november 3 2003 : fort lauderdale, florida, usa
Going back a few days, we installed a new throttle. It’s a really nice stainless steel one that works much smoother than the old outboard throttle assembly they had on here. The install went well and we tested it out quickly by revving the engines in forward and reverse since we were still at anchor. Well on Friday we decided to move to this slip because of the storm that was closing in on us. We started raising the anchor and I couldn’t understand why when I pressed forward on the port engine we weren’t going forward. It didn’t take me long to figure out. When we installed the throttles we had assumed that the transmission on each engine was set up the same. They weren’t. One was set up so that to go forward the throttle cable needed to push forward and one was backward. So since we had the anchor halfway up and mud all over the place we decided to press on. There I was having to think twice every time I wanted to turn the boat.
We finally got settled into the slip. Ali slipped and hit her butt when we were docking. She has the nastiest looking bruise I have seen in a while. Looks really nice in a bikini. Other than that we have just been doing normal boat work trying to get ready to leave. Hoping for a Thursday departure now. We are going to head down to Biscayne Bay in Miami first. Once there we will decide whether to go down to the Keys or over to the Bahamas. We are still waiting for paperwork from the Coast Guard though, so I would guess we will stay in the U.S. until we have that, since we can’t even prove that the boat is ours right now.
november 4 2003 : fort lauderdale
We are just hanging out in Fort Lauderdale still, trying to decide when we are going to leave. The weather has been a little unsettled around here lately with pretty heavy winds offshore. However, you don’t have to feel bad for us. The high every day has been about 85 and there is still plenty of sun. Unlike back home where the snow has started to fall.
Also, we finally got our paperwork from the Coast Guard today. I believe we can finally leave the country without having our boat confiscated by the Bahamian Police for being stolen.
november 8 2003 : fort lauderdale
Yesterday morning we woke up to find that the sun was shining again, which was nice because it had rained hard for the previous two days. Kent came by around 9 to see if we wanted to go for a sail and test out the watermaker. We told him we’d be ready in an hour. Ten minutes later the manager of the old folks home, where we are docked at, came by to tell us we had to leave. It seems the owner had gotten back a little early.
We packed up and went for a nice sail in 10-15 knot winds. The watermaker worked perfectly, luckily, since it should prove to be an invaluable piece of equipment onboard. I was reading the manual for the watermaker and it said that the water that it makes is so pure that you can wash your windows with it and it won’t even leave water spots if you don’t dry it.
We decided to wait until Monday to leave, since we are going down to Miami, and it is sure to be crazy with boaters on the weekend. Therefore, we had to find a new place to stay for the weekend. Since we had a ton of laundry to do, and some work to finish up on the internet, we decided to head back to the Las Olas Marina. We even got the same slip as before. It was like being home again. But we are itching to get out of here now. It seems like we have been here so long preparing that you start to forget what you are preparing for. That probably explains why there are so many boats in Fort Lauderdale that are clearly never used. I am sure the owners started out with grand plans for all the exciting voyages they would go on, only to find themselves preparing and preparing until they finally gave up on the whole idea.
Today finds us once again being deluged with rain. It rains here like nowhere else I have ever been. It is like the clouds open up and drop a swimming pool right on top of you all at once. Everything is soaked again and now we are just hoping for a break tomorrow so we can finish the buffing of the boat. We are going down to Noname Harbor in Biscayne Bay. The reason for going there is because it is a good jumping off point to head across the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas.
Quick little story about the beautiful marine life we have encountered here in the marina. Yesterday, I saw something floating in the water. I said to Ali, “I hope that is a toy Godzilla.” Well, riding along on the current came an iguana about a foot and a half long with all four legs pointed straight up in the air. Dead as a doorknob and beginning to look a little bloated.
Not five minutes later, we find a small tail flapping around on our couch. It was the tail from one of those little gecko lizards that are running around all over Florida. And it was still flapping! So I look up and see that the hatch is open, and sure enough there is a bird sitting up in our rigging having himself a little lizard feast and not seeming to care where his leftovers fell. Ahhh, the joys of life on the water. You know, it’s the little things that make it all worth while.
And thanks again to Kent and Belinda, who not only had us over to their house for dinner last night, but also picked us up and dropped us off afterwards. Thanks guys, dinner was great! And we’re grateful to have had the good fortune of having bought our boat from Belinda, having Kent do a ton of work onboard, and making two good friends in the process.
november 11 2003 : biscayne bay, florida, usa
We made it! Our first real trip was a success. We decided to leave yesterday morning despite some deteriorating forecasts. Seas were running about 5 feet with winds around 20 knots, we even had one gust up to 38. Overall though, it wasn’t bad. We sailed into Noname Harbor just in time though. Within two hours the winds had picked up even more and it started raining heavily. When we got into the harbor and set the anchor I dove down on it to make sure that it was set properly and could see that it was completely buried in the mud. That’s why I was able to sleep like a baby.
The harbor here is in a State Park with a bunch of walking trails and a restaurant about 50 yards away from us overlooking the water. Other than that there isn’t much around.
november 12 2003 : biscayne bay
Disappointing day today. We walked into town here in Key Biscayne in search of an internet connection and to try to get a hold of somebody to come have a look at our Sailmail system on the boat. We called a bunch of people about the Sailmail and talked to them about the problems we were having getting it set up. They all gave me some helpful advice, but nobody could come to the boat. So I will mess with it some more. By the way, Sailmail is the way we will send and receive emails from the boat. It uses the SSB we installed and this fancy modem which is where the problem seems to lie.
So on we went in search of internet. We were told to go to the public library. This of course was a 40 minute walk. We got there and found that they had free internet but we could not use our own computer. Well that defeats the purpose for us since the reason we need internet is to download the website update from our computer. We left there and went to lunch. We then proceeded to ask more people about an internet café or a Kinko’s and were met by strange looks and everybody said, “Not on the Key” as if we were from Mars. So now we are back on the boat. The only thing we managed to accomplish was getting some more cash. They do have ATMs on The Key.
november 14 2003 : biscayne bay
Let me tell you about all the hard work we put in yesterday. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky when we woke up. At ten we walked down the road to the lighthouse to take the tour. We figured if they were going to charge us $12 a day to anchor in this State Park then we were going to at least get something out of it besides a spot in the water. The tour was actually pretty cool since we got to climb up to the top and then go outside around the catwalk at the top of it. It was a great view of Stiltsville to the south and Miami to the north.
The weather down here has been kind of weird this week. Today it is really windy again. The seas in the Gulf Stream are 15 feet. Other boats are down here now waiting to make the crossing to the Bahamas as well. It looks like Monday might be our next shot. We’ll see if the forecasts hold up. There are worse places to be waiting I suppose.
november 18 2003 : biscayne bay
At last it is time to leave Florida. We left at 3:30 this morning and sailed out through Stiltsville. The winds were blowing at 25 knots instead of the 15 that was forecast. We sailed out into the Gulf Stream a few miles out from land and promptly decided that today was no day to try and make it across. The waves were about 8 feet and were washing right over the bow and making for a very rough ride. Our port engine began smoking and we had to shut it off. We had small fish being washed into the cockpit with the waves. Basically, it sucked.
After weighing our options we decided that there was no way we would be able to make it to Bimini before dark and therefore we would head back and wait for better weather for the next attempt. So what have we learned from our first two long sails? Never rush a departure date. You have to wait for a proper weather window. Besides, we aren’t on a schedule, so what are we rushing around for? The forecast sucks down here though. It’s supposed to be windy for a few days. So we wait.
november 21 2003 : biscayne bay
Still waiting. Everyone is talking about how unusual the weather has been for South Florida. We decided to get some things done on the boat as long as we are stuck here. First thing was to figure out why the engine was smoking. That was an easy one. No coolant. It was completely dry.
Then we were on to changing the oil. To drain the oil in this kind of engine you use a little pump to suck the oil out instead of the normal way of draining it out the bottom. So we stick one hose into the oil and the other hose into an empty container. I start pumping the thing and we can hear the oil going through and spitting out into the container that Ali is holding. Then suddenly, POP! One of the hoses slipped off the fitting under the pressure of the pump. Oil blew all over the place. Ali stood there in shock, with oil dripping off her chin and splattered all over her. I was pretty well unscathed, as it was facing the other way. As she came out of shock she actually started laughing. That of course, caught me off guard. Definitely not the response I expected. So we cleaned that up and tried again, this time with a slightly larger hose that wouldn’t be under so much pressure. Everything went good and now we have one engine tuned up and ready to go.
Then we called Kent and asked him if he would pick up five new house batteries and 1 starter battery, and bring them down to us. He readily agreed, a little anxious to get out of Fort Lauderdale for a few hours. The batteries were an issue we had been dealing with for a while. We were hoping to make them last a while longer, but we were getting to the point that we had to run the engines 2-3 hours a day to keep them charged. So we bit the bullet. Now we should only have to run the engines for about an hour a day to give us plenty of power for all our gadgets. Still waiting for some settled weather.
november 23 2003 : biscayne bay
Today we spent the day listening to Salsa music blasting out of at least four boats at all times. I don’t know what the deal is with loud music people, but they pull into a nice quiet little harbor and decide that everyone should hear their great music. The worst part is that it is invariably a fifty-year-old guy in the smallest boat in the harbor who feels the need to do this. It reminds me of high school kids who buy a $500 car and then proceed to spend $4,000 on a stereo and speakers. I’m done ranting.
Today we saw one of the funniest things we have ever seen. A boat pulled in between our boat and another guy who is waiting to cross to the Bahamas. So this boat has two guys about 35-40 years old, their wives, and about four kids on it. One guy goes to the front of the boat into the anchor locker, lifts out the big heavy anchor, and heaves it overboard. After about a five second pause, he realizes it doesn’t have a chain or rope tied to it. He just threw away a $300 anchor. So Ali and I are sitting there laughing, as are the kids on the boat, the guy just looks at his friend driving the boat with a stupid look on his face, and they drive away to tie up to the pier instead.
Unbelievable, we are only in nine feet of water and neither one of these guys dives in to try and retrieve it. So after they left I went for a swim, but wasn’t able to find it. Tomorrow when there are less people in here I am going to try again. This time I am going to drag 50 feet of chain across the bottom and see if I can snag it. Hey, if I can’t use a third anchor at least I can sell it to someone who can.
november 25 2003 : bimini, bahamas (the gulf stream)
At Last! We are finally in the Bahamas. I’ll start with the crossing. We upped anchor at 3 a.m. It was dead calm, 2 knots of wind. Not ideal sailing weather. Motoring across sounded good to me, as long as we got there. So we motor out and everything is going great. The seas are flat, we are making 6 knots, and then disaster!
A small disaster anyway. Our port engine, the same one that I had worked on the other day, overheated and shut down. Smoke was pouring out of the engine room. So the situation is that we have only our starboard engine, which even with the wheel cranked over to the right can’t keep us going in a straight line because of the current which is pushing us north at about 2 knots. We are drifting north aimlessly again, just like the week before. There is virtually no wind so we can’t hoist the sails. Well we do hoist the sails but they just lay there flapping limply. I go down in the engine room, which has about 15 cases of beer stacked up in it that have to be moved before I can access the engine. Note to self: Do not stack 15 cases of beer in there again. I check the oil, and they are fine. I remove the coolant cap and it is bone dry again! So I fill it up again, and we are back on track. A little smoky smelling and nervous about our engine burning up, but otherwise okay.
Now the sun starts to come up, it is a perfect orange ball coming up over the horizon. Fifteen minutes later I am standing in the cockpit and I say to Ali, “Come on, where are all the dolphins,” half jokingly. Well, I walk up to the front of the boat, and I swear to god, there are two dolphins swimming directly in front of our bows. I yell to Ali, and she looks at me weird, not believing me. But she comes up and starts talking to them in their native language I think. (That’s a light jab at Ali’s high voice, she’ll punch me when she reads this.) I ran inside and grabbed the camera, and then even had time to run back in for the video camera. I’ve read books about other people’s voyages and they have had dolphins visit them on their first passage also. They say it makes you feel like they are welcoming you to their world. And as corny as it sounds, it actually did.
We spent the rest of the day stopping every so often to fill up the coolant, which I ran out of, and had to use plain water the last time. Finally at 1:30, Land Ho! We came into the cut between the North and South islands of Bimini knowing that there was only one thing we had to look out for, which is a shifting sandbar near the entrance. We were tooling along nice and slow watching for the obvious shallow water and not really seeing it. And then the depth finder went, 10 feet, 8 feet, 4 feet, 2.5 feet, da da da, 4 feet, 8 feet. Whew! Who would have guessed that we wouldn’t be up on the sand when the depth finder reads 2.5.
We came in looking for a marina for the night. The reason for this is because our watermaker wasn’t working. We had been planning on making water the whole trip over but couldn’t get it to work. I finally figured out that the reason is because there has to be enough water in the tanks for it to get started. Something about getting a prime. So we needed to get some water, and a marina seemed like the easiest way.
There was a spot right at the end of the pier at Blue Water Marina. So in we went. I cleared us in with customs and immigration. Paid $150 to be able to stay in their country for six months and fish all I want. We then went over to C.J.’s Deli for cheeseburgers and beers. Went back to the boat and fell asleep at 6:30.
One final note. I never did find that anchor the guy threw overboard. It must have sunk too far into the mud. Bummer.
november 28 2003 : bimini
We hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. It was strange being away from our families as well as having 80 degree weather. We celebrated by going to the Bimini Big Game Yacht Club for a turkey buffet. It was pretty good. They had all the traditional food there except for one thing. Right next to the mashed potatoes they had what looked like gravy. Everybody was pouring it on over their food only to find out that it was actually lobster bisque. So that plate of food ended up in the garbage. I’ll bet not one of you had lobster bisque on your dinner tables yesterday.
The last couple of days we have spent just kind of exploring the island. There is a small beach called Radio Beach on the west side that is completely deserted and beautiful. It’s hard to believe that we are only 50 miles from Miami, yet there are no huge houses lining these beaches. It’s nice. We also bought some homemade bread in the market. The banana bread was still warm. Then a few drinks at the Compleat Angler Bar, which is the bar that Earnest Hemmingway used to hang out at. It was covered in photos of him alongside huge marlin.
I also managed to solve the engine problem. It seems our impeller, which helps suck the seawater through the engine to cool it, was shot. A quick replacement of that and we had good water flow again.
november 30 2003 : bimini
We are anchored in Nixon’s Harbor on South Bimini, about 4 miles away from where we were in Alice Town on North Bimini. We came over here on Friday, a beautiful day with the temp. about 80 degrees. In the middle of the night a strong north wind started blowing about 25 knots. Luckily we are anchored on the south side of the island in the lee shore. It lasted all day and brought with it cold air straight from Minnesota I’m sure. It was 72 inside the boat, cold enough to put on a sweatshirt! Right now it is 7 in the morning on Sunday (could somebody please bring me a Chicago Tribune and some Dunkin’ Donuts), and it looks like the winds are finally dying down. Better bring my warm temperatures back with it.
Today’s plan is to get the other engine all tuned up and ready to go. We are probably going to head over to the Berry’s in the next couple of days. After we get there we will turn south and not look back. We shouldn’t be back above 25 degrees North Latitude for years. On the boat anyway.
One thing we did get working in the last couple of days is our Sailmail. Sailmail is our email system on the boat. It works by using an SSB radio and a special modem. Just so you know, Sailmail doesn’t accept attachments, so if you include them in an email to us we will never get it.
Also, if you get an email from us, it will probably have a weird sailmail address on it. But anyway, we are really excited to have this working on board now. It let’s us keep in touch with everyone without the hassle of finding internet service on land. Unfortunately though, it doesn’t allow us to update the website. This could be harder than we thought. In fact, the other day we went to the BaTelco office on Bimini. BaTelco is the Bahamian Telephone Company. They had big satellite dishes out front, and you would think they at least would have service. Wrong. The lady said, “I don’t know man, the system seems to be down today. Maybe you try back again tomorrow.” Ahh, island time.