Log of Apogee

Jan 31 Sun

2010-01-31T20:19:00.002-05:00

Today I started the long haul of polishing my thesis. Following my normal thesis routine I over-caffeinated and read it over hoping to have some great inspiration. Our first real break of the day was after that when we found out that by far the most effective way to get the engine to start is to hit it. We took George over to see the swimming pigs. This time of year they are quite well fed and it was not to impressed with our compost selection. It munched on a couple of banana peals and marched back out of the water. I went snorkeling when we got back to the boat. I speared three blue stripped grunts which I dropped to the bottom in my dive bag in pursuit of a fourth. When I came back to collect my dive bag and dinner all I found was several big patches of stirred up sand. I searched around for a while and found the culprit; a ten foot nurse shark. It had gotten it stuck in its teeth but was totally unconcerned about the situation. I followed it around for quite a while, I think it was getting pretty annoyed with me, but I finally gave up. Needless to say I will be neurotically checking every nurse shark I see in the next day or so for my dive bag. I'm confident that it will simply shed a few teeth along with my dive bag in the day or two and be ok. For dinner I made tortillas from scratch along with beans, rice, salsa, candied onions, fish, and avocado.

(Finn)

2009-11-19T09:57:00.001-05:00

Nov 18 Wed

Cleared through customs at Spanish Wells, Eleuthera.

2009-11-13T09:45:00.001-05:00

Nov 10 Tues

0815 Changed course for St Simons Sound, Georgia. Decided to sit out heavy weather for a few days and wait for front to pass.

2200 Anchored off Jekyll Island, Georgia.

2009-11-13T09:38:00.003-05:00

2009-11-13T09:38:00.001-05:00

(Mark Rawlings photos)

2009-11-12T11:08:00.003-05:00

Mon 9 Nov

0051

N 33° 30.3’

W 78° 36’

Becalmed in the horse latitudes off South Carolina. East winds 15 knots are forecast for the next few days which we eagerly await. We’re hugging the coast to avoid the gulf stream, staying mostly within twenty miles of land. Sometime soon we will head east 250 miles offshore to cross the stream while the wind is favorable and approach Abaco from the north.

Right now we are tracking Hurricane Ida, which just ran between Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula headed for the Gulf of Mexico. It’s gone from tropical storm three days ago to Cat. 1 Hurricane yesterday to Cat. 2 Hurricane today. Although the chances of it turning our way are slight, I won’t head offshore until it fizzles out and there are no tropical disturbances in the works.

Had a good day of boat maintenance in flat water today. Jim replaced some porthole gasket, Kya and Mark sewed the dodger, and I finished repairing the lazyjacks. All while we threaded our way through Frying Pan Shoals off Cape Fear, NC.

2009-11-12T11:07:00.001-05:00

Sun 8 Nov

0300 N 34° 12’

W 76° 57’

Heading 224°

Speed 5.5 knots under jib and main

Quite a nice watch, new 3 hrs goes by like nothing, crazy waves all night, short brutal chop impeding our progress. Gale called off for Wed, forecast for SE winds Mon/Tues are promising for a quick and easy Gulf Stream passage. It’s so warm, tomorrow will be beautiful. (Mark)

0530 N 34° 08.7’

W 77° 07.1’

Speed 5.5 knots

Course 270° M

Headed into slightly shallower water to get out of the Gulf Stream chop.

Ida has been upgraded to a category 1 hurricane, position between Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula, moving NW at 12 mph.

2009-11-11T23:41:00.009-05:00

Sat 7 Nov

All of the photographs on this post were taken by Mark Rawlings, crew member and very talented photographer.

0300 Diamond shoals, Cape Hatteras, NC. Ran the engine to charge the batteries, then the wind died. Rounding Diamond shoals, then heading for Frying Pan Shoals off Beaufort.

Seas have calmed way down, wind around 5 knots and "variable", which is a NOAA euphemism for "nonexistant".

2009-11-11T23:39:00.002-05:00

Fri 6 Nov

0500 N 37° 16'

W 75° 09'

2009-11-11T23:33:00.004-05:00

Nov 5 Thurs

0100 N 38° 56.2'

W 73° 14.6'

65 miles off Ocean City, NJ. Changed course 2 hours ago from Cape Hatteras to Virginia. Gale forecast for Thursday night with NW winds gusting to 40 knots, and I decided to look for a lee shore. The wind is not a problem for this boat, but the seas will be building to pretty good proportions, and we have a seasick crew member below. Unfortunately tomorrow night will make anything she’s seen yet seem like a day at the pond.

0600 N 38° 44.5’

W 73° 42.7’

1 ft seas, occasional puff of N wind. Mainsail and motor - 5.3 - 6.5 depening on wind.

12 ships, nice calm seas. Changed course to avoid large ship around 5 AM. Should still be in to shore by this afternoon.

(Mark)

0800 N 38° 19.7’

W 74° 29.8’

373 miles from Portland, 214 miles to Cape Hatteras. Motoring at 1800 RPM with slack main up also. Engine hours 2055. 45 miles off Cape May.

(Jim)

2009-11-11T23:28:00.002-05:00

Wed 4 Nov

0145

Visited by porpoises in the moonlight.

0200 N 40° 13'

W 71° 47.3'

Course 238 degrees magnetic

Speed 6 knots

Reefed main and staysail

0520 N 40° 01.1'

W 72° 01.4'

Heading 238 degrees M

Speed 5.7 knots Wind 10-15 knots

Not a single soul out here but us. (Mark)

0800 N 39° 19.7'

W 72° 30.6'

Speed 4 knots. Heading 244 degrees.

263 miles from Portland.

Beautiful day, sunny, 45 degrees, rolly seas (Jim)

1300

Mark and I dropped the jib and took apart the roller-furling, tightened the jibstay, and tried to figure out why the roller furling was so hard to turn. An hour and a half later, after an extensive session with an impact wrench, copious amounts of WD-40, and a very stubborn set screw, we got it back together and the jib up again. It turns more easily than it did, but it still seems as if it should turn easier.

We then repaired the mainsail with sail tape. A couple of rips in the main are the last remaining evidence of our knockdown by a water spout last June. We started to run new lazyjack lines as well, but by then sunset was approaching and we left that for another day.

1654

Still alive after 48+ hours of seasickness. Yah for no wind! (Kya)

1800

Hooked up the single sideband for the first time since sailing to Maine in June. It took a while, and the signal was not very good. Tried to get GRIBS weather files, but I couldn’t get a whole file downloaded intact. Tomorrow I will clean up electrical connections. I’m suspecting the co-ax to backstay connection. If anyone besides me is reading this I must have found the problem and got an email out via radio modem.

1900

Cooked a salmon chowder for dinner.

2205 N 39° 05'

W 72° 58'

5.4 Knots 235 degrees heading

257 miles from Cape Hatteras

Engine at 1800 RPM, main and jib. Motored all day on quiet seas and nil wind. Jib furler maintenance, main sail repair, SSB radio installation and test this afternoon in such quiet conditions 75 miles out. Wonderful salmon chowder tonight. (Jim)

2300

Porpoises in the moonlight again.

2009-11-11T23:10:00.004-05:00

Tues 3 Nov

0215

Arrive Cape Cod Canal.

We did an 18 hour run from Portland to the Cape Cod Canal, which is a record for me. I planned to make a 9:20 tide through the canal on Tuesday, and figured 25 hours was safe. We made such good time that we got through on the very end of the earlier tide. For those who haven’t sailed through the canal, the current is six knots in either direction, which is close to our top speed. If you don’t time the tide right, you will have your engine running flat out just to keep you from going backwards. It’s a bit like Alice in Wonderland; you need to go a whole lot faster if if you actually want to go anywhere.

In the canal the water was flat, and Kya made her first appearance on deck since leaving Maine. The seas picked up again again in Buzzards Bay

0800

Day’s run is 143 miles.

1230

Headed out to sea between Block Island and Long Island.

1300

Reefed the mainsail. Close-hauled headed SW at 5.5 knots. Wind W at 15 knots.

2040

Wind shifted to NW with a vengeance. 15-20 knots gusting to 25. We’re making 7 knots. Looks like an exciting night of sailing.

I’ve been trying to convince the crew to make regular entries in the log, so I will be including those entries followed by the author’s name in parenthesis. If no initials then it’s me (Nat).

2200 N40°, 36.4'

W 71° 30.9'

Cape Hatteras looks a lot closer. First meal of the voyage, but still a little tough for much appetite. (Jim)

2009-11-11T23:08:00.003-05:00

Mon 2 Nov

0800

Depart Cushing’s Island, Portland, Maine bound for Great Exuma, Bahamas.

Outside Portland Harbor the seas are big and rolling from the stern quarter. Kya is seasick and retreats to her bunk.

1400

“Thar she blows!” Spouts of mist in the distance, and then humpbacks diving close to us, then, less than forty feet off the port beam, the telltale black smooth patch of a whale’s back, and then she dove. For a few seconds her tail and last third of her body stood up twenty-five feet in the air beside us. A magnificent sight, one of the reasons I love this sail down the eastern seaboard in the fall.

2009-11-11T23:06:00.001-05:00

Sun 1 Nov

All crew arrived in Portland the day before departure. We motored Apogee into Portland to pick up Jim and do a final grocery shopping. My friend Thatcher recognized the boat and came out to visit, and generously agreed to drive us to get food. None of us have a car in Portland since we’re all flying back to other places from the Bahamas.

Jim and Kya took on the shopping detail, while Mark and I stayed aboard and stowed huge amounts of gear. With fresh food and ice aboard we went back to the mooring at Cushing’s Island for the night.

2009-11-11T22:54:00.003-05:00

Tues 20 Oct

Jim Hamlin, who will be helping sail south with me, came out to help get the boat ready. He was prepared to work on the diesel, but he ended up having to winch me aloft twice. We took the backstay down, cut it and put on an insulator, and put it back up.

2009-11-11T22:50:00.003-05:00

Sun 25 Oct

Careened Apogee at Government Dock, Cushing's Island. Cleaned off four inches of growth.

2009-09-01T11:02:00.008-04:00

Tues 1 Sept

Some pictures from past trips..

Tue 9 June

2009-06-12T11:00:00.003-04:00

Finn woke me as I'd asked when we were off Two Lights, Cape Elizabeth at about 8:AM. I'd gone to sleep at about 3:30, though, so I didn't get up. It was a grey rainy Maine morning. I didn't get up 'till we were passing Portland Head Light. We went straight to our mooring at Cushings Island and called US Customs. They couldn't see us until 1:00; we cleaned up the boat some and took a nap. While I was alsleep that morning, Finn had bravely cleaned out the ice box which had remained closed since the last ice melted, and smelled pretty bad.

At 1:00 we went in to the state pier and were greeted by not one but three Customs officers. We've never had such a grand delegation before. One was in charge of just food. She asked what fresh food we had on board ("any frozen meat?" It took a little while to convince her that we were vegetarians with no ice, much less a freezer). Knowing we couldn't bring citrus into the country we'd polished off the last of the limes and grapefruit the day before. When I invited her aboard to inspect the food she eyed the boat suspiciously, looking a little green just at the thought of boarding a boat, and said, "No thanks, I'll just take your word for it".

The other two officers came below and set up at the table. We filled out immigration and customs forms, forms for the boat, radio station license, etc. After 45 minutes of filling out forms they asked, "mind if we look around a bit?" Very polite considering they were legally entitled to tear the boat apart if they so desired. They then stood up, cast their eyes around the cabin, opened one or two cabinets, and after this exhausting 30-second search said, "Welcome to Portland".

2009-06-11T13:22:00.010-04:00

Mon 8 June

Cape Cod to Portland

Many Humpback whales around us. Only one came close, one with scars on its fin. All around in the distance they're blowing and breaching.

Last night at sea. We had flat bread pizza and opened a bottle of wine to celebrate our impending landfall, wine that has traveled from Portland to the Bahamas and most of the way back.

After dinner Finn and I played accordion and fiddle in the cockpit while the sun set.

Sun 7 June

Saw the lights of Cape Cod tonight. At 11:00 PM we picked up cell service for the first time.

We're caught up in the strong tide and current mess off the Cape, and making very slow progress. We're too low on diesel to motor through it, and we can't stop for fuel because we haven't cleared US customs.

2009-06-06T18:14:00.007-04:00

Sat 6 June

11:00 AM

Wind has picked up to 25 - 30 knots, and the seas are getting pretty big. We're down to double - reefed main and staysail.

6:00 PM
Now we're just about becalmed.

Fri 5 June

6:00 PM

Exactly 7 days out of Whale Cay, Abaco. 1040 miles. We're about 100 miles SSE of Nantucket.

Thur 4 June

We got knocked down by a water spout.

We were sailing along about 200 miles off Maryland under main and spinnaker in a good breeze and all of a sudden all hell broke loose. The huge spread of sail filled with 60 knots or so of wind and pulled us over. Solid water seemed to come from the sky. Finn went forward in harness and lifeline to get in sail while I held the boat into the wind. The spinnaker wouldn't come down, and he finally had to drop it into the water and we pulled it aboard.

Then it was dead calm. Everyone is fine, the boat didn't get damaged. A porthole in the aft cabin had been open, and the side of the cabin was under water briefly. Everything was pretty wet. The SSB and computer were dry, but the laptop charger got soaked and doesn't work. We installed the sailmail software onto Finn's computer for when my battery runs out.

Wed 3 June

3:45 AM

North 33 degrees 19.67 minutes
West 076 degrees 31.93 minutes

11:00 AM
This morning while I slept Finn baked me a pineapple upside-down birthday cake. No cookbooks aboard so he made it up. It was delicious. Our oven thermostat doesn't work, so baking is a little tricky. You have to keep an eye on the oven thermometer and turn the oven on and off to average a temperature.
We're 6 days out of Marsh Harbor, Abaco, the last place we could get ice. Today the last of it has melted. We're eating up all the perishables before they can go bad. We have a supply of potatoes, onions, cabbage, squash, and sweet potatoes, all of which keep well without ice. Aside from that it's rice, pasta, dried legumes, and canned food 'til we reach New England.

2:00 PM
We're running straight downwind now. We've rigged twin headsails; the genoa jib on one side and the spinnaker on the other. Making 7.5 knots.

8:30 PM
Jibed the spinnaker, doused the jib, and raised the main. Broad reach now, heading more east to round Cape Hatteras and get back in the center of the gulf stream. We're averaging over 10 knots .

10:15 PM
We're really flying - 11 knots, and saw 12 once. Hey, it's my birthday and I'll fly if I want to.

I finally had to admit that we're carrying too much canvas, much as I love seeing 12 knots on the GPS. Doused the spinnaker, running under genny and main. We're still doing 9.5 - 10 knots. The Gulf stream can claim 2 of those knots, but we're still doing 8 to 9 through the water. Not bad for a full-keel boat.

11:00 PM
Days run for the last 24 hours is 214 miles!
Cape Hatteras used to be known as "the Graveyard of the Atlantic." The reason was that ships headed south would go as close to land as possible to avoid fighting the northbound gulf stream. The problem is that shoals extend 13 miles out to sea, which is out of sight of the low-lying barrier islands. Ships relying on sextant sights and dead reckoning were often a few mile off course and would founder on the shoals.
It's interesting to note that since the invention of GPS not a single ship has been lost on Hatteras.

Tue 2 June

We've been having battery problems. We had to run the diesel for 20 hours to get through the horse latitudes. The main deep-cycle battery that we run off overcharged. My bunk in the aft cabin is right over the battery compartment. I awoke to the smell of sulpher. Half awake I tried to think of what food was going bad. I finally woke up enough to connect the smell with over-charging batteries, and shut down the engine. I spent half the day rewiring battery banks, topping up cells with distilled water. I re-enlisted a couple of old batteries and made a bank of 4 which should mean less overcharging.

Mon 1 June

2009-06-01T02:57:00.008-04:00

2:20 AM

North 30 degrees 07.22 minutes

West 079 degrees 39.88 minutes

Sun 31 May

12:30 AM

North 28 degrees 52.35 minutes

West 078 degrees 45.69 minutes

About 135 miles north of Grand Bahama, and 111 miles east of Indian River, Florida.

It's pretty quiet out here, though we did see one ship this afternoon, and another sailboat this morning.Alone on deck for night watch 11 PM to 3 AM. There's a lovely half moon out to the south, and an impressive display of lightning to the north. A few hours ago we sailed south to go around an electrical storm. It was like 4th of july fireworks, with curlycue lightning circling clouds, going up and sideways. I don't think I've seen anything like it. Perhaps it's just part of sailing through the devil's triangle. The Monitor wind-vane is steering the boat, so the batteries aren't getting run down by the autopilot.We spent the last 24 hours getting west into the Gulf Stream. It's a little out of our way but the current is favorable enough that we figured it's worth going a few hundred miles out of our way. We are just now finally getting a boost from the stream; during the day we were fighting a back-eddy north of Grand Bahama.

8 PM
North 29 degrees 43.97 minut

es
West 079 degrees 38.31 minutes
230 miles NNE of Abaco, 80 miles off Florida.

We're finally in the middle of the Gulf Stream getting 2 knots of favorable current. Finn just caught a mahi-mahi, at least a 20 pounder.

What a feast! It'll take us at least 3 days to finish it.
We've been surrounded by so many thunderstorms that I haven't been able to hook up the radio.
I've had the SSB disconnected from the backstay, which is our antenna, for the last few days because of so many thunderstorms. The sky is finally clear, so I'll try to hook it all up tonight before the end of my watch and get this out to a shore station in Miami. This involves fastening a wire to the backstay which is connected to the antenna tuner, which is connected to the SSB radio. This I hook up to the Pactor modem, which then gets wired to the laptop. Then I try to find a frequency that will pick up the nearest shore station. It usually takes about half an hour to get an email out.

Fri 29 May

North 26 degrees 35.96 minutes
West 077 degrees 00.8 minutes

I took the dingy into Man-O-War Cay to get rice, the only thing we forgot. A picturesque boatbuilding village reminiscent of Mystic Seaport except it's not a museum. I dragged Finn and Elliot in to see the town, then we pulled anchor. Finn still wanted to snorkel once more before leaving the Bahamas, so we sailed up the Sea of Abaco a ways, then went out to open ocean looking for more wind. Later in the afternoon we found it, 25 or 30 knots from the NW. We were still towing the inflatable, and it was in danger of flipping in the wind and seas. We beat back upwind to whale Cay and anchored in the lee.
Finn and Elliot went diving. Today is Finn's 21st birthday, so as soon as they left I baked a cake and it cooled just enough to put on icing and candles before they got back. They caught a huge lobster which we had for a second course after the birthday cake. We hauled the outboard and inflatable aboard and stowed them for the passage back to Maine.
Departed Whale Cay, Abaco at 6 PM bound nonstop for somewhere in New England. Watches are set; we each do 4 hours on and 8 hours off. Finn and I have the harder late night and early morning watches since Elliot hasn't sailed before. He's a quick study, though, and becoming good crew.

Thur 28 May
Stocked the boat today. Did some laundry, got lots of food and ice, filled a propane tank, filled up on diesel and water. Left Marsh Harbor at 4:50 PM to sail over to Man-O-War Cay for snorkeling. The wind was very light, so rather than waste fuel Finn and Elliot hopped in the inflatable while we were under sail and buzzed out to the reef while I drifted across the bay at 2 knots. I had a leisurely 6 mile sail, started dinner and hung out laundry and anchored while they snorkeled.

Wed 27 May
Entered the Sea of Abaco at Pelican Cays just before dawn, escorted by an inquisitive envoy of porpoises . It's 11 miles line of sight to Marsh Harbor, but 25 miles by boat going around all the shallows. Anchored at 9:20 at
North 26 degrees, 32.81 minutes
West 077 degrees, 03.55 minutes

Tue 26 May
Loaded up on food, ice, and diesel. Left Nassau 10:50 AM bound for Abaco. Should be about a 24 hour sail.

Mon 25 May

Under weigh at 7:50 AM. 40 mile sail across the Yellow Banks, full of uncharted coral heads. Past trips I've had a lookout stationed on the bowsprit, but I found I could see the coral heads fairly well from the helm.
Halfway across, out of sight of land, I sent my first email at sea. It's pretty exciting the first few times to see the laptop actually taking control of the radio, tuning the frequencies, sending out bursts of noise, and finding an email and a gribs weather forecast in your inbox.
As I neared New Providence Island, the skies blackened and then hell broke out. Thunder and lightning and solid sheets of water poured out of the sky. The visibility was down to a few feet. I felt my way slowly into the shallow harbor by GPS and depth sounder. By the time I got to Potters Cay it had cleared enough to see and find a spot to tie up.

3:30 PM Docked in Nassau. Cleaned and stowed and waited for Finn and Elliot, flying in from Boston. They were a few hours late because the control tower at the airport was taken out by the same thunderstorm I had sailed in through.

Sun 24 May

8:30 Weighed anchor and under way. The original form of this phrase was "under weigh", meaning the anchor had been weighed.
Easy sail to Highborn Cay - 45 miles. Anchored at 5:25 PM off a beautiful beach near 4 other boats. Took the dingy over and met the folks on the next boat, a Hans Christian 38. Ended up talking for quite a while about single-handing 38 footers and making SSB work.

Anchored at
North 24 degrees, 42.87 minutes
West 076 degrees, 49.77 minutes

Sat 23 May

Stayed at anchor at Staniel Cay and worked on the boat.

Fri 22 May

Woke at 5, finished tying down stuff on deck and stowing stuff below that could fall. Had the anchor up at 6 AM, and after a pretty easy 10 hour sail anchored at Staniel Cay with plenty of daylight. I did double reef once for a squall, then shook it out 2 hours later. Most of the way I flew all three sails.

The trip from Great Exuma to Staniel Cay is outside the Cays, in deep water and often good-sized seas run up by the trade winds from the east. After Staniel the route to Nassau is on the protected side of the Cays over the Great Bahama Bank. It makes for flat sailing with an easy motion, but it's never more than 12 to 18 feet deep. Harbor entrances can be as little as 6 feet. This is unnerving for someone who learned to sail in Maine, where 50 feet of depth means you're about to run aground.

Anchored at
North 24 degrees, 10.69 minutes
West 076 degrees, 26.59 minutes

Thurs May 21
North 23 degrees, 31.32 minutes
West 075 degrees, 45.52 minutes

Thunderstorms today, so I cleaned and stowed and worked on the boat. I'm planning to leave at dawn tomorrow to make Staniel Cay before dark.

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2009-05-23T21:43:00.003-04:00

Wed 20 May

Moved the boat out of the hurricane hole on the high tide. I plan to head north tomorrow. I still have to stow food and put away lots of tools, so I'll probably only make 30 miles at most up to Adderly cut before dark.

2009-05-23T21:41:00.001-04:00

Tue 19 May

Arrived in Nassau May 18 4:00 PM. The flight from Boston was 40 minutes late, so I missed the only flight to Exuma. I took a cab to Potters Cay on the waterfront and booked passage on the ferry. We left Nassau at 8:30 in the evening, and arrived in Georgetown 9:30 AM the next day. 13 hours. Finn and I sailed it last year in 20 hours. It was a small ferry, say, about like the Peaks Island ferry. It was fine for about 7 hours while we were inside the Exumas; I slept on a row of 4 hard vinyl seats. About 4 AM we outside to open ocean and it was rough. We pounded and crashed and there was no sleeping.

In Georgetown I got a water taxi out to Stocktons Island where Apogee is moored. I spent the next 2 days installing the single sideband radio, which when working properly has a range of halfway around the world. I had brought with me a Pactor 3 radio modem, which connects to the SSB and to my laptop and allows very slow email and weather forecasting information anywhere at sea.

If it all works, I'll be updating this log while we're sailing. This is sort of a test run, so not many people know about it.

2009-02-02T11:31:00.002-05:00

Saturday, Jan 10

We didn't leave at dawn. The propane truck comes to Georgetown on Wednesday mornings, so the crew went in town to fill both tanks. One of them couldn't get filled in Portland last November because of an unreadable expiration date. Now we have propane enough for the winter now.
Departed Georgetown at noon. Hailed the three masted schooner "Mystic" out of Mystic, CT up the harbor. Sailed through the night, past Conception Island and Rum Cay. Woke Finn and Evie at 2:30 AM and went to sleep. Arrived San Salvador 5:30 AM. Crew stood offshore 'till I awoke at 9:00. We picked up a dive boat mooring offshore and launched the inflatable. Dropped crew at reef to snorkel and went to check out the very small shallow harbor.
We moved Apogee into the backhoe-made tiny harbor to wait out the norther. Walked into town, bought limes and made key lime pie and latkes potato pancakes that the Kalmans made aboard last winter.
Friday we rented a car and spent all day driving around the island. Stopped at the Hartwick College research center; Finn found a few associates there. We climbed one of the two remaining hand-cranked frenznel- lens lighthouses in the world. Plotted the log of Columbus - comparing what you really see vs what you see on a chart. It's a different story. All those ivy tower theorists weren't playing with a full deck . Spent a day circling a large, mostly inhabitable island. Only one road around the whole island. It took us eight hours to do the 30 miles, stopping anywhere any of us said " hey look"...

The norther has passed and the wind is back to the east now, so we're moving on in the morning. We're planning a series of day sails all under 50 miles each: Rum Cay, Long Island, Crooked and Fortune Islands.

2009-02-02T10:42:00.007-05:00

Monday, Jan 5

Arrived safely in Georgetown. Finn and Evie pulled into the dingy dock just as Coleman and I arrived by taxi. Last night on the boat we ate unidentified fish that Finn speared with sling-shot like spear gun that he made. They've been living like hunter-gatherers on fish and conch. Today I shopped for food and ice, then we moved Apogee out of the hurricane hole to anchor off volleyball beach. Leaving the hole can only be done at high tide. We set sail for San Salvador tomorrow at dawn; the wind forecast is perfect and exactly what I'd hoped for. The wind will start clocking around to the west and northwest for the next few days, giving us a glorious broad reach down to San Salvodor. Then when the wind does its inevitable clock back to the eastern trades, we can run with it down to Crooked and Acklins islands, then return via Long Island. If it plays out right, it'll be broad reach all the way, which is the course that Apogee loves the best.

Today all four of us worked on the boat for a while. Evie and Coleman pulled up old blue masking tape and used Goo-Gone on the residue, Finn set teak plugs in the port handrail, while I rebuilt the old high-pressure inflatable pump. I made all new one way valves out of rubber, and managed to get it functioning. The pump I borrowed from Seth isn't high pressure enough to inflate the inflatable's floor.

I'm sitting on the deck at St. Francis with an oldies station playing in the backround - Allman Bothers to Tie a yellow ribbon. Sun is getting lower and its not so hot as earlier. At midday it was uncomfortably hot in shorts and no shirt. The only problem with the hurricane hole is that we're close enough to land that the no-seeums find the boat if its calm, as it was last night.

2009-02-01T17:30:00.000-05:00