Spoke with Sweet Caroline this morning via Skype. They have Internet for the next day or so. Their Skype Name is ct34sweetcaroline. You can look them up in the Skype directory. Skype is free and can be found here: Skype Website
Sounds like they are staying another day at Lynyard Cay. Time to go exploring. I have provided a map on Lynyard Cay from the Garmin Map database. It has more detail than the Google Map. Click on the map below.
If you look at the previous post there are now markers on the Google Map. In the future they will provide information at each location. For now they indicate where Sweet Caroline has been and the date they were there.
John & Carol finally after many trials & tribulations left Telemar Bay Marina, Indialantic, Florida 1030 May 17th 2008 for their sailing adventure. After getting their boat blessed they headed for Marker 20 in the Indian River where they anchored for the night.
Sunday afternoon around 1500 they were near Ft Pierce Inlet and upon hearing the weather forecast of 1’-2’ seas, they made a decision to make the crossing that afternoon and head for the Abacos in the Bahamas. Around 1800 the seas started getting rough and we took down the jib. We had lots of water coming over the bow and sides. Right before dark we took down the main sail because we were too close to the wind. At dark that is when things really got dicey. The seas were 4’-6’ or higher. The compass light wouldn’t work so John taped a flashlight up to see; next thing the Auto Pilot broke a belt so we had to hand steer, which is not fun in heavy seas. Around 0130 the oil light came on. John checked everything and found we were taking on some water in the bilge. The automatic bilge pump wasn’t working and neither was the hand pump. Was this the shake down cruise or what! We had to use the dinghy pump every couple hours to keep ahead of the water coming in,(which we discovered later every time the bow went in the water, water came in the hawsepipe, which is for the anchor chain to come through). At daybreak the boat was still bouncing around due to the high seas. We finally arrived at Mangrove Cay at 1600 and anchored. Out came our new supply of liquid refreshments. Boy what a crossing!
Tuesday May 20th we were still exhausted and took stock of what needed to be fixed before we could continue on. Carol received a new name ‘Digger’. That is the name of the NASCAR Gopher cam. It’s appropriate for her because she has to dig for this and then start digging for something else. Normally that means emptying out the V-Berth into the main salon and the putting it all back. Everything that she wants is in the very front, naturally. If anyone had seen our boat when we left the V-Berth was totally full. As you may have noticed we were anchored a few days at Mangrove Cay to fix everything. John’s famous phase “You have to look at each day as a new adventure”, and it has been so far. At this point in time we were only 594 nm from Luperon, in the Dominican Republic, our destination.
We left Mangrove Thursday May 22nd and arrived at Crab Cay for our anchorage for the night. Friday, we made it to New Plymouth, Green Turtle Cay, Abacos Bahamas at 1230. John went in to clear customs and while he was there winds gusted to 38 knots with driving rain. After he returned we went to the Wrecking Tree and ate Conch Burgers and drank Goombay Smashes. The next stop was Miss Emily’s Blue Bee Bar for another Goombay Smash. Carol can’t go by that place without stopping in.
Saturday we left and went through Whale Cay Passage and headed for Marsh Harbour. Whale Cay Passage was pretty calm when we went through. We still could not put up sails as we were heading into the wind. We arrived in Marsh Harbour at 12:30. On Monday we went into town and got wireless internet. We will have it for a week and we can still use it down at Little Harbor which we plan to be Thursday. We have not been able to send or receive anything through the ham radio. We have tried all times of the night and day. Since we now have internet we are able to use our Skype, which allows us to talk to family and friends for $.02 per minute. We plan on staying here in Marsh Harbour until Thursday when hopefully the weather and seas will cooperate.
Sweet Caroline via Winlink