The Strider logs for the Cruise back from the VI to Florida in early 2017.

January 11, 2017
We ended the loitering in the BVI/VI portion of the trip on January 11. Leaving Nanny Cay with full fuel, plus 10 gallons on deck and full water. We cleared out of the British side at Jost and cleared into the US side at Cruz Bay. The customs agent was adamant that we did not have to clear out or in again if our next stops were all US territories, so we are good to go through Puerto Rico as far as customs is concerned.

We leave the VI's after 2 months and one day, with 18,811 miles on the ships log, 1,457 engine hours, and full tanks.
We have covered roughly 540 miles the last two months, added 55 engine hours and have bought 76 gallons of diesel, 23 gallons of gas and 550 gallons of water. We are currently carrying 140 gallons of water, 110 gallons of fuel, and 13 gallons of gas (plus some food and beer of course..)

January 12
After a windy night on a mooring ball of Cruz bay, we head out around 8am with a double reef in the main and the dingy lashed on deck. Ready for a somewhat rough ride to St Croix. It is fairly windy the whole way over, with 15 - 25 knots on a broad reach. We sail it mostly with a half rolled up Genoa and the double reefed main. The seas are roughly 10 feet and it is a rolly ride with the north running swell. The winds are supposed to build the next few days, so this seemed like a good window to get across.
The entrance to  Christenstead is through a fairly well marked reef, and the waves make it interesting, but not dangerous. The main anchorage was very rolly with the waves pushing in from the NE, so we tried a spot in the area behind the hotel. Once we were anchor the lady who runs the ferry between the mainland and the island hotel told us we were in the channel. OK, we moved to a corner of "Hang Man's Bay". There was not a lot of room and when we settled back we were too close to some unused private moorings and so we pulled up. The winds were blowing around 20 knots and the anchor was pulling back as I raised it. It had caught on some abandoned anchor line from one of the private moorings. We backed down and got that off and had to move forward with the anchor not fully on the deck due to being blown back toward shore. This let the anchor swing in the chop and it took a nice chunk out of the bow before I could get it back in the anchor roller. Oh Well...
Time for the 3rd try, we picked a spot just outside the channel near Protestant Cay which seemed to be less impacted by the swells and chop. Dropped there in 20 feet of water. We ended up anchored there the next 4 days.

We launched the dingy and put things back together (always fun with a chop and strong wind as it makes it hard to launch the dingy and hard to get the outboard on). I had some gel coat paste and decided to work on the damage on the bow. This was also made harder by the wind and chop, but I managed to get some gelcoat on the hole and put tape on it to hopefully form it into a smooth repair. It worked fairly well, and the damage is not apparent unless you are looking for it.. So stop doing that!
That afternoon a Santa Cruz 70 came into the harbor. The skipper was single handed and he also tried anchoring in a few spots before putting out three anchors (two tied together on one anchor line), and ending up along side of us. He was helped by a second solo sailor who saw he was having a hard time getting anchored, and I came over after the dust settled to have a beer!

When I dingied around the harbor I saw some boats that were docked fighting some wind and waves at the dock. I liked our spot better.
As a birthday treat, we had Brownies and a nice dinner. Dinner was held up as we ran out of propane, so our 1st tank lasted us 3 full months, which is not bad. It was hard to replace the tank as the latch for the locker had corroded and would not open. Got that working and changed tanks. Took apart and greased the latch the next day so it is good to go now.

January 13.
The winds built as expected and we saw fairly steady 25 to 30 knot winds all day. The middle of the bay was a stack of standing waves as the surf came around both sides of Protestant Cay and met there creating a very rough spot to Dingy through. Cheryl went ashore and I headed to the marina and they were kind enough to drive the propane tank to a refill spot and bring it back for a $10 fee, not bad service and we had it back the same day.

January 14
I downloaded a $3 anchor watch app from the apple store for the iPad. It makes it easy to check on things, and was one more indication the anchor was not moving an inch in the winds and chop. It also would send an email alert if the boat dragged, which was nice as we walked around the island some and got lunch ashore. We toured the fort and enjoyed a nice walk along the board walk. There were some nice views of the boat in the harbor, and the fort it self was sort of fun. Not sure I would have enjoyed living in the fort 150 years ago, it seems a tough life. Glad the cannons were not shooting at us!

January 15
As swimming and snorkeling were not going to work in the heavy winds, we decided to rent a car and spent much of the day touring the Island. We drove through the "rain forest" which was not that impressive, and went to the far eastern point of the US at the end of the Island, which provided a nice view.
We had a nice view of the Fort from the boat, and also had a pretty good view of the town. It is a nice place, but we did learn a few things about when to come. We now know that we would have been smarter to go there when the winds are south of East and mainly settled. Our visit was during a period of rare, but strong NE winds, and the only clocked to the East after four days. The weather looks much the same the next four days, and we have sat at Anchor for a while, so we decide to bug out tomorrow. We spend some time in the afternoon getting the dingy on deck and the everything stowed for the crossing back as the weather maybe unsettled.

January 16
We leave in between rain squalls and in a rare lull in the wind. We exit the channel and get a little rougher ride than I expected. I was expecting 15 to 20 knots and maybe 7 foot seas. We see steady winds between 20 and 30 and 10 foot waves, mainly on the beam as we head to Culebra. It is about 45 miles and we take a little over 6 hours to make the trip. Mostly with a double reefed main and a deeply rolled up Genoa. My guess is this will be the roughest passage we make on the way back, given the sea state. I promise Cheryl we will pick a nice weather window for the long leg from Puerto Rico to the Bahamas.

We anchor in Culebra at a very nice and quiet spot, with great holding.

January 17 Tuesday
We look at our weather options for the trip to the Bahamas and since there is a very strong cold front expected to push deep into the Bahamas around Monday of next week and bring with it 30 plus knot winds and squalls to 50 knots, we decide the best plan will be to leave Puerto Rico on the back end of this front, so maybe on the 25th. With this in mind, we make some dock reservations in Puerto Rico and line up a rental car so we can spend a couple days exploring the island before we jump off. The spot in Puerto Rico is our only provisioning stop until we get to Georgetown which is about 600 miles and maybe two weeks away from when we leave, so it is the pivotal planning spot on the leg home.
With this decision made, we dingy the 1.5 miles to the main part of town and check things out, grab a nice lunch at the "Dingy Dock" bar and grill, and pick up a couple of items from the grocery store. All very exciting activities...

January 18
We plan on going to PR on Saturday, so we have three days to cruise Culebra. We head out to Cato De Luis Pena Island, which is a small island to the SW of Culebra and anchor there on the East side of the Island to avoid the left over swells and the East wind (which is now only around 10-15 knots). It is a quiet spot with a few dive boats coming and going and us. Cheryl gets her first swim in since the 9th, which was a long time ago! A nice spot with a gentle swell rocking us to sleep.

January 19 Thursday
We motor around the south end of Culebra to Isla Culebrita. The winds are fairly light at less than 10 knots and the seas are nearly flat, it has a Lake Michigan feel to it as we motor around the Island. Very different wind and wave state from when we came in this way on Monday. We anchor in a small bay in the NW corner of the Island, in a sandy patch. We would like to do a beach landing and hike to the light house ruins, but the first couple of spots are too wavy to land. We end up taking the dingy down to the SW point of the island where there is a ruined dock, and anchor the dingy off with our son's small Bruce anchor and a rock on shore. Cheryl finds a trail, well, what was left of a trail, and we hike through the switch backs till we get to the old light house. It is starting to fall apart, but people are making some effort to keep things intact with some wooded bracing.
We return to the boat and enjoy a nice snorkel. It is a very scenic spot, with the waves breaking on the reef to our NE and a pretty sand beach outlying the bay in front of us. With the calmer conditions, it is a scene out of a travel brochure. Seems like not the perfect place to stay overnight, so we move the 1.5 miles over to Bahia De Almodovar, which is a very well protected and also very scenic small bay on the SE side of Culebra. You can look out of the bay into the Ocean as the southern edge is a low lying reef. The winds have died to less than 5 knots, and the water is flat. A very pleasant spot, and a very nice day.

January 20, Friday.
We moved from the mooring ball to anchor in the bay as the depth under us was only 6 feet when we swung towards the reef. We decide to leave the boat here and dingy back to Isla Culebrita to do some snorkeling and more poking around. This anchorage is quiet and very scenic, so may as well stay put. The dingy will make an easy crossing in these winds and waves, so after a big breakfast of sausage, potatoes and eggs, we set off to snorkel. When we do our afternoon dingy cruise, we see some interesting jelly fish.
Very pretty day, and a great sunset!

January 21, Saturday
Head over to Fajardo and Sunbay Marina. We get in around 1PM, and plug in and wash the boat. With Power and water included in the slip fee, we get to waste a little of each which is nice after a couple of months of careful conservation. We also order a pizza and it is delivered right to the boat, which is pretty nice!

January 22, Sunday
We get a rental car and head up to the rain forest in Puerto Rico. It is a pretty interesting place, and we are glad we made the trip.
Lots of good sights and a very interesting place. The waterfall here has a sign that says don't walk on the rocks... They don't mean me...  There are some great views on the road as you drive around. When we get back we plug into the cable box and watch the NFC and AFC championship games.

January 23, Monday
We take the car to get groceries and stock up for the trip to the Bahamas, and then head over to see Old San Juan. We see the Fort and enjoy looking at the massive scale of the place. As you walk around you get a great view of  waves breaking on the beach and the channel it protects. We walk around the town some and enjoy the place. It is a a very interesting place.

January 24, Tuesday.
Time to get ready for the trip to the Bahamas and we fill 6 jerry jugs and the water tanks. We will head to the Bahamas with 130 gallons of fuel, 12 gallons of gas, and 140 gallons of water. Plus a heavy load of food and drink since things are a little harder to find in the Bahamas. The boat is ready and the weather looks promising. Our plan is to head out around 4am and start going to the Bahamas.

January 25, Wednesday.
We get up as planned at 4am, and head out. We take it slow as we dodge the reefs around Fajardo and motor the first 9 hours or so, until the wind fills in and we start sailing around 1PM. We have a close reach in around 12 knts of wind, doing about 6 knots. It is a sloppy sea with some swells on the nose and some wind driven waves 60 degrees off the nose. Plus there are some modest squalls. A little uncomfortable in terms of the motion the first day. We make a number of sail changes as the winds keep shifting and building and dieing down, but we sail through the night.

January 26, Thursday
Winds have come aft, so we go wing on wing for a while. By around 1PM the winds are too light to meet our target boat speed and we are back to motoring. Late int he day we get a couple more hours of sailing in, but the bulk of the next 24 hours is motoring.
Lots of stars at night as there is no moon, and we see a steady stream of cruise ships pass us through the night.
We also pass a couple of pretty amazing reefs that rise out of water over 10,000 feet deep just 4 miles off the reef. They are not Islands, but wanted to be, just dry at low tide, they could use a 100 more feet of elevation... They are over 10,000 feet tall, 10,100 feet and they would be an island, not the "silver bank".
We also pass over the Puerto Rico Trench which is over 26,000 feet deep and one of the deepest spots in the Atlantic.


January 27, Friday
Get the chute up around 8am as the winds are almost dead behind at 15 knots. Play with this for a while and then end up going back to wing on wing for the rest of the day. Around 8PM we are back to motoring and we motor all night on a flat Ocean as we pass the Turks. Very pretty night and smooth motion for sleeping, temps are also very pleasant and we have a great star show, so can't complain.

January 28, Saturday
We arrive around 10am as planned, and with good light find out way up the 4 mile long, reef strewn harbor at Mayaguana.
The reefs are easy to see and we take our time, but and have the dingy in the water before noon.
We covered just over 500 nautical miles on the 3 day passage, and the trip took around 77 hours (we did slow down at the end to arrive with the Sun a little higher in the sky so we could see the reefs). We motored around 47 on the trip due to the winds going light and being dead behind a good deal. Still, it was a smooth trip, with the first day being the most uncomfortable, and a couple of very pretty nights.

We head into town, but the customs office is closed on the weekend. We will clear in Monday. The winds are light and the water very clear, so we do some snorkeling and enjoy seeing the boat sitting in 8 feet of water at low tide.
We also walk around the town some and explore the island. Always time for a good old selfie, so here it is...

January 29, Sunday
One more very pleasant day, we walk the Island some and do a couple of snorkel trips. The second one is a 3 mile ride out towards the entrance to the bay where we check on a couple of the reefs we dodged coming in. We see some Star fish and lots of smaller colorful fish on the outer reefs.4 boats have arrived since we came in, and the one boat who was here is still around, so there are now 6 cruisers in the bay.

Not much else going on, so I run a few numbers on the trip so far.
Since leaving Wisconsin in September, we have burned about 155 gallons of diesel, used about 18 gallons of gas for dingy and Honda generator, used maybe 680 gallons of water, covered about 2,550 Nautical Miles, and have about 500 miles to go to Florida. We have around 95 gallons of fuel in our tanks so I am confident we will not need fuel until we hit Florida, maybe not until this summer on Lake Michigan.

January 30, Monday.
We head into town promptly at 9am, but soon discover we have gained a time zone and it is really 8am... Oh well. We wonder around for an hour and then clear in. The Bahamas charges you a flat $300 (paid in cash...) to clear in, and you can stay for 6 months. We fill out the forms at the customs house, (using carbon paper between sheets to make the duplicates), and pay the fee and are all legal for the next month. We will not have to clear in again until we hit Ft Lauderdale.
The winds come in and clock around almost 270 degrees until they are blowing NE. We watch the anchor handle this massive wind shift and I take a number of photos of the slow movement, and the chain running in a big loop as the wind shifts. Lucky for you, I messed up the copy of these images and they are lost, so I can't include them here. I also saw 10 small squid under the boat, which was neat.
We hauled the dingy on deck for the next leg as the winds will be in the 20's and I figure it is the safe play for any windy over night trips. We could likely carry the dingy on the davits, but if there was a freak wave that crashed into the dingy on the davits, that could be a real problem, so for any open ocean sailing in over 20 knots, we have been putting it on deck.
This might be the last time we need to do this as this is our last overnight, and hopefully our weather windows are all reasonable.


January 31, Tuesday
We putter around until about 12:30 as we don't want to get to Rum Cay before the sun is up high enough to help us see the reefs. We are guessing the 125 miles or so will take around 21 hours. We haul the anchor in a still 20 knot breeze and wind our way back out the 4 miles or so to open water. We begin sailing right away, and have a very smooth beam reach in 15 to 20 knots of wind the whole way to Rum Cay.
We enjoy a nice sunset and savor (well, one of us anyway), the last overnight of this trip. The rest of our travel should all be day moves, hopefully with the dingy in the davits.
As a side note, I have not seen any waves that would have hit the dingy in the davits, so we could have skipped putting it on deck, but it is clearly safer that way, so I still think it makes sense for the overnights.

February 1, Wednesday.
We sail from leaving Mayaguna until 2 miles out, covering the distance as planned in exactly 21 hours.. Go figure. We arrive in Rum Cay around 9:30 and find our way to a nice anchorage using the Gentleman's Guide to Passages South. The spot he suggests was always in deep water (over 18 feet) until we get close to shore and anchor in 12 feet or so. This spot seems pretty protected from rolling in the bay, which is one of the worries in Rum Cay.
Time to fire up the Honda to charge the batteries as we draw close to 20 amps underway with both fridges going and the electronics, and with no engine time, the batteries are drawn down some.

Cheryl and I dingy over to the Marina and find it completely shoaled in. Where the gas dock used to be is now posts sitting in sand, and there are maybe 5 boats trapped in the harbor and one sunk. Sounds like the harbor opens every once in a while, and they have plans to dredge it at some point to get the boats out. Things seem to move very, very slowly here, and the hurricane damages is from a 2015 storm Joaquin. In any event, there is damage on most every building and the Marina is basically shot. When we were here in 2002, the owner was running a nice dining room (as the Chef), did some fine art work, and had big plans to expand the marina. Seemed like a real nice guy and a hard worker. It is too bad to see this work go down the drain. I think this last storm is the 2nd or 3rd to smash the harbor since we were here in 2002.

For some comparison, here is the slip we were in in 2002, and here is that spot today. Here is the slip from a different angle.

Otherwise, a beautiful day and a nice spot. We dingy around in the afternoon and find this interesting rock formation... Looks like a dog to me, what do you see :-)

February 2, Thursday
I spent three hours in the morning working on the aft head. I take the motor off, and take it apart. There is calcification on the shaft and crud built up on the seals. Also a couple of the washers meant to keep water out are disintegrated. The boat is in it's 10th season, and has 20,000 miles, so I suppose the motor has done a good job, but the leaking is a problem. I clean all the seals and polish the motor shaft so it is smooth again, I coat all the gaskets with waterproof grease and seal the two bolt holes holding the impeller/macerator to the motor housing with silicon seal. Put the whole thing back together and after some fun with the wiring (had to solder the wires together as the crimper was not getting the job done for me), it seems to be working with no leaks. I ordered a new motor anyway and hopefully Tom can bring it down when he comes on the 11th.

The day itself was mainly overcast, with periods of rain. We got enough rain to fill a couple of buckets so Friday will be laundry day.  This was the first rainy day in more than two weeks, so we can't complain. The weather has cooled off some so it is comfortable sleeping. Still 75 degrees or so, but that is lots better for sleeping than 90 plus.

February 3, Friday
The day starts out windy and sunny, with the winds looking to be SE on the boat, but I think some of that is wrapping around the coast/point and the winds are more easterly if we went out in the Ocean some. Cheryl does some light laundry with our fresh rain water. Speaking of water, we are now 10 days from Fajardo and the bow water tank gage is reading 3/4 full. I think this is roughly 40 gallons. We have been getting by on about 4 gallons of water per day. We are likely to hit George Town Monday or Tuesday next week (we should be able to fill up there), so we are in great shape water wise for this leg of the trip.
We enjoy the pretty spot, the nice day and one more great sunset.

February 4, Saturday
The day starts with very light winds and we are able to clearly see the bottom as we motor over 30 plus foot depths. The Ocean is like glass which is a sharp contrast to some of our other passages, and we enjoy a smooth motor the 24 miles to Conception Island.
Good to charge the batteries anyway. Makes for not much crew work running the boat!
We anchor fairly close to the beach in 13 feet of water and enjoy the Island. Conception has one of the nicest beaches we see on these trips with smooth sand and a long stretch on both sides of the Island to walk on.

February 5, Sunday.
Some rain overnight but with the cooler (mid 70's) temperatures at night having the boat closed up is not the hardship it was a couple months ago in the BVI. The rain is nice as it washes the salt off the boat and cleans things up some.
We do some exploring of the other side of the Island and climb the modest rocks that lead to the cliffs on that side. Someone has nicely tied a old cruise ship mooring line up the rock to help people get up on one of the rocks, so I take the required selfie from the top. You get a nice view from this rock. We hike the other side of the bluff for a little distance, but decide there is too much cactus for our choice of footwear. It does provide some nice vistas though.
We make our way back to the dingy, and head over to the lagoons in the middle of the Island. It is about 1.5 miles by dingy, and the entrance is not accessible at low tide, but there is a fairly large shallow area to explore once you are past the mouth. We see many turtles scooting along underwater in the 5 foot depths. Maybe 20 or so in our 30 minutes of poking around. It is an interesting place and a nature preserve as part of the Exuma land and sea sanctuary.
We head back to the boat, and enjoy a great sunset that night.

February 6, Monday
We are anchor up around 6am and head over to Georgetown. The wind is dead behind around 10 knots, so we motor to charge the batteries and cover the 42 miles so we will arrive around noon. The entrance is through some reefs and it is nice to have reasonable sun and reasonable winds and waves as you come in. It is interesting to come in as you basically head right for a set of rocks and then make a sharp right turn a few hundred yards before you get to them to enter the channel. Although there is a lot of boat traffic in this area, there are no navigational markets at the entrance. It is the Bahamas!
We are going from areas where we see one or two boats anchored off mile wide stretches, to one of the more densely populated anchorages in the Bahamas. Georgetown is where a lot of folks from Florida spend the winter, with maybe 300 boats hanging around the basins for months at a time. We will spend a week there, which I am sure will be plenty!
We arrive around 12:30 and anchor off Sand Dollar Beach which seems a little less crowded than some other spots.
It has been exactly  two weeks since our last grocery run so we dingy over to the town and grab some things from the Exuma Market. The prices are high and they charge you 5% to use a credit card, but it is very convenient to get to by dingy, and they provide free RO water at the dingy dock.  This gets me to thinking... Maybe I can use the spare bladder tank as a way to ferry water to the boat. A project is born, and after about an hour of cleaning the old tank and putting some fittings on it, I make the first run in to get water. It is about 1.5 miles from where we anchored and there is a chop, so it is a rough fast ride there, and a slow slamming ride back as I can't plane with the water tank in the dingy.
My first idea was to step on the tank to force the water out by pressurizing the bladder. This did not work at all!
Plan B was to hoist it out of the dingy and then let it gravity feed back into the boat tank.
This worked pretty well, and  I made 2 trips Monday, each time filling the bladder tank about half full. I only fill it about half way so it is not too heavy to hoist, as it is a 50 gallon tank and the straps are designed to hold it in place, not as lifting rings. 25 or 30 gallons is around 220lbs and this seems plenty.
The bow tank had around 30 gallons in it, so we were using about 5 gallons a day since we left Fajardo. Not quite as good as in 2012 where we used only 3.5 gals/day for the same two week stretch, but still doing well on water usage.

February 7, Tuesday
We listen to the cruiser net on the VHF in the morning and they are having water aerobics so we shoot over in the morning so Cheryl can join in. After the two fills, the tank reads full, but I think I can get one more bladder load in, so I do that while the aerobics are going on. I meet up with a fellow at the dingy dock who likes my bladder idea (most folks use 5 gallon jerry jugs), and we talk some. After a while I tell him we are heading out in a few days and he asks why? "This is like day care for old people, you would have fun hanging around". Seems like a good description as there are lots of social activities and everyone is friendly, I am sure it would be fun to hang out for a while, but we are ready to get back to the States!
With the 3rd bladder tank load, I get the bow tank 100% filled. For extra credit, I make one more run so now we have a spare 25 gallons of water on the bow, ready for action, and two full tanks.
We see some dolphins around the boat (sorry for the poor photo, but they go away by the time I get the camera out!), and spend the afternoon futzing around on the beach and eating Chocolate Brownies Cheryl made (they are tasty!).

February 8
Just knocking around Georgetown.
Changed oil in Honda, picked up 8.5 gallons of gas, and we went to town and had lunch and feasted on WiFi at the Peace and Plenty hotel.
We also dingied all through the red shanks area. There were only a couple of boats there but it was an interesting ride.

February 9 Thursday
Make a bladder tank run as the winds have calmed down, so it is fairly easy to get it back, and not as wet. Walked around the island path and then did some snorkeling which was nothing special.

February 10, Friday
We started the clean up for our guests and poked around Volley Ball beach. Had a beer at the Chat and Chill, and walked around some. The winds have filled in and it is blowing around 20 much of the night. Rockna holds like a champ, of course.

February 11, Saturday
We put the bladder tank into the bow tank, it is now full again, we have 6 gallons left so we fill a couple of buckets and now we have some clean rinse water. Make a run into town for one last bladder fill, and groceries for the coming week. It is a wet ride back into the 20 knot breeze.
Now we have filled the bladder tank six times in the five days we have been here. I figure the tank is around 25 gallons full when we fill it, so we have taken on 150 gallons of water in George Town, all via dingy. The tank holds 50 gallons, but I am not sure how well we could winch that up out of the dingy and if the tank straps would hold the weight. We have a good system to winch the water tank aboard, and things go smoothly now. Of course, I doubt I will ever do this again as water is easy to find most places we go, but it is nice to have a system!
It is also nice to leave GeorgeTown with full water tanks.
Tom and Heidi arrive in the afternoon and we meet up for dinner at the hotel.

February 12 Sunday
We  pick up Tom and Heidi who spent the night at the Peace and Plenty Hotel. The rest of the day is spent poking around the area.
Cheryl and I have been anchored in the same spot now for 7 days. A Strider record. We are more than ready to head out, and Monday looks calm, so we will depart in the morning.

February 13  Monday
Leave GeorgeTown around 8AM and head to Galliot Cut.
The cuts are interesting as even a mile out there is a good deal of turbulence from the tide flowing out from the cuts. We get a little sailing in, but in general, it is a motoring trip.  We Anchor off of Galliot cut,  and spend a peaceful night anchoring in very clear water. We spend some time visiting with a Leopard 4600 Cat anchored near by, who shows us around.

February 14  Tuesday
After a short service to drop in a Conch Shell, we motored in a flat calm to Stanley Cay. The motoring was interesting as the flat calm and clear skies made for a very pretty scene as we drifted along at 6.4knots. After anchoring off of Big Major Spot, we checked out the pigs that hang off the beach and had a quick run through town. For $7 we were able to toss out a bag of garbage, and we made Valentines day dinner reservations at the Stanley Cay Yacht club. Dinner was very nice and we made the 1.5 mile ride back to the boat in the dark without any issues.

February 15  Wednesday
Left around 8am with the goal of getting into VHF range of Exuma park by 9am when they start taking reservations. It was a nice sail in 12 knots of breeze on a broad reach. We were hoping to dodge the front in a safe spot as the winds would be coming out of  the West and then North West, maybe to 30 in squalls, so we wanted to be tucked in Wednesday night and Thursday. This turned out to be a good plan as we got the last mooring ball at the park, but in Goat Cay, which is on the south end of the park, It was a new spot for us, and very protected, but  it had a 2 knot current which switched directions as the tide came in and out. the boat was frequently beam on the wind as the wind and current fought each other. Made for some interesting issues with the mooring ball, but by shortening up the rope we minimized the paint swipes as the ball and rope scraped under the hull.

We took a hike on the shore and enjoyed the funky rocky landscape. This gave us some good photo opportunities and we enjoyed the hike itself. You would not want to fall as the rocks are sharp and there is no help nearby. We managed to not fall and it was a good way to spend the afternoon. We saw a few lizards, but not much other wildlife.
The boat is well protected here, so it was a great place to spent the night.
We also moved to the aft water tank today and rolled up the bladder on the deck, so we now have basically full tanks.

February 16  Thursday

The front came through around 1PM, so it was nice we got our hike in before then. This time we hiked the other side of the bay and surveyed the Ocean side. This tertian was similar, but different as there were many water features that made it interesting.
We took some shots of the boat from the other side as well.
A cloudy day, and a strong current so we did not snorkel, but the current made for a nice ride when we swam.

February 17  Friday
With the front passing through, many boats left the park and we were able to move to the north side of the park, which is the main section and has the park headquarters. We moved over around 10:30 and took a slack tide swim and then hiked the BooBoo trail and visited the blow holes and other sights. There were some interesting shells, and it is always fun to see the tide roll out, leaving the dingy high and dry!

February 18th Saturday
Headed up to shroud Cay. It was an interesting spot where we could dingy into a mangrove areas and hike around. There were some mooring balls, but we are happier to use our own anchoring gear as we know it is solid. We had a nice walk, and built a stone pile to help ensure good Karma for the rest of the trip and for all who are struggling with illness. Overall, it was one more very nice night.

February 19, Sunday
We had planned to anchor out at Nassau for a night, but the weather was threatening, so we decided to try and get a slip at a very upscale marina on the west end of the Island called Lyford Cay. It was a very nice spot, and they work to keep folks out by charging 3 times the rate that the upscale places in the US charge for a slip. We decided we could handle it for a night or two and wanted to check it out.  The marina was very nice and it was fun to walk around and dingy around looking at the boats.


February 20, Monday
We were getting a nasty forecast for a big front coming down in a few days and it seemed as if we had to either push across today or wait a week before crossing the Gulf Stream. Since the anchoring spots on the Bahamas side of the gulf stream are not great in a front, and we had some time pressure to get back to the US, we decided to push up our plans and grab this weather window to punch the boat all the way back to West Palm Beach. This turned out to be a very good plan as the weather did turn rough in a few days, and we enjoyed a great ride back. It was a very nice sail, with a little motoring at the start, but a good crossing of the Banks, and we were able to use some of the great navigational markers along the way. The Ocean was fairly smooth and the sunset was very nice. Overall, a very pleasant night, and our last overnight of the trip.

February 21 Tuesday
This was our last day on the Ocean and the passage to Florida continued very smoothly. We left the banks a little before dawn, and by 8:30 we were solidly in the Gulf Stream and making great time without pushing it at all. We ended up averaging over 10 Knots for a couple of hours as we blasted across. Very good speed for Strider. It was a very nice sail, although it got a little more choppy as we came in towards West Palm Beach.
Overall, it was a great crossing and given the weather we saw the next few days, we made the right call pushing straight through. We got in around noon and started to take the boat apart. I went up the mast to remove the wind wand and SSB antenna, and other gear. Always a good view from up there. We got both the main and Genoa off and folded and in general, made a lot of progress.

February 22, Wednesday
We continued to take things apart and ready the boat to be hauled out. With Cheryl leaving Thursday, the priority was on jobs that needed two people, and there were plenty of them! By the end of the day, the boom was off, Radar and Radar pole, and all canvas was down and stowed. It was a lot of work to get the solar panels off the Bimini, so it is no wonder they held firm the last 4 months, the Bimini would have ripped off before they did!

February 23, Thursday
It is a very short trip over to Crack Boy boat yard in West Palm Beach, and after the 5 minute motor over, we are in the travel lift well. The boat was hauled right on schedule, and after getting it blocked, I took Cheryl to the airport. I got things ready to take the mast down, and also winterized the engine and water systems as the boat was headed back to the cold.

February 24-27 Friday - Monday
On Friday, we pulled the mast. Wish I could say that went perfectly, but we ended up damaging a hand rail on the bow and the backstay swag fitting (after it got caught under the rail as the mast was being pulled). This is a good excuse to get a hydraulic backstay adjuster, as I need to cut the backstay now anyway..

Overall, things went smoothly and the next three days I finished packing up the boat, got the mast stripped and ready for the truck, and in general made her ready for the trip back to Wisconsin.  The last thing I did was to tape some foam sun shades over the hatches to keep the temps under control inside the boat. Not something I will have to worry about in a couple of weeks when the boat is back North! Time to fly back home. Due to scheduling issues, the boat will sit for a week at Cracker Boy boat yard waiting for the truck ride home.

March 10th
The boat arrives back in Manitowoc, no worse for wear. The temps are in the low 20's so it is a good thing I winterized everything! Soon the boat was enjoying the Wisconsin weather.. No need for the sun shades anymore!



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