Catalina Sunshine: July 2015

Monday, July 13, 2015

FRANTIC THUNDER STORM AT CAPE MAY

2030 hours June 23, 2015, Cape May, New Jersey: As Chris Parker had predicted we were hit with a sever thunder storm. Winds from the west gusted over 45 nmph, with driving rain. The only place for transients to anchor in Cape May, is in a narrow anchorage in front of the Coast Guard Station. As this anchorage is usually full, as it was this night, most anchor with a short rode. A French flagged sailboat broke loose and caught his anchor in on another boats chain, crashing into the side of that boat. Then, under power the French flagged boat tried to break loose, powering back and forth in an erratic fashion being juried and pulled by the caught anchor chain from the other sailboat. Seeing this through the driving rain on the port side of our pilot house, with near misses, we called the Coast Guard on the VHF, as no one else had called. Finally after about twenty minutes and several additional conversations they arrived and rescued the French flagged boat still darting back and forth between chain jerks.

With the anchor lines untangled the Coast Guard hauled away the French Flagged boat. As it turned out the boat whose anchor line was caught was also French flagged. They then dragged across our stern slowly. I tried to communicate with them but no one on the boat spoke English. They finally dragged out into the center of the channel away from our boat and I went to bed, with the worst of the storm having passed.

The next morning we headed for Sandy Hook with less than 10 nmph of breeze. The following day, in similar weather, we powered at about 9.5 nmph along the south side of Long Island to Block Island.

On next day, June 26, 2015, we headed from Block Island to Hyannis Port. Chris Parker was predicting a two day Gale starting the next day, and as we wanted to be at dock in a safe port, we moved up our reservations at Hyannis Port. Unlike the two previous days of under 10 knots of breeze, the wind was 18 to 20 on our passage from Block Island.

Farm View at anchor in the Bohemia River

Farm House Chesapeake River

Sunset Bohemia River

Light House Delaware River

Before the Storm

Broken loose in 45 mph Winds

New Jersey Theme Park

Sandy Hook Lighthouse

Sunset Sandy Hook

FATHERS DAY

1530 hours, June 21, 2015, City Docks, Annapolis Maryland: Beth's Parents, Jim, Kim and their daughter Brooke arrived to celebrate Father's Day. Our plan had been to spend the night at Solomons Island Maryland. Beth had called her brother Jim the day before, to see if he and his wife Kim, who live in Maryland, could join us for dinner. As a result of a couple of additional conversations we decided to speed up and spend the night and the next day, Father's Day, at Annapolis which was closer to where they live. Beth's parents were due back from a trip to Las Vegas that evening and Jim arranged to bring them the next day to celebrate Fathers Day. This should have been our original plan, but we hadn't thought about it.

Annapolis is one of our favorite places. We were located on the City Dock adjacent to a Sunday morning farmer's market where we purchased vegetables for our celebration. With a crab dish we made and salads and appetizers Kim brought, we had a great dinner on the aft deck.

The next morning we headed north. We spent the night anchored where the Bohemia River enters the Chesapeake River. While eating dinner owe watched farm equipment bail hey ashore.

At City Dock

Downtown Annapolis

Farmers Market at City Dock

Dingy Dock Downtown Annapolis

Lesson in the Downtown Park

Father's Day, Jim and Pop

Downtown at Night

GOOD WEATHER ON OUR TRIP NORTH

2000 hours, June 20, 2015, Annapolis, Maryland: Arrived at the City Docks. We started our trip north eight days earlier from Jacksonville Florida. We had left Jacksonville just after midday. We spent our first night anchored at Fernandina Beach, Florida. The second night we anchored adjacent to Daufuskie Island across from Harbour Town on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. The third night we anchored in Winyah Bay, just south of Georgetown, South Carolina. The forth night we anchored in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, and the fifth night we docked at the City Docks in Beaufort, North Carolina. We had taken the Intercostal Waterway from the St. Johns River to Fernandina Beach. The other four passages were all outside in sunny weather with less than 10 nmph of wind.

On our sixth night we anchored just north of Albemarlie Sound, along side of the ICW, and the seventh night we anchored of Hospital Point in the Center of Norfork Virginia. On the eight day we traveled north on the Chesapeake to Annapolis Maryland. In our anchorage just north of Albemarle Sound we had an attack of bugs which then died on the boat giving us a mess to cleanup the next day. The following day we had a four hour delay at the Great Bridge Lock while they preformed repairs to the Lock. We used this time to clean up the bug mess.

Between Wrightsville and Beaufort we passed several Navy Ships involved in a live fire exercise off Camp Lejeune. Our good weather ended as we approached Annapolis. We received a tornado warning on our cell phones just as we were completing tying up at the City Docks. Within ten minutes we were hit with a thunderstorm and huge down pour. The wind driven rain cleaned off most all the salt we had accumulated during our trip north.

Shrimping in Calibogue Sound

Light House Cape Fear Inlet

Home on ICW below Wrightsville

Sunset Wrightsville Beach

Camp Lejeune Exercises

Shrimping Pamilico Sound

Birds on Shrimp Boat

Osprey and Chicks ICW Marker

20 Mile Ditch Before Alligator River

Navy Ships in Norfolk

RUNNING ALONG SIDE THE DOLPHINS

1400 hours, May 26, 2015, Huckins Marine Jacksonville, Florida: Arrived at Huckins Marine.

The most exciting part of our trip from Palm Beach had been watching Jackie chase around the boat, at first searching for her dolphin friends, then watching them jump along side when they arrived, which they did several times. She would stick her head through the stainless steel line port cleats, and jump up and down along the solid railing so she could see the dolphins on the other side. She would lay on the pilot house floor waiting. As soon as she would hear a splash, or any noise like a splash resulting from the dolphins landing from a jump, she would race out the door and investigate on both sides of boat. She was as much fun watching as the dolphins jumping.

We stopped for the first time in Fort Pierce. We couldn't get our new alternators to charge the batteries. On the way to Fort Pierce we were on the line with both our engine mechanic and our electronic guy to try and figure what was going on. Our mechanic drove up to solve the problem. It turns out the alternators his assistant installed were wired differently than the previously alternators, and required some additional wiring on the boat to compensate. Once working the alternators handled the full load of the inverter so we do not have to run the generators underway except to cook or run the AC.

The Fort Pierce Marina is located next to the Town Center. There are two restaurants on site, and other conveniences adjacent to the marina in the renovated down town area. We would stop again.

Our plan was to leave the boat in Jacksonville for two weeks while we caught up with things in California. We had left varnish work on the interior and exterior to be done along with warranty work on the electronics and a few other repairs to be preformed during this time. The varnish work was to be done by an in yard contractor who had worked with Huckins for over 20 years. The problem was, the in yard contractor had gone fishing and continued to extend his fishing trip day by day for the entire time we were gone. This left an assistant to do the exterior varnish work I had scheduled three months earlier, and no one to do the interior varnish. We also had our DC fresh water pump, which we had just found out was not working, replaced. They replaced the pump with all the controls facing outboard so we need a mirror to make the pump function. While in the Yard I also discovered they had installed the port engine through hull valve they had replaced on the previous trip to the yard, backwards and it could not be closed. And most infuriating, although they included deck protection on their estimate, they failed to install any. Most took their shoes off at the dock. But, as I saw the Yard Forman do, others looking for a part or tool, walked a cross the filthy Yard in their bare feet and returned to deposit on our boat, the oil and grease they had collected on their feet. They did not clean it all up with a rushed wash down preformed at the last minute. After progressively using harsher and harsher products it finally took acetone, with a signifiant reduction in the life of my deck paint. I have still not been able to get the dripped varnish off the deck paint.

Fortunately the electronics warranty work was completed on schedule.

This is the same yard that built my flawless one off hard top a year in a half earlier.

Unfortunately they lost the long time employee who was responsible for this flawless work.

Busting through our Wake

Swimming Along Side

Twisting in the Air

Giving us the Eye

Looking for Dolphins

Watching the Show

Fort Pierce 6:00 am

In Huckins Varnish Shed

Dinner in a Street Cafe in Hip Avondale

BACK TO FLORIDA

1500 hours, May 12, 2015, North Palm Beach Florida: We arrived in North Palm Beach, Florida. As we arrived two days earlier than we had planned Old Port Cove Did not have a slip for us and put us in their sister Marina, North Palm Beach Marina.

We stayed in the marina until May 23rd. During this time we had the windless serviced which included replacing the hydraulic lines from under the forward cabin to the windless, repaired a leak in the hydraulic lines for the steering, replaced an electronic panel in the starboard generator, change to the oil in the mains and the generators, replaced the forward engine mounts on both generators, replaced both alternators on the main engines, replaced seals that were causing oil leaks on both generators, repaired two leaks in the freshwater plumbing, replaced two internal fans in the inverter/charger, replaced the starboard generator starting battery, detailed and waxed the exterior, repainted the swim platform and cleaned the stainless swim ladder, restrained the teak swim platform and side rub rail teak, replaced the two lines for our anchor snubber, spliced the 250 ft of 1" anchor line we had aboard into the anchor rode on the Bruce, second anchor (giving us 350 ft on both anchor rodes), and replaced our primary dock lines.

North Palm Beach Marina

Reflections of the Fishing Fleet

CELEBRATING A WIN

1000 hours May 6, 2015, Big Majors Spot, Exumas, Bahamas: We headed north to Highborne Cay to spend the night in route to Atlantis. We expected a decision from the Arbitrator on a very significant arbitration on the night of May 8th. This arbitration had consumed most of my time through the end of November last year including nearly 100 days in front of the arbitrator during a period lasting over a year, as well as 9 months before that in preparation. Being a glass half full guy and being on the side of right, as well as having a great legal team who did an outstanding job, I was hopeful we would win and wanted to be where we could celebrate it. That meant Atlantis in the part of the world we were in at the time.

At Highborne Cay we saw some of the same large dark brown mother sharks we had seen at Staniel Cay. Although they are reported to be friendly, we decided not to go swimming even though it was very hot.

We arrived at the super yacht basin in the center of the Atlantis complex just after noon the next day. The yacht basin is surrounded by the elaborate architecture of the casino on one side, a downtown Disney like pedestrian street of shops and restaurants open on one side to the yacht basin, and Atlantis timeshare residential units in four story buildings painted Caribbean pastels colors on the other side. To connect the complex a driving tunnel runs under the the entrance channel to the basin, allowing the basin to be located in the geographical center of the Resort.

Dockage for the large super yachts is arranged mostly med moored against quay walls backed up to casino and the shops and restaurants. Boats our size are berthed in finger piers in front of the time share buildings.

Jackie and I were on our evening walk along side the timeshare pool and the channel to the yacht basin, when I received a call from our lead lawyer who told me we had won. We had not only won we had won 93% of what we had asked for and had been designated the prevailing party, which met we should get reimbursed for our significant attorney fees.

We celebrated the next day in The Cove section of Atlantis with its adults only pool surrounded on most of three sides by cabanas which open to the pool on one side and the beach on the other. We had a great dinner at the Mesa, one of the three restaurants in The Cove.

Atlantis

Toys in the Atlantis Basin

One of many Pools at Atlantis

The Cove at Atlantis

Adult Pool at the Cove

Cabana at the Cove

Dinner at the Cove Mesa Restaurant

Casino at Atlantis

Atlantis Dock

Retail at edge of Docks

Atlantis from Yacht Basin

Jackie at Atlantis Docks

SWIMMING PIGS

0600 hours, May 1, 2015, Elizabeth Harbour, Great Exuma Island, Bahamas: we made our way through the north entrance to Elizabeth Harbour and headed north for fuel at Emerald Bay Resort. The Marina at Emerald Bay is nice, and expensive. Further, the main attraction is the Resort, and as it's all exclusive it's $125 per day per person. This is daytime only. Another fee for the evening. However those who I have talked with who have been there, love it.

After fueling we headed further north to see the Pigs at Big Major's Spot. As we entered Dothan Cut from Exuma Sound to the Bank, we were hit with a down pour with near zero visibility. Fortunately we were through the narrow cut when the worst hit. We found a spot to anchor toward the north end of the anchorage near Fowl Cay, where we stayed for six days.

This is one of our favorite places in the Exumas. Besides the swimming pigs, which Jackie gets really excited about ( we keep a short leash on her so she doesn't become their lunch), their are many islands and beaches to explore by dingy, and reefs to snorkel, a great restaurant at the boutique Fowl Cay a Resort, a restaurant and bar at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club, and a grocery store not far from the Yacht Club.

Big Majors has good protection from everything but the west. Chris Parker had warned us that a storm was forming off Cuba and would hit us from the west two days into our intended stay. Their are very few places in the Exumas with 360 protection from a passing storm. As the storm was predicted to pass quickly we decided to ride it out with 70 plus boats also in the cove. The Storm, was later designed Tropical Storm Ana. The storm passed mid morning with gusts of 45 mph. We helplessly watched a couple in a 40 ft plus sloop who's anchor was dragging have to raise the anchor and reset it in the middle of the storm with driving rain. If they had not reacted they would have been washed ashore on the rocks only a couple hundred feet behind them.

Two weeks later we were docked behind a 55 ft Nordhavn in Palm Beach that had rode Ana out next to us. Aboard for the storm was the captain and his first mate wife. The owners had flown from Staniel Cay to Nassau the day before to ride the storm out the storm at the Atlantis.