Time&TideTravels: 01/01/2013

Wednesday 30 January 2013

Gary Blows!

Yeah, I know. It has been a while since our last update.

We are still in Marsh Harbour in the Abacos. We have gotten reacquainted with old friends and met many new ones.

Monique and Bob

Don, Monica and John

Susan aka Joan Rivers

There is no rest for the wicked as every day is filled invitations to go here and there and do this and that. But we are not complaining, life is great. We eat too much and drink waaaaay too much.

Gary found and made his own blowing conch. it is a very big one ( insert jokes here) so it takes a lot of air to blow. He has been practicing and I had to banish him to the sound-proof engine room for a while as he was making me deaf and scaring the cats.

He also got an new outboard for the dingy. He is a happy guy.

All in all nothing major to report. I really just wanted to post a video of Gary blowing his conch.
Tonight he is entering the conch blowing competition and I hope there is a category for "new blower"....

Does it not speak for itself?

Art in the park ( or on the walkway)

Gary's new toy

Sunset in Marsh Harbour

..............to be continued

Tuesday 15 January 2013

Life in the Islands

I have had someone write me and ask me the cost of living here in the Bahamas.

Time has been tough of local economy so everyone is eager to negotiate. You could stay in a marina (like we are) for a month, for about $500. If you plan to do so, we suggest you “shop around” and ask for deals. You do pay for power (per KW) and you also pay for water. We are paying per month ($50) but some places even a shower can cost you as much as $4.00 per shower!! So again, shop around.

We stocked up on food before we left Florida. We bought canned veggies and fruit because we were told, rightly so, that those items are very expensive here AND they are!! You could pay $2.00 for a tomato, $4.00 for an avocado, $6.00 for lettuce….you get the picture?

But it is not all gloom and doom….for some reason butter, milk, bread, eggs and cheese are cheaper here (or on par with US prices) Chicken is less expensive than beef and fish is free if you can get itJ

Beer is expensive but Rum is cheap….

Almost everything is imported so it stands to reason that most everything is more expensive here….but as the sign says: Paradise ain’t cheap!

We had had hectic social life since we joined back up with friends from our homeport SV Ishmael and SV Last Waltz. We have also met some more great people and endured our share of hangovers.

Some local news to share:

1. A 38 foot power boat sunk last week making the Whale Cay Passage. Everyone was rescued by other boaters and a dive shop.

(Remember I wrote about Whale Cay Passage? Just a few days ago a large power boat was coming through the passage when a hog line got caught in its props (An hog line, I am told, it about a thick as a man’s arm) The skipper, not realising a line was wrapped around his props, tried to restart his engines and the thick lines pulled the prop shaft supports right out of the boat leaving two big holes.….eye witnesses claim the boat was underwater in 3 mins but other people say it was more like 15 mins. Still, it is a very scary thing to happen to anyone. No one was hurt but the boat is sunk and in 40 feet of water.)

2. For the past several days every morning they have had a BOLO (be on lookout) on the Cruisers Net. The situation was that they asked boaters to be on the lookout and report any findings on a 24 foot center council rental boat that was rented by a couple staying at the Great Abaco Beach Resort. It seems they and the boat had disappeared and they found all their belongings in their room. Yesterday they found the 24 foot boat in Florida. Speculation is that they rented the boat and had engine problems and ended up drifting to Florida over a 5 or 6 day period. We are still waiting for final details. Other sources claim the engine was removed off the boat and the people in question are still MIA…Rumours abound!
3. Last week at night a 40 foot boat with 80 Haitians aboard hit a reef trying to make it thru Tilloo Cut near Little Harbor. They all jumped into the water and attempted to make it ashore. Some made it, some were pulled out of the water by other boats, several drowned and some others made it ashore and disappeared and are roaming around Great Abaco Island, Elbow Cay near Hope Town etc. Of the 80 aboard only 57 have been accounted for. The big boat was towing a smaller boat, the smugglers apparently made off in the smaller, faster boat leaving the Haitians to fend for themselves.

(THANK YOU KATHY, MV GREEN DOOR FOR THE WRITE UP WHCH I JUST TWEAKED A LITTLE FOR MY BLOG)

On the lighter side; every Sunday Nippers Bar on Great Guana Cay has a pig roast. A whole bunch of us went there for the weekend. I was still dealing with a hangover from Friday night so I felt somewhat fragile but a good time was had by all. We snorkeled and I spotted a HUGE lobster, Gary spotted a shark (he says it was BIG) and Karl (SV Ishmael) spotted two Moray Eels. The fish we saw were incredible, somewhat like you would find in a fish tank back home, very exotic and all colours of the rainbow.

Gary also picked up a conch shell and has fixed it for blowing….he has been practicing and it is driving me crazy!!!!

Life is good in the Islands, the weather has been nice and warm during the days but cool enough to sleep comfortably at night. We have had very little rain, just a few sprinkles, mostly at night. We love the relaxing days where there is nothing that HAS to be done all though they are few and far between. Just yesterday Gary spent the whole day rebuilding the lower end of our outboard for the dingy and today we had to hang around the dock waiting for Andrew, an extremely bright young man who figured out our generator problem in about 5 seconds! Last night we enjoyed an Italian Pot luck dinner here at the marina and got to meet even more new interesting characters.

There always seems to be something going on somewhere and as nice as it is to get out and socialize it is just as nice to just chill on the boat at anchor or at the dock. Life is great and we truly appreciate it.

…………….to be continued

Sunday 6 January 2013

Abacos Bahamas

January 02, 2013

Today we had to pass through Whale Cay Passage. A notoriously pass famous for its “RAGE” (A Rage is when heavy swells from the Atlantic flows into a narrow entrance and produce very rough conditions as the water piles up on the shoals.)

Leaving Green Turtle Cay - New Plymouth

The dreaded Whale Cay Passage

To keep going further south along the Abaco’s we have to leave the safety of the Abaco Sea and enter the Atlantic Ocean. The Whale Cay Passage is known by everyone because everyone has to use it. The inside passage is very shallow and could only be used on extra high tides and if you have local knowledge.

Fortunately for us we picked a very calm day to travel and even though we had 2 foot swells; they were long and rolley. As we rounded Loggerhead Pass back into the Abaco Sea we decided to anchor off Great Guana Cay. We dropped the hook in crystal clear water off a pristine white sand beach that is about 7 miles long.

I had been baking bread and there was still an hour left for the bread to finish so we decided to run the genny to keep the batteries charged rather than deplete them using the bread maker. Sure enough, about an half an hour later the genny quit on us again. With a shudder it came to an abrupt halt. Oh no, Gary had just spent half of his birthday working on it and here it was broken again. But Gary is an extraordinary problem solver, he quietly sat and thought about it for a while and figured out that the problem can’t be what we originally thought it was (the starter switch) because it would start with no trouble and run for a while. So he figured out it was over-heating…He climbed down into the engine room again and took out the fuel filters. They were filthy!!!! He replaced them and the genny started up no problem. (And later when we ran it for a good ¾ of an hour it still worked well, so keep your fingers crossed!!)

At this stage I was chomping at the bit to go ashore and go exploring. Gary was all sweaty and dirty so he decided he needed a wash/swim first …..as he was about to dive into the clear water (visibility about 12-15 feet) a big old Barracuda swam by….It was about 4 feet long!!! Needless to say, Gary decided to shower using the solar shower instead and didn’t go for a swim. J

I cannot get over the colour of the water

Great Guana Cay

The Spoils Island , great for shelling

Crab underwater - in attack mode

Conch

An old outboard washed on shore,Gary thinks it could be a good fixer upper

Sunset ,Great Guana

At last

We dingied over to Spoils Bank (dumped soil from the channel excavation) and spent the next few hours collecting shells. I really want a big conch shell but the problem is, if they are harvested for food they usually have a big hole in them from where the meat is extracted. If you find them on the beach they are almost always broken or they still have a living conch in them. If you want a whole shell you have to put the live conch in a freezer to kill and then you can pull it out and have your shell, BUT I just can’t do that. It seems very cruel to me to do that to a living creature just for its shell. So we walked around picking up conch checking to see if we could find a dead one but they were all alive. I told Gary, just wait and see, Neptune will reward us with a nice one that we won’t have to kill and about 2 minutes later I found my shell. It isn’t perfect but I didn’t have to kill anything for it, which makes me happy.

Later in the evening while we were sitting reading in the back of the boat, we heard splashes in the water and turned off all the lights, used the flash light to watch hundreds of little fish skirting along the top of the water. They would follow the light from our flashlight and every now and then we spotted something a little bigger, obviously making a meal of these little fish. A major big splash we heard later, was something very Big ….probably that Barracuda we saw earlier.

January 03, 2012

We had been promising ourselves that once we get to the Bahamas we would slow down and relax. We love to anchor out, there is always a breeze and it is quiet. The cats also enjoy being at anchor because they get to roam around the boat without us being worried about them getting on a dock and wandering away, (or getting on sailboats as Jessie likes to do. That poor cat wants to be a sailboat cat, not a powerboat cat.)

The colours of water

Abaco sea

Hopetown Lighthouse

Poor Time&Tide looking like a toy next to a super yacht

Anyhow, we had heard that the bad economy had been tough on the Bahamian marinas and that you could get into a marina, stay for a month for a very good rate. We got excited at the thought of staying somewhere for a while and just relaxing. We would be safe if the weather turns nasty when a cold front comes around, and if there is a forecast for good weather we could just take Time&Tide out for a couple of days and go and anchor somewhere…..and there are a lot of nice places around.

We had heard that Marsh Harbour is a mekka for boaters and that there are a lot of friendly Canadians around. We tried Hope Town but the rates were better in Marsh Harbour.

January 4, 2013

So now we are at the Marsh Harbour Marina and will be (on and off) for the next month. Yesterday we went snorkeling on Mermaid reef and all though the water was a little chilly ( next time we will wear our shorty’s), it was an amazing. The water was gin clear and we saw many fish including a big old lion fish . Afterwards we went into town for some shopping. Fruit is VERY expensive here but meat (chicken), bread, eggs, butter and cheese are cheaper.

It has been HOT the last few days but I am not complaining, the marina has a pool so we can go for a dip anytime we want to cool down. The social life here is pretty active. On Saturday nights they have their steak bbq nights….delicious.

Every bar seem to have their own specialty drink, names like Goombay Smash, Tranquil Turtle and here in Marsh Harbour, Bilge Blaster. They are usually a concoction of several rums and fruit juice. They are very good but after the second one you feel it working on your knees.

Tuesday 1 January 2013

Green Turtle Cay

December 24, 2012

We decided we needed a break from all the boating we have been doing and take a week and relax in Green Turtle Cay.

We arrived on Christmas Eve day and dropped our anchor in White Sound just off the cay. We were in the company of many other anchored and moored boats. About 5 mins after we had the anchor set a small boat arrived and a very friendly guy invited us to the Christmas pot luck at Brendan's Dive shop. We were to bring a dish and join all the other boaters. We were taken aback by the friendly invitation and counted ourselves blessed to be here at such a special time of the year. The weather was gorgeous and the day ended with us having a lovely dinner on SVLast Waltz. All we could give them was a shell I had painted with the name of their boat on it and an empty pickle jar for Monique to keep her shell collection. Yet , the simple gifts had her in tears and I was also wiping away a few.

December 25 2012

We joined the rest of the boaters from the anchorage at a lovely pot luck Christmas dinner. People were singing carols about snow and sleigh bells and it all seemed so unreal to me.

After dinner we went back to the boat and sure enough, the wind picked up. Now, White Sound is notorious for boats dragging so when we dropped the anchor we made doubly sure it was set good....well, not good enough. The anchor started dragging and soon we noticed we were a lot closer to some boats than we were suppose to be....it is the most disturbing feeling , I wish I could explain it to you. It upsets me when we drag because it makes you feel unsure and insecure, wondering what it is we are doing wrong. We never had this problem but since we got to the Bahamas is has been a pain in my rear.

Well, what can you do but lift the anchor and just re-set it again. Sure enough, when we had the anchor half way up I heard Gary curse....I asked what was wrong and he said we had a big aluminium plate on top of our anchor....Never a dull moment!!! After all that hoopla we reset the anchor and I kept watch for a little while and then figured things would be ok,and it was, BUT early the next morning we moved to the Mangroves, just off White Sound where the holding was way better and the anchorage less crowded ( it has a very shallow entrance so it is avoided by a lot of big draft sailboats)

December 27, 2012

We took the dingy and visited New Plymouth, the small community on Green Turtle Cay. As many other of the little towns, people are very friendly and greet you with big smiles. We were followed around by a little girl on her new bike that Santa had brought her for Christmas. The children are so beautiful here , every little face shining with friendliness.

December 28 2012

Gary's birthday started off very badly. We had been running the genny as we were making water when it just died!! Gary climbed into the bottom of the boat and sure enough , it was the darn old Solenoid switch that we had replaced in June!!!! Fortunately we had kept the old one which still worked ok, kinda, sorta and put it back in again.

Then we went to the beach , but it was cold and windy and Gary had no luck fishing. When we got back to the boat I decided to give him some space and got in the dingy with my rod and a hook and some bait, not thinking I would catch anything. Sure enough, I hooked a nice Mutton Snapper which I had to keep on the line as I rowed back to the boat where Gary could take it off the hook. We would never kill something just for the fun of it and I felt so bad when we killed that beautiful fish but it turned into a lovely meal for us and we were very grateful.

Soon the crew from SV Last Waltz showed up with a card and birthday cake for Gary which helped improve his day tremendously. He and Bob beat me and Monique at eucher so that made him even happier...nothing like a few laughs and jokes to make one feel better. We all have bad days and I felt so bad that Gary had his bad day on this Birthday.

December 29 2012

Donna and Matt on SV Corsair invited the whole anchorage for a fish bake and we were introduced to some more boaters. Donna convinced everyone to go to the Bluff House yacht club for dock and dine on New Years Eve. It is a complicated thing but essentially you eat in their restaurant and stay for free. Gary and I decided it was time we treated ourselves and signed up for the dinner.

That night the winds picked up. the forecast was 15-20kns but it was way stronger than that, our poor girl bounced around in the wind and waves and because we were swinging so hard the anchor alarm kept going off even though we were NOT dragging. The winds were cold from the north and the next day was miserable. At one time Gary even offered to turn the heat on in the boat but I refused...It just didn't seem right to have a heater on in the Islands. Poor Time and Tide swung around and bounced on the waves even though we were very protected and secure it is not a nice feeling.

At this time I have a story to share. Even though we were getting tossed around and the cold wind was howling around us ,we were in much better shape than another boat we heard of later. They were anchored on the wrong side of the island and were getting pounded by waves 6 feet high. Because the conditions were so bad they were unable to move . The snubber that hold the anchor and prevent jerking when high waves or high winds move the boat, snapped. The heavy jerks on the chain pulling on the windlass broke their windless right out of the deck!! The poor boater had 150 feet of chain out and was unable to pull the chain and anchor up without the windlass (a windlass is a gear driven device that pulls in your anchor chain) He had to saw through the chain, attach a marker buoy to it and leave the whole she-bang right there to retrieve later. Everything ended well, he was able to fix his windlass and go back to find his anchor and chain but I can only imagine what they went through trying to deal with the waves and winds and a broken windlass.

December 31, 2012

We don't go into marinas very often but when we do I get to catch up on laundry ,Internet and long hot showers!!! We got all dressed up for dinner and it was a feast!! Afterwards we joined the rest of the guests at the marina for a bonfire and dance on the beach.I am proud to say that the crews off MV Time and Tide and SV Last Waltz closed the place down. We were the last to leave!!! Us Canadians know how to party!! The highlight of the evening was when Bob asked the very serious Bahamian DJ if he had any Irish dancing music...the guy almost collapsed with laughter.

January 1, 2013

Wow what a year it has been. We can't believe where we are and we can't believe our luck to be at Green Turtle Cay for their annual Junkanoo!!> It is a party with no end and the music, colours of the costumes and the food and drink was like nothing I had ever experienced. (Think Mardi Grass but on a smaller scale) We kept congratulating ourselves on being at the right spot at the right time!

All our new friends were enjoying the day with us, the warm sun was shining on us and we realised how blessed we are.

Sure, we do have some trying times, when the anchor drags or the genny stops working, but then there are days like these and I know these are the days we will remember, the friends we will never forget and the laughs that will always linger.

........................to be contiued