Lori & Billy's Sunrise Space

Sailing from St. Augustine Florida down to Miami was familiar and uneventful. We encountered rain but not much in form of cold fronts that forces us to seek out safe harbor. We traveled on the Intra-coastal Waterway for a few days because it was easy to find a quality anchorage along the 300+ miles to Miami. We entered an anchorage close to Cape Canaveral in time to witness a space shuttle launch.

As we sailed off shore of Florida we were surrounded by 40-50 happy and squeaking bottle-nosed dolphins as they played in our boat wake for close to an hour.

One exhausted looking Royal Tern we welcomed as a passenger on our boat, though it looked as though it was spending its last dying moments looking out to sea. After over an hour of sailing out into the Gulf Stream’s adverse current we needed to tack the boat back toward land as we saw our feathered friend giving in to the inevitable of natural selection.

When we anchored in Miami’s busy harbor we were preparing for a trip to the Bahamas but we still did not have the return to Florida boat storage figured out. We were considering putting the boat up for sale because of the cost of storage along the increasingly expensive harbors of the east coast.

We knew that someday we wanted to sail to Central America but we had too many reasons and obstacles holding us back from taking the seemingly overwhelming trip. It was Christmas in Miami as we enjoyed the warm weather holiday we began investigating what were the reasons and obstacles holding us back from traveling south.

After two weeks we scrapped the idea of going to the Bahamas, had purchased paper charts and guide books for Central America, purchased a DC refrigerator to make use of our solar energy surplus, gathered all the required paperwork, and researched the legalities of where we were going. We were ready!?  We were nervous…

We timed it just right to enjoy the festivities of New Years in Key West FL while we waited on mail. We endured one of the worst cold fronts to hit Florida in years; it rattled our little boat for three days. We baked bread, played board games, drank all our liquor, and wondered if our boat would survive or cut loose into the teeth of the storm.  The Coast Guard and Tow Boat US were kept very busy with endangered boats for days.

After the storm passed we were off, said farewell to friends, convenience of internet, cell phone coverage, epicurean markets, liquor and food stores with more options to choose from than we could ever need. The boat was loaded down with food for a year; plenty of canned food: SPAM, beans, vegetables, & fruit.

From the Dry Tortugas (extreme southern tip of FL) we sailed due west for approx. three days with 5-6 foot following seas, 15-20 knot E NE winds. We were gripping the helm with white knuckles, eating quick easy food that did not require either of us to be below deck for more than 10 minutes.

After the second day the wind tapered off, the seas changed dramatically and we found ourselves bobbing along the NW coast of Cuba. We took the opportunity to jump into the gulf-stream current 6000 ft. deep and swim around imagining mythological sea creatures from the abyss.

The following morning we entered Isla Mujeres, Mexico, after bumbling around and leafing through our Spanish phrase books got checked through customs and immigration. Sailing Mexico and Belize was much easier than we had anticipated. Cold fronts were nothing compared to Florida or the Bahamas, anchorages were deep, food and water were easy to acquire in any port town. We felt very fortunate especially when we met Harry Garbutt of the Garbutt Cays in Belize. He was a caretaker of a privately owned cay and was in the process of building his own island from a tangle of mangroves by shoveling surrounding sand for his foundation. He lived off what the sea provided and enjoyed the company of cruisers like ourselves who come to anchor in the safety of the cays. He took us fishing, swimming, and was our tour guide in the local town of Dangriga.

It was hard to leave the comforts and amenities of these cays but we knew our time was limited for we had purchased plane tickets back home to Alaska about a month out, and we still had to get to Guatemala and put the boat up in safe storage.

Guatemala proved to be easier to check into than Mexico or Belize, when we anchored in front of the port town of Livingston GU at the mouth of the Rio Dulce  shortly after setting our anchor in the shadows of the setting sun, a boat with a 6-7 officials came up to our boat requesting to board. I never saw so many people sitting in our cock-pit seating area; they asked us questions about whether we had guns, pets or cargo other than boat stores.  Having all the officials: port captain, customs, immigration, health and sanitation on the boat at the same time means we did not have to go on a treasure hunt in town to find them to get our papers stamped. The only thing that made me nervous was giving up my passport to strangers until the next day when we paid our entry fees.

We realized we were in a very busy local port when 40 or more fishing boats came motoring by to go out to sea for the night; it seems people will put an engine on anything that floats. Night travel does not pose much of a problem to people regardless of navigation lights, visibility, or other obstructions. We were happy to move our boat down the Rio Dulce which goes deep into lush, tropical forest. It was an amazing difference in landscape from any of the cruising we had done so far. It turned out that two days after checking in to Guatemala there was a gang uprising in the town of Livingston 3000 strong armed with machetes, and sticks that took the local police hostage and halted any tourism checking in or out of the port.

We found a marina thirty miles down the river to store the boat for the coming summer; they had more amenities at a lower price than we ever found in the previous years. Because the trip was easier than we expected and putting the boat away for storage was hassle free we had a couple of weeks of free-time to do nothing. That made it easy for us to decide on taking a bus trip with surf-boards to El Salvador.   

El Slavador 

There is great joy and disturbing realities about the Bahamas that Billy and I have learned. The local people are genuinely happy, generous, and non pretentious. We had to depend on the generosity of people daily for a ride to the surfer’s beach. Which was always worth the reason to hitch a ride; either the waves were fun or the beach coming and the people were interesting.

  The beauty of the area is like that of any magazine cover of a tropical region. Blue water,  always sunny,  lush vegetation including many coconut palms, coral sand beaches, spectacular sea cliffs carved by the immense force of the ocean’s waves.

  Billy and I took a walk down to the beach to check the surf break that is only a mile from where we keep our boat. We walk this length of road most days if anything just for the exercise. We walk past a goat yard, a power plant, and a dump with a sign posted “no dumping allowed”. The day seems shot due to nothing but wind chop for surf conditions, so we walk back in the mid day heat wondering what we will do with ourselves the rest of the day. The goat yard is closed up with all of the goats penned in except for one little kid. Billy hears the kid baying inside a natural limestone hole in the ground that is covered up with a couple of pieces of corrugated tin. It turns out the hole which is approx. 12ft deep and 2ft wide is used by the power plant for their diesel oil dump. We learned this when we inquired at the plant whether they could assist us in rescuing the baby goat. We were told matter of fact it happens often that a grazing goat falls in the holes they dump their used oil into. By the look of the machines that run the power plant it looks to take a large quantity of oil to keep them running. The tech working at the plant told us the oil needs to get changed out every three days to keep the machines running because they power most of the Island.

            So okay we can’t get any help at the power plant, no ladder or rope, NOTHING! I am getting stressed and it doesn’t help that Billy is determined to save the goat whether he climbes into the hole to get it out. Not to eschew Billy’s climbing skills but I see no way of getting out of that hole if I were in there, even with a ladder or a rope and I am smaller and more able to fit in the hole. Our frustration takes a tack of determined action: We hoof it back to the beach which houses piles of plastic garbage that has washed up over the years. There has to be some rope, and fishing net, we walk past it nearly every day.  Sure enough the first thing we see on the beach is exactly what we need it just needs to be unburied from the sand and untangled, that only takes a little over an hour!

            We rig a gurney with fishing net and rope to lower into the hole in hopes that the tiny oily kid will step onto the netting and get its hoofs caught and we will be able to pull it out of the hole (great in theory only). The kid is not baying as energetically any more due to its toxic overload and the painfully slow pace of its rescue team. A lure is what we need, that kid is hungry! I tie a tuft of grass on a piece of rope and lower it into the hole over the gurney trap.  He takes it! Front hoofs in net, we need his back hoofs ….now! Holy …he just slipped out like an oily worm, this won’t be easy. The day is waining, my back is beginning to ache from leaning over the hole trying to position the kid trap and keeping a fresh lure on the string. It is discouraging to see the kid eating the grass that gets oily and then silently retreating to the back of the hole as if there was another way out. I am sorry kid but as incompetent as this rescue may seem we are your only hope of getting out of this hole you got yourself into. We try 5 or 6 different times trying to refine the gurney concept each time.  Another hour and the sun is going to set and Billy and I will feel horribly guilty for not completing the rescue. We know it is not looking good for the kid’s survival over-night, it gets pretty cold at night. Last try the goat seems to be catching on to what net is trying to do when he steps onto it for he has slipped out each time this time he looks to be making an effort not to slip out of the net when it closes around him. The kid is so light he must not be more than a week or two old we get him to the surface and he is more oil slicked than I thought. I am feeling so elated that we saved this tiny kid but we need to get him back to the goat yard to find his mother. He is trying to suckle my leg and getting oil all over me in the process. I find a tarp at the near-by dump and get the majority of the oil slime off the kid before returning him to the goat yard.

            There must be 50 or so goats in the yard and the adults all appear to have horns on their heads and they are quick to use them when we release our little buddy we named Diesel into the yard. A second rescue is in immediate need because our little Diesel is getting tossed around the yard like a rag doll by every goat including that which seems to be his mother. This is making me sick to my stomach, I am hungry,  the sun has set we are going to have to adopt this kid and bring the goat to our boat. We leave Diesel outside the goat yard overnight in hopes he will stay near by, eat some grass, and the smell of oil on his body will dissipate. The next day looks hopeful we come prepared with milk and food for the little kid and find he is in the goat yard mostly clean and near his mother the yard owner must have come and taken care of him.

There ends a day in the life of Lori and Billy on their adventures in the Bahamas.

12/22/06

Miami to Bimini Bahamas 7 am to 9 pm The weather man is closing the travel window, we leave now or stay for another week.  The 40 mile crossing of the Gulf Stream was mellow once we got away from Miami we caught a Dorado and then anchored outside of the Bimini Islands and had a wonderful dinner of Mahi Mahi. We had to keep moving because we still had a 60 mile crossing of the Bahama Banks to make before the next cold front. Started sailing at 4am an easy crossing of the Bahama banks because we knew the route and had done a similar sail the previous year. 1:30 am arrived at a dangerous shoal buoy that was unlit and vowed never to navigate in the dark again.

12/25/06 Christmas Day   Arrived Chub Cay anchorage 5am on the 24^th   a very rolly anchorage because the SE wind picked up and a swell wrapped around into the anchorage which Billy took advantage of and surfed right from the boat to the beach.

Next day we sailed about 20 miles north to Devils Cay in the Berry Is. , we stayed through the new year with a group of very nice fellow cruisers. Good fishing, lobster and conch diving.

01/02/07 Motor sailed from the Berry Islands to Royal Island on N. Eluthera. Checked into customs at Spanish Wells

01/04/07 Sailed south through Current Cut and down to our destination Hatchet Bay: 30 miles.

12/13/06

Farewell Lake Worth. We spent 40 dollars on T-mobil internet connections and 60 dollars on taxi ride and alternator belts that are the wrong size, we now have a back stock of 8-10 alternator belts that are all the wrong size.

We filled up on water and fuel and departed by 11am. We are glad of the late start because it was just sunrise by the time we anchored in S. Miami Beach. 

The weather forecast for the seas between Palm Beach and Miami were to be 5-10 knots, and 2 foot seas.  What we got was 5-20 knots and breaking 4-5 foot seas, numerous thunder storms/ rain squalls, some strong gusts that made us wish we had reefed the main even more than we had. The lights of the cities only three miles off our starboard side, the fireworks display at Boca Raton FL kept my mind off the fear that kept trying to leak into my brain as the waves got bigger and the wind more fierce.

We arrived Miami Inlet at 5am, navigating by lights when exhausted is always nerve raking “Is that a boat coming toward us?”  “That inlet buoy does not have a light on it.” We entered the inlet ahead of a huge cruise ship and made it to a fine anchorage with a bit of sunrise light to see our entrance.  We anchored by 7 am and slept the rest of the day.

Hanging out in the warm evening looking at the city lights of Miami from the safety and comfort of my egg shell makes me think it will be hard to pry Billy and I off this spot for a while especially with the forecast of cold fronts never ending.

12/08-12/06