Friday, April 6, 2012

Home again...home again...

Day 141 - 149 (Friday, March 30 – Friday, March 6, 2012): What a week! We left Marsh Harbor on Saturday morning and headed for Whale Cay Cut. The weather and tides were perfect for an uneventful passage. Smooth as glass. We headed up to Green Turtle where we anchored outside of the harbors. I say harbors because there is the black side and white side. The black side is where the Green Turtle Marina and Resort are located. The white side is where the small town is situated. We headed into the Marina and Resort for lunch. Patrick had fish and chips. I had the lobster roll. Very good. We then dinghyed back to Gaia for a nap and some strategy mapping for our crossing. Plus a “Grey’s Anatomy” J episode or two. The next morning saw us up early and we headed into town. We were looking for a bait shop where we could get some ballyhoo and a few odds and ends at the grocery. Cute town with narrow streets, very old homes and gardens. You could tell the buildings that were there had been built to withstand hurricanes…sturdy and functional but still the feel of the British Colonies. We were not able to get any Ballyhoo but did find an ice cream shop, a few groceries, an internet connection and two conch, purchased from a local fisherman. Nice, quick stop… then back to Gaia and on to Allen’s Pensacola.
By Sunday afternoon late, we had anchored at Allen’s. We planned on this leg being a pretty quick trip but the wind picked up and it was straight on our nose. Rough trudging most of the way. I also was concerned that Allen’s would not provide sufficient cover for the North West wind that was predicted. When we got to the Cay we found a couple of other boats tucked in. Plenty of room for Gaia and it looked like it was safe enough for one night. We planned on rocking a bit but nothing too severe.  It was still early enough that Patrick and I jumped in the Kraken and headed out to the cut. With the wind from the West/ North West, it provided the perfect opportunity for us to explore the ocean side of the island. Typically, the Easterly winds will not allow safe snorkeling on the ocean side but this was perfect. With camera in hand, I jumped in. Very nice reef just outside of the cut. Only issue a massively large barracuda that seemed quite interested in my video light on my camera. I did a bit of cautious exploring and then jumped back into the dinghy. Patrick’s turn. I pulled him behind the dinghy using the Al Hale’s pull along technique. Patrick ended up doing quite a long trip as a human lure. Only big fish of concern was that massive barracuda. I pulled him the entire way back to Gaia. Fun! We collected a few more conch on the way back and I made a great supper of conch fritters and servache. Yummm!
Monday, we took off to Great Sale Cay. Nice day but again the wind was directly on our nose most of the trip. Long day. We anchored and spent the remainder of the day stowing and checking systems for our crossing. Btw…I was spot on with the guess of how many sail boats would be at anchor in Great Sale Cay. 4 on the money!  I won, I won, I won…
Tuesday morning saw us up early listening to Chris. We verified the weather window would be perfect for our crossing. The forecast was for 10kts of wind and 2ft seas. Quite and calm. We looked at the charts one last time and planned our departure through the banks starting at 10am. We planned on being through the shallow part by dark and then out to the deep blue where we wouldn’t have to worry about running aground.  We also planned the legs to arrive back in the US at Cape Canaveral by 9am ish. As our plan turned out… we were spot on with the timing. The crossing was super nice. A little more wind than predicted but that was an added benefit. Perfect night and we caught a fish just as we left the banks. A Cero… And a couple of others but the barracuda and sharks would not leave them alone long enough to get them on board. I even lost my “purple lure.” Captain Scotty will have to help us find another. Btw… my purple lure was the only thing we caught any fish on the entire trip J.
As we approached the US we caught the smell of a wood fire. Must have been a forest fire in the everglades. Scared us at first and I jumped around the boat sniffing to see if there was a fire. Luckily, it was pretty quickly discernible as coming from somewhere other than Gaia. Disaster averted. We approached the Cape Canaveral entrance about 8:30am only to be greeted by an armed Coast Guard Cutter asking us to clear the channel. A large submarine was on its way out. We promptly obeyed. Pretty cool watching one of those partially submerged monsters navigate through the channel. Once clear, we headed back to the channel and the marina. Crossing the bow wave created by that leviathan was interesting. It seemed small enough but wow was there force involved. Interesting. We tied Gaia up at the Cape Canaveral dock and went beddy bye…. The three of us were out cold until about 5pm. We managed to get ourselves up to say howdy to the Cape regulars. Mike and his crew were still here. Dobbie was delighted! I said hi to Stacy and Patrick was flitting around the docks as normal greeting everyone. Back again, almost like nothing had happened. Now on to our needed maintenance list, insurance investigation, taxes for this year, a consulting job and the research that would lead us to where we will call home for a bit. Lots to do.