Summer Projects 2017

Summer 2017 Update
Since returning to Melbourne, Florida at the end of April, Kevin and I have been very busy.  Our main project for the summer was to redo the whole pilot house.  As most of you know, from visiting our boat.  She has a lot of wood and character.  The one aspect that is not appealing to Kevin and I is the steel frame and the ceiling material for the pilot house.  Over the years we have been constantly chasing small rust spots on the frame, well no more, we are tackling the whole frame, inside and out.  I can say that once we are finished, the pilot house will be 75% west system fill and 25% steel.  There are so many area’s where the rust was so bad that it was pushing the ceiling material up and out.   So after 3 months of working every day on her, we our proud to say she is done.  The only thing left to do is replace the cushions.  That will be on the list for next summer.  Since we spend so much time up there while cruising, the cushions need to be more comfortable.  The original seats were made with the idea of an open cockpit, exposed to the weather.  With the pilot house sealed in and waterproof, we can have nice comfy seats.  The first set of photos is the old rusted out frame work and rotted wood trim. The second set is the new nice rust and root free pilot house.
For a cruising update.  We will be leaving Melbourne at the end of September, heading to St. Augustine for the holidays.  Our son David and his family are planning a trip to come visit and let the boys hang with us for a few days.  We are very excited about that.  Some time in December we will start making our way to the Bahamas.  I would like to make it to Juganu in Green Turtle on New Years, then just keep heading south.
Once we head out, I will start posting weekly updates.  Fair winds and Happy sailing my friends.

The Party is over

The party is over.  You know the old saying, well this party is over.  Some may already be aware that Kevin and I are back stateside.  Let me back up a bit.  This trip was meant to be a shakedown cruise to test all our systems and see how well we did provisioning for long term.    During our trip Kevin has been babysitting (as he calls it), the water maker.  There have been multiple leaks under the floorboards just above the water and diesel tanks.  None of the water is able to go in the bilge, so we manually moop it out with a sponge and bucket.  About two weeks ago the watermaker had a bolt shear off, which then caused the piston shaft to wobble and  blow out the seals.  Just prior to this happening the leak had got to the point of spilling a gallon of seawater under the floorboards, for every gallon it was making.  He had replace all the seals twice, prior to this. 
So with all that said we needed to head home.  We heard horror stories from other cruisers about having parts shipped over and being held up in US customs for weeks.  It would have been a little on the expensive side for buying 400 gallons of water (time to go home).   We planned on anchoring out in melbourne, while waiting for parts to be delivered.  Well that's not happening with all the crab pods littering all the anchorage spots.  Our new home for the month is back at Waterline marina, just a different slip. 
It will be off to St. Augustin until July after we get our parts and fix the water maker.  Until then, fair winds my friends and happy sailing.

The Vacation is almost over

The Vacation is almost over.  The past two weeks we have sailed to Tilloo Cay, (just south of Hope Town), Guana Cay and now we are anchored in Manjack.   Time to go to work.
    Tilloo Cay and Hope Town where very nice.  We had to anchor down at Tillo, due to our draft and would take a 4.5 nautical mile dinghy ride into Hope Town.  Tillo was a nice protected cove for a North, south or east wind.  Bad for a West wind.  So we stayed there for about five days before the winds started to shift more out of the NW.  Our travel to Hope Town was nice, it is like a little quaint village.  All the houses in town are cottage size, with lovely landscaped yards and white picket fences.  The people seem to work together nicely and are very polite.  I found a art gallery named “The Jib”, it is owned by a German couple.  He is the painter and she is the quilter.  She makes these neat necklaces out of beads and fabric, also purses (which I got one of each for my birthday).
    Our next sailing trip took us to Guana Cay.  In all our years of sailing to the Bahamas, I have always wanted to go to Nippers on the beach.  Well I finally made it.  We had a delicious blackened grouper fish sandwich and then spent the next couple hours celebrating a birthday with complete strangers (a group of about 10 women).  They were so much fun.  That evening we had three other couples from neighboring boat over for drinks, it was very nice.  We only spent two days at Guana, with the weather changing.
    There is a passage you have to go through to get north of Guana to the rest of the Abacos “Whale Cay Passage”  if the winds are out of the NE or East it can be a very rough turbulent ride.  So we left first thing in the morning before the winds picked up, since they were out of the NE.  It took about 2.5 hours to get to ManJack Cay, which is one island north of Green Turtle.  Our plan is to stay in this general area, switching between here and Green Turtle or Crab Cay (depending on wind direction and weather) for the next 6 weeks.  This is a nice area to be and we are now starting to do some work on the boat.  Why not do it here in paradise.  It may be several weeks before I post again, until then. Fair winds and Happy Sailing my friends.

Our Adventure continues

Well!,  where do I begin?   We have been having a great time in Spanish Wells.  Some of you have seen a few of the photo’s I posted on facebook.  I think the captains favorite spot is Buddha’s.  The prices are very reasonable and the atmosphere is great.  The other day I did not make a wise shoe choice before heading out and it did a number on my knee.  So we ended up and Buddha’s and after a batch of conch fritters, a drink and a few bottles of rum purchased in his liquor store, I asked Buddha for a ride back to the dinghy.  He was pleased to accommodate my request.  I think he just likes to show off his souped up golf cart that will do over 50mph. 
Yesterday we rented a golf cart and toured both Spanish Wells and Russell Island, with a few stops along the way.  At the north west tip of Russell Island is Sandbar grill.  The food and scenery was wonderful, but a little pricey.  We then ventured to the northwest end of Spanish Wells and found a lovely sandy beach, which we will try out on Wednesday.  We finally ended up at Kathy’s Bakery, the Main grocery store (where Kevin was able to buy a case of coke for $20).  Our last stop for the day was the local realty office to check out the prices for homes on the island.  The prices and taxes where not as bad as we thought.  That is for our next dream.

We left spanish wells on Thursday and headed back to Royal Island cove to wait out another high south wind coming through on Friday.  Saturday morning we sailed to Little Harbor in the Southern end of Abacos.  The sail up was great, but the approach into little harbor cut was not so fun with 5 foot following seas.  We are now Anchored just north of Little Harbor and will be making our way north to Hope Town in the next few days.  Till then my, fair winds and happy sailing my friends.

We have made it to Eleuthra

Well we have made our way to the Eleutheras.  Last week was spent at Hoffman Cay and LIttle Harbor, waiting for the winds to shift and calm down.  Monday thru Wednesday we had west winds and about 25 knots, then it started shifting more northerly which gave us a little peace at night.  While anchored at Hoffman's, we met a nice couple, Dave and Heather, on board “The Answer My Friend”.  He was quite the character and an awesome guitar player.  Thursday  the winds settled down enough that I could manage getting in and out of the dinghy (with my knee).  So we were off to explore the Blue Hole on Hoffmans.  It was this saltwater lake (hole) in the middle of the Cay, about 100’ deep and very high cliffs.  Kevin, Hazel and Tom, jumped off the cliff into the water.  I was not so venturous.  Friday we dinghied down to Little Harbor and had lunch at Flo’s, it was yummy.  Tom and Hazel headed back to Great Harbor on Saturday and we headed to the Eleutheras on Sunday.  Once we arrived, anchored and relaxed on the back deck.  There was a family of 4 sea turtles entertaining us for several hours.

Cross to Great Harbor in the Berry Islands

March 1st 2017
0645 we are pulling anchor and started making the cross to N. Rock Bimini.  The seas were 5-7 and winds 15 kts due east.  Motor sailing it is.  Around 1300 the seas started settling down to 2-3 ft, which made for a more pleasant ride.  We all anchored 4.5 nm (nautical miles) on the back, east of N. Rock light.  It was to rough for Tom to raft, but Hazel was able to, being on a Multihull, she was more stable and not rocking to much.  We all had dinner together and then Tom helped Hazel un raft and set her anchor.  Tom used his paddle board  to get from boat to boat, since all our dinghies were hoisted up on deck with motors off. It was an early night to bed for all.
March 2nd Thursday
Kevin and I left anchorage around 0650, Hazel and Tom did not set sail till after 0830. 
Since they were lagging behind, we decided to push it and motor sail.  It was a beautiful run, with a ESE wind of 15-17 kts.  We were able to anchor at Great Harbour just as the sun dropped behind the Horizon.  Hazel and Tom are some where on the bank.  Probably about 20nm out from where we are.  They had to just sail due to Hazel's lack of fuel.  We gave her our spare 5 gallon tank of fuel for our dinghy to get her thru, if she needs it. 
March 3rd. Friday
We woke this morning around 0800 to rain.  This is a nice thing, so all the salt will be washed off the boat.  Now I don't have to get out there with a bucket and was all the windows, screens and port lights.  We are making water and running the generator to recharge all our batteries.  Hazel and Tom arrived around 0830 (in the rain). Hazel picked up Kevin and the two boats headed into customs.  I have to stay on board until will are all clear with immigration.   The winds are going to be very high out of the NE for the next several days, so we are tucked in close to land and protected from the rough seas.  Hazel and Tom are getting slips in the marina.
March 4th Saturday
We spent a good part of the day in town and also had dinner at the marina.  We will probably be at Great Harbor until Wednesday until the NE winds settle down.  Until then, fair winds and safe sailing my friends.

Welcome to the land of Money

Welcome to the land of MONEY
February 27 Monday
    Friday - We anchored here in lovely quiet Key Biscayne late Thursday night and woke to a peaceful empty anchorage.  We had some fog rolling in, but the sun was breaking through and the water was like aqua blue glass.  From here there is a beautiful view of the Miami skyline.  Did I mention how quiet it is here.   Well not for long.  By 1300hrs the big boats started rolling in.  I’m not talking big as in 45 foot sport fish, I’m talking big as in 60-80 foot mega yachts.  All of them fully loaded with young adults (if you want to call them that) on the decks dancing to very loud music.  By 1500 there was maybe 30 boats here all playing different music and loud.  But once the sun started setting, they all scurried away like rats.
    Saturday - We decided to check to see how our fuel and water tanks were doing and if we needed to start making water.  When we open the floor boards we found a lovely mixture of water and diesel fuel sloshing around on top of the water tanks (NOT GOOD)  When we filled up on fuel in Ft. Pierce we fill them to the top and the port tank is only used for the generator so it was still very full.  The day before we left Peck Lake it rained all day and we were filling our tanks with rain water, so the we also very full.  Let me back up a moment.   This fall we cleaned our water tanks and did not seal them with caulk, The captain thought the thick black seal gasket was enough and this was the same for the fuel tanks, (WRONG).  When we sailed offshore thursday, we were healed over about 20 degrees most of the day.  We now have fuel in our water tanks. Not a lot, just enough to make the water smell and taste like diesel.  So we spent all morning saturday cleaning under the floorboards and properly resealing the view ports on both water and fuel.  The generator ran most of the day and we did three loads of laundry and hung them out so the smell did not come through on the clothes.  This was to try and bring down the water and fuel levels to work on them.  We keep 10 gallons of drinking water on board separate from what is in the tanks so we are fine on drinking water. 
    It is now about 1300hrs and we have had lunch finished cleaning the floor boards, and are going on a dinghy adventure, while we wait for Hazel and Tom to arrive this afternoon.  The boats are just starting to come in.
    Hazel and Tom have arrived, it's now 1500hrs and this place is packed with mega yachts and little boats, it is so loud and the sea is choppy, due to the boat traffic.  Hazel is overwhelmed by all the craziness, I guess we are kind of use to it, after yesterday. 
    I guess this is a major party spot, we almost got in our dinghy with a bottle of rum and headed to one of the big party boats. We then came to our senses and did our own party on board Serena Rose or as Tom calls her the Mother Ship.
    Sunday was the same big party scene, we figure there is at least a billion dollars worth of boats out here.  But it's very entertaining during the day, but nice and quiet in the evening when they leave. 
    We plan on crossing to North Bimini, Weds or thursday, depending on the weather, then on to the Berry Islands to check in.

Sorry this is so long, but we have not had any internet or wifi service till now.  This will be my last blog post until we cross and find a place with wifi.  So don't worry if there is no post for a few weeks.  If you are worried, you can always watch our progress on our tracker. Just go to http://share.garmin.com/kevinwalters.