Day 2, destination Great Sale Cay

Sailing today started out the same, nice in the morning. The sun is very warm. We sailed smoothly at about 4 knots. We seem to do really well sailing in the morning and then motor sailing in the afternoon. We have also found that the waves get quite a bit larger by 4:00pm  and we don't make much headway at all. I spend my days reading and laying in the sun, cleaning,  making lunch, or doing my blog entries on the tablet so that when we do have wifi I can load them up and not have to spend much time on the computer. I always wondered how cruisers found so much time to blog and enter their every thought, now I know. Sailing for this many hours a day, you have a lot of down time.
We fished for the day and caught what we think is an amber jack but on bringing it in , something larger decided that it needed lunch. His whole tail and back end were missing and the sides of him all gashed up.
We made our destination tonight but it was work. We anchored among 7 other boats. I made pad thai for dinner and we were so exhausted we turned in.
Destination tomorrow, Fox Town.

1st day Bahamas

We awoke the folowing morning to sunshine, hot weather, and so much humidity that you could drown a rat. My face and body glistens with sweat. There is no chance of looking any kind of cute over here. I will be lucky if I smell good. The water is a lovely aqua green though it must be a little sandy, there is nothing to see on the bottom. Mark went over to sign into customs after putting up our yellow Q flag. He returned with what seemed like a stack of papers that we had to fill out. We returned all of  the completed questions plus showed our pasports, $150. We had to mention that we wanted the fishing license. It was no extra $ but it is not just offered up. We also paid  $89.70 for a 30 ft. boat min. and we were all set. 
We walked up to the marina office and bought 2 COLD diet cokes, a couple of cards and used their computer for WIFI. We couldn't get the signal down on the docks. When we came back to our boat we found a new friend, Walter. He has the 36ft sailboat next to us.
He is from Guatemala and is being paid by the owner to sail his boat across the ocean to him in Spain. He asked us if we woild like a bowl of conch chowder that he made this morning. Would we ever! It was a clear stock, carrots, onion, cayenne pepper with big  half dollar sized pieces of yellow meat that I would describe as chewy clam meat. It was delicious. I love that our first conch was shared with us and not bought.
We blew up the dinghy and stored it on the bow of the boat. Then set sail for our next destination, Mangrove Cay. It was 36 miles away. We were sailing 5 knots when heading north but when we turned East at Memory Rock we needed the motor as the wind was straight on us again. We put out the two fishing poles to troll behind us. After a bit Mark landed what we think is a barracuda. He was 22" long. He had huge very pointy teeth. Mark fileted him and we were going to have it for lunch. But after looking in our book for fish identification I found that some of the fish here, namely barracuda, have what is called ciguatera poison. Ciguatera is a result of eating the larger fish in a certain species higher up the food chain. Ie. the fish that eat the fish that eat the coral. The symptoms are numerous and will onset pretty much immediately and can be mild to fatal. Symptoms can last from months to years. Relapses often occur. Now granted his fish wasn't the largest in the species by far, but it scared me away. So I had salad and he had grilled fish. I did taste it hough and it was AMAZING,! I caught a barracuda as well after lunch that was much bigger. I just had to show him how it was done. We threw him back. That is big for me. I am a catch em and eat em sort of girl. Around 4:00 the seas started bucking again. About 8:00 the sun had gone down and we have realized that we will not make our destination. Everytime that a wave hits the bow we slow to 1 knot. We still have 10 miles to go. It would take us over 5 hours to get there at this pace.  Everywhere that we have traveled today has been crystal green water and 12 ft. deep. So, we decided to anchor there in the middle of the ocean. It should have been on our bucket list but it is now.
To take our minds off off where we were and the bouncing of the boat we watched a dvd on the laptop, Something About Mary. It is a funny movie and it helped a bit but midway through we decided to turn in and try to sleep. I have to tell you that we will never anchor in the middle of the ocean like that again. It was the most horrific night that we have spent. The anchor at the bow but we were turned sideways with the waves. The boat was thrown sideways left and right all night long with the rails both starbord and port being immersed in the water. We lay in our bunks looking out the companionway at the the beautiful starry night with complete fear in us as our mast corkscrews around. We feel like we are on agitation cycle in the washing machine. Not much sleep was  had by either of us.
Our GPS has a setting on it that allows us to turn on an anchor alarm. We enter into the GPS a  short distance from where we are and if we were to break loose or drag the anchor across that perimeter then the alarm sounds until we shut it off. What piece of mind that gave us. That is golden right there.
Morning came and we did sleep a little but very lightly. We made it through and I can't tell you how much I wanted to just hot tail it out of there.
First time Bahamas cruiser tips  (FTBCT) #1...don't anchor in the middle of the ocean, no matter the depth.
Love always,
Shawnae and Mark

We have set sail to Bahamas

<p dir=ltr>It is a friday morning 3:30am, We are anchored in Lake Sylvia of the ICW outside of Ft, Lauderdale. Today is the day we have chosen for our passage to the Bahamas. Mark and I are quietly doing morning preparations to set sail. We are nervous and rightly so. We are setting out on an adventure that is new to us. Anything can happen and we know that. We trust in each other. We trust in our boat. However the wind, the sea and the weather can be ever changing. That is where you have to be diligent and watch, be aware, and ready to change course or drop sails before it is on top of you. <br>

By 3:45 we were exiting the ICW and entering the huge ocean in total darkness. There is no moon to light our path. All we can see are the starboard and port pilons and the lighted boats in the distance. The forecasted wind is SE early and then changing to winds out of the south early afternoon. We navigated well through the darkness but it is very unnerving relying on your instruments and not your own eyes.

We motor sailed out about 7 miles and we started to see some daylight break. Ahhh! We sailed for a couple of hours more getting about 3 or 4 knots and our wind was straight out of the East, where we were headed. Over the VHF radio, channel 16, we hear a call into the coast guard with a report of a funnel cloud directly off port everglades where we came from. We look in that direction and sure enough there are not only one but 3 funnel clouds. That was the first time that I have ever seen anything like that. As I watched them they would disipate and then reform their funnel and grow in size. In the end I am glad to report that they didn't amount to anything but caution on our part.

It was looking like a storm brewing kind of day so we kept our storm jib sail up the entire way, with the main sail, and motored. We came into a few more storms with rain that called for me to go on the bow and lower the jib sail. Now sailing Flathead Lake that is a task that comes with ease. Out here in the gulf  stream I decided that I am glad that I do yoga and have good balancing skills and that I may be the next Ty Murray, famous bull rider. It was super scary on the bow with us hitting the waves and bouncing back up. When we would crash back down, the nose of the boat would be immersed in the sea water, me along with that. I was wearing my life vest and harness with tethers and always clipped in on the jack line. We had so much water enterning in the cockpit. The ocean found any little crack it could to slither on in. But it is not surprising for the amount of water that came over head.

Once we were in the gulf stream , the water took on an indescribable beautiful cobalt blue. Simply stunning. We oohed and ahhed the whole way at the remarkable beauty.

The wind was frustrating for the fact that we were barely making any ground in the direction that we needed to go. What should have been a 12 hour crossing turned into 20. We hailed Old Bahama Bay marina on the radiio about 2 hours out to alert them of our late  arrival. They said they had a slip for us and we could check in with customs in the morning.

We were both cold, wet and beaten up by the exhaustion and emotions of the crossing. We were both silently sitting next to each other donned in our raincoats, towel over our lap for warmth, desperate to see the first sign of land. When Mark pointed out the first tower of light that he saw, i started to cry in pure relief that our goal was in sight. I stood on the bow of the boat, a place I have come accustomed to, holding a spotlight to navigate our way in through the jette and into the marina. The water is 12 ft deep and in the dark we could see no color.  We pulled up to the dock we were instructed to and were greated by loud Caribbean music, people partying and visiting, and a super nice Bahamian woman running the joint. She pointed out a suitable slip that we moved to and got checked in. After she left us, we got off the boat with our shaky land legs and walked around checking things out from the dock. We got in a nice shower up at the facilities bathroom to wash off all of the salt that we were covered in and went back to the boat for a good nights sleep in our damp beds.

What a day! But we did it. We crossed the ocean and we did it together as a team. We are partners on this boat, New Girl, and soon to be partners through life.

Love to you all.

Shawnae and Mark

Homemade wine for cruising

One cruiser recently asked how we make wine. So, I thought that I would record what we do step by step. We make our own because it is a lot cheaper, I am gluten free and can't drink most beers, we enjoy drinking the fruits of our own labor, and it is just super cool that we can. I mean really, who does this anymore?

Mark has been doing this for some time now. He taught me the tricks of the trade. For our trip it seemed like the logical answer when we read others provision lists and saw the amounts of wine that was brought on board. How could we do this so that we wouldn't have to bottle this. I came across a site that I could order the plastic pouches. They fit up to nine 750ml bottles of wine. That is pretty awesome. There would be no bottles to break and barely any garbage to throw away. http://www.midwestsupplies.com/wine-on-tap-replacement-bags-bag-of-3.html . I also took a 3 gallon honey bucket, we cut a hole in the side near the bottom, put the bag of wine in and the spout out the hole. Perfect fit

We will be in the Bahamas in May and June so my choice of wine is Chardonnay. I think that that white wine in the summer tastes more clean and clear. Refreshing. Not as heavy and mind fogging as red wine.

The first step is to purchase all of the equipment that is needed. You will see in the pictures what we have for that. We purchased the Grand Cru Chardonnay kit which was $95. This will make 36 bottles and takes 5-6 weeks. Perfect timing for when we leave. I will purchase a few boxed red wines to bring along for night time dinners and visits.

We sanitize everything that we use and then rinse everything very well. Follow the directions precisely. 

Add water then add the bentonite.

What is Bentonite?
Bentonite is a gray, clay granule that is used in wines as a clarifier. It is unique in that it possess a negative electrostatic charge. (Just a fancy word for static electricity) This attracting charge along with hydrogen bonding, causes suspended particles in the wine to cling to it as it settles to the bottom of the container.

Then you pour in the huge bag of juice. Stir vigorously. 

Now of course all of this is very scientific so we are instructing a class here to the younger generation (actually she thought it looked like her Dad was peeing). That is not the kind of wine we make here folks!! IJS.

At this point you check to see if the temperature of the liquid is between 72 and 80 degrees Then you measure the specific gravity of the liquid with your hygrometer. It is a glass tube that floats and has a paper ruler type setting in it to measure the sugar content.

There is the oak that you need to add. In red wine there are actual wood chips that you throw in. In the white wine there is an infuser bag that you steep in a cup of hot water, like tea, and pour it all in. Next is the yeast which is GMO and gluten free  and make sure that you don't stir.

The bottle will start to bubble in a couple of days to let you know that the yeast is working. It is doing the primary fermentation. After 6-8 days you will pour this mixture into a glass carboy minus the sediment that is

left over by the bentonite clay.This will sit for another 5 weeks going through the second fermentation process. During this time you test the gravity of the sugar levels which shows you the alcohol content.  

As you do all of this make sure that you chart your progress on the specific wine that you are making. That way you can look back at what you have done and improve in your wine making abilities or notate which wines you liked best.

I have to admit, some were so good that we didn't even bottle them, we drank them straight out of the carboy. We were looking like true Montanans! Yee haw!

Remember that a meal without wine is like a day without sunshine! It just isn't normal.

Cheers, Shawnae

Vacuums and fires do not mix?

Today when I came home I decided it was time to clean. We have sailing stuff from the projects we have done and construction stuff from working on the motel laying around. All this mess is driving me cRazY! So I went to town cleaning. One of the tasks that I did was to vacuum the living room floor. Usually when I am done with this I plug in the extension wand and clean up the ashes around the wood stove. So again that's what I did. I am half way done and the next thing I see is a spray of sparks flying out from the bag. It looked like fireworks spraying out. I turned off the vacuum and the spraying ceased. I yelled for Mark, not too loud since the smoke alarm is going off at this point. He helped me haul the vacuum outside onto the sidewalk.
I told him that it should be fine. No worries. There is only a tiny hole in the material bag. We put a paper vacuum bag inside of that to catch the debris. This shouldn't be a problem.
We all sat down to dinner. Mark had made a ham and bean soup in the crock pot so it had been cooking all day. The house smelled wonderful. After dinner I went to look at the vacuum. Ok, so maybe we won't be able to use it again! Oops!
What cleaning disasters have you had that  you can share that may diminish this in Mark's mind. Grin....
Please help me out here!
Cheers,
Shawnae

Bates Motel?

In the movie Psycho, Norman Bates was super super crazy. Down below the haunted mansion on the hill was  the well known Bates Motel. It was run down, falling apart and just plain scary. Who in their right mind would want to go in there? You yell at the people on the movie screen, "don't go in there, you'll die". So when Mark came to me with a plan of buying a motel in Shelby, MT that looked worse than the Bates motel I was highly sceptical. We went to look at it in the middle of the night. The wind was blowing, it was cold and the tumbleweeds were rolling across the street. He asks me proudly, "what do you think"? Of course I'm the on looker watching the movie yelling run, run for your life.

    Hey, this place looks nice compared to ours!!

          See what I mean? Spooky!!

Now of course my loving girlfriend side kicked in and I thought that's not very supportive. He is asking for my opinion and my advice on what we should do.

The thought here is to buy the motel at and very inexpensive price. It had previously been converted into small apartment/ studios with 2 burner stoves and Murphy beds that fold out of the wall. We could gut the interior, reconstruct them from the inside, siding on the outside  and start renting them for a year. After it shows that rentals can be held for a year then we can sell it for cash profit.

Shelby Montana is a small town with a 2011 population of 3300 people. The towns' future job growth over the next 10 years is predicted at 39.6%.  If the state prison officials have their way, the privately run prison in Shelby will double in size. They built the prison ready for expansion and expecting the growth. They say they are expecting 5-6% growth a year which is about 200 inmates a year, Adding 500 beds means another 100 employees, most of which would be guards. Montana's largest wind farm is progressing. When it is completed it will include 140, 300 foot towers. That is so amazing for our state environmentally and also for the amount of jobs in the area that it will provide.

With these jobs becoming available, this sounds like a great project for us to do. It comes at a very busy time for us though and I am hoping that we can keep it ALL going as "normal".

Mark's oldest son, Alex and his friend have been working down there for the past month and a half working on units 1&2. They got them to the point of being ready to be painted and the floors tiled. Mark and I headed up there for the weekend to do just that. In the bed of the truck Mark had also purchased from the Restore 10 pre-hung doors with door knobs for $200 and a bathroom vanity for $40. We loaded them up and headed over. The drive is about 3 hours through Maria's Pass. The snow up there was pretty deep and the roads were not well plowed. We made it there safely though.

            The snow banks next to us at the peak of the summit were about 10ft tall. or taller.

                  That's a lot of snow.

We took a tour of what had been accomplished by the boys, which was very impressive work, and got started on our own tasks. Mark started spraying while I swept up all of the debris ahead of him so it didn't get into the paint. Come 6:00pm we were invited over to a friends cattle ranch in the area for a dinner of cow and bison steaks. They were amazing!! When we got back we stayed the evening in one of the units and watched a James Bond movie with the awesome bikini scene with Halle Berry. I made it through to that point and then fell fast asleep. I admit I was not very comfortable .  staying the night in this "Bates Motel" so if I fell asleep well before Mark, the better. Mission accomplished.

I spent almost the entire next day laying down backer board for the tile. I screwed in 800 screws, literally. My hands were not happy with blisters expecting to break out all over. Mark sprayed 2 coats of paint (25 gallons) in the 2 units. Then we started to lay the tile. mark did the mudding and I cut the tiles to size along with inserting the spacer. Mark also grouted the bathroom floor. We were very sore and feeling the pain.

Tiling the bathroom floor.

 

                 Spraying the first unit, which is the larger. It is a 2 bedroom with a full kitchen.

Mark asked for the tape measure and they we the same color, so I grabbed a Mike's!

 

 

 

I didn't know what pain I actually had until the next day when I went to work. As the day progressed my muscles screamed more and more. They tightened up so much that I couldn't even bend over. Mark is hurting as well but he was in various positions over the weekend that a variety of muscles. Note to self, change it up! I have soaked in the hot tub now both days and have used a cream called Traumeel but today is even worse. Soon I will hit the hump where the pain will start to lessen. I will rejoice in that!

Shawnae

No see um's sound nasty!

I have read and heard a lot about these nasty little no see um's (also known as punkies and biting midges). They come out at night and early morning in the tropics and literally bite a chunk of flesh out of your skin to get at your blood. The bites are irritating, painful, and can cause long-lasting painful lesions for some people. You will feel that something is biting, but the person suffering can not see what it is. That sounds mighty painful and I can imagine right now that I would be up all night trying to figure out a way to get rid of them.

So, I have decided to be a little proactive on the bug front. I am making screens for our hatch and companionway door out of the screen farbric that are no smaller than a 16-mesh. We are using a thin board cut out the shape of the companionway and gluing the fabric in between. Then I will paint the board white to match. We are putting on a hinge on both sides in the middle so that it can fold in half and be stored under our bunk when not in use. I hope that our plan here works. The only problem that we see is that the board material that we used won't be strong enough.

We have also heard that the Avon lotion "Skin so soft" works well at deterring them. I happened to find a bottle of this in my bathroom drawer that has been there forever. Never liked the stuff until now. If it works I will love the stuff.

 

 

 

Cheers, Shawnae