We have our bags mostly packed. I have nothing but tools, parts, and a bar-b-que grill in my bag. Mark's bag is packed with repaired canvas for the bimini and dodger. It seems a little strange not to be packing clothes and toiletries. But, we left all of those on the boat when we left last time so that we could bring more back with us on the flight for repairs and additions. We have also packed the vinyl lettering that was printed out for us to replace the name and hailing port on the boat. A friend also made our Coast Guard Documentation number placque out of steel and used a plasma cutter to cut the registration number out of it. We need to permanently affix this to the interior of the boat to be legal.
We made it to the airport. Our bags weighed in 47 and 49lbs. Phew! Went through security and we both got our bags checked. I forgot to take out my liquids and Mark had a ratchet set measuring just under 6". Yay again.
Our flight from Los Angeles to Orlando was a quiet red eye. Mark and I split a sleeping pill so we could catch some Zzzzzz's. Flight wasn't full so we had all 3 seats to stretch out. Got the rental car and now we are driving along the Florida Turnpike to Stuart. We are picking up our new headsail made for us by Mack Sails.
When we picked up our headsail at Mack Sails we were able to get a tour of the place and how they make the sails. It was a pretty cool thing. Once we got the boat into the water we started with all of the projects that needed to be done. That included removing the old name from the boat and installing "Firefly" that we had printed in vinyl before we left. I was in the water there sitting on the paddleboard beside the boat to get 'er done. There was a resident alligator keeping me company as well. Gulp!
It sure turned out nicely. It is a 135% Genoa
After all of the fixes that we did here at the marina and getting ready to sail out of here, we finally said enough is enough, put the dinghy and the paddleboard on the foredeck, solar panels by the traveler and tied them down, put everything else on board and took off. We want water moving under the keel and make our way over to Stuart, FL. All of the repairs that we have done and the time spent in Indiantown wasn't very relaxing. We left at about 3:000pm heading out the St. Lucie River. OUr next stop are the locks that will lower us 14ft to connect us with the ocean side. We were told that they close at 7pm but to our surprise they put the last boat in at 4:30. We got there at 5:00. Along the side of the river is a small tent camping area. In the water they have pilings with huge cleats attached to them. You use these to tie off to wait for the next lock opening. So we did just that, started the grill and had us some dinner. Now the adventure begins.
I wrapped the wheel in reflective paracord.
Dinner on the grill with the St. Lucie Locks behind Mark.
This is a dive site that they are creating above water. Once it is done they will
sink the whole thing. Super cool to see the progress.
A boat just left here. Now there is a garden growing in the cockpit. We see a lot of this.
Birds, Fish, and Dolphins, Oh My"! On the Bahamas Banks, we ran into a variety of "critters". This little tiny bird blew in one afternoon. We were 20+ miles from land in ANY direction in 20 knots of wind, and this little fella just showed up. He landed on the boat and rested on the lifeline for about 10 minutes and then was off again. This is one of the Mutton Snapper's that I caught while flying along. We also had a visit from a group of 4 dolphins. They danced and played in our bow wave for 15 minutes. They were amazing water-acrobats.
You think you are so alone out here in the middle of the ocean.
Then there is this little guy. He is so cute.
Our first catch of the trip. Mutton Snapper. Such good eating.
But wait there's more....
Oooh Barracuda!
They were so close I could touch them.
It is such a treat to have the dolphins swim at your bow.
They were there with us for about 20 minutes.
Our Atlantic crossing was awesome. We left at 630am and arrived on the Banks at about 5pm about 55 nautical miles.Crossed another 20 miles and anchored for the night in the dark, at a place called Mangrove Cay. The next morning we had a great tail wind and went about 70 miles to a place called Angel Fish and Crab Cay. We got there a couple hours before sunset, so got the anchor set,, swam and snorkeled and goofed off a little bit. Afterwards, a fresh water shower and we're ready for fresh Snapper on the grill.
The pilings that we tied our lines to stern and another piling to the bow. The locks are just behind.
sink the whole thing. Super cool to see the progress.
Birds, Fish, and Dolphins, Oh My"! On the Bahamas Banks, we ran into a variety of "critters". This little tiny bird blew in one afternoon. We were 20+ miles from land in ANY direction in 20 knots of wind, and this little fella just showed up. He landed on the boat and rested on the lifeline for about 10 minutes and then was off again. This is one of the Mutton Snapper's that I caught while flying along. We also had a visit from a group of 4 dolphins. They danced and played in our bow wave for 15 minutes. They were amazing water-acrobats.
Then there is this little guy. He is so cute.
They were there with us for about 20 minutes.
Our Atlantic crossing was awesome. We left at 630am and arrived on the Banks at about 5pm about 55 nautical miles.Crossed another 20 miles and anchored for the night in the dark, at a place called Mangrove Cay. The next morning we had a great tail wind and went about 70 miles to a place called Angel Fish and Crab Cay. We got there a couple hours before sunset, so got the anchor set,, swam and snorkeled and goofed off a little bit. Afterwards, a fresh water shower and we're ready for fresh Snapper on the grill.
Once we pulled in to anchor at Angel Fish Creek and Crab Cay we were given this spectacular sunset and cloud formation. The clouds are so different here. We decided it must be the humidity.
We snorkeled to shore for some exercise. It wasn't a sandy beach though. It was very rocky.
Our yellow Q flag is raised. We are in the Bahamas now and are not allowed on land until we check in with a Customs office. We will do this in Green Turtle Cay.
The Bahamas Banks are continuously 7-12ft depths. A little different from the
Gulf Stream that was thousands of feet deep.
Gulf Stream that was thousands of feet deep.
Today we had another rip-roaring tailwind of about 22 to 24 knots, so we made record time getting to Green Turtle Cay and checked in with Customs here. We stopped at our favorite place called 2 Shorty’s Take Out and had a basket of conch and fries with hot sauce. Then over to the famous Miss Emily's Blue Bee Bar for a Gum Bay Smash.
Pretty palm to add to the curb appeal. I love the bright house color.
Boating cards left by people who have visited over many years.
Don't write on the fish. I can barely see the fish under all of the cards and signed t-shirts left behind.
Interesting Bahamian art.
Mark, enjoying his drink out of the sunshine. It wasn't any cooler inside.
Very interesting trees here.
The leaves are so large they just curl back and layer over themselves.
A pine tree in their front yard.
They are having a Grass Roots Festival this weekend. All of the beer and food are being brought over by boat for the festivities.
Green Turtle Cay is in the settlement of New Plymouth.
Due to some bad storms here we stayed longer than we would have. The storm brought in our friends from "Murphy's Law" that we had met on this same dock back in 2013. we had fun visiting with them all over cocktails on their back deck. We spent the next couple of days walking through the town and going to the beach. We also were lent a golf cart from our friends and motored further to the Green Turtle Club over in White Sound. The boats moored there got hit harder from the storm and a couple came off their moorings and were being blown about and pushed ashore. Yikes. Glad that we were on the dock. We were also able to get to another beach and enjoy it pretty much to ourselves.
I guess if you have too many cocktails they want you to float! Ha!
The building of tropical storm Anna has caused us to rethink our plans. The weather looks really bad for crossing back. We have even looked into the boat yards here and leaving Firefly on the hard here and fly back when our trip is done. This would be a great place to launch her from and the price is right. However, after looking into it they have a 2 year waiting list. Dang! So back to our plans for the crossing. When is the safest time? The best alternative is to leave right away and then maybe play around in Florida. So that is what we did.. We came back about 4 days after we got there. Wind was about 15 knots with gusts up to 25. Seas were 5 to 8 feet. We ended up sailing 150 miles in two days with averages of 5 knots/hr. When we were crossing back our Lowrance GPS, raymarine wind indicator, depth reader, and engine went out. Also the macerator pump is shot so we weren't able to flush the full toilets. They have NO pump out in the Bahamas where we were. We had to pee in a bucket, what a fun day on the high seas. It's not always glamorous!
Sunset on the banks. The camera doesn't capture that the sun was flaming bright red.
You could almost hear it sizzle when it dips into the water, The reflection was pretty amazing.
We left Mangrove Cay at 2am. I had the helm the first shift while Mark slept on the cockpit floor to keep from rolling out of the boat. Afte he took the helm the sunrise was beautiful!
Sunrise just out of Memory rock.
So we are back here in Florida, anchored at the Lake Worth Inlet. We sailed in and anchored under sail due to no engine. Mark has looked at the engine and found gunk in the heat exchanger. He loaded all of our way points to a micro sd card and did a reset on the GPS and we are back in business. Not sure what happened to all of the electronics. Bermuda triangle effect?
We are glad to be safe, it was all an ordeal. But we look at the experience that we had and are better sailors for it.
Sunday we motored up the ICW. It is fun to see how people enjoy their weekends in other areas. Here in the ICW people come to cool off and play in the water. They motor on up to a sandbar and make it a party.
A family of four fishing and playing in the water.
The party barge with a slide off of the back.
We anchored at Peck Lake on the ICW. It has gotten less populated the further North that we go. We paddled our SUPs to shore and crossed over to the ocean side with the beach. It was high tide and the waves crashing were huge. Glad we aren't out there now. We made a wise choice. The Loggerhead turtles come on the beach here to lay their eggs. Super cool.
Paddling to shore in Peck Lake. The Atlantic Ocean and beach are just on the other side.
We saw stingrays and a barracuda swimming beneath us. I definitely don't want to fall in.
We made it to the beach. Me and my man. It is a beautiful day!
Loggerhead turtles are nesting. People come early in the morning to look for the footprints and then mark the nest so it doesn't get damaged. So cool.
The water was amazingly warm. Not too many shells though.
Hiking through the Red Mangroves to get there.
On the hook in Peck Lake. What a lovely night.
We anchored at Peck Lake on the ICW. It has gotten less populated the further North that we go. We paddled our SUPs to shore and crossed over to the ocean side with the beach. It was high tide and the waves crashing were huge. Glad we aren't out there now. We made a wise choice. The Loggerhead turtles come on the beach here to lay their eggs. Super cool.
We are here at the Fort Pierce marina tied to the dock. Yesterday we walked to town to get some eggs and bread and some pipe wrenches for tightening the packing on the propeller shaft. It isn't tight enough so its allowing water to come in and go into the bilge at a faster rate than is normal. Routine maintenance. It is pretty gloomy outside and raining so we're staying inside and doing projects. Not quite what we were hoping for on our vacation. But we are on our boat in Florida. That’s a good thing. Today is farmers market. We will head over there in an hour and check that out.
Firefly at the dock here at the Fort Pierce Marina.
This is a shot of the Fort Pierce Marina from up on the Causeway bridge that crosses the ICW.
They just added over 100 new slips and the price was great to dock.
The ICW is more like a huge lake here than the river feel it has down in Ft. Lauderdale.
Tonight we set out on foot and walked over the Causeway bridge in Fort Pierce and went down to the jette. It sure was a beautiful night at 77* and lower humidity. We were also told to go to Archies for dinner. "It's a real colorful place." It was karaoke night. We met a guy from Florida and his father in law from New York. Fun guys to chat with. They gave us a ride back to the marina. We walked 3.5 miles there and were glad to have the ride back.
Mark and I out on the jette.
The awesome Archie's
Mmmm, we had a big basket of fried pickles.
I am at the Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart Florida and this is where the trip for me pretty much ends. Mark is dropping me off here with luggage full of dirty clothes I am renting a car and going to do laundry. He is heading on with the boat through the lock up to Saint Lucie River to Indiantown marina and I will meet him there. There is no car rental in Indiantown. Doing our laundry will eliminate things that need to be done there. It will take Mark 4 hours to motor up to Indiantown. I am feeling very sad that our time here has come to an end.
Mark motored into Indiantown Marina via the St. Lucie River and I came in 8 minutes earlier via vehicle with clean laundry. It worked out really well time wise. I was able to help him out with tying Firefly up to the wall. It was about 5:30pm and we had to have everything put away for pulling her out and putting her on the hard once again. We pulled both sails off, took down the solar panels and frame, took all of the canvas off, deflated the dinghy and 2 paddleboard, rolled them and packed them into their respective bags. We coiled up all of the lines and covered the winches and binnacle with canvas. We pumped out the toilet, flushed with water and added a little bleach to the toilet and both sinks. We opened the back thru hull and added some copper mesh, Mark had also installed the solar air vent for moisture control and we opened the damp rid containers that we placed strategically about. We packed our suitcases and repacked the snorkel gear and paddleboards back in the car to take back with us on our flight home. It was a lot of stuff to do in about 5 hours but we did it! I am impressed with how fast and efficiently we worked.
We are now back in Montana. We have been here for about 3 weeks. We have a new set of duties here now waiting for us. We pulled New Girl from the boat barn. We prepared her for Flathead Lake. We splashed her in the water the Friday before Memorial Day. It seems so different to be back on our Catalina 27. She is tried and true for us for quite a few years. She is strong and we have spent a lot of time, love, sweat and money to get her into the working order that she is today. This will be our last summer sailing her. We will have her for sale this summer on the lake. We are excited to find her a new owner that will love and sail her as much as we did. It is time to move on and grow in our sailing.
We are now back in Montana. We have been here for about 3 weeks. We have a new set of duties here now waiting for us. We pulled New Girl from the boat barn. We prepared her for Flathead Lake. We splashed her in the water the Friday before Memorial Day. It seems so different to be back on our Catalina 27. She is tried and true for us for quite a few years. She is strong and we have spent a lot of time, love, sweat and money to get her into the working order that she is today. This will be our last summer sailing her. We will have her for sale this summer on the lake. We are excited to find her a new owner that will love and sail her as much as we did. It is time to move on and grow in our sailing.
We will be back to Florida November and December this year to sail Firefly to the Ragged Islands in the Bahamas and then we will bring her home to Montana where she belongs.
