NASSAU NOTES

Mates Log: 15.12.2008

Today is Thursday the wind is still blowing the wrong direction for us to leave but the weather report confirms that Friday is still our day to head to Nassau. We start to prepare SongBird for our departure with a few basic checks, the first being to check on all of Otto’s parts, namely his steering gear on the port side under a swim step. To Carey’s surprise and frustration he has discovered that the potentiometer (this is the sensor for the rudder angle for the auto pilot) has broken off due to the link arm raising it up and down (the link arm will also have to be replaced if we don’t want this to continue to happen). A little JB Weld and 8 hours should do the trick for the potentiometer; the link arm will have to wait. The amazing thing is the potentiometer must have broken loose after we arrived at Chub Cay and once again the autopilot would have rendered itself useless! We cannot deny God’s hand on us… nor do we want to.

LEAVING CHUB CAY (pronounced key)
The weather report indicates that the wind will shift around 4am so we plan to leave at 4:30. We head off to bed early. Carey wakes me at 1:30 informing me that the wind has shifted and he wants to leave right away. He promises I can return to my peaceful sleep once we are underway. My mind is foggy and I don’t know why we can’t wait until a more decent hour, but what I do know is Carey has a good handle on the wind, waves and weather and I have no problem trusting his judgment or reasoning. I do have trouble waking up and finding the check list. Tom and Susan are also leaving today and we hope to see them in Nassau. Once out on deck I see the seas and understand why we are not waiting to leave. Our protected harbor is no long protected and the waves are mounting. Let me say this about that! In the dark everything is bigger. The land is closer, the waves are bigger and the deep troughs in between the waves are deeper yet. As I look out at the seascape I wonder what kind of sail we will have today, should I take seasick pills and if so how many! The seas look like our biggest yet! How will SongBird ride and will anything break today? Its dark… gads its 1:30 in the morning! Then the thought hits me… How will we see the bottom?! My hesitations start mounting, I’m tired, I’m foggy and I can’t get everything clear in my head… but again the thought haunts me… just how are we going to see the bottom? We always watch the bottom, it’s shallow in these parts, and the charts don’t claim 100% accuracy, coral heads sleep in these waters waiting for their prey, the bottom of boats. They linger near land, they roll around in the shallows seeking, trying to hide, preparing to hit with lighting speed while the unsuspecting captain plows onward. I can no longer deal with my haunting concerns to this lingering question, even though I know my husband is going to have a good answer for me and that my apprehension will prove to be ridiculous. I have to ask “Honey how are we going to see the bottom, it’s so dark?” “Sweetheart”, he patiently replies, “we are going to be in The Tongue of the Ocean”. I knew it! I knew I was going to feel ridiculous! The Tongue of the Ocean is 6,000 feet deep!

THE TOUNGE OF THE OCEAN according to Wikipedia:
The Tongue of the Ocean is the name of a deep oceanic trench in the Bahamas separating the islands of Andros and New Providence. The depth of the water drops from roughly 115 feet along Andros' east offshore barrier reef to over 6,000 ft, and the drop is roughly 100 miles long.

This channel - and the Providence Channel - are the two main branches of the Great Bahamas Canyon, a submerged geological feature formed by erosion during periods of lower sea level. During their early history the Tongue of the Ocean and the Providence Channels were broad, relatively shallow basins flanked by growing carbonate banks. As the Blake-Bahamas platform subsided, sedimentation kept pace with subsidence on the banks, but not in the basins. Many Bahamian people believe that this trench "feeds" the surrounding water area because many species of marine life emerge from it.

We pull anchor without any hitches, close calls or yelling over the wind. We are working on our hand signals for everything, its not been easy but we are improving. Underway, we raise the jib, Carey grabs a bowl of cereal and I head back to bed. Carey takes the first watch, he will make sure everything is working and that our sail choice is good. We are no longer able to use the screecher, our new whiskers have stretched too much and the sail is slightly sagging, I have raised it as high as it will go. I am concerned if we use the sail it will get beat up too much, requiring a replacement. To replace this sail alone would probably cost about $4,500… we treat them with great care.

The rhythm of the boat quickly puts me back to sleep. I have grown use to SongBirds movements and the slapping of the waves and I now find them very comforting. I am not sure how I will ever sleep on land again. I wake once the sun starts to come up and head up on deck to see how Carey is doing. He’s starts telling me how quiet and peaceful it was and how things were going along just fine when all of a sudden something landed on the deck right next to him…. It’s black out and he can’t see a thing but something is making a racket and he has no idea what it is! He grabs the flashlight aiming it in the direction of the noise… it’s a flying fish! How did this thing get all the way up on the deck and so far onto the boat? The fish is not on the edge of the deck but in the cockpit by the door! This thing is flopping around and he’s trying to pick it up to put it back into the water. We don’t have a fishing net, we weren’t sure we would need one; he’s having second thoughts about this decision. Finally he gets a hold of the fish and flings it back into the ocean. His heart is still beating and he wonders if the stress will ever end. There is something about being in a big deep ocean in the pitch black of the night experiencing flying things boarding your boat uninvited. It can be a bit unnerving so your imagination goes wild. You now know what it is but those moments before you have things under control you think you might die or worse yet get attacked by some undiscovered sea creature lurking in this very deep part of the ocean. OK, so maybe all that didn’t go through his head but it did cause his heart to do some healthy pounding and get his adrenaline going! He heads down below to sleep.

I settle in with my bowl of granola and grape nuts and watch the changing sky. It’s lovely this time of morning and I take in the view. The ocean is so deep here that there are no longer the light greens and turquoise colors that dominate this part of the world, only a deep dark blue with no end. When you sail in the Bahamas you feel as though you are sailing on top of a big sand bank. The waters are clearer here than in any other part of the world due to the high concentration of calcium carbonate. You can always see the bottom and you always wonder just how deep it is since it always looks as though you could jump in and touch the sandy bottom. I can now clearly see that we are in the deep of the deeps and I can’t help but wonder what sea creatures lurk in the blackness.

OTTO ISSUES
Otto doesn’t seem to be having any problems…, or so I think. I go inside the salon to see where we are on the chart and if I need to make any heading adjustments. Otto seems to be having a hard time staying on course he veers off 35 to 40 degrees at a time, corrects himself then does it all over again, but his behavior is sporadic. I’m not sure what is wrong with him, his course is not steady but I am hoping it is only the nature of the wind astern and a following sea. I look at the instruments inside the salon area and notice Otto’s screen is displaying AUTO FAIL. I can’t get him reset so I go down and wake up Carey hoping it’s nothing, while at the same time hoping I haven’t woken him for nothing. I am informed that this was Otto’s condition during the first watch and is currently not of concern. These are the things we are learning… when you brief the next watch you have to pass on all information and observations about the last watch. I feel bad waking Carey for nothing but at the same time relieved that this is nothing… at the moment.

We have wind so are able to sail all the way to Nassau; it’s not an easy sail as the wind keeps shifting around our aft from side to side. The seas have at least 4-5 foot troughs with an occasional 6 footer. Since we are going with the wind and have following seas SongBird rides well. The sun comes up I can see more action on the water, mostly flying fish as they are everywhere here. I notice some fish are taking flight when all of a sudden, not far behind them is a mahi mahi (Dorado) in quick pursuit! It is amazing! The Dorado is coming up out of the water by a foot then dipping just barely back in the water before jumping out again. It looks like something out of a National Geographic movie only it is happening right off the forward port side of our boat! I could only sit and watch in total amazement realizing I may never see this kind of thing again.

NASSAU
Six hours later we arrive at Nassau Harbor; this is our first big port of entry that we are unfamiliar with. We have to call Harbor Control for permission to enter and give them SongBirds information. I am a little nervous and working on my radio etiquette, making sure I can understand what we are being told to do. We are taking it all in, huge ships are everywhere, and a humongous cruise ship is following right behind us. Carey tries to speed up our two 8 HP engines and I can’t help but laugh. We will never keep ahead of this thing they have to slow down for us.

 There is a lovely old light house on our port side where you can stay and be the light keeper for the night, if you like. Six cruise ships sit anchored off our starboard while the world famous resort, Atlantis, becomes visible to our port. We have heard about Atlantis, huge aquariums everywhere, water slides, pools, beaches, a lovely marina, and a can of soda for three dollars. It is quite the site, and if you are looking for a fabulous resort in the Bahamas go to and money is no issue visit www.atlantis.com, they do have it all.

WORST FEARS
From here on I’m not sure how I’m going to explain our “comedy of errors” or more aptly called our “worst fears”. I call Nassau Yacht Haven where we will be staying, to let them know we have arrived. I pass the radio to Carey so I can go up front to get out the fenders. Carey is now attempting to understand where the marina wants us to dock. It is not always easy understanding folks on the radio, but when an accent is added, well, it's near impossible. I can’t understand much of what the guy is saying at all. Carey seems to be able to get most of it, or so I think. I will mention here that the tide is going out… this is called a tide but really it’s a river flowing through the harbor at 3 to 4 knots. The current is rushing by us… and again I will mention we have two 8 HP engines. This does not allow for a lot of control. Oh, did I mention yet that we keep having engine troubles? Yes, we do, they like to die, and they like to die (instead of idling) at critical moments, moments when you need them the most.

So, here we are heading into a marina with no real idea where the guy wants us, the water is rushing by us at breakneck speed, and one of our engines dies. This marina is packed full of boat with docks going every which way. No one is on the dock to direct us, but evidently they can see us in the office and keep telling us we are going down the wrong dock. I’m not sure what is happening except that we are headed, seemly, full throttle into a dock. I am at the bow and yell (the wind is blowing like crazy here and I have no hand signal for you are running into a dock!) that we are headed straight into the dock. Carey yells back “Yes, I know.”

 At this point I don’t know what to think other then I better hold on to something. I can't help but wonder... if he knows we are heading straight into the dock why is he not putting the motors in reverse to stop us? I decide I better hang on or prepare to perform some Superman stunt to stop us! I choose to hang on. Right before we are getting ready to hit the dock we stop and then ever so slowly start to move backwards. I turn to look at Carey, to get some kind of indication as to what might have happened. The only indication I have is he is stressed and I don’t blame him.

This place is crazy and we are doing our part to keep it that way! We back out with the wind howling and seemly little control over the boat. We move on down to the next dock and some guy starts telling us where to go, so we head in this new direction. The radio cracks and the marina is telling us again we are going the wrong way! We can’t help but wonder who the heck is this guy on the dock!? We again back out and a cacophony of yelling breaks out and I slowing start to understand, "SHALLOWS"! We are backing up onto a sandbar!

By now it is quite clear to us why cruisers drink so much and start to entertain the thought ourselves! Carey moves SongBird forward, wind blowing and water rushing by. Once more we try to find out where the guy wants us, only this time the marina has finally sent someone out to show us where to go. My fear is they have sent this guy out to tell us to leave because obviously, we have no idea how to drive a boat!

Fortunately this is not true, he is informing us to take our pick of the slips on the end. Please, just take anyone! This may sound all nice and dandy to be able to pick your own slip, but at this point we don’t care, we want it over with as much as they do! We still have a long way to go before we can actually breathe a sigh of relief!

I give Carey two reasonable (yeah right) options and he picks one. We are not properly lined up because we have been on our own personal tour of the marina, and we really can’t get lined up between the current, the wind speed and failing engines.

Finally, we head into a slip, by now I should be throwing dock lines to the guys on the dock… But, I have forgotten to get the dock lines out I have been so distracted by our marina tour! The lines are not attached to the boat!!! In all of the commotion and terror they just slipped my mind! This is not good and we find out just how 'not good' it is.

There is the wind (I may have mentioned) and the current (I may have mentioned) and there is a stationary dock on one side of us, and a sailboat on the other side, and a dock in front of us. We have two, I say 8 HP engines that are not working well!!! First we kiss the boat then we kiss the dock. By now I at least have the lines out,  but, Carey is yelling at me and I’m thinking, someday we will laugh at this!!!!

Finally we are tied up and standing on the dock, actually Carey is laying on the dock. There are people everywhere, politely pretending they did not see a thing. I can’t help but think back at the night we left FL, perfectly docking in the dark with not a soul to see, of course the water was perfectly flat and there was no wind. I now wonder if we will ever repeat that performance. Probably not, for awhile.

FRIENDS AND FAMILY
We have finally made it to Nassau, we wash the boat down, we take out the trash, we do laundry and we take showers. You may wonder why we have a need to mention showers. We don’t have a real shower on the boat and we don’t want to use our water in the sprayer (our version of a shower) if we don’t have to. Showers have taken on a new meaning for us a “special day”, a “day of celebration” and always noteworthy.

While doing laundry I hear my name and turn to see Tom. Tom and Susan our new friends we met in Chub Cay have just arrived, we make plans for dinner. The folks from CA have passed on some fish for us. We love the cruising community.

My girlfriend Lisa, and her 4 year old daughter Leyna, arrive the next day. It’s great to see friends and share our new life style with them. Leyna is a trooper and we are all hoping no one gets seasick. It is rocky here and I do mean rocky. We are on the edge of the marina which is not protected at all. The wind howls, the current flows and only when the tide is changing do things calm down for a few moments. The waves slap the boat, the halyard slaps the mast and it is hard to stand up, even on our catamaran. Lisa and Leyna seem to be settling in, except for the rockiness. We talk about staying at the Atlantis Marina for 2 days, one, so we can all get a break from this wind and two, so we can all play. If you stay at Atlantis everything is free except food and drink, of course. We know Leyna would have a good time and we don’t have any doubts about the rest of us. Plans are made to go to Atlantis Marina after our trip to Rose Island.

Before we can leave Carey will need to fix Otto and the link arm issue. He is sure that he will not be able to go to a boat store and just buy what he needs. He is now faced with the familiar task of deciding what will work in its place, and what resources are available. Improvising is a big part of life now. As always he rises to the challenge and seems to enjoy it. While Lisa, Leyna and I go looking for a phone card, a phone, and the internet service company. Carey heads to the boat store across the street from the marina... nothing there, as he suspected. He is hoping for a motorcycle shop but that would be asking too much, so he finds a place that sells personal watercraft (Seadoo style craft). Sure enough he figures out what type of parts they have that he can make use of, and is on his way. After a few custom adjustments his parts work perfect! Who could ask for more? Not only is Otto fixed but this part of him should outlive all of us.

Jared and Ruthie arrive 2 days after Lisa and Leyna. As soon as they arrive at the marina and hugs and kisses are given we start to take off. We will head to Rose Island and anchor out for 2 nights. We have to plan to leave at the change of the tide, so we can have some control over the boat. Please note the word some… The wind will still push us, but it should be much easier. Please note should.

We all have our orders and are prepared to leave. I can’t really tell you what happened; I wasn’t looking in the direction of contact, but was watching out for the dock in front of us. All of sudden I hear this noise and turn to see Jared pushing with all of his might the piling at the end of the dock while SongBird hits and rubs the corner of the dock. Jared’s heroic efforts work as he pushes us off and no damage is done. We are free, free of the magnetic control a dock seems to possess over a boat. Then and there we decidedly agreed that being on the hook (anchoring) is so much less stressful than this marina stuff!

OUR ISLAND
Rose Island is small and has maybe 4 houses on it. We anchor at West Bottom Harbor just off the island, in between another spit of land. We are nicely protected and we view a beach we want to explore the next day. This place is beautiful, and peaceful, a nice change from Nassau. The next day we take the dinghy over in two trips to get us all to a little deserted beach. Check out the pictures. It’s about 150 yards wide and a half a mile long. No one is on it. A local guy has two tourists with him and they are fishing in the waters just off the beach, which is only three feet deep. The local comes over and says “Welcome to my island!” I ask him if this is truly his island, he shakes his head no, and says, 'you can call it your island too'. This day we have our own private island and we enjoy every moment of it. We stay in this protected anchorage for 2 nights until it’s time to head to Atlantis.

Atlantis is high roller and the marina is lined with mega yachts. I use to think SongBird a good size, I still do, but in this arena she is smaller than some of the dinghies on these mega yachts! I have included a picture, but am not sure you can get a good sense of what she looked like. Also, remember she is in need of paint and has a few patches, and half sanded areas. We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies in this marina and we can’t help but laugh!

For our docking performance at Atlantis we kept things simple, after all, this marina is protected. We are given a slip number so we know right where to go and they have guys on the docks ready to catch your lines, which were of course all in place. I also had all the extra lines out “just in case”. There were 5 of us and all hands were on deck. We were prepared… we are heading towards the dock and this time we are parking on the side, no boats to slip in next to, and no dock in front of us. Just mosey on up to the side of the dock. But I notice we are coming in too fast and not turning, but heading at a 45 degree angle into the dock. I run up with a fender while Jared performs more heroics. We hit the dock instead of just kissing it this time, and leave a white mark that unfortunately, we forget to sign. We don’t know what happened but Carey will tell us in due time. To protect the innocent and the guilty we will be keeping our Lessons Learned section at the bottom of our letter.

We have arrived at the infamous Atlantis, made our mark and once again survived yet another docking experience… it’s time for a walk. This place is amazing and we can’t wait to go play. We spend the next day playing in the water, riding slides, winning money, losing no lives, and wearing out a 4 year old. A very good time was had by all.

Today is Friday December 26th and I promise I will bring this up to date and keep it short. Lisa and Leyna left last Saturday. We were so sorry to see them leave as it was great having a friend here and so much fun getting to know Leyna again. Leyna was about 18 months the last time I saw her. Lisa said Leyna cried all the way to the airport, I think she had a good time. We still had Jared and Ruthie here with us so we celebrated Christmas with them on Sunday. We made Christmas dinner, exchanged gifts and played games. Monday we walked to the beach on Paradise Island and hung out. They had to leave on Tuesday, and I cried. We are not exactly sure when we will see them again or where but hopefully within the next 3 months, and we are hoping Jeff will be with them, or us, by then. We think (Carey, Jared, Ruthie, Jeff and me) will be broke about this time and in need of work so we plan on staying in St Croix or St John for a spell.

This morning we got up at 3:30 in the morning to go to Junkanoo. This is the biggest event of the year in the Bahamas and the biggest social event. The girls all have special hairdos and colors and their cutest clothes on. The event starts at midnight and goes until 11am. There is a parade that has to circle town twice and each group is judged. The groups have an elaborate float with a group of people following, beating on a variety of types of drums, horns, whistles and brass bands. Each person has a costume that looks like it took months to prepare. My pictures did not come out well since everyone is dancing, but I’ll post one so you can at least get an idea. It is a parade of rhythm and dance.

One of the floats gives tribute and thanks that Obama is president, they see him being president as an end to the war and greater freedom for blacks. Another, celebrates the birth of Jesus, children’s rhymes, and self employment. A few businesses are represented; gangs and violence are encouraged to end and some cowboy and Indian thing. The fire department had great costumes but they were shaking and jumping too much for any of those pictures to come out, which was too bad as I know my old fire chief would have gotten a kick out of them. Everyone was friendly, no matter their age.

This brings me to a custom they have that I would like to tell you about. When you pass someone on the street they will say hello as many times as there are people in your group. They may say hello, hello, hello, how are you, how are you, how are you, because there are three of you together. People walk by you and look you in the eye. They would consider it rude if you walked up to them without a proper greeting of hello how are you today, and just started talking. Everyone wishes you Merry Christmas on Christmas day and Boxing Day (the following day). They are a spiritual lot and freely talk about God in their general conversation. We have enjoyed these islanders immensely. We have also enjoyed riding the bus and not really knowing where we were going, getting to know other cruisers, meeting the local people and finding every day so different from the last.

We are on a great adventure and have loved sharing it with my kids. We are hoping that as time goes on more of our family will be able to join us.

Do stay in touch, we love hearing from you! As always, love Carey and Lisa

Lessons learned this time around:
Do not put the engines in a forward motion when you really want to go in reverse.
If one engine dies keep steering especially while docking.
Have all dock lines out and attached to the boat before docking.
Make sure you understand what the person is saying on the radio.
At the change of a watch make sure all briefings are complete before going to bed.
Come up with a hand signal that communicates, 'you are going to be hitting a dock soon', but it can’t be obscene.
Where strong winds and currents exist, wait for the lull at the tide change before docking.
Purchase two 15 HP engines in St Martin ASAP.
Sign all dings left by your boat at marinas.