May 29 - Pine Island, FL to Fernandina (Amelia Island), FL (66.9 miles)

Weighed the anchor and headed north at 0645.

Warship in drydock



Sportfisherman towing a large dingy

I moored up at Fernandino Harbour Marina at 1330 and took on 40 gallons of diesel.
Later that afternoon my nephew Justin drove up from Jacksonville to have dinner and walk around the historical section of old down town.

Fried shrimp platter at the Salty Pelican Resturant

Ice cream & candy shop...



...and of course the fudge packing room!



May 28 - Daytona, FL to Pine Island Anchorage (66.9 miles)

Weighed anchor and underway at 0645.

Yep, that's the Goodyear Blimp!

Replica ship at St. Augustine



Pine Island

 Dropped anchor at Pine Island at 1605.   Ate dinner, worked on a few articles, then turned in for an early start tomorrow for Fernandina Beach.

May 27 - Cocoa, FL to Daytona, FL (65 miles)

Up anchor and underway at 0720 heading north.

The helm - what Frank stares at for 9 to 10 hours a day!

Neat little boat

Passing throuh Haulover Canal




Daytona anchorage

Pulled into the Daytona anchorage and dropped anchor at 4:30.  Another good day's run.



May 26 - Ft Pierce, FL to Cocoa, FL (68 miles)

Underway at 0730 to start my trip back to Norfolk.  As it was Memorial Day, there were still a lot of people on the water, but not so much that it was a problem.



Red-neck Island

 

more island fun

Sailing along smartly

Made it to the Cocoa Beach anchorage and dropped the hook at 4:30.  I stayed here in January while heading south, so was familiar with it - in fact, there was an old abandoned crab pot float that was right were I wound up anchoring (just aft of the stern) that I recognized from my January stop, so I must have been in almost the exact same spot.  Made 68 miles, which is not a bad day's run on a boat that travels about as fast as you can walk.

Frank's dinner

May 23 and 24 - Great Sale Cay, Abacos, Bahamas to Ft Pierce, FL (120 miles)

Based on calculations for our distance to travel and desired arrival time at Ft Pierce inlet of 0800 May 24th (around slack high tide), we needed to depart Great Sale Cay around 1130 on May 23rd. So, we got to sleep-in and enjoy a leisurely morning.
In preparation for our overnight trip, I took the leftovers mentioned yesterday and added all of the ingredients for vegetable chicken / beef stew soup, then placed it in the refrigerator to cook later that evening.
At 1130, we weighed anchor and headed out for our first waypoint, Little Bahama Bank (approximately 55 miles) which is on the western edge of the Bahama Banks.  After that, we would head to Ft Pierce Inlet, a total of approximately 120 miles.

Sailboat anchored at Great Sale Cay

While still on the banks (which is only around 15 foot deep) and in calm waters, I decided to cook up the leftover stew.  That way we could get the evening meal out of the way in case it turned out to be rougher than expected during our crossing.

Hearty stew for the crew



Cockpit dinning



The stew was a hit and after eating, we settled in for a long night at sea

Sunset at sea

Darken ship - the red lights are to preserve night vision

 So, we set the watches and plowed on toward Ft Pierce. The trip across wasn't bad, but it did get a bit rough while crossing the Gulf Stream with short seas of 3 to 4 feet right on the port beam with winds of around 15 knots.  After a bumpy night, Ft Pierce comes into view

And by 0830 we are moored at the fuel dock, Harbor Town Marina, Ft Pierce, FL.  You can view the crossing on my SPOT tracking website here:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0SBESk9KhYAvOPh3fQ4ZKzLFPyoz0Lbi9
After taking on 33 gallons of diesel, we move over to a slip and start to relax...

Harbor Town Marina slip

...but not yet!  Val notices strange noises coming from one of my 8D AGM batteries (not a good thing). After inspecting it and making a few calls, we determine that it is defective (likely an internal short) and will have to be replaced.  Fortunately, there is a West Marine nearby and Val and Lisa have their car at the marina.  So, all that needed to be done was remove the old battery (which weighs around 180 lbs or so), get it off the boat, take it to the car, swap it out at West Marine as it is still under warranty (thank God, as a new one is around $800) then reverse the process. 

New battery - heavy, new battery.

Finally got the new battery installed and all is fine.  The plan is to relax for a day or so and depart on Monday, headed north.

May 22 - Mangoes Marina, Marsh Harbour to Great Sale Cay, Abacos, Bahamas

We were up early and got underway from Mangoes Marina at 0630 enroute to Great Sale Cay.  The first concern of the day was the conditions at Whale Cay (see Jan 28 post for more info).  The Whale had been rough for the last week or so, however things had been calming down over the last 24 hours. As luck would have it, there was no "rage on the bar" (only a slight swell) so we made the passage around "the Whale" with no problem.

A calm passage at the Whale

We had planned on stopping for a night somewhere between Marsh Harbour and Great Sale Cay, however as the weather was perfect and we were making such good time, we decided to push on and try to make Great Sale in one day. 

Smooth sailing with Val and Frank

A beautiful day on the "Banks"

 We continued to make great time and dropped anchor in the Great Sale lagoon at 1830, exactly 12 hours from departing Marsh Harbour.

I used my pressure cooker to whip up one of my famous pot roasts for dinner with all the trimmings (taters, carrots, etc) and had planned on making soup with the leftovers to eat during our overnight trip across the Gulf Stream, however there wasn't much left of the leftovers.  Luckily Rey (the dockmaster at Mangoes Marina) had given us a whole broasted chicken as a going away present, so I took the leftovers from that bird (which we had made sandwiches from during the day) and added it to the leftovers in the pot, then placed it in the fridge for cooking tomorrow. We had celebratory drink to toast our good run for the day and were tucked in for the night by 0930.



The happy crew after a good day's run.



May 20 and 21st - Mangoes Marina, Marsh Harbour, Abacos, Bahamas

Flew in to Marsh Harbour on the 20th and began prepping the boat ready for a Thursday departure.
 
I'll try to post updates here every day or so (depending on internet access).  I probably won't have access after Thursday until we get into Ft Pierce, FL, which should be Sunday sometime (weather permitting). But, I'll be using my SPOT satellite tracker to post my position daily.  Here's the updated link to see those updates:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0SBESk9KhYAvOPh3fQ4ZKzLFPyoz0Lbi9
If the link doesn't work, try copying and pasting it to your browser's address bar.  Once there, you'll see my daily check in positions on a map, although you may have to zoom out a bit to get a good picture as to where I'm at.

Mangoes Marina docks

 May 21

Good friends Val and Lisa arrive to help out with the crossing.

March 24th to April 2nd. Abacos. Great Guana Cay

The next island we visited was Great Guana Cay, a long, narrow island located in the center of the Abaco Island and approximately 8 miles from Marsh Harbour.  It has a beautiful beach on the ocean side that (at five and a half miles) is one of the longest in the Bahamas. It also has a cove that's named Kidd's Cove named after the pirate William Kidd.

Down town Great Guana Cay



Island cemetery

 

Don't touch the poison wood tree!

Probably the biggest draw on the island is Nippers, a huge beach-front bar that's painted with pretty much every color of the rainbow.



Nippers Bar...

 

and the pool!

 

Nippers beach