Now it gets different

In the distance lies the south end of Elbow Cay and to the right is the start of Tiloo Cay. We'd gotten as far as the south end of Elbow Cay last year, even if it was only by golf cart, driving from Hope Town. This time, though, we were anchored off of Tiloo Cay, further south than we'd gotten before. We'd heard about Cracker P's on the morning Cruisers Net broadcasts but never been there. Now we were there, having dinghied up north from our anchorage. It was about a mile's ride each way, further than we'd dinghied before, and we felt quite daring making the trip. We returned to Cracker P's later, and the ride, this time, was "eh, only a mile". This is the point where we started seeing places we hadn't seen before, and conditions got a little more challenging. This is where things got different.

Float tree

Many homes decorate their trees with floats harvested from beachcombing, but this tree takes the prize for the most floats. Any many of them are quite imaginatively decorated.

It's about the view

As we toured Orchid Bay, we saw a few platforms or towers like this. They're not there to amuse the tourists. In fact, we had to do a little wrangling to even be allowed to just drive around and look at the place. There aren't a lot of tourists here. The towers are put up to show prospective buyers what the view from their new house will be. We weren't in the market for a house, but we used the towers anyway.

The Crossing

Last year we waited out the weather in Lake Worth Lagoon and finally found a brief weather window to let us cross from Florida to West End, on the western tip of Grand Bahama. We crossed with four other boats. We left at four in the morning so that we'd have all day to see what was going on out in the Gulf Stream (not much, really, although the start of the trip was interesting). This time we thought we might be able to leave but we weren't sure how conditions were in the Gulf Stream. We talked with a boat that left at a civilized hour of the morning and decided that we ought to go for it, too. Our plan had been to move the five miles from the lagoon to near Peanut Island, right at the mouth of the inlet. But after talking with C-Gull Seeker on the radio, we said "time to go!" and dropped the hook at lunch time. By mid-afternoon we were out of the inlet and headed to the Bahamas.

The conditions were rolly although not really difficult, just rolly. So we just kept motoring along, hoping for some sort of breeze that would let us at least use the sails to steady boat a little. We had a little help on that score, but not much.

By the time we left Lake Worth Inlet, C-Gull Seeker was well out in front of us and out of radio range. Nobody else was headed east with us, we were on our own. Last year we had company crossing east, and crossing west, but this time we were on our own. It was a funny feeling to not have anyone to talk with.

We did see some shipping during the night. Freighters and tankers and several cruise ships crossed our path as we made our way to the Bahamas. We talked briefly with most of the ships, conducting the business of safely meeting at sea - literally ships passing in the night.

Unlike last year, we planned to go non-stop all the way to Abaco, rather than stop at West End. And we did just that, as you'll see.

Sam the Man

We've raved on about Stuart, and we've raved on about Sunset Bay Marina. The town itself has charm, there's a lot going on. There are the concerts on the Riverwalk, the crafts, the farmers market, the Lyric Theater, the restaurants, and on and on. The marina is a good place to stop for a few days or a place to stop for a few weeks or even a few months. The facilities are great, it's a quick walk to get to the town, and the marina runs a shuttle bus to places too far to walk to. And the marina has Sam Portolese. Without Sam, things just wouldn't be the same. Sam's the man!

An Unusual Fountain

At first look, this seems to be just another fountain, elaborate but in keeping with what Henry Flagler wanted for his hotel. If you ever visit St. Augustine and take the time to even just look in on Flagler College, take a close look at this fountain. See the frogs around the rim? Each one of them has a different pose; no two frogs are alike. And there twelve frogs. Look at the column in the middle - I'll bet it casts a shadow around the fountain as the sun moves across the sky. In fact, of course it does. Moving shadow... twelve unique frogs... Yes, the fountain isn't only a fountain, it's also a sun dial! How neat is that?

Tsunami and Amos - 11-13 Nov. 2010

We spent three days in Charleston, staying again at Charleston Maritime Center. The weather was warming up, and it was generally "tourist weather", making touring the city quite enjoyable. However, one of the best sights of the city was right in the marina.

When we looked for a replacement for our old Seafarer 26, we were quite taken by Tsunami, a Tashiba 36 owned by dock neighbors Gunther and Barbara Nehrkorn. OWTW is, in fact, a year older than Tsunami, but is otherwise a close sister to the Tashiba. We were quite sad to hear that Tsunami was for sale and sadder to hear she was sold. Her new owners, Dale and Karen, from Canada, planned to take her cruising in the Caribbean. So it was a surprise to arrive in CMC and find a familiar boat with a new name only a couple of slips away from OWTW.

We took a horse-drawn carriage ride through historic Charleston. The horse drawing the carriage was a "retired" horse from an Amish farm. Amos isn't quite like our buddy Amos the cat, who died a couple of years ago, but we liked the name of the horse anyway. And he's almost as nice as Amos the cat.