Home Sweet Home

We made another overnight jump all the way from Portsmouth to Annapolis. The current was with us, the wind was favorable, and the allure of being in a marina was too good to pass up. It is chilly up here and having shore power allows us to turn on the heater. It was so chilly last night that we ran an extension cord out to the driving station and ran our portable heater in the tent-like enclosure. It was 47 degrees so that made a huge difference.

If you’re looking for excitement and things to focus on, a trip up the bay at night has it all. First, you face a dilemma where you must pick your poison. The current is strongest out in the middle and if it’s in your favor that sounds like an easy route. But, that’s where the shipping channel is and out there, the cargo ships rule. They are deceptively fast and seemingly indifferent to your existence. There is the shallower water along the edges but that can be riddled with crab pots and fish traps. Those can get mangled in your propellors and no one wants to go in the water and untangle that mess. Plus, following the edges makes for a much longer trip. If you’re into weaving through obstacles, that’s a recipe for a daylight trip. Then there’s the in–between areas. That’s were you’ll find the most tug boat traffic and there are a lot of those. This is what I picked. All commercial traffic seems more menacing at night. I found its better to hail them on the radio and find out what they have planned than trying to guess. They are happy to tell you how to stay out of their way. They’re terse but quite professional.

As I mentioned, we started later in the day on purpose to catch the flood tide up the bay. It does feel odd to simply wait at anchor. We weren’t really welcome to come ashore anywhere, so we sat. After lunch, a couple of ducks took up residence on the back of the boat. I guess they didn’t feel welcome ashore either. They let me sit near them but decided not to take the trip up the bay with us. I guess they heard about the ill-fate of our other hitchhikers.

We were greeted around 7:30am by some very nice policemen on a very fast boat as we approached Annapolis. This is becoming a trend for us. There is a ban on recreational boating in MD right now due to Covid–19 concerns. They wanted to know what we were up to. (As if we’d choose to go on a sailing spree at dawn while it was 47 degrees.) ‘Just trying to return home to our slip officer.’ I think my three layers of coats and unwashed hair convinced them that this wasn’t a regular pleasure cruise.

Back in our slip, the marina looks empty. Folks haven’t pulled their boats out of winter storage yet and no one is allowed to go recreational boating. It’s quiet but we have the heat on!

A Day of Opposites

We started the day at anchor just south of the South Mills Lock in the Dismal Swamp. We had a visit from a curious, swimming muskrat just before sunset. It was dead calm, dark and silent overnight.

We ended our day on anchor in busy, bustling Portsmouth, VA. The wind is brisk. There is the almost constant sound of train traffic punctuated by emergency vehicle sirens. Quite a contrast!

There is a 145 foot bridge on the ICW coming into the Norfolk area. It is so tall that it makes other nearby bridges look short. I actually called the RR lift–bridge beyond it that was only half raised to confirm the clearance. They assured me that they were raised to 75 feet and we had plenty of clearance.

The marinas here don’t want any transient boats. They are happy to sell you fuel but that’s it.

We’ve successfully refueled and are waiting for the winds to die down on Saturday afternoon for our run up the Chesapeake towards home. We’ll play it by ear but the current plan is to take advantage of the calm overnight and scoot into Annapolis on Sunday.

Midnight Run

The wind and wave predictions for the Albemarle Sound for yesterday were all over that place. There is some very heavy weather just offshore of OBX so inland you still feel the effects. The National Weather Service and PredictWind showed a lull in the conditions overnight. From where we are in Bellhaven, we have to traverse a bit more of the Pungo River, travel 2–3 hours in long canal with two fixed bridges, then go down the Alligator River for 2– 3 hours to reach the swing bridge that is on the edge of the Albemarle Sound. The Alligator River Swing Bridge cannot open in winds over 30 knots so it’s on lockdown right now. No problem because you would never want to cross the Albemarle in those conditions. But, you can’t cross on a lull if you don’t get into position so we decided to head up to the edge and check it out.

We headed out of Bellhaven around 2pm. We should get to the Alligator Bridge after dark. If the predictions are correct, the wind and waves will have died down, the bridge will be able to open and we will cross the Albemarle on a Midnight Run. Here in Bellhaven, the winds were howling and we sailed across the top of the Pungo River with only half of the jib out. The next hurdle is the notoriously short Wilkerson Bridge. Luna went under this bridge with her previous owners and the bridge scraped her equipment off the top of the mast.

We’re confident that we’ve made her as short as she can be. The equipment is off the mast, the water tank is full and the fuel is topped off. We should be heavier than a pregnant cow. These prolonged north winds should be blowing the wind out of the waterways lowering the water level in the canal too. The wind is certainly fierce at this point. We take down the sail and round the corner into the canal. There is the bridge. She looks tall.

As luck would have it, the tall trees in the side of the canal break the wind which calms the waves and we have a smooth glide up to the bridge. Slight hiccup, the height clearance board that is a half mile before the bridge is broken and unreadable. The fact that there is one of these early warning signs let you know to be on guard. She has another height board on the bridge at the water level. You can never read them far enough away for comfort. It takes binoculars. I can tell by the water stains on the sign the she usually has 64 feet of clearance. Today she has 64.5. That’s a whole extra foot more than we ‘need’. We take it slow anyway. It always looks like you’re going to hit the bridge but we have no problem.

The conditions in the canal are sublime so we make sure to cook and eat dinner before we get to the other end around 7pm. We motor sail down the Alligator River as the sun sets. Again, luckily, we pass an obstruction in the water just before dark. It looks like three broken sign posts lurking at water level just outside of the channel. We only see them because the water level is a little low and it’s still a little light. Note to self: stay strictly in the channel after dark. The wind picks up but it’s not too bad and we put up the jib to give us a speed boost. Mike gets on the phone with the bridge tender who confirms that, unless the wind gets worse, she will be able to open for us when we get there in an hour. Onward.

We get to the bridge about 9:30pm. She opens it but it’s really hard to see the fenders. Boats don’t have headlights so I go out on the front with our hand–held spotlight and shine it on the bridge so Mike can guide us through. Fun stuff.

Within a half hour, we’re in the Albemarle Sound. This lull is only a lull in a relative sense. It’s not 30 knots on the nose with big waves but it is 10–15 knots with 2 foot waves. During the day this would be a fun sail. The wind direction wasn’t perfect for the line we wanted to take so we adjusted and motor/sailed across in a few hours. Then a few more hours up the Pasquotank River to Elizabeth City. We arrived about 2am and are social distancing out on anchor.

After Mike’s conference calls this afternoon, we’ll scoot up closer to the South Mills Lock of Dismal Swamp. I called them yesterday and they confirmed that they will be opening the locks and drawbridges on schedule today.

There looks like good weather for traveling up the bay over the weekend.

Bellhaven, NC

The weather keeps getting worse. We’re hoping no one went sailing in the ocean without re–checking the forecast. Even in the ICW there are spots that 15 knots of wind can make uncomfortable but the ocean conditions off NC (with 35 knots) are downright dangerous. With wind conditions, red is bad. See if you can spot the dangerous pattern in the picture below.

Mike was on two different conference calls while I navigated the Neuse River crossing with 15 knots from the North East. That was a VERY bumpy and slow slog. I can’t imagine how that must have sounded for the other callers. Later we had and equally slow but a little less bumpy crossing of the Pamlico River. Not an ideal travel day. We did see one river front house with a private helicopter in the yard. It doesn’t look like an easy or forgiving landing zone.

We tucked in behind the Bellhaven breakwater wall and anchored for the night. It’s windy, chilly and gray. We’ll stay through early afternoon and then get started toward the dreaded Albemarle Sound crossing. First we have to get under the Wilkerson Bridge which is notoriously short then get through the Alligator River Swing Bridge which doesn’t open in high winds. We’ve decide to do it late today because there looks like there will be a break in the wind across the Sound for a few hours. If the break doesn’t materialize, we’ll just anchor on the south side of the Sound and wait it out. We may get stuck in lots of ways today.

The plan is to head for Elizabeth City and take the Dismal Swamp route north. It will be the calmest option in this weather.

Beaufort, NC

So the plan changed again. A weather front with strong northerly winds is predicted for Tuesday through Saturday. Traveling north once that hits is going to get less appealing. Ocean travel will be off the menu in weather like that.

Early Monday morning we decided to take our last opportunity to make a big jump in the ocean. We left Wrightsville heading for Beaufort NC around 7am. There wasn’t much wind but that made for a calm sea. We motor/sailed a straight line and made it to Beaufort inlet at 5:30pm.

The trip inland on the ICW is about 20 miles longer and had a variety of drawbridges and fixed bridges that we would need to plan around. We could not easily make it in one day. Since we were traveling near shore, we could hear the VHF radio traffic from the ICW. As it turns out, we also avoided some dredging and construction work near one of the bridges. It was a good decision.

We had called ahead to confirm that we could top off our fuel at Town Creek Marina if we arrived before 6pm. We had to motor into the inlet against the ebb tide and made it to the marina with 5 minutes to spare. They could not have been nicer and more welcoming. They had space for us to stay the night so we did. We were not allowed to leave the marina property because of the Coronavirus Stay-at-Home order. No problem for us, we were planning to leave early the next morning anyway.

While Mike took the gear off the mast again for the inland run, I was visited by a large pod of dolphins. They were just hanging around. Mike said he could see them from the top of the mast and there was a white one in the bunch. I didn’t see that one but there were plenty of them to enjoy.

We have 200 ICW miles to go to Portsmouth.

Wrightsville Beach

We ticked off a lot of miles with 2.5 day voyage at sea. Thursday afternoon, we traveled a short hop up the ICW from Stuart to Ft Pierce because the inlet is safer there. There are fixed bridges so we left our instruments off for this leg. We had to do the standard climbing the mast to put all of the instruments back in place to be ready for an outside run the next morning.

We planned to stay out at least one night. The Gulf Stream and wind cooperated so we only needed the engines to get out of the inlet. Free miles! It went so well, we decided to go for two nights. Well, the lesson is that when the wind blows strongly from the same direction for a long period of time, the waves build up. So, the second night wasn’t as perfect. The waves would lift the back of the boat and push it to one side or the other. This made it hard for the person on duty to keep the boat on course. Plus, we were out of the Gulf Stream since we were aiming for Beaufort, NC so we lost our 3+ knot speed boost. At the 3am shift change, we decided to change course and aim for Masonboro inlet at Wrightsville Beach. It still took us until 1:30pm to get there but it was better than coming in to Beaufort in the dark.

It was a deadly time for hitchhikers. A bird landed on board the first evening out at sea, then died. Last night, a flying fish landed on board. We didn’t see him until morning. Same fate. They were both buried at sea. Sorry Jackie, no pictures.

It looks like Spring Break Light here. Lots of college kids in bikinis hanging out on docks and zooming around in speed boats. They are NOT social distancing. A Stay At Home order from the governor of NC goes into effect tomorrow evening. No problem for us, if we stay on the boat, we’re at home. From here, we’ll move north in small jumps and hope the drawbridge tenders are still at work.

Stuart Florida

We thought we might get stuck somewhere between the boat in Florida and Baltimore as the Covid–19 outbreak ramped up during our trip home. The trip went surprisingly smoothly.

We visited family and friends, no hugs, no Happy Hour, etc. It was still nice to see everyone. One of Mike’s current clients makes vaccines. They called him at the beginning of the trip and asked him to help identify some vaccine targets in the virus structure. Since we were social distancing, he had time to focus on it for them. Pretty cool, socially–relevant work. Our science minded friends enjoyed the virus discussions.

The flight back out of BWI was surreal. The airport looked abandoned. Our original flight got cancelled as Delta consolidated travelers into fewer trips. It was still sparse onboard. It was a nice change for seating on the flight as each person/couple got their own row. We were surprised that Delta didn’t cancel the flight altogether.

Back in Stuart, we got the bikes out so we could take mini trips to the grocery store. The stocks are low but we were able to get what we needed. Nobody else wanted healthy cereal, skim milk and brown rice. We’ve been going for long walks and waving at friends on the dock from a distance. If our health holds and the weather permits, we’ll get started north on Thursday.

Stuart Florida - Harborage Marina

We really wanted to stop at the Harborage Marina where our sailing friends, Jack and Linda, are spending the winter. The marina told us that they were pretty full but they had a spot they thought they could squeeze us into. We were grateful. They weren’t kidding.

Our buddy, Jack, texted us pictures of the spot. Getting into it was going to be technical and tricky. Did I mention it was a big wind day? Mike had to parallel park into an acute angled corner of the dock with another boat already in position behind our spot. We stopped at the fuel dock first to top off the tank and our buddy hopped on board to help with lines and that helped a bunch. The wind tried very hard to push us around but we made it in with the help of the marina staff.

The Gulf Stream is very close to shore here (and at Palm Beach). That keeps the weather milder than some other areas of Florida. We’ve heard that it rarely gets above 90 degrees in the summer and winters are warmer too. It’s sunny, windy and 77 degrees today. We’ll enjoy Stuart for a few days then leave Luna here and fly to VA for some visiting for a week.

West Palm Beach

Saturday in downtown West Palm Beach was fun. We left Luna out on anchor and dinghied to their free city docks. There is a Farmers Market in the park next to the docks. They also close one of the streets for an antiques and crafts fair. We went to the Old Courthouse Museum, wandered through the craft fair and ate lunch at a super trendy cafe that has funky salads and sandwiches. While we ate, we watched some local artists of all ages create chalk art on the closed street in front of the cafe. Some artists were clearly very experienced while others were school kids just having a bit of fun.

We took a 2 hour Segway tour. It was easier than I thought. A quick lesson at the beginning and then we were off. You’re wearing an ear piece so you can hear the guide as he talks about the buildings and history as you zip around. We toured a little bit of West Palm Beach then crossed the bridge over Lake Worth to Palm Beach were some of the wealthiest people live. The funny thing is that your feet start to hurt because you are standing still for the whole ride. Part way through, we took a walking break in a lovely sculpture and botanical garden.

Southern Florida ICW - Land of Drawbridges

We travelled north on the ICW today. It was a day of drawbridges, eighteen to be exact. It definitely takes more active driving. Most of the bridges have set schedules. They usually will open at half hour intervals if a boat is present. Some open on the hour and half hour marks while others open on the quarter and three quarter marks. Knowing the schedule helps make for a smoother ride. You calculate the distance to the next bridge, adjust speed up or down to arrive just–in–time. This way you don’t have to hold still in current and windy conditions for too long waiting for the span to go up. Once you get through a bridge, you start all over again for the next bridge.

We got some photos and borrowed some others from internet. We didn’t get a picture of our final bridge of the day, the Southern Boulevard Bridge in West Palm Beach. It has some interesting attributes. It is under construction so there is a huge crane occupying part of its channel. It is currently a temporary lift–bridge which means the center span gets lifted up and you go under. The lift can only go to 65 feet of clearance at low tide. It wasn’t low tide! This is also the bridge next to Mar–A–Lago and President Trump is coming in today. So, in addition to the hairy conditions squeaking under the span, we also got to have a nice chat with some very professional Coast Guard Officers in a zippy boat with a very big gun mounted up front. They explained that there was an exclusion zone around the bridge and that passing boats weren’t allowed to stop. They gave us a friendly escort to the edge of the zone then went back to escort another vessel. We didn’t think it would be wise to take a picture of them either.

Spring Break in Ft Lauderdale

It’s Spring Break in Ft Lauderdale and thong bikinis are in fashion! This is the first wave of it and from what I understand this is a smaller version of weeks yet to come.

On our way out to walk in the afternoon, we encounter lots of mostly naked college students. Today, there was a curious group of 4 gals. Two were losing the battle of trying to squeeze another one into an under-sized pair of jeans shorts while the 4th laughed and took pictures. The kids seem to be flummoxed by the dress code in restaurants. Who ever heard of having to have shoes and shirts (apparently pants are required too) ?

The police clear the beaches around 5pm. I think they just get tired of trying to keep the kids alive. They use a bunch of very patient police officers and some officers on horseback. I think the kids find the horses intimidating. That never would have worked on me - I was too horse crazy.

We stopped at a fancy patio bar/restaurant because it wasn’t full of rowdy kids and there was a great long, high top table facing the street. We met another couple that taught us Spring Break Bingo. They had an app on their phone. You score points for spotting some Spring Break oddities. It could be as simple as vomit or stilettos (saw them both) or something a little more complex.
—Yahtzee - 5 girls together all wearing blue jeans cut-off shorts.
—Pied Piper - one person with a musical device (instrument or boom box) with at least 5 followers.
—Double Neon - two girls each in a neon bikini.
—Fall/lay Down - it could be accidental or intentional.
—Hair Hat - this is a hairdo that looks like it could be a hat.
The list goes on…

On our stroll back to the boat, we saw an unusual musical act at one of the local bars. It was a young fellow with an electric ukulele. We were just walking by so we didn’t catch the whole act but he sounded pretty good! If you look closely, I’m pretty sure he has a Hair Hat going on.

It has been a spectacle but I’m glad to be moving on tomorrow. I don’t think I want to see what the next few weeks are going to be like here.

Back in the USA

The crossing went smoothly. The weather cooperated. We were able to fly the Parasailor the whole way so we got a free ride. There were two trawlers next to us for the whole journey drinking diesel like it was going outa style. They only beat us here because we had to pause to take the sail down and then wait for the drawbridge to get to the marina. We used less than a gallon of diesel maneuvering out of Bimini and then into Ft Lauderdale. I can’t imagine how much they used.

We could tell it was time to go home because our Bahamian Courtesy Flag had just about given out. Also, I was running out of space on my shell shelf and I’m out of Bourbon.

We’ll stay at Bahia Mar Marina in Ft Lauderdale for a few days. We’re even closer to the beach than at Las Olas but we’re farther from Mike’s favorite pub, LuLus Bait Shack. The exercise will do us good. We can finally clean the boat and Mike can catch up on work with reliable high-speed internet. We’re looking forward to visiting with local friends and family.

Bimini Blue Water Resort

Our final two nights will be in Bimini Blue Water Resort. It sounds fancy, doesn’t it. It’s a lot like the other marinas in this row, simple and affordable. Paradise is a state of mind. The small stretches of beach on Bimini are gorgeous. The water is turquoise. It’s sunny and 75 degrees.

You have to take the good with the bad. Trash cans seem to be a mere suggestion here. When you’re done with a thing, you can just leave it. While it’s a little unsightly, it makes for a lot of sea glass on the beach. Did I mention I like sea glass?

Restaurants open when they feel like it. We walked down to Big Johns on Saturday evening to find that no one showed up to open that day. The fellows from Browns Marina next door we’re mystified. ‘It’s high season! I don’t know what’s wrong with dem mon?’ So we just walked to Big Game Marina’s Grill and found it doing pretty good business. Not surprising, since the other restaurant wasn’t open. We met some nice folks who were pretty serious about fishing. We also got to hear the tale of how a local fellow borrowed a friend’s power boat to impress some ladies and unfortunately made some poor decisions regarding shortcuts, rocks, etc. Well, he punched a hole in the hull and barely made it back in the harbor. I bet those gals weren’t impressed. It’s now mostly submerged but tied to a big dump truck to keep it from wandering away.

Chub Cay then Crossing the Bank

Chub Cay Resort and Marina was very nice. The grounds were well groomed, the staff was professional and the floating docks were in great shape. There was a surprising lack of boats and people. The marina was about 1/4 full of fishing boats and we barely saw any other guests. They have a reputation for being pricey but I don’t think that is the problem. You can tell by the decor that they cater to the big sport fishing boats and the word on the docks is that it isn’t shaping up to be a good year for fishing. Mike also noticed that the big-fish awards photos in the lobby weren’t from any recent years.

There were plenty of wild chickens and roosters so it wasn’t a problem waking up at dawn to get a start on our big run across the Bank.

The forecast predicted that we’d have a nice but long sail across the Great Bahama Bank but it also predicted a rough night out on anchor on the other side. We weighed that against Saturday’s sailing forecast which looked worse. Sunday looked calm but didn’t leave any wiggle room for getting ready to cross back to the states on Monday. We decided to go today (Friday) because getting in position for Monday’s cross back was key. We could certainly handle one bumpy night.

Everybody already knows that the weathermen are wrong sometimes. This was one of those days. The sailing was bad. It was chilly! The waves were choppy and splashing high over the front of the boat. You would have thought it was raining. The wind was stronger than predicted and out of the West (our desired path) most of the day. It was so strong we couldn’t just motor into it. We had to motor/sail way off our planned line then tack back. Eventually, we got the predicted wind direction so we adjusted our course and made it to our anchorage after sunset but just before it got dark. Not an ideal day but nothing a hot shower, a glass of wine and dark chocolate couldn’t fix. Let’s hope the overnight weather isn’t worse than predicted.

Back in the Berry Islands

Two days of really good downwind sailing lands us back at Bird Cay at the southern part of the Berries. We were able to fly the Parasailor for 100% of today’s sailing and most of yesterday’s sailing. We had moderately big wind and following seas so we made great time.

There is some bigger wind coming so we plan to do a short hop tomorrow and spend a few days at Chub Cay Resort and Marina. That’ll be a change for us to be in a fancy marina for a few days.

Next, we’ll cross the Great Bahama Bank and spend a few days in Bimini waiting for a weather window on Monday. If all goes to plan, we’ll be back in Florida Monday evening.

Highbourne Cay - Planning Session

We’re back at the top of the Exumas at Highbourne Cay. There are lots of chartered catamarans with us in the anchorage who are just starting a week of fun and exploration. We are beginning to look at weather patterns to plan our return to the states.

We use these Apps for day to day planning but now we need to look farther out. We’re looking for a weather window that has relatively settled seas and doesn’t have any wind out of the North. Obviously, big waves that are close together make for a bumpy ride. When riding in the Gulf Stream, you get a nice speed boost from the north moving water but any opposing wind makes for uncomfortable wave action.

Once we spot a potential window, we need to be on the west side of The Bahamas to take advantage and cross. We’ll start moving towards a good spot over the next few days.

Exuma Park - Cambridge Cay Mooring

We’re in for a few days of big wind so we tucked into a mooring field just inside the Exuma Park. The internet is unreliable but it’s nice to be secured to a mooring ball with Cambridge Cay blocking most of the waves. With 20–30 knots of breeze, it can get quite uncomfortably bumpy. As the current and the wind opposed each other yesterday evening, the boats were all swinging to and fro. When neither force is winning, you tend to bump into your own mooring ball. It makes a big hollow thump on the side of the boat. Now that the wind has picked up, all of the boats are pointing the same way. When the tide changes, we may see some more dancing boats.

It was calm as we pulled in early yesterday, so we dinghied to a few of the nearby, popular snorkeling sites. We saw The Aquarium, a sunken airplane, and some really nice soft coral. It’s first come, first served in the mooring field and there were lots of balls to choose from when we arrived making us wonder if we were being too cautious. By late in the afternoon, the field was totally full. We were glad we’d decided to tuck in.

We haven’t caught any fish but we did grill up some of the hogfish we bought in George Town. I added a little olive oil, sliced shallots, capers and basil from my on-board garden.

We’re hoping to go for a hike across Cambridge Cay to see Bell Rock which is out in the Exuma Sound. The wind will likely make that dinghy ride a bit sporty. We’ve been told that you can hike up the ridge line and get a great 360 degree view.

Return to Pig Beach

We saw this from our anchorage the on the way south as well. There are tourist excursions to see these pigs from just about every other place we visited in the Exumas. We just had to come back and see what all the hype is about. As it turns out, large pigs are cuter from a distance.

The pigs are generally squeaky and snorty. We dinghied in to shore for an up–close visit. Those who anchored a little bit offshore got visited by swimming pigs hoping for treats.

Farewell Stocking Island & George Town

We got under way northward this morning. The weather forecast predicted a lovely sailing day for traveling north in the Exuma Sound (east side of the island chain) and it was correct. We had 15 knots of wind and 2–4 foot seas behind us all day. We flew the Parasail and made good time to Galliot Cut where we crossed back west to the Exuma Bank side of the island chain. We settled in to a beautiful anchorage with an island blocking the breeze that we had just been sailing on.

Yesterday we moved Luna over to the George Town side of the harbor. With all of the wind that we’ve been having, dinghy rides can get quite splashy. Since we needed to resupply, that was going to be quite a few bumpy and wet excursions across the harbor. It was much simpler to move Luna and anchor over next to the town. It took three runs, one to get groceries, one to get fuel and fish and one to go to Island Boy Cafe for drinks and a burger.

Finding the fish market can be tricky for novices. It’s in the hair salon across from the Shell station – not the hair salon across from the market. The proprietor’s husband is a fisherman so naturally she sells his catch out of a cooler that sits in the waiting area. We got some hogfish.

Hurricane Holes

We went for a kayak ride to explore the lagoons tucked into Stocking Island. These are small pockets that are predominantly protected from winds on all sides. They are called Hurricane Holes because they are a relatively safe place to leave a boat in a storm. There is a fancy resort back there, a few private homes and a hiking trail that takes you over to the beach on the east side of the island.

There are mooring balls in the Hurricane Holes with a few lucky boats on them. Hole 1 is right on the back beach of Chat ‘n’ Chill. Some are so close to shore they could put out a ramp and walk over. Most of the boats there look like year round residents. The houseboats we saw sport fruity names. There is Cantaloupe, Pomelo and Tangelo.

We had heard that one of the boats had worked out a deal to host an Open Mic session at the Kahari resort in Turtle Lagoon (Hole 0) in their Lookout Lounge. The resort benefits from the boom in afternoon business and the cruisers get an nice place to have a gathering. The lounge was an open air venue on top of a hill. The food and drinks were good and reasonably priced. It was a smashing success.