Back to
the USA 2015
It has been awhile since
my last post, after the Family Island Regatta and as I write this we are
underway out of Charleston northward.
After we said goodbye to
our dear friends Bob & Francie on Barefootin' we left George Town headed
towards Staniel Cay. Once out into Exuma
Sound the seas were calm and the wind was right so we decided to head on to
Eleuthera. That is what happens when you
finally decide to head north, you get into "go home" mode. We made Rock Sound about 2am on April 29th and as there was weather
coming we anchored on the west side away from town. On 5/2/15 we crossed over to the town side
and went in to stock up and see who we could see.
It was wonderful! We walked to the grocery and saw Cousin
Glo'. We met Glo' a number of years back
at 4 Points (now called Wild Orchid) Restaurant. She is an older Bahamian lady who is one of
the sweetest people you can ever hope to meet.
She would bring her homemade sweets to sell at the restaurant and often
Rob would carry her boxes of goodies to & from her car. Because of that she remember us when we see
her and we had not seen her since last season.
At the end of last season she was not feeling too well so it was wonderful
to see her back to her old self with a smile as big as ever. She had her goodies outside of The Market and
we stayed and talked with her for an hour or so. As we talked many locals that we had met came
& went and also remembered us. It
truly was a homecoming of sorts for us!
We don't get that warm of a reception when we hit Norfolk that's for
sure!
We also found out that
St. Anne's Catholic Church was having a fundraiser/fair that afternoon so how
could we miss that? We ran into Mark
& Tina from S/V Rainbow as well as our new Brit friends Jon (single hander)
and Toby & Sam (Samantha) from Sweet Chariot. The fair was fun, no prizes were won but we
all had fun!
5/6/15 saw us into
Governors Harbour. The reason we always
stop there is they have some of the best liquor prices around. We stocked up on Tanquary ($22 a liter) and Frangelica ($21 a liter vs. $27.50 a
fifth at home) and of course something for the kids too. Next was Hatchett Bay where we finally caught
up with the stone crab guys. John was
off island in Freeport but we met yet another brother named Shaun aka Soldier
who indeed did hook us up with some stone crab claws. We also met up with long time friends Paul
& Dawn on Bu Bu 3. We met Paul &
Dawn in 2002 in Elizabeth City NC on our very first trip south. They got some claws too and we had a
fantastic get together on their boat.
Alas the next morning saw us going north while they went south but we
will meet again!
After a night in Royal
Island we crossed back to the Abacos and on to Tahiti Beach. We took the dink over to Cracker P's for
lunch and were surprised again that we were remembered by Patrick &
Brendan! They have really great food and
since we knew that our conch availability was ending we had the Bar-B-Que'ed
Conch & Fish Dip...... YUM!
The next day we went to
Marsh Harbour to the grocery, lunch at The Golden Grouper and got back underway
to Green Turtle. We had hoped to see our
friends Patricia as well as Ted & Barbara but the winds and tide were with
us and we were in "go home" mode.
We really expected to drop the hook at Bakers Bay but all was well to
transit the Whale Cay passage so that is what we did! We had a nice radio chat with our other good
friends Tom & June who also have a Pearson 365, went into White Sound took
on fuel & water, dropped the hook and got back underway the next
morning. That was probably the shortest
amount of time we have ever spent in the Abacos!
Off to Fox Town, then
Great Sale then off to Charleston. We
subscribe to an offshore weather service run by a guy named Chris Parker. Now we met Chris several years ago and he is
a hell of a nice guy and usually spot on with the weather. Not so much this trip! The winds never clocked as predicted, never
abated when predicted and were stronger than predicted too! All in all it was a lousy crossing. Not scary at all but extremely
uncomfortable! There is a
cruiser/songwriter named Eileen Quinn who did a song called "The 3 Days
Out 45 Knot Wind Blues". Well it
wasn't quite 45 knots, more like 25-30 but part of the song goes.... "I'm
tossing up my cookies, my body's one big bruise" Well Rob got the cookie part & I got the
bruises! In all fairness, it wasn't the
seas that got Rob but some Mac that had soured.
We pulled into
Charleston Harbor almost exactly 72 hours (shy by 10 min!) after we left Great
Sale. We washed down the boat with some
of that expensive Abaco fresh water, checked in with Customs, came back to the
boat had showers, clean sheets, a light meal and off to bed!
Checking in with Customs
can be very interesting. You have to
jump through all sorts of hoops. It can
vary significantly from port to port and all of this to fight terrorism????? Really????
Do you really think the bad guys would bother with a "Q"
flag???? Don't get me wrong, every
single Customs Agent we have EVER dealt with has been great. Nice, accommodating, pleasant, informative,
you get the idea. It is kind of funny
when even they see the absurdity of some of the rules. God Bless them - they do have a lot to do.
Now for the last several
years we have not gone ashore in Charleston for whatever reason.... weather,
cold, whatever. Last fall we said we
would stop on the way north. We need to
get back to see what is up with the repairs on the house (Thank You for taking
care of everything Julie!) but enough!
We decided to treat ourselves to a day in town.
When we got up the
morning after clearing in who did we see anchoring behind us but our new Brit
friends, Jon, Toby & Sam on their boats! We stopped by & spoke with Sam
and off to Charleston we went. We had
not really been for a walk since Marsh Harbour on 5/11 and now it was
5/18! We had a great time. Walked through beautiful neighborhoods, the
Old Slave Market, had lunch at a great restaurant and made a final stop at the
grocery store.
Talk about culture
shock! A Harris - Teeter after the
Bahamas! It was hard not to buy every
fresh vegetable in sight. We had to rein
ourselves in as it was a long walk back to the boat. We were out of laundry soap and that is
heavy! Since meat is so very expensive
in the Bahamas we decided to treat ourselves to a nice steak, potato &
asparagus. Because we has such a nice
lunch even thought it was only appetizers we opted to save the steak for 5/19.
Well it is 5/19 as I write
this and we left Charleston this morning headed toward Awendaw Creek. We are making better time than expected so we
hope to make it past McCelanville before the tide gets too low. It has gotten so shoal we need to watch the
tide to avoid going aground. Tomorrow on
to George Town SC!
