Top 10 Things To Do When Confined To The Boat Due To Bad Weather

Sometimes it rains a day here and there and sometimes it will rain for a week. Be it the rain or high winds or whatever confines us to the boat we have to find alternative ways to be productive. Here’s a list of our top ten things we find that fills our time.

     1.)   Boat Improvement and Maintenance

This is a rough environment for all it encompasses. The work is never done and constant repairs and maintenance exist. Some of our most recent fixes have been finishing trim and small work working projects previously put on the back burner,  a light here and a charger cord there. When it rains outside, we fix leaks inside. Although, it’s not always easy to find the origin of the leak.

                    2.)   Watch the Weather - Destination and Navigation

When the weather’s nasty, it’s important to know what to expect in the coming days. Receiving weather forecasting becomes a priority. The weather information we obtain helps us determine when and where we can or will go next. We have a few options for getting weather forecasts. We currently have a data card for the Bahamas, which when inserted in Jimi’s phone give us access to limited internet. This is one option Jimi uses for checking weather. Another is through our HAM radio. We can tune in to Chris Parker at 6:30am and at 8am to get weather information for the Bahamans and the Caribbean.  One of the coolest ways we can get weather updates is through ‘weather fax’. They are available at certain times of the day. By connecting our laptop to the HAM radio we receive a fax through the laptop with various weather reports. There are audio weather updates through the HAM radio on various channels and times, as well. Sometimes the VHF radio and public radio are options for getting local weather. From there we hit the charts to determine what destinations are possible and appeal to us. So when the weather clears up and the winds are in our favor, we have a plan or two.

     3.)   Personal Indoor Hobbies

We are well prepared with things of our own personal interest to keep us busy during the down times. Lorie catches up on scrap booking, stitching cards, cross stitching and watercolors.  Jimi enjoys post processing pictures or video from recent adventures, tinkering to make something out of nothing and experimenting/improving  electronics for example working on computers and 12 volt gadgets.

     4.)   Read

Rainy days are a perfect time to get caught up on our reading. Lorie has recently finished  the first four books of “A Game of Thrones” and is now reading the fifth. Jimi’s reads include studying the endless subject of sailing, which is everything from anchoring to weather, self steering to fishing and a plethora of cruising guides. We have a vast number of books that keep us well occupied.

     5.)    Baking

When boat bound it may not be possible to go ashore to purchase bread and other feel good eats. We solved that problem by baking our own. We often bake a couple of things at a time to utilize the use of propane. Our favorites include bread, pizza from scratch, cookies, banana  bread, dinner rolls, casseroles, and the list goes on. So when the weather is nasty and depressing outside we are able to fill the cabin with good smells and tasty food inside.

     6.)   Write to Prepare Blog Updates and Post Process Photos

Deciding what to write, when to write and when we can upload what we write are all factors that have to be considered and take up time. Adding pictures? Oh, what pictures have we taken and what pictures should we take. Then we have to post process those pictures and most importantly re-size them to a bandwidth friendly size. There’s no better time to do these things then while stuck on board.

      7.)   If Available, Surf the Net

Having the internet is a real luxury. When we do have it Lorie always messages with Jennifer (her daughter) and emails with her peeps in Georgia, South Carolina and Colorado. Jimi uses his time to research weather, cruising destinations and current projects. He also gets caught up on the news and recent events.

    8.)   Watch Movies

Thinking ahead years ago we began collecting movies. Watching movies is good entertainment to pass the time when needed. Some of our favorites and more recent films have been Casablanca, Walk the Line, The Notebook, Soylent Green, Sunset Limited and The African Queen.

     9.)   Play Games

We don’t play games as often as we want to or think we should, but we do have and have played chess, Teas hold ‘em, Life, Monopoly and Scrabble. Playing games provides great interaction and passes the time when needed.

     10.)   Annoy the Cat

Molly loves to annoy us….especially when we are preparing food. Sometimes when we are bored we return the favor and annoy her. The only thing is, she doesn’t take it that way; she loves the attention and wants more. Really, this time to interact with her is important because during fair weather she is on her own while we are out and about. So actually #10 should read play with the cat.

Fishing luck

Dear Friends and Family,

Jimi - The mighty fisherman – huh huh huh! O.k. Mmmm, maybe not, but he tries real hard and never gives up. Jimi caught a fish once; a really big fish,

sometime during the 90’s. He was on a commercial fishing trip in Mexico with his brother and sister-in-law. He says he used up all his fishing luck the day he caught that fish and hasn’t been able to catch anything since. This isn’t entirely true. In the Dry Tortugas he caught a fish, but it was sooo cute I had him throw it back and he’s caught so many barracuda we’ve lost count. Some of the barracuda have gotten away with our lures even. During one of his most recent barracuda fishing tales, as he began reeling the line the barracuda jumped out of the water, hook in mouth, flew over the dighy, clear over Jimi’s head and landed back in the water on the other side of the dinghy. He was then able to finish reeling it in all just to release it. We don’t eat barracuda because of ciguatera poisoning.

Even though we’ve been told barracuda is good eating and we would have loved to have a supply of fresh fish meat, we would not risk ciguatera. However, I am proud and pleased to report that Jimi caught us a nice little fish – a perfect meal. Finally we got to eat something that’s not out of a can!

We began collecting sea glass.

Sea glass is difficult to find in places others have combed, but our location on these windward shores is perfect. Of course, the terrain we had to cross getting to the beach wasn’t pretty. Razor sharp points align the tops of the coral or maybe a better description would be a bed of nails. Jimi and I are both very happy with our Crocs for these hikes though. Jimi wears the Santa Cruz and I wear the original Crocs (aka clown shoes). The rubber material protects our feet, nothing has penetrated the Croslite material yet and it flexes at the same time to allow mobility and comfort.…..woa……now I sound like a Crocs commercial and I’m supposed to be talking about sea glass. Well I just had to throw that in real quick. Sea glass: over two days we walked the beach each collecting candidates. Some we left so they could mature some more. When we returned to Sanibel we laid everything out to measure up our findings. We found that the majority of what we collected really wasn’t fully done churning with the sand and water yet. Nevertheless, we are happy with our small glass treasures and look forward to more.

We set sail with high hopes of making a fifty-six nautical mile jump to Acklins Island. The adventure began before we could even get out of the cut to Little Harbor. With a strong current moving in one direction and high winds in another direction Sanibel was fighting to stay on course. And if that wasn’t enough excitement, I set Molly in the cockpit as she was loudly voicing her opinion below deck thinking she would want to be with us. As soon as I set her on the cockpit floor she lost her breakfast; cat vomit covered a small area of the floor and as Sanibel rocked, it rolled. I grabbed the paper towels and came above proceeding to clean up the mess. As I was doing so my knee hit the auto pilot button. I had us set on a course straight for the rocks. Jimi’s trying to steer, but it’s not working -----what’s going on? In a flash he realized what had happened, turned off the autopilot and with all his strength turned the wheel to get us back on course.   It was still rough; it hadn’t calmed yet and cat vomit was still rolling. One of the best things to do when motoring to calm the motion is put up some sail – check – I took the helm fighting to stay on a course of 110° to 120° while Jimi was trying to  wrangle lines and maneuver  around in the cockpit only to find himself face to face with cat vomit every time. With life vest and harness on he went to raise the mizzen. The waves were hitting the side of our bow causing a sideways jolt; Jimi was having a hard time hanging on and putting up the mizzen. He hollered “in to the nose”, ignoring the compass, I turned our nose straight in to the waves and it was then he could raise the mizzen. He took over the helm, I cleaned up cat vomit and we bobbed around in heavy winds and high seas rest of the day (I slept in the cockpit through most of it). While all seemed well above deck below deck was another story. Salt water collected in the hallway (aka the tunnel) and the liter box tipped over spilling everywhere. Molly was calmly tucked away in my berth; she slept soundly there most of the trip. Later Jimi found that the chain and line for our extra anchor, which is mounted on the starboard side of the bow, fell over; we were dragging anchor chain and line off our starboard side. Who knows how long this went on. It’s clear the chain and line were banging on our hull side, as they are covered in toxic blue bottom paint. Last, but not least we thought something had gone awry with the wind generator. It spinned, but no energy was being produced until Jimi inspected everything the next day and found all on perfect working order. It must have been a fluke due to lack of sleep.  We arrived safely (floating and in one piece) at 1:30am; though, Jimi was a little frazzled at the intensity of the evening trip. It was dark…I mean real dark. No lantern hanging in the sky this night and the stars were barely visible. Jimi had to navigate and sail dealing with not only the seas, winds and potential obstacles, but without light.

We’re here in Acklins Island – another secluded location of the Bahamas. Originally we thought we would leave after a good night’s sleep, but that is not going to happen. We are going to stay here a couple of days to give Jimi time to recoup and check out a few things with Sanibel.

 We think we are changing our plans. We’ve been fighting our way southeast for months now and with summer upon us I don’t think it’s going to get any easier. All would be well if we were willing to motor, but we are not. We would rather keep our dollars in the bank rather than stuffing them in a diesel tank.

We’ve come up with a few options:

1.) Head West sailing across the northern coast of Cuba.

2.) Sail North back to Georgetown, stay there for a month or so, then sail down the Jumentos and West across the northern coast of Cuba.  

3.)  Head West sailing across the northern coast of Cuba and then North to Marathon, Florida. Hang there for a few months during hurricane season.

It’s not yet decided, but I think we are looking at combing option numbers 2 and 3. Sailing back up to Georgetown, spend a couple more weeks there, then explore the Jumentos chain, cut across the northern coast of Cuba and back to Marathon for three months of the hurricane season.

We’ll let you know.

Love everybody,

Lorie & Jimi

Update: During our evening TV last night we heard a lot of splashing outside. We went outside to investigate. Fish everywhere leaping out of the water all around Sanibel. Yep….it was feeding time. Jimi said he was going to throw a spoon on a hand line to see what he could catch. Right away he caught a good size fish. We are so pleased Jimi’s fishing luck may be coming back. Molly is happy too!

Day Sail

I told Lorie just a week ago or so how funny the idea of "going on a day sail" sounds. At one time it made perfect sense and would make for a fun day. If cruising full time, however, when you sail you are going somewhere and you don't stop where you started. Wrong.

The day started like any other day that we were "on the move." Button down the cabins, prepare coffee, snacks, remove sail covers, engine on, anchor up, leave anchorage, engine off and sails up. We were ready to leave after being holed up for a week, maybe a little too ready. The forecast was for light winds out of the east, which turned out to be south of east.

After tacking into the wind for five hours or so, I found our progress to be five miles. I didn't even need the calculator for this one, one mile per hour made good and 55 miles to our destination. Looking at other options I decided on an anchorage 10 miles to the south. With the wind from the ESE there would be no tacking and I should be able to make it by sunset. Wrong. The wind eased and so did our boat speed. Just as well, the anchorage is exposed to the south and passageweather was forecasting more Southeast winds. If it clocked around too far south it would be rough enough to spill the rum cocktail that was now firmly on my mind.

I guess I will swallow my pride and head back where I started the day. But even this wanted my sanity. With a heading straight downwind, light winds and seas that rolled Sanibel every which way I had to drop all her sails but just a scrap of jib sail. Otherwise, the flapping and flogging the sails were taking would have had me sewing for two days (actually, anymore I glue my sails together with 5200).

And here we sit, back where we started the day. At anchor, pointed ENE in 15 knots of wind. Perfect for our original destination. Thats okay, it is 9pm and this rum cocktail sure tastes good.

Treasures for the bilge

Dear Friends and Family,

More than a week has gone by and we haven’t seen a bit of evidence of human existence. Has there been some sort of apocalypse? Of course, we know there hasn’t been, as we’ve made contact with friends and family via email and listened to other humans on our HAM radio, but it sure seems weird to have gone so long without seeing a single person and it does give one something to think about.

We made it through the off and on again rain storms; all were pretty tame, but we did have some strong winds. Jimi threw out a second anchor as a precaution. We spotted lightening one evening and Jimi immediately unplugged everything and shut down the boat’s main power. So there we sat in the dark, but not for long. Nothing became of the lightening and everything went back to normal. So what did we do while held up in such a small space for over a week?  Jimi used the time well by knocking several ‘honey do’s’ off his list. He installed a latch on the trash door; it used to open during passages banging this way and that. He made wedges from scrap pieces to teak to tuck in between the sliding cabinet doors; they would rattle when the boat rocked. We would previously stuff a piece of tissue paper between the doors to stop the rattling. He fixed some trim pieces in the forward head and finished the top portion of the aft companion way with scrap pieces of teak trim. He attached hooks above my vanity for hanging towels. The top of his dresser can be used as a book shelf now; the books are secured by a piece of rope connected to a hook on each side. When is the best time to find leaks on a boat? While it’s raining, of course and this he accomplished too. He also spent time on his personal hobbies and studied weather info.

I made some small cloth bags to hold desiccant and sewed a strip of sunbrella on the end of our mizzen sail cover. Then Jimi finished that project.  I tried a new bread recipe: Hawaiian sweet bread – it was so good. I’ll have to make that again when we can  buy more of the ingredients. I worked on my own personal hobbies: scrap booking (I’m all caught up now), watercolor painting and cross stitching. I also did a lot of reading: I finished the fourth book of ‘A Game of Thrones” and began the fifth book.

Finally on our last day at Little Harbor we were able to venture out for some exercise and fun. However, the dinghy was still on deck and we had no desire to unload it, so we swam to shore. I carried our clothes, camera, snacks and water in a dry bag while Jimi carried our burnable trash and we swam about 500 feet to the beach. We hiked the deserted one and half miles of treacherous terrain until we could go no more. The terrain was razor sharp pieces of dead coral with small portions of sandy beach areas. If this wasn’t a good workout after sitting for the past week, I don’t know what would be. We both needed that.

We were in search of some old ruins Jimi spotted on our navigational software. When we got to the end of the line, we had to turn into the brush to find the ruins. The area was so grown in that it was too thick for us to trample through; we had to abort. Although we didn’t find the ruins, we found many treasures during our beach combing. We found several conch shells in perfect condition, Polvoparahornear (baking soda from a foreign country unopened and in perfect condition), a puffed up sand dollar, an aluminum buoy, and a small child’s toy.  The beach was lined with nets, ropes, and plastic containers all which have washed up on shore. Plastics are a big problem for the ocean and its sea life. You will always find windward beaches littered with plastics that either fall off boats or because container ships dump their trash. Metals will sink and are quickly consumed by the salt water, glass will sink to the bottom of the ocean often times breaking to make sea glass, which is later gathered by collectors, but plastics do not disintegrate in the salt water, nor do they sink. They float and often times whales and other sea animals think they are food, which is then the cause of their death.  It was very sad to see such a beautiful place so overcome with plastic trash.

After our hike, we built a small fire on the beach to burn our burnable trash, which consisted of tissues, used paper towels and other paper products, etc. Once we are twenty five mile out to sea, we’ll throw our cans and glass overboard. We’ll hold on to our plastics until we can throw them in a proper trash receptacle.

That’s all we’ve got for this post. We got a lot done for not doing much.

We plan to leave here tomorrow. I’m not sure what the winds hold for us at this point. The forecast says not to expect much, but we are going to go for it anyhow.  We could make it ten miles or thirty miles – I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the thirty. Even though we are three days in to hurricane season, we’re confident we can still make it South before the real danger arrives. And if not, we have several hurricane holes mapped out that we can duck in to.

Stay tuned for our ‘Top 10 list of what to do when it’s raining outside’.

Love everybody,

Lorie & Jimi

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