The Journey Begins
Day 1:
After three months of preparing, fitting and cleaning our newly purchased catamaran we have set sail. Well, we like to call it set sail when in reality we set off motoring our way out of the Intercostal Waterway from Hollywood, FL heading to the Bahamas. The weather is perfect and Carey gets us out of the marina looking like a pro. Before we even get to the first draw bridge, there are three; we begin to have engine problems. We have two outboard, 8 HP Yamahas that we serviced before we left. What maiden voyage would be complete without a few snags, right? We get the problem figured out but need parts. Our captain gets on the phone and in 30 minutes we have our parts, launched to us from the side of the road with instructions on what kind of rum to bring back from the Bahamas. Life is good on a boat.
We pass three draw bridges as we enter Port Everglades, continuing out into the Atlantic, huge cruise ships and cargo ships dwarf our size and I think about what it’s going to be like crossing the Gulf Stream with these garganous creatures in the dark! We head south, the winds are E at 5 knots so this is not sailing weather. As a matter of fact from FL you don’t usually sail to the Bahamas but for maybe 5 times during the year assuming you hit the winds and seas just right. So we are motoring, slowly and not always on two engines. It’s a snail’s pace at 4 knots… but it’s beautiful! The water is the most amazing color and we aren’t even where the “good stuff” starts! I have been taking seasick pills for 3 days now so I am expecting to feel great, which I do as long as I stay outside on deck.
I set up a night watch schedule from 4 pm until 7am the next morning. My first 2 hour watch will start at 8pm so I head down below for a nap. I feel fine if I keep my eyes close and lay still, I doze, listening to t he hum of the engines when they are running (we still are having engine troubles). I’m hoping they will be resolved by the time I’m on watch.
After a 2 hour nap I stumble on deck, we are in the Gulf Stream so the seas are bigger, and I find Jared has caught a Dorado. We learn how to clean a fish so it doesn’t taste fishy and make a mess. Jared cooks the most amazing dinner which was enjoyed by all including his seasick mom. Life is good on a boat.
My first watch started with the rising of a huge moon peeking out from behind the clouds with not a boat in sight. The engines run fine the entire time and I recall the events of the day. Everyone is below sleeping as they prepared for their watch. I felt alone except for this big ocean full of life and intrigue and wonder. All seemed well with the world, at least for those two short hours, life is really good on a boat.
Day 2:
At 4 am the engines die and Carey jumps out of bed, I wonder if we are out of gas. He returns to tell me we have arrived. I stumble up on deck, scan our new environment, check that the anchor is holding and go back to bed.
Today we head to the Sapano, an old Liberty ship that was left to rot just off Bimini. The snorkeling is fantastic! Conch litter the bottom of the ocean, the old rusty ship houses an incredible variety of fish, rays and coral. The water is warm, visibility is fantastic and life is good on a boat.
After our snorkel and lunch we head to Weeches, an old marina where we will dock for the night. This gives Carey a chance to dock backing up in a strong current. It’s stressful at best but we don't hit anything, no one falls off the boat and we don’t sink the ship.
First order of business is forms, customs, and clearing in. Carey and the captain head off with our passports for the process. They return an hour later, we are now free to leave the boat.
We are all ready for cocktails and pupu’s, so we head off to our captains favorite place for conch salad only to discover it’s closed. As we continue to walk we find out everything is closed, the economy here is getting hit hard. The tourists aren’t coming like they used to. Big boats that used a lot of gas are staying docked at their home ports waiting for times to improve. We do eventually find a small bar open that will make us a conch salad. We share a salad and all order rum and coke. The Bahamas are famous for their rum, and it’s cheap. Coke is more expensive so you are served a drink with a lot of rum and a little coke. We dance with Sherry who owns the establishment, while her young son learns to stand on his hands just like Jared. We all enjoy playing with this delightful boy who is soaking in the attention. Life is good in the islands.
Day 3:
We do more class work, hang out at Weeches Marina and go for walks. It’s really windy and the seas are too big for newbie’s. We enjoy showers, and use lots of water, just because we can. We walk the beautiful beaches gathering shells, visit with the locals and go to every grocery store, looking for produce so we can make our own conch salad, and resupply. We play cards that night and head to bed early, we know tomorrow will be a big day. Life is good and slow on a boat.
Day 4:
We head out of the marina into the wind which is about 15 knots, perfect for sailing. Now the real fun begins. We discover we have a really heavy mainsail. So heavy in fact it takes two to raise it. I’m at the helm learning how to keep the boat steady into the wind while the sails are raised. Lines are getting caught and stuck but it’s going up, slowly, but steady. What a site Songbird is with her sails up. I fall off the wind, the sail fills and we pick up speed.
We are headed to a small island where we will find conch, snorkel and make lunch which is of course conch salad. Jared and Ruthie come back with four conchs. We are taught how to clean this odd looking creature and advised not keep the shells, they will stink way too much. We pull anchor and head south to where we will jump off, either tonight or the next morning.
An hour later we are approached by the US Coast Guard and a Bahamian National Guard. They are friendly and professional, all goes well. The updated weather information we receive from them convinces us we better leave straight away once we are far enough south. The front is coming in a day earlier than expected.
As we continue to sail the seas are getting rougher, but we still aren’t in the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream runs like a river north around 2-4 knots, the winds usually blow N NE or E NE but rarely S. Wind creates waves so when the water is flowing N and the winds are blowing from the N it can make for an angry sea.
I have been taking seasick pills for days now and am feeling pretty good as long as I stay out on deck. Jared and Ruthie are left cooking dinner and cleaning up since I am not of much use inside. They are superb cooks so no one complains; they do have a time of it since the seas are now pretty high. I start to day dream about building a bamboo house on a solid piece of land and going for calm, pleasant rows in our dinghy. The worse I feel the more I wonder about life being good on a boat and trying to sail for weeks at a time.
As I watch the sea I notice that the spinnaker is flapping in the wind and that the lines (whiskers that hold the bow sprit and the spinnaker) have snapped. Fortunately the sail is furled so no damage is done. Our catamaran is a lot of boat and we are feeling overwhelmed. We talk a lot about what we can do to lighten the tasks, an electric windless would be a huge help. Songbird is light and very weight sensitive. She wants to fly, we will try and keep her light but we will have to add a few things so we can sail her by ourselves. It took Ruthie and me everything we had to raise the mainsail and we still had the jib to raise, we were tired.
We get into Port Everglades about midnight, by now we are out of the Gulf Stream so the water is flat. I come up from my berth and find Jared and Craig changing the sails. Jared tells me that I missed the dolphins which swam with us for about 45 minutes. The lights of Port Everglades, the Intercostals Waterway, the stars and the reflections remind me that life is good on a boat and that I really am not yet ready to build a bamboo house on solid ground.
We come into the marina we are now calling home and Carey once again backs this large boat into our slip… no one falls off the boat…no lives are lost… no boats sink… and no damage is done. It’s now 1am and the five of us sit in the cockpit and talk about our roses and thorns of the past five days. It was a great learning experience and one we all loved.
We have been home for two days now and are not feeling quite so overwhelmed by the tasks ahead of us. We will be going out as much as possible once our whisker lines are repaired. We will be putting SongBird on the hard so we can clean and paint her bottom. She will be much happier, and faster after the attention.
Life is now spoken in terms of knots of wind, flat seas, wind direction, skinny water and ablative paint. We are enjoying our new adventure and are hoping to see our friends and family come visit us. We will be in FL until the end of Nov at which time we will head to the Bahamas. If at any time this winter you want to come to the Bahamas just let us know we are happy to have guests and have plenty of room.
We can’t use our phones when we are out of country so email is the best bet… we just won’t be online very often. Please come visit and you too will see that life really is good on a boat.
Love, Carey and Lisa
Day 1:
After three months of preparing, fitting and cleaning our newly purchased catamaran we have set sail. Well, we like to call it set sail when in reality we set off motoring our way out of the Intercostal Waterway from Hollywood, FL heading to the Bahamas. The weather is perfect and Carey gets us out of the marina looking like a pro. Before we even get to the first draw bridge, there are three; we begin to have engine problems. We have two outboard, 8 HP Yamahas that we serviced before we left. What maiden voyage would be complete without a few snags, right? We get the problem figured out but need parts. Our captain gets on the phone and in 30 minutes we have our parts, launched to us from the side of the road with instructions on what kind of rum to bring back from the Bahamas. Life is good on a boat.
We pass three draw bridges as we enter Port Everglades, continuing out into the Atlantic, huge cruise ships and cargo ships dwarf our size and I think about what it’s going to be like crossing the Gulf Stream with these garganous creatures in the dark! We head south, the winds are E at 5 knots so this is not sailing weather. As a matter of fact from FL you don’t usually sail to the Bahamas but for maybe 5 times during the year assuming you hit the winds and seas just right. So we are motoring, slowly and not always on two engines. It’s a snail’s pace at 4 knots… but it’s beautiful! The water is the most amazing color and we aren’t even where the “good stuff” starts! I have been taking seasick pills for 3 days now so I am expecting to feel great, which I do as long as I stay outside on deck.
I set up a night watch schedule from 4 pm until 7am the next morning. My first 2 hour watch will start at 8pm so I head down below for a nap. I feel fine if I keep my eyes close and lay still, I doze, listening to t he hum of the engines when they are running (we still are having engine troubles). I’m hoping they will be resolved by the time I’m on watch.
After a 2 hour nap I stumble on deck, we are in the Gulf Stream so the seas are bigger, and I find Jared has caught a Dorado. We learn how to clean a fish so it doesn’t taste fishy and make a mess. Jared cooks the most amazing dinner which was enjoyed by all including his seasick mom. Life is good on a boat.
My first watch started with the rising of a huge moon peeking out from behind the clouds with not a boat in sight. The engines run fine the entire time and I recall the events of the day. Everyone is below sleeping as they prepared for their watch. I felt alone except for this big ocean full of life and intrigue and wonder. All seemed well with the world, at least for those two short hours, life is really good on a boat.
Day 2:
At 4 am the engines die and Carey jumps out of bed, I wonder if we are out of gas. He returns to tell me we have arrived. I stumble up on deck, scan our new environment, check that the anchor is holding and go back to bed.
Today we head to the Sapano, an old Liberty ship that was left to rot just off Bimini. The snorkeling is fantastic! Conch litter the bottom of the ocean, the old rusty ship houses an incredible variety of fish, rays and coral. The water is warm, visibility is fantastic and life is good on a boat.
After our snorkel and lunch we head to Weeches, an old marina where we will dock for the night. This gives Carey a chance to dock backing up in a strong current. It’s stressful at best but we don't hit anything, no one falls off the boat and we don’t sink the ship.
First order of business is forms, customs, and clearing in. Carey and the captain head off with our passports for the process. They return an hour later, we are now free to leave the boat.
We are all ready for cocktails and pupu’s, so we head off to our captains favorite place for conch salad only to discover it’s closed. As we continue to walk we find out everything is closed, the economy here is getting hit hard. The tourists aren’t coming like they used to. Big boats that used a lot of gas are staying docked at their home ports waiting for times to improve. We do eventually find a small bar open that will make us a conch salad. We share a salad and all order rum and coke. The Bahamas are famous for their rum, and it’s cheap. Coke is more expensive so you are served a drink with a lot of rum and a little coke. We dance with Sherry who owns the establishment, while her young son learns to stand on his hands just like Jared. We all enjoy playing with this delightful boy who is soaking in the attention. Life is good in the islands.
Day 3:
We do more class work, hang out at Weeches Marina and go for walks. It’s really windy and the seas are too big for newbie’s. We enjoy showers, and use lots of water, just because we can. We walk the beautiful beaches gathering shells, visit with the locals and go to every grocery store, looking for produce so we can make our own conch salad, and resupply. We play cards that night and head to bed early, we know tomorrow will be a big day. Life is good and slow on a boat.
Day 4:
We head out of the marina into the wind which is about 15 knots, perfect for sailing. Now the real fun begins. We discover we have a really heavy mainsail. So heavy in fact it takes two to raise it. I’m at the helm learning how to keep the boat steady into the wind while the sails are raised. Lines are getting caught and stuck but it’s going up, slowly, but steady. What a site Songbird is with her sails up. I fall off the wind, the sail fills and we pick up speed.
We are headed to a small island where we will find conch, snorkel and make lunch which is of course conch salad. Jared and Ruthie come back with four conchs. We are taught how to clean this odd looking creature and advised not keep the shells, they will stink way too much. We pull anchor and head south to where we will jump off, either tonight or the next morning.
An hour later we are approached by the US Coast Guard and a Bahamian National Guard. They are friendly and professional, all goes well. The updated weather information we receive from them convinces us we better leave straight away once we are far enough south. The front is coming in a day earlier than expected.
As we continue to sail the seas are getting rougher, but we still aren’t in the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream runs like a river north around 2-4 knots, the winds usually blow N NE or E NE but rarely S. Wind creates waves so when the water is flowing N and the winds are blowing from the N it can make for an angry sea.
I have been taking seasick pills for days now and am feeling pretty good as long as I stay out on deck. Jared and Ruthie are left cooking dinner and cleaning up since I am not of much use inside. They are superb cooks so no one complains; they do have a time of it since the seas are now pretty high. I start to day dream about building a bamboo house on a solid piece of land and going for calm, pleasant rows in our dinghy. The worse I feel the more I wonder about life being good on a boat and trying to sail for weeks at a time.
As I watch the sea I notice that the spinnaker is flapping in the wind and that the lines (whiskers that hold the bow sprit and the spinnaker) have snapped. Fortunately the sail is furled so no damage is done. Our catamaran is a lot of boat and we are feeling overwhelmed. We talk a lot about what we can do to lighten the tasks, an electric windless would be a huge help. Songbird is light and very weight sensitive. She wants to fly, we will try and keep her light but we will have to add a few things so we can sail her by ourselves. It took Ruthie and me everything we had to raise the mainsail and we still had the jib to raise, we were tired.
We get into Port Everglades about midnight, by now we are out of the Gulf Stream so the water is flat. I come up from my berth and find Jared and Craig changing the sails. Jared tells me that I missed the dolphins which swam with us for about 45 minutes. The lights of Port Everglades, the Intercostals Waterway, the stars and the reflections remind me that life is good on a boat and that I really am not yet ready to build a bamboo house on solid ground.
We come into the marina we are now calling home and Carey once again backs this large boat into our slip… no one falls off the boat…no lives are lost… no boats sink… and no damage is done. It’s now 1am and the five of us sit in the cockpit and talk about our roses and thorns of the past five days. It was a great learning experience and one we all loved.
We have been home for two days now and are not feeling quite so overwhelmed by the tasks ahead of us. We will be going out as much as possible once our whisker lines are repaired. We will be putting SongBird on the hard so we can clean and paint her bottom. She will be much happier, and faster after the attention.
Life is now spoken in terms of knots of wind, flat seas, wind direction, skinny water and ablative paint. We are enjoying our new adventure and are hoping to see our friends and family come visit us. We will be in FL until the end of Nov at which time we will head to the Bahamas. If at any time this winter you want to come to the Bahamas just let us know we are happy to have guests and have plenty of room.
We can’t use our phones when we are out of country so email is the best bet… we just won’t be online very often. Please come visit and you too will see that life really is good on a boat.
Love, Carey and Lisa
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