On the Hard

That is a phrase in the boating world where one stores their boat on the ground, typically in a boat yard where they put blocks underneath the hull for support and use jacks for lateral support.  Once we made the decision to head back to the US to store the boat for hurricane season, the big decision is where.   What yard is in a "safe" place for storms, has a good reputation, can also work on the boat in the off season, and has a lift big enough to lift Rock Chalk out of the water.


There are many yards with lifts, but we need one that can handle our 19' beam.  We decided to go to Stuart Florida and travel 7 miles up the St. Lucie River to a boat yard called American Yacht Center.    It is very protected, and far enough from the ocean to not have a problem with a  surge from a big hurricane.  They build big boats here.   I mean  big boats, 150 footers.  Our beam is definitely not an issue.   You can see that this travel lift dwarfs Rock Chalk. It can handle 150 ton yachts like below.   Our puny 13 tons hardly registers.

Ever been at the dude ranch in Colorado, riding the horses out into the meadows.   The moment you turn the horse and start back toward the barn, your horse takes off.   That kinda describes this last 10 days for us.   Once we decided to get back to the US and put the boat up, it all happened really fast.  We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale from the Bahamas  last Sunday.   We were in West Palm just across from the beautiful hotel, The Breakers, on Monday.  (see above)

By Tuesday we were at the American Yacht yard.   They scheduled us to go on the hard on Thursday, which they did by 2:30 pm.   We had the boat all prepped, with everything off that we needed to get off.   We took all the canvas off so it can weather a strong storm.  We had the rental car full of stuff and were on the road  by 3:00 pm.  on Thursday.  We got home to Austin Friday night.  Talk about running fast for the barn.

The Hard

Well, that is it for awhile.   We are back in Austin for several months.   Who knows what is next.   Isn't that a great option?  Who knows?  All options are open.  The Bahamas are fantastic and well worth visiting again.  Canada was a fantastic cruising area.   We really want to see Quebec City, Montreal, and Ottawa from Rock Chalk.  I guess we have several months to figure it all out.   In the meantime, I hope to see all our family and friends in person.   Thanks for following the Adventures of Rock Chalk, and lets hope there are many more to come.           Marc and Shelley

                             

. 

Back in the USA

It's good to be back.   The out islands are beautiful and something to go back to, but there are just some things that we take for granted in our daily life in the US.     We decided to not leave Rock Chalk  in the Abacos during Hurricane season.  Too much behind that decision to bore you with, but none the less, we decided to get back to Florida and find a good marina, where we can put the boat on the hard, in a safe place.   Hopefully we found one.

We are back in Ft. Lauderdale today.  What a change from the Exumas.   180 degrees different.   But our cell phones work, and the internet is back on.   Ahhhh, modern life.   It took 4 days from Highbourne Cay to Ft. Lauderdale, but it was pretty easy.   Other than big thunderstorms, we had a nice trip back.   We stayed one night in Nassau, and will never make that mistake again.   As the French say, "It is a soo-er".

Did I mention thunderstorms.   Here is what that looks like from my windshield and from my chartplotter/digital radar.   Yikes....run.

Notice we are in 12.7 ft of water, and no land in sight.   Welcome to the Bahama bank.   My chartplotter and radar are my lifeline.

What is unique about the geography of the Bahamas is that we followed the "Tongue of the Ocean" on a northwest heading out of Nassau.   The depth is over 6,000 ft.   Within a quarter of a mile, that depth goes to 12 ft.   That is like going from sea level to Denver in    a couple of football fields.   Amazing.

Today we crossed the Gulf Stream from Cat Cay to Ft. Lauderdale.   We had a nice push from the Stream as we made a 311 degree heading.  It was fairly comfortable, except right in the middle of the Stream, where it got pretty rocky.  That is because it was blowing 12 knots from the north against the northward bound Gulf Stream.

But Rock Chalk handled it very well and we made it the 60 miles from the last island in the Bahamas to Ft. Lauderdale in 4.5 hours.   So now what?   Not sure.   Still more adventure to come before we put her on the hard.    We'll be in touch.   You should too, now that we are back in cell range, and internet range.   Yahoo!!    Marc

Highbourne Cay, Exuma

Yes, you too can enjoy this beautiful island from your own 3 bedroom villa, just seconds from a two mile secluded beach.   Your well appointed villa comes with new golf carts, and bicycles for you to explore this half mile wide but 3 mile long island.   Yes, only $700/night will let you enjoy this luxury.    You need a Bahamas phone or pay crazy rates for your US phone, and the internet has been down for weeks.  Oh well.

Or you can stay on your boat at their marina at $2.50/ft., plus water, plus electric.  It is a beautiful island, but they are pretty proud of their villas.  After several days in the Exuma Park, in very remote anchorages (plus no cell phone, and no internet), we needed to get to a marina.   So we stayed two nights at Highbourne Cay, thinking we were missing all the bad weather that has been floating around the mid-Bahamas, and thinking we could get internet.  Not so fast buckeroo!  There was no internet around the island or out at the docks, but if you walked up to the beautiful bar high above the beach and drink their $9 rum punch (the bartender called it Shelley's Delight), then you can get internet.  Damn it is hard to check the weather and all my websites after two of these "Delights".

The reef on this beach is 3.5 billion years old.   The oldest known material found in the world.  

Here are some photos , and I have to let you know that I got up before dawn and jumped on a bike to ride over to the other side of the island (the east side) for some early morning shots.   I ran off the boat to be sure I beat the sunrise, but forgot one major thing.   No not the camera, you say, the bug spray.   I arrived at this perfect spot for a photo, and was immediately attacked.   Big vicious mosquitos who somehow survived the night and were very hungry.   I was breakfast.   So enjoy the photos as I am still scratching and itching.     Marc

Hawksbill and Shroud Cays

It was time to get back into the Exuma Park to see more of this beautiful part of the world. Staniel Cay was fun, but in a busy Caribbean way.   The beauty of the Exumas is the real star and you just have to get out into these remote anchorages and go explore.

About and hour and a half north of Staniel is Hawksbill.  It is a fairly well protected anchorage, and incredibly we were only boat there.   Here is this mile and a half long beautiful soft white beach and we are the only boat to enjoy it.  There were some coral heads close enough to the back of the boat that we jumped in to swim over and check them out.   Then we took the dinghy to the beach and just walked and walked.

It reminded me of the last time I was the only boat anchored on a beautiful beach.   We were sailing in Antigua and Barbuda during the 25th anniversary of our good friends, Joe and Winnie Thompson.  Naturally as Captain of the Ship I can perform all kinds of functions, including renewing ones wedding vows.  It did not carry any weight of the law, but no one cared.   It was a cool ceremony on a beautiful beach.  Umm..nice thoughts.

Note to self:   Next trip to the Exumas we must bring Kayaks.   There are so many places that are calling you to explore them but they are maybe a ft. deep.   Oh well, now we will have to come back.

All by ourselves.

We should have stayed at Hawksbill.   However, the next day we moved Rock Chalk just two miles north to Shroud Cay.  Shroud is open to the south, plus it gets quite a bit of ocean surge wrapping around the island from the southeast.   It is one of those mind boggling questions of "How does the Ocean Work?"   How do these big rollers wrap around an island and still effect an anchorage on the protected side?    Believe me it does.   It was a rockin and rollin night.   Practically threw me out of bed around 1:30 in one particularly steep wave that hit the anchorage.   The one neat thing about Shroud however, is that we could take the dinghy up an estuary, basically a creek that went from the bank side of the island to the deep water sound side of the island.   We motored up this creek an hour before high tide, so the water was rushing from the ocean through the creek headed for the sound.   It is maybe a 3-4 kt. current.   Pretty strong.   We were rewarded by this beautiful beach on the far side that we had to explore, but the real fun was the float trip.   We just got back into the ding and let her rip.  Shelley and I put our snorkel masks and fins on and she held the front of the ding and I took the back.    We floated down this estuary almost across the island.   Coral, fish, a ray, and beautiful clear water was our reward.  Plus it was interesting to see the bottom of the mangroves that cover the banks from an underwater viewpoint.   Their roots go way down in the salt water.   Fun day, but the rolling?????????

Red sky at night...

Marc