We left Wednesday morning at 0 dark thirty! We were in the lock at the hint of daylight. We had a beautiful day of flat water and no wind. We have a bike trainer, which we mount our bikes in and we both got in a good workout while underway. Not bad riding a bike on the back deck with tunes playing and watching the river go by! We got to our anchorage at mile marker 270 and found a dredge working in the mouth of the bay. The dredge operator called me on the radio and apologized for being in the way and quickly backed his rig out. We entered the bay and he went back to work for about an hour. The Army Corp of Engineers, both at the locks and on the river, could not be nicer. They have held locks open and given us accurate wait times, which have been minimal. At one lock, we got there and a barge was going south and one north. I talked to the Lockmaster and pretty soon he called back and said the up bound barge had called and said he would wait so we could go through. If you are going to do the river, get AIS A and B. Because this identifies your boat name, course speed, etc., they all know you are coming. We have had many locks and many barges call us by name to advise when to get to the lock or what side to pass a barge on or even just say good morning! Back to our anchorage, a beautiful spot, which I will share pictures again when I can use the net to download pictures to the computer. We tried taking Cody for a long walk, but a pack of coyotes started howling, so we cut the walk short and back to the boat!
Thursday had a leisurely start at 7:15, called the lock about 4 miles down river. He responded to me by name ( Putz'n Around) and he advised to just Putz on down and he would have the lock ready for us. When we got there, the lock was full and the gates where open. We had a beautiful cruise down river and got to the Demopolis Yacht Basin at 3;15 and fueled up at $3.59 per gallon! This 5 day leg we averaged 2.87 miles per gallon. This marina is a sleeper. When you see slips form the gas dock they lock like a S@#$ hole, but that's not where you stay. After we pulled around a break wall, we found a fabulous marina! Pump outs at your slip, laundry and showers an the end of the dock and golf carts to get around the large property. They even have a beautiful pool and a community vegetable garden. We had dinner at the marina with 3 guys slipped next to us. The guys are our age and are doing a bucket list thing. Great catfish and Jambalaya! We will be off tomorrow for a 2 day run to Bobby's Fish Camp! I wonder what that marina will be like??? Today is laundry, grocery shopping and chillin' with loopers!
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Monday, May 16, 2016
Time to head home!
On Monday the 9th we left Stuart and across Lake Okeechobee for the two day run to Ft Myers. We spent 6 1/2 months on Putz'n Around, less the trip home for Christmas and Soren's first Birthday. We stayed one month in Fort Myers, two months in Fort Myers Beach, 5 days in Key West, one month in Marathon and 10 days in Islamorada. We then crossed the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic to the Bahamas. We stayed in Bimini, the Berry Islands, Spanish Wells and 8 different Cays in the Abacos. All in all we traveled 1140 miles by water.
We made great new friends and were able see many friends we made the previous year. The cruising community is quite small and very close. We look forward to running into our friends cruising in the coming years. We were blessed to have such a wonderful cruising year!
After two days of cleaning, I drove the boat up to Owl Creek where she will spend the summer out of huricane danger. Brigitte picked me up in the truck and we drove the 1740 miles home in two days!
The sunrise on the water our last day is quite the contrast to rush hour traffic in Atlanta and the temperature back home. We arrived in tee shirts, shorts, and flip flops!
That's it for this year, stayed tuned in Nov for the continued " Adventures of Putz'n Around"
Cheers from Brigitte and Scott
We made great new friends and were able see many friends we made the previous year. The cruising community is quite small and very close. We look forward to running into our friends cruising in the coming years. We were blessed to have such a wonderful cruising year!
After two days of cleaning, I drove the boat up to Owl Creek where she will spend the summer out of huricane danger. Brigitte picked me up in the truck and we drove the 1740 miles home in two days!
The sunrise on the water our last day is quite the contrast to rush hour traffic in Atlanta and the temperature back home. We arrived in tee shirts, shorts, and flip flops!
That's it for this year, stayed tuned in Nov for the continued " Adventures of Putz'n Around"
Cheers from Brigitte and Scott
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Miss Emileys Blue Bee Bar
One detail I omitted from the Heritage festival was the Bar in the post title. Miss Emilly likes you to think she invented the Gombay Smash. Who knows but she charges $7 for one drink or you can buy in bulk! $80 for a Gallon guess what the crew in the picture elected to do?
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Last days in the Bahamas
The weekend of the 6th was Province Towns annual Heritage festival. We had lunch at the liquor store, strange as that sounds, then dinner at Pineapples, great grouper kabobs. We made it back by dingy for night caps at Sunsets. It was a new moon so the surf was rough. We were siting at the bar which was a deck over the ocean. Every time the surf came in, the spray shot up 3 ft under our bar stools , yes we all got very wet!!! The ride back in the dinks was beyond wet.
We left GRC on Saterday morning and ran 85 miles to Mangove Cay were the three of us anchored for the night. We were 50 miles from nowhere behind a liitle spot of land. We were in 8 feet of water, and dead calm. No moon so the stars where incredible!
We pulled anchor in the dark at 5:30 AM and headed out. Our friends were headed to the Lake Pierce Inlet and we headed to the Saint Luice Inlet in Stuart. The first 25 miles over the Bahama Bank was incredible, 15 ft of water crystal clear with Hammer head sharks swimming below the boat.
We passed Memory Rock and stared out into the Atlantic. At first we had glass water with a less then a 10'inch swell. As we approached the Gulf Stream unfortunately the wind picked up from the North and in a matter of minutes the waves were 3-4 ft on the Starboard for 3 hours. Not good, we took spray over the top of our canvas which is 20 ft high. We got into Stuart at 3:30 and called it a day.
Will post more later, I am tired and am going to bed!
We left GRC on Saterday morning and ran 85 miles to Mangove Cay were the three of us anchored for the night. We were 50 miles from nowhere behind a liitle spot of land. We were in 8 feet of water, and dead calm. No moon so the stars where incredible!
We pulled anchor in the dark at 5:30 AM and headed out. Our friends were headed to the Lake Pierce Inlet and we headed to the Saint Luice Inlet in Stuart. The first 25 miles over the Bahama Bank was incredible, 15 ft of water crystal clear with Hammer head sharks swimming below the boat.
We passed Memory Rock and stared out into the Atlantic. At first we had glass water with a less then a 10'inch swell. As we approached the Gulf Stream unfortunately the wind picked up from the North and in a matter of minutes the waves were 3-4 ft on the Starboard for 3 hours. Not good, we took spray over the top of our canvas which is 20 ft high. We got into Stuart at 3:30 and called it a day.
Will post more later, I am tired and am going to bed!
Friday, May 6, 2016
Thursday, May 5, 2016
Green Turtle Cay
We have now been here a little over a week, not sure where the time goes! We have made new friends here, this a great boating community. We have explored most of the Cay by dingy including going grocery shopping by dingy, and having a great cheese burger for 7 bucks at the liquor store. They serve breakfast and lunch at a counter bar that holds about 6 people. The pricing structure on alcohol is interesting to say the least. Most hard liqueur is priced only a little over US prices. You would have to pay $17 for a bottle of Barefoot wine, yet a nice Chilean cab is about $12. The local beer Kalik is $58 a case. I underestimated our beer supply by one case ---what are you going to do.
We had what I thought we had an engine dingy issue the other day coming back from somewhere. The dingy would not get on plane. After a few choice words directed at the dink I realized I had failed to bring up the mushroom anchor. Da! When you tie up at a dingy dock here you are ask to bow in and drop a stern anchor.
Our friends Tom and Julie and Carole and DeVere caught up with us here on Tuesday. The weather has changed since they have arrived. Last evening we had thunderstorms blow in and drop a ton of rain and sustained winds of 22 knots gust to around forty. I had forgotten to stow the extra cooler that was just siting on the swim platform. Carol called me as it was floating out to sea. I wasn't pissed about the cooler but it had my two conch shells I had found in it. I was helpless as it was blown away in the storm. This morning Carol called again and told me she saw my cooler at the end of the sound. I raced over with dingy and there was my cooler tied up to a marker warning of a shoal. My conch shells were still inside. We spent the afternoon at the beach.
Our tentative plan is to leave here on Sat. Morning and run 50 miles to Big Sail Cay and anchor for one to two days. We plan on crossing the 121 miles to Stuart on Sunday or Monday depending on weather. We will go directly to Stuart while our Buddy boats will go to Fort Pierce. We will then start the migration home. We will keep you posted but we may be home around the 19 th weather permitting.
We had what I thought we had an engine dingy issue the other day coming back from somewhere. The dingy would not get on plane. After a few choice words directed at the dink I realized I had failed to bring up the mushroom anchor. Da! When you tie up at a dingy dock here you are ask to bow in and drop a stern anchor.
Our friends Tom and Julie and Carole and DeVere caught up with us here on Tuesday. The weather has changed since they have arrived. Last evening we had thunderstorms blow in and drop a ton of rain and sustained winds of 22 knots gust to around forty. I had forgotten to stow the extra cooler that was just siting on the swim platform. Carol called me as it was floating out to sea. I wasn't pissed about the cooler but it had my two conch shells I had found in it. I was helpless as it was blown away in the storm. This morning Carol called again and told me she saw my cooler at the end of the sound. I raced over with dingy and there was my cooler tied up to a marker warning of a shoal. My conch shells were still inside. We spent the afternoon at the beach.
Our tentative plan is to leave here on Sat. Morning and run 50 miles to Big Sail Cay and anchor for one to two days. We plan on crossing the 121 miles to Stuart on Sunday or Monday depending on weather. We will go directly to Stuart while our Buddy boats will go to Fort Pierce. We will then start the migration home. We will keep you posted but we may be home around the 19 th weather permitting.
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Around the Whale to Green Turtle Cay
On Wed. The 28th we topped off our fuel and headed out of Treasure Cay. The trip is probably about 8 miles as the crow flys but the water is a little shallow on the Sea of Abaco between here and there. We headed out to the North Atlantic and ran less than 2 miles around Whale Cay and back into The Sea of Abaco and to Green Turtle Cay (GTC). This is a treacherous passage between two reefs which can only be attempted in calm weather. The 14 mile trip was uneventful.
We are spending a week or so at Bluff House Marina in GTC before starting the trek around the top of the Bahama chain and back to Florida. My best guess is it is about 340 miles back to Ft Myers to store the boat for the summer.
Back to GTB, the Marina here is beautiful with a great pool, bar, and 2 restaurants. The weekly rate is a buck a ft, .65 kW, and .25 per gallon for water. There are 2 sounds on GTC, Black Sound on the South of the Island where the New Providence Settlement is. We are on the North end on White Sound. Late yesterday afternoon we checked the two sounds as they are only about 1.5 miles apart by dingy. We saw another boat like ours and Shazam we are invited for boat Drinks at 5. Tonight is pitza night at the bar so guess what is up for dinner.
After breakfast we took the dingy to No Name Cay (3.5 miles)to see the swimming pigs. They are so well feed you have to take the food to them on land. In the last 2 days we have seen Dolphins, nurse sharks, turtles are everywhere, bone fish, reef fish, huge rays, and even small rays jumping 2 feet out of the water.
Pics to follow.
We are spending a week or so at Bluff House Marina in GTC before starting the trek around the top of the Bahama chain and back to Florida. My best guess is it is about 340 miles back to Ft Myers to store the boat for the summer.
Back to GTB, the Marina here is beautiful with a great pool, bar, and 2 restaurants. The weekly rate is a buck a ft, .65 kW, and .25 per gallon for water. There are 2 sounds on GTC, Black Sound on the South of the Island where the New Providence Settlement is. We are on the North end on White Sound. Late yesterday afternoon we checked the two sounds as they are only about 1.5 miles apart by dingy. We saw another boat like ours and Shazam we are invited for boat Drinks at 5. Tonight is pitza night at the bar so guess what is up for dinner.
After breakfast we took the dingy to No Name Cay (3.5 miles)to see the swimming pigs. They are so well feed you have to take the food to them on land. In the last 2 days we have seen Dolphins, nurse sharks, turtles are everywhere, bone fish, reef fish, huge rays, and even small rays jumping 2 feet out of the water.
Pics to follow.
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