You know you are a cruiser when you not only don’t know what day it is, but you don’t know what month it is!

Yes, this happened to us this week.  Our friends on Moonshadow were talking about how they need to make it back to Charleston by June 3^rd and wanted to cross to the states soon.  Later I got to think how our boat insurance is due in June and mentioned to Mark that we needed to check on the policy coverage dates.  He asked what day it was and I said the 25^th.  Mark asked, “Did we miss my birthday?”  Then he said, “It was yesterday.”  My mind went blank and I said, “I guess we did.”  My mind was thinking about May and it jumped ahead a month without remembering that morning I wrote 4/25/13 when I posted the weather in our log book for the day.

A while later we were talking on the VHF with a couple of boat friends planning the day.  I mentioned that Mark’s birthday was yesterday and we should get together on Truansea.  One thing led to another and soon we had a party planned for that evening.

A few hours later, I was talking with Bill about weather and crossing the Gulf Stream.  I mentioned that Moonshadow wanted to cross soon to make it back by June 3^rd.  Bill said, “Well, they still have 5 weeks to get there.”  My mind went blank for the second time that day.  All of a sudden I realized what happened and that it was only April 25^th.  We all had a good laugh over the time-lapse then cheered because we have another whole month to spend in the Abacos before we need to cross to the states.

We all decided to have the party that night anyway and called it the ‘un-birthday’ party for everyone.  We had a wonderful feast on Truansea with one of Lola’s (bakery on Man-O-War) monster cinnamon rolls served as the birthday cake. I even had trick candles on the boat.  We sang happy un-birthday to everyone.

The un-birthday birthday ‘cake’.

Fair Winds ~ Christine

We waited out a front in Rock Sound, Eleuthera before making our way north to eventually cross to the Abacos.  The night before we headed north, the winds were forecasted to be 40-50 knots but the highest gusts we saw were 36 knots.  Along with the storm came a beautiful rainfall.  This was only the second big rainfall we have experienced since arriving in the Bahamas in the beginning of December.  Fresh water is hard to come by out here and we made full use of it by filling up all of our available containers first, taking baths next, and finally washing the boat.

Dinghy baths for everyone!

We spent a few days working our way to Spanish Wells where we waited for our next weather window to open up to cross to the Abacos.  The first night we anchored near a catamaran and saw kids on the deck!  We have not run into any boat kids for a while.  Logan and Cole were yelling and waving at the other kids as we approached the anchorage.  Their kids had the same reaction and within 15 minutes, we all met on the beach.  We spent a few days with them before we headed north again.  They were working on a few engine issues before they could move on.  It was hard to say goodbye, but hopefully they will get their boat done soon and catch up with us.

New boat friends on s/v Anticipation!

Some other boat friends we previously met in Black Point on Great Mysterious were also experiencing engine difficulties but decided to try to sail to the Abacos and back to Florida to finish their repairs.  A bunch of us were anchored at Royal Island in a bay.  The wind was blowing into the anchorage and Great Mysterious would have a difficult, if not impossible, time getting out so we offered to give them a tow out the next morning.

Towing Great Mysterious out of the Royal Island inlet.

The weather was predicted to be a great sailing day and about 8 boats left the anchorage that morning, headed to the Abacos.  The winds started out light but quickly filled in.  Great Mysterious is a smaller boat and was not able to sail fast enough to make it to the Abacos before night so they eventually turned back.  You can check out their blog post at http://www.greatmysterious.com.  We hope they get their boat running soon and see them in the Abacos.  A bad boating day can be really bad (I know).  It can only get better Britt and Dolby.  Hang in there.

We have had bad boat days, but crossing to the Abacos was not one of them.  We must have made good boating karma giving a tow that morning because we had our best sailing day ever.  We sailed the whole way, mostly at 6.5 to 7.1 knots on a comfortable broad reach.  The inlet at Little Harbor, Abaco was fairly calm and we were soon anchored on the west side of Lynyard Cay with time to spend on the beach before dark.

Great Mysterious took this picture of us on Truansea sailing to the Abacos.

The next morning we sailed to Sandy Cay where we anchored for a couple of hours to snorkel the reefs.  The anchorage has poor holding and is definitely not the place to spend a night.  The snorkeling was outstanding.

Spotted eagle ray at Sandy Cay.

We continued on to Hope Town on Elbow Cay and picked up a mooring ball in their anchorage to be close to town.  As we came into the anchorage it was like a reunion.  We saw about 12 other boats we met in previous harbors.  It has been fun and busy catching up with everyone again!  Hope Town is beautiful and we have enjoyed seeing the town as well as the island.

One morning we were in town at a coffee shop working on the computer while the boys were doing their schoolwork.  A couple of girls were having breakfast and as they were leaving, they asked us if we were writing a book.  We explained that we were a family sailing for a year.  They had come to Hope Town for a 4 day visit and were renting a place up the road.  They said they were taking the water taxi to the other side of the harbor next to spend part of the day.  We offered to give them a ride since it is close to our boat.  We asked them if they would like to see our boat on the way over so we stopped at Truansea to give them a tour.  The boys showed them around and the boys asked them a few questions.  Everyone we meet is interesting and these two were no exception.  Sarah is an actress.  http://www.sarahdaceycharles.com and Carol is a life coach.  http://www.whynotthrivecoaching.com

Sarah & Carol

Sarah and Carol – thanks for taking the time to answer the boys (and our) questions.  It was so much fun!

We have been waiting for a new raw water pump for our boat and it finally arrived today.  Mark will install it today or tomorrow and we will be ready to head north to Marsh Harbor and Man-O-War next.  One of our boating buddies, Bill, on Providence needed a new impeller and water pump before he could continue on as well.  Mark and Bill spent a large part of the day yesterday tearing into his engine.  As they say, cruising is working on your boat in exotic locations…

Fair Winds ~ Christine

03/30/2013  We waited in Norman’s Cay a couple of days to get a good window to cross to Eleuthera.  Tom on Lucent (trawler) was one of our buddy boats for a while and we all agreed to try crossing on the first day the winds subsided to 10-15 knots.  We headed out Norman’s cut on slack tide but it was apparent within a mile of getting out on the sound side that the wave height was too big for us.  It would have been a very uncomfortable day.  Tom continued on to Eleuthera and we said we would try again tomorrow and meet him in Rock Sound.

The next day the seas were settled and we had a beautiful crossing.  Two other sailboats came out the cut behind us.  We made radio contact with them and they were both sailing to Rock Sound as well.  Having radio contact with other cruisers is always comforting and we enjoyed getting to know them along the way.

s/v Pearl

En route, we were looking behind us at s/v Pearl and saw a huge splash next to their boat.  It appeared to be a small whale and it breached two more times.  We got on the radio with Pete on Pearl and asked him what it was.  Whatever it was gave him a good scare.  All he saw were a big splashes.

Shortly after that we saw a pod of pilot whales ahead of us.  They swam right toward us and graced us with their surfacing and blowing.  We were oohing and aahing like you do when you watch fireworks.  There were 10-15 of them.  They swam all around our boat then continued on their way.  We called Pete & Dianne to let them know the whales were headed for them and to have their camera ready.  Moments like that make for a memorable crossing (you can see the video of them on Logan’s blog post)!

We enjoyed beautiful sailing conditions throughout the day.  The winds started to lighten up as we approached Rock Sound.  Pearl had been motor sailing and eventually passed us so we started the motor to get in the harbor quicker to make it to the grocery store before it closed.  We had not been to a grocery store for 2 weeks and were craving some fresh food.

A couple of minutes after starting the engine, it started to make a new sound and it died.  First time that has ever happened.  Hmm.  I started it again.  It died.  Mark sprang into action down below while the boys and I continued to sail into the harbor.

Mark busily changing the fuel filters on the engine. He loves the 5 sided engine access on Truansea!

I called Pearl and let them know our engine died and Mark was trouble shooting it.  Pete said they would slow down and stay near us.  Pete asked what kind of engine we have, and wouldn’t you know it, he has the exact same Yanmar 35 horsepower engine we do.  He has owned his boat for 7 years and has sailed extensively in the Caribbean.  He knows this engine well.

I let him know Mark was replacing the primary and secondary fuel filters.  The boys and I were on a run into the harbor and had to jibe a few times to make our way in.  There were a few coral heads along the way to steer around as well.  Meanwhile, Mark is down below working on the engine, feeling all of our maneuvering and hearing us moving around on deck sailing.  That was a strange feeling for him not to be topside.  Talk about trusting the crew…

After the filters were replaced and fuel lines primed, I started the engine and it still died.  By this time we were getting closer to the anchorage and it was apparent that there was something else wrong.  Mark had called our diesel mechanic contact in Florida and he said it sounded like the lift pump.  I called Pete on the radio and he agreed that it was probably the lift pump.  Guess what?  Pete happens to have a spare lift pump.  What are the odds of the boat you just met that morning sailing would have the same engine and the spare part you need?

The winds were fairly light and we calmly sailed into the anchorage to drop the hook.  Other sailors that saw us later told us they thought we were purists and enjoyed sailing in to drop anchor.  Ha, little did they know we thoroughly discussed our plans of how we were going to execute sailing in to drop the anchor.  It was nerve-wracking to say the least for me.  This was a good reminder to keep practicing sailing skills in all kinds of conditions because you never know when you are going to need them.

Christine and Cole sailing into Rock Sound.

Before dark, Mark and Pete had the new lift pump in and tada, the engine started and ran beautifully.  The next day we ordered a new lift pump to be shipped in for Pete.

Cruisers kindness is hard to describe.  As a sailor, you feel a sense of independence on your boat; at the same time, you are also completely vulnerable to Mother Nature and breakdowns on your boat.  Being in another country adds another level of complexity to breakdowns.  Once you have had to order spare parts and have them shipped in through customs, you will understand how it can make a person crazy.

Tom on Lucent, who we had tried to cross with the day before, was at the same anchorage and he had arranged for a rental car the next day to explore the island.  We made plans to meet him the next morning for a day of island exploring by car.

We traveled north up Eleuthera and caught the ferry over to Harbor Island.

Taking the ferry to Harbor Island.

The island was quaint with narrow streets dominated by golf carts.  It is famous for its pink sand beaches.

Pink sand beach Harbor Island.

On the way down, we took our time, stopping at the natural arch.

Bridge that now crosses where where the natural ‘glass window’ used to be on Eleuthera.

Glass window history.

We stopped at a vegetable stand on the way back to pick up some fresh greens.

Fresh greens from the veggie stand sure beats canned vegetables!

We had Pete & Diane over to our boat the next evening and they taught us how to play a game called Farkle.  If you have not tried it, you need to!   It is another fun game to add to the fun cruising games list.

The following day was calling for winds from the west to north, possibly 30, 40 or 50 knots.  All the boats anchored at Rock Sound headed for the other side of the harbor to seek protection.  The winds gusted into the 30s but nothing worse.  We did welcome the rain the winds brought.  It absolutely poured rain.  We have not had hardly any rain on this trip.  Little Darby was the only place we experienced a rain storm and that was a couple of months ago.  We quickly scrubbed the decks and cleaned the dinghy to catch as much clean, fresh water as we could.  Cruisers get downright giddy at the prospect of fresh, free water.  Mark, with his sense of humor, got on the VHF and asked, “Is anybody else’s boat leaking except mine”?  A domino affect of comments followed.  Who wound have known before cruising that everybody’s boats leak to some extent.  Some apparently leak a lot.

Dinghy bath. The fresh water felt so soft. The simple pleasures in life…

Fair Winds ~ Christine

Several readers have asked for more details on cooking on the boat, specifically the Omnia oven.  Hopefully this post answers your questions.  If not, feel free to send me your questions!

We do not have an oven on our boat; therefore, the omnia oven is how we cook breads, muffins, cakes, cookies, biscuits and casseroles.  Our boat has CNG (compressed natural gas) for the 2 burner stove top.  A CNG tank lasts us 1 month cooking 3 meals a day plus baking a loaf of bread (or biscuits or muffins) every day and a desert every other day.  We knew that CNG was not available in the Bahamas so we talked to other cruisers, read blogs, and did a little research to decide how to cook on the boat for our family of 4 for the year.  We decided on a Thunder Range, which runs on butane canisters.  The butane canisters have been available in the grocery stores in the Bahamas and run $12.00  for a pack of 4.

Omnia Oven on top of our portable stove.

Butane canister.

This is what the packs of butane look like when you buy them in the store.

Side view of Omnia oven with lid off.

View of the bottom ring of the oven. This goes on the bottom, below the ring that we cook food in.

One of our mainstay cakes is Cinnamon Supper Cake (recipe below).  I grew up with this cake and never grow tired of it.  It takes a minimal amount of ingredients and everyone loves it.  I frequently make it for potlucks on the beach and there is never a crumb left.  Yes, the recipe calls for Crisco (gasp-we have resorted to using Crisco) but you can use butter.  We opted to go without refrigeration due to the high power it requires.  Crisco requires no refrigeration and keeps once opened, probably for years.  We do buy butter sometimes and do not refrigerate that either.  We generally use butter up within 4 days.

Eggs go unrefrigerated as well on Truansea and we have not had any of them go bad, but we use them up in 4-6 days.  You can do the float test with your eggs if you are concerned with them being bad.  Bad eggs float when you put them in a cup of water.  If you can buy unwashed eggs, they last much longer but we have not found locals that sell unwashed eggs.

We use powdered milk or box of milk if we have one open that needs to be used up.  The Country Cream Nonfat powdered milk in the picture below we bought in Idaho.  We have tried several different kinds and this is as good as it gets from our boys taste tests.  The Parmalat box milk I have never seen in Idaho but we found in Florida grocery stores as well as in the Bahamas stores.  It is usually located in the baking aisle by the flour.  This box is 2%, which was the only kind I could find when provisioning.  We are skim milk drinkers and have had skim box milk in the past, which we like much better than the 2%.  If you can chill the box milk, it tastes considerably better than ’boat temperature warm’.  If you buy milk in the Bahamas, you will pay $5.50 for a quart.  If you decide to spring for it, open it and taste it before you leave the store.  We bought it one time and it was sour.  Other boaters have said they have gotten sour milk too but have learned to give it the taste test in the store.

Box milk, on the left, requires no refrigeration. Powdered milk, on the right, is another staple of ours.

Cinnamon Supper Cake

• 3/4 cup sugar
• ¼ cup shortening
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup flour
• 1 ½ tsp. baking powder
• ¼ tsp. salt

Topping:

• 1 tbsp. butter
• 3 tbsp. powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon

Add sugar to shortening, add egg and beat well.  Add vanilla & milk.  Add flour, baking powder and salt. Bake in greased Omnia oven on low to low/medium flame on gas stove or camp stove.  Rotate the oven half way through cooking if needed.  Cook for about 20-35 minutes depending on your flame height and how windy it is where you are cooking.  When it is lightly brown around the edges, turn the stove off and let if finish cooking on the stove with its own retained heat.  Remove from oven and spread top with butter.  Mix powdered sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle over cake.

Raw cake dough ready to cook.

Cake 1/2 way through baking.

This is the flame height that works for us. Not too high, closer to the lowest flame possible.

Finished cake before putting the topping on.

Cinnamon supper cake with topping in the pan.

Another one of our mainstays is Baking Powder Biscuits (recipe below).  I grew up with this one as well and it requires just a few ingredients.  Sometimes I put them on top of a chicken/sweet potato Omnia oven dish and bake the dish until the biscuits are lightly browned.  I also make TVP in gravy for Biscuits and Gravy for breakfast.  We also use TVP in our spaghetti, chili, sloppy joes and shepherds pie.

TVP – Textured Vegetable Protein is a great meat substitute.

Or I just make the biscuits alone to have with eggs and hash, to have with soup, or as bread with supper.

Baking Powder Biscuits

• 2 cups flour
• 1 T baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1/3 cup Crisco
• ¾ cup milk

Mix dry ingredients, cut in Crisco with a fork and stir in milk just until dry ingredients are barely moistened.  Put on lightly floured surface and fold over about 6 times (do not fold over much more).  Pat to about ½ inch thick and cut with biscuit cutter or rim of a glass.  Bake at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Cole making biscuits to put in Omnia.

Baking powder biscuits ready to bake.

Finished biscuits on the table.

Yesterday afternoon Logan made a strawberry cobbler in the Omnia to take to our boat neighbors.  We had tea and cobbler with them while playing Shut The Box.

Shut the Box is one of our favorite boat games when guests come over.

This is what the actual game looks like.

Boat neighbors Bud & Eileen played Shut the Box with us as well as Clue (long night)!

A way we use up apples that are bruised, apples that  end up not being good eating apples or over ripe bananas is in coffee cake.  We also sometimes put some chocolate chips in them.  All our chocolate chips melted in their bags in the boat and turned into big hunks of chocolate so we just shave off pieces with the knife and add them to cake or to fruit pancakes.

Quick Coffee Cake

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1 ¼ cups flour
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ cup milk
• 1 egg
• 3 T butter, margarine or Crisco melted and cooled (I just use it at room temperature and do not melt it)

Optional:

• Apple cut into small chunks

Or

• Over ripe banana

And/or

• Chocolate shavings or chips

Topping

• ¼ cup firmly packed brown sugar
• ¼ cup chopped nuts
• 1 T flour
• 1 T softened butter
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Prepare topping; set aside.  Lightly grease 8-inch square or round pan.

In a bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Pour milk into 1 cup measure; stir in egg and butter.  Pour into dry ingredients and stir just until flour is moistened.  If using apples, bananas or chocolate chips, fold in.  Pour batter into prepared pan.  Sprinkle cinnamon-nut topping evenly over batter.  Bake 20-25 minutes.

If using a Omnia oven, bake on low flame height until done.

Apple coffee cake almost done.

I also put the omnia oven on the grill if I am making something else.  I can cook 4 mini pizzas on the grill at a time.  On a night when we had a guest for supper, I baked a batch of biscuits in the omnia while the last pizza was cooking to make full use of the grill.

Omnia oven on grill with a pizza.

Happy baking and eating!

Fair winds ~ Christine