Keys & Beyond

[captd]

At noname Harbor they were filming a commercial for a big dept clothing store in New York. They were doing it on a beautiful sail boat. The work platform was a pontoon boat at least 40 ft. long. I would guess there were 50 people involved. It took them all day to do it. They had a complete out door catering deal for all at lunch and dinner. It had to have cost a million or more. I took some pictures with the Lucky Fin anchored right behind them. I will post a couple pictures like that. Cause who cares about a dumb old clothing commercial. We want to see Rangers in there.

Now here at Peanut island....... H.M.S Bounty. She is the most salty ship I ever saw. It takes you back to the great age of sail. The thrill of a square-rigged sailing vessel, her historic British beginnings, and her extensive life in film is incomparable. None other like her. She was built in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia in 1962 for MGM Film Studio's Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Marlon Brando. Remember the over throw of Captain Bligh the mutiny of 1789. Other movies are Treasure Island, Yellow Beard, Sponge Bob Square Pants, Pirates of the Caribbean and Dead mans chest.

She is built true to the style of ships of the 18th century although one third longer to accommodate filming needs and two modern engines. 375 hp John Deere diesels. She is 412 gross tons. 120 foot of deck, over all is 180 including the bowsprit, 115 ft of waterline, 32 ft beam and draws 13 ft. Free board is 12 ft. She carries 18 sails,10,000 square feet of canvas. 10 miles of running rigging. She sports 4 cannons carriage. She has two anchors, one 2,200lb. the other 1,700lbs.
All done with man power.

I will try to load some pictures.

We are in a nice protected marina now in Lake Park about a mile up from my key hole. We stay here and trade Dee for a Bud. The weather is looking like a possible shot on Wednesday or Thursday.

To be continued

captd

 

[captain's cat]

I'm really surprised Dee turned you loose at this party. Very nice pictures, especially this one! :shock:

Keep the posts coming, I read them every day!

Charlie

 

[captd]

Thanks charlie , For bringing the picture forward. I forgot how. 😳 I noticed you didn't bring one of the bounty up. And I thought you were a salty guy.
Nice quite marina with floating docks. Much better , same price, cheaper fuel, protected from all winds. About a mile North of the Blue Heron Bridge. We will never stay at the Riveira Beach city Marina again.

Bud and Marietta got here with their new motor home they picked up on Sunday. Everything was going according to plan when upon moving the motor home to make loading and unloaded a little easier. The engine rpm's were kind of high to get it moving. Lots of transmission fluid was left on the ground. 🙁 Well, we can not leave for the Abacos today cause we need to take the motor home to a trany shop. Tomorrow looks better anyway. Right now there are veriable winds from the north switching to the east. After the switch will be the best.
We got Dee's stuff off the boat and Buds on. Marrietta will supervise the repair job while Bud and I are on our way. I think we are going to pull this off yet.

Hope to top off the fuel today at 4:00 pm, leave the boat on the fuel dock and be ready to leave at about 5;00 A.M. It should only take about 20 gal. That is from Biscayne Bay all the way to Palm Beach. About 125 miles. Lots of idle and slow speed zones. I like it.

Coffee is done, To be continued
captd

 

[captain's cat]

Thanks charlie , For bringing the picture forward. I forgot how. 😳 I noticed you didn't bring one of the bounty up. And I thought you were a salty guy.
captd

Hey, I'm a sailor, what can I say. I appreciate ships too. Hope you get your motor home fixed, sounds bad. Have a good trip!

 

[sportner]

Sorry about the motor home but did you say we are leaving for Abacos in the morning? Well all I have to do is put my tooth brush by the computer and I am ready to go. Looking forward to your posts as I cruise along with you from 3,000 miles away.

 

[captd]

Went out in the dark out the Lake Worth inlet. Noaa said 2 foot or less wind out of the east. Right on the direction, but was totally wrong on the on the seas. Going out the inlet in pitch black going by the charts, there were terrible surf coming in, but being as you could not see them We just hung on. I thought it would calm down once out the inlet. that was wrong too. We got out 20 miles and it was beating us to death. 45 miles to go. We made the wise decision to turn back and surfed the huge waves wide open until the wave opened to a deep valley , at that time you eased up on the throttle and got ready to power up again. On the back of those waves we hit 17 miles an hour. I think we will be more careful next try.

We are back in Lake Park City Marina, licking our wounds. Figuring on the next move.

To be continued

captd

 

[sportner]

Wise decision, you know your comfort level and there is always another day.

 

[captd]

Boat show going on in Palm Beach this week end, so we got something to do. Ladies and dogs are gone. Now we got to do our own cooking and wash dishes.
Motor home transmission was fixed for about $1600. Place was highly questionable. Captured audience, what are you going to do?
We are studying the weather right now. Keeping fingers crossed. We will not leave in the dark.
to be continued
captd

 

[captd]

This morning we headed out again in the dark. Winds were quite calm. Weather report said a fair shot to cross, but I knew NNE winds even at 10 mile an hour would be bad. We got out about three miles and started seeing breaking waves. The Ranger would be very uncomfortable with a beam sea. 4 to 7 ft seas on the beam for 6o miles would be a real pain. So we turned around and are now anchored at the Palm Beach boat show. 8:45 in the morning.

The wind is suppose to turn to the east this afternoon. That looks like the last possibility to cross for the next week or so. We will continue to look for the opening for about a week. If we don't get it we will do the St. Lucy canal over the Lake Okeechobee waterway into the Caloosahatchee River. Which comes out in Fort Myers. Then the trip back up to Crystal River.

This again proves don't plan on going to the Bahamas and being back here any set time. You must wait on the right weather. Summers are easy.

Now we will just kick back and watch the flags , if they indicate the wind has switched we will go out again and see for ourselves what the seas are like. You can not count on Noaa weather reports.

To be continued.
captd

 

[captd]

Well it never improved. We spent the day in my key hole in Peanut island. Sunday, so lots of people and boats. Good place for people and boat watching.
In deep discussions with some locals, they suggest Tuesday morning is a good possibility. Suppose to be light wind out of the east at about 5 to 10. Picking up to 15 to 20 in the afternoon. An early start will be the plan. You got to go and see for your self. Then decide if it is go or no go.

Wind and rain all night. Cloudy and windy all day yesterday. We went back into the Lake Park City Marina again for the night. sheezzz it is getting tiring looking for a nice day. But it is proof to all, make sure you have lots of time to wait on both ends of a trip to the Bahamas. A young local boater, in fact he was operator of a Boater U.S, tow boat . He said his 1st trip over to the Abacos was when he was 15 years old. He went with a 14 ft. center consul all by himself. Now he will run over in an hour and a half with his 30 foot Contender. I have seen many small open boats over there on the big weekends like Labor day. Sleeping under a tarp waiting for daylight having to get back home. Old to be young again.
Coffee is done 🙂
To be continued
captd

 

[captd]

Tuesday is no good, blew all night, small craft warnings until 10:00 in the morning.Seas in the stream 7 to 9, Looks like next shot will be Thursday or a better day yet, Friday. Says 2 feet or less.

A fellow and his Son drove down from Baton Rouge, La. 900 miles for the Sons spring break. 1800 round trip to make a quick run to the Bahamas. They loaded the boat back up on the trailer and are heading back. They had planned this trip for a long time. It took them only a few hours to know they may not get back on any time schedule. Let alone getting over before their time would be up.
Dee called, said she had been watching the storm as it passed our location. She said a tornado killed 3 people in Freeport in the Abacos. We had the warnings but lucked out. We have just stayed in the city dock and read. One fellow said he had been to the Bahamas 15 time and never had to wait for a good crossing. I said when, in the summer? yup.

Best thing about this Marina is it is a stones throw from Winn Dixie. Mac Donalds, A long walk to Boat Owners Warehouse, for us anyway. Protected from the wind, but during the day we get huge wakes from the ICW. We have yet had a need to plug in. Even with the crappy weather, (clouds and all ) She has never been below 12 volts.

Right now the sun is shinning and putting out 11.7 amps. It is the best show in town. I love it. A comment was made once after someone ask the price of the solar system we use. That you can buy a good generator for that much. Guess that is true. I might have over quoted the price to him. I think I mistakenly said around three thousand. Later after thinking about it, it was about half that price. I think the same thing now is even less than that. They are getting better and cheaper. What did I tell you Frank? I might have told you the wrong price. Easy to look up. Two 130 watt with regulator.

To be continued........... More of the same until be get to the West End. :shock:

captd

 

[captd]

At 2:00 AM color us gone. Dead calm sea are to 2 feet or less. Light wind out of the East. When we lose the light of Palm Beach we should see the West End lights. We should clear Customs at opening time

I will post when we can get on line. Might be a couple days. 🙂

captd

 

[jingram]

Better not be a damn April Fool's joke! 😉 Hope you had a safe run and look forward to seeing that tug in the perfect turquoise waters of the Abacos!

 

[Texas Steve]

Godspeed to you and your crew! Have a safe and pleasant journey. We so much appreciate you sharing your adventures with us who are landlocked.

Texas Steve

 

[Zuma]

Safe travels across those calm blue seas CaptD... look forward to hearing from you when you get over to the Abacos.

 

[Bruce Moore]

Hope this finds you secure in the Abacos, enjoying the beverage of your choice, and well satisfied it was worth the wait.

Cheers

 

[terraplane]

Has anyone heard from Capt. D?

 

[captd]

We had a perfect crossing.

Everything I wrote in word can relate.

We left Palm Beach at 1:30 in the morning. We pulled an April fool on Mother nature and Noaa weather. We got into West End at eight in the morning. Customs don't open until 9:00 AM. So we fueled up and paid our $150 and we went on our merry way. Punched mangrove Cay into the putor about twenty five mile away, made the turn and headed for our anchorage at sail cay another 26 mile away. Got in there early in the day. Calm peaceful night. Early the next morning we headed out and made for Allens Pennsacola. While enroute Bud mentioned Carter Cay which was on the way. So we went to check it out. It turned out to be the same place Dee and I hideout during a blow back in 1995. A real creepy place. six to eight boat are anchored out permanently, no dinks. No People in the cabins or boats. All old unmaintained hulks. Most still floating.
We decided it was a bad to spend the night so we went on to AP. It was a choppy wet ride but not bad. Got into the anchorage early enough to explore where the trail was across the island to the ocean side. I will tell you all about it the next post.

You will see how lucky we were on our timing. Guess where we were on Easter Sunday........ 😀

Lots of good stories coming. Stay tuned, What a blast. 😀

Captd

 

[captd]

We took to the trail through the jungle and came out on the Ocean side. All the hundreds of curios hanging from tree . Signs hang until the ropes rotted away. Garbage that drifted unto the beach has now become art. We even added a little of our own. If you ever get there look for a styrafoam life ring, well a half of one. I carved the "Lucky Fin " into it with 2010 and Buds name.

Lot of the drift I would like to bring a lot of it home. 4 inch ships hauser , helmets , Bottles, floats, barrels, You name it it has come ashore. A two man swing , routered name plates , Must have been done at home. To much to describe. We still have not gotten into the water which turned out to be a good thing. Cause now we end up at Nippers on Easter Sunday. I will tell you all about it later. 600 to 1000 people . Can you believe it?

Lots to talk about yet. Forgive the spelling and other errors for I keep thinking it won't go. Here this one comes
To be continued.
captd 😀

 

[Stella Maris]

Darrell,
Glad you and Bud made it across in one piece!!!!

Have a great time. Post lots of pictures!