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

3rd Winter Cruise Complete

June 10, 2014

Today we made the short trip up the Manatee River to Twin Dolphin Marina to complete our third Bahamas Cruise.  We both agree, that in spite of some significant equipment problems, this has been our favorite year.

Our 'strategy' this year was to have longer, quality visits at places where we had previously visited and enjoyed, particularly where we had made significant relationships. Highlights of the trip included Green Turtle Cay and Marsh Harbour in the Abacos,  Rock Sound on Eleuthera, New Bight on Cat Island, Emerald Bay on Exuma, and Black Point in the Exuma Cays.   In each of these places we have Bahamian friends, some of whom we dare to call 'family'.

We were out this year for over 7 months and in the Bahamas for 5 1/2 months.Now we are docked back at Twin Dolphin enjoying air conditioning! We will be returning back to Syracuse in early July for our annual doctor, dentist, and friend visits and then back to the boat in August.

A few highlight pictures from our trip:

Dave's, New Plymouth, Green Turtle

Harbour View Marina, Marsh Harbour, Abacos

Sammy's Place, Rock Sound, Eleuthera

Cat Island Beach

Gifts of Bottled Tomatoes & Green Beans - Cat Island

Beautiful Bahamian smile at the Georgetown Primary school lunch 'window'

Peermon celebrating a narrow victory in the Mother's Day walk musical chairs

Joyce being eliminated in musical chairs - two young girls in the foreground were my 'dance partners'

Black Point Coastline

Bell Rock, Cambridge Cay

Many water colors at Cambridge Cay

SV Barefoot - Coconut Grove

I don't take many 'posed people' pictures, but at times like this I wish  I had more pictures of our many Bahamian friends.  Just know that each of these places has a rich set of them.

Tom
Docked at Twin Dolphin Marina
Bradenton, FL

Cayo Costa - 33rd Wedding Anniversary

June 7, 2014

We have spent a few days anchored in Pelican Bay on Cayo Costa Island, including our 33rd wedding anniversary.  Hard to believe we have been married that long - time flies!

On our anniversary we dinghied to Cabbage Key and had a great lunch of fresh gulf shrimp and burgers - yum.  Joyce is adamant, however, that this NOT our anniversary dinner, that will be be at the Columbia Restaurant at St. Armand's after our return to Bradenton.

We exchanged cards and my lovely wife gave me the PERFECT card.  With copyright credit to Hallmark, this is what it said:

For My Husband,

It has been an amazing journey to this place where we are-
          {Sailboat Image}
We started out, like many do,
with nothing but dreams in our pockets
and stars in our eyes.
Along the way, we met our share of obstacles.
But with love as our guide,
we've always enjoyed the adventure.
And now here we are,
so many miles and memories later..
deeper in love and stronger for the journey.
I know that we're right where we've always belonged...
         together.

Happy Anniversary
Love Joyce

I could not imagine a better wife, lover, and partner!  Love you too!

Although we love this place. we plan to leave early tomorrow to head up to the Bradenton area and we will be back at Twin Dolphin Marina on Tuesday.  Tomorrow will complete over 600 miles traveled in about three weeks, including two runs of 24+ hours - a lot of miles in a boat that travels about 6 MPH!  This is equivalent to a 6,000-mile car trip.

It is getting hot and not that comfortable at anchor.  We have a modest air conditioner, but we can only run it when we are plugged into shore power, so a dock is sounding pretty good right now!

Tom
Anchored Pelican Bay
Cayo Costa, FL

Miami and on to the Florida West Coast

May 30, 2014

We have been on a mooring at Coconut Grove Sailing Club for the last week.  It is a very pleasant place right in Miami (Coconut Grove) and we have enjoyed our 'reentry' into life in the States after over five months in the Bahamas.  A neat picture of Barefoot taken by a mooring neighbor from the top of his mast follows:

We enjoy Miami, but we didn't do much that we have not reported in previous blogs except for a couple of items:

• We enjoyed a great lunch at the Versailles Restaurant in Little Havana.       http://www.versaillesrestaurant.com/.  If you see the movie 'The Chef' (which we really enjoyed) it is the restaurant that they visit after listening to Inez's father perform salsa music at a club. We are big fans of the Columbia Restaurants based in Tampa, so this was a comparison visit.  The Columbia's bread and Mojitos's were, in our opinion, much better.  But we both enjoyed our entrees immensely (Imperial Rice for Tom and Vaca Frita De Pollo for Joyce), so we think it is a tie.  We will return!  While Miami is the center of Cuban-American culture today, many people do not realize that the first major Cuban population in Florida was on the West coast.  The Columbia first opened in 1905, when Miami was still mostly swamp; the Versailles opened in 1971!
• We toured the northern section of Coral Gables - very nice homes!  The Alhambra entrance near Little Havana is very impressive.

Tomorrow (Saturday, May 31) we plan to leave Miami and head to the west coast of Florida.  The weather is a bit unsettled (we expect to get at least a little wet), but it doesn't get better for at least a week and there is a possibility of an early season tropical storm late next week, so it seems best to get moving.  

Tomorrow we plan to head down the Hawk Channel to Rodriguez Key near Key Large where we will anchor for the night.  Then the next day we will continue on the Hawk Channel to Marathon, where we plan to lay over for two nights.  Then we will leave there in the morning on Tuesday June 3rd, to travel up out of the Keys and continue overnight for a 150+ nautical mile trip to Pelican Bay on Cayo Costa where we will 'hunker down' for any bad weather.  

Tom

Moored Coconut Grove Sailing Club

Miami, FL

We have returned to the States

May 24, 2014

Just a short note that we have arrived back in the States.

We traveled over 250 miles in the last 5 days including a 27 hour 160 mile leg between West Bay, New Providence (near Nassau) and Miami.

Weather was generally good.  A couple of legs featured good sailing wind, but on others there was no contrary or light following wind, so motor-sailing was good.

Now for some 'readjustment' as we go from the Bahamas to Miami - probably as big a cultural difference as you will find!

Tom
Moored Coconut Grove Sailing Club
Coconut Grove (Miami), FL

Headed back to the States

May 20, 2014

Today we started our trip back to the States, a day later than originally planned due to some unexpected squally weather.

Today was a 40nm trip from Cambridge Cay to Highbourne Cay, where we are currently anchored. Wind was higher than expected (20-23 knots gusting to 27) and a little more on the nose so the last 10 miles we bashed to windward.

Tomorrow we head about 47nm across the 'White Bank' to West Bay on New Providence where we will probably spend two nights.

Early Friday afternoon we leave West Bay and head up the 'Tongue of the Ocean', through the NW Channel and across the 'Bahamas Bank'. We will exit the Bank near Gun Cay and then cross the Gulf Stream to Miami. The last leg will about 160nm and will take a little over 24 hours.

Then hopefully a little R&R in Coconut Grove after the trip!

Tom
Anchored Highbourne Cay, Exuma
(via Satellite phone)

Cambridge Cay, Exuma

May 16, 2014

Yesterday we moved about 20 miles north from Black Point to Cambridge Cay.

When we are asked what are our favorite places in the Exumas, we often say Black Point for the people and Cambridge Cay for natural beauty. So it is very nice that we are winding up our cruise with stays at these two places!

A few pictures from beautiful Cambridge Cay:

Bell Rock

View from the cliff near Bell Rock - SV Barefoot way in the background

View North from the cliff

View out across the 'fresh' water pond and out onto the Bank
Note the different color waters

Yesterday also marks our 5th month in the Bahamas; we crossed to Bimini on December 15th.

So it is with some sadness that we start to plan our trip back to the States. We are planning to stay here until Monday, when we will work our way north to anchor off Highbourne Cay. Tuesday will be a trip over the 'White Bank' to West Bay on New Providence. We will probably stay in West Bay for a couple of nights as some unsettled weather passes. On Thursday afternoon we will begin a long trip up the 'Tongue of the Ocean', through the Northwest Channel, across the 'Bank, and then finally across the Gulf Stream to Miami. The trip will take a around 24 hours of non-stop travel.

Tom
Moored Cambridge Cay, Exuma
(via satellite phone)

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