Half way down the Exumas chain

Dear Friends and Family,

We spent nine days at Morgan’s Bluff. We hitch hiked to the grocery store for perishables; some of the prices were comparable and some were…uh…to put it nicely ridiculously outrageous: a loaf of bread was $2.80 (comparable), Bar S hot dogs were $5 a pack (ehh – slightly high), two pounds of ham – bone in was $3.40 per lb (not bad), a block of cheddar cheese was $5.?? per lb (ehh – ok) and one pound of 80/20 hamburger was $8 (what??? Holy cow…that’s expensive). We really had to decided how bad we wanted ‘cow’ and considering we hadn’t had any meat for nearly a week we bought two one pound packages.

After nearly a week of having the anchorage to ourselves, six boats showed up and spent two evenings visiting. We found some of them fascinating and we think you will too:  Craig and Barb Morgan on S/V Undaunted are estimated to be in their fifties. They sail a few months every year to the Bahamas. Christian on S/V Cease the Moment is a young man of thirty one years old who also sails a few months a year. Mike and Jennifer aboard S/V Catalina are in their twenties. They are Norwegians who store their boat in Miami flying from Norway to Miami every year to sail for a few months. Two young men Morgan and ???? aboard S/V Windrain. All I really remember about them is they are purists, which means they WILL NOT motor. They ONLY sail and if there isn’t any wind, they don’t go anywhere. Similar to us but to more extreme. Two sisters ages seventeen and eighteen from New Zealand. Their parents purchased this boat and the girls are sailing it by themselves to Australia for resale. The parents along with their other sister of fifteen years old are on another boat currently in Florida also Australia bound. I found these girls to be interesting; kudos to them. We also met up with an older couple who have the luxury of all boats: a 52 foot boat equipped with everything you could imagine. We followed them to Highborne Cay. Al and his wife along with their dog Traveler are aboard S/V Independence. We met up with them again yesterday in Staniel Cay and another couple David and Linda on S/V Sandpiper.

Jimi heard about a water spout over the VHF radio the day before we left Morgan’s Bluff. Jimi popped his head out of the companion way to see that it was about a mile away. A water spout is a tornado over the water that sucks the sea water up towards the clouds. Though dangerous, they are not as destructive as land based tornados. It was an interesting sight.

We left Morgan’s Bluff around 10 or 11am on the 23^rd crossing the  tongue of the ocean bound for Highborne Cay (pronounced Key). The first three hours we did a whopping one knot per hour – it’s ok, you can laugh – we were. Later things picked up…. A LOT, I might say. Right about sunset the seas were rough again up until we arrived at the anchorage area at 6:30am on the 24^th. Jimi pulled another over nighter; however, with a full moon, it made for a bright journey on the ocean.

We spent three days on the Northern tip of the Exumas at Highborne Cay. The privately owned island is home of a very expensive resort. The office personal seemed to be from the U.S. and were not friendly toward us. Dozens of Reef Sharks and Nurse Sharks hovered the fish cleaning station at the marina for scraps. We stood on the dock taking pictures and motored by them in the dinghy. We spotted  a nice Dexter filet knife on the bed of the ocean floor under the sharks. 

Once the sharks vacated, Jimi jumped in the retrieve the knife – score!. We also found a large heavy beach towel washed up on the beach wet and full of sand even half buried. We rinsed it off in the ocean to find it free of stains and rips – another score! As we see it we had a $45 dollar day in our favor.

We explored a small island close by called Allen’s Cay; the home of iguanas and only iguanas. When they see a dinghy approaching they scramble from the rock and brush meeting guests on the beach awaiting snacks. The tourists bring them lettuce and other fruits. We enjoyed meeting their acquaintances and taking their pictures. About two dozen greeted us, but there were more scattered around this island and others.  

Our next destination was fourteen miles away to Shroud Cay. The islands here are made of ancient coral heads resembling large rocks full of holes and sharp pointy edges (sharper than a razor blade), patches of secluded beaches, some with trees and mangroves and some without. Shroud Cay has sand bars everywhere just out in the middle of the ocean. We took our dinghy back through a salt water stream not realizing the tide was going out. It was so shallow that Jimi had to walk us out most of the way. The island also had a fresh water stream coming off the land displaying several colors. The shallow salt water was clear with a tan tint as we could see right down to the sand, and then the slightly deeper parts were a rich turquoise and even turning darker as it became deeper, however, the coolest was where the fresh water met the salt water. The color was a lime green, yet still as clear as can be. No matter the color all the water is as clear as looking into a swimming pool.  We stayed at Shroud Cay for a couple of nights and then moved on five miles South to Hawksbill Cay.

  

Hawksbill Cay has a trail leading to what’s known as the Russell Ruins. There isn’t much left of the buildings, but none the less we were awed. From 1785 to 1830 the island consisted of ten houses and some other buildings; the British and loyalists leaving the U. S after America’s independence settled the island (as well as many other Bahama islands). Thousands of conch shells  all harvested lay around the beach in piles by the once structures and practically everywhere else you look; over time they have turned black as coal from the elements. I just couldn’t grasp the piles and piles of conch shells. Jimi is in search of his own modern day treasure. It is said that seekers can find hand blown glass bottles from the 1700 and 1800s in this area. We found plenty of them - broken – now to find some in tact. We found a perfect little spot to snorkel just off the beach and away for any breeze or current. I didn’t take my underwater camera when we snorkeled, but had planned to when we went back; unfortunately, we had to leave the following day and weren’t able to go back.

Ten miles South we made our way to Warderick Wells Cay. This is the headquarters for the Exzumas Land and Sea Park, which we have been exploring. Fishing in the park is prohibited and it’s just as well because we haven’t had any luck at catching anything anyhow. Warderick is an interesting place.

 The skeleton of a 52’ sperm whale lays on the beach. Some years ago a ship wrecked on the rocks and all souls were lost. Legend says you can hear the cries of the ones who perished if you stand at the top of the mountain, called Boo Boo Hill. Atop Boo Boo Hill visitors can carve or paint their name and sailing vessel on a piece of wood and leave it. It’s a large pile. The island also has several blow holes of all sizes, which were really cool. We only stayed there overnight before moving on.

Our next destination was Staniel Cay twenty miles away. It’s a little more civilized here and once again the people are super friendly. Don’t think you can get away with walking anywhere without a wave and a smile at the very least. We think we will be here for a while. Even with some civilization, we have learned that internet on the Bahamas does not come easy. At least here I can send this email and upload it to our blog (for a price), but I am not able to upload any pictures. I have quite a few for you too. We are allowed to purchase 200mb per 24 hour period. It’s certainly better than nothing, so I won’t complain; however, I have to admit that not having contact with my family make me sad. I am in high hopes that once we get out of the Bahamas to more mainland area, internet will be more readily available as it is in the U.S.

A couple of weeks back Jimi and I spent an entire day going through our provision inventory and repacking it all. We pulled it out into the cockpit, so I could count and log it into a spreadsheet. Now we will keep track of everything we use and have a better idea of what we are low on. We should have done this from the beginning. We also vacuum sealed all of our rice, flour, oatmeal, dry milk, cheerios, sugars, cat food, and anything that the moisture might destroy.  This was quit the accomplishment and we both feel so much better. We were hoping the groceries wouldn’t be quite so expensive in a more populated area of the Bahamas, but it does not seem to be the case, at least at our current location. And the rum is not cheap either, as we were told it would be. Nearly double in price.

Definition: Hull Speed – is the maximum speed at which a boat can be pushed through the water and is a function of the boats water line length. This means that a longer boat has greater potential speed then a shorter one. Conventional craft can only exceed their hull speed when planing or surfing. However, multihulls with very long or thin hulls can go faster than their length would suggest, and so can vessels that use hydrofoils to lift their hulls out of the water. Guide to Sailing by Steve Sleight

Sanibel’s hull speed is 7.2 knots and her fastest speed was over ten knots with a boost from the Gulf stream.

The Bahamas

Dear Friends and Family,

Sixty-two hours from the time we left until we anchored at our check in point of Morgans Bluff on Andros Island in the Bahamas. Sixty-two hours was not what we were expecting, but we’re here and we’re safe and all is well.

We departed Boot Key in Marathon, Florida around 2pm on Thursday. The sail pretty much brought rough seas right from the get go. Jimi considered turning around, but we decided to tough it out. It was a beautiful sun shining day with six to eight foot waves. The waves were fierce and rocked Sanibel around, but she handled them like she was meant to. Ten plus years she was deprived of what she was meant to do and we brought her back to life. I hated the trip, but am proud of the work Jimi did to get us here and of our Sanibel. While we were never in any real danger, I was miserable and mostly stayed below deck. Molly didn’t like the constant rocking either and stayed with me on the aft berth or in her cave (the bottom of Jimi’s dresser).  I would venture to the cockpit on occasion to keep Jimi  company and check on him. At one point on Saturday we lost all wind and were simply floating. I took advantage of this time to clean up taking a salt water bath in the cockpit; it was such a refreshing feeling after being cooped up in the aft berth for two days. During the voyage the depth ranged from 12 feet to 2,500 feet. We reached the Bahama Banks Friday evening and anchored for the night. Jimi had been sailing by himself since we left Florida and needed some rest. He actually took a few naps while Sanibel sailed herself the night before; this is common if the winds are right, but still he needed some real sleep. We slept through the night and then continued on early Saturday morning arriving in the small anchorage of Morgans Bluff around 4am on Sunday. We took Sunday to rest and clean up the inside of Sanibel. With the rough seas, things were not quite as secure as we thought they were. Stuff, stuff, and more stuff was laying around the entire cabin. It was comical to stand and stare at; I wished I had taken pictures, but didn’t think about it at the time. We’ll stay here until we have winds that will take us Southeast where we will island hop through the Exuma chain.

Monday Jimi went to shore to check in with the Bahamian Customs Department. Only the Captain is allowed off the vessel until all parties have been cleared. There’s nothing here to speak of: a gas station and a bar. The procedure for checking in is to go to the gas station and have the clerk call the customs officer of whom someone will come out to check all awaiting parties in. There is a town three miles down the road and we are told we can hitch-hike to get there – everyone does it. The area is quite laid back and safe from any crimes to worry about. The people are super friendly speaking English with a Jamaican tone – “ya mon” . I’m not sure that all the islands are this laid back and friendly; we’ll find out in due time.

The water is about 14 feet deep where we sit and so clear we can see right to the bottom. We have squid under our boat, fish, a couple of huge starfish and other well known sea life. Above the water line we have the dreaded biting horsefly – ouch, known by the locals as Dr. Fly because of its injections – which means the cabin has to be locked up at all times. Jimi has been bitten quite a lot and swells up. I have only been bitten a few times and haven’t had any effects from them (yet), but I won’t say never. It’s a warm 85 degrees here, however, there is a nice breeze and the water is perfect for a cool dip. With the breeze the weather is perfect. The down side is the biting flies that prevent us from experiencing the breeze throughout the cabin. One of these days we’ll make a screen for our hatch, which will allow us to keep it open and get a nice breeze through the cabin.

See the attached picture of the boaters washing machine?

 It consists of a bucket, sea water and a plunger. When washing machines are not available, this is how we will wash our clothes, etc. This is the first time I’ve used it, so I don’t know yet how well it will work. The process goes like this: I pour an itsy bit amount of soap in the bottom of a bucket (we have a five gallon cat liter bucket – perfect size) then I get sea water with our two gallon blue bucket on a rope from the ocean pouring it in to the washing bucket. I submerge my items – in this case I was washing towels – and begin to plunge away (quite vigorously, I learned). Then I take the items out.  I change the water after each set of items because I can clearly see it was dirty. Once everything is soap down I repeat the process without soap. This is the salt water rinse. The third step is to rinse again only this time with fresh water. The fresh water rinse does not require as much agitation or the plunger. I simply dip a few times to rinse the salt water as best as possible and wring.

The final step is to hang the items on the life line to dry. Washing in the morning is best: it’s not as hot and the sun comes will be out all day to beat down and dry the washed items. I found that it can be somewhat back breaking and I certainly get a good workout from it. I have to say though it’s a neat idea and better then wearing dirty underwear – hahaha – had to throw that in there. Oddly enough we didn’t get the idea from the sailing blogs or other sailors. We got the idea from a lady who owned a small dollar store in Florida. I was in there buying a potato peeler (mine broke) she somehow recognized that we were sailors and showed me this plunger she made calling it the sailors washing machine. Just a regular ole toilet plunger with holes drilled  around the top so water and spit through as item are being agitated. I don’t know if she was joking or not, but we bought it. I’d say it seems to have worked except for one problem – it broke during the tail end of my cycle. The plunger was of cheap dollar store quality and we probably need one of those heavy duty black ones. Just another thing to add to our shopping list.

There are several sunken boats next to where we are anchored. Jimi snorkeled them, as I walked to old concrete dock and took pictures. It looks like there are three ships that sunk next to the dock.

We spoke with a Marine Wild Life Officer who told us the boats were derelict and left by their owners. As you can see from the pictures, parts of them are above the water level. Jimi took some underwater video while he was snorkeling. Also, washed up on the beach are a couple more large boats left for dead. The water is super clear – at least 30 feet deep and we can see right to the bottom.

A large Ray swimming near the sunken ships was at least four feet wide and large barracuda up to five feet in length were seen. Both took off when they saw Jimi snorkeling. We stopped to talk to a lady fishing off the old dock. She showed us several small fish she caught and was again quite friendly. She gave us some tips on fishing and what’s good to eat.

Jimi changed the prop on Sanibel. We’ve never had the correct size, but we have a smaller prop and a larger prop. Since our launch, we’ve used the smaller prop. Jimi decided to change it out for  the larger one to see what kind of results we get. The hope is for a quicker reaction, better steerage, and possible faster speed. Sanibel’s top hull speed is seven knots.

Good news involving a phone number for us. As long as we have an internet connection, we will have a phone through Google voice: you can call us or we can call you. I believe we have texting capability too. Right now the service is free, but eventually Google will begin charging. We have already been able to check in with Jeff, Jennifer and my parents. It works beautifully. The number is 303.351.2324.

Here’s a bit of trivia for you: Amateurs like Richard Tyrell McMullen pioneered yacht cruising and inspired others through their example. McMullen sailed thousands of miles around the British Isles  from 1850 and died at the helm of his yacht in 1891. Other pioneers include London barrister John Macgregor, who cruised in a small sailing canoe, and American Joshua Slocum, who, in 1898, aboard the 35-ft Spray, became the first person to singlehandedly circumnavigate the globe.

Be sure to watch the underwater video Jimi made; it’s really cool.http://youtu.be/_S3E7G1e2Pw

Happy sailing and love everybody!

Lorie & Jimi

Bahama Bound

 Dear Friends and Family,

Nothing too much has happened in the last week. Our main focus has been to keep a close eye on the weather for our chance to leave.  Fifty-five mph winds whipped through our anchorage last weekend. The wind hit our beam hard, abruptly waking us at 3am. This lasted about ten minutes and the rest of the weather band gave us a good old fashioned thunder storm and a first class lightening show.

Jimi has kept busy with various projects, as there are always projects. I’ve kept busy with my daily cleaning routine and my own projects. Otherwise, we’ve ventured out and about on occasion. Sporadically we’ve had some problems with our oven staying ‘hot’. Jimi fiddled with it for several days and finally got it working (fingers crossed). He asked me to bake something to test it. I baked peanut butter cookies and took some to our boat neighbor Skip, as well as Tom & Colleen.

As the plan stands now we are departing Marathon tomorrow (let us hope the weather doesn’t change its mind). If we do leave, keep track of us on the “Where are We?” tab of our blog: www.svsanibel.com. I’ll write again as soon as we are able to renegade some internet. Our course will take us around the North side of Andros Island in the Bahamas where we will check into customs at Morgan’s Bluff and then South where we’ll drop an anchor towards the mid-east portion of Andros Island. We’ll cross the tongue of the ocean to the Bahama’s exuma chain and make our way south east, island hoping. We’ll use of this time to practice our routine and sailing drills.

I was able to include a few pictures.





First is a picture of Tom, Colleen and us, friends we’ve spent some time with during our three weeks here. They had planned to also sail to Morgan’s Bluff and the talk included us making the passage together. However, their plans have unexpectedly changed and they are headed back to Tampa; we will miss their company.









Second is a picture of Lorie next to the tiki hut and dinghy dock.





















Third is Lorie and Captain Jack. Captain Jack is the Marathon City Marina’s mascot, if you will. He is 91 years old and lives on his sailboat on the dock. He picks flowers off the trees and gives one (or more) to a lucky lady of his choice every day. He said he landed here is 1952 and has been here since. Yesterday we found out that residents and visitors often bring Captain Jack food and goodies. I wished I had know earlier, I would have given him some peanut butter cookies or made him some Hawaiian sweet bread. L 

We enjoy hearing from all of you. We welcome and encourage your comments and questions. Let us know what you would like to read about; and what pictures/videos you enjoy the most.

Happy sailing and love everybody!

Lorie and Jimi

Marathon, Florida

Dear Friends and Family,

Okay – so, I promised I would write weekly  (as long as we have internet) and it’s been two weeks since I’ve written. I just don’t know where the time has gone. I last told you we were in Key West. We left Key West on March 21^st.  As forecasted, the winds were good and we were moving along, however, about midday the wind died. We were just about to give up and anchor for the night when it came back around and was smooth sailing the rest of the way. Using a spot light to stay between the channel markers, we pulled into the anchorage about 9:30pm; we’ve been here since.

We are anchored in the anchorage just outside the mooring field. There are A LOT of boats here and it’s a tremendously busy place. The City Marina charges $22 a day to park a dinghy – WOWSER - that’s expensive. And to think we were complaining about paying $6 in Key West. That will teach us to complain. The upside (if there is one) is included in the price are showers, access the laundry facilities at $6 a load (WOWSER again), a work room, a day room with TVs, internet, and books, and a pump out. Still at that price and we’ve only used the dinghy dock twice we have to make a day out it squeezing every service and moment possible. It makes for looong days.

We’ve made a couple of trips to the local grocery store. There’s a Kmart here (no Wal-Mart), but it is surprisingly small and our luck for finding what we need there has been nil. These stores are located down the channel past the mooring field. We found a small free dinghy dock to park. We walk about half a mile or so to the grocery store with our backpacks, water proof bags and rolling carts. Our first re-provisioning trip was a biggie. Remember my mentioning the fishermen wanting to trade beer for freshly caught fish? Guess what we stocked up on? 96 cans of Miller Lite to trade and 48 cans of Yuengling to drink. We also purchased a pile of non-perishables. After checkout and while loading our bags and cart, the thought occurred to us that we may have bitten off more than we could chew.…ooops. I don’t know how we did it, but we did. We got a lot of attention huffing down the side of the road (no side walks) loaded to the gills with beer and other groceries. It was quite comical and I wished I had had my camera.

Jimi ordered parts for the wind generator, but he’ll work on fixing it later. He couldn’t find the same blades, so he purchased a different brand of blades and a new hub. His plan is to modify what we already have with the new parts to make the wind generator work. This seems to be the common thing for budget minded sailors.

We spent a week of our two weeks here stuck on Sanibel. We’ve had a tiny hole in our dinghy that Jimi decided to patch during our down time. We’ve been unable to find a hypalon patch kit, so Jimi made his own with 5200. The downside is 5200 takes a week to cure which left us with no transportation to shore. We kept busy and got through it though.

With a couple of tears in our genoa, we had to take the sewing machine to the work room at the City Marina to repair it. Even though the genoa is my favorite sail, repairing it is not. Skipping the unpleasant details I’ll just say it’s repaired.….until next time.

I made friends with a Manatee at the marina. As he was swimming past the dinghy, I reached in to the water to pet him……ohhhh……he liked that. We stayed around for nearly ten minutes while I scratched his back, neck and nose. He rolled over wanting scratches on his chin and belly too; he was so cute with his large flippers in the air. Even though he was so big, he was gentle and sweet. I asked Jimi to grab my camera out of my bag, but it was buried and he didn’t. I wished I could have stayed longer to play, but we had to go. L

We (Jimi) finally made a video of the inside of Saniibel. Many of you saw her during her refit and you’ve seen still pictures as well, however, this will give you a mental picture her today. And hopefully it will answer some of your questions regarding our systems, etc. Here is the link to the video:  http://youtu.be/EDtxoJS41R4

I’ve also included a picture of a girl who caught a wild iguana at the marina and carried it around most of the day. He was an interesting thing. They run wild here and we’ve seen several of them.

Last night we were invited to a couple’s sailboat who we met at the marina office, Tom and Colleen on Unplugged, for happy hour. We had a great time and may be sailing with them in the future, but nothing has been decided yet. One thing a sailor can count on is making friends easily. The network is incredible and the people are pleasant…maybe starved for attention, I don’t know. When we first arrived here we stopped by the guy’s boat that Jimi recognized from Key West (the boat that is, not the guy), the next thing we knew we were in his cockpit having a few beers. We told him a couple of times that we needed to get going, but he wasn’t having any of it. We enjoyed ourselves. There’s another gentleman that stops by our boat regularly for a chat. It’s a nice feeling to have such friendly folk around all with a common lifestyle and interest.

Yesterday it looked as though we would be leaving for the Bahamas. We rushed around preparing for today’s departure until this morning when Jimi checked the weather and decided we better not go. We are expecting rain and high winds here tomorrow. The marina is reminding everyone to tie down their gas cans, coolers, etc. and take in all cushions. The weather on the Gulf Stream would be fierce, therefore, it looks like we may be stuck here a little longer. It could be as much as two weeks.

Love everybody,

Lorie & Jimi

To the Dry Torgtuas and Loggerhead

Dear Friends and Family,

Grab a comfy seat and a cup of coffee (or tea), settle yourself in….this is a long post.

The trip from Charlotte Harbor to the Dry Tortugas went very well, without any hiccups or problems. The guys handled  the sails like pros. The water was choppy our second day (8^th) and caused Sanibel to rock, therefore, I was unable to remain below deck. I had to sit in the cockpit for the majority of the trip. I created about a fifteen minute video of the trip. If you are so inclined to watch it here is the link:   http://youtu.be/Mf2NgKyMp7M.      And here’s an underwater video Jimi took off of Loggerhead Key:   http://youtu.be/I-M0HCEm2KU.

We pulled in to the anchorage area at Fort Jefferson around 2pm on Saturday (9^th). There were a few sail boats already there, a large ferry with tourists from Key West and a sea plane. Considering the guys were up all night sailing, they napped for a while, as I settled the cabin and began working on the video. On Sunday (10^th) we spent the entire day touring the old fort, which is a wonder in itself. The 1800’s structure and the history kept our interest all day. We walked the roof, the second floor and the first floor, as well as the mote wall. I encourage you the read about the area on the net. It is located about 70 miles off of Key West . The only ways out here are by a ferry boat costing $180 to spend a few hours on the 10 acre island unless you camp overnight for an additional $3 per night or by sea plane for $280. Of course you could do as we did and buy your own boat to come out. Due to its seclusion not many people are able to come out here. One stretch of the fort has been made in to apartments for some of the volunteer workers. For example the guy who works in the gift shop stays out there four days a week and the hired National Forest Rangers work and live ten days on the island and four days on Key West. For visitors there is no fresh water, trash receptacles, limited bathrooms, no food, internet, or electricity. You really are out there on your own. The water is a clear teal color and very clean. The wild life is abundant, which includes a bird sanctuary and all the usual sea creatures. The bird sanctuary is closed right now due to nesting season. As you will see in the video, we had a visitor Pelican who landed on our bow during our arrival. He stood at attention as he was welcoming and guiding us in. The next two days we had another visitor. A large white bird napped on our deck (whom we named Henry Vern). The first day he was right by our cockpit and would look up at us once in a while and then tuck his head back under his wings  to sleep. The second day he claimed the bow just inches from the windlass. When Jimi had to adjust the anchor line he was within inches of our big bird and neither seemed to mind. I just can’t believe he stayed there with the loud noise coming from the anchor chain. I also stood on the bow with my camera to snap his picture and he didn’t care. He obviously knew we were no threat to him and other then massive amounts of bird poop he was no threat to us. Our third visitor was not so lucky. We found a fish about nine inches long in our dinghy one morning. He was already dead, so Jimi gave the fish to Henry Vern. Henry Vern was so happy and ate the fish taking it from Jimi’s hands immediately. Henry Vern pooped a lot, which our guest Ray offered to clean up without hesitation. In fact, Ray scrubbed our entire deck something that Jimi and I should have done long before. Later and throughout our stay we had more bird visitors off and on, as well as more fish who jumped into our dinghy.

We weathered a dinghy ride to Loggerhead Key. When I say weathered I mean it was bad. The winds were high and the water was rough. I was certain I would not make the return trip, but had no choice and the three mile ride back wasn’t as bad. We walked the island and took pictures of the old lighthouse. Jimi and Ray did some snorkeling, but it wasn’t warm enough for me and even Ray had to come out of the water after a short while.

One evening a large fishing vessel entered the anchorage area stopping at every sailboat wanting to trade fish for beer or rum. We didn’t have any extra beer or rum and turned them away, however, they proceeded to give us some freshly caught Yellowtail anyhow. We felt obliged to give them something, so Ray sacrificed a package of filet mignon. We had fish with rice and carrots for dinner. Yum.

The weather was  good and the water was beautiful, but I have to say this “island time” is hard work. After two days, I was wiped out and came down with a head cold which, after five days has finally cleared up. No fun! Now I am left with an irritating cough. Ugh

Ray took a sea plane back to Key West on Tuesday (12^th) because the forecast meant we would not be able to sail away for three or four more days and he needed to return home. We held out at Fort Jefferson until our chance to leave. I kept busy with digital scrap booking, cross stitch, organizing our new photos, reading, and baking homemade bread…..ok my first attempt at making bread was a flop….uh, no not a flop, but in fact a brick totally suitable to be used as a weapon. When it went into the trash all we heard was a loud thud of it hitting the bottom of the trash can. My second attempt was pretty good although it seemed the recipe is for a slightly heavier bread then we would prefer. I know exactly  what I did wrong the first time. I used to make homemade bread all the time, but had forgotten how sensitive the yeast is. That smelly stuff must be treated with extreme care. I’ve since made a couple more loaves with great success. Soon I will attempt to make bread with our pressure cooker, but I have to get some supplies when we get to a grocery store.  Jimi knocked several ‘to dos’ off his list: some reorganization, he worked on the HAM radio, which by the way we made contact with Ray’s father back in Englewood, who is a HAM user (that was exciting), installing hooks, scraping barnacles from Sanibel’s bottom (thanks goodness we’re talking about a boat and not a person – he he) and other misc things here and there. The down time was good, but we also spent a few more days exploring the fort, looking for marked ship wrecks (never found them) and taking lots of pictures with my new camera.. ..and while the down time was good…we were so ready for new sights.

Let me update you on my hair saga. One of the first things I did when we arrived at Fort Jefferson was wash my hair and this time put it in a pony tail directly on top of my head. The first attempt was ok, but not short enough. It was still matting in the back and my bangs were too long to keep out of my eyes and too short to go behind my ears. So, I had Jimi do the ole chop-chop. I felt the weight lifted immediately. It felt good, short so the wind doesn’t blow my hair in my face, easy to wash and care for, the amount of long ‘lorie hairs’ found EVERYWHERE has diminished significantly and best of all it doesn’t matt at my neck….in fact, I haven’t had any tangles at all. The bad news is where the heck did all this curl come from. The last time I had short hair, I was in my early twenties and it was so straight that I had to use a curling iron every morning to fix it (I got my pictures out to show Jimi). I’m not complaining about the curly hair, I mean it’s fixed everyday without doing anything to it….but if you could see it you might agree that I look like a crazy person. Ha ha…I might be a crazy person and don’t know it. Still I will go to a hair dresser to have it fixed up a little when I am able and still I am super happy with it. The rest of the world will just have to live with looking at the crazy curly blonde haired woman.

Seven days after Ray left, we saw our window to leave with winds coming out of the southeast making it a nice sail straight over to Key West. We spent all day on Monday (18^th) preparing for a 3am departure assuring we would get in to Key West during day light hours. We loaded the dinghy on deck and pulled anchor with intentions to anchor on the North side of the Fort. This would make it easier for us to leave in the dark. We attempted to anchor several times before we finally found a spot with soft enough sand to catch. We thought things were good, as we cleaned the cabin, buttoned things down, made fresh bread and a pot of coffee, when out of nowhere the wind shifted coming from the North; winds blowing and rain coming down, which would normally be serene except we were not in a good place. We had to relocate and back to the anchorage area it was. Where did this weather come from? Because it was not forecasted AT ALL.  At this point we weren’t sure we would be leaving that night….so when? Ok enough was enough…..when we woke up Tuesday (19^th) morning, Jimi said we’re leaving and we did. Our sixteen hour trip brought us in to the Key West anchorage area between 1 and 2 am. The weather was rainy, windy and chilly. Jimi captained the helm most of the way; I helped when he needed me to. We averaged a good six knots; however, about two hours from Key West the winds began dropping and our speed began slowing. From 10 nautical miles out at 5 knots per hour our speed dropped about 1 knot per hour every hour, so when we should have already arrived we were still 4 nautical miles away doing 1 knot per hour……really…..still four hours until our arrival? We bit the bullet, dropped the  sails and started the engine. Ahhhhh this is better at 4 knots per hour we were in the anchorage in no time.

During our trip one of the shrouds from the mizzen mast started flapping in the chaos of the weather and hit our wind generator breaking three of its six blades off.  Jimi had to scramble to the top of the mast during all the ruckus to prevent the entire loss of the wind generator. That was scary for me and I’m sure him too. He has already readjusted the three remaining blades and hopefully it will still work with only three blades. In addition we tore a small hole in our main sail. Jimi is in the process of fixing it now.

We are safely anchored in Key West now. We’re not sure if we will stay here a few days or leave in the morning. Regardless, we’ll make our way to marathon, Florida where we can re-provision for the trip to the Bahamas.

Love everybody,

Lorie & Jimi

On the move

Dear Friends and Family,

After last weekend’s cold front, I am so happy we are moving South. Now I can only hope and pray that it is indeed warmer. On Monday we began preparing for our departure from the Punta Gorda area. All the parts came in for the wind generator; Jimi fixed it and we are again producing more power then we know what to do with. We did all the laundry and made a trip to the grocery store for some perishables.  We scored a BOMBASTIC deal on some used foul weather gear. Both sets fit us nearly perfectly. They will keep us dry from the spray and rain, shielded from the wind and even warm from a cold night on deck. We have already put them to use and we couldn't be happier about our purchase.

I decided I wanted to cut my hair a bit shorter, so Monday I went in to the bathroom, put my hair in a forward ponytail and cut it off. It looks good, but it is still way too long. I am going to do it again and this time Jimi is going to do the cutting for me. This will do for now and when we get further South I’ll go to a hair dresser.

Thursday we left Charlotte Harbor around 1pm making our way to Cayo Costa State Park. We anchored there about 6:30pm for the night. The sail was perfect. I spent most of it in the cabin and let Jimi and friend, Ray captain Sanibel. The winds were good, but not choppy, the sails stayed full hitting a top speed of 7 knots and we heeled up to 20 degrees. It was smooth sailing and that’s what I like.

We just departed about 7am for a 28+ hour non-stop sail. We’ll travel out into the Gulf of Mexico rather than hopping up the coast. Less traffic and a much better chance of a straight through trip. We are headed  to the Dry Tortugas National Park where we’ll spend several days exploring Fort Jefferson. Molly did very well on the trip. Every time I checked on her, she was sleeping soundly in the aft cabin. I premade a meatloaf and fed the guys meatloaf sandwiches and a few oatmeal cookies.

I’m certain there will not be internet access on the Gulf or at the dry tortugas. For  here on out writing is going to be hit and miss, but I’ll write as often as I possibly can. You can always check on us and find out where we are with our SPOT – updates will go to our SVSANIBEL page on Facebook or to our blog www.svsanibel.com and then click on the “Where are we?” tab.

More to come…..

   







Love everybody,

Lorie & Jimi

Times to Cherish

Dear Friends and Family,

We had a good week and visit with Daniel; unfortunately, he left Wednesday flying back to his home in Alaska. However, his flight from Tampa was an hour and a half late leaving causing him to miss his connection in Houston. The airline put him in a hotel for the night, gave him food vouchers for supper, breakfast and lunch then bumped him to first class for his remaining flights to Anchorage. I haven't heard from him yet, but he should be home by now.

We kept pretty busy during most of his week visit, but the last few days we were in island time and did much of nothing at all. He was able to experience a gnarly day on the water with us, which is almost a must to get the full experience of being a live aboard. We're so happy he came to visit.

We have some new boat neighbors anchored next to us. We're planning to visit with them soon, but what we know so far is they have been full time live aboards for eight years and love it. I am excited to talk to them at length for some good advise and experience stories. We'll let you know what we find out.

We had plans to set sail for the Dry Tortugas Thursday or Friday, but had a slight set back when the wind generator broke and Jimi had to order parts for it before we leave. Now, the plan is to leave mid week of next week.

We sold the pick up on Monday, so we are now strictly on foot or by dingy. - does this make it any more official? It does in my daughters eyes. When I told her the news she said "this means you are really going". I chuckled a little while feeling her emotional pain. We are hoofing it to the grocery store this morning before the cold front comes in this weekend.

I spent much of Wednesday tying up lose ends with Cencorp. Working on the thirteenth year, my days with the company are finally coming to an end. And yesterday we went through Sanibel to do some major reorganizing and cleaning.

Attached are a few pictures:

one of Daniel and Jimi in the cockpit,

 one comparing Daniel's new tattoo with Jimi's and

one of a small patch of rain that come through a few days ago.

I'll write again next week and hopefully soon we will have some pictures for you and some long awaited 'interesting' posts.

Love everybody,

Lorie & Jimi