Saturday 30 April 2016

Georgetown

29 April

We motored all the way to Georgteown and are at anchor - they are holding a regatta with local boats pretty cool (all built in traditional methods)..
25 NM to Georgetown

At anchor with Nordic Belle
 Real boats racing..  They have about 8 people on the boats, these are mostly rail meat - they have two long planks that stick out and people sit hike out on these..



 Regatta central..


 Sunrise this am..

Tomorrow I will head off to Nassau and sadly Nordic Belle will go south, it has been a great pleasure to sail with you guys..

Calabash bay

27-28 April

We woke up to a rather blustery morning and it was just borderline (wind was blowing 15-20) but fortunately there was no swell..  So we set off with 2 reefs in the main and within two or so hours the wind had dropped to 10-15, on a beam to broad. We made pretty good progress with the wind shifting so we were almost on a dead run. As we rounded Cape Santa Maria (Columbus Monument) he wind picked up again and it looked as though we were going to get a bit of rain.. Fortunately it passed us, we anchored and went for a snorkel.. We snorkeled to  a small reef about 20m from the boat, when we spotted a lobster.. Torstein swam back to the boat to get his gear and within 30 mins we were  eating a lobster, freshly off the braai..

We planned to set off on the 28th but the arrival of a buddy boat changed our plans.. So we went out snorkelling again and found another lobster and that was lunch again...


Cape Santa Maria
 The clouds were starting to look a bit ominous..

 Another sunset..
 followed by an awesome sunrise..

Snorkelling around the little coral heads..

 This guy was pretty curious, he was about 1.5m long and kept circling me...

You still here..
These two little guys were hanging around checking me out..
Lots o little fysheses..
Torstein spotted this guy taking a nap (we didn't try to eat him ;-))
Gonna gits me a wobsta!

Friday 29 April 2016

Clarence Town

26 April

Clarence Town, was the next stop, this was a small town, which was hit earlier in the year by a named storm, which unfortunately did some damage. We motored from Pittstown to Clarence town. I set my anchor while I waited for Nordic Belle to fill her belly. My initial plan was to fill the boat with jerrycans and then dinghy over to fill those, as he marina had advised us that it was only 7ft deep... Nordic Belle told me otherwise, so I was able to dock, with 30cm between my keel and mother earth, all the depth alarms were going off.. We then motored over to the N end of the harbour and dropped anchor and took digny to the own for a bit of a walk around. We ended up having a cold beer and dinner at Rowdy Boys..
39NM

Setting off to Clarence town
View from anchorage
Nordic Belle leading the way

Pitts Town Point

25 April

After a rather *ROLLY* night at anhorage, we set off again at 0600. This time the wind lent us a huge hand and we had 9-15kts of wind which made the 50NM pretty easy...
Lucky enough again to see another stunning sunrise...
 As the sea was calm and I was out of bread, as one does, I made some (which is starting more and more to taste and feel like *REAL* bread)..
          

Plana Cays

24 April

We left Mayaguana at 0600 and our next stop was Plana Cays as the wind was off helping someone else we had to motorsail there.. We arrived shortly after 14h00 and we were tempted to go for a swim, but noticed a bunch of black circles, jellyfyshe type things..  So no swimming, we moored ashore and walked up and down the beach. I saw a goat on the island...
43 NM MyIguana-> Plana Cays
Sunrise
 As you can see above he wind was elsewhere..
 Another crowded anchorage..

Torstein noticed a bunch of fossilised shelfissh..





 After walking along the beach for some time, we went back to the boats for dinner and sleep..
Dinner at sea


Saturday 23 April 2016

Mayaguana

21 April

We arrived and after negotiating the entrance, we anchored in 4m of water. Because of my draft  we could only anchor about 2NM from he settlement, so it was a bumpy wet ride on digny..   We were warmly greeted by the lady from BTC, who informed us the customs's office was closed as they were having aircon issues.. She kindly helped Torstein out with the sim card he had purchased and I bought a data sim.. We then did a bit of exploring (for an island of 500 inhabitants) this didn't take much..  We then went back to the boats, and sun dowders on Nordic Belle, planning the next steps..

The following day,  we went ashore to complete our entry formalities (pay 300 bucks for cruising permit)..   We agreed to stay put, the wind was consistently above 20 and was supposed to stay that way.. So we did a bit of snorkelling and later in the afternoon went ashore to explore the beach. That night we fell asleep to singing shrouds..

On the way back to digny
And now for some snorkelling..

How everyone *LOVES* to see their anchor!

Clean belly - made a huge difference (was loosing 1kt of boat speed)

A sting ray
Some fysheses
Very territorial fyshe(Clown ?) 
 Then Torstein decided he would like some Conch cevice and promptly went to gather a few, as one does in his part of the world.... We have discussed the concept of "fresh" fish in grownuplan - asking when was it caught might elicit some strange looks...
One X Conch
 Afternoon on the beach...


We mad a call his am to hang around another day as squalls and more wind are forecast, tomorrow we move on to Plana Cays.

Puerto Rico -> (via Turks and Caicos) Bahamas

17 April

Nordic Belle (Torstein, Michelle and Matts) arrived in the morning, they went to fuel dock in preparation for the trip. After they had settled  down we discussed the route and weather for the upcoming trip. We had an early dinner ashore and then back to the boats for final preparations. This was going to be my first solo longish distance sail.
The track we followed to Turks and Caicos
A short 50NM to Myaguana
While at Porto real I did a bit of exploring of their fine establishments and this one had  really cool name..


Had a pint at this fine establishment 

At Anchor in Porto Real(couldn't get any closer because of my draft)



18 April
We set off at 0600 in the morning, just as the sun was rising. We motored the first 3 hours or so as the wind was a bit low for sailing. Torstein was bored so he let out some hooks - I looked back to see his fish flying out of the water some distance behind Nordic Belle - I thought I should call to congratulate him, but figured he was a bit busy.. The fish a marlin put on a bit of a show, but then took the hook, the line broke.. A rather excited Torstein called me to let me know of he one that got away...

The wind then picked up to a nice 10-15kts, and stayed like that for pretty much up till 1700. We had a couple of rain showers later in the afternoon. At that time I reefed my main and genoa(as usual as I would prefer a comfortable night's sleep) and had my dinner. I could see nothing on radar, but noticed some really dark clouds with no rain. The sea had become choppy with the occasional hull smack (which was not nice).. My initial reaction was to reef some more. I checked in with Nordic Belle and then then went down below for my first nap.. I came up an hour or so later and the wind had picked up some more was now in high teens, I checked in and went below for my second nap. When I woke up again, the wind was now in the low 20s so I reefed in the genoa a bit more boat was now going 7-8kts, on a broad reach. I went down for my nap again, by the time I got up again, the wind was now mid 20s, so I put in another reef in the main and reduced the Genoa to 4 reefs, the boat was still doing 6-9kts, I stayed up for a few hours to keep an eye on things.. At about 0300, I went down below and continued the catnaps.. Our average speed on that day went up from 5ks/hr up till 20h00, from then till 0600 the following day went up to 6..
Sunrise Porto Real
On our way..
Under way..
Did Ricky Bobby proud (me not happy) - I should have gone with my instinct to reef early (winds got up to 29kts)..

19 April
The rest of  the day, the wind was mid 20's and we were going quite well, the swell wasn't too bad, but compared to the previous night was quite pleasant.. We were averaging 6.5 for the entire day, which was a nice speed, we covered some good ground..  That night, was nice and boring, which was *AWESOME*
Nordic Belle under way
20 April
The night went on quite pleasantly and the catnaps were quite good.. The wind had died down to a nice 15kts and he sea had calmed down. Since we were making good distance, we were hoping o go straight to MyIguana (and skip Turks and Caicos - lots of the areas are too shallow for me to get into). So we continued.  At about 16h00 I went for a shower, put the pizza in the oven, checked the weather again.  I called to Nordic Belle that we were in for some 20kts (which meant gusts of up to 30) winds later that evening and we both decided to reduce canvas for the night. I scoffed my pizza shortly after 1800.  The wind as predicted picked up as we had about 60NM and were trying to slow the boats down(for an easy night, and  too approach the anchorage during daylight).  By 19h00, it was obvious that we were not going to be able to slow the boats down. The sea also became a little more excited (although we were pretty close to shallow waters), after a few salty dog washes, we decided we would head to Turks and Caicos, anchor for the night and then move on to MyIguana.. After a bit of a fun ride(foul weather gear on), we reached the west Caicos island and by 2200, we were attached to mother earth and had a *GREAT* uninterrupted sleep..

Sunrise after a great night's rest 

Nordic Belle swanning on

21 April
We got up early and decided that we would push on to MyIguana as the anchorage is sheltered (this on was not in this wind). So we set off on a broad reach, with the waves were off the beam. I had two reefs in the main and genoa and I was doing 6-9ks.. We covered the distance quite quickly (7hrs, 50NM) and were at anchorage by 1500. We are anchored in a lagoon, which in calmer winds would be spectacular. We took Nordic Belle's tender to cover the 2NM - I can't get any closer as the lagoon shallows to 3m and less if we move any further east.. We got there a bit wet (a hell of a lot drier had we taken the ducky and a *LOT* quicker).  We tried to clear customs, but were informed that as hey were having problems with their air conditioning  their hours were restricted to 0900-1300.  We did a small walkabout of the settlement(the island only has 500 residents)
View from the customs dock (2NM from boats)

Sundowners on Nordic Belle

Moon rising over Nordic Belle


After another great night's sleep sunrise