River Dunes and Oriental, NC

   We're currently at Grace Harbor Marina at River Dunes, enjoying the warm sunshine today after a gray and rainy transit from Belhaven yesterday. We decided to stay an extra day taking advantage of the sunshine, the free courtesy van, and the inexpensive winter dockage rates.

   River Dunes is one of the nicest marinas along the ICW, just north of Oriental and slightly off the ICW to the west up Broad Creek. Its a great place to stop during a winter transit to plug in and enjoy the comforts of luxury settings.
   The gourmet restaurant is only open Fri and Sat nights during the winter and we unfortunately missed those days.

   We grabbed the courtesy van and headed to Oriental for lunch. Its not often you see the Oriental public dock empty, but early January is a good time.  We thought of heading down here but its still a little chilly at night to have no heat although the days are comfortable with the bright sun out.

   We had lunch in Oriental at M&Ms, just up the street from the town docks. The seafood was fresh and terrific.

   After lunch, time for a latte at The Bean, just across the street from the town docks.
   Oriental is a great town to spend some time in. There is room for several boats to anchor inside the breakwater and a couple marinas downtown. Boatyards are just up the river a little bit for any repair one might need. And a West Marine in town we have spent some dollars in previously.

   Fuel and water tanks topped off, we are ready to continue southbound tomorrow morning. The weather looks good to head out to sea at Beaufort and on down the coast. Our plan is to pull back in at Little River, SC, before the winds shift to the south on Friday, and cruise down the pretty Waccamaw River towards Georgetown and Charleston. We could probably stay offshore till Charleston, but we don't want to miss the beautiful Waccamaw River section and the weather is supposed to be near 70 for several days, so we'll stop and anchor along the ICW for a couple nights.
   No internet until we get back into the ICW so next update will be this weekend once we get down to Georgetown or Charleston. I will be able to update our position reports so you can follow our passage along the coast for the next couple days.

Coinjock to the Alligator River

   Beautiful morning at Coinjock, NC. The gray skies are gone and high pressure sunny skies forecasted for the next week.

   The downside of clear skies is COLD nights. A heavy layer of frost and ice where any water had pooled. This was supposed to be the coldest night of the week, so hopefully the end of frosted windscreen.

   All tied up at Alligator River Marina after a great sail across the Albemarle Sound.  The marina is actually still closed for the holiday season but the manager said come on in and tie up and plug in.
   Off to Belhaven, NC, tomorrow. Forecast is for another sunny day.

Southbound 2013

   Its a gray day as we make our way south down the Chesapeake Bay for Norfolk and the Intra Coastal Waterway.
   Not many pleasure boats on the water but the comercial traffic and fishmen are hard at work all year round.

   The full enclosure Sue made is essential for winter sailing. Even without the sun, the enclosure eliminates windchill and provides a comfortable environment.  Step outside and its about 20deg windchill.  It also keeps the cockpit relatively dry during rainshowers and evening dew/frost!

  
Lots of carriers and escorts in port at Norfolk Naval Base for the holiday period, but my favorite is the spooky subs. The ultimate stealth machines. 

Pushing hard we made it through the bridges before the evening rush hour closures - and arrived at Great Bridge Lock. Sue and Genny manned the bow lines and prepared the boat for arrival at Atlantic Yacht Basin.

   It gets pretty cold just sitting around for 8hrs even with a protected enclosure.
   But we're now tied up at the marina, plugged in, fueled, watered, pumped out and running the heater. Ready for a toasty evening, then back to the ICW trek tomorrow. On to North Carolina!

Homeward Bound

   Sadly, its time to head home from the Bahamas - but,  we are looking forward to seeing the grandchildren including the soon to arrive - number five.  He is due early next month.
   We had an appropriate send off accompaniment by a pod of dolphins wishing us farewell from the Bahamas.

   Shortly thereafter I was hoisting mahi-mahi onboard and hoping the dolphins would not be enticed by our trailing lures or fish on the line.  Gulf Stream fishing was productive as we caught two mahi, but one of them put up a tremendous fight on deck preventing us from getting alcohol down the gills. She was rewarded by successfully jumping back into the sea.

   This guy successfully made it onto the dinner plate and into our freezer.  I can now add "accomplished fish fillet-er" to my skillset following this trip to the Bahamas.  I even got the T-shirt to prove it - which I will post in the next blog entry.

   Unlike our trip down and over to the Bahamas, the trip home was quite comfortable except for the noise of motoring for 36hrs. The winds were light and from astern. The seas  were never more than 3-4ft even in the Gulf Stream. We made it from Great Sale to Beaufort, NC, in exactly 72 hours. That's good news as the crew is ready to sign up for another go at it next year.

   We picked up an unusual hitchhiker (for 100 miles out at sea) along the way home, a little yellow finch. He needed a place to rest and never left us. Unfortunately, he must have been more exhausted than we could tell as the next morning he had not made it through the night, despite the water and cheerios Sue put out for him.

   We arrived at Beaufort just before dark and anchored off the USCG base for the night. Early the next morning we motored over to the Beaufort Town Docks and checked into customs. Fairly painless, although they did confiscate our eggs that we had purchased in the Bahamas. Then it was time to head up the ICW for Yorktown. 

Abacos

   We departed Royal Island on Eleuthera as lobster season ended and headed for the Abacos. The Northeast Passage deep water strait was an easy trip with a dying wind requiring us to motorsail the last bit, but that enabled us to troll a line and catch two mahi.
   We arrived at Little Harbor, Abacos, and Sue was quickly on the beach collecting shells. Genny was glad to get some shore time after missing out a lot in Eleuthera.

   Pete's Pub is the place to visit in Little Harbor. Interestingly, this tour of the Abacos turns out to be a tour of resorts and bars - which is what most of the cruising ground of the Abacos are about. The Gallery at Pete's Pub is a real art gallery, probably the premier gallery of the Bahamas.

   Up from Little Harbor you come to Hopetown, site of the impressive Hopetown lighthouse, one of the few remaining manually maintained, kerosene lighted lighthouses in the world. We went up one night to watch the lighting of the kerosene lamp at 8pm, but unfortunately the lamp would not light.  But that allowed us to see that the backup to the kerosene lamp was a 60watt lightbulb! The Fresnel lens amplify the 60watt bulb light so it can be seen 18miles out to sea. Lets see - burn $10 of kerosene each night with 1860 vintage equipment with two, full time lighthouse keepers or use a $1 lightbulb and 10cents of electricity on a light sensing timer? Guess we know why the US has automated all its lighthouses.

   In Hopetown the bar not to miss is at the Hopetown Harbor Lodge. No Toto, we are not in the Exumas anymore.

   At Marsh Harbor, its the Jib Room for a beer with our cruising buddies Sally and Conrad. More to our style of cruising pit stops. We met up with Hayden and Radeen Cochran on Island Spirit here after following each other around the Bahamas via Facebook, webblogs and emails.

   At Guana Cay, Nippers was the site of the great Easter Egg hunt. We have never seen so many people in one spot throughout the entire Bahamas. This is apparently one of the main events of the year. The ocean views at Nippers rival those of Hopetown Lodge. The Bahamian buffet was our Easter dinner, Sue and Sally were appreciative of someone else doing the cooking.

   Next up it's Treasure Cay and the Coco Beach Club. Do you start to see a pattern of cruising life in the Abacos?

   The downside to cruising the Abacos is that cold fronts routinely flow into the islands on a weekly basis with strong and chilly winds. A gust of nearly 70kts was reported at Guana Cay during this storm passage as we hunkered down behind Marsh Harbor off the Abacos Beach Resort (yes, yet another luxury resort to choose from). Fortunately there are many places to anchor as well as mooring fields and marinas in protected harbors where you can find shelter from the strong winds. And, there is always a resort/bar nearby.


   Too soon however, it was time to start working our way westward towards a departure point from the Abacos for our return to the US. Looking at the upcoming weather, we passed on a couple of last party islands - Green Turtle and Spanish Cays - and stopped for the night off Crab Cay near Manjack Cay. The cut between Manjack and the uninhabited Crab Cay provided access to some interesting beaches with shells, sea glass and sea/shore life. We also saw hoof prints and later that evening, two pigs were down on the beach looking for dinner.  They didn't go swimming like at Big Majors, but just hunted along the beach.

   Our last stop in the Bahamas was at Great Sale Cay about halfway back towards Florida and the natural jumping off point for boats returning to the US. We motored over from Crab Cay in sunny conditions with no wind, only to arrive during a torrential downpour with 35kt gusts. The squall soon cleared though and we were able to anchor. By the next day there were 19 boats in the anchorage, all waiting for the right weather and sea conditions to make the Gulf Stream crossing back to the US. We had to wait one more day, then set off for a quick, 72hr motor/sail combo trip up the Gulf Stream to Beaufort, NC.

Spanish Wells, Eleuthera

   We spent several days in and around Spanish Wells touring the town and spending the last few days of lobster season hunting for lobsters on the offshore reefs. There are plenty of lobsters around here, some quite large, but we found it was a matter of luck to find them along the extensive reefs. Conrad and I each got one lobster in 4 days of hunting.

   This is what we were hunting for. This is Joe from Just Ducky who shot this 9 lb'er last spring, while Conrad got a 6 lb'er.  Two other guys we were hunting with this year, John and Matt each shot a 4-5 lb'er. Conrad and I had to be satisfied with the 2 modest sized (2-3lbs) that we got.

   Not quite the same size as Joe's but happy to get this guy. Turns out it was the last one I got as the next two days we never saw another one and then the season ended.

   The girls had a successful fishing day. Sally caught this large cowfish, which is supposed to be good eating, but is sometimes toxic. Not knowing for sure which it was, we decided not to eat it.  It has a very tough armor that you would have to cut through to get to the meat.

   Genny really enjoyed being on the mooring ball in the protected harbor. Normally she stays in the cockpit but, one day she decided to take in some sun on the bow without even asking permission from mom and dad.

   Genny also got to go ashore and walk the beaches at Spanish Wells. The northern shore is nearly all sandy beach. There are long expanses of reefs offshore where the lobsters live, then the water drops off to over 15000 ft deep (yes that's 15 thousand) between Eleuthera and the Abacos, our next destination.

   Spanish Wells is one of the prettiest towns and islands that we have visited in the Bahamas. It sits on a small island just off the northwest end of the main island of Eleuthera. The extensive sand beaches are unusual for the Bahamas. Of course there is no shortage of coral reefs and iron shores (coral and rock) also around this group of islands.

   Spanish Wells is the first town we have visited (we've only been to Exumas/Eleuthera/Providence) where most of the houses are fairly well maintained with fresh paint and tidy grounds. Lots of blues, pinks, purple, green and other island colors throughout the houses and buildings here.

   Oops!  The sea salt air is corrosive on everything including concrete docks. I'm sure this was a surprise to the loading party. Hopefully everyone was ok.

   After the front passed through and we had seen the sights of Spanish Wells, it was time to move on to another anchorage. We stayed a few more days in the protected anchorage on Royal Island just around the corner for the last couple days of lobster season then headed north for the Abacos. This is an interesting private island which used to have a large resort under construction but now abandoned since the 1980s. There is a small resort further on down to the west and plans to sell 50+ lots on the island and build a new large resort. Don't invest your money just yet.

Conch Cleaning

   While I was skunked on lobsters the last two hunts of lobster season I did find a large conch with a great shell. Here are the conch cleaning tools all laid out: a Dewalt drill with masonry bit, long screw driver for cutting the conch muscle connector, pliers to pull the conch out, sharp knife for cutting off the non-edible parts, table knife for skinning the conch.

   After drilling the 3/8" hole between 3rd and 4th spirals, take your screwdriver and sever through the muscle and connecting tissue that allows the conch to hang onto the shell.

   Grab the conch by the foot with your pliers and slowly pull him out of the shell.  If he won't come out, use the screwdriver some more as you haven't cut through all the connective tissue. Once you have cut through he cant hold on and you just have to pull steady and gently so the suction breaks free.  If you pull too hard, the foot will break off and you and the conch will be out of luck.

   Here he is out of the shell. Now you basically cut off/out everything that is not white meat.

   After trimming off the orange ring you will see the digestive track, a black line that runs up one side. Slice up this track and clean out all the black and yellow stuff.

   Take your butter knife and carefully trim under the grey skin. Once you have the skin starting to come off you can grab it with your pliers (for American novices or your teeth for Bahamian experts) and pull all the grey skin off the white meat.

   And here's your conch meat, ready for smashing with the tenderizer hammer and frying up for fantastic cracked conch hor d'oeurves.
   Meanwhile, most of  the discarded parts, especially the orange ring, go into another baggy as this is your fantastic bait that snappers, grunts and other reef fish can't resist. Note that the hard eye protrusions with the grey skin aren't favorites with the fish. The orange tissue is the best.

   And here is your beautiful conch shell. Cleaning it is another lesson, but a wire brush for the outside and week long soaking in the ocean for little critters to clean out what's left of the conch inside will do the trick. Don't stick your nose in the shell till the sealife have done their job.

Mahi-mahi enroute to the Abacos

   We left Royal Island early in the morning for the 10hr trip to the Abacos through the deep water of the Northeast Passage where the Mahi-Mahi live, feeding on flying fish and other sealife.
   The sailing was slow going 3-4kts as the wind was directly behind us and less than 10 knots. Eventually we had to start the engine and motor, resulting in a 6 k speed, ideal for trolling.
   Within an hour we had a fish on the line, on our blue and white lure which simulates a flying fish. It was this large bull Mahi. He measures over 56 in from nose to tail tip - the largest I have caught. Weighed about 40 lbs or so.

   I had just finished filleting the bull Mahi and thrown the carcass overboard when Sue yelled we had another fish on the other line. This one did not fight or dive, it floated on the surface and, we initially thought we had hooked the carcass of the first fish, but as we pulled it in we could see it was another Mahi. This is a female, probably the mate of the male we had just caught. We caught it on a yellow and green lure simulating a squid.
    Note the green bottle on the deck, that is our spray bottle of alcohol (usually cheap gin or vodka) that we use to tranquilize the fish when we get them onboard. We lost it overboard while landing this second mahi, and had to do a man (bottle) overboard drill while getting this fish onboard. Since we didn't have a dedicated crewmember to keep a visual on the bottle we lost sight of it and figured it was lost (better it than the mahi) but, once we got back on course for the Abacos, there was the bottle in front of us on our route. Scooped it up with our crab net and we were back in business.


   I cut the fillets off the fish, then Sue finished them up removing the skin. Next time we may just cut some of the fillets into large steaks and grill them with the skin still on them.

    We now have multiple meals of mahi-mahi onboard in the freezer and will bring some back
to Yorktown with us.  And still have several days of fishing opportunities in the Gulf Stream along the way home, although last year we never caught a fish after leaving the Bahamas.

   By dinner time we had arrived at Little Harbor, Abacos. After several days of light winds it was no trouble motoring in through the cut and to the anchorage.

   At Little Harbor, Pete's Pub is the place to congregate and we dinghied over for a hogfish sandwich and Kalik beer.  Back to resort prices but the food was great and beer cold. Its on to Hopetown and Marsh Harbor next.