I'm still here in Marsh Harbor. It's been over a month since I got here and I have done no sailing since then. I did motor over to Great Guana Cay to leave the boat there while I went back to the states for Thanksgiving. I was there for almost three weeks, including almost a week at my brother's house in Avon Lake, OH. It was nice seeing old friends and family again after almost a year and a half. I made it to one of the Cave Run Sailing Assoc. lunches and managed to get together friends from Lexmark and elsewhere. The time went fast and the cold and snow made it much easier to leave when I flew back here.

I had spent a few days before I went back to the states helping do some work at the Every Child Counts school, a school that is run by the local Catholic church for kids that have various problems that keep them out of the other schools. They have a much better student/teacher ratio so the kids get more attention. They had just built a new building which had a kitchen but no cabinets installed. We built a set of base cabinets and a counter top before I left and have been working on getting the rest done since I got back. It's nice to be able to do something that will make a difference to the local community and make some new friends.

Not sure when I'll leave here. There is a front coming through tonight that will provide some northerly winds but it sounds like they will be a little stronger than I really want. The prediction of gale force winds and 14' seas tomorrow may make me wait until Sat. The problem with that is that Sun the winds shift to the east at up to 30 knots. If I leave Fri afternoon I should be at Cat Island by Sun morning before the winds and seas get too high. I may have to wait until next week but I really need to be moving south.

Dec 12, 2006

I'm still here in Marsh Harbor. I thought I would leave today for a Lynard Cay, a staging point for the trip SE. The winds were predicted to NE-E at about 20 knots today and moderating. That sounded pretty good but they are now from the SE which of course is the direction I want to go. The swells in the ocean are still running at about 13' but are predicted to moderate overnight. I may still leave in a couple of hours for Lynard Cay. I have been sitting here for a week now and am ready to be moving. I would have to motor today, about 25 miles in the Sea of Abaco, and probably tomorrow if I leave for Cat Island or points further SE. There is a front predicted to move through here on Thur which would bring northerly winds with it which could last for 4 days or possibly longer. That would be nice if it really happens and I want to be in a position to make the most of it.

Last Friday a tug pushed a barge into the harbor and left it just a 100 feet or so off my stern. It appeared to have a pile driving rig on it and they seemed to use that to hold it in place, just extended the driver down into the bottom, since I couldn't see any anchor lines. It didn't seem to be a problem and I pretty much forgot about it. About 10 seconds after I turned of my light to go to bed, I found out what it was for. There was an explosion and a bright flash that was so close and powerful I could feel the pressure wave inside the boat. Needless to say I got up to see what was going on and by the time I go the hatch, there were several more explosions. They were putting on a fireworks display from the barge. I guess they do it every year to sort of start the Christmas season and I certainly had a good seat!

Dec 16, 2006

I left Marsh Harbor on the 12th and motored to Lynard Cay. The winds were still pretty strong from the E and the seas were rough in the ocean. The trip to Lynard Cay was all in the Sea of Abaco and was pretty calm although a few of the ocean swells got through the passage at North Bar. The waves were pretty impressive as they broke on the reef and the small cays. I took some pictures but erased them before I got them copied to the laptop, another of those 'senior moments.' When I got to Lynard Cay, there were six other boats lined up along the cay. They reminded of cows lines up at a feeding trough. I pulled into the line and had a nice night at anchor.

The next morning, I waited to listen to the Caribean Weather Net on the SSB and it didn't sound too bad so I decided to leave. I got the anchor up and was underway about 8:15. It was still a bit rolling out there so I put up the main with one reef in it to stabilize the boat. I motorsailed out through the Little Harbor Passage with no problem and was soon into the Atlantic. As expected, it was still a bit rough and was predicted to moderate that afternoon. The wind was still coming from the ESE so I was on a beat and had to motorsail to come close to my intended course. Well, it never did moderate and in fact built to a pretty solid 20 knots for almost the entire trip to Cat Island, about 180 miles. It was not a fun sail to say the least. It was one of those that you endure to get closer to where the fun sails start.

I got to Cat Island about 3:00 PM the next day tired and wet. I went down the west coast about 15 miles and pulled up close to the shore and anchored. It was a nice spot although there was still a bit of a SW swell coming in so the boat tended to rock during the night. I can't understand how there could be a SW swell after many days of E to NE winds but it was there. The next day I went on down the coast to New Bight and anchored off the beach near the yacht club. It was a beautiful as I remembered with the crystal clear water and the casuarina and palm trees along the beach. I was able to watch my anchor set and watch the starfish that was a few feet away from it. I went ashore to call and let folks know where I was and then back to the boat to relax. This morning I listened to the weather new again and it sounds like I should have about three days of ENE winds so I decided to leave. It is really calm right now like they said it would be but it should pick up to 10-15 knots this afternoon. I sure hope the forecast is right because I am tired of motoring. I left about an hour ago and have covered about 1.5 NM so far with just the sails. The wind seemed to have stalled so I fired up the engine and am motorsailing out of the bight and around the SE corner of the ocean. If the winds don't pick up, I'll probably stop at Conception Island and wait for some wind. That's only about 25 miles from Cat Island and is a beautiful place to wait.

Dec 19, 2006

I had poled out my large light wind genoa shortly after I wrote the last entry and my speed went up to about 3 knots. Shortly after that the wind pretty much died and I dropped the genoa and started the engine. I motorsailed around Hawk's Nest point and the wind started to pick up somewhat as I got back into the open ocean. I got the large genoa, a 150% sail, and the mizzen up and had a great sail for a couple of hours. The seas were nearly calm and the wind was 5 to 10 knots from the NE so I was soon going along at 5 knots. It was one of the best sails I've had since I started on this little trip.

As the sun set the winds started to pick up some but still only to about 15 knots. I figured the genoa would be fine for at least 15 knots so I left it up and was making good time. After dinner, at sunset, I noticed that the helm was not as balanced as it had been and started to check. The tack of the genoa, the line that holds the bottom of the genoa down to the deck, had separated and the genoa was flogging terribly and in fact had ripped out along the bolt rope up to about the 4th hank. Since my other genoa had gotten damaged on the trip from Morehead City to the Bahamas, I was now without a headsail. On this boat, the headsail provides most of the power to drive the boat, especially when beating into the wind which I would probably be doing most of the way to St John. I got the torn genoa down and raised the jib on the inner stay. That is a much smaller sail and the helm was no longer balanced since there was not nearly enough drive in front of the mast. This meant that the autopilot would have to work much harder to maintain course since the boat always wanted to turn and I would have to hand steer whenever there was much wind. When the winds are light, the helm is still unbalanced but the loads are much lower and the AP can handle it fine. I dropped the mizzen to reduce the drive on the rear of the boat and it helped but I still had to steer a lot.

I wanted to make as much eastward progress as possible while the wind was still somewhat northerly. After the wind changed to the SE, the normal direction, it would be very difficult go in that direction so staying to the north would pay off later. I headed for the north side of Conception Island and had to motorsail for a while to provide a safe margin away from the reefs that go about four miles north of the island. I did the same for Rum Cay and then was able to turn off the engine while I headed for the north side of Samana Cay, about 100 miles away. I wasn't making particularly good time with the mess of sails I had up but was able to let the AP steer for a while now and then so I could get some rest. There were several squalls around and I managed to miss most of them, mostly luck actually. The biggest problem I had was I could not point well and had to sail considerably off the wind. I had wanted to go north of Samana and Mayaguana and then I was planning on going south to the Turks and Caicos to let a couple days of high winds go by. I was not able to get north of Samana and about the time I got to the west end of the island, in the early morning hours, a large squall formed that I could see I was not going to miss. It looked like it was about 10 miles wide as I got into the western edge of it. The winds were not too bad, probably 15 to 20 knots, but there was heavy rain. I had not put on the bottoms to my foul weather gear and was soon soaked through. The squall was not moving very fast and I was in it for about 1.5 hours. As it finally dissipated, I set the AP and went inside to dry off and change into some dry clothes and complete foul weather gear. I then noticed that the batteries were not being charged even though I was motorsailing. I checked the alternator and quickly found a wire that had been broken. This is the same wire that has gotten broken twice before, once the entire fuse holder disappeared! It was a voltage sense wire so it didn't have to carry a lot of current so I shoved it back into the connector and it started to charge again. I knew I was getting close to the reefs of Samana and had to get back topside and back sure I didn't get too close. I was OK and it soon started getting light and I was feeling a little better. I went back inside to get some breakfast and noticed that the alternator had quite charging again. I decided to heave to and go find and fix the problem. I did not find it and fixed it by changing the alternator back to the low output unit that came with the engine. That all took another hour and a half and I could see that I was not going to make Provo, in the Turks and Caicos, before Tues night. The entrance to Provo is through a channel that is about 10 miles long with coral reefs on both sides and coral heads scattered randomly throughout. It is not one that you want to enter at night. There are not many places around there where you can find an anchorage with good protection. There are several where you can anchor up behind an island and get some protection from the wind from one direction but few that give protection as the wind direction changes. The only one that looked reasonable was Atwood Harbor on the north end of Acklins Island. It was about 10 miles away and I decided to go there and wait out the strong winds. I was a little worried because it looked so small on the chart and I was afraid that there would be too many boats in there. It looked it would provide protection from all but N to NW winds and the forecast was for SE through NE for the next week. I got there in about two hours, motored in through the channel and had the entire anchorage to myself!. There was not a boat to be seen, actually there was nothing to be seen except a beautiful white sand beach about a mile long with palm trees most of the way around. I got the anchor down and started cleaning up the boat from the passage.

This is a beautiful spot. The aerial photo is from my cart book and it not a very good picture but does show the harbor quite well. There is even a neat rock marking the entrance to the harbor There are two small sheds that look they are probably for phone gear, one foundation for a small house and there are supposed to be some ruins on the other side of the harbor. I went ashore today and walked about half of the harbor and out on the ocean side for a ways. It is completely isolated. I went topside last night after dark and could not see a single light anywhere. I can't remember a time in my life, other that at sea, where I could not see a light.

Dec 22, 2006

I'm still here in Atwood Harbor waiting for the winds to either shift out of the SE or moderate some, or both. I have been working on misc things that have been building up and I think I got my heavier genoa repaired to where I can use it for medium winds. It is a little difficult trying to maneuver a 500 square foot sail through the sewing machine in the salon but I managed and I think it actually much stronger than before it got damaged. I also got a few other things taken care of and am ready to go.

Today I took my bike ashore, that was fun in 20 knot winds, and rode off looking for a phone so I could let people know that I am OK and enjoying like here in Atwood Harbor. I went to Chesters first and the two businesses there were closed, Bradley's Bar and the Cash and Carry. I asked a couple of guys who were getting there fish traps ready to take out where if there was a payphone around and they said I would have to go to Spring Point to the BATELCO office. The bike ride was nice up to that point, especially since I had a 20 knot tailwind, but the 35 miles to Spring Point sounded like it was a little more than I wanted to tackle. I continued on through Chesters and saw a couple of guys working on a car in front of their house. They seem really surprised to see me, I guess they don't see too many old guys riding by on a bike. Anyhow, I stopped to ask them the same thing. Unfortunately, I got the same answer. Then they told me that there was a resort a little further down the road and that the would have a phone that I could probably use so I headed off that way. Luckily, it was in the same direction so I still had the tailwind and pretty soon I was at the Pestel Beach Resort. I got to the resort and found a nice little place with a beach bar and a sign that said they were open. I went in an met Leo who runs the place. A super nice guy who let me use his phone to call KY and then fixed some fresh fish for lunch. It was snapper that they clean, although seeing the head still on it made me think of my Korea trips, rub spices on it and deep fry. Boy was it good! I have got to get some fishing gear for when I'm in places like Atwood. Actually, I saw about a 30 inch fish under the boat a day or two ago. Leo went to get Dick so we could talk about sailing. Dick spends winters at the Pestel, instead of Mass., and sails around in the trimaran he built. Another nice guy and we had a nice talk over lunch. He even gave me a ride back to Atwood and showed me all the interesting things I missed riding by so fast and some really nice places to see if I stay a few more days. He even invited me to Christmas dinner at the Pestel which sounded like fun. I'll probably go if I'm still here then.

The forecast is pretty much more of the same for the next few days although the winds are predicted to be a little lighter. I may leave tomorrow and go out and do some long tacks. It will slow progress but at least I would be getting closer than if I stay here. Now that I have a headsail again, I'll be able to point a little closer to the wind so will make a little better progress. I'll check the weather in the morning and decide then.

Dec 23, 2006

I left Atwood Harbor this morning. The forecast was for 15 to 20 K wind from the ESE so I figured I would go mostly south today and then stop at the Turks and Caicos to get some fuel and food. I had a lot to do before leaving so I didn't get going until about 10:00 and had to motor around the north end of Acklins Island before I could turn south. After I made the turn, I had a great sail with nice winds, calm seas (5 to 6 foot swells and those moderated during the afternoon) and a nice warm day. After I got going I started to think in a little more detail about when I was going to get to the T&Cs. It looked like I would get to the west end of the Sandbore channel in the wee hours of the night. Because of the coral heads in it, I would have to wait until day light before proceeding in. Or I could stop at the Plana Cays, anchor for the night, have a good dinner and leave early in the morning and get to the Sandbore about daylight and get to Sapodilla Bay about the same time. Since I was going within a couple of miles of West Plana Cay either way, I decided to stop for the night and some chicken-pineapple curry. The anchorage here is what they call a roadstead anchorage. You just pull up close to shore and are protected from the east winds. It will probably still be a little rolly but hopefully not too bad. The island is about 2.25 miles long, north to south, so it should block most of the easterly waves. It is another island with no lights visible anywhere along it and I don't know if there are any people living on it or not but has a beautiful beach the entire length of the island.

Dec 25, 2006

MERRY CHRISTMAS from beautiful Provodenciales in the Turks and Caicos!

I know it will be some time before anyone reads this since I don't know when I'll be able to be the web site updated but I'm thinking of you all. Also, I'm not quite to Provo yet. I'm approaching West side of West Caicos and probably won't be anchored until tomorrow morning. (I just heard a call on the radio for a water taxi for the yacht Privacy. Don't know if this is his or not but that is the name of Tiger Woods' yacht.)

This has been another of those passages that you just endure, not too much enjoyment in this one. I left West Plana Cay yesterday morning a little late because I couldn't get my anchor up. It had hooked on a coral head and I had to move the boat around under power until it came out. First time that has happened. After I got around the south end of West Plana Cay, I could see that I was going to have to sail almost due south. I had planned on going mostly south but had hoped to get a little east in there too. The wind was from the ESE and was supposed to shift to the SSE today so I would be able to sail east today. The wind did shift some but it was to the E so I had to go directly into it. It was a slow, wet sail and when I got about 30 miles from Provo, I tried to motor into the wind. The waves had built up to the point that they would almost stop me as the bow went under. At least my anchor and foredeck are clean. I eventually motorsailed the rest of the way but didn't get to West Caicos until almost dark. I had thought I would get there at daybreak. I didn't want to do the Sandbore Channel in the dark so I am going south around West Caicos and up the ship channel. It is wide and clear all the way to Sapodilla Bay where I'll be anchored.

Dec 26, 2006 HAPPY BOXING DAY!

It's still a holiday down here today, Boxing Day. I need to get fuel before I leave here for Puerto Rico and the docks are closed today. I'll listen to the weather in the morning and if it looks good for a few days, I'll head out. It's about a 4 day sail to Culebra which is where I would like to go.

I did have an interesting experience just west of Provo. I saw a sail boat in front of me that appeared to be dead in the water but then it got moving under sail. I didn't pay much attention at that time. A little later the wind picked up and I decided to reef the main before it got to strong. To do that I have to head up into the wind to drop the sail about 4 feet and then tie it there with reefing lines. It's not a lot of fun to do when you alone but I was in the middle of it when this boat appeared VERY close to me. There was someone deck who seemed to be yelling at me but I was occupied and went ahead and finished my reefing. After I got it done, I tried to hail him on the VHF and got no response so I decided to go on my way. Pretty soon it was back up close to me again! They were shining lights on their sails and flashing them at me. I tried to get them on the radio but again no response and I went on my way again. Then they started lighting their emergency flares. Boy do those light up a Boat! It finally sunk in that they had a problem and I turned around to try to help. It did cross my mind that it could be a setup and that they were out to do me harm but I finally got into a position where I could pull up close to them and we could sort of communicate by yelling. It turns out that they had three people on board, had lost electrical power, hence no radio, the engine didn't work and they had some problem with their sails. They wanted to be towed in. I told them I would call in the emegency call as soon as possible. I tried channels 9 and 22, the Coast Guard channels, 14 which seems to be for commercial traffic and 16 the general hailing channel. No response on any of them. I told them that I was getting no response and that I would call when I got to Sapodilla Bay for my anchorage. They agreed and said that they would hang out in that area.

As I approached the anchorage, I saw a police boat there and pretty soon a dinghy brought someone out to the boat. I waved down the dinghy as he was going back toward shore and asked if he was with the police. He wasn't but asked what the problem was and I related my story to him and asked how I could get ahold of someone to help them. He said to hail the police boat and that they would handle it from there so I called them on the VHF. I gave them all the information I had and pretty soon they were heading off in that direction. I though it was resolved. Then later in the morning, after clearing customs and getting some groceries, I head Privacy (It apparently is Tiger Woods' boat although according to the customs agent, Tiger is not aboard.) calling one of the marinas asking if the vessel in distress had come in to the marina. It had not but it became obvious that the police had not found them. The police was using Privacy to relay the message since they were out of range.

I was fixing dinner tonight when I heard a Coast Guard helicopter hailing a sailboat about five miles further west than where I had last seen that boat. They got no response and then the police boat started talking to the helicopter saying that they had tried to find them that morning but that they didn't have a position for them and that they had no power and thus no communication ability. Bob, the gentleman in the dinghy this morning then came on and passed on a few more details and then I got on and did the same. I also made sure the Coast Guard knew that I had given the police the position. There was nothing the helicopter could do to help the boat except to guide a tow vessel to them and they asked the police if they would prefer that they stay there with the disabled vessel or go on to the airport to refuel and then lead the police launch back out. The police said it "was not going to be possible to respond at this time." It was obvious that this was not the response the Coast Guard expected from the marine police. The police finally said that they would contact someone who could arrange for a commercial tow boat to get them. I got the impression that the police did not want to get involved and would prefer that the Coast Guard, that's the US Coast Guard, handled the situation themselves. The Coast Guard did handle it in a very professional manner.

Anyway, the three people are still out there floating around somewhere. I can not understand why they did not sail back to Provo. They could have come in the way I did, via the ship channel, and not have to worry about worry about tacking up the narrow Sandbore Channel.

The Coast Guard just now came on and is apparently talking to the disabled boat. They dropped a handheld VHF radio to the boat and are using that to make contact. The police boat won't go out at night and is going to make them wait until morning before coming after them. At least they don't seem to be in a dangerous situation. There are no injuries and they are not taking on water. The boat is a 48 foot Tayana from the US. The police boat is now asking them to sail closer to Provo so they don't have to go as far to get them in the morning! Actually, if their battteries are dead, they may not have and functioning navigation equipment, such as a GPS. The reefs on that end of Provo stick out about 10 miles from shore and you would not be able to see them from the channel at night. I guess that's a pretty good reason not to try to come in. If I could have communicated with them, I could have had the follow me in.

By the way, the guy in the dinghy this morning was Bob Gascoine from Wavy Line Publications. They, he and his partner, Jane Minty, publish charts of the Caribbean. They showed me how they go out with the dinghy, a GPS and depth sounder to plot depth contours and then draw the charts with Adobe Illustrator right there on their sailboat. In a lot of areas, they actually plot individual coral heads. Very interesting process and very interesting people. I really enjoyed our little talk when I over to buy charts for the T&Cs.

Dec 27, 2006

I decided to leave this morning after listening to the weather. It sounds good for today and fair for the next couple of days and that should get me about half way to PR. The rest will be about like I had when I came in from Acklins, 15-20 knots on the nose so progress will be slow but it wil be progress. I did have one more little problem on the head sail to fix before I left and that cost me about an hour.

Obviously, I still haven't gotten the web site updated at this time. I went in to town yesterday to do it but the internet cafe I had gone to this spring was closed. I didn't see how they were going to make it with the volume I saw and their low prices. So I got a few groceries and headed back to the boat.

I needed to get fuel before I left, just in case I needed to motor, and decided that South Side Marina was the most convienient. I started for there and tried to raise them on the VHF but couldn't get them. As I got closer, it got really shallow and without some local knowledge from the marina, I didn't want to on in and turned around and headed for the Caicos Marina about 6 miles further east. That cost me about another hour. I was a little worried abot getting in there but made it with no problem. As I was heading done there, the police boat I had talked to yesterday went by towing the disabled sailboat. They went to the same marina as I went to for fuel so I had a few minutes to talk to them before they headed off to take one guy to the airport. They were certainly appreciative of the assistance I provided even though they had to spend two nights waiting at sea. The remaining couple is heading for St Thomas once they get the boat running again.

With the delays this morning, I didn't make it across the Caicos Bank in time to get out of the passage into the ocean so I dropped the anchor in the middle of the Caicos Bank in about 8 feet of water. I can't see any land even though I am only about 15 miles from the nearest land but they do have nice sunsets here. I'll start early tommorow and should be in deep water by 10:00. The problem is that I'll miss the calm weather tonight that I could have sailed in and made some extra progress to the east. I'm heading for Puerto Rico, preferably Culebra which is almost to St Thomas. From there, I should be able to make St John in one good day or two fair days.

Dec 31, 2006

Well, I'm not going to make it to Culebra on this leg but I should make it to Mayaguez on the west coast of PR. I left the Caicos Bank right after the weather report on Thursday and motored on out through the Long Cay Passage. The east side of the island forms a rough lee shore that I wanted to get away from so I motorsailed almost to Grand Turk before raising the genoa. It was a nice sail up around the north end of Grand Turk and I started down the east side headed for Dewey on Culebra. At that time, I could point real close to the course for Dewey and I was feeling pretty good. As I tacked toward Dewey, the genoa wouldn't go across to the starboard side. It was dark so I had to get a light out to see what the problem was. There is so much stuff on this boat for lines to get hung on that this happens frequently. Unfortunately, this was a little different. The sail problem that made me late leaving Sapodilla Bay was that the leech tape had chafed where the sail drags across the spreaders and the leech cord had gotten pulled out through that hole. I had to run it back down to the bottom of the sail and tie it off. The leech tape needed to be replaced but I didn't have the materials on board so it would have to wait until I could get to a sail shop and pick up some luff tape. As I tacked, the genoa was sliding across the spreader and the leech cord caught on something on the spreader. Since it was now tied at the bottom,it couldn't pull out like it did the last time and it ripped out about 6 feet of the leech tape and by the time I could get it down, it had ripped out about a foot of a seam on the sail. The sail could not be used and I didn't have the material to fix it so I was again without a large headsail. I removed the genoa and hanked on the jib on the forestay but there was no place to run the sheets where the sheeting angle was close to working so that didn't work. I put the jib back on the inner stay and started motorsailing for Mayaguez. I calculated my fuel consumption and thought I could make it with the fuel in the tanks and I still had 16 gallons in reserve in jerry cans. (Did you ever wonder who Jerry was?) The winds were predicted to pick up to about 22 K so that would help me get some drive from the smaller sails although the seas would build with the higher winds.