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We had waited 10 days for a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream and go to the Abacos in the northern Bahamas and today was the day. It’s not a terribly long crossing but what makes it special is the Gulf Stream current. In this area the Gulf Stream is about 30 miles across and flows north at up to 4 knots. Even a moderate north wind (blowing opposite to the current) can create large, steep waves. Fortunately, we didn’t have that. Unfortunately ,we also didn’t have enough wind to sail either so we had to motor across. Without wind in the sails to stabilize the boat, the 4′ to 6′ seas made for quite a rolly crossing. We made it across the Stream and onto the Little Bahama Bank shortly after dark under a half moon and a star lit sky. We picked up plenty of wind but it was from directly behind us. This made it impossible for us to sail in the dark so on we motored. We took 3 hour watches through the night as the off watch person would try to get some sleep below. Phebe had the sunrise watch and enjoyed a beautiful Bahamian sunrise. We had been traveling for 24 hours at this point and had covered 160 nautical miles. 30 miles later we were tied up to a mooring ball in Black Sound on Green Turtle Cay. We had gotten in too late to make it in to customs to clear in so we were “forced” to stay aboard under the quarantine flag. The “Q” flag shows that we hadn’t cleared customs and weren’t yet legally in the country. Not a problem. We were just happy to have arrived in the Bahamas and to be tucked away in a very safe harbour after 30 hours and 190nm.

We left Vero at first light and have now put the Ft Pierce inlet behind us. Not much wind and gentle seas. We’re motor sailing and on our way.

We’ve been holed up at the Vero Beach Marina for 10 days waiting for the right weather to cross the Gulf Stream and go to the Bahamas. We’ve had lots of company with three boats rafting together on most mooring balls waiting to do the same thing. The weather is finally right for a crossing and we’re off in the morning. The plan is about 30 hours and 160 miles to Green Turtle Cay where we’ll clear customs. Watch the dots move on the where’s Noodin tab.

Phebe and I are back aboard Noodin after a summer of touring around the northwest in our motorhome visiting family and friends. We made a last minute decision to take the motorhome (Steve) to Georgia with us to hook up with Noodin. It was a good trip and gave us an idea of what the RV life might be like.

One of the nicest things about taking Steve south was that we had a nice place to live while we worked on the boat.

We had the normal list of boat chores to do before launch and spent about a month getting Noodin ready and buying and storing all of the provisions necessary for 6 months in the Bahamas.

We got launched into the North River November 25th and began our journey south. Our plan was to cross to the Bahamas from either Ft Pierce or Palm Beach Florida. Our preference would be to move south in Florida by sailing in the Atlantic but the weather wasn’t cooperating. Option 2 was to motor down the Intra Coastal Waterway for roughly 300 miles. It was getting cold in Georgia so off we went down the ICW. We stayed a couple of nights in St Augustine and a few nights in Marineland to sort out a couple of boat issues. While staying at the Marineland Marina we got to visit the dolphins at the Marineland park.

We had some cold days and nights heading south with some overnight lows in the upper 30’s and highs below 60. I know we’ll get no sympathy from our northern readers but it was cold on the water.

One of the really cool things about traveling on the ICW is the dolphins. Everyday we would have dozens of dolphin sightings, often with them coming to play beside the boat.

The ICW passes very close to Cape Canaveral and we were able to witness both a rocket launch and a rocket landing.

Another cool thing about the ICW is looking at the expensive homes.

We’re currently tied to a mooring ball in Vero Beach waiting for decent weather to cross the Gulf Stream. We think we’ll have an opportunity to cross about December 17th. You can see where we are by selecting “Where’s Team Noodin ” from the website menu.

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I was putting together the pictures for this post and decided to let them tell the story. All are from the Exumas. We’re currently in Georgetown and all is well. Thanks for following along.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was time to move on from the Abacos after a truly wonderful stay there. Eleuthera was to be the next stop and we had plans to make the passage with friends on Bernoulli when the weather allowed the 50nm open ocean passage. The ocean was currently being spirited with fairly large swell coming from the east while the Sea of Abaco was to get fairly strong winds from the northwest. Team Noodin made the decision to hide from the northwest winds in the “Bight of Old Robinson”, a large bay near the cut we would go through to get to Eleuthera. This ended up being a poor decision as some of the ocean swell made it through to our anchorage. Swell is not so bad if it comes from the direction of the wind but in this case it didn’t. Noodin pointed into the wind and the swell was hitting us on the beam (side) creating a miserable combination of pitching and rolling. Something I call random 3-dimensional motion. We spent 2 nights there and before we had left I started taking sea sickness meds which we don’t usually take even while at sea. Bernoulli joined is the 2nd night and the following morning it was out the Little Harbour Cut and off towards Eleuthera. Phebe got our fishing gear in the water as soon as we were through the cut and immediately hooked up with a nice little Mahi. The little ones are called “chickens” here but it tasted nothing like chicken.

Sailing conditions to Eleuthera were a bit of a mixed bag with good sailing wind much of the time only to be interrupted by lighter winds which made it necessary to motorsail. Fairly large swell would come and go making for some interesting visuals. Pictures never do waves justice so there aren’t any this time. We arrived at Royal Island Eleuthera well before dark and enjoyed a wonderful Mahi dinner with Matt and Bernice from Bernoulli. The next morning it was off early to get through Current Cut at the appropriate time and then on to our anchorage at the Glass Window Bridge where we would part ways with Bernoulli. It was not without a little sadness as we watched them sail away.

Team Noodin had been on a schedule last year because we had agreed to meet family in Georgetown. As wonderful as it is to have family and friends aboard, it does add to the stress when you have an airplane to meet somewhere. Traveling by water requires cooperative weather which can’t be counted on here in the Bahamas.This year Team Noodin has no commitments and we are literally free to go where the wind will take us. Last year we had a quick trip through Eleuthera and this year we took our time. We found a favorite little anchorage at a place called Ten Bay and hung out there a couple of different times for probably 10 days total. We snorkeled the rock ledges, played bocce, and enjoyed the company of people that we met on the beach. We especially enjoyed meeting Tom and Cathy, from Wichita, who were staying in a cottage on the Atlantic Ocean side of the island. We were treated to a trip to their cottage and we took them sailing for a day. Beach bocce lessons were given but no money changed hands.

 

 

 

The local phone company had a promotion going that allowed us to stream the Superbowl aboard Noodin. The screen was small but the nachos and the IPA’s were great. The game was pretty good too!

We fish whenever we get the chance but definitely prefer deeper water to the banks. The deep water gives the opportunity for the bigger fish. Decent fish can be caught on the banks too but very often you’ll hook a barracuda. This one that we caught near Rock Sound was the biggest one so far.

Wehunkered down at Rock Sound for about 5 days while we waited out some windy weather. We enjoyed walking around the settlement and visiting with the friendly people. We saw more chickens roaming the streets of Rock Sound than any other settlement which is saying something. Phebe fished quite a bit but the only real luck was catching these crabs that were trying to steal her bait. From Eleuthera it would be on to the Exumas.

We had a “plan” In mind when we got to Abaco. We wanted to get a mooring in Hopetown Harbour for a month and spend our Christmas there. Hopetown is a somewhat magical place and we couldn’t think of a better place to spend Christmas. A second reason for the mooring was that winter weather can be cold and windy and the mooring would give us a place to go when the weather acted up.

We were able to find a vacant mooring and got settled in. Shortly after that we noticed that we had water running through the bilge and traced it to a leaking seawater cooling pump. This is the pump that brings water from the sea to cool our engine. It still worked and the leak wasn’t terrible yet but it still needed to be repaired or replaced. We put out the word on the morning vhf radio net that we were looking for a parts source and pretty quickly had the neighbors coming by. Brad on Mothra came over and loaned us a spare pump (that we eventually bought) so we could be mobile again. Logan from Gemini stopped by and offered to bring us a new pump when he came back from a trip to the US for Christmas. Problem quickly solved thanks to some new friends.

The cold and windy weather that we expected wasn’t appearing. Instead we had warm sunny days with mild wind. Probably the kind of days that you think we have everyday out here. We left the mooring and went out to enjoy some solitude at anchor for a few days. We got some snorkeling in and enjoyed beach walks and beautiful sunsets.

It was nice being out of the harbour but we wanted to get back for the Nashville songwriters festival in Hopetown. The festival is organized by Chris Farren, a Nashville songwriter who has a home on the island, to raise money for local causes. This year he brought with him 14 country songwriters to perform their own songs. Songwriters included those for Carrie Underwood, Kenny Cheney, Blake Shelton, and many others. The performances were all in very small venues (no other kind in Hopetown) and were awesome. We attended two of them and thoroughly enjoyed them, including the fireworks after the final performance.

We had been having more trouble with our outboard. The silly thing would generally start and run fine but it just wouldn’t come up to full power. We basically had an 8hp outboard with the performance of a 4hp. We were taking the dinghy into town for Christmas caroling when the motor died before going far. Now what? We could easily row back to Noodin but we’d miss out on caroling. Along came Jim and Laurie from Kismet, friends we hadn’t met yet, who offered us a ride in for caroling. There were around 50 of us wandering the Hopetown streets trying to sing in unison. Singing in unison was difficult because the narrow streets made for a lot of distance between the front and the back of the choir. Probably sounded like we were singing the songs in around. It was a lot of fun though. Some of the people being caroled greeted us with rum shots, sangria, or spiced wine. Afterwards we stopped for a drink and had a chance to get to meet Kismet’s friends, Tom and Chris from Persistence. We ended up sharing fun and games with these couples in Hopetown and it likely wouldn’t have happened were it not for a difficult motor.

When we were in Bayfield, Wisconsin getting ready to depart on this journey we met Matt and Bernice from Bernoulli. They had the slip next to us and we became friends. Matt and Bernice had been contemplating giving up their jobs and sailing off on an adventure similar to the one we were embarking on. Fast forward to Christmas Eve 2017 and we greeted them as they arrived in Hopetown Harbour. We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas dinner with them aboard Noodin and many other good times (even a 30+ knot thunderstorm on the way to Marsh Harbour).

The weather did eventually change and the cold and windy weather did come. Before that happened though we were able to take not so “polar” plunges into the Atlantic on Christmas and New Years days.

After taking the carburetor apart more times than I can count we finally gave up on it and decided to get a new one. This ended up being quite the process but it gave us a chance to meet more wonderful people. We went to Marsh Harbour hoping to pick up our new outboard and ran aground on a hard shoal near the commercial port. The chart showed 10′ of water but it was more like 3′ at low tide. What a surprise to be grinding to a halt. Another of those “What the hell?” moments. We tried everything we could think of to get ourselves off as the tide was falling but couldn’t get it done. Noodin kept heeling more and more as the tide fell. Neither Noodin or her crew were in any real danger but it was damn uncomfortable.

We hoped to get off during the evening high tide so we arranged a little 9pm get together with our friend Jim from Kismet and new acquaintances Tom and Tammy from Mac. Everyone went above and beyond trying to get Noodin off the shoal but the evening high tide just wasn’t high enough. The morning high would be about 7″ higher and would give us our best chance to get off. Of course this meant sleeping aboard Noodin as she went from upright, to deck in the water, to upright again. Not as terrible as you might think but no fun either. As the morning high tide approached, the kedge anchor that we had previously set gradually started to pull us free. Continually tightening the anchor line eventually popped us free as the tide continued to raise. Thankfully there was no damage to Noodin or her crew other than her captains pride.

We had some great times with Rocky and Anne including a delicious dinner, featuring fresh red snapper caught and prepared by Rocky, aboard their boat Carina. We met Rocky in Havre de Grace, Maryland a year before and were excited to see his boat in Hopetown.

One of the greatest things about Hopetown is the lighthouse. It’s the only remaining hand wound kerosene burning lighthouse. We’d climbed to the top of it several times but Rocky arranged a special treat for us and we got to participate in lighting the lens lamp and winding the mechanism that makes the lens rotate. We met the lighthouse keeper, Jeffery, just before dark and climbed the 101 steps to the top.

Jeffery climbed inside the lens to light it as we stood by. After the lens was lit, we took turns winding the mechanism that would keep the lens turning for the next two hours. Every two hours after, Jeffery would climb the steps to wind it again. Thanks to Kara from s/v Vela for the following pictures.

We didn’t get any pictures of the actual winding but below is a picture of a picture that shows Jeffery doing the job.

Our last day in Hopetown found us heading for town on rainy windy day when our dinghy outboard quit again. The wind and oars would get us home fine but along the way we’re Chuck and Carmen on their beautiful catamaran Soul Mates. We spent the entire afternoon visiting, playing games, and enjoying their hospitality. Another example of meeting nice people through adversity. By the way, we have a new fully functional outboard and the old one was donated to a worthwhile cause in Hopetown.

This post got long winded and I apologize for that. I’ll try to keep up with the blogging better. In the meanwhile Noodin has left Abaco and is currently in Rock Sound, Eleuthera.

We definitely prefer to travel offshore but the weather doesn’t always allow that. In this case the destination was Vero Beach where we would spend some time and relax. The weather wasn’t going to allow us out the St Augustine inlet so we left for 5 days of travel motoring down the ICW. We had never traveled the Florida ICW and truthfully it wasn’t too bad. We saw countless dolphin and our first manatees. We also saw a lot of docks and boats that were damaged in hurricane Irma. It’s always sad to see the sunken boats or those washed ashore. The pictures below show a barge full of wrecked boats being hauled away.

There were some areas of shoaling along the way that needed to be watched out for. The worst of which was at New Smyrna Beach where we found just a foot of water under the boat at low tide. New Smyrna Beach was a good overnight stop with a friendly marina staff, a quaint downtown, and even a brewery.

The next two nights were spent at anchor. The first night was spent at the NASA Causeway Bridge just a stones throw from the Cape Canaveral NASA launch pads. We got lucky and there was a rocket launch scheduled for that night and then got unlucky when the launch was postponed at the last minute.

Vero Beach is a special place for cruisers. The Municipal Marina is extremely protected and accommodating. There’s free bus transportation to get around and the ocean beach is within walking distance. Thanksgiving is the busiest time of year due in part to the giant cruisers potluck put together by the marina. The mooring balls were all full when we arrived the Sunday before Thanksgiving but in Vero they require that you “raft” with other boats so more can be accommodated. This only works because the mooring basin is extremely protected. We were able to raft with our friends Libby and Grant on Nightingale and new friends Lisa and Bennie on Rhiannon.

We inflated the dinghy and got the motor on for the first time this season, only to find “issues “. The motor was difficult to start and then wouldn’t run. In the process of trying to start it we found that the shifter was seized and wouldn’t budge. I disassembled the carburetor and solved that issue but the shifter was more than we wanted to take on. Time to break out the wallet and bring on the professionals. The first two professionals were booked out into January. Fortunately, the second one referred us to Neil at Marsh Marine. Neil was able to pick up the outboard at the dock the next day and returned it repaired the day after. We can’t say enough about him and his great service.

While we were boat bound, Bob and Connie, from the Cabo Rico 38 Meredith stopped by and introduced themselves. After a little conversation they invited us to dinner with them that evening. We had a wonderful time and expect to see more of them in the future.

There were 150 – 200 people at the potluck which was fun but noisy. Next year we’ll opt for a quieter holiday with a few friends.

Walking around Vero was beautiful and interesting. The beach wasn’t bad either.