Life on Lady

We’ve been anchored at Hoffman’s Cay for 11 days now. Technically, we were anchored off Devil’s Cay for the first three days, but it was a little rolly there so close to the inlet, so we moved to Hoffman’s Cay about 3 miles northeast. There are generally 11-14 boats anchored in this area on any given day. Many have been here longer than us. 

These are uninhabited islands, so we can walk along the small beaches and swim and snorkel off the boat or from one of the beaches and stay socially distanced. The waters off the beaches on this side are stand-up shallow for a couple hundred feet, so it’s easy to snorkel from shore as well as from the swim ladder on our starboard sugar scoop (those are the steps down to the water). One of the beaches near us has a 500 foot path across to the Atlantic side with a gorgeous, longer beach that’s great to walk along especially at low or falling tide (see post picture). The sand feels great on my feet and there is always a fresh supply of shells (and sadly plastic and other human debris) to discover. There’s also a 2-mile long beach a little further up from “our beaches” that is fabulous walking at low tide, but with fewer shells. We’ve settled into a routine that usually involves one excursion ashore and either a swim, snorkel or dinghy exploration. Late afternoon is for relaxing aboard with some sort of afternoon drink (though we have to ration our rum). Then there’s dinner followed by a game and/or movie before bed. We are extremely fortunate to have this little slice of paradise amidst the chaos of the COVID pandemic.

We’ve met and talked with a few of the other cruisers anchored here, maintaining our 6-foot distance, of course. Usually we’re talking dinghy-to-boat or dinghy-to-kayak, but yesterday there were three sets of people on that 2-mile beach I mentioned above, so we actually had a land-based conversation. I find it comforting knowing we’re not alone in this situation and that there are others close by, just in case. Most are planning to stay here as long as possible, waiting for the pandemic to settle down a bit before returning to the US or Canada. Those we’ve met so far are much better provisioned than we are; they’re not newbies like us. 

How long we are able to stay here depends first and foremost on our ability to get additional food supplies. Unlike our cruiser buddies here at Hoffman’s Cay, we did not provision for the apocalypse. Learning to live aboard is a steep enough learning curve. I wasn’t prepared for doing this during a pandemic. So Monday or Tuesday we will cruise the 5-6 hours back up to Great Harbor Cay and follow whatever protocols they have in place for cruisers to come ashore for groceries and hope the mailboat actually arrives Tuesday with new food supplies. This is a small island, so we anticipate being able to get staples like rice, flour, butter, eggs, cheese, maybe some frozen meat, hopefully some canned fruits and veggies. Thanks to one of the Bahamas Facebook groups I follow, I have a contact at the GHC Marina who will keep me posted about the mailboat, but was also able to tell me that other than flour and fresh produce the local grocery was fully stocked yesterday. Hopefully Bahamians don’t get scared, especially on the family islands, and start being afraid of cruisers and refusing them access to food and fuel. Fear can make humans act poorly and misinformation flies around here as much as it does in the US and elsewhere, despite the PM’s efforts to communicate clearly.

There are currently 24 confirmed cases of COVID in the Bahamas, and 3 deaths. Most of the cases are in Nassau, a couple are on Grand Bahama, but the first death was of a person from Bimini who was so ill he was flown to the hospital in Nassau where he later died. The Prime Minister is a very good communicator, and a medical doctor himself, which is very good in a health crisis. Since 3/19 he has made at least 4 addresses to his people reiterating, clarifying and adding to his original executive order. (We don’t have sufficient cell coverage or data to watch them, but we read the transcripts.) Apparently his people are not all following the rules of social distancing and curfew, however, especially on the “family islands” (those with small populations like Great Harbor Cay). He’s tightened things up a bit as a result, including more police patrols and a complete shut down this weekend of all stores and services, and he directed everyone to just stay home- period. The order lasts from 9pm last night until 5am Monday morning. Then we’ll see what happens. Cruisers are held to the same restrictions as the Bahamians, as is only fair. Bahamians are allowed outside in their yards only, cruisers are allowed to swim around their boats or go ashore to uninhabited island beaches for quick walks. Bahamians and cruisers can only leave their homes/boats for groceries, fuel, money or medicine (or water, for cruisers). Inter-island travel is banned for all, except cruisers can move to get the essentials I just listed or to head back to their home country.

We should be able to clear out of the Bahamas from the GHC marina when the time comes. From there it’s only about 130 miles to the inlet near West Palm Beach, so all we will need is a good 2-day weather window for the crossing. Hopefully we do not end up needing to head back to the US before the virus settles a bit, because we feel safer from it here.

Stay safe and healthy and take care of each other!

Our attempt to cross to the The Berry Islands was aborted about 7 miles out. The starboard generator shut down unexpectedly and then wouldn’t restart, though it tried several times. Can’t troubleshoot that in the dark with the seas bouncing you around, so we turned around and returned to the anchorage we’d been at the past few nights. Good thing we had a track line to follow, the channel markers were all it, and we have a good spotlight! Re-anchoring was the easy part, very calm in here and no other boats.

We had a few hours of sleep and breakfast, now Dave & Dad are troubleshooting the generator. If necessary, we can connect both motors to the port generator and run that way. The final result will determine where we go next, if we don’t just stay put for a while. Fingers crossed! I will keep you posted.

The picture collage is from our anchorage. Scenic, n’est ce pas?

Stay healthy and take care of each other!

Despite the craziness of the COVID-19 pandemic, we did make it to the Bahamas early Monday morning. Phew!

We left Fort Lauderdale Sunday night around 6:00pm and crossed to West End on Grand Bahama Island arriving around 8:30am Monday morning. The ride across the Gulf Stream was a bit bumpy due to the short period between the 2-3 foot seas (with an occasional 4′), but we expected that. Made it a bit noisy (waves hitting bridge deck) and difficult to sleep, but otherwise fine. The skies were clear and it was a beautiful starry night. We were never really alone either; there always appeared to be a cargo ship or cruise ship in sight, often two or more. We have certainly had worse trips, even if you exclude the November fiasco 😉.

We had no trouble checking in at customs & immigration on Monday. Since then the Bahamas has tightened up its borders a bit, closing them to people from places like Iran, Italy, Shengen countries, UK, Ireland- same places many other countries have closed their borders to already. Today Bahamas declared a state of emergency that gives them a variety of powers they can employ as needed; they’re not going all psycho (at least not yet). They could impose curfews, ban gatherings of certain sizes, etc. They are already making the same social isolation suggetions most countries are making. The state of emergency does not appear to impact foreign nationals already in the country. We do not know how it will affect things like reprovisioning and getting diesel when needed, but he have sufficient provisions on board for about 4-5 weeks (and we can fish), we make our own water, it’s quite sunny for shorter island hops, and for the 1-2 longer passages we want to make between island groups our diesel tank is 3/4 full. 

We are self-quarantining until a week from this coming Friday because we have no idea if we were exposed to COVID while in Florida and our last possible exposure would have been this past Friday. We were ashore frequently the past two weeks provisioning, and later learned of confirmed cases in the areas we had been, but not wide spread. You never know, though, and we don’t want to be responsible for spreading the virus if we did bring it with us. No COVID symptoms on board yet, thank goodness!

For the next couple of weeks, it appears that our excursions will be water-based- snorkeling and diving, with walks along sandy beaches and remote island trails where we are unlikely to encounter many other humans, and those we do encounter we can easily remain at least 6 feet away from. It’s a bit of a bummer that we won’t be able to hang out with other cruisers for sundowners, but the cruising community is doing its part to not exacerbate this pandemic and are all practicing social distancing.

I’m extremely thankful that at least here on GBI we have decent cell coverage, so we can keep in touch with the outside world. We’re able to keep up with the COVID situation and keep in touch with family and friends back home. I will update my blog at least weekly so folks know we’re okay. If we are out of cell phone coverage, I will still make a quick post via satellite phone. If you want to check in with us, feel free to comment on the blog and I will check and respond to those as I can, but that does require I be in cell phone coverage area, so please be patient. 

I hope you are all staying healthy and sane in these crazy times! Take care of each other. 🙂

Ready or not, here we go! Due to the modern miracle of scheduled posting, by the time this posts we should be en route to the Bahamas overnight. If you don’t see this until Monday morning, we should already be there (sea gods willing). 

Mentally I feel like I’m not ready for this change in lifestyle because there’s so much I don’t know yet about cruising and living aboard. I know many cruisers start out knowing basically nothing and learn as they go. I’m a planner (I may have mentioned that a few times), so “just going for it” stresses me out. I’ve never been able to shut off my brain from all the “what ifs.” I was resistant to reading up about the cruising lifestyle while at home; I didn’t want to spend my free time ashore thinking about being on the boat. Now I’m paying the price. I’ve worked myself into exhaustion the past 4 weeks “getting ready” for this launch into a new life and I still feel woefully unprepared. My ignorance is so great that I still have to primarily rely on others rather than on my own knowledge base or abilities. I know precious little about weather patterns. I can’t fix any of the boat systems and don’t know how to run many of them. If anything happened to Dave I could probably drive the boat to safety and get her anchored in calm conditions, but if conditions were challenging, I’d be up a creek without a paddle. (Sorry for the lame boat analogy.) I was reading the Explorer Chart Book about the Bahamas last night and had to stop because it was freaking me out.

Emotionally, however, I’m  ready to be in the Bahamas. I’m tired of all the preparations and anticipation. I’m tired of city anchorages and searching for someplace that will let you tie up your dinghy while you go ashore. I long for quiet anchorages and sandy beaches to stroll along, for snorkeling and diving. I look forward to some relaxation on the crystal blue waters.

We arrived at West Palm Beach a week ago Saturday and dropped anchor across from the West Palm Public Docks. We immediately contacted our Florida family members and arranged times to visit with them. We spent last Sunday with the east coast crew, then drove out to the Tampa area Monday to visit overnight with the west coast crew (saw my first manatee in the wild- see post pic), arriving back at Lady Tuesday in time for dinner. That was our fun, except for an occasional lunch or dinner out ashore since. Otherwise it’s been all about frantically preparing to make the jump to the Bahamas. Mom & I have started the provisioning. I have to do it in steps or it really tries my sanity; I hate this type of shopping. The boys have been installing and fixing. We anchored closer to the public docks Thursday to make it faster (and drier) getting ourselves and our stuff to and from Lady. 

Friday we learned the anchorage and docks were closing Sunday morning in preparation for the upcoming boat show and we had to vacate by 7am. We decided to try to beat the exodus and hauled anchor after breakfast yesterday, moving up river to anchor off a friendly sailing club that allows transients to use their dinghy dock and facilities for a nominal daily fee. We were there for about 3 hours. The front forecast to blow through arrived on schedule Saturday kicking up 20+ kt winds with the promise of increasing to 30 kts and continuing through part of Tuesday. We were not excited about making a zillion dinghy runs in those conditions. It would have required donning our foul weather gear and putting all our supplies in contractor bags to keep them dry. All the marinas nearby were full, so Dave kept calling marinas further and further up river until we found one about 5 miles away with a spot for us. Amen! So we hauled anchor again and arrived at said marina around 2pm yesterday. Showers, laundry, significantly less wind and calmer waters, not to mention the shopping and restaurants surrounding the marina. A final slice of convenience before we set off for the remote islands of the Caribbean.

We checked out the lay of the land here yesterday afternoon. Then I got a luxurious hot shower ashore and set out to retrieve our rental car back in West Palm and visit my cousin Suzie and her clan to pick up the packages they’ve been collecting for us, and to have dinner with them. My folks and Dave enjoyed the facilities and got dinner to go from the Italian market about 150 yards from our boat.

And now the final (we think) countdown begins. The next weather window for crossing to the Bahamas appears to be Thursday. So we have until then to finish everything in preparation. Our generator controllers should arrive tomorrow; the final replacement pieces that should prevent complete system failure like the one that happened in November. The rest of the lists remain pretty much the same as my last post, but most of it has at least been started. Baby steps.

Bring on those blue, warm waters and pretty fish!

What are you doing with this extra February day? We are making what we hope will be our final leap down the ICW to the West Palm Beach area. We’ll see. Dave is conducting additional tests of our propulsion systems while underway, so there’s always a risk we may need to stop if they don’t perform as hoped. We’ll know later today.

I’ve woken up around 3:00am each of the past three nights with a busy brain, unable to get back to sleep for a couple of hours- and we’ve been getting up at 6:30 each morning. Sometimes I feel like my head might explode with all the things I feel have to be done before leaving the U.S. for the Bahamas. The list of things to do seems to get longer rather than shorter even though I’m spending most days addressing said list. I’m sure it doesn’t all need to be done, but it feels like it. I think part of my apprehension is just the anticipation of making the leap. Once we actually do it, then it’s no longer about preparation but rather about going with the flow and dealing with things as they arise. Still, there are several substantive items that need accomplishing before we leave the U.S.

We need to provision for four people for 4-6 weeks. We have to replenish our spare parts supply. Dave has to install the replacement generator controllers once they arrive. We have a shopping list of other items we need to acquire, things that would be difficult or expensive to acquire once we leave the U.S. We have to settle our cell phone plan(s) for the Bahamas & Caribbean, and set up our Iridium Go (hard installation, plus apps and both a satellite airtime and Predict Wind plan). On the up side, we will take some time to visit with family in Florida before we take off, some on each coast.

Thankfully, I’m not in this alone. I have family to help out and I have found some great online resources to guide me. I’m using resources from The Boat Galley to help me think about provisioning, storage, and comfort aboard. The Bahamas Land & Sea, SSCA, Women Who Sail and ICW Cruising Guide by Bob423 Facebook groups are very helpful. I post a question and have dozens of replies in hours from a vast pool of experience cruising in all sorts of areas and conditions. Predict Wind has fabulous online resources for Iridium Go and their own offshore weather app, plus a knowledgeable staff quick to respond to questions. I spent almost all day Friday reading installation and setup instructions, watching “how-to” videos and sending them questions. My cousin Susie in West Palm is an angel and is letting us have stuff we order online shipped to her house. Plus with four of us onboard there are plenty of hands to get everything done. I’m still feeling frazzled, though. 

We continue to have issues with our propulsion systems and Dave continues to work with the companies involved to troubleshoot and understand them. Two days ago our port BIB shut down the batteries not long after we left our anchorage in Melbourne and got underway. We were able to pull up to a public dock and take care of it fairly quickly. The next day the same system shut down again, twice. Dave is still trying to troubleshoot that, which is why he is running tests while we’re underway today. On top of that, yesterday morning the saltwater pressure pump failed and the port shower sump pump clogged. He and Dad had to fix both of those after we anchored yesterday afternoon. It’s always something, sometimes two or three somethings. 

I’ll end with some happy thoughts. We’ve stayed at some nice overnight spots since leaving Fort McAllister. The earlier ones were more remote and quiet, very relaxing. The past five have been closer to cities but still nice, not too noisy or busy (it’s not busy season on the ICW right now). Monday we got on a cheap mooring in St. Augustine with a sunny and warm afternoon to walk around a bit to see the sights, plus showers, laundry and a yummy dinner out. Wednesday was windy, but we were able to get another cheap mooring at Titusville Marina and it was calm enough in the morning for me to dinghy ashore and get a few groceries nearby. Thursday we anchored just south of the Melbourne Bridge and watched porpoises and dolphins playing not far from the boat; they were quite entertaining. Yesterday we had a beautiful, sunny afternoon and quiet, calm night at anchor in Faber Cove just south of the Fort Pierce inlet. The Florida intracoastal really is lovely.

So it’s not all sunshine and roses, but it’s not all gloom and frustration, either. Thus far I’m finding it to be more work than being at home on land, and I’m still learning to love living aboard. At this point I’d say I don’t mind it. 😉 I suspect the love will develop once we reach the Bahamas. I hear them calling me…