A new chapter in our life

Captain Kev and I have both retired now and are ready to hit the high seas.  Since our last journey to the Abaco's, Christmas 2015, we have been very busy.  Most of the last minute installations that were on the captains list have been completed.  There were additional solar panels added to increase our wattage to 600, 7 new jell cell batteries, single sideband radio, in reach tracking unit and life sling.  The last several months have been crazy with repairs and upgrades.  The autopilot was giving us issues when we were in the Bahamas last time, plus it had a small hydrolic leak.  After some help from our neighbhor Dave on Scallywag,  several part replacement, and lets not forget one hernia operation. We now have a fully working autopilot.  Yes Kevin spent so much time hanging upside down and leaning over the frame work of the aft berth that he ended up with a hernia.  We originally just thought it was a pulled muscle and just let it heal.  Then the weekend he retired it flared up so bad that he could only stand or walk for about 100 yards.  So he has spend most of December resting and playing on the xbox.  This does not make for a happy captain, who had a list of about 50 thing to complete before leaving the end of January.  That list has now been reduce to about 10 items to complete before leaving.  The rest will just have to be done underway.

We just returned from a lovely trip to North Carolina to see our son David and his family.  We also delivered our car to them, so they are now the proud owners of a Ford Escape. We figured not to let it sit in a parking lot for 3 or 4 years when it can be used for a good cause.  It was a cold and busy 5 days with the grand kids (Alex and Cole), but what fun we had.  David had a large lego project to keep us all busy, like two little boys need help keeping busy.  We will definately miss those little guys, but that's what air planes are for.

Our departure, if all goes to plan, will be on Febuary 1st.  We are sailing with two other boats, Wave Dancer with Hazel and Trouvere with Charley and Paivi.  Wave Dancer is departing with us and we will slowly make our way to West Palm or Miami to wait for Trouvere, Charley and Paivi have a few thing to take care of before leaving.  Once we are all togeather then the plan is to cross over to the Bahamas and spend about 4 months there.  For hurricane season we decided to come back and wait it out in Florida.  This way we can reprovision and make any changes or repair to systems that might not be working or may need tweeking.   In October or November we will head back out and just keep going down to the Virgin Islands and spend about 3-4 years hanging out and exploring down there. 

When we have internet access, I will make blog updates.  The blog post will be shown on facebook and you can also track our movement with the "In reach tracker", I will post that link once we are underway.

Battery Day

Today's project is replacing our old 5 AGM batteries  with 7 new Gel Deep Cycles....
This is about a half day project.

The end of our Journey, for now.

We made our crossing back to the states on December 25th.
It was a wonderful trip to the bahamas and we could not have asked for better weather.  Along the way we made new friends, found wonderful spots to anchor, snorkle and even possibly set down some roots.
 Cappie and I plan to return to the Bahamas this fall and continue the journey.  I will be posting all of the photos from our trip, was I have them all on one device.
All in all,  Serena Rose and her crew had a great time and most of the systems we were testing worked great.  The only problem child through this adventure was our generator, having a issues with a faulty selynoid and the wind turbine was not producing the amps we expected.
Cappie is trouble shooting both system and will have them in tip top shape soon.  I have to say the water maker was the highlight of my trip, having unlimited drinking water.
Until our next adventure, fair winds and happy sailing to all.

December 26th

We spent several days in green turtle at Miss Blue Bees bar and Pineapples, enjoying the people and learning more about the island.  Kevin loves the Goombay Smash at Miss Blue Bees's and even brought a liter of it for the trip home.   I was talking with Miss Viola (Miss Emily's grand daughter), her daughter is also a massage therapist and would like to meet with me online and discuss essential oil products
Monday we move to Manjack Cay and meet the owners, Bill and Leslie.  Leslie and I spent several hours talking about bush medicine and she showed me all the native trees and plants they use for healing purposes.  Later in the day we did their nature hick to the atlantic side of the island and went to the beach, then did a dinghy ride throuh the creek that runs the middle of the island.  I would suggest this island to any and all cruisers , it was wonderful.
Wednesday went left early in the morning for Great Sail Cay and spent the night before heading to Mangrove Cay the next morning.
Thursday was off the Mangrove Cay waiting to cross back to the states.
Friday (Christmas day) we left at 0200 and set sail for Fort Pierce, the seas were 2-4 foot rollers with occasional 5 foot, winds were 6-10 knots out of the SE.  We made it to the inlet and anchored around 1700, we were tired, stinky and hungry.    Our friends Dave and Lisa, on board Scallywag were waiting for us in Ft. Pierce.  They came over for drinks and snacks.  Dave was introduced to a Goombay Smash and really liked them, so much he was calling them Gumby smashes at the end of the evening.
Saturday morning we left around 0730 to head home, up the ICW and Dave and Lisa left around 0400 to go on the outside up to port canaveral.  We arrive home around 1330 and went to the airport to clear immagration.

December 20th, 2015

We are anchored still in Green Turtle.  This morning Kevin spent time working on the Generator again.  He has narrowed the problem down to a faulty connection on the engine stop selonid with a corroided wire connection.  He has temporarliy fixed it, enough to use till we get home.  His second project today was Jarvus (our auto pilot), the on off nob came loss while making our crossing and he thought maybe the shaft was broke.  Once he took the front off he found the set screws had losen and the threads for the knob to connect the shaft were stripped so he was able to re connect and tighten the set screw so we can use it on our crossing back. This too will need to be replaced.

We have looked at the weather for cast and it looks like our only weather window to return will be Saturday the 26th, so we will be leaving Green Turtle Tuesday morning and start Island hoping back to Great Sail Cay by Christmas day and start our crossing that night.  If all goes as planned we will be state side by the evening of the 26th.

Today is Sunday and everything is closed, so we are doing cleaning and just hanging out, we may dighy in to town later this afternoon or not.  The winds have been blowing steady out of the NE at 25-30 knot for three days now and it should ease up by Tuesday.  Temprature has been about 77 the last few day, which has been very nice.  Well I must sign off for now.  Happy sailing and fair winds to all and to all a good night.

We Made it

We have made it to green turtle Cay.  My last two post would not send so this will be our update.  Im currently at Pineapples bar in Green Turtle boring their internet.  We had a great crossing and made it to Mangrove cay around 1930 on tuesday night, then Great sail cay on wednesday afternoon.  Thursday we motorsailed to Crab cay and then made the run to Green Turtle on Friday, anchoring around 1330.    The wweather has been in the mid 80's most of the week and we have been swimming .  A front came through today dropping the tempature to 73.
There is a funeral in town today so we are hanging at the only open place for lunch and internet

Making Our Cross to the Bahamas

Tuesday December 15th 0700
We are just making our way out Lake Worth Inlet, the winds are 5 knots due E, waves are about 2-3 feet rollers.  Seafari left about an hour before us and we can just see them on the horizon.   Its a beautiful morning, with Captain Kev on first watch.
1200 we are about 2 hours from the outer bank of White Sand, just north of Memory Rock.  The winds have been about 10 knots out of the SE, waves have increased to about 4 feet, but still a great cross, we are motor sailing to the bank.  Once on the bank we hope to sail to Mangrove Cay and anchore for the night.