It is an amazing place, and we decided to do it "just once!" The aquarium is unbelievable, and of course, the kids loved the pools, beaches and waterslides, all of which we enjoyed because of a wonderful lady who lent us her pass!!!! Thank you!
I think I sent E-mail out about our trip across the Gulf Stream, and our first foreign port, Bimini. From there we went to Chub Cay for a few days, then on to Nassau. So, that's our reverse order update of where we've been, and what we've been doing! When we leave Staniel Cay, we will head down to George Town on Great Exuma, for the Family Island Regatta next Monday. We are expecting to meet many other cruising families there! The girls have met some other kids along the way, so that's been nice. The home schooling is going well, too! We hope everyone is well and healthy! Check the photo album for new pictures, and the link from there to the map showing our route! Pam
Update: 04/01/05
We are now at Hurricane Hole Marina on Paradise Island, and are preparing to leave today for Allen's Cay in the Exumas. The Photo Album page has a few new pictures... Jeff
Update: 03/26/05
Have finally ventured out from the Florida coast. Went from No Name Harbor at Key Biscayne across the Gulf Stream to Bimini. From there have gone to Chub Cay, then on to Nassau. Will be leaving here shortly for the Exumas. Hope to make it to George Town on Great Exuma in a few weeks. Everyone enjoying the sights and snorkeling. People are extremely friendly!! Wish we could say more, but Internet access is hard to come by in the Bahamas, so will update again when we can!!
Update: 03/05
Ended up in Pompano much longer. Enjoyed the holidays there, and visited many friends. Jeff re-fitted our galley and made some other changes so we would have more refrigeration and storage space. Went to the west coast to visit his parents in Bradenton. Finally left Pompano Beach on February 21, but ran into trouble early on, outside the Port Everglades Inlet in Ft. Lauderdale. We had already looked pretty silly leaving the dock in Pompano, with friends as witnesses. We were immediately questioning whether we knew what we were really doing. I'm sure our friends are still wondering the same thing!
Anyway, we had some hinky things going on with one engine, so we threw our anchor in 40 ft of water, and Jeff dove down to take a look at the sail drives. Everything looked ok, so we tried to pull up our anchor, figuring we would head in to a marina and check out the engines fully. No such luck. Jeff dove down again to find that we had hooked our anchor on an underground cable. Maybe we shouldn't be out here?? We ended up with a SEATOW diver, who had to retrieve our anchor, which was actually wrapped around someone else's abandoned anchor. We still have that as a souvenir, by the way. We ended up being towed down the New River to River Bend Marina, not far from River Walk.
At that point, we decided it would be prudent to have a mechanic look over our engines. We spent two and a half weeks there, making other repairs, and waiting for weather to head south again. Also ended up visiting more people, and finding some more bargains in Ft. Lauderdale, so that worked out ok.
Update: 12/17/04
After getting our major repairs done, putting our new sail on, and waiting for days through bad weather, we finally left Fort Pierce, with much delight, to really sail our boat! We arrived in Pompano Beach, FL. just before Thanksgiving, after a wonderful four-day sail down from Fort Pierce with some friends joining us. We had planned it as a two-day trip, but extended it to four days, so we could spend a day at Peanut Island exploring the beach. We spent another day at Boca Inlet, fishing, swimming and kayaking to search for crabs. The five kids had a marvelous time, and the sailing felt great after all the waiting!
We are truly grateful to the incredible families who have opened their hearts and homes to us! Our girls are thrilled to spend some time with their friends after six weeks in Fort Pierce. We have spent the past few weeks making our final repairs on the boat. We lost one of our props (propellers) somewhere in the Hillsborough Inlet (imagine that!), and had several other minor issues. Jeff has been busy every day making the boat more livable and comfortable before we head out cruising. We have been bringing box after box from our storage area, deciding what we really need on the boat, and what we can live without. There also has been a great deal of holiday visiting and shopping, and a little bit of drinking wine while watching the boats travel back and forth on the Intracoastal.
I honestly will be updating the website much more often. For two computer professionals, Jeff and I were embarrassed to be caught without current backups when our hard drive crashed in Fort Pierce. We have just this week recovered most of the data, our pictures, address file, and the website software! To make matters more humorous, I dropped my cell phone (my only other source of phone numbers) into the canal here early on, and experienced a little bit of that isolation that I'm sure we will have to get used to in a bigger way after we really leave! For those of you who wonder....we really are going to leave one day very soon! Happy Holidays to all! Pam
Update: 10/14/04
A month later, and so much has happened! Yes, we finally were able to close on the sale of our house on Sept. 17th, right in between the warnings for Hurricane Ivan on the west coast of Florida, and the warnings for Hurricane Jeanne on the east coast. We weren't sure it was going to come together, but the sun shined on us for one Friday, and we were able to get the papers signed. We were more than thrilled to get past this step in our journey, and move on to the next step!
A week later, Hurricane Jeanne swept through Fort Pierce, following almost exactly the same path Frances took, directly over our boat-to-be. The boat suffered some minor damage in Hurricane Frances, so we knew that the headsail would need to be replaced, and some fiberglass repair would be needed on the side that rubbed against the dock. Jeff and the owner of the boat were able to tie the boat down very well prior to Jeanne, so it suffered very little further damage. We decided to buy the boat and supervise the repairs ourselves, so on October 2, we became boat owners!
We spent a few days driving from Parkland to Fort Pierce to move basics aboard, then spent our first night sleeping on the boat to celebrate Rachel's 12th birthday, October 6th. We have been "live-aboards" ever since! We officially can't be called "cruisers" yet, because we are waiting for our new sail and some parts to repair the track that the mainsail slides up and down on the mast. Meanwhile, Jeff is working on the repairs to the side of the boat, and checking out all our systems (engines, GPS, radar, water maker, etc). We are hoping to be ready for our first sail in another two weeks. We'll head south now (it's too cold already to sail north!), and after a quick stop in Pompano Beach, we'll be off to the Keys, Bahamas and through some of the Caribbean for the winter!
The girls love having their own rooms after all the weeks in hotels, and they are enjoying all the big boats that come through this marina on their way south. They are doing great so far with their schooling. There are five manatees that visit here often, and numerous pelicans, sea gulls, and other water fowl. They especially like going out in the sea kayak for a closer look! All is going well, and we hope the same is true for all our friends! Pam
Update: 9/09/04
Jeff flew down to Florida a few days ago to take care of our downed trees and check on the house. Luckily, other than trees and debris, and one air conditioner compressor, everything is all right at our house. Our closing has been delayed until September 15th, so the appraiser can verify there has been no damage from Hurricane Frances. Of course, we are now watching Hurricane Ivan, which is heading for Jamaica and possibly South Florida. When will it all end?? Jeff is flying back to Atlanta tonight, and we'll watch Ivan to decide where and when we go next!
Update: 9/05/04
As I type this, we are watching news reports of Hurricane Frances moving through central Florida. All day and night yesterday we watched for news of our friends in South Florida, and how the hurricane was affecting them as it made landfall between Melbourne and West Palm Beach.
We are staying in Atlanta, GA. We had finished out our two weeks in Plantation Key last Tuesday, and went back to Deerfield Beach for two days to check on our house in Parkland and go to some doctor appointments. We headed north Thursday morning to sit in traffic on the FL Turnpike with the thousands of other Floridians leaving the state. Being a true Gator, (and Jeff having his trusty Microsoft Maps and Streets, laptop and wireless connection), we used all the old less-traveled routes, where we had no trouble finding gas or getting around. We drove through the night to Atlanta, and have much enjoyed the Family Festival here prior to the Annual Labor Day 10K Run tomorrow.
We were scheduled to close on our house tomorrow (finally), but that will have to be delayed again, of course, until the repercussions of Frances are sorted out. So far, it seems as if our neighbors and friends have made it through the worst of the storm with little damage, and spirits intact. We are very grateful for that, and extend our empathy, once again, to all Floridians affected by this massive hurricane!
Our neighbors have reported several large trees downed in our neighborhood and around our house. Thank goodness none of them came down on any roofs! The boat we were planning to purchase this week is in a marina in Fort Pierce, which the hurricane battered for some 18+ hours. It remains to be seen, after attending to the house, how the boat fared.
Not to diminish the tragic impact of Hurricane Frances, I should report that we had a marvelous two weeks in the Keys! Jeff and I both were able take turns going diving with Rachel while she was doing her check out dives for her SCUBA class. Marcie and Jillian came out snorkeling on the same boat to the Benwood Wreck and famous Molasses Reef in Pennekamp State Park off Key Largo, and had a wonderful time. We saw hundreds of incredible fish, beautiful coral formations, and even some nurse sharks, including a mom and baby. I was lucky enough to see a huge moray eel hanging out under the keel of a sunken wreck, and a sea turtle as well. It was amazing diving!!! See Rachel's personal web pages about the class and diving experience for more details about that.
As soon as roads are clear, we will head back to Parkland to take care of our trees and house, and see what the future will bring! Be safe and well, friends! Pam
Update: 8/23/2004
I know some of our friends have been checking this website to see where we are and what's happening for us. The only reason we haven't been updating it is because there hasn't been much to tell. We still have not closed on our house! The date is now set for September 2, and we are hopeful that this is an actual solid date (for a change)! Meanwhile, we decided to live our life as if we were already sailing (almost), so we took off for the Keys. We spent two days snorkeling in Key Largo (fabulous!), and then were chased north again when Hurricane Charley caused a mandatory visitor evacuation of the Keys. Our sincere sympathies lie with all the victims north of us who experienced Charley personally!
Since that time, we have rented a small house in Plantation Key for two weeks while waiting for the house closing. We've now been in the Keys for six days, and it's feeling very good. We have been fishing, swimming and exploring. The landlord has taken us out on his boat for a spin, which was really great because it was our first test of having the our beagle, Buddy, out on the open water. Buddy liked it very much, and before long was standing with his front paws on the very edge, gazing into the water.
Rachel is signed up to get her PADI SCUBA certification this week, and Jeff and I will be doing our SCUBA refresher courses at the same time. Rachel has a textbook to get through, and then a three day course with check-out dives on the Pennekamp Coral Reef. She is very excited about this!
All three girls are settling into some new routines with daily chores they will each have on the boat, and some semblance of home schooling most days. All in all, we can't complain, because our new life is beginning, and within a very short time we will be done with the house and on the boat. Check out the sailing link above for more pictures of the boat, and how we chose her name. Pam
Update: 8/07/2004
We had our "potential" boat surveyed on July 21st and all went well. The owners just moved to North Carolina (August 3rd) and left the boat behind in Fort Pierce. Everything is in place to buy the boat once the house closes.
The house closing has taken a little longer than we thought it would. We were all set for closing on July 16th, but that got delayed a few times. It is now August 7th and our buyers are going to close on their house next week (we think). If they do, we will close 1 or 2 days after that.
In the mean time, we have an empty house, most of our furniture has been sold, we have 3 storage areas to hold our stuff, and we have been staying with friends and in hotels for the last month. ...Jeff
This page was last updated on 10/01/07.
