A new appreciation for New Providence Island

Having visited Grand Bahama Island annually as a kid, I was always a little irked by folks that said to just bypass it and New Providence as you cruise the islands.  I didn’t really mind that they commented on New Providence/Nassau—it’s crowded, crime can be an issue, it’s crowded...  But I was wrong.

We stayed at a dock in Coral Harbour, on the south side of New Providence Island for 12 days.  In that time, we rented a car for a week.  We got parts, provisioned, enjoyed the national parks, and got to experience Boxing Day Junkanoo.  We went through some rough neighborhoods in our travels, but generally felt safe and welcomed by the people.  Junkanoo, a wild party starting at midnight, should have been our riskiest venture, but it was amazing! 

Our dock felt like home.  In fact, it was at our host’s home and we quickly got accustomed to 5pm happy hour with the hosts and other boaters.  We met some great boaters and got to learn a bit of French from our new Canadian friend.

One of our favorite bits of exploring was at Clifton National Heritage Park.  We walked miles along the shores and through the trees to learn about the history of this area.  I think we all loved the Pirate Steps!

Christmas brought new traditions along with the old. We went on a nice beach walk on Christmas Eve before happy hour, then we watched a movie and the kids exchanged gift before we put out treats for Santa.  Christmas morning was a small affair, but both kids were surprised by what they got!  And we established another tradition—Christmas breakfast cooked by Katreina!  We also had a bit of excitement! As we were having our coffee we got word that one of the boats that had just left had experienced engine trouble and was anchored before the channel.  Frank and I raced out to help our solo sailing friend.  The guys drove dinghies alongside while I helmed the 35 boat.  We gracefully tied up after my FIRST TIME DOCKING EVER! Can you believe it?  Crazy day!


Christmas just kept getting better as our host who is a local nature expert took us to the Primeval Forest!  It was an amazing maze of sinkholes and native trees.  She even drove is to a few other spots for birding and we used the book she wrote to identify species!  Could it get better?  Yes, it could!  We decided to pull the steaks and some chicken out of the freezer and cook up a Christmas feast for our hosts and fellow boater.  It was so nice sharing a meal with our neighbors.


After a brief nap, we were up at 2am and headed into Nassau for Junkanoo!  We were in our seats just after 3am and stayed until 8am.  It was great!  It’s like Mardi Gras, but all the floats are hand-pushed and the “Kalik” of the cowbell thunders through the streets.  I’m so glad we stayed for it (even though Christmas had great weather for crossing to the Exumas!).

We spent a few windy days after Junkanoo sewing and doing laundry.  I ended up completing a fuel line cover, three fuel tank covers, a bucket top, a boom shade and a foredeck shade for the boat during our stay at New Providence.


Did we need to stay that long?  No, but the people we were with were delightful and we aren’t in a rush!  And we now know that New Providence can be a wonderful stop.

Weather delay on New Providence Island

Well, we are still hunkered down on the south side of New Providence Island.  We decided to make the most out of it!  We rented a car for the week, went to see the new Star Wars movie on opening night, filled propane and got some parts, got wetsuits, and bought tickets for the Junkanoo parade.  Why not?!?!  I even made a little headway on some sewing projects.  It’s been really windy and one night the roads were flooded from the rain, but we are enjoying the company of other boaters and our dock hosts, and trying to make the most out of this delay!

Our kitchen solution? Color-coding!

This is a little “no sew” project that I did to simplify our boat lives a bit.  Every family member has their own cup and color.  We chose these Yeti cups as they are great for coffee/water/wine/cocktails/tea/hot/cold/everything.  We use cloth napkins onboard to reduce paper and disposable use, and honestly some meals you barely use them.  I decided to add grommets from Sailrite to napkins in our “colors” and hang them in the galley so each member can go through the day with their own napkin.  No confusion, less waste!

Materials: linen napkins, Sailrite #1 brass grommets, Sailrite hole cutter, Sailrite cutting block & die holder, rubber mallet, 3M command hooks.

If I do it again I may look for a different fabric if I stick with grommets, or just add a ribbon “hook” to the  napkins.  Linen is a loose weave so the holes were a little tough to work with and secure in the grommets.  But otherwise, we have been using these for a month and love them!

What a drag!

Yesterday it took three tries to get the hook set in West Bay on New Providence Island.  Reports told of poor holding here, with a thin layer of sand over a hard bottom.  The one spot with “good” sand was already taken, so we had to work with it.  I dove on it—not great, but the point was in.  And we faired well overnight, with alarms set.

Late this morning there were some good 18-20kt gusts and we started to drag.  We quickly retrieved our ground tackle and moved to a spot another boat had recently departed from.  We set again, good on the first try this time.  I love our anchor—a 45lb Manson Supreme—and we had 10:1 chain out with nice, long snubbers to handle the gusts.  I dove on it at this new spot and can’t say that it looked all that much better than it had before.  We waited, watched, and a few hours later Frank backed down on it at 2600rpm in the middle of a gust.  We didn’t move!  Final dive revealed that while not perfect, much more of the anchor was dug in.  We know it’s not fabulous, but winds are forecast to drop and we will keep that alarm on.  Just two more nights and we move to a dock!

My view of the boss while I head to “work.”

Meh.

Me!  I’m really getting some soak time at this anchorage...

The crew MVP is actually the GoPro!  It’s so nice to be able to swim down, take photos and video, then bring it back for Frank to review so it’s not just my take on each situation.  I’m keeping that baby charged up!

A brief stop at Hoffman’s Cay

We left Great Harbour Cay, hooked around the north side and headed down the Berry Islands.  We dropped our hook on the south end of Hoffman’s Cay near Saddle Back Cay.  With three other boats already there, we had to settle for some sub-prime real estate right off the cut in some decent current.  Though we were holding well, Frank didn’t feel comfortable leaving the boat so the kids and I hopped in the dinghy for a short ride to Hoffman’s Cay in search of a blue hole!  This was my first beach landing with the dinghy and the kids were a huge help.  And just when I was on the verge of giving up and trying another beach, they found a trail.  And boy, was it worth it!

I was so proud of them for having the guts to make the big jump from above!  Trent went first, then Katreina.  They had so much fun they did it a few more times and even went together once!  We were the only ones there and it made for a very memorable experience.

Unfortunately, our time in the Berry’s is going to be super short. There is a big blow forecast next week and we decided to head for New Providence Island today for the most comfortable ride.  It’s not what we had planned or hoped for, but safety and comfort are in play.  We should be anchored in West Bay by mid-afternoon.

A GREAT week in Great Harbour Cay!

It’s official—we love Great Harbour Cay!  There is a small town feel, yet there is no shortage of groceries and liquor for those that need a provisioning stop.  There are miles of sandy beaches, buildings that are being reclaimed by the island, plenty of great dining options, fresh baked bread...and the marina?  Great staff, resident manatees, good showers, laundry, free wash down water, events throughout the week, and did I mention the staff?  It was tough to leave!  Everyone we met on the cay was nice—we got picked up by locals and given a lift three separate times!  Considering twice was with the whole crew of four, that’s pretty awesome.  

We went snorkeling, lounged on the beach, are amazing conch at Brown’s Garden, explored via foot and dinghy, gawked at the manatees, sharks, and fish in the marina, celebrated a birthday and an anniversary, did lots of laundry, joined the local Jollification party, and met some really nice fellow cruisers.  And as our first stop in the Bahamas on our own boat, it will always hold a special place in our hearts!

We made it! 🇧🇸

After pouring over the forecast, we made the call to leave Thursday morning.  We planned to pop out, use the north wind to get south some, then turn east when the north wind dropped, and have a lovely cruise in 2-4’ seas.  Here’s what really happened—the north wind was a good “+5” and as we headed out seas were hitting us on the quarter in the solid 6-8’ range.  The swells were impressive.  But we were keeping up great speed and the forecast was still for everything to lay down as the day went on.  As I was resting on my “off” watch they called me up on deck to discuss.  It was rough!  We decided to gybe and head south again and reassess in an hour or so.  By noon, the whole family voted to turn east and tough it out for a few hours in the stream.  We were enjoying the fact that we didn’t have to motor!  

Everyone was holding on and doing quite well.  Trent even read a whole book!  At 1400 we were solidly in the Gulf Stream so we launched a message in a bottle with our info, date/time/location of drop, and a note from K.  The Captain had worked hard over the previous few days to provide the Russel’s Reserve bottle.


After the Stream, it was a pretty straightforward trip.  We eventually lost the wind and had to motor part of the way.  Watching the changing depths and water colors was magical!  Photos just don’t do it justice.  On a rising tide we made our approach to the cut into Great Harbour Cay in the Berry Islands.  The entrance is literally a cut in the limestone and we were excited about this cool arrival.  We were NOT excited when we were in the cut and saw another boat heading for it to exit on AIS.  It did not respond to hails and soon we saw a huge catamaran turn the corner at a pretty good clip.  We are depth-limited and had to stay in the middle—this was not going to work!  We blew our air horn repeatedly but they came anyway.  The catamaran hit its rigging on trees overhead, gave us a thumbs-up, and was off.  Holy. Crap.

The cut, right before we got company!

But then, we were here!  The staff tied us up and called customs and immigration to the boat.  The entire arrival was over in less than an hour.  And it was a great birthday present for Swab!

We placed our order for the marina’s “chill and grille” event that night and ventured out to see the beach on the other side of the island (and had cranky kids because we didn’t have time to snorkel, too).  After that trip (and honestly, some momma frustration from the cranky kids), I set to trying to bake a birthday cake for the boy while Frank hung Christmas lights.  Talk about a busy day!  

Beach!

Chill and Grille

Happy Birthday!

This is our home for the next week and so far it looks like it’s going to be a great week!

Final preps!

We hopped “outside” for the trek from Lake Worth (West Palm Beach) to Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale).  We gracefully made it under the 55’ bridge and navigated the skinny water back to Lake Sylvia for our overnight anchorage.  Holy cow, it was CROWDED!  That’s the closest anchoring I’ve ever done and ever want to do.  I’d hate to be there in much of a breeze.  We ran ashore for dinner and one last beer/grocery run in the states.  

We will check weather again in the morning, but we are ready! There is a little more “north” in the wind than we would like, we are hoping it drops around noon so we can cross. 🤞🏼

Thankful in Lake Worth

We had a chilly start this morning—so cool that I fired up the oven and made cinnamon rolls!  Today we transited the ICW from Fort Pierce to Lake Worth.  It was a pretty relaxed day until we got to the very busy West Palm Beach area.  So many boats!  We dropped the hook with a great view of the mega yacht marina.

This leg finally gave us a chance to have our Thanksgiving meal!  Since we ended up at the cruisers potluck in St. Augustine we still had turkey and fixings that needed to get eaten.  Trent helped cook and the oven held its temp!  It was wonderful!


Tomorrow we continue on to Port Everglades to get ready to make our jump!

Man overboard!

I did not expect to have much to blog about today!  We are waiting out some gusty winds with school, laundry, haircuts, making water...a pretty mundane day!  Ok, it was a little exciting when I realized I lost a set of Trent’s clothes to the wind while trying to dry them, but still not worth writing about.

About 1400 Frank had fired up the generator to make water and I was on deck with my daughter having one of those “fun” talks mom and 13yo girls often have about teenage reactions to life when I noticed some action on a boat anchored near us.  Someone was tossing a life ring into the water and yelling!  A quick glance revealed a man in the water behind the boat and a dinghy drifting further away, and both were getting swept away.  Katreina and I quickly prepared to drop the dinghy (which was stowed for sea hanging off the arch) while calling for help from the boys.  At the same time, the woman still on the adjacent boat started blowing their air horn to alert folks to her situation.  I swear the dinghy was dropped and started in under 2 minutes!  Katreina tossed us a throw cushion and we headed towards the man.  He was holding onto the life ring and we pulled him onto our dinghy without any trouble.  He had his wallet in hand!  

Next we ran after his dinghy—he told us he had just taken the fuel off when the dinghy broke free, so we towed it back to his boat.  We came alongside his boat to a very relieved-looking woman!  We dropped him off and headed home with the whole ordeal taking less than 10 minutes.  What was his name?  I don’t know!  “Happy Canadian neighbor” works for me.  

What did we learn?  This was a great opportunity for the kids to see just how quickly the elements can take control away from you.  Winds were 20G30 and the man and dinghy moved away quickly!  I also talked to them about the great job the woman on the boat did—tossing the life ring, yelling, and using her air horn to get attention.  And when someone is yelling on our boat, stop what you are doing and find out why!  It also reinforced that this is a community of do-ers.  We help neighbors when we can and just take care each other.  May we all be so fortunate to live in this type of community!

Conditions at the time

Our new friends in the distance

Time for a name change?

When I started this blog 11 years ago (to the day!) I’m not so sure I realized I would stick with it so long!  The reason I say this is that the subtitle is, “The story of a Navy family on a non-Navy boat.”  Even back then I knew that I would retire at some point, so why did I do that?  Who knows?!?!  Well, as of today we are no longer an active duty Navy family!  It’s my first official day of retirement (I’ve been on leave for a few months) so are we now an ex-Navy family?  The Captain said that we will always be a Navy family (it IS how we met), but for some reason reaching this milestone has given me pause and made me question it.

I actually realized while writing this that the blog started exactly 11 years ago.  I just think that’s such a coincidence as I never could have predicted my exact retirement date back then.  Anyway, it’s official!

STA to Fort Pierce

Our departure from STA Friday was rough!  After leaving the channel we had 4-6’ short period seas on the port quarter.  It got a little smoother once the sails were up, but the boy got sick three times (and I think once for the Captain!).  The kids stayed up on deck and honestly I think their spirits were great.  Even though Trent proclaimed “I hate this” while throwing up, he kept drinking and eating and toughing it out.  I’m super proud of them.

Conditions chilled out overnight with the wind completely dropping off so the iron gennie was brought online.  With southerly winds forecast for Saturday night/Sunday morning, we decided to shoot for a slack tide entry at Fort Pierce inlet Saturday afternoon.  We came in amongst tons of recreational boaters and dropped the hook behind Harbour Isle.  We are happy to hang here for a bit while we look at weather windows to cross to the Bahamas!

Thanks, St. Augustine (part 2!)

Woo hoo!  So excited that we get to add a “part 2” to our STA chapter!  We skipped off our mooring ball Wednesday and anchored across the channel by marker 7.  Our plan was to hang out until about 1600 and it we didn’t get a call about the wait list, move to Vilano Beach for a relaxing holiday.  Well, at 1400 we got the call!  We were green-lighted for two more nights in the mooring field and even got to go right next to our old ball!  This also meant that we could attend the St. Augustine Cruisers Net Thanksgiving Potluck the next day!  We kept the rest of the day pretty low-key, only heading into town for another great pizza happy hour dinner before enjoying sunset from the boat.

Of course Thursday was Thanksgiving!!!  Changing from dinner for four to a potluck dish was a little scary at first, but I decided to go with a trio of roasted veggies (brussel sprouts, carrots, and potatoes) flavored with a trio of doTerra essential oils and garlic—it was delicious!

The potluck was amazing!  We saw some old friends from Herrington Harbour and met some new folks.  The kids met a few kids, but are still a little shy. Maybe Trent isn’t—he ended up down the way with another family playing football!  I’m an introvert so these things can be tough for me, but it was really a fabulous (and delicious!) event and I’m so glad that our family could be a part of it.  It’s really a great community.

Afterward we turned to laundry, showers, and preparing to leave.  Next stop, Lake Worth or Fort Pierce!

St. Augustine (part 1!)

After a MUCH more restful night anchored off Pine Island, we weighed anchor for the brief cruise down the ICW to St. Augustine!  The very professional team at the municipal marina guided us to our reserved mooring ball and we were tied up in the north mooring field just after 1100.  

Due to the holiday, we only managed to get a two-night reservation so after a quick check of the facilities we headed straight out to explore! After a quick Cuban lunch we headed to Castillo de San Marcos National Monument—pristine and educational!  From there we expanded our science studies with a tour and tasting at Whetstone Chocolates—highly recommended!  As we are on a budget, we hit Pizzalleys for their awesome weekday happy hour food and drink specials—the whole crew loved it!  We closed the night wandering around the town and enjoying the holiday lights.

After a morning repair to the dinghy engine (replacing the pull-start cord) we hit the St. Augustine Distillery for a fantastic, generous tour and tasting!  After returning our goodies to the boat and knocking out a round of mini golf, we hit Barley Republic’s happy hour before heading to our first St. Augustine Cruisers Net social at the Dog Rose Brewing Company! This is a fabulous bunch of folks, and we got to meet up with friends from our old spot in Maryland (Photo credit to “John Sparrow”)!  

We ended the night with ice cream and a walk through the city.  As first-timers we are impressed!  The marina’s amenities and staff are wonderful and the town has a lot to offer.  I’d like to visit again when it’s not a holiday week to see what the normal vibe is, but we definitely want to come back!  For now, we wait to see if our standby request for two more nights makes it through the queue! 🤞🏼

Sailing at/over anchor

Last night was a sleepless, “lessons learned” one!  Anchored off the St. John’s River before the entrance to the ICW, we were subject to strong currents and gusty winds.  We saw similar conditions in Beaufort, NC, but this was a first!  The wind had caused us to sail over our anchor chain, which then actually got stuck around our keel.  We noticed the odd motion of the boat and lots of noise on the hull and went out in the dark, in a rain shower (of course!) to discover the issue.  With the chain wrapped around the keel, I couldn’t bring it up.  And with the weird motion, we thought we might also be dragging towards another boat.  After trying some rudder maneuvering we finally had to start the engine and drive out of it.  It worked and we settled out nicely.  But after that, I could barely sleep, agonizing over every sound.  

Today we did a little research and decided to go with a shorter snubber on our chain in these conditions.  We are back in the current tonight and that (plus a two-snubber bridle setup) seems to be doing the trick.  We have long snubber lines so we can actually tie them off at midship and gets lots of stretch in windy conditions.  We have a deep keel, so current really grabs us, but so does wind with our dodger and bimini.  I guess I’m happy to be learning these tricks now—we’ve been blissfully ignorant for the past decade. 🙄

Jacksonville—A working port

Monday got off to a pretty sweet start...entered the St. John’s River from the sea on a flood tide and called ahead to Mulberry Cove Marina on NAS Jacksonville to ensure they had a transient spot for us so we didn’t waste a long slog up the river.  Easy day, right?  Well...long story short, the marina actually didn’t have a spot for us.  They didn’t have a good account of what slips were open, tried to put us in one two feet too shallow for us, blamed everything on the old hurricane damage and being “the end of the road” on base, and basically told us to “too bad, so sad” as they were closing for the day.  We walked by a slip that seemed pretty open and undamaged and somehow managed to talk them into letting us take it.  Ended up being perfect!  This isn’t the first time we have stayed here, and it’s an incredible value for military peeps, but this whole debacle was shocking.  We made our comments and hope it does something to improve the management of the operation.  

Once settled, we got to work!  The real drivers for this stop were new ID cards for everyone, FL residency and a license for the Cap’n, mail pick-up, and provisioning.  We did it all, and gave the boat a good scrub and took advantage of the free laundry.  We also managed to get some birthday and Christmas presents aboard and got new snorkel gear for the kiddos.

We want to hit St. Augustine, but with the holiday next week we could only get 2 nights.  We stayed out in JAX an extra night and now are headed toward St. Aug for a few nights of ICW anchoring before we get on a mooring there.  It’s been a nice, relaxing, southerly journey!