It is funny how your priorities change over time. I used to consider this was because your physical capabilities diminish with age. While this is undoubtedly true, I now prefer to think that the accumulation of life experiences simply allow you to develop more refined tastes (e.g. appreciating a fine brandy or a single malt scotch vs Captain Morgan’s Dark Rum).
Experiencing a winter in the Bahamas has changed my tastes in boats and while the experience certainly must have resulted in the death of many brain cells, the change in tastes is still supported by a certain degree of logic.
Let me explain.
When I was 13, I was given an old (1930s) 18’ wooden sailboat to maintain and to sail. On most summer days with any wind, you might have seen two friends, myself and my dog sailing around Lake St Louis, Montreal. Usually our trips were voyages to nowhere. After spending hours on the water, we would return to the mooring where we started without having ever stopped. It was time well wasted. We learned to discipline ourselves to do necessary maintenance (if you don’t paint it, you can’t launch it and if you don’t launch it, you can’t have fun). We learned how to harness the wind and to overcome whatever nature threw our way. We enjoyed each others company and shared in the mysteries of life as only 13 year old boys can (e.g. wanna see how I can make my dog eat a dill pickle?).
For me at that age, that boat was damn near perfect!
In my later teens and well into my 20s, racing became the thing. Now, the only thing that mattered was going fast. Having a boat that could also be used for a pleasure sail, that could be used for more than two people, that did not require and extremely high level of expertise even to crew, having any load carrying capacity or even having an anchor simply did not matter. The purpose was to enjoy both the intellectual challenge of equipping and modifying a boat and to sail it in a manner that was faster than the competition.
The International 14 provided both challenge and learning opportunity in huge quantities.
As I moved into my 30s and 40s, my focus shifted towards cruising sailboats. Still, whenever there was another sailboat in sight (and there was almost always another sailboat in sight), I was racing. Destinations were usually anchorages or maybe small towns. They were chosen for protection, to provide entertainment for the kids (e.g. good swimming hole) and sometimes because of some event going on (e.g. good July 4th fireworks display). In my mind, the purpose of sailing was still to enjoy the process. If I had my way, we would sail every day, even if it meant returning to the same place where we started.
I lusted after, but never owned, a cruiser-racer like those made by C&C.
When preparing for our trip to the Bahamas, priorities started to shift. I considered that performance under sail was going to be important, but safety and performance at anchor would be even more important. When choosing a boat, low initial cost, simplicity and robustness (hopefully lowering operating costs and releasing time to be spent enjoying life) were very important considerations. An older, shallow draft catamaran with a well proven safety record, world girdling capability with the simplicity and reliability of long, fixed keels and a steerable 4 stroke outboard seemed to be ideal.
In many respects, I was right. For cruising in the Bahamas, I can still think of no better sailboat than a catamaran. For added comfort, I would like a bigger one but for ease of sailing, anchoring and maneuvering, I would not want it to be bigger at all.
Experiencing the Bahamas cruising lifestyle, however, changed some of my perspectives.
First, there is the dingy. I always thought a dingy was primarily used to take yourself and passengers ashore. While this remains an important function, it should also be thought of as your pick-up truck for bring groceries, water jugs and anything you might buy from shore to your boat. It is also your vehicle for exploring shores and destinations easily 5 miles away. Finally, it also served as our dive boat. A very important consideration of the mother boat should be what size of dingy it can carry on board. I would love to be able to carry, on deck, a 13’ Boston Whaler or equivalent.
Secondly, you just don’t get a chance to sail the mother ship that often or very far. Absolutely no-one bothers to just go for a day sail. It is simply too much work. When going from port to port, the distances are always short and most people use all the distance as an opportunity to charge batteries and/or to make water. On the Stray Cat, we sailed more than most. But we still did not sail much and I love to sail.
I found myself looking for a better solution. On any nice day with wind, I think that if we had a Hobie Cat in tow, it would take me about 35 seconds using the VHF radio to find someone else who wanted to go for a daysail. Small boats are more fun anyway. Even if this was my only sailing outlet, I think I would sail more often and with much more enjoyment than if I continued to rely on the Stray Cat as my only source of sailing fun.
Thirdly, we entertained and were entertained much more often than I would have thought possible. One evening, we begged off going to a dinner party on one boat and the basis we wanted to take an evening off just to be with our selves. We then went to shore to do some laundry. By the time we returned, we had visited people (and had drinks with) people on 3 other boats and accepted a dinner invitation on one of them. On the Stray Cat, we can entertain 12 for happy hour and seat 6 for dinner but Beverley desperately wants space for more.
Finally, when you live on it for months, your boat becomes your house. It is no longer a piece of sporting equipment. If performance is synonymous with speed, then speed at anchor becomes much more important than speed under sail.
I find that there is an automotive analogy. For blasting around back roads, I love my motorcycle. If the weather is inclement or I need to carry anything, then I want my car. If I am going to live in it, then I want my motorhome. If we are going to park the motorhome in one location for any time, then I want to take the car in tow. I have often yearned for a way to tow both the car and the motorcycle as well as to carry the canoe and the kayak.
So, what we need is the nautical equivalent of a motorhome which can carry its maritime equivalent accessories (car and motorcycle).
So, what we need is (drum roll please)… a trawler - one with sufficient space to carry a small motorboat and a disassembled Hobie Cat on a roof. When not making open ocean passages, one or both of these could be towed.
When you come down to it, in the Sea of Abaco, most of us behave as we were piloting trawlers most of the time. None of us would voluntarily try to sail a trawler. So why do so many of us insist in trying to “trawl” in a sailboat?
So where does that leave us?
Anyone want to buy a boat? You can find the Stray Cat listed on www.yachtworld.com .
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
The end of the trip
It was March and we were nearing the end of our exploration of the Bahamas.
We made one last trip to Little Harbour and Pete’s Pub (at right) at the Southern tip of the Sea of Abaco. There, we befriended the crew of Coconut who will transform your seaglass to jewelry. Bev became their agent of no record, spreading word through the anchorage of what a
great deal they offered and bringing them much “business”. This was also very handy for us as we had walked the beaches and had found a number of pieces of sea glass including one piece of carnival glass dating back to the 20s or earlier. .
On the way back towards Marsh Harbour, we stopped at one of the park reefs. The tidal current was significant but we teamed with Muskoka Moon and did a “drift dive”. That is, we left our dingy at the down current end of the reef and dove in from Muskoka Moon’s at the upsrream end. Bev fed the fish. I took photographs and even chased a large lobster that Bev had spied. I was able to grab it, but could not hold on. This a park, however, and I could not
have taken it out of the water anyway.
We celebrated St Patrick’s day in Marsh Harbour. Then it was time to head for Florida. They do not make a big thing of St Paddy’s day in the Bahamas. We had to make our own celebration with friends. While in Marsh, we were also befriended by the engineer and his wife from the supply ship, the Duke of Topsail. Bev kept calling their boat the Duke of Topsoil. Our friends did not appear to be offended. They were Newfies. Likely they just thought it was a matter of our Canadian mainlander “accent”.
Heading for Flroida not a simple task, however. You cannot just decide to go and go right away
unless you are a 200’ freighter (e.g. the Duke of “Topsoil”). There are two open water passages that can get very rough and where caution is required: the Gulf Stream and the Whale Key Passage.
To traverse the Whale Key Passage, you must go from protected waters out into the Atlantic, around the end of a sand bar and then return to safety immediately. The water shoals very quickly from about 2000 feet deep to maybe 20 feed deep. Distant storms can make it extremely rough. Just at the time we were thinking of leaving, there was a storm with 50 knot winds just to the North of us.
We went to the Treasure Cay resort to wait for an opportunity. You have to pay to anchor there ($10/day) but this gives you full access to the resort – not a bad deal! After 2 or 3 days of “roughing it” in the company of friends we mad a run for the passage.
In reality, there is a shallow water passage that is an alternative to the Whale Cay Passage: the Dont Rock Passage, According to the guide books, if the Whale is impassable, Dont Rock will also be impassable. It is supposed to be about 4.5 feet deep at low tide in the shallowest spot. We went in company of two trimarans (who drew about 18” with boards up), another cat our size and a small trawler that drew 3 feet. At ¾ tide, the shallowest we say was still over 6 feet. The swells were about 2 or 2 ½ feet. They were reported to be 5 feet or so in the Whale Cay Passage itself, so the Dont Rock passage was significantly calmer. In addition, our route was considerably
shorter. Peter from Noahgenda had e-mailed me about 20 waypoints for this unmarked Dont Rock passage the night before. They proved to be “right on the money”.
In no time, we were through and anchored in Black Sound right by New Plymouth and near the Green Turtle Resort (White Sound). There, we took some time to party (especially with the boats that had made the Dont Rock Passage with us), meet other friends (Walt and Pat who we had not seen since Cape May) and monitor the weather forecasts.
We also witnessed the damage to a 46’ Moorings Catamaran that, according to scuttlebutt; had
attempted to make the Whale Passage a few days before us and before the waves had died down. A wave had smashed in one of the front windows and had broken one of the fiberglass “sunshades” right off. It had also broken the anchor locker and bent the starboard stanchions outboard at about 45 degrees. There must have been a windsurfer lashed to them. Worse, a crew member was thrown against the sliding door to the cockpit area so violently that they broke the door mechanism and had to be airlifted off the boat. Apparently this boat had a professional Captain on board. I bet he did not receive his customary tip!! 
Predictably, the winds clocked around and a 2 or 3 weather window was opening to cross the Gulf Stream between the Bahamas and Florida.
We decided to break the trip into 3 roughly equal steps: Green Turtle to Great Sale Island;
Great Sale to West End and West end to Stuart Florida.
The leg from Green Turtle to Great Sale was a beautiful sail. We left just after sun-rise. Although the day started with light winds, within an hour they clocked around just a little so that we were able to hoist our spinnaker. One Love, the cat that had traveled the Dont Rock Passage had promised that if we hoisted our spinnaker, they would do the same. They did. So did the two trimarans, Kimosabe and Noor (Corsair 31s).
That day, the Stray Cat might have been called the Scalded Cat. We passed 15 or 20 monohulls under sail. We sailed One Love under the horizon. We passed a Gemini 105. We caught a catamaran our size that had no solid cabin between the two hulls. We were faster than every sailboat we saw with two exceptions. The two trimarans went by us at about Mach 3. Man, they could move. They have speed like nothing else that is driven by sail. Unfortunately, they have very little room inside although the room they have is extremely efficiently used. But then it is all about priorities isn’t it?
The next morning, we set off for West End and the Old Bahama Bay Marina. It was good that we left early and moved quickly. We motored or motorsailed the whole way since the wind was light and from directly behind us. We got the 3rd last berth in the marina. Most others had to anchor out where the holding ground is notoriously poor.
Bev and I have quite different memories of the Marina.
My memories center about repairing our outboard. It blew an oil seal again. Fortunately, I had a spare. It was the same seal that it blew in Stuart at the end of November. We bought some extra oil “just in case”. While I was working on and worrying about this, Bev was enjoying the bar, the beach, the pool and everyone’s company. The resort is seriously nice and I was sorry to have missed it. It is also seriously expensive. Until the end of March, it costs “only” $80.00 per night to tie up. On April 1, the fees would go up to $280.00 per night. At $280.00, it had better be seriously nice!!!
The next morning, at 0500, we pulled out of our berth and set sail for Florida. We had a beautiful motor sail with the spinnaker and the mainsail. The waves were only 2 to 2.5 feet high. By 2:30 in the afternoon, we were entering the St Lucie River. At one point, the GPS has showed our speed over the ground to be over 10 knots so we must have been picking up a very significant current.
And then we had to clear in.
What a contrast between a third world nation and the richest nation on the earth. In the Bahamas, we cleared in with no muss and no fuss. We were made to feel welcome.
When clearing into the US, you must first call a 1800 number. Using our cell phone, Bev dialed it before we even entered the inlet. After being on hold for 30 minutes, our call got dropped and we had to start over. In the interim, a boat from the Sherrif’s Department had investigated to see if we had cleared in, if our registration decal etc was up to date and to ask if we had anyone else on board. Bev tried to call the 1800 number again, but after 20 minutes, had to drop the call herself in order to pick up a mooring buoy. I went ashore and used a pay phone to call the same number. I was on hold for well over an hour. When I finally got through, the check in process was very quick and efficient EXCEPT that we still had to go to an airport or similar place in order to clear in through Customs in person. So the next day, we rented a car and drove to the airport at Ft Pierce. This was not a big deal as we wanted to drive to Indiantown to retrieve our Jeep anyway. While talking about this, we encountered another couple who after being extremely frustrated by not being able to get through to the 1800 number, did not actually check in for 2 days. They were fined $500.00.
The contrast in process between the two nations was overwhelming. I guess that we should not forget that the US is a nation at war. The Bahamas needs tourist dollars. To the US, we are a nuisance that I suspect they would rather just went away.
Luckily for us, our boat is US flagged. If not, we would now have to report in to Homeland Security every time we moved; even a short distance. Talk about bureaucracy! And to what benefit?
Mooring at Stuart gave us a chance to visit our dear friends Gerry and Pam. They were still RVing in Sebring, Florida. This is the same couple that escorted us in their motorboat at the beginning of the trip (to ensure that we actually left). It was fitting that they saw us again at the end of the trip.
We then headed up the St Lucie River towards Indiantown. I was traveling alone as Bev had to drive the car. Unfortunately, all did not go well. The outboard again sprung an oil leak. This time it was fatal. It seized. I sailed the boat back to Stuart. Picking up a mooring single handed under sail promised to be a bit of a trick. I figured out how to do it. I got close, threw out an anchor and then used the dingy to put a line onto a mooring ball. I then pulled up the anchor and dropped back to the mooring ball.
We then faced the question of how to get the boat to Indiantown. Again, it was Bev to the rescue. She chatted up another couple with some of our challenges and they offered to lend us a 15 HP Merc. In calm weather, I could probably have made it with our 4 HP dingy engine but it would not have been fast. Running flat out, the Merc pushed the Stray Cat at 6 knots. I backed off to 5knots where the engine was probably putting out 10 HP.
Anyway, we made it where we…. Well, you just have to read the next installment to find out
It was March and we were nearing the end of our exploration of the Bahamas.
We made one last trip to Little Harbour and Pete’s Pub (at right) at the Southern tip of the Sea of Abaco. There, we befriended the crew of Coconut who will transform your seaglass to jewelry. Bev became their agent of no record, spreading word through the anchorage of what a
great deal they offered and bringing them much “business”. This was also very handy for us as we had walked the beaches and had found a number of pieces of sea glass including one piece of carnival glass dating back to the 20s or earlier. .On the way back towards Marsh Harbour, we stopped at one of the park reefs. The tidal current was significant but we teamed with Muskoka Moon and did a “drift dive”. That is, we left our dingy at the down current end of the reef and dove in from Muskoka Moon’s at the upsrream end. Bev fed the fish. I took photographs and even chased a large lobster that Bev had spied. I was able to grab it, but could not hold on. This a park, however, and I could not
have taken it out of the water anyway.We celebrated St Patrick’s day in Marsh Harbour. Then it was time to head for Florida. They do not make a big thing of St Paddy’s day in the Bahamas. We had to make our own celebration with friends. While in Marsh, we were also befriended by the engineer and his wife from the supply ship, the Duke of Topsail. Bev kept calling their boat the Duke of Topsoil. Our friends did not appear to be offended. They were Newfies. Likely they just thought it was a matter of our Canadian mainlander “accent”.
Heading for Flroida not a simple task, however. You cannot just decide to go and go right away
unless you are a 200’ freighter (e.g. the Duke of “Topsoil”). There are two open water passages that can get very rough and where caution is required: the Gulf Stream and the Whale Key Passage.To traverse the Whale Key Passage, you must go from protected waters out into the Atlantic, around the end of a sand bar and then return to safety immediately. The water shoals very quickly from about 2000 feet deep to maybe 20 feed deep. Distant storms can make it extremely rough. Just at the time we were thinking of leaving, there was a storm with 50 knot winds just to the North of us.
We went to the Treasure Cay resort to wait for an opportunity. You have to pay to anchor there ($10/day) but this gives you full access to the resort – not a bad deal! After 2 or 3 days of “roughing it” in the company of friends we mad a run for the passage.
In reality, there is a shallow water passage that is an alternative to the Whale Cay Passage: the Dont Rock Passage, According to the guide books, if the Whale is impassable, Dont Rock will also be impassable. It is supposed to be about 4.5 feet deep at low tide in the shallowest spot. We went in company of two trimarans (who drew about 18” with boards up), another cat our size and a small trawler that drew 3 feet. At ¾ tide, the shallowest we say was still over 6 feet. The swells were about 2 or 2 ½ feet. They were reported to be 5 feet or so in the Whale Cay Passage itself, so the Dont Rock passage was significantly calmer. In addition, our route was considerably
shorter. Peter from Noahgenda had e-mailed me about 20 waypoints for this unmarked Dont Rock passage the night before. They proved to be “right on the money”.In no time, we were through and anchored in Black Sound right by New Plymouth and near the Green Turtle Resort (White Sound). There, we took some time to party (especially with the boats that had made the Dont Rock Passage with us), meet other friends (Walt and Pat who we had not seen since Cape May) and monitor the weather forecasts.
We also witnessed the damage to a 46’ Moorings Catamaran that, according to scuttlebutt; had
attempted to make the Whale Passage a few days before us and before the waves had died down. A wave had smashed in one of the front windows and had broken one of the fiberglass “sunshades” right off. It had also broken the anchor locker and bent the starboard stanchions outboard at about 45 degrees. There must have been a windsurfer lashed to them. Worse, a crew member was thrown against the sliding door to the cockpit area so violently that they broke the door mechanism and had to be airlifted off the boat. Apparently this boat had a professional Captain on board. I bet he did not receive his customary tip!! 
Predictably, the winds clocked around and a 2 or 3 weather window was opening to cross the Gulf Stream between the Bahamas and Florida.
We decided to break the trip into 3 roughly equal steps: Green Turtle to Great Sale Island;
Great Sale to West End and West end to Stuart Florida.The leg from Green Turtle to Great Sale was a beautiful sail. We left just after sun-rise. Although the day started with light winds, within an hour they clocked around just a little so that we were able to hoist our spinnaker. One Love, the cat that had traveled the Dont Rock Passage had promised that if we hoisted our spinnaker, they would do the same. They did. So did the two trimarans, Kimosabe and Noor (Corsair 31s).
That day, the Stray Cat might have been called the Scalded Cat. We passed 15 or 20 monohulls under sail. We sailed One Love under the horizon. We passed a Gemini 105. We caught a catamaran our size that had no solid cabin between the two hulls. We were faster than every sailboat we saw with two exceptions. The two trimarans went by us at about Mach 3. Man, they could move. They have speed like nothing else that is driven by sail. Unfortunately, they have very little room inside although the room they have is extremely efficiently used. But then it is all about priorities isn’t it?
The next morning, we set off for West End and the Old Bahama Bay Marina. It was good that we left early and moved quickly. We motored or motorsailed the whole way since the wind was light and from directly behind us. We got the 3rd last berth in the marina. Most others had to anchor out where the holding ground is notoriously poor.
Bev and I have quite different memories of the Marina.
My memories center about repairing our outboard. It blew an oil seal again. Fortunately, I had a spare. It was the same seal that it blew in Stuart at the end of November. We bought some extra oil “just in case”. While I was working on and worrying about this, Bev was enjoying the bar, the beach, the pool and everyone’s company. The resort is seriously nice and I was sorry to have missed it. It is also seriously expensive. Until the end of March, it costs “only” $80.00 per night to tie up. On April 1, the fees would go up to $280.00 per night. At $280.00, it had better be seriously nice!!!
The next morning, at 0500, we pulled out of our berth and set sail for Florida. We had a beautiful motor sail with the spinnaker and the mainsail. The waves were only 2 to 2.5 feet high. By 2:30 in the afternoon, we were entering the St Lucie River. At one point, the GPS has showed our speed over the ground to be over 10 knots so we must have been picking up a very significant current.
And then we had to clear in.
What a contrast between a third world nation and the richest nation on the earth. In the Bahamas, we cleared in with no muss and no fuss. We were made to feel welcome.
When clearing into the US, you must first call a 1800 number. Using our cell phone, Bev dialed it before we even entered the inlet. After being on hold for 30 minutes, our call got dropped and we had to start over. In the interim, a boat from the Sherrif’s Department had investigated to see if we had cleared in, if our registration decal etc was up to date and to ask if we had anyone else on board. Bev tried to call the 1800 number again, but after 20 minutes, had to drop the call herself in order to pick up a mooring buoy. I went ashore and used a pay phone to call the same number. I was on hold for well over an hour. When I finally got through, the check in process was very quick and efficient EXCEPT that we still had to go to an airport or similar place in order to clear in through Customs in person. So the next day, we rented a car and drove to the airport at Ft Pierce. This was not a big deal as we wanted to drive to Indiantown to retrieve our Jeep anyway. While talking about this, we encountered another couple who after being extremely frustrated by not being able to get through to the 1800 number, did not actually check in for 2 days. They were fined $500.00.
The contrast in process between the two nations was overwhelming. I guess that we should not forget that the US is a nation at war. The Bahamas needs tourist dollars. To the US, we are a nuisance that I suspect they would rather just went away.
Luckily for us, our boat is US flagged. If not, we would now have to report in to Homeland Security every time we moved; even a short distance. Talk about bureaucracy! And to what benefit?
Mooring at Stuart gave us a chance to visit our dear friends Gerry and Pam. They were still RVing in Sebring, Florida. This is the same couple that escorted us in their motorboat at the beginning of the trip (to ensure that we actually left). It was fitting that they saw us again at the end of the trip.
We then headed up the St Lucie River towards Indiantown. I was traveling alone as Bev had to drive the car. Unfortunately, all did not go well. The outboard again sprung an oil leak. This time it was fatal. It seized. I sailed the boat back to Stuart. Picking up a mooring single handed under sail promised to be a bit of a trick. I figured out how to do it. I got close, threw out an anchor and then used the dingy to put a line onto a mooring ball. I then pulled up the anchor and dropped back to the mooring ball.
We then faced the question of how to get the boat to Indiantown. Again, it was Bev to the rescue. She chatted up another couple with some of our challenges and they offered to lend us a 15 HP Merc. In calm weather, I could probably have made it with our 4 HP dingy engine but it would not have been fast. Running flat out, the Merc pushed the Stray Cat at 6 knots. I backed off to 5knots where the engine was probably putting out 10 HP.
Anyway, we made it where we…. Well, you just have to read the next installment to find out
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
