Waiting out weather in Sunrise Bay...

We have been anchored in Sunrise Bay since December 8th. It’s a nice secluded, small and quiet anchorage in Fort Lauderdale, surrounded by high dollar mansions, and a fancy yacht club & marina, which is off of the ICW just north of the Sunrise Bay Bridge.

For the first few days here, the sun was out most of the time and the winds were bareable. On these quiet mornings and evenings, I would put Harley on the SUP board with me and paddle him to the yacht club nearby and sneak him though the parking lot over to a little patch of grass off to the side (even though ‘private property’ signs were posted). Since I was only using a small patch of grass for Harley to relieve himself on, I didn’t really think the rules applied to us. I was never noticed until one evening two yacht club members approached me and I got the ‘boot’ and never returned. Fortunately there is a park directly across the ICW from our anchorage…Hugh Taylor Birch State Park where Rick would drop us off and Harley and I could take long walks. It’s a beautiful park with it’s lush green landscape, lots of trees and mangroves along the small creeks that flow throughout the park. There is a bike trail and also nature trails to explore. There is even a trail that takes you straight through to the beach. Harley and I walked there almost daily until the winds got too crazy and we could not even take our dinghy to shore.

The anchorage was like the ocean at times, choppy along with a very swift moving current! On top of that, it rained several days in a row and we still could not get off of the boat. We were boat bound for at least a week. It became depressing. One evening in particular was quite scary! The wind was in the high 30’s-40’s with gusts up into the 50’s. The rain came down sideways along with the winds. Around midnight we noticed that an abandoned sailboat anchored next to us was on a collision course with us. The boat kept swerving closer and closer to our boat and when it appeared to be only 3’ away from hitting our boat, Rick told me it was time to move! ‘What?! In this weather??!’, I was thinking to myself! It was dark, wet and the winds were at gale force. I said OK and got into action! We had to do this no matter how challenging it would be. So I quickly scurried up to the flybridge half asleep, stood at the helm, started the engines and waited for Rick’s instructions while he was at the bow ready to start pulling up the anchor. I was holding my breath and clenching my teeth the entire time. I could not see very well it being pitch black out and that I left my glasses down inside the boat. The winds were howling and the boat was being blown backwards and sideways as I tried to maneuver the boat. It was very hard to steer with the winds working against me. I had to give enough gas to move the boat forward but so much that I would drive over the anchor. By some miracle, we were able to get the anchor up and move a safe distance away from the abandoned sailboat and re-anchor. We have not moved from this spot since!

At times when the weather was not so bad, Rick and I managed to get some things done on land by way of Uber. We took a trip to West Marine..actually two trips together. And I alone took a trip to Target, Sam’s, Trader Joe’s, Publix (a nearby grocery store) and Aldi’s (a German owned grocery store with great produce, some organic items, and great prices) all in preparation of the day we can cross over to Bimini. We also were getting provisions at all of these places for our friends on Hope that are patiently waiting for us in George Town, Exumas.

Today is Christmas Eve and it’s a grey and windy day. But the good news is we are closer to making that dash over to the Bahamas. We have been waiting for the safest weather window to cross the Gulf Stream. Rick has been checking the marine weather app, ‘Windy’, several times a day since it is always changing. The Gulf Stream is virtually a river within the Atlantic that is about 45 miles wide and flows swiftly North at about 2.5 knots. If you choose the wrong time to cross when the wind is out of the North blowing against the current, it can be a ‘sporty’ and dangerous ride! So with careful planning and patience the trip can be safe and comfortable.

By the next blog post we hope to be in the Bahamas safe and sound!

Back to Florida we go....

As mentioned in my last bog post, we had no other option than to sail back to Florida to replace our boat batteries, leaving our friends on Hope who would keep heading towards the Exumas (our original plan). We were bummed but if we were going to do it we had to leave immediately to catch a good weather window crossing the Gulf Stream back to Florida. Fortunately there was one early the following day.

With much regret, we left the anchorage in Green Turtle Cay around 7 a.m. on December 2nd and waved goodbye to our friends on Hope. For most of the trip we had calm beautiful seas and just the right amount of wind. Very comfortable. We had both sails up along with one engine running (just to keep us on schedule) for a short while, then we were able to turn off the engine and just sail. Once we got to West End in the Bahamas it was time to point the boat towards Florida. At this juncture the winds were piping up and the seas were getting a bit sloppy. So the ride was not comfortable! We each tried to take our turn at sleeping but it was just too bumpy and loud as the boat smashed through the waves. We were both basically awake the entire night. Closer to Florida we were hit with squalls …bursts of violent winds followed by heavy rain on and off. The boat was consistently sailing in 25 knots of wind at a close haul with 30+ gusts. The waves were 5’ high and coming at us in every direction 2-3 seconds apart. I could not wait to get to Florida and into an anchorage.

We made it to Florida and safely into an anchorage at Sunrise Bay Lake, in Fort Lauderdale, on December 3rd around 2:15 p.m. There was one hiccup after we entered the Intra Coastal Waterway..just as we were close to getting to the Las Olas bridge, our starboard engine quit! Rick quickly got out the air compressor and blew out the fuel line to clear the fuel pickup in the tank. This worked and the engine started up again. This was a huge relief because it is hard to maneuver a catamaran with only one engine when you are going slow in narrow places. You basically turn in circles. We figure being out in the ‘washing machine’ seas as we entered the ICW stirred up some gunk at the bottom of the tanks..clogged the fuel line.

After a nap we made a phone call to Chris to make arrangements to get our batteries replaced. A date was set for December 6th to move the boat to the same residential dock where we had our hard Bimini installed last year. Chris said he and his crew would work all day that day and part of the next day to get all of the necessary work done which he did! We left the dock later that afternoon paying a hefty fee of $300 for just one night on the dock and another hefty fee for the Lithium batteries! But the price of the batteries we knew would be high…the dock fee for one night??!! Crazy expensive. Oh well..at least we got done what we came to Florida for.

Back to the anchorage at Sunrise Bay Lake we went. Anchored and surrounded by only a couple of other boats. Nice and quiet.

Making a move...

On November 26, we (Hope and a new addition to our convoy… Unfettered..a Lagoon 450 like Hope) left West End in Grand Bahamas just as the sun was coming up and headed towards Great Sale Cay in the Abacos region. We had a great sail over! We were on a beam reach, both sails up in only 9 knots of wind but our speed over ground was 7.5 knots! We were scootin’! We all arrived at Great Sale Cay and anchored around the same time just before sunset. As soon as we got the anchor set, Rick, Harley and I got in the dinghy and went to a small beach close to the boat to let Harley do his business. We did not stay long because we were covered head to toe in no-see-ums which were biting like crazy. It’s puzzling to me how such a small insect that you can barely see has such a big bite! So..back to the boat to have dinner and get organized for the next day’s sail to Green Turtle Cay.

Next morming we got up early again around 7, raised our main and headed out...Hope, Unfettered, and us. Another Catamaran (No Name Nomads) in the anchorage with children aboard were having engine troubles and asked if they could join us just in case they had an issue. So they followed yet staying quite a way back. The wind was behind us the entire time. This wasn’t a great sail because we could never seem to get the sails adjusted just right. So we were constantly adjusting..not much of a relaxing sail. We tried wing on wing for a while but we could never hold our speed and the sails would begin to flog. Sometimes we were really moving swiftly 7-9 knots. I think we even reached 10 knots for a brief moment. Woo hoo! Hope was in the lead, we followed a bit behind and Unfettered behind us… who later passed us up near the end of the day. Once arrived at Green Turtle we all anchored close to shore. We did our usual dinghy ride to shore for Harley. I always enjoy getting off the boat to stretch my legs as well. Harley had a fun run on the beach, off leash for a bit….always fun to see.

We spent the next four days at GTC taking daily walks on the beach and in town, doing some provisioning and having a night out for dinner at the Green Turtle Resort located inside the marina. The coolest part during our time was a walk to another part of the island to see and feed the turtles and rays.

On December 1st, we did one last run into town for provisions and later that day came to the conclusion (after a lot of thought) that we needed to replace our lead-acid batteries with new batteries. We were having to run the generator daily, morning and night to keep a charge. And if we had to do this, we thought we may as well go with lithium batteries which are pricier but they perform better and last longer. They weigh less and take up less room. So we called places in the Bahamas and in the Caribbean (since this was one of our destinations) and no one carried lithium batteries. We could have had them shipped over but the cost would have been double as in the states, not to mention the shipping and tax fees on top. We figured we couldn’t go much further into the Bahamas not being able to ever really get this problem solved. So…we decided to turn around and head back to Florida and have the exchange and installation done there. We contacted Chris at Dedicated Marine (who installed our hard bimini last year) located near Ft. Lauderdale and he said he could get us in to do the work within a few days.

Stay tuned for the next blog post about our crossing the Gulf Stream and our time in Florida.