Sailing aboard s/v "Emerald Tide"

[Frank]

Did you get my "I'm in Black Sound"
"doo wop" fundraiser message?
Come on in and DANCE!!  :o

The anchorage is funny.....ya never know.
Sun:SE @ 10 to 18
Mon:S @ 15-25
Tues SW @ 15-25
May be OK


We should be at Manjack late sunday morning
see ya at GTC today or Manjack tomorrow 

Have fun

[s/v Faith]

Did you get my "I'm in Black Sound"
"doo wop" fundraiser message?
Come on in and DANCE!!  :o

The anchorage is funny.....ya never know.
Sun:SE @ 10 to 18
Mon:S @ 15-25
Tues SW @ 15-25
May be OK


We should be at Manjack late sunday morning
see ya at GTC today or Manjack tomorrow  

Have fun

Just rounded the whale.  Got passed by a smug west sail...  Smug until he realized I was just sailing on my jib, while he was motorsailing. :)

The tide is way too low for me to get ito black sound right now, but I am thinking I can anchor outside, go in an get some supplies and meet you...  Green Turtle club?

On edit,,, never mind, I see you said "Sundowners". http://www.sundownersbar.com/

Wow! What a crazy website!  Don't want to stare too long at that one while you are navigating single handed!

[s/v Faith]

Had a wonderful time with Frank and Vicky!  

 The Sundowners flowed with impunity that night!  I was glad Emerald Tide was anchored within view of the bar!

 Strangely the bar tender acted as though my money was no good???  Frank apparently felt like the bar was an extension of his home....   ;D.

Picture of Sundowners from anchorage off of Green Turtle;

[s/v Faith]

Frank was kind enough to go to the trouble of selling a boat, just to allow me to help he and Vicky out.

The next morning, I weighed anchor to go into Black Sound to raft up and transfer gear and crew.  Sadie (the four legged crew member) came aboard before we were even rated up!  She immediately started to clean up the cockpit, washing my mess left over in the cockpit from breakfast.  Such a great dog!  I understand from Vicky she is used to cleaning up after Frank.  ;D

We rolled out the jib and motor sailed around to the north end of Manjack.

What an amazingly beautiful anchorage!  Just a bit of paradise!

Sadie the wonder dog;

[s/v Faith]

After two days of mooching off of enjoying the hospitality of my guests, I was planning to weigh anchor and sail on this afternoon.  At noon when I was still sleeping off the night before diligently making preparations for getting underway.

The forecast was for the wind to clock in the afternoon or evening, and pick up.  It came early!  I looked out to see a solid wall of water from the water to the sky approaching from the west!

I knew it was going to rain, the sunset was amazing but a very "Sailors take warning" shade of red!

Red sky at morning, Sailors take warning;



In the time it took me to get the motor started, and get to the bow to start cranking in the 70' of chain I had out, the wind clocked and filled in.  It had been about 15k all night and morning, ,and a quick glance at the wind instrument said 26k!  

Cranking the big windlass hard, I could barely get the chain in.  The 60# CQR had been buried in a hole I dug with my hands when I anchored.  

I am not much of a fan of the CQR any more, they were great in their day but the Manson Supreme is so superior I see no reason to use one.  Emerald Tide got a brand new #60 CQR when she was purchased (before I was involved) and a CQR is certainly serviceable so switching it out has never risen to the top of the heap of projects....  

It had now.

As soon as I started cranking, the big CQR started skipping across the bottom.  Once it bounced out of the hole I had dug in the weeds, it had no hope of setting.  The CQR is just too blunt to penetrate even a mildly weedy bottom.

So now the wind is howling, and the bow is falling off towards the shore fast.  I run back to the cockpit even though there is still over 40' of chain between the bow and the anchor... I had been in 7.5' when I anchored but was rapidly closing on the shore.

Putting the motor in gear and bumping the throttle to bring the bow into the wind was made more stressful for the chain I knew was still notionally holding me to the bottom.

My plan became clear, I would have to point upwind and slowly drag the big CQR on the bottom as far as I could to gain some sea room to be able to get back up to the bow and finish the job,

I clenched my teeth, and tried to balance the throttle between the need to maintain steerage and the desire to avoid a sudden stop in case the anchor were to suddenly catch.....

[CapnK]

Can one ever post too many beach / sunset pictures?

No.

(sF Gallery upload quota increased for everyone...) :)

[s/v Faith]

The CQR was a cutting edge design when it was first marketed in 1933. It's hinged plough is weighted at the tip to assist with setting.  It is drop forged (at least the genuine Scottish article is) and very strong.

It's biggest flaw is that it is a "blunt implement" in that the tip is not very sharp.  This works fine for sand and mud, but does not like to easily penetrate a bottom with sea grass.  I normally dive the anchor and dig a hole through the grass roots with my hand so I can imbed the tip.

One thinkg you and count on a CQR to do reliably is to drag across the bottom when it does not find a patch of sand without roots... It will drag nicely.

I had to rely on this to move west into the prevailing wind yesterday.

Emerald Tide has a big manual windlass.  While tempted by electric windlasses, they add a level of complication because they draw high current, require complicated switching relays and often need a dedicated battery (due to the voltage drop over long runs of cable).  The auxiliary battery is often undercharged because of voltage drops in the run of cable used to charge it...

An electric windlass can be nice for a singlehander if it is rigged to be operated from the cockpit (as few are).  It is tempting to think that would have been a good thing for me yesterday but when I got back to the cockpit after bringing in all but 40' or so of the chain the wind was up to 33+ knots...  If an electric windlass were able to retrieve the chain in that wind it would likely overheat in short order....  Now motoring ahead might have helped ease the load but the manual windlass allows a better "feel" for what the real load on the windlass is.

I got Emerald Tides bow back into the wind and was able to motor ahead for a few hundred feet.  I went forward again, but was only able to retrieve another 20' or so of chain before the autopilot stalled and the bow fell off to port in the direction of the reef.

Now I have 6' to the water, so that left 14' in the water.  I was able to motor ahead for another couple hundred feet before heading to the bow for a third time to bring in the last 20' and stow the Achor on the roller. (Whew!)

Once around the reef on the west side of the North bay, I fell off and unfurled a bit of jib.  Emerald Tide has been re powered with a very reliable yanmar 4jh5te motor, but whenever a boat is able I would rather have at least some jib in the game...  

Frank had suggested the Manjack south anchorage, but it was fairly crowded.  A quick glance at the Explorer Chart book confirmed what I thought... There were not really any good options for me north of the whale.  I might have been able to get into one of the sounds at Green Turtle Cay, but the tide happened to be at dead low.  I might have hove too or motored in place for a few hours and tried, but decided to go for it.

The wind was steady at ~30knots, which normally would not be favorable for purposefully going offshore and leaving the protected Abaco banks.  The thing that lead me to do it was that the wind was West and clocking slowly NW.  I was able to sail on the jib out and around the Whale.  It was already getting big swells but none were breaking.  The ride was like being in a cement mixer, but nothing too bad.

This post is too long, I will end now where I am this morning.... Fishers Bay at Great Guanna Cay.  Not a bad place to be, the Barefoot Man concert is supposed to be later this week...

.  Here is a shot of the sunset last night.

[s/v Faith]

Oh let's see....

Barefoot man concert at nippers was great!  Spent a few days there, had a great time.  Back over to marsh Harbour for a couple days of cleaning and projects And to pick up crew.

Then a couple days over at Hopetown waiting out some weather.  A couple of farewell scuba dives out off of fowl Cay and the tunnels....    A night at Guanna cay, and today I sailed around the Whale.

Anchored off of Manjack right now, hoping to catch Frank at his cottage in a little bit...  Then up to Spanish (?) for some fuel and maybe Great Sail Cay... Then jumpin goff into the Gulf Stream to make as much northing as I can inteh time limits of my crew...

Life is good, always a little sad to be leaving the Bahamas.... But it is hard to complain when I have been here since November and entirely missed what I understand to be one of the most miserable winters in decades.....

....  I did have to put on a light jacket, but that was just that one night. :)

[s/v Faith]

Caught up with Vicky just as she was walking Sadie back from the cottage for the last time this trip.  We are meeting Frank and some other friends on the beach for a send off Bon fire....   Sad to be heading north but I can not think of a better way to do it.  :)

We shall drink a toast to you all, and hope to do the same with as many will read these words.

Hope to see you all "Out There" soon.

[Jim_ME]

Life is good, always a little sad to be leaving the Bahamas.... But it is hard to complain when I have been here since November and entirely missed what I understand to be one of the most miserable winters in decades.....
....I did have to put on a light jacket, but that was just that one night. :)

I hadn't realized that you had missed the whole (yes, miserable) winter. Man, that seems like the way to do it!

Great to hear that life is (and has been) good.
It's been wonderful to read and see the photos or your experiences.
A toast back to you. Grog! :)
Hope to see you out there, too.

Fair winds for your passage back.

[s/v Faith]

Not entirely sure where I am getting signal from right now, but I have it!

  Just sailed north of great Sail Cay, still working my way across the banks.  Probably be out in the Atlantic before the sun goes down.  It has been an absolutely wonderful four months, it was 4 months to the day when I cleared into the Bahamas.

  Had an absolutely wonderful time with Frank and Vicky, topped off by a bonfire on the beach night before last.  Met some great new friends Bob and Jane and

[Frank]

We last talked to Emerald Tide by VHF as we both sailed towards Great Sale Cay. Craig....got some AWESOME "under sail pics" for ya (will post later). I hope your crossing is going well....the winds seem favorable. We sailed on and are at the West End. We'll cross sunday. The bonfire was GREAT!!!  Super evening....gotta do more of those...and have MORE from this forum join us !!!  CJ...ya gotta come over next year!!!   Anyhoot....nice meeting ya so often this year....good conversations. Ya all gotta get mobile!!!!

[Frank]

Craig...."are you out there"  :o   How was your crossing?
We crossed yesterday...near perfect fast close reach. The wind is way up today, so we timed it well.

[s/v Faith]

Craig...."are you out there"  :o   How was your crossing?
We crossed yesterday...near perfect fast close reach. The wind is way up today, so we timed it well.

Moored at Titusville this morning, had a great passage also!  Really appreciate the pictures, will upload when I am on wifi.  Glad you had a good rum run across...  Was really blowing here but I know that is how you hard core Sailors roll.  ;D

Taking care of some post passage stuff...  Getting things ready for the crawl up the coast.

Had a very cool welcoming by the dolphins coming along side and playing both when we left the Bahamas banks, and again just inside the cape Canaveral inlet....  They even accompanied us though the "locks" in the barge channel.

.

[s/v Faith]

The pictures are so great I did not want to wait... Here is the one Frank took of Emerald Tide bow on.

[s/v Faith]

The bonfire on Manjack beach, new friends and memories to last a lifetime.

[Captain Smollett]

That bow shot is just awesome. 

Grog for posting it and grog to Frank for taking it! 

[Frank]

PS...da guy with da longgg hair and cowboy hat is Craig   :o ;D :D

The fellow seated is Bob. He and his wife Jane (petting sadie) do chart sounding and updates. Bob's lived on a boat for 40yrs!! Jane about 28! If you use Garmin or C-Map in the Bahamas or Turks....you're looking at their work.

[Tim]

I'm thinkin' we are going to have to start calling Craig "The Dude"  ;) ;D

[CapnK]

Craig is an example of what would have happened if all the hippies would have just gone ahead and enlisted in the Navy...

:D