It Finally Happened

I can't believe it finally happened; my best friend "Crazy Lisa Queen" and her man Buddy have arrived in Nassau ready to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. Due to the sea conditions mentioned earlier, we arrived in Nassau a few hours later than anticipated.  We had just tied up at the dock, Customs & Immigration were still on board getting us checked in, when all of a sudden here she comes prancing down the dock screaming "I see her, there's my Fat Bottom Girl".  She had to wait until Customs finished before she could board, so she did what she does best, started chatting with Clark a local Bahamian who we hired to wash the boat.   She was very salty and needed a good scrubbing (Fat Bottom Girl that is, not Lisa)......   We greeted Lisa and Buddy with the customary welcome aboard drink, a Goombay Smash, or two, or three...

We went to the local Chinese restaurant across the street which was highly recommended by 3 or 4 different people who had just eaten there that night.  We discovered that the chefs culinary skills were obviously spent on the evenings prior guests because he didn't share any of his skills with us.  Apparently taste buds are in short supply in Nassau.

It was our intent to depart early the next morning, but mother nature had other plans.  We decided to stay put another night.  This next statement will only make sense to those of you that know Lisa. I was asked to purchase one thing for her and one thing only; her coffee creamer "International Delight White Chocolate Macadamia Creamer" and I forgot!!!!!    I felt horrible so David and I set out on a mission to find some.  Even though Nassau has come a long way with respect to the variety of groceries they stock, but they don't sell it.   So we found a local coffee shop and bought a gallon jug of White Chocolate syrup in a wholehearted attempt to appease her.  I know it's not what she wanted, but she was a real trooper and choked it down....

We decided to take "Little Girl" down and do a little exploring.  We like to eat where the locals do, so we went the the shanty row under the bridge for some of the best conch salad we have ever had.  This was a first for Buddy and he loved it, in fact he ate it as though he hadn't eaten anything else in a month.  I quickly came to realize this is just Buddy...

Conch Salad

We had a great night hanging out in the cockpit, watching the sunset and enjoying cocktails, good tunes and the company of best friends.

Hold on Gilligan this is going to be a bumpy ride!

We departed Ft. Pierce Inlet at 6:30AM to a beautiful sunrise, the weather reports were calling for 3'-5' seas with 7 second intervals (smooth sailing).  What we actually had was 7'-8' seas with 2 second intervals (rough sailing).  To make matters worse, the 15-20 knot winds turned out to be 25-30 knots and couple this with direct bow rollers made for one rough ride.

Sunrise at Ft. Pierce Inlet

Before any departure, you should go through the entire vessel and prepare it for the trip.  Lock all the locks on the cabinet doors, make sure all windows are closed and locked, tie down the cockpit furniture, stow anything and everything that can fly and most importantly, PUT THE CLAMP ON THE REFRIGERATOR DOOR!     

Within an hour of departure the bow was slamming with such force that it was causing a great amount of water to come over the flybridge, we decided it was safer to go downstairs into the pilot house so we could stay safe, dry and keep an eye on the inside.   When we went down, it was like a scene from the Wizard of Oz  things were flying about everywhere and guess what I forgot to do...., CLAMP THE REFRIGERATOR DOOR SHUT!   90% of the contents of the overstocked fridge were all over the kitchen and cockpit floor.  To my disbelief, not one item broke or opened!   After spending about 15 minutes putting everything back I realized that I was seasick.   I won't go into details about the rest of my morning, but it was ugly to say the least.  Thank God for Captain Dave, because Captain Jack was done.   

HOLD ON!

The sea condition never changed for the entire trip, I don't care what course change we made, we still had rollers slamming into the bow.  After about 16 hours of torture and exhaustion we considered going into  Port Lucaya Harbour for safe cover.  After being informed by the Harbour Master that weather conditions were going to be the same for the next two days we decided to motor on and braved the storm to stay on schedule. I was  able to handle all of my watches thanks to the steady dose of Pepto Bismol, Ritz Crackers and Gatoraid administered by David. After 36 hours we finally made it to Nassau and all I can say is that the Atlantis on the horizon never looked so good!

Arriving in Nassau

We had a much better slip than the last time we stayed here and had a few great dock hands to help us with the lines.  After a quick tie up, a quick shower and a real bite of food we dropped from exhaustion.   That's all I have to say about this leg of the journey and I can only pray it gets better from here.

A day of relaxing....

Today we hung out in Little Harbour and ventured to the Gallery to see if Pete had any new pieces that might catch our eye. Congratulations must be in order, because we noticed many of his large pieces had been sold and the small inventory (that we could afford) was pretty sparse - so no new treasures today.  We also tried to get a tour of the Foundry, but it was closed.    

Gallery on the left with arched windows, and Pete's Pub is behind the dock

View from Atlantic side

We went to check out the caves, but they've added a "Private Property" sign.  So we skipped the main cave and went into the other without a sign.

They have houseboats in the Abacos too

We went back to Fat Bottom Girl for lunch and noticed there were small sea turtles everywhere.  I tore up some lettuce and attempted to feed them, but they weren't having it.  The Remora's didn't really give the turtles a chance - they scarfed it up the second it hit the water - they will eat anything and eat it quickly!  


Then out of nowhere, we see something black skiting across the water, it flew up out of water and did a back flip.  It was a stingray, I have no idea what type of rays are in the Bahamas, but we all thought it looked like a baby manta ray.  It had the scooped mouth/face - it was very pretty.

Sea Turtle - they were very shy and wouldn't come to close to the boat

Fat Bottom Girl on anchor in Little Harbour

Image of a Remora copied off of Google

It was a great day to just relax and enjoy the beauty around us.

Happy Independence Day!!!

Today was a fantastic day - we departed Great Guana Cay headed to Little Harbour (my favorite spot in the Abacos).  However, we knew we needed to somehow replace the anchor light bulb, before another night on the hook.  Since it's about 15' up the mast and none of us posses monkey skills, we had to find a ladder.   I called Troy at Harbor View Marina in Marsh Harbour, a place we've stayed a few times before, to see if he had a ladder we could borrow.  Fortunately he did, so off to Marsh Harbour we went.   Upon entering the Harbor, we saw Kadey Krogen "Dare to Dream", they flagged us down and complimented Fat Bottom Girl and even asked if she was brand new.   He was shocked when I told him, No, she's actually a 2000 and hull number 01, the first 58 made. Once tied up at the dock, David and Troy got the ladder and brought it to the boat, it only took a few minutes for Ryan to shimmy up the ladder and get the new bulb installed.  We returned the ladder, thanked Troy and started our way to Little Harbour. 

Since we were going to fish today, we chose to go outside the Sea of Abacos into the Atlantic for the 24 mile run.  It was a perfect day with perfect seas!

Pappy & Pappy "J"

I caught the first fish of the day which was about a 30/lb Tuna (I was ecstatic since the last one got off the hook just as we were bringing it on to the swim platform).  The crazy thing about catching this fish was, we thought it was much bigger than it really was because of the way it was fighting.  When we got it close to the boat we realized why - there was a huge Mahi Mahi (we think) at least three times as long as the Tuna right on it's tail!!!  In fact,  if you blow up the picture below you can see bite marks.  It took chunks out of the Tuna's tail as well as a few gashes on the side of his body.  If we would have been smart, we would have dropped another line in to try and catch that fish too, I guess we were all so shocked about the fish chase we didn't think of it.

Just as soon as this fish was on the upper deck for cleaning, the line started zipping again.  David pulled in a Spanish Mackerel, and Ryan followed up with an immediate Barracuda.

With fishing complete, we anchored just outside of Little Harbour.  Fat Bottom Girl's draft is too deep to go into the Harbour at low tide.   The anchorage had a lot of surge - and sitting there from about 4:00-8:00PM was all I could take.  I was so thankful  that David took Little Girl in to check the depth at about 7:30.  Once we were at high tide, we moved Fat Bottom Girl into the Harbour.   All I can say is hallelujah, it was a welcome calm for my stomach.  It wasn't that bad, it's just when you are already feeling slightly queasy, then you add fish cutting up duty, the two don't go well together.  Ryan cleaned them, I just trimmed them up and vacuum sealed them - but that was enough. 

View from the Galley at Anchorage

It seems as though we've eaten fresh fish every day since we started the trip.  Here is a list of what we've made so far.  Grilled Wahoo Steaks, Sauteed Spanish Mackerel, Grilled Wahoo Tacos, Fried Mackerel Sandwiches, Fish and Grits, Seared Ahi Tuna, Tuna Tataki and Ahi Poke.

Seared Ahi Tuna

Ahi Poke - Pronounced "Ah-Hee - Poke-ee"

After we got into the harbour, we went to "Pete's Pub" for a BURGER and a Blaster!  I think we'd all had enough fish, and just needed a good ole hamburger for our 4th of July dinner.

God Bless America - Happy Independence Day!

Clearing Customs

Today we departed Rat Cay at 9:45AM, moved just a short distance to Green Turtle Cay to clear Customs.  It was a quick check in so we did a little shopping specifically for a loaf of Bahamian White Bread and Bahamian Banana Bread (YUM).  We also picked up some gasket paper in the event we have another issue and need to make a homemade gasket.

Quarantine Flag down / Bahamian Flag up

We returned to Fat Bottom Girl and took off again, this time to Great Guana Cay.  We were anchored by 4:30 so we jumped in Little Girl to dingy around and explore.   David and Ryan both have Bimini Slings so we went in search of coral heads to look for fish and lobster.  We found No Fish & No Lobster; however they did see a moray eel.

We figured that since we were in Great Guana Cay, we HAVE to go to Nippers - it's a tradition for us and a must do if you come to the island.  We had a great appetizer of seared ahi tuna and followed up with a meal of coconut cracked conch.  It was great!

Follow the signs to Nippers

After our long day, a big dinner and one of Nipper's house punch's we were all pooped and decided to head in for an early night.

Our Anchorage in Fishers Bay 

Travel Day....

Today we departed Great Sale Cay at 9:45AM in route to Rat Cay.  It was a beautiful day with NO mechanical issues.  We did get swamped by an huge armada of cruisers and sport fish boats that rocked us so bad that our glass lamp in the salon fell over and broke the neck off.  In such a vast ocean I don't see why they couldn't have given a little more distance between us just out of simple courtesy.  

View looking aft from the flybridge

As the day progressed we saw a storm on the horizon; which only turned out to be nothing more than a good wash down to get all the salt of the boat.

Storm on the horizon

We arrived in Rat Cay at 4:45PM and had an awesome dinner of Mojo Pork Tenderloin, black beans, yellow rice and cucumber salad.  

Sunset in Rat Cay

It was another great night with the gentle lull of the ocean to put you right off to sleep :)

A Day of Adventure!!

As planned, we departed Ft. Pierce at 4:00AM.  We experienced a mild boil  at the inlet entrance, but after that we had perfect calm seas.  It's a little intimidating pulling out into complete darkness and solely relying on your charts and radar for guidance.  To give an example of how dark it is from the pilothouse; you cannot see a person standing directly in front of the windshield, nor the bow of the boat; let alone a buoy, channel marker or another boat

View from the Pilothouse at 4:10AM

As soon as the sun came up, we started dragging out the poles and bait.  At 6:45AM Ryan caught a nice Wahoo.  By 7:50 Jackie had about 40lb tuna; however when I went to grab the gaff it came off the hook (but, I do have witnesses) so it's not a fish story.  Later in the day we caught a nice Spanish Mackerel.  

David does routine engine room checks on the hour; at about 9:30 he noticed that the main engine raw water pump was leaking.  EEK - this means that we are in the Gulf Stream and we have to shut down our only engine and hope that we can fix it.   I located a spare main engine impeller gasket and Captain Dave saved the day!!!   We are fortunate, because in addition to our main engine (if something was to go wrong) we can power the boat with either our 12K or 20K generator, so it's triple redundancy.  However, when running on the auxiliary drive you can only go about 3 knots so it would take a LONG time to cross the stream.

Because we shut down the engine the boat got tossed around pretty bad, this was the trigger needed to start my stomach rolling like the ocean.  So I popped a Dramamine and off to sleep I went!  At about 10:30 Ryan came running in my room screaming "Jackie get up, there are whales swimming near the boat".  Sure enough, there were three large whales about 150 yards from us.  I have no idea what kind they were, but they were very slick and grey.  It was breathtaking; however when they disappeared, so did I - back to bed.   

The forward head got clogged (guest head - hint hint) so that was out of commission and something we were not looking forward to working on when we arrived.   After a four hour nap, I got up and went upstairs to the flybridge to hang with my hubby - It was beautiful!!

The remainder of the trip was calm and relaxing.  We arrived in Great Sale Cay and dropped anchor at 7:00PM, so it was a long 15 hour run.   After we anchored we started to crank the generators to cool the boat down and the 12K wouldn't start.  We were scratching our heads because we've really never had any mechanical problems and this will be the third one today.  So Captain Dave proceeded to check it out and determined that it was a tripped circuit breaker (thank goodness).  However, Ryan's job wasn't so fun - let's just say it involved a shop vac, a 5 gallon bucket and a full head - YUCK.  But whatever he sucked out fixed it, because it's been working perfectly since.

The bad luck with machinery followed, as I was vacuum sealing all the fresh catch of the day the sealer kept going off.  It took me an hour to seal 6 bags of Wahoo and Spanish Mackerel.   

We finished the day with grilled Wahoo and an amazing night on the hook.