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.