Wednesday Update

The Marsh Harbour Anchorage as the front approaches

You should be able to see green on the bottom of these clouds.  The reason I took this photo is because the water under these clouds (which you can't see) is such a vibrant aqua color that it refects back up to the cloud bottoms as green

Today, after listening to the cruiser's net this morning - which is a VHF broadcast for all the area boating cruisers, Doug and I decided that we'd catch a ferry from Marsh Harbour to Great Guana Cay and go to a well known restaurant and bar named Nippers.   We took the 10:30 ferry to Great Guana and took the short walk to Nippers.  Nippers is a cool spot which sits up on a dune line overlooking the atlantic ocean.   With the front approaching, the skies and seas were very interesting to see.  We had a couple of bloody marys and then ordered up some lunch.  Doug had the lobster wrap and I had a seared tuna with wasabi and soy sauce because I was missing Jan alot more than normal and that's what she'd be eating.  It was wonderful and I'll be bringing Jan to this spot for lunch/dinner when she comes back with me after the Atlanta race.

The front came through (which is always grand to watch on the water) and in mid afternoon, Doug and I walked the sandy paths from Nippers over to another bar/restaurant named Grabbers.  We sat there and talked with some other cruisers as the day's weather continued to deteriorate.    At 4:30 or so, we wandered over to the ferry dock and boarded the ferry for the 30 minute ride back to marsh harbour.   With the front coming through today, it was a better deal to take the ferry than to take the sailboat over - since we had a pretty good spot in the harbour and our anchor seems very well dug in.

Doug fixed the rest of the Mahi from the good folks we met at West End for dinner. It was great.  It's good to have someone aboard who likes to cook.   I'd eat hot dogs every day or just eat out all the time if it were up to me to cook.

Tuesday Update

We're sitting in Marsh Harbour - anchored in a crowded but happy anchorage.  We arrived around 1:30p after making our way from Green Turtle Cay.  The passage through Whale Cay Channel was uneventful.  It was some of the most beautiful water along this route that you've ever seen.

My connection is very slow, so I won't upload photos now.

We will be sitting here through tomorrow due to a cold front that will pass through here sometime tomorrow and bring strong Northerly winds for a day or so.   This is where we fly out of to go home, so worse case scenario, we just check out the general area and/or take a water ferry to another cay and hang there for a day or so.

We have boat repairs to do tomorrow.  Doug is going up the mast and will feed the halyard line down inside the mast and I'll fish it out.  We then have to try and find the weather that will allow us to unfurl the foresail, tighten the luff with the halyard and furl up again.  We'll play it by ear.

The land of unanswered questions

Ever since I first got my iPhone anytime I, or anyone around me was wondering something, I would just grab the iPhone and do a google search and find out the answer.  I would always hold the phone and say "cool huh?, there are no unanswered questions".    Well,  sunday night we were in the 'land of unanswered questions'.   Great Sale Cay, where we anchored was extremely remote. A nice island where the anchorage forms a 'question mark' shape, we were in the midst of less than 10 other boats - all with plenty of room between them to not feel like they were huddled in the middle of this beautiful wilderness.

We left West End (where I entered my last blog post) around 8:30am and headed NNW up and around Sandy Cay until we had enough water to head west and onto 

the Great Bahama Bank.  The water turned the most beautiful color  you've ever seen.  It was a 9 hour sail to Great Sale Cay where we anchored at 5:30 and enjoyed an trifecta of night sky shows.   The first was incredible cloud-to-cloud lightening off in the distance.  After that, most of the low clouds moved away and there were more stars than you can imagine.  They were super bright and densely packed.  An hour or so later, the moon rose big and orange.   It was a cool time in a cool place.

Monday morning, we were up and underway by 7:30 or 8.  We headed south around the tip of Great Sale Cay and then eastward toward the Sea of Abaco.  We put out the mainsail and then as I was putting the headsail out, we had problems getting it to unfurl properly.  I kept trying different things and finally it unfurled.  Just 20 seconds later, it became slack along the luff and I realized that the jib halyard has broken.  We quickly furled the headsail back in and just spent the rest of the day motorsailing.  We arrived into Green Turtle Cay's White Sound around 5pm and anchored in a fairly tight basin.

We took a taxi golf cart into New Plymouth Settlement and had dinner.   We'll be getting underway this morning in an hour or so. We have to cross an area called Whale Cay Channel today before a cold front arrives tonight/tomorrow because that area is unprotected from the seas and strong winds form the NW, N or NE will create a condition called 'rage' and we want to make sure we get on the other side of it.

Here's a photo of a barracuda that Doug caught during the passage across the banks.  It was about 3 feet long and we were lucky in that it was able to break free of the hook while we were thinking about cutting the line

Update from the Bahamas!!

Sunset in the Lake Worth Inlet anchorage Friday Night

I'm updating the blog from the air conditioned comfort of the sailboat while it's docked in Old Bahama Bay Marina.   We left the anchorage in Lake Worth this morning promptly at 4 am and headed out the inlet.  The weather was perfect.  SSW winds around 10 with seas 2 feet or less.  As we motored a mile or so offshore, we put up the main and jib and motorsailed into the morning.  The not-that-far-from-full moon helped light up our way.

Sunrise as we crossed to the Bahamas on Saturday morning

As we neared the halfway point of the 56 nautical mile crossing, the winds picked up a bit and not long after that we were sailing only and making 7.5 knots or more.  It was great to be crossing under sail power only.    The last 18 miles or so was  a bit more bumpy with waves reaching 6 feet or more sometimes.  Still, it was a fairly comfortable sail.

We arrived into West End, Grand Bahama at 1:30pm and after putting the boat securely in a slip, I went over to customs and immigration and cleared into the Bahamas.  The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning up the boat a bit (it's very salty after the crossing).   Late in the day, another boat about the size of mine was pulling into the slip beside of ours and I went over to help them dock.  They had caught a big mahi mahi just 30 minutes before and it was laying in the cockpit of the boat.  

The guy was all excited about the fish and offered us some for dinner.  Doug went over to the cleaning area and helped him filet  the fish and we just got done having a great dinner which Doug fixed of Mahi, rice and asparagus.

We'll leave the marina in the morning and head east to the Abacos.   I expect to be away from civilization completely for  a couple of days.   I'll try to update next place I find an internet cafe.

Serenity in the slip in Old Bahama Bay Marina

Sunset Friday.

Friday evening and all plans are to leave at 4 am tomorrow morning.
We're crossing with at least 3 other boats. We moved to an anchorage
just south of the Lake Worth inlet and we're only about a 15 minute
motor to the ocean.

I may post again early tomorrow morning before I lose cell signal, but
if I don't, I'll post in a few days from an Internet cafe on the
Bahamas.

Friday morning

North lake worth anchorage

We're tucked away in another one of my favorite anchorages. A few
squalls have come through and we're going ashore to have some food and
such.

Stormy Weather

Jupiter Inlet area

Thursday morning

Up with the sun - having coffee in the cockpit.

Hitting Bottom

Well I just had the crap scared out of me about 15 minutes ago. We
were coming onto the anchorage on the south side of the Jenson Beach
causeway at twilight and as we went between two anchored boats I hit a
submerged object that made the boat (all 23,000 pounds) raise up
almost a foot. I was only traveling about 3 knots and it was if I hit
a big speed bump under water.

We're safely anchored now and I'm keeping my eyes peeled for anything
of concern (like extra bilge pump cycles). It was quite the jolt.

G.W. Meadows

Sent from my iPhone

Wednesday PM update.

We'll be getting to Jenson Beach tonight. We'll make our way to Palm
Beach on thursday and hang there on Friday. The current plan is to
cross the gulfstream to West End Bahamas on Saturday. All plans
subject to change due to weather.

Crappy little shacks

Wednesday

Along the ICW just north of Vero Beach.

Tuesday Evening

Anchored in Cocoa.

Big Fire

We're in the ICW at the north end of Cape Canaveral National Seashore.
There's obviously a large brush fire off to our southwest.

Underway

We got underway around 7 this morning. We're passing Ponce inlet here
around 8:45.

Sunset during the race

10 laps to go and I'm at camera 6 in the infield.

Catching up

I've posted some photos from the Daytona Speedway over the last week, but haven't really written much.  Things are up to speed with the Sportvision truck.  We've not released any new products this season  yet, but we've upgraded a bit of our technology that makes the pointers and the telemetry happen.

I've succumbed to the pull of Nascar and realized that I'm now a Nascar fan.  It kinda snuck up on me, but I now know who most of the drivers are and I actually have a REAL favorite driver.  I say REAL - because last  year my favorite driver was Ricky Bobby.  This year - I can't help but pull for Dale Earnhart Jr.  I find myself really wanting him to win - and so far - that's been the case.  He's won every race he's been in this year (2 so far).

Famous people sighting:   This being the 50th Daytona 500, there's a ton of famous people that have to do with racing in town.  Wednesday night we had dinner 2 tables away from Buddy Baker.  I spoke to Brad Dougherty yesterday (past famous basketball player and race car owner - now on-air racing commentator).  There's at least one other famous person I've been around lately - but I can't remember who they are at the moment.

BUDDY BAKER (from the 1980's)

I'm getting the boat ready to leave on tuesday morning for the Bahamas as well.  Doug is flying in on Monday - to St. Augustine.  I'll pick him up and then we'll do the final provisioning and cast off early tuesday morning.  I'm really looking forward to crossing the gulfstream and getting to the Bahamas.  We plan to hub out of Marsh Harbor area.  Doug and I will fly back from the Bahamas at the end of the month and I'll work the Atlanta race and then go back to the boat.  Jan will join me as well for a week or so - before I bring the boat back.

Practice

This I'd a shot of some of the CUP cars during practice today.

Raceway

Airport

Pretty cool perch

I'm up at camera 5 - which is on the backstretch here at the
daytona speedway. Its a pretty cool spot to be "stuck" waiting for
some technical issues to be resolved. On the left side of the photo
you can see turn 3 of the track and on the right side you can see the
airport terminal. From here I can watch the cars practice and the
planes takeoff and land. Plus its a beautiful day with temps in the
low 70s.

Butt Paste?

That opens up all sorts of questions.