Bahamas Cruise to Abacos

[kasmith21]

Well...I just had the antenna and radio checked by the local marine electrician here and the verdict is the antenna and wiring is fine....but my new standard Horizon radio is broken (and by broken I mean not receiving or transmitting anywhere near it should be).
Thank goodness I have the portable vhf but it only receives and transmits about 5 miles. I just bought the the gx1700 at west marine in December and it was working fine...to say im dissapointed is an understatement and trying to get a new radio will be fun over here...maybe in marsh harbour?
Anyhow...the trial and tribulations of sailing in the bahamas.
I do have a ssb receiver radio but cant pick up Chris (it is manual tuner model...in hindsight I should have probably gotten a sony or digital one). The good news is that I am getting decent internet here and forecasts.
Sum- What station are you picking up Chris forecasts on?


Take care
Kevin

[Chinook]

Before you trash that old VHF radio, be sure to check its connections with the battery, including the wiring. Make sure you don't have a voltage loss anywhere in that connection. If you do, you'll transmit fine at low power, and will receive as well, but it won't transmit at high power. Wouldn't surprise me if voltage loss would reduce reception range as well.

[Sumner]

....Sum- What station are you picking up Chris forecasts on? Kevin

4045 and 8137. Don't know for sure where the 'dot' goes in those numbers? Bahama report usually starts between 6:30 and 7:00 after the Caribbean. He doesn't broadcast on Sundays. It is USB but you probably knew that.

Sumner

[kasmith21]

Quick update on our progress.
On Friday May 29 we headed over to Double Breasted Cay. Double Breasted Cay is a short 4 miles from Little Grand Cay. Wind was blowing right on our nose so we ended up motoring the short distance. We arrived just after 1pm. It is a bit of a tricky entrance from the north into the anchorage...but it is a beautiful tranquil little island. We literally pulled the boat right up on the secluded beach. Double Breasted is like a series of sandbars that stretch nearly a quarter of a mile at low tide. I did some fishing that nite in the dinghy and caught 4 or 5 good sized grunts that we bbq. After discarding the fish heads in the channel I was amazed how fast the sharks came in. Within 10 minutes there were a half a dozen sharks circling the boat (mostly nurse sharks but there was one 4 ft blacktip) and we were in no more than 3 feet of water.
Next morning we took to the dinghy and explored the area a little more and did some snorkelling. I found this place to be fascinating but the current is very strong through the cuts that lead into the anchorage.
I could have spent at least another day here, but we wanted to make up some time so we left about 2 pm Saturday. We headed south east and arrived in Carter's Cay at about 6pm. Waves again were pretty much on our nose. We tried the sails but it really didnt make much sense. I had a couple of rigged ballyhoo that I needed to use up (we have limited fridge space and bait apparently isnt a priority). Within 5 minutes of trolling with the ballyhoo I had a good hit....I had it on for about 30 seconds but lost it. I put the second ballyhoo on and 10 minutes later I had another strike. It turned out to be about a 3ft barracuda. The banks in the northern abacos seem to loaded with Barracudas and they are pretty aggessive. I caught 2 more on our ride down to Carter's Cay that afternoon.
Carter's Cay is really nothing special. No beach to speak of...The winds were very light on Saturday and the noseeums came out at sundown and really kinda of spoiled an otherwise quite and serene evening.

Next morning ...which was Sunday we headed down to Allan's Pensacola Cay. We stopped on our way down and visited Maraine Cay. Moraine Cay is a pretty little island with a 3 houses on it (2 of them seem to be under construcition). We spent about 3 hours at Moraine Cay (did a little fishing around this idyllic island ...albeit unsuccessfully). We had a dolphin follow us around for bit as we left the harbour and made our short trip to Allens Pensacola. Allans Pensacola is the first anchorage where we started seeing more boat traffic. There were 5 other boats in the anchorage on Sunday. Allan's Pensacola is an interesting little island. There are some ruins of an old US missile tracking facility located on the island. The beach is small but we had a nice swim in the anchorage and managed to get the hatch nets up before the noseeums came to visit.

On Monday we continued our Trek south to Manjack Cay. Another pretty island with bigger beaches and again more boats (about 8 in our anchorage). I was able to catch dinner...another 4 decent sized grunts right from anchorage...didnt have to use the dinghy.
Today (Tuesday), we motored down to Green Turtle Cay and are staying at Bluff House Marina for the next couple of nites. Our dinghy acquired a tear in the seam right at the bow floor (about 3 inches in length) and I need to see if I can get it fixed. Finding PVC glue at Green Turtle Cay is probably not likely. I do have a cheap PVC repair kit but I am not sure if it is up to the job....I do have some 5200 that I could also try...suggestions welcome?
Green Turtle has 4 or 5 decent size marinas. The Bluff House is a nice facility with newer docks and excellent bathrooms. Rates our 1.50 per ft which is half of what we paid at Old Bahama Bay at West End ...and frankly this place is much nicer in my opinion.
Our plan is to wait out the rain for the next 2 days ...maybe rent a golf cart and see the island while the dinghy is getting repaired and then head to Treasure Cay on Friday. All and all it has been a fantastic trip so far. The boat has worked great and we have been able to get into some great anchorages that bigger boats just cant get too. We have yet to see smaller cruising boat than ours. It's tight for space but we are managing fine and seeing the same places that the 40 and 50 footers are seeing...but at a fraction of the cost.
Will try to get the admiral to post some pictures to her blog tommorrow
cheers from Green Turtle Cay bahamas
Kevin


Monday was the first day that we actually had a chance to do a little sailing (only for about an hour) but at least we made some progress under wind in the right direction. To this point it has been primarily the motor getting us around. We headed on d

[bahama bound]

How are you doing on fuel ?

[Chinook]

Hi Kevin,

Regarding barracuda, I found I could almost use them as depth finders, at least in terms of knowing when I'd crossed the 100 foot contour. Nearly every time I tried trolling in water less than 100 feet deep, I'd start picking up barracuda. I did have a lot of fun one afternoon at Allans-Pensacola casting from shore with small spoons over a shallow turtle grass bed. The action was great on small 1 to 2 foot long 'cudas. I lost several lures before switching to wire leader though. I released them all, believing that barracuda weren't safe to eat. I talked with a local there who said that the little ones have no toxin in them, just the larger ones who feed on the reef fish. Small barracuda are supposedly excellent eating, although I didn't get a chance to try them out, because after I acquired this new information I couldn't coax them into biting anymore.

Good luck with repairing your dinghy. I fear that it will be difficult to accomplish. How far east do you plan to go? If you're going all the way to Marsh Harbour or Hopetown, you might consider taking the direct route over the shallow banks, instead of exiting through The Whale cut. If weather/current conditions outside are unfavorable, we found the shallow route doable under power, with minimum depths of 4 to 5 feet, and 8 feet or so most of the way. Scary water for keel boats and trawlers, but a place made to order for Macs.

[kasmith21]

Greetings Bahama bound...
fuel is definitely more expensive over here. We paid $6.00 a gallon in Grand Cay if you can believe it. I used 12 gallons on the gulf stream crossing and aproximately 16 gallons since then. I have a honda 50 on the mac and i have been running it between 2500 and 3500 rpm most time. I had the engine tuned up and completely serviced before we left. I also had the mechanic provide a kit of spare parts. The engine has run great...maybe not as fuel efficient as the etec or suzuki but it has been very reliable. I also purchased a rancor water separation funnel in the states. I have heard that in some of the more remote bahama marinas you can run into fuel quality issues, so we run all fuel through the funnel when getting gas over here....slows the fueling process up but is peace of mind.
Cheers
kevin

[kasmith21]

Hi Chinook,
Thanks for the info on Whale Cay. I was thinking of staying on the inside as you suggest, but it is reassuring to hear it from someone else who has done that. Our plan is head down to Treasure Cay on Thurs or Friday. Right now we are happy to be in the marina as we are getting a major rainstorm (it is really coming down and it is suppose to be like this all day).
That is a good tip about the barracuda. I have only been able to catch larger ones, but I had heard the same thing about the smaller ones actually being pretty good to eat. I have a couple of small silver spoons in my tackle box and a light spin cast outfit that I have not had a chance to use (I will give that a try later this week hopefully. At Manjack Cay we saw a lot of small barracuda cruising the shoreline...that would have been a good place to give that technique a try.
We are stuck here today at the slip with this rain. I am going to give the dinghy repair a shot this afternoon. I have some PVC tape (something called 'Tear Aid') that I purchased in Canada as well as one of those cheap inflatable boat repair kits (with the tube of glue and a couple pieces of material). I will give them both a try and see what happens. The separation is pretty small so I am keeping my fingers crossed it will work. The guys here at the Bluff House Marina have been pretty helpful and said I can use their marina storage room to do the repair out of the rain. I will let you know how I make out with the repair.
Cheers
Kevin

[kasmith21]

well after three and a half weeks in the Bahamas we are safely back home in Toronto. We had an excellent crossing back to Florida on Tuesday. Winds were about 10 miles per hour from the east and we motored the whole way across running about 7 miles per hour which took us about 10 hour to cross. Had a friendly visit by the US Coast Guard along the way.
We hope to have some updates and new pictures on our website over the next several days if you're interested in learning a little more about the trip.
Generally it was a great adventure and well worth the investment in time and planning.
The boat held up to my expectations and provided excellent flexibility with the shallow anchorages that are very common in the Abacos. In summary we travelled aproximately 420 miles by boat and 2200 miles by truck. We motored appoximately 70 percent of the time which was required since we were on a tight time frame. We fished, snorkelled and hiked our way through 13 islands in the abacos. We met incredibly friendly and interesting people and experianced stunningly beutiful beaches and waters. Two thumbs up to the Abacos.
Cheers
kevin

[Chinook]

Hi Kevin,

Congrats on the successful completion of your cruise through the Abacos. Did you end up going "inside" instead of transiting The Whale? Any fishing success on the way home? Now you have great memories and pictures to tide you over until your next chance to explore the Bahamas. Perhaps the Exumas will be in your future. I'll look forward to viewing updates and pictures when you get them posted.

[dlandersson]

Kudos for doing something still on my "bucket list".

well after three and a half weeks in the Bahamas we are safely back home in Toronto. We had an excellent crossing back to Florida on Tuesday. Winds were about 10 miles per hour from the east and we motored the whole way across running about 7 miles per hour which took us about 10 hour to cross. Had a friendly visit by the US Coast Guard along the way.
We hope to have some updates and new pictures on our website over the next several days if you're interested in learning a little more about the trip.
Generally it was a great adventure and well worth the investment in time and planning.
The boat held up to my expectations and provided excellent flexibility with the shallow anchorages that are very common in the Abacos. In summary we travelled aproximately 420 miles by boat and 2200 miles by truck. We motored appoximately 70 percent of the time which was required since we were on a tight time frame. We fished, snorkelled and hiked our way through 13 islands in the abacos. We met incredibly friendly and interesting people and experianced stunningly beutiful beaches and waters. Two thumbs up to the Abacos.
Cheers
kevin

[Sumner]

Congrats on the trip. Sounds like you had a great time and that is what it is all about.

Was the Coast Guard boat a larger one with a gun on the foredeck? About 2/3's of the way across the Stream I had one come up over the horizon to me from the SW and then they turned parallel to me a couple hundred yards off for a couple minutes and then steamed back over the horizon to the SE. They never boarded.

I was using the small boaters program where I just had to call in once in Florida and didn't have to check-in ashore. That worked well and I"m glad I took the time to do it before the trip.

Do you guys think you will be going back? I hope to next winter/spring but with the Endeavour this time. I think I'm getting too old to be on the Mac for 3 months at a time ,

Sumner

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Our MacGregor 26-S

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

[kasmith21]

Hi Chinook
We took your advice and ended up going taking the 'inside passage' to avoid going outside on the Atlantic for the Whale passage. We made sure it was high tide and followed the charts closely…but we ended up having plenty of depth to work with.

The dinghy patch held up good…but by the end of the trip, other parts of the floor started to give way. Im afraid the dinghy is ready for retirement but it did serve its purpose for the trip. I have a Brig dinghy with fiberglass floor in the garage at home but it frankly just weighs too much and would be too hard to move up on deck. Im not comfortable towing a dinghy across the stream although I know some people do it successfully. The inflatable we used with the air floor weighed apron 50lbs and was very manageable and ideal for our kind of boat on a trip like this. (unless you have some sort of davit arrangement).

Yours and Sum's advice about anchoring was very helpful and bang on. The 25 ft of chain on my Bruce anchor worked beautifully and not once did I have any issues with dragging. On a few exceptionally windy nights I did run a second anchor to be safe.

Cheers
Kevin

[kasmith21]

Hi Sum,
The coast guard boat was a larger one and did have a gun on the foredeck. We were buzzed by a coast guard plane an hour earlier and then the boat appeared from the North east. I hailed the boat on the radio and asked them if they were looking to board. They proceeded to ask me about a half a dozen questions about citizenship, boat registration, destination etc and then thanked me for my co-operation and steamed off. They were polite and cordial and wished us a good crossing.

As a Canadian we could not use the small boaters program. We called into customs on our arrival and received an arrival # from which we had 24 hours to visit a customs office and officially clear. Next morning we headed down to the cruise terminal only to find that there were 20 people in line and a single officer that did not seem very interested in getting anyone cleared in an expedient manner (there were people that were waiting for over an hour and still had 15 people ahead of him). After waiting around for an 45 minutes and seeing no progress in the line, we decided to head up to West Palm airport and cleared in 5 minutes once we got there. If I was a US citizen I definitely would use the 'small boaters program'.

Unfortunately I won't be heading back to the Bahamas for a few years probably. It was a great trip but unfortunately my work does not allow me to take 4 weeks off every year

I really enjoyed taking the Mac to the Bahamas, but the Admiral has said that she would prefer a larger boat if we did it again (she grew up as a power boater so it has taken awhile to get her converted to sailing on a smaller boat). That being said I think your Endeavor would be a very comfortable boat to ply those waters with.
Thanks again Sum for all your suggestions and answers during my preparation. You and Chinook both inspired me to take this trip and for that I am indebted to both of you
If your travels ever take you to the Toronto/lake Ontario, I would welcome the opportunity to meet up with you gents.
Cheers
Kevin

[Chinook]

Dinghy is a pretty critical piece of gear on an extended cruise, and worth having something that's reliable and manageable. The inflatables seem to trail quite well, but I know how easily dinghies can get into trouble, so am a firm believer in deflating and stowing for any open water crossing. We don't expect to get to Toronto proper, however next summer we do intend on transiting the Trent-Severn Waterway, which passes a modest distance north of Toronto. You can follow our progress on our website. Maybe you could meet up with us for a canal wall party, or maybe cruise along part of the way through the canal. It would be fun to swap Abaco stories.