April 25, 2020 to April 30, 2020
As we left Great Stirrup Cay Harbour we noticed eight cruise ships anchored on the North side of the cay. I was wondering where all the cruise ships would be stored during the pandemic. Four from Norwegian Cruise lines and four from Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines were here in the Berry Islands.
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| Eight cruise ships were anchored off of Great Stirrup Cay. |
Since we left our anchorage at noon on Saturday we were expecting to get to Ft. Pierce between 7:00 am and noon on Sunday. However, the weather gods fooled us again. Not only were the winds stronger and the seas higher than expected we apparently had something on the propeller that was keeping our boat speed between four and five knots even with the jib out. This is considerably slower than we had planned on. The speed was so troubling that Bob encouraged me to go below the boat and check for grass around the propeller shaft. At first I refused (it was pitch dark), but once I thought about it I realized it was the only solution to our speed problem. I donned my bathing suit and snorkel mask and got into the pitch black water. I felt around the prop with my feet and found the grass. After rigging a rope around the prop to guide me down to the problem I went below the boat and wrenched the grass free. It was definitely a scary swim. Unfortunately, removing the grass didn’t help our boat speed much. Finally, about 40 miles out of Ft. Pierce the boat speed picked up. Something must have jarred whatever else was on the prop loose. With all of these issues going on we didn’t get to Ft. Pierce until after 5:00 pm. We were able to get fuel and ice (oh, by the way, our fridge stopped working again) and were eating dinner in our anchorage by 7:00pm. Bob and I have totally sworn off nighttime passages.
We slept like logs and awoke to a cool day (high was 72). We weighed anchor and caught the 9:30 opening of the North Ft. Pierce Bridge. We had a short trip to Vero Beach where we were in our slip by noon. I went to get the rental car and stopped at the Burger King drive through on the way back to the boat to pick up our lunch. Impossible burgers never tasted so good. That afternoon we did some grocery shopping and stopped at the liquor store to provision. The Bahamas did not consider liquor stores as essential businesses so we had gone through most of the wine, beer and liquor aboard in our two months of sheltering in place. We were happy to see almost everyone here wearing face masks and gloves and practicing social distancing in the grocery store. We will have to make one more grocery run before leaving Vero Beach.
After being so isolated for two months, it is unnerving to be in a town with so many people. We actually hadn’t left our marina on Great Exuma for two months.
On Tuesday the refrigeration guy came in the afternoon, fixed some freon leaks, evacuated all of the freon, and refilled the fridge with freon. Thank goodness, again it was an easy fix. Next step was cleaning out the bottom of the fridge (remember the mayo jar that came open in the bottom of the fridge). After reloading all of the food the fridge continued to cool down properly.
Wednesday I did laundry and helped Bob with some jobs around the boat. I finally got to take a nice long walk, too. I walked to the beach and observed several groups of people on the beach. They were staying at least six feet away from each other ( the groups that is), but I still don’t think it is wise to have the beaches open just yet.
Thursday, we provisioned for the ten days we will be anchoring out so as to avoid going ashore as much as possible. Our next provisioning stop will be in Beaufort, SC.
Stay safe and well.
Thank you for reading my blog.
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