Half Moon Cay

A few days ago, Jennie (Miakoda) and Alyson (Aly Cat) made friends with
the Jamaican horse tenders on Little San Salvador. For marketing
purposes, Holland American Cruise Lines has renamed it Half Moon Cay and
set up a cruise ship fantasy land on the island. Living onshore are 25
or so ex-polo ponies for the cruise ship passengers to ride on the beach
and in the water. Our cruising guide says, "boats are not allowed in
the harbor or ashore except in an emergency" as the island is privately
owed. Well, no one owns the water and we find a little kindness goes
along way. Sure enough, minus one bottle of tequila, Jennie and Aly
arranged for the kids to ride the horses at 9:00 a.m., before the 4000
cruise ship passengers swarmed the island. Parker and Casey bagged out,
so 6 girls and Aly (who Rodney, the dentally challenged Jamaican seemed
to have taken a fancy to) rode polo ponies around the corral. Aly also
arranged for the ladies to come back at 2:00 p.m. for a real ride at the
end of the day. Kristin (Pelican) and I enjoyed the hiking trails and
almost lost our way in the interior of the island. School was put on
hold and 5 kid boats with 8 kids and 10 adults tried to blend in with
the mostly older, sun burned over weight cruiser ship passengers. The
caretakers encouraged us to take part in all of the festivities. First
stop was the stingray lagoon. However, by the time we got their the
first group of paying cruise ship passengers were donning life jackets,
masks and snorkels to swim in waist deep water with the tamed sting
rays. With no shoes to protect our feet, we ran to the ocean while Aly
and Jennie negotiated a return trip. By now, 4000 people has crowed the
beach, filling beach chairs, cabanas and even private houses for rent at
$100/day. Sabrina said, "I feel like I'm back in Florida". Casey
(Pelican) and Parker made for the water park and ocean tramps while the
girls went back to the stingrays. Green backs talk and the kids got to
feed sting rays for a little kindness passed to the low paid workers.
Marc spent the day photographing Americana while the rest went back to
the horses. Riding horses in the water was an exhilarating experience.
Staying on was tricking with breaking waves. The horses keep doing
their business in the water, requiring legs up to let it passed by.

The adventure kept going. Ally (Miakoda) split her chin open on a water
slide. Dr. Johnson to the rescue and he did a professional suture job
on the boat, applying 4 stitches. As the wind has picked up and changed
directions, all of the dinghies on shore were flooded with shoes, masks
and snorkels strewn across the beach. Bailing, bailing, bailing and
all three dinghies were floating. The gas tanks were flooded also so
Casey and Parker got our dinghy from the boat to tow the other boats in.
Side by Side is now missing a few packs of cigars kept on board just for
trading and a bottle of tequila. Thanks to Carnival Cruise Lines for a
great day.

Prior to Little San Salvador, we were in Fernandez Bay, Cat Island. Cat
Island is a very friendly island known for its traditional African
religious practices, including abandoning houses once the grandparents
die to allow the spirits to live in peace. Cat Island is also known as
the home of Rake and Scrape music, Bahamain music using a heated goat
skin drum, saws with a screw driver and an accordion. At the local Rake
and Scrape, we met a pilot from Crystal Lake (like Scott and Kendall)
who offered a tour of the corporate jet to the kids. We also met Evan,
the manager of the Fernandez Bay resort who was from Michigan. All 5
kid boats descended on the resort and enjoyed a tour of a 25 million
corporate jet. The pilot, Alain and the co-pilot, JT, got tours of our
much less expensive boats and happy hour in the evening. Alain then
piled all of us into a rent a truck for a visit to the famous Hermitage,
a sanctuary built by a retired priest at the highest point in the
Bahamas, modeled after an Italian shrine. To top it off, Alain buzzed
the anchorage in the jet on the way home. The site of a jet going 450
knots directly over head will not be forgotten soon.

5 kids boats with 11 kids for Halloween at Elizabeth City NC

Auto pump shut off

On the boat, we are used to traveling for a month or more on 150 gallons of fuel.  After all, we are a sail boat with two auxiliary engines.  Our patience for slow sailing has increased with a 3 knot cut-off.  If we are going less than 3 nautical miles an hour (maybe 4 miles an hour) we turn on an engine and motor sail.  Now we are driving 40 feet of house down the road with a V10 Ford Triton engine and no sails on the roof.   All the CPAs in the family were taking bets on our first fuel mileage, with a required report in.

 

As with anything, figures can be manipulated to benefit the presenter.  At our first fill up, the pump magically shut off at only 38 gallons.  That would be phenomenal fuel economy.  But wait, it shut off as we had charged exactly $100 and that is the max on one credit card transaction.    That has NEVER happened to us before at the pump.  Another $100 and we had our first official mileage report and a realization that we are now our worse environmental nightmare at between 7-9 miles/gallon. 

 

Now we are happy that the recession has caused a drop in fuel prices. 

Now, we love the fact that U.S. has the lowest fuel prices of the wealthy nations. 

Now, we creep over the border from Canada so we don’t have to buy fuel at $1.00 a liter (about $4.00/gallon for the math challenged). 

Now, Marc has now taken to Priusing, coasting down any and every hill in neutral. 

Now, our internet time is used searching for the lowest fuel in the area.  Where is Chavez when you need him?   

As the accountant, I have figured at fuel costs $.33/mile.  Every wrong turn I think, ca$$ching, ca$$ching.  So, we are hoping our carbon footprint can be averaged over the last 3 years and divided by 4.. right?

Heading west with no GPS

Goodbye Hastings.  On Saturday, August 8^th, after cleaning, fixing, and loading the “new” RV with food, we left Hastings Michigan heading west without a definite plan.   A new tradition was established.. honk at the entrance to every new state.  Bye Michigan, hello Indiana…. Goodbye Indiana, hello Illinois. 

Scott, my brother, turned 40 that day and we were meeting him off the highway in Illinois. We learned quickly to try to avoid toll roads.  With 3 axles, we had to take out a small mortgage to pay the toll taker.   Entering downtown Chicago,  the Express lane sign read, “no trucks”.  Our we now a truck… with 3 seconds to decide, survey yes, “YES”   After getting his first ticket in 20 years, Marc was extra sensitive to being a law abiding citizen in our new Tropi-cal RV.  So, onto the “local” lane we merged.   The first adventure of the trip occurred. ;
Black smoke was billowing in the right lane and cars were screeching to a halt.   With a car on fire in the far right lane, cars were slipping by in the left lane.   Just as we were getting by… WHAM, the impressive Chicago Fire Department showed up in force, parking their fire truck right in front us, cutting off the lane.   By now, the car was in full blown inferno with Marc saying… get a picture.  Chicago’s finest parked their fire truck in front of our perfect Eye Witness News photo.  I’ve never been the eye witness in Eye Witness News and now the picture was lost.. but I got the smoke and the firefighters in action.

We were so close, we got to chat with the firefighters and see the business man with his briefcase watching his car go up in flames.  One of the firefighters gave Parker a comment about playing his DS vs. watching the action.  New DS rules were put in place and within 20 minutes, we were on our way.

Land Lubbers

August 1st , 2009 was a milestone day. In the morning, we negotiated our first RV purchase, a 37',1999 National "Tropi-cal" model with 35,000 miles.Why did we BUY an RV you ask. Side-by-Side was "on the hard" at the Severn River Marina in Virginia awaiting a new transmission. Most boat yards forbid living on the hard. We have done it once and it is no fun and nearly impossible for the 3-4 weeks it was going to take to fix the boat. So we were officially home-less. Ideas were tossed around including rent an RV in Europe as the sailing plan there was squashed by the kids. Heading to South America was an option. Then sailing friends in Idaho (formerly Mima), who purchased an RV after sailing, invited us to visit and tool around in the RV. Maybe it was time to "See American First" as the original National Park travel slogan stated. Renting an RV was costly and, for the 4 weeks, would have been as much as buying one. Brad, my CPA brother in law and I approached the decision from a non emotional "run the numbers" approach. Brad asked to see my spreadsheet analysis of the cost of an RV vs. nightly hotels factoring in gas, depreciation and the opportunity cost of money. I'm still working on it. Inspired by our friends the Olson's who had tented camp for 3 weeks last summer, I suggested driving the 1996 teal Plymouth Voyager with 120K on it and tent camping. Marc just said, "It is about the experience, not the numbers." so off shopping we went.
After almost buying an RV in Virginia until metal appeared in the transmission fluid, we were spending every day looking in Michigan for an affordable, low mileage older RV. We checked Craig's List, walked through pre-auction lots, called dealers to no avail. Anything reasonable was trashed inside and/or water damaged and delaminating. Seems that Michigan's15% unemployment rate has lead many fore-closed families to move into motor homes as their primary residence. Feeling discouraged, we saw a large RV sitting in a used car lot in Caledonia Michigan, outside of Hastings. It looked entirely unaffordable but Marc said, "Let's take a look." Wow, it was not trashed, had Corian counter tops, tons of storage, TWO slide outs, palm tress on the outside and etched sail boats on the inside. On the down side, it had some evidence of water damage, non working batteries and was $7,000 outside of our upper limit. The sales guy, without asking, takes $5,000 off the price. After a 6 hour work over by a mechanic and a list of repair issues, we went in for some hard negotiating. 2 hours later we left with an insured, paid for RV but running late for Hannah's baptism. Then onto Angie's 25th class reunion.. Quite the day!

Micro Burst

After 2 days at sea, we wanted a break and cautiously, we approached the T dock with one engine.  Marc did not want to be on the end dock, but we had no choice as the other slips were full and we had limited maneuverability.  With fenders and boards in place, we retired to the air conditioned cabin enjoying the open WIFI.  We heard of the severe thunderstorm watch which was common this time of year but left the radio off, a big mistake.  With the radio off, we did not know of the approaching severe thunderstorm.  Sabrina and I felt the rain coming and tried to prepare the cockpit.  The first large wind gust brought Marc up from his internet fixation. The storm, we thought had passed. 

Unfortunately, a worse storm followed.  The wind reached 60 knots and the resulting waves in the small bay meant disaster for Side-by-Side.  Our fenders burst or were removed by the force of the waves.  The boat smashed violently against the dock, causing the cupboards to come open, the kids to panic and the microwave to almost hit the floor.  Marc tried to fend us off the dock but we did not have sufficient fenders available.  Other boats suffered ripped sails and damage as well.  Part of the rub rail completely broke off and the back end was smashed.  The micro bust was like a mini tornado and was the worst we had seen.  Had we been anchored out, we would have been fine.  Many people ask us if we are concerned about being out at sea, “away from the sight of land”.  In our opinion, it is much safer to be away from land during a storm.  Notice all of the ship wrecks off the coast of North Carolina?     More boat repairs, here we come. 

Reunited

Close friends. Sending out Christmas cards or wedding invitations our list of friends can swell to large levels. But when it comes down to the number of people you can call on for anything, anytime the number shrinks Those people who open their homes to you and tell you to stay as long as you need to, even beyond the standard "4 day" limit. Sailing, we meet other cruising who become "do anything" for you friends in a short period of time. Why is that? Maybe because we are all somewhat craving play mates for our kids and adult conversation from someone other than our spouses. Maybe we know that at any time we may need help in terms of a boat part, computer expertise or just an ear to vent to. Regardless, turning around and headed back gave us an to opportunity to be reunited with "shirt of my back" friends on Aly Cat, Pelican and Miakoda. They were "sorry" for our boat problems but glad the goodbye we said in the Bahamas was not as long as expected. Thanks Alyson, Lew and Caroline for opening up their beach home to us. The kids learned to surf in all of 5 minutes while the adults had a great time being schooled in Poker. Too soon, we felt it was time to head north.