Cape Marina

10 -30 May

I have been busying myself with a few jobs on the boat, watching sunsets, sunrises and watching the Toronto Reptiles play some ball and get learnt how to play some ball..

Full Moon

 Red sky at night and the following day was a delight ;-)

 Another sunrise..

This area is a major cruise boat terminal, this is giant Rodent lines..

 The pelicans hand around the fish cleaning stations and will gobble up any offal thrown in the water..

Pelicans waiting for food. 

Boat jobs undertaken..

• Replace engine blower and install pilot light in cockpit- the original one had burnt out some time, a lot cooler in the engine compartment and the cabin as a whole.
• Soundproof the water maker and add bleed line (get rid of air in filters)
• Check fuel tank sensor, it was dirty
• tighten all fasteners on boat
•  install 120V power for battery charger - boat is wired for 220v and only needed electricity to charge bateries.
• sound proof engine compartment properly, close to the stairs, there was no insulation and around the access hatch there were large gaps..
• reduce engine noise in cockpit (without turning off the engine ;-)) - changed the air inlet for the engine to the aft section of the hull, so with the engine on, air would be drawn through the two aft cabins.. 

The original plan for staying here would be to perform the above maintenance and to meet up with Andy and see a rocket launch..  The Space X  rocket launch was supposed to be on Thurs 26, a week before the launch date, the launch event disappeared from the interwibble, leading me to believe that the launch had been cancelled. On the 26 May, I heard on the wireless, that the launch was going ahead... So I grabbed a beer, and found a good lookout and waited for the launch.... It got postponed to the Friday- there was an issue with and actuator in the upper stage motors, which meant I wasn`t going to see it..

I showed up on Thursday to the car rental place (as I had cleverly reserved a car ) only to be told that I had booked the car in a week's time - DOH!!!! Fortunately they had a car and other than looking like he monkey that I am, no harm...  I arrived at Andy's and was warmly greeted by Ruta and Bianca as Andy was still at work (last time I visited Andy and Ruta was 10 years ago, before Bianca was born)..

On the Saturday,  Andy kindly organised a trip to his work - he is Chief Engineer of the CH53K, which is a nice *BIG BURD*.. As they are still involved in testing I wasn't allow to get too close - it was still pretty impressive to see such a big helicopter up close.. 

Picture from the internet - this thing has MTOW 88,000lb

After ogling the nice toy out, we went carting, the high performance version, you could get up to some nice speeds on those things.. Andy having done this before, deftly demonstrated how it should be done, he lapped me 2x - it's about taking part (been supporting Reptiles and Maple Loosers for too long ;-)).

Me in my racing sled

Afterwards we had some lunch, a beer or two and lounged by the pool... Then we went out for dinner... On Sunday we woke up and Andy and I went for a short (30km) ride on a mostly flat (the overpasses throw in some hills). First time I have been on a *REAL* road racing bike and it was nice.

Ready for the ride..

 At the half way point - no prises for guessing which one of  us does this regularly..

Panting like the dog, wot I is..

After a hearty brunch, I headed back to Cape marina to prepare to depart today.   

Thank you very much Ruta, Bianca and Andy for great company and OK'ish hospitality (I'm going to have to go back just to make sure ;-)).

This morning, I decided to postpone my departure, till tomorrow as Tropical depression Bonnie hadn't moved from Charleston(next port of call) and I didn't feel like a further dose of humility from mother Nature.. The latest forecasts are much more favourable and tomorrow, I will be heading north.

Cape Marina - Florida

9 May

Nassau to Cape Marina - 380 NM

After seeing a rather burnt and happy Amanda off, I started readying the boat and I set off at 1000 as the tide was ebbing. I went westwards as I could fit under the bridges.. This was going to be my first real solo long trip, about 280NM and two days.  The weather forecast was for easterlies 10-15, which was prefect.. I was doing 6-7kts and round about sunset I was just rounding the Berry Islands. The wind had shifter a bit and now was directly from behind, so I dropped the sails and resorted to the slave..

Sunset North of Berry Islands

 After a good night, my cold aside, I was treated to another awesome sunrise... At about 0800, I was rounding Freeport and he wind died down to 5-6kts. As I was passing the western side of Grand Bahama Island I ran into brief currents against me and the wind was just not doing anything.. At about 12h00, the wind sarted picking up and it was off the beam. Sadly I was unable to sail - with that amount of wind and the 3-4kts of Gulf stream I would arrive at 0200 he next day, so I had to just le the slave do it's thing.. Once in the Gulf sream, the highest current I measured was 4kts - sure glad no going against that thing...

Another great sunset followed by a good night and I was treated to  another awesome sunrise, this approximately 30NM from  Cape Canaveral.

 I arrived at the Marina and was asked to dock the boat in a spot which is barely wide enough for the boat and the distance between the mooring piles is 44ft... Tightest docking I have accomplished..

Once I docked I noticed my stove was hanging wierdly - the swivel mounts had snapped off, so a bit of minor maintenance.. After a night of uninterrupted sleep I set off cleaning the boat and  doing odd maintenance jobs.

Best advice

Nassau...

3 May

I docked, washed he boat down and did some cleaning. I confirmed with Amanda that she was still arriving on Thurs - nope it was Wed (how unlike me to get dates wrong :-/)..

4 May
On Wed Amanda arrived and she was immediately set on accomplishing her goal - get burnt! The weather forecast for Wed-Friday wasn't the best and it didn't make sense to go out to anchor (storms on Wed and Thurs and then Northerly on Friday).  Instead we made the most of it - there was a junkanoo to see, a distillery and Atlantis and beaches..;.

5 May
In the morning we went for a quick shop and in the afternoon we went over the bridge to the beaches in the afternoon. On the way back we stopped off a the fisherman's market for some fresh Conch salad for Amanda and Conch fritters, some Kaliks and a Jack Daniels Rum..

6 May
We went for a walk to down town Nassau

Any Swiss out there - if home sick..

 We got to the distillery at 0945 and it was closed... So we sadly turned around and started to go back and noticed the opening hours were from 1000 till 1700. We turned round had a seat and shortly thereafter we were inside the distillery - Bahama's only local distillery..

 And we had to sample the local wares...

 We could hear he music of he Junkanoo from the balcony and decided to walk around down town.. We were sitting in a bar and a small parade went through - I was pretty impressed with the drummers as they were carrying 50 gallon oil drums..

 After some nibbles, we headed back and sopped at the Bicardi bar..

7 May
Junkanoo day..  We headed back into town and one of us had the bright idea of stopping off for a few drinks... One of the ones which showed the most promise was the Tikki Bikini bar - a shack on the beach.. One of their specials was 29.00 USD and drink as much as you are able... I was sorely tempted to try this... A couple from Jersey (not the Snooky side, the good side) were taking full advantage of the 29 buck deal and were getting their coconuts replenished as soon as they were able to empty them..

Tikki Bikini Bar

 Finally off to the Junkanoo...

 By now the sun was setting and we headed back to the boat..

8 May

After some breakfast we decided to go over to Paradise Island to see Atlantis and to go to the beach.. We walked through the resort and casino and walked around the grounds. It is quite impressive they have a fyshe tank filled with all sorts o fyshe with sharp pointy teeth..

Baby cow nosed rays

The other resort

 Fyshe with sharp poin teeeth..

 Some sort of big ray

 Barracuda again just eyeing you out..

 This barracuda was just hanging around vertically WTF!

 They also have this shallow par with lots of hammerhead sharks

 Feeding time for the critters

 Then off to the beach and back to the boat... The next day, I was off to Florida and Amanda had to go back to grownup land.

Cool boat name