Year: 2015

…Welcome aboard!…

We were so delighted to have our friends, Patricia and Eric, of IP 460 Cutter Loose, sail in to Hope Town Bahamas! Their arrival from Grenada has been anticipated since December. They have sailed the Caribbean for the last 3 winter seasons and are currently bringing their boat back home to Annapolis, MD. We have known them since 1992, when we both had smaller Island Packets on the same dock at Spring Cove Marina in Rock Hall, MD. From August of 2012 to May of 2013, we cruised together from Maine, to Maryland, then south on the ICW, to the west coast of Florida, then to the Abacos and back to Maryland. What wonderful memories we share together!

A beautiful sight – Cutter Loose next to us once again

For 5 sunny days, we enjoyed the civilized pleasures of Hope Town, including stops at the coffee shop, swimming in the pools and at the beaches, walking the North End loop and sightseeing. We enjoyed a happy hour gathering at the Lighthouse Marina picnic table with Art and Brenda of IP380 Zippity Doo Dah, Bill and crew of IP485 Jalan Jalan, Jesse and Robin of IP40 Robinsong, Greg and Sharon of IP40 Dream Catcher, as well as Bill of Providence and the crew of Callahan. On Saturday, we saw a wedding party travel across the harbour by dive boat, complete with a Junkanoo band and dancers. After the reception at the Hope Town Inn, there was an impressive display of fireworks lighting up the harbor as the Gully Roosters Band played at the other pub, It was an exciting time in Hope Town.
(We tried to convince Eric and Pat the display was in their honor but they did not buy that!)

Here are some photos of our great freinds Eric and Patricia

We celebrated their arrival with Gruet champagne

The Sunset Firefly Resort for dinner

On the Firefly golf cart….ride it like you stole it!

Girls will be girls!

Intrepid travelers, always ready for fun!

Selfie after a day at the Hope Town Inn’s beautiful swimming pool.

After 5 days in Hope Town, we moved our boats to Marsh Harbour to provision and to go to The Jib Room for rib night for the last time this season. The winds and waves were higher than expected, (30-35 knots) but we were on a mission and we accomplished it. Best wishes to the Jib Room family, Tom and Linda, as they anticipate the arrival of their first grandchild, who will be named Huck. Best wishes to Stephen and Bradley, the happy parents-to-be.

The next day, the weather and sea state were perfect for us to motor through the Whale Cay Channel and on to Green Turtle Cay for further adventures together! We were lucky enough to secure a dock at the Leeward Yacht Club in Black Sound thanks to IP friends Sara and Ken on IP40 TIN TEAN. We will wait here intil the winds and storms blow out for our crossing back to the Florida.

…Hayden with the Radar…

Our 2002 Raymarine RL70c Radar system has been having issues and presenting an error message that says “Antenna NOT Rotating.”  I called Raymarine and they told me it needed a new drive belt. We ordered one and, when installing it in Miami, I broke the new belt. Errrrr.

So, we ordered another one and this time, in Hope Town, Bahamas, I decided to take the entire Radome down off the mast and work on installing the new belt on the deck. This job took about 3 hours total in the bosun chair and about 20 minutes on deck to install the new belt. Once installed, I lifted the (heavy!) Raydome back up to the spreaders and remounted the dome to the mast mount, all while hanging in the bosun chair. My arms were killing me and so were my legs and hands from using the ATN Top Climber to climb a rope halyard myself.

Hayden’s shadow from the mast looking down

Once installed, we fired up the radar as I watched from aloft to make sure the antenna rotated. Yes, it worked just fine! So, I finished the install and reinstalled the cover and sealant at the mast and finally came down. Well, the radar worked for perfectly for three days. NOW, it says…..”Antenna NOT Rotating.” WHAT? YUP, it is broken again. Now we are very frustrated because we do not like to run full speed ahead at night without radar. To us, it seems very dangerous. We are now planning our return trip to the USA via daytime hops when we really prefer to run 24/7 and to run overnight. It is just easier to do because we can run in shorter weather windows. When we return to the USA, we will take down the Radome and send it to Raymarine for a full rebuild, if they can service equipment this old. If not, it looks like it is time to install all new electronics, because digital radars are not compatible with our chartplotter. This gear has served us well and owes us nothing after all these years!

The radar drive motor and old, stretched, drive belt

The antenna removed, so belt can be installed from the bottom

The new belt installed

Rewired unit at the mast

The radar cover reinstalled

Fire it up, warm it up

IT WORKS….yahoo….but NOW it does not!

The drive belt number #32110 Raymarine Part Number

The definition of Cruising? Fixing (or NOT fixing) your boat in remote locations! So true!

——————-UPDATE————————-

Every day we try the radar, but the message still says ANTENNA NOT ROTATING. We learned that Raymarine no longer accepts these units for repair and refurbishing, like we had them do in 2006. So, we continue searching on-line for possible solutions.

Look at this error message…

I ran the diagnostics tests using instructions found at Raymarine’s website. (Note that running diagnostics was not suggested by the tech I originally spoke to.) All systems indicate “PASS” except one.

Notice that we have run this radar unit for 3,917 hours! WOW, it has been used for many days.

The Ship Heading Sensor says “FAIL” and that may be the issue. I will need to find out.

Here we are in beautiful Green Turtle Cay at the Leeward Yacht Club, waiting out this LO pressure storm arriving soon, After it passes, the ocean will be too rough to cross back to USA for a few days, so we will wait. There are many IPs here, including IP460 Cutter Loose, IP40 Tin Tean, IP40 Dream Catcher, IP380 Zippity Doo Dah, and IP38 Tatoo II. We will have fun, while doing some further trouble-shooting.

———————UPDATE ————-SOLUTION FOUND——————

I have determined the possible problem may be the optical sensor that is related to the ship’s heading and the rotation. I found the official part, it is called:

Raytheon/Raymarine Radome Heading Pulse Opto Sensor PCB (R104) M92650 M92652-s

It looks like this:

This part costs $30, and I ordered one to be shipped to Florida and I will install this when we get to the coast. This may finally fix our radar system!

A Curly Tail poses for the camera

Taking a break on “The Chairs” by the channel entrance at Hope Town

Beautiful contrast

Notice the lizard on the window screen

Hope Town Rental at Flamingo Villas at the harbour entrance

The Beach off Elbow Cay

Hope Town Walks, Radeen and Hayden

Three IPs: Island Spirit 35, Robin Song 40, Cutter Loose 460

Home from the beach and the pool at Hope Town Inn

Radeen at the helm

A day sail in Abaco

Treasure Cay sail to Hope Town

Radeen sailing with Autopilot, aka “Otto”

As you can see, life in the Sea of Abaco is very tough! We hope you can see why we like it here. The Bahamas are a fantastic destination from the USA east coast. We hope to see many more years of sailing here and enjoying this beautiful country and her friendly people.

…Catamaran ANGEL LOUSE arrives Abaco…

Our good friends and long time email buddies and world sailors, Ed and Sue sailed in from London on their way to the USA east coast. Of course, we insisted that they stop in Marsh Harbor and go to THE JIB ROOM with us for Steak Night! Imagine sailing from London, south to Spain then to the Canaries and across the Atlantic in December into the Caribbean. From the Caribbean, they sailed north and east to the U.S. and Spanish Virgin Islands and then onto Dominican Republic and then north into the Bahamas where they sailed to ABACO.

We were so excited to see them after many many years of following their European Circumnavigation via rivers and the Med and then back across the Atlantic. When they sailed into the harbor after 6 days at sea, we gave then a full conch horn welcome and then delivered an ice cold quart of milk and warm homemade bread along with our WiFi internet access code to get online. These are key items for any cruising sailor who has been at sea so long. They were thrilled and grateful.

Radeen, Sue, Ed and Hayden at Jib Room

Later that night, we attended the world famous JIB ROOM and enjoyed the best steaks in the world. We watched the limbo show by Desmond and enjoyed the dance music by Jason. It is always a great time and I really enjoy sharing the Jib Room with friends. To me, this is one of our “Happy Places” and if you ever stop in, you will see why.

Champagne on Island Spirit

Radeen prepared dinner aboard Island Spirit and we popped a bottle of Champagne that Ed and Sue brought from Spain to celebrate their world sailing tour! What a great adventure. Radeen and I can not imagine crossing an ocean, especially without crew. Hearing their stories about all the places they have seen and all the adventures they experienced was a real thrill. We really admire them for their bravery and sense of adventure. These guys are AMAZING!

Country Flags on Angle Louse

We next sailed in their direction over to Treasure Cay to anchor for the night. It was quite hot and humid, so we all enjoyed bobbing the afternoon away in the calm waters of this exquisite beach of Treasure Cay. Ed and Sure raised the courtesy flags of all the countires visited over the past few years. What a sight to see a sailboat with so many different country flags (43!) and then to be here in Abaco proudly flying these flags was very impressive. What a lifetime adventure they are having. We are so proud to call them friends, close friends.

Treasure Cay Beach day, look at the water with Ed, Sue and Radeen swimming

A crowded beach day at Treasure Cay

A Post Card….Treasure Cay

The Jib Room

Angel Louse anchored off our bow, very cool

Ed was a Federal Attorney, look at his boat napkins!!!!

…The Ladies sharing a drink…

What a fun week with college friends Jim and Gail, buddies we have known since 1973! They arrived last Wed. at noon and sadly departed today, Thursday, for their flight back to the cold rainy Northeast. During their visit we toured Man-O-War island and snorkeled Fowl Cay Preserve and Johnny’s Cay near Elbow Cay. We anchored in the settlement harbor on Great Guana and of course compared the drinks at Grabber’s Beach Bar vs Nipper Juice. We concluded that the Grabber’s drink was better but the beach swim and walk at Nipper’s was better. So both beach bars have their plusses.

This is close reaching for MH

We had a wonderful sail upwind in 15-20 knots from Great Guana to Hope Town where we returned to our mooring ball. Easter Sunday we enjoyed walks in town and a wonderful lunch at FIREFLY Sunset Resort. Later in the day we returned to town via the resort golf cart and enjoyed a swim in the pool with a beautiful full moon rising over the ocean. The next day found us snorkeling Elbow Reef with a reef shark. Tt was a race back to the dinghy to see who could get out of the water the fastest while Jim fended off the shark! Next we moved south to Tahiti Beach for a fun day of playing on the sand bar at low tide where we pitched beach umbrellas, swam and drifted in the warm clear waters between Elbow Cay and Lubbers’ Quarters. Returning to Hope Town we made our way up the Elbow Reef Lighthouse for the lighting by Elvis who has been a lighthouse keeper for 19 years! This is a MUST SEE event. The Elbow Reef Lighthouse is a world treasure and needs to be protected and saved forever. If you ever come to Hope Town, you much see this lighting.

THE LIMBO KING, Desmond is amasing

As our time was running our, we set sail for Marsh Harbor where we anchored off our favorite place, THE JIB ROOM. No trip to the Abacos would be complete without attending the World Famous Jib Room RIB NIGHT on Wednesdays or STEAK NIGHT on Saturdays. It was our plan to make Rib Night be Jim and Gail’s wrap-up night on Island Spirit and as always, it did NOT disappoint us. The Jib Room simply has the best program with friendly owners (TOM and LINDA) the best food, great drinks by STEPHEN (The Bilge Burner,) best limbo king (DESMOND) and best dance party (JASON). Everyone always has a great time, including the children, the food is delicious and plentiful and the people are fantastic. This is simply one great place and the very best way to wrap up our visit with wonderful friends. Thank you, JIM and GAIL, for taking the time to visit Team Island Spirit in Abaco. We had such a good time!

Here are photos of the past 5 days.

Radeen out at Firefly Sunset Resort for Easter Lunch

Happy Easter 2015 from Hayden and Radeen

Elbow Reef Lighthouse

Jim and Gail at Elbow Reef Lighthouse heading up at sunset

The view to the east where Island Spirit is on a mooring ball

ELVIS is one of the two men who light the lighthouse

We had the opportunity to look inside the lens after it was lit!

The view from our walking trails around Elbow Cay

Beautiful landscaping and flowers of the Bahamas

Reaching north in east winds heading for Marsh Harbor

The water color while sailing over a sandy bottom in 10 feet of clear water

Dream sailing, broad reaching in 15-20

Simple cell phone photo of sailing from the bow on Autopilot

Selfie of Hayden sailing from the bow

Why do I love this so much? Why?

Gail and Jim looking over the bow as we sail on calm fun day

Our Jib Room Team: Nate, Gail, Radeen, Melba, Dave, Suzy, and Jim

Dave and Suzy of IP 37 CAY PARISO from Maine

Nate and Melba of IP350 TRAVELING LIGHT from Virginia

Gail and Jim, our guests on IP 35 Island Spirit

Radeen and Hayden of IP35 Island Spirit

The JIB ROOM and the happy people

Nighttime shot, not clear, but shows the fun. Great pic Dave

The Limbo King, DESMOND is the best, no one can go lower, NO ONE!

Limbo…..how low can you go?

Happy Jib Room fun with Jim and Gail.

THE JIB ROOM PROGRAM

Jim and Gail heading departing with Island Spirit in the background

Home sweet home, IP 35 Island Spirit

Do we have to go home? Off to the Airport via cab.

One Curly Tail sunning on the concrete, so cool

The Logo of ISLAND GIRL boutique is so cool, it says it all

What a fun 8 days it has been, full of good chats, tours, sailing, great meals cooked onboard, good drinks and plenty of laughs and fun. It is really a good time to share this cruising life style with close friends. Thank you for sailing along….

…Radeen, Gail, Jim and Hayden snorkeling …..

Oh My Gosh! Tahiti Beach Day, Snorkeling Day, Man O War Day, Nippers Day, and still sooooooo much more to explore together. Abacos are great, and the best is yet to be…..JIB ROOM Wed Night!

…Radeen with the 1864 Elbow Reef Lighthouse in Hope Town…

Team Island Spirit is based in Hope Town Abaco and we are asking ourselves, “Why Move?” We go to the beach every day, walk the beautiful island trails and roads, swim in the pool and chat with boating friends. Visitors to this island pay $2,000 a week to to stay here, and we are on a mooring ball for $15 per day, $105 per week. So we are saying…..”Why move?”  The Abacos are so pleasant in the spring time with the waters and skies so blue The temperature is 80 during the day and 73 at night. We are roughing it for sure.

Here are some photos of our days here in Hope Town…..enjoy!

Thank you for traveling along with us as we share our cruising destinations. Hope Town Abaco is certainly one of the highlights.

…The IP owners gather at the Jib Room…

The Island Packet Fleet of various yachts have sailed into Marsh Harbor in the Abacos and we have taken up home base off THE JIB ROOM which we LOVE. Marsh Harbor is a really good anchorage where the holding is fantastic and the large harbor has room for many many yachts. The Jib Room is located in the northeast end of the harbor. The public dinghy dock is on the south shore with easy access shopping. In town there are large hardware stores, pizza shops, bakeries, grocery stores and the famous BTC Bahamas phone store.

On Monday we met newly arrived “Merry Sea” and “Blue Sky.”

IP owners supported the JIB ROOM with 8 boats attending their world famous STEAK NIGHT where Marvin the Gill Master cooks up steaks to perfection. The Jib Room also serves a delicious house drink called the Bilge Burner which is similar to a rum punch with more kick 🙂

We enjoyed taking over three large IP yellow/gold picnic tables on the porch which provided for a fun gathering where we all could visit, share sea stories and catch up on each others travels. Thank you to Tom and Linda, owners of The Jib Room, for creating and running what I feel is the best cruising stop in the Abacos. Wed night is Rib Night and Sat night is Steak night.

On Monday nite, more IP’s gathered at The Jib Room to greet the new arrivals. Boats attending either or both events were IP38 Holiday, IP440 Emerald Isle, IP37 Simple Life, IP440 Aventura, IP380 Blue Sky, IP38 Merry Sea, IP40 Tin Tean, IP420 Flatlander, IP37 Galileo and IP35 Island Spirit.

Where is Marsh Harbor Abaco and the JIB ROOM?

Marsh Harbor and The JIB ROOM location

Island Spirit anchored off the Jib Room

Hayden and Radeen on date night

Hayden and Michele, author of “LEAVE THE SHORE BEHIND” IP37 Simple Life

Michele and Deb share a smile

Radeen, Joe, and Maureen enjoying the Jib Room

Radeen with Linda, the owner of the JIB ROOM

Gerry and Larry

Joe and Michele strike a pose atTthe Jib Room

The wonderful JIB ROOM, a cruisers’ paradise

Marvin the GRILL MASTER prepares the best steaks

Desmond the LIMBO KING puts on a great show

Desmond as low as you can go. He’s been performing for 26 years!

Sunrise over Marsh Harbor

Boats are moving again, some enjoying the Abacos and others starting to head west towards Florida and home. We wish you all fair winds and smooth seas, until we meet again!

Great Sale Cay to Green Turtle Cay

It is a simple 45 nm run from Great Sale Key to Green Turtle Key and in this case it was a total flat calm motor run as there are zero winds in the Bahamas this week due to a ridge north of here blocking all the winds. Fine with us, we prefer to sail but we also prefer calm passages, so I sanded teak and did a varnish job on passage.

Sara and Ken of IP40 Tin Tean join us for dinner

We arrived Green Turtle Cay on Wednesday and decided to stay here and enjoy the White Sound area on anchor. We took in the Green Turtle Club and enjoyed breakfast there. Good friends from Annapolis, Ken and Sara, biked over from Black Sound for dinner aboard. They recently organized the first ever St. Patrick’s Day Parade at GTC….we are sorry we missed it by just one day.

Life is easy here. We did laundry. Sounds like not a big deal, but with 3 loads at $5.00/load to wash and $5.00/load to dry it adds up to a quick $30 dollars. While the laundry is running, we stay by the pool sipping coffee and looking out at our boat on anchor. So, the view and pool alone are worth the price!

Here are a few photos.
…. I really love to take photos in the Bahamas….

Radeen measuring the banyan tree

Radeen loves to ride a tandem bike, so we toured Old Bahama Bay

What to do at Great Sale Key, read, read, read

Sunset at Great Sale Cay, looking back toward Florida

Enjoying the sunset selfie

Heading EAST in the AM for Green Turtle Cay

Ahhhhh, the Green Turtle Club

Coffee creamer from near our home in PA and butter from New Zealand

The #1 Breakfast sandwich in the Bahamas, Green Turtle Club I rarely blog food, but this is worth it….get here and try one!

Whiteaker Yacht Sales mobile office i.e. Team Island Spirit Open in the Bahamas and working

Our Mobile Whiteaker Yacht Sales Office Stop in

This is us at Green Turtle Cay, The Bluff House

The view from the Laundry Room with our boat on anchor dead center

Landscaping

The tide is out in New Plymouth Settlement

Welcome to Green Turtle Cay where 400 people live. The settlement was founded in 1783 by black and white British Loyalists. They were colonists forced from the U.S. following the Revolutionary War due to persecution and economic ruin.

A home on the water, needs some work. Coral blocks for the foundation.

Blue against the blue sky, beautiful

Pig competition, these are the new swimming pigs in Abaco

Phone call, need to make a call? This phone works!

Thank you, BTC Bahamas, our cell phone tower and how we communicate

On watch over the dinghy dock.

…Radeen raises the Bahamas flag…

As we have said many times before, the hardest part of any cruising adventure is leaving, simply departing the safety of your home port or your current harbour. It is far easier to stay at one location rather than to make yourself move on. First of all, you are never fully ready as there is always one more item to find, more provisions to buy, and always something on the boat not working that needs to be fixed. After watching the forecast for days, an urgency factor comes into play when a weather window starts to open. On this preparation for our 4th trip to the Bahamas, it seemed as if this vortex was even stronger. Maybe this had something to do with the fact that we were based at Coconut Grove Sailing Club, Biscayne Bay, Miami, which is simply wonderful. It is also always hard to say good-bye to friends old and new, so we had one more IP Party on the Porch with IP380 Tamarak, IP38 Oceana, IP27 Time Goes By and IP380 Shawnee. Due to all this, we had a hard time leaving, but….we left and made West End, Bahamas, about a week and a half after our original planned departure.

The blue water as we come up on soundings, West End

WOW are we glad we did! We had vivid memories of the beautiful dark blue waters of the Gulf Stream and that incredible aqua blue water coming up on soundings arriving West End Bahamas, but it now seems even better than we remembered. I have taken photos of the water off the stern, the beam, the bow, the horizon and nothing presents the true blue of this water. You must sail it and see it for yourself, it is so special and so beautiful.

After check-in, Radeen hits the pool

Checking in at West End was fast and convenient. Dockage at Old Bahama Bay is discounted 20% for members of the Royal Marsh Harbor Yacht club. We decided to stay two nights so we could enjoy the wonderful pool, Radeen loves to swim, so we stayed one entire day and walked the beach, rode bikes and swam in the pool. After the 91 mile, 13.5 hour passage, it was a very fun day!

Our Bahamas BTC cell phone lit up and started working when we were 8 miles offshore. It really pays to NOT have to go to a BTC Bahamas store. We always buy our sim chip BEFORE we leave USA from www.MrSimCard.com who provides outstanding service and value. The sim card was shipped to us in 24 hours, and was activated on the BTC network two days before our trip. Once in sight of a BTC tower, we simply turned on the phone and were on the network. We use a Samsung Global Phone, GSM quadband, and it has served us well. Welcome to da Bajammas, Mon….you are going to like it here…

Here are some photos Miami to West End.

The boat at CGSC loaded to the max, down on her waterline

After working up the mast for hours on the Radar, I broke the new belt and hit the bitters! Judith and Haakon’s gift from Scandinavia.

The helm electronics. Raymarine RL70C Chart/Radar w/Samsung tab2 and Navionics

CRAZY, my broken Radar WORKED as we left Cape Florida in the dark Thank you….it is still working.

Our Laptop screen with AIS on OpenCPN charting software. We are the red symbol, the line is our intended course and the green symbols are other vessels.

Helm view at night, Radeen checking Passage Weather as we depart. We use red lights, which don’t ruin our night time vision.

Sunrise as we head 065 for West End, Bahamas

Sunrise Hayden and the calm sea

Motor sailing with full main full jib, doing 9 knots in the Gulf Stream.

Full speed motor sail as ten knots of wind is not enough in the ocean

Radeen loves life on the boat

Half way there, SOG 7.5 as the Stream slows down

The blue water over the stern….and the engine on

Becalmed and zero winds, glad we have a new motor

The blue ocean water

Approaching West End, Bahamas

I shot this same photo 4 years ago, Radeen is so happy See this: http://islandspirit35.blogspot.com/2012/03/arriving-bahamas-2012.html

The pool at West End Bahamas, Old Bahama Bay Marina

Let this review tour begin now as we return to our favorite places in the Abacos. We are excited to chase down our Island Packet Fleet that left a week before us. We plan to gather Saturday at the Jib Room for Steak Night, no better place! Thanks for sailing along.