Man-O-War Cay and Little Harbor

We spent a night on Man-O-Way Cay, one of the principal present day locations of ancestors of the Loyalists from the Revolutionary War. Albury Boats have been built here since the early 1950's. They are known as a quality boat sold stateside and the Bahamas. Most are center console 18-23'. We all noticed the residents were not the friendliest lot.....

We then sailed south to Little Harbor, on the south central end of Great Abaco Island. We stopped about 4 miles north and snorkeled on Sandy Cay, a coral reef refuge. Great diving!!


Little Harbor is known for its lost wax casting in bronze art...


The old lighthouse on the island could use a little restorative work....





The Beach below the lighthouse was pretty cool. Allot of caves carved into the limestone shore. Similar to Cave Point, Door County, Wisconsin

Marsh Harbor, Abacos

From Great Guana we sailed south to Marsh Harbor, the largest town in the Abacos. They actually have a supermarket that rivals stateside (except for the prices). We are anchored off of the Marsh Harbor Marina and Jibroom Restaurant/Bar (photo on left), a local sailor's hangout. We had a great baby back ribs meal there Weds. night with new and old boating friends. We actually ran into Chuck and Bonnie Morrell on StarGazer, a Hunter 41 from Sturgeon Bay!! Small world.......


Met a couple from Florida that have been sailing their Catana 401 for the last 7 years. Larry and Bonnie included us in a cocktail gathering on their boat one evening. Nice boat... They're taking off for the BVI's non-stop in the next day or so.

Marsh Harbor is the charter hub for the Abacos. Sunsail and The Moorings both maintain a fleet of boats here. The fleets are larger than I expected.
A big cold front is about to pass through so we are hunkered down with the 22# Delta and Fortress 23 deployed. Hoping to head to the other side of the bay to check out Snappas Grill and Chill tonight..

Great Guana Cay

We sailed from Manjack, through the "Whale" to Great Guana Cay. The "Whale" is a local passage through shallows from the ocean that can create a "rage" with the wind and tides that one doesn't want to mess with. It is named after Whale Cay, located there. In fact, just south of the Whale, Disney Corp dredged out a channel to Great Guana for small cruise ships to land. The beginnings of an amusement park were built on the northern end of Great Guana, but it was soon discovered that even the cruise ships couldn't navigate the "Whale". Disney abandoned the development, but never fear, now another developer is working on a golf course resort and private development with lots starting at $4 Million.... Another story.

We spent three nights on Great Guana anchored off the beach in front of "Grabbers" Bar/restaurant. We had the great privilege of witnessing the annual Barefoot Man Concert at Nippers Bar on the ocean side. See http://www.nippersbar.com/ Basically, the Barefoot Man party is like spring break, only for mostly old farts.... I estimate about 200 boats came to the Cay for the concert. We left before the rum took over the crowd.

The beach in front of Nippers...

I have signed up for a month of way to expensive wifi but it is extremely slow and I am having issues with uploading photos. Every now and then I am able to upload some from the boat but when I get to shore I will add more...

Manjack Cay

We spent a night on Manjack, after an invite from some other boaters to join them for a beach bonfire. After this photo was taken, they showed up with some steak and lobster they grilled on the fire. Freshest lobster we've ever eaten!!

Manjack is a private Island that the owners, being former cruisers allow the boaters access. Great beaches with reefs for snorkeling just offshore. We'll be sure to stop back here when we start to head back...

Green Turtle Cay

We sailed to Green Turtle Cay on Monday to hide from a big cold front that blasted though yesterday. Allot of history here, good shore services (restaurants, groceries, Hardware, etc.). Two great harbors (White and Black Sound), we are in Black Sound nearest the village of New Plymouth.




The downtown is quaint, with allot of buildings constructed around 1860. A big hurricane blasted through here in 1932 that caused allot of Loyalist settlers to relocate to Key West.




Some of the "locals" and an Oceanside beach... Today we are going snorkeling with "Bad Betty", a Coloradoan that has wintered here for a few years.

Spanish Cay, Abacos

Well, we finally made it to the Abacos. Here is the Admiral on the porch of Spanish Cay Marina /Resort ( http://www.spanishcay.com/). This is a private island with an 85 slip marina. There are two boats in the harbor, one being us.

We've had plenty of wind, from the right direction, making for some quick rides.

In West End we met a couple of recent university Grads from England (Jade and Sarah), out cruising on their Bristol 27. A great maturing experience for a couple of great kids.



Here they are exiting West End following us through a scary cut on our way to Great Sale Cay. another quick ride.



We spent two nights on Great Sale Cay and went to the beach treasure hunting one afternoon. We checked out the ruins of an old US Missile tracking station that was built during the Bay of Pigs affair....


Here is kimosabi and Noor anchored in Great Sale Cay.



We then zoomed to Grand Cay on the northern end of the Abacos. That evening we had a great Grouper dinner at Rosie's. The next day we sailed 47 KM in 5 hours to Crab Cay for the night. Les and Barb ended up anchored off of Hawksbill Cay near Foxtown (north of us) and sailed to Green Turtle Cay today. We'll meet up with them later.

West End, Grand Bahama

Well, 14 hours of beating 90 NMiles to go 55 NM, we made it. The last five miles it blew 40, with us reaching onto an unknown shore with a partially flogging main at 12-14 knots in blinding rain. Oh, it was dark too... Thanks goodness for Steve Dodge's excellent description and photos of the entrance. Otherwise we would have had to stand off and wait it out.

We left Lake Worth at 6 am and tied to Old Bahama Bay fuel dock at 8 PM. Lesson learned: when as far North as Lake Worth, winds should be south, not SE.. It was real fun fighting the Gulf Stream.

More later, have to take a shower to wash the salt off. The inside of the boat stayed amazingly dry!!

On Monday we took a bike ride to the village. Ever wonder where conch comes from??

In Palm City/Lake Worth waiting for south winds...

Thursday we "sailed" south in the light north winds (to start with anyway) along the beach to Lake Worth/Palm City. Quick ride, 37 KM in 5 hours. Here's Barb and Les Raduenz on Noor (Green Bay, WI) motoring beside us. The two of us are traveling in tandum to the Abacos.



Morning in Palm City. Spent a peaceful night on the hook. The water is much cleaner here than in Stuart. Forecast lo0ks like Sunday will be our opportunity to cross the Gulfstream.




Went ashore last night at Sailfish Marina Resort. An artsy fest was going on. $3 Beers and $1 conch fritters!! Uhmmmm.

Soft Water!!! (versus frozen that is)

Well, we drove though blizzards, rain, and fog but we made it to Florida. We are now launched and on a mooring in Stuart, waiting for the weather window to sail to West End. As of now it looks like this coming Saturday might work. There are great southerly winds forecast for Weds., but severe thunderstorms are forecast as another cold front is blasting through...


The City of Stuart operates a first class mooring facility with service dock (self-serve) for pumpout, water or general boat cleaning. Access to the downtown is super!!





One road mishap... The trailer spare tire bracket weld failed 40 miles from Stuart. Luckily, no one was hurt or hit as the wheel flew off, some how missing the boat and trailer and all traffic on both the North and South lanes of the Florida Turnpike. Could've been a bad scene......

Still stuck in the Frozen North

Brought the boat home from the marina last week. From the photo, you can see it's hitched to the truck and ready to go. Plan to leave Feb. 4. All that's left is to pack the truck and get out of here...

Waiting to leave the Frozen North

Last year we took kimosabi to Florida on November 4th and brought her home March 10th. We came home for the Holidays and went back January 27th. We launched the boat approximately 24 miles east of Fort Myers, up the Caloosahatchee River at Belle Hatchee Marina in LaBelle. We chose Belle Hatchee because we could launch in fresh water and store our truck and trailer on a weekly/monthly basis while we where cruising and we could also haul and store the boat when we wanted to come home. We cruised back to Belle Hatchee mid-December to haul the boat out and leave it stored there mast up, ready to launch when we returned. Belle Hatchee, the land of Broken dreams...


This photo is of the Admiral and kimosabi in Smokehouse Bay, Marco Island in November. We had to fumeagate the boat because we had a red ant attack. Apparently about 10 milion ants came aboard during our short time in LaBelle before we launched...... So we spent a few hours cruising around while the bug bomb did its thing.

In February we met up with Fellow Fboat friends from Wisconsin. Here we all are rafted off (again in Smokehouse Bay, Marco Island) on our way to Marathon. Two boats are F-31s and the larger one is an F-39 (not what you would call trailerable - actually, it is, but in pieces on more than on trailer).

From Marco we headed south, stopping at Shark River. Here we did a dinghy cruise up the river...

Later, we found our dream boat in Key Largo...

More later, I'm sure...

Preparations for our 2008 Bahamas Cruise

Grundig Yacht Boy 400 PE AM/FM/SW/SSB receiver to obtain weather forecasts. EBay Acquisition...


Solar "anchor lights" to augment our Davis anchor light. the more the better... $8.99 for six on closeout at Lowes...


kimosabi has a "large" water tank at 18 gallons. Believe it our not, when cruising we can last 4 days on this tank. 3 Additional 5 gallon jugs...

Finally, we have added a Waeco CoolFreeze CF-50 cooler/refrigerator. See: http://www.waecousa.com/page.aspx?p=CF-50

This required the addition of an additional "power plant". Last year we upgraded our two ten watt solar panels with a Kyocera 65 watt panel. We found we averaged 15 amps restoration to our two group 27 AGM batteries per day. Because the Waeco uses 14-21 amps per day, we have added a second Kyocera 65 watt solar panel. When at anchor the panels can be placed on 1" "T" tubes locked in the unused stanchion bases on the amas for maximum solar exposure. When underway, one is stored on top of the companionway storm hood using deck mount hinges and pull pins. The additional one will be mounted on the radar tower using the gudgeons for the Garhauer motor lift...

About the kimosabi and crew

This is the trimaran kimosabi sailing off Fish Creek in Door County, Wisconsin. She is an F-31 Corsair folding, trailerable trimaran owned by Admiral Cathie and Captain Phil of Sturgeon Bay, WI, USA.





Although she has small accommodation for a 31 foot sailboat, we have equipped her as comfortably as possible to cruise.





We designed and built a dodger with bimini and full enclosure for additional space while cruising.





In November of 2006 we trailered to Florida, launching up the Caloosahatchee River and cruised for 6 weeks. Here we are arriving at Belle Hatchee Marina in LaBelle.




Here she is docked at Everglades City in March, 2007. We spent three months aboard cruising south Florida in winter of 2006-2007. We sailed from Sarasota, cruising the Florida Bay down to Marathon, and sailed up the Atlantic cost as far as Boca Chita Key then back through Florida Bay, up the Gulf Coast and then back up the Caloosahatchee River to La Belle before trailering home in March.
Here's the Admiral Cruising down the Hawk Channel south of Key Largo at 15 knots.

Then there is the Captain driving a little slower...

More later...