If you do not follow
Facebook, we3 have decided to finally build Kudu Castle and have been off the boat for a while.
The castle foundation was precast from Superior walls and set in 1/2 a day. The floor should be poured this week and then framing the main floor. I will post some pictures soon.
Amy and Ed
Leaving the marina in November
Sunday, October 8, 2017
Friday, April 28, 2017
Hope Town area
We met up with Regina Maris at Great Guana where we had a nice afternoon at Nippers and then all watched Captain Ron last night. We are sitting at Grabbers - a beautiful clean beach, the perfect tropical setting, but a little expensive.
Next we are off to Spoil Cay to look for shells because we do not have enough yet. And then to Manjack Cay and then to Powell. We probably will not post any more until we reach the US in the next couple weeks depending on weather.
Sunday, April 23, 2017
A full day of rain!!
We are sitting in Treasure Cay on a $30/day mooring and feel it is well worth it as the wind is blowing strongly, been raining all day ( collected about 30 gallons of rain water) and we have very good Internet. We splurged and enjoyed the Sunday brunch on the beach with mimosas - excellent food and catching up on uTube videos.
We saw a remnant of a water spout, some more pigs being fed by cruisers at no charge to the pig owners, wonderful drinks at the yacht club in Green Turtle Cay. Even an old phone booth!!
We saw a remnant of a water spout, some more pigs being fed by cruisers at no charge to the pig owners, wonderful drinks at the yacht club in Green Turtle Cay. Even an old phone booth!!
Thursday, April 20, 2017
The Bight of Abaco
Quote from the Explorer charts: “ Only a very few boats a year visit the untouched Bight of Abaco…”
We entered the bight from the southern end at Sandy Point and never saw another cruising boat until we exited the northern end at Little Cave Cay near high tide to get over the shallow shoal at Spence Rock. Then suddenly there were 3 other boats anchored with us.
Windfinder had winds moderated the next day but once we got around the west end of Little Abaco Island, we had 20+ know of wind on our nose and had the roughest day since leaving Acklins well over a month ago. Short period 3 ft waves pounded us most of the day until we got close to Crab Cay at Angelfish Point. Both of us were below, Ed making a new batch of bread with the boat on autopilot when the shallow depth alarm went off immediately followed by the boat bouncing off the bottom. We had run over an uncharted shoal, nothing showing on the usually excellent Explorer Chartbook. Taking advantage of the high winds, we turned north and were able to get off, no damage apparent. We slid into the head of the cove south of Crab Cay and decided it was an evening just to relax.
Winds today were slightly better but we did not want another day of pounding to windward for no advantage so we took a rest day. Ed was checking the starboard engine when the wind closed the engine bay hatch while his fingers were still on the lip, resulting in 2 badly bruised and bleeding joints, luckily, they appear not broken but that was the end of the day for him and we decided not to take the dingy down and explore the nice looking shore. We did however decide to thoroughly clean the boat since we had not done so in a while.
We were looking forward to meeting out friend David and Mary Beth on Thursday which we pushed out to Friday. They later contacted us and it turns out they were actually quite close so we may meet up Friday at Green Turtle Cay.
Ed compiled a list of all the new islands we had stopped this trip compared to the last - 37 new places so far and likely to climb to 40+ before leaving the Bahamas so our total for 2 trips with be about 100 of the 770 islands, not too bad. We had an early night, Ed beating Amy 3-0 in dominos. The wind is projected to be much lighter tomorrow so we hope to be off before sunrise to enjoy the afternoon at Green Turtle,
We entered the bight from the southern end at Sandy Point and never saw another cruising boat until we exited the northern end at Little Cave Cay near high tide to get over the shallow shoal at Spence Rock. Then suddenly there were 3 other boats anchored with us.
Windfinder had winds moderated the next day but once we got around the west end of Little Abaco Island, we had 20+ know of wind on our nose and had the roughest day since leaving Acklins well over a month ago. Short period 3 ft waves pounded us most of the day until we got close to Crab Cay at Angelfish Point. Both of us were below, Ed making a new batch of bread with the boat on autopilot when the shallow depth alarm went off immediately followed by the boat bouncing off the bottom. We had run over an uncharted shoal, nothing showing on the usually excellent Explorer Chartbook. Taking advantage of the high winds, we turned north and were able to get off, no damage apparent. We slid into the head of the cove south of Crab Cay and decided it was an evening just to relax.
Winds today were slightly better but we did not want another day of pounding to windward for no advantage so we took a rest day. Ed was checking the starboard engine when the wind closed the engine bay hatch while his fingers were still on the lip, resulting in 2 badly bruised and bleeding joints, luckily, they appear not broken but that was the end of the day for him and we decided not to take the dingy down and explore the nice looking shore. We did however decide to thoroughly clean the boat since we had not done so in a while.
We were looking forward to meeting out friend David and Mary Beth on Thursday which we pushed out to Friday. They later contacted us and it turns out they were actually quite close so we may meet up Friday at Green Turtle Cay.
Ed compiled a list of all the new islands we had stopped this trip compared to the last - 37 new places so far and likely to climb to 40+ before leaving the Bahamas so our total for 2 trips with be about 100 of the 770 islands, not too bad. We had an early night, Ed beating Amy 3-0 in dominos. The wind is projected to be much lighter tomorrow so we hope to be off before sunrise to enjoy the afternoon at Green Turtle,
Saturday, April 15, 2017
FASTEST SAILING YET !!
We had already been in Rock Sound for over a week already and the weather forecast wasn’t very good. We had a 2 day window of OK weather but with high waves. We had previously seen most of the west coast of Eleuthera and had rented a car to see most of it by land. We decided to sail north and then northwest to Current Cut, the quite narrow opening in the west side of Eleuthera, spend the night in Royal Island and then if the waves were not too crazy, head NW to the SW corner of Great Abaco with the intention of sailing the very shallow Bight of Abaco.
We had walked the north side beach on Sunday and found several collectable buoys and a very unusual large black one with a strange looking probe, but too heavy to lug back. I borrowed a 2 wheel cart from another boat and hitchhiked my way back on Monday to carry it back. No one seems to know what it was for but it sits now on the back bench of Sea Castle.
We met several nice people from different boats while at Rock Sound and we also stopped in to see the restored 1830s mission building that now serves a number of purposes to the local community, one being a beautiful wooden library where they also offer good internet for $1/hr.
We had plenty of fuel remaining from Long Island, topped off our 4 jugs of water and enough food for a week, pulled up the anchor and away we went. Great sailing in the morning and once we turned toward the NW, the waves started building along with the wind. Chris Parker, the weather guru is always so conservative, listing wind speeds a little on the high side. Windfinder is the opposite, there wind speeds tend to be low and the wind was well above the 14-16 knots Windfinder predicted. Fortunately, I had put 1 reef in the main, even still, we were at the limit with 20-24 knots of wind. By the time we neared Current Cut, we had been consistently seeing 8-9 mph on the boat speed, then in the 10’s and even topping 11. About 1.5 miles from the cut, the water shallows drastically and you have to choose 1 of 3 channels to get thru. We chose the one facing east, dropped the jib, eased the main to lower our speed and started both engines to have enough control thru the cut. We zipped right on thru the cut and spit out the other side. I thought it would be smooth on the other side for the remaining 8 miles to Royal Island but it was quite uncomfortable. We pulled into the safety of the very well protected Royal Island harbor and had a comfortable night.
We debated about going out the next morning as Chris Parker and Windfinder were both reporting very large seas and I figured about 50 miles across the wide open ocean. We decided to give it a try and we could always turn around if we felt it was too much. Once past the protection of the reef, the swells were quite large but with a 8-9 sec period so not terrible. The winds were of course higher than forecasted but I had left the reef in the main, even so, we had low 20’s from the NE. They stirred up a healthy chop on top of the swells but the autopilot did a great job. The chart plotter initially had us coming in about 6 pm but with the increased wind, we made it to Sandy Point just after 4pm. I am glad we had the AIS transponder because we saw more ships in this crossing than in all other Bahamas crossings combined.
Sandy Point is a small but fairly well to do settlement far from the rest of Abaco with many residents working the Disney cruise ship island of Castaway Cay, just visible on the horizon. They must leave early in the morning before we are up as we have not seen them leave yet. Friday, being Good Friday, had most shops closed but the E&E General store opened back up for us to get a few things and we came back latter to join them for the Good Friday community cookout. I still do not yet speak Bahamian very well and ended up with a big bowl of Conch Bobbie which I later found out was made from the trimmings of cleaning conchs, all the stuff we throw away. They boil it and add seasonings and it was surprisingly good, if not a little spicy. Amy got a big plate of ribs and we both were stuffed. We went back to the boat about 5 pm but the music lasted until well into the night, easily heard ¼ mile offshore on Sea Castle.
We will post more pictures once we get to better internet. I have also posted 2 videos on Facebook and just finished 2 more that I will post sometime in the next week.
We had walked the north side beach on Sunday and found several collectable buoys and a very unusual large black one with a strange looking probe, but too heavy to lug back. I borrowed a 2 wheel cart from another boat and hitchhiked my way back on Monday to carry it back. No one seems to know what it was for but it sits now on the back bench of Sea Castle.
We met several nice people from different boats while at Rock Sound and we also stopped in to see the restored 1830s mission building that now serves a number of purposes to the local community, one being a beautiful wooden library where they also offer good internet for $1/hr.
We had plenty of fuel remaining from Long Island, topped off our 4 jugs of water and enough food for a week, pulled up the anchor and away we went. Great sailing in the morning and once we turned toward the NW, the waves started building along with the wind. Chris Parker, the weather guru is always so conservative, listing wind speeds a little on the high side. Windfinder is the opposite, there wind speeds tend to be low and the wind was well above the 14-16 knots Windfinder predicted. Fortunately, I had put 1 reef in the main, even still, we were at the limit with 20-24 knots of wind. By the time we neared Current Cut, we had been consistently seeing 8-9 mph on the boat speed, then in the 10’s and even topping 11. About 1.5 miles from the cut, the water shallows drastically and you have to choose 1 of 3 channels to get thru. We chose the one facing east, dropped the jib, eased the main to lower our speed and started both engines to have enough control thru the cut. We zipped right on thru the cut and spit out the other side. I thought it would be smooth on the other side for the remaining 8 miles to Royal Island but it was quite uncomfortable. We pulled into the safety of the very well protected Royal Island harbor and had a comfortable night.
We debated about going out the next morning as Chris Parker and Windfinder were both reporting very large seas and I figured about 50 miles across the wide open ocean. We decided to give it a try and we could always turn around if we felt it was too much. Once past the protection of the reef, the swells were quite large but with a 8-9 sec period so not terrible. The winds were of course higher than forecasted but I had left the reef in the main, even so, we had low 20’s from the NE. They stirred up a healthy chop on top of the swells but the autopilot did a great job. The chart plotter initially had us coming in about 6 pm but with the increased wind, we made it to Sandy Point just after 4pm. I am glad we had the AIS transponder because we saw more ships in this crossing than in all other Bahamas crossings combined.
Sandy Point is a small but fairly well to do settlement far from the rest of Abaco with many residents working the Disney cruise ship island of Castaway Cay, just visible on the horizon. They must leave early in the morning before we are up as we have not seen them leave yet. Friday, being Good Friday, had most shops closed but the E&E General store opened back up for us to get a few things and we came back latter to join them for the Good Friday community cookout. I still do not yet speak Bahamian very well and ended up with a big bowl of Conch Bobbie which I later found out was made from the trimmings of cleaning conchs, all the stuff we throw away. They boil it and add seasonings and it was surprisingly good, if not a little spicy. Amy got a big plate of ribs and we both were stuffed. We went back to the boat about 5 pm but the music lasted until well into the night, easily heard ¼ mile offshore on Sea Castle.
We will post more pictures once we get to better internet. I have also posted 2 videos on Facebook and just finished 2 more that I will post sometime in the next week.
Monday, April 10, 2017
We visited Preacher’s Cave, a well known site at the north end of the 110 mile long island and Ed and Mary Beth both climbed out one of the holes at the far end of the cave. Ed was up fist and then Mary Beth who happened to notice as she got out that there was a large snake nestled in one of the handholds at the top of the hole. Both of them missed putting their hands in that particular handhold by mere inches!!
On the return trip, we found the “Walmart” store and proceeded to each fill a cart of food. It wasn’t a real Walmart but a mini version, unlike anything else we had come across and inn the middle of nowhere.
There was a herd of semi wild cows crossing the road and we had a couple “stare-downs”.
It took several tries before we found the pineapple fields but were rewarded with almost ripe pineapples at the top of the plants.
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