Not much going on here in Hope Town these days. We have a lot of wind this week which is really unusual for the duration. I've seen cold front blows that last 36 - 48 hours but never 7 days! It is finally laying down today at 10 - 12 most of the day.
Several boats left yesterday and we had 12 free moorings here last night. Five came in today so still several available moorings.
Yesterday we went to the "Wine down Sip Sip" for their weekly bacchanalian party for librarians, dirt dwellers, and cruisers and we had our pictures taken for our official SOT membership cards. Don't worry we only had a glass of wine each last night and some appetizers.
All this wind has set the stage for numerous isolated rain squalls. The wind is causing massive evaporation from the sea and it builds small isolated cloud clusters that come over and rains for a few minutes. It sets up a rhythm. The wind dies, then builds briefly, then rains, and then back to the incessant blowing.
We deal with it and just run to town to walk ( I mean dinghy) and forage for food at the two tiny grocery stores here. It's kind of fun actually to see who has what. We walk the beach a little but it is very windy out there and not much fun. Karen has found some sea glass and is on the hunt for more.
The wind should be down to less than 15 tomorrow so it is time to bring my kites out and have a little fun on the beach.
Saturday, January 14, 2017
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Chicken but smart
It's windy here -- actually uncomfortably windy. It wears you down after 3 continuous days of 20+ kts winds. Now here in Hopetown we can still take the dinghy to town comfortably but still there is a lot of swinging motion when back on the boat.
Now the temps are very nice after the hot temps that greeted us a month ago. The nighttime lows are around 62 - 64 and the highs are 70 - 73 right now. This trend of temps and wind are to continue for another week so we need to just deal with it. However it is 1000% better than enduring the frigid temps and snow at home during this same period.
Today we are having the added inconvenience of small squalls passing through about every hour this morning thus why I'm writing the blog in the morning.
Now life is till not a continuous picnic here. There are chores to perform. like yesterday our main water tank was near empty so I decided to cart water from the marina in 3 - 6 gallon jerry cans in the dinghy. It was quite windy and I did not want to drop the mooring and take the big boat to the marina and dock to fill water and then have to go back and pickup the mooring again. The pickup can be difficult in strong winds. Well I made 6 trips for 108 gallons and it took better than 2 hours! Well what else was I going to do eh? to get dinner and then play.
Last night was Bingo night or as the locals call it JACKS because it's played at the restaurant called Jacks here in the harbour. It starts at 6pm and so we went at 5pm to get dinner and then play. Well didn't happen. At 5pm the place was packed and no tables were available. Darn -- next week we will go at 4:30pm. We still had a nice time though. We walked to 'Wine Down Sip Sip' and ordered one of their flat bread pizzas to go. It was delicious.
Yesterday I received a note from Hank Pomerantz of Carolina Yacht Care that gave the talk on all the trouble spots on the ICW between Beaufort, NC and Savannah Georgia when we stayed at Southport Marina. His information was great and he is trying to enhance the program for those coming down the ICW next fall.
I'm thinking I don't want to do that again. It was really tough this year -- maybe I should not bring the boat all the way home this year -- I know I know Blasphemy but still do I want to endure that again?
We have met several cruisers that all leave their boats in Florida and some actually leave their boats in the Bahamas just so they don't have to cross the Gulf Stream again. Most of those were Canadians on trawlers. They had all had very bad crossings of the Gulf Stream. One woman in fact told us that the conditions for her was so bad that she thought she was going to die. She decided to remove her life jacket so at least it would be quick! Now that is a very bad crossing.
I spoke to two trawler owners who leave their boats at Abaco Yacht Services in Black Sound on Green Turtle Cay and they said the storage fee for on the hard was less than $300 a month. They can leave the boats in the Bahamas for up to 3 years at no tax cost although after 3 years you have to import the boat and pay about one third the value of the boat, thus they take them out of the Bahamas then.
Something to consider to avoid the hassle of ICW and Gulf Stream crossings. Call me chicken.
Now the temps are very nice after the hot temps that greeted us a month ago. The nighttime lows are around 62 - 64 and the highs are 70 - 73 right now. This trend of temps and wind are to continue for another week so we need to just deal with it. However it is 1000% better than enduring the frigid temps and snow at home during this same period.
Today we are having the added inconvenience of small squalls passing through about every hour this morning thus why I'm writing the blog in the morning.
Now life is till not a continuous picnic here. There are chores to perform. like yesterday our main water tank was near empty so I decided to cart water from the marina in 3 - 6 gallon jerry cans in the dinghy. It was quite windy and I did not want to drop the mooring and take the big boat to the marina and dock to fill water and then have to go back and pickup the mooring again. The pickup can be difficult in strong winds. Well I made 6 trips for 108 gallons and it took better than 2 hours! Well what else was I going to do eh? to get dinner and then play.
Last night was Bingo night or as the locals call it JACKS because it's played at the restaurant called Jacks here in the harbour. It starts at 6pm and so we went at 5pm to get dinner and then play. Well didn't happen. At 5pm the place was packed and no tables were available. Darn -- next week we will go at 4:30pm. We still had a nice time though. We walked to 'Wine Down Sip Sip' and ordered one of their flat bread pizzas to go. It was delicious.
Yesterday I received a note from Hank Pomerantz of Carolina Yacht Care that gave the talk on all the trouble spots on the ICW between Beaufort, NC and Savannah Georgia when we stayed at Southport Marina. His information was great and he is trying to enhance the program for those coming down the ICW next fall.
I'm thinking I don't want to do that again. It was really tough this year -- maybe I should not bring the boat all the way home this year -- I know I know Blasphemy but still do I want to endure that again?
We have met several cruisers that all leave their boats in Florida and some actually leave their boats in the Bahamas just so they don't have to cross the Gulf Stream again. Most of those were Canadians on trawlers. They had all had very bad crossings of the Gulf Stream. One woman in fact told us that the conditions for her was so bad that she thought she was going to die. She decided to remove her life jacket so at least it would be quick! Now that is a very bad crossing.
I spoke to two trawler owners who leave their boats at Abaco Yacht Services in Black Sound on Green Turtle Cay and they said the storage fee for on the hard was less than $300 a month. They can leave the boats in the Bahamas for up to 3 years at no tax cost although after 3 years you have to import the boat and pay about one third the value of the boat, thus they take them out of the Bahamas then.
Something to consider to avoid the hassle of ICW and Gulf Stream crossings. Call me chicken.
Sunday, January 8, 2017
Blown Away
The title tonight is the theme for this 30 hour windstorm we are experiencing. This massive cold front that has brought so much misery to North Carolina arrived here last night around 5:15pm. We had a line of squalls come through with not too terrific winds then the wind just died. It was supposed to usher in high winds but it just died. We were windless until about 9:15pm and then it started to blow and slowly build. By midnight we were over 20kts with higher gusts. The wind clocked to the North and we had only about 100yds of fetch but still the boat was swivelling and rocking on this mooring. This is especially bad at night because you always worry that maybe something holding you to that mooring might let go --- eeeeck.
It's a restless night whether on anchor or on a mooring. Even at a dock in high winds you have to worry about hitting pilings as the tide changes the depth and effective length of lines around you.
Naturally at 3am -- witching hour -- all hell breaks loose. My restless sleep is suddenly jarred by a crashing grating sound at the stern of the boat. Has another boat come adrift and hit us? Have we come adrift and hit something?
I jump out of bed and up to the deck in my skimpy PJs to look.. Well it is ominous in the dim lights, boats moving around, wavelets striking the boat but nothing seems amiss. It is too windy to open a side curtain with out damage so I go out through the aft curtain and look. The dinghy is riding behind the boat but not like I left it -- atharwtship - via the bridle line and a line attached to the lifting yoke on the motor. Then I see where the lifting eye had pulled out of the motor yoke. That wasn't such a good idea! I deliberate pulling the dinghy-motor out of the water but that is a big job normally and difficult in the dark. I watch the dinghy moving behind the boat. In the wind shadow of the boat its motion is not violent. It seems to like it. So I secure the line that came loose and head back to bed. Sleep is even more elusive now.
The damage to the yoke proved minor -- sun weakened threads had parted. We can repair that with a little sewing. What looked like a big deal in the dark proved only minor in the light of day.
The wind is still blowing mid 20s to 30 all day. That is uncomfortable and makes you anxious but no worse. I'm not alone. As I look around the harbour most boats have folks sitting in the cockpits watching the boat motion. It really is too rough to take the dinghy to town so we remain the whole day on the boat reading and sampling pieces of Key lime Pie that I bought from Vernon's yesterday. That is the best Key lime Pie although expensive -- here it is $17 for a nine inch pie.
Well it cold here tonight at 68 degrees and may dip to 58 by morning so we are having Chili followed of course by a slice of Key lime pie.
It's a restless night whether on anchor or on a mooring. Even at a dock in high winds you have to worry about hitting pilings as the tide changes the depth and effective length of lines around you.
Naturally at 3am -- witching hour -- all hell breaks loose. My restless sleep is suddenly jarred by a crashing grating sound at the stern of the boat. Has another boat come adrift and hit us? Have we come adrift and hit something?
I jump out of bed and up to the deck in my skimpy PJs to look.. Well it is ominous in the dim lights, boats moving around, wavelets striking the boat but nothing seems amiss. It is too windy to open a side curtain with out damage so I go out through the aft curtain and look. The dinghy is riding behind the boat but not like I left it -- atharwtship - via the bridle line and a line attached to the lifting yoke on the motor. Then I see where the lifting eye had pulled out of the motor yoke. That wasn't such a good idea! I deliberate pulling the dinghy-motor out of the water but that is a big job normally and difficult in the dark. I watch the dinghy moving behind the boat. In the wind shadow of the boat its motion is not violent. It seems to like it. So I secure the line that came loose and head back to bed. Sleep is even more elusive now.
The damage to the yoke proved minor -- sun weakened threads had parted. We can repair that with a little sewing. What looked like a big deal in the dark proved only minor in the light of day.
The wind is still blowing mid 20s to 30 all day. That is uncomfortable and makes you anxious but no worse. I'm not alone. As I look around the harbour most boats have folks sitting in the cockpits watching the boat motion. It really is too rough to take the dinghy to town so we remain the whole day on the boat reading and sampling pieces of Key lime Pie that I bought from Vernon's yesterday. That is the best Key lime Pie although expensive -- here it is $17 for a nine inch pie.
Well it cold here tonight at 68 degrees and may dip to 58 by morning so we are having Chili followed of course by a slice of Key lime pie.
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