Bahamas - September 2005 - just us

After Jane and Noel left, Laurel and I decided to head back to the Bahamas. It was just too beautiful not to go back and the crayfish were easy to get. It took me a while to work out how the locals were getting crayfish. They just seem to drive around in their dinghies with one person standing on the front looking for what we thought we crayfish on the sand. Once we had worked out that they were looking from old pieces of corrugated iron that had been placed there, it was easy to work out that that's what the crayfish hid under during the day.
The water was so clear you could see the barracuda swimming past, also the odd stingray. It was about a week before we were due to head home when hurricane Rita decided to form at the bottom of Andros Island. We had safely anchored behind a reef about 50 miles north of Andros Island and thought we were safe. The first 24 hours were fine as the wind howled towards the centre of a hurricane. However, when it cleared at the bottom of
Andros Island, it threw the sea back at us. Laurel and I were sitting inside playing cards about 10 in the morning when I said it didn't feel right. I went outside and you could almost see the sea coming out the Gulf. It was time to move and move quickly. It was at this point we found our anchor well jammed into a reef and could not be retrieved. After taking a wave which threw me against the side of the yacht, breaking two of my ribs, we needed to move fast. I put both engines in full reverse, let the anchor chain go, and headed north. Several hours later we arrived at Bimini and had managed to radio and contact
Jake on 'Pirates Lady'. 'Pirates Lady' was a yacht working out of Bimini. It really was a relief to be able to talk to somebody when you appear to be alone out of the storm. Jake was very helpful and gave us good advice and we managed to get ourselves safely anchored off North Bimini beach. Two days later we went back to the reef to salvage our anchor and chain before having a very quick trip back to Fort Lauderdale.
Once we returned to Fort Lauderdale we decided to have 'Cool Bananas' hauled out and a bottom antifouled. It was a adventure to go out the New River, and have to deal with nine drawbridges. If you didn't call them correctly they wouldn't open for you. We had heard a story about a yacht who had tried to sneak through behind another yacht and the bridge was closed onto the yacht, crushing the mast. The new river was quite narrow and wide, and as we were 20 feet wide we were very mindful of 150 foot super yachts being towed the other way. Lauderdale Marine had three travel lifts of which only one was wide enough for us. The travel lift was capable of lifting 150 tonne boats, 200 feet long so 'Cool Bananas' was gently plucked from the water and well looked after. After the work was completed we headed back to Loggerhead Marina and prepared her for any cyclones that may have come a long while we were back at home. Now Murphy's Law would have told you that if you do your preparations nothing would happen. But hurricane Wilma came along and thrashed through Florida. 85% of the yachts in the marina were damaged in some way, however our preparations paid off and 'Cool Bananas' came through unscathed.

Bahamas- August 2005 Jane and Noel Bailey

Our friends from Hamilton, Jane and Noel Bailey decided to join us in Florida for a few weeks. We decided to head for the Bahamas and enjoy the flat calm waters and the beautiful sunshine. We had a wonderful time cruising around. We always found it interesting when we left Fort Lauderdale, as we had never come across drawbridges and internal waterways before. When we left to go out to the sea, we took around about an hour and we had to go through three drawbridges on the way.



It was great to know that when you called bridges up on the VHF that they would stop the traffic and pedestrians and just open up for you. There was only one bridge that did not open on demand. It was the 17th St Causeway which had six lanes of traffic each way.
The cruise out to the Bahamas was approximately 54 nautical miles and normally took us about seven to eight hours. It was the hurricane season and we always had to keep that in the back of our minds. We had never seen anything like the Bahamas before, that turquoise water and very very clear. You would drop your anchor and it would be 12 feet deep. The only trouble was it was like dropping an anchor on the tar seal road, just nothing for it to dig into. The trick was to put everything out, all your chain.





After clearing customs and immigration, we headed out to Concrete Ship Bay. It was there that we came across the wreck of the 'Soprano'. The ship was originally built for Henry Ford as an entertainment vessel and then sold on to do freight work. It was some time then, that it went on to the Bahama Bank in a hurricane, never to move again. We had a fantastic snorkell there and the fish life was great.
After 10 days it was time to head back to the concrete jungle, known as Fort Lauderdale.



As I said it was the hurricane season and sure enough hurricane Katrina came along not long after we arrived back in Fort Lauderdale. We had met some other cruises, Tip and JoLyn Coleman who were on a Lagoon catamaran next to us on the Marina. The wind blew at hurricane force in one direction and then and the lull as the eye of the storm went across us. In the lull we retightened ropes, traded fenders and compared notes about the first half of the storm. Ten minutes later the wind got up in the other direction until the full blast was on us again. While we had no damage it was a great learning experience for us. It gave us the experience and know-how to prepare for another one another day. The photo is of JoLyn loaning us some extra fenders that were surplus to them. Note the coconut tree in the background- all the fronds are hanging out the back. It was also interesting to learn that the staff on the Marina did not get involved with moving fenders and tightening mooring lines, as they were scared of being sued.

Cool Bananas

My wife Laurel and I had moved on to our yacht 'Cool Bananas' that we had recently purchased in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It was way more than I had dreamed of 10 years earlier. It had taken me two years to track down and purchase the cruising yacht that I thought would be beyond our reach.

We purchased 'Cool Bananas' in the middle of 2005 and our son Jason and I flew to Fort Lauderdale to do the purchase. Everything went smoothly and David Bird, the CEO of Admiral yachts, South Africa,was a pleasure to deal with.
When we first arrived in Fort Lauderdale we were very fortunate to have met two people from Houston on their yacht 'Starship'. Roy and Stephanie were a great help to us, running us around and always offering to help. At the beginning I wasn't keen to drive on the right-hand side of the road.

Jason was keen to watch the launch of a space shuttle, so we headed up to Cape Canaveral in the yacht, where we had a birds eye view from the 10 mile limit. The launch was over in 11 seconds. We had booked into Cocoa Beach yacht club for a month. Cocoa Beach yacht club was quite social and we met a couple who are living on the yacht next-door, Daryl and Ronnie Birch. We had a few Sunday afternoons with drinks with them and their friends. This photo is typical of a Sunday afternoon.




During the month we had quite a severe lightning strike. You know the one, enough to do a lot of damage but not enough to claim insurance.shortly after Jason and I sailed back to Fort Lauderdale and found a marina berth in Loggerhead marina. I saw the lightning strike as an opportunity to get to know the boats electrics, as my background as an electrician all of a sudden came to the fore. Ray Marine were fantastic to deal with and within six weeks or so everything was up and running again. (This photo is of Jason repairing lights on the mast)

Six weeks later Jason flew back to New Zealand and Laurel arrived..........