Bahamas Flying and Sailing Trip - NC to Crooked Island, Bahamas

Took off around 7AM from home, arrived Ft. Pierce, Florida around 11AM.

Had a quick lunch with Dick and Lindy at the Tiki Hut.  Nothing special, but a good break before crossing the gulf stream!

After a little flight planning and call to ATC, we were on our way.  Life jackets on..... Leaving Ft. Pierce.....

And on to the beautiful waters of the Bahamas!

I'm always amazed at the beautiful colors - these photos are "un-retouched"....just exactly like my camera took them!

We landed at Stella Maris, Long Island to clear customs into the Bahamas.  (There is no customs station at Crooked Island,  about a half hour south).

After a quick refuel and easy customs encounter, we were off for our destination for 2 days - Tranquility on the Bay Resort on Crooked Island.

We had a strange thing happen - the Garmin 530 map in the plane and our Ipad program (WX Pro) both had the airport pinpointed in the wrong place!  This was the first time we've ever seen that happen!  The location shown was about 3 miles from the actual airport!  So, we did a bit of circling and finally found the little, unmarked airstrip.

Here's a photo of the strip - called Colonel Hill - on final approach. Looked just like a road with no markings.  No worries - the surface was smooth enough.

Here's a bit of a video I shot on the approach.....it's cloudy and a little late in the day....you can just make out the little landing strip in front of the plane!

We had "circled low over the resort" to alert the owners to our arrival (since our phones don't work in the Bahamas!).  Within a couple of minutes, Mrs. Ferguson arrived in her SUV to take us to the resort.  Just a few more minutes and we were relaxing.....just what we wanted!

A little walk on the beach and then settled in for some serious relaxing!

Mr. Ferguson asked us what we wanted for dinner - he offered fish and lobster.  Duane chose the fish, I the lobster!  Can't get any fresher than today's catch!  He went outside to the cleaning station - and a few minutes later was busy preparing our dinner.  Duane's meal was the entire fish!  He said it was very good.

He served a fabulous conch ceviche - basically raw conch marinated in lime juice to "cook" it.

My simple and wonderful meal.

And that was about it for a long and fun day!!!

Flying/Sailing Trip to Bahamas..Crooked Island and the Exumas

I'll be telling the tale soon....just have to get everything organized!

Trip back from Ocracoke

Sharon snapped this photo of us at Gaffer's.....a little wind-blown, I must say!

Up early for the trip back to Oriental.

Leaving Silver Lake.

The obligatory ferry photo....note the nice calm water.  Much different than the trip over.

But the calm water meant light winds....so we had to run one of the engines all the way back.  Cute little sailboat we passed in the Pamlico Sound.  And that's it - just another fun jaunt to Ocracoke!

Sail to Ocracoke

Our first "real" sail - from Oriental to Ocracoke.  It's a little over 40 miles....

Up early and shoved off the dock without even making breakfast!

Buddy on crab-pot look-out.  It must be "season" for crab fishing since I don't remember so many before.  Wouldn't be good to run over one of the buoys with the propeller!

A really nice sail in strong winds.  I had planned to make chili while underway....but it was a little tossy-turvy....so we just snacked.

Always a ferry photo or two!  In the channel approaching Ocracoke Island.

Always a welcome sight after 6 or 7 hours of sailing!

All tied up to the Ocracoke National Park Service dock on the windy day!

Miranda and Richard joined us - we're all in for a good mini-vacation!

Later that evening....all settled in with our folding bikes nearby.

Just a pretty picture

We had to go out in open water to calibrate the autopilot.  (You have to make large circles in the water to set up the autopilot at the first installation).

Beautiful day!!  And almost a mirror on the water. 

Getting the dinghy ready to go!

We've had the dinghy rolled up, stored in one of the spare berths.  No need for a dinghy when it's cold and blustery!

But we had ordered the nice, new NC registration number placards.  (It was never registered, so we needed to add the numbers per the NC Wildlife rules).

I did the work in the clubhouse....since the fancy glue required "between 65 and 77 degrees" for proper curing.  No chance of those temps this weekend!!


Ready to inflate.

 Halfway inflated.  I just needed the front inflated for that application of the number placard.  The dinghy has several "compartments" to fill with air.

Masking the area for the placard.

One placard for each side.

The area had to be abraded with sandpaper and acetone to make sure a good "bond" was accomplished.

And there you have it - a NC legal dinghy!

A little "tweak" to the transom steps

I don't know if you noticed, but there were little white areas visible on the "Fountaine Pajot" emblem on the transom steps.

The first time I noticed it, I thought maybe the French were just being a little "artistic".....but really - it was just that some of the rubbery emblem had peeled off.

To correct that problem,  I thought I would just get some yellow paint and fix it.

I was so happy that the Village Hardware in Oriental had just the right thing - a cool little tiny bottle of  oil-based paint!

All done! A pretty good match....all yellow now!

Transom Steps Paint with No-Skid

Our transom steps were ugly.  The "no-skid" was worn and peeling.

Can't have that, can we???

All masked and here is the first coat of "Skid No-More" rubberized anti-skid.  The can said it was grey colored.  I was not pleased at all with the color.  

The can also said you could tint it by mixing in a portion of  paint to reach  the desired color.  So, back to town to the hardware store for a small can of black paint.  Mixed enough black paint in to make it a much more appealing dark grey.

Very happy with the results!

This will be very good when we put out the swim ladder and need to get back aboard all drippy-wet!

Lovely day sailing on the Pamlico

We had a lovely day to go sailing....warm temps and about 15 knots of wind.  We also needed to calibrate our auto-pilot, so we did some "circles" to accomplish that.

Back at the dock, I tidied the lines.  

And I got a boo-boo when I pulled up a large fender from the side of the boat.  Somehow, as I bounced it up on deck, it hit my thump straight-on the nail.  Ouchie!!  This was just after the incident....it's even more purple and ugly now.  I'm sure that the end of the nail there will pull away eventually because it already feels "disconnected".  Oh well, I'll be more careful!

And after all that, I got down to business to make some vegan spaghetti!  All I had to add fresh was the veggies.  Everything else I had stored on the boat.  It was very good! 

Garbage Talk!!! Custom Trash Can

The "trash chute" on this boat is built into the countertop.

Unfortunately, the area below the "lid" was not well-suited to a trash can. Neither a round nor a rectangular can would fit there.

We decided a "custom" trash can would be in order!

Here is the cabinet below the chute opening.  I've used cardboard to start the design for the custom trash can.

After measuring the height, I continued to piece together the "mock-up" of the trash can.

This shape will fill the entire space below the "chute"...

Here you can see the bottom of the chute, emptying into the "mock-up".

Fast forward a few weeks.....Duane made one out of aluminum!

With his usual attention to detail - pretty rivets!

From the bottom.

And he added a nice handle for me so I could easily get it in/out of the cabinet.

Making sure a kitchen-garbage bag fit nicely....

Yes, yes, it fit nicely - and works as advertised!!  Betcha weren't expecting to see actual GARBAGE, were ya???  Ha!!