Sailing Miles

  Bucket List: Elbow Cay Lighthouse in Hope Town, Bahamas We docked the dinghy, with a stern anchor out, right at the lighthouse dock for our free self-guided tour. The woman in the gift shop was very friendly and informative. The light in this ligh thouse is the only one in the world that still runs on kerosene and is hand-cranked! We saw the block-and-tackle they use to bring up the kerosene to the pressurized tank. OSHA has no jurisdiction here... 101 steps to the top. It's fascinating to us that a cochlea   is a naturally occurring geometric shape. Part of the beautiful way God made order in the universe. According to the brochure, "The lighting source is a 325,000 candlepower "Hood" petroleum vapour burner. A hand pump is used to pressurize the petroleum (kerosene) which is in the heavy green iron containers below the lantern room. The fuel travels up a tube to a vapourizer within the burner which sprays into a preheated mantle. Pressurized camping lanterns oper...

 While we were spending the five nights anchored in our "only one night" anchorage off Lynyard Cay (it was that fantastic!), we went up to Sandy Cay to snorkel twice. Both times were amazing.  I mentioned before that someone said it's the best snorkeling spot in the Abacos.  The good part of hitting it first, is that we did actually enjoy the best snorkeling spot in the Abacos.  The bad part is that it will all be downhill from here. We had learned that the Pelican Cays Land and Sea Park maintains a couple of moorings near the reef.  They were not rated for a 50-foot boat, and besides it is easier to grab a mooring from the dinghy.  We took the 2.5-mile ride on two consecutive days to enjoy the reef. The water is that amazing clear water of the Bahamas.  Heck, I think I've bought bottled water that is not so clear.  We shared a mooring with a family that was taking a sabbatical for a year and cruising the Bahamas and Caribbean on their trawler, Se...

After a great week in one of our favorite Florida anchorages, No Name Harbor, we found a great weather window to head to the Bahamas. We were D-U-N, done with Florida after a year of repairs. Even though the time in No Name was amazing, with dear friends, we were excited to move on. We checked into the Bahamas in Bimini.  We had been there in March of 2020, just before Covid created such trouble. We sailed with Danny, Cindy, Steve, and Glenn. We had been using Glenn as slave labor for almost a week, so we thought sailing would be a good reward.  Checking in went well, even though I had to call on our IT guy to help me fill out the Click2Clear website.  We had missed the detail that it is mandatory now. The first Customs guy was a bit touchy about our ignorance, but after I secured Steve to help make things happen, the first guy was at lunch.  The second guy was like a website support specialist for cruisers.  I think the paper method took less time, but maybe we...

An update on SV Miles on Facebook

Sailing Miles is sailing again! ⛵ We left the South Lake anchorage, where we have spent most of our time the last four months, and had a nice sail down the Florida coast to Key Biscayne. Our good friends Tara and Brian, on Scout, happened to be in No Name Harbor, and they took this amazing sunset picture. Now we get ready to head to the Bahamas!

We spent our anniversary, November 13th, getting ready for sailing to the Bahamas next week. Nine long wires came out the bottom of our new mast, and they needed to be run to various parts of the boat. Only they need to go under the stove, behind the cabinet, through the wall, around the plumbing, through that hole that is not big enough, and into the fifth dimension. This required calisthenics, yoga, and the escape skills of Houdini. I found my torso trapped in a storage area door, my arms were no help because they were over my head, my legs were tight up against the nearby (too nearby) wall. I began to wonder if Cindy would cut the cabinet to pieces to get me out, or cut me into pieces to get out of sailboat maintenance. I bet Houdini could have done it underwater while handcuffed. We spent the entire day with knee pads, a hole saw, and sweat. Good thing sweaty bodies are slippery, or we might still be stuck. Whoo-hoo! We have a galley sole again! ...

I plan to write a longer post on the excruciatingly long process to get a new mast on our boat. I may need to change names to protect the guilty. In the meantime, here are a few photos of our sea trial day. We only went out a couple of hours, outside Port Everglades Inlet, but it felt amazing to be under sail again.  One magic moment is when I told Cindy to "mark in the log: engine off at 13:38"  Happy day!