Category: Uncategorized

…anchored of the Beach…

We sailed into George Town, (Elizabeth Harbour) all the way into the Chat ‘n Chill beach to enjoy the scene. Here we were anchored about 200 yards off the beach with the sun setting over the stern, how exciting. The 37th Annual George Town Cruising Regatta starts this Friday. There are over 300 yachts here, many of which we recognize. We can see why so many cruisers make this harbor THE place to spend the winter. The Elizabeth Harbour is about one mile wide with beaches on the ocean side as well as on the harbour side. There is the famous Volleyball Beach, home to Chat ‘n Chill beach, where all the boaters dinghy in and hang out, visiting and playing volleyball, yoga, church services, and present talks about boating life and world cruising. There is something fun going on all the time.

The George Town Harbour

Looking at the harbour, you will see the island to the east called Stocking Island. This island blocks the normal east trade winds so all the boats anchored along the inside well-protected from the winds. This works well until a cold front arrives which pulls the winds to the Southeast and then the South and Southwest and then finally Northwest. Then the winds blow very hard, at 20-30 knots, as the frontal system passes. This SW, NW winds places boats on the lee shore when anchored at Stocking Island. The beauty of this harbor is that you can easily move to the “other side” which is what we do whenever a front is coming. We move over to Kidd Cove and tuck up against the western shore to be protected when the front arrives. There are many good places to move to all along this western shore. Also on this side is Lake Victoria, which is where town and the dinghy dock are located. This dock is at the Exuma Market which provides the free R.O water hose where cruisers take on their water for the day. The ebb and flow of George Town is very simple with beach walks, volleyball, visiting with buddies, and living on anchor, all with free water. What could be better than that?

Julie, Paula, with Hannah, and Radeen

Our first night in George Town we were invited over to the beautiful Cobin Yacht named R-CALLISTA owned by Paul and Paula who are the kindest and the most fun people. We also picked up Don and Julie of the Annapolis Yacht FIRST LIGHT to join in the visit and fun cocktail party aboard R-KALISTA. Paul and Paula rebuilt this double-ender and I think it is one of the most beautiful yachts out here. We really enjoyed catching up on their latest adventures. These guys are from Toronto, Canada and we always find Canadians to be so kind and so much fun. The cruising life is all about the interesting and wonderful people you meet along the way, Paul and Paula are an example of this for sure.

Paul, Hayden and Don

Poker Run awards party

Lumina Resort, Stocking Island

The private elevated cottages over look the harbor and the resort is all eco-friendly with a very large solar plant and R.O. water and collected rain water for vegetation. People are saying that this place is better than any other Caribbean vacation they have taken. It was here that Bill wrapped up the Poker Run with a large party, our own cruiser DJ George and a fun fun dance party. Of course, a squall came through with high winds and rain and caused a bit of a wet dance floor, but it did not stop the party. Everyone had a very fun time. Great job, Bill!

We found Bill’s long lost sister, check out their BLUE EYES

The Poker Run party was fun

Hayden loves to take “selfies”…. with Paula

Our own DJ George of sv/COPPER PENNY did a great job, even during the squall

Hayden, Radeen with Bert and Prue sv EXUBERANT

This is before the squall, little did we know we needed rain gear soon

Hayden, Radeen with our new friends,Jeff and Patty sv/AVALON. They own our sistership. IP35-166, we are IP35-165!

Here are a few more photos….enjoy

The required Chat n Chill sign post photo

Anchored off Chat ‘n Chill

The public library of George Town

The pool and patio at Peace and Plenty

Winds of 16.2 knots, gives us 10-12 amps of power

Winds of 16.2 knots, gives us 10-12 amps of power

Everything arrives by ship, here they are offloading gravel

The beautiful blue waters of Kidd Cove

Good Night George Town

https://share.garmin.com/IslandSpirit

This satellite photo shows our course today, most of it in water over 1500 feet deep. The turquoise waters are the shallow areas and the “wrinkles” are enormous sand bars. At 0815, we anchored up with Sharon and Craig of IP38 Bonavista, for a fantastic sailing day of 43 nautical miles. Our 45 minutes of engine time included getting off anchor on the Little Farmer’s sand bar, raising the main sail and motoring out Farmer’s Cut from the banks to the ocean. We immediately shut down the engine and rolled out the jib, setting a course for George Town 40 nm south east. Winds were steady at 13 – 16 knots from the NNE, giving us a beautiful beam reach. As we approached Conch Cut, the entrance to George Town, we were able to sail straight into the cut and then reach all the way into the harbor. It was fun sailing directly to Chat ‘n Chill. We dropped sails, started the engine and motored up towards the beach, setting our anchor at 1600 in 10 feet of water. The 55 lb Rocna set quickly into the sand, concluding a great day of sailing. Now we can take in some of the activities here and visit with cruising buddies. George Town looks like there are far more boats here that we have seen in our 3 previous visits. We heard there may be over 400 yachts here for the Regatta that starts Saturday. We plan to ride out the next weather system here on Wednesday/Thursday and then possibly Friday/Saturday sail to Cat Island and discover something new. For now, welcome to George Town, Exuma!

Here are the sailing photos of the day.

Radeen as we motor back out to the boat from Little Farmer’s Yacht Club

Setting sail for George Town.

The ocean is THIS BLUE when the sun is out

Sailing into the morning sun

Beautiful beam reaching, heading south

We love to see the flag flying to the side, this means beam winds

Again, the water is so blue, so beautiful

Our new B&G custom screen displaying the 3 apps that I chose. L to R: Sailsteer, Autopilot and Instruments. Sorry it is not more clear. On this screen, winds show 14.3 knots, SOG was 6.4 knots, and autopilot was holding a 106 degree wind angle

There it is, Chat ‘n Chill, out the porthole.

Blue water and palm trees from our boat.

We are lost in the beautiful cruising life of the Exumas in the heart of the Bahamas. Days are moving between beach walks, snorkeling, swimming, trail hikes, visiting with boat buddies, talking about routes and places to go, on and on and on. All the while surrounded by the most beautiful water of teal blue, crystal clear where we see the bottom in 20-25 feet when we drop the anchor. We can not imagine a more beautiful place to sail. Yes, we are outbound from here to the Eastern Caribbean, and we know that is beautiful as well, but we are a bit sad to sail out of the Exumas as this is the most beautiful place we have ever explored. But we need to explore onward and we need to discover new harbors with Island Spirit, so onward south.

We have been running off wind and solar

We have spent the last week in Cambridge Cay, Staniel Cay, Black Point and now Little Farmer’s Cay. We are pushing south to George Town because the weather forecasts have been the most confusing of all times. Chris Parker is offering up 4 situations from calms to deep low pressures. Then the Grib files show no big deal, just 15-20 maybe 25 knots east winds, typical. So with this confusing forecast, we are making a run for the safe harbor of George Town where 300+ yachts are anchored. Then next week it is the George Town Regatta and we plan to sail over to CAT Island where we have never been. We hear this is a great island to meet the locals and to explore. We hope to sail out there and learn all about Cat Island.

Typical water color when looking off the stern, unreal

Walking Staniel Cay, we found this

Staniel Cay, typical beach

Blue water anchored off Thunderball Grotto

Radeen and Cynthia sure take a beautiful photo, Staniel Cay Yacht Club

Radeen holding up Bell Rock, Cambridge Cay

The beach walks at Cambridge Cay are priceless

The beach to ourselves

Let’s go for a beach walk

Happy Valentine’s Day, 2017, 37 years since we engaged

Swimming off Cambridge Cay

Sunset Cambridge Cay

Two Calm days with sun shades up

Dinghy run to Compass Cay to see the marina

A beach walk with cruising friends

The 35 knot squall arrived

B&G Wind Plot data shows peak winds at 34.6 knots

The cruising buddies at Black Point, Linda, Cat, and Radeen

Too funny, I was called “Mr. C” as a teacher

How to haul your boat with the mail boat crane

Lift it up

Lift it over the mail boat

Lower it to your trailer

There it is on the boat trailer, way coo

This is the CMAP navigation chip, which pays for Explored data Compare this to the next screen

This is WHY Navionics is NO GOOD in the Exuams It says I am in 3 foot water on a sand bar. NOPE, it is not here. DO NOT USE NAVIONICS IN THE BAHAMAS, YOU WILL WRECK

Off to Little Farmer’s Yacht Club

We meet Roosevelt Nixon, who built the yacht club 28 years ago.

Check out the cool bar

The resaraunt where boaters come in for dinner

That is us anchored off the club

The Little Farmer’s yacht Club

The Dinghy Dock

Heading Home, Radeen and Island Spirit

Island Spirit on anchor off Little Farmer’s

 So, life is good aboard Island Spirit, we so doing well, we are moving south, and we are loving the Watermaker. We are now running it 2-3 hours at a time every other day. We have all the water we want. What a treat in the Bahamas. Next stop….George Town.

Happy Valentine’s Day from Cambridge Cay in the Exumas Land and Sea Park which is the most beautiful place on earth. We think this is even better than Warderick Wells, but you will need to sail here yourself and decide if this is true. For now, simply enjoy these photos which need no explanation, just take in the beauty.

click this photo and look left and right, UNREAL….our own private beach and there are about 6 of these at least.

Cambridge Cay is beautiful and here is where it is located.

….Sail on, Sail on…

Sailing in the Exumas is always a great experience because the winds are usually from the East and courses are usually North and South. This means  a comfortable point of sail called “reaching” to sail from destination to destination. Today, we picked up the anchor at Warderick Wells, Emerald Rock, and within 5 minutes we were under full sail. As we turned the corner and set up our course south to Staniel Cay, we noticed that our new sails seem more powerful. In 18-20 knots of close reaching we needed to drop in the first reef on the main sail. This gave us a chance to test out our new boom arrangement and new single line reefing system under full wind loads. It worked well and once the reef was in and the course was set, Island Spirit sailed even better. I am never disappointed in the way Island Packets will sail. They actually sail upwind very well and they love to beam reach in 15-20 knots. 

B&G Zeus Sail Steer is really cool gear.

We also used this sailing time to keep learning our new B&G Zeus2 Sail Steer and the autopilot wind vane steering. We have sailed this boat since 2002 on wind vane steering and we almost never, ever hand steer this boat under sail. The B&G gear and autopilot will process the wind shifts and will head up or fall off far better than a human can ever do. Island Spirit sailed 99% of the way here today and her last three tacks were close hauled into the harbor. Radeen and I were tired when we got here, but we are gaining faith and confidence in this new electronics package and its capabilities. Our last B&G system we had 100% trust in. At this point, we are at 85% due to a few very minor glitches. Overall, the new B&G gear IS far better than the old gear and we are very happy with the upgrade. 

After dropping sail off Staniel Cay, we motored around our buddy boat Crealock 34 NEVERLAND and decided that there was not enough room next to the yacht club so we moved around to Thunderball Grotto and dropped the hook just west of the grotto in 10 feet of water. We launched the dinghy and headed into shore for a nice walk around town and we stopped in all three stores to say hi and we bought a small item from each store. Bahamian people are so kind and so nice, this is a great country to visit.

Here are some photos of the day….

Radeen doing the logbook and Island Spirit heeled over 30 degrees

Autopilot sailing under wind vane, holding a specific wind angle

Fantastic, this boat loves to sail

The helm electronics, B&G Zeus2 in Sail Steer mode, Samsung Tab2 with Navionics for chart overviews Autopilot set to wind vane steering, see the “W” top row

Hayden on deck adjusting the tension in the jib leech cord

The water flow in the sink says it all….we are on a 30 degree heel

Radeen at the helm with the 30 degree lean

Starboard tack for Pig Beach, notice the shadow of our sail on the 10 foot bottom

The Grotto anchorage, this is off our bow

Exploring by dinghy

The rock looks like the head of a lizard

Sailor GrL Radeen loves to travel

Beautiful flowers around Staniel Cay

The rental cottages at Staniel Cay Yacht Club

Nurse Shark Feeding at Staniel Cay, look how tame they are!

The next stop will be back north to Cambridge Cay where we plan a few lay days to work on teak, also to go snorkeling and to break out the dive gear to look at the bottom and practice. We have another front arriving Wed night into Thursday so we plan to take that one in Cambridge Cay.

…Atop Boo Boo Hill with the team…

We sailed on a perfect beam reach from Highbourne Cay south to Warderick Wells, which is the center of the Exumas Land and Sea Park. To us, this one of the most beautiful places on earth. The deserted islands with crescent beaches lined with rock edges makes it a dream to explore. Walking trails traverse over sharp jagged rocks that look like the surface of the moon and wind through hard sand tidal flats with waters running out to sea. The trails lead you to the park office and more beaches and also up to the top of Boo Boo Hill, one of the the highest points in all of the Bahamas. All of these features help to make Warderick Wells a perfect place to celebrate Hayden’s birthday. With our buddy boats  IP380 PLAN SEA, Jim and Loretta, and Crealock 34 NEVERLAND, Jim and Cynthia, we shared a delicious meal aboard Island Spirit, laughed and had a great time. Sharing places like this with friends makes it even more special and more memorable. Make sure to add Warderick Wells to your cruising bucket list. Look at the following photo because THIS is why we sail to the Exumas, the water is so beautiful….

The winds from this frontal system, which is causing SNOW up north at home in PA is unusual in that it has zero West or Northwest component to the strong winds. All the wind has been from the North and the Northeast which makes for a great anchorage off Emerald Rock on the south side of the park office. So we dropped the hook here, as all the mooring balls were taken in the north field, and we used the dinghy to reach the beaches and hike the trails. Below is the approach across the tidal flats from Boo Boo Hill as we look west towards the park office.

…Our Team of three…

We spent one lay day at Bimini Sands Marina in South Bimini to allow the East Winds to shift to SSE as forecasted. This gave us time to shuttle down to the airport in the AM to check into the Bahamas and get our cruising permit and fishing license. All of us were granted only 90 days, but asked if they would kindly allow us 120 days and they did. After customs, we washed our boats because non of us had been to a dock for many weeks. The day was spent with the teams going to north Bimini to BTC for SIM cards for their cell phones and Radeen and I stayed back and did a few network jobs and hit both pools. That night Team IP 380 PLAN SEA cooked us a delicious dinner of roast pork with sauteed apples and onions.

Hayden and Radeen raise the Bahamas Flag

Tuesday, we departed Bimini with a planned passage like Jim and Cynthia of Crealock 34 NEVERLAND did last year, running all night past New Providence to Highbourne Cay, a 28-30 hour run. That sounded great to all of us as we really do not like Nassau and wanted to take this calm weather window East as fast as we could. Remember, it is 200+ nautical miles EAST of Miami to reach the Exumas at Highbourne Cay. The trade winds are ALWAYS EAST so it is very difficult to go east. These weather windows only show up every 7-10 days, so many times you are simply waiting back in Miami for the winds to go South or to die down enough to power east. This time, we had 3-4 days of calm before the next front arrives on Thursday night, so we motor sailed the entire 200 nm.

We did have a fantastic sail out of Bimini, sailing south on East winds, to Gun Cay / Cat Cay cut where we turned East and headed out onto the Great Bahama Bank. Cuts in the Bahamas are to be respected because the current runs fast between them and the shore is always very hostile, rocky and jagged. God help you if your engine would ever die when running a Bahamas Cut, if it did, it would be very serious. Because of that, we always keep a sail up when motoring into cuts. In this photo you can see buddy boat IP380 PLAN SEA powering around the point with his sail up in the rocky cut. Very cool photo.

Running the NW Channel

Once up on the Great Bahama Bank, we enjoyed the flat conditions for making lunch and dinner as we motored east til the sun set behind us. We motored on towards the scary and always challenging Northwest Channel where the the 10 foot waters of the banks flow out into the 5,000 foot depths of the Tongue of the Ocean. This small slot of water framed by rocks and coral reef on each side is the only way through. Due to our speed and the long distance, we always arrive in the dark of night. For safety we are running two independent GPS systems on board, one the new B&G Zeus with a rooftop GPS antenna, and one a Samsung Tab2 tablet with builtin GPS and Navionics software. Between these two systems, we feel confident that we know where we are, even though they present the chart data slightly differently. Once through this cut, we bashed our way into big waves as the winds were 10+ knots EAST (all forecasts were for 4-5 knots from t SSE).

Sunrise peeked through the scattered clouds as we approached the west end of New Providence and we all were happy to be able to see beyond the bow of the boat. Now we could see the salt spray all over the windshields from taking bow waves of salt spray all over the entire deck and canvas. We are so glad we washed the boat yesterday! It is crazy how the wind forecast is rarely right, it may be close, and it may be from the right quadrant but it is not right on. We left the Tongue of the Ocean and crossed up onto the next Bahama Bank and NOW the Exumas were in reach. Just another 50 nm (7 hours) and we reached Highbourne Cay where we always re-fuel. We used 32 gallons since Miami….$2.69 a gallon there and $4.41 here. We were grateful to drop and rest after 39 hours of moving. Next stop, Warderick Wells (30 nm south) in the Exuma Land and Sea Park! Wait until you see that…..

Here are more photos, Photo Boy loves to take pictures….

Fun Selfie at the infinity pool at Bimini Sands

Radeen, my favorite photo subject

Ocean water color right off of Bimini, BLUE BLUE BLUE

We set full sail, Jib, Staysail and Main….ahhhhhhh

IP 380 PLAN SEA sailing with South Bimini in the background

Sailing photos are always the best 45 degrees off the bow

IP 380 PLAN SEA, Jim and Loretta ocean sailing

Crealock 34, NEVERLAND sailing off South Bimini

The Crealock 34 is a sleek double ender

The new NEVERLAND with Jim and Cynthia at the helm

IP 380 PLAN SEA off Gun Cay Light

Look at the shordline, all rock and no beach here

Harsh jagged rock of Gun Key with abandoned buildings

Neverland powers through the cut at Gun Cay and Cat Cay

The sun sets over the stern on the banks as we power east

This is the view from the helm, all night long, know your radar system well

YES, we are alive! We can see, look there is the bow….yahooooo

WHAT? Salt spray up to the roof, OK, time to fire up the watermaker and clean this off

Sunrise around the jib as the winds have finally gone SSE

We learned how to customize the Zeus2, screen making our own layouts to choose from. Very cool!

Photos of: SUNSET, our first 2017 at anchor off Highbourne Cay

The winds are west, the front is coming, the sun is setting, time to find shelter tomorrow

Our conch horn from friend Carey which I blow at sunset…”Welcome to Da Bajammas Mon!”

Sunset, bow facing west which means a new front is coming

…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!

…Miami Cordage is THE place..

Team Island Spirit, along with IP 380 Plan Sea team Loretta and Jim and IP 380 Tamarak Bill, loaded of 250 feet of new 5/16″ G4 HT Acco USA made anchor chain. We found our best pricing from Stuart to here at Miami Cordage via the friendly and helpful owner named Jason. Using our $9.99/day Enterprise rental car we drove the 20 minutes north on I-95 and picked up the chain in the trunk of the car.

Stainless steel 1 1/2″ ratchets, very nice

While there, we discovered that they also sell stainless steel ratchets that we use to secure the dinghy in the davits. We have never had SS ones, we always bought the cheap $20 ones from Home Depot and they would only last about a year. These are 1 1/2″ wide, beautifully made by Suncor, cost $75 and should last many years. With our order complete, they cut our chain and asked if we wanted it in buckets. “OK” we said, wondering how we would lift a 125 lb bucket. They lifted both buckets at the same time with a fork lift. It was really cool how they did that from the loading dock and down into our trunk. These guys are pros and so pleasant to work with. Of course, on the way back to Dinner Key, we took a wrong exit off I-95 and ended up in downtown Miami. There we hit the brakes too hard and the chain buckets fell over and all the chain pushed into the back seats. Oh well, it is a rental 🙂 ….

Our cheerful Chain Gang, Radeen, Loretta, Jim & Bill

Once back at Dinner Key, we arrived precisely at high tide as planned to load the chain out of the trunk and into the bow of the dinghy. At 250 lbs, it made the dinghy bow go down, but it was no more weight than one or two people, so the 10 foot AB dinghy handled this easily. Thanks to our “Chain Gang” of Bill, Jim, Loretta and Radeen, we had this loaded and out to the boat in a very short time. Jim then helped us offload the old chain out of the boat locker and down into the buckets in the dinghy.

250 ft in the dinghy for sale

We are offering this old chain at $1/ft to other cruisers, cutting off whatever they want. I already sold 100 feet to one boater. The reason we replaced the chain is that it was bought in 2002 and we are sailing onward to the Caribbean Sea for the next 5 years, so we wanted to go with new chain and a new shackle. Note: 5/16″ G4 HT chain has a 3,900 lb working load and we use the USA made Crosby HT 3/8″ shackle which has a 2t WLL or 2 tons working live load. Many people put the wrong shackle on their HT chain and that becomes the weakest point. We also do not use a swivel because we have a horizontal windlass and the chain does not get turned or twisted very much.

So, our new anchor chain is on and we have one more boat job to do and that is to tune the standing rigging and tighten the forestays. After a trip to Costco today, then it will be a waiting game for a weather window.

Radeen smiling in the rain as we load provisions on Sunday

250 lbs of new anchor chain in the trunk of the car

Taking the chain out to Island Spirit

That is 250 feet of HT chain in the dinghy bow

250 feet of chain loaded up to the deck

USA Crosby 2T HT shackle. The proper one. USA made.

SS wires secures the anchor shackle

This should just about do it for the refit of Island Spirit, new sails, new electronics, new running rigging, new Spectra watermaker, and new anchor chain. Now if the east winds will just stop blowing we can head out. Looks like next week now…..