Christmas in Marsh Harbour, Abaco

December 18, 2014

Well, this year we have made it to where we had hoped to spend Christmas - Marsh Harbour in the Abacos.  The biggest reason that this was our target destination this year was so that we could spend Christmas with our Grace Baptist Church family in Dundas Town.

The transit weather was great, as opposed to last year where we spent two weeks in Bimini and almost a week in West End traveling from Miami to Marsh Harbour.  This year we made the trip in less than a week with a 3-night stop in West End.  Great weather window!

We are docked at Harbour View Marina where we plan to stay at least a few weeks.

Time to take the fids off the coffee pot and tea kettle!

We have put up our Christmas decorations; we have a small wreath, instead of a tree.  When we were selling our house we gathered a small collection of ornaments to bring on the boat.  The criteria for selection were: small, relatively unbreakable, and of sentimental value.  In spite of a water dousing courtesy of a leaking water heater a few years ago, they have held up fairly well.  Our 25+ year music-box ornament still plays 'Silent Night'!

'Sled-bear' sliding down our cabin wall

Always remembering the true meaning of Christmas:

Wishing all a blessed Christmas from the crew of SV Barefoot!


Tom & Joyce
Docked Marsh Harbour, Abaco

Arrival West End, Grand Bahama

December 12, 2014

We have arrived in the Bahamas after crossing the Gulf Stream from Miami.

As planned, we departed Coconut Grove at 1430 on Thursday (12/11).  We like to leave so we can exit Biscayne Bay and start to get away from the coast before it gets dark.  After transiting across Biscayne Bay and out the Biscayne Bay Channel, we set a current sailing course for West End on Grand Bahama.  Because of the strong Gulf Stream (up to 3 knots) you must allow for the current in your course, essentially aiming somewhat 'upstream'.  There are calculations that help to determine your best course, but in the end it is always a bit of trial and error.

Wind was light and variable, so this was primarily a motoring trip. This was not a particularly fast crossing, but we were taking off speed for almost half of the trip to delay our arrival until after the marina opened and we still arrived too early. The wind picked up a bit about 10 miles from West End, but at that point we were really trying to slow up so as not get to the Old Bahama Bay Marina too early.

We still arrived at 0830 on Friday before any dock staff were on duty.  We temporarily docked on the seawall to await the opening of the marina and customs.  This docking was probably the most exciting part of the trip with a moderate wind blowing off the dock. With no assistance from the dock to handle lines, this is a relatively difficult maneuver, but after a couple unsuccessful attempts to get a line around a piling we finally snagged one.  Luckily, we had plenty of room.

After clearing customs and immigration, we moved to our slip.  Catching up on sleep and cleaning the boat after a month of Miami birds topped the activities list.

On Monday or Tuesday we will continue on to Great Sale Cay and then Green Turtle Cay, where we will spend some time.  We had planned to be in Marsh Harbour by Christmas, but it seems we rarely spend holidays where we thought we would.  We may or may not make it - that is the cruising life - you can sail or you can have schedule,but you can't have both!

Tom
Docked Old Bahama Bay
West End, Grand Bahama

Farewell Miami - Hello Bahamas!

December 11, 2014

It is with mixed emotions that we plan to leave Miami shortly and transit to the Bahamas.

It is with some sadness that we prepare to leave Miami.  We have been here for a little over a month, and have had a great time.  Miami is a vibrant and interesting city that we have grown to like very much.

When people imagine cruising on a sailboat, they naturally think about tropical islands and deserted white sand beaches - and certainly that is something that we experience in  the Bahamas.  But another aspect of cruising can be immersing in a city like Miami for an extended period of time - maybe call it 'urban-cruising'.   Seeing the sites yes, but doing everyday things like shopping, doing laundry, and riding mass-transit also makes you feel like a real part of the city.

Goodbye Miami -  we will be back!

But it is with gladness that we think about transiting to the beautiful Bahamian islands and seeing our many Bahamian friends.

Whether in Miami or the Bahamas, meeting people from other cultures is what makes travel special.  As we meet, spend time with, and get to know 'them' -  they magically become 'us'.

In the 'nuts and bolts' category - we plan to leave Coconut Grove on Thursday afternoon around 3 PM and transit the Gulf Stream to West End, Grand Bahama overnight.  This allows a daylight departure from Biscayne Bay and a Friday morning arrival at Old Bahama Bay Marina in West End.  Any Gulf Stream crossing must be taken  very seriously with the strong current and large amount of commercial traffic.  We will post some location updates while underway and another blog entry after arrival.

Tom
Moored Coconut Grove

Great Pizza - 'Visa-O1' in Miami Beach

December 8, 2014

Ice cream and pizza are two things we crave when we are in the Bahamas.  We find lots of good ice cream and gelato as soon as we return to the States, but good pizza is more illusive.  No longer...we've found a great pizza restaurant and coffee shop in Miami Beach, Visa-O1.  The chef, Renato, is in the US on an O1 visa, which are reserved for individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement.  Renato has won many pizza competitions in Italy, and now we can enjoy his masterpieces here in Miami.  The crust is very thin, with a wonderful sauce and just the right seasonings.  And, his pastries are to die for, especially the Nutella croissants.

All Photo Credits TripAdvisor

Visa-O1 is not the easiest restaurant to find, being tucked in a back corner of the first floor of an office building.  In fact, the first time we went there, we had to ask the guard if there really was a pizza place in the building.  But, this is the way Renato likes it.  The hidden location and homey atmosphere make it special.

The entrance of the 1680 Michigan Ave building

Visa-O1 has been open 6 weeks and currently has 74 Trip Advisor reviews, 72 being the highest ranking (excellent) and the other two being very good, putting them number 1 of over 700 restaurants in Miami Beach.  Since we discovered it two weeks ago, we've visited three times, even though it's a 1/2 hour drive from Coconut Grove,  Today we took public transportation, a trip of 1-1/2 to 2 hours each way, which required two different buses, the Metrorail and the Metromover.  But, it was worth it! 

Renato in his native Italy

And, Miami Beach is always interesting, with a mix of model thin young people in high fashion and tourists speaking almost any language but English.  People watching becomes a favorite pass time.


Joyce
Moored Miami (Coconut Grove)

Miami - Nuts & Bolts

November 26, 2014

We have been in Miami for a couple of weeks now and have been having a great time.  This post is about some 'nuts and bolts' of  a Miami visit - particularly by boat.

We are staying on a mooring at Coconut Grove Sailing Club where we have stayed many times before - a great place right in the heart of Coconut Grove .  A few years ago when we starting coming here, they had a number of open moorings which were available for transients on a first-come-first-served basis.  Although not guaranteed, there was a reasonable chance you would get a mooring.  Now with the improving economy, all their moorings are leased on a long-term basis (with a waiting list). Mooring balls are available to transients on a limited basis only when the regular boat is away (on trip or in the yard).  We feel very lucky that we got one this year, and know that the chances of getting one in the future are much slimmer than in past. This will certainly change our Miami adventures!

Although we usually rent a car for a few days to do our major shopping, we primarily rely on the great public transit in Miami.  The buses, MetroRail and downtown MetroMover can get you just about anywhere you want to go at a reasonable price.  In Coconut Grove the 'Circulator' (249) can take you around the Grove and to the Coconut Grove or Douglas Road Metro stations.  The basic fare is $0.25.  The Metro train can take you south to the University or north to downtown Miami or the airport and further north.  For the first time we 'graduated' to an 'Easy Card'  and a week's pass.  Although I am not sure we save a lot of money on the pass, it is very convenient and we find we take trips that we might not take otherwise.

We shop at the Publix on 27th Ave.  A 'Fresh Market' is within walking distance of Dinner Key, but it is very expensive and does not have the selection of a Publix.  Note, however, that there is not a lot of English spoken here - it is primarily a Spanish-customer store - but that adds to the adventure!

Coconut Grove is home to arguably the 'best hardware store anywhere' - Shell Lumber.  When my cousin first started raving about this store I was skeptical, but experience has shown that it is a great store.  They have everything, and with quality and selection way beyond the big-box stores or most hardware stores.  Check it out if you are in town.

We do our laundry at Mary's Laundromat and Cafe also on 27th avenue.  Also not a lot of English spoken here, but many machines in relatively good repair and a Cuban cafe on site.  So you can clean your clothes, eat a Cuban sandwich or a Media Noche, and sip you Cafe Con Leche in one stop - how can you beat that!

Today I tried to order a Cafe Americano (American Coffee) at Mary's with only partial success.  The server spoke almost no English and I speak limited Spanish and she had to ask another server how to make it.  Moral of the story- stick to Cafe Cubanos!

We usually try to top off our propane in Miami before we leave the States.  We  have found that propane is one of the hardest things to get in the Bahamas.  We go to Home Gas, also on upper 27th Avenue.  Jesus always cheerfully fills my tank, although he often chuckles good-naturedly when it is a partial tank fill;  kind of  "stupid guy - why don't you run it dry before you pay for a fill". I try to explain the situation, but I think I fail to adequately communicate my reasoning.

So enjoy Miami.  Embrace the diversity. Learn a little Spanish.  You will have a good time!


Tom
Moored Coconut Grove (Miami)

Miami - Entertainment

November 21, 2014

We have grown to really enjoy Miami!  It is a young and vibrant city with a distinct Latin vibe.

We have been here for about 10 days and have had some really fun adventures.

Mockingjay  (Part I)
We got to see Mockingjay (Part 1) the day it opened.  I (Tom) have been a huge fan of the Hunger Game books from before the first movie opened and I have found all of the movies well done and true to the books.  It is a very well crafted story that deals with a lot of very real (if somewhat exaggerated)  issues of income disparity and government control.  Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss Everdeen perfectly as the reluctant hero.  I have to admit that I was disappointed when they split the third (final) book into two movies, but now, at least,  I can look forward to another movie.

University of Miami - Women's Basketball
We have long been fans of Women's Basketball and would have loved to see Syracuse play here, but that game is scheduled later in the season.  But we figured it would be interesting to just see a game and we went to see Miami open against Oakland.  They won handily, but it was a fun game.  It was a mid-day game which is unusual, but great for our commuting on mass-transit.  On arrival, we learned that the primary reason for the timing was that it was 'Student Day' when groups of elementary students can come for free.  There were about 4,000 kids there that day and we were very impressed by the good manners and behavior of the public school students sitting next to us.  Although enthusiastic and high energy, they dutifully put their trash in the designated bags and polite 'pleases and thank-yous' were abundant.  Well done parents and Miami-Dade Schools!

Miami Elementary Students enjoying the game

Some of the action
Not a great picture but the best I could do with my phone

Steel Pan (Drum) 'Seminar'
On a car-trip to Miami earlier this year, we had enjoyed a Steel Pan concert at History Miami (http://www.historymiami.org/).  The 21st Century Steel Drum Band was the 'Artist in Residence' this quarter and they were offering a seminar where you could learn more about the instruments and 'learn' to play.  We thought it would be fun and signed up.  It was a blast!   It was hands-on and we were taught a few songs - we actually didn't sound half bad on a simple version of 'Matilda'  - the more complicated 'Silent Night' was another matter.

Pan-Master Joyce

Tom with the ensemble

Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens  (http://www.fairchildgarden.org/
We had been to this large botanical garden on a previous visit, but enjoyed it so much that we wanted to return.  We were not sure how many trees/scrubs would be in bloom at this time of year, but were pleasantly surprised to find that there were a lot of blooms on display.  Also the butterflies were posing nicely and I got some fairly nice shots.

Doesn't this tree look like it's decorated for Christmas!

Huge blossoms like above - different color

Rainbow Eucalyptus

Banana tree flower and fruit

Colorful shrubs

One of the art pieces from the exhibit that is currently being installed - major theme is 'balls'

The hope is that a predator would aim for the head with the big eye

On a personal note, we have also been able to spend some great time with my cousin and her family that live in the Grove.

Our newest crew-member!

Addendum  11/23/2014  UM Women's Volleyball

We went to our first Women's Volleyball game as University of Miami hosted Boston College.  It was much more exciting than we imagined.  'Kills', 'Digs', referee flag signals - so much to learn.  They play hard and fast with occasional 'change-ups' to keep the opposition off balance.  Pretty exciting!

Again, less than great cellphone picture, but hopefully it conveys a sense of the action

There was a middle-school band and dance team from a local Miami-Dade school at the game.  The band was amazingly good!

Tom
Moored Coconut Grove (Miami)

Barefoot Departs - We are in Miami

November 11, 2014

Miami Skyline

We have started our winter cruise leaving Twin Dolphin Marina in Bradenton on Tuesday, November 4th, and are currently in Miami.

In previous years we have taken our time and gunk-holed down the west coast of Florida taking 3-4 weeks to reach Miami.  For several reasons this year we decided to do a quick run to Miami and reached there in a week.

The biggest reason for the different strategy was a desire to minimize the number of  crab/lobster pots that we would have to dodge.  All down the near-coastal waters, you find crab pots and they get more numerous the father south you go, reaching 'epic' proportions from Cape Sable to Marathon. These pots must be carefully avoided - wrapping a line around the prop or rudder is a serious problem.

So we decided to go down the coast farther offshore, basically taking a rhumb line from Tampa Bay to Key West until about latitude 25.5 and then cutting over to Marathon.  This kept us in 40+ feet water and trap-free for most of the trip.  We still had quite a few traps from the 30' depth contour in, so I don't know if the effort was a total success, but we clearly had fewer traps in total and many hours where we did not have to keep a vigilant eye for traps.

This route, however, was about 215 nautical miles long and we were underway for around 35 hours - our longest passage as a couple.

We started the passage on Wednesday morning from anchor at Emerson Point on the Manatee River with a 3 AM departure out of the river.  This section features some shallow water outside the channel that requires careful navigation in the dark; a near-full moon, however, made it easier than usual.

Sunrise off Sarasota

 The trip was pretty uneventful except for some stronger than forecast winds on Wednesday night with 3-4' seas on our port quarter, that gave us quite a bumpy ride for a while.

Sunsets at Sea never get old!

We arrived in Marathon at around 4 PM on Thursday where we anchored off the Boot Key channel. Staying two nights here let us catch up on sleep at bit, do one major maintenance item and get some fuel.

Within miles of Marathon we ended up picking up some grass in our cooling water thruhull (inlet) that needed to be cleared.  A large amount of the grass around this time of year has a 'straw' like consistency that tends to get stuck right where the water enters the boat.  There is a strainer (filter) further down the line that is supposed to filter out debris, but this grass never reaches it.  We were able to motor relatively slow and get to the anchorage with the blockage without over-heating.  Then on Friday I (Tom) donned my snorkel gear to clear the thruhull.  When the visibility is low and a current is running (conditions I often face when I do this) this can be a difficult task.  At slack tide and with decent visibility in the water, I cleared it on my first dive!

Saturday had us passage up the Hawk Channel to Rodriguez Key, where we anchored for three nights, waiting out some squally weather in the Miami area.  A notable event of this leg was the large number of pink/purple jellyfish that we saw. One dive-boat Captain called them 'Moon Jellies'. When we were at Cat Island last winter, we saw thousands of little tiny jellyfish (about 1/4-inch in diameter) that appeared to have hatched recently - maybe these guys came from there? :-)

Monday we continued up the Hawk Channel to Biscayne Bay and Coconut Grove where we picked up a mooring.

Key Biscayne Skyline

Cape Florida Lighthouse

'Stiltsville'

'Stiltsville'

Miami Skyline

About 320 miles in a week - much faster than our usual pace.  Joyce will be very quick to tell you that this is equivalent to 3,200 car miles.

We plan to spend a few weeks in Miami, and then look for a weather window to cross over to the Bahamas.

Tom
Moored Coconut Grove, Miami, FL

Miami Car Trip

October 27, 2014

We are currently on a short car-trip to Miami.

The primary purpose of the trip was to donate our old sails to http://sailsforsustenance.org/.  This organization collects used sails and provides them to subsistence fishermen in Haiti. For sailors, if you have any excess sails, consider donating them to Sails For Sustenance or a similar organization.  It can make a big difference in the life of a fisherman.  A short video of re-purposed sails in action can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDLYlpcLz9I

Collection box in Miami

Of course any trip to Miami is not all business.  Miami is a vibrant city with a lot of interesting things to do and great food!

We visited the HistoryMiami museum  (http://www.historymiami.org/) in downtown Miami.  We had been to this museum a few years ago, but it has been significantly expanded since they took over the space formally occupied by the Miami Fine Arts Museum, which moved and was renamed the Perez Art Museum Miami.  A word of advice - there is still a lot of confusing or down-right misinformation about the downtown museums on the web since the recent changes.  Their expanded space is largely devoted to folklife exhibits which present local traditional arts and culture.

A highlight of the visit was a concert by an excellent steel pan (drum) band named 21st Century Steel Band (http://www.21stcenturysteelband.com/home.htm).  We have heard steel pan (rhymes with 'mon') bands many times before and this one was very good.  A surprise was a number of classical music numbers that they played.  Apparently in the early days of pan music in Trinidad, there were only two radio stations and significant airplay of classical music, and the bands played what they heard. Michael, the band leader and 'tuner', has been playing pan for around 40 years and once toured with Liberace.

No trip to Miami is complete without food (a bad place for a diet) and this trip was no exception with trips to Pollo Tropical and The Versailles Restaurant.

Also we discovered a relatively new Spanish restaurant in Coconut Grove named La Gamba.  We were walking around the Grove on Saturday night and heard some great music from a trio playing on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant.  The percussionist used a 'drum box', and a guitarist and female singer completed the trio.  The singer sounded to me like a young Celia Cruz, and they were great.  We did not eat at the restaurant, but plan to on a later visit.

As usual, we enjoyed our visit to Miami very much!

Tom
By Car
Miami, FL

Shake-down Complete

October 23, 2014

Earlier this week we completed our annual shake-down cruise.   The purpose is to reactivate equipment that has not been used over the summer and test EVERYTHING we possibly can.

We left Twin Dolphin marina in Bradenton on Sunday morning and motored down the Manatee River and across Tampa Bay to Egmont Key where we anchored.

Egmont is not the best anchorage, but it has the best water within miles and we like to reactivate and test our water maker there. We never run it in the marina, where the dirty water would clog the filters within minutes.  The process hit a small snag when a control panel would not power up.  A quick debug indicated that some unnamed incompetent marine technician had installed a new RJ12 connector backwards on a 'telephone cable' connecting the control panel to the computer; however, Joyce says I can still work on the boat because I work cheap :-).

Sure enough the east wind built up a little and it started to get bouncy at Egmont.  But that gave us at least a little wind to test out our new sails as we headed back across Tampa Bay.  We purchased a new head-sail and stay-sail from Mack Sails in Stuart FL this summer.  We were very pleased!  The sails looked and set great.  With a little under 10 knots of wind close-hauled with full sail, we were making over 5 knots through the water.  We can't wait to give them some more wind!

We then returned to the Manatee River where we spent 2 nights at anchor at Emerson Point.

Overall, the shake-down was very successful and the boat appears ready for our winter cruise.

In early November we will leave Twin Dolphin Marina and head down the west coast of Florida and eventually to Miami where we will stage for a crossing to the Bahamas.  Our exact itinerary for the season is still a bit up in the air, I guess we will figure it out as we go.

Tom
Docked Twin Dolphin Marina
Bradenton, FL

Summer Update

September 9, 2014


We thought that it was time for a little summer blog update.

We returned to Twin Dolphin Marina in early June after 7 months away, 5 1/2 of which were in the Bahamas.  We had a great cruise this year, but that is well covered in previous posts.

The good thing about returning to the dock is air conditioning - it starts to get really hot in Florida.  We have air conditioning, but we can only run it when on shore power at a dock; we cannot run it at anchor.

The bad thing about returning to the dock is that it is the beginning of 'work' and 'checkup' season:

•  For a number of reasons it is much more difficult to get many maintenance items done when we are anchored or moored, so we try to get as many things as we can done in the summer while we are docked and have shore 'resources'  (a car, good nearby stores, easily accessible garbage, and other things we lack when away from the dock).
• We have retained our doctors, dentists, and other professionals that we saw for years in Syracuse, so we return each summer for a whirl-wind tour of appointments.

Since we were having some major work done on the boat early this summer, one of the initial work items was to remove almost all the contents of the boat and take them to storage - a LOT of work

We did have some fun in that period, taking a trip to Miami for a Marlins baseball game and some Cuban food - we had a great time.  The new Marlins stadium is fantastic!

In early July we took the boat down the river to Snead Island Boat Works. The major project scheduled there was replacement of our waste holding tank.  This entailed taking up the floor in both the forward and main cabins - they don't build boats for easy maintenance!  Additionally we had our batteries replaced, some rewiring to get a dedicated starting battery, had our bottom touched up (thank you crab pots), and few other small items.

Shortly after dropping off the boat, we flew back to Syracuse for our annual visits with doctors, dentists, and friends.   All visits were good.  My worst outcome was a filling in a wisdom tooth.  The dentist was not sure if it would be a filling or an extraction, but succeeded with the filling.     I don't think there are many people my age with all their wisdom teeth - does that mean I have a lot of wisdom?  :-)

The trip north featured a little fun with a one week trip to Quebec.  We love Quebec, it is like a cheap European vacation.  We first stayed in a B&B in Sherbrooke, a town in a region called the Eastern Townships.  The area was first settled by English-speakers, but now, like most of Quebec, is heavily French.

One of the murals in Sherbrooke.
You can see some of the the 3-D effect in the picture, but it is amazing in person

Beautiful flower at our B&B in Sherbrooke

We then traveled to Quebec City.  Quite by accident, we caught the first day of Les Fetes de la Nouvelle-France (The New France Festival).  This is a fun celebration of all things French.  People dress up in period costumes (some 'performers' yes, but also just ordinary folks attending).  It is not uncommon to see whole families dressed up in 17th century garb.  The music is great - it is all in French, so we don't understand a lot, but it is definitely toe-tapping.

We have been at the festival before, but for the first time we caught the opening fire-works (highlight was the aerial Fleur de Lis display) and the parade of Geant (Giants).  I don't fully understand the origin of the Giants, but they are very large figures, some on stilts and some just located on a rolling platform. Early explorer and religious figures (actually often one and the same in history) are common.

Also many drum and bugle corps

We returned to the boat in Bradenton in early August where we are hard at work on many boat projects and provisioning for our winter cruise.  Diversions tend to be of the air conditioned kind, like movies.

We are getting a new genoa (headsail) and a new staysail this year.  Although finding tears and UV damage on almost 20-year-old sails can hardly be called unexpected, it was an unplanned expenditure this year.  The new sails are being made by Mack Sails in Stuart, FL and we should have them in a couple of weeks.

We plan to leave here in early November.  Currently we are not planning on spending as much time on the west coast of Florida as we have in the past, but rather traveling to Miami via the Dry Tortugas, a fascinating location about 60 miles west of Key West.  We have planned to go there several times before and it has never worked out for various reasons, primarily weather-related. Maybe we will get there this time!


Tom
Docked Twin Dolphin Marina
Bradenton, FL