An Unplanned Vacation from Cruising...April 25 to ???

We took some nice walks around Fort Pierce before we moved over to Harbortown Marina. Here is the City Marina from the bridge. All these "islands" in the ICW are the result of rebuilding and re-engineering the marina after it was destroyed in 2004-05 by hurricanes.  And all the floating docks are new in the expanded marina.  Yes it was a cloudy day with rain until around 4 PM on Sunday April 23.

 Some artwork/sculpture on our walk.

After we moved to Harbortown, the marine technicians showed up on time on Monday April 24.  That's the good news.  The bad news is the weeping of seawater I noticed on the exhaust system while doing engine room checks in the Bahamas all need repairing.  Yes, we could wait and just let them get worse before repairing.  But the 8" diameter, stainless steel exhaust from the turbochargers to the water cooled fiberglass portion of the exhaust system are definitely corroded and leaking.  And given this is where the cooling raw sea water is mixed into the system, one does not want it to get worse and have any risk of sea water finding its way back into the engine.  And 1000+ degree exhaust leaks prior to the cooling water is not a great thing either.  So best to get repaired.
The black at the top of the picture below is insulation around the SS pipe coming from the turbocharger.  You can see the rust stains and corrosion on the outside of the stainless steel here.

Here is the entire assembly coming from the turbo all the way to the fiberglass water cooled exhaust.

So after the boat was pulled from the water, (some of the repairs are below water line necessitating this) our diesel mechanic pulled off the riser/mixers and yes they are definitely corroded on the insides and will continue to deteriorate.  They cannot be repaired, they need replacement.  I am told it is not unusual to have to replace these at around 10 years of service as the combination of hot diesel exhaust and sea water is highly corrosive.  Yet another advantage you Michigan boaters have in that fresh water! 
So I investigate with Grand Banks.  Moki Marine in Singapore manufactured the original exhaust riser/ mixer assembly.  Yep, you guessed it, out of business so no chance of finding a replacement through GB.
The marine diesel mechanic and the boatyard both contacted individual fabricators and they are both out 3 weeks.  So Monday May 1, a fabricator in Stuart FL will start the process ordering raw materials, etc.
The inline fiberglass mufflers manufactured by Centek in Georgia also have some leaks.  Not sure if they can be repaired or will also need replacement, but hopefully those will be easier given an American OEM is involved.  You can see the pin holes on the left and the other diesel exhaust and sea water stains here...this is below the water line part that is necessitating the pulling of the boat.

The rest of the stuff is normal 2000 hour maintenance stuff....valve lash adjustment, cooler cleaning/pressure testing, genset 2000 hour maintenance, detailing the vessel, some canvas repairs from the windy Bahamas, etc.  All this will be completed while we await the exhaust fabrication so all we will have to do is put it together and sea trial and we can be on our way north.
Here we are awaiting the lift to become available to pull out Sum Escape.  We were on time but the marina staff was running an hour late due to a power failure in the morning.

 Signing the work order to be hauled.

So on Wednesday after they pulled the boat and we became homeless, we moved to a condo on Hutchinson Island.  We will stay here a week or so to be sure all the work on the boat is satisfactorily underway, and then we will take a road trip for a couple weeks.  Not sure where...it will depend on the length of the repair downtime.  Don't be surprised if we show up near you though...we can cover a lot of ground at 70 MPH versus our normal 10 MPH!!!

It is a great walking beach here.  On our first two morning walks we found sea turtle tracks and new nests both days.  The next day each of the nests were marked and "fenced off" for protection of the eggs.  Pretty cool!
Here are the tracks to the nest and the turtle patrol making notes and staking out the nest. The tracks were about three feet wide.  The next day's turtle tracks (sorry no picture) was even wider! The tracks you see on the left is where the turtle came ashore and the right is where she returned to the sea after laying her eggs up in the dunes where the person is standing.

Note how many hurricane shutters are already deployed...busy season is over and people have migrated north already.  We see more being closed each morning we walk.

We got haircuts, did some shopping, I went to a dentist to get my chipped tooth repaired (thanks Mom for sharing your dentist here!) and I received my replacement glasses lenses from my Michigan optometrist and had them put in my current frames by a local optometrist office.  Nice change from the defective lenses I had (crazed from heat and scratched from salt spray I guess....anyway it was a warranty claim)
We also attended the America concert, a 70's band from our era, at Sunrise Theatre in Ft. Pierce on Friday night. Great instrumentals but the vocals were a bit rough.   Age has a tendency to do that to musicians...  A very nice venue.  And they get some pretty good entertainers having reviewed some of the past performance information.  Completely refurbished theater built in the 1920's.  Here it is back in the day.

April statistics:

Miles travelled:  Month: 267 / Trip to Date: 8043
Travel days:   6/ 176
Engine hours: 26 / 913
Locks:   0/ 47
Bridges opened:   0 /66
Days on hook or free wall:   7 /77
Gallons of diesel:  250 / 6513


More later....

Manjack and Green Turtle Cay and Crossing the Gulf Stream back to US. April 8-21, 2017

We left Hope Town a few days early so that we could get through the Whale Cut ( a short route "outside" into the ocean to avoid a sand bar on the inside in the Sea of Abaco) prior to winds picking up which can make the pass unnavigable.  It was fine on Sunday April 9 as we passed through on our 36 mile run to Manjack (Nunjack) Cay north anchorage.  We had picked this out as a good place to hide from the forecasted 25 knot winds from the E and NE for the next few days.  We also found on Facebook that Kim and Bryan (Freedom) were also anchored there.  We had not seen them since Staniel Cay in the Exumas in February.  And they said they rode out a 47 knot squall there a couple days prior so we knew it would be a nice spot to hide.  And the hiking, beaches and sea life were reported as fantastic as well.  And here is proof!  Our boat in the anchorage in the background.

Clear water.

The view of the beach from our anchorage.

Here we are laughing along with Scott and Brigitte and Kim and Bryan but missing DeVere and Carole to make the group complete...the big laugh was because I was originally on the swim platform and too short to be seen in the photo!  That does not happen often for me!

A short 15 minute walk to the Lagoon Beach where lots of day trippers come to feed the sting rays, sharks and turtles.  The cay inhabitants (there are about a half dozen houses) welcome visitors to their trails and beaches.  And they have certainly spent some time building the trails, signs, beach gazebo, etc. 

We spent five nights on the hook here and the highest wind gust we got was just short of 30 knots.  But the anchor held well and it was a really nice spot to “hide”.  The one hour hikes each day were great exercise and the scenery is so nice.  We saw sting rays, turtles and starfish here!  Julie even spotted a shark on our high tide dinghy exploration of the mangrove creeks one morning. Here is a photo of one of the sting rays on the exploration.

This is definitely an anchorage we will visit again.  One of our favorites in the Abacos! 

On Friday April 14 the forested winds kicked up even more (and are forecasted to continue for a few days) so we pulled anchor and headed to Bluff House where Putz’n Around had already gone on Wednesday.  It was 20 knots on the bow as we backed into our assigned slip, not my favorite docking scenario (it is usually best to oppose the wind or current, not let it push you).  But Julie does a great job with spring lines as we back in and the dockhands are there to catch the stern lines on the super short finger piers here.  And with a three foot tide, the ladder on the back of the fixed dock slip allowed us to use our swim platform to enter and exit the boat.  Not ideal with the three foot plus tides but doable and better than the set up the sailboats in the marina had to deal with. Nice beach at the marina too.

We took a golf cart to New Plymouth, the settlement on the cay, for re-provisioning.  Many things were not open due to it being Good Friday but one grocery store was open to get most of our needed items.  It was a nice ride into town with newly paved road for a good portion of the ride.  We stopped and observed a couple other marinas along the way to learn a bit for a potential stay in the future. 

On Easter Sunday we watched the St Andrews Cathedral broadcast from Grand Rapids on the internet.  It is so nice to be able to “attend” Mass this way in our old home town!  We even spotted a few of our friends from the community in the packed house that it was.  Thanks Fr. G!!

Our walks each day were great.  We discovered the north beach on Monday.  Another beautiful beach location.  About a one and a half hour round trip walk.  Here is a seaplane along the way....pretty handy way to get to ones vacation home!  It rolls right down onto the bay only yards away for take off and landing.

Here is Coco Bay, the "runway" for the seaplanes (There were two on the bay)

There are plenty of nice rental homes here too.  Might be a great destination for visitors next year!  Fly in to Treasure Cay marina and take a ferry to Green Turtle.  Ferries run like every hour.  Hint, hint…

Tuesday April 18 we cast off from Bluff House to start our trip back to the US. The weather forecast was suggesting Friday as a good crossing day back to the US.

So we cast off our lines leaving Green Turtle Cay on April 18.   Our destination was Allan’s/Pensacola Cay, a short 30 miles or so, a short day so we could enjoy the anchorage.

We took the dinghy to shore and found the hiking trail over to the ocean side.  Yet another beautiful beach.  And a “memento tree” where cruisers leave a sign with their names, boat name and date.  Julie found a scrap of driftwood so we went back to the boat and prepared our sign for posting.

The trail map.

We also explored a couple beaches with the dinghy and found a few nice shells for the collection.  Another nice stop and sunset.

On Wednesday we travelled 40 miles to the anchorage at Great Sale Cay.  We had hoped to dinghy around a bit but it was very windy and we just stayed aboard and read, etc.  A nice relaxing day. We are easing back into the workdays...AKA travel days!  30 miles yesterday, 40 today, 65 tomorrow and 100 on Friday.  Gotta ease into this.😊 
Only three boats when we arrived but approximately 29 by the time sunset arrived.  We are going to miss this water clarity....

Sunrise as we leave for West End.

Thursday we travelled 55 miles to West End, the Old Bahama Bay Marina. 
We will miss this clean clear water...a short video.

https://youtu.be/COUat6DfNRw

It was hit pretty hard by hurricane Matthew and still does not have power on the docks.  Not a great deal at $2 a foot and a $15 water charge and you still have to run your generator for power. But it is a great stopping off point for the trip back to the US.  Some damage to one of the neighborhood homes.

 

The facility is quite nice with a pool, a beach, some good walking around the developing neighborhood, a couple bars and restaurants, etc. 

The weather for Friday is not looking as good as it was Tuesday when we set our crossing plan in motion. We will have to make a “game day” decision on whether to leave or not.  It does look like it is time to head back to the US...look at our Bahamas flag after the winds of the last 11 weeks!

We hosted a “Goombay Smash” happy hour aboard Sum Escape for Scott and Brigitte and Karen and Ken (Island Girl) from Sarasota.  We met them in Hope Town a few weeks ago.  They are retiring in Sarasota from the Pacific NW.  But can you believe it took us almost 3 months to get into the juice and rums we brought to the Bahamas to enjoy them?!
So we got up at 5:30 AM to check weather etc as we would want to be on our way by 6:30 for the 100 mile trip to Fort Pierce Florida.  OK, a little more deterioration with solid 4 footers projected.  But the waves should be from the SE, so our travels NW should put them on our stern. So we decided to go.  If waves are worse than expected we can always turn back.  So we cast off at 6:30 AM.  We joined in the parade of boats leaving for the mainland, we saw about a dozen on the radar at one point.


A few miles out we bid farewell to Scott and Brigitte, our travelling buddies for the last 11 weeks plus. They are headed to Stuart Florida.

And passed a couple of the boats we had seen on radar.

The seas were as forecasted with about 4 foot waves  (occasionally a larger one) mainly on our stern.  So we had a push from the waves and the Gulf Stream as progressed NW toward Fort Pierce Florida. We made really good speed with these "pushes" and arrived in our slip at the Fort Pierce City Marina, 100 statute miles dock to dock, by 3 PM.  

Many have asked "where are you now?" along our Bahamas trip.  Here is a rough map of our 1109 statute mile route from Ft. Lauderdale on the 1st of February until our April 21 return to Ft. Pierce. 

We will be here in Ft Pierce a few days then on to a boatyard for some maintenance on the engines and other general items.  Gotta keep our "home" maintained. 

It's nice to have free water and reasonable electric rates back here in the US.  We paid as much as $50 a day for electricity in the Exumas and water was anywhere from 20-50 cents a gallon. 

More later as we start our trek north for the summer.....

Salt Sprayed and Sun Warmed in Hope Town and Around. March 26- April 7

So the winds did die down a bit on Sunday March 26 and we made our way back to our mooring in Hope Town.  This will be our home until April 12 or so as we have the mooring for one month. And this sort of sums it up...when the kids were with us they were commenting on feeling the salt on their skin all week.  But we really like the sun warmed part!  We so much enjoy cruising the Bahamas and are very thankful we are able to experience it.

On Monday, Tom and Vicki (Grand Baron), DeVere and Carole (Job Site) and Scott and Brigitte (Putz’n Around) were all there and we were invited to Job Site to view the video of the boat rescue in Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera. 

The boat has video security and DeVere was able to capture the images from when the boat broke loose, the boarding in the 6 foot seas and the cruise back to another mooring in the harbor.  Wow.  Seeing the angles of the rescue boat in the waves, the waves coming over the bow, DeVere jumping onto the swim platform etc. was just phenomenal.  A calm and collected captain of the rescue boat and the Job Site are to be commended on a job well done.  Wow.

We then went to Wine Down Sip Sip for dinner with Scott, Brigitte and Tom and Vicki to celebrate Tom and Vickie’s 35^th wedding anniversary a day late. 

As the waitress was taking names to split the check she had to differentiate the two Tom’s at the table.  This was Tom B’s answer.

Yes this is how the check came out!  At least mine was not Ugly Tom.

Tuesday was the Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club final hurrah for the season. 

It was a potluck near the Abaco Beach Club and Resort which has a special $1 a foot rate the nights of the YC functions instead of the normal $3.25.  So we planned to take advantage of this and attend along with Scott and Brigitte (Putz’n Around) who are also members.  We also were visited by Parker and Martha (Otter) who were at the Hope Town Marina and are also members.  So we told them about the function and they decided a change of scenery would be good.  So they headed over to the Abaco Beach Resort and joined us all for the party.  It was great getting to know them better at the function.  We also met long time members Bob and Judy (Elegant 1) who were former neighbors of our nephew Brian and his wife Holly at Lake St. Clair.  Here we are with Bob and Judy.

It was a fun event and we are glad we went.  We will continue our membership into 2018 for sure.

Wednesday and Thursday nights we anchored out at Lynyard Cay and Tilloo Cay respectively.  We did some high tide dinghy exploring near Pete’s Pub and saw many turtles.  We also dinghied to Snake Cay and saw an awesome Eagle Ray at the blue hole near the entrance of Snake Creek.

The Tilloo beach had this conch at low tide.  Julie picked it up and said it was a good six pounds or so.  Amazing how far it can move in each “burst” in the video below.

Friday we returned to Hope Town, our home until mid April.  We were invited to Tom and Vicki’s (Grand Baron) for a farewell toast as they are starting back to the US on Saturday.  Here is “Handsome Tom” having a good time.

We will miss you guys Vicki and Tom!  We hope our paths cross again soon.

We like to walk around the community.  The cute Lizard Lodge.

We took some nice walks on the Elbow Cay beach.

Sunday we dinghied over to White Sound and Tahiti Beach to enjoy the sunshine and calm seas. 

We had Tahiti all to ourselves as sunset approached.

Monday , Martha and Parker had been out and about for a couple days and fished “outside” on their way back to Hope Town.  They hooked five fish and boated three nice Mahi-mahi.  And they shared about 3 meals worth of fresh fish with us!  It was fantastic.  Thanks so much Martha and Parker!  The rest is awaiting us in our freezer.

Tuesday we took a walk along the northern end of Elbow Cay and discovered some new paths to some nice beaches.

We also did planning and reservations for boat repairs, next winters marina reservations (can you believe many marinas in Marathon already have a waiting list?) and other miscellaneous “housekeeping” and maintenance in the living quarters, engine room and bright work (teak varnishing).
Friday night we joined Scott and Brigitte and Curt and Cindi (Classic Cyn) for dinner at the Abaco Inn.  It was very good! 
We plan to move on to Manjack Cay (also known as Nunjack Cay) to anchor out for a few days and then on to the Bluff House Marina at Green Turtle Cay by the end of next week.  We will then start watching for Gulf Stream crossing weather later in the month.  That would mean settled winds and no northerly component to the wind for a couple days.  We hope to be back in the US by May 1 (we have maintenance scheduled with a yard in Ft Pierce) and probably won't post till we arrive. 

Here is a small collection of beach finds from this winter.  Note the piece of sea glass in the center.  We found it while we were walking on the beach here in Hope Town.  And we were discussing our trip to Michigan this summer when is was discovered....note the shape...the lower peninsula!

Thanks for following our blog.

March statistics:

Miles travelled:  Month: 273 / Trip to Date: 7776
Travel days:   15/ 170
Engine hours: 32 / 887
Locks:   0/ 47
Bridges opened:   0 /66
Days on hook or free wall:   7 /70
Gallons of diesel:  321 / 6263