that we were âchip-worthy.â We have used this excellent term ever since, because it couldnât have summed it up any better. Sometimes I wasnât sure if I was pretzel-worthy on my own boat, they were so rare!
That said, donât buy food you wouldnât buy normally. If you didnât eat pickled eggs while a landlubber, you probably wonât eat them while youâre a liveaboard!
With our credit cards maxed out and our boat full to the brim, it was time to go. But where? We thought about heading to Georgia so we could keep working on the boat, but we were told we couldnât live aboard there (weâve since heard otherwise) and didnât want to go any farther up the Intracoastal Waterway and
away
from the Caribbean. Winter was coming! We decided to head for the Bahamas. Why not?
Casting Off
6
And Weâre OffâNot
W
ahoo! We were going to the Bahamasâitâs better there (or so they say). Well, we were going to the Bahamas
after
we found someone to take us there. Based on a recommendation from our surveyor, we ended up with Captain Tim, a down-to-earth old salt and a vegetarian like us (or willing to be while he was on our boat). We didnât double-check his credentials, but he was recommended, asked the right price, and was available.
First we had to figure out exactly where in the Bahamas we were going. We needed to stay close to the United States so we could deal with home-sale issues. After reading Bahamas cruising guides, we decided that the Abacos (the most northern in the chain of islands known as the Bahamas) might be a good place to settle in. Green Turtle sounded promising as a long-term anchorage and became our final destination. Our captain had also done this route before, which made us all happy.
Aiming for reasonable five- to six-hour days after the first long haul, Captain Tim chose the following route: Miami northeast to West End, at the west end of Grand Bahama Island (98 miles); northeast to Great Sale Cay (40 miles); east to Allans-Pensacola Cay (38 miles); and finally 25 miles southeast for the final hop to Green Turtle Cay. The whole trip would take three days. Three days to go 201 miles? Whereâs my Miata! Well, it was certainly enough time to learn the ropes, so to speak, or at least some of them, which was the point, wasnât it?
We set a date to start out, November 5, and prepared to sail to our first stop, West End, Grand Bahama Island. I got busy studying the chartplotter (the electronic version of paper charts) and other electronics. Iâm the computer geek in the family, so I automatically took on the task of electronically plotting the course and figuring out how all the navigation equipment worked. The only way we could pull off this sailing thing without lessons would be with the electronics: autopilot, radar, wind reader (anemometer), depth sounder, and chartplotter. Think about it. We could âsailâ without ever putting the sails up as long as we understood these essentials. All set!
Sunday, November 5, 2006: Off we go! Oh, wait, here comes a weather system. No go. Nor would it be until three days later. We obtained this bad news via NOAA weather broadcasts on our VHF radio (Wx channels) and were being advised by both Captain Tim and Stephen, who was in the nearby marina on
Siyaya
on the same make of boat as ours. We also had a small battery-powered single-sidebandradio (SSB) that let us listen to Chris Parker, a meteorologist specializing in weather for boaters in the southern Florida to Caribbean areas. All said stay put, so we did.
LESSON 18: YOU WILL WAIT FOR WEATHERâA LOT Repeat after me, âI will spend a lot of time waiting for weather.â This is one reason why the boating life is not quite as free as you think. If youâre retired and have nowhere to be, then you have no worries (although hurricane season will usually force a move). But many of us have a timeline, even if it is a three-year
That said, donât buy food you wouldnât buy normally. If you didnât eat pickled eggs while a landlubber, you probably wonât eat them while youâre a liveaboard!
With our credit cards maxed out and our boat full to the brim, it was time to go. But where? We thought about heading to Georgia so we could keep working on the boat, but we were told we couldnât live aboard there (weâve since heard otherwise) and didnât want to go any farther up the Intracoastal Waterway and
away
from the Caribbean. Winter was coming! We decided to head for the Bahamas. Why not?
Casting Off
6
And Weâre OffâNot
W
ahoo! We were going to the Bahamasâitâs better there (or so they say). Well, we were going to the Bahamas
after
we found someone to take us there. Based on a recommendation from our surveyor, we ended up with Captain Tim, a down-to-earth old salt and a vegetarian like us (or willing to be while he was on our boat). We didnât double-check his credentials, but he was recommended, asked the right price, and was available.
First we had to figure out exactly where in the Bahamas we were going. We needed to stay close to the United States so we could deal with home-sale issues. After reading Bahamas cruising guides, we decided that the Abacos (the most northern in the chain of islands known as the Bahamas) might be a good place to settle in. Green Turtle sounded promising as a long-term anchorage and became our final destination. Our captain had also done this route before, which made us all happy.
Aiming for reasonable five- to six-hour days after the first long haul, Captain Tim chose the following route: Miami northeast to West End, at the west end of Grand Bahama Island (98 miles); northeast to Great Sale Cay (40 miles); east to Allans-Pensacola Cay (38 miles); and finally 25 miles southeast for the final hop to Green Turtle Cay. The whole trip would take three days. Three days to go 201 miles? Whereâs my Miata! Well, it was certainly enough time to learn the ropes, so to speak, or at least some of them, which was the point, wasnât it?
We set a date to start out, November 5, and prepared to sail to our first stop, West End, Grand Bahama Island. I got busy studying the chartplotter (the electronic version of paper charts) and other electronics. Iâm the computer geek in the family, so I automatically took on the task of electronically plotting the course and figuring out how all the navigation equipment worked. The only way we could pull off this sailing thing without lessons would be with the electronics: autopilot, radar, wind reader (anemometer), depth sounder, and chartplotter. Think about it. We could âsailâ without ever putting the sails up as long as we understood these essentials. All set!
Sunday, November 5, 2006: Off we go! Oh, wait, here comes a weather system. No go. Nor would it be until three days later. We obtained this bad news via NOAA weather broadcasts on our VHF radio (Wx channels) and were being advised by both Captain Tim and Stephen, who was in the nearby marina on
Siyaya
on the same make of boat as ours. We also had a small battery-powered single-sidebandradio (SSB) that let us listen to Chris Parker, a meteorologist specializing in weather for boaters in the southern Florida to Caribbean areas. All said stay put, so we did.
LESSON 18: YOU WILL WAIT FOR WEATHERâA LOT Repeat after me, âI will spend a lot of time waiting for weather.â This is one reason why the boating life is not quite as free as you think. If youâre retired and have nowhere to be, then you have no worries (although hurricane season will usually force a move). But many of us have a timeline, even if it is a three-year
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