Travel Planning: Water vs Land

When we decided to take this year off of cruising to "land travel," it was in part to take a break from the stress (read: weather) you meet as full-time cruisers. When cruising, we of course had some places and people that we wanted to see, but weather always had a >51% say in what we actually did! Anyone who has cruised for even a few weeks knows that time is devoted every day to studying the weather forecast, the charts, where your buddies are, where you can get a slip if you need one, where to pick up parts, and figuring out when/where to pump out/fill up/dump trash...it's not all cocktails and sunsets! And sometimes the weather can be more than a nuisance--it can be downright terrifying. 

Wind, waves, rain, and rainbows! Riding out a front in an exposed anchorage with fantastic holding in the Exumas, Bahamas.

So now that we are firmly in land-travel mode, how are we doing? Well, I certainly don't check the weather as often! Now our time is spent pouring over calendars, tour reviews, tour comparisons, travel mode options, neighborhood reviews, talking to fellow travelers, etc. It's still a lot of planning, but I feel like time and money are the drivers now whereas weather used to dominate. For example, I spent almost 2 hours this weekend trying to book a "promotional" rate on an airline that would have had us all flying for $400USD. I entered in ALL of our family's info multiple times only to have the promotional rate be "no longer available" and after several rounds of that I FINALLY secured suitable flights for $800USD for the family. That was a crusher! But with four travelers we really do spend time carefully comparing options since "only $20 more" on a tour adds up to $80 for us (which is like two nights of nice lodging for the whole family here) so it's worth the effort. This weekend after getting some tips from some girls we met in a hot spring (yep, that's a totally normal statement now), we made the decision to walk away from a $1300USD, 9-hour trip by plane and instead go for a $300USD, 33-hour bus trip (including 20 hours on a posh bus!) for our move from Peru to Chile. We have the time, so why not save the money and try something new? If we hate it, we'll just drink less wine and go back to booking flights (don't tell Frank that I said that!).

The "Travel Agents" enjoying the fruits of some of their labors in the Andes Mountains in Peru.

We are making this journey with a mix of week-long to month-long lodgings, with a few weeks of "do all the touristy" stuff mixed in here and there. We will probably learn quite a few lessons as we go!

~Jo, Nomadic Momma 

We did not set the hook

Here's the deal--we tend to set our anchor pretty darn well, with at least 5:1 all-chain scope (usually more like 7:1 and more in higher winds) and back down on it at 2400+ rpm. When we first drop, we "soft set" the anchor with a little backing to stretch out the chain and get a feel for the bottom before we snub it and really back down. We are picky about where we anchor and we will have lots of "anchor sex" (dropping and raising the anchor) to get a good set if we need to. But just this once, we didn't do this. 

Three days ago we decided to try an anchorage with known poor holding to see if we could get a set. Why? It was near a place we wanted to go snorkeling the next day, it looked kind of peaceful, and it would have us settled way before sundowner time. Well, we tried all of our usual techniques in a few different spots and still couldn't get a set--the bottom was just too scoured where we could get to with our draft. Our options were to move along to another anchorage or...stay and just not set the hook. What?!?!?!?!  Not set the hook?!?!? 

We were trying to anchor northwest of Channel Cay.

Well, as crazy as it sounds, that is exactly what we did. We realized that we were staying put at low rpm's sometimes and with winds only forecast to be around 10kts all night and plenty of drag room behind us, I suggested we just dump all of our chain out and let the weight of the anchor and chain keep us in place. I was absolutely shocked that the Skipper agreed to try it! I let all of our chain out, snubbed it, and had a cocktail. We monitored our position for a few hours and it looked totally normal, like when we normally set the hook. We set an anchor alarm, went to sleep, and woke up the next morning well-rested, completely alone, and right where we had been when we went to sleep! Would we resort to this frequently? No, but it worked for this calm evening and this set of variables.

Our little private anchorage was amazing! It's a private island, but no one seemed to be staying there and the weather was perfect for outdoor showers!

Contrast that to today...we are expecting 20+kt winds to begin this evening. When we arrived at this anchorage and set the hook winds were out of the south. This morning they were out of the north (and forecast to blow strong from the northeast tonight) so we backed down on the anchor in this new direction just to make sure the anchor was set well. Though we were set well, we ended up pulling the anchor and adjusting our spot just to space better with our neighbors. We are not "set it and forget it" boaters. Even with ground tackle that we trust we take extra measures to make sure our little home stays safe. And now we are really ready for the next blow!

We are anchored in Marsh Harbour with easy shore access for the next few days!

~Jo, 1st Mate

Black Point 3.0

We're back! Third time here, third version of the Black Point experience! You can relive our first two experiences at Black Point Settlement--A Perfect Mix of Quiet and Activity and Black Point 2.0.

This time weather kept us here for over a week, bouncing between the main anchorage and Little Bay to the south of the point a few times. There were very few boats for most of our time there, but we did manage to enjoy the usual treats--easy laundry with a view, easy trash, Scorpio's rum punch, Lorraine's good eats, Lorraine's mom's delicious bread, Dashamon's good eats, Aderly's grocery (fresh romaine and eggs!!!), and smiling faces. But we had a few standout experiences!

$36 in groceries, drinks at Scorpio's, and the best laundry view I've found as a cruiser.

While enjoying a few rum punches at Scorpio's a local noted that we had the same handheld VHF radio he had and asked if we could charge his. We took his radio, gave him a boat card, and a few days later (after a big blow) Jason swung by the boat to retrieve his radio and thanked us. It's so easy to just help each other down here!

Happy to help a neighbor!

We also had a nice walk/trash pick-up at the blow hole on a windy day, got to see lots of rainbows as rain squalls came through, collected a few nice conch, met up with friends for some successful lobster hunting, and hunkered down for a strong front passage with three of our friend boats. We only had one day where Trent got to hang out with other kids, but he had fun and it was nice to reconnect with the parents, too! 

A walk, a blow hole, collecting trash, and...rainbows!

Frank and Trent found conch!

I did well on our snorkeling/spearing outing with S/V Traveler and S/V Tangent!

Navigation note: we knew that we would have strong west winds as the front passed and there are very few places that actually have westerly protection in the Exuma Cays. Rather than crowd into one of those few places with several other boats, we opted to stay somewhere with very good holding and plenty of room to spread out. Black Point also allowed us to easily go "around the corner" to Little Bay for some more protection as winds went north of west. We had a few hours of strong winds and waves rolling in, but we held well and had plenty of sea room.

Lehe Paine, Tangent, Traveler, and Makae before the storm.

We also celebrated a big birthday for our Captain! Because a front came through on the night before/early morning of his birthday he got to stretch his festivities over two days as spoiled him with food and relaxation as much as we could!

HBD, Skipper!

Surf & Turf! We also made him a NC breakfast and lobster rolls on homemade buns.

Trent made the rum cake!

We are southbound again! If you are keeping track and are familiar with this area you may be wondering, "Did they stop in Staniel Cay?" Not this year! We decided that Black Point had what we needed and was what we were all feeling like right now. 

I took a long walk on the east side of Great Guana Cay to watch waves.

~Jo, 1st Mate

Where to hide? A coastal low is coming!

With an impressive coastal low creeping into the forecast models as we made our way through North Carolina, we again had to make a decision about how to keep our home and crew safe. We had hoped to head to Beaufort and hop outside for a run to South Carolina, but that definitely wasn't going to happen. 

Ugh...we don't do 30-40kts offshore! The wave forecasts were scary!

Options were:

1. Secure a slip somewhere in Beaufort, NC. This would put us close to the inlet and ready to jump offshore at the earliest opportunity without having to deal with bumper boats in a crowded anchorage. And we like Beaufort! Depths at some marinas are tight for us, but there are options if they have space.

2. Secure a slip in New Bern, NC. It's a little out of the way, but we've never been there and many friends have spoken highly of the town. Depths and prices were good and it seemed there would be plenty to do.

3. Anchor. We trust our ground tackle and technique, and there are plenty of creeks we could head up and be relatively protected (albeit possibly out of cell service coverage).

4. Secure a slip in Oriental or Bellhaven, NC. That would be back-tracking and visiting places we'd been before, but could work.

We decided to go after option #2--it was new, there was the hope of good wifi, and the town offered things we like to do. We made a reservation request and waited, continuing to look at our other options. As we dropped the hook outside of Oriental we received a confirmation from the New Bern Grand Marina & Yacht Club--we were booked for a week! 

It was admittedly a bit of a slog up the Neuse River in cold north winds today, but after slipping through the bridge we were guided into our slip and tied up in a jiffy. 

First impression--the town is cute! And the marina is great! The bathrooms/office are maybe 2 blocks from the boat, but I quite like the walk. The Dockmaster is very nice and clearly loves this town--he took the time to tell us all about things to do while we are here. The weekly rate is a bargain, restrooms & laundry are clean, trash is easy, wifi is pretty good, and we even managed to hook up to cable for the first time in 2 years. I think we will enjoy this stop and even better, we feel safe here.

This marina has some great protection from the forecast north winds.

The weather decisions are hard. We watched on various forums as other cruisers faced the same forecast and debated costs, schedule, and safety up and down the eastern seaboard. This could be an interesting few days for the cruising community. But this is exactly what cruising is about for us. We don't cruise on a schedule...we like the flexibility to deal with weather, but also to take advantage of experience opportunities when they pop up. And sometimes weather is what presents us with the opportunities!