Florida: Fort Pierce

Day 293
April 29, 2016
NM Today: 84
NM To Date: 4633

We stayed in a wide-open anchorage last night which seemed calm when we arrived. By the time we went to bed the breeze must have picked up some as the boat kept bouncing and bouncing. As I laid in bed trying to sleep with the motion, the thought came to mind that it was going to be a "Ye-Haw, Ride-em-Cowboy" kind of night. At first I found it humorous, but as it continued to prevent me from falling asleep, my mind started drumming up all sorts of dire things that could happen to us anchored in such an exposed area with no other boats around.

Eventually I got up to talk to Clark about the fact I could not sleep, but when I called his name, he ignored me. He was fast asleep! Maybe just seeing him so relaxed calmed my anxiety, but when I returned to bed, I fell asleep rather quickly where previously I had been wide awake. Mysterious!

As a result of my inability to sleep early on, I did not get a lot of sleep last night. Still the alarm went off at 6:25 for the Chris Parker report and I knew Clark wanted to get the anchor up and be on our way as quickly as possible for the long ride to Florida today.

Sunrise at our last anchorage in the Bahamas
Sunrise today was rather pink.

Our first waypoint on our way back to the U.S. was Memory Rock. It is indeed a rock sitting out there in the Atlantic all by its lonesome!

Memory Rock - waypoint to the states

The picture above shows how calm the Atlantic Ocean was today. Rarely does it lay flat like a pond! No swells - no pitching and rolling - just calm with a few ripples whenever a soft breeze blew!

We left Sandy Cay anchorage at 8:00 a.m. and arrived at Fort Pierce, Florida at approximately 6:00 p.m. For navigation aids, we aimed for clouds that sat on the horizon at 295 degrees. The problem with that was that the clouds drifted and faded rather rapidly, so a new cloud was often being sought as the next target.

To arrive at Fort Pierce which is located northwest of our starting point for today's trip, we aimed 12 degrees west of the chart plotter designated course line of 307 degrees. By aiming straight for Florida and letting the Gulf Stream carry us north as we passed over it, we reduced our distance traveled for the day. We also picked up 2 plus knots of speed from the Gulf Stream. Working the Gulf Stream into our calculations for our heading, we arrived right where we wanted to be without fighting the Gulf Stream to get there.

I drove for just over an hour at noon so that Clark could go take care of miscellaneous tasks below like make his lunch. With him busy below, I was all alone at the helm for basically the whole time. This was very unusual as Clark does like to hover over his "baby".

I enjoyed my independence at the helm. I looked for my cloud targets, watched the flying fish zip out of the water and fly for safety to points somewhere away from the boat, admired the blue, blue water, and relaxed and enjoyed the feeling of being alone in the world. No other boats could be seen in any direction during the time I had my turn at the helm.

In the morning, the sun was behind us, and I moved as far forward as the bench seat would allow to stay out of the direct sun. By early afternoon the sun had moved to coming from the bow, and I shifted myself towards the stern. Clark had no such option. As the day progressed the sun continued to bake us, but Clark more so in the captain's seat. Eventually he put a towel over his legs, and I hung up a towel across the front of the full enclosure to provide some shade and sun protection.

By late afternoon Clark said he could see land. I looked and saw what I thought was a sailboat and nothing else. It turned out the sailboat was a skyscraper - our first view of Florida since the end of March. As we got closer, more buildings appeared on the horizon.

Interesting Cloud Formation
Little dots on the horizon are buildings in Florida

We pulled into the Fort Pierce inlet at 4:45. The only movement on the water here was caused by the wakes of the boats - our own included.

Breakwater for the Fort Pierce Inlet
Flat - Flat - Flat - Atlantic Ocean
Clark sure knows how to pick a day to cross from the Bahamas!

So calm!! Only water moving is from our wake!

We called Fort Pierce City Marina on the VHF radio and got a slip for the night. With a fill up on fuel of over 100 gallons, we could get a coupon towards a meal at one of the two restaurants here. We needed fuel, so we took them up on the offer and put just over 160 gallons of diesel in our tanks. The hose from the fuel dock reached our boat in its slip, so we did not even have to move the boat to get fuel.

We checked in with the marina office for the night and then called customs to check back into the United States. Earlier in the year, when we were in Sarasota, we went to the airport there to complete the process for the SVRS (Small Vessel Reporting System) to simplify the check-in procedures upon our return from the Bahamas. It worked well. As we had hoped with taking the time to do the upfront work, we never had to step one foot off the boat to get processed back in through customs upon our return entry.

Given we have been in anchorages for a number of days and seriously needed to watch our water consumption, neither of us had showered for more days than I care to admit. As soon as we got the word that we had cleared customs, we ran for the showers. Feeling refreshed we took our dinner coupon and headed up to Cobb's Landing for dinner where we had scrumptious crab cake dinners with cheddar mashed potatoes and asparagus (Clark's favorite vegetable).

Sadly Clark told me just before we sat down to eat that he has been struggling with a scratchy throat all day today. That is how my illness started. At least we made it back to the states before the captain took ill. We will have to see what the morning brings as far as abilities to move on to our next stop. Meanwhile Clark has given me instructions to go to the farmer's market held tomorrow from 8 to 2 and bring back fresh veggies. I should be able to handle that on my own.

Bahamas – Abacos: Sandy Cay Anchorage

 Day 292

April 28, 2016

NM Today: 51

NM Total: 4548

I woke at 6:00 today and could not get back to sleep. I got up when I heard the phone alarm go off for the Chris Parker morning broadcast and asked Clark to let me know when I could see the sunrise for myself instead of via his pictures. He said he would let me know, and I climbed back into bed to wait for his word. I took several progressive shots with my phone camera. Clark took the one shown below.

Sunrise

Since we had both gotten up early, we left our anchorage as soon as Clark had heard Chris’s report. As we traveled today, the scenery consisted of water, water, and more water with an occasional “cay” thrown in to add some interest. I never get tired or grow accustomed to the color of the water here.

Usually a boat or two appears here and there as we move along.  Since we do not have autopilot, Clark uses them as a target if they happen to be on the same course as we are. As we motored along today I noticed that Clark left the helm unmanned a few times as he ran here or there, i.e. he did not ask me to take the helm even though I was sitting right next to him. The boat held its course all on its own almost as if it had an autopilot.

At noon time Clark came upon Mangrove Cay and suggested that we drop anchor at this spot for lunch. We had a little difficulty getting the boat positioned with the anchor. The boat wanted to sit on top of the anchor instead of behind it. The wind and current were not doing their jobs properly I suppose. I had to watch over the side to see the position of the anchor to make sure it would not get fouled in the props.

Whenever I look down, as I did in the lunchtime anchorage today, and see the boat’s chain and anchor sitting on the bottom, I am in awe. Nothing can be seen even six inches below the water line in New Jersey let alone six feet and more! Here I cannot tell if the water is two feet deep or twelve! I can see the bottom in either case.  After the boat finally positioned itself (with Clark’s help) in an appropriate position, Clark made us sandwiches to eat. We had a relaxing lunch and then pulled up anchor and continued on our way to tonight’s stop.

Mangrove Cay for lunch stop

Tonight’s anchorage was the most unusual anchorage I have ever stayed at since we were out in open water with very little land in sight. There was an ever so tiny cay way off in the distance which was, I supposed, Sandy Cay and thus the name for this anchorage as that is the closest land to the spot where we sat for the night. As we approached the anchorage, I saw two sailboats off in the distance and suggested to Clark that they might be anchored at the spot we planned to stay for the night. He poo-pooed that saying they were too far away to be our destination. Well, when we finally dropped anchor, guess who we were sitting quite near … the sailboats!

Tonight's Anchorage
Notice the lack of surrounding, protective land.
We are basically anchored out in the open in the Atlantic Ocean!!!

Clark said he picked this anchorage to make the trip to Florida as short as possible. He knew the forecast called for light winds and figured we would be okay out in the open. The only problem with full sun and light winds was that as soon as we stopped moving it got hot, and I mean h-o-t! We actually moved down to be in the cabin where it was shaded from the sun. Normally on a hot day we sit out to catch the breeze which today was practically non-existent.  

Surprisingly since we appear to be absolutely in the middle of nowhere, we have some BTC phone signal, so Clark turned on the hotspot to use up some of our leftover bandwidth. We checked email and Facebook, weather reports, and such.

Clark has been a real trooper while I have been sick. To let me rest during the day, he has for the most part single-handled the boat only asking me to assist when absolutely necessary. For the past three nights he slept on the couch in the salon to stay away from my germs. I cannot imagine it has been comfortable, but at least we had the sofa fixed before we left on this trip. The seats used to collapse into the storage space below at unexpected times before we had work done on it. Now at least it stays in a fully functional position at all times with no surprises in the middle of the night!

As I mentioned a couple of times, Clark has not allowed me to touch his food and that has included his dinner.  I have been happy to let him do the cooking, but providing cooking instructions to Clark and then observing him carry out those instructions would frustrate a saint, and I am certainly no saint. Tonight’s menu seemed simple enough spaghetti with meat sauce and sautéed broccoli.

By the time we sat down to eat I was nearly pulling my hair out. I expect if the roles were reversed, and I had to do something he is skilled at while he sat and watched from afar, he’d be frustrated too. To make cooking all the more interesting, sunset came along in the middle of preparing the meal. Of course he left it all and ran for the camera to get tonight’s shot.

Sunset at the anchorage out in the middle of nowhere!!

When all was said and done, dinner was delicious. After dinner, at 8:00, the two sailboats that we thought we would share tonight’s anchorage with pulled up their anchors and left us. Apparently they planned for an overnight crossing to Florida. When we dropped our anchor, Clark came up near them saying that it would be better to be anchored in a cluster so as to be more easily seen. Well, so much for that plan! Later another boat appeared for a while, but he left as well, so we were left on our own for the night. The anchor light illuminates the boat quite well, so not to worry!

I’m very glad that we will cross in daylight hours. Weather reports have shown over the past few days that tomorrow, Friday, is our best day to cross. After that, starting Sunday in particular, the weather will deteriorate and it is not clear when the next window will appear. Thus, even though I was feeling poorly, we pushed on to get to our jumping off spot for this weather window instead of waiting an unknown amount of time for the next one. It turned out to be a good decision as even though I am not fully recovered, I am at least fully functional except in the galley.

Bahamas – Abacos: Sail Cay

Day 291

April 27, 2016

NM Today: 35

NM Total: 4498

After sleeping all day yesterday and all night last night, I woke this morning ravenous since I ate almost nothing at all yesterday. I figured being hungry was a good sign. My fever appeared to have broken.

Clark was up with the sun to listen to his Chris Parker report.

Sunrise!

As soon as we could get ourselves together, we departed and headed for Sail Cay.  Several dolphins found us along the way and decided to play by the bow of our boat.

One of many dolphins having fun with our boat today

We passed Sail Rock on our way to Sail Cay and dropped anchor around 2:30 in the afternoon.

Sail Rock

Clark did not want me touching his food, so he did not eat lunch until we had the anchor down. We lounged around and entertained ourselves until dinner time. Clark got a feel for what it is like to cook dinner on the boat once again as he had the wok, grill, and stove all busy while making dinner tonight.

Every night Clark watches for the sunset. Some of course are better than others! Tonight we heard one conch announcing sunset whereas last night we heard two boats blowing on the conch shells.

Bahamas – Abacos: Turtles

Day 290

April 26, 2016

NM Today: 26

NM Total: 4463

Whatever bug I picked up here in the Bahamas was a real doozy! I was down for the count and not expecting to get up any time soon. Even though I was very ill, Clark wanted to make progress on our way towards Florida. Since I figured I could sleep underway as well as in port, I said “Let’s go!”

I slept and slept and slept. We stopped at Crab Cay first so that Clark could go see the turtles that David on Five Flip Flops told him about.  He asked if I wanted to come and I told him “No, just bring back pictures.”  After helping him lower the dinghy, I went back to bed.

Well taking pictures turned out to easier said than done as the turtles stay under water as much as possible and don’t pose for pictures. Clark had to weave his way back into the mangroves to find the place where the turtles like to hang out. Then he had to try to get them on film. He decided to take some videos as his best attempt to capture the moment. Based on the ones I watched he spent a lot of time chasing turtles with the dinghy. Too bad I couldn't be there to watch the antics real time!

For those who can't watch the video, here's a still shot.

A Turtle finally put his head up for Clark's camera

I heard Clark returning from his turtle excursion, so I got up from bed to help him pull up the dinghy. Before heading to our final stop for the day, we ate lunch at Crab Cay. Clark made his own, so I would not share any germs with him. The last thing we need is the captain sick with whatever dreadful bug got me!

Crab Cay Anchorage

Then we pulled up anchor and headed to Allans Pensacola Cay for the night.  At this anchorage as with some others, we heard the conch blowing signaling sunset.

Bahamas – Abacos: New Plymouth

Day 289

April 25, 2016

NM Today: 12

NM Total: 4437

Today we traveled to our last marina before leaving the Bahamas. Instead of going through the Whale channel which would cause us to backtrack and go out in the ocean, we took Dont Rock passage. This is a shallow draft passage requiring visual piloting skills and high tides. 

Clark got good local knowledge from the bakery owner at Treasure Cay to assist with navigating this short cut. One interesting fact about the baker was that he was from Monmouth Beach, New Jersey and worked at Mihm's Boat Works where Clark used to keep his boat. Small world!! Clark could tell by talking to him that he was an experienced boater whereas the marina staff simply said "don't do it" and left it at that. They were afraid to give bad advice. The way that Clark got talking to the baker was that he said to Clark, "You're from New York, aren't you? I can tell by how fast you are walking!"

Dont Rock

We stayed at Donny’s Marina as a least-cost alternative with the added advantage of being close to town. The owner, Donny, is "quirky" to quote Active Captain. As we later learned from David on Five Flip Flops, given more than two simultaneous tasks Donny simply melts down and walks away. The accommodations were quite acceptable, and our neighbors even more so. Five Flip Flops hails from the United Kingdom and has been navigating the seas for the past 13 years. They provided a wealth of local knowledge to Clark to assist us with our trip back to Florida.

Coming into New Plymouth

New Plymouth as seen from Sea Moss

The town of New Plymouth is located at Green Turtle Cay. We walked to town and were surprised by what a lovely little place it turned out to be with colorful homes, many shops, and a memorial park honoring the Loyalists that came here. 

Historic New Plymouth

Walking down the hill into town

Memorial Sculpture Garden
Honoring the Loyalists who came here from America

Colorful Houses are popular all over the Bahamas like
these in New Plymouth, Green Turtle Cay

I started getting sick today. By the time I had made the hike up the hill back to the boat from the town of New Plymouth I was done in! Clark made dinner. I ate and then I went to bed.

Bahamas – Abacos: Treasure Cay

Day 288

April 24, 2016

NM Today: 18

NM Total: 4425

Today was Sunday and yet again we found ourselves in port with everything closed for the day. Fortunately we had seen everything yesterday that held our interest, so I took advantage of the free time and shore power to do some baking. Clark ate the last of his blueberry cake I made him last night, so he had nothing for his midnight snack tonight. 

I made him his all-time favorite applesauce cake. Using the toaster oven and small-sized loaf tins that fit inside, I make two for him and freeze one. Since they have to be cooked in series, it takes about two hours. While the 'oven' was going, I finished reading my latest novel. While I kept busy with the baking and my book, Clark talked to Rocky on Carina about short-wave radios and then listened to the cruiser's network on the VHF radio.

As soon as the second cake came out of the oven, we left Man-O-War, just minutes before 11:00, on our way to Treasure Cay on Great Abaco Island.

Farewell to Man-O-War Marina
(S/V Carina at fuel dock)

We ate lunch on the boat on the way to Treasure Cay. Clark said that if we ate as we went along, we'd have more time to 'play' when we got there! As we motored along Clark spoke to some of our boater friends on the VHF radio (Sum Escape and Carina) and heard others calling each other (Sum Escape to Job Site). Early this morning, we heard Putzin' Around on the Cruiser's Net.

When Clark talked to Rocky on Carina about plans for crossing from the Bahamas to Florida soon, Rocky had a very interesting answer that I liked and will quote here.

   "Our plans were written in the sand at low tide."

That about sums up the plans that Clark and I have made all along the Great Loop and in the Bahamas. By the time high tide has come in (six hours later - give or take) the plans are gone and new ones need to be made.

Entrance to Treasure Cay to Marina

The sign says keep left (towards Green) for deeper water.

The tan area is sand.
Talk about shalllow waters on the red (right) side!

Treasure Cay Marina & Mooring Field

As soon as we got ourselves hooked up to the mooring ball, we headed over to the marina to check in and check out the facilities. The mooring ball cost $30 for one night allowed us access to all marina amenities including WiFi! Yay!

Clark checking out the hammock

My turn
I found it quite comfortable where Clark did not.

View from the Hammock

Good-sized Pool

Besides the pool, bar & grill, and showers, we were told that we could visit the beach directly across the street from the marina as well as the bakery which opened at 3:00 on Sundays. Since we wanted to see everything we could, we headed over to the beach before taking advantage of the pool or showers. 

As we walked towards the beach, we noted this vehicle
in the parking lot ... some sort of all-terrain golf cart pickup truck.
Way too cool!

Sea of Abaco
Turn Right --> Populated Beach Area

Sea of Abaco
Turn left --> deserted beach area

We headed for the empty beach area!

The sand was so fine it was softer than refined sugar. It reminded me of the sand used in craft projects. Truly amazing! As we walked we wondered where that bakery was located that we had been told existed. Clark asked someone on the beach and got directions. We walked along the water's edge for a ways until we found a path off the beach and back up to the streets where we found full-sized streets and even a traffic circle / roundabout. 

Metal Sailboat Sculpture in Middle of Traffic Circle / Roundabout

The town is smaller than small. Blink and you will miss it in its entirety! We could tell that we would not find a bakery where we came off the beach, so we headed back along the road to the area of the marina. We found the police station, the BTC telephone company (open once a week), a food market that actually stayed open on Sunday until 1:00 (it was 3:00), and a bank all co-located in a strip mall. I thought the bakery might be located with that bunch but no success. 

Clark did spy another store and went over and stuck his head in to ask about the bakery. Ah-ha, he found the bakery's back door. They directed us around front where we found a closed hardware store and a closed laundry facility. I did not expect to find anything of interest in the bakery, but I do like to look. 

We ended up buying ice cream as they had three whole flavors and cones to go with it. The smell of cinnamon was pretty powerful for the taste buds, and so we ended up buying a loaf of cinnamon raisin home-baked bread. Yum!

Having walked along the beach and through town and had our before-dinner dessert, we were ready for the pool. We had to collect the dinghy, drive it back to the boat to get our swimsuits and towels, and then bring the dinghy back to the dock so we could swim. 

Climbing up the ladder from the dinghy to the dock was more than a little unnerving. Clark said it was because the ladder sloped in at the bottom. Regardless of why it sloped or felt weird to climb, it made me very happy to step up onto the dock!

We enjoyed a late afternoon swim in very cool water and then took showers before returning to the boat for dinner and a sunset. Although I listened carefully around sunset time, I did not hear any conch-shell horns tonight.  In several places we have stayed here in the Bahamas, conch shells were blown like horns to announce sunset.

Clark took a number of excellent sunset pictures tonight. It was hard to decide among them for the blog.

Bahamas - Abacos: Man-O-War

Day 287
NM today: 7
NM to Date: 4408

We only traveled seven nautical miles today, but before we left Baker's Rock anchorage, Clark had me enter a bunch of waypoints. I settled back expecting a long ride and next thing I knew Clark was calling the Man-O-War Marina to see if they could accommodate us for the night.

Busy Harbour of Man-O-War in the Abacos, Bahamas

As we secured our boat in port another boat, a sailboat, pulled into a nearby slip. The owners of this vessel, Carina, are extremely friendly boaters from Maryland. We exchanged boat cards in between hooking up boat power, etc.

We ate a quick lunch on board and then headed off to explore town. The marina had a map posted on the property showing the town's places of interest, so Clark snapped a picture on his cell phone to take with us as a reference guide.

Town Map

We tried to find Lola's Bakery, but Lola is old and stopped baking about a year ago. Although we were unsuccessful in finding baked goods, we found some pretty beautiful places as we looked for her now-nonexistent place of business.

House for Sale in Man-O-War
$375,000

A View of Paradise 

Lovely Flower Gardens

After viewing the ocean, we walked into the main section of town and saw some pretty buildings.

Peach-Colored Post Office

Blue-Green School

Town Library

The High School

Methodist Church

As we walked back towards the boat, Clark found a place for us to buy frozen treats. I could not find a flavor of ice cream that appealed to me, so like Clark, I had a red raspberry sorbet that hit the spot. Surprisingly, we saw the folks from Job Site just down the street. They had rented a golf cart earlier in the day and had just returned from their explorations. They highly recommended that we rent one as well as the island was well worth the cost.

Given their input that the streets start out paved and rapidly go downhill upon leaving the main section of town, we decided we would forego the bike option and rent a golf cart. Two hours cost $30.

Path out of Town

Became a Sandy Path

and Eventually very rough terrain like this natural bridge
separating the Atlantic Ocean from the Sea of Abaco

The path was too narrow for two golf carts to
pass each other in some sections of the road

 As we motored along we caught little glimpses of paradise.

 

We found a pretty spot to take a selfie picture.

Clark and Ev in Paradise

The road dead-ended into someone's private driveway, so we turned around for the return trip to town. Just after we passed over the natural bridge (shown above), we saw a man snorkeling in the ocean waters. Right after that we found Ann from Carina sitting at a covered picnic table. The man we had just seen snorkeling was her husband, Rocky. We talked to Ann briefly before continuing on our way.

Rocky Snorkeling

Covered Picnic Table at Natural Bridge

Ann Enjoying the Sea Breeze
while waiting for Rocky to return

As we reentered town, Clark snapped a picture of one-of-many Abacos "doorbells".

Bell on Post is the Abacos Doorbell

Back in Town

Since we still had time left on our two-hour rental of the golf cart, we went through town and out the other side to see what sights we could find there. The path was somewhat worse here which made the ride all the more interesting. We had stone walls to avoid while skimming under low hanging tree branches.

narrow path, rough terrain
fortunately no other golf carts came along

"Head of the Harbour" sign meant end of the road for us

We were very fortunate in our timing. Just as we pulled into the marina parking lot at the end of our ride, it started to sprinkle and by the time we were on the boat, it started to pour down rain. Our friends Ann and Rocky were not quite so lucky. As we watched the rain coming down in torrents, they walked by soaked to the skin. Ann said as she went by, "We didn't get the timing quite right."

Even though the sun came out in full force afterwards, the rain ended our day's activities. We had supper on board tonight after eating out two nights in a row. Just for fun Clark tried the television and we were both extremely surprised to find a choice of six television stations to watch. It has been weeks since I have seen any television whatsoever. 

Tomorrow being Sunday everything in any of the towns will be closed, so it looks like we'll be back to an anchorage again tomorrow night.