Allan H. Treman State Marine Park
“Travel far enough, you meet yourself.” —David Mitchell
Over a cup of coffee on a peaceful Sunday morning I realized it’s been a while since our last post. There hasn’t been anything unusual to speak of, almost everything we did we’ve done before and written about it, but there are a few photos to share so I’ll just write around them
We’re now back in the USA… nothing’s changed here and we won’t go into that, but it is nice to be back; it always is. We sometimes complain, but there really is no place like home.
Our first stop was Ft Lauderdale.
Istaboa’s been kind to us on this trip, but there were (as always) some minor fixes needing to be done and we can always count on Craig at Hogan Marine to knock ’em out quickly — so Bahia Mar was our first stop. We did a little technical work there at the marina and caught up with old friends — then to take advantage of flat seas, we eased north.
Now, temporally home at Old Port Cove and continuing on with those fixes: the cook range needs attention, this time of year the ACs can always stand a flush , and some technical stuff.
We’ve been experimenting with a new powerful onboard cellular network and it’s feasibility in the islands and offshore. Heading to Ft Lauderdale from Cat Cay we saw Verizon Wireless at about 15 miles out from the US coast and connected at 12. Not too bad. This same system hooked us up well at Great Harbour, Highbourne, Nassau, and Cat Cay
This trip has been both interesting and entertaining. Compass, for the most part, was Compass, though while there we observed the most chaotic 4th of July we’ve ever experienced at any marina. It seems the marina was double booked and all the boats showed up at the same time.
Needless to say many unhappy folks, mostly mega-yachts, who thought they had reservations, were turned away. Forced to anchor wherever, the radio was buzzing with heated exchanges, expletives, then finally resignation as the long boats faded into a stunning Exuma sunset… later the real fireworks started — Literally.
“Freedom”, a very large yacht we’ve known for sometime, whose home port is Florence, Alabama, eased in and tied up. As soon as they were secure the crew started unloading fireworks. That night, to the delight of those with a slip at the marina, a massive fireworks display took place.
Jamal Rolle
The locals from Black Point who help out at the marina are mostly affable fellows who have learned an attentive attitude accompanied by a smiling face is compensated handsomely. They treat us all the same; sports stars, movie stars, super models, and plain folks like us are all tourists to these guys.
The young man to the left is Jamal, son of Tucker Rolle. Everybody likes Jamal.
Our old friend, Tucker.
This man is not only a legend in the Exumas, he’s known and loved by many all over the world. When the rich and powerful, famous and infamous come to the Exumas they head to Compass Cay to visit Tucker.
Leaving Compass, we followed our tracks back to Highbourne. We stayed there for 3 or 4 days before moving on to Nassau.
Highbourne, a nice resort, is a good way to start the inevitable process of re-acclimating to civilization. It’s a remote little island, although there is a little grocery, a restaurant, and a few killer beaches.
Next stop, Nassau with all the trappings of a large city. We like Nassau, in many ways it reminds us of Memphis.
I’ll stop here for now, there’s several more photos to post. So more later.
No, not done yet. We’ll start heading north soon… not sure where that will take us… as far as we want.
Cheers,
Summer Cottage- Clear Lake How to get to the cottage quickly.. An interesting pontoon boat! Stoney Lake island church! Our run from Douro was almost 3 miles until we stopped, rain was predicted to be heavy, so we decided to stay put rather than lock in the […]
Roberta and I have cruised 40,000 miles, but amazingly we have never really cruised our own home waters; the Pacific Northwest. I’m the culprit, not Roberta. I am not into fishing, and I don’t like cruising in cold water. I guess I can’t say that we’ve never cruised the area, because we did pass through here on our way to Alaska in 2009, but we were moving quickly in a hurry on our way to Japan. And, we cruised the region twenty years ago, in a much smaller boat, never making it this far nor…
Roberta and I have cruised 40,000 miles, but amazingly we have never really cruised our own home waters; the Pacific Northwest. I’m the culprit, not Roberta. I am not into fishing, and I don’t like cruising in cold water. I guess I can’t say that we’ve never cruised the area, because we did pass through here on our way to Alaska in 2009, but we were moving quickly in a hurry on our way to Japan. And, we cruised the region twenty years ago, in a much smaller boat, never making it this far nor…
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A crane lifts our newly-painted mast into position
Laurie inspects Envoy’s new hull paint
Repairs almost completed prior to launching
Envoy in the travel lift ready for launching
The keel cooler was removed for internal and external cleaning and re-sealing the through hull fitting.
The windlass motor was checked and re-installed.
The air horn motor was repaired and re-installed.
Two technicians came from Athens to replace the through hull seals on the Naiad stabilisers. When doing so they found that the large stainless pins coming through the hull that the fins attach to had a little surface corrosion. So they took these back to Athens to be re-surfaced and polished. At the same time two sets of bearings on each side were replaced. They also modified the hydraulic system so that when the stabilisers are not in use the fins lock in the central position. Up to now they move around if the boat is rolling at anchor and we’ve had to use locking bolts to centre them – a process which takes about 15 minutes.
Looking down onto our stabilisers’ hydraulic rams
A new domestic fresh water filtration system has been installed.
The flush problem for our main head was resolved by replacing the outlet hose and cleaning the sea cock.
A new autopilot sender unit was installed solving an intermittent problem.
Envoy was launched on 30/6 and a sea trial confirmed that all was working well. We were ready to leave the marina on 3 July but strong winds closed the marina – the first time we can recall this happening, so we finally left on the 4th.
It sure was great to be back on the water again and we headed north towards Corfu stopping at Two Rock Bay for our first night out.
There we tested our water maker and that it ran fine, although subsequently we’ve had a problem with it. This doesn’t effect our cruising though as here are plenty of places to get fresh water ashore using our tote tanks. We also have a problem with our inverter so next week will go into Corfu’s Mandraki Marina to resolve these issues. Again the inverter doesn’t stop us cruising as we simply use the generator to produce AC power – indeed we have to run the genset for three hours daily for refrigeration.
Next posting – more on inverter problem and our fun times with Frank and Marie
Friday was our buddy Gibb’s birthday, so we treated him to a trip to St. Augustine. That is where Drift Away now lives, now named Happy Ours.
Pamela was very apprehensive about seeing our old boat, but I wanted to see the progress the new owner…
Friday was our buddy Gibb’s birthday, so we treated him to a trip to St. Augustine. That is where Drift Away now lives, now named Happy Ours.Pamela was very apprehensive about seeing our old boat, but I wanted to see the progress the new owners h…
Allan H. Treman State Marine ParkWhen it starts to warm up in Ithaca what can you do? The answer…find a nice little place along a quiet creek. It may seem hot in the real world, but around here it’s easy to find a cool place to spend the afternoon an…
