Sailing With Matsu

Round Hatteras & On To Charleston

2011-10-26T19:04:00.000-04:00

Charleston, SC

We left Annapolis after the boat show on the 12th of October. We had three day trips down the bay before staging for the trip round Cape Hatteras. The trip was varied to say the least, we had one day of sailing, one day of gentle motoring and one day of bloody awful motoring into a shocking head sea taking waves over the bow despite being in Chesapeake Bay and generally hating every minute of it! Charlie sulked all day in the back cabin, letting us know how bored he was every time we descended the companion way!

The trip round Hatteras was perhaps our best yet, we woke to sunny skies and a great 15-20 knot westerly wind, which we ran down the bay and the Virginia coast under full sail on a beam reach.

We sat for about 3 hours at between 8.5 and 9.3 knots so imagine our surprise when we turned round and saw a sail rapidly catching us up! It turned out to be a 70’ custom carbon yacht called Route 66, so we felt less embarrassed by being passed by it when it finally caught up.

By the time we got to Hatteras the wind had backed off and gone North so we had gentle motor sail from just north of the cape, round it and down to Cape Lookout arriving just before sunset, the $50 of diesel being a small price to pay for the lack of 10’ seas and high winds we normally seem to get!

Our first day at Cape Lookout was stunning, the sun was out and temperatures in the high 20’s, just like summer, I even managed to get sunburned. We walked for about 6 miles on the beach round the whole Cape and then back through the most insect infested interior track we have ever seen. Little black flies that obviously haven’t seen human blood for a while and were ravenous for it.

Tuesday dawned clear and still but there was a battle between our two weather sources. NOAA the official US weather service were saying 2 days of 20-25 knot SW winds so nothing much, BUT Chris Parker our custom weather guru was saying that 3 weather systems were going to collide and we should batten down for 40-50 knot winds, ie more than we had during the hurricane!

Sadly but predictably it was Chris who proved to be right and so after a lovely sunny calm day the wind filled in that night and howled non stop for 48 hours, it also lashed down with rain and was generally horrible.

Lookout Bight was great place to be for it mind, we snugged up near the beach and let out 100 metres of anchor chain in the 6 metres of water we were in, so no danger of dragging (and even if we did it is 1.5 miles to the beach on the other side so we had plenty of time to sort it out!).

The second night was the worst when it blew at 40-50 knots all night with no let up, the only stress was the constant noise of the wind, the peace that reigned when it finally backed off on Friday morning was wonderful and meant we could finally sleep uninterrupted.

On checking the GPS I found the boat had sailed 5 miles while at anchor in the 48 hours!

Almost as soon as the wind backed off and went North, the seas died down and the conditions were great for moving on. We motor sailed over to Wrightsville Beach and the had a fabulous sail on Sunday overnight to Monday down to Charleston, sailing the whole way to the entrance channel at Charleston. We got our customary visit from a huge pod of dolphins once round Cape Fear, 20-30 dolphins swimming with the boat for around 20 minutes just at sunset – see last years post for the photos!

We timed our arrival into Charleston perfectly for the peak of the outgoing current, we were pushing 3.5 knots of current at one time, plus had to share the entrance channel with an enormous container ship.

We will have a few days in Charleston and then head for Florida.

A Busy Summer Of Boat Work

2011-10-11T19:03:00.000-04:00

Burley Creek, Annapolis, MD

Well it has certainly been a busy summer of improvements to Matsu, apart from the engine we have got through a huge list of upgrades either as part of the engine project or since returning from Canada.

We have replaced the old manual pump heads (toilets) with new electric flush ones, future visitors will no doubt appreciate this as much as the crew do, no more playing the Las Vegas slots every time you want to flush, just push a button. As they are still boat heads I am sure they will require regular unblocking and all the usual unpleasantness but at a day to day level the improvement is huge.

The old 110v generator powered fridge system has been replaced. This was a bit like the engine in that we thought it would be nice to do before the old system died, and then during the removal of the old system it became clear that we were very lucky it still worked! The old compressor turned out not to be attached to the boat in any way at all after several things have broken over the years, the only thing holding it down were the refrigerant lines and some good luck. Similarly one of the holding plates ruptured when I lifted it out!

The new Sea Frost system is superb, it runs on 12v so no need to run the generator twice a day and with digital temperature controllers we can keep ice cream frozen and other such luxuries. The solar panels and wind generator should provide most of the power we need. While doing this we have custom built interior shelving and boxes so that the fridge and freezer are more like a home set up than a very large cooler bin.

On top of these flag ship projects we have completely replaced the fresh water plumbing, plus we have new taps and shower heads. We have installed reversing up and down switches on the anchor windlass, a fresh water wash down so we can clean the salt off the varnish and all the usual day to day maintenance required. Linda has not exactly been idle either having done all the exterior varnishing and quite a bit of the interior, painted all the lockers and cupboard interiors, new cockpit cushions, clean and polish of the hull so she shines like new.

So Matsu is now shinier and better equipped than ever, we are obviously a bit poorer but doing the work ourselves has saved us a lot. The plan is to head south to the Caribbean for a few years, basing ourselves there so leaving with the boat in top shape is a huge bonus.

Hopefully this means we can enjoy the rum cocktail and sunbathing side of cruising a bit more with the marine engineering side covered off! However, cleaning, polishing, varnishing, etc will always be on the list … at least we’ll be lucky enough to do this in tropical paradise…

Natural Disaster Week!

2011-08-28T15:12:00.000-04:00

Burley Creek, Annapolis

Well what a week, we are tied to the dock at Larry & Bev’s and had planned to potter around doing a few boat chores and then heading out for a few days on the boat to do some motoring to make sure all is working well with the new engine before we head south. However Mother Nature has other plans and we have a far more eventful week than we hoped.

On Monday I am working away inside the boat while Linda pops up to the motor bikes to take some photos to stick on EBay. I feel the boat shake as the piles bang against the hull but given it is flat calm can’t think why, there is then a lot of banging and the rig starts to shake.

I run up on deck and see Larry coming out of his office saying that was an earthquake, we both head up to the house and find Linda and Bev both literally and metaphorically shaken. Linda had been wheeling her motor bike into position when the ground began to tremble and the bike shake, she miraculously managed not to drop it, but was clearly taken aback by the whole thing. We watch the news to find it is a 6.5 on the Richter scale quake – quite a shock.

The rest of the week passes watching the weather news as Hurricane Irene homes in on us, by Friday it is inevitable that it will pass right over us, so we move Matsu to one of the neighbours docks that is vacant (thank you Marvin and Judith) and start to tie ourselves up with a maze of long lines kept specifically for this purpose but obviously well stored away as you don’t need them very often!

The storm itself arrives on Saturday morning, initially with lots of rain and some wind, and then late afternoon and overnight Saturday (why does bad weather always come at night?) we get the bulk of the winds and rain.

Burley Creek is incredibly well protected, high banks on either side, no room for a fetch to develop and lots of mature trees to cut down the wind. During the night we only saw 40 knots on the wind instruments, and that for a short time, the rest of the time it was 25-30 knots all very manageable. The only scary bit was knowing that the wind at tree top height was 60-70 knots and wondering if a tree may fall on the boat.

During my frequent excursions outside to check lines, that was the scary bit, the sound of breaking branches making me flinch from time to time, but luckily all I got hit with were a few leaves! By dawn on Sunday the worst was past, winds backing right off and even the endless rain starting to slow down.

After breakfast we head up to see the damage on land, there are lots of branches and trees down in the neighbourhood and obviously no power. But miraculously not just Larry & Bev’s house but all the houses seem to have escaped damage.

We spend the day chopping wood and clearing up and by afternoon the sun is out, the branches are gone and it almost seems like a bad dream.

Ironically given how worried all the homeowners were about us on our boat in the storm, we are now fine and it is them that suffer. We obviously still have electricity and water while they have neither for a week afterwards!

A big thank you from Linda and I to the local community for looking after us so well during the hurricane and indeed the whole summer.

Summer Travels

2011-08-17T19:01:00.000-04:00

New England, Maine, Nova Scotia, Quebec

We still have the motor bikes we bought last year so as this will be the last chance we get to use them we decided on a grand tour of the NE corner of the Americas.

From Annapolis, we rode north through Pennsylvania into the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire then back down to the coast again in Maine meeting up with Jan and Karyn on Bella who were having their summer cruise in the Mt Desert region.

We spent 4 days with them on board and had probably as good weather as you could ever have there, it was well into the high 30’s Celsius and even warm enough to swim off the boat in the anchorage provided you stayed in the top 4’ layer of warm water! We climbed Cadillac mountain to stretch our aching motor cycle limbs, rewarded with stunning panoramic views of Acadia NP.

Another highlight was boiling up Maine lobster on the beach, it was my first taste of them after eating many Caribbean ones, and I will be controversial and say I couldn’t really tell the difference, especially once dipped in gorgeous garlic butter and washed down with sauvignon blanc!

Sad farewells with Bella and then we rode off to Nova Scotia, somewhere I have always wanted to go.

By now the weather was less warm and sunny but we did get a couple of gorgeous days and taking in the tidal bores of the Bay of Fundy and the stunning coast south of Halifax, including the lovely Peggys Cove a traditional fishing village and Lunenberg the maritime capital of the area. Both areas with moving memorials, the former to the Swiss Air flight that crashed here and the latter to the many fishermen lost over the years.

From NS we were faced with a very long ride back to Quebec, our amateur geography had somehow convinced us that Nova Scotia was “on the way” so we were somewhat surprised to ride back via Maine passing within about 50 miles of Jan & Karyn after a 1200 mile round trip!

Time in Quebec was spent with Linda’s family and friends, it was really great to catch up with everyone once more.

By mid August we realise that our to do list on Matsu isn’t getting any shorter but the time until we leave is, so saddle up for the long ride home through the Adirondack’s getting back to Annapolis after a round trip of well over 3,000 miles.

A New Engine For Matsu

2011-07-05T18:59:00.000-04:00

Bert Jabins Yacht Yard, Annapolis, MD

When we bought Matsu we had some concerns about the age and condition of the original Nanni Mercedes engine and after four more years of cruising it has now done 23,000 hours and is 24 years old. In all that time it has never let us down (including motoring us most of the 1,000 miles back to Annapolis this year), but there is a growing list of issues that need to be addressed, corrosion, broken brackets that have been bush repaired, belching white smoke and a lack of power.

We realised we could either wait until it breaks down comprehensively and deal with it then, or be proactive and deal with it on our own terms, maybe earlier than strictly necessary but avoiding the potential problem of a destroyed engine in a remote location.

We decided that this summer would be when we did it on our own terms. The first question was whether to recondition the existing engine or buy a new one. A big part of the cost of either is removing and replacing the engine from the boat, and once we got a feel for the reconditioning costs we decided that the extra cost of a brand new modern engine with readily available spare parts worldwide was the better bet, as Nanni no longer support the old engine.

The Starting Point

Other than buying the engine the vast majority of the cost of repowering is labour (around 70% we estimated) so the even bigger decision was taken that I would draw on all my years of accounting experience and replace it myself – scary!! Again the logic being that at over $100 an hour for a mechanic versus my time for free we could save a lot of cash even if it took me bit longer, plus of course I would 100% understand the engine installation and drive train for future maintenance.

We order a new Yanmar 110hp engine from Bay Shore Marine in Annapolis, they are used to working with DIY installations and provide great support to us throughout. We also decide to do the work at Bert Jabins Yacht Yard, a great reputation, we can do the work with the boat in the water making life aboard much more pleasant, and bay Shore are based on site. So on 25th May we pulled Matsu into a berth at Bert Jabins Boat yard in Annapolis and started work.

The first task was fairly obvious, disconnect all the services and remove the old engine from the boat.

One of the first problems I had thought of when we started this was how to get the engine out, a fellow Passport owner told me the great news that he “thought” there was a removable panel in the cockpit floor for the purpose.

Given the alternative was to remove a lot of very nice teak wood work you can imagine our joy at finding out he was right!

While removing the various wires, cables, hoses etc from the engine we get to see more of it and the level of corrosion and decay is revealed, it shows how durable diesel engines are that it was still running.

We also have our first cock up when draining the engine oil when we switch the drain pump from suck to blow and cover ourselves and the engine room in old oil!

Engine Comes Out

Rebuilding The Engine Room

By June 1st we are ready for the crane to come and pull out the engine.

It all goes incredibly smoothly, the guys from Jabins and Bay Shore doing great work and within 45 minutes we are engineless and the true state of the old engine is revealed.

The joy of seeing the old engine out was somewhat tempered by the vision of the engine room, we knew it was a mess underneath but perhaps weren’t braced for what it actually looked like!

The second stage was also now fairly obvious, and we embarked on the huge process of cleaning up and redesigning the engine room. For 24 years owners and mechanics had been adding systems to Matsu and installing them in or around the engine room in cramped spaces so not necessarily doing the job as well as it should have been done. We now had a golden opportunity to set that straight and leave ourselves with good access to the new engine and a clean clutter free engine room.

Over the next 3 weeks we put in a huge number of man hours, turning the mess you see above into this:

Without too many boring details we cleaned huge amounts of oily waste from the bilge, removed the old battery boxes, sanded and painted the bilge with 4 coats of Bilgekote paint, replaced and moved the wiring, the engine plumbing, the control cables, the exhaust system, the Racor filters, the bilge pumps, the fresh water plumbing, new sound proofing etc etc etc.

Now time for stage 3: installing the new engine.

We were lucky that the new engine despite being smaller has a similar footprint so the only modifications required to the engine beds are minimal.

By installing an aluminium bar spacer and covering it with aluminium angle the engine would be perfectly aligned and the beds narrowed sufficiently to take the new feet.

This was one area I did leave to the professionals and Nick from Bay Shore did a great job in working with me to get everything bolted down and ready for the new baby.

So on the 23rd June after an enormous amount of work the crane returned and the new engine arrived.

The New Engine Arrives

From there it really was all quite straightforward. Nick helped me get the alignment spot on and bolt the engine down. This is critical to the way the engine will perform in the future, and even though we have a flexible drive there is no harm in getting at as close as possible. Nick being a perfectionist meant we probably don’t even need the flexible drive now it is so well done!

After that I have a busy 2-3 days connecting all the things an engine needs to work. Electricity, cooling water, diesel, control cables, and an exhaust system were all joined up and then the big moment: On June 27th almost exactly 1 month later we press the starter and vroom! off she goes purring away and doing all that a diesel engine should.

We head out for a sea trial and she passes all the tests with flying colours, Matsu hits hull speed nice and early in the rev range, the engine hits the target maximum RPM and unbelievably we have done it, installed a new engine!

The End Result

By way of a PS, if any fellow Passport owners or fellow yachties are thinking of doing a similar thing, feel free to get in touch via email if you have any questions or would like some more detailed information.

Back In Annapolis

2011-05-23T17:17:00.000-04:00

Back Creek, Annapolis

Well we’re back, 3.5 weeks, 1,266 miles, a lot of sailing and even more motoring and we have made it back to Annapolis our summer base.

The journey back was fairly uneventful, we stopped in the Berry Islands for a few days, anchored by ourselves at Fish Market Cays, saying a sad farewell to the wonderful Bahamas.

We hadn’t been to this anchorage before and hadn’t intended to this time, but Devil Hoffmans was rolling like mad in the strong NE winds so we had a change of plan and found a great little spot to wind down before hitting the USA.

The sail to Palm Beach was great, we had good winds and made great time arriving early morning in time to do customs and have lunch at the marina restaurant (Rib special on a Tuesday, great timing!) and then collapse for a well earned sleep in the afternoon.

We had 5 days there waiting for some wind we could sail on and finally with still none forecast and having exhausted all West Palm has to offer gave up and decided to motor overnight out of Florida hoping for better winds further north.

The motor ran all day and then around midnight the wind filled in north of Cape Canaveral and suddenly we could sail. As the next morning progressed the wind went more NE so we were sailing straight at Charleston so decided to give St Mary’s a miss and go straight through.

Charlie slept through an offshore bird attack, later waking to kill it, and with the wind dying at sunset we got a peaceful nights sleep ourselves motoring in the flat calm.

Next day more chugging along until we finally got into Charleston around 5pm on day 3. We were tired but happy to have got that far (less happy when we paid for the diesel we had used!).

More weather waiting meant we could take advantage of the excellent Charleston restaurants and also take day trips to Savannah and one of the old plantations on the Ashley River. It is really quite chilling to see the prosperous house and gardens, the river boats and the crops they transported and then the little slave shacks to really bring home how this wealth was created.

We finally left Charleston on 16th for the most tiring leg of our trip, the wind is excellent and we have a rollicking sail with the genoa poled out, averaging 8 knots for the first 12 hours. Then the wind dies and constantly shifts, so constant course changes to stay downwind, rolling from the seas as they now don’t match the waves and general crash banging of sails, etc make for a very sleepless night.

By the following morning we are exhausted and now have no wind but 6’ seas so end up motoring all day to Cape Lookout feeling grumpy! Luckily we get a few dolphin visits to keep us amused but we are very happy to finally drop the anchor in Lookout Bight, in calm water. We have a beer and go straight to bed for 14 hours sleep!

We are now in the same situation as Florida, no wind forecast for the next 10 days, so as we need to get back and get started on our projects, we decide to motor again, it’s flat calm so we can sleep well and we chug along all day. It’s so calm at Cape Hatteras, “Graveyard of the Atlantic” that we get photos as we round the shoal buoy (on the way south it was pitch black and we had 25 knots of wind!).

Amazingly that evening the wind filled in from the NW and we had a great sail tight reaching up the North Carolina and Virginia coasts, making good boat speed, but in flat seas. We did have one major excitement on my watch when a large fishing boat heading in to Oregon Inlet just completely failed to pick us up on radar, hear our VHF call or see our Nav lights, or for that matter my spreader lights and torches on sails – so a swift crash tack from the stand on vessel avoided a collision and a somewhat terse VHF call later he was vaguely apologetic and we carried on our way!

By the following morning the wind had died and the motor was back on for the long motor into Chesapeake Bay, dodging the 15 ships at the entrance and then finally through the Bay Bridge Tunnel and on to Deltaville.

Two more days up the Bay and then, hooray we are back “home” and drinking beer with Dave & Donna on Meander, with Bella and Chandelle who had both beaten us back.

Projects await, but that’s another post!

Time To Head “Home”

2011-04-25T14:00:00.000-04:00

Emerald Bay Marina, Great Exuma

Our last couple of weeks here has been back in visitor mode, however this time the visitors have been staying on land as with 7 young kids between them life aboard would have been just a bit cramped!

First up were the Fletchers who were staying at Staniel Cay. With the aid of a Boston Whaler we were able to take in all the sights of the local area, Thunderball Cave, iguanas, swimming pigs and the snorkeling and beaches of Exuma sea park – all best summed up in pictures really.

After that we sailed down to Emerald Bay to meet the Farleys catching a huge 49” Mahi Mahi on the way, it’s even bigger than the one we caught off the DR in 2009. We had a similarly excellent time with the Farleys either round the pool at the resort or during our side trip to George Town, wonderful to see everyone on holiday rather than working!

So now it is time for us to turn round and head north, we hope to get away tomorrow and begin the slow trip, it’s around 1300 miles to Annapolis where we plan to spend summer doing some boat work and land travel, we will update our progress as we sail.

Enjoying The Exumas

2011-04-09T13:29:00.000-04:00

Staniel Cay, Exumas

When Bofix (finally reunited with their luggage) departed on 10th March, Linda and I were faced with a rare occurrence this season, a whole month with no visitors and no timetable to be anywhere!

We thought up various plans but finally settled on returning to the Exuma Cays to explore the areas we missed on the way south and go back to some favourite spots. We were also keen to make the most for the last few weeks of the lobster season.

First stop was Rudder Cut Cay a new place for us and a lovely spot, great snorkeling in the area and a calm all weather anchorage. David Copperfield has bought the islands around there and is trying to keep it all as private as he can, but luckily Bahamian law keeps the beaches open for all so at least his undeveloped Cays are accessible.

The highlight of the area was snorkeling Cave Cay Cut where we saw some huge Eagle Rays up close.

From there we headed north to White Point, catching another Mahi Mahi on the way (not sure what we are doing right this year fishing but whatever it is I hope we keep doing it!).

After exploring there we took in the familiar sights of the Cays, with lots of fun and a few minor incidents, running aground at Normans Cay for a few hours, and my clumsy fall at Allans Cay.

I got up in the morning and walked up the back companion way carrying my Kindle and a coffee, I lost my footing and fell head first into the push pit, hitting my head very hard, smashing my Kindle to pieces but miraculously saving the coffee!

Other than a small cut all was well except that I then had one of my Vaso Vagal attacks and Linda found me out cold, rigid and frothing at the mouth in the back cockpit. I woke up after about a minute far less shaken than poor Linda who had not witnessed one first hand before. 24 hours later I am back to normal and we are back snorkeling and so forth!

From there we returned to Cambridge Cay and spent a superb week anchored there enjoying the beach and the stunning diving and snorkeling in Exuma Sea Park.

We returned south today and have two more sets of visitors before we begin the migration north for summer.

What A Day!

2011-03-08T13:00:00.000-04:00

Calabash Bay, Long Island, Bahamas

We have had a great 10 days with our latest visitors, the crew of Bofix who we met in the Bahamas in 2007/08 on our first visit. Stef, Jen, Kelly and Kate joined us for their holiday even if their luggage didn’t and a great time was had by all.

We have spent a wonderful week at Conception Island, snorkeling, beach life, fishing and so forth, but today must be close to the perfect cruising day for us and the guests.

The morning plan was a snorkel in the mangroves here, while waiting to load the dinghy a dolphin appeared right next to Matsu, Stephane jumped in and was treated to a swim past by the curious dolphin.

In the mangroves themselves we saw nurse sharks, turtles and hundreds of small fish hiding in the roots.

Back to Matsu for lunch and then a hunting trip on the east side of the island, we speared a grouper and a lobster as well as seeing some superb coral.

To round the day off we motored back to Long Island, it promised to be a boring motor in flat calm seas but about 5 miles from the tip of the island I saw what at first sight was a breaking wave, but on closer inspection was a huge fish feeding frenzy.

We motored towards it with the line out and Jen on the bow directing, “we will be there in 3 2 1 now…” says Jen and instantly whizz out goes the line and we are onto a tuna. Gaffed and in the back cockpit we head back for a 2nd attempt, whizz same again and then yet again on the 3rd pass through – 3 tuna on board in under 20 minutes.

So dinner tonight was tuna tartare, lobster and a tuna steak all while sipping white wine on a lovely warm evening – a truly perfect cruising day!

Georgetown & Conception Island

2011-02-28T12:49:00.000-04:00

Georgetown, Exumas

February has been a month that went nothing like our plan, but we still had a great time! We were going to kick on further south and east to explore the outer islands but a combination of unfavourable winds and an easy fun routine means we have spent 3 of the 4 weeks in Georgetown, with a break in the middle over at Conception Island.

Georgetown time passes easily, lots of walking on Lee Stocking Island plus regular afternoon beach volleyball for me (Tim).

Bleu Marie, Bella, Merlin and Chandelle have been here too so with them and our new friends to keep us amused there has been lots of social time, drinks on the beach round the fire, sundowners on the boats and even a Valentines night dance party at the Chat N Chill bar.

Our trip to Conception is the other extreme, anchored in blissful seclusion with nothing to do at night. We stopped off at Calabash Bay Long Island en route, catching a nice Mahi Mahi on the way. From there another great sail to West Bay, Conception Island one of our favourite anchorages in the Caribbean.

We had the perfect weather window meaning clear calm seas and lots of opportunities to explore the island. The only disconcerting thing was our neighbours.

We had a swim and then while toweling off saw three sharks arrive under the boat swimming languidly, I assumed they were the usual Nurse sharks so dropped back down the ladder with camera in hand for some photos.

Closer inspection revealed them to be 3 Lemon Sharks (around 6’ in length), not really dangerous unless you are spear fishing but still unnerving to have living under you boat which they did for 5 days!

On the first evening just as we went to bed there was bang from the boarding ladder, I went to investigate and found one of the sharks swimming round it very agitatedly, not sure if he hit it by accident and got annoyed or saw it shining in the moonlight and tried to eat it, either way he wasn’t happy!

Sharks aside we had a great time, daily snorkels on the reef, a trip through the mangrove interior snorkeling with turtles and rays, plus an excellent dive on Conception Wall. The sea bed drops off vertically from around 15m to 1000m and the wall is covered in corals and amazing sea life with yet more big sharks to keep us silent company. All too soon it was time to sail back to Georgetown to escape rising winds, and here we sit. We are looking after Chandelle while they fly home, and then picking up our next visitors from the airport.

January In The Exumas

2011-01-31T12:19:00.000-04:00

Georgetown, Bahamas

After the Wilson’s leave we have nearly two weeks until our next guest so we return northwards taking in some more of the sights of Exuma Park and the northern Exumas. We spend the time with some combination of Chandelle, Merlin, Bella and Bleu Marie so there is no shortage of social time, making the new years resolutions of less drinking hard to stick to!

We manage to bag a good few lobster when not in the park, filling the freezer to eat them while in the park, and it is good to alternate between hunting and photography modes underwater. We continue to get a few cold fronts with grey weather and strong winds so quite a bit of time is spent at Cambridge Cay, a lovely anchorage, well protected and with great walking along the island cliffs.

Mid month Tim’s cousin Kate arrived for a holiday, our last holiday together we were probably about 6 years old so who knew what to expect!

We had a great time, catching up and reminiscing plus visiting Staniel Cay, Leaf Cay and Georgetown.

Kate qualified as a diver last year and I got to take her for her first ocean dive during the trip.

She took everything in her stride, normally you get off the back of a nice big comfortable dive boat for your dive but not on Matsu - it’s the contortionist exercise of getting kitted up in a 10’ RIB before a back roll into the sea and waiting while your dive buddy goes through the same exercise!

We waved Kate farewell at Emerald Bay marina, our first visit there and the first time since clearing customs that we had been anywhere near a dock, Charlie was very excited at getting a night to play ashore, while we were over the moon with a free laundry and WIFI!

We are now anchored in Georgetown along with 200 other boats and will work out our plans from here.

December In The Exumas

2011-01-03T10:47:00.000-04:00

The Exumas

So a month in the Bahamas has passed already, and it has been superb to be back in the land of sun, sand and lobsters.

We picked up Josette in Nassau and she spent two weeks with us. A week of which we spent tucked up at Allan’s Cay at the north end of the Exumas.

With unseasonal westerly winds we had a great opportunity to hunt on the reefs on the east side of the islands and quickly got back into snorkeling mode. We bagged a dozen lobster over a few days, eating like Kings and putting a few in the freezer to cover the leaner days ahead.

The rest of her trip was spent in the Exuma Cays National Park, snorkeling, walking on the beaches and enjoying the sunshine and sand.

After Josette left we had 2 weeks to ourselves, a lot of which was spent holes up at Cambridge Cay as a succession of cold fronts swept down from the USA. Although we weren’t shoveling snow, we were getting cold and very windy weather, so spent a lot of time catching up on reading and sheltering from the howling wind.

With perfect timing the weather cleared up in time for a lovely Christmas Day party on the beach.

We were joined by 5 other boats that we know from different parts of our travels in the Bahamas and Caribbean over the past few years

Despite being a long way from our families we still managed to eat and drink far too much in the traditional Christmas way, but it was sad not to be able to get to a phone to say a proper hello.

After Christmas the weather stayed perfect for Kate, Roger and the kids visit for New Year. We had a great little “holiday”; snorkeling in Thunderball cave, feeding the swimming pigs of Big Majors and a few games of beach cricket which is rapidly catching on in the Bahamas cruising community – maybe the Ozzies can unearth a batsmen here?

We waved them sadly goodbye and move into 2011 with few definite plans. Current favourite is to explore the Bahamas until May then return to the USA for summer, with a side trip on a airplane to the UK to visit the relatives.

Finally In The Bahamas

2010-11-30T10:17:00.000-04:00

Nassau

We left Palm Beach at 4am on the 27th and had a relatively straightforward trip across to West End, Grand Bahama.

The wind was a bit on the nose to start with, which combined with the strong north set of the Gulf Stream made us think we would have a hard trip again (3 years ago the trip to Bimini took forever and we were hoping not to repeat it). But after a few hours the wind came round more to the south and the Gulf Stream died out after about 30 miles and the trip ended up as a simple sail under sunny skies – we even caught a small Mahi Mahi to really spice up the trip.

Bella crossed with us and we were soon tied up at West End, customs formalities complete and cracking open a cold beer to celebrate their first international trip, the culmination of our 1100 mile trip from Annapolis.

The next day we parted company, Bella to the Abacos and us towards Nassau, the first part of the trip was definitely not what we signed up for.

We were just out of the marina and some squalls turned up, dousing us with heavy rain and killing the wind, we were then shocked to see a water spout about a mile away heading towards us.

We fired up the engine, and furled the genoa leaving just the main to douse should it get too close. About 10 minutes later it broke up and a new one formed about 200 metres off our stern, or exactly where we would have been if we hadn’t fired up the engine!

We don’t have any photos of that one as were too worried about it! Luckily it went the other way and we were spared the damage – a scary sight indeed.

The rest of the sail to the Berry’s was superb, we averaged 8 knots and romped along, we caught a tuna and dropped anchor in Great Harbour just after dark.

Next day off to Nassau, bagging a King Mackerel to make it 3 fish in 3 days, another water spout but far enough away to be interesting, finally getting into Nasau at sunset.

We are picking up Josette here for a holiday hence the rush through the Berry Islands, we will have to enjoy them on the way back north.

So another month gone by, and we are hoping that in December we can stop endlessly sailing to the next place and enjoy the Bahamas.

Florida

2010-11-26T11:18:00.000-04:00

West Palm Beach, FL

Well we have finally made it to Florida and are ready for the trip to the Bahamas. After the anchor troubles in Charleston we had another excellent overnight sail to Cumberland Island, 163 miles at an average of 7 knots arriving by 1pm and best of all having a warm night at sea.

Cumberland is one of our favourite spots on the US coast, (see our posts from 2007) and we had another great visit. Since our last trip here the Parks Service have opened up the Plum Orchard estate on the north of the island.

Unlike Dungeness this one is preserved as was and the tour gives a great insight into the life on the island. As well as the formal living areas, it takes in the servant quarters, kitchens and machine rooms.

The electrical system was designed by Thomas Edison to showcase his invention of DC electricity to the Carnegies and their wealthy friends – a more appealing marketing strategy than inventing the electric chair, which he did to demonstrate how dangerous Westinghouse’s AC system was!

From Cumberland Island we motored down to Saint Augustine on a flat calm day. It was our first trip here as with our draft the entrance has always seemed a bit daunting given we always like to leave when it is windy, but this time the weather forecast, tides etc seemed to look good for the in and the out trips.

The entrance has recently shoaled and has some buoys missing so it never promised to be easy, and with the setting sun making visibility even harder, we had a stomach wrenching trip in. The initial line up was easy, but as we passed the second set of buoys we suddenly found ourselves with no visible markers in front – where the hell is the next set?

We carried slowly on in as the deep water was reasonably obvious as we had breakers on either side and finally picked up 2 port hand marks off to the left but still could not see the starboard marks, just breakers and a beach. The further in we got the more worrying this was, so we headed across to pick up the port marks, but on local advice didn’t want to get too close to them due to the shoaling. Imagine our surprise as we passed the first port mark to realise it was a starboard one! A sharp left turn and we were back in the by now very narrow channel and safely in. We were never in any danger as there was deep water where we were, but still a bit of a scare!

St Augustine is lovely, it is the oldest inhabited city in North America, having been founded by the Spanish in the 16th Century.

The town has two sets of attractions the old colonial bits, including a large fort, plus in the 19th Century Henry Flagler turned the town into a super resort for the rich and famous, building 2 enormous luxury hotels and much of the town infrastructure.

These old hotels are now used as a University and the Town Hall, providing useful civic function but maintaining the stunning architecture and interiors.

I am not sure how many University dining halls can boast Tiffany stained glass windows, but I can’t imagine it is many!

We leave St Augustine on a beautiful warm day with gentle easterlies, the trip out is easy as we have better visibility and having been past the markers once it is a bit more obvious what the much altered and somewhat randomly buoyed channel is supposed to be doing.

The forecast is spot on and an hour or so after we clear the channel the wind fills in from the ENE at 20 knots and we have a superb sail down to Palm Beach, 210 miles at an average of 7.5 knots, arriving in Palm Beach early in the morning.

We have had a rather hectic week here as we make the final preparations for departure. My visa expires at midnight on 26th so we have no choice but to leave by then, and the water maker membrane that survived 12 month pickled while we were in the UK decided to have a melt down during the 6 week pickling after leaving Annapolis, so we needed a new membrane fast.

We got fabulous help from Murray Marine, meeting me at the dinghy dock on a Saturday morning and fitting a new membrane in the housing. Trouble was that while this solved the problem, the water quality was poor. I spent 2 days rebuilding and rewiring the system to eliminate lots of little problems like voltage drop, worn feed pumps etc but while each fix improved it slightly the water remained marginal.

We finally worked out that the problem was a faulty membrane from Spectra, and Dick Murray did a great job of finding another one at very short notice and getting it fitted for us on Thanksgiving Eve, ready for a hurried departure!

Hopefully the next post will be from the Bahamas!

Diving In Charleston Harbour!

2010-11-11T11:36:00.000-04:00

Our planned early start quite literally hit a snag today. We get up and are ready to go, starting to lift the anchor at 0830, but sadly by 0840 we have given up trying to lift the anchor and I am getting out my dive gear!

We are badly snagged on something very solid and there appears no other option than to explore the depths. Our friends Mike and Karen from Chapter 2 come over and stand by to help in the dinghy and I head off down the chain into the surprisingly cold water and rushing current of Charleston Harbour.

It's not the diving I am used to and at about 15 feet I lose all visibility and am left groping my way along the chain in the pitch dark, knowing that at some point I will come upon some large and unknown object that is snagging our chain! I proceed very slowly with one hand out in front and eventually find the chain disappear under a large concrete block, probably an old mooring. I can see nothing, I know if I let go of the chain or block I will never find it again without returning to the surface some random distance downstream of our boat, possibly under another one, it's cold and the current is strong and it is all a bit scary!

I try to pull the chain loose and out from around the block but can get no slack into the chain as Matsu is pulling back hard on it, so I return to the surface for a think on how to proceed and to escape the gloom and cold.

The first plan is to let out plenty of chain and then Linda motor forward to remove the tension while I try to release the chain. Another scary descent and 5 minutes struggling to make headway and then I decide we should wait for another attempt when the tide changes as it will be much easier to do when all is working in the same direction. I am also very glad of a warm shower and a jumper as I am starting to get very cold!

We then have a frustrating wait, sitting in the cockpit trying to keep amused. Finally at around lunch time when the water slacks off I drop in for another attempt and a better look round, I want to find the anchor and buoy that, as one option is to detach the anchor from the chain and pull them up separately. This time I retain some visibility and with no current the whole thing is a lot less scary than before, I successfully navigate the block and find the chain exiting on the other side, and follow this to buoy the anchor. I then follow it back and start trying to shift the chain from underneath.

It is badly stuck, probably as a consequence of us trying hard to lift it this morning, after much sweat and (almost) tears I start to make some headway and eventually have both ends of the chain in my hand and the mid section trapped beneath the rock. More tugging and eventually I free it, draping it over the mooring so that we can lift it up. I return to the surface with 99% of the job done but heart in mouth that we won't get it snagged again, and we immediately start winching in. All goes smoothly and we are soon free of the bottom and "ready" to leave - just the small matter of me wearing a wet suit, the boat covered in dive gear and odd ends of rope .

As Linda motors slowly down Charleston Harbour I get showered and changed, pack away the gear, and we are soon shipshape and heading out of the channel to sea, it’s 160 miles to Cumberland Island and I am exhausted already!

Charleston

2010-11-10T11:26:00.000-04:00

We had a superb sail from Cape Lookout across to Wrightsville Beach and then after waiting for another window, had another excellent overnight sail down to Charleston, arriving early morning after another 7 knot average passage.

En route we had an amazing visit from a huge pod of dolphins right at sunset. We spotted a couple and then by the time we were at the bow they were coming from all over the area to join in. We were sailing at 8.5 knots at the time under blue skies, and leaning over the pulpit with 15 dolphins zipping along is a memory that will not fade for a very long time.

Another miracle was actually capturing a good photo of one of them for the first time ever!

We had planned to keep pushing south but Hurricane Tomas and the continued unsettled tropical weather makes that a less sensible plan so we have spent a very enjoyable 10 days here, relaxing, walking round this immensely interesting town and sampling some of the superb food. It now seems as if the tropical waves are finally coming to an end, plus I need to be out of the USA by 26th November so time to get going again.

You can track our progress more accurately now from the “Where Is Matsu” link below, I have set this up with our radio email to give regular updates of our progress – many thanks to Yotreps.

The weather has been either warm and sunny shorts time, or clear and freezing cold jumpers, jeans etc alternating as the cold fronts come through, but leading to some amazing scenery at sunrise. With the cold air hitting the warm water, we get a stunning start to the day.

The other land mark while here was yet another birthday for me, celebrated in style with lunch at an excellent French restaurant. Linda has bought me a Kindle so lots of reading to do as I wade through the books on that plus the still full shelves of old technology!

Anchor up tomorrow morning and off to Cumberland Island, then Florida and the sun.

Great Sailing Week

2010-10-26T12:23:00.001-04:00

Wrightsville Beach, NC GPS: 34 12.4N 77 48.0W

Well what a productive week, our initial departure plan got delayed as the rain revealed a leak between the forward hatch and the deck, necessitating full removal and reinstallation which took most of the weekend by the time the sealant had dried.

So finally on Monday morning we were off. We motored/sailed down the Chesapeake in company with Merlin stopping at Solomons and Deltaville before arriving at Old Point Comfort on Wednesday evening, just in time for the weather window to get round Hatteras, we were joined by Bella so we had a convoy of three for the long run outside.

It proved to be a superb sail, we left on Thursday morning and had a cracking sail down the Virginia coast, reaching in a westerly on flat water under warm sunshine. What a change from 3 years ago when we tucked in sleeping bags and shivering. Much of the change is due to leaving a couple of weeks earlier, but also the cockpit enclosure Linda has made since then helps to keep the wind off us.

We had a full moon for the night sail and the temperatures remained high, even when the forecast northerly change came through around midnight. The wind shifted NE at 20-25 knots and the seas began to build a bit, but nothing more than 4-5 feet so comfortable fast downwind sailing. We rounded the shoals at Hatteras around 0430 by which time it was a bit rougher, but once round we had a comfortable ail as the seas flattened out again.

Sunrise was gorgeous and the rest of the trip uneventful sailing downwind in sunshine and flat water. We sailed the whole 200 miles to the Lookout shoals buoy averaging 6.6 knots and with no incidents at all to report. We were joined by a pod of dolphins for the motor into the anchorage at Cape Lookout arriving tired but very happy in time for a sunset beer and an early night.

Saturday dawned sunny and warm and we had a great walk down the ocean beach at Lookout in the sunshine. It reminded us of Australia with four wheel drives and surf fishermen on the white sand, the waves rolling in and sun warm on our backs.

Sunday was our last chance to get south for a few days so we upped anchor in the dark and motored out bound for Wrightsville Beach. The wind filled in once the sun was up and we had another superb sail in calm seas, bright sunshine and at good speeds – it wasn’t like this 3 years ago, we almost don’t trust out luck!

We hadn’t been in here before, but Masonboro Inlet was wide, deep and easy and we are now tucked up in the anchorage riding out 3 days of 20 knot southerlies before the next leg down to Charleston. We hope to leave Friday on the next cold front getting in 24 hours later to probably our favourite city on the east coast.

To Do List Frenzy

2010-10-16T13:52:00.000-04:00

Annapolis, MD

September has been and gone and finally we are ready to head south. We have been working hard and Matsu now shines and gleams like new and the to do list has gone from 120 to 20 things to do – the truth being the 20 are the sort of things that never ever get done!

We have spent the 6 weeks tied to the dock at our friends Larry & Bev from Chandelle who we first met in the Bahamas in 2007. They have been so kind allowing us to use the dock and share their superb location in Annapolis, we will be sad to leave! The dock has an endless supply of blue crab too and we have had some great crab dinners to sustain us.

Linda’s big achievement is to have made a superb dodger, our old one was impossible to see through and leaked like a sieve and the time had come to replace it. 3 years ago we bought a Sailrite machine and Linda has honed her skills on many projects but a dodger is about as hard as it gets.

With Larry & Bev’s dock as a work area and her faithful assistant Charlie, Linda has produced a superb dodger - tight, wrinkle free and waterproof; the difference it has made to the boat is incredible. We will actually be able to look out for boats on night watch from within the dodger rather than having to stand up and stick our heads out – an important improvement in the autumn weather.

We also took delivery of our new mainsail, it looks and sets beautifully, now we have the new one we realise how bad the old one had become.

I meanwhile have been fixing, replacing, troubleshooting etc etc a multitude of systems and with today’s rebedding of the front hatch we are set for the off. There is an excellent weather window opening up mid next week for rounding Hatteras and heading south, like all windows it can disappear but we plan to head south down Chesapeake Bay tomorrow and who knows where the next post will be from.

Summer Travels

2010-08-31T09:10:00.000-04:00

Annapolis, Montreal, New York, Annapolis, New York, Quebec, Annapolis!

Our good progress on the to do list, the oppressive heat of an Annapolis summer and the need to spend some time with our Canadian family and friends meant a busy 2 months of riding back and forth on our bikes.

In mid July we headed to Montreal on our bikes via Amish country and the Adirondacks, passing 3 excellent days of riding great roads in the sunshine.

I will never forget the wave and look I exchanged with this Amish man as I sat by the side of the road on my FJR1300 looking at him on his horse and cart. We both thought the other were from outer space, but could also see the good in each others choices.

It’s a fascinating culture, each invention is assessed by the community for it’s likely impact on the community and the family and accepted or rejected accordingly. So for example a mechanised thresher is OK as it helps the harvest on your land, but it must be pulled by a horse and cart, as a tractor would encourage you to farm more land, thus making you want to buy your neighbours land, hence live further from your other neighbours and thus decrease the sense of community.

The Adirondacks were less of a culture shock, but the mountains, lakes and forests that are so much part of North America never cease to amaze me, much as Linda is blown away by the old villages of England.

The riding was superb too, fast smooth roads and winding curves, no traffic and no speed cameras.

We spent two great weeks in Canada visiting Linda’s parents and friends, lots of laughs and a few beers, and Canada too was experiencing a glorious summer so the sun shone nearly every day.

It was all too soon time to head south again as we had promised Dave and Donna that we would help them move their new motor boat from Long Island back to Annapolis. We rode down through the stunning scenery of Vermont and joined them on Long Island for our first ever week on a “stink” boat.

We had a great trip, the weather played along and we had days of no wind and sunshine which is ideal for motoring. It was odd to set off with no expectation of sailing, resigned to the chug chug of a diesel for the whole day, knowing to the minute what time we would arrive and nothing at all to do other than watch the scenery slip past.