Off to Long Island

Yahoo!  All our boat issues have been solved....for now.  Time to celebrate!

We left the comfort of our cozy mooring ball, and the company of our new found friends to test out our repairs.   Yesterday we sailed (well mostly motored) from Georgetown to Long Island.  The wind was light for most of the day and , naturally,  coming from the direction we wanted to go but it was sunny, warm, and oh so relaxing.  It was about a 6 hour trek and I am happy to report that everything worked great. 

For those who want the boring details, Harley and I replaced the top bearing.  The next day Harley, Pat and Andrew (on Abby Singer), were able to fix the bottom rudder bearing without hauling the boat.  They fabricated a makeshift bushing out of some deralin material.  With the aide of a hookah, they dropped the rudder and shoved this makeshift bushing in along with some Epoxy  dough and pushed the rudder post back into place.  Believe it or not, it worked great!  Of course this is just a band-aid fix but it should hold until we get to Florida in the spring.  We will be hauling Folly out of the water at that time anyway so we can do a proper fix then.

Today is another glorious day.  We (more like I with Pat, Lynn, and Harley in tow) spent the morning combing the beach for sea glass and came back empty handed but no worries.  It's just so nice to expore a new beach and a new island.  At 4:00 we are heading back to shore to a local bar for happy hour.  They are offering free hors d'ouervres so we imagine there should be a good crowd.  You mention free food to cruisers and they show up!  I'm looking forward to meeting more new people.  This is the fun part of cruising.

The weather forcast looks good for a while so we will likely stay here for a bit.  This island has much to offer in the way of sight seeing so it should be an interesting few days......but....

More about that...next time.

Harley spent way too many hours down in that hole.

Speaks for itself

Stocking Island

Hole 0

Hole 1

Pat and Harley Long Island

Lynn while hitching a ride in the back of a pick-up....Long Island

Harley....same pick-up.  Great way to travel!

Long Island

Taken into the sun gives an interesting effect....Long Island

In Good Spirits

Now that a few more days have passed  our problems seem like nothing in the grand scheme of things.  Harley was able to fix our windless motor and the parts for the rudder have arrived.  Things are looking brighter.  We have discovered that Folly, along with just about every boat, responds well to having lots of money spent on her.

On a more sobering note, this past week a sail boat with two on board ran into a reef just off of Emerald Bay Marina.  It was after dark, the boat lost it's keel on impact, and the boat sank.  Their West  Marine life raft would not deploy and the two had to swim two miles to shore. These poor people lost everything!  They literally were left with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Here in Georgetown is a wonderful community of cruisers and immediately donations came in and some people with dive tanks were able to retrieve their passports and important documents ect. from the wreckage.  Gosh, I can't imagine how traumatic this was for them.  And these were seasoned sailors with seventeen Atlantic crossings under their belts!   After hearing this story, and the fact that it happened right here in our community, makes us feel sad but fortunate as it could happen to any of us.

So here we are tied to a mooring ball in "hole 2".  We got the last mooring available  (another blessing) so we have a nice calm spot to to do our repairs, but besides that we have super fun neighbors in here!  Last night we were invited to a party on one of the boats and we had the BEST TIME EVER!  Two very fun and talented musicians were there and we all sang our hearts out and laughed until we cried.  Good times!   We better not get too comfortable here or we may never leave.  Hahaha.

The weather has improved as well lifting our spirits.  However, having said that, everyone is preparing for the next blow expected to arrive on Monday.  Thankfully we are in this well protected bay nicknamed  "The Hurricane Hole" so we should be nice and safe.  *big sigh*  It's a good feeling.  Most of the boats have moved today to find shelter but this is nothing new around here.  They call it the "Georgetown Shuffle "

Next week we will work on our rudder.   I'm not expecting it to be an easy fix so I'm  sure there'll be much to tell...but...

More about that. ...next time.

..........

This is how we've been filling in our spare time between fixing things.....

We found these ruins on Crab Cay

Along with a dead Crab

And a ship wreck

There were very old ruins mixed in with the new ruins.

It would have been a beautiful resort.  As the story goes, it was owned by some wealthy pig farmers from Iowa and it was coming along nicely until the stock market crashed in 2008.  Don't quote me though.  This was the story we were told from someone on the beach.

We also said goodbye to Ken and Grace on Pisces as they sail further south.  Their goal is to reach Grenada by June.

Fair winds and safe harbours to you!

The Drama is Over

The drama is over.  The wind has settled down to a dull roar and our anchor has held tight for four days.  Thank you God!

Even though this experience has left me slightly traumatized, I can relax now.  The worst is behind us.  Now we can sit back, analyze the situation, and learn from where we went wrong. 

Our windless is still motorless mind you, and the worn-out rudder bearings are still there but we are working on these issues.  The bearings are on route and we have a lead on where to get the windlass motor fixed so things are starting to look up.   Every day feels a bit more encouraging than the last and I can't tell you how good it feels to say that. 

When we started out on this adventure we said that we will do it until it's not fun anymore.  Well, we take that back.  It's not all fun and that's, simply put, the reality of it.  There are going to be challenges without a doubt.  Every boater out here has a few horror stories to tell....some worse than others.  We're not naive enough to think we'd breeze through this without any problems so these recent set backs do not come as a surprise.   Is it fun?  No.... but it doesn't have to be fun all the time. 

My friend Lynn said to me today, "Everything on the boat is broken.  We just don't know it yet" 

Oh how true. As the saying goes.... Cruising is fixing your boat in exotic places.  By the time I post again we should have our boat parts delivered and we will have decided where to get hauled out. but....

More about that....next time.

Trouble in Paradise

We have anchored more times in the past four days than we did in an entire season on Georgian Bay!  Slowly our vacation in paradise is turning into the vacation from hell as the happy-go-lucky atmosphere on board Folly is switching to survival mode.  Ok, that may be extreme...maybe not survival mode, but we are definitely testing our coping skills.

It was bad enough that we have our rudder issue but since this huge weather system has moved in we have had nothing but problems.  As I mentioned in my last post, our anchor let loose just as the front hit on Sunday. . Since then we have dragged 5 more times.  It seams Folly, with her wing keel, wants to sail up on the anchor.  Then the wind catches the bow she gets pushed sideways to the wind.  When we hit the end of the rode the wind whips her in the other direction.  And so it goes until she can’t take it anymore and the anchor let’s loose.   We’ve had to reanchor in this wind so many times I’ve lost count…..sometimes due to dragging others to find a more protected spot.  Each time being more stressful than the last.  We have anchored in the night, and in a squall, leaving our nerves raw.  Sleeping has become a luxury that we get precious little of.

During the night-time hours Harley and I have been taking shifts between sleeping and hand steering the boat.  When the wind catches the bow we’ve been steering it in the opposite direction so it doesn’t put too much stress on the anchor when the chain is stretched to the limit.  We could have sailed to the B.V.I.’s for all the miles we’ve put on and we haven’t left the harbour!

Yesterday we were, yet again, trying to anchor when the windless stopped working.  That’s the mechanism that raises and lowers the anchor.  Now, if we need to move the boat, we have to raise the anchor by hand, which is very difficult.  Needless to say, Harley has been frantically try to fix the windless with little success.  It looks like the motor is shot and needing to be replaced.  I don’t want to offend anyone when I say this but if we drag again in a squall… we’re screwed!

Thank goodness we have friends in the harbour!  For a couple of days we were separated and they had no clue what we were going through but Ken heard us talking on the radio to someone regarding the windless.  In no time he was over to help Harley in any way he could.  Between the two of them they got the anchor up and we moved, again, to a more protected spot.  Hopefully now we can sleep (but I somehow doubt it).  The swinging has died down a bit, which should mean we won’t drag. 

Like I said before,  we have never had an issue holding especially with our beefed up ground tackle (all chain and Rocna anchor).  I dont mean to boast, that's not the point, but we know how to anchor so you can imagine our frustration.  Our tolerance level has peaked and, if you haven’t noticed.. (lol), I’m pretty wound up.    This weather is going to be with us for another solid week!  I grit my teeth every time a big gust hits.  Here's hoping the weather predictors are wrong this time.   My teeth are important to me

Working on the windless

Boat for Sale

Just kidding but, after today, a ski chalet in the mountains sounds wonderful!

As predicted, a horrendous weather system hit the Bahamas today and it's not pretty.  All the boats in the harbour are getting tossed around but none, as far as I can tell,  as much as Folly.  Unfortunately Folly's anchor let loose as soon as the front hit at 8:00AM and we had to reanchor.  Reanchoring in a gale is not an easy task.  Laying out the anchor in wind blowing 35 gusting 40 knots is a challenge at best and stressful in a scared shitless kind of way.  Thinking it was bad enough that we had to go through that, you can imagine how impressed I was when we noticed we were slowly dragging for a second time.  It had to be done....we reanchored again with the same amount stress and gnashing of teeth.  

Believe it or not, throughout the day, we had to reanchor four times!  Finally by 4:00PM we found a slightly calmer spot and we hooked well.  (touch wood)  I really cant say what was going on or why as we have never had an issue holding since we switched to the Rocna anchor three years ago. It was likely because we were trying to anchor too far out in 3 ft breaking waves.  Fingers crossed we're OK now.  The "storm" isn't over yet...not by a long shot.  According to all the weather models, this wind is to stay with us ( hopefully not this intense) for close to a week.  

Though this was not a pleasant experience we have much to be thankful for.  I'm thankful that this didn't happen in the overnight hours, so thankful that, even though it took most of the day to anchor securely, we did....and before sunset and, we can now file this under "S" for "Stories to Tell".

Hard to tell how bad it was.  Folly is the furthest one out.  We moved a couple more times after that.  Photo courtesy of Lynn Lortie (Adamant 1)

It's not always Sunshine and Rainbows!

What is it they say?  When the wind shifts you need to adjust the sails?  It goes something like that. .....Anyway. ...

You know how I talk about "expect the unexpected"?  Well, unexpectedly (but not surprisingly) we have  an issue with our rudder that needs attention.  For those who know about these things, the bearings need replacement.  Not only does this mean we need to be hauled out, it also means we likely won't be sailing any further south this winter.  Perhaps if everything comes together quickly we will but, for now, that is not in the plans.

First of all, we have to get the parts, which are not available at this time but "Catalina Direct" is working on it.  Then we have to find a place to haul us out of the water.   Here in Georgetown there is nothing reliable but, 150 miles to the north of us, in Spanish Wells there is.

We have no idea when the parts will get here but when they do we will wait for a weather window to travel up there.  It's important that we sail up in light winds as we don't want to put unnecessary pressure on the steering.   Right now we are bracing ourselves for a big blow expected to arrive tomorrow and continue for at least a week so, naturally, we'll be waiting that out. 

In the meantime we are trying to stay positive.   After all, it's not the end of the world.  We are still having fun.  We are not sinking.  We can still sail the boat.  We are not shoveling snow.  Life is good.

The plan now is to wait for the parts to arrive, wait out this blow,  sail to Spanish Wells, fix the booboo, and reassess.  Hopefully our next post will have good news.

So...more about that...next time.

Hanging out in Georgetown

My goodness it's been a while since I last posted.

First of all, everything is great.  We are anchored off Monument Beach here in Georgetown.   The cruisers here have formed a wonderful community, all there for each other in every way possible, and it's comforting if nothing else.  It's also very social, which is right up Harley's alley and good for me.

There's not a lot to report this time.  Our time here has been spent hiking and socializing with a healthy dose of boat projects mixed in.

Hopefully we have more to report next time.  And .... OH!  Happy New Year! 

Windward side of Stocking Island

Lumina Point Resort 

Leeward side of Stocking Island

The monument