Looe Key/Bahia Honda August 2008

We departed Key West Wednesday August 6th at 0930 imagining ourselves going treasure hunting after watching Fool’s Gold last night while still docked in the marina. Where’s Matthew McConaughey when you need him?

We steamed for Looe Key Marine Sanctuary which is about 18 nm from Key West. With a slight 6kt head wind it took a little more than three hours to motor there. Looe Key is a Marine Sanctuary where fishing is not allowed. There are about 20 mooring balls for tying up to with your boat all along the reef plus you can anchor in the sand if necessary. We were on one of the first balls that we came to at the western end of the reef. There were about six other boats there as well.

The girls ate some lunch. Kerrie got on her wet suit and snorkel gear, including the underwater electric scooter and followed Elizabeth and I on our dive. The water was gin clear with probably 100’ of visibility so Kerri could watch us (and we her) as we dove at a depth of about 26 feet. I didn’t bring the camera, big mistake.

There was a good sized Barracuda right under the boat. In just a few minutes Kerri pointed out a 5’ nurse grey shark just resting on the bottom. Then Elizabeth and I came across a larger darker one and several goliath grouper. All in like 5 minutes!

As we swam further, Kerri still following us, a good sized sand shark swam by us. I looked up a Kerri to point it out to her but she was hi-tailing it out of there with the scooter in high gear and kicking like crazy. Evidently she saw it too…Elizabeth and I continued the dive for about 10 more minutes and then went back to the boat. Kerri was fine.

We cleaned up and hung out for a while. We decided to move up the reef and get on another mooring ball. Elizabeth and I did another dive but the water was not a clear in this area and we did not see as much larger marine life. That is quite normal even here though we probably only moved about 100 yards down the reef.

We stayed a while longer and then steamed for Bahia Honda which is 9 nm miles to the NW. We pulled into the harbor through the opening in the old rail road bridge. I would have to say that it was the fulfillment of a dream of mine. Many years before we went to Bahia Honda State Park and sat on the beach. There was a sloop at anchor in the bay and the people on board swam to shore. I thought, “That looks cool, I’d like to do that...” I did. Well, at least the anchoring part, Elizabeth and Kerri rowed the dingy ashore to scout the area and take pictures.

Getting up on Thursday morning there is absolutely no wind and deathly hot. We were going to spend the day on the beach and use the wind surfer but Looe Key is calling again and besides, there’s no wind. So we motor back out to Looe Key. It’s flatter than the day before and, if possible, the water is clearer. We take a mooring ball at the far eastern end this time and cook burgers on the grill for lunch. It’s that calm.

We decide to just snorkel and free dive. It’s about 28’ deep but with weights on I can easily reach the bottom and stay down for about a minute. In this area is the old steel tower that was destroyed in a storm many years about on the bottom. There are also several underwater swim through’s, openings in the coral where you can swim in one end and come of the other with coral overhead. I must be getting old because I didn’t go through any of them. One was quite long.

We just lounged there for several hours, snorkeling off and on and the girls jumping off of the bow pulpit. The girls also did some male species observation work with the binoculars. On one of my snorkel swims a sea turtle swam past me at high speed and a nurse shark and sand shark swimming together went by.

I mentioned this to the fellow in the next boat that was in the water so that he could see them and he yelled to his kids that were behind his boat, “Kid’s get in the boat. Now!” He sounded like Marling in Finding Nemo which we had watched the night before. They left not a few minutes later…Opps, my bad.

As they day went on we changed balls again and tried to get a better males species observation position. At around 1600 there were only six boats on the reef, all sailboats. Several of them were commercial, taking out kids for trips and some where private, like us. There were probably 20 snorkelers in the water.

At 1700 we cooked pork roast on the grill and had a nice dinner on the reef. Just about everyone one had left. We had the place to ourselves. We contemplated staying on the ball and doing a night dive but decided not to. We left the reef at 1900 with just enough time to get back to Bahia Honda before darkness.

It’s commercial lobster season here now. There are like 5 million lobster pots in the water. We have to constantly be on the look out and adjust course to avoid them. Some of the lobster pots have lines to the traps that are too long, on those part of the line floats on the water in between the buoy and the trap. I swerved to avoid one of these and got it caught in my propeller.

It’s happened before so I immediately took the engine out of gear. Elizabeth lowered the anchor. We were in about 30’ of water. It was getting dark so we needed to get cleared as soon as possible to continue on with some daylight to see the other pots. I jumped in with just my weight belt, mask, snorkel and fins to take a look. Kerri got me a steak knife for cutting the line. It was wrapped up pretty good so I couldn’t cut it free by holding my breath. It’s hard work cutting underwater holding your breath!

Elizabeth gave me one of the new pony scuba tanks that we bought. They are really nice. They are a little smaller than a loaf of bread and have a regulator attached to the top of the tank and a carry bag with snap shackles for attaching it to your scuba equipment. I tried it out and I could easily hold it in my mouth with the tank hanging down and work with both of my hands. In just a few minutes I hand line cleared and we were on our way. The sunset just a few minutes later and we arrived at Bahia Honda in twilight. Very cool!

So now it’s Friday morning. We need to head back to Key West. We might do some lobstering along the way or even head back via Looe Key again. We’ll see.

August 2008

Hey, we’re finally back on board Devante’s Dream. For this trip we have Eric Sr. Elizabeth and her friend Kerri. We arrived Monday afternoon August 4th after spending the day in Key Largo snorkeling Grecian Rocks and French Reef.

Kerri did great her first time in the water with a snorkel and mask, especially since we stopped at the “bumpy” reef for the first stop (French) then we moved to the quieter Grecian Rocks reef which is very shallow but had good coral and fish.

The day before Elizabeth and I dove on the wrecks Duane and Speigel Grove, well actually just the Speigel Grove, we could not dive the Duane due to the ripping currents, not that we didn’t try. The Speigel Grove was awesome though. We made some swim throughs of the main hull and circled the entire superstructure.

Earlier in the week Elizabeth and I dove out of Boca Inlet on two wrecks, the Ancient Mariner and Sea Emperor. We also hunted bugs (lobster) on the reef and did a night dive. Elizabeth got her Advanced Open Water Certification on the night dive. She now has more than 30 dives and is an excellent diver.

So today, Tuesday, we provisioned and got the boat ready. When we were finally done at 1400 it was too late to leave for Bahia Honda and there are some T-Storms along the shore so we are going to wait until Wed AM to depart. Besides we are kinda tired and can use the rest. There’s no rush.

Our plan is to snorkel/dive Looe Key and stay overnight for two nights in Bahia Honda harbor, which is redundant since Bahia Honda means Deep Bay in Spanish.

Key West Race Week January 19-25 2008

Eric is on board Devante's Dream along with a full crew running an S2 7.9 in the PHRF Division. There are six of us all together myself, Mike Elliot, Scott, Maust, Tony Millan, La Schreiner and Heather Bissell. All but Tony are from Michigan and have sailed together for a long time. Mike is skipper, Scott is headsail, Tony is mainsail, La is pit, Heather is bow and I worked the mast.



We've had a great time although the wind has not been cooperating. For instance, today we're fishing from the dock as there is no wind and thick fog. The first day of racing was too windy and rough, though we did bob around out there for about an hour or so until they called it. Tuesday we got three races in and finished 5th out of 11. Not bad but the wind was too much for us, we're rigged for light air.



Wednesday's forcast was right in our wheelhouse as far as wind was concerned but it died down to0 much and they cancelled racing. Ugh! We were leading! Last night we had a great steak dinner on board DD.





Now today is the fishing, but we hope to be able to get our this afternoon and get at least one race in.

Diving Ginnie Spring

We're not on Devante's Dream but this was a cool dive trip so here it is.

Ginnie Springs FL

Thursday afternoon August 8th. It was hotter than hot, 106 degrees in the shade. It was summers peak but school was starting next Monday. We gotta get outa here. But where? How about tubing Helen GA? No the water will be low because it’s a drought. Hmm, where can we go. How about diving? But where? Enter the Internet. Enter keywords “Florida, diving, springs”, springs should be cool right?

After jumping around between a few pages I found what I was looking for, a personal recommendations page. This one was for Ginnie Springs in High Springs FL. Basically the diver said that this spring “had to be done”. And plus it was safe for our skill level, Open Water divers. Okay, we’ll go there.

It was 5:00 PM. I yelled down the hallway. “Elizabeth! Get your dive gear!”
“What? Where are we going?”
“Florida, we’re diving in a spring”
“Okay I am getting my stuff.”
Jane had just gotten back from spending the night at a friends.
“Wait a minute. What’s going on here?
“We’re outta here. It’s too hot. You wanna come?”
“No, I am going to paint.”
“Okay, we’ll be back in a few days”

We mostly had our dive gear ready to go in our dive bags. Elizabeth couldn’t find her hoodie but that didn’t matter as we could get on there. We loaded the van with our stuff and a cooler and were underway by 6:00 PM.

“Where exactly are we going?”
“Ginnie Springs, it’s a fresh water spring we can dive.”
“Is it cold?”
“72 degrees year round. It’ll be nice in this heat.”

We drove the back roads to get to 75 like we always do; of course I got a speeding ticket this time. More like a toll ticket though from the Milner PD. Elizabeth called one of the motels from the list that I printed before we left. They called back and said that they would leave the key under the mat of room number 2. Cool. We have a place to stay.

We go in around 11:00 PM so not too late. The motel is like something out of the 1960’s. The High Springs Country Inn is pleasant to look at from the outside, maybe not so much from the inside. But hey, it’s a dive motel so we got accustomed to it. When I checked in the next morning the sign on the office wall said, “Divers Anchor Here”. It was all divers staying there as far as I could tell. It was $42 per night, so really cheap.

We got up the next morning and went to the Parkview Restaurant for breakfast. Again, really cheap at $3 for eggs, grits, bacon and toast. The milk and orange juice cost more!
After breakfast we headed to downtown High Springs. It’s a small, clean downtown with most of the shops occupied by antique stores and hardware or feed stores. One thing I notice about most of these small downtown’s is that they don’t have the old coffee shop/lunch place anymore. I suppose that there is no money in that type of place. It’s too bad though.

We drove on through and entered Ginnie Springs into the GPS. Six miles down this road we are already on. Okay, let’s go. We drive past small retirement type cracker homes near the town that turn into full blown horse farms as we get away from town. We turn onto the main road to Ginnie and it turns into a dirt road. The GPS is lost be we’re there now anyway.

We pull up to the large wooden barn style check-in building. Inside it’s two stories and all wood, with a lot of dive gear and snack type foods. We check-in and buy Elizabeth a hoodie and rent two tanks. I rent a jacket to go over my 3/2mm wetsuit. Hey, the waters cold. I am used to diving in 85 degree water!

We watched a video about diving in the springs. Evidently we can dive in Ginnie Springs with lights (as Open Water divers) but not the other springs which are for cave divers only. We can dive the other springs, Devil’s Ear and Eye, but only as far as the natural light will take us. We pick up our gear and ask where we’re going.
“Head down that road to the bath house. The spring is right there. If you keep going to the next back house that is where the Devil’s springs are”

Okay, we’re off. It’s still early for the park, which is what this is. It has campsites and a large amount of frontage on the Sante Fe river, as well as 7 springs on the property. So it’s not to busy when we get to the spring head. There is a large deck area with a bench all the way around it as well as picnic tables on grassy/sandy areas around that. There are stairs from the deck going down into the spring.

We can see from the deck that it’s beautiful crystal clear water. We pick up the pace of getting ready. Elizabeth and I playfully argue over who is to carry the tanks to the deck. I carried them partway and when she made fun of me I made her carry them the rest of the way. Later I carried the tanks and Elizabeth carried everything else, for the most part.

I put my toe in the water. Yes, it’s very cool. But it is pretty warm out. Probably already almost 90 degrees at 10:30 in the morning so it feels nice. We’re under the tree’s though so it’s not as hot has it could be.

We geared up on the deck, checking lights (which we can use here), gauges, buckles, etc.. Some kids that are in the area are amazed and ask lots of questions, which we answer. I wonder how many of the kids that we met that day will someday become divers because they saw Elizabeth and I at Ginnie Springs.

The spring is surrounded by woods and feeds that Santa Fe river which it maybe 75 yards to our right. We can see that there is a large shallow area surrounding the spring that we can stand on to get out fins on and get ready. The deeper spring area is about the size of a large swimming pool. We descended into the outer pool. It’s about 9’ deep. Two other divers went in just before us and the have already descended down into the cavern. There are two openings into the cavern. One is wide enough for two divers to go through at the same time. The other is just big enough for one diver.

While Elizabeth and I are looking at the openings some kids are free diving down into the bigger entrance. We back up to give them room to get out. I am sure they didn’t want to get stuck in there or delayed in getting out! Once they were done we ventured inside.

The outer room of the cavern is about the same size as the surface swimming pool sized area, but it’s under an overhang of rock. It’s bright enough to see in there clearly without lights. The roof is slopes down towards the edges like a dome and forms a very narrow crack. There are several large boulders that appear haphazardly placed in the room. In reality they have fallen in place from above and the sides.

We explored the outer room for a while and then headed toward a shelf in the back of the room that was covered in light. Swimming up to the shelf and gripping the edge we could peer over the edge into what appeared to be total blackness. Out stomachs tightened as we looked into the unknown.

Elizbeth and I looked at each other. Elizabeth was already shaking her head. I made a swimming motion with my fingers. Nope, more shaking of the head. We stayed on the lip of the shelf for a few more minutes and we could see the divers turning their lights on and off. They were sitting on a large boulder quite a ways down into the cavern. Okay, let’s go back out and talk about it.

We surfaced in the pool and made our way over to the shallow area. We weren’t sure if this cavern was the one that we were allowed to enter. After a while of talking about it we realized that this was the spring we were allowed to have lights at so we could enter that cavern. We headed back down.

After entering the other cabin we stopped at the ledge again and I tried to get my eyes to adjust to the darkness. We went over the edge. It was dark. We huddled on some rocks just below the overhang. Elizabeth got a few feet from me and I couldn’t see her. I didn’t like it. I went to get her and we held hands and headed back towards the light.

As we went back up we drifted to the right in the current and spotted a rope the led down in the cavern. Ah! That will make it easier. A way in and a way out. We followed the rope down to the middle of the cavern. As we did used our lights and could see then entirety of the cavern, which is called “The Ballroom”. I now why. Our eyes also adjusted to the darkness. It takes about 15 minutes to get your night vision.

We made our way to the bottom of the cavern where the spring head is. There is a steel grate covering the entrance to keep divers from going down into the cave. Not that that would be that easy. There is a freight train of water coming out of the hole. Elizabeth and I held onto the rocks and metal grate and flapped in the liquid breeze at 50’ below the surface. When I let go I rolled over in the sandy bottom that was deposited by the current.

We sat on the rocks that are near the bottom like the divers that we had seen before had done. By turning off our lights we could clearly see the entrance of the cavern like a giant mirror of the surface. With our eyes adjusted to the darkness we could see that the cavern was actually lit up quite well. Along the top of the cavern the reflection from the surface light was clearly visible. We could see where previous divers had left undying statements of love for their significant other.

We’d been in for a total of 45 minutes so we started our ascent using the rope as a guide but by now we didn’t need it as we could easily see where we were headed. We stopped at the entrance of the outer room again for some free divers and the headed out.

“Cool”, when we got to the surface.
“I was nervous at first but once I got used to it I was better.”
“Let’s take a break and get some lunch.”

We need air as well. Elizabeth stayed with our gear while I loaded the tanks in the van and headed up to the lodge. I dropped the tanks for a fill and went over to the Ginnie Springs deli. Elizabeth got a grilled ham and cheese and I got a Philly cheese steak. The tanks were ready when I stopped by and headed back to the spring.

We ate on the deck overlooking Ginnie Spring. It was probably 95 degrees out but it felt fine sitting there eating our lunch. We were under the tree’s and it felt cool near the water. Once in a while I stepped into the pool to cool off.

We had about an 1:15 surface interval so we were good to dive again. We suited up and headed in again, answering questions as we went along. MUCH more comfortable this time going into the cavern. We went down to the grate and then begin exploring the cavern. There was a side room on the left side the Elizabeth went all the way into. We had seen the other divers go in there.

For this dive I was the video man. I go some good shots of Elizabeth checking out the cavern. This time we played with rope that runs down inside the cavern. Elizabeth tried to stand on it in the current. She was moderately successful.

At the top of the cavern there is an opening about the size of a suited diver to get into. It’s about four feet deep going up into the ceiling of the cavern. It’s all scalloped out with nooks and crannies. We looked at it with our flashlights. Elizabeth was trying to show me something in the hat but I couldn’t see it? I kept making the “what?” signal with my hands and she would shine the light onto something. I still couldn’t see it.

We sat on the rocks again with our lights off. I took videos of Elizabeth with the cavern opening in the background. It was cool seeing the shimmering blue surface water with people madly kicking their legs just above and behind Elizabeth.

In the outer room another diver was feeding the fish. They didn’t seem too hungry but he got one of them to eat out of his hand. I stopped to watch and a fish came right up to my mask, about 3 inches away, and just sat there. I just sat there as well. Elizabeth went up to fast and missed the safety stop but I stayed in the outer room for a few minutes looking at the fish as 20’.

When we got out there were a lot more people there. A little girl was amazed by Elizabeth’s dive gear. I playfully splashed people that were slow getting in the water.

“No fair”, they said, “You have a wetsuit on!

“Okay, now what? Wanna check out the Devil’s springs?
“Okay, but I don’t want to dive now,” Elizabeth answered.
“Okay, we’ll just tube the river with our wetsuits on.”

We loaded our gear in the van and headed down the sandy/dusty road to the Devil’s spring system. We heard later that this is the MAJOR party area for the campground, with parties all night long. Later that night we could hear them kicking up a ruckus. When I asked about the busy time of year the camp guys said that there are up to 20,000 people in the campground Memorial Day weekend. Now I know when not to go!

The Devil’s Den springs are probably aptly named. Divers have died there. There are big yellow signs warning of this. We are not diving anyway so we aren’t concerned. Although if we did want to we could dive as far as we had natural light. Not this time. We’ll get cave certified later.

We enter the water at Devil’s Ear, which is a narrow slit in the lagoon that does not look like much. Cave divers are entering and exiting. We just have our wetsuits, fins and mask and snorkel. We free dive the entrance for a minute and then head towards the river.

Right in the river is the entrance to Devil’s Eye (or is this the Ear and the other the Eye). It’s a bigger entrance than the Ear. The current is huge coming out of the western end into the river. Elizabeth and I free dive and hold onto the end and flap in the breeze again.

That’s tiring so we float for a while on the river. It’s about 10-12 feet deep and there are tall strands of grass and what look like Christmas trees covering most of the bottom. Some areas the bottom is sandy. We drift primarily over the sandy areas.

We heard that there is another spring on the other side of the river and kick our way across. The grass is so thick that we can stay on our stomachs and have to roll over and kick on our backs. I don’t think Elizabeth liked that part.

We then had to kick harder to get up to the spring head due to the strong current. There were two horizontal slits at the end of the lagoon where the spring feed the river. At the base of one of them was a large pile of tiny shells. I reached down and scooped up a handful of them. They were all similar, spiral shells about the size of your finger nail, pushed up from who knows where by the rushing spring. I threw them in the water and scared a girl that was snorkeling near us.

Now we are tired from all of the kicking so we just flow on the current out into the river. We don’t have to work at all. There’s lots to see and the visibility is pretty good. We see big mouth bass feeding and Elizabeth spotted a “Paint” turtle with brightly colored edges and yellow lines on it’s face. Once in while I steered into the grass that waved like a ribbon in a flowing breeze and parted the strands to swim through. Very cool.
We didn’t go very far. Just down to where we were before at Ginnie Springs. Some people do that trip as a dive but I think it was fine just to snorkel it.

Now Elizabeth is tired and wants to go back to the motel room. But it’s too early for that and besides the motel room will be hot and boring. I moved the van into the shade and leave it running so that she can rest and be cool. I hung out in the spring and talked to people for a while. Then I did one more dive during which I checked out the little room on the side of the cavern that Elizabeth had gone in.

The entrance is on the far left had side of the cavern and rises back toward the entrance. When you are all the way in you can see that there it actually connects with the outer room. If you took off your tanks (not necessarily a smart thing to do) you could make it through.

Making my way out of the side room the late afternoon light was dancing across the taupe colored walls of the cavern. From my location deep (but high) in the cavern I could see sunlight shining down on the floor of the outer room like several theatrical spots being waved over a spot on a stage. Very cool.

After getting all the gear loaded into the van we headed back to the motel room and cleaned up. Our destination for dinner was directly across the street; Floyd’s Diner. We didn’t have much time to rest, maybe a half hour or so, before we made it over there at around 6:00 so that we would have enough time to pick up our dive tanks for the planned night dive.

It’s a good thing we got there early. Evidently Floyd’s is THE hotspot in High Springs. There was a line out the door when Elizabeth and I walked in. But at the diner style bar there were two seats.

“Wanna sit at the bar”
“Sure”

Again, it’s a good thing that we did. We saw folks waiting to sit as long as it took us to order and eat! Floyd’s has an awesome menu for a dinner. Elizabeth got the Eggplant Three Cheese Ravioli (minus the eggplant) and I got the beef tips over pad thai noodles with veggies. Everything was nice and hot and we had a great view of the kitchen and bustle behind the counter. I noticed for desert that they had Mud River Pie. That sounded great so Elizabeth and I split that and finished the whole thing, whipped cream and all, even though we were already stuffed. If we didn’t have to dive (and Jane was with me) the finishing touch would have been to hang out on the patio and listen to the live music with an after dinner beverage.

We picked up our tanks for the night dive. They weren’t the same numbers on the tanks but I didn’t think anything of it. When we hooked up or regs the tanks were both short on air. They hadn’t closed yet so I went and got the correct tanks. We took our time getting everything setup waiting for the sun to go completely down.

We entered the water at around 9:00 PM. We were very comfortable with the dive for a few reasons. One is that we dove it several times that day (that is actually a requirement for night diving Ginnie) and we had both done several night dives.

It was very cool entering with our lights. There were more fish and different fish that looked like catfish with whiskers, not sure if they were or not. We hung out in the outer room for a while and then made our way down to the spring inlet at the bottom of the cavern. Nice and dark just like you’d expect.

We peered into the inlet again and saw different fish. Then we sat on the boulders and turned our lights off. Way dark. Once my eyes acclimated I could just barely make out the cavern entrance from the lights that are on over the spring. Elizabeth tried to show me the glow sticks in the ceiling hat but I still couldn’t see them!

I did see something that I had not seen on the previous dives though, a memorial plaque placed by a family in honor of their father at the very top of the hat in the corner. It was also easier to see the graffiti that has been scratched into the walls at night. I took a picture of a complete I Love You style heart with the lovers names etched inside.

The best part of the dive ended up being in the very shallowest area surrounding the spring. There were lots of crawfish that we played with by trying to pick them up. They would get nervous and shoot off in reverse by flapping there tails rapidly. Some boys with masks were following us around and it scared them when one of the crawfish came scooting by them very rapidly. We also saw a snapping turtle in a log and lots of different fish, including some eels.

When we got out of the water I pronounced it the best night dive that I had ever done. It would be worth doing again.

Treasure Cay - End of girls trip

The weather that had been threatening for the last three days finally arrived Thursday. The only problem is is that we now need to get to Treasure Cay. Oh well. We waited for a window in the rain and the headed out at around 1800. We didn't get far before the window closed and the rain came in, along with some gusty winds up to 35 kts. It let up enough for us to get into Treasure Cay outer harbour and grab a mooring ball for the night.

The next morning we docked at the Treasure Cay marina but the rain stayed with us on Friday so it was not much of a beach day for the girls. However, we did have a nice lunch at the beachside tiki bar and at least got to walk on the beach

Saturday, June 30, 2007

After picking up the rental car the night before I drove Jane, Elizabeth and Christy to the airport. They just made the flight as you have to be there 30 minutes prior. We were there 32 minutes prior….

However lucky they were then they were not lucky later. They missed their connecting flight in Nassau and actually had to stay overnight and take the flight the next evening. Oh well, two years in a row with bad flights. At least it was the flight home. Overall though their time on the boat was excellent. We had several “This could be as could as it gets,” moments. A movie line we fortunately get to say fairly often it seems…

Man-O-War Cay

We need fuel and water really bad. And we need to do laundry. So we motored across the tiny channel to Man-O-War Cay Marina and fueled and watered up. They found a slip for us to stay in. Even though the weather is beautiful we’re trying to take a down day. We’ve been busy and in the sun a lot.

Before we can go into our slip though we need to empty our holding tanks. We can’t do that in the harbour so we have to go outside. I ran aground in the channel. It is almost low tide. I can’t get off of the bar. Luckily two men in a Boston Whaler went by and with not a little work got us off of the bar.

I got out of the channel, made the dump and got back in. It was dead low tide by this time and we bumped the bottom right in the middle of the channel at 5.2 feet. I guess the chart is right, 5 feet at MLW (Mean Low Water).

Once we got tied up in our slip I rented a golf cart, there a no cars on Man-O-War Cay, and Jane and I drove around town, ate lunch at the only restaurant (which was very good and reasonable) and then drove down the Queen’s Highway sand golf cart road.

Absolutely stunning summer places like out of a fairy tale. One beautiful entry path surrounded by flowers and tree’s after another. Jane took pictures. She has enough material for 100 paintings…

Later Jane did laundry. I explored the town more, which is not very big but they have an excellent little grocery store and a hardware store worthy of a small city, not a little settlement on an out-island.

Later, after dinner on-board, we tried to get in a game of Mau but only made it through two hands and then we crashed for the night.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Eventually we are supposed to get bad weather but it never seems to arrive. I have been checking the weather forecast everyday and they kept calling for 100% chance of rain. It never came so I guess it was not really a 100% chance of rain. We pondered leaving MOW Cay but it is just too nice here. We decided to stay.

One of the fellows that was on the boat the helped us off of the MOW channel bar is on his sailboat in back of us. I lent him a SCUBA tank and BCD and he fixed his missing zinc on his prop shaft. He told me about a great place to hunt for sand dollars.

The girls and I hopped in the dinghy and motored out there. It was the mother load of sand dollars, or a sand dollar grave yard. We picked up a dozen or more. Elizabeth found all of the hard to find stuff as usual. We motored back.

The weather appears to be holding off. We can still get in a snorkel on the nearby Fowl Cay marine sanctuary. I can rent a boat to get there. Do you want to girls? After a moment, Yes.

I went to see Fanny in the Marina Office to see if she could get me a boat. She called one place but they didn’t answer. She called another. He did not have a boat but he said that he would take us out on his, very inexpensively, as a matter of fact less expensively than even renting on our own and we get a guide out of it.

We were on for 1200. Elizabeth, Christy and I wolfed down some lunch. Jane decided to stay home for this trip. Dave picked us up at the dock and we headed out of the harbour. It was a little choppy but not too bad. He went through a very narrow opening in the inner reef and then headed for two mooring balls.

Once I got us tied up to the ball we got our gear one. This was one incredible snorkeling spot. This area is called the Tunnels. I know why. The coral has formed these meandering tunnels that you can dive down and swim through. Many allow you to swim a good length of ways and then come out the other side. Others appears to have light at the end of the tunnel but you have to be careful that you don’t get stuck in a place where you can’t get out and really want to breath. That could be disconcerting!

We snorkeled for a while, took a break on the boat, and then went back at it. We stayed in the water for over an hour. I think we have a hundred pictures and one really cool video of swimming through a tunnel. We motored back and jumped into the marina pool to rinse off.

Then I sat down to right from June 21 to today!

Hope Town to Man-O-War Cay

The morning sun shone over the Hope Town lighthouse as we had our breakfast. The light is still a working hand wound, kerosene lit lighthouse. There are only three like it in the world that still operate this way. All three are in the Bahamas.

We decided to head in. At the entrance to the channel we ran aground. This time I could not get myself off. I was in the channel but aground. I am sure you can appreciate how frustrating that is. One fellow tried to pull us off with his boat but his engine was too small. Another boat had two bigger engines and once we got the lines setup he pulled us off easily.

I didn’t try the other side of the channel although it did look deeper. We decided to go back out and anchor and dinghy in. Our first stop was the Hope Town lighthouse. Elizabeth had been there before when she was seven so she was looking forward to going again. It is spectacular and the weather and sun that day was perfect for picture taking. Thank God for large memory chips.
After we dinghyed to the hot lunch spot. The girls went exploring while Jane and I had lunch. Then Jane went exploring.

When she came back she had Regatta Time in Abaco tee-shirts. As she showed them to me an old sailor came over from across the bar that I had been meaning to go talk to anyway. He had a beautiful gold sailboat on a chain.

After he asked Jane were she got the shirts and how much she paid I sat down with him as he ate his lunch. He told me that he has been coming to Abaco for over 50 years. His 41 sailboat was on a mooring ball just off of the deck. Evidently he had helped organize the original Regatta Time races.

His daughter had just finished visiting. He said that he spends about 50% of his time on the boat alone. He was 87 and it was fascinating talking with him. Earlier I had though while looking at him that that could be me when I am old. Man, it’ll be a while before I am that old though!

We had a great day in Hope Town and dinghyed back out to the boat. We had our portable depth sounder on the dinghy and checked the left side of the channel. Six feet of water. More than enough to get in. There were also lots of sailboats in the inner harbour so I know it’s possible. Maybe next time.

We got back out to the boat around 1600 and the weather was perfect for sailing west. So we got off of the hook and put up the sails and went west. Great sailing for a couple of hours. Then we had to decide where we were going to get fuel, water and supplies. We could go to Marsh Harbour but that is not that much fun. I decided to head for Man-O-War Cay.

Jane has always wanted to go there and so have I. It has a nice protected harbour and I made it into the narrow entrance without running aground. I still don’t have a tide chart yet. We entered the harbour which is picture perfect and grabbed a mooring ball.

Steaks for dinner on the grill!