SV-Baila: Glad to have crossed, sad to have crossed...

Good Bye Bahamas, for now

We're back. In the US, at least. And it's really strange. Having grown used to shopping in local village groceries (trying to coincide with mailboat delivery of fresh(ish) goods), we were beyond wide-eyed as we entered the Walmart and Target of Vero Beach. The plethora of 'stuff' is overwhelming! But at the same time it's a treat to have access to such reasonably priced variety. So, we are enjoying the benefits of being back but also longingly look east to the simpler place we leave behind.

In answer to a request for a more technical explanation of what goes into planning and executing a basic boat passage, I've included an (overly detailed!) account of this below. Please understand that this is an infinitesimally small navigational feat- but it does help illustrate the basic concept of how one gets a boat from point A to point B taking into account the major variables that are typically encountered.

But first, here are Lynn and the girls to talk about our final week in the Bahamas:

Lynn

After the last front, we sailed 10 miles north to Treasure Cay - a great place to anchor in the westerly winds. One can go into the harbor and grab a mooring ball for $35/night or (get this...) pay to anchor ($20/night) in the harbor. As budget-minded cruisers without income we took advantage of the western protection and anchored just outside. It was an easy dinghy ride into the marina to tie up and access the grocery and beach. This being one of our last stops in the Bahamas, we finally started to think about souvenirs for the girls' friends. As I was sorting out coins in order to use up our Bahamian currency, we decided to collect the shiny, nautical/marine themed Bahamian coins as the perfect souvenirs. Of course, we did not have enough coins for all the intended friends so when we stopped by a convenience store to buy popsicles we asked for our change in the beautiful Bahamian coins. The man who helped us was so kind. He brought out a jar of coins and dumped them on the counter so Anna and Izzy could choose the shiniest coins in exchange for US money- he even gave us a rare 15 cent square coin that is no longer produced. All the while, this nice man giggled and talked with pride about his son who studied architecture in the US and is living and working in Atlanta.

In addition to the lovely people we encountered in Treasure Cay, the beach was just gorgeous. We walked a bit away from the resort/restaurant and found a lovely shady spot by the pine trees to spread our blanket and bags. The waves were muted by a reef so the kids all felt comfortable swimming out a bit further. Avery was floating, flipping, treading and bobbing all around. We stayed so late with our French-Canadian friends on dorenavent that we didn't get back to the Baila till close to 8! I definitely scrambled to make a quick dinner that night. The next day we explored the mangrove forests and attempted to capture the super fast turtles on video with the Go Pro. Then we went back to that beautiful beach. It was the perfect weather and we did our best to soak it all in before the crossing.

I really wanted to stay at Treasure Cay a few more days before we ventured beyond "The Whale," a small cay that is necessary navigational stepping stone out in the Atlantic in order to access the northwestern Abaco Islands and Great Sale Cay - our jumping off point. Once we crossed the Whale, only the worse forecast would cause us to return and wait for another window. Thankfully, we enjoyed our brief two day stop at Manjack Cay and hiked to the ocean side with dorenavent and another boat, SV All In, who added a few more kids to our group. Past Manjack, we poised ourselves at Great Sale Cay for a few days as we poured over the weather. We actually had little conferences with several scenarios projected onto our big screen TV from the laptop - and waited for the most optimum conditions to cross back to the US.

Here's Izzy to write about an interesting encounter on our hike across Manjack:

Izzy

Hi guys! Izzy here. A few days ago, we ( SV All In, dorénavent, and the Baila crew) were walking through a hiking trail to the ocean beach. The hike is a fairly long hike I might add. That day was particularly buggy and hot! We were all sweaty and bored when along came a man and a woman. You might think that there's NOTHING wrong with a man and a woman, but with this particular couple there WAS. As the woman approached us, the look on her face was so clearly apologizing for what was about to follow her... a NAKED man walked behind this woman! YES, there was a NAKED man walking past our herd of LITTLE KIDS WHO DON'T REALLY WANT TO SEE A NAKED MAN'S YOU-KNOW-WHAT! (Disclaimer by Anna: He was covering his... that...with a hat, and his butt with his swim trunks.) We were all shocked and wondered if that really just happened when we arrived at the beach. As we were setting up we saw ANOTHER NAKED MAN WALKING ON THE BEACH!!! He was off in the distance so it wasn't as awkward.

Anna

As you may or may not know, I recently celebrated my thirteenth birthday--in international waters. Since February Isabelle and I have been planning our birthdays--A bit premature for me, but fun nonetheless!-- and I had everything planned and ready to go: a cake decorating contest, fun snorkeling, and exploring the towns in the Abacos in search of ice cream. I had planned everything and was completely prepared to celebrate my thirteenth birthday... or so I thought. In the midst of all my birthday planning was the planning for our crossing (this planning was arguably more important), and after countless weather updates and Chris Parker emails, it was decided that May 3rd--my birthday-- was the best day to cross. On May 2nd we celebrated my birthday. I love(d) my presents! S/V doreńevent brought me a (cold!) can of Coke, and Avery made beautiful "Minecraft People" out of clothes pins and toothpicks (I later learned she had been working on these in the mornings while I was unconsious...). Isabelle made me a coupon book, including the already used $5 off at Target coupon, and Mom and Dad (really Mom) got me a tee shirt from Hope Town, my favorite place ever. We decorated cupcakes and I gave out awards: The So ugly its cute award for Dad's 'Person smoking a cigarette' (candle), and most candy coated to (no, not me) Avery's cupcake (want some cupcake to go with that icing?) etc. We crossed on my real birthday, making my thirteenth birthday one experience I hope to never forget.

On another completely unrelated note I would like to say Hi to my 101 year-old great grandma who reads every post with my uncle: Hi!

Anna earning some spending cash by cleaning the waterline

This was a gorgeous sail from Manjack Cay to Great Sale Cay

Ok- here's Brad's overly detailed explanation of how to sail from A to B

We made our way across the northern Abacos with Dorenavent and All In stopping at some great spots along the way. Relaxation mingled with nervous energy as we all followed the weather closely to identify the best weather window during which to cross the Florida Gulf Stream back to US waters.

Great wind in the Sea of Abaco

The night before we crossed: fun birthday celebration for Anna (thirteen!) with dorénavent

The Crossing

Crossing what?

The Florida Gulf Stream. Think of the Gulf Stream as a massive oceanic river starting from below Florida and briskly flowing to the far north, squeezing its wide swath of warm water through the bottleneck between Florida and The Bahamas. When wind comes from the north and counters the current, things can get really rough. People describe the waves as "elephants" and us Falks prefer to avoid this. In addition to watching the typical weather stuff (thunderstorms etc), almost more importantly one determines the predicted weather direction, strength as well as swell direction and size.

The problem lies in the fact that the forecast can and often does change quickly. And access to weather information can be limited. Luckily we have a satellite connection allowing us to download (very slowly) forecasts from a service, but it's better to be able to cross compare information between multiple sources.

Our original plan was to leave May 1 from Great Sale Cay with a May 2 arrival in Florida. Great Sale Cay is an isolated craggy outpost in the Western Sea of Abaco without freshwater, electricity, structures or cell connectivity. So, once a decent weather window is noted, one typically makes a mad dash for Great Sale for a brief rest prior to the crossing. This is what we planned to do. We made great time traveling west to Great Sale as the twenty knot wind on our stern pushed us gently along at a good clip. However, it was while we were en route to Great Sale that our decent weather window was morphing into a confusing mess of two cold fronts hitting Florida (and then Bahamas) within days of each other. Awesome.

Our Iridium satellite router had never seen so much activity! Myriad forecast downloads, texts and emails ensued over those few days as our three boats huddled in the protected anchorage of Great Sale figuring out when to make our move. Thanks to some good friends stateside for updating us with additional weather info! All In had shredded their mainsail on the trip to Great Sale, so they wisely opted for the shortest trip from West End across to West Palm since they would be motoring for the majority of the crossing. With dorenavent we sat tight for an additional two days to take advantage of the one window for a decent sailing crossing to Ft. Pierce, Fla. This is a 120nm trip that can either be smooth and easy or a twenty four chunk of misery, depending on one's planning and luck. So, now on to the planning.

When to leave?

The second cold front was due to hit Florida May 4 evening meaning that we had to allow enough time to get there as well as finding a safe anchorage (or marina etc.). So, taking into account the inlet current (ideally one rides the flood current in- otherwise east wind with a strong outgoing ebbing current in the inlet makes for dangerous and uncomfortable conditions), we worked backwards to figure out the departure time for the roughly eighteen hour crossing.

What course?

The other major factor is the heading (that's the boat's course, or direction of travel). Because the Gulf Stream can pipe along at 5 knots at its axis (that's strong), a "conveyor belt effect" must be considered. Imagine an ant crossing one of those moving sidewalks at an airport. As the ant steps on at point "A", it walks slowly across and then steps off the other side much further 'downstream' from "A". It's the same with a boat in the Gulf Stream, especially a slow moving sailboat like us. To compensate, using distance, speed and time one calculates the drift (offset) imposed by the Gulf Stream and then adds this distance upstream of the destination. In other words, to go straight across the moving sidewalk, the ant has to aim at a point higher "upstream".

Departure

Considering all of these factors, we departed May 3 at 4pm and literally sailed into the sunset. It was gorgeous and we loved it. The second front wasn't due to hit Florida until the next evening so we felt comfortable with the good crossing forecast. We sat back for the eighteen hour trip across the banks and Atlantic with an expected arrival to Fort Pierce at 1pm May 4.

Flares in the night

The first part of the trip took us over the Bahamas Bank, a homogenous fifteen foot deep expanse that extends all the way out to the open Atlantic where the depths precipitously plummet to 2000 feet! At sunset we saw two flares shoot off south of us. No one answered the vhf as to the source of the flares so we quickly contacted both Bahamian Search and Rescue and the USCG. After giving the USCG the approximate location of the flares we were amazed at how quickly thereafter a USCG aircraft buzzed us! Turns out that a less-than-intelligent boater was testing their flares. Turns out the system worked... The USCG plane contacted us to give us the followup and thanked us for the call, bid us a safe crossing and flew off towards our joint destination: the US east coast. Only, we would take a LOT longer to get there!

Leaving Great Sale Cay with dorénavent

Leaving Great Sale Cay to our stern. The last bit of Bahamas we'll see (until we return!)

Our Bahamas flag flying its last sunset

The plastic jar with the yellow top is the hermit crab container; the girls insist on keeping them on the gimbled stove to avoid sea-sick hermits. I however see cooked hermit crab in our future.

Here's a screenshot from our chart plotter during the crossing. This is around 2am or so. Florida is at the top of the screen, Bahamas on the bottom. We're in the middle and this demonstrates how despite being pointed "up" (west) the diagonal thin black line extending northwest from our boat indicates our true heading, or actual course over ground. This illustrates just how powerful the Gulf Stream is; if we had simply sailed straight to out destination we'd have ended up way further north. The green triangle to our north here is a huge cargo ship cruising south at 20 knots. We were way ahead of any collision course but between our radar and the AIS (the electronic identification system that enables us to see AIS transmitting vessels on our chart plotter) we stay aware of who is around us and of possible collision courses. We can "paint" other vessels identified on AIS and radar and the chart plotter will keep updating us with their position as well as time/distance to possible collision. In these heavily trafficked waters this technology is essential.

When we hit the Atlantic around 12:30am we were met with a frustrating cross-swell that made for a lumpy ride. The ocean swells were on our starboard quarter while the wind waves slapped the port quarter/beam. It was tough to acclimate, but not terrible. The girls slept fine (of course!) and Lynn and I took turns at the helm overnight. Anna wandered up around 2am and marveled at the stars before flopping back into her bunk.

Beautiful morning in the Gulf Stream!

How fast?

Another challenge is maintaining the correct speed. We calculated conservatively and factored in sailing 5.5 to 6.0 knots the entire way. This was a modest estimate as we hoped to avoid playing catch-up if we overestimated the wind. Intermittently throughout the night we had plenty of wind to sail much faster, but had to temper the desire to "just get there" as to avoid hitting the inlet too early and getting rocked.

Arrival

The rising sun's orange warmth bathed us the next morning. The additional sense of vision is welcome after a night of straining to see amidst the red night lights and artificial glow from the electronics. We had an uneventful morning with great sailing as we approached eastern Florida. We arrived to the Fort Pierce inlet at 12:57pm- three minutes before the slack current began. Once we transited the bumpy inlet we were immediately becalmed in the flat ICW. And then: sensory overload! Jet skis, small fishing boats everywhere with the smell of fast food wafting over us.

We motored the twelve miles north to Vero Beach, Fla. And, just after getting settled, as predicted, that second front arrived right on time and dumped copious freshwater on Baila (which helps to remove some of the accumulated salt).

Amongst cruisers Vero Beach is nicknamed "Velcro Beach" as folks like to stick around. There's a lot to do here- a beach, mangrove thickets to explore, a nice town, theatre, museum, park etc.

It's funny to encounter people here that we've met along the way- either coming down the east coast or over in the Bahamas. Cruisers are the proverbial "big family" (good and bad) and it's great to see so many familiar faces here. We actually ran into a Hope Town (Bahamas) local we had met there right here in the Vero Beach Walmart- she flew here for a three day shopping spree. So, appreciate your eight minute drive to convenient shopping!

And this makes us realize how wonderful it will be to see your familiar faces as well. Coral and sunsets are beautiful but it's the human component that makes this trip what it is. Uninterrupted family time. People we've met and with whom we've shared these experiences. This human connection isn't dependent on any specific location or experience but rather on community. And while we've joined a great dynamic community this year, we appreciate the wonderful community that awaits us at home. Perhaps stepping outside permits one to better appreciate what's inside. So, we're loving this and sad that we're turning north, but we're also excited about returning to our community, family and friends.

And to wrap it up,

Avery

"Hi, I went to the museum today. It was all about art. I learned a lot and it was awesome! There were cool statues with squiggly lines making neat shadows that looked like different things-- even one that looked like my Nanny's dog Daisy! I have never learned so much in a museum before! I got a clipboard and we were allowed to draw a picture! I drew a horse eating in a fence. That's because the museum had lots of sculptures about horses. Also, my hermit crabs from the Bahamas are very active. Maybe they got a little seasick on the crossing but they're good now and I exercise them a lot."

**parental addendum: the museum (Vero Beach Art Museum) is PHENOMENAL with great docents who made for an incredibly educational and fun experience. We saw an exhibit by Deborah Butterfield (horses in bronze https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Butterfield) and Larry Kagan (the shadows Avery mentioned http://larrykagansculpture.com/) amongst other greats. Vero Beach is a really cool enclave of culture here and we are glad we stopped! Thanks to the Sanderson family for pointing us here!

Until next time,

The Falks

Lowering the tattered Bahamas cruising flag after arriving in Florida

This was that second cold front arriving on time after we were all tucked in

Awesome to see the leading edge of the front like this. Awesome from the perspective of a boat in a protected anchorage. Not awesome from that of a boat still out in the ocean...