Florida! Cape Canaveral, New Smyrna & Daytona Beach

Ta-Dah!!!
Made it across The Pond one more time, the weather co-operated this time to make a rather pleasant cruise.

We left the Abacos at sunrise and an hour later discovered about 20 other boats making the same crossing we were. Not too many headed for the Northern Florida inlets, like us, but headed south for a much shorter crossing. Some of our fellow crossers are pictured at the side-bar called "Doug wants to see more boats". The wind kinda died off, so we hoisted our cruising 'Chute (a very light air sail), then noticed a few others did too, colourful, huh? The sun set as we headed off Grand Bahama Bank into deeper water. Ahh, the water! I shall never forget the beautiful, beautiful colours of the water: Abaco Green, Sea of Abaco Turquiose, Gulf Stream Noxcema-Jar-Blue, no kidding. That night, I saw another piece of meteorite burning up alongside, then remembered that the Kennedy Space Centre is only 62 miles away...it was space junk! Saw a few freighters and three cruise ships. The Cruiseships were really something, you could see a live concert happening on the top deck, and if your eyes were too weak to make the performers out, there was live video on a gigantic screen that I could see from our cockpit! There was actually enough ship traffic to keep us "entertained all night long!

We arrived at Cape canaveral at 4am, so we stood off to make Canaveral Inlet in daylight. Had a rather exciting session of "who's on first!?" type of maneovers with one of the world-famous Disney cruise ships while drifting into the inlet channel. Oh well. It was my watch, so I got the hell out of there and I'm the wiser for it.
Some of you have heard us whine about not wanting to transit through Florida, but we take most of it back! We are rather glad to be back in civilization, with its fresh produce, wide sidewalks and enough of a population base to make for good cultural experiences. The Abacos were nice, relaxing and warm, but we did get to missing some of what we're used to.
So we took a marina, paid something like $0.65/foot at Cape Marina for the cheap wall, took a good mile walk to Customs (aka Homeland Security), cleared in in a matter of minutes, then celebrated with a fantastic lunch at a place called The Grill. I heartily recommend the catch of the day, nno matter what it is. Even if you don't like fish!!! The fish was all caught that morning by the owner. As a matter of fact, he's got a boat-cam with live feed of how the morning trawl is going, TV screen up on the outside wall of the restaurant so you know what to have for lunch latter. (?!) We liked it so much, we went back for another walk that night to catch live music. Anyone ever heard of The Horn-Dogs? Well they're great! They paired up with a talented rock trio and produced very different, but quite good bar-tunes. Imagine Guns & Roses a la trombone...
Next day, we motored up the ICW to New Smyrna, landed on the free wall (yahoo!) and stayed two days while we re-provisioned our boat stores and indulged in more walking. Gosh! It's so nice to have good, wide sidewalks! Much of the USA that we've seen so far features sidewalks wide enough for one person. We ended up waiting out a cold front there, glad we did because the wind speeds were quite high further up the ICW.
Today, I'm writing from the public library at Daytona Beach. We anchored off downtown, sort of, landed the dingy at a wee park and took a good stroll into town. It's very pleasant here, at the very beginning of tourist season. The shelves on our favorite stores are all stocked, new season of cruising guides are out, the Canada Geese are starting to make the trip North. It's funny to see them going from here to there! We also saw robins, bluejays and red-winged black-birds in the Abacos. Great fun!

The Pictures: The Spanishy-looking ones are of St. Augustine, a town we hope to spend more time in in the fall. The Whale-like thing is a manatee, floating on it's back to catch some fish-gut-water being rinsed off a fish-cleaning station at Cape Marina. What a life! The last two piks depict US Coast Guard escorting a sub out from Canaveral Inlet (the same CG crew later inspected us, had a good time with these 20 year olds...they were astounded that anything made/born in 1952 should still exist...especially a wooden boat) and the general feel of the sport-fishing industry of Florida...these people are mad keen on deep sea fishing!
So all is well, I will post some photos the next time we get wi-fi on the boat. Be good!

Attempt # 3, Fla. Here We Come!

O.K. We have a great weather window: one days of good wind to get us off the Bahama Banks, then two days of medium wind to get into Canaveral Inlet. Wonder if the nice people there are planning a space launch? Ooh, hey! Did I tell you I saw a shooting star the night of attempt#2? Three minutes later, I saw a real falling star! The difference? I think a shooting star (common at sea during the night, maybe more sky to view) is a burning meteor/space junk seen from a distance. This falling star was maybe a half-mile off our port side, very close! So Cool! We could see the main part of it burning, a trail of ash behind it, and a minute into its flight, it burned out and died right beside us. Hope it wasn't something important!
See you in Canaveral!

Still in The Abacos!!!

Yeah, there went dry run # 2. We got headed this time. We turned back and ran away. The fellow that was with us went anyway, to Cape Canaveral. He said it was a long, slow slog with lots of wind on the nose and waves to shove through, but at least he got a lift from the Gulf Stream current. So we're back at Manjack Cay.

Waah!

Looks like we may get another weather window on Wed. Yahoo!

So in the meantime, I thought you'd be interested to see what a cold front can look like here. This one appeared to be more dramatic than it actually was. Cold fronts come in "wet" and "dry". Guess which kind this one is? Those birdies, which are actually quite large, are called Man O' War birds, or Frigate birds.

I'll ask again for some good sailing Karma, but also fpor some good weather karma. In the meantime, we continue to meet all sorts of lovely people. Tah-tah for now.

The Cinnamon Buns

Well! We'll just consider that last "voyage" a dry run, shall we? We got out to our intended jumping-off place and lost our weather window. We also were in a dead-zone for recieving weather broadcasts, so we had to beetle back to our favourite anchorage, Manjack. We see another window coming on Thursday/Friday. Send a little more sailing karma!

In the meantime, I have time to tell you about the fabulous breakfast buns we've been enjoying. The above piks tell the story of the Bahamian Cinnamon Buns.

First, you must go to where the coconuts are free. That would be here. But, since you're there, you'll have to get shredded coconut from the store. Oh, well.

Secondly, you must select one that still has water inside: hold it up to your ear...and bang it agianst your head. Juss kidding. Listen for the sound of a cocktail being mixed- right in your coconut!

Third, rip the husk off, drain the water into your best rum glass, golden rum is my preferred choice. Smash your coconut to small pieces and pry the meat away from shell. If you do all this correctly, you can, yourself, get smashed and wear a coconut-bra. Everyone's doing it!

Put the rum down, and grate up 2 cups of fine-shred, beautiful fluffy coconut. Flollow recipe on the side bar.

Finish your rum, then serve your friends the best breakie they've ever had. I don't know where this unfortunate-looking person came from, but she, oddly, didn't care for eating a coconut bun and insisted on peanut-butter.

Time for new friends.

Anyhow, the next time I write, maybe we'll be in Florida.

Homeward Bound

Well! It's the six-month mark of our new life style. We had a very serious talk about how it is really going and came up with some pretty good feelings about it all.
Firstly, we really love our boat. Even Jim is coming around and is not quite so concerned about worm damage to the hull that he wants to sell her on the spot! Her better attributes include her solid presence on the water. She is big and heavy and can take quite a big sea. With her kellet (Phil- did I spell that right?) down, she doesn't swing so much on her anchor that she makes you dizzy. She's quite pretty inside, so nicely finished by cabinet-maker cum shipwright James. Everyone who cames aboard is is completely taken by her hardwoods and traditional interior design. She's very comfortable. Her decks are safe and spacious. If only she had a cockpit more condusive to lounging! She sails quite well, especially now that we've had more practice sailing her longer distances and in varying winds.
Secondly, we really enjoy the freedom of moving around. The Abacos is a great area to do a lot of sailing in safe, small water. The Great Abaco Island has a barrier reef with accompaying cays (wee lime-stone islands) so as the saying goes...all that wind and no big seas. We, especially me, got some great experience.
We did suffer a few emotional and social bumps and jolts along the way, the bigger jolt for James is the fact that I am peri-menopausal...he's going through his "change of wife" (haha! thank you Lyn Johnson!) But at least I'm here to stay, he's such a charming fellow! But one gets settled in with what life may bring, and flexibility is what this lifestyle is based on.
So we're headed back to Canada via most of the waterways we travelled to get down here, exepting the 8 day offshore trip. Standing a watch with no auto-helm or self-steering is a drag. So , depending on the weather for the day, we will either travel up the Intra-Coastal Waterway (The ICW- a great big ditch...where you can run aground...or hit things) or take as many 36 hour shorter outside hops as we can. Either way, we'll be back in time for a lovely Lambton Clan Gathering; Jim's younger brother is getting married in early summer. (At least there is a rumour...). Then we might make it to Ottawa in time for the Jazz Festival last week of June, July 1. And to visit my children! And whoever else wants to stop by! Then maybe we'll go up the Trent-Severn to see the folks in PTBO. Then there are all our friends & family that live on Lake Ontario, Aunt Joan, Randy Holt, Jim's Kids and friends from The Anchorage. Ooperwhallah, What to do? We obviously can't do every thing, but we sure would like to.
In the meantime, we're slowly getting into position to get to our Gulf Stream crossing place, visiting some of our favourite stops along the way. Right now, we're back off Manjack cay, and Bill & Leslie- we can't thank you enough for the wi-fi!
So send us your best good-crossing-karma, we should pull in to Fort Pearce Inlet, Florida in the next good weather window. Waiting for said window can take a long time, weeks as a matter of fact. And there is not likely any wi-fi up near where our waiting spot. So don't worry if you don't here from us for a few weeks. We'll be lolling around a beautiful white sand anchorage...swimming, eating, drinking and being merry! Very likely with a few other boats.
See ya soon!

Little Harbour and Johnson's Bronzeworks

Little Harbour was first inhabited by the Johnson family in the 1950's. Shown above is the cave the father, mother and little boy lived in for the first while. The father, Randolph, was a world renown bronze scupltor. He produced items in the lost-wax fashion. Young Peter learned the art and carries on these two years after Randolph's passing.

Shown above are the ruins of the old lighthouse, path leading up to it, and a rather spectacular

cove on the ocean. Below are some of the Family Johnson creations and workshop. The fellow actually working the bronze (pictured in the heavy apron) is not Peter, but a fellow artist.

The School Fundraiser at Man O' War Cay

What a great gathering! It started about 20 years ago as a swap-meet for cruising sailors. Any funds raised were given to the local school. Now it is a must-attend for locals, cruisers, cottagers, artists and other vendors. One of the sillier events was hermit-crab racing. I asked this young gambler if he could display his clawed-contender for me. After much hooting and ado, half of the crabs freaked out and froze, but the winner, as you can see, made a break for freedom!

Man o' War Cay is known for being a real working town. Years ago, there was a sail loft, a wooden boat builder and other related businesses. Now, the ladies at the sail loft put out a different product; canvas bags, hats, chair covers and travel items and all kinds of goodies. I couldn't get a good snap of the old loft, but you could still see the old beams and walkways on the second floor, which incidentally, had no floor. Just beams and two walkways! Another shop makes clothing and home decore items out of Androsia fabric, which is hand-batiked on Andros Island, Bahamas. I had to include the picture of the beautiful fabric.

Still functioning is Albury's Boat Yard, still producing fast, good looking fishing boats. They used to produce only wooden boats, but in the 60's started to produce in fibreglass. Apparently, they are of such good quality, they are in demand all over the Bahamas and Florida; Everyone who is anyone has to have one!

There are dive-shops, gorby traps, bakeries, marinas and a boat repair yard. There are regular grocery stores and the like.

The fundraiser itself had used clothing, food tents as well toys etc, some boat stuff, at least a dozen artists, and of course all the businesses put in a few big ticket items for the silent auction.

The day after the fundraiser, we heard on the news that the school had raised 23, 000 bucks! Seing how Man O' War has no more 300 residents, I felt it was very impressive! Way to go!