February 13th- Green Turtle Cay Abaco Islands, Bahamas 

At this point we’ve spent around 2 weeks at GTC. It’s been a very relaxing time. We took the dinghy over to New Plymouth for groceries and lunch at Two Shorties. Coco Bay has been explored every day. The weather is warmer but not quite swimming weather yet.

After the rain.

There is a dock on Coco Bay where people feed the turtles.

Lots of happy morning walks.

Evergreen in the background.

Some scenes from New Plymouth.

At low tide, it can be difficult to climb onto these piers.

This guy was “eyeballing” us at Two Shorties. We were having chicken.

I drove a golf cart down this path with 3 or 4 inches to spare. I probably won’t do it again.

Grocery store.

We also went to a beach at the entrance to White Sound. This turned out to be a pretty good spot for shells. Ollie got in a bunch of play time and swimming. Much sand was added to Evergeen’s decor.

He does get tired, eventually.

Starfish. It probably measured more than 12″ across. Every once in a while a good photo just happens!

We don’t have a concrete plan but we feel like it’s time to move on. There are many charter boats visiting the harbor right now. We’re ready for a change. We feel lucky to have been able to use Outward Bound’s mooring for a few weeks. We hope to meet up with him a little further down the road. Tomorrow we’ll drop the mooring lines and point south. We’ll be passing through The Whale or Don’t Rock passage. Both offer unique challenges. We’ve done The Whale but not “Don’t Rock”. Hopefully I can keep the blog going. Internet coverage can be an issue.

Evergreen moored on White Sound, Green Turtle Cay.

January 31st- Great Abaco Island to Green Turtle Cay, Abaco Bahamas

It was an easy down wind sail to Green Turtle Cay. The Captain of Outward Bound loaned us his mooring for a few days so we picked that up in White Sound. First order of business was to head into the Green Turtle Club and check in with Customs. Generally, the Captain is supposed to do this but I convinced the Admiral to take the job. She had already handled the online portion of the process. Everything went well except the dates on our cruising permit are mixed up. For instance it expired before it was written. By the time we looked at the permit the office was closed for the day. They’ll be back next week. No problem for us as we are on “Bahamas time”.

Green Turtle Club docks.

February 1st to 4th- Green Turtle Cay, Abaco Bahamas

We’ve been settling in to Green Turtle life. We rented a golf cart with Andante and cruised over to New Plymouth. Lynne and I had Goombay Smashes at Miss Emily’s Blue Bee Bar. We then walked around and saw the sights. There are a few new places that have opened up in town. Lots of construction still continues on GTC. The damage from hurricane Dorian is still evident. It’s good to see things coming back. We got stuck in a traffic jam due to the unloading of the supply ship. This was right next to Plymouth Rock Liquors so we stopped in for a few beverages, while waiting for things to clear up. Plymouth Rock Liquors is unique due to the fact that it is a liquor store, bar, and serves food. We had conch fritters with our drinks. The next day we went back for breakfast which was also particularly good. Lynne made arrangements with Nick’s Cafe & Bakery to save her a Cinnamon bun which they usually sell out of. I’m not a connoisseur of pastries. She says Nick’s are the best. We spent around a half hour with the family that runs the bakery. They remembered us from last year and got us caught up with local news.

New Plymouth.

Loyalist Memorial.

Supply ship unloading.

When not hiding from wind and rain we’ve been exploring Coco Bay and our surroundings. The bay has a nice beach with some trails connecting to other beaches. We walk a little further every day. There is a pier where locals feed the turtles and rays that frequent the spot. It’s not really good swimming weather yet but it will be soon. Ollie enjoys his days at the beach and is tired after these excursions. A tired dog is a good dog.

Turtles.

This one came by asking for squid.

Evergreen moored in White Sound, Green Turtle Cay.

January 27th and 28th- Manatee Pocket FL to Great Sale Cay Bahamas

The weather window for the Bahamas crossing seems to be getting shorter by the minute. We decided to change our check in location from the customs office at West End to the office at Green Turtle Cay. We radically changed our plans to make one long run to Great Sale Cay. It took us around 21 hours.

Before departure I conferred with the captain of Andante about the plan. Unfortunately, a large wake and our dinghy conspired to knock his boarding ladder into Manatee Pocket’s very murky water. He flew off to a store to get wood for a new platform. We were then back on track for departure. The Pocket was calm in the morning. By this time the wind seemed to pick up.

At 12:15pm we dropped the mooring line to head out for our over night passage. We pointed Evergreen down the St Lucie River to head out the inlet. The entrance had big swells but no braking waves today.

After exiting the inlet, we set our course south to make up for the Gulf Stream current which would set us north. This was very difficult work as we needed to motor up wind into a heavy sea. Finally off the coast of Jupiter Island we couldn’t take it anymore and turned east towards the Bahamas. I tied the 2nd reef in the mainsl’ and rolled out some of the Genoa. The engine was also used to help keep up speed. We had expected the wind to have changed to a more favorable direction and to lessen but it didn’t. Some discussion was had on Evergreen about turning back. Mutiny is always a concern.

Andante down in a wave.

We sailed Evergreen on a Starboard tack so were healed over to port. Our head (bathroom) is on the port side. Evergreen would punch through waves driving a ton of green water down the deck. Unknown to us, for some unspecified amount of time, a geyser of water would shoot out of the head sink every time we plunged down a wave. By the time the Admiral discovered the problem the head was full of water as was the bilge. Seeing that much sea water inside the boat is very disturbing. Our dual bilge pumps and a garbage can were employed to reduce the amount of sea water. The sink thuhull (valve) was closed to stop the deluge. It was very encouraging to see the water start to go down.

Finally sailing.

I further changed our course in an attempt to have an easier motion over the waves. According to the forecast, by night time, the wind was supposed to be mostly behind us but it wasn’t. Fortunately the speed dropped some as did the waves. Our course wasn’t great, but we could make up the mileage later.

Sunset on the Gulf Stream.

Andante sailing into the night.

Finally after getting through the Gulf Stream and approaching the Bahamas bank the wind direction improved. The moon was out. The sea flattened out. The diesel engine was shut off. We had a beautiful night-time sail onto the bank. This was probably somewhere around midnight. We then made a straight line course for Great Sale Cay. The sun rose and we were in THE BAHAMAS! Maybe it would have been better if the captain picked a calmer day but we made it. Half the trip was lousy and the other half was really nice. 50/50

We continued on and anchored in Northwest Harbour at, the deserted, Great Sale Cay. Great Sale is a little wind swept island with a few spots to get Ollie to shore. Nothing here but nature (and protection from the wind). We made it.

January 29th- Great Sale Cay, Bahamas

The wind.

As I type this up, it’s howling through the rigging. We knew it was going to pick up today, hence the long run to get here. The harbor is protected so while the wind is blowing through the anchorage, the seas don’t get too big. It’s still a salty ride to shore for Ollie’s commando raid. Let me retract that last statement. We’re not checked in yet and are flying the yellow quarantine flag so we were never on shore! A real commando raid!

We’re getting a little T Mobile coverage so I’m able to download my Chris Parker weather forecasts and a few texts. We don’t have enough bandwidth to upload these posts so I’m just writing this up and will upload it sometime in the future.

Some scenes from Great Sale Cay.

View off the back porch.

January 30th- Great Sale Cay to Great Abaco Island Bahamas

The wind calmed down enough that we could make our way down the island chain a little further. Our next anchorage was going to be a nice spot we were at last season. Eventually I had enough cell coverage that I could take a look at the weather for the next day. The wind speed at 20+ knots and westerly wind direction would make the anchorage difficult. Change of plans. We sailed down the side of Great Abaco Island until we spotted a beach. This was a much better location and the island would block the morning wind. Ollie had a good time at the beach. We had sundowners on Andante and had a fun evening.

Ollie lovingly gazes at Mom while she cooks dinner.

Evergreen anchored off of Great Abaco Island.

Sunset

January 26th- Manatee Pocket/ Port Salerno FL

Manatee Pocket turned out to be a good stop. We’ll keep it on the list. The town hasn’t installed much of the facilities that usually go along with a mooring field but they are working on it. There is a new dinghy dock and bathrooms. On the other hand the water on the dock hasn’t been hooked up yet and there are no showers. Pirates Cove Marina was going to provide services but they backed out at the last minute.

I once had a Philly Steak and Cheese sandwich in Philadelphia. It wasn’t that great. The Philly Steak and Cheese was much better at The Whistle Stop. There is a decent grocery store near by and we were able to get mail delivered to the local Post Office. There are a few boat yards with travel lifts (for hauling boats out of the water) and repair facilities.

Ollie is happy with his surroundings.

We’ve been taking walks a few times a day and Oliver is getting extra exercise. We’ve made some friends while here and Ollie’s got a girl friend. The captain of Frabjous Day has had us over for sundowners and has helped us with transportation. The weather has been the usual mixed bag but there haven’t been any other squalls. It’s been a good place to be.

Not a great picture of a Manatee. Haven’t seen any on this trip due to cold water but this is Manatee Pocket.

It’s looking like we have a short weather window to get over to the Bahamas. We’re going to be tagging along with S/V Andante for the trip over. The plan is to head out the St Lucie Inlet tomorrow and make a 20 hour run over to Great Sale Cay. We’ll rest up at Great Sale then sail down to Green Turtle Cay to check in with Customs. That’s the rough plan. We’re looking forward to being in the Bahamas again.

Evergreen moored in Manatee Pocket.

Sunset

New Year. New Post. A little late. Weather, Weather, Weather.

In all, we spent around a month and a half in Vero Beach. While there, we stocked up Evergreen for the Bahamas a few times. Ollie played ball and frisbee about 4 million times. There was a lot of rain but we walked around town on the nice days. Just general day to day life happening.

A few more scenes from Vero.

Happy dog after beach frisbee.

Another Space X launch.

Booster separation.

While we both enjoy Vero Beach Marina, we were ready to move on. I get a little “antsy” when we sit for too long. Pete the diver cleaned some of the accumulated gunk off of Evergeen’s hull and replaced the zinc. During our time here we made several aborted attempts at leaving. The problem has been the weather.

Florida has been having some unusual weather this year. According to meteorologists, El Nino has prevented hurricanes from hitting Florida but this has made for a cold, wet, and windy winter. The north winds and squalls have complicated our Bahamas plans. Some boats have made it out there but have been mostly pinned down in the few protected harbors due to heavy wind. So, we make plans – then we cancel them.

January 15th- Vero Beach to Jensen Beach FL

We decided to break out from Velcro Beach. We have a very brief/ uncertain weather window at the end of the week so the decision was made to move a little further south. We got a late start and had a head wind so I planned for a short day. We arrived at Jensen Beach around 2:00 and anchored on the side of the bridge for protection from the wind. Around this time many dark clouds started pushing through the area.

On the way to Jensen Beach.

Things were looking worse as it got later in the day. Eventually, I let out a bunch of extra chain for our anchor. This was a precaution for possible winds. It became earily calm. Then the wind started to pick up. Then the rain. Then our phones started blasting government alerts. “CAUTION – EXTREME TORNADO ALERT – Take shelter in a basement immediately. Blah, blah, blah”. No basement. Not much shelter. Two tornados touched down near by and were moving across the area.

Tornado.

We avoided the worst of it until around sundown. Then, we were hit by a wall of wind and rain. The lightning was constant for a while. The tornado alert was re broadcast for an hour and a half and really wasn’t very helpful. I’d have thrown my phone at the tornado if I could have seen it. Visibility was zero and it was almost impossible to keep my eyes open with such a hard rain and heavy wind. The wind made a roaring sound and was punctuated by thunder. Our big anchor held. This is why we have an over sized anchor.

The closest wind observation I found said sustained wind was 47 knots with gusts to 70. A sailboat was hit by lightning on the other side of the bridge. At least one vessel washed up on the causeway. What a squall! After it ended, the rest of the night was calm.

January 16th to 20th Jensen Beach to Manatee Pocket/ Port Salerno FL

Today looked like it might involve more squalls so we decided to hide somewhere. Manatee Pocket is a very protected harbor with a brand new mooring field. In other news, our planned crossing to the Bahamas (on Friday) was looking very marginal. In addition to that Lynne spoke to a friend over there who said they were prepping their boat for “a blow”.

We’re spending some time in Manatee Pocket. It’s a nice spot. There is a small commercial fishing industry here and a couple of fish markets. There are many places to eat and some actually have reasonable prices. The Pirates Cove Marina has a bar with live music almost every night.

I’m writing this on the 20th so we’ve been here a few days. Weather has been mixed. Generally a day of sun followed by a few days of clouds and rain. Odd weather. We found a few good sandwich shops I’d like to sample. Lynne and I walked up to a Mexican grocery store with attached produce market. She bought a few things. The produce looks great. Tomorrow we’re going to walk up to the local coffee shop which is in an Airstream camper. We’re enjoying ourselves and will keep an eye open for a Bahamas crossing window.

Some scenes from Manatee Pocket.

On the way in. Lots of boats.

The sun!

View off the back porch. That’s a Cape Dory 36. Catalpa was a Cape Dory 28.

December 25th- Vero Beach FL

The harbor has really filled up. For the first time, we are now rafted with 2 other boats on this mooring. Our new neighbors are a young Canadian couple. Ollie watches their kids and the kids watch Ollie. Evergreen is in the center so we have to board the dinghy over the stern of the boat. Ollie has adapted well. We normally board over the starboard side. Many boats are still waiting for suitable weather for crossing to the Bahamas.

Morning craziness.

Evergreen in the middle. I hope these moorings are strong.

We’ve had a good holiday. Last night we had Christmas Eve dinner on S/V Rhiannon. They prepared a gourmet meal. A good time was had by all.

Today we were inundated with rain. I got Ollie to shore during a lull. Time to celebrate. We opened presents and had Eggs Benedict for breakfast. Lynne made some festive decorations and painted a Christmas tree. For the past few days, plans were being made for a “Christmas Cruisers Pot Luck Dinner”. It seemed like it might be cancelled due to the rain but we had a turkey taking up a big chunk of real estate in the refrigerator. Lynne cooked the turkey in our tiny oven and right about the time it was done, the rain stopped! The dinner was a big hit. Without any coordination, everyone made different plates and desserts. Conversation was good. I ate too much. I was still able to fit one more piece of pumpkin pie before exiting. Ollie had some turkey with his dinner tonight.

Merry Christmas!

Mega rain.

Santas.

Our Christmas tree.

December 21st- Vero Beach FL

It’s been a while since I last posted. This seems to happen when we get to Florida. Relaxation takes precedence. I’m going to break from the usual format and sum up the past few weeks.

We left St Augustine and headed down to Titusville. The main reason for stopping there was to visit with family. Unfortunately Lynne and I both got sick on our way there. We were able to have a socially distant get-together but avoided restaurants or being in a car. We spent most of the rest of our time on Evergreen recovering. I did see an up close rocket launch as Titusville is close to Cape Canaveral.

Gator! It looked around ten feet. I was told it was six feet. He/She is living in the marina.

Space X rocket launch.

Eventually we were done with quarantine and left for Melbourne. We haven’t seen much of Melbourne. It’s just a convenient spot to stop for the night. We had a north wind pushing us along and were able to sail most of the day.

Evergreen anchored in Melbourne.

We’ve now been in Vero for a couple of weeks. The Florida weather really hasn’t been that great. We are waiting for a weather window to cross over to the Bahamas. There just haven’t been any opportunities for us. Many days have northerly winds, gusting to the 30s offshore. The other day we got 2 1/2 inches of rain, a record for VB.

Weather complaints aside, Vero Beach is our preferred Florida base and we’ve enjoyed ourselves. We had a rental car for a few days and stocked up Evergreen for the Bahamas. Ollie has been to a local vet and has gotten his paperwork for the crossing. We’ve hung out with other cruisers. SV Rhiannon is here and SV Clara was moored in harbor also. We are rafted (on a mooring) with SV Barry Duckworth, which we know from our past trips. We’ve had a lot of camaraderie. Vero has many good restaurants and we’ve been frequenting Elsid’s Taqueria and have had other great meals from around town. The other day we celebrated Lynne’s birthday with grilled steak, fresh ravioli, Portuguese Dao, and a really decadent piece of chocolate cake from a near by market. We’re still saving one bottle of Dao for the Bahamas.

Looks like we’ll be here until after Christmas.

Some scenes from Velcro Beach.

Rough seas on the ocean side of VB.

Whoa!

Evergreen rafted up in Vero Beach.

Nicer day but still some rollers out there.

November 23rd- Sisters Creek to St Augustine FL

Onward to St Augustine! We managed to reserve a mooring for a few days. In the past we have attempted to do this at the last minute with mixed results. This time we took care of the reservation in advance.

We were accompanied by the sun, a welcome change. The only concern of the day was getting past the Pablo Creek bridge. It has a vicious current that can top out at over 5 knots. Today it was against us but we left early to catch it before it got up to speed. It was a smooth trip after that.

We got to St Augustine by 2:00 and got ready to celebrate Thanksgiving. Lynne had acquired all the necessities. It would be next to impossible to cook a whole turkey in our oven so we had turkey breast. Included in the feast was the usual – mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, and cranberry sauce. What a feast! It’s amazing what she can put together on a small stove.

St Augustine Municipal Marina

Bridge of Lions.

Evergreen moored in St Augustine.

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 24th- St Augustine FL

Rain. Got some chores done. Mainly laundry and filled the aft water tank.

November 25th- St Augustine FL

SUN! We needed to get off the boat and stretch our legs. Unfortunately everyone in Florida seems to be doing the same thing and they’re all in St Augustine. I’m not great in crowds. Ollie is even less so. We managed to get to the Spanish Bakery for some bread. We then went to the Seafood Company for Minorcan Conch chowder and a shrimp Po’ Boy. Lunch took forever but was tasty. Tired crew and Border Collie eventually trekked back to Evergreen for a quiet evening away from the crowds.

November 26th- St Augustine FL

Buckets of rain. We changed our mooring from the south field to the north field. We stayed in Evergreen for most of the day. Shrimp pesto over pasta for dinner. The view of the Christmas lights is better from the north field.

November 27th- St Augustine FL

Our last day in St Augustine. The weather has improved a lot. I did boat chores in the morning. We spent the afternoon wandering around the historic part of town and stayed away from the touristy area. It was much less crowded. Before returning to Evergreen we made a detour to the old fort (Castillo de San Marcos) for frisbee. Ollie had a blast!

It has been 2 months since we left Dartmouth Massachusetts. 

Evergreen in St Augustine.

November 18th- Isle of Hope to Duplin River/ Sepelo Island GA

With our cooler filled with Brunswick Stew, we departed Isle of Hope Marina around 8:00am. The day was pleasant with the usual mix of motoring and sailing through the various rivers and sounds we traversed.

We had the Crescent River as our destination but after consultation with Rhiannon we decided to push on a little further to the Duplin River. We hadn’t anchored here since our first trip south on Catalpa. It’s a good anchorage with a conveniently located ferry dock for Ollie’s evening commando raid. Technically, you are not supposed to land on Sapelo Island without a permit but noone seems to mind.

Some scenes from Sapelo Island.

Evergreen anchored on the Duplin River.

Big sky.

November 19th- Duplin River to Cumberland Island GA

We were up before dawn and had our anchor hauled up by sunrise. We needed to put many miles under our keel to make Cumberland Island in daylight. Today we had two very shallow spots to deal with. The first being the Little Mud River. We actually hit the Little Mud at low tide which is not really the correct tide for getting through the river. Recently, I learned how to download, current, Army Corps of Engineer surveys to my navigation tablet. This was unbelievably helpful for getting down that shallow river.

Sapelo Island ferry dock.

House out in the middle of nowhere.

Today couldn’t have been any better. I was very sceptical about making Cumberland Island by night fall. King Neptune was helping us today. It seemed we always had a favorable current and the wind at our backs. We had no problems getting to the Island before dusk.

Happy boy to be back on Cumberland.

Evergreen anchored off Cumberland Island Georgia.

November 20th and 21st- Cumberland Island GA

The Island is a national park. It’s one of our favorite places to stop along the ICW. Horses, deer, armadillos, and pigs run the park. For some reason we saw less horses this time but the island is big. I imagine they must roam around, foraging for food. All the grass on the island is very short due to feeding. We debated how long to stay due to an approaching front. It’s hard to move on when you are in such a beautiful place. Eventually Rhiannon decided to push ahead. We’ll probably catch up with them further down the road to the Bahamas.

Some scenes from Cumberland Island.

I actually had a standoff with the light grey horse. Eventually I got a picknic table between me, Ollie and the horse. He then lost interest.

Armadillo. He let me and Ollie approach. Ollie was great with this. Amazing how he seems to understand things.

Submarine! This was very cool. It was passing by the anchorage on the way to the Kings Bay submarine base.

Escort tugs. One was moving along in reverse.

One of the main attractions for Ollie is the beach. He got a lot of exercise. I managed to catch this action sequence during ball. He can still really jump!

Ready to launch.

Take off!

Another armadillo.

Dungeness Ruins.

November 22nd- Cumberland Island GA to Sisters Creek/ Jacksonville FL

We still had decent weather yesterday but I probably should have changed anchorages in the afternoon. I knew we might have some weather issues on the horizon but it’s hard to move on when you are having wine and hors d’oeuvre s after a nice day. The wind and opposing current made life difficult on Evergreen this morning. Eventually we got the dinghy on deck and retrieved our anchor. Time to go! We both got very little sleep after 3:00am.

Today was grey and rainy. We didn’t see many boats moving. We anchored for the night on Sisters Creek in Jacksonville Florida. Tomorrow we’ll head to St Augustine. We managed to get a mooring reservation for a few days. 

Evergreen anchored on Sisters Creek.

November 14th- Beaufort to Bull Creek SC

We purposely left Beaufort a little later than normal to catch the ebb tide down the Beaufort River. Our goal was Isle of Hope but due to the demolition of the Causton Bluffs bridge we needed to split up the voyage. The demolition crew only allows passage at certain times of the day so it’s all about timing. We had a boisterous sail down the river and across Port Royal Sound. Wind gusts were clocking over 25 knots. Evergreen flew right along under Genoa alone.

Rhiannon on the Beaufort River.

We anchored in Bull Creek for the evening so we’d be a short distance from Causton bluffs tomorrow. While it was windy and we were mostly surrounded by marsh we had an island with trees blocking most of the north wind.

We were a bit muddy by the time we returned to Evergreen.

Evergreen, Rhiannon, and a catamaran anchored on Bull Creek. We look like we’re all bunched together but it was just the camera angle.

November 15th- Bull Creek SC to Isle of Hope/ Savannah GA

Today was also breezy and punctuated with rain. The tide was very high and made the marsh look flooded out. We didn’t have to worry about going aground in the shallow spots.

We made it through the former Causton Bluffs bridge. It was mostly gone so perhaps we wouldn’t have been held up if we arrived earlier. We aren’t in a rush so it was nice to try out a new anchorage anyway (Bull Creek).

Along the way we passed through Thunderbolt and saw several boats docking at the marinas. Wind and rain are predicted for the next few days and many boats are trying to get out of the weather.

The Pride of Baltimore. A fast looking schooner. 

We ended the day at Isle of Hope Marina. Evergreen was here last spring and we really enjoyed the area. It’s a nice spot to wait out some inclement weather and get some R & R.

November 16th and 17th- Isle of Hope/ Savannah GA

Evergreen and Rhiannon sat on the dock for a few days. We resupplied with groceries, fuel, and water. Did some boat chores and started the Bahamas paperwork. I applied for an FCC license as I plan on an upgrade to our electronics in Vero Beach. A big part of our stop was a trip to the Sandfly Barbecue for Brunswick Stew. Excellent! I believe this is the best barbecue place I’ve eaten at. We stocked up on extra Brunswick Stew and smoked chicken. Rhiannon also took us out for linner (lunch/ dinner) at Drift Away Cafe. I keep saying I have to order something other than a Reuben Sandwich for lunch and yet I order a Reuben every time it’s on the menu. Maybe I should write a coffee table book about Reuben Sandwiches. It was very good. I also got to try crab stew, which was also excellent (lots of crab meat).

We walked Ollie around the local neighborhood when the rain paused. He met another boat dog and made friends. This is not always the case. Jackson is an Australian Shepherd rescue. He is fearful of strangers but got along great with Ollie.

Eventually the rain stopped and the sun came out. We enjoyed our stay at Isle of Hope!

Some scenes from Isle of Hope.

Not sure why, but this camera can take some nice night pictures. Some of the locals string lights from the live oaks.

Book exchange.

Finally, the sun came out.

Evergreen- tied to the dock at Isle of Hope Georgia.