DISMAL SWAMP

On and on, we are heading north on the ICW. It is 1014 miles from Palm Beach to Norfolk, VA, and at an average of 53 miles/day we will have completed the entire length in 19 days. We stayed at many beautiful anchoring spots and a few marinas along the way. All along the way, tides were of great concern because of shallow spots at low tide, but with another boat to follow, we did not go aground.

The final day, and the last 22 miles in North Carolina/Virginia, was the Dismal Swamp Canal, the oldest continually operating hand-dug waterway in the country. One of the first investors was George Washington. Digging by hired slave labor, digging began in 1793 and first opened in 1805. Today it is open for boaters interested in seeing the magnificent countryside of the cypress swamp. Locks at both ends lift you the 8 feet to the level of the swamp.



Unfortunately, a 65 ft sportfish traveled the canal the day before us at high speed leaving a huge wake. The bottom debris was so disturbed that every boat since complained of bumping logs and bent props. The sound of submerged logs hitting the hull was like a tennis shoe in a clothes dryer. With much relief and no damage we tied up in Portsmouth and had martinis on Duet.

Departing Portsmouth/Norfolk we passed the BigE, the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, and the George HW Bush, one the the newest aircraft carriers.

We are now heading up the Chesapeake, saying good-bye to our friends on Duet and are within days of returning home.

ICW

We are still traveling with a Duet, a Selene 43, on their way up the ICW to the Chesapeake for the summer. This was their 13th annual migration to Florida and back.

When we bought Phantom, it was also named Duet and was also based in the Chesapeake. Since both traveled annually to and from the same places, many people had them confused. By changing the name to Phantom we solved their problem.







Beaufort (BEAU-fert) is a beautiful waterfront city in central South Carolina. It was a welcome stop after a couple of long days through Georgia swamplands. After a leisurely walk about town we had dinner at a pizza restaurant and found out it was the local prom nite.






Osprey nest are all along the ICW.

The ICW passes through the Marines Camp LeJeune. The welcome sign.

GULF STREAM and ICW

We left the shallow waters of the Southern Bahamas and arrived at Sunrise Marina in Grand Bahama. It is a nice little Marina located near Freeport. We were only one of 6 boats there. At $30/day plus $7/day for all the water we wanted it was a good deal for us.

We left the marina at dawn on May 6th and crossed the Gulf Stream heading for North Palm Beach, Florida. The Gulf Stream current gave us a push north so we made the trip in under 11 hrs on calm seas. I couldn’t tell we were in the Gulf Stream unless I looked at the speed gauge. This major hurdle in our return home was totally and pleasantly uneventful except as we entered the Lake Worth channel a passing thunderstorm welcomed us back to the States. We took a slip at Old Port Marina where we met with Nordhavn Specialists and picked up marine supplies. There were several other Nordhavns at the marina having work done. It gave us an opportunity to meet other owners and compare notes and stories.

We stopped at Titusville to watch the shuttle Atlantis blast off. It was spectacular to watch.

Palm Beach, FL

On our way north on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) we stopped in Matanzas (near the condo Summerhouse where we spent many winters), Jacksonville, Ortega on the St John River and at Fernandina Beach the most northern city in Florida. We have chosen to travel in the ICW despite the shallow and narrow spots because of the beautiful scenery and the sightseeing. The ocean route is faster but there is nothing to see. In Fernandina Beach we met a veteran traveler who had a boat similar to ours and said that he was going north on the ICW and the scenery is not to be missed. So we are traveling with Duet at least to Charleston SC. Duet was also the previous name for Phantom when we bought her. During the past two days, we have completed the ICW through Georgia including Cumberland Island, Jekyll Island, Simons Island and Tybee Island, all popular vacationing destinations. We have just passed Savannah and are close to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.


The ICW in Georgia and Sunrise in New Teakettle Creek

ATLANTIS

This is the second post tittled Atlantis. This one is the 32nd and final shuttle launch of Atlantis as seen from Phantom on Friday May 14 at 2:20 pm. Awesome.

EXUMAS to ATLANTIS

Our visit to the Exuma Land and Sea Park continues with visits to Warderick Wells and Shroud Cay. Warderick Wells is the most popular spot in the park for boaters with waiting lists for moorings. We were lucky and got a good spot and stayed several days. Hiking, snorkeling and the scenic beauty are outstanding in this park and will long be remembered.

Our next stop north was Normans Cay, This island won imfamy as the base of Columbian drug runner, Carlos Leder, back in the 1970's. The old airstrip is now used for tourists and his bullet ridden house is in ruins.

We could not go past Nassau without an overnight at Atlantis. This is a massive waterpark and aquarium and casino all in one. The fish were nice but we enjoyed the real thing snorkeling in the BVI better. After a long dip in a nearly empty pool next to our boat slip and a restfull night we are now heading for the Berry Islands.

Don an Dayle

EXUMA PARK

We left Big Majors Spot not knowing where we’d end up that night. We were looking for a quiet calm anchorage and found it at Cambridge Cay inside the Exuma Land and Sea Park. The anchorage here at Cambridge Cay is one of the loveliest spots we’ve encountered in the last five months. We are anchored in 12 ft and the bottom sand looks like it is only one ft deep.

After dropping the hook we dinghied over to a snorkeling spot called the Aquarium. The fish were waiting for us at the little pick-up ball. This area is reported to have some of the clearest water in the world and we believe it. We swam around multiple coral heads covered with healthy elkhorn, brain coral, sponges and sea fans. The Exuma Park is a “no take” zone allowing the native wildlife safe haven and replenishment.

STANIEL CAY - EXUMAS

Eight days in Georgetown enabled us to see town (a 30 min walk), shop for tee shirts (one store), groceries, and the beach where all the cruisers meet for volleyball and their daily potluck happy hours. I would not want to spend several months there as some do.

Finally, the 30 knot winds let up and we headed north to Little Farmer’s Cay. The water depths on the Bahamas Banks are under 10 feet and our route took us over some 7 ft spots (that is a mere 18 inches under the keel). We anchored just inside a “cut” that separates the deep Atlantic and the shallow banks. A strong current develops in these cuts as all the tidal water on the banks flows “off the shelf” so to speak. We needed two anchors and rotated all night with each tide change.

Yesterday, we traveled just 3 hours to Staniel Cay, spot of the renowned Thunderball Grotto, a spectacular skylit underwater cave featured in the James Bond movie. This was our first good snorkeling spot since the BVI and we went prepared for the fish with Alpo nuggets in a ziplock. The fish were plentiful and encircled us waiting for the handouts. They did not wait patiently as they acted like piranhas chomping the ziplock to shreds. We took underwater photos but cannot get the film developed until we are back in the States.

We traveled just 2 miles to Big Majors Spot and Pig Beach. As you approach the beach in your dinghy, pigs swim out begging for handouts. We may go back and empty the snack locker of some old stale Oreos.

Don and Dayle

GEORGETOWN, BAHAMAS

Our first stop north after Clarence Town was Conception Island. Since we had Clarence Town harbor all to ourselves we were under the mistaken impression that we’d have Conception Island to ourselves. Not so, there were 20 sailboats anchored in the harbor. This lovely little Island is protected by the Bahamas National Park and is pristine. The water is so clear it’s like looking in your bathtub with a layer of sand on the bottom. Unfortunately there was a lot of blight in the coral heads and not many tropical fish remain.

Don cleaned the bottom of our boat using his scuba gear. Later on in the afternoon we took a photo of one of two sharks swimming under the boat, where Don had been just an hour earlier!!

We are currently anchored off Sand Dollar Beach, Georgetown, Exumas. The Exumas are a chain of over 300 islands in the middle of the Bahamas chain. Georgetown sits on the Tropic of Cancer and as we head north we will officially be out of the tropics. Although the daytime sun feels just as hot, the nights are cooler and the water temperature is a noticeable 5 degrees cooler.

Georgetown is nicknamed “chicken harbor” as many cruisers lose interest in heading the additional 700 miles to the Caribbean and spend the rest of the winter here. Apparently 400 cruisers were here at its peak but now many have started their return to the states.

Don and Dayle

TURKS AND CAICOS

Dolphins greeted Phantom as we entered Boqueron Harbor on the western coast of Puerto Rico. It was fun to watch them play in our bow wave for about a mile before they swam off.

Boqueron is a common arrival and departure port for cruisers traveling to/from the Dominican Republic through the Mona Passage. The strong equatorial currents traveling in deep water hit shallow reefs causing the seas to churn. We are skipping the DR and heading the 325 miles direct to the Turks and Caicos Islands. We left Boqueron Tuesday March 30th at sunset and headed northwest up and over the Mona Passage. It was like being in a washing machine! The seas were coming from all directions at once. After we cleared the passage and were north of the DR the seas calmed down a bit. Wednesday was a comfortable sea day. Thursday at 2 am the seas got nasty again. North swells and a wind chop were accompanied by 20 kts of wind out of the north. That lasted till our 5 pm arrival here at Cockburn Harbor, South Caicos Island. It was wonderful to finally drop the hook in calm water and sleep a while. The trip from Boqueron was exactly 48 hrs traveling at approximately 6.6 kts. In the last five days we have traveled 400 miles, from Salinas PR to South Caicos.

The Turks and Caicos are a British Crown Colony and are part of an Atlantic shelf formed millions of years ago and are low lying very dry islands. The Caicos Bank is more than 60 miles across and 50 miles wide. Surrounding these islands are steep walls dropping thousands of feet to the ocean bottom. There is a sharp transition of color, from the deep purple blue to the bright aqua marine, as the depth changes from 20,000 ft to 30 ft on the Caicos Bank. The water here is much clearer and a “Bright” aqua blue. Photos just don’t do it justice.

We spent an afternoon ashore to stretch our legs and get on the internet. At one point in it’s history, salt was a major export, but storms have all but destroyed the salt flats. Now the only industry is fishing. We managed to take a photo of a flock of Pink Flamingos standing on the flats. There really isn’t much to see here, the tradewinds are too strong for snorkeling and the reef is too far away to take the dinghy. The highest point of land is only 250 ft above sea level.

Saturday we motored 60 miles northwest, to the most western of the Caicos Islands to Providenciales (Provo), around numerous reefs and coral heads and on into Sapodilla Bay for a couple of nights. Our buddy boat and us agreed to leave and head for the Bahamas before another weather front hit that would have kept us from leaving for another week. Going northwest to Long Island, Bahamas would bring us north of the bad weather. Or so we thought…..

The trip to Long Isl would take 28 hrs. We cleared out of customs and sailed out of Sapodilla Bay at 10 a.m. As soon as we rounded north of the Caicos the high seas and 20 kts of wind hit us to starboard. By night fall the seas built up even higher with spray washing over the pilot house. We pitched and rolled all night. There would be no sleeping on the settee. So we set up a mattress on the salon floor where we “tried” to sleep. The mattress slid across the floor with each pitch and roll so we had to hang on to the mattress to keep from rolling off.

We arrived in Clarencetown, Long Island at 1:30 in the afternoon. This passage was far worse than the notorious Mona Passage. We should not need to make any more over night passages from now on until we cross the Gulf Stream off Florida. Since we are at the bottom of the Bahama chain we still have many more islands to explore that are simple day trips. With the hard work behind us now we can take our time and enjoy the rest of our cruise.

This is a picture of our anchorage on Long Island.

Don & Dayle

PUERTO RICO

Before leaving the Virgin Islands we made one last trip the the caves on Norman Island to go snorkeling and take underwater photos.



When we arrived at Leinster Bay we were greeted by donkeys on the beach.

We left the U.S. Virgin Islands March 6th and cruised back to Ensenada Honda in Culebra for a couple of days. While there we and took the 90 min ferry over to Fajardo on the Puerto Rican mainland for $1 per person each way. The Fajardo area is the boating capital of Puerto Rico with many marinas and plenty of opportunities for boaters to cruise the Spanish Virgin Islands.

Many consider the Spanish Virgin Islands to have the best bays, coves and beaches of all Virgin Island anchorages. Untouched by developers, they stayed off limits most of the last hundred years, and they have had little use as anchorages before that. Until very recently, the US Navy have used the eastern end of Vieques for war games. As we visited the coves, we could see that the amphibious landing beaches are more pristine than the beaches that have been spoiled by humans with their development and litter. We were able to use a free mooring off Isla Chiva for three nights and we had the entire beach and cove to ourselves as we were the only boat within miles.

Vieques is well known for it’s two bioluminescent bays, Puerto Ferro and Puerto Mosquito. When the water is splashed you can see a burst of millions if lights that look like sparklers. When the one celled animals are disturbed they react by giving off light.

As we continued our westward journey, we stopped at Palmas del Mar Marina on the south coast of Puerto Rico. This immense gated community is one of the nicest facilities we’ve seen so far. We especially liked the pool.

We are currently in Marina de Salinas in Puerto Rico for a couple of weeks to charge up batteries and get enough provisions to take us through the Bahamas and over to Florida. We met another Nordhavn owner, Bill & Rosemary from New Zealand, who will be traveling with us through the Bahamas.

We visited the Bacardi rum factory with them the other day. Bacardi is the largest distiller of rum in the world and pays $300M in taxes to the Puerto Rican government every year.

El Yunque rain forest here on the eastern end of Puerto Rico covers 28,000 acres. It’s peak rises 3,533 ft and is the only tropical U.S. National Forest. It gets approximately 200 inches of rain a year. We took a 45 min. hike to La Mina Falls.



The next day we drove to San Juan to see the city and Fort San Felipe del Morro and Fort San Cristobal. Both forts were constructed in the late 1700’s. They were used to repel attacks by the British, Dutch and the French.

We have completed our sightseeing and boat fixings and are ready to head out again. Our next stop will be Gilligan’s Island, off southern Puerto Rico. The locals named it after the 1970’s TV show. We will then wait for a weather window to leave with a full moon for the Bahamas. The crossing should take about 50 hours. This will be our third overnight trip. We feel we are in good company with Bill & Rosemary on their 43 Nordhavn. They have been “Out” now for two years and are experienced sailors.
Until next time……

St Martin

We left the BVI around 5 pm and motored east all night taking turns at the helm every 2 hrs. This was our 1st overnighter. The 75 mile long and 8000 ft deep Anagada Passage between the BVI and St Martin has another name, the “Oh My Godda” Passage because of it’s fierce reputation. (Dayle hadn’t heard that until we returned to the VI. Good thing!!) This passage is best made at night because of distance, boat speed and timing of the bridge openings makes it impossible to cross all the way during the day. At 2 am we heard loud crashing sounds coming from the upper deck, a line securing the dinghy lift boom had shaken loose and the boom was wildly flailing back and forth. Don had to climb to the upper deck in the pitch dark while we were underway and clamp down the boom. He wore his life jacket and was tethered to the boat for safety. The rest of the passage was lumpy but neither of us got seasick. Dayle didn’t sleep at all that night.

At 6 am and still dark, the radar picked up Anguilla 8 mi away and we could see the lights on the horizon. Then the lights of St Martin came into view. After ½ hour the sky began to lighten and we could see the islands. We arrived in time to go through the Sandy Ground bridge that opens at 8:15 am. and anchored in the French side of Simpson Bay Lagoon just below a small rock formation nicknamed the witches tit.

St Martin is ½ French and ½ Dutch, splitting the Lagoon in half. The Dutch side has scores of chandleries and machine shops carrying anything a boater could possibly want. You could outfit a mega yacht, and there are plenty of them here. In some cases cruisers find it cheaper to order parts from “Defender” and Fed-X delivers it in three days. There is even a Cost U Less (like our BJ’s). Grocery stores are similar to the US but with more European products.

The French side is very European and old world. Marigot is an authentic French village with lots of shops and outside cafés. Each day we get wonderful fresh French pastries for breakfast..Ooo La La! It is said that the French restaurants in Marigot are the best in the Caribbean. The beaches aren’t bad either, Orient Beach in the French side is quite popular!

We climbed up the hill in Marigot to see Fort Louis. The view of the bay was breath taking. Each Tuesday evening the town of Grande Case has a street festival with vendors and craftsmen from 6pm until 2 am. All the restaurants are open. It’s like one big party! Our stay here coincided with the beginning of lent and 3 days of parades and partying in Marigot.

St Martin’s popularity with cruisers has grown exponentially during the last 10 years. We met John Ladue, a member of Shennecosett Yacht Club, who kept his boat at Spicer’s Marina! He left 10 years ago and has been in St Martin ever since running an air conditioning and refrigeration business. John said last year all marine business was off 50% but is only off 15% this year.
At 7:30 every morning we listen to the local “Cruisers Net”on the VHS radio. New boats check in and others check out with their destination. They give weather, safety info and general info on activities, local restaurant specials followed by a swap and various items for sale. One of the cruisers needed a new mattress. It was measured in the morning and delivered to their boat at 4 0’clock! That’s service!

After two weeks, we headed back to the peace and quiet life of St John. The trip back to the VI was much easier with swells only 3 ft, the full moon and only 10kts of wind. We are certainly not alone out on the water at night, there are cruise ships and other cruisers out there too. We kept pace with a large cruise ship going from St Martin to St Thomas. They left port at sunset and were on our radar with their city lights shining out our window nearly all night finally pulling ahead to make port at sunrise.
Our pockets are a lot lighter now between the restaurants and chandleries, Don had to purchase a new outboard for the dink. In March we begin our trip west to Puerto Rico.
Until next time……….