FW: I forgot the photos!

 

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Green Turtle to Vero Beach

Click on the title for a link to see the trip. Now sitting in Vero waiting for the rain to stop. The very slow speeds were when I anchored or was stopped to put oil in the engine while at sea. The last few hours before getting to Ft. Pierce were honking with an average almost 10. She sails a lot faster than she motors.

Harmony weather window

Click on the title and be taken to the spot site showing how I left Green Turtle Cay this morning about 7AM. Travelling with "Puff", we left. At 8AM I listened to Chris Parker (weather guru) on the Single Sideband Radio (SSB). He was talking about a front coming down the US coast and getting to Fort Pierce, our destination, on Sunday morning with squalls. Since we were not going to do an overnight, we would have been in the Gulf Stream when it came through. It was either that or stay at Great Sale Cay, an uninhabited island with a good harbor a full day's sail from Green Turtle, until Monday or Tuesday. As long as we were going to be holed up, we decided to come back to GTC. After all, we are still paid up at the mooring until 5/1. So here I am.

Once again: Man plans and god laughs.

Spot Track

Black Sound, Green Turtle Cay

Use the "x" to get rid of the stats and zoom in by hitting the "+" or double clicking on where you want to zoom.

Reply from Florrie

HiYa Lew,
My goodness, you haven't been bored! I hope you can get everything
working right, soon.
What a yucky job - good luck with it. (No you hadn't told me.)

As you know, a big storm hit here on March 30, causing serious leaks
in our living room and flooding the unit downstairs. The insurance
adjuster came on Saturday. Sunday I finished cutting up the carpet
and padding for an 8' x 12' area in front of the sliding doors. What
a job! ( I had started the job the night before, after I bought a
carpet knife at Lowes and looked at carpet samples.) I threw 9
kitchen bags full of carpet residue over the balcony rail then hauled
them to the dumpster.

The garbage disposal is stuck... whatever was in there over the winter
has solidified around the moving blades. I can't take the time to
call the fix-it man yet - gotta work on the art show. Also - my
printer won't work - I think I have to take it somewhere and get it
cleaned. I took the inks out of it when we left but whatever was left
in the machine's innards might have solidified. It is good that my
car battery was recharged the day after I got home... at least I can
move around easily now.

Owning a home is fixing things in a predictable place.

I am getting scans and prints of the new work that will go into my
show on May 1st. I'm including photos this year as well as the six
new acrylics and a couple of drawings. I figure there might be 30
pieces in the show.

Correction: The Artist's Reception is Sunday, May 2 from 2 - 4 PM
(For more information look back in the blogs of last month.)

Gotta Scoot! There's lots to do today. I miss the beautiful water
but am glad to be here for now, in spite of all the problems.

Letter to Florrie

Luv,
  I don't remember if I told you but after you left, the fridge kept tripping the off circuit on the compressor.  I guess it misses you too.  I put some more 134A into it but it didn't help.  I finally figured out that it might be poor heat exchanging so I looked at the strainer.  It was full of that seaweed that sticks to metal under the boat.  I put in a new strainer and now it works...well at least for about 10 minutes then shuts itself off again.  I have put clorox thru the system to kill whatever might be left.  Right now we get 1o+/- minutes then have to wait for about an hour before we can get another 10 minutes.  The temperature goes down a couple of degrees  In between, if I try to turn it on, it turns itself off within 15 seconds.  The weird thing is that it is and has been pumping out water just fine the whole time which may be why it took me so long to think of the strainer.  Looks like it is time to take the whole thing apart and make sure there is no seaweed in it.  YUCH.  It is a good thing I can get good ice here.  Well it could be worse...it could be the head.  Been there, done that.  Thank goodness it is a fresh water system.
  Anyway, I have also checked the strainers for the salt water intake for the engines (they are fine) and plan to check it for the generator (which is working fine) today.
Cruising IS fixing your boat in exotic places.

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FW: "Bahamas Moments"

Hello All,
This is to announce my art show in May.  We're in Treasure Cay, Bahamas, with good emails for a few days so please put this on your calendar.  Thanks!  Hope to see you there.
 

"Bahamas Moments"
Paintings, Drawings and Photographs
by Florence B. HIll
 
Oceanic Library
Avenue of Two Rivers and Ridge Road
Rumson, NJ
May 1 - 29, 2010
Artist's Reception
Sunday, May 2
12 - 4 PM
 
Library hours;
Mon & Thurs: 1 - 7 PM
Tues, Wed & Fri: 10 AM - 5 PM
Sat: 10 AM - 4PM


For the past three winters, Florence and her husband have lived on their catamaran, Harmony. The artistic result has been a series of acrylic paintings, pastels and other drawings as well as some photographs. These works have been inspired by places along the Intracoastal Waterway, Bimini, the Exumas and the Abacos.
One of Florence's favorite themes is Junkanoo, a seasonal celebration unique to the Bahamas, which features lavishly colorful costumes.
"As we make this trip, I am very aware that my palette changes drastically from the ochres and olive greens of the States to the elusive nuances of the Bahama waters and the brilliant colors of the island homes and celebrations."

Treasure Cay, Bahamas

View Larger Map

Here we are. Zoom in and you will see anchored boats. Zoom out or move the map with your cursor to see the beach just north of us. The last few days have been very windy. We have been safely sitting with 2 anchors out while we visit some friends here, go to the beach, have a Bahama Momma at the beach bar along with the college kids on spring break. It is a tough life.

emergency contacts for yachts in the Bahamas

How to contact a yacht IF there were an emergency:

Cruisers@OII.net provides a free emergency service and contacts the Cruisers Net in Marsh Harbour. The cruisers net does a morning net and most boats listen to it.

Chris Parker does the weather every day except Sunday. If we don’t hear him, others near us will. He also provides emergency messages. Chris @MWXC.com 863-248-2702 WWW.MWXC.com

US Coast Guard, Miami: 305-415-6800.….305-535-4300.….1-800-874-7561

State Department Overseas Citizens Service: 202-647-5225. They will forward messages to the Consular Officers in any country.

The SSB if you know a short wave ham. The Cruisheimers Net 8:30 AM and 5:00 PM on 6227.

weather Abacos

TUESDAY...SE-S@10-15K before sunup, becoming S-SW@15-20K till about midmorning, then become S-SW@25-30K G35K for the afternoon, evening and overnight / Atlantic seas building to 9-14ft by evening / high temp mid 70’s / mix of sun and clouds with squally rain arriving with the COLD FRONT in the evening. GALE CONDITIONS EXPECTED N OF 25N TUESDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY! Please note this warning-if you are on a boat get to a marina or double check your tackle and secure all outdoor items.

WEDNESDAY...GALE TO NEAR GALE FORCE WINDS CONTINUE OVER ABACO THROUGH THE MORNING, NW@33-35K+ subsiding to NW@15-20K by evening / Atlantic 8-14ft / high temp in the low 60’s / mostly cloudy, breezy and cooler

Harmony update, Green Turtle Cay

I was recently reminded that I haven't been a good host. No entries in over ten days. Sorry.
We are back in Green Turtle just after a front came bashing thru last night. Pre-frontal squall with winds about 60 just as we were watching a DVD of “When Harry met Sally“ while drinking cheap champagne. We were rocking and rolling on the mooring but glad not to be doing the "deck dance" (that is where you get up in the middle of the night, usually in high winds and rain, and pull up the anchor in order to reset it because it is dragging and you are either near the rocks or another boat).
Today the sun is out but it is still blowing hard (25). My WeatherBug keeps showing some sort of winter alert for Keyport but as I sit here in shorts and no shirt, I just don't have the heart to see what is going on after 20 inches in 2 days. Before you get jealous, the temperature here is in the 60s and maybe low 70s on a good day. If you are in the sun and out of the wind, it feels warm. Needless to say, I haven’t done very much swimming….just some. It was in the 30s in southern Florida last night. What a year with the jet stream all the way down to Orlando. When will it go north?
We have decided to remain at Green Turtle for the next two months with side trips to other islands. Home base. Forgive me if there isn’t much on the blog.
Florrie is working hard for a NJ show in May. We will put some of her new works on soon.

a day in the life

For those who don't know the layout of Harmony, here it is. A double berth forward, Galley (kitchen) down in the port (left) hull, Florrie's studio on the port side aft. On the starboard (right) side there are closets, heads (bathrooms) and a double berth aft. The cockpit is actually quite a bit larger than shown because there are Daybeds over the aft staterooms so almost the whole width is seatable space.















Florrie, of course is more civilized as she talks with her son, Gareth, who is taking a break from shoveling snow in Maryland. We use Skype which is a telephone program over the internet. The program is free and you download it onto your computer. All calls are then 2.1 cents per minute. That is not a typo...two cents per minute. You just need to be connected to the internet.


Here is our valiant skipper attempting to get on line. The "hotspot" is in someone's yard at the side of the road.

http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view/?trip_id=186923    This is where we are.  hit the "+" or "-" buttons to zoom in or out.

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The Fritter Feast

We're renting a mooring from Donnie's Boat Rentals. This makes Donnie our land lord. (Water lord?). Every now and then, when the spirit moves him, he'll cook up something yummy and hand it out to whomever happens to be on the dock. We were visiting "Ripple", a Wharram catamaran, when Donnie came along with a plate full of lobster bits and fried onions. They were so delicious that when, a couple of days later, he invited all his "borders" to enjoy Conch Fritters at the "boatyard/workshop" Lew accepted readily.
　
That morning, Kathy (from "Puff") and I had dinghied up the sound to Abaco Boatyard to do our laundry. We had no idea that there was a "plan" in the works. By the time we got back to Harmony it was 2:30 and Lew was afraid we would be late for Donnie's party. However, we were on "island time" and there was no problem. Nevertheless, there was no way we could have anticipated the events of the next 3 hours or so.
Dave and Kathy followed Lew and I to the dock and walked back into the boatyard. Now the term "boat yard" isn't quite what one might imagine. The small, locally owned business, hidden from the water on a dirt road, through tall sea grapes and mangroves, is an open air workshop. Boating machinery and miscellaneous, mysterious items crowd any horizontal surface. For the afternoon, a small work bench held a buzz saw and close at hand, a 4'x8' sheet of raw plywood was set on saw horses. A hand drill was holding down the cord to the deep fat fryer sitting on one end. (That kept the magnetic plug in place we were told.) At the other end of the large plywood, Matt - Donnie's helper in everything it seems - was grinding ingredients for the Conch Fritters. Clearly we were not late for anything. With a meat grinder like my grandmother's, Matt had created piles of conch, celery and onion and was preparing a green pepper. Within reach was a 14 oz can of tomato sauce, salt and pepper, hot sauce and some garlic salt.

As I went over to see how these fritters are made, Donnie put us all to work! He seemed to have jobs for everyone. Every few minutes Donnie would announce "It's not workin!" then proceed to delegate some unfinished task.


Lew was directed to "Pappa Earl" to help build the supports for a fish cleaning table for the dock. Simultaneously Donnie asked Dave and Kathy to go with him to cut fire wood for the grill. (We were also having grilled Wahooh soaked in soy sauce and garlic.) So the carpenter went off in the truck while the shrink built a table.

The chickens and rooster wandered around by the office/shed. Donnie's dog slept on the front seat of the golf cart. As soon as Donnie was gone, Matt got upset. Donnie had forgotten to get flour for the fritters! This was a calamity. Well, on Harmony, I had a 2 lb. bag of flour. Lew and I hopped in our dinghy to fetch it. I also got the camera because this was turning into an afternoon not to be forgotten. When we returned the food production gathered speed again. However, in the middle of the preparations, Matt was requested by another boater for assistance… so the "chef" disappeared for awhile.

Donnie and "crew" returned with firewood ("It's Workin!") and a hilarious tale of his brother's pig. As other boaters were beginning to arrive we heard about how one night this huge animal smelled the left-overs from a rib roast and broke into the local bar/restaurant. Trying to eat all it could, it knocked over some bottles of rum and proceeded to enjoy them too, breaking booze bottles all over the floor and slurping the puddles. By the time anyone found him, the pig was totally drunk and refused to go home. With Donnie 's brother pulling on a long lead and his wife pushing it up the road with the golf cart, the critter eventually returned to its pen.
　
Of course this led to yet another excursion in which Kathy took my camera to get pictures of this infamous beast. Couples from "Red Head" and "Drama Queen" had joined us. Sure enough, Ted and Diane went into town in and among the provisions they were after, brought back mixers for the party. Michael was later sent up the hill to deliver fritters.. Dave and Kathy, on yet another unexpected trip, helped Donnie gather more button wood. Donnie calls everyone "Pappa" or "Mamma". I suppose that makes names easier to remember.



At about 4:30 the light, crunchy fritters, fried onions and grilled fish were finally ready for consumption. Over the afternoon, we had managed to get tortilla chips from "Puff" and oreos from "Harmony". It had become the least planned pot luck ever. There were paper towels for "plates" and no utensils. But most of us said the Fritters were the best we've ever tasted. And the Wahooh was incredibly delicious, too.

pictures

I have been meaning to add more pictures so here is another of Puff on the banks.

You get to see some unusual boats:

When you are tho only catamaran travelling with monohulls, you become "THE PARTY BOAT"

Sometimes the internet connection is very poor and I get somewhat frustrated.

So here we are.

Bahama banks

Having left Lake Worth , Florida at 5 AM, we were ready to call it an early day. We had made it across the Gulf Stream and past Memory Rock but not as far as Great Sale Cay. The evening and night promised to be calm so Harmony and Puff dropped anchor in about 15’ of water, about 15 miles away from West End. The boats rocked gently on satin water as the sunset was an enveloping world of soft pinks and turquoise. But it was the night that held the magic.

Imagine that it is late in a clear, dark night. You are on deck, enjoying the quiet and solitude in the center of a vast inverted velvet bowl. The moon is a tiny crescent. Thousands of stars sparkle above and around you. Some are very bright and it feels like you could touch them. The horizon is a dark gray pastel blur punctuated by an elongated soft glow to the south. That is the inhabited western end of Grand Bahama Island. Closer to the boat, dancing lights point across the water toward you. They are the reflections of the stars.

This is why we endured the long trip south and two weeks of bitter cold in Florida. When it is beautiful in the Bahamas, it is spectacular. We were careful to cross the Gulf Stream under good conditions but rarely is it so perfect on the Banks. Now we are happily on a mooring in Black Sound in Green Turtle Cay. We will probably stay here for a few weeks before we go farther south in the Abacos to visit friends in Treasure Cay and Marsh Harbour and to simply enjoy the coves and fun of this snowbirds lifestyle.

View Larger MapIt has been awhile.  We left Vero about 6:30 AM and motored down to Fort Pierce where we went out into the Atlantic to sail down to Lake Worth (Palm Beach).  It was a beautiful day with good winds and speeds up to 9 knots...fast for us.  Got into Lake Worth about 5:30 PM with Puff and hit the hay.  5 AM and we are on our way again with Winsome, Puff and Sandra Lee.  Puff had to replace an impeller in the middle of the Gulf Stream so we stayed with her to make sure she was OK.  On to the Bahamas and we (us and Puff) anchored out on the Banks.  An idealic night with no wind at all and no clouds.  The stars reflected off the water to completely surround us.  The next day we were off to Great Sale...there about noon and Winsome was there and we all had coctails on her that night.  The next day we was a nice sail to Allens-Pensacola, like great sale, an uninhabited island, and walked over to the ocean side.  Up again early to sail to Green Turtle Cay, getting there about 11:30.  We were supposed to anchor out to go to customs but we pulled into Black Sound.  Puff followed us while Winsome anchored out.  We got the last two moorings at Donnies.  He helped us moor and drove us in a golf cart to customs and immigration.  Very easy entrance into the country, paid our $300 for a cruising permit (180 days) and fishing license.  We are liking it so much that we are thinking about spending the next 2, 3, or 4 weeks here.
Lots of pictures but they will have to wait until better internet.
 Lew
S/V Harmony
http://CatamaranHarmony.blogspot.com

View Larger MapScroll up to see our present position, the green arrow. Not sure why the map came out this way.
We left Vero about 6:30 this morning. Motored down to Ft. Pierce and out to the ocean. Wind was with us 10 to 15 and sometimes to 20. A great sail (sometimes motor sail) getting us in to Palm Beach (Lake Worth) before 5PM...A distance of about 55 nautical miles +/-. Looks like tomorrow will be a good day to go across the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. We will leave about 5 AM and motor all day if the weather report is right. Today was a lot more than predicted. We shall see.

Weather Permitting

Hello all,
The sun has come out for two days in a row.  It is up to 60 degrees already and it isn't even 10 AM.  This has been an awful two week stretch of horrible weather.  It has gotten down to 38 degrees at least twice - inside Harmony.  But everyone in the country seems to have had a rough time with the freezing weather.  I hope we all have survived.
 
When the weather is nice, Vero Beach and its City Marina are absolutely lovely.  Yesterday my friend Kathy, on "Puff", identified why it is so inviting here.  Of all the marinas we've been to over the years, this is the most relaxing.  We are situated within a residential community, not out in the williwacks where there is nothing but the marina, or in some overly stimulating place like Atlantic City.  It is an easy mile-walk to the Atlantic Ocean, along streets  lined with 200 year old live oaks and enormous palms.  The free bus takes us anywhere we might need to go: shopping, movies, West Marine and much, much more.  The moorings are strong and the marina is well protected.  The birds are wonderful to see: egrets, great blue herons, little blue herons, lots of pelicans, terns and even an owl in the very early morning.  The social life is as abundant as you might want.  And we're are only about 1/2 mile from one of the best little Museums I've seen.  No wonder it is called "Velcro Beach" by many boaters.
 
Unfortunately the weather has been so cold that there has been a fish kill.  Hundreds of fish have gone belly up and now line the shore at low tide.  Some are being havested by local boaters for crab bait.  Even the lizards have been falling out of the trees, frozen stiff.  That is sad to see (for those of us that like the little creatures).

Lew & I are hoping to get off this mooring on Monday morning and travel with "Puff" down to Lake Worth.  On Tuesday, very early, we hope to cross the Gulf Stream (FINALLY!) to get to West End on Grand Bahama Island.  So,after Monday night, we will be out of any kind of regular contact for awhile.  We have been happily spoiled by the accessible email and easy cell phone service here.  No more cell phones in the Bahamas though we will try to call via Baltelco once we are in Treasure Cay.
 
We listen to Chris Parker every morning to find out about safe travel and then we check in with the Cruiseheimer's Net on the USB (SSB) to let them know where we are.  We expect to meander among the smaller islands of the North Bahamas for a few days before getting to Green Turtle and then to Treasure Cay.  Later we'll go to Marsh Harbour and some of our other favorite places.  We might even get to Eleuthera this winter, weather permitting.
 
Stay warm y'all.  We'll see you againn the spring.
Florrie
&
Lew
S/V Harmony

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That's our friend Eric from C://(ESC) up his mast at Vero Beach. Unfortunately, the anchor light he was about to install ripped out of the bag and ended up on the deck in many pieces. Harmony is the right hand catamaran rafted up with Zing.
We almost left yesterday for the Bahamas but it looked like a choice of sitting here for 5 days more or crossing and sitting in West End, Bahamas for 5 days. Also looks like a good window next week. Cross your fingers.

NOAA WEATHER: for Vero Beach, FL

Today: Sunny, with a high near 57. Wind chill values as low as 33 early. Northwest wind between 10 and 15 mph.
Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 34. Northwest wind between 5 and 10 mph.
Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 56. Wind chill values as low as 25 early. Windy, with a northwest wind between 15 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.
Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 29. West northwest wind between 5 and 10 mph.
Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 58. Northwest wind between 5 and 10 mph.
Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 30. West northwest wind around 5 mph.
Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 65. West northwest wind between 5 and 10 mph.
Thursday Night: A 20 percent chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 43. West southwest wind between 5 and 10 mph.
Friday: A 30 percent chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 62. Northwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.
Friday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 33. Northwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 58. West northwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 34. Northwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Thur night is the only "window" as the winds do not come from the North quadrant.

Brrr in Florida

OK - so you guys have snow... I understand. BUT it is 48 degrees IN THE BOAT this morning and we don't have the kind of heat you take for ganted. This is supposed to be like this for another 4 days and nights at least. When we run the generator we can plug in the electric heater and wait. We close off everything but the salon & galley and maybe get this place up to 60. This is as close to the plight of homeless people living on the streets as I ever want to get! You can stay indoors and crank up the heat any time you want. If the heat goes out you can call the Gas company and they will come fix it, eventually. We just have to cope with this until Mother Nature decides to sweep away this horrible front that we're stuck in.

It got up to 50 in Maimi yesterday. That is farther south and should be warmer. Hah!

At least we brought arctic sleeping bags so we are reasonably warm at night. But mornings are brutal until about 9 or 10 AM when the sun has warmed up the cockpit. Our cockpit is enclosed so it heats up before the rest of the boat. Hopefully the sun will come out soon. Sometimes we sit out there in the sun and warm our bones awhile.

So much for the daily "report". Friends from NJ are returning to their boats this afternoon and we will have a dinner party for 7 or 9 people aboard. The body warmth will be nice.

We hear that Florida warms up in Mid-January, then we'll have the kind of weather you northerners seem to think we're having now. BRRRRR until then!? Christmas Day was nice. So was New Year's Day come to think of it. We take advantage of any sunny day and get the laundy done or go somewhere.