If Not Now, Then When?

(Backdated to New Year’s)

The waters of Sapodilla Bay are excruciatingly beautiful and overnight they had quickly filled up with new sailing vessels. In addition to Restless, a beautiful schooner which was captained by a very friendly South African mechanic, Lee, and his German fiancé, Gesine, Three Amigos had also shown up again. Other than getting an anchor stuck in a coral head and having to dive on it in the morning they had a pretty uneventful crossing. Psh. The customs, $15 for entry and $15 for exiting, was very simple – except they have no VHF radio or change, so go in there prepared. After customs Lee quickly rowed over and soon our beautiful blue Perkins 4108 was in pieces. They checked the intake valve to see if it was obstructed at all. They opened up the salt water pump. They checked the exhaust manifold. They pulled off the heat exchanger and cleaned that. They checked the impeller. They really spent the whole day pulling apart the engine, while I pulled down our beautiful nautical looking vertical cleats which turned out to be a real bugger as the jib lines continuously got caught there on the crossing over. Finally, Lee asks if I had cleaned the prop and of course I said yes (because I had in Andros), but I really hadn’t done a good enough job as there was a thick chalky layer that encrusted our prop and was causing the engine to overheat.

With the engine back in working order we are free to roam about Provo. Although all of the south side marinas and anchorages are very far away from towns and your only option to get to downtown or to the north coast where all the big hotels and restaurants are is to take a cab (read: expensive), take a jitney (read: kind of sketchy), hitchhike (read: don’t forget your towel). After a nice dinner at Las Brisas we get a phone number for a reliable jitney and we explore downtown Provo, which is limited really to a few local bars, a supermarket, and marine store.

. As a New Year’s present we decide to move the boat to Caicos Marina and Shipyard in hopes we would find it easier to access the north side, which is where all of the people are (unfortunately it kind of just put us farther away). Caicos Marina has the best showers I have seen probably ever – polished, white, and hot. The power was free and I could get internet on the boat – a New Year’s miracle. $1 per foot which was also acceptable, but don’t try to do laundry here as you will spend a fortune ($10 or so per load). Here we run into Spring Song – all of the boats from Rum Cay had made it to Turks, but they had the worst time of it. Their story made my engineless passage look like a cake walk. At Plana Cays they anchored to stop and make lunch and when they were ready to leave the starter went out on their engine and then the wind came out so they had to deploy a second anchor. After much work the coast guard came and helped them retrieve one of the anchors but the 45 pound Bruce and 100 feet of chain is still sitting on the floor of the ocean west of Plana Cays. Still engineless when they came to Turks and Caicos they had to be towed in through the coral heads - this took 5 hours. Like I said – my passage was a cake walk.

Lee and Gesine, continuing to prove themselves as the nicest people ever, rented the last car in Provo and we went to provision in an ACTUAL supermarket.

It was wonderful, although, something I would probably never do as I don’t think I would drive well with left lane driving and traffic circles. We also stopped for a very nice lunch at Tiki Hut just outside of Turtle Cove, a big buck marina on the north side. It seems like all of the restaurants here are incorporated with yacht clubs or hotels, but as all the beaches are public these hotels aren’t really limited only to their patrons. For New Year’s night we have supper at Jimmy’s Dive Bar and afterwards I am off to a GIANT bonfire on the beach in front of Club Med.

Although I was worried that I would never find Eddie and Mark from Three Amigos, I soon made friends with Jasmine, a super awesome girl who really saved my New Years. We had a blast running around the bonfire, dancing, and watching the most amazing fireworks I had ever seen. Every hotel put off fireworks in succession. I eventually do find Mark and Eddie just after midnight and around 4 am hitchhike with them back to the boat – the people in Provo are so nice and we were easily home!

Day one of the new year was spent on the beaches along Grace Bay and cooking a gourmet dinner on the boat – yes I finally got to use the boats outdoor propane grill, which is splendid, by the way.

But soon we are back to work on the boat as Lee seems to find many problems with my beautiful boat. We redid the dinghy lines so that when we hoist it the stress is spread throughout the dinghy. After removing all of the cotter keys Lee showed us how to tune the rigging (tighten up the shroud lines which hold the masts from wiggling too much). Lee also helps us switch the halyards, previously we had a metal halyard for raising the main sail, which supposedly went out in the 70’s. The metal halyard was consistently snagging on itself so we switched it with the blue line halyard for the main sail. We planned to test all of our new systems with a nice little sail around the south side of Provo with Lee and Gesine.

For your appreciation – you know it’s a real supermarket when they have Boone’s Farm and Sanka. If you are ever in Provo, the Graceway Market is, by far, the best supermarket. Please note that the price of the Boone’s Farm is $10!

An Engineless Bluewater Passage.

(Backdated to the end of December)

All three of the Rum Cay boats are headed to the Turks and Caicos and we all leave on this Sunday.

This is the map Bobby gave me. Upon entering I highly recommend looking at this map or hailing Bobby on VHF 16 for a guide boat in.

John and his ferro-cement boat are taking a break after his harrowing ordeal getting to Rum Cay. Spring Song, in front of us, takes the wind and goes east. We, wanting to stick to our rhumbline, decided to only use our jib and motor sail. Our autohelm, a Raymarine ST4000, had a broken belt, which quite a unique belt – so it is still broken. We are hand sailing the entire thing, which honestly isn’t that bad. Dad and I switch between two hour shifts for this day and a half passage. Our plan is to sail, sail, sail until Mayaguana – rest there and then hit it to the Turks and Caicos. Oh the best laid plans…

Around dusk during my shift I see a red flicker. Hmmm… red isn’t really a good color. Again, a red flicker in the dark and soon the red starts to last – I yell for Dad and by this point the red light is consistent. I didn’t want to believe it, but I had recognized it straight away. It was the engine warning light. Dad quickly pulls the plunger to kill the engine. We pull off the stairs to get a good look at our 50 hp Perkins 4108 engine. It is too hot to check the antifreeze, but Dad cleans the salt water intake strainer as we believe the engine is overheating. Running at 180 degrees and creeping up just seems too hot. With no engine we have no backup plan, we can’t manuvour away from other boats easily or anchor in coral areas – I mean we could technically do these things using the wind, but we have lost the safety of the engine. Dad isn’t reassuring and we are both a bit scared and confused. We start up the engine again, leaving the cover off and it is again hot, but not too hot. I sleep in the cockpit as it is too rough below to do anything other than throw up.

I am awoken to a red light in my face and a loud buzzer. Crap. I pull the plunger. This is bad. This is going to be a bad ongoing problem. We aren’t even 12 hours into our day and a half long trip. We have barely scratched the surface and now its 2 am and we need to raise the main. Of course the metal halyard is snagged. It is dark and the winds are cold. We are both tired, upset, and unsure. Once I get the halyard into the correct position the main continues to catch on the lazyjacks since we can’t point into the wind. With the job, main, and mizzen all raised we can actually catch a bit of the light wind and get a pretty good reach going to Plana Cays. During the night we attempted to use the engine again, but it would soon be past 220 degrees and continuously getting hotter. It really wasn’t a matter at this point, we had been sailing for over a day now and the winds were pushing us very nicely. Really, we were cruising at 7 knots (fast for our boat). Once we passed Plana Cays, around 4 pm, we lost our nice wind and were barely going 4 knots on our way to Mayaguana. Our great plans to anchor here were quickly dismissed as we doubted we could get the anchor back up without an engine. Instead after passing Mayaguana at 8 pm, we took the light 10 knot northerly and just kept going. We left Sunday afternoon and now it was Tuesday morning. Hand sailing the boat the entire way – we were getting very exhausted and with no charts for the Turks we were unsure of if we should go to the north side of Providenciales or the south, both were covered in coral and we would have to run the engine to get in. Of course since we are adults, at our wits end, we started arguing about it – yelling, blaming, etc. Eventually we agreed on the south side and going through customs at Sapodilla Bay. We arrive at noon and it takes us until 4 pm to slowly go through the coral banks without overheating the engine. Two days later, and many hours of sailing, we had arrived in the Turks and Caicos. We want, badly, to be off the boat. Attempts to hail customs, of course, come to no response and the beach is deserted (along with the anchorage). The beach is a slow decline with gin clear waters, just beautiful! Soon Restless a nice wood schooner pulls in and Dad quickly makes a friend, a friend who happens to be a mechanic.

For your appreciation: the next morning we clear customs which is at the government port and with no dinghy access you have to be a gymnast to get off your dinghy and to shore.

A Rum Cay Christmas

(Backdated to, you guessed it, Christmas)

My feet look like they have been beaten with a winch handle and I am now short a pair of flip flops, so I have to be an annoying American tourist and wear tennis shoes for a few days. I do my best to avoid this though.

We are trapped in Rum Cay due to weather, but I don’t mind as it is a beautiful place. We spend our days either exploring the island or being lazy and nights are spent either at the marina’s clubhouse or at Kaye’s bar. John, Mark, Eddie and I spend a day in John’s tiny dinghy exploring the east side of the island – basically I get advanced lessons in bailing a dinghy. That night all the boaters and marina workers (along with the locals) go into town to Kaye’s Bar, where town matriarch Dolores is making a Christmas dinner. She serves a large pot of stew containing, but not limited to fish, crab claws, beef, potatoes, etc. We drink Kaliks and Sands beers and interact with many of the locals, in particular I meet Kathy and her husband Brian. Brian has a big sport fishing boat at our marina and Kathy who takes pity on me promises to bring me a pair of shoes. The night quickly turns to Junkanoo festivities with lots of raunchy dancing and loud drums, cowbells, and whistles.

Most of the boaters have returned home (or where carried home, see John who needed to be coaxed home by Mark and I with the help of Rasta (although this ride back to the marina provided for the best drunken mumblings I have ever heard in my life)) but a few of us make it to the midnight church service at the town’s beautiful tiny church. Mark and I find a spot in the back, we had probably had one too many Kaliks and didn’t want to make any sort of Christmas-church-drunken-white-person scene. The service was very sweet, although one of the main pastors had a rowdy lisp, which actually provided a fun game for Mark and I to try and figure out what psalm we were on.

Christmas day was more of the same. Crap weather – lots of wind and rain and nothing much to speak of, except for the fact that I adore Sumner Point Marina (http://www.rumcaymarina.com/Marina/).

Sumner Point Marina: L to R - Three Amigos, Spring Song, & Depature

Yes there are no showers, the entrance is a bit sketchy with all of those coral heads, and the internet isn’t flowing; but the positives majorly outweigh the negatives. The marina itself is gorgeous, carved right out of the island. The owner and staff, Bobby and Rasta, are more than helpful and just super nice. Finally the clubhouse is great. You can always buy whatever booze is on hand, but the best service it purports is a hangout. Christmas night everyone brings a dish to pass and Cathy and Brian along with the locals from the house just over the marina all come out for a fabulous supper.

The Mad Moyers Christmas Card.

The next day is even better as Cathy brings me shoes, which is the best thing ever! We explore the town, stopping at Last Chance Grocery and eventually ending up back at Kaye’s where Mercedes makes far too many friends and we have far too many beers. Along our tour Cathy shows us where Rum Cay Marina was supposed to be – but never came to fruition. Now $27 million dollars in debt it is just a big hole, known as “The Dig”. No wonder I couldn’t find it on my hiking trip. Dolores takes a shine to me and brews up some bush tea and teaches me many things about the island – you can see my review of her book in one of the previous entries. Even better than Christmas was this night as many of the boys went out fishing on Brian’s powerboat. They came back with dolphin and one huge 40 pound tuna, which meant another potluck.

Eddie, Brian, & Bobby cooking.

Tuna tartar, freshly fried tuna, Cajun tuna, along with some of the most amazing sushi was had by all at the marina. I may not be able to find many amenities traveling through the Bahamas but the fresh made sushi of tonight made up for it!

Be jealous. It was great.

Thanks again to Mark and Bobby for the splendid cooking. Eddie and I drink rum on John’s ferro-cement boat and encounter his sailing buddy – quite a large rat. The rat was quite at home and had obviously been there for a while and was happy in its established role as crew.

After a joyous break at Rum Cay it is time for another passage – Spring Song, Three Amigos,and ourselves are all ready to get going. Each captain has a different plan and each one thinks theirs is the best – as I said before arrogance doesn’t work with sailing. Bobby provides us a map (see next entry) so navigating the coral heads out is much easier and we easily follow Spring Song out and soon we are on our way to Bluewater passage number 2, which by the way is much worse.

My First Bluewater Passage and Being Fooled a Second Time.

(Backdated to late December)

Of course, the first thing I do as we leave Red Shanks is promptly run aground. Sailing does not leave much room for arrogance and I should have followed the path of the rest of the sailors, but I didn’t and I very slowly ran us aground. With very limited light we leave Red Shanks and leave Elizabeth Harbor via North Channel Rocks. This is our first real blue water passage. It will be around 50 miles – a good overnighter. We expected calm winds, psh, how the weather man lies. We got 5-8 ft waves on our bow towards Santa Maria, Long Island and then we had 25 knot gusting winds which made the trip quite uncomfortable. We finally get to Rum Cay early the next morning, with no autohelm as it had given up during the night. At 6 am we pass our Rum Cay waypoint and pull into Port Nelson, but after multiple attempts to hail Sumner Point Marina we give up and drop the hook in an anchorage which isn’t great, but acceptable when you are working on minimal sleep. After a far too brief nap we hear Spring Song bring up Sumner Point Marina, we hail them as well and soon we have a guide boat in. Very minimal buoys that don’t match the chartplotter, but the guide is more than helpful (not to mention the dinghy is full of dogs, love). The marina isn’t too full, but we do have a few neighboring boats. Spring Song owned by a Swiss couple, Walter and Ursula, and crewed by Rhiner and Mercedes (a German and Costa Rican couple). The second boat is a 37 foot Ferro-cement boat single handedly run by John. Finally, Three Amigos is owned by Brian and crewed by Eddie and Mark.

The Path for my Rum Cay hiking trip.

Finally being at an island that has some history, Rum Cay is famous for its petroglyphs which are basically ancient cave pictorial drawings. Something I would obviously love. I am so ready for an adventure! It is a miserable day – rain and cold, but never the less I set out.

Continuous looming storm clouds.

I walk north through the long main/only road. It is mostly paved with a few swatches of gravel. I make the five mile walk with the most breathtaking vistas of the north side. At one point on the top of a hill I am looking down on dense greens being misted by the huge breakers of the north side. I would have loved to take a picture of this, but it was still far TOO rainy. Even though my Northface rain jacket says its waterproof, it is definitely soaked through. A little rain and a five mile walk is nothing to a Red Wing girl especially when I have my IPOD and Girl Talk. I make it to the north beach, which is nice, but I am on a mission. Just past this beach is Hartford Beach and the cave with the drawings!

One of the many paths I took.

I take a little golf cart path over the next point to, what I believe is Hartford Beach, but this soon deteriorates to a walking path and soon becomes a cattle path (did I mention Rum Cay had wild cattle). It is a beautiful walk and since I left at 11 am I have plenty of time. Butterflies guide my path as I hurry along to a lean-to and what I again believe must be Hartford Beach.

Beautiful beach vistas with ominous skies.

Unfortunately, it is completely free of caves and I have to run along the beach and rocky sections. After this I sit and watch the breakers trying to decide if I should turn back now or keeping going. I am dedicated, but unsure where to find these caves.

North side Breakers.

I decide I should just go to the next point. By this point I have walked over 10 miles and am probably closer to the shore of the south side (where this is a town) than I am to going back to the north side. The next point leads me to a mud path with an ancient stone wall.

Ancient cattle wall which guided what I thought was an actual path.

Beautiful Bromeliads.

What starts as mud soon turns into a bulldozed path which is rough with freshly cut trees. I assumed this was leading to the new Rum Cay Marina, but after much walking, around 4 pm, the path ends. I climb the nearest hill and find that I am dead center of the island. Not near the sound or the north or any kind of road, but basically just screwed in the middle of the island. The only option is to follow my tracks back, even though that means I will get home around 10 pm – unfortunately I told Dad I would meet him at Kaye’s at 5 pm. I knew right then I would be in trouble.

I start walking back as fast as possible knowing that my daylight will soon be gone. Unfortunately, the first thing to go is my shoes. Yes, now I am barefoot walking on a freshly bulldozed tree path. I only have an hour of daylight left. This is the worst. I switch between screaming for help and blubbering to myself. The beautiful variating greens from before are now ominous. I can’t cry, because I am already dehydrated, but I am very hysterical and crazy. But unlike my shoes I cannot give up; I just have to walk these 15 miles back – so be it. I have never liked shoes and know how to look for the muddy spots and jump from branch to branch, but every once and a while I have to pull out a twig that is lodged itself in my foot. Since I am retracing my path I know that the path MUST get better. I follow my path and start to hear the north shore breakers, thank goodness. With light I am back on the beach, which is not better because my feet are very cut up by this point. The four inches of sand sink are killing my thighs and these beaches seem a lot longer than before! I am exhausted. It is dusk and I have been walking since 11 am. Back on the cow path I see fresh tracks and as I am trying to find my tracks when I see a large (three times my size) white apparition. I quick turn off my flashlight and the cow leaves; unfortunately my path is right where he just was. I quickly skirt by only to see a horse on the beach, who upon seeing me crosses my path.

I keep going. Keep pushing. I am in such pain! But I know that Dad is worried and that I must keep going. I know that the road will be better than the beach – it has to be. Unfortunately it is not. The gravel tears at my feet and soon I am screaming (literally) at myself to keep going. I have to keep going. I am so dehydrated that I am sucking rain water out of my jacket. I just focus and keep going. My body and mind are numb, but I finally get to Kaye’s Bar around 8:30 pm. I beg for a glass of water and everyone knows I am the girl who attempted to go to the north side (as I guess Dad attempted to start a search party). Thanks to a local nurse I get a ride for the last mile and find Dad sitting in the marina’s clubhouse with Spring Song and John from the Ferro-cement boat. Thanks to water, wine, and chicken alfredo I am finally feeling a bit better. Fool me once (Stocking Island) shame on you, fool me twice (Rum Cay) shame on me. I will start to limit my adventures from now on, especially since I can now barely walk.

For your appreciation: at one point the path turned to coral and it was so pretty, unfortunately on the way back when I was shoeless, it was NOT so beautiful.