Arrived Key West at 1400 after stopping overnight in Daytona Beach. Unloaded the van and packed everything out on the boat. The windsurfer that I had ordered was delivered here so I picked that up at the dock masters office and unpacked it. It looks really cool. Since it's really windy here I'll get to practice with it this week at the beach.
Jane pre-packing all of the dry provisions in fold down filing boxes was a HUGE help. Just two trips from the van with the 11 boxes. They also perfectly fit in all the available storage that we have. I just need to provision the fresh stuff for the first leg later this week. It took three years but I think we are finally getting the hang of this thing...
The boats in great shape for being out on charter just about every week this year. This week I'll be working on getting the rest of the gear packed out and some upgrades installed, including a cellular repeater system (so we can use the cell phone up to 20 miles from a cell tower), remote control bow flood light, bimini work, some audio stuff and a new sink faucet.
Later,
Eric
Monday, May 28, 2007
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Heading to Key West
The van is packed, 10 food boxes, 4 dive bags and a bunch of gear, and I am heading to Key West via Savannah Ga due to the fires in Waycross. It will add about an hour of driving but it beats driving through smoke for 5 hours. I'll
The weather in Key West for the next week is very windy out of the east, 15-30 kts, and so not that good (really bad) for heading to Bimini. We were supposed to leave Key West on Friday June 1st but that may have to be delayed until the east wind clocks around to the south east. We'll see.
Eric
The weather in Key West for the next week is very windy out of the east, 15-30 kts, and so not that good (really bad) for heading to Bimini. We were supposed to leave Key West on Friday June 1st but that may have to be delayed until the east wind clocks around to the south east. We'll see.
Eric
Friday, May 18, 2007
Summer Cruise 2007
This summer's cruise calls for Eric, Bill and Mike to depart Key West on June 1st and head to Bimini, then on to either Andros (for Crab Fest) or Nassau. Bill and Mike fly out of Nassau on June 9th.
June 9th Jane gets on board in Nassau for a week with the hubby (no plans!). Then she flies home on the 15th and returns on June 16th with Elizabeth and her friend Christy who will be aboard for two weeks of cruising Spanish Wells, Harbour Island and The Abacos.
June 30th Stan Sunderland and friends get on board in Treasure Cay to run the Regatta Time In Abaco races. Stans departs July 9th
July 5th Jack, Jared and Luke get onboard to join the races and then make the passage back to Key West, hopefully by the 19th.
June 9th Jane gets on board in Nassau for a week with the hubby (no plans!). Then she flies home on the 15th and returns on June 16th with Elizabeth and her friend Christy who will be aboard for two weeks of cruising Spanish Wells, Harbour Island and The Abacos.
June 30th Stan Sunderland and friends get on board in Treasure Cay to run the Regatta Time In Abaco races. Stans departs July 9th
July 5th Jack, Jared and Luke get onboard to join the races and then make the passage back to Key West, hopefully by the 19th.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Thursday, June 15, 2006
The Boys on DD Summer 2006 - June 15
Monday, June 12, 2006 – I took a look at the weather and TS Alberto was down in Cuba heading towards Florida. Not expected to get to us but it could send us thunderstorms for Tuesday so I decided to head to Nassau on Monday. We packed up the stuff and were able to get off the dock at 10:38. The winds were called for 15 out of the ESE. They were actually about 18 most of the day for a beautiful beam reach all the way to New Providence. As we got closer to the island the wind clocked around to the SE more so that we were able to beat all the way up to the outer marker. Just before getting there though we dropped Eric Jr. off in the dinghy to take some pictures of DD underway. What we ended up with was an MOB drill. It was hard to get the dinghy back on the boat. I learned that the head sail needs to be furled and the engine running for any kind of retrieval operation. You also need a through line ready. EJ did get some good shots though…
After the great sail to Nassau we pulled into the harbor and called Atlantis marina. Sorry, they told me, we are full. Okay no problem we’ll just anchor in this nice anchorage here. Let’s drop the anchor. The windlass is not working! Great, there has to be a way to lower the anchor manually. We screwed with that for about an hour as I motored around. I got Jack the schematics for the windlass and I took the dingy into the marina across from Atlantis to see if we could dock there. However, it did not look like there were any spaces. Then when I got back on the boat I went to call one of the other marinas and could not find my cell phone. This day is going downhill fast! We searched to no avail and eventually I came to the determination that it fell overboard. Bummer. Oh and the generator was acting up by shutting down as if fuel starved so we were sweating.
I decided to pull up to the fuel dock and refuel and reassess the situation. We did that and got a quick rinse off with fresh water on the deck. The fuel attendant told us that we could stay on the fuel dock for the night. There was no 30 amp power feed but there was a 15 amp feed with an adaptor that we plugged into. It ran the A/C for about 30 minutes and then shut off. When I went to go look at the plug it was toasted. We unplugged and put the power cord away and slept with no air at the dock. I wanted to go out and anchor as it would be cooler but we were too tired by the time we got back from Outback Steakhouse.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006 – The next morning (very early) I moved to the boat down to Nassau Yacht Haven. Then I found out that the Batelco office was located in the Nassau Mall so I could get a new phone. I rode the locals bus for $1 to the mall which was about 3 miles from the boat. I got there when it opened and that is a good thing as there were soon a lot of people waiting in line. I was third. I explained my situation and was told to wait. Another fellow in line said the last time he was here it took 3 hours. Hmm…
I eventually got to see a service agent in the back. I had to pay for my phone ($100) at the cashier and then return to see him. Then he got my phone and was trying to get it activated which he had to call Bimini for as that is where I bought it. But they had to call somewhere else to do it (probably Nassau!). I also bought a phone credit card to charge up my phone but when I went to rub off the PIN number is was all blurry. My service agent had to call someone to get the numbers. Then I went to breakfast for ½ hour. When I came back the phone still was not programmed. Eventually it started working… Total time: 3 Hours.
I took the bus back to the marina and got to watch videos of Louis Culture and friends In Concert. Very cool local color. I stopped at a nice marine supply store across from the marina and purchased a grapple anchor for use on coral reefs and some tackle for it.
Jack and the boys were onboard. I was a little upset that they had not cleaned up at all, seeing as how I was out busting my chops to get the phone. They cleaned up a little.
Jack wanted to dive but I was beat. Besides, it would just be a shallow afternoon dive.
Jack and I went to The Poop Deck for lunch (awesome burger!) while the boys did laundry. We took a place mat and drew up some potential plans for Fresh Creek Lodge.
Then we kicked back and relaxed? I can’t remember!
Wednesday, June 14, 2006 – We all went out with Bahamas Divers for a two tank dive. We did a blue hole that was quite a ways out to the NE. It was fairly rough but we did alright. The hole was in about 90’ and vis was not that good. Jack was not impressed but hey, we just came from some of the best diving in the world in Andros. Then we did a shallow reef dive. I fed the fish…
Back on the boat I called Louis over at Atlantis to see if we could get in. I had been calling there twice a day to see if we could squeak in. Yes, he said, we have room for you. Okay! Let’s go. I checked out of NYH and we headed for Atlantis.
We were in Slip 10 which is about as far as you can get from the hotel area. You really need a golf cart ride to get there, especially in the heat. I checked in and encourage the boys to go check out the water slides and stuff. Jack and I met them out there later. We had a nice frozen beverage by the pool. The boys were beat to we headed back to the boat and got some pizza on the way. 
This is a photo of one of our slip neighbors.
Thursday, June 15, 2006 – Last day for the boys! Jane called and she missed her flight due to a long line at baggage. Sooo…. It was a major pain to get bags into carry on only and get on the next flight. She is majorly mad at me for not renting a van to carry her stuff to Key West. Oh well. I rustled the boys up to clean the boat for the girls arrival. Then with the flight warning Jack and they boys headed out early to the airport. We said our goodbyes and they were gone. It was a great experience but over too soon in my estimation.
Sunday, June 4, 2006
The Boys on DD Summer 2006 - June 6
Sunday, June 04, 2006 Cat Cay Bahamas! With Eric Jr., Jack Clark and Jared Clark onboard Devante’s Dream with Eric Langley, Sr.
Wednesday
We drove to Key West in my car (Jane was PO’d that I would not rent a van for $500 and still is as far as I know) and Eric was very sick and barfed out the window. But he was a trooper and hung in there. We arrived on Wed night and did shopping the next day and setting up.
Friday
Eric took his first Open Water Diver certification course, Jack and I and Jared dove as well. After a little hesitancy Jack did great and was real excited about more diving.
Saturday
Eric finished his open water and Jack and Jared dove. I took the morning off to setup for the passage to the Bahamas. We got back to the boat, cleaned up and departed for Bimini at 5:30 PM. 
Monday, June 05, 2006
Sailed from Cat Cay to Bimini and caught two Dolphin (Mahi-Mahi) which we cooked up for dinner along with steaks that we had to eat. The channel into Bimini is new, well marked, deep and wide. We pulled up to Seacrest Marina and cleaned the fish and got ice. It’s only $55 per night (with power) to dock so we are staying here. It’s a fisherman’s marina with small boats from Florida docked and staying at the hotel units. There is one other sailboat from Florida here. It was a Bahamian holiday so I could not get a cell phone. I’ll do that today. In the afternoon we headed out and dove on The Caverns, a site that I had the GPS coords for and had a mooring. The water was clear to 70’ and the dive was great. We hung out there for 5 hours. Jared was in the water for a long time and I made him get out. He then got sun stroke and we made him drink ice water and sit in the shade. He felt better once we got back to the dock and took a cold shower. We all cleaned up the boat and stuff and had a great dinner inside in the air conditioning! After dinner, sleep!
Thursday, June 08, 2006
We are now at Lighthouse Marina in Fresh Creek Andros (pronounced Ahndros). Here’s how we 
got here. On Tuesday the 6th I purchased a Bahamas cell phone (slow process) and we rented four dive tanks form Scuba Bimini, John was very helpful. Getting to their location was an adventure in itself. Jack commented that the channel to their dock was like going up the Amazon River, actually it was scarier! We passed multiple wrecks and decrypted docks and unfinished or gutted houses. The pictures should tell that story better than I can. Then the channel got real shallow and I even turned around to leave but I flagged a guy on a jet ski and asked him about the channel depth and he said it was fine so we went back in. We made it with 8 inches to spare under the keel. We also had our tanks filled for just $9 bucks a piece, cheap! 
All this took a while and we did not get out to the reef until 2:00 PM. I wanted to dive the Bimini Trader wreck which is in about 85’ of water. When we got on site there was no mooring ball so we had to anchor. There was a strong current which we thought would be mitigated on the botoom. When Jared and I descended down the dive line that we dropped of the stern it was not. We had to kick like crazy just to keep up with the boat. At the bottom the current was just as strong. We went into it as much as we could and the across to look at the wreck. We didn’t get on the main vessel but we did see some interesting machinery scattered around. We had to work so hard to keep position that we sucked down our air very quickly. We tried to swim back towards the boat but the current took us away. By the time we made it to the surface we were way to far to swim back. I signaled the X sign to Jack which means come get us we are too tired. It took Eric and Jack and while to get the lines in and the anchor up. Jared had his little yellow tube so he inflated that to show our position. So we got some sun while we waited in the water. We later came to find out that Jack was very concerned about our drifting but we were okay, just needing to be picked up. In hindsight we should have done the entire dive as a drift dive right off Devante’s Dream with a weighted line. Scuba Bimini later said that had trouble with the current as well.
Jack and Eric Jr. did the next dive on another reef further up along the coast of North Bimini. There was no current and it was only 45’ deep. Jack looked comfortable. When they came back up he went back down with Jared and then swam around the boat for another hour. Happy camper, er, diver. However, this all was a lot of work we had eight (8) dive tanks in Devante’s Dreams’ port locker. These all had to be moved around and setup for each dive. Eric handled most of them. Very tiring!
When we got done diving we stayed on the mooring ball were trying to decide about a night dive. However we were all beat at that point so Jack broke out the rum and cigars and we wiled away the evening watching the sun set and talking about family. Later I made bacon and French Toast English muffins (we didn’t have any bread) and then collapsed in bed, comforted by the steady drone of the generator and air conditioning on the calm seas.
Okay! Whose idea was this to stay at sea… by 1:30 AM Jack was looking for the Tums as large rollers (waves but not breaking) started to come in from the North West. However, Devante’s Dream was facing North East with the wind and current. So we got tossed from side to side like a giant pendulum. Not, I repeat, Not comfortable. As soon as the sun rose on Wednesday June 7th I started the engine and headed for the harbor. I had had enough of that, only sleeping for a couple of hours. We docked at Scuba Bimini (going past the wrecks again) and returned their tanks and refilled ours. We spoke with John again and he gave us some helpful advice for getting to Andros via the Grand Bahama Bank via North Rock, which I took to heart. The way that I was planning on going was f’ining shallow he said… you had to be there. Scuba Bimini had a giant hammerhead shark on their bar wall. I would go back there and dive with them. They are nice folks.
So… we went back to North Bimini, Scuba Bimini is on South Bimini which is only about 100 yards via water and filled up on fuel and bread and headed out for Andros at 11:30 AM. Our passage was great to start with, nice breeze and Jack and I caught two nice Barracuda which we unfortunately had to clean on the boat, getting scales everywhere and just generally making a bloody smelly mess. But it was worth it. However, the wind stayed on our nose the whole way and we were just barely able to put up the sails. The day before had been calm but now we had a head wind and some seas. We ended up having them for about 15 hours. But we made it to Andros at 7:30 Thursday June 8th none the worse for wear. We have just been chilling today. Sleeping and eating. There is a crab festival here this weekend we may do that or we may have the restaurant cook our fish for us tonight, who knows!
Saturday, June 10, 2006 0630 for Thursday June 8th and Friday June 9th Fresh Creek Andros Wow. We couldn’t have planned this expedition any better. Thursday was a down day, basically just recovering from the passage although I did clean the inside of the boat extensively and the boys washed down the outside decks. Thursday night we had the Lighthouse Marina restaurant cook our Barracuda which Jack had expertly filleted earlier on the dock. It’s messy work but we got to speak with the locals while doing so. In the afternoon Jack and I went into the kitchen and met the cook, Kimberly, and we arranged to eat at 7:30 and have her cook the fish a variety of ways. Then we chilled out with rum and Cuban cigars. At 7:30 we went into the restaurant and immediately we received our dinner plates with crab rice and slaw and a big basket of corn bread. Then the fish plate was brought out in no less than 5 minutes, loaded with fried, blackened and steamed fish. We gorged ourselves on Barracuda till we could eat no more and pronounced the blackened and fried that most liked. The blackened definitely gave you pause for more bread! Note: Later I found myself hunkering for more of the steamed Bahamian style with it’s grilled onions and tomato sauce. Very tasty.
Earlier I called over to Small Hope Bay Lodge just north of where we are docked and inquired about diving with them. They are now the only dive operation here. Mike indicated that we should be at the dock at 8:30 but when I went to order a taxi for the following morning after dinner the receptionist said they had called and could not fit us on the boat. We we’re all very discouraged about this. Yes, we can dive of DD but we only have four tanks and we don’t know the dive sites here. They are kept very secret! I called Mike to see if we could squeeze on but got his voice mail and left my number. We played some cards and went to bed. The next morning the phone rang at 7:15 AM and it was Mike, after seeing who was diving he determined that we could fit. So I woke everyone up right away and we started to scramble to get our stuff together. I ordered a taxi and sandwiches from the kitchen (awesome bacon, egg and cheese that we ate at Small Hope). We had a great taxi ride with Johnnie who seems to know everyone and everything about Andros, even telling us how much houses were selling for (a house across from the beach on a 100x100 lot could be had for $90,000). He dropped up off at Small Hope Lodge which is right on the beach and ancient by Andros standards having been built in 1965. We took our gear out to the end of the dock and loaded onto the tri-maran pontoon boat (after eating our sandwiches under the palm trees at a picnic table) and prepped our stuff.
The boat was full with about 18 divers. There was one large group of about 11 guys. One guy, Bill, a full sized Laurel Hardy was the butt of many jokes and cracked a lot of his on. He forgot his sea card for diving but they found a way to get him on board after much finagling, then he found it in his wallet. Eric Jr. took a picture of him and Moose (our dive master) with it.
We dove a relatively shallow dive for our first dive at 70’ with a sea of coral as far as the eye could see. I was glad I wore my wetsuit after watching Shawn (our other dive master) put his on, it was 80 degrees but felt a lot colder with the cloudy sky. Everyone was getting acclimated to diving after a long lay off. Then another morning dive on a shallower reef. We can in for lunch which was a buffet on the beach with sandwiches, roast pork and a great chocolate bundt cake. Our afternoon 1 tank dive was on the wreck of the Marion, a navy barge that sank 25 years ago due to overloading it’s crane. Wow! Swim under the wreck, swim through the wreck in crystal clear water. Even Jack did the swim trough. We stayed down for about 40 minutes getting pictures and smiling from ear to ear! We got back to the dock and easily dunked our equipment in fresh water and had a place to store it right at the dock, just like storing your skies at the mountain, kinda like dive in dive out. We showered with warm water. Johnnie picked us up right on time and we headed back to DD.
As we walked to the dock Jack commented that another sailboat that had arrived had a lot of dive tanks on deck. I went over a started talking to the party and ended up having a long conversation with Bob Jonas, a professor that has been coming to Andros for many years. He offered me the GPS coordinate for all the dive sites here which I copied by taking a picture of them with the digital camera, kinda like a spy. He told us stories about the divers on the island and deep diving and blue holes and intrigue. Very cool.
Then Jack and I grabbed some rum and more Cubans, attempting to offer them to Bob’s son Scott and his friend Kyle but they wouldn’t have anything to do with us, as I figured. So we sat 
on the dock at an open space to the rear of their boat and watched the sun go down talking, drinking our rum and smoking our Cubans. A black man came over and asked us if we needed cigars(he had a bag full on his hip). We told him that we had purchased a bunch of them in Bimini. He said that we could have bought them from him for what amounted to being 50% less. We invited him to sit down and talk with us which he accepted, sitting down with his legs over the edge of the dock as we were. We learned all about Alfred Jr.’s family and the cigar trade in the Bahamas. He was very personable and we shared about each others lifestyle. He was waiting for the ferry to come in from Nassau with some friends to go to the Crab fest. Oh yea, we just happened to pull in here this weekend for the biggest festival in Andros, or the Big Yard as it is called. This huge 150 mega yacht is docked right in front of us and we talk about it’s owner and money.
That night we all went to the crab fest by walking across the Fresh Creek bridge. It was only 5 bucks to get in and there were about 100 booths of food from local vendors. We got baked crab and crab rice with beets. Eric got ribs. We ate them semi-standing at the picnic tables as it was very crowded. Then Jack and I shooed the boys away to go wander around. The bands were getting ready after the national anthem was sung and the speeches made. Jack and I struck up a conversation with two nice black ladies from Nassau that helped us get strawberry daiquiris with some Rum added. While we were doing that hundreds of crabs were released into the audience and there was much screaming and running around as crabs with long claws clamored through crowd. Young girls stood screaming on the table near us like mice were under there feet and the boys chased the crabs and held them up and chased the girls with them.
Pandemonium! Then those that caught crabs, some of them one in each hand, put them into boxes and saved them to eat later. Then the music started and we swayed to the beat. We found out that as this was just the first night that tomorrow night will be on the wilder side as the crowd was trying to get into it. We left just after midnight but the music didn’t stop until 5:00 AM and then the rooster crowed! I had to get up at 6:00 today to get these words down as there is just no other time! Back out on the reef today.
Monday, June 12, 2006 0800 These are the notes for Saturday and Sunday. Saturday morning Mike called from SHBL to say that we could not dive with them that day as the boat was full. Too bad, so Jack and Jared went to get the dive gear so that we could dive off the boat. Jack called me when he got there and they said that we could dive with them in the afternoon for the Shark Dive that we had signed up for, which was scheduled for 2:00 PM, yippee! We don’t have to dive off the boat.
Eric and I (mostly I) put the dinghy together and cleaned up the boat. When Jared got back we put on the engine (total assembly time :45 minutes) and headed out for some exploring. We went up Fresh Creek which is very clear and you can always see the bottom. In some places it is 15’ deep. We went up the harbor and under the low bridge (a shame) up the creek. There were a few spots were it was 3-4’ but then got real deep again. We could see a derelict barge just up the river. There are about 8-10 houses on the left had side that are nicely maintained with lush landscaping and none on the right hand side. As we went along on there was one compound with a lot of palm tree’s, hammocks, sitting docks and such. I could see a woman (white) mowing her lawn so we dinghyed over to their dock and tied up. Jared did not bring his shoes so he could not take a walk with me on the property so I went to talk with her myself.
When she saw me walking up she stopped mowing the lawn and came towards me. We shook hands and she introduced herself, Laurie Robinson. I complimented her on her property. She said she had lived there for 18 years and that she and her husband worked at the Autec Navy base. Her grandparents are purchased the property in 1972 when they came to work on the base. She inherited it from them. Her uncle owned the lot next door. “Oh and by the way that lot is for sale. It hasn’t been listed yet or even a sign put out.” “Oh really? So the property line is here?” “Yes, it’s along the line of palm tree’s lining the driveway. It’s 1.1 acres and has those two buildings. “
Hmm. Why is it that I always find property that is not listed for sale yet? So I asked her how much he was asking for it and she said $225,000. Not bad I said and walked around a little. Laurie offered to give me her uncles number so we went over to her house and she invited me in to a very nice typical CBS Florida style home with a fireplace. She had a copy of the plot plan which she gave me and put his number on it. I thanked her and went back to where Jared was. We dinghyed back and took a nap before the Shark Dive.
Around 1300 Johnnie picked us up for the ride over to SHBL. We chatted with the guys that we dove with the day before. On this trip the owner, Jeff Birch, and his son, Jeff Jr., accompanied us and told us stories about the island and it’s history. He’s been living here since he was 4. Our Shark Dive was on a sandy bottom with some large coral heads in about 50’ of water. They tied a frozen ball of chum onto a chain. We all descended to the bottom and sat in a half circle then they lowered the chum ball. The sharks darted in and around the ball, taking big chunks as they went by. After it started we were allowed to swim around the sharks and also over the top. Very cool.
There were about 5 sharks, mostly female reef sharks. They didn’t seem too hungry but they kept at it. Eventually the chum ball broke up in the warm water and fell off the chain on the sandy bottom being chased by the sharks (this is called the “rodeo”). The ball bounced toward Bill (we also call him Bubba and he is the life of the party) and he ended up with sharks all around him and backing up into them even though the Dive Master Shawn was signaling him to come towards him. His eyes were wide as saucers! Once the chum ball was pretty much gone a few of the divers went over to where it was attached to the bottom to look for shark teeth that can fall off during the feeding. Well some of the sharks were still looking for food too and Rodney and Bill (same Bill) got tangled up with one of the sharks. Rodney was practically riding one of them and then it went right under Bill. Eric was taking pictures and video the whole time and he got some great shots of this and other scenes. Very cool dive and I felt very safe. Jack and Jared did great as well.
We taxied back to the boat with Jonnie and took a nap. Around 1800 we all took a walk to the property that Jared and I had found. The gravel road runs 400’ off and alongside the river. There was one new house (clean) and one local duplex (dumpy but not too bad) on the left. On the right along the river were well maintained and landscaped homes. Not too far in was a nice hacienda that was actually a nursery with lots of plants and lush landscaping, very pretty. More nice homes and then we got to the property. It has a huge front yard that is all landscaped with palms and various tree’s. Laurie said that her grandmother spent a lot of time of the landscaping over the 20+ years that she lived there.
Jack was stunned. You could see the river from the front yard and we walked across and over to the shoreline. It’s a natural rock wall with very deep water (crystal clear) flowing but. The wall has been cut perfectly straight by the water. There is a bit of a dock and a high ridge from which you get a nice breeze. We walked along the shore which faces North West. You get a nice sunset along the river but not too much west so that you get blasted by it. Jack asked me if he could go in with me on it. Sure man….
We went back to the boat and had cigars and rum on the dock for several hours talking and just having a ball. Jared smoked Jack’s last Monte Cristo cigar. It was good. We went to Crab Fest around 2300 for dinner and music. There were a lot of people there from Nassau that had been coming in on the ferry all day. We stayed there till about 0130 having met the guys from SHBL and the ladies that Jack and I had met the night before. Later we went with the ladies to the local’s place on the beach, Skinny’s and danced till 0330. Eric and Jack went right to the front. Later Jack said it felt like a freight train was driving through him it was so loud. He was also soaked from head to toe. Awesome sea of black humanity. There were only about 8 white people among the hundreds of blacks. We were four of them. Eric saw Jeff Jr. from the Lodge go right in through the line….. We crashed on the boat at 0415 after talking for a while. My feet were killing me from walking in my sandals, with blister on the edges and just real sore. I got up at 0700 and called the Lodge a little later to see if we could dive. I had to call Jeff on his cell phone. He said he would check and call me back.
No problem. We’re diving The Blue Hole! I rustled everyone up and got Johnnie to give us a ride. The dive boat was packed but we were all real quite having but up late but excited. We went out through moderate seas so we had to keep towards the back of the boat. Once on site we all geared up together and stayed on board. Then we all went to 20’ depth to keep together. We followed Rod into the hole through a narrow opening. It was very dramatic. We descended to around 90’ and you could look up and see light streaming through the rocks. We were in the Starlight room. Eric Jr. was taking video. I was directly behind the dive master and Eric was behind me. Everyone else was single file back to the last dive master. Shannon (another dive instructor) was taking a video as well. Eric pulled up along side me. I thought he was trying to show me something but he cut his hand across his throat. No air signal! I pulled off my Octo (spare air source) and give it to him and he started breathing threw it. I had no idea what the problem was. We stopped going forward. I signaled to ascend and asked if he was okay. He indicated he was. We made a normal slow ascent. The dive master was too far ahead to let him know that we were going up. Shannon saw us and I indicated to her that we were all right. We did a short safety stop at 20’ and then broke the surface. “F___’ing scary”.
Eric put his snorkel him and we swam on the surface back to the boat. We got back aboard and Eric sat down with his head down. Shocked and obviously contemplating life. I went over to check his regulator and was able to breathe properly. I checked his Octo and it worked as well. I turned his valve to the right as if tightening it and it tightened to the stops after just a quarter of a turn! His valve had been barely open. His tank valve setup was not a normal one. They had run out of regular tanks so Eric had a tank that supported dual tanks. The valve knob was on the right side as opposed to the left side. Evidently what happened was that he turned the valve to the rear of the tank as you normally would except that it is being tightened in that direction. Now we triple check the valve!
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Annapolis to Key West - Fall/Winter 2005
Friday December 30th, 2005
Devante’s Dream arrived at Key West Thursday December 29th at 12:30 PM. Eric Sr., Jane, Eric Jr and Elizabeth Langley were on board after an overnight passage from Miami Beach having departed the previous day at 3:00 PM. We had a foul (against us) wind and current (but thankfully clear skies and no rain) just about the whole way, eventually facing 20 knots on the nose and 4 to 6 foot seas for the last five hours. Yuck! We had to motor that entire segment of the passage.
We had begun our portion of the delivery at Cape Canaveral on Tuesday December 26 at 0745. An offshore wind of 10-15 knots was called for in the forecast which meant that the waves would somewhat lessened as we were sticking close to the Florida coast to stay out of the Gulf Stream. The day started with flat calm seas and DD motoring out of Port Canaveral past the Disney cruise ships gleaming in the rising sun on a crisp clear (read cold) winter day. Elizabeth and Jane liked
the calm seas. But before long the wind kicked in and we raised the sails. 10 knots, 15 knots, 20 knots, higher gusts. “Eric (to my son Eric Jr.) do you think we should reef the main?” “No we’re doing fine”, he flatly replied. Then 25 knots steady for quite a while.
I tried my hand at hand steering the boat and took the auto-helm off. We immediately headed to wind under a heavy weather helm. I put the auto-helm back on and reefed the head sail three notches. A little while later I let everyone know that I was going to head to wind and reef the main. It was then that we realized that the seas had gotten quite a bit bigger as I started the motor to head into the wind and lower the main to the first reefing point.
Bearing off the weather the helm was much better. We ran at about 120 degrees off the wind in just about a perfect following sea. We were surfing! Once in a while I checked the peak wind gust and boat speed readings; 35 knots and 8.5 knots respectively. We’re making great time. I ran the watches for most of the day while Eric Jr. and Elizabeth slept.
That evening we broke into two hour watches. Jane got the 0100 to 0300 watch. She glanced over her shoulder at the following seas and said to herself, “Oh my. Those are really big waves. But we appear to be all right!” Everyone else was asleep at the time. She did a great job for her first overnight watch at sea!
When I took my watch and checked the max speeds we had had 9.1 knots of boat speed through the water and 40.5 knots of peak winds. Wow, this might have been more than we bargained for but we were doing fine. That was a special passage for me. I was able to watch the sun set, the moon rise and then the sunrise. We made Miami Beach in just over 25 hours at 0930 covering about 180 miles.
Devante’s Dream started her passage to Key West from Annapolis MD. Here’s some notes from the other segments of the passage.
My father, Captain Elbert Errol Langley II, passed away on Saturday December 3rd at 7:10 PM. I was holding his hand. I had spent the previous few weeks visiting him regularly and the last few days at his bedside so I was unable to set a departure date from Annapolis for Devante’s Dream, which was originally planned for October 11th. Eventually I determined to have a friend of mine, Paul Warner, who I race with on Lake Lanier in GA, skipper the passage without me.
Since Devante’s Dream left Annapolis Sunday December 4th at 5:00 PM it took a total of 25 days to get to Key West. The passage was started by Paul Warner, Bob Bumgardner and Kevin Sullivan. Paul and Bob are both from GA and longtime friends, Kevin Sullivan was a local crew member added from a local Maryland crew listing.
Snow was in the forecast so they started with a night passage to try and get ahead of the storm. They were doing well until Kevin Sullivan was on watch at 0500 and Devante’s Dream was driven into Smith’s Point shoal, hard and fast in the mud. While Paul and Bob were trying get free from the mud Kevin was down below calling for a tow boat! Later he was trying to get the dinghy off the deck so he could row to shore! Then, when the tow boat arrived, Kevin tried to jump on the tow boat with all of his gear, in other words abandoning the ship and his crewmates. Needless to say the tow boat captain would not allow him to do this until they had at least tried to free the boat from the shoal.
This was impossible as the tide had gone out since the boat ran aground so the had to wait until the tide came back in, at 2:00 PM, in order to pull her off and get a tow back to the marina - in freezing rain (are you getting the gist of this?). The next day Kevin actually came back down to boat at the marina and asked to get back on board. Paul and Bob said no thanks. Kevin also sent me an email but I would not read it.
So the first 24 hours had a grounding and desertion. That left Paul and Bob to continue the passage. That meant no offshore sailing which was in the passage plan. When I found out what was happening I told Paul that I would come down to the boat after my father’s funeral which was on Friday December 9th (in a snowstorm in Hampton NH). I scheduled my flight on Saturday to go to Wilmington NC from Boston MA hoping that the boat might be able to make it there by then.
That didn’t happen as Paul and Bob had terrible weather for several days (although not all in a
row) and only made it to Oriental NC. It was just as well. I rented a car from Wilmington NC on Sunday (not Saturday because I missed my connecting flight on Saturday) and stayed at the Inn at Oriental Sunday night (very nice). Monday afternoon DD pulled into Oriental (after a pit stop on the bar at Whittaker Creek – Tow Boat US again) and we hauled her out to check for damage to the rudder prior to going to sea. The GPS and stern light were also out so we needed to get repairs anyway.
The rudder had minor damage which was easily repaired. The GPS needed to be replaced and the stern light was disconnected during the installation of the generator. We had to run wiring for both of these which took several hours. Many thanks to SailCraft Marina for their excellent service! We pulled out of Oriental at 3:00 PM on Tuesday and headed out to sea via Beaufort NC inlet. We planned to sail to Cape Canaveral, hopefully in 2-3 days.
We started with a beautiful night of sailing out towards Cape Fear and Frying Pan Shoals with a northerly tail wind. Next day we had a dolphin show for two hours. Either the dolphins were trained (two of them jumped into a barrel roll at the same time) or dolphin trainers don’t have much to do. Later in the day I was listening to the VHF weather radio and was hearing words like “gale” and “9 to 11 waves” and “40 knots” forecast for the next night and I decided that we should seek shelter.
We were pretty far from shore and the best option was Charleston SC, which was in the direction we were going, but it was still 120 miles away. We should start the engine to get out of the Gulf Stream current that we were fighting a little bit. Turn the key, rrrrr, rrrrr, rrrrr. NOT STARTING! Okay, we need to sail as fast as we can towards Charleston. Oh and by the way we need to turn off all the unnecessary electronics to conserve battery power, so no coffee!
Not more than an hour or two later the weather turned nasty with biting cold north wind and whipped up seas. Since we were surfing a quartering sea the auto-helm was not working correctly. We had to manually steer and the best we could maintain was 230 – 270 while trying to steer 240.
We made it to within a few hours of Charleston and figured we’d give the engine another try. RRMMM, started right up. YES! So we motored into Charleston (although still very cold and now wet) at around 0200. Stay that night, get breakfast and wait out the weather that day and then dinner that night. Watch out for the 9.5’ tide at Charleston. We almost ending up hanging by our dock lines on the non-floating dock!
That night we decided we would keep going down the Intracoastal to Beaufort SC and then on to Savannah GA, where Bob Bumgardner’s son lives. So the next morning at dawn we cast off and headed south for the ICW entrance right next to the marina. Not ¼ mile up the river is our first bridge and he won’t open until 9:00 AM but we got lucky as a commercial tug boat was coming north bound that requested an opening, so we went through after him.
We navigated the ICW past lushly landscaped plantation style homes on the water with sweeping vistas and stately trees, absolutely smooth water but still pretty chilly at about 40 degrees. We ran on the main drag and eventually spotted a lot of dolphin, both fishing and following us. Then the waterway widened and there were beaches along the shore. Beaches? Why would there be beaches on the ICW. The answer, we were not on the ICW anymore. We missed the turn back there a while ago. It must have been that little unmarked creek bend.
We were in the St. Helena inlet! Now what? Turn around? No, that would waste time. I guess we are going to sea. Let’s get our foulies on. More dolphins and an absolutely beautiful inlet. So we ran offshore with a very light following breeze. We tried to put up sails but the boat speed was faster than the wind. We aimed for Savannah.
There are quite a few shoals off the SC and GA coast so we had to stay offshore quite a ways. It was in the afternoon when we hit the ocean so most of the passage was at night. We made landfall at the Savannah River at about 0130 and spent two hours going up the Savannah River and a section of the ICW to Thunderbolt GA. Luckily we had a fair current and made good time for the 14 miles we needed to traverse to get to the marina.
At one point we were on the ICW and looking for markers and I figured it would be a good idea to have the search light on deck. I had installed a 12 volt outlet for the light in the anchor locker so that someone could plug it in at the bow and shine the light forward. Bob hooked up the light and tested it. It was working. I asked him to shine it forward to test it. When he did there was an unlit (it was supposed to be) marker not 15 feet in front of the bow. Quick! Turn left and avoid the marker! Unreal.
Then we got a little messed up in a tricky section of the river and needed to shine the light to find the shore. Yup, that’s grass. We can’t go that way. How about we go towards the lights down the river. Okay, lets. We pulled into Thunderbolt at 0330. Why are we always pulling into port at 3AM?
The next day and for the next few days the weather was going to be bad. It was Sunday the 18th. We would not be able to depart until Tuesday. Even if we went 24/7 we would not arrive in Key West until Christmas Eve. We’re not going to make it. We’re getting off the boat. I rented a car and the three of us drove back to Atlanta, pretty dejected that we did not make Key West, but we tried hard. Paul and Bob had been on the boat for two weeks and we only made Savannah. There were a lot of down days for weather (to be expected in December) and repairs.
I spoke with Florida Yacht Charters and they arranged for a delivery captain to get on board and keep the boat moving, even if only on the ICW. Russ Snyder came on board on the 20th and made Cape Canaveral in 5 days of mostly running on the ICW. That’s were I got back on board with my family to complete the delivery.
So complete's the passage to Key West for Devante's Dream originally planned for Oct 9th throug the 23rd!
11/17/05 Update - Upgrades finished! Generator (30 amps of AC power), chart plotter at the helm, shore water hook-up, salon table to a bed conversion, dinghy motor lift and more!
11/10/05 Update - New proposed departure date is Saturday December 3rd. We're skipping the Bahamas so we can get to Key West quicker, taking the Gulf Stream counter current offshore from Beaufort to Cape Canaveral FL then skirting the coast to Key West. Estimating about 10 days to Key West from Annapolis
10/23/05 Update - Due to annual maintenance and upgrades being performed on Devante's Dream in Annapolis MD the October passage to Key West has been delayed. Good thing!
We'd have been going right into the teeth of Hurricane Wilma this week.
Devante’s Dream will make a passage from Annapolis MD to Key West FL in October of 2005 with four legs:
Annapolis MD to Beaufort NC (5 days), October 9th – 14th
Beaufort NC to Marsh Harbor Bahamas (4 days), October 15th – 18th
Marsh Harbor to Bimini Bahamas (4-7 days), October 19th – 24th
Bimini to Key West FL (2-3 days, plus 2-3 layover days), October 25th – 29th
Scheduled to be on board from Beaufort NC to Key West are Eric Langley, Paul Warner and Bob Bumgardner.
Devante’s Dream arrived at Key West Thursday December 29th at 12:30 PM. Eric Sr., Jane, Eric Jr and Elizabeth Langley were on board after an overnight passage from Miami Beach having departed the previous day at 3:00 PM. We had a foul (against us) wind and current (but thankfully clear skies and no rain) just about the whole way, eventually facing 20 knots on the nose and 4 to 6 foot seas for the last five hours. Yuck! We had to motor that entire segment of the passage.
We had begun our portion of the delivery at Cape Canaveral on Tuesday December 26 at 0745. An offshore wind of 10-15 knots was called for in the forecast which meant that the waves would somewhat lessened as we were sticking close to the Florida coast to stay out of the Gulf Stream. The day started with flat calm seas and DD motoring out of Port Canaveral past the Disney cruise ships gleaming in the rising sun on a crisp clear (read cold) winter day. Elizabeth and Jane liked
the calm seas. But before long the wind kicked in and we raised the sails. 10 knots, 15 knots, 20 knots, higher gusts. “Eric (to my son Eric Jr.) do you think we should reef the main?” “No we’re doing fine”, he flatly replied. Then 25 knots steady for quite a while.I tried my hand at hand steering the boat and took the auto-helm off. We immediately headed to wind under a heavy weather helm. I put the auto-helm back on and reefed the head sail three notches. A little while later I let everyone know that I was going to head to wind and reef the main. It was then that we realized that the seas had gotten quite a bit bigger as I started the motor to head into the wind and lower the main to the first reefing point.
Bearing off the weather the helm was much better. We ran at about 120 degrees off the wind in just about a perfect following sea. We were surfing! Once in a while I checked the peak wind gust and boat speed readings; 35 knots and 8.5 knots respectively. We’re making great time. I ran the watches for most of the day while Eric Jr. and Elizabeth slept.
That evening we broke into two hour watches. Jane got the 0100 to 0300 watch. She glanced over her shoulder at the following seas and said to herself, “Oh my. Those are really big waves. But we appear to be all right!” Everyone else was asleep at the time. She did a great job for her first overnight watch at sea!
When I took my watch and checked the max speeds we had had 9.1 knots of boat speed through the water and 40.5 knots of peak winds. Wow, this might have been more than we bargained for but we were doing fine. That was a special passage for me. I was able to watch the sun set, the moon rise and then the sunrise. We made Miami Beach in just over 25 hours at 0930 covering about 180 miles.
Devante’s Dream started her passage to Key West from Annapolis MD. Here’s some notes from the other segments of the passage.
My father, Captain Elbert Errol Langley II, passed away on Saturday December 3rd at 7:10 PM. I was holding his hand. I had spent the previous few weeks visiting him regularly and the last few days at his bedside so I was unable to set a departure date from Annapolis for Devante’s Dream, which was originally planned for October 11th. Eventually I determined to have a friend of mine, Paul Warner, who I race with on Lake Lanier in GA, skipper the passage without me.
Since Devante’s Dream left Annapolis Sunday December 4th at 5:00 PM it took a total of 25 days to get to Key West. The passage was started by Paul Warner, Bob Bumgardner and Kevin Sullivan. Paul and Bob are both from GA and longtime friends, Kevin Sullivan was a local crew member added from a local Maryland crew listing.
Snow was in the forecast so they started with a night passage to try and get ahead of the storm. They were doing well until Kevin Sullivan was on watch at 0500 and Devante’s Dream was driven into Smith’s Point shoal, hard and fast in the mud. While Paul and Bob were trying get free from the mud Kevin was down below calling for a tow boat! Later he was trying to get the dinghy off the deck so he could row to shore! Then, when the tow boat arrived, Kevin tried to jump on the tow boat with all of his gear, in other words abandoning the ship and his crewmates. Needless to say the tow boat captain would not allow him to do this until they had at least tried to free the boat from the shoal.This was impossible as the tide had gone out since the boat ran aground so the had to wait until the tide came back in, at 2:00 PM, in order to pull her off and get a tow back to the marina - in freezing rain (are you getting the gist of this?). The next day Kevin actually came back down to boat at the marina and asked to get back on board. Paul and Bob said no thanks. Kevin also sent me an email but I would not read it.
So the first 24 hours had a grounding and desertion. That left Paul and Bob to continue the passage. That meant no offshore sailing which was in the passage plan. When I found out what was happening I told Paul that I would come down to the boat after my father’s funeral which was on Friday December 9th (in a snowstorm in Hampton NH). I scheduled my flight on Saturday to go to Wilmington NC from Boston MA hoping that the boat might be able to make it there by then.
That didn’t happen as Paul and Bob had terrible weather for several days (although not all in a
row) and only made it to Oriental NC. It was just as well. I rented a car from Wilmington NC on Sunday (not Saturday because I missed my connecting flight on Saturday) and stayed at the Inn at Oriental Sunday night (very nice). Monday afternoon DD pulled into Oriental (after a pit stop on the bar at Whittaker Creek – Tow Boat US again) and we hauled her out to check for damage to the rudder prior to going to sea. The GPS and stern light were also out so we needed to get repairs anyway.The rudder had minor damage which was easily repaired. The GPS needed to be replaced and the stern light was disconnected during the installation of the generator. We had to run wiring for both of these which took several hours. Many thanks to SailCraft Marina for their excellent service! We pulled out of Oriental at 3:00 PM on Tuesday and headed out to sea via Beaufort NC inlet. We planned to sail to Cape Canaveral, hopefully in 2-3 days.
We started with a beautiful night of sailing out towards Cape Fear and Frying Pan Shoals with a northerly tail wind. Next day we had a dolphin show for two hours. Either the dolphins were trained (two of them jumped into a barrel roll at the same time) or dolphin trainers don’t have much to do. Later in the day I was listening to the VHF weather radio and was hearing words like “gale” and “9 to 11 waves” and “40 knots” forecast for the next night and I decided that we should seek shelter.
We were pretty far from shore and the best option was Charleston SC, which was in the direction we were going, but it was still 120 miles away. We should start the engine to get out of the Gulf Stream current that we were fighting a little bit. Turn the key, rrrrr, rrrrr, rrrrr. NOT STARTING! Okay, we need to sail as fast as we can towards Charleston. Oh and by the way we need to turn off all the unnecessary electronics to conserve battery power, so no coffee!
Not more than an hour or two later the weather turned nasty with biting cold north wind and whipped up seas. Since we were surfing a quartering sea the auto-helm was not working correctly. We had to manually steer and the best we could maintain was 230 – 270 while trying to steer 240.
We made it to within a few hours of Charleston and figured we’d give the engine another try. RRMMM, started right up. YES! So we motored into Charleston (although still very cold and now wet) at around 0200. Stay that night, get breakfast and wait out the weather that day and then dinner that night. Watch out for the 9.5’ tide at Charleston. We almost ending up hanging by our dock lines on the non-floating dock!
That night we decided we would keep going down the Intracoastal to Beaufort SC and then on to Savannah GA, where Bob Bumgardner’s son lives. So the next morning at dawn we cast off and headed south for the ICW entrance right next to the marina. Not ¼ mile up the river is our first bridge and he won’t open until 9:00 AM but we got lucky as a commercial tug boat was coming north bound that requested an opening, so we went through after him.
We navigated the ICW past lushly landscaped plantation style homes on the water with sweeping vistas and stately trees, absolutely smooth water but still pretty chilly at about 40 degrees. We ran on the main drag and eventually spotted a lot of dolphin, both fishing and following us. Then the waterway widened and there were beaches along the shore. Beaches? Why would there be beaches on the ICW. The answer, we were not on the ICW anymore. We missed the turn back there a while ago. It must have been that little unmarked creek bend.
We were in the St. Helena inlet! Now what? Turn around? No, that would waste time. I guess we are going to sea. Let’s get our foulies on. More dolphins and an absolutely beautiful inlet. So we ran offshore with a very light following breeze. We tried to put up sails but the boat speed was faster than the wind. We aimed for Savannah.
There are quite a few shoals off the SC and GA coast so we had to stay offshore quite a ways. It was in the afternoon when we hit the ocean so most of the passage was at night. We made landfall at the Savannah River at about 0130 and spent two hours going up the Savannah River and a section of the ICW to Thunderbolt GA. Luckily we had a fair current and made good time for the 14 miles we needed to traverse to get to the marina.
At one point we were on the ICW and looking for markers and I figured it would be a good idea to have the search light on deck. I had installed a 12 volt outlet for the light in the anchor locker so that someone could plug it in at the bow and shine the light forward. Bob hooked up the light and tested it. It was working. I asked him to shine it forward to test it. When he did there was an unlit (it was supposed to be) marker not 15 feet in front of the bow. Quick! Turn left and avoid the marker! Unreal.
Then we got a little messed up in a tricky section of the river and needed to shine the light to find the shore. Yup, that’s grass. We can’t go that way. How about we go towards the lights down the river. Okay, lets. We pulled into Thunderbolt at 0330. Why are we always pulling into port at 3AM?
The next day and for the next few days the weather was going to be bad. It was Sunday the 18th. We would not be able to depart until Tuesday. Even if we went 24/7 we would not arrive in Key West until Christmas Eve. We’re not going to make it. We’re getting off the boat. I rented a car and the three of us drove back to Atlanta, pretty dejected that we did not make Key West, but we tried hard. Paul and Bob had been on the boat for two weeks and we only made Savannah. There were a lot of down days for weather (to be expected in December) and repairs.
I spoke with Florida Yacht Charters and they arranged for a delivery captain to get on board and keep the boat moving, even if only on the ICW. Russ Snyder came on board on the 20th and made Cape Canaveral in 5 days of mostly running on the ICW. That’s were I got back on board with my family to complete the delivery.
So complete's the passage to Key West for Devante's Dream originally planned for Oct 9th throug the 23rd!
11/17/05 Update - Upgrades finished! Generator (30 amps of AC power), chart plotter at the helm, shore water hook-up, salon table to a bed conversion, dinghy motor lift and more!
11/10/05 Update - New proposed departure date is Saturday December 3rd. We're skipping the Bahamas so we can get to Key West quicker, taking the Gulf Stream counter current offshore from Beaufort to Cape Canaveral FL then skirting the coast to Key West. Estimating about 10 days to Key West from Annapolis
10/23/05 Update - Due to annual maintenance and upgrades being performed on Devante's Dream in Annapolis MD the October passage to Key West has been delayed. Good thing!
We'd have been going right into the teeth of Hurricane Wilma this week.
Devante’s Dream will make a passage from Annapolis MD to Key West FL in October of 2005 with four legs:
Annapolis MD to Beaufort NC (5 days), October 9th – 14th
Beaufort NC to Marsh Harbor Bahamas (4 days), October 15th – 18th
Marsh Harbor to Bimini Bahamas (4-7 days), October 19th – 24th
Bimini to Key West FL (2-3 days, plus 2-3 layover days), October 25th – 29th
Scheduled to be on board from Beaufort NC to Key West are Eric Langley, Paul Warner and Bob Bumgardner.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)