The Third Crossing

The Third Crossing – December 7, 2011

Waiting in the anchorage at Peanut Island gave us time to check off the last few things on our pre-departure check list. The Net 10 phone was still active and had enough unused minutes, after calling our credit card providers to give them updates to our travel plans, that we could still make some last minutes phone calls to let our families know that we would soon be leaving for the Bahamas.

I also called US Customs and Border Patrol to let them know that we were leaving and was told that there was no need to check out. Last year when I called the same phone number they took down my cruising permit details and gave me a departure number. Go figure!

The alarm was set for a 4 AM departure but no one really got much sleep. After triple checking the weather forecasts and comparing the predictions from Chris Parker, Passage Weather, NOAA , Weather Underground and as many other sources as we could find there was still a certain amount of trepidation in our minds. Until you are actually out there you can’t be sure that you have made the right decision. We knew many of the boats that were staged at Peanut Island with us although most had slightly different schedules or routes planned than us. A number of boats departed before us and reported back that the wind was on the nose and the seas were lumpy with well-spaced waves. Amokura’s plans were the same as ours but we expected that they would be able to travel more quickly and arrive at Great Sale Cay ahead of us.

We needed to rely on light pollution from the buildings on shore to make our way out to the lit shipping channel. The wind in the inlet was light and variable and we had three foot waves on our nose from the incoming tide giving us a bit of a bumpy ride. Compared to the last two exits it was pretty mild.

We began by steering a course of 90^o. By 6:15 AM we started feeling the northward push of the Gulf Stream and our course over ground shifted to 63^o while our autopilot was set to steer 106^o. Our intention was to leave the Gulf Stream in the area of Little Bahama Bank, about 12 miles north of Memory Rock then carry on to Great Sale Cay. We would arrive in the dark but were familiar with the area and knew that there were no hazards.

By 6:30 AM the eastern sky was getting quite light and the Palm Beach skyline was visible to the west.

There was not much chance of catching any fish in the Gulf Stream but without a line in the water the possibility was zero. Tom let out lines on two rods and one Cuban yo-yo using ballyhoo with skirts on two plus a cedar plug and a bird on the third one. (I am starting to catch on to the fishing lingo.) He then proceeded to make himself comfortable in the cockpit while eating bagels in his underwear. I think you get the picture of the stress this crossing caused.

With both freezers already packed full anything edible we might have caught would have to have been consumed quickly. What a hardship that would have been.

Once we reached the banks we started to see large mats of weeds that fouled our fishing lines and drive leg and got caught on the bulbs on the front of our keels.

After catching a 30 inch barracuda on the banks Tom gave up and brought the lines in.   

We were welcomed back to the Bahamas by a pod of six dolphins that played between Ploar Pacer’s bows. I think they could tell by our yellow ‘Q’ flag that we were just arriving back in Bahamian waters. They are such fascinating creatures and we never tire of seeing them.

Sunset on the banks. You can’t get water much calmer than this.

We reached Great Sale after dark. There were already at least a dozen boats at anchor and a couple more came in behind us. It had been a long day. We took showers on the back deck, had dinner consisting of a glass of red wine each and a small triangle of brie and went to bed.

We were both up again just after midnight. Outside it was eerily quiet, not a ripple on the water, not a breath of air moving, not a sound. After remarking on the silent state of our surroundings we went back to bed. Three hours later things had changed. The wind was back and blowing about 20 knots, just enough to stir up some rolling waves through the anchorage and my stomach. After a Gulf Stream crossing without any problems it was annoying to be feeling seasick while snug in my bed in a protected anchorage.

In the morning we were still experiencing 20 knot winds from the north. We had good protection in the lee of Great Sale Cay but Chris Parker advised that they would stay that way all day then clock around to the east and stay that way for several days. We would have to move on quickly or stay put at Great Sale for several days. We could sail in the north wind and if we could make it as far as Powell Cay or Manjack Cay we would have protection from the east and would be in easy range of Green Turtle Cay where we would go to check in with Customs.

We fought the north wind and waves up the west side of Great Sale, rounded the corner and had a great sail with the wind on our beam all the way to Manjack Cay.

More Florida

Florida – November/December 2012

The time spent in the boatyard was a true test of my longer hair style. It was the longest that it had been in many years and the temperatures hovered in the high 80’s much of the time we were there. I even resorted to using bobby pins to keep it of my face when I was working. The water in the boatyard showers gave off a strong rotten egg smell from its high sulphur content. My best defense was strongly perfumer shampoo, conditioner shower gel and body lotion even if meant using four different scents at once. Going to the bathroom in the middle of the night was no picnic either. It meant getting fully dressed (it was much too warm to wear pyjamas), go outside and down the ladder hoping I was awake enough not to miss a step, then make my way through the shadows of the other boats in the yard to the building where the toilets were without tripping over the electrical cords that were stretched out in every which direction.

It was good to be out of the boatyard and back in the water.

We headed north to Vero Beach where we could tie up at the dock and give Polar Pacer a good cleaning inside and out with fresh non-smelly water. After all of the maintenance projects it seemed that everything was covered with grime and dust.

Vero Beach was a good location to meet up with friends from the past two years and make more new friends as the annual boat migration brings a lot of travellers through this cruiser friendly town. Both the urban surroundings and the wildlife in the mooring field kept us well entertained until it was time to move on and head back to the Bahamas.

The farmers market in Vero was a good place to stock up on Indian River grapefruit. Probably the freshest and sweetest grapefruit that I have ever eaten.

Raccoons entertained us in the mornings as they looked for fish in the shallow water off our stern and dolphins swam gracefully among the moored boats. We even saw a couple of manatees.

This pileated woodpecker hung out in the tree next to the shower building/cruisers lounge.

Opti races were held in the buoyed navigation channel on the weekends.

The nearby Riverside Theatre complex had a pre-Christmas fundraiser in support of their children’s educational program.

 This Beatles themed decorated tree was one of many being auctioned off. Buying a tree was space and cash prohibitive but I did get some jars of very nice home-made cranberry sauce and red pepper jelly.

Once again the pot luck Thanksgiving dinner was well attended. The town donates the community hall and the cruisers bring the food.

We made two more stops in Florida before Lake Worth which was once again our staging location for crossing to the Bahamas.

Manatee Pocket was a place that we wanted to revisit after spending some time there in the spring.

The Red Eye Café at the Fish House Art Center serves great coffee and internet and just across the road is a used boat part store called Aquatech where you just might find something you didn’t know you needed at a fraction of the price you would have paid somewhere else.

At Sandspit Point we came across a flock, yes a flock, of wild budgies building nests in the palm trees. My research tells me that there have been wild budgies in Florida since the 1940’s with their numbers being at a peak during the 70’s and reduced to a couple of hundred by the 90’s. Their demise is suspected to be related to weather conditions.

An osprey decided to have a rest on Ortolan’s wind instrument at the top of their mast and play a practical joke by removng an essential part for its proper operation. Fortunately the part was dropped on their bridge deck where they found it and not in the water.

Tom volunteered to be hoisted up to the top of their 50 foot mast to reattach the it.

Another member of the Prout family. South Wind is a 35 foot long Prout built in the early 70's. She has a registry of Anchor Point, Alaska.

Peck Lake is not really a lake. It is a wide spot on the ICW between St Lucie Inlet and Jupiter Inlet with room and depth for several boats to anchor with fairly good protection and access to a long ocean beach. It can get a little rough if there is a lot of boat traffic on the ICW but that is generally only during the day.

When the ocean is calm enough the waters off shore are crowded with fishing boats. It doesn’t matter what day of the week it is. Most people in Florida are retired.

A flock of royal terns takes flight when we get too close.

This little crab looked like he was trying to get away from the incoming wave.

The Happy Hour gang at Peck Lake.

Our little boatyard car definitely earned its keep while we were in Florida. Having our own wheels greatly expanded our grazing grounds as we made the final preparations for the season of retail challenged activity ahead. Our son, Ryan, flew in to West Palm Beach at the beginning of December to pick up the car and drive it back to Canada for us. We knew we would miss it when it was gone and made sure that we had picked up all the provisions we had space for before leaving the US.

Ryan’s arrival was just in time for the Lake Worth on the water Christmas parade.

One of the decorated boats.

Santa stopped by our slip in Old Port Cove Marina to get us in the Christmas spirit.

On December 6^th it looked like we there would be a good weather window opening up. We planned for an early morning departure and moved to the south end of Lake Worth with a large contingent of other boats.

These yachts on the deck of the ship BBC Scotland were preparing for an ocean voyage of another kind.

From the anchorage at Peanut Island we would have a channel marked with lit buoys to guide us out to the ocean in the dark, wee hours of the morning . We were ready for the Third Crossing and it looked like we would have lots of company.

The 2011 Makeover

The 2011 Makeover – October 2011

In the interest of keeping the boatyard stay as short as possible we tried to limit the length of the pre launch job list.

There are some makeover projects, however, that just cannot be avoided or delayed, like replacing the leaky windows over my side of the bed.

You might remember that Tom replaced the front windows when we were on the dock in Varadero back in April, only to have them crack again just ten days later. Before leaving Polar Pacer for the summer we applied several layers of heavy plastic, liberal amounts of duct tape and a couple of tubes of silicone in order to keep the rain out during our absence. Although these products worked well in combination and the boat was nice and dry inside when we returned, it didn’t seem like the right thing to do as a permanent solution. Tom spent much of the summer trying to develop the logistics that would allow him to install new windows with as few mechanical fasteners as possible in order to minimize the possibility of yet more cracking. His original plan called for making a recessed fiberglass ledge that the window material would set into with a super strong adhesive to hold it in place. The process would involve sawing through the original fiberglass, using the cut off pieces to manufacture the recessed ledge, sanding and painting the surface and then mounting the new windows, all this while we would be living on the boat. Not a pretty picture.

Back in Florida, Tom went back to speak to the people at Team Auto Glass, just a few miles north of Riverside Marina on US-1, whom he planned on purchasing the new window material from. A quicker, cleaner more expensive plan developed. The professionals felt that there was no reason that a normal, automotive style application would not meet our needs. If it could withstand a car crash it should be sturdy enough for the front of Polar Pacer. A sheet of window material was ordered. It is a cell cast acrylic manufactured under the name of Chemcast. We removed the old windows and it took the Team Auto Glass team two days to complete the surface mount installation using their automotive adhesive which was then covered with Sicoflex for UV protection. All four front windows were replaced at a cost of just under $2000.

 Look – no mechanical fasteners.

  Corner detail

A built in computer and reconfigured nav station was also part of the makeover plan. Some of the cabinet work was done over the summer using estimated measurements that proved to be quite accurate. The VHF, CD player, DVD player, switches, main computer, Sirius Radio mount and 12 volt accessory plugs were all installed in situ.

The solid state, 12 volt computer that was assembled under the direction of our good friend Tri, will give us an alternate means of reading electronic charts and navigating in the event that our chart plotter at the helm station decides to act up again. We can also turn the flat screen around and use it to watch movies. The Sirius satellite radio will keep us in touch with Canada via the CBC.

The new electronics station.

I’m sure everyone has seen the ads for the Magic Mesh bug screen from As Seen on TV. It seemed like a good idea. Although designed for a typical residential patio door a few modifications made it adaptable for our vertical companionway.

The concept is good but the quality of the material used in the manufacture of the product did not stand up very well to the harshness of a marine environment. I suspect that it would be just as fragile around small children. Maybe I can adapt the design with better material to make it work. And don’t be taken in by the special offer when you order two. They come in the same package but the shipping charges are doubled. Look for them in Wal Mart or a bricks and mortar As Seen On TV store.

 The magnets do in fact snap back together after you walk through it.

New bedding is always always nice.

 My new fleece blanket matches the colour of the water when we are at anchor in the Bahamas.

See….

When the boat was hauled in Masters Harbour last February Tom noticed that the wooden mount that holds the drive leg to the boat was starting to rot. With the boat loaded for cruising the center nacelle is a bit below the water line and the mounting bracket is constantly exposed to salt water.

The bottom 8 inches was replaced with a nice thick piece of new teak. The original was made out of some kind of plywood.

One major change that affects the handling of the boat but is not a visible part of the upgrade is the new steering arms that were manufactured for us by Canadian Bron out of Oakville, Ontario. The original set that came with the boat would not stay tight no matter what Tom tried. He had taken them to a machinist in Deltaville in the summer of 2010 to have them modified but that still did not work. The new ones were made from scratch using Tom’s specifications. At the time of writing no re-tightening has been necessary and the rudders do not rattle when we are anchored in strong current.

Most of the other jobs on the list related to regular maintenance and are not classified as part of the makeover. The drive leg gets serviced every time the boat comes out of the water, fresh bottom paint is an annual thing whether it needs it or not, water filters get changed, broken pumps get repaired or replaced and canvas repairs are done as required.

In between jobs we still try to explore our surroundings and meet the locals.

This local, one of several boatyard cats, was not very friendly. He liked to keep an eye on us from the top of his ladder.

A family (my assumption) of manatees hung out in the inner part of the marina.

It’s no wonder they have so many collisions with boats the way they hang just below the surface of the water and blend in with their surroundings.

Speaking of collisions…..

 We saw the big white sailboat coming down the channel quicker than it should. Out of control, it decided to make a crash landing in the spot most apt to cause the least damage. The little houseboat thinghy on its starboard side is actually a water based mobile restaurant called Buckshot Bay. This was its second crash of the season. Good thing the owners are operating out of their land based location in Fort Pierce (called Buckshot Bay on the Hard) for the winter.

  

By the end of October we were ready to launch and begin another season on the water.

Don’t those new windows look good.

Back to Florida

Back to Florida – September 2011

Before we left Calgary the trunk and back seat of our disposable car were carefully packed with the boat paraphernalia that had been amassed during our summer stay in Canada. As our departure date neared a few family members were skeptical that the growing accumulation of purchases would fit. With a little strategic package placement Tom was able to close the trunk and both back seat doors and was still able to use the rear view mirror with an unobstructed view. The only intrusion in the front area of the car was one end of the eight foot aluminum spinnaker pole that protruded between the seats within six inches of the dashboard.

Not knowing how USCBP would approach our jam packed cargo and having visions of not being able to make everything fit quite the same ever again, we decided to spend the night on the Canadian side of the border and face that potential challenge in daylight. We were aware that Saskatchewan had become a “have” province but were still surprised to find Estevan’s hotel parking lots full of oil rig service vehicles. We considered ourselves fortunate to find a room for the night.

Not all prairie wheat fields are flat.

In the motel lobby we heard rumors about a combine demolition derby in the neighborhood but no one seemed to know when or where. It sounded entertaining. At breakfast the next morning we met the parents of the winning driver. The top prize was $1000 cash but he had to buy the combine first. Sorry we missed it.

The border crossing in the morning was a breeze. Passports, a copy of our US cruising permit and a cursory examination of our trunk and backseat was all it took to send us on our way.

High water levels from the spring floods were still in evidence as we travelled through North Dakota as they had also been in southern Saskatchewan. Fresh piles of rubbish from flood damaged homes dotted the roadways adjacent to the highway showing us that the cleanup efforts were still underway several months after the fact.

Hannibal, Missouri was the childhood home of Samuel Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain, author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as well as many other literary works. We arrived late in the day but with still enough light for a self-guided walking tour of the town.

Tom and Huck heading out for a day of adventure

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In keeping with the theme we ate catfish for dinner at the Mark Twain Dinette and spent the night at the retro and economical Mark Twain Motor inn. The pink tub and toilet were probably original.

While we are not huge country music fans we couldn’t resist the urge to stop and check out the Grand Ole Opry when we passed through Nashville, Tennessee. The Opry was closed for a private function the night we arrived and the nearby Opry Mills giant shopping mall was still undergoing repairs from the aftermath of a major flood in the spring of 2010. We took a backstage tour the next day.

One of the dressing rooms used by the entertainers.

 On stage at The Opry. No, I did not sing.

We found some live entertainment at the Nashville Palace’s open Mike stage where Randy Travis and Ricky Van Shelton apparently got started. The acts we saw on stage that night will not likely follow in their footsteps.

Interstate 24 heading SE from Nashville towards Georgia took us through a lush and scenic mountainous terrain. The winding highway was busy with more tractor-trailers than we had seen since leaving Calgary. At Chattanooga we changed to Interstate 75 and crossed the border into Georgia. The volume of traffic increased as we got closer to Atlanta and we saw our first evidence of a serious automobile accident. The remains of a burned out car were being removed from the scene of an earlier incident and traffic was backed up for miles. We can only hope that no one was seriously injured. Fortunately for us we were not travelling in the same direction as the affected traffic.

 Typical scene along the Interstates. Mile high signs advertising fast food, gas, cheap motels and lawyers.

Traffic jam in Georgia.

 

Georgia cotton.

At St. Mary’s, Georgia we caught up with boating friends Ed and Karin whom we had last seen at Big Majors Spot in the Bahamas. Over lunch we told “How I spent my summer” stories and compared notes for winter plans.

Before long we were in Fort Pierce, FL at Riverside Marina and prioritizing the job list.

 

Relevant Reading : The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Mark Twain, a.k.a. Samuel Taylor Clemens, used his hometown of Hannibal, Missouri as the setting for this fictional account of the antics of a boy and his friends as they found ways to entertain themselves in a life without Movies on Demand, HD television, iPads or any of the electronic gizmos that are so necessary today. Tom Sawyer and his BFF, Huckleberry Finn, hunted for and found buried treasure, witnessed a murder and attended their own funeral as members of the congregation.

Several buildings in Hannibal have been restored to reflect the era of Tom Sawyer’s life and some have even been designated as the fictional residences that exist in the story.

This was the home of Becky Thatcher, Tom Sawyer’s first sweetheart.

First published in 1876, the story is fun to read at any age, especially if you are passing through town.

You can probably get it as a free download for your e-reader.

Summer 2011

Summer – June to September , 2011

We were both awake well before the alarm. Our bags were packed and waiting in the rental car. Double check the hatches and turn off the electrical breakers. Try to find a cup of fresh coffee in sleepy Fort Pierce at this ungodly hour of the morning and head for West Palm Beach airport for a 5:30 AM flight to Toronto. A few hours later we landed at Pearson International Airport. I don’t even want to think about how long that would have taken by boat.

Once again Chi Chi Maru provided us with a home base as we attended to a long list of appointments and errands. Their hospitality is always appreciated. We also did a bit of couch surfing (actually beds, not couches) and spent some quality time catching up with other friends in the area and of course, our son.

A berry picking trip in the Caledon area produced several of these mouth watering baskets.

The LSYC 20^th anniversary Sailpast was an opportunity to reconnect with many friends if only for a brief time.

 Dinner with the Phams and Tmejs at a Japanese restaurant was entertaining.

At the top of our errand list was to purchase a disposable car to meet our summer transportation needs. We became the proud owners of a very reliable, blue, 2002, almost bottom of the line, Saturn SL2 that took us to Calgary, Edmonton, cross continent to Florida, up to Toronto and finally to Florida again and back. It was so good we decided to give it a home for the winter.

Much of our summer was spent in Alberta reconnecting with family and friends and enjoying the beauty of the Rocky Mountains.

We arrived in Calgary just in time to attend our niece’s lacrosse tournament.

We celebrated some birthdays….

Went camping in Kananaskis Country……

The last time we slept in a tent our boat was a Hobie 16 and we were much younger.

Using plastic to start the fire.

Alpine wildflowers in Beaver Flats campground.

Wildlife on the move in downtown Bragg Creek.

… and Spray Lakes Provincial Park.

Yes, the white stuff is snow and we were rather cold sleeping at night until we figured out that it was better to have more blankets under us than on top of us. The temperature of the air in the air mattress was colder than the air at the higher altitudes inside the tent.

A summer hailstorm left more white stuff down at our level.

This is as close to winter as we want to get.

On a roundabout trip to Edmonton we treated ourselves to a delightful B&B on the outskirts of Rocky Mountain House.

Ask for “The Cottage” at The Grapevine Teahouse B&B. And have some of their freshly baked rhubarb crisp. www.grapevinebnb.ca

We attended a charity rodeo…..

...where bruises were bought and paid for in aid of sarcoma research. Check it out at http://www.pearsonrodeo.com/ . We were observers, not participants.

And made salsa in Mom’s kitchen.

“H” on the lid means “Hot”.

Summer passed much too quickly but we were anxious to get back to the boat and back on the water. Mapquest and Google gave us several options to get us from Calgary, Alberta to Fort Pierce, Florida. We chose the route that would take us east through Alberta and Saskatchewan then diagonally across the United States to the east coast of Florida.