Dec 18

We were up early as Mike has to be leaving for West Palm Beach about 08:00.  We said our goodbyes and he was on his way.  We went below and turned on the TV and learned that there was a huge backup on I-95 southbound somewhere south of here due to an accident.  We hope it is cleared before Mike gets there.

We spent the rest of the day just piddling around the boat.  We restowed things we had moved out of the v-berth so Mike could sleep there.  Everything actually fits, and with the addition of the shelves we built in NY, things are more accessible.  Bill, our neighbor in the next slip on Vilkas, was kind enough to take me and the cat to the vet.  I was going to ride a bicycle, but the cat carrier didn't fit in the bike basket, so I scratched that idea.  The vet visit took half an hour to accomplish a three minute inspection and rabies shot. 

GPS N 27-28.098 W 080-19.663  Nautical miles traveled today 0.  Total miles 7558.

Dec 19

Today we did some more laundry, and a little more grocery shopping.  It is looking like we may get a weather window to cross to the Bahamas this weekend, so we will be keeping supplies topped up.  I started plotting various scenarios for the trip.  We will probably go inside to Jupiter, spend a night, and then jump off from Lake Worth just south of there.  The original plan was to go offshore directly from here but the wind will be from the southeast and we have to go sixty miles southeast before turning east to cross the Gulf Stream.  So, we will go in the ditch for the southbound part.  The other choice will be whether to stop at Great Sale Cay and sleep some, or go all night to Spanish Cay.  We may be doing this in the company of Milano Myst, so we'll have to see what they are comfortable with.

For happy hour we had Ron & Debbie from Drifter and Steve & Gloria from Living Well over for drinks.  Drifter is also from Kemah and I knew Ron from the West Marine there.  We first met up with them at the Cruiser's Rendezvous in New Bern a couple months ago.  Steve & Gloria are folks that Ron & Debbie had met up in Washington, DC this summer.  After a few beers we all went to Norris's Famous Place For Ribs for dinner.  Norris's is not far from the marina, and we had heard last year that it was good, but never got there.  We weren't disappointed.  I had baby back ribs and fried lobster bites.  It was all quite tasty.  I'm not a big rib person, but I like them when I don't have to work too hard for them.  Made me look forward to the Jib Room in Marsh Harbor in a couple weeks.

GPS N 27-28.098 W 080-19.663  Nautical miles traveled today 0.  Total miles 7558.

Dec 20

Today I spoke with Chris Parker the weather guru on the SSB radio for the first time.  We met him and spoke with him in New Bern, but last year I had not paid to be a sponsoring vessel, so I could only listen to him and not ask for specific details of where I was going.  He confirmed that as of right now, it looks like a Saturday crossing will work.

One of the things I have left on our to-do list is to go to the bank.  I have $25 of rolled change that I want to turn into paper money.  That doesn't sound like much, but it takes up space, and we won't be collecting much US coinage for the next two years.  The bank is a little over three miles from here according to Mapquest, so I got a marina bike and took off with the coins in a little backpack.  Despite being an old out of shape guy, I found the bank without getting run over, although it seemed like more than three miles.  On the way back I spotted a NAPA store and picked up a couple extra belts for the alternator.

We got our last expected packages delivered today, so we are ready to go Friday.

GPS N 27-28.098 W 080-19.663  Nautical miles traveled today 0.  Total miles 7558.

Dec 21

We didn't do much of anything today since we are ready to go.  I took a marina bicycle over to Cracker Boy's Boat Yard where Drifter is and helped Ron put the new engine in Drifter.  There were four of us there, so all I did was pass the occasional tool as needed.  I hope I never have to re-power MoonSail.  It would be ugly.

We walked to the grocery and got some last minute perishable stuff.  We're ready to move south tomorrow.

GPS N 27-28.098 W 080-19.663  Nautical miles traveled today 0.  Total miles 7558.

Dec 22

We were up and ready to go earlier than we needed to be.  I had tossed and turned during the night worrying about how I would get out of the slip gracefully with the wind on the beam.  Similar to last year, I worried about nothing.  The wind had come around pretty much on the stern when we left, so it wasn't to hard.  We snugged up one stern line and the windward breast line as tight as possible, took off all the other lines, then cast off the last two and started backing out before the wind could push us against the pilings.

Out in the ICW, we found what we expected - a strong southeast wind on the nose and a healthy chop on the water.  Bless our full enclosure, because we were splashing through the waves and taking a lot of spray on the dodger, which would have been soaking us if we didn't have the enclosure. The bulk of the trip today is in the southern end of the Indian River, which goes to sea at the Port St. Lucie Inlet.  It is fairly wide and the wind is coming it's full length, giving it a good fetch to make waves.  Once past the St. Lucie Inlet, we were in more of a man-made channel so the ride was much nicer.  We passed through Hobe Sound and Peck Lake and eventually got to Jupiter.

Our trip today involves a few opening bridges, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that two of them have been replaced by high-rise fixed bridges in the last two years since our cruising guide was written, so we only had to deal with two opening ones instead of four.  The first opening one we did approach had a schedule of on the hour, :20 past, and :40 past the hour according to the cruising guide.  I hailed the bridge to confirm this and he said it had changed and they now opened on demand.  The last bridge was also on demand and it is just before the marina we are headed for.  We got through it with no problem, although the cruising guide had said this one was sometimes uncooperative.

Most folks go to Lake Worth, which is Palm Beach, to stage to cross.  Jupiter is two and a half hours north of the Lake Worth Inlet, and our friends on Milano Myst had found a small marina that normally doesn't even handle transients, but had been very accommodating to them for the past week.  We are stopping here rather than deal with the crowds collecting in Lake Worth.  The JIB Yacht Club & Marina is small and caters to large sport fishing boats.  They do have about 150' of face dock that is usually used for fueling, and since it is their slow season, they let us stay here overnight.  Milano Myst has been here several days, but has come and gone a couple of times.

We got tied up right in front of Milano Myst and settled in.  Later in the evening, Rob grilled steaks, Carol made a salad, and Barb contributed a potato casserole dish for dinner which we enjoyed in the nice patio area of the marina..  (Notice I didn't do anything?)  The adults stayed in the patio area trading stories well into the evening while all the kids went below in Milano Myst to watch a movie.  Milano Myst has their full time eight and ten year old kids aboard as well as Rob's nineteen year old twin daughters visiting for two weeks.

GPS N 26-57.112 W 080-04.653  Nautical miles traveled today 35.  Total miles 7593.

Dec 23-24

Our plan today is to leave Jupiter about 09:00 which will put us at the Lake Worth Inlet by noon.  The winds have been blowing hard from the southeast for a couple of days, but are forecast to come more south and reduce some this afternoon, and continue subsiding all night.  We were underway right at 09:00 with Milano Myst leading the way.  They have been down to Lake Worth already when they planed to cross last week and then didn't, so they are familiar with the bridges between here and Lake Worth.  The first bridge is Jupiter Federal which opens on demand.  We got though it with no problem and thanked the pleasant lady operating it.  The next bridge is only a half mile or so around the corner, and it was the first of four that have actual schedules.  The first three open on the hour and half hour, while the last is on :15 and :45.  The distance between the ones with the half-hour schedule is just enough that a sailboat has to run full out to make each one a half an hour apart and not wait.  We made each one just barely, with the operator of one delaying the opening about two minutes although he didn't admit that on the radio.  The final bridge was the one that opens on the :15 and :45, and we had to wait a few minutes for that one.  We don't expect to see another opening bridge now for a couple of years.

After that last bridge, we were at the northern end of Lake Worth.  There is a line of storms approaching from the west, and hopefully it will pass us while we are in the lake and be gone before we get offshore.  It occurred to me as we were southbound that I needed to add a quart of oil to the engine today and I forgot to do it before we left the dock.  So, once we were out in the lake, I went below and did that while underway.

We have about five miles to go south though Lake Worth before we get to the inlet.  We spoke to Milano Myst a coupe of times to decide if we were ready to head right out or if we wanted to anchor for an hour or two to make sure the squalls were gone.  As we went south it appeared the squalls had moved on east of us, so we decided to head on out.  Just as we were passing through the anchorage where everybody stages to jump off, we got hailed on the VHF by Tanya on Auriga, whom we met up in Deale, MD when we were getting our new rudder.  They were anchored there and were not going to cross until after Christmas.  We chatted a few minutes and hopefully they will catch up with us down the road.

We turned left around Peanut Island and headed out the inlet.  Milano Myst was about a half mile in front of us.  We could clearly see when they cleared the jetties and started bouncing around in the open ocean.  We had about four minutes of worry watching them before we got there and found it really wasn't as bad as it looked.  It wasn't smooth by any means, but it was doable.  The wind was still blowing between fifteen and twenty knots from the south, and the seas were four to six feet and somewhat confused.  Confused means that instead of a predictable rhythm or pattern to the waves, it's kind of like being in a washing machine.  Once again we were very glad we had our full enclosure so we stayed dry even though we took a lot of spray over the bow.

We set our course well south of our intended point of entry onto the Bahama Banks, expecting the Gulf Stream to set us north as we traveled east.  About ten miles offshore, it was obvious that we were in the Stream, because our course over ground changed almost ten degrees although we did not change the course we were steering.  But, we did not get set as far north as we expected and eventually had to start adjusting our course north to hit our waypoint.  I had downloaded a Gulf Stream GRIB file the day before we left and it looked like it was not running nearly as fast as usual, but I thought I was just reading the data wrong, since it was the first time I had downloaded that data.  Now that we crossed it, I believe the data.  Oh well.  Better to go too far south and have to come back north instead of the other way around.

The ride for the eight hours across the deep water was not great.  It stayed lumpy and the wind stayed higher than predicted all day.  It was no where near as bad as our westbound crossing last spring, but it wasn't a walk in the park either.  We were expecting to be on the Bahamas Banks about 19:30, and it gets dark about 18:00, so the last hour or so of rough water was in the dark, adding a new dimension to the bouncing around because you don't see the waves coming.  When you get the Bahama Banks, the depth rises from several thousand feet, which doesn't register on the instruments, to twelve feet, in a matter of a mile.  Once in the shallow water, the ride smoothed out considerably.  The wind also finally started to abate, and eventually died off altogether.

Last year we overheated and stopped just as we got on the banks to fix the problem.  This trip, we joked about it, but had no troubles.  We had the option of stopping at Great Sale Cay as we did last year, or going all night and getting to Spanish Cay by morning.  Since the wind was from the south, and that's the one direction that Great Sale doesn't protect you from, we elected to press on.  We took turns driving and napping, although we didn't adhere to any real watch schedule.  We just took turns every couple of hours and the off-watch person napped in the cockpit.

We passed a couple of other boats anchored near Mangrove Cay, and saw no lights of anchored boats as we passed Great Sale.  We know quite a few boats left Lake Worth after us, but we never saw any of them during the trip.  At dawn, we were just a little over an hour from the marina at Spanish Cay.  We were now in clear water, could clearly see the bottom, and felt like we had finally arrived again.  There has been so much stress of deadlines and dealing with bridges and the ICW for the past couple of months that it is good to finally be back in the Bahamas.  (I know I won't get any sympathy about the stress from those of you still in the real world.)  When we got close to the marina I hailed them on the radio.  I asked the typical questions about which side we would be tying up on and if I could back in the slip or not.  Tony, the dockmaster laughed and said I could put it in any slip in any direction I wanted.  When we got there we saw why it was so funny, because as was the case last year, the eighty-slip marina was empty.  Their busy season here is spring and summer when they get full of sport fishing boats, but for some reason the majority of cruisers bypass this nice stop.

As Tony was helping us tie up, there was a lady standing on the dock.  I thought she was a marina person, but it turned out she was the Customs lady.  Last year we went up to the Customs office behind the marina building to check in.  But here she was ready to go before I even had a chance to wipe the sweat off my brow from docking.  She came aboard and sat in the cockpit to do the paperwork.  When we checked in last year, I thought it easy, but this was even better.  While I filled out the two immigration forms, she filled out everything else.  Last year I did all the writing.  Then the stamp came out and whack, whack, whack, we were legal.  We even have a legal cat this year.  Last year we went to the trouble to get the Bahamas permit for a pet in advance, and the guy never came to the boat nor asked about a pet.  This year, while we did get a health statement and a new rabies shot, we did not get the Bahamas permit in advance.  So, when the Customs lady came aboard I had tried to shoo the cat into the aft cabin, but he hoped out in plain view before I could.  She commented about the pretty cat and didn't say anymore as she was filling out paperwork, so I thought perhaps it would be no problem.  When we were all done with the papers, she said all she needed now was our $300 and the cats papers.  I quickly made up a story that while we had a health certificate and rabies certificate, I was told that we didn't need the Bahamas permit since he never gets off the boat.  She said "no problem, just show me the rabies certificate and I'll stamp that".  Cool.  We're in.

Time for our traditional arrival adult beverage.  Except that it's about 09:00 in the morning.  No problem.  We'll just mix the rum with orange juice instead of cola.  I thought that after not sleeping much overnight and an early morning beverage (or three) I would crash for a couple of hours.  But, to my surprise, I stayed up all day.  The Milano Myst kids swam in the marina some, while the adults watched and visited.  After checking the weather forecast, we realized we should probably stay here a couple of days.  The wind is forecast to blow hard from the south and southwest for the next two days, making travel uncomfortable.  We also realized that the slips we were in were fairly exposed to the Sea of Abaco from the south and southwest.  So, we elected to move four or five slips further down the dock, where the marina building will block some of the wind and waves from us.  Several other boats came in later in the day, making a total of four sail, one trawler, and one power boat.  They are all further out on the dock, where we were originally.  It's damn crowded compared to last year when we were the only boat here for two days.

We had dinner a little after dark, and Barb crashed about 20:00.  I stayed up another hour or so, listening to some Christmas music, looking at the stars which are amazing away from the city lights, and enjoying Christmas Eve in the Bahamas.

GPS N 26-56.283 W 077-31.448  Nautical miles traveled today 150.  Total miles 7743.

Dec 25 - Christmas

HO HO HO!  Even though it's warm and sunny, and we don't do much in the way of presents, it was nice to wake up to Christmas in the islands.  We had a nice full breakfast of fried diced potatoes, sausage patties, and scrambled eggs with onions and green peppers.  We got to hear from the kids on Milano Myst about what they got for Christmas.  It was neat to see how they were happy with two small presents each, and appreciate how this trip they are on is a gift most kids don't get.

We did our first Skype'ing of the year, calling friends and family to wish them a merry Christmas.  Since the Internet connection here is via Hughesnet satellite, there is a noticeable delay between when you speak and when the other end hears.  But we overcame that and said hello to everybody.

One of the boats that came in after us yesterday is a trawler named Finisterre.  Graham and Nancy are the older (than us) couple aboard.  They planned to leave today and get to Hopetown where Nancy's daughter is waiting for them.  But, as boats conspire to do, they were having engine problems.  The boat is a twin engine, and one is dead.  A twin engine boat with one engine is very hard to handle since it will always want to go in circles.  Tony, the marina guy, tried to help them, and was unable to.  I went over after breakfast with my test meter and tried to see if I could figure anything out.  I think I proved the problem was not in the ignition switch or start button, and I couldn't find any lose wires elsewhere.  But in the end, I didn't accomplish anything.  He ended up staying here since the wind is blowing quite hard, making traveling with a boat handling poorly not a good option, while she took the ferry across to Cooperstown and then an expensive taxi ride to Marsh Harbor where she could get another ferry over to Hopetown.

As forecast, the wind is blowing about twenty knots from the south today.  The boats further out than us are bouncing wildly and their flags are straight out.  A few slips further in, the flags on Milano Myst and MoonSail are gently flapping and the boats are bouncing around a little, but are not untenable.  Most of the folks from the other boats are up on the porch of the marina building to avoid the bouncing.  About mid-day, we walked over to the beach with the Milano Myst gang.  While it is blowing like stink on the west side of the island where the marina is, it's nice on the east side where the beach faces the Atlantic.  There is just a nice gentle lapping of the water on the beach in the shallow lagoon inside the reef.  The kids enjoyed snorkeling even though the water is cool, while the adults waded and sat on the beach.  They collected sea biscuits and conch shells and saw a ray.

Late in the afternoon we started preparing Christmas dinner.  We have a Butterball turkey roast, which is a frozen hunk of turkey meat formed more or less into the shape of a turkey.  I made the Mooney secret family recipe dressing, and there was some fresh canned corn.  We enjoyed the meal in the cockpit by the light of our neon camp lantern.  It was certainly not your traditional Christmas, but certainly a memorable one.

GPS N 26-56.283 W 077-31.448  Nautical miles traveled today 0.  Total miles 7743.

Dec 26

The wind today has come around more to the west and northwest.  The marina is fairly exposed to this direction, so we are bouncing around quite a lot.  Mid-day we went up to the restaurant and game room where the Milano Myst gang already had gathered.  We ordered lunch while they were playing pool and ping-pong and surfing the net.  I had my first conch of the year in the form of a conch burger, which is pieces of breaded and fried conch on a bun with lettuce, tomato, and onion.  It was quite tasty and prepared well in that it was not chewy at all.  After lunch and a couple of beers,  I joined in a shuffleboard tournament with Rob and the kids.  We found that the machine, which costs $2/game would stay open for a long time if you didn't use the scoring feature.  So, we just kept score out loud and got two-plus games in before the timer on the machine kicked in and shut it off.  So we played at least eight games for the price of three.

While we were playing games, a large Moorings catamaran came in and docked.  The gang aboard came up to the game room and started playing anything we weren't.  There appeared to be nine guests on the cat and a hired captain.  It got downright noisy in there.  A far cry from last year when we were the only boat here and the restaurant wasn't even open.  We went back to the boat and read and relaxed some.

Around happy hour, I ran into Graham from Finisterre on the dock.  I inquired about his plans and told him what I knew about the weather forecast.  He invited us over for a happy hour beverage, so I went and got Barb and we joined him for an hour or so.  He plans to get down to Green Turtle or Marsh Harbor tomorrow to make the return trip for Nancy shorter and to get repairs on his starter.

After dark, and after dinner, I had gone up to the marina restroom, and as I was returning to the boat, Tony the dockmaster was on the dock discussing docking options with a guy I hadn't seen before.  Turned out he was in a large sailboat by himself, and he had come into the fuel dock on the other side of the marina and tied up by himself.  Tony suggested he would be more comfortable if he moved to a slip near where we were, and then asked if I would mind waiting on the dock to take their lines, and Tony would ride with the guy to throw lines while he drove.  I said sure, and while they were walking back to the boat, I got Barb to help also.  They came around a little bit later and we took their lines and got them secure.  The guy had some kind of mechanical problems that had originally caused him to come in after dark, and he was single-handing a boat that was at least fifty-five feet.  Not something I would want to do.

We hit the sack pretty early, but didn't get a real good night's sleep, since the wind picked up from the northwest and bounced us around pretty good.

GPS N 26-56.283 W 077-31.448  Nautical miles traveled today 0.  Total miles 7743.

Dec 27

We were both up relatively early since we had been bouncing and dealing with the noise of the waves hitting the stern of the boat.  After dawn the wind finally started to come around more to the north where we had some protection from the island, and abate a little.  We decided to leave the marina and move south to Manjack Cay.  We settled up with the marina and were underway about 10:30.  As soon as we were out of the marina, we unfurled the sails and shut off the motor.  We're SAILING!  This may be the first time we have sailed without the motor in a year.  The wind was not very strong, and we were only making four to five knots, but we were in no hurry, so we sailed on.  We relaxed and read and enjoyed the three hour sail to Manjack.  Not only were we sailing, but we weren't in a narrow channel and had no other boat traffic to worry about, so it was quite relaxing.  We were able to take pictures of each other under sail.  Note the new picture on the MoonSail home page.

To compensate for the relaxation, in the few minutes that we motored into the anchorage after furling the sails, we smelled something hot.  I suspected the newly rebuilt alternator was the culprit.  There's always something.

We got into the anchorage at Manjack, and together with Milano Myst, we made seven boats anchored here.  The anchorage is huge, so we are all spaced well apart.  We immediately launched the dinghy and went over to Milano Myst.  We loaded two of their kids in our dinghy and they took the other two, and we headed to the north end of the island where there is a dock and a path across the island to the ocean-side beach.  As soon as we got out of the dinghy at the dock, we spotted a large ray swimming back and forth under the dock.  Our presence and the dinghy arrival didn't seem to phase him one bit.  We all hiked across the island to the beach where we took a nice long walk.  As we were getting back in our dinghies to return to the boats, a couple of guys from two powerboats that are anchored up at this end said hi, and told us that there was a wireless internet connection available in the anchorage.  I wouldn't even have thought to check for that here. 

We got back to the boats a little before sunset and said goodnight to Milano Myst.  The wind has died down considerably, and the night promises to be calm.  We haven't been anchored out for a couple of months, so we are looking forward to a quiet night's sleep.  I did briefly pick up a wireless connection, just long enough to retrieve e-mail.

GPS N 26-49.292 W 077-22.133  Nautical miles traveled today 14.  Total miles 7757.

Dec 28

We awoke to a beautiful morning after a good calm night's sleep.  After coffee and a small breakfast we dinghied over to Milano Myst.  We loaded two of their kids in our dinghy again and the eight of us went to explore the mangrove lined creek that runs through the island to a lagoon in the middle.  The water in the creek was quite shallow.  We are doing this exploration on a rising tide, so we shouldn't get stuck back in there.  We slowly went as far up the creek as we could until the prop was churning up mud, and then turned around.  It was fun exploring, but we didn't come across anything too exciting.  We turned around and headed back to explore a new beach.

There are three houses on Manjack, and they are all on the shore of the small bay where we are all anchored.  There is a very nice looking beach by the houses, with chairs and a hammock, and it would appear that this is a private beach for the houses.   Last year we assumed that and did not land there.  We learned this year however that two of the houses belong to Bill & Leslie, former cruisers who have lived here fourteen years now.  They welcome cruisers to come use their beach and they are the ones who very generously broadcast their wireless signal to the anchorage from a tower in their yard.  They love having cruiser kids visit, so the kids from Milano Myst and five kids from a catamaran named Seven @ Sea were a hit.  They have tools for opening coconuts there and showed the kids how to use them.  The tools consist of a pick axe head jammed in between the boards of a picnic table, and a hammer.  You slam the coconut down on the pick and if that in itself doesn't get you in, then you hammer it further on until it splits.  Remarkably these kids opened numerous coconuts and there were no injuries.

The adults sat on the beach and read while the kids entertained themselves with the coconuts, swings, water slide off the dock, and kayaks.  The captain availed himself of the inviting looking hammock for a little siesta.  Bill & Leslie had made it clear that we were welcome to wander around the property and said to be sure to visit their marina.  Sure enough, just over the hill from the house they had a couple of docks with several small powerboats docked at them.  To get to these docks, you came up the mangrove creek that we had been in before.  Only a shallow draft boat can get in, and even then only at high tide.  We had apparently turned around before we got to the entrance to their little marina.  We saw a sign made of a palm tree frond that pointed us to the Atlantic side beach, so we followed the trail that Bill has cut through the brush to get there.  It was more of a hike than we expected, since it had to go north around the inland lake that the creek comes from.  We ended up coming out on the beach almost in the same place where we had yesterday when we had dinghied north and then crossed the skinniest part of the island.  We walked the beach a little and then headed back up the trail.

Back on the anchorage side it was getting to be about 15:00.  We had been warned by Bill & Leslie that the biting beasties come out from about 15:00 until dark, so we packed up and headed back out to the boats.  Bill was on his dock as we started to leave the beach, so we dinghied past and thanked him again for sharing his little slice of paradise with us.  We enjoyed some reading time and had dinner of a salad and some turkey stew that Graham on Finisterre had given us the other day.

GPS N 26-49.292 W 077-22.133  Nautical miles traveled today 0.  Total miles 7757.

Dec 29

We are going to move to Green Turtle Cay today.  To enter either White Sound (on the north end) or Black Sound (on the south end) we need to be at mid-tide or higher.  Last year we went into White Sound both in the fall and the spring, and we ran aground both times, in pretty much the same place.  I'm determined not to repeat that performance this time, especially since we will have witnesses on Milano Myst right behind us.  Low tide is at 09:30 and high is at 15:30, so we plan to weigh anchor about noon.  That way, if I do screw up again, the tide will be rising and we will float off.  The Milano Myst kids took one last trip to the beach, while we relaxed and read until about 11:30.  We then started to prepare to move the whopping five miles to Green Turtle.

We motored the five miles, and since we had been anchored for two days, the alternator was working hard as we motored.  Again, it started to smell like it was too hot.  We kept watching the monitor, and after about twenty minutes, it seemed it quit charging altogether.  This is not making me happy.

As we entered the channel to White Sound we slowed way down and checked out the channel markers.  The new markers which were installed between our two visits last year seem to all still be in place.  We passed a good sized powerboat on it's way out just after we entered the channel.  Milano Myst had to pass them right on the corner in the narrowest part of the channel.  We slowly eased our way in and got near the place where we have stopped on our previous visits.  This time I stuck to the red side of the channel, almost running over the marker balls.  I think I learned last time that the hump is in the middle of the channel.  We made it in without ever seeing less than seven feet of water.  Just after we passed the part I was afraid of, the launch from the Green Turtle Club, where we are headed, passed us.  Ben the general manager of the club was at the helm, and he yelled to us to follow him around another skinny place in the channel, and then we were in the "deep" water of White Sound.

As we entered the marina, Justin the dockmaster, and Ben took our lines and Milano Myst's lines as we docked.  White Sound is a nice anchorage, although this time it is fairly full, but we are going in the marina.  The reason for this is that it is free if you eat in their restaurant.  Your food and bar bill offsets your dockage charges.  The restaurant is very nice, and fairly pricey, but we would want to eat here anyway, so it's a no-brainer to stay in the marina.  This deal is only for the "slow" season until the end of February.  We got all plugged in and went up to check in.  As is true of many island restaurants, we need to make reservations and our entree selection before 17:00, so we got that all taken care off too.  We then showered and relaxed and read for a few hours.

Dinner is at 19:00, and happy hour with appetizers is before that.  This is a fancy place by island standards, in that guys are expected to have collared shirts on.  Shorts are fine, but t-shirts are frowned upon.  So I donned my new Pusser's Rum shirt that my son sent me for Christmas and we went to dinner.  Compared to last year, the place is fairly busy, mostly with guests in their rooms.  From what I understand though it has just been this week that people have started coming in.  Dinner was a little slow in coming, but excellent, as has been our experience here before.

GPS N 26-46.873 W 077-20.196  Nautical miles traveled today 5.  Total miles 7762.

Dec 30

This morning we are going to venture between bays to New Plymouth, the main town on the island.  We took Milano Myst's small kids and they took the big ones and off we went.  The wind is blowing pretty good, making for a small chop we are bashing into.  I stood to avoid getting wet, but Barb took a good splash along the way.  One of the Milano Myst big kids got thoroughly soaked in the other dinghy.  We enjoyed showing the Milano Myst crew around New Plymouth, hitting the grocery stores, the hardware store, the cemetery, and the primary school.  After looping through town, we decided to walk to the other side of the harbor to Pineapple's for lunch.  Pineapple's is a little beach bar and restaurant.  They also have a few rooms for rent, and a salt-water pool right at the bar.  We enjoyed a few beers and lunch here, while the kids swam and played with several other kids.

We walked back to the town side of the harbor after lunch and hit Sid's Grocery for a few items before returning to White Sound.  I had met Sid last year and chatted with him about how slow the tourist trade had been.  I saw him there again and asked him if this year had been any better.  He said that it had been dead until this week.  I just don't get it why more people don't come here, either in boats or to stay in the rental properties. 

The two big kids decided to walk the length of the island instead of dinghying, so when we left, the little kids went with Mom & Dad, and we were able to get up on a plane in the dinghy and get back to White Sound in just a few minutes.  The extra weight of the two kids is just enough to keep us from being able to plane.

We spent the rest of the afternoon doing those important cruising three things - reading, relaxing, and drinking.  We also made a plan change.  We were originally going to leave tomorrow, but we need a mid tide or better to get out.  The high tide is not until 17:00 or so tomorrow, so it doesn't make sense to leave.  Besides, Green Turtle's Junkanoo is renowned to be the best and it's on Monday.  So we decided to stay two more days.  We had a nice dinner aboard and retired fairly early.  We are getting more into the dark-sleep, dawn-awake routine.

GPS N 26-46.873 W 077-20.196  Nautical miles traveled today 0.  Total miles 7762.

Dec 31

I'm going to tackle boat repairs this morning.  I've ignored them as long as I can.  There are only two things to look at.  The alternator, and a leak on the forward air conditioning cooling water pump.  Assuming the alternator had bitten the dust when it quit charging on our way in here, I was just going to swap it with the spare.  But, I decided to start the motor and see if it still was not charging before taking things apart.  I turned off the shore power to let the batteries run down a bit and then started the motor.  Low and behold, we were charging.  So, I decided to investigate further before swapping alternators.  I left the shore power off and turned on everything I could, including air conditioning, to run the batteries down some.  While waiting, I replaced the forward air conditioning pump that had been leaking.  After an hour of running everything off the batteries, I started the motor again and watched the monitor closely to see what happened.  The alternator charged and smelled a little, but not as bad as before.  The voltage regulator lights did strange things, that didn't make sense when relating them to what the manual says.  Bottom line is I don't think everything is working right, but I'm not ready to condemn any one part yet either.

We went up to the restaurant and had lunch.  The place was full, apparently with people who are staying in rental homes or in the hotel of the club.  After lunch we walked to the ocean side of the island and the beach.  We never went to the ocean-side beach here last year.  On the ocean side, the wind was blowing a lot more than in the harbor, and the surf was pretty rough.  We sat on the beach for a little while and then walked back to the marina.  We had showers, and Barb prepared a dish for the cruiser's pot-luck dinner tonight.

The pot-luck is behind Brendall's Dive Shop, at the head of the dock.  We got there a few minutes after 17:00 and added our jambalaya to the table of food.  (Thank you Ms. Pege.  We still replicate your jambalaya recipe regularly.)  There we a lot more people there than there are boats in the harbor, so I suspect there were a few locals who may just have been the organizers.  We did meet two other Texas boats.  Caribbean Soul, and Pegasus are both from the Corpus Christi area.  We had heard them on the radio as we crossed last week, but had not really gotten to talk to them before.

We were back at the boat about 19:30.  It is New Year's Eve, and we have some champagne in the fridge, but I'm not sure we will make midnight.  We may just have a toast before bed, and mimosas in the morning.  Happy New Year to all.  Another year's cruising adventure starts tomorrow.

GPS N 26-46.873 W 077-20.196  Nautical miles traveled today 0.  Total miles 7762.