May 7, 2008

I'm still here in St John getting ready to head north for hurricane season. I'll probably leave here at least by the 15th and hopefully before that. I'm planning on going to Gibson Island again to pull the boat and do the bottom paint and any other maintenance that needs done. After that, assuming summer's not over, I would like to head for Maine again.

May 18, 2008

I finally got underway north leaving St John on May 14th. It didn't take too long to realize I had a problem and needed to stop in St Thomas to take care of it. My rudder has been getting stiffer over the last couple of years but it had always just been at the extreme ends of it travel. Now it was so stiff that the autopilot couldn't steer the boat. Not a good way to start a 1,500 NM singlehanded trip. I stopped in Brewers Bay on St Thomas and while fixing the problem is going to have to wait until this summers pullout, I was able to free it up pretty well. I left St Thomas about 7:00 am on the 15th.

I am now about 20 NM southeast of Silver Bank which is about 30 miles north of the Dominican Republic. There are three banks here that are surrounded by water that's over 12,000 feet deep. Navidad Bank I passed last night. It comes up to a depth of about 15 feet. The other two, Silver Bank and Mouchoir Bank, both have exposed rocks at low tide. There is about 60 NM between them with water that is 12,000 deep.

That is one problem with the ENCs (Electronic Navigation Charts) that I use for navigation. They cover all the US coast, and possessions, so they work well along the US coast and in Puerto Rico and the USVI but they have no data for the ocean in between. They do not show the three banks described above so I still need charts for several areas. But the ENCs are free and are updated frequently so I can keep fresh charts onboard.

The winds have been light since leaving the USVI. I have only been motoring enough to keep my batteries charged so it has been a pretty slow trip. Yesterday I only covered 93 NM. I'm not covering much ground but at leats the seas are calm and I have time to enjoy the scenery. The sunsets have been nice since it has been hazy. The wind starting to pickup a little so things should speed up some today. I should pass the Turks and Caicos late tomorrow and be in the Bahamas Tues morning. I'll probably make a few stops and then pick up Steve Applegate for the trip from Abaco to the US.

May 23, 2008

I landed at Cat Island today. I got here right before dark so I pulled in to the lee of the island and anchored. I'll go up to Smith Bay in the morning to clear customs and then go back to New Bight for a couple of days.

May 26, 2008

I've been here in New Bight for a few days. A loaf of Olive's coconut bread makes the trip worthwhile. Yesterday I took a bike ride to the south of the island. It was a pretty hot day and the trip turned out to be about 30 miles long. On the way back, I got about 4 miles away, in Old Bight, and couldn't go any further. I think I had a little heat stroke going on and stopped for a half hour and rested. I was not feeling good but after I rested a bit and had a bottle of Gatorade I was able to make it the rest of the way back. I haven't been that tired or hot for a long time. When I got back to New Bight, I sat and watched the gulls on the town pier. I think these are laughing gulls and they stand on the dock beside each other facing into the wind. The pier is not in very good shape and is not good for much else. I land the dingy on the sand beside the pier since there is nothing to tie up to on the pier. Today I did a shorter ride, about 14 miles, to the north and across the island to the east shore. There is a lot of open land here and very little building on the eastern side of the island.

Tomorrow I'll head north to Marsh Harbor in Abaco. That's a good place to do some provisioning and I'll be there for a couple for a couple of days until Steve Applegate gets here. Then we'll head for the states.

May 28, 2008