I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving : To reach the port of heaven , we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it... but we must sail, and not drift , nor lie at anchor.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tough life this cruising...
Tough life this cruising…
Woke up this morning to absolute peace , no nagging voices in the back of my head reminding me of the things that need to be done , no traffic, no hussling and buzzling neighbors ….just the gentle wind humming in the rigging, the lapping of wavelets against the dinghy on our side, the occasional deerfly that made it’s way out to our boat , hmmm…..
When we arrived here on Alans-Pensacola and cruised into this nicely protected anchorage we had to make some serious decisions regarding our anchoring. We had plenty of swinging -room and no tidal surges to worry about , so should we put out two anchors tonite or not ??? This is a rather personal question in my opinion , for the real issue here is actually how to deal with a squall - if we have to get one .Our candidates at hand are our trusted Bruce anchor , heavy and on over 100’ of chain ,handled nicely by our electric windlass. And then there is another substantial CQR anchor on 60’ of chain and plenty of line , handled - or should I say struggled with - by the two of us with little success , for A this thing weighs a ton and B the advantage of the swiveling shank of the CQR turned out to be more of a disadvantage in our last anchorage , for it turned the anchor on it’s side and never set right at all. And what do we do if we’re in a squall and we are dragging , how am I gonna make sure I’m not running over one or the other in the chaos of a sudden hit .Well, all things considered we put out our trusted trouper only and figured we can always run the motor in idle should he give up on us .And as I said in the beginning , it is a rather personal question , for in the end it’s you who has to deal with the consequences of this call.
We had a wonderful peaceful full moon night ,Steve ,who’s also on his way to Green Turtle Cay ,came over for Sundowners and we swapped stories and ate more conch-salad ..After 4 days of living of the fat of the land /sea I’m totally craving for a cheeseburger and - surprise - he has Bubba - burgers in the freezer , so we’re on for Cheeseburgers in paradise tonite .
Hmmm, tough life this cruising…..
Woke up this morning to absolute peace , no nagging voices in the back of my head reminding me of the things that need to be done , no traffic, no hussling and buzzling neighbors ….just the gentle wind humming in the rigging, the lapping of wavelets against the dinghy on our side, the occasional deerfly that made it’s way out to our boat , hmmm…..
When we arrived here on Alans-Pensacola and cruised into this nicely protected anchorage we had to make some serious decisions regarding our anchoring. We had plenty of swinging -room and no tidal surges to worry about , so should we put out two anchors tonite or not ??? This is a rather personal question in my opinion , for the real issue here is actually how to deal with a squall - if we have to get one .Our candidates at hand are our trusted Bruce anchor , heavy and on over 100’ of chain ,handled nicely by our electric windlass. And then there is another substantial CQR anchor on 60’ of chain and plenty of line , handled - or should I say struggled with - by the two of us with little success , for A this thing weighs a ton and B the advantage of the swiveling shank of the CQR turned out to be more of a disadvantage in our last anchorage , for it turned the anchor on it’s side and never set right at all. And what do we do if we’re in a squall and we are dragging , how am I gonna make sure I’m not running over one or the other in the chaos of a sudden hit .Well, all things considered we put out our trusted trouper only and figured we can always run the motor in idle should he give up on us .And as I said in the beginning , it is a rather personal question , for in the end it’s you who has to deal with the consequences of this call.
We had a wonderful peaceful full moon night ,Steve ,who’s also on his way to Green Turtle Cay ,came over for Sundowners and we swapped stories and ate more conch-salad ..After 4 days of living of the fat of the land /sea I’m totally craving for a cheeseburger and - surprise - he has Bubba - burgers in the freezer , so we’re on for Cheeseburgers in paradise tonite .
Hmmm, tough life this cruising…..
Paradise found - so why are we leaving ????
Paradise found - so why are we leaving ????
This got to be the most beautiful island we’ve seen in our lives.
“ Quixotic “ is tucked in behind Sand Cay and Double Breasted Rock , and one of the many pleasures here is to watch the white, white sandbar come out of the water with the tides. The colors of the water as the sun rises is totally out of a magazine , a heavenly array of whites, greens , turquoise , just pure heaven….
Another high-point is exploring the underwater world .We met Steve of “Floridaze” yesterday who happily jumped at the opportunity to have dive -buddies and play tour guide . He had been here many times, and knew exactly where to go. We explored a sunken plane wreck that was ruled by a good size lionfish. He had run into a biologist who’d showed him how to prepare those spiny creatures for dinner and supposedly they have very nice white meat - and no wonder since they are eating all the beautiful fish on the reefs. His gem though was a set of seven good size rocks covered with coral and fish of all colors , we just hung there as if we ‘d landed in an aquarium, nice !!! That turned into our favorite spot , especially since it was surrounded by all the conch we ever needed. We could’ve stayed there forever if it wouldn’t have been for the bouncer the other day who in no uncertain terms made us aware it was time to get out of the water . It must’ve been the biggest shark I’ve ever had the pleasure to share the same spot with , he came out of nowhere directly at us ,and all the foolish notions of carrying a spear with you to defend yourself seemed utterly ridiculous .The time it takes your heart to skip a beat is how long it takes him to make the decision to snack you or pass - and as soon as he turned I looked for Cindy behind me and I guess there must ‘ve been an urgency in my voice as I said the single word “ shark ‘ for she immediately followed me back to the dink , trying to swim the fine line between calm restraint and panic. You bet we were done swimming for the day ..We had some good-size conch in the dinghy which we prepared into a delicious Conch-salad the other night and we’d invited our neighbors Scotty and Peggy of “Black Gold “ and Steve over for Sundowners .
Yesterday we just drifted with the tide down the northern sleugh and enjoyed all the exotic fish and corals , it was pure bliss and we forgot time and got ourselves pretty good sunburns . But it was so worth it , what a life .We caught ( ?!?! Yeah right , they were moving fast ???)more conch and sat down on the sandbar cleaning them up, keeping some of the guts of the conch for fish bait ,,but law-abiding folks as we are we stayed away from the summer crabs ,since they’re out of season , and instead bought 7 tails from the locals that drove by in the evening. Now tell me what those babies look any different in our cooler than if we’d gotten them ourselves ? A little disturbing thought , so we gonna cook and take care of them today . Most folks look at our paranoia and excuse us with the fact we’ve stayed in the Keys far to long.Hmm, I wonder what that means , I thought we live in paradise…
All the power boaters around us are complaining about the wind , which is stilled blowing somewhere between 15 and 20 knots , but here in the anchorage it feels wonderful. I haven’t broken into a sweat ever and the bugs can’t make it to our boat , so we are happy…
This got to be the most beautiful island we’ve seen in our lives.
“ Quixotic “ is tucked in behind Sand Cay and Double Breasted Rock , and one of the many pleasures here is to watch the white, white sandbar come out of the water with the tides. The colors of the water as the sun rises is totally out of a magazine , a heavenly array of whites, greens , turquoise , just pure heaven….
Another high-point is exploring the underwater world .We met Steve of “Floridaze” yesterday who happily jumped at the opportunity to have dive -buddies and play tour guide . He had been here many times, and knew exactly where to go. We explored a sunken plane wreck that was ruled by a good size lionfish. He had run into a biologist who’d showed him how to prepare those spiny creatures for dinner and supposedly they have very nice white meat - and no wonder since they are eating all the beautiful fish on the reefs. His gem though was a set of seven good size rocks covered with coral and fish of all colors , we just hung there as if we ‘d landed in an aquarium, nice !!! That turned into our favorite spot , especially since it was surrounded by all the conch we ever needed. We could’ve stayed there forever if it wouldn’t have been for the bouncer the other day who in no uncertain terms made us aware it was time to get out of the water . It must’ve been the biggest shark I’ve ever had the pleasure to share the same spot with , he came out of nowhere directly at us ,and all the foolish notions of carrying a spear with you to defend yourself seemed utterly ridiculous .The time it takes your heart to skip a beat is how long it takes him to make the decision to snack you or pass - and as soon as he turned I looked for Cindy behind me and I guess there must ‘ve been an urgency in my voice as I said the single word “ shark ‘ for she immediately followed me back to the dink , trying to swim the fine line between calm restraint and panic. You bet we were done swimming for the day ..We had some good-size conch in the dinghy which we prepared into a delicious Conch-salad the other night and we’d invited our neighbors Scotty and Peggy of “Black Gold “ and Steve over for Sundowners .
Yesterday we just drifted with the tide down the northern sleugh and enjoyed all the exotic fish and corals , it was pure bliss and we forgot time and got ourselves pretty good sunburns . But it was so worth it , what a life .We caught ( ?!?! Yeah right , they were moving fast ???)more conch and sat down on the sandbar cleaning them up, keeping some of the guts of the conch for fish bait ,,but law-abiding folks as we are we stayed away from the summer crabs ,since they’re out of season , and instead bought 7 tails from the locals that drove by in the evening. Now tell me what those babies look any different in our cooler than if we’d gotten them ourselves ? A little disturbing thought , so we gonna cook and take care of them today . Most folks look at our paranoia and excuse us with the fact we’ve stayed in the Keys far to long.Hmm, I wonder what that means , I thought we live in paradise…
All the power boaters around us are complaining about the wind , which is stilled blowing somewhere between 15 and 20 knots , but here in the anchorage it feels wonderful. I haven’t broken into a sweat ever and the bugs can’t make it to our boat , so we are happy…
We have arrived...
We have arrived…..
We really didn’t have a plan where to go after West End ,leaving our journey open to the wind and fate ! Best is to talk to other sailors, see where they’re heading ,so when we heard them talk up a storm (?) of praise about an island called Double Breasted Cay , we checked back with our collection of guides - and sure enough , it was supposed to be the most beautiful Cay in all of the Bahamas. So why didn’t more people go there , we’d never heard of it ? Well , we were soon to find out…
We motored through a nice cocktail of dark and stormy , either no wind or all hell , one of them packing winds so fierce, it slowed us down to 1.2 knots under full power - but it rewarded me with nice photo of nasty weather.We reached Great Sale with the fading sunlight , no diving the anchors there , so we slept with the GPS on anchor-drag alarm - just in case . No serious cocktail-hour there , but we where rewarded with a calm night and actually got to go sailing the next day . The wind was huffing steadily at around 15 knots and “Quixotic “ proudly showed us what she was made of. It was a day we had worked for so hard , all systems up and running , flying 7.2 knots ( YEAH !!!) by little Cays in beautiful weather on our way to paradise.
Double Breasted Cay has two little sleughs to get into some nice protected anchorages and as we were getting closer to the island ,we realized we can’t make out the channel. All looks fine on the chart plotter ,but all we see is a little opening between jagged coral rocks we wouldn’t even try to get our dinghy through , not to mention the mothership . And could we really trust “Charmaine “ ( The Garmin GPS ) blindly , for obviously once we ‘re in that tight a quarters there’s no turning her around . Well , the prudent mariner and Cindy , the proud boat owner, took over and we turned our boat around and decided to explore our options by dinghy.
I’m sure you can imagine our disappointment when we finally had Quixotic anchored , done diving the anchor to make sure she’s set and the dinghy ready to go, the wind started picking up to a good 20 knot speed. No way were we entering that narrow gap in these conditions , and none of us felt great about leaving our home out there on her own , what if she starts dragging while we ‘re out there looking for our anchorage ???? Oh well, I guess we were off to another night out in the open ocean, GPS on drag - alarm and the boat rocking and rolling . But we all know what an awesome sleep we can get when the cradle is rocking like that ,and again the goddess had mercy on us and sent all the squalls the other way.
Next morning we went exploring and talked to people in the anchorages , nothing like some local knowledge . We found out we had to consider tides and currents to make our entrance and being kinda still in the open water - exit mode in case of a storm , we choose a nice spot tucked in behind the island. So we moved Quixotic around the island to our chosen spot and once we got her anchored we realized the tidal current had gained some dramatic speed and it pointed our transom directly into an ugly set of rocks . Morale and the sun was getting pretty low by then and we kinda questioned our capability here , when we got a call from Scotty and Peggy on “Black Gold” over on the other side of the rocks . “ Are you girls staying out in the open ocean again tonite , or are you coming in over here now that it is slack high tide ? “
I haven’t heard a nicer way of someone telling me I’m messing up , so I replied “ Heck no. I’d just love to spent another night with my GPS on anchor-drag !?! “ I think having to deal with my heavy german accent he must‘ve missed my dripping sarcasm , for he backed off immediately and wished us a good night. Oh ,you should have heard me come back at him : “ Hell no , I AM NOT HAPPY !!! “ just short of screaming help . He told us that boats actually make it through that gap in the rocks all the time and he and another sailor came over in the dinghy to guide us through to safe haven. An hour later we were showered and relaxed in this absolutely beautiful spot between a heavenly sandbar and a coral rock island and the gentle breeze that was rocking our ship out in the open ocean was gently caressing our tired bodies. The moon was lighting the sandbar to a glowing white and we knew then - we have arrived…
We really didn’t have a plan where to go after West End ,leaving our journey open to the wind and fate ! Best is to talk to other sailors, see where they’re heading ,so when we heard them talk up a storm (?) of praise about an island called Double Breasted Cay , we checked back with our collection of guides - and sure enough , it was supposed to be the most beautiful Cay in all of the Bahamas. So why didn’t more people go there , we’d never heard of it ? Well , we were soon to find out…
We motored through a nice cocktail of dark and stormy , either no wind or all hell , one of them packing winds so fierce, it slowed us down to 1.2 knots under full power - but it rewarded me with nice photo of nasty weather.We reached Great Sale with the fading sunlight , no diving the anchors there , so we slept with the GPS on anchor-drag alarm - just in case . No serious cocktail-hour there , but we where rewarded with a calm night and actually got to go sailing the next day . The wind was huffing steadily at around 15 knots and “Quixotic “ proudly showed us what she was made of. It was a day we had worked for so hard , all systems up and running , flying 7.2 knots ( YEAH !!!) by little Cays in beautiful weather on our way to paradise.
Double Breasted Cay has two little sleughs to get into some nice protected anchorages and as we were getting closer to the island ,we realized we can’t make out the channel. All looks fine on the chart plotter ,but all we see is a little opening between jagged coral rocks we wouldn’t even try to get our dinghy through , not to mention the mothership . And could we really trust “Charmaine “ ( The Garmin GPS ) blindly , for obviously once we ‘re in that tight a quarters there’s no turning her around . Well , the prudent mariner and Cindy , the proud boat owner, took over and we turned our boat around and decided to explore our options by dinghy.
I’m sure you can imagine our disappointment when we finally had Quixotic anchored , done diving the anchor to make sure she’s set and the dinghy ready to go, the wind started picking up to a good 20 knot speed. No way were we entering that narrow gap in these conditions , and none of us felt great about leaving our home out there on her own , what if she starts dragging while we ‘re out there looking for our anchorage ???? Oh well, I guess we were off to another night out in the open ocean, GPS on drag - alarm and the boat rocking and rolling . But we all know what an awesome sleep we can get when the cradle is rocking like that ,and again the goddess had mercy on us and sent all the squalls the other way.
Next morning we went exploring and talked to people in the anchorages , nothing like some local knowledge . We found out we had to consider tides and currents to make our entrance and being kinda still in the open water - exit mode in case of a storm , we choose a nice spot tucked in behind the island. So we moved Quixotic around the island to our chosen spot and once we got her anchored we realized the tidal current had gained some dramatic speed and it pointed our transom directly into an ugly set of rocks . Morale and the sun was getting pretty low by then and we kinda questioned our capability here , when we got a call from Scotty and Peggy on “Black Gold” over on the other side of the rocks . “ Are you girls staying out in the open ocean again tonite , or are you coming in over here now that it is slack high tide ? “
I haven’t heard a nicer way of someone telling me I’m messing up , so I replied “ Heck no. I’d just love to spent another night with my GPS on anchor-drag !?! “ I think having to deal with my heavy german accent he must‘ve missed my dripping sarcasm , for he backed off immediately and wished us a good night. Oh ,you should have heard me come back at him : “ Hell no , I AM NOT HAPPY !!! “ just short of screaming help . He told us that boats actually make it through that gap in the rocks all the time and he and another sailor came over in the dinghy to guide us through to safe haven. An hour later we were showered and relaxed in this absolutely beautiful spot between a heavenly sandbar and a coral rock island and the gentle breeze that was rocking our ship out in the open ocean was gently caressing our tired bodies. The moon was lighting the sandbar to a glowing white and we knew then - we have arrived…
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