PIKA Southbound III
1967 Alberg 37 MK-I Sloop
(Third Trip South to the Bahamas 2005-2006)
By Lou and Jean Wayne
PIKA
Sunday, 10/16/05
Weighed anchor from Rochester
at 8am loaded to capacity after an
emergency trip to the gas station for more air in the back tires (we drove our
car from Rochester to Kinsale,
VA where PIKA has been docked).
Wed., 10/26/05
Ten days have passed and we are finally underway. We find it very difficult to part from our
dear friends Tom and Kaye in Kinsale, VA
who have been so good to us. They were to have accompanied us this trip
but some pesky medical issues are keeping them home. For most of the last ten days we found two
items added to the to-do-list for each one crossed off. Another distraction has been new friends
Geoff and Bunkey who are former Alberg 37 owners but now are sailing a 41 ft.
catamaran. Their boat has shared the
dock with PIKA since spring but we
have only gotten to know them since the southbound preparations began. They
left today also but had an earlier start and make a couple more knots than we
do so we may not see them until the Bahamas.
Party of TWO Leaving Kinsale for Points South
Eventually the chores required less use of
the table saw, drill press, vise, sewing machine, etc. and could be finished up
along the way so we have cast off the lines and are underway. Underway with gusto I might add, 25 kts from
the north west,
PIKA doing 7+ kts under jib
alone. By 3:30
we have had enough rocking and rolling and drop the hook in Dividing Creek.
Cool clear weather is predicted for the next week so we should make good
progress. The clear part makes for fine
traveling and the cool reminds us each morning why we are going this direction! We share the waterway with many other
snowbirds like ourselves, as well as our feathered friends. We had a yellow-rumped warbler join us today
for a free boat ride while he rested his wings.
We also saw our first brown pelicans of the trip catching their
breakfast. Thursday we set off at first
light for Norfolk. We actually spent the night anchored in Mill
Creek, Hampton. It's a good secure spot but left us with
crossing Hampton Roads with big seas rolling down from the bay. Navy war ships
coming and going, tugs with and without barges plus drizzly rain made for
several interesting hours. Eventually we
made it into the Dismal Swamp canal and to the visitors center just inside North
Carolina. This
morning we awoke to frost on the deck so we were happy to be off toward the
south. Tonight we are at a free dock in Elizabeth
City NC and will attend the
standard wine and cheese party. This is one town that knows how to treat
visiting boaters! Lou and Jean aboard PIKA, Eliz. City NC.
11/17/05
I do hate to irritate our northern friends but we are into
the warmth. Last evening (11/8/05)
after anchoring, we dinghied to a friends boat for
sundowners and when we returned to PIKA,
I discovered my shoes missing. Of course
I had left them in their cockpit and they were quickly retrieved, but how often
do you go out in your dinghy on 11/8 without your shoes and not notice??? But the warmth does have it's
price, the "no-see-ums" are feasting upon my vital fluids. And today
Jean rediscovered one of the true irritations of modern life. While shopping at a Publix supermarket her
cart was stolen just before she was ready to check out. This really p----d her off because she had
very carefully selected each item knowing she had to carry it a half mile back
to the boat. (Her
captain being busy with the laundry and windlass repair). Then the silver haired geriatric old lady
added insult to injury by strategically placing selected items from that cart
in odd places around the store, the French bread on top of the pumpkin pie
filling, the deli sliced meat atop the stewed tomatoes, etc. Needless to say by the time I finally found
her on her return she was happy to see a friendly face and have help carrying
the second time shopped for items home.
At that point a rum and tonic was very high on her wish list. That I
could easily accommodate so upon learning that all the laundry was washed, dried
and folded she jumped into creating a grand beef stroganoff for dinner. Had intended to get underway early but
Jean discovered a problem with the Publix receipt and had to return, problem
corrected without question and we were off in time to catch the 9:30 bridge. Turned out to be marvelous timing as we had current with us down
Port Royal Sound, the slack water at the turn for Hilton Head and very soon the
flood tide hurried us onward.
This was great as it allowed us to cross the Savannah River
at high tide, thru places we had gotten stuck on our last tri p north. Today (11/12) was not so successful, we
arrived at a spot
known as Hell Gate just before low tide with a catamaran
stuck in the channel. Now let's see, he draws 2.5 feet and is aground, no place
for our six foot draft. Down goes the
hook and since it's time for Mister Perkins to get fresh oil, I take care of
that, then take a shower and have lunch.
By this time the tide has been rising two hours so off we go,
dragging a bit but we are thru. By three o'clock we have grown weary of this day
so we drop the hook in Birthday Creek.
Sunday has similar skinny water but with some fuel- conserving slowness
we arrive at trouble spots well into the rising tide and have no trouble,
finally getting the anchor down at dusk in "Wally's Leg". So far with just superb weather we are way
ahead of schedule and will spend a few days in and around Fernandina
Beach before meeting family in Jacksonville
Beach for turkey day.
More to follow.
Lou
and Jean enjoying the warmth while scratching our bites, Fernandina
Beach FL.
11/29/05 Thanksgiving
Well PIKA made
her Turkey day
rendezvous with time to spare. In fact
we came to the marina several days early to avoid being anchored in Fernandina
Beach during the passage of a strong cold front with 35+ knots of wind from the
north which is wide open in that anchorage.
This turned into good fortune in that we were comfortable during the
windy stuff (actually gusts near 50 mph) but we had extra time to get shopping
and laundry taken care of plus unbeknownst to us the marina had a weekly rate
which turned out to be the same as we would have paid for five days. Anyway Jean and my sister Lucy created, in PIKA's tiny galley, a fine Thanksgiving
feast including turkey & dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes,
and of course pies of pumpkin and pecan. This was all transported to my
sister's hotel room where ten of us fattened ourselves nicely. It was nice to see our family, the whole Jacksonville
thing centering around my niece and her two great
kids. But you know you 're getting old when your
"grand" niece is a freshman in college. Oh well no matter we will push on and do what
we can while still able to sit up and take nourishment! We are now in St. Augustine
and will hang around for a day or two, the "Sailors Exchange" not
being open on Monday. The other
interesting thing is that here in St. Aug. there is a
draw bridge in serious need of replacement but since it is on the national
register of historical places it can't just be replaced. Sooo the powers that
be decided to build another bridge in it's place,
dismantle the old bridge, take it off site refurbish it, reassemble it, then
tear down the "new" bridge!
Only in America! Oh well we will be on our way again Wed.
morning still hoping for a mid December crossing to the Bahamas. Oh yes we picked up our new Bahamas courtesy
flag today, how do those flag engineers figure out how to make a flag strong
enough and at the same time wimpy enough to last for only one visit? Enough for now, pouring rain
with turkey leftovers in the oven. Lou and Jean, St.
Augustine FL.
12/26/05 Velcro (Vero) Beach
PIKA has been
tied to a mooring here in Vero Beach
for nearly a week. That's just the way
it works. You intend to spend a day or
two and it just drags on since it is really a friendly place with great
"free" public transportation to nearly everywhere one needs to go. We are
rafted to a fellow Alberg37, Sea Cycle, Mark and Debbie from Toronto
who are making their first trip south. They are waiting for some parts and we are
waiting for mail so we will try to leave together early next week. Since we knew that we were staying in the
same place for at least a week to provision the boat with supplies, we decided
we should give our friends Tom & Kaye from Kinsale
Va. a call and see if they wanted to drive
down to enjoy the cruising life with us for a few days. They arrived a day later and we had a
wonderful visit for a week. They knew
several other cruisers in the harbor who were also headed south so many a party we attended.
Well the next week came and went as our plans were thwarted by a banking
problem. It seems that the mutual fund
company who has faithfully deposited my IRA withdrawals all year into our
checking account somehow managed to make December a "goes-outta"
instead of a "goes-inta"! It
took 8 days to get it fixed with no one able to explain how it happened or
assure us it won't happen again. Anyway
on Dec.18 we broke free of our mooring and the city life to resume our journey
south. Unfortunately we missed several
wonderful weather windows for crossing to the Bahamas
which some of our friends caught and now it's doubtful we will make it before
Christmas. Even though we will have to
wait nearly a week for weather it is much better for the pocket book to be
somewhere that is not so convenient for spending money. Such are the troubles
of this vagabond life style. Thursday Dec. 22 - made it to N. Lake
Worth (West Palm Beach). Will do a bit more provisioning then wait for
smooth seas and a south wind to cross to the Bahamas,
perhaps mid next week. Merry Christmas to each of you.
Lou
& Jean
1/4/06 Bahamas At Last
Well with many fits and starts PIKA has finally made it to the Bahamas. On Dec
28, 2005, we headed east from Lake Worth
(West Palm Beach) at 0500 in the
am. The wind was not as predicted (big
surprise) being north west
rather than south. This made for a lumpy crossing but before noon the south wind kicked in and we made excellent progress
toward our destination of Great Sale Cay.
At 1845 I had a commitment to talk to our friend TJ in Kinsale
Va. on the Single Sideband radio. In order to hear better I shut down the engine. Upon restart we discovered the manifold
problem had reappeared. We turned on the
blower which kept the smoke and smell from the cabin and pressed on. The
prediction was for south west wind so we skirted the south end of the Great
Sale Cay and anchored in the eastern lee about 10:30
pm. The wind came up really more
south than west and we were awakened about 0400 by the lapping waves. When
daylight arrived we decided to move in closer to shore and wait out the
blow. By evening the wind had clocked a
bit more west and we had a quiet night. Come Friday morning we set sail to the
east. Not wanting to run the engine more
than necessary we set the mainsail, hauled anchor and were underway. Friday turned out to be a beautiful down wind
sailing day, many miles dead down, wing on wing with the drifter. Topping off the day was a really great
"green flash" at sun down. Two
more days of very light wind got us to Green Turtle Cay where we will clear customs
today. Gotta go, more later. Lou and Jean, Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas.
1/10/06 Junkanoo
PIKA is now
settled into White Sound, Green Turtle Cay.
We were lucky enough to have cleared customs on Monday January 2, when
the Junkanoo festival happens here. This
allowed us to legally join hundreds of others to enjoy the parade and
festival. Junkanoo is a big party with a
parade of incredible costumes and deafening drum beat music. All
that being said, we had a great time, and today we began our search for a new
exhaust manifold for our 38 year old engine. As it turned out it was too windy/wavy to get
to town via dinghy so we decided to make the three mile walk. We sort of expected to hitch a ride but one
golf cart after another passed us. I
surmised they were all power boaters.
Eventually a young Bahamian gal picked us up and rode us to town. We located Roberts Marine and George Roberts set straight to
work finding us what we need. Sounds promising at this point. Meanwhile, we are warm & happy and
anchored in a safe place with some very nice friends from Toronto. The next day, the home built catamaran PEACE
sailed into the harbor with Ann & Nevil aboard. Ann has single handed her previous boat, a Shannon
28 across the ocean from the U.S.
to Ireland
before meeting Nevil. PEACE is a very interesting boat, a Wharram design
catamaran which is made of plywood and lashed together. They immediately planned a pot luck dinner
for 8 because they caught a large mutton snapper and have no
refrigeration. Also invited were Robbie
and Jamie who had just gotten engaged, and the Sea Cycle and PIKA crews. Robbie is a fisherman so he had a lobster to
donate to the dinner. He also gave
instructions on how to fillet the fish.
After several rum punches we dinghied home
after a wonderful evening with new friends.
Two days and many dollars later our manifold is installed and Captain
& Mate are very happy. On Sunday we
motored thru Whale Cay Cut with 3 foot rollers and wind on the nose to Bakers
Bay where we anchored for the
evening. The small Island across from
the anchorage is known to be one of the best shelling beaches surrounded by
coral reefs and turquoise water so Mark & Debbie from Sea Cycle and Jean
spent the morning collecting shells while Captain Lou did a little fishing from
PIKA. The shelling was great but it looks like we
will be having black bean soup and home made bread for dinner again. We sailed into Marsh
Harbor on Monday in time for a free
evening concert by singer, song writer, and cruiser, Eileen Quinn from Toronto. Eileen writes songs about the cruising life
and she is really good. There was a full
house and a splendid concert. So, we are
up and running again and should be heading south after seeing a little more of
the Abacos. Love, Jean & Lou, Marsh
Harbor, Abacos,
Bahamas
1/13/2006 True Manifold Story
This is directed to those of you who are, like me,
mechanically miss-inclined. The first
clue of trouble came in North Lake Worth when we were
unable to shut down the engine. A diesel
engine must be starved of either fuel or air in order to stop. In virtually all installations a fuel cut off
is provided. Such is the case on PIKA, in this case being nothing more
elaborate than a lawn mower control cable leading from the panel to the
injection pump. But alas I digress. The
fact was pulling the stop cable had no effect.
Not a problem, I just went below, opened an access panel and shoved the
fuel cutoff closed with a screw driver.
A brief investigation revealed that a clamp on the cable was not doing it's job.
Unfortunately the reason it was not performing as designed was that it
hung from one of the studs which holds the exhaust manifold in place. A quick glance showed the stud to be
missing. A more detailed investigation
into the bilge using a strong magnet revealed a nut and 2/3's of a
stud. Yep, for whatever reason the stud
had sheared off in the head. While
removing the manifold I discovered a crack in one leg which became a clean
break during removal. Being the day
before Christmas Eve I figured there was no fixing anything until next week so
I set about trying to remove the broken stud.
Some god of machinists must have been watching over me for I managed to
prick punch the stud dead nuts in the center.
Thus began the futile exercise of using easy outs which of course don't
work. Eventually I had drilled holes up to nearly the correct diameter for a
5/16 24 tap, of which fortunately I had two.
The once blind hole is now not so blind having been drilled thru into
the water jacket in the head. Not to worry a little anti freeze must be as good
a tapping fluid as any, right? Wrong,
true to form I broke the tap off in the hole. (I may be the only man alive who
could break a piece of tool steel off in a stick of butter) Just at this moment with the atmosphere blue
with rage our friends Mark and Debbie (SEA CYCLE) came by offering help and out
of frustration I gave them the manifold and said "get it fixed or replaced" I then set about trying
to extract the broken tap. An hour+
later having employed drills, pliers, hammers, chisels, and forceps the broken
tap was removed and the second tap finished the job. About this time the shore party returned with
the news that they had lined up a welder for the AM who could weld the
manifold. Things are looking up and in
the morning Mark and I head off in his rental car north to Jensen
Beach. We found the shop and a few minutes later Jeremy
showed up and did a bang up job on the manifold. We are fat dumb and happy. I took the rest of
the day off knowing my Christmas would be spent in the engine compartment. Reassembly was nowhere near as easy as
disassembly but the task is accomplished in a good half day. A weather window opened and we were headed
across the gulf stream in a day or two. Unfortunately as beautiful as Jeremy’s weld
was it failed about three hours short of our chosen anchorage. The blower kept
the soot and CO out of the cabin and we anchored in the Bahamas
about 2200 that night. Much too windy and rough to move the next day so I
applied a "blow out" patch to the fresh crack The patch consisted of high temp RTV
wrapped with silicone tape. I figured
this would at least reduce the soot and smell.
We were blessed with 'sailable' winds for the next two days and with the
aid of the dinghy were able to get PIKA
anchored in White Sound, Green Turtle Cay.
To our good fortune there is a great shop on Green Turtle Cay, Roberts
Marine. Within minutes of talking to
George Roberts, a replacement manifold was headed to the airport in Ft.
Lauderdale. A little delay getting it onto the plane and
dealing with customs and it was in my hand by Friday having started on
Tuesday. Not too bad for 'island
time'. Installation of the replacement
was not as straight forward as it should have been. There are several pipe
fitting openings in the water jacket of this manifold and the one I need for my
hot water heater tap was closed with a plug.
The plug required a 3/4" Allen wrench to undo. Now PIKA
carries a pretty fair supply of tools but a 3/4 Allen wrench, I don't think
so! I tried using a nut half in and half
out but it was easily rounded off. Heat
from my little butane torch did nothing so I was forced to drill a couple of
holes thru the plug and cut out a pie shaped piece with the Dremel tool Santa
brought just a few days before. A little
hammer and chisel work and the plug was history. Then
it was just a matter of lining up the coolant hoses, bolting on the manifold,
replacing the heat exchanger, raw water pump, hoses clamps etc, etc. An hour's worth of work in the shop equals
about eight in the engine compartment.
Now we assume that it was simply age that caused the failure and we are
good for another 37 years by which time I shall care not! Now if only I could use hammers, chisels, drills etc. on that damn piece of shit Dell computer I
bought for this trip I would be all set.
($1400 and it ain't even heavy enough to be a decent boat anchor) Brings up my theory of cruising, "if you
can't fix it, or have a back up, there's not much point in having it!" Oh well, we press onward, Georgetown
in a week or two. Lou
and Jean, Marsh Harbour.
1/16/06 Gales
Here's
our weather forecast for today:
Friday
the 13th, a full moon, a major cold front with gusts up to 40 kts, suppose to
begin shortly after midnight lasting for two days, with an exceptionally low
tide about 1:30am due to the full moon.
We are anchored in Marsh Harbour
in 8' of water at high tide with a tide of 2' and PIKA's keel 6' below the water.
However, the weather gods are with us.
The storm did not come thru at low tide in the middle of the night. It was 4:30am
before we had any winds and the major part of the cold front blew thru at 8am - daylight, yes! The peak gusts were also well over
40kts. We recorded 44kts while others
reported higher gusts. Winds are predicted to continue thru Sunday 25 -
30. No dinghy ride into town to do
pocketmail today. We are hunkered down
reading our books and will roast a chicken in the oven tonight. This really is a "cold" front with
temps down into the 50's tonight.
Sunday, quite a bit calmer this morning and most of the black clouds
have blown away. We have a small spot of
sun with more on the way and the temperatures are in the 60's. Things are returning to normal in paradise.
Being a much calmer day and therefore more conducive to project work, I decided
to perform some long overdue maintenance on the head. There's nothing that can humble a man quite
like the rebuilding of a marine toilet!
Ah but the reward, a lovely enhancement in performance. Lou & Jean, Marsh
Harbour
2/2/06 Georgetown, Exumas
Just wanted to let you know that we arrived
in Georgetown yesterday. This will
be our home for the next couple of months along with about 300 other
cruisers. Let the beach parties
begin! More to come.
Lou & Jean, Hamburger Beach Anchorage,
Georgetown
2/7/06 Stuck in Paradise
That's how we began to refer to Marsh
Harbour while the very strong winds
went on relentlessly. Much of the time
in an ok direction but given their duration huge seas built up in the Northeast
Providence channel. This is
the 50 mile wide stretch of open Atlantic which separates
the Abacos from the Exumas and our goal of Georgetown.
PIKA and more importantly her crew
do not venture into 12 ft seas so stuck in the Abacos we were for nearly a
month. Then a short window opened and we fled southward being chased by yet
another cold front. We knew the front
was a weak one and the wind would shift to the north pushing us onward. Before
dark we were securely anchored in Royal
Island well protected on all
sides. This was good since just behind
the front a strong high pressure ridge created another four days of very strong
winds. Finally on Sunday 1/29 we once
again moved south into more wind than we liked but eventually by late afternoon
we reached Highborne Cay. Good protection
from the northeast winds but not good the next morning when they shifted to the
south. A very slow 8 mile motorsail got
us to the south anchorage of Norman's
Cay. The cay was once a major drug
distribution point and in the center of the harbour lies
the remains of a cargo plane which failed on take off, loaded with
"merchandise" for the lucrative US
market. All that is past now and what
remains is just another picture perfect island surrounded by beautiful
turquoise water. Tuesday was the day we
sailors live for, 12kts of wind on a fairly close reach, PIKA heeled about 15 degrees and making 6.3 kts with the auto pilot
doing all the work. A rolly anchorage in
Black Point and then we were off at first light for the 50 mile run down Exuma
Sound to the Mecca, oh that would be Georgetown. 250 boats here already with at least 50 more
in just the next few days. We made a
quick trip into town this am and found it filled with hustle and bustle. Not much new or different except
the free RO (reverse osmosis) water at the dinghy dock. Previously this water supply was not potable
and the only source of "good" water was from the beach bar "Chat
and Chill", at 60 cents/gallon! Our
friends from Virginia have been
here since Jan. 23 staying as guests on a Lagoon 41 catamaran called
"Party of Two". Yesterday they
packed their bags and moved onboard PIKA
for another couple of weeks. We are
having a grand time catching up on the news and gossip from the states while
preparing for a windy cold front tonight.
Life is good!
Love,
Jean & Lou, Masters Harbour
Anchorage, Georgetown
3/6/06 Georgetown, Exumas
We have been in this place for just over a month. You might wonder why we seem to get stuck
here. The reasons are the same as heard
aboard the other 400+ boats who are anchored around
us. First and foremost is the
weather. Nearly always
warm and mild. The cold fronts
which roar through the northern Bahamas
normally glide thru here with a minimum of fuss and fury. The second reason is,
this is a great place to have visitors.
During our stay in Georgetown,
we had guests aboard almost 3 weeks. The
third reason is the Cruising Regatta, an annual week long event which even
includes a couple of sailboat races. So what keeps us busy all day? Life aboard
the cruising boat is not all sand and coconut palms. Water and fuel in 5 gal.
jugs must be "trucked" from town via the
dinghy. Groceries follow the same path
although the market seldom has everything needed so another trip to town is
called for soon after the next freighter arrives. In this warm water things grow rapidly on the bottom so that requires regular attention. The warm temps. and
frequent recharging means the batteries need to be watered. Of course there is
laundry to be done either ashore ($3 wash, $6 dry) or aboard using that heavily
hauled water. Yes there are also social
events to be attended such as the weekly AAS (Alcohol Appreciation Society)
meetings, the dessert extravaganza and the frequent Eileen Quinn concerts. Now we are into regatta week which kicked off
with the pet parade, the flip flop decorating contest, the crazy hat contest
and the Jimmy Buffet look alike contest. Saturday was the around Stocking
Island race. The weather was perfect with north west wind which meant a down
wind start followed by 4 miles downwind, 7 miles to weather, then a mile or 2
of reaching followed by a 5 mile run to the finish. Something
for everyone and a great equalizer.
An Alberg 30 won the class "C" division beating many much
larger boats some of which were class "B" and should have been much
faster. Also, "Cloud
Splitter", a Saga 43 from Sodus Bay Yacht Club, took line honors and
finished 2nd in their class. Many more events to come this week. More later. Lou and Jean, Georgetown, Bahamas.
3/30/06 Escape from Georgetown
Yesterday, 3/14 we forced ourselves to retrieve the anchor
and begin the long journey north. We
stayed a month and a half in what many consider paradise. That is tough to argue as it has everything
one needs including unlimited social interaction or near solitude as one might
require. We failed to attend the grand
finale of Regatta which is the variety show put on by the cruisers with anyone
from any of the boats with any kind of talent.
It was just to windy and lumpy to cross the
harbour. We had a bumpy following sea and light wind journey north to
Blackpoint but this is one of our favorite spots in all the Bahamas
so we are content. By the time we
arrived the wind had died completely but that was fine since we had tired of
being jostled around. After dinner while
I was picking up around the cockpit, Jean gave a call for help from her reading
room (aka the vee berth). It seems a
very large moth had flown in through the hatch.
Not your ordinary sweater eater, this baby had a wing span of 8 or 10
inches. We realized it might be a
"money moth" which it is said brings good fortune to anyone it lights
upon. It seemed to sense our lack of
potential for receipt of good fortune and did not land on either of us. In spite of serious disappointment we
assisted it to freedom none the less. Today was totally calm and we could
clearly see every grain of sand ten feet below the surface in our turquoise
ocean. I took the opportunity to check
things on PIKA's bottom. A few red beards of growth here and there but
those are easily scrubbed away, so maybe the cheap bottom paint is ok after
all. Friday, St. Patrick’s Day, had a
glorious sail in 8-10 knots of breeze and flat turquoise seas to Staniel Cay,
the mega-yacht capital of the Bahamas. This is where the rich and famous fly in to
meet their yachts when they have free time.
There is a constant buzz of small plane engines. The spot where we are
anchored is called Piggy Beach,
the name because of
the large semi-wild pigs living on the beach and surrounding brush.
They really like
fresh goodies so it is quite the tourist attraction to dinghy over to feed
them. They just about swim out to meet anyone with food.
Thursday, cold front coming tomorrow so we must move from Piggy Beach to a
more protected anchorage. Between
the Majors is the usual spot but we decide to try an anchorage 1/2 mile away
near Fowl Cay. There is a long way and a
short way to get there. Short way thru a
very narrow cut with the wind piping up may be challenging so we hoist the
sails and sail 5 miles around the islands and shallow spots to get to our
protected anchorage to ride out the front.
Not too bad, the peak wind speed is only 35knts. from
the NW, and short lived. Also during daylight hours. Saturday, calm seas so we decide it is time
to move on. We had a most pleasant sail
about 15 miles in a 10 knot. breeze to Emerald Rock,
just outside of Warderick Wells, the Land & Sea
National Park. Learned that there was a happy hour on the
beach in one hour so we dinghied back to PIKA to rustle up an hors d'oeuvre and
get our drinks. Very
pleasant and a nice group of cruisers, some old friends and many new. Lots of people still going south which feels
strange to us since all the folks we have been with these past few months are
either gone south to the Caribbean or already north of us. We really thought we would be able to make
some north progress this week but the wind gods seem to be ganging up against
us. So, we may still be in this
beautiful spot for most of this week. We have good protection from the north
winds and the sun is out so today we will dinghy ashore and
see some of the park. We did do
some hiking in the park but alas on Wed. the wind seemed to favor north bound
travel so we sailed off toward Highborne Cay.
Mostly sailing off the wind but the last 6 miles saw us double reefed
with about half the jib out pounding to weather. But Highborne we did make. That means we can dispense with about a weeks
worth of trash and get a few more gallons of water. Wind is supposed to blow harder tomorrow
(3/30) so we will hang out and get this sent off along with those other
chores. Hope to be up to the Abacos by
early next week. All's well aboard PIKA.
Lou and Jean, Highborne Cay.
Sunday, April 2 Abacos
Motor-sailed from Royal Island thru
the NE Providence Channel to Little Harbour, Abacos today (56 miles). Spent the whole day looking
for whales and fishing for Mahi Mahi.
None! Monday, in Marsh Harbour
today will spend a few days provisioning (the quartermaster has proclaimed
"we need some new food on this boat") then head north and west. Lou
& Jean, Marsh Harbour
Abacos.
4/ 11/06 Where
does the time go?
We anchored in Marsh
Harbour Monday afternoon and next morning went ashore to do just a few of the
our many on shore chores. No need to be too ambitious since we will be here
several days. The short list was, do pocketmail and make a couple other calls,
get propane tank filled, pick up a gallon of anti freeze/coolant, check AT&T
email and bank statement on line, buy rum and beer and a few groceries. A couple
or three hours tops right? We started off very efficiently after getting ashore
about 10:00. Jean headed for the phone while I hiked the 1/2 mile to drop off
the propane tank. The tank is supposed to be back by 1:00 so this will work out
just right. Hike the 1/2 mile back to the phone where Jean is just finishing. On
to the NAPA store to get the coolant, easy 1/4 mile walk, in the opposite
direction. Oh but this is much more than an auto parts store, much more like a
department store so shopping here takes the better part of an hour. Then it's
off to the internet cafe and at a base rate of one half hour naturally we are
here for all of that and more. By now it's one o'clock, time for the tank to be
back from being filled. Upon arrival there, I was most disappointed to see our
tank sitting in the same spot, unfilled and the door closed. Oh well no matter,
across the street is "Snappas" a good place to eat and refresh (read
as drink). After a giant burger (Lou) and equally giant mahi-mahi sandwich
(Jean) we stopped back at the propane place only to discover that the supply
truck went up island earlier than expected and our tank would not be back until
4:00 or 4:30. So we set off to look into rental cars to do some land based
touring. We booked a car for tomorrow and then headed off to the super market
and liquor store. Once these essentials were loaded into the dinghy, I made the
long trek back to the propane place and was rewarded with a full "PIKA"
tank. Back to the dink and home to PIKA
just after 5:00 only - 7 hours to get those two hours of tasks
accomplished. And not only that, the serious grocery shopping and laundry are
put off by a day while we drive around seeing parts of Abaco we have never seen
before. Oh well we will get it all done and move on eventually. Lou and Jean,
Marsh Harbour.
4/19/2006
Two Albergs on a Roller Coaster
Pika
was anchored at Great Sale Cay for the evening preparing for our gulf stream
crossing when we heard two sailboats chatting on the vhf and discussing their
location on the other side of Great Sale Cay.
There was a discussion about what type of vessel they were and when
"Island Time" mentioned that they were an Alberg 37, we called them to
introduce ourselves. The next
morning, we found them anchored behind us and hoped that we would cross the
stream together. We dinghied over to
meet Scott and Lynn from
Castine
,
Maine
and got the tour of their boat, which is very
nice. She is a MKII built in 1971
and is tiller steered. From Great
Sale Cay to the edge of the Bahama Banks is roughly 52 Miles and from there to
Ft Pierce FL about 62 miles. Our
plan was to sail that last part in day light since it involves crossing the gulf
stream which is heavy with commercial traffic (read as ships, tugs with barges
on very long tows and cruise liners). So
if we left the anchorage at about
7:30pm
and make 5.5 knots we will exit the banks about
4:30am
giving us just over an hour before first light.
Well the day was warm with just the slightest south breeze, and a
forecast of south to south west for the next 24 hours so we decided to
sail/drift for the afternoon. Of
course with sisterships sailing side by side a defacto race soon evolved.
Fortunately we spent many years racing on
Lake
Ontario
where drifting conditions are very common and
the winner is usually the boat whose crew just keeps her moving.
About
5:00pm
the wind picked up wonderfully from the south
and we found ourselves blasting along at 6.5 kts toward the edge of the banks.
We were going to be way early but the sailing is so fine we can't bring
ourselves to slow down so the plan is trashed for "all ahead flank
speed". Crossing off the banks
into the Atlantic brought our comeuppance however as the wind promptly shifted
to 285 degrees just north of west, our intended direction and built to 25 kts!
Very quickly it was too rough to safely go on deck to reef the
main so we furled the jib and started the engine since the batteries were
very low at this point anyway. So through the worst of the night we motor sailed
making as much west as possible. About
sun up the wind abated and we shut down the engine and reset the jib.
Not perfect but the gulf stream is making up for our inability to sail
north west
. By mid morning it's pretty pleasant but still
not quite north enough. No matter at 12 miles out the wind dies completely.
We say our goodbyes to Island Time as she is headed south from Ft Pierce
to Indiantown where she'll be stored for the summer.
We motor in on a warm Easter afternoon.
Of course this is culture shock at it's peak.
Those of you up north reading this won't think of Easter weekend as being
a big boating time but trust me it's not too
early here. Everything in central
Florida
that floats and consumes fossil fuel is out here
doing that with abandon, many burning more today than Pika has on this entire
trip. So eventually we made our way up to
Vero Beach
with it's relative quiet.
We'll stay here a few days then begin the long trek north, playing the
tide against the skinny spots. If
all goes well Pika should be in her southern home of
Kinsale
VA
by end of May or early June.
Stay warm and think spring. Lou and Jean,
Vero Beach
FL.
5/9/06
The "Long March"
Meaning
no disrespect to Chairman Mao, the long march is what we are about. From Vero
Beach to Kinsale is about 775 miles as the crow flies. Unfortunately God and the
US Army Corps of Engineers did not consult our black feathered friend while
designing the ICW (intracoastal waterway), consequently "the ditch"
more closely resembles a plate of spaghetti noodles vs the flight path of a
determined raven. So in fact the distance is more like 1030 miles.
While
spending a few days on the mooring ball in Vero Beach rafted with a boat named
Pagan Chant with Captain Michael and his two cats Mr. T-Bones and ZaZa aboard,
we seemed to be taking on several gallons of water in the dinghy each time we
went to shore. The best way to pump out the water seemed to be for Jean to pull
the bow up a foot or two onto the dinghy dock while Lou sits in the stern and
pumps.
The
process was working quite well until one day when we returned to Pika and found
that Lou no longer had his wallet in his back pocket. This was about 5pm, happy
hour but we were not all that happy. We searched the harbor for several hours,
thinking since the wallet was in a zip lock it may well have remained afloat for
some time. We also checked with the marina and bus company as we had just ridden
the bus back from town, no luck. Fortunately, we had a library nearby where we
could use the internet to watch our credit card accounts for any suspicious
charges but after several days we were pretty sure the missing wallet was on the
bottom near the dinghy dock. Next day is very breezy so we put the dinghy on
deck and start looking for leaks. Not too big a deal so get out the goo and fix
the small hole.
Next
day, finally we are off to a good start but true to the captains suspicion the
house bank of batteries have reached the end of their useful life. This fact was
confirmed when we heard them boiling and hissing at the end of the day, even
though they had been watered only that morning. ! We know we can get them
replaced at a reasonable cost in St Augustine so even though there is a several
day closure of the draw bridge we stay "inside" vs going off shore and
skirting the delay. We got the new batteries and were on our way just as the
bridge reopened. Now the problem is north east wind to 30 kts. which keeps us
inside the ICW. This would not be a problem except for all the shallow spots
along the way in Georgia and South Carolina which require half tide or better
for our six foot keel.
After
several late starts of 9 am or so we begin to make progress. Tomorrow, 5/4/06,
we start at dawn and push northward, nearly 70 miles - a long way but we put
lots of skinny water behind us at high or mid tide. Lots of wildlife along this
route. All kinds of shorebirds and when we anchored in Wally's Leg in Georgia we
had to share the river with two large gators. May 5th we made Charleston where
we stopped for fuel then pressed onward. Didn't make much progress as a cold
front approached bringing afternoon "T" storms. We anchored early and
made use of the down time to change the engine oil.
Next
day we set off again at dawn. Made great progress getting far up the Wacacama
river. Cloudy threatening rain the next morning but we press on, right past
Barefoot Landing which used to be an obligatory stop back when it was free! Now
it's $1.25/ft, so we give it a pass.
After
spending the night in Calabash Creek (no we didn't say goodnight to Mrs.
Calabash, wherever she might be) we are off early to catch the Sunset Beach
bridge at 0800. This is always a trip as this bridge is a pontoon bridge which
is "warped" open with winches and cables and takes about 15 minutes
which is why it only opens once per hour. This thing belongs in a museum but
will stay in service for as long as possible since the citizens of Sunset Beach
do not want to make it any easier for lowly riff- raff tourists to get to their
little bit of heaven. I should also point out that this is no picnic for them
either as the bridge is one lane which means the cars have to wait their turn as
well. Can't understand their fear of "development" for as far as we
could see, every square centimeter has been taken up with Beach Houses being
cheek by jowl with barely enough room for a blade of dune grass between
them.
After
getting the bridge we push on as quickly as possible because we will arrive at
Lockwood's Folly just before low tide. This area is a constant shoaling problem
spot and Pika has left some of her bottom paint here on past occasions. After
getting some questionable advice from Tow Boat US we arrive to find a dredge
blocking the channel. Can't raise him on the radio so I called the trawler who
had just gone thru. He was not encouraging as he reported he had hit bottom
three times going thru. Just then the dredge swung out of the way and it was
Pika's turn. There was wind and strong current pulling us to the right so I
compensated as well as I could but not quite well enough. Pika put a short
crease in the sand bar but 18,000 lbs moving at 5 knots has a lot of momentum.
We bump over the bar and continue on our way to Wrightsville Beach from where
this is begin sent.
We
are taking a day off since it's been 11 straight days of travel and the fresh
food running low. We may go offshore tomorrow if the weather is as currently
predicted. That will put us in Beaufort NC and within a week of Kinsale. I
expect our next note will be from Pika's summer home there. Lou and Jean,
Wrightsville Beach NC.
To Be Continued……
5/21/06
PIKA Returns to Kinsale
After
a rather uneventful trip from Wrightsville Beach, NC, PIKA finally arrived at
the Assenmacher dock in Kinsale, VA ("CAMP TJ") on 21 May, 2006.
PIKA
Arrives at "Camp TJ" in Kinsale, VA
(Hampton Hall Branch of the Yeocomico River)
Lou
and Jean have completed their third trip to the
Bahamas
and were at the Assenmacher dock in
Kinsale
,
VA until 5 July when they hauled PIKA
at the nearby Krentz’
Marina
, where she will remain on the hard until September.
She will be back in the water shortly thereafter and will be present at
the Rendezvous in October. Planned
work while out of the water will be a new prop shaft (replacing the old bronze
7/8” shaft with a 1” SS shaft), stuffing box, stern tube and cutless
bearing; along with bottom painting. Lou
and Jean are planning on a long (land cruise) trip this summer to Alaska via
friend's motor home. Hopefully, they won't become too attached to
"Land Cruising"!
They
have provided a spreadsheet
cost analysis of their cruise to the Bahamas (October, 2005
through May, 2006) for your information. You will see that it doesn't need
to cost a fortune to "Cruise in Style" on an Alberg 37!! (To view the
cost analysis, just click on the above link.)