Thursday, March 11, 2010

The day started out to be an overcast, sultry day. The wind was blowing at 20 kts with gusts to 35 kt, and the seas were admirably high as we watched them break at the mouth of the Bimini Sands harbor. We were fascinated to see boats leave in this weather probably to go back to Florida. Port and I went for a walk on the beach and he had a great time with the pounding surf (a little timid at first). We have to watch for Man-o-war jelly fish as they litter the beach with their poisonous tentacles – I always keep my sandals on and try to keep Port away.

Around late morning we heard a “Mayday” call on the VHF radio and it sounded close. Mark and I walked to the nearby beach and our hearts sank. A 50 ft sailboat, “Paradox”, had run aground on a sand bar between North and South Bimini Islands near the channel to the Alice Town Harbor.

Several small boats with locals responded to the “Mayday”. One towed in the life raft.

As Mark stayed and watched Paradox actually became free of the first sandbar. With no one aboard, the wind and waves pushed her a couple hundred yards to another sandbar on the point of N Bimini channel.

Like Mark said unfortunately there was no one around because they were taking the boat’s owner and his parents into Alice Town. Mark heard later that the lady had been taken to the hospital for cuts and bruises.

Both Mark and I agreed that we probably would not have abandoned Grateful quite so soon as the boat was near shore and the tide was coming in. The injuries probably had a lot to do with their decision. And as I said before, the wind and the waves were terrible. Even big boats were making big splashes!

By the time Paradox had become stuck on the second sandbar, more local boats had arrived to try to figure out how to help. Some boarded Paradox and surveyed damage and at that time there was not water in the bilge, but she was very stuck.

Lines were attached and pulled and broken several times. All the while Paradox kept being pushed closer to the rocks on the beach.

Finally, they were able to free her, but by then she was riding low in the water. We heard them say that there was 3.5 ft of water in the bottom of the boat. Because of that Paradox ran aground a third and final time.

This time a line was attached to the mast and to the bow. One boat heeled her over to get the keel unstuck, and the other boat pulled her away from the shallows. Free at last.

Paradox was towed into the harbor and tied to the nearest open pier. We heard over the VHF radio later that the owner was claiming a total loss. Fellow travelers commented that in the years that they have been traveling to S Bimini, they have seen boats aground or sunk several times right in this channel area. The channel into N Bimini is not marked at all – in fact, we have spotted the red buoy on the north beach of S Bimini, and the green buoy on the south beach of S Bimini. They might have helped Paradox.

After these 5-6 hours of angst, we retired to Grateful and thanked God and our lucky stars that it wasn’t our story. And just as the sun was going down, we spotted this supply ferry approaching the marina entrance. It was big and with the nasty wind and waves the marina entrance was looking mighty small. At the last minute the ferry backed away.

That’s all for now folks, Good night!!!

March 9&10, 2010 Key Largo to South Bimini, Bahamas

We made it!!

It was rough trip really. The predicted waves were 2-4 feet with something else about the gulf stream (can't remember the exact words now). But we figured out that it meant that the waves could be a lot bigger than 4 ft.In fact we were probably hitting 6-7 footers on a regular basis. Things got pretty shook up on Grateful even though we had everything stowed away. Even the things in the fridge were moved around and some toppled - glad the doors didn't pop open. Only one closet did and just laundry soap and bleach fell out.

You can imagine how noisy it was with 15 knot wind and Grateful crashing down. Mark was running at 1600-1700 rpms at first - maybe to blow through the waves better or to be done with them sooner. But we started hearing unusual noise from the flybridge above. I looked up out the back windows and noticed that the dinghy was rocking!!!! YIKES!!!! I got the ladder down and climbed up to see what was amiss. Our forward chock (supporting the dinghy) had worked free of it position, and was rocking with the dinghy.

It was at this point that I started to drive (about 40 nm out of Key Largo). Mark throttled back to 1200 rpms and he got to work. He was able to hammer the chock back into place and then he ingeniously devised a way to keep it in place with the tools he had at sea. This guy is good! But it wore him out. We kept the speed a little slower - 9 knots - I kept driving and gave Mark a break. The auto pilot doesn't work in seas and winds like this so we had to constantly steer to keep our heading.

We started our trip at 7:00 and finally made it to South Bimini (Bimini Sands Resort) at 3:30. We were told to check in at the gas dock. From there Mark was taken, with all our important papers, to customs and immigration. Yes, the resort is supposed to have the officer on premises, but they share him with the airport so Mark went to him. He was back in 45 minutes with a permit to stay up to 12 months (normally 3 or 6 months is granted). This means that all our preparations on Grateful - beer and booze stowed away under the V-berth, flying the yellow quarantine flag, guns under lock and key - weren't necessary. But the vet visit 48 hours before we left and all forms prepared and completed ahead of time and in duplicate maybe made things easier. Anyway, we were SOOOO ready.

We were in our slip and tying down around 4:30. The resort is beautiful and mostly quiet and tranquil. I tried to capture a few pictures.

We gave some thought to moving on to Chubb Cay in the Berrys (85 nm) on Wednesday as there was 2-4 ft waves predicted (survivable). However, several days after Wednesday were not good travel days. We decided that we would rather be stuck at Bimini Sands Resort at 1/3 the cost of staying at Chubb Cay. So here we are - our first morning.

But our tranquility was soon interupted by this towboat and barge entering the harbor. There wasn't much room to operate and he was close to our boats, but "no problem".

As it turned out they are repairing some damage at the other end of the harbor and they haven't impacted any of our "tranquility".

One thing that is different is that some of the rules we have for safe boating may not be as strict here. This boat left the harbor today - we couldn't count all the bodies, but there were too many.

I can report that they made it back OK, but overheard one of the young men say that they almost rolled twice. It's probably good that we didn't know everything our children did when they were in college.

Otherwise, we've been to the beach where we've had it all to ourselves (Port can run free) and we're reading books. Mark does not have the TV running yet - I've been wondering if something is wrong with him. We will probably get the dinghy down tomorrow and try our luck at fishing, or spearing a lobster. Stay tuned:-)

March 2-8, 2010

Key Largo

Hi All,

We are on our way to the Bahamas and right now it is "uncomfortable". We have 4-6 ft waves along with the gulf stream rollers mostly hitting us on starboard bow or straight on. Grateful is riding it out OK and we're hanging on. Sometimes Grateful’s pulpit is 20 feet out of the water as we ride up the bigger waves. We think once we get closer to the Bahamas the seas may calm because of the East wind at 15 knots. (Ran out of service……)

I wanted to finish Key Largo last night, but I was just too tired to start it at 11:00, so here goes. The bumps really don't impact my typing much as I am a "hunt and peck" typist anyway. We really liked Marina Del Mar in Key Largo. It is a protected harbor with something going on all the time because of the sightseeing, diving and fishing boats coming and going - they all have to negotiate "crash corner" and the narrow jetty opening each time. Always something to see.

We had the use of the three surrounding hotel swimming pools and continental breakfasts. Had some breakfasts, but couldn’t quite get the swimsuit out in the 65-75 degree weather.

As we walked the docks, we were able to see begging pelicans (can you see the one with his mouth open waiting for the fish scrap to be placed there)?

Also, we found the original “African Queen” from the movie with Kathryn Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart.

One of the more interesting sights was watching these captains dock their boats at the end of the Port Largo Canal. The Princess is 70 ft long and 20 ft wide. In the canal she has no rival - other boats have to let her pass because she takes all the room except at the end of the canal where we were docked. Anyway, the captains would pivot their boats, a crew member would hook the line on dock from the bow and secure it. Then they would either go to the stern or another crew member would catch the stern line. This all happens in less than a minute. It's impressive.

We met some nice folks during our stay. Judy and Gary were from Grand Rapids, MI, and Char and Dick (sailing vessel, Carolina Girl) from Traverse City, MI.

Char and her daughters have Portuguese Water Dogs kennels. Char and Dick had a 6-month old female PWD puppy, Destiny, sailing with them. Porter really liked her and we were able to go to the nearby city park for playdays. A funny story with these two. We had joined a mixed group of dogs for play group, and one of the dogs (Ruby) was playing pretty rough with Destiny and barking at her. Porter put himself between Ruby and Destiny twice and kept Ruby away. Unexpected dog behavior from Porter, but then who knows what goes on in those brains?

Carolina Girl left a couple of days before us promising to keep Porter in mind as a future "daddy".

February 28 - March 1, 2010 Marathon & Key Largo

We are in romantic Key Largo!

We finished our stay at Marathon early as a decent weather window for wind and waves opened up on Monday, March 1st. But before we went, Mark finally came home with a "keeper". He has been fishing several times, and even though he reports that he has caught fish... Anyway, on Sunday before we put the dinghy away Mark came home with this crevalle jack. Amazingly, we had just been watching a Florida fishing station that showed where and how to catch this fish. They are good fighters and once in the boat, if you hold them by the spot on the gills, they stop moving so you can take the hook out. Interesting stuff, huh!

When we consider traveling on big water we check several internet weather sites. One we like a lot is Passage Weather. It shows wind and wave predictions. The weekend had been very windy with 25-40 mph winds, Monday looked better, and the rest of this week is predicted to have high wind and waves. So Monday was the day to move on. The first half of the journey was bumpy - we had winds of 15 mph and 3-5 foot waves flying over the bow. This was unexpected. The seas laid down to about 2 feet midway through the trip - much better. Again we had dolphins share our trip - there were several this time with 2-3 babies. Look at the color of that water.

The trip was about 55 miles and took us just under 6 hours to get to the markers outside of Port Largo. This is where it got really interesting. The way you pass through the Port Largo Canal is by announcing your approach to both the entrance and "Crash Corner". Since our arrival was near 1:00 PM, the Key Largo Princess, a glass bottom boat, was on its way out, and we needed to wait until the canal was clear.

After several boat exited Captain Mark announced that 45-ft. motor vessel, Grateful, was inbound at the Port Largo Canal jetty (entrance). And we started the trek to "Crash Corner".

The Port Largo Canal has three channels off the main canal at 90 degree angles. As we proceeded to crash corner, the boats and houses down these canals were beautiful.

Then we were finally approaching crash corner. Mark announced our coming and received an answering response. Fortunately it was a smaller fishing boat and we waited for him to clear the corner, and we were on our way to Marina Del Mar.

We made it to the slip by 1:30 and needed to back in because the finger was not long enough for us to get off the boat if we went bow in. We usually need to go bow in so that we can hook up our power cords that come out the front. Fortunately, our power cords were just long enough with the help of duct tape and lines to keep everything stable - we're pretty classy.

We intend to stay a week here while we wait for a weather window to go to the Bahamas. That will be a 75 nautical mile trip from Key Largo to South Bimini. More to come.....