Back on the ICW

         We had a great time in Fernandina Beach.  Once again Ralph and Kim outdid themselves as hosts - cooking us meals and giving us the leftovers, taking us out to dinner and to trivia night at local restaurants, lending us their only car, and sightseeing with us at Fort Clinch.

Fort Clinch is at the northern end of Amelia Island.  A great fortification used sporadically and never finished, it overlooks the inlet between GA and FL and beaches to the east and west.  It never fired a shot and was never fired upon, but there’s an enormous amount of history to learn, and the surrounding state park is home to miles of walking and biking trails, beaches, and a couple campgrounds.  I would say it’s a must-see for anyone visiting 

Fernandina Beach. 

Fort Clinch

Tuesday, May 28, Dan and I drove down to Jacksonville and Jacksonville Beach.  Dan made the rounds of hardware stores for boat supplies while I had my appointment with the orthopedist.  I made friends with the ortho tech Dre, relating my own experience (nearly 40 years ago) in that same profession.  Turns out I broke three bones - the good people at Daytona Beach had diagnosed two of them, but did speculate about the third - and Dre efficiently put on a cast.  Purple, my color choice.  Four weeks from now I should be able to see someone in Maine who can remove it.  

Ralph & Kim display their baby gift for Leo

We bid goodbye to Ralph and Kim on Wednesday early afternoon, after yet another great home-cooked meal.  We ended up hanging out on the mooring there while Dan diagnosed and fixed an engine cooling issue, then zipped over to nearby Port Consolidated to take on fuel and water.  We didn’t plan to go very far - only over the border to Cumberland Island.  A good friend of ours virtually introduced us to one of his good friends, who invited us to tie up for the night at his dock.  Mitty and his wife Mary own & run the Greyfield Inn.  Mitty also runs the lobster-boat ferry that shuttles guests to and from their Inn on Cumberland Island.  

Greyfield Inn dock - late afternoon

Dan and I went ashore this morning for a long walk, taking in the grounds of the Inn and the trail to Little Greyfield Beach.  It was a beautiful day for a walk, and we had the beach entirely to ourselves.  On the way back to the dock we stopped for a short, self-guided tour of the common rooms of the Inn, where we admired fossils and antiques and the overall atmosphere of a southern B & B.  We felt very privileged to have had this opportunity!

        We left the dock late morning and continued a little ways along the ICW before stopping in the Brickhill River.  One of Dan’s acquaintances lost an anchor here, and Dan hopes to find it.  I’ll keep you posted about that.  

Dan searching for the lost anchor...

Hanging in Fernandina Beach

         We had a lovely cruise on calm waters from Titusville to Daytona Beach.  We watched crabbers checking their pots, saw roseate spoonbills flying and gathering on small beaches, and were entertained by lots of dolphins and manatees.  

By this time I was concerned that my hand injury from the fall on Bimini needed more professional attention, and I told Dan I would like to find a walk-in clinic in Daytona Beach.  He decided the prudent thing to do was to get a marina slip so we’d have an easier access to transportation, and he set that up while I researched the best place to go.  I needed a place that dealt with injuries and had xrays onsite.  I figured I probably would not be able to see an orthopedic specialist, even if I went to an ER, given the way the health care system plods along in this country, but I would at least know if the hand was broken and could have someone apply a good splint/soft cast.  My first career was in orthopedics, I knew what the process in store for me could be.

So we ubered to the chosen clinic.  Found out their xray tech wasn’t scheduled to work that day.  They referred us to another clinic “seven minutes away” which turned out to be over thirty-five minutes away, and when we called ahead as our second uber sped away, found they were closed.  Uber drivers cannot change the pre-registered destination plans, so we had him drop us off at the corner and called a third uber to backtrack to another nearby clinic, after calling that one to make sure they could take xrays.  This clinic was staffed by friendly and helpful people, but was a little off-putting with their a la carte method of asking us to pre-pay for every single thing they needed to do.  We pre-paid for the doctor visit, then for the xray, then for the soft cast, then for the prescriptions.  Yes, I did break my hand.  We got back to the boat after 8:00pm, just happy to have a diagnosis and the beginning of a plan.  The uber rides - four in total - cost more than the treatment to date.

The next day we multi-tasked, doing laundry and making phone calls for possible appointments, and at the same time received word that my sister Chris and her husband were in nearby Orlando and willing to come to Daytona Beach to help with transportation if necessary, and separately we were notified by our younger son that his wife was in labor, they were at the hospital, and we’d most likely have a grandson by the end of the day.  

We got the laundry done.  I couldn’t get an appointment in Daytona Beach and decided to set one up for Fernandina Beach where my brother lives and we could use his car.  Chris and Ken took us out to lunch.  Leo was born at 5 pm, weighing in at 7 lbs, 3.8 oz.  

So now we are in Fernandina Beach, enjoying the hospitality of the Fernandina Beach Marina and of my brother Ralph and his wife Kim, who collected us for a fabulous homemade dinner of lasagna last night.  My doctor’s appointment is for Tuesday.  In the meantime we can relax, run errands, do a few minor repairs on the boat, and make plans to go home to Maine for a bit in a few weeks, to visit and meet our new grandson.  

Welcome Back to the US

         We left Bimini as planned, about 0500, with Knot Quitters buddy-boating right behind us.  it was a rougher passage than anticipated, and about two hours into the constant rolling we debated turning back, but decided to press on.  Dan changed the angle of our heading and that helped some, but we still took some big rolls.  Good thing by now we were much more accomplished at stowing everything!  It was another long day, but we took heart when we were in sight of Florida just after noon, and knew we’d be entering Lake Worth well before sunset.  We arrived to the busy-ness of a nice Saturday afternoon.  Everyone with a boat was out on the water.  There were lots of boats in the Bahamas, but it's nothing compared to lots of boats in Florida.  

Our entry issues began with our first three times trying to alert the CBP of our arrival through their Roam app.  We’ve used this app a few times before and, while glitchy, it always eventually worked.  This time I kept getting bounced back to the login page after completing the arrival information.  Huh.  I tried calling the 800 number to verbally report our entry but no one answered the phone.  A little internet sleuthing suggest rebooting the phone, or uninstalling and reinstalling the app, which required re-entering all the background information about ourselves and Willie Dawes.  I did both.  This time I received a ‘status pending’ notification and then a status denied email notification and an invitation to call or report to the nearest port of entry for clarification.  Huh.

We arrived on Saturday, the denial email came Sunday, when we were already underway.  A call to Knot Quitters revealed that they received an ok to enter email.  Huh.  So I submitted our arrival again, and then did the reboot/uninstall-reinstall maneuver and submitted our arrival again.  Two more status denied emails arrived in my inbox.  I called the 800 number and this time spoke to a very friendly CBP officer who kindly looked over our arrival application and assured me we were good to go, and that he personally would authorize our entry if I would just submit it again?  A glitch in the system, not to worry, I just needed to make sure we had one traveler and one boatmaster, for a total of two people.  Apparently I had been submitting the boatmaster (Dan) as a traveler as well as the boatmaster.  Ok then!  I submitted again, this time perplexed to find that I could not delete the boatmaster from the traveller list,  Status denied.  I called back, got the same very nice officer who once again reassured me that this was a known glitch in the system and that again he personally authorized our entry.  However, he was not allowed to authorize this in writing.  No texts, no mails, sorry.  He suggested we just keep trying the Roam app until it authorized our entry.  So Dan loaded the app on his phone and entered all the necessary background information on the boat and us, complete with scans of documents, and he submitted it.  Status pending - status denied.  Dan followed up with a phone call, got a different officer, also very nice, but same answer: verbal authorization; written authorization says we are not allowed in the country.  We left the Q flag up and dropped the hook in Faber Cove, Fort Pierce, for the night.  

Monday morning we were en route to Palm Bay when we got a phone call from a CBP officer based out of Miami.  Stop submitting our arrival, he said, he was personally authorizing our legal entry and right to be in the US, but no, sorry, he could not send us anything in writing as “the system” didn’t allow that.  He advised us to refer anyone (presumably other CBP personnel or maybe even the USCG) to him directly.  Ok then.  Apparently a phone app is solely in charge of whether or not US citizens can legally enter this country.   

So we decided to proceed as normal.  We anchored in Palm Harbor and took the dinghy up Turkey Creek to visit our friend Dianne and her husband Dave and then went out to dinner with Dianne and Dave’s son Scott.  I may have mentioned that Dave is in assisted living for advanced Parkinson’s disease, and that Dianne is in the process of downsizing her home.  Dan took a veritable library of books about boats off her hands.  (Dan has been wanting to set up a lending marine library in Camden.)  It’s always good to visit with Dave and Dianne; the passing along of books was a benefit of our longterm friendship. 

The beginning of the marine library.

Today, we are anchored in Titusville.  We made a quick run to the grocery store and had an early dinner at Pier 220 restaurant, where we’d eaten several nights while painting the hull in the Titusville boatyard Westland Marine, last December.  We’re counting these three days moving north as the beginning of our Great Loop.

Bimini

         We had a good crossing to the Berry Islands, which lay like a capital J northwest of New Providence island, where Nassau is, though we didn’t go any farther up the J than Chub/Frazer Hog Cay.  We stayed in this area several days, exploring the beaches and snorkeling.  (Actually, I snorkeled while Dan kept watch, because he was keeping his nose out of the water and sun.  He’s looking much better these days.) We conferred often with our friends Tim and Tawnya on Knot Quitters, about the best time to push westward to make the big crossing back to Florida.  One of the nights we were treated to an incredible lightning display that almost looked like fireworks on the other side of the island, it was that continuous and bright.  The next night a waterspout sprouted right behind us.  We didn't see that, so here's one picture of the lightning.   

        It seemed a weather window was opening, and after much discussion, we decided to make a very long day of it and cruise over to Bimini and take a marina slip while we waited out a weather window for crossing the Gulf Stream.  On Wednesday, March 15,  Knot Quitters and we set out just before five am, two and a half hours before sunrise, for our twelve hour passage to Bimini.  

It turned out not to be the most comfortable cruise.  The wind shifted earlier than forecast, and stronger than anticipated, and the seas - which we took on the quarter beam - were bigger and quicker than we thought.  Needless to say, it was a very rolly passage.  At one point Dan thought we might even put the port rail in the water.  We could hear the bottles and cans clinking in the cupboards, and there were several hasty trips to tie something down more securely or to stow it somewhere else.  It made for a very long day.  As we finally approached Bimini, we could see storm clouds gathering to the west; a driving rain began just after we’d tied up.  Tim and Tawnya were right behind us, and we helped them tie up.  Tawnya’s first question was “Are you still married?”  They had taken a video of the seas we’d endured.  We all four went out to dinner at a nearby restaurant, and Tim’s traditional grace before the meal was especially heartfelt for us all having come through the day to enjoy a meal together. 

Breakers and thunderstorm at the entrance to Bimini.

We’ve not been to Bimini before.  It’s a small, narrow island with very narrow streets, and everything looks ever more run down than is usual in the Bahamas, but the people are all just as friendly.  Dan and I took a walk on Thursday to do some sightseeing and souvenir shopping. 

Our marina building.

        This is when we both tripped over a root or rock or hole in the ground and he managed to stay upright but I went down.  I often joke about my medical checkups because since I turned 65 they are - to me - overly concerned with any falls I have taken.  Well now I have an exact date for them - March 16 - resulting in a sprained hand.  It’s humbling and depressing to understand just how often you need two hands to do something, and to realize that tomorrow when we cross to the US, Dan will be doing everything smoothly and efficiently by himself while I sit with a bag of ice on my hand.  We did get the souvenir shopping done.  

We are planning to leave at 0500 tomorrow.  Goodbye Bahamas!  it’s been fun.  

To Nassau

        

Nassau Harbour

         From Lee Stocking we made our way to Black Point, where we did laundry and enjoyed an excellent lunch at Lorraine’s. and then we moved to Bitter Guana.  Since I’ve written a lot about these places already, I’m going to skip on to Lobster Cay.  From Bitter Guana we moved out into the tongue of the ocean to try our hand at fishing again as we debated where to go next.  Moving in and out of the cuts requires knowledge of the tides and currents - they can shove you through at 10 knots or they can slow you down to 1.5 knots.  The problem is there is no reliable source of the tide situation so you have to pay attention to what’s happening today (or remember what happened yesterday) and make an estimate about what’s going to happen tomorrow.  We easily slid out into the ocean, so we had that one timed right.  We estimated the entrance back to the bank side would be mid-afternoon, so we chose our destination accordingly.  We had no luck with the fishing.

We re-entered the bank side between Long and Norman’s Cay and made our way over to Lobster Cay to anchor.  How could we resist a name like that?  The snorkeling in this area was great, but the current was very strong in some places, and we did a ‘drift dive’ - where you let the current take you and the dinghy you’re tied to - until you’ve had enough.  The problem for me with this is that I am not able to get back into our dinghy from the water.  Dan can, but I don’t have the upper body strength to haul myself over the side of the fatty knees.  So Dan ended up towing me, and I got a great sightseeing tour of the bottom as we made our way to a beach where I could stand up and climb back into the dinghy.  

About this time we realized Dan was developing a small infection on his nose.  Infections of the face are no joke, and his looked like the beginnings of cellulitis to my limited medical experience.  So I called in the big guns - my older sister is a nurse practitioner - and over a video call she agreed with me that Dan needed to be seen by a doctor. 

We hadn’t planned to go to Nassau at all, but this was the only place nearby where we knew there was a walk-in clinic.  So we raised anchor the next day and set out, but ended up turning back to Highborn Cay because it was just a little too rough.  Dan’s nose would have to wait another day.  Our friends Tim and Tawnia from Knot Quitters were here, and we all went out to lunch together at Xuma restaurant.  Here I was excited to spot a Greater Antilles Bullfinch.  It was not in our bird books and I had to do some internet sleuthing to figure out what it was. 

Greater Antilles Bullfinch

Friday (March 10) we made the passage to Nassau, Knot Quitters tagging along for company.  As soon as we anchored, we went ashore to find the walk-in clinic.  It was less than a mile’s walk, along a street that was dedicated to medical facilities.  A big sign pointed to a building, next to a set of steps that led to …  a blank wall.  Hmm.  We stood there for a minute, then continued on to the other side of the building where a locked and guarded door advised everyone to have a seat on one of the plastic chairs lined up under an awning.  A man came to the door, passed Dan a clipboard to fill out and came back to retrieve it a few minutes later.  Then a woman came out to administer a Covid test - standard clinic policy for anyone seeing the doctor - and fifteen minutes after that he was allowed inside. 

Stairs to no where.

Yes, he has cellulitis and they loaded him up with heavy-duty antibiotics and anti-inflammatories and he was good to go.  Returned to the Willie Dawes and ‘enjoyed’ the zoo that is Nassau Harbour.

When you think about all the activity here - giant cruise ships, freighters, pilot boats, tug boats, tour boats, fishing boats, and mega yachts coming and going - all under the official admonishment to “proceed with caution” from the Harbour Control which everyone is required to contact before moving - it’s a wonder they allow people to anchor right in the thick of it.  There are no speed limits and no inclination to do anything about that.  We spent one night there.  And after a quick trip ashore to dump garbage and take advantage of a nearby grocery store, we moved out of there to a semi-quieter spot at Athol Cay.  I say semi-quieter because there is a floating bar here and it’s the weekend.  Tour boats and charters and jetskis are all zipping around here.  It will probably quiet down once the sun goes down.  Tomorrow we plan to move to the Berry Islands.  

Sunset over Nassau

Goodbye George Town

         

One last rum punch at Chat 'n Chill

        On Friday morning we moved from Sand Dollar Beach over to Kidd’s Cove, right in front of George Town, so we could get ashore when the grocery store opened and visit the Farmer’s Market while the good stuff was available.  As it turned out, getting to the store when it opens means it hasn’t yet been stocked, and it seemed to be the same at the Farmer’s Market.  People were there ready to sell but the selection wasn’t available.  However we did get the things we truly needed, and we got a chance to say goodbye to Erica, our favorite seller at the Market.  If you’re ever at the George Town Farmer’s Market, we highly recommend the items at Erica’s table, which range from cabbage to homemade essential oils.  

Dan & Erica

After lunch we moved across the harbor to North Monument Beach, the better to stage our departure on Saturday morning.  It was a long dinghy ride from there to Chat ’n Chill, the cruisers’ hangout, but worth it for one final rum punch.  We also put up our 2023 ball - a hard plastic fishing float we’d salvaged from one of our beach walks - bearing all our names who visited here on the Willie Dawes this year.  Our old one, from 2016, still hangs on the other side of the sign post.   

This morning (Sat, March 4) we bid goodbye to everyone on the ‘departures’ portion of the morning net, and set off to begin our journey northward and eventually back to the US.  We crossed onto the ocean side north of Stocking Island and Dan set up his fishing rods.  A few hours later, just before we crossed back through the Rat Cay cut, a fish took to the bait.  Dan was just getting ready to reel it the lure in and stow it away when he hooked the fish.  It must have a been a good-sized one, because there was no fight.  It just snapped the line and went on its way with our hook.  This is the kind of luck we have fishing.  We can catch ‘em, we just can’t get them back to the boat.  Or it turns out to be a barracuda and we don’t want it.  

Oops... too shallow!

On the bank side of Exuma cays once again, we explored the possible anchorage at Children’s Bay Cay, a beautiful little cove which sported great ratings on Active Captain, but it was much shallower than our chart showed, and we were lucky to get out without mishap.  We continued on, now leery of the depth markings on the chart, and decided to anchor with several other vessels at Lee Stocking Island.  We snorkeled for about an hour - more of an exercise in cooling off than a view, as it was mostly grassy sand - and got out of the water before the bull shark came nosing around in search of food.  It’s pretty lean pickings in here, I doubt that shark found anything.  I’m just glad we were done with our swimming!  

Sunset, Lee Stocking Island

The Jumentos (Ragged Islands)

         We left George Town Harbour on Saturday and made the five and half hour passage down to Water Cay, the first of the Jumentos cays that had a harbor.  Many of this island family are just jagged rocks, some with small pocket beachs and scrubby succulents covering the limestone.  Water Cay is a longish island with three natural coves for anchoring.  We were one of seven cruisers anchored here for our first night.  

Water Cay

We love these islands.  So peaceful and ruggedly beautiful.  The water is exceptionally clear and the snorkeling is outstanding.  Seven years ago we explored the entire chain of islands right down to Duncan Town, a very small community at the very southern tip.  (Only about fifty people live there now, after a couple of hurricanes have moved through, and while they are welcoming to cruisers, they have very little to share.  If you need groceries, it’s best to contact them ahead of time and place an order so they can arrange for your supplies to come on their delivery boat.)  During our visit this time we didn’t make it to Duncan Town, we spent all our time in Water and Flamingo Cays on the northern end of the chain.  

See how clear the water is!

On our second night at Water Cay, Dan went ashore to speak with the local fisherman who were cleaning their catch and came back to the boat with hogfish filets for supper.  We’ve never eater hogfish before - it was delicious!  When we were at Flamingo Cay, Dan speared a lobster.  It was huge and had about three pounds of meat.  Too much for us to keep well, so we made friends with the folks on nearby Sea Seeker, and gave them some of the tail for their lunch.   

Dan's lobster

We spent hours in the water gazing at some of the most beautiful coral we’ve ever seen.  We were a little skittish at Water Cay due to the presence of bull sharks hoping for some fish parts from the on-going fish cleaning ashore, but Flamingo Cay offered shark-free snorkeling.  We saw several new-to-us fish, including a large remora called a sharksucker that hitched a ride on our keel.  It’s an odd looking fish, with ridges on its head that help it attach to sharks (or boats) and this makes it look like it’s swimming upside down when it’s not attached to anything.  

Ocean surgeonfish

                                                                             We also spent a lot of time beach combing.  Dan likes to salvage things from the flotsam and jetsam, and I look for shells and sea beans.  Flamingo Cay was literally strewn with clothes and shoes and backpacks.  It’s not too surprising to find the occasional shirt or flip-flops, but we’ve never seen such a collection of t-shirts and sweatshirts and personal items.  We found lunch bags and books and purses.  Then when we snorkeled, we discovered the remnants of a hand-built ship, and on one of the limestone spits of land, Dan found a crude mast and hand-sewn sail.  We wonder if this was a shipwreck of refugees from Cuba.  Kind of a sobering thought; we hope the people fared better than the boat and all their gear.  

Altogether, we spent five days in the Jumentos.  There is no cell phone coverage and without it we have no internet.  Kind of relaxing on one hand - no need to check the news or go through emails - but on the other hand, we had no way to look at a weather forecast.  We knew today was a good travel day, so we decided to come back to George Town today.  The Jumentos have very little protection from heavy weather and we didn’t want to be caught by surprise.  We’ll be here for a couple of days, then we’ll slowly begin our way north again.