Our First Bimini Cruise in Eximius

Two Years

That's how long it took for us to get the boat ready and ourselves ready, and looking back at what we have done to the boat and the knowledge we have gained, it could have been cut shorter but worth every bit of the effort.

Not our first trip to Bimini

In 2007, just 2 years after we purchased our first sailboat, we took 'JD' over to Bimini for a short weekend. We only stayed there for 2 whole days, arriving late, next day doing the customs thing, walkabout, and then back starting at 5am on the 4th day. Exhausted. But what we didn't know was how ignorant we were about our boat, our sailing skill, navigation, and preparedness.

Bimini 2017

Short Version: Motored / Sailed from the US to Cat Cay and the Bimini Islands and back to the US during out 10 day trip.

Great Start

We took care of a few final issues (like installing a new Alternator and Starter Solenoid) and loaded the boat during the week before our trip. On departure day, we only had to load the cold stuff and our electronics & meds, must have items 😊 

On Sunday May 21st, we motored out of our slip as soon as the tide had risen enough for us to get out of the canal, then the usual trip down the New River into Lake Sylvia ready for an early start Monday Morning.





Everything working fine. Our new InReach tracker was automatically recording our position via Satellite, and as we motored beyond the 17th Street Bridge we raised the Main & unfurled the Jib, but continued to motor until we were out of the Port Everglades Channel.

As we headed South, we could see another sailboat astern. Sjofn with Dave & Pam were motor sailing headed to Nixons in Biscayne Bay - We would meet up there.

The wind was OK, but I really didn't want to arrive at the entrance to Biscayne Bay at night, we have never navigated that channel in the dark yet, so we got the motor running and motor sailed easily down past Miami and Key Biscayne to the Stiltsville channel. Tide was in our favor and we were up to 7 knots under motor sail but the engine barely running at just above idle.

Chatting with Sjofn, we advised them that our plan was for a 1am start for the Bimini Crossing. Their plan was to leave a bit later.

Departing Florida

Navigating to the channel at night takes a bit of getting used to, lights look nearer than they are and there's a tendency to give turns a wider berth just to make sure.

We followed the track on our GPS, but quickly found a marker that we didn't notice on the chart. Note to self: Zoooooom In when setting the route. Peggy stood on the Stbd combing holding onto the Dodge grab rail and panning our powerful flashlight across our path. It got a bit hairy but we came through just fine.
Then, once out of the channel, we turned towards Fowey Rocks, which was the point that I had used to calculate our course for the crossing to Gun Cay Cut.

Time to wake up the Auto Pilot and head along our Course steered which, allowing for the flow of the Gulf stream, would keep us pretty close to the Rhumb line. Although we planned on taking a break it was still a new experience for us both, and we both ended up staying awake the entire crossing.

As we neared Gun Cay, I was concerned that we were too far south of the Cut, so I made a few corrections to the course steered, thinking that we were out of the Gulf stream at that point. Wrong! I should have left it alone, we ended up having to steer further South in order to make the Cut as the Northward flow on the West side of Gun Cay was significant.

Our first ever passage through Gun Cay Cut, so we stayed extremely focused. The Cut appears to be about a 1/4 mile wide, but on the North side there is a Rocky face and not far South from that is a mostly submerged rocky outcrop that it waiting to bite the unwary sailor.  Then, just inside that cut is a moving shoal that we could see because of the clear color change in the water.

We motored along the suggested shallow draft route and easily made it down towards Cat Cay.

Cat Cay

I had read a little about Cat Cay, but didn't hoist in enough. We knew that they charged a fee to tie up a dink in order to check in at Customs & Immigration, but didn't know it was $107 !!! Just to tie up the dink (although we could have tied up Eximius, same price). So we decided to take a slip for the night and that worked out to $199 including electricity, Vat etc. The Custom & Immigration fee was $150 which included our cruising permit which I believe lasts for 6 months.

In the morning we went for a stroll around the Island. To the East is the Airfield, (cannot really call it an Air Port) and the Cat Cay Light

From the Light, we took this pic showing the crowded the marina (sic), at least it shows Eximius alongside in front of Mimms Magic.

 There's a Restaurant and Admin building, it's all very nice, very private, but very nice.

The Bay to the East of the Airfield looks really nice, but wouldn't want to be there during bad weather.

Customs & Immigration offices

Looking out from in front of the Customs building.

After paying for the slip & electricity in the morning, we cast off. Peggy did a great job of turning us around in the narrow area adjacent to the alongside slip and staying well clear of Mimms Magic (From the Lauderdale Yacht Club) and we headed out of the Marina.

Looking at the conditions reported in the weather printout from the Cat Cay Admin office, it seemed wise to just anchor rather than head out of the Cut. The Cruising guilds advised not to anchor in the glide path of the Airfield, so we dropped our hook closer to the shore, east of the glide path.

We were only the 2nd boat in the anchorage, both of us on the Shore side of the glide path. During the morning, several other boats came across the Banks from the direction (East) of the Berry Islands. They headed towards the Gun Cay Cut, slowed when they saw the conditions, hesitated for a while and then, sensibly, chickened out and decided not to try going out of the cut.

If you maximize that video, you can see the Cut just in front of the Catamaran off our Stbd Quarter. The winds had picked up substantially and the waves coming in through the cut would making transiting a really risky ride. So we didn't and neither did any of the other boats, many larger than us.
By the evening there were 7 sailboats nearby. One and a power trawler, were too close to the Glide path, so the dockmaster came out on a PWC and told the owners that they had to move. One got a bit shirty, and had to be told again a little later on.

Overnight it was blustery and noisy, so we didn't sleep too well. At least the breeze kept us from sweating all night.

The next day was the same, so we just piddled about in the boat fixing / upgrading things. Seems that I always have something to work on.

Here's a link to our InReach Map Site

Friday was expected to improve and it did. We pulled anchor after a light breakfast and headed up to the Cut entrance, the conditions were much better this morning and we had no problem exiting the Cut then turning Northwards towards North Bimini. Wind was barely enough to sail, so, again, we motored. The trip up to North Bimini was without incident, we did see a couple of other sailboats, both heading North and we were able to see the Sapona to the East in Barnett Harbor, but our destination was Bimini Big Game Marina.

We had read about the entry to North Bimini and it didn't read well. But turns out it's not so bad. The GPS shows the way and the Buoys, although not quite 'Official' were a big help in getting into the channel past the shoaling near the entrance. A fueling ship was at anchor outside of the Bimini Sands Marina on South Bimini, but easily avoided. We knew about the marker in the middle of the channel, but didn't expect it to be what looks like a Concrete post with a light on top.

Calling into the BBG marina seemed a waste of time as it was obvious that other boats were not getting replies to their calls on VHF. We eventually just idled up and down the channel opposite the BG marina and were able to get a response. I'm glad we didn't have a Video cam working as we tried to pull into the dock. Next time I'll prepare lines on both sides of the boat, long lines, rather than wait to find out which side of the docks we would tie up. It turned out that there was about a 3 to 4 knot current into the dock on North side of the marina, and luckily no other boat in the slip next to the one designated for us. As we backed into the slip, the current took charge and dragged Eximius broadside to the dock with all hands ashore helping to prevent the boat getting damaged. In retrospect, I should have put the bow into the current and just held station. That way I would have been able to simply go astern by reducing the power while maintaining steerage. But friends and the dock team all helped out and we quickly got the boat facing the right way and tied along side. Thanks Astrid, Lee, and everyone else that helped out.

Once alongside and securely tied up, I headed up to the Admin office to register. We had requested the slip over a month ago and paid a deposit about a week ago, so it was an easy registration. Back to the boat and time to cool down. Hooking up the 110v shore power allowed us to get the boat's AC running. Then it was time for brunch on the Host Boat - Commotion. A bunch of us in their huge cockpit and typical banter of sailors on their boats, but everyone being in the same sailing club makes a difference. The start of a great visit to North Bimini.

Peggy & I went for a stroll down the main highway, Peggy thought it was just a lane, but Nooooo! That's the main roadway. There's enough room for 2 golf carts to pass each other, if they are careful. If one of the very few cars or fewer trucks come along then get to the side of the road. We passed the Library

On the way back we stopped at one of the house stores, I can't think of a more descriptive name, it looks like a house on the outside with a door into a front room that's a store. The owner makes her own Ice Cream - and that's worth tasting! Really good, especially in the dry heat of the day.

We had a lunch at the BBGM restaurant which was pretty good, but Dinner was on Commotion. Astrid & Ross, Tina & Lee, Guiseppi, Peggy & I shared a great Salmon & Chicken dinner which included Astrid's famous Kale Salad and more. We were trying to solve the important matters of the world, then Astrid produced her bottle of KillerPitch which I had never heard about before, but, trust me, I've been researching it since we returned, it's absolutely delicious.

After dinner, as Peggy & I stepped onto the dock from Commotion, the underside of the boat was lit up with their own lights and those of neighboring yachts, it was surreal. The boat appeared to be floating on air because the water was so clear.
Here's a pic of Eximius in the same waters.
This really is a magical picture, but the view down as we step from the dock to the boat is out of this world.





Here's what it looks like during the daytime, and yes! I know we need to clean the hull, it's on my list.

It's obvious that there's a significant tide range at the Bimini Big Game Marina, Peggy could only just manage to get on and off the boat during low tide, I'll have to look for a suitable temporary dock ladder. And in case you're wondering, they are not depth charge holders, those two white cylinders are the holders for our Propane tanks and the smaller tube is home for the Regulator and Solenoid.

The high street does have a bit of sidewalk. If you pass a building where the door is closed, then it's probably got AC inside or big fans. And it's not always obvious which are homes or Stores. Apparently, the Southern end of North Bimini has suffered by the Development to the North, it has significantly reduced the demand for the many small B&Bs that helped support the local community. There are signs that investment is happening, but there are as many signs that areas are heading in the wrong direction.


During our stay, the power went down multiple times, some for just a few minutes, at others it seemed down for over an hour. Consensus has it that the problem is poorly maintained electrical distribution and that the current fix is to reset the breakers at the power station rather than fix the problem which would benefit everyone.

I'm a die hard liberal, and it's sad to see the disparity between the wealthy yacht owners staying at the Marinas and the Locals that seem to be barely keeping things together. I'm not in favor of hand outs, but can see that with proper planning the town could benefit all around, but proper planning can only be achieved without the specter of corruption which is something that many of the locals blame for the disparity.

It's rare on a 30 year old boat to go out for a week or more and not have something break down. But when the AC shutdown while at the dock on shore power and power was available, that was something that had to be fixed right away. No surprise, the Raw Water Filter to the AC coolant pump was clogged with flotsam from the every changing water current at the dock. This was the first time I had to clean out that filter, so I didn't realize that I had screwed up when installing it. The tangs on the hose clamps were very close to the base of the filter cover and prevented it from rotating. I thought it was just stiff from never being opened during the nearly 2 years since it was installed. So when I tried to delicately unscrew the cover with a wrench, I heard a pip sqeak of a crack. Yep, the cover now had a crack in the side of it. I re-positioned the hose clamps to eliminate the problem but realized that the pump would suck air through the crack. Rescue tape to the rescue (sorry no pun intended). Now I'll have to replace that filter when we get back to Florida. I'll buy the replacement which matches the other Raw Water Filter (for the Engine) so that I have one set of spares rather than spares for different designs.

Sunday Morning we had breakfast at the Sharkies 'pavilion' on the South end of the Big Game Marina. Astrid seems to be able to pull a great cooked dish out from nowhere at any time. Tina made a delicious Bread pudding. Add to that a couple of Mimosas and good friends banter, it was a great close out of the HISC Memorial Day Cruise. Several of the participants were going back to Florida after that, others, like us, were going to stay around Bimini and the Cays a few more days.
An especial thanks to Ross & Astrid for making it a great weekend at Bimini Big Game Marina.

As the other boats departed, we stayed one more day at BBGM, then on Monday we checked out of the Marina and headed down to Barnett Harbor. We had seen the Sapona Wreck during our passage up from Cat Cay and several folks had mentioned it was worth a snorkel trip down there. So we headed out of the channel at North Bimini and turned South towards the Barnett Harbor cut.
When we got to the wreck there were several other boats anchored and by the time we had our snorkel gear ready, several more Yahoo boats turned up and some were anchored literally within docking distance of the wreck. I'm getting old, hearing the drunken shouts and taunts to the kids climbing on the wreck to jump off of the remnants of the wreck's Bow, was enough to stay clear. And of course, some power boaters had to let everyone know that they could blast towards and away from the wreck at great speed which didn't enhance the visit. So we didn't get to see much around the wreck. We'll plan to go back again but not on Memorial day.

After pulling the anchor, we turned towards the East and headed the mile or so towards the deeper water that would give us a clear path down to Honeymoon Harbor. The water was crystal clear, the view to the bottom and the grasses and fish was amazing. We arrived in pretty light winds and anchored off the East side of the Cay in sight of several other sailboats and a couple of multi story power yachts. Quite a few of the boat crews had taken a dinghy ride ashore, the beach looked really nice, we just relaxed with a glass, or two, of wine. Then we ran our Generator and got the AC running to make it bearable below decks.
Over night the wind picked up and I was concerned that we may get stuck inside the Cays again like the previous week, and at 0200 the Anchor Drag alarm went off, fortunately I had not had too much of the wine and was able to make sense of what was happening. We basically had swung 120° but had not dragged. Still, I remained in the cockpit for an hour just to make sure while Peggy went back down below to the V-Berth.
By morning the wind had subsided slightly, but was still high enough that I had a concern about transiting the Gun Cay Cut from the inside again. The Cut lay to the South, so, before we pulled anchor, I raised the Main with one reef set. Then we pulled the anchor, turned South.
We were headed directly into wind as we kept away from the Shoreline just West of us and avoided going too far East to waste time getting to the Cut. We turned Westward in deep water and now the wind was on our Port side, engine running well but the sail should help us sail through the cut if the engine had decided to take a break. It didn't! Once through the Cut, we turned to deeper water and then onto our heading to bring us back to Fort Lauderdale, and I unfurled the Jib to one reef also.

We were doing 6 knots on course and the Gulf Stream working in our favor by dragging us Northwards while we steered a course aimed to the South of Fort Lauderdale, finally! some sailing. The wind was on our Port Quarter, so were the waves and that's not the best situation for the Auto Pilot, so I manually steered and enjoyed the feel of the boat as she sailed smartly to our destination - Florida.

The wind only lasted for about 2 hours, then it backed and dropped so that we only had 3 knots of apparent wind almost on our stern. Time to get the engine back on line. With the engine running at about 1900 rpm, we kept up our speed around the 5 - 6 knots, and with the change in wind conditions, the Auto Pilot was able to handle the task so we let Otto take the helm while we kept lookout.

It's a long ride back home. But having a good friend (Peggy) on board helps pass the time, we talked about just about everything we had done on the trip and even some plans for future trips, what we would do and what we would not do.

My navigation planning for the route home was spot on, and we were destined to reach the entrance to Port Everglades without changing course. It takes a bit of getting used to ignoring that direction that bow is pointing towards and focusing on the direction that the boat is moving. In our case, we appeared to be headed a bit South of Hollywood, but our track on the GPS showed us heading directly towards the Outer marker of Port Everglades.

Over the VHF we heard a call from the Navy that they were performing and unmanned vessel exercise in the area South of Port Everglades, right in our path, and, of course, they asked all vessels to stay out of the area. I called the Navy Range boat Kate to confirm the extent of the navigation box that was affected, and that confirmed that we would pass right through the middle of the box, pretty much from the South East Corner up to the North West Corner. Oh well! Change course. So we turned North so that we could get directly east of the Port entrance, time for a sleigh ride! We were doing 5 knots through the water and at one moment I saw 10 knots GPS speed (Our tracker reported that our max speed was 9.42knots) WooHooo!

Of course, there was a downside to that high speed Northwards. We were now ready to turn West but had to turn almost South West to make up for the Roaring Gulf Stream Flow to the North. So we probably added about an hour to our trip, we felt the consequence of the Stream right up to where we were inside of the Outer Marker for Port Everglades. If we get caught like that again, I'll opt to take the inside track nearer to the shoreline even though there is normally a bit of a Southerly current along there.

Finally we arrived at the Port and turned up onto the Intracoastal Waterway, then down into Lake Sylvia.

Lake Sylvia is a popular anchorage for boats just arriving from the Bahamas or from Miami or even from the Palm Beaches and North, but it's also becoming crowded with Liveaboards. Now, some of those boats give the rest of us a bad name. Eximius is not the smartest boat in the South, but we maintain her and we use her, with her permission of course. And there are many folks that live on their boats full time that do likewise, keeping their boats safe and sound. The problem is that there are several boats that are lived aboard but are in almost derelict condition. I'm guessing that the problem is insufficient earnings by those that live on those boats. And there's a good chance that if they did not live on their boats then they would be homeless. The liveaboard lifestyle is not sustainable if the crew are not earning enough to take care of their boats. Eventually those boats become wrecks and that empowers local residents to take action to eradicate them. And, of course, that results in the Baby being tossed out with the Bath water. If regulations are imposed to prevent anchoring in order to eliminate the derelict boats, it also eliminates the anchoring for every boat. I'll vote for improved wages.

As it happens, we could not find a location with enough space to anchor where our anchor would hold. I pulled the anchor four times, and puling 80' of 5/15" anchor chain is a work out! Peggy finally suggested (thank you honey!) that we head up to Sunrise Bay which is normally pretty clear and has some good holding. We did, it did and we had a quite night at anchor after cooling the boat for an hour using the generator.

While in Sunrise Bay we had great cellphone coverage and we had the chance to catch up on our emails and messages, the regular world was coming into view.

Wednesday morning we prepped the boat for unloading while still at anchor, tides were a factor and departing the lake too early would result in us being unable to get to our dock. The Fridge/Freezer was turned off, food transferred to coolers, clothes and bedding packed and lines on the boat rigged for being alongside our dock.

After pulling the anchor and heading down to the Sunrise Blvd Bridge we arrived in time for their 1100 opening. We motored easily down the ICW towards Los Olas Blvd Bridge. enroute we saw Silver Cloud waiting for the bridge opening. I hailed them on 09 and switched to 68. We had not seen them in the area before, yet their registration port was Deerfield Beach. A quick chat and found that they were preparing for a trip over to Spain. Young couple and gutsy, I would have guessed the boat to be about 38feet. Back to 09 and we passed Los Olas and Bahia Mar, then turned Westward and towards the New River. The bridges were very obliging and opened in time for us without hardly any delay. We turned into the Canal where we keep Eximius and headed towards our dock. Then, just as we got to the dock, we went aground. Dang! Too Early! With a bit of nudging using the engine we were able to turn Eximius so that she faced East, Port side too.

We're back.

It took about an hour for us to unload the boat and load the car before heading home. Exhausted! Felt like Jet Lag.

We went down to the boat the next morning to wash down the boat and unload the additional Fuel.

Time to get the laundry done.

Great Trip. Looking forward to the next one.

To Do list has grown a bit.

Here's a screen shot of our Trip's Map using InReach. If you go to this link each dot has a date and time stamp.

See you on the Water!

Searching for the Easter Bunny

Easter Spring Fling Cruise

The HISC planned to have this year's Easter Cruise (to be the Spring Fling Cruise from now on) at Lake Sylvia, however, there have been an increased number of liveaboards and visiting cruisers in the lake and that would make anchoring an additional 10 to 15 boats a bit of a squeeze. So the cruise planners moved it to Lake Sunrise, but then realized that it's Sunrise Bay. Nothing like a bit of confusion to get folks started on the search for the Easter Bunny.

Tides

As it happens, the weekend - April 14th to April 16th was a  rare one for us in that the tide suited us at both our departure from the dock on Friday and return on the Sunday.

Planning

As we were going to be able to leave the dock before lunch Friday and get back after lunch on Sunday, we had one dinner and one breakfast to take with us. The club was having a BYOA (Bring your own Appetiser) which normally translates, to 'You probably won't need to eat dinner after that'

So we took Oats for 2 days (just in case) and a Chicken Cacciatore for the Friday Night and a spare meal of pulled pork in tomato sauce. Plus a few bottles of wine, some Tomatoes and Mozzarella cheese for the appetizer which I would put together onboard Saturday afternoon. Oh, a bottle of Rum in case we had any guests along with our usual crates of water, V8, G2 and Ginger Ale. That should cope with anyone stopping by.

Beware the Bridges

It was an easy motor down the New River until we got to the FEC Railroad bridge which was down for maintenance and could only be opened via a Crane on the South side of the  bridge. We called the tender and asked for an opening. Their response was that the bridge had just closed and it would be 10 minutes before they could open it again. I advised them that I would do a few donuts in Sailboat Bend to kill the time, to which they replied - They'll open the bridge sooner if they can see me. 

So we did a couple of donuts at sailboat bend and then turned towards the bridge. At that time of the Friday morning, there were few people about at the bend, but there was a family preparing for a Kayak tour which seem pretty popular in that area.

We turned towards the bridge and could see the Crane attached to the South end of the span and as soon as they saw us, the supervisor started blowing his whistle to instruct the workers to clear the bridge for raising. It took less than 10 minutes for them to clear the bridge and raise it. Because of the crane attachment, they could open it partway, so we had to hug the south bridge fender to ensure our mast cleared the crane and raised span. I didn't hesitate in passing through once their supervisor signaled it was ok by a few more blast on his whistle and the 'come on down' arm signals.

Heading up to Sunrise Bay

We had spoken with Pam Angel & Dave LeGrow of Sjöfn and expected they would be at the Bay this afternoon too, so we kept our ears tuned for their calls to the bridges as we continued our motor up the Sunrise Bay. Passing Los Boulevard bridge with the current carrying us towards Sunrise Blvd Bridge, we had an easy motor up to the Bay. On arrival, Peggy took the helm while I prepared the Anchor and as we came into view of the Bay, I could see that Diversion was already at anchor in pretty much their usual spot. It's funny how we are all creatures of habit, we too looked for our spot on the GPS and dropped anchor, backed down on it hard before taking sightings to look for in case we were drifting. Time to put up the sun shade and the wind break (dodger window) and make some lunch.

Arrivals and Returns

Since we arrived, Sjöfn, Affection, Endeavour, Glory Daze, Always, and a bunch of other HISC members arrived. Socializing is easy with this group, a short dink ride over to another boat is all it takes, everyone is welcome.

A few months ago, I ran out of Olive Oil during my prep of Breakfast. We tied up alongside Diversion, so I popped my head out of the cabin and asked Joyce if she had any spare olive oil - Joyce gave me the remnants of her bottle. I have been carrying around a really nice bottle of EVOO since then to give back with gratitude. So I dinked over to their boat and returned the favor. One of the many things learned is always return something borrowed in better condition than when it was received. Joyce was happy crew 😊

Party time

We've been members of the HISC for about 2 1/2 years now, and one thing we figured out from participating in the Club Cruises is 'Come Early and Come Hungry!' The come early part is what we learned when we dilly dallied arriving at one event 20 minutes late with a delicious tray of roasted shrimp. By the time we got there, most of the food was gone. The come hungry part is - well, most members bring enough food for eight people, so there's lots of food! 

Today we prepared our Appetizer early and arrived at the host boats with a bunch of other members, we had to take turns in arrving - like a skyfull of aircraft waiting to land.

The host boats did the club proud! Lots of food plus everything that the members brought over, and plenty of appropriate drinks. Food eaten, Drinks drunk, Stories were told, and friendships gained. 

When Peggy was getting into the dink, it moved away, she got her butt wet. But no harm done, even the water was warm. We got back to Eximius and both dried off. 

We didn't sleep so good, the wind was chugging along and our VHF radio woke us up around 11pm and at Midnight. But! No anchor dragging, no bumps in the middle of the night. 

Sunday Brunch

The club catered a Sunday Brunch  aboard the host boats. So we had a light breakfast of Oats and made up a thermos of Coffee then headed over to the host boats.

It was time for the Easter Hat Contest. Not sure who won, but Pam Angel stood out. There were peep shoes, Pink Cocktails and a crowd chatting aboard the boats. Always a great group, and if you want to talk sailing, there's always interest and input. Love this bunch.

Wrapping up

We didn't have to be the first to break away from the event for a change, so we stayed in the Bay till after Noon, then, after watching the most of the other boats head out, we pulled anchor just as Always was pulling their's. Peggy motored us out of the Bay and south the few hundred yards to the Sunrise Blvd Bridge and we called for the bridge opening. Always was astern of us as we motored down the ICW towards Los Olas Bridge. Always peeled off just North of the bridge and we only had to wait a few minutes to pass under the bridge and thank the tender for the opening.

Then it was the usual motor south to past Bahia Mar and West towards Sand Bar Park. Just as expected, our speed changed as we moved from the flow of the IntraCoastal into the flow of the New River, but when it changed we also heard a significant change in the engine. Our RPM stayed the same but our speed dropped by over a knot. 

First thought was - Must be a stronger ebb current than expected - OR we have something around the prop! I dropped the engine RPM and shifted into Neutral intent upon a short burst in reverse to try and clear any tangles but when the engine stalled. Worst, we're in the channel North of Sandbar Park which is only about 50' wide and no engine! I tell Peggy that I'm going to drop the anchor and dash up front. Quickly releasing the anchor and lowing with the chain in hand over hand. The anchor bites the bottom, boy! does it bite! I am barely able to keep hold of the chain. Luckily it was still wet from hauling up in Sunrise Bay, so it does not burn my bare hands (normally I wear my gloves when working the anchor) - It drags out harder, this is getting scary! I manage to get the chain around the Boat Cleat and bring the chain to a stop. Turning back to the stern to see if I can get the engine running, I realize Peggy already has it going and is in gear! That explains a lot! Quick shift into Neutral and take a breather. 

I explain what took place, Peggy had not realized I was actually setting the anchor - NOTE TO SELF - make sure everyone knows whats happening and what not to do! 

We used Prop wash and to turn the stern to Stbd and take the strain off the anchor. I pulled it back in and we were on our way, although it was obvious that something was not right. I just hoped we had not damaged our Prop.

Didn't slip up today

Unlike our last return to the slip, I didn't nearly fall off the dock! Peggy made a perfect come alongside and we quickly prepared to load the truck. We're getting this process down! By the time I had the lines in place, power cord setup and secured, dink washed down and topside ready for inspection (sorry, a flash back to my Navy Days) Peggy had the cabin bagged up and ready to take ashore.

Note to self

Need to get a diver to clean the bottom and inspect the Prop & Shaft!

See you on the Water.

Paul

Spring Cruise to Biscayne Bay

Biscayne Bay March 2017

Our plan, after the St. Patrick's Day HISC Cruise, then to head down to Biscayne Bay in company of Bill & Colleen of Duet.

Friday March 17th. 

St. Pat's Day Cruise

We hosted St. Pat’s Day cruise in 2016 and it was a bunch of fun, so there was no hesitation to volunteer to be host for 2017. Eileen Winchell suggested that I reach out to some of the newer members to be cohosts, so I contacted Gary & Joan Noto (LayLa) and also spoke with Michael & Katie Sparks (they have been unable to host and event yet.) Both quickly joined the host team and we planned the event communicating via emails and chats at the club general meetings. Michael had to pull out due to business demands, it happens, and I’m sure they will volunteer for another event soon (ask them!) . Jeff & Joan Keiser (Affection) jumped into to the void, the addition of Affection (big boat) was very welcome.

Peggy & I motored Eximius down the New River and up the Intracoastal to Sunrise Bay to anchor. I had contacted the Coral Ridge Yacht Club to ask if we could use their dingy dock in case any of our members wanted to join us by car. They were fine with that as long as we did not park in their lot, very understandable. We should ask the CRYC for each event, but we should also consider advising our members not to park in the CRYC parking lot. Bob & Pat Schuldenfrei drove down from Palm Beach and parked in the Galleria parking lot—10mins from the CRYC! So perhaps members should consider using Uber to drop off and pick up from the yacht club.

Diversion was already at anchor in Sunrise bay when we arrived, Bob was on his own this trip (I still owe Joyce a bottle of Olive Oil from a previous trip when I ran out while cooking breakfast!)

LayLa turned up at Sunrise Bay Friday evening and rafted with us. They came armed with the victuals for the Sunday Breakfast and plenty of Spuds for the St. Pat’s dinner aboard. Affection turned up, as planned, Saturday morning and joined the raft up. Gary & myself dinked over to each boat and attached a Scavenger Hunt clue to the outside of the boats and advised them that the hunt would start at the Hosts at 3pm (lesson #1—hand them a flyer with the times) 

By 3pm we had 11 boats at anchor and their crews started to arrive at the host boats. Each had to dink over to the other boats, note the boat name and clue for the Anagram that had the clue of ‘Cheerful Sailor’. 

Some of them motored, some got dragged, but Rob from Always rowed the course. Rob got back in 2nd or 3rd place and they also got the Anagram—’Jolly Jack Tar’ (google it!) 

At 5pm, everyone came over to the host boats, bringing food, drinks and good cheer. We had to split the food between two boats there was so much! We had about 30 people aboard our boats and most of the food quickly disappeared. After dinner, we held the Trivia Contest. Not much interest was shown by the teams sat on LayLa and Affection, not until they realized that the prize for a correct team answer was a miniature bottle of Rum. Then everyone got in on the act. 

The Best St. Pat’s outfit contest was awesome! Members really went to town. Sully & Lorrene took the best dressed couple award and Kendal Marcelle took the best dressed individual award. Finally we had the Original Limerick contest, and this year everyone got the idea. They had to recite their own original limerick, not one found on the internet. Hector came in 3rd with a technical recitation. Jeff Miskin 2nd with his baudy (who would have thought) limerick, and Pat Schuldenfrei came in at #1 with her Limerick about the tale of her squirrel infested sails. Sully, Jeff and several others took the microphone (virtual) and the stage to render their comedic tales that had us all in fits of laughter.

As dusk moved on, everyone returned to their boats, we could hear laughter coming from several well into the night. It seemed that everyone had a good time. Sunday Morning and members started to arrive at the host boats for Bagels & cheese & Coffee (and hot chocolate— #2 lesson, that’s a must for next year) . Because we were leaving for Biscayne bay for a week long cruise, we had to break up the party at 9am. But our anchor was crossed with the other boats in the raft up. Hector & Jeff Keiser dinked out and hauled up the macramé of anchor lines to free ours. Then we said our goodbyes and backed out from the raft up and headed South. 

What a great weekend! Thanks everyone for taking part, getting in the mood and making the event. Especial thanks to Joan & Gary on Layla, let’s do it again. And to Affection, Jeff put a lot of effort into hosting. The beer was great!

Sunday March 19th. 

After backing away from the St. Patrick's Day Cruise host raftup, we motored down to Port Everglades. As we approached 17th Street bridge, we could see this tall ship in front of us.

We had our sails up before we got out of the turning channel and they filled as we turned South towards Miami. Wind was pretty much from the West, so we had a nice beam reach all the way south.

There's a southbound current close to the shore, normally we can gain an extra 1/2 knot by keeping with 1 to 1.5 nm from shore. Seems we did because we hit 8.3 knots GPS and reached Miami Government Cut earlier than expected.

Now consider that this was Sunday afternoon! NUTS! We had to stay out of the main channel because the Coast Guard had restricted access as there were 3 cruise ships in port. So we took the lesser channel that passes South of the Main Channel.  That channel was crazy! And according to folks that frequent that area, it's Sunday madness. Dozens of Jet Skis, Dozens of Motor Vessels that don't seem to understand that scorching past a sail boat causing a huge wake can cause a lot of damage.

We had to follow the channel markers that are clearly identified on our GPS, as well as our backup of Navionics and Google Maps (the pic is a screenshot from google maps). Then once we were able to turn south into the ICW, we headed down to pass under Rickenbacker causeway. Duet had caught up with us before we turned towards the bridge and we let them pass (not that we had the option, they are much faster than us under power) so that they could lead the way to Hurricane Harbor.

We have never been to this area before, just south to No Name Harbor years ago, but not the little bit further North. I think the area is nicknamed Nixons (not be confused with Nixons on Bimini)

The wind was from the West and blowing in the high teens. We tried to come alongside Duet but it was not a good idea. After bumping hulls we decided to just anchor off and dink over.

Despite the bumpy weather, we slept pretty good that first night, no anchor alarms until early morning when the wind shifted to the North. I had set the anchor drag alarm to double my rode length but had not set the GPS at the anchor point, and it was pretty skinny water too. The alarm was expected.

Monday March 20th

Much calmer in the morning, we dinked over to Duet and discussed our plans for Bimini. We also setup for a day sail down to ICW Mile Marker 1100 and back just for fun. And you know what they say when two boats are going to the same place at the same time... 

Duet pulled anchor ahead of us and were on the course before we had our sails up. But I knew that our boat would sail closer to the wind than their Catamaran, So I used that to our advantage. Duet had rounded the virtual mark about 10 minutes before us, but the haul back would be to our advantage. So once around the mark, I turned us to head up close but not pinch and we worked our way ahead of Duet, She had to tack a couple of times and ended up well westward of the finish while we close hauled much nearer. 

I kept a watch on Duet. Peggy asked when we were going to go about to head back to the finish  anchorage. I replied that we would turn the moment we saw Duet turn or sooner if I felt we could nail the mark. Once our GPS indicated 120 degrees off course for the mark, I turned Eximius to the South West and eased the sheets, we ploughed that course! Holding off Duet with ease. An exhilarating sail.

Once back at anchor, we pulled out our prepared meal of Chicken Cacciatore, a bottle of wine and headed over to Duet. What a great couple Bill & Colleen. we always enjoy sharing stories with them and the Lobster King has many.

Tuesday March 21st

We were happy to have a day off, so Bill & Colleen headed out to Fowey Rock to look for bugs. I got on with a couple of boat projects, like: Replace the incorrectly wired aft berth 12v outlet with the proper wires and wire in the 40Watt inverter that I had installed but not yet wired into the boat system.

Bill called us when he was returning through Stiltsvill and we agreed with Duet to move further South to Elliott Key, a favored hang out for us after 10 years of heading there on JD our boat before Eximius.

We were underway, sails up within 10 minutes and caught up with Duet as she came out of the Stiltsvill channel. As we sailed south, Duet kept closing on our course, which was odd, then I guessed that he was going to pass by the East channel from the Feather Banks, but we had to take the main channel due to our 5' 7"draft. So then I turned and went behind him. Bill called on the phone asking what we were doing. When I explained he indicated that he was talking about anchoring further North than Elliott key harbor and I thought that was too skinny for us. I checked the charts and recalled the anchorage we had used last year off of Boca Chita Key, so I turned for that and Bill followed. He found a preferred anchorage and we anchored about 100 yards apart. (we were kinda shy about going along side his boat after the bump on Sunday) 

Dinner time we dinked over taking with us Wine and Shrimp & New potatoes. 

We're pretty good at planning our food for our sailing adventures. During the weeks leading up to the cruises, we'll cook double and use the Vacuum pack device to seal and then freeze the meal. In prep for the trip down with Duet, we made a couple of meals for 4 and vacupacked those. 

This night we took the shrimp, it was uncooked, vacupacked with a knob of butter and some herbs, so by the time it was ready to take over to Duet, it had defrosted and the shrimp were well marinated.

Duet has a really nice -BQ with a hot plate, ideal for cooking Lobster and Shrimp and the Spuds. Delicious. Throw that in with some lobster and a nice bowl of salad and we have a dinner fit for royalty.

Before heading back to our boat, we had agreed that the weather was turning nasty on Thursday, so an early return to Fort Lauderdale might be wise. It was!

Wednesday March 22nd.

After and early, lite breakfast, we prepared to head back, Duet pulled anchor ahead of us and was on her way while I was still acting as a manual windlass pulling in the 80' of chain and anchor.

Once the anchor was up, Peggy turned us to follow Duet out of the Anchorage under motor and then North just keeping clear of the shallows as we approached the Stiltsvill in Biscayne Channel.

Screenshot of Navionics Chart  - North end of Biscayne Bay

Seeing the homes on stilts never gets old, but the channel is nothing much to shout about. Very well marked and it takes a turn to the South East as it reaches the Ocean.

Bill had suggested that we head out into the Gulfstream which is about 2miles of the coast near Miami, so we headed NorthWest once out of the channel. There's a bit of a southerly current close to Miami, but almost like magic, as we reached 2 miles off the Port entrance, we noticed the expected increase in speed and then turned North for home.

Duet was well ahead of us, they make at least a knot faster than us under motor, so by this time they were a couple or miles ahead of us. Otto, our Auto Pilot was behaving really well, we're getting used to letting him steer the boat while we can relax a bit while keeping an eye out for other boats. And there were plenty out there. So every now and then we had to tap the Auto Pilot controller course buttons to turn out of the way, but it was a pretty cool ride all the way up. We disengaged Otto as we got into sight of the Port Everglades inlet about 3 miles ahead to Port. 

There's a string of mooring balls running parallel to coast south of the Port, I guess it's a popular hang out for small power boats, but only a couple were occupied today.

We had motored with our Main up and made good time, but we had a time restriction window that meant we had to pass under the 17th Street Causeway Bridge by 15:00 otherwise we would not be able to get past all of the bridges on the New River before they closed at 4pm. We passed under the bridge at 15:20 and so we headed around the bend to Lake Sylvia.

The lake was pretty packed! It's a popular anchorage for folks waiting to cross over to the Bahamas or returning and taking a break before heading up the ICW. Today there were a couple of training boats with crews getting checked out as part of their Yacht Masters certification, they dropped anchor, hung around for a while, pulled it back up and went around the lake and anchored again.

We found a good spot and dug our anchor deep, the lake is well known for it's weird flows. We have been there in the past with a bunch of other boats and all of us facing different directions, even those that were almost next to us.

After the motor up from the Bay, we planned to just hang out and relax, it's what we do at the end of a days sailing (or motoring). Like many of the others in the Lake, we watched carefully as other boats came in looking to anchor. 

One large motor yacht came in and dropped his anchor ahead of us. His bow was probably 10' off the water compared to our 4', that meant he would need to let out more anchor rode than us. As he backed upon his anchor to dig it in, I stood looking very concerned, with my radio in hand and my Bosuns Call on it's chain around my neck. He got the message without me saying a word "You're too freaking Close" so he pulled anchor and moved to another part of the lake.

Later several other sail boats came into the lake, there were a lot of Canadian boats. I got to chat briefly with them when they asked if the holding was ok. They anchored a nice distance so all was good with the world.

We had our Dink on the deck and the outboard on the motor mount port side of the cockpit. The cockpit table was up and we had enjoyed a glass (or two) of wine and a chicken dinner. Loafing in the cockpit, I saw another catamaran entering the lake, looked familiar - It was Duet!

Turns out that we had lost site of them earlier not realizing that they had headed in towards Dania Beach and went for a dive and they decided to hang out in Lake Sylvia - Small world.

Thursday March 23rd.

The bridges on the New River close to marine traffic from 06:30 till 09:00 on weekdays to accommodate the rush hour road traffic. And we needed to be back at the dock by 10:00 to avoid low tide. So we left Lake Sylvia around 08:30 and got to the first bridge - 3rd Avenue Bridge - at 09:10 and made an easy pass, but the Bridge Tender at Andrews Avenue Bridge advised us that the railroad bridge was down, he would open when the rail bridge opened.

I called the FEC bridge tender and was advised they would open in a couple of minutes. Good timing! So no need to tie up and wait, we just held station which was pretty easy as the river was flowing towards us (and low tide!)

As passed the two bridges we heard a call for Eximius, but couldn't make out the caller. I responded that this was Eximius and then we heard 7th Avenue Bridge calling to let us know the bridge was open and if we could get there he would wait for us. Acknowledge and shifted into max speed. We swung around Sailboat bend and he was still open. As we passed beneath the bridge I thanked him on the Radio. These bridge tenders do a great job, and do their best to ease passage down the river whenever they can.

As we approached our dock on the Port side, Peggy asked which Piling I wanted to reach for. We agreed on the 2nd piling. Pegs approached the dock at about 25° and as our bow neared the dock she put Eximius in Reverse. The boat stopped, the stern walked over to Port - PERFECT! That's the way to do it. I was so impressed that I nearly fell into the water! ha! Rule! Get fully onto the dock before congratulating the helm on a nice landing! 😎

Wrap up

I'm really pleased the way we team up to get the boat secured to the dock, food off loaded, electrics hooked up, deck scrubbed down, truck loaded and take a breath before we leave the dock and head home. It sure makes for a stressless end to a great trip, shorter than planned, but still a great trip.

Hopefully we'll get to meet up with Duet on future trips.

See you on the Water.

Paul

How far to go in Google Maps

Google Maps

Ok, I'm a sucker for net tricks, and Google Maps has a very cool feature that allows Distance Measurement. When I mentioned this to a sailing buddy, he asked if I would write up the process. So here goes.

How far is it from Point A to Point B on the Ocean?

Step 1: Open Google Maps and zoom into the area of interest like this:

This pic shows the map of the Atlantic Coast with Boca Raton at the North and Port Everglades Zoomed to 2 Miles. It's clickable so that you can go to the Map if you have an active Internet Connection.

Step 2: Place a Mark on the Map 

I'm going to measure the distance from Lake Boca to Hillsboro Inlet and then to Port Everglades.
To place the 1st mark, right click on the Map close to the Inlet at Lake Boca, then select 'Measure Distance'

Now you should see the 1st Mark on the screen, (I have placed an arrow and text to point to the mark. It's that round black circle with a white core)

Step 3: Place the 2nd Mark

Now mouse down to the location where you wish the next mark, in my example, that's going to be the Hillsboro Inlet, Then Click and the distance from the 1st Mark to the Second will be shown.

In the current (February 2017) version of Maps.Google this line between the 1st Mark and the 2nd Mark has graduation marks along the line and the distance at the 2nd Mark

Step 4: Adding more Marks

When you click elsewhere on the Map, you'll see a new Mark with the distance shown to that Mark from the 1st Mark.

Now this is starting to become useful.

I can add marks between any other two marks just by dragging any point on the line between two marks.

To delete a mark, just click on the Mark and it's gone.

Here I have added a 3rd Mark by dragging a point on the line out to the East. Notice how the distance is updated automatically.

I use this process when I'm guestimating the distance for a Sailing trip. It's quick and easy.

I have not yet figured out how to share a Map including the Measured Distance Marks & Lines, so if you know how, please comment to share it.

The process is similar on a Tablet, but there's no Right Click Option,
On my Android Tablet, I follow the steps above, but to place the first mark I just touch and hold a point on the map, that plants a Marker and description a description at the bottom of the screen. If I tap that description, it brings up options including Measure Distance!
To add additional marks, scroll to where you want the next mark then just tap the + Add Point icon in the lower left corner of the screen. That same process can be repeated. The options on a PC are far better.

Just to prevent argument! I only use this process when I want to quickly measure distances. When it comes to Route Planning we use Garmin Home Port, that allows us to export our routes to our onboard GPS system.

I hope you found this useful. It's quick and dirty, but sometimes it's the quickest option that counts.

See you on the Water.

Paul

Great Birthday - Thanks

Thanks Bill - Great Birthday Sail

An unexpected call from Bill asking if we wanted to go out on his boat for a day sail - Bill did not know it was my birthday, and I didn't mention it. But Peggy was happy to go. We had met with Bill & Colleen several times, they are always good for a chat, especially if the subject is sailing, Lobsters or the Bahamas.

We arranged to meet them at 11:30 and stopped by Eximius to pickup Peggy's Jacket, Gloves and PFD and spot.

Despite the traffic, we arrived at the Fort Lauderdale Yacht Club around 11:20am, so we had time to update our Spot Locator message.

At the Boat, Bill greeted us with his typical humor and we climbed aboard with the boat at high tide.

Bill had done much of the departure prep before we got there, so it was only a few minutes before I was able to help cast off and we backed out of the slip at the Yacht Club. Coolleen was doing other stuff today, so it was just the three of us.

We motored out of the FLYC channel into the Intra Coastal Channel and headed for the 17th Street Bridge. There was 55' of clearance, so we were able to pass under the bridge without an opening. 

Turning out towards the Ocean, we could see that it was going to be a nice sail, not a lot of lumpy water out there. 

We raised the sails once outside the entrance and turned South, but the wind was fickle, so we turned to the North just so that we could hug the coast, and then Bill enabled the Auto Pilot. He has the same model we have just a few years younger. 

There was a submarine just outside Port Everglades, it was heading South so we guessed it was not going into the port. As always, there were a bunch of ships at anchor off the Fort Lauderdale beach waiting to go into port. The wind from the East veered to the SE some of the time, but we had a really nice, easy and comfortable sail up towards Hillsboro Inlet, but not going quite that far (the track shows our Spot locations throughout the sail.)

Around 12:30 Bill brought out the sandwiches and we sat around the cabin table discussing our upcoming trip to the Bahamas. Bill & Colleen have done that trip - lots! And have plenty of local knowledge as he has been sailing this area and the Bahamas for around 40 years.

When you go out with  a seasoned sailor, you have to expect a few sea stories, heck, I have a few, and sailors are normally happy to share them. Bill is no exception, he kept us laughing, intrigued and excited with his recollections of  past trips. Not only is that fun, but we also learn a lot from them. Thanks Bill.

After turning South to return, Bill disabled the Auto Pilot and invited me to take the helm - This is the way to celebrate a birthday! The boat behaves quite different from Eximius, I had to learn how close the boat would sail and so quickly put the boat in irons. But after a few minutes we were able to turn back off the wind and then head South. 

The wind was it's normal finiky unstable self, but we made good progress all the way down the the Port. Bill was comfortable enough to take a cat nap on the stern seats. Seeing how he set himself up to relax, I realized he had done that often before. It was easy to bring the boat up during the puffs and head off during the lulls. I kept us out away from the beach just in case the wind died down and that would need us to tack back out. As it was, we were easily able to get all the way to the Port on a Port Tack. Bill did remind me that his boat had less than 4' of draft and getting closer to the shoal marker in Duet was not as risky as it is on Eximius. 

Once were past the shoal marker, Bill started the engines and powered up so that we could lower the sails. There's plenty of deck to get around on Bill's boat, so the sails were soon dropped and furled, zipped up in the mainsail's stack pack and ready for the return.

As we came in, Wizard was in front of us - nice boat if you like to race 

We easily passed under the bridge and turned up to the FLYC channel. In just a few minutes, we were tied up and the engines shut down. 

Bill brought up the Beer!

Thanks Bill for a great sail today, we both enjoyed every minute. Don't hesitate to ask us out again!

See you on the water. 

If you click on the expand icon in the title bar of the map above, you'll see the track we took. The waypoints with a Camera Icon have a pic.

Taking a Break

A Break from Politics

We had the chance to take Eximius out for a few days, but the weather suggested waiting till nearly mid week, else we would have been out on the water and headed down to Biscayne Bay on Saturday - Weather sometimes Sucks!

But it's often better to hang back and go when things get better. So we agreed to take the boat down to Lake Sylvia on Tuesday thru Friday and just take a Day Sail if the weather was ok.

Tuesday: We set off from the dock around Noon, best time for the tides and to ensure we didn't get stuck on any of the shallow areas near the outer end of the Canal where we keep the boat. We loaded the boat on Monday with Non perishables and drinks (Wine, Rum, Water and a few soft drinks - Low Sugar variety) So we only had to take a few bags down on Tuesday, I'm always surprised how much it takes to spend a few nights on the boat. Those 'few bags' included, Clothing, our 'Bag' of Electronics and a few last minute food items, you know, the ones we forgot on Monday!

As always, we ran the engine for a few minutes before leaving the dock, and this time Peggy noticed that the engine temp was above the normal 145°F, it got up to 175° and that's not good. Didn't take long to figure out the Raw Water intake was restricted. I removed the Raw water Filter and flushed out the inlet by letting about a pint of water flood in with the Thru Hull Valve open, then put it all back together. Nailed it! Started the engine and it dropped back down to 145° within less than a minute. Phew!

Cast Off

All set, we cast off and headed out of the canal.

Passing a couple of derelict live-a-board boats that give all boaters a bad rap. One we have seen before, at least we saw the top of it as most was under water.

Tried out my new Selfie Stick as we approached the turn from the North Fork of the New River where it joins the South Fork and becomes the New River proper. It was a beautiful day.

Normally I stand by the bow to give early notice to Peggy at the helm if there are any boat obstructing the channel ahead. It was clear.

Turning to the 1st Bridge

Ok, we have past the 11th Avenue Swing Bridge, but the 7th Avenue is the first bridge that opens 'Up' for us, it's just around the bend from the fork in the New River, close to Cooley's Landing. We stay close to the South side of the River here so that the Bridge Tender can see us when we call in for an opening. Like all the bridges on the New River, they open on demand except between 6:30am and 9:00 am and between 4:30pm and 6:00 pm. We hail the bridge just after we come around the bend as soon as we have the bridge in sight. 7th Avenue bridge opens pretty quickly, so we try to be up to full speed as soon as we see the bridge spans start to move.

 Clearing the bridge

Peggy is at the helm as we pass 7th Avenue. We have made this trip dozens of times now, and Peggy is really good about getting us through the bridges at a decent speed and right down the middle.

Great place to pick up guests

After passing 7th Avenue, we arrive at Sailboat Bend, this is a great place to pickup guests. They can drive to the parking lot by the Museum of Science & Discovery, then walk down to the floating docks to meet us. The docks are available on a first come first serve basis, but I don't think there is any overnight docking, not that we have ever traversed the New River at night - Yet!

It's great having a good partner at the Helm.

With the boat still setup for motoring, I get to relax while Peggy makes all of the turns in the New River, We have to pass through the Florida East Cost Railway bridge (normally open but becoming more 'used' due to the BrightLine railway development.) with the Pirates Republic bar and grill on the the South West side of the Railway bridge then Andrews Avenue bridge with the Briney Pub on the North West side of the Bridge and the Downtowner Bar & Grill on the South East side of Andrews Avenue bridge.

Andrews Avenue bridge also has water discharge sluces on either side of the bridge. When they open, the water flow is sufficient to blow us over to the South side of the River, and if we are approaching the bridge from either side, those sluce gates can get us. We anticipate them opening and either hold back or charge through them to reduce their impact. They only open for a couple of minutes, but they seem to wait till we are nearby before they dump the local rainwater out into the river.

The rest of the trip down to Lake Sylvia is pretty straight forward motoring, past 3rd Avenue Bridge and then over the Tunnel (Federal Highway passes below the New River just East of 3rd Avenue.) around Tarpon Bend and then the motor eastwards leaving Sand Bar Park to Starboard as we head towards Bahia Mar before turning south into Lake Sylvia.

Anchored at Lake Sylvia

Once anchored, we practice a few standard procedures to make sure we're ok for the night.

• Set the Anchor Alarm as close to the point where we drop Anchor. I set the Alarm for twice the amount of anchor rode that I let out. That way we can turn a full circle around the anchor without the alarm going off, but if we go outside of that circle, it will scream at us. We have had many nights disturbed by a screaming anchor alarm.
• Let out a scope of 7:1 anchor rode. So if we are in 10 feet of water and our bow is 3' from the water, that's 13' from bow to bottom. Multiply that by 7 gives 91' Most of Lake Sylvia is less than that, and at low tide we're lucky to have 7' water depth. So 70' is a safe drop for us.
• Once the anchor is down, backup to dig it in, it's muddy down there, and when the anchor digs in while we're heading astern, we can feel the sudden tug as it brings us to a halt. Of course, the currents in Lake Sylvia are legendary, we have been at anchor and all of the nearby boats are facing almost in a circle, so we try to ensure we're not too close to any other boat. We ask, as we did this week, and the nearest neighbor was uncomfortable with how close we were to them. No big deal, we pulled the anchor backup and moved 80' away from him, of course, that put us nearer to another boat, but not so close. We stayed, probably, 60' from the nearest boat despite the fact that we were pointing in opposite directions at times.
• Secure all mast lines, don't want them clanging all through the night.
• Have a couple of fenders handy, just in case anyone gets too close for comfort.
• Put up the Cockpit enclosure. We have shade netting for both sides and the rear of the cockpit, cuts the heat down (Sorry if you're out of State reading this, but it gets hot in the cockpit when the wind dies down and the clouds clear. )
• Send a pic (the one above) to our kids. And hope that they send one or more back - we miss them.

Overnight on the Water is really special

Tuesday night we had dinner out in the cockpit, a glass or two of wine for Peggy and a Tot or two of Rum for me. Then an early night. Slept like a log, no anchor alarms (we didn't move outside of our set area) No clanking rigging lines, no Bumps in the night. So I woke up around 2am. Went out to the Cockpit and saw this. Beautiful Moon over Fort Lauderdale, and a couple of bright points, I think they were Jupiter and Spica that were clearly visible below the Moon in all it's glory. Had to take that pic and post it to my buds on Facebook.

The water was like glass, no wind, and the lights on the shore were mostly from boats in the lake's private marina. The sky was almost naked. Really was beautiful. Peggy woke up and asked what was happening, I pointed up to the Moon, she got it.

BFF - Break Fast Fried

Ok, I'll admit it, I like my morning Coffee and especially a Full Fried Breakfast - Eggs, Sausage, Toms and Toast. Although the Toast is actually Fried Bread - Definitely a winner.

This was our first meal where I used our new Herbs & Spices Box. A dash of Salt & Pepper and a pinch of Basil on those tasty Toms.

And I really don't like using Paper Plates, hence the Plastic ones that have lasted for several years now. More Environmentally acceptable. Plus it cuts down on Trash - that's a big Plus

Getting ready to go Sailing!

About time! After breakfast, we cleaned up the Cabin - Secure for Sea. That involves stowing anything that might get knocked around when we slosh through any rough waves (weather or idjot power boater that knows no better) and making sure all of the Ports are closed. This was standard practice when I was onboard Navy ships during my 25 years in the Royal Navy - But Peggy refuses to join 'My Navy' yet still, she gets it. And we make a pretty good job of Securing for Sea.

Had to show these off.

Our Daughter in Law gave us these Anchor Cushions for Christmas, they go pretty well with our Decor. Peggy thinks they are nice too, but also sees them as part of the 'Pauls Navy' problem. 😉

Time to take a dump.

If we're heading outside of the 3mile limit, we're proably going to empty the holding tank too. So we headed out of Port Everglades. We had the Main up after passing beneath the 17th Street Bridge and then turned East to head out of the Port Everglades Entrance. There's a large Condo building on the North side of the Entrance and a Rocky jetty on the South Side. It was Choppy!

We put the Jib out and turned down the engine as we left the Port. It was still Choppy! Not comfortable at all. But we were sailing. Then the wind died. It happens. This time it died after going crazy for about 20 minutes. The wind was wandering all over the place, and dropped down to less than 3 knots, that's not sailing weather. So we restarted the engine and headed out. 

The wind did not improve, so we turned around and headed back to port. The sails were furled and in their bag, so there was not much to do as we headed back in under the closed 17th street bridge. 

As always, other boaters that are passing under that bridge at the same time that we do, they look up at our mast head and seem to be certain that we'll hit the bridge. We won't we've measured our mast from the water to the top and add 4' to that to consider the VHF Antenna and the Wireless Wind Transducer that's sitting on top of the mast. We need 52' and that's available below the 17th street causeway bridge except during very high tides, we try to avoid those. But if we are headed beneath the bridge during those Spring or King Tides, we wait for the bridge to open.

Having only had about 30 minutes actually sailing, we headed back to Lake Sylvia and the same place that we spent last night was still available, so we dropped anchor and had lunch.

With most of the afternoon with not a lot to do, Right! that never happens. I got a couple of projects done. 

• The Canvas Bridge piece zipper that we stitched last week was not quite right, so I cut the stitching and redid it. Looked much better.
• Peggy wanted to add a Speaker in the Cockpit for our Stereo System. There is a speaker out there but it's not connected to anything. I think it was originally used as a speaker for the VHF radio, but as we have a really nice remote Mic-Speaker at the helm, it's not needed for that. So I rewired it to hook into the Stereo system. Looking at the wiring behind the Stereo reminded me that I really needed to clean that up. I spent about an hour detecting which wire was which. Checking which wires I could remove and which needed rewiring due to bad joints.
• I also connected that 4th speaker to the spare output from the Stereo.

We slept really well that night.

But sadly, Thursday's weather was to replicate Wednesday's. So we decided to just stay on the hook. More projects:

• I have 4 large plastic bins under the Starboard side seats that hold my tools, consumables, Electrical bits and pieces and a ditty box. That's a lot of stuff that has grown over the past 22 months of owning Eximius. I took the time to identify duplicate tools, and to sort out each box so that their contents were more obvious. In the process I eliminated one box - that's huge! That box can be replaced with a nice one that can hold Non-Perishables for our longer trips.
• Last year I added LED strip lights to the Cabin Port Side, but they were on all the time if the Cabin lighting circuit was energized. Not good. So, being able to locate the electrical bits and pieces to add an inline switch, I did. Now we can power up the cabin light circuit and turn off any unwanted lights. It means we can get up in the middle of the night, take a trip to the head and be able to see what we are doing. That's good.
• And we realized that the additional Stereo speaker was not setup correctly, they were not attached to the correct stereo outputs. It took the two of us about a half hour to figure out which speaker wires went to which speakers (they are now all labeled) and which outputs from the Stereo were for which speakers (and they are also now labled). Result - Nice! We can Rear Fade the system so that the Cockpit gets' the most audio or Foward Fade the system to keep the cockpit quiet.

Not a bad days work. We slept well Thursday night too

Friday - Sail Day

Low Tide was at 8:59, so we delayed leaving the Lake till after 10am. I spent a while polishing up the Eisenglass panels around the cockpit. They need their dose of TLC every two or three weeks.

And I took this unedited video showing the other boats in the lake.

As we motored out of the Lake, we passed a boat from Coral Gables, GhiJhia (?) that was preparing to leave also. They were anchored pretty close to a known skinny area - we know about it because we've been stuck for several hours on that bit of skinny. I called out to advise and they acknowledged and followed us out of the lake as we stayed close to the Eastern side of the entrance channel.

And now we get to sail

At Last! We raised the sails as soon as we passed under the 17th Street Causeway bridge, hey, this is becoming normal! And we unfurled the Gib leaving 1 Reef in place as the wind was obviously picking up. Then we turned East to follow GhiJhia down the channel towards the Ocean. As quickly as the wind popped up after raising the sail, it died again before we past the South Jetty. Come ON!

Once past the South Jetty though, it got better. The wind picked up to over 10knots and the sea was CALM! Beautiful day to be sailing. 

And it gets Better!

After heading out we practiced Hoving Too. We had done this several times during our Basic Keel Boat sailing course with the ASA, but had not yet done it on our own boat. The course obviously taught us well. We were doing about 5knots with a 12knot wind on a Starboard Tack. We simply turned to Starboard as though we were going to go about, but left the Port Gib Sheet in place. As soon as we went through the wind, I turned the wheel to port. That left us with the boat trying to turn to Starboard - the Gib was backwinded and the Main had flopped over to Starboard. The rudder was trying to turn us back to Port. Result - Nothing! We had ZERO speed through the water. The helm was steady and I could have just locked the wheel and kept us slowing drifting with the Ocean at about 1knot (GPS) to the North. Cool!

To get back on course, I simply turned the wheel to Starboard and we came back onto our original heading on a Starboard tack.

After an hour of really good sailing towards Bimini, 50miles away and not on our schedule today. we turned back to Port Everglades.

And yet still better!

The wind was from the South, mostly around 10 to 15 knots, we were doing an easy 5 to 6 knots in a sea that was only lumpy when a stink potter blasted by leaving a wake 4' high.

Peggy asked when we were going to drop the main, we normally would do that before we entered the Port Everglades Entrance Channel. Not today! I explained how I would like to actually sail under the 17th Street Causeway bridge.

WE DID - Our First!

The Port Everglades Entrance Channel is wide, has to be to allow all of the Cruise Ships that use the Port. We kept on the South side of the Channel as much as we could, so the incoming power traffic stayed off to our Starboard Side, and we were far enough over to port that any outgoing traffic could easily pass us but allow them to still be on the South side of the channel. Once we got near the turning basin, we kept on heading West as I really wanted to keep clear of that nasty outcrop where the channel turns into the Intra Coastal Water way. 

At that point, the wind was from directly astern. We put the Traveller all the way to Port and were able to keep the Gib to port - windy was being nice to us.

We sailed under the bridge - that felt really good. Other boats following us were able to pass us as we sailed under, and others were able to pass us coming South towards us. 

After passing the bridge, we put the engine in gear (we had it running all the time as we approached the bridge). The wind had dropped a bit and we were able to drop the mainsail without turning into the following wind. The Gib was furled in easily and we headed up the Intra Coastal crossing over to the West side to rejoin the New River by Sandbar Park.

The trip backup the river was easy - Gravy to a great day out.

By the time we got back to the Slip. we had a new President.

Can't wait till our next trip.

See you on the water.