The Sailing Life: Ft. Lauderdale to Green Turtle Cay, Abacos, Bahamas

First, let me say this: My stay in Ft. Lauderdale was at my dear friends' Laura and Cory's house. They put me up, put up with me, and they were free and easy with invaluable advice. Their house is way up the New River and it's calm there and generally much cooler than downtown Ft. Lauderdale.

I've known Laura for nearly 40 years - we've sailed together on each other's boats, sailed together on our own boats, raced on each other's boats, and when Cory came into her life, deliveries together. They are two of the very few people I trust offshore. They deserve a huge portion of credit for this trip to the Bahamas for their unflagging encouragement and support.

My friend, John, flew into Ft. Lauderdale Friday, January 19th. We Ubered into town for dinner at The Downtowner restaurant on the south shore of the New River. It was a pleasant dinner and we got back to Pelican at a very reasonable hour. A sleeping pill later we were out like lights.

Saturday promised to have good weather for 24 hours or more and that meant we'd be leaving Saturday night. The plan was to go down the New River, get a pump out of the holding tank (which, despite Florida's fervent desire to have people use the service is nearly impossible to get done).

Laura came with John and I, Cory and his friend Mark followed in Cory's Contender, a very nice center console.

As we left their dock I hit a bump in the mud. No problem, power over it. Easy peasy. As we went down the New River at the Davie Blvd bridge I was having trouble managing Pelican - more than I should have had but I put it down to some goop on the prop that would eventually wash off. So we continued down the river.

Now, you need to know that the New River is not so much a river as it is a wide-ish creek that flows at up to 3 knots or so. Lining the river is some very expensive boats leaving not a lot of room for vessels to pass. Sure, more than you think but less than you may need.

By the time I got to the next bridge, the 7th Avenue bridge, I was having trouble keeping pointed down river when going slow. At the Andrews Avenue bridge I had go to a dock to wait and after that I had a terrible time turning down river again. I'm chalking it up to the current and Pelican's normal difficulty in low speed maneuvering.

Finally, I managed, with variously cursing and laughter from other boaters to get between Andrews Avenue and 3rd Avenue bridges tied up for a pump out. After finding the dock master, I found I had stopped in the wrong place and had to continue down past the 3rd Avenue bridge. It went downhill from there.

After struggling for 15 minutes to get Pelican pointing downstream for the 3rd Avenue bridge amongst a great deal of ridicule from other boaters about 'sail boaters' and so forth and not one offer to help or not crowd me when I was obviously in difficulty I got through the bridge and tied up again near the pumpout.

Well, unlike pumpout stations everywhere else, this one doesn't have the fitting. Not even the rubber nozzle. Really? Apparently, it's a Florida thing. You need your own fittings. Anyway, after some brouhaha, we left for the 15th Street Fisheries to pick up fuel and to have dinner. But on the way down I noticed a stronger vibration. Not devastating but more than I remembered.

After a nice dinner, we took off for the Bahamas. We were only making about 4 knots and the vibration, instead of getting better if it were just smootch on the prop, got worse. Around midnight John and I came to the conclusion that someone needed to check the prop - we were in the Gulf Stream and if there was damage to the running gear we needed to go back. If not, we needed to clear it and continue.

So I dragged out my light wetsuit, mask and waterproof flashlight and with John running safety lines for me to hold, I went overboard.

First, the water in the Gulf Stream is really nice. If it weren't for the 2-4 foot waves it would be very pleasant. Also, if it were daylight. Anyway, I saw what looked like a party ribbon hanging off the prop shaft and reached under to get it. Well, sir, it wasn't a party ribbon. It was the weighted rim of a casting net, a small polypropylene line with several ounce weights every few inches., perhaps 6 feet long.

After I got that off, there was still junk on the shaft but it was too rough to be diving and cutting it off so I got back into the boat and we got underway. Clearing that weighted line off gave us an extra couple of knots. Woohoo! No vibration! Yay!

John Brown on the Banks

From then on it was just standing watch and keeping dryish in building seas and winds. Not quite the weather report. But around 11:30 am, only one and a half hours late, which included the time we spent clearing the prop, we passed onto the Little Bahamas Bank headed for Great Sale Cay.

Me on the Banks

The temperature went up 10 degrees! The waters were clear turquoise blue. The evilness of the last 24 hours dissipated in the complete marveling of the beauty of the banks! Cory had said you can just stop and anchor anywhere. You can hear this. But until you experience it you can't believe it. But yes. You're tired? No worries. Stop. Drop your anchor. Put on your anchor light. Go to sleep. Easy as pie and so completely surprising and refreshing.

But we ran until about 6 pm when we got to Great Sale Cay and anchored down. It was a spectacular night, brilliantly clear with a crescent moon and stars like most people never get to see. After a nice dinner of spaghetti and salad we went to sleep, the sleep of the nearly dead.

Lynn had said when we talked during the crossing that I needed to make John a real breakfast underway. Well, underway, in 4 to 6 foot head seas, I wasn't going to do that. But on Sunday morning at Great Sale, it was all bacon and eggs and coffee. It was excellent, if I may say so myself. Task completed, Lynn!

What the prop looked like

John and I decided that it would be a really long day to get to New Plymouth so that we'd stop in Manjack Cay for the night and take it easy the next morning - swim and stuff, then go to Donny's Marina for checking in to the Bahamas. This provided a spectacular opportunity to check Pelican's bottom and clear the rest of the junk from the prop. So for a couple of hours, John and I swam and generally carried on.

After cleaning

One of the things that really surprised me was how clean Pelican was, even after being in the water for almost 4 months and sitting for two of them. Just a little slime on the hull was about it. There was no real reason to clean the bottom.

What came off

Diver Bob finishing up

Anyway, after that and a simple breakfast, we weighed anchor and headed to the Black Sound of Green Turtle Cay to Donny's Marina. Donny was very nice to move some boats around for us so we could stay the night, but he needed the slip for the next day so after checking in, on Donny's advice, we put the dinghy together and headed for the Other Shore Yacht Club where Pinapples happens to be - a bar and grill which is right near the dock and has pretty good food and great views of New Plymouth and the sunsets.

Pelican at Donny's

There I talked to Kevin, the dockmaster, and arranged for a slip. Since they don't take reservations he indicated that I just come on over and tie up and we'd go from there. So to help Donny out and to have a 'home base' for the northern Abacos off we went.

Pineapples

The dock's not much, really, but there's water and electricity and the pilings are pretty sturdy and that's all I really need. Pineapples is a great little bar and burger shack. There's a saltwater pool, shade, a great view of New Plymouth and spectacular sunsets over Great Abaco Island.

The Other Shore Yacht Club has the only fuel in the harbor (there's fuel in White Sound north of here) and water. Because a blow out of the northeast and east was predicted for the next week, essentially, we took the inside of the dock. Very comfortable.

That night we moved we had dinner at Pineapples. We met Jason who takes people out for fishing and snorkeling excursions. Nothing doing but we had to go. I had to try out my pole spear, we had to see the reef and the stingrays north of Manjack Cay. So, rather than discussing this trip, please enjoy the following pictures and a video...