Ahoy Mr. Sulu

Marsh Harbor
26 32.86 N 077 03.56 W

We saw the strangest vessel in the harbor. See the picture below. It flys a German flag and it has radar and other equipment which makes it appear to be rigged for offshore cruising. However I can't imagine such a vessel sailing across oceans. WAIT! I just figured out what it is. It is the shuttle from Starship Enterprise. Perhaps Lt. Sulu and Lt. Uhura aboard visiting The Bahamas on shore leave.

Today is Nancy's last full day here. She and Libby rode the ferry across to Hopetown. I'm sure they'll have lots of stories when they get back. Meanwhile, I'm here alone working on the honey-do list that Libby left for me (you're supposed to feel sorry for me:)

Last night, Nancy treated us to supper at rib night over at the Jib Room. The food and the music were great. Nancy said, "If I drink enough Mexican beer and feast on this swine, perhaps they won't let me back into the states :)"

Also today Ray and Pat on Reflection are departing for Florida.

Also, tomorrow Jim R. arrives from Conneticut. The weather next week sounds favorable.

New Plymouth Trip

Treasure Cay
No LL

Nancy and I took the ferry over to New Plymouth today. Since The Whale is raging, that's the only way she could get to see it.

We had a nice time and took lots of good pictures. Unfortunately upon return I screwed up and lost my whole day's batch of pictures from my digital camera. Darn. To make it up, here are some pics that Nancy took.

Eventful Day

Treasure Cay
No LL

What a day! We left the anchorage around 9AM, buying fuel and water before we went. Our destination was Hopetown, about 21 miles away, but dead upwind!!!

It was blowing really hard, 25 knots with gusts to 30. Waves weren't much problem here in the Sea of Abaco. However, we had trouble maintaining 3 knots made good. Our average was more like 2.7 knots made good.

We were sailing with the full jib and with a double reefed main. She was heeling a lot with her rail under water a good part of the time. I reefed the jib 50% to reduce the heel. However our speed made good dropped to less than 2 knots. That was no good, so we dropped the sails to try to motor.

As I furled the jib, it felt strange. I ignored that and finished furling, then tried to motor toward Hopetown. With the motor we could steer straight at the mark, but our speed was only 3 knots. (A wind of more than 31 knots on our nose is enough to stop us dead when under power). Worse, Tarwathie started pitching for and aft resonating wih the waves. With each pitch the propeller would come out of the water. That's unacceptable. I turned back.

On the way back with motor and jib we flew at 8.5 knots. That's really fast.

En route I inspected the jib furler. It looked completely broken in half! I have no idea what happened or why. Therefore, to enter the harbor we had to take down the jib rather than furl it. We lashed it down on deck. With Nancy onboard, we can't store sails in the V berth.

When we returned to the Treasure Cay anchorage we saw a startling sight. A sailboat named Breakaway was sitting there at anchor. She was dismasted. The mast hung in the water to her side. On the way out, I hadn't noticed her sitting there. I asked another sailor what happened. He said that Breakaway's forestay broke last night around 1AM causing the mast to crash down. (How ironic. The boat's name is Breakaway.) I have no idea how or why the forestay broke.

He said that the owner had already hired a crane on a barge to come and help to lift the mast on deck. Too bad he did that, we fellow cruisers would have loved to have helped him to do that. It would have been an engineering challenge.

Next, we anchored, and I got an email saying that Jim R is coming May 1 to crew with us. Horray! That will be fun.

Finally, this afternoon I reassembled the jib furler. Nothing I can see is broken. It just disassembled itself. How or why I have no idea. I'm not pleased. That furler is a $2500 item that is only 16 months old. Now we have to wait for a period of less strong wind to put the jib back up and to roll it up on the furler.

Phew. I need a nap.

Blog format change

[I changed the template format for this blog.] If you find that you can't read it because of the change, please let me know and I'll put it back.

Dick

The Tropical Life

Treasure Cay

No LL

Well, we've been living the tropical life for the past few days. Sorry, not too much time for blogging.

Coco Beach at Treasure Cay

Nancy found an affordable retirement home.

Today we were going to get fuel and then leave Treasure Cay for Guana Cay to go to the wild pig roast. We put everything away. We lifted the dinghy on to the deck. We weighed anchor. Then, two things made me change my mind. First, a big sport fisherman passed us and pulled into the fuel dock ahead of us. Darn, when those guys take on a thousand or two gallons it can take up to an hour. Second, the wind started to blow really hard. Our destination is dead up wind and the trip might have become unpleasant.

The bottom line is that The Captain (me) decided to stay here another day.

Right now Nancy is away fishing. Maybe she'll have better luck than her brother. I and Libby have yet to catch a single fish despite all the trying.

We're also going to meet up with some other people for a Balderdash game.