Staying put.....

Dear Friends and Family,

Our Georgetown experience was nearly uneventful aside from the last update when we spent the evening at the beach.  The weather would not permit us to take the dinghy out to explore the surrounding islands. We took advantage of the time to get caught up at the internet café, visit with fellow cruisers, do laundry and restock our pantry. Going anywhere in the dinghy was a sure way to get a salt water bath. That didn’t stop us from going to shore to do what we needed though. Drenched to the core we got things done and were ready to head out as soon as mother nature opened the window.

We visited our anchor neighbor, Mike, on a 52’ Cheoy Lee. Jimi asked me to make sure I mention Mike, because he has a full size, in working order, Harley Davidson in the aft cabin of his sailboat. The aft companionway opens large enough so he can roll the bike onto a Boston Whaler or skiff and then motors the skiff to shore. If he’s staying somewhere for a long period of time, the Harley supplies his transportation. We went below deck to inspect the bike and it was pretty unbelievable. Even though Jimi isn’t a fan of Harleys, I think I saw a bit of drool fall from his lips. He-he

The morning we left, we said our goodbyes to friend, Randy. He is continuing his journey south, though, he is a little undecided on his exact destination. Hopefully, we’ll meet up with him again in the future.

From Georgetown we sailed twenty three nautical miles to the Northern tip of Long Island anchoring just before sunset. The following day was Friday, my birthday, and we thought we would spend the day sailing another fifty-six nautical miles south, however, mother nature had other plans for us. She sent the winds away, so we could stay. To my surprise, around the point, out of our view, was the Cape Santa Maria Beach Resort. Jimi snuck out in the morning by telling me he was going fishing – uh hu – when really he went to the beach resort to make dinner reservations for that evening. He bought me a beach resort t-shirt, which I clearly love, as I’ve worn it every day since J.

There is a private beach separate from the resort and anything else near where Sanibel was anchored. That afternoon we took the dinghy to ‘our’ beach for a long walk. This was one of the prettiest beaches we’ve seen yet. The sand was naturally clean and soft, as walking on a cloud of cotton. Since we hadn’t brought our bathing suits and we were the only ones anchored and in the area, Jimi suggested we go for a swim (nude) and seeing no harm in it, I agreed. We stripped our clothes neatly laying them on the rocks and sure enough as soon as we turned around to walk towards the ocean a large ship of some sort was coming around the corner. We quickly got in the water thinking the ship would pass on by. Ha – it anchored! Safe in the water we enjoyed our cool ocean swim on the warm sunny day. When we got out I ducked behind a rock to dress. To us the ship was the size of a small toy no larger than a few of my fingers, so it was doubtful they could see us even with binoculars, but the story is a fun one anyhow.

With 6pm reservations at the beach resort we arrived early for happy hour. Two tropical rum drinks with complimentary conch fritters in a beautifully structured light and airy resort was an ideal beginning to dinner. We ordered blackened grouper with an assortment of fresh steamed vegetables and rice with cilantro and a hint of  lime as well as shrimp fettuccini, two more tropical rum cocktails and a large piece of chocolate cake( to go). It was the best meal we’ve had in ‘forever’. The grand finale of our evening was being able to call Jennifer, Daniel, my mom and dad and my sister. The entire day was perfect with an even more perfect ending.

When I woke the next morning Jimi told me  we would be leaving at 7:30pm and sailing overnight. Needless to mention, we prepped for the passage. We made the fifty-six miles in twelve hours flat. Sailing on a lee shore, the seas were forceful. Jimi sent me off to bed to get some sleep and promised he would wake me to take over so he could sleep, but I never really slept and he never tried to wake me. The moon was fuller then full; a flashlight in the sky. Jimi does well during overnight passages; he finds them peaceful enjoying the night sky and air. We arrived in Little Harbor of Long Island at 7:30am.

We haven’t seen a soul: not any movement of cars or humans. There is a small power boat pulled up on shore and another boat wreck nearby, but otherwise it’s just us and the sea turtles (and one huge barracuda); we’ve seen many sea turtles playing in the water. The barracuda was quite curious as Jimi swam around. It would follow Jimi and every time Jimi would turn around it would stop, as if he were looking the other way and unnoticed. Finally Jimi growled at him underwater – well that did it – the barracuda quickly fled. Next time you are being stalked by a barracuda, turn around and growl at him and you’ll be fine. J Jimi plans to try this technique if a shark approaches; we’ll let you know how that turns out.

The weather has been overcast, with howling winds and sporadic rainstorms. We’re hanging out here until everything passes. Weather reports currently whisper we should be able to leave this weekend. Maybe or maybe not – weather changes so quickly. In the mean time, we are enjoying secluded serenity. No hustle bustle, no waves to flight going to shore and no place we have to be. This time has given Jimi a real chance to do some word working along with other projects and I have projects to do as well. The rain storms upon us seem like the perfect opportunity to seek out and fix leaks. If you think the inside of a sailboat is always dry, you would be mistaken. We always have water intrusion from somewhere and the aft companion way has been a huge area of concern from the beginning. After the first spout yesterday morning, I put a few things outside awaiting the next spout for a good cleansing, but since Jimi fixed the leak in the aft companion way, it hasn’t rained. It’s clearly his fault for fixing it. Lol We’ve realized that we will need to close the thru hull to the forward head during forward passages. When we are on a Starboard tack, water flows through the head’s thru hull and infiltrates the vanity and surrounding areas. Ooops. This equals a mess in the forward cabin.

Back in Georgetown, Jimi bought a 1GB data card for the Bahamas area from Batelco (the Bahamian Telephone Company), which goes in his phone. The purpose was solely to download weather updates for our passages. Being that between here and Jamaica we wouldn’t have access to such services, we thought it necessary.  As well, we only have thirty days to use the 1GB. Now realizing that there is no way the weather info will consume all or even half of the 1GB, he is allowing me to check my emails and Facebook from time to time, and even send you this update. This makes me one happy camper bahama-mama! I can only use this service on the phone and not on my laptop. Surfing the internet and uploading or watching videos are strictly prohibited and pictures are limited. Hey – I’m o.k. with that. I’ll take what I can get.

‘Sailor Molly’ is what we call her now. She’s been hanging out in the cockpit when we pull anchor and motor away. She really surprised Jimi when she stayed in the cockpit while he was sailing - heeled over and even tacking. She’s gotten sea sick the past couple of trips, but otherwise is feeling more than comfortable with this entire idea.

Today I am baking a loaf of raisin bread and a loaf of white bread. We are expecting more severe storms in the next day or so. We won’t be going ashore to explore the islands anytime soon.

We love your emails – keep them coming.

Love everybody,

Lorie & Jimi

Georgetown

Dear Friends and Family,

We left Black Point heading for Georgetown knowing that we would stop just five miles south at Big Farmers Cay. We ducked in to a small area with islands all around us: Big Farmers Cay, Big Galliot Cay and Little Galliot Cay. Cutting through Big Farmers Cay gave us the chance to move from the West side of the Exuma chain to the East side. None of the islands held any buildings or civilization, we were all alone. Occasionally a boat would sail by and occasionally we would hear the sounds of goats from one of the islands. After doing some reading in our outdated 1987 Bahamas guide book we found out that wild goats do indeed live on the island by themselves. How they got there, we do not know. Anyhow, we settled in to stay the night. We couldn’t swim because the current was too strong and we couldn’t take the dinghy out to explore because it was on the deck. Knowing that we would leave the first chance we got, we didn’t want to unload it.

The next afternoon, out of nowhere,  a man showed up in a kayak; we invited him aboard. He was anchored just on the other side of one of the Cays. He saw our mast and thought he would come over to say hello. His name is Randy. A retired truck driver in his 60’s. He’s been out here for two and a half years sailing around Panama, the Bahamas and between. Unlike most of the other cruisers who are going North this time of year, Randy is heading South as we are. The next morning Randy left for Georgetown and we left thirty minutes behind him. Georgetown was forty miles away.

We made it twenty miles just before sunset and then anchored for the night. Randy was long out of sight. We were sure he motored most of the way while we are adamant about NOT motoring. We anchored at Rat Cay. Jimi was able to try a new technique where he tied a line from the stern to the anchor chain to cut down on rolling. It’s a neat trick and really helped give us a steady nights sleep.

We left bright and early Friday morning arriving in Georgetown about 5pm. We found Randy right away and anchored near him. He came over for drinks and spaghetti dinner that night. The next day he showed us around the town. We got a few groceries, a 1GD sims card from the phone company, so we can check weather on Jimi’s phone, emptied our trash and borrowed some internet while we shared a plate of french fries and grouper fingers at the internet cafe.

Most of the cruisers have left the area now, but a month ago we would have seen 500 boats here, whereas there are about 60 now. Saturday nights the island across the way has a “Chat & Chill” get together. From what we understood it would be somewhat of a beach party. The island houses a bar/restaurant with all the picnic tables, lawn chairs and fun things all around. We went over about 6:30 to check it out. It turns out they stop serving dinner at 6:30 and the bar would close at 7pm. Who would have known? Anyhow, we got an order in for a hamburger just  in time. We talked to a few other couples before they headed back to their living quarters and then we sat on the beach during sunset eating our hamburger. Afterwards, Jimi made friends with a Ray (sea creature). We’re sure that the Ray was hoping for some snacks, which is why he was so friendly. We were told that the locals feed the Rays left over conch bits. As the mosquitoes made their presence known, we had to vacate the island and head back to Sanibel.

The weather today is overcast with scattered thunderstorms. We’re making use of the day on shore at the internet café. Tonight we will be guests for dinner on Randy’s boat. He cooking us fresh conch with steamed broccoli. We’re hoping to be able to do a bit of exploring before we leave here.

When we do leave, our next destination will be the Northern tip of Long Island. Once we leave Georgetown, we are not expecting any civilization (meaning stores, internet, water, etc.) until we arrive in Jamaica. It will take us a month or so to get to Jamaica; however, we’ll SPOT our location along the way.

And as for our blog - so far,  so good – our new blog through Google is still ours and we like the interface too

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Happy sailing!

Love everybody,

Lorie & Jimi

Thank you for your email and prayers.

Happy Mother's Day

Dear Friends and Family,

Staniel cay was a lot of fun. We met up with the S/V Independence and S/V Sandpiper from previous locations. We hiked, swam, enjoyed happy hour at the yacht club and another evening enjoyed drinks/snacks on Sandpipers vessel. Both couples were wonderful, but after a couple of days we all parted ways heading in different directions.  Stainel cay is home of the Thunderball Cave. The cave was featured in the James Bond movie “Thunderball”. It’s best to go into the cave during low slack tide, which is what we did. We were able to snorkel just between the water line and a massive rock (Islet). The Islet is mostly hollow on the inside. It is home of hundreds of fish who swam right alongside us hoping we would throw them a snack. We gave them stale cheerios and they loved it. I took underwater video footage the first day and Jimi took some the second day. It was fantastic. The current picked up while we were there making it difficult to get into the cave, but with Jimi’s help I made it.  (and the next day when I woke up, I could barely move; my arms were so sore.)

Here is a link to the video Jimi created of the cave:  http://youtu.be/86bBFMNUZMQ

We are now nine miles south of Staniel Cay at Black Point. We heard that Black Point had free water, free unlimited internet, free trash disposal, and a Laundromat. This information made me giddy like a little school girl and with such an accommodating husband, here we sit. Our laundry is clean, our water tanks are full, our trash is empty,  I’ve gotten my internet fill for now, and we’ve restocked some groceries. Things are good.

Jimi and I were very surprised to find that we have been using less than ten gallons of fresh water per week. I was a little worried about being low on fresh water after going nearly a month without refilling. Yet when we filled our tanks, they gobbled up less than thirty gallons. We hold a total of 140 gallons of fresh water, so with our current usage, we could go over three months without refilling; a comforting feeling.

I spent an entire day on shore doing laundry and using the internet, while Jimi spent the day on Sanibel working to fix our blog. We’ve been hacked so many times that we have decided to leave the Wordpress blog and go with blogger by Google. We think Google will have better security.  It appears our blog is back up and running for now. Those who have emailed us in the past to let us know it was down, we appreciate it and please let us know if you see more problems. The web address hasn’t changed. It is still www.svsannibel.com.

We are planning to make the sixteen mile jump down to Cave Cay tomorrow (Monday the 13^th). I don’t think there are any amenities at Cave Cay, so the next time you will hear from us will probably be when we arrive in Georgetown.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there. I miss my family every day, but days like today are especially difficult. Jimi made me feel better when he wished me a Happy Bahama Mama Day!

Until we write again……

Love everybody,

Lorie & Jimi

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