Month: February 2017

…Our Team at the Wallcast… Hayden, Radeen, Jim, Cynthia, Loretta and Jim

We had our easiest and smoothest crossing of the Gulf Stream since 2012 when we first crossed over with our good friend, Carey, who taught us how to go to the Bahamas. For this crossing we left from South Beach Miami as we had attended our 7th New World Symphony Wallcast the night before. We had a great send off party at the Wallcast with boat buddies Jim and Loretta of IP 380 PLAN SEA and Jim and Cynthia of Crealock 34 NEVERLAND and Bill of IP380 Tamarak. We always enjoy these Wallcasts and this one was interesting once again, featuring 3 Viennese composers. The first half was unusual with an atonal style of music while the second half was a fantastic presentation of Schubert’s 9th symphony. These free outdoor concerts have become one of Miami Beach’s top events. After the concert it was back to the boat, de-rig the dinghy, take off the 15hp Yamaha outboard and fuel tank and secure the dinghy for an ocean passage.

Our new B&G Zeus2 sets a course for Bimini

Exiting the inlet was rough even in light air with wind against current and we all slammed through the waves. takin gspray over our bows. The crossing from Miami to Bimini is 50 nm and we knew the winds would be calm, 5-10 knots out of the east and our course is east. With the 3 to 4 knot north flow of the Gulf Stream, we needed to point the boat on a course of 120, which placed the winds 30 degrees off our port bow. This is a motor run, with the engine at 2500 rpms and the sails helping to dampen the rolling of the boat, so it was a dream passage. We pulled into Bimini Sands Marina at 1600 hrs and docked on their nice, long, floating docks. We all washed the salt spray and city dirt off our boats, since we all had not been to a dock in several weeks and then popped a celebratory bottle of GRUET. Welcome to the BAHAMAS where the people are so kind and friendly.

Docked at Bimini Sands Marina

Our next task was to find a Super Bowl party which we heard was canceled due to damage from Hurricane Matthew at the pub we went to last year with Jeff and Sharon. Fritz, the dock master, said the game would be on at the nearby Tipsy Turtle Pub and we thought we would go…..but we all crashed hard as we had very little sleep in the past few nights. So, we did not see the Brady Bunch win in the last seconds of the game of  “Was The Knee Down?” Atlanta was robbed of their Super Bowl win. Tough call.

So, now we will take a lay day here at Bimini Sands Marina and let the building east winds die down and then run directly to Highbourne Cay in the Exumas overnight from here, about a 150 nm run. We will be in Warderick Wells for the next front which arrives on Friday.

Welcome to the BAHAMAS….

Our last sunset in Biscayne Bay

Radeen, Cynthia and Loretta….the Girls

Jim, Hayden and Jim,…the Boys 🙂

Wallcast # 7 for us and The New World Symphony’s 29th Anniversary concert! NWS is a highly competitive tuition-free post-graduate school for professional musicians.

Click here to read about and watch a video about the Wallcasts.  https://www.nws.edu/events-tickets/wallcast-concerts-and-park-events/

Sunday sunrise in Government Cut lighting up the cruise ships

Good Morning Miami

Well, hello, cruise ship Adona underway, this is Island Spirit

Heading out Fisherman’s channel

Neverland and Plan Sea heading out of Miami

This is a very calm day at sea, Neverland looking great

Departure Selfie Year #6, Hayden & Radeen

B&G Triton 2 display showing the Gulf Stream current at 4.4 knots, very cool Note: Our depth reads at 4.5 ft. whenever we are “off-soundings” in deep water,

We made this custom screen, Instruments left, Sail Steer center, Data column right.

AIS at the helm is very nice…LOOK OUT a ship!

That ship is 900 feet long and it is going 15 knots, YES, you may pass!

Check out the color of the water, this is the true colors

Hayden harnessed on and out on the deck dropping main and raising the Q flag

The required GRUET to celebrate arrival in the Bahamas

Radeen after washing the boat

Our Fleet: Island Spirit, Neverland and Plan Sea

Please note, we are running a new ship satellite tracking device called Garmin InReach. This places our position onto a building map of our trip. It also places our latest position onto the home page of our blog. So, with this, you never have to ask us “Where Are you?” You can simply see where we are an any time.

Here is our Trip Map
https://share.delorme.com/islandspirit

Here is our latest position, Look at our home page, top righthand column.
http://IslandSpirit.us

…ahh Anchored off Virginia Key….

We have reached the launch pad and we are planning on motoring out of the USA on Super Bowl Sunday to Bimini Sands Marina on South Bimini. We will dock around 4-6 pm and then clear into the Bahamas on Monday morning. The winds are calm, the waves are to be 3-4 feet and we will need to motor into a 5 – 10 knot head wind as it looks. Then Monday we plan to see if we can depart or if we need to wait one day and then move on. The next leg we will run overnight as there are no real stopping spots.

Leg 2 will be a 100 nm run from Bimini to West Bay on the island of New Providence. We have no plans to go to Nassau. Then on Wed it is flat calm, so we will run the last day for a 50 nm leg to reach the Exumas which are 200 nm East of Miami. Once we reach there, the courses are now south and with NE and E winds, we can actually sail as we push south. On Saturday, Feb 11, a major front is predicted to arrive with winds at 30 to 35 knots from the North. We will need to figure out a place to be safe with that front. That is why we have a 55 lb ROCNA anchor and all chain. It has always held our boat securely on anchor.

Here is a map of the plan…

Our plan to go: Miami to Bimini to West Bay to Exumas ASAP

One more rigging piece: “The Freddie”, a stay sail Barber Hauler! Works Great!

We have worked entirely too hard on Island Spirit this year. It has been nearly 3 months of refit and work, far more than we expected. We got ourselves into an endless void of thinking that we will be out of the USA for 4-5 years, and that set off a panic as to refitting nearly everything on Island Spirit. Maybe we went overboard, maybe we did not do enough. The bottom line is, we did what we did and now we are leaving. Whatever breaks or does not work, we will fix or deal with along the way.

Reviewing how to get there on our new B & G

Our plan now is to push to the Exumas and return to exploring the most beautiful place on earth. Next, we will move beyond the Bahamas and get this boat into the Caribbean Sea. There we will rediscover many of the places we have visited on friends’ boats and on charter boats. This time it should be even better on our own boat and on our own schedule. We plan to base the boat there for the next 4-5 years! Let cruising year #6 finally begin on Super Bowl Sunday….go ATLANTA, we have had enough of New England!  🙂

Here are some photos of the week

Of course, a rental car to Costco, load up!

Chaos of driving I-95….NUTS

Coco Walk Starbucks, we love this place

Testing new B&G NAV gear and Autopilot

4 diesel jugs, two to port, two to starboard

Radeen making great meals on Island Spirit, This is Mediterranean Chicken.

We met new I 32 Wingward owner, Alex, with his captain Allen for lunch at Lokal. Thank you, Alex, for a great lunch and a fun visit! Good luck with your boat! L to R: Hayden, Radeen, Capt Allen and IP owner, Alex

We always tune the standing rigging before we hit the ocean

Radeen had to buy a new mixing elbow to have on board for change out in the Caribbean. Ours is 2.5 years old.

Sailing Biscayne Bay, about 20 Melges racers on a practice leg

NOW, FOR THE WEATHER JUNKIES….

The situation is this. The Exumas are 200 nm EAST of Miami. The Gulf Stream, 5-8 miles off Miami, flows north at 3 knots. Any wind from the NORTH kicks up the stream into 6-10 foot waves. So sailors wait until the winds die down or until go any direction without a northerly component. We have that coming Super Bowl Sunday so we will take it. Sadly the wind is from the EAST and we need to push east 50 NM to reach Bimini. Then Wed it goes flat calm, so we may wait a day and leave Tuesday running overnight into Wed to reach the next island of New Providence. There we anchor at West Bay. Then it is one more 50 nm day to Exumas. At that point, we can run south. So here are the winds and waves for a few of these days….Study up.

WAVES….

This shows 1-2 meter waves off Miami

Wed we will be on the banks, it shows 0-0.5 meter waves

Sat, the winds are driving wave of 1-2 meters from the north

Sunday, winds are to be 5-10 from the east

Wed it shows 10 knot winds from the S

Sat this is showing 20-30 knot North Winds!!! These GRIB files from from the web site www.PassageWeather.com

Sunset off Virginia Key looking back at the Coconut Grove skyline

Tomorrow, Saturday, we will go to South Beach and take in one last WALLCAST concert along with IP 380 Plan Sea, Jim and Loretta, and IP380 Tamarak, Bill and Cynthia and Jim of Crealock 34 NEVERLAND. This will be our send off night!