No 9: Bittersweet.

I know this update is a bit behind the times…. As planned, Passages was hauled out of the water on Wednesday 8 May 2024, and we spent until Friday afternoon preparing her for her time in storage at the Brunswick Landing Marina Boatyard. It is always bittersweet. For me, I am excited to be going back to Perth, to my sewing room and seeing my lovely group of friends, plus not having to worry about the weather.

Mel having a final look
around Passages.

For Mel, I know he misses being on the water but it’s a nice respite not having to do the constant maintenance that is required when living on a boat. Remember there is a saying – ‘Sailing is maintenance in paradise.’ We said our ‘farewells’ to Passages on Friday afternoon and drove up to Savannah, Georgia for Friday and Saturday night. On Saturday 13 May, we spent the day enjoying the sights and sounds of downtown Savannah by taking a hop-on hop-off bus tour. Early Sunday morning, we drove to Atlanta enjoying the scenery as we were flying from Atlanta to Hamilton, Missouri via Kansas City on Sunday afternoon. We had organised Liz, from Hamilton, to pick us up at the airport and transfer us to our Airbnb in Hamilton. This was an hour’s drive from the Kansas City airport. You are most probably asking why we were going to Hamilton, Missouri. Well, one of my favourite quilting YouTube contributors, Jenny Done, started the Missouri Star Quilt company in Hamilton over 15 years ago. In recent years, I have wanted to visit Hamilton to see the Missouri Start Quilt company, also referred to as the Disneyland of Quilting in the USA. We had arranged to spend from Sunday evening to Wednesday lunchtime in Hamilton, where I spent a wonderful time going from shop to shop looking at all the beautiful material. I burnt a rather big hole in the credit card. Thankfully, I was flying back to Perth on Qatar airlines which always allows two pieces of luggage with a maximum of 23 kgs each. Phew!!! So now, we are back in Perth, acclimatising to the colder weather and adjusting to the time zones, but we have already organised the return of Passages into the water on Friday 15 November so until next time. 

Take care, keep well, and stay safe.

 Best wishes, always Mel and Caryn

👉Brunswick and Savannah

👉Hamilton, Missouri

No 8: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Manjack Cay

 

Over the past two weeks, we have experienced the good (amazing) parts of sailing and living on a boat plus, and unfortunately, the bad and what I would consider the ugly parts of sailing too. Naturally, everything depends on the weather. As I have mentioned, we are constantly checking on the weather with the various weather apps and websites that we have. This year, Starlink has made a huge difference to our life on the boat.

Green Turtle Cay.

When I last wrote, we were keen to find an anchorage that would protect us from the south and west winds. We found one, across the channel from Green Turtle Cay. We left Green Turtle Cay on Sunday at lunch time, and we sailed the 2 nmiles across the channel. We anticipated that we would be lucky to spend one night there as the ‘clocking’ of the weather (from west, NW and then north) would happen during the middle of the night – Monday night. This meant that the anchorage that was protecting us from the south, SW and west would not be suitable for us to stay in and that we would have to cross over, back to Green Turtle Cay while the winds were still blowing from the west. So, on Monday afternoon, we did exactly that. It is not safe to have the land on the lee side. This means if the stern of the boat is facing towards the land. If the anchor drags, you could be carried onto the land if you don’t have an anchor watch to alert you that you are moving towards land. It is never an ideal situation to be in, but we had no choice except to watch and wait while the wind changed. As I have mentioned before, when we have been in the same situation, we have the keys ready in the ignition, and the anchor watch on so we can respond as quickly as possible. Fortunately, the wind clocked around to the north as anticipated, and we were all fine by the morning. We checked out of the Bahamas on the Tuesday morning and made our way west to Manjack Cay which was about 5 nmiles from Green Turtle Cay.

Manjack Cay is privately owned but the owners don’t mind the public going onto land, provided they respect the owner’s privacy and don’t wander into their personal ‘space.’ 

There is a lovely Art Trail. – see video clip. 👉Manjack Cay Art Trail

While we were in Manjack, we also went for a dinghy ride in the mangroves where we saw many turtles
in such a small space. The younger/smaller turtles were skittish, whereas the big mature turtles didn’t mind us going up close and personal with them. It was a lovely anchorage – this is the good part about sailing. Beautiful clear blue waters and sandy white beaches to explore.

We stayed two nights at Manjack Cay, (Tuesday and Wednesday) then made our way back to Powell Cay as we knew that Powell Cay would give us more protection from the strong NE and E winds, we knew we would have from Thursday/ Friday through to Sunday morning. We sailed to Powell Cay and Mel had the opportunity to use the whisker pole. We had the whisker pole put onto Passages in Stuart, last year May, and Mel hasn’t had the opportunity to use it.

Calypso was heading to Powell Cay from Manjack, but they put their motor on, and motor sailed. They arrived at Powell Cay about 3 hours before us, but we were determined not to put the engine on. It was a wonderful sail! Yes, we were only doing about 3 knots, but the whisker pole was keeping the genoa out and the sun was shining – just picture perfect. Life couldn’t be better – the good parts of sailing.

While we were anchored in these beautiful anchorages, we were planning our sail back to the States. We knew that the Gulf Stream would assist us this time round as we needed to sail quite far north to Brunswick, Georgia. We needed east winds with a bit of a south wind component, as well. We saw that the winds were blowing quite significant from the east for at least the next 3 days (Monday – Wednesday), and then they would start to die from Wednesday afternoon.

What do we do….. leave on Monday when the winds are blowing significantly (20 – 25knots) and arrive in Brunswick in 3 days sailing, but 2 nights out at sea, or wait for the winds to calm down and leave on Tuesday, possibly extending our time out at sea (4 days – Tuesday to Thursday/Friday)?

We decided to sail to Great Sale Cay and then access the situation, although we were both quite keen to get to the States as we had been living on tinned food for the past 2 weeks (Remember our fridge wasn’t working). So, on the Sunday morning, we sailed to Great Sale Cay. Once again it was a wonderful sail. This time we were wing on wing. This is when you have the main sail out on one side and the genoa, with the whisker pole on the other side. You can only do this if the wind is coming from behind you, referred to as downwind sailing. Life felt good!

Sunday night we assessed the weather and although I was apprehensive about Monday evening and night, we thought let’s go for it, so we said our ‘Totseins/Goodbyes” to Calypso (remember they come from South Africa) and on Monday morning just after 7.30am we upped the anchor and headed NW across the Great Bahamian Banks towards the Gulf Stream and Brunswick.

Monday was a good sail across the banks although as we slowly made our way into the main waters, with the mix of the Atlantic and the Gulf Stream, the swell and the winds started to pick up and we were corkscrewing down the 2 metre waves. This is what I consider to be the Bad and the Ugly of sailing. One minute you are enjoying the sail and are quite comfortable, making dinner, having cups of tea, and in the space of a few hours, it becomes a challenge to do anything on the boat. Mel is so confident and comfortable; I find it a struggle. To add to my stress, I started to feel seasick – I think it was the processed dinner I had made for us. Not a good idea. We could see by the speeds Passages was doing that we were in the thick of the Gulf Stream. Usually, she can do at the most 6 knots, but she was doing well over 8 knots. This continued throughout the night. I was of no use to Mel, and I couldn’t help with any watches, so he slept in the cockpit keeping watch in 20-minute intervals. Thankfully, our AIS was great and gave us sufficient warnings if a boat or cargo ship was too close to us. That doesn’t mean we don’t do our own visual 360-degree scan of the horizon as not every boat has AIS.

Brunswick Landing Marina
 - Mel taking down the quaratine flag.

By mid-morning Tuesday, the cork screwing down the waves started to subside which made life bearable. We were still in the Gulf stream, so we were sailing quite nicely. Tuesday evening/night was a pleasant sail but by early Wednesday morning as we reached one of the waypoints Mel had set, we could see that we were slowly approaching the edge of the Gulf stream and the winds started to die.

We were approximately 18 nmiles from the safe water mark of the St Simons Sound entry point where we needed to be for Brunswick when we run out of wind and had to put the engine on. So, for the next few hours (7 hours) until we reached our slip at Brunswick Landing Marina, we motored. The total distance from Great Sale Cay to Brunswick was 334 nmiles and we sailed 302 nmiles – Not bad.

While we were making our way into the harbour and to the marina, we had to keep out of the main channel as there were three huge cargo ships. Two were leaving and one was entering the harbour. They are quite daunting, and you feel so minute up close to them.

So here we are in a slip at Brunswick Landing Marina, preparing Passages for the boat yard. This means lots of cleaning, washing, and packing away of things. We have already visited the boatyard to make the necessary arrangements and to find out what is required of us for the haul-out. So, the plan is for haul out on Wednesday 8 May at 8.00am.

In between, we have had the opportunity of walking around some of the historic parts of Brunswick and enjoyed the 1^st Friday of the month food festival in the main street of Brunswick.

👉Brunswick Georgia

Until next time…. Take care, Keep well.

Best wishes, always

Mel and Caryn

Two of the huge container/cargo ships we had to keep clear of.

First Friday Food Festival downtown Brunswick.

No.7: Farmers and Sailors

The Atlantic side of Powell Cay - panorama view.

While sailing and living on board Passages, I have often wondered if sailing and farming have similarities. Not the produce of course. The fact that they are very seldom satisfied with the weather conditions. One hears that farmers will often say ‘There has not been enough rain’ OR ‘There has been too much rain’. Sailors will say ‘The wind is in the wrong direction’ OR ‘There isn’t enough wind to sail’.

At the end of our last blog entry, I wrote that I hoped we had been able to sail and are anchored off at one of the many Cays in the Abaco. That is exactly what has happened.

Mangrove Cay
 from the galley/kitchen window
 before we lifted the anchor.

We left West End on Sunday 7 April just after 7.00am, heading north from the Grand Bahamas Island to Memory Rock, which is one of the entry points for the Little Bahama Bank, toward Great Sale Cay.

We sailed, yes sailed, for about 2 hours until we reached Memory Rock, when we turned due east and meandered our way onto the shallow Little Bahama Bank. The wind was on the nose, meaning coming directly in the direction we were pointing, so the engine had to be put on. Something we don’t enjoy as we are a sailboat not a motorboat. We realised that we would not reach Great Sale Cay in time for sunset, so we decided to head for Mangrove Cay, which was about halfway from Memory Rock to Great Sale Cay. Mangrove Cay would give us some protection from the east winds which were not too strong – approximately 15 knots.

Sante – Xavier, Annette and their lovely dog, Jolie, were following us.

We spent a comfortable Sunday night at Mangrove Cay, along with 6 other boats before heading off nice and early the following Monday morning to Great Sale Cay.

When sailing in the Bahamas, one must quickly adjust to the shallow waters. It can be disconcerting only having 0.3m below your keel. However, the one positive is the seabed in most areas is soft white sand with tufts of grass. The waters are beautiful turquoise blue, just like in the photos BUT the prevailing wind is east and of course, we were heading east.

We thought we would spend two nights at Great Sale Cay, Monday, and Tuesday night, but when we

Allens Pensacola Cay -
Passages in the background.

checked the weather the following Tuesday morning, we saw that the sea state and wave height would be significantly higher on the Wednesday. When motoring, we generally only go at 4.5 to 5 knots an hour. When the frequency of the waves, is less than 5 seconds, we find that we can slow down to about 2 -3 knots an hour, thus extending our time motoring by a considerable length of time. So based on the information we had gathered, we decided to leave Great Sale Cay and head for Allen’s Pensacola Cay on the Tuesday morning instead of Wednesday. We realised once we had arrived at Allen’s Pensacola, it was a sensible decision. Phew!

We let Sante know, and they followed suite. They were able to anchor at Allen’s Pensacola Cay before us as their boat is lighter and faster than our dear Passages.

We also knew that from Wednesday evening through to Friday afternoon, the winds would be up to 20 – 25 knots and gusting to 27 knots, as a cold front was approaching the Abaco’s. What generally happens is the prevailing wind blows from the east, and as a cold front from the mainland of the USA forms and starts heading to the Bahamas, the wind starts to clock around from east to south, west then north and back to east. It is during the ‘clocking around’ that the winds/gusts increase and the sea/water state changes and can become quite choppy. It is also tricky finding a suitable anchorage, where you are protected from all directions of the waves. Allen’s Pensacola promised protection from every direction EXCEPT anything with a west component (SW,W,NW). There were ‘safe anchorages’ further down the Abaco chain of Cays, but we knew we would not make it in time before the weather changed, so we stuck it out.

Sharing a bottle of champagne
 with Sante.

Mel dived the anchor again to make sure it was holding, which it was, and we prepared for the next 36 hours. We have the keys in the ignition, ready to start the engine, ‘the marriage savers’ at the ready along with our head lights and safety jackets. Our 'marriage savers' are our headphones which we use when we are maneuvering or anchoring the boat and instead of shouting at each other, we can communicate what needs to be done, clearly and precisely.

Sante decided to leave and head to Green Turtle Cay and the marina there. It is always a bit sad to see our boat buddies leave, but we also realise that every boat has their own agenda and requirements.

So… for the next 36 hours, we just rode out the weather. BTW, this is the second time in a row, we have celebrated our wedding anniversary sailing, far away from any restaurant. Mel knows he owes me BIG TIME!!!!

In the anchorage were 3 other boats who did exactly what we did. There was plenty of room for us to swing round. However, it was quite fascinating to watch as by Friday afternoon when the weather had calmed down and was quite lovely, about 10 boats had anchored in the anchorage by sunset.

While we were at Allen’s Pensacola, we went on the trail to the Atlantic side of the island, to the Naming Tree and left our mark, plus walked along one of the lovely white sandy beaches.

A little bit of information about Allen’s Pensacola Cay – they were two separate Cays until a hurricane filled in the narrow strip between them, hence the combined name.

We left Allen’s Pensacola Cay mid-Saturday morning, in the direction of Powell Cay which was

approximately 12 nmiles away AND this time the wind was with us, coming from the north so we could sail all the way to Powell Cay. It was wonderful as we only had the genoa out and were averaging 5 knots.

Powell Cay is beautiful – in the right conditions. For the next few days, the wind is NE, E with gusts only up to 15/16 knots, so we have great protection. The waters are beautiful and clear, so clear we can see the bottom. There are plenty of birds, turtles, and little fish. There are three trails: One to the Atlantic side of the island, one to the top of the highest point of the island and the other to the open and very shallow bay facing the Atlantic side. The beaches are long and sandy, so we have taken up the opportunity to experience and enjoy all that Powell Cay has to offer.

We were tempted to stay longer at Powell Cay but thought we would be a little more adventurous and head down further south to Green Turtle Cay. The unfortunate thing is heading down to Green Turtle Cay, the winds for the next week are easterlies which means motoring. Oh dear! Never satisfied are we!

This year while sailing, we have been using an app called ‘No Foreign land’ – if you look on the left sidebar of our blog (Where are we?) you will see how we have been using it to keep track of our routes, places we have anchored, etc.

On No Foreign land, one can chat with other boats as well. For example, when we had decided to go to Green Turtle Cay, there was no information about the anchorage we wanted to anchor in, so we sent a message to one of the boats that we could see was anchored there and asked them about the anchorage. We usually like to know how the holding is – basically once we put the anchor down, is the sea floor suitable for holding the anchor in place and not cause us to drag anchor.

We also noticed that a couple, Andrew and Siobhan, who we had met in Cape Town back in 2018,  were close by on their yacht Calypso II. When we met Andrew and Siobhan, they had recently bought their boat and were slowly preparing her for their big adventure. For the past two years they have sailed from Cape Town to the Caribbean, the Bahamas and are on their way to the States.

As Mel and I were putting down the anchor in Green Turtle Cay, I noticed another boat coming into the anchorage, so clicked on the chart which is linked to the AIS and saw that it was Calypso II.

We met up with Andrew, Siobhan and their daughter, Laura for drinks and nibbles on one of the beaches along the anchorage. We also met up with them and walked around the main settlement of New Plymouth. In New Plymouth there is a mixture of beautifully decorated and colourful houses along with some houses that have obviously been destroyed by Hurricane Dorian a few years back. We spent some time looking at the memorial square for the loyalists who escaped from the States after the American Revolutionary war against the British Crown.

To add to the excitement and joys of sailing, our fridge/freezer has stopped working. Mel has tried desperately to get it working again and on inspection saw that when we had it serviced in Fort Pierce about 2 months ago, the incorrect carbon brushes were installed, which have already worn away. We have no fridge/freezer, but luckily, we have a few months’ worth of tinned vegetables and tuna, chicken, and salmon. This has been the deciding factor to not go any further than Green Turtle Cay in the Abaco.

Our plans for the rest of the sailing season are: we will be heading back to the States to put Passages on the hard at Brunswick Landing Marina, Georgia. This is where Passages spent most of her off season sailing days before we owned her and where Mel first saw and sailed Passages from, back in August – December 2013. We realised after our awful sail across to the Bahamas; Passages is not quite ready for the huge journey we have planned for her over the next few years. I must say I am relieved as I am not ready or think I ever will be, to sail out into the Atlantic. We intend having Passages as near ready as possible for the start of the next sailing season – November 2024, so we can get going as soon as we arrive back in the States.

We plan to stay in the Green Turtle anchorage until Saturday, when the wind shifts south, SW and west, so we need to find some protection. We will need to return to Green Turtle Cay to check out of the Bahamas before heading west, back along the chain of Cays towards the States.

Until next time…. Take care, Keep well.

Best wishes, always

Mel and Caryn

👉Abaco Bahamas

No 6: B.O.A.T.

 

West End, - Grand Bahama.

In the sailing/boating world, the word BOAT is an acronym for ‘Bring Out Another Thousand’. Well Mel and I have certainly felt this way since we have been back on Passages, these past two sailing seasons – 2023 and 2024. AND it never seems to stop!

The last time I wrote a blog entry, we were on a mooring ball, in Manatee Pocket, Stuart, waiting for a weather window to cross over the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. I am now writing this blog entry in a quiet, lovely marina in West End, in the Bahamas. HOWEVER, everything did NOT go according to plan.

While we were waiting in Manatee Pocket for a weather window to cross over to the Bahamas, Mel was checking all the electronics making sure everything was working when he tried the AIS. The AIS is short for Automatic Identification System. It basically enables other boats, large and small who have an AIS to see us and for us to see them.  Our AIS also had another useful system, the anchor watch. Whenever we put the anchor down, we would mark where it was, set a perimeter and, if the anchor dragged, an alarm would go off and we could then take the necessary action. The anchor had only dragged on a few occasions since Mel put in the AIS 10 years ago.

Well, the AIS was NOT working, it was basically dead. It had been fine in Fort Pierce but obviously it had been dying a slow death. It is an important piece of electronic equipment to have on a boat, as was made aware when we were crossing over the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas – more later.

Thankfully, the person who Mel had been dealing with at a large boat electronic company was efficient and could get a new AIS to us by Tuesday of the following week, at a fee of course. Thankfully, as well, Mel had been looking into possibly getting a new AIS, in the future, so he knew what was available. He thought we had spent SO MUCH on Passages already that he would wait maybe next season to buy a new one. He was also aware that it was important for the AIS to have the anchor watch functionality. There are anchor watch apps for tablets and phones, however they are not as reliable as an anchor watch on an AIS.

Back to Manatee Pocket and another boat, Sante – Xavier and Annette – we met them in Fort Pierce City Marina. They had never sailed to the Bahamas and had only just bought their boat so were keen to tag along with us.

When living on a boat, one of the first things you do after waking and making your first pot of coffee or tea in the mornings, is to check the weather. We had been checking the weather and thought that Wednesday would be a good day to cross to the Bahamas. We used the computer programme, PredictWind, we have for passage planning. This compares the various weather models that are available. We check the wind direction and speed/knots and the wave height and frequency. Everything looked good to leave the coast of the USA for the Bahamas by Wednesday afternoon, 4 – 5.00pm and our estimated time of arrival at West End was 9 – 10.00am the following morning. We had decided to sail to West End and check into the country and the marina there for a few days, as we saw that there was some wild weather coming from the west from late Thursday afternoon/ evening. This sailing window would not give us enough time to sail across the Little Bahama Bank to a safe anchorage, protected from the westerlies that would be blowing hard. What we have learnt since crossing is that we did not give ourselves enough time to reach our destination as the swing in the weather turned much faster than we anticipated. It was an ABSOLUTELY AWFUL sail!!! Passages handled the sail well, but I did NOT! She was surfing down 3 metre waves at 8.4 knots and the wind was gusting at 36 knots. There were a few other issues we had noticed with Passages that we had overlooked, in trying desperately to put in the various new upgrades and equipment. Let’s put it mildly that we were given a very hard wakeup call of our complacency and eagerness to get going.

On writing this entry, 4 -5 days after the sail, I am still shell shocked and a bit nervous about our next sail. We have been reading the weather incorrectly and not allowing the seas to die down and flatten or as I have already mentioned, anticipated the speed at which the weather can clock round from a southerly to a westerly and northerly direction.

To add to this all was the Gulf Stream which can push you further north than what you intend to be. We felt awful for Xavier and Annette on Sante, who were relying on us to give them a bit of guidance. HOWEVER, to be fair, the decision to leave the States and cross over to the Abaco’s, Bahamas, was a combined effort.

After this sail, our plans for the rest of the sailing season may change.

While crossing, we were so grateful to have the AIS, as a boat contacted us to say that we were on a collision course with them. They couldn’t see our navigational lights and we couldn’t see them on our new AIS, which is now connected to our main chart plotter. We put on our anchor light, and they did the same and it was only when they crossed, in front of us, did they show up on our AIS. Phew! We think they did NOT have their transmit function of the AIS on, as with some AIS’s you can been seen by others and they can see you, or you can turn off your AIS and only see others. We have done this when we have been in areas that have had issues with opportunistic boats, near Trinidad and sailing out from Guatemala, near Honduras.

So here we are in the Old Bahama Bay Marina in West End, Abaco’s, waiting for a decent weather window, which doesn’t look soon. We thought our days in a marina, were over, however…… Since being here, we have been for long walks along the lovely sandy beaches, the marina has a swimming pool and the use of free bikes. We’ve cycled into the small settlement to get some bread and a few ‘fresh’ vegetables. Mel has been working on some more boat projects and I have been making new covers for our fenders. The next project I’ll be attempting is a bag for the ropes.  We’ve seen so many huge luxurious boats with crew, come and go. At the time of writing this, there is a beautiful eggshell blue boat next to us on the opposite side of the dock. It’s four times as long as Passages and the highest point of the boat, is higher than our 54-foot mast. The crew are very friendly which is quite unusual.

The owners of the boat have since arrived and, well, it’s interesting to see how the other half live. On
the shared boardwalk, there are gym mats, weights from 2 kgs to over 20 kgs all neatly displayed and an exercise bench. The crew have taken the owner and guests out on their speed boat, for a fishing trip. Who knows what the ladies are doing.

We have also hired a car to go into Freeport and to Port Lucaya Marketplace with the couple on Sante, Xavier and Annette and their adorable dog, Jollie. It was sad to see that business is not booming as many shops and stores are closed. In fact, the whole marina at Port Lucaya is literally falling to pieces as there were many signs say, ‘Do Not walk on the board walk’.

So that’s it for now. Here is hoping that the next time there is a blog entry, we have moved on and are enjoying a bit of sailing and anchoring in the many beautiful cays in the Abaco’s.

Until next time…. Take care, Keep well.

Best wishes, always

Mel and Caryn

 👉B.O.A.T. Bahamas April 2024

BTW, our location is being updated almost daily – and sometimes in real-time. This information can be found on the left side of the blog “Recent Locations”

No 5: One Day more

Manatee Pocket overlooking the mooring ball field.

 One of my favourite musicals, show, movie, CD is Les Miserable. I don’t know how many times I have seen the show, movie or played my CD, I just love the music. Well since last time I wrote, I have been singing the song from Les Miserable – ‘One Day More’.

One day more for the engine to be finished, one day more for the wind vane to be completely finished, one day more for the never ending boxes that were first stored in the aft cabin and then migrated up into the cockpit, to be emptied and taken off the boat, one day more staying in the Fort Pierce City Marina, one more day swinging on the mooring ball in Manatee Pocket, Stuart watching and waiting for a good weather window to cross over the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas.

 This is what has been happening since I last wrote. We eventually left Riverside Marina on Wednesday 13 March, with the main shaft of the Wind vane securely attached and in the correct position. We can honestly say that we were extremely happy to be leaving Riverside Marina. Let’s just put it down to one of life’s experiences that we hope and pray not to repeat again. It felt so good being back in Fort Pierce

Riverside Marina.

City marina in amongst our new friends we had met while staying there. This time we were planning on only staying there for a week, so we were tied up on L247 in amongst the multi million dollars motorboats. WOW – full houses on water. Our aim for being back in Fort Pierce City marina was to have the engine serviced. The next day, Thursday, after arriving back at the marina, Pierce and Eli arrived to work on the engine. These two young guys were so polite and enthusiastic to be working on an engine. They were thorough and eager to let Mel know if there was anything out of the ordinary that needed to be addressed. By Thursday lunch time the engine was in a few pieces as Pierce and Eli took the heat exchanger and raw water pump away to attend to and said that they should be back to finish the work on Monday of the following week.

In the meantime, we hired a car to do another huge shop and to buy the never-ending list of spare parts. We also filled up our gas/propane tanks for the oven. Let’s just say that it wasn’t as easy as we would have liked as there was a slight issue with our new gas tank which led to us having to drive in circles, literally, getting a new gas tank from West Marine, as the faulty one was still under warranty and the only West Marine that had another gas tank was where we had been, literally an hour before. Anyway, by that evening, we returned to the boat after 9.00pm with two full gas tanks and enough canned/tinned food to last us for 4 - 6 months.

Mel continued to work on the windvane and the new autopilot, while I continued to clean, sort out the food stuff and do the odd bit of sewing. There is always another cover to be made.

On the sewing front, I have completed the main sewing projects I intended completing before we leave the States. The new hatch covers and mosquito nets, plus a cover for the windvane and adjustments to the pedestal cover. For the next few sewing projects, there is no rush to complete – rope bags, and new fender covers.

Monday arrived and Pierce phoned to say that he would only be able to come back to our boat the following day. That was fine as he knew we were only leaving either Wednesday or Thursday.

By Wednesday evening, 20 March – almost exactly 2 months since arriving back on the boat, we felt that Passages was ready to sail into the sea. Yes, there are the odd things that still need to be addressed but these were living issues. For example, the lighting in the main saloon/living area and galley/kitchen has never been great. We bought some new lighting to be put up. This can wait until we are somewhere else, we have lived with this situation for over 10 years.

We said our “Good Bye’s” to the wonderful people we had meet during our two months stay at the marina. It was rather sad. However, it was time for us to get going, even if it was back south, down to Manatee Pocket in Stuart where we had stayed for quite a while last year, 2023 and where Passages had spent two months (November/December 2023 and part of January 2024) having her chain plates replaced.

So here we are, swinging on a mooring ball in Manatee Pocket waiting for a decent weather window. At

The full moon setting over Manatee Pocket.

the time of writing this, the window for us to cross is Tuesday, however the weather forecast is changing rapidly, which might mean another few days more to wait. In the meantime, there is always something to do – reading, sewing, cleaning. Mel and I have found since we have been here on the mooring ball, we have felt quite tired. It is understandable as since March 2023, since leaving Guatemala, we have been working on Passages, preparing her to leave for the next big adventure. (I am apprehensive as it’s a HUGE step going out into the North Atlantic for so many days).

BTW – last year Manatee Pocket did not have mooring balls but as I mentioned in two blog posts last year, many lovely anchorages are now becoming mooring ball fields run by the local council for a fee of course. This is, we think and have heard, to prevent live-aboards and rust buckets from taking up the space. With the price of houses here in the States, many people can only afford to live on a boat – see blog entries No 9 and No 10 from 2023.

We are enjoying our Starlink although with the cloudy days we are experiencing, we are monitoring how much power we are using.

While we are here in Manatee Pocket, Mel is arranging for a new mount to be made for the Starlink antenna.

So, I continue to sing ‘One day more.’. on the mooring ball as we wait.

Until next time…. Take care, Keep well.

Best wishes, always

Mel and Caryn

👉One day more 

No 4: Still the same – Delay, delay, delay.

 

Passages and it's a Boat Time (red tug).

Delay, delay, delay……. Without sounding too much like the 45^th and past President of the USA, it’s delay, delay, delay for us. I will elaborate further, but firstly referring to Mr. Trump; since we have been in Fort Pierce, he has been in town a few times.

The main federal court where he is under investigation for having classified documents, is here in Fort

Pierce. When we hear lots of sirens, and a helicopter or two flying overhead, we can assume that Mr. Trump is in town. In fact, the other day, Mel was out and about when he was forced to take a detour as he was reluctant to have to walk through a rather large group of Trump supporters who were outside the courthouse.

Anyway, back to us. Not much to report other than we were hoping to be on our way to the Bahamas by now, but we have hit a few snags.

After trying his best to put the windvane up by himself, Mel has realised that he needs help. We have asked Colin at Mack Yacht Services, where Passages had her chain plates done, to assist, but unfortunately, he is unable to accommodate us, so we have had to come up with another plan. We were hoping to leave for the Bahamas by Wednesday 6 March, however, when Mel checked over the engine, he wasn’t happy with a few things, so we have delayed our departure from Fort Pierce, until the engine has been sorted. We also found a boatyard here in Fort Pierce that would be willing to assist Mel with the windvane. So, we left Fort Pierce City Marina for the Riverside Boatyard. Let’s just say, at the time of writing this, we are unsure of whether we have made the correct decision but remain hopeful that everything will work out. It is a very ‘interesting’ place to say the least, as there are many different colourful characters around. I often think when sitting in the cockpit and observe the different characters, ‘What is their story?’.

 

Unpacking our new dinghy.

 We are planning on returning to Fort Peirce City Marina on Wednesday 13 March, where the engine will be serviced and hopefully by the weekend, we can start ‘staging’, the appropriate term for preparing for a voyage by watching the weather and waiting for a good/great weather window to sail to the Bahamas. In the meantime, we have been finishing off projects and have taken possession of our new dinghy and life raft. I have been cleaning and polishing the boat, while Mel finishes all the electrical and mechanical things that need to be done. We have marked our new anchor chain with red and yellow spray paint, in increments of 5 and 10 metres.

There have been times when we feel we will never get going, as there always seems to be something else not working or needs fixing. This is the life of living on a sailboat… there is always something to be done. We do feel confident, that once the engine is looked over and serviced, with or without the windvane, Passages is ready to head out into the great blue yonder.

An aspect of staying at the Marina, are the wonderful people one meets. Across from us, in our newish pen, were a wonderful couple from Wareham, MA, in their lovely tugboat called Boat Time, Susan and Dan. Across the way, was another couple in an Island Packet 485 (much bigger and newer than Passages) Ed and Anga, on their boat called Sweet Dream. Every Wednesday evening, we still go across to B Dock, where we first were to have Docktails and we see Sheila and David from the Full Monty, Scott and JoAnne on Folly Sq’d.

Last week Saturday, there was a ‘whipping parade’ through the streets of Fort Pierce. It was to celebrate

Our new life raft.

and acknowledge the cattle drives and the people involved in them. Apparently, Fort Pierce was a central meeting place for the cattle ranchers to bring their cattle into town.

This past Wednesday, Mel happened to be going passed the Sunrise Theatre, where he was offered two free tickets to see Tim Elton. He is a performer from the U.K. who sings Elton John songs. He was very good, and we had an enjoyable evening.

We hope that the next time we post a blog entry, we will be in the Abacos, Bahamas, enjoying the wonderful clear blue waters. Fingers crossed.

Until next time…. Take care, Keep well.

 Best wishes, always

Mel and Caryn

 

P.S. Our intention is to upload something to our blog every two weeks. We are busy sorting out Starlink, so hopefully this will assist us in downloading the all-important weather forecasts but also to put in our current position and blog entries. Fingers crossed.

Film clip to follow when we have faster Wi-Fi 😉

No 3: Still in Fort Pierce – two steps forward, one step back.

Passages in her new home in Fort Pierce Marina.

 

We are still in Fort Pierce….. working on the boat. There are many times when we are on the boat that boat life takes on its own schedule. We plan our day hoping to achieve a few things, but at the end of the day, we feel slightly dejected when we haven’t achieved a tenth of what we intended. For example: Mel has been putting in a new toilet in our main head/bathroom. It has an electric flush. On the boat, the current toilets have a manual pump for flushing. It is a pain. Anyway, it took us over three hours to run an electrical wire just over a metre from one part of the toilet area, under the main floorboards to where the new electric toilet pump needed to be placed. Mel often looks like a contortionist as he dives down into the different areas under the boat’s floorboards.

I have been busy trying to make new covers for our hatches. ‘Trying’ is the operative word. My goodness, I have watched so many YouTube clips, plus felt as if I have done more unpicking than sewing. I have decided to do it my way and forget about how others of made theirs.

The highlights have been going to the local theatre – Sunrise Theatre and watching two performances: one by a Michael Jackson impersonator. The show was called the ‘Man in the Mirror.’  It was incredibly good; and the other to see ‘Floyd Nation,’ a take on Pink Floyd, which was equally as good, but I think Mel enjoyed it more than I did.

Like most Saturday mornings, we went to the farmers market, which is adjacent to the marina. We also hired a car to two days as we needed to go back to Stuart to collect a few bits and pieces. We have done a few HUGE shops, so I am now feeling a bit more prepared as the grocery cupboards are full.

I have put together a slide show of what we have been up too. Nothing too exciting! We have extended our time in Fort Pierce City Marina by a week. The marina asked us to move from Dock B50 to M220 on Sunday, however we moved on Saturday as the weather was very mild. Thankfully, we moved when we did, as the weather turned and became very windy and wild on Sunday.

👉Fort Pierce February 2024 

I hope whatever you are doing, you are enjoying yourself, surrounded by those who you love and care about.

Until next time…. Take care, Keep well.

Best wishes, always

Mel and Caryn

No 2: Fort Pierce - Cleaning, cleaning, sorting and more cleaning.

 

Unpacking the trailer.

I have often said that I clean more on the boat than I do at home in Perth. The boat is smaller, but boy can it get dusty. I am a bit of a clean freak – Mel says I suffer from CDO – OCD in alphabetical order.

 Well, as planned on Tuesday 23rd January, we packed Passages, putting everything back into her. What a mess! The people who worked on Passages doing the chain plates, did an amazing job cleaning her, but naturally I wanted to clean her myself and pack everything away in the correct places.

The new hot water cylinder arrived after lunch time on Tuesday so thankfully that was put in place. So, we planned to leave Stuart, on Wednesday morning at high tide – which was at approximately 10.00am and motor north to Fort Pierce along the boring ICW.

Putting the hot
 water cylinder

We left Manatee Pocket, Stuart just after 10.30am and arrived in Fort Pierce after 2.30pm but due to the awful current, we could not go into our designated slip, so we spent the next hour and half alongside the first dock. Even trying to tie up against this dock was tricky as the current slammed us against the dock. Thank goodness for fenders! What didn’t help was the wind as it was pushing us up against the dock.

By 4.30pm, we were tied up all secure in our designated slip and our ‘home’ for the next month while we sort Passages out.

 Thursday morning the cleaning and sorting started, and it has literally taken me a whole week to clean and sort her out. It also gives me the opportunity to update our inventory and rethink whether we need certain things on the boat.  Passages has many hidden storage spaces – for example, behind the seating in the saloon/sitting/living area, there are shelves, but below these shelves are added storage spaces. It is vital to have an inventory of everything on the boat as it makes life so much easier when looking for things. Many people living on boats have a story of an item they stored, thought they would remember where they had placed it and ended up having to purchase another one of the ‘missing’ item. A few months down the track while sorting something out, they have found the missing item.

In between cleaning and sorting, Mel and I have used our bikes and cycled to Aldi, which is about 2.5

The new Navpod.

kms in one direction and Publix (a big supermarket chain) about 3 kms in the other direction. Mel has been busy sorting out the Radar and our new Navpod, plus preparing to work on a few other huge projects. There is always another tool or fuse, or connector needed. Thankfully, ACE hardware store is a 5 mins walk from the boat and West Marine is opposite, Aldi.

We have also met our neighbours in the slip next to us, Sheila and David, on the Full Monty from Canada. They have a lovely little dog on board their boat, called Precious.

We haven’t done anything exciting, just working on the various projects on the boat. Oh yes, we did attend the ‘get together’ on the dock, a regular event on Wednesday evenings when most of the residents at the marina meet up for a chat and a drink.

On Friday evening, 2 February, there was Friday Fest along the main waterfront road in Fort Pierce. It was very similar to the Saturday morning Farmer Market, but this time a few more food stalls. Sheila and David joined us for the Friday Fest.

Well, that is about all for now. As I am writing this, the weather is awful. Grey rainy skies with the wind howling. Hope you are enjoying whatever you are doing?

Until next time…. Take care, Keep well.

Best wishes, always

Mel and Caryn

Putting up our new sails.

Making some Beetroot chutney
and red onion marmalade