5/8/21

 Happy Mother's Day tomorrow!  

We really switched things up since the last post.  

Persephone was in Fernandina Beach, FL for a couple of days before heading up to Charleston, SC.  The wind was from all different directions and barely enough to sail.  We arrived in Charleston and then took a route we never take - the ICW!  Only 50 miles or so from Charleston to Georgetown, SC.  Donna and Jerry on Bluejacket were a day ahead and we caught up with them in Georgetown.  I was able to schedule Covid vaccines for all of us in Georgetown!  Thank you South Carolina for allowing out-of-state residents to be vaccinated.

From Georgetown, SC back to the ocean for another short weather window to Beaufort, NC.  All southerly winds all the way to Donna and Jerry's place in Oriental on Broad Creek.  This is where I got off the boat.  My brother-in-law Tom (Susan's husband) drove 15 hours to Oriental on a Friday for a sailing adventure starting Saturday around Cape Hatteras to NY with Jerry.  This was really Tom's first long-distance sailing opportunity.  He sailed aboard a big Bermuda Sloop - The Spirit of Bermuda a couple of years ago from Maine.  The sailing ship was intending to sail to Bermuda but because of tropical disturbances near Bermuda (Jerry and Karen - really! those were the storms/hurricanes) and some problems with the ship Tom had to get off the boat in Newport, RI.  Jerry and Karen owed Tom a sailing opportunity on the Atlantic Ocean!

Tom and I at Donna and Jerry's in Oriental, NC.  

 I drove Tom's car back to New York to help out at my parents place while the guys sailed north.  

Thanks to Tom's Facebook page, I was able to find some pictures to post from their journey.

Saturday morning at the Bean in Oriental with Donna, Jerry, Tom and Jerry.

Persephone leaves Oriental headed for Beaufort and the Atlantic Ocean.  This is the first time Persephone has ever left for an ocean voyage without me on board!  What a strange feeling watching your home sail off.

Persephone's track from Oriental, NC to Sandy Hook, NJ

Tom's picture of Persephone at sea.

A tug at sea.

Tom takes a picture of Jerry in the cockpit out on the ocean.

Looking back on the Newburgh Bridge on the Hudson River.

Motoring on the Hudson River.

Thanks, Tom, for taking pictures!  Another shot along the Hudson River.

Here are some pictures from my land trip - after visiting with Jerry and Donna I spent the night in NC with my cousin Georgette and left early Sunday morning.  First stop - the Dismal Swamp Welcome Center south of Norfolk to meet my friend Kari's daughter Haley & fiancee Matt.  Persephone - rum runner.

Matt and Haley. Great to meet Matt and transport rum and hugs from Kari in St. Thomas.

Next stop - Kim's in Charlottesville, VA for lunch.  Kim and my sister Susan were best of friends in high school, roomed together for a while near Richmond years ago, and stay in touch.  I had the opportunity to meet Kim's husband Adam, have lunch, catch up on 20 years and relax for a bit before getting back on the road.  Thanks Kim!

Me and Kim

I figured I'd drive until dinner time and find a place to stay.  After stopping at a hotel and finding out how expensive a room is and realizing how cheap I am, I found a campsite in Falling Waters, WV and pulled over for the night.  By chance my nephew Owen had a sleeping mat in the car.  Perfect!

My "camp" - no, not the tent - the black station wagon back in the trees.

Although our arrival in New York State was sunny and fairly warm at first it sure took a turn yesterday!  Rain and 50 degrees or so for the high.  We'll begin our projects on the boat and on land dreaming of sunshine, sandy beaches, and toes in the sand.  Sure hope to catch up with everyone while we're in New York for the summer!

4/20/21

4/20/21  

From Hog Cay in the Ragged Islands to Long Island to Georgetown we snorkeled, walked the beaches, kayaked, and gave Susan a glimpse of what the Bahamas has to offer.

Susan at the helm with her hands on what we refer to as  "the towel rack".  We almost always use the autopilot instead of the wheel.

Susan finds a treasure on the beach on Buena Vista Cay.

For some reason I can't get the video pasted here in the blog - to see Persephone sailing to Water Cay click here: Video of Persephone Sailing to Water Cay

The sail from Buena Vista Cay to Water Cay at the "top" of the Jumentos was rather brisk!

The next day we sailed from Water Cay, along an area of shallow water known as the Comer Channel, and then we tacked back and forth to arrive in Thompson Bay/Salt Pond on Long Island.

Another video of Persephone Sailing Comer Channel, click here: Persephone Sailing Comer Channel

Jerry left Susan and I to do the tacking after the Comer Channel.  He had been captaining since 4 am and decided to take a tacking video and then a power nap.

Susan and Karen are the tack team on our way to Thompson Bay, Long Island.  We haven't started the motor in weeks!

Do you know what one of our favorite things to do on Long Island is?  Walking north on the road up to electric pole #108 and taking the trail to the beach.

Long Island - I'm testing the waters.  About 79 degrees.

Looking out across a tire from the beach on Long Island.

Sea Oats, Clouds, Water, Sand.

Susan up on the rocks on the beach.

Another highlight of Long Island not far from our anchorage is the cave.

Yes - when you walk far enough into the cave (with a flashlight) it is totally dark and there are hundreds of bats clinging to the walls and flying around.

One of Susan's pictures of the moon coming up over Long Island at Thompson Bay.

Then, on to Georgetown..........

Sailing west towards Georgetown.  Yes!  Downwind!

Jerry looks out over the anchorage at Monument Beach..the town of Georgetown on the other side of the bay.

Me and my Sista'!  Monument Beach

Donna and Jerry arrive just in time for my birthday.  Susan made pineapple upside down cake!

Donna and Jerry arrived in time for my birthday and in time to say goodbye to Susan.  Sadly, we lost our crew in Georgetown when Susan flew back to Maine after tolerating living aboard and us onboard for 6 weeks!

One last silly video of the three of us at sunset........

From Georgetown we quickly made our way up the Exumas and then to Royal Island and Spanish Wells.  We decided to take a weather window to Florida from Spanish Wells and we had to clear out.

The fancy customs office on Spanish Wells where we wait for paperwork with Donna and Jerry.

Jerry masked up to head to shore at Spanish Wells.

One of the many flower lined houses at Spanish Wells.

Look at the size of that double scoop!  Enough ice cream to get me to FL!

Our sail to Fort Pierce, FL was great!  We were able to sail the whole way with winds on the beam or behind us.  It was a quick stop, anchored near the inlet, our friends Dale and Roni drove up to have lunch, and then we were on our way again.  This time the sail wasn't so great - variable winds in every direction, the motor running to keep moving when the winds were light, off and on rain, we pulled into the St. John's River (Jacksonville).  After a short night, we anchored at 1 am and left the next morning at 7 am, we made the last hop in FL to Fernandina Beach on the FL/GA border.

Donna and Jerry rented a car and we had the opportunity to ride with them to Conor and Stephanie's place in Atlantic Beach.  (Conor and Stephanie - the couple that got married last year in on Double Breasted Cay in the Ragged Islands!).  And Toby!  The schnoodle you see Donna holding.  Our friends Chris, Amy and Andrew live only a few blocks from Conor and Stephanie and we all got together for dinner.

Jerry, Donna, Toby, Karen, Jerry, Conor, Stephanie, Andrew, Chris

We brought the food, they had their grill going - a wonderful evening!

So, here I am at the public library in Fernandina Beach, just like in old days, searching for a place to get on the internet and update this blog!  Donna and Jerry left this morning for a mostly motor/some sail up to Charleston or Georgetown, SC while we wait for the next window that allows us to sail.  It's still April and the cold fronts and weather systems blast off the east coast every 3 or 4 days.  Looks like we'll have to do some 24 hour hops to make tracks north.

3/24/21

 From St Thomas to Great Inagua, Bahamas to Hog Cay, Bahamas......

Susan and Jerry in the cockpit of Persephone as we sail along....

The downwind sail from St Thomas to Great Inagua went by in a flash with 3 people on board to do watches.  Susan easily adjusted to the big swells and wind on the stern and the motion of the boat - her first time ocean sailing.  The only thing that bothered her was not being able to see at night, trying to see what was ahead during her watch.  There was no moon, only the stars to light the sky and the bioluminescence along the hull as we sliced through the water.  The few ships encountered were a long way off and showed up on the AIS screen on the chart plotter.  

In the 3 1/2 day sail Jerry caught a tuna and a mahi.  Can you see the mahi jumping?

Are we there yet Captain?

Land Ho!  Great Inagua in sight!

Most of The Bahamas are hard to spot as they hardly stick out of the water.  Great Inagua has a light house.  

Approaching Great Inagua

Lighthouse at Great Inagua

The anchorage off the government basin is very rolly with the sea swells coming in.  We launched the dinghy to come into the basin to clear in.  Being a Sunday, we found no government offices were open.  We did find that we could bring Persephone in and tie to a government pier for $10 a night which would be better than staying at anchor overnight to clear in the next day.

The government basin with the mail boat at the dock unloading and another sailboat nearby.

Our Monday morning started by learning that customs is using an online Click2Clear system for anyone checking in.  We were amazed at the number of sailboats that showed up to clear in coming from Cuba, Jamaica, Dominican Republic!  Great Inagua is usually a very sleepy port with few arrivals per month.  The friendly customs officer came to the government basin to help everyone navigate the online pages required.  The immigration officer arrived as well with papers to fill out.  Our Covid test results from St Thomas were logged and we were able to have the 2nd required Covid test here at the clinic right next to the government basin.  Sheena, the aliv cell phone company representative, met everyone at the dock as well.  We bought a mifi plan to be able to log in to record our required week of daily health surveys for Covid and to be able to update the blog.

After leaving the government basin we rounded the corner and anchored at Man-O-War Bay passing the Morton Salt facility on the way.

A ship waits at the dock at the Morton Salt Company.

Here are some pictures we took from our walk north on Great Inagua to Alfred Sound.
 

A keel and prop shaft from a boat wreck.

A piece of fiberglass hull from a boat wreck.

Susan inspects the engine from the boat wreck.

Jerry inspects what we figure was the fuel tank from the boat wreck.

There are a couple of new cottages here on the beach at Alfred Sound.  Someone with a sense of humor hung this sign next to the door.

Maybe you'd like to rent a cottage on Alfred Sound?  Beautiful views, warm weather, remote.

While anchored at Man-O-War we had to opportunity to snorkel.  Here's Jerry with a lobster on his spear.

Jerry swimming with a lobster on his spear.

It was a long way to swim to the dinghy!  He tries to keep the lobster out of the water to avoid having to share it with the opportunists that may be nearby.  Here's a video of the same - getting a lobster is work!

Jerry's lobster!

One last video - a silly happy birthday song for Jerry, chocolate cake with ice cream from the freezer!  Here's how to keep ice cream in Persephone's new freezer - put the ice cream in a zip lock, press it flat and put it against the freezer box.  First time ever for ice cream on Persephone!

Susan enjoys paradise - chocolate cake, wine and the sunset.

Our next stop in The Bahamas: Hog Cay, part of the Ragged Islands where we spent most of our season last year.

A couple more mahi onboard..

Susan is the first to spot Ragged Island and hollers "Land Ho!" per Captain's instructions.

We anchored next to our friends Jerry and Donna on Bluejacket at Hog Cay.  Dinners together, games, sunset drinks at the "yacht club" with the other boaters who came in, hiking, snorkeling, kayaking, reading....life at Hog Cay.

Donna, Jerry, Jerry, Karen and Susan the photographer awaiting sunset before dinner aboard Persephone.

From the cave on Hog Cay looking to the west.

Susan on top of the world on Hog Cay hike.

The shoreline at Hog Cay.

Susan, the photographer, enjoying a morning paddle.

Sunrise around the corner from where we're anchored.

Sand dollar on the bottom in clear water.

How many crabs and lizards to make these tracks!  The only road or highway on Hog Cay.

Sea grapes almost ready to pick.  Once ripe they are tasty and tart with a chewy skin.

Sea ray from kayak

Around the corner from where we're anchored - just before sunrise.

Susan and I have spent hours every day hiking along Hog Cay.

A view of Hog Cay from the northern end.

Susan searches for treasures.

Susan and I search for glass floats in the dunes behind the beach.  We really searched, digging through piles of debris, looking under trees, sometimes crawling on hands and knees, pushing our way through shrubs and branches....

Another view by kayak

Lots of plastic trash and shoes on the beach

At the south end of Hog Cay - we've been marking "Baby Head Trail" for many years.

The new baby head trail marker on lower right.

Possibly a home made pull toy from Haiti?  When you don't have money to buy toys make your own.

The axles really turn - even after the ocean voyage to the beach.

Resourceful.  Clever.  

One of the resident nurse sharks here (we named it Florence) "walked" along the beach with us.  Felt like we were taking the dog for a walk.  I couldn't get the video to load on this page but you can watch it on YouTube while I try to figure out why it won't work here.  Nurse Shark Video

Persephone at anchor at Hog Cay.

Our plans are to head up the Ragged Islands/Jumentos making our way to Georgetown where Susan will fly back to Maine.  What a treat to have so much time to spend with my sister!  Lucky!