Take A Look At Us In Real Time

43°F ECNC Harborcam
If you go to this email address, you can see us in real time. See if you can tell which boat is the Butorfleoge. There is a big yacht blocking us. They might leave tomorrow.

TO MILE MARKER (MM) 00

Well, Well, We did not go as planned. We left Annapolis Maryland and went to Solomon's Island. Trust me!!! it was too dang cold to stay on the hook. We decided to take a slip so we could plug the heaters In. The next day we headed to Fishing bay but 1/2 way there, we went to Wicomico river and went into Cockreel creek. There we dropped the hook and hid from the wind. The bay was too windy and choppy. We were getting knocked around too much. While in Cockreel Creek we checked the weather and decided to stay an extra day because we were well protected from the wind. We changed the main engine raycor. It was pitch black from all the stuff getting stirred up in the fuel tank.
At 0630, on November 23rd, we started the main engine. Needed to run the engine a while to make sure there were no air bubbles in the fuel line. At 0656 we pulled the anchor and headed to Hospital point. This was a wonderful travel day. We made it to Hospital point and had the anchor down at 1536. We stayed in Hospital point an extra day. Well, at m/m 00 we feel good about the rest of this travel because we will be inside and the weather won't effect us too much.

WE ARE FREEZING

On November 21 we headed for fishing bay. The water was so rough that we decided to go into the Wicomico river. Where we could be sheltered from the winds. We are staying here until Sunday due to the weather conditions. On Sunday we plan on leaving real early and head for Hospital Point. That is near Norfolk VA. It is also mm marker 0 for the ICW. The blogs will become more Humorous and informative once it gets warmer and my fingers are not freezing to the key board.

The Begining of our new adventure

At 0920 on the 11th of November we headed out of Havre de Grace Maryland. We motored to Annapolis Maryland. The winds are in the 20 to 25 knot range with gusts to 30 knots. We will stay put here in Annapolis until we get better weather conditions. It looks like we will be going on Thursday morning. There are not very many things to write about until we get down south a little bit more. This is just a heads up that we will be posting starting today and remember you can comment on our blog when you see it. Please place a comment on the blog. We love hearing from all of you.
Captain Bob and Captain Sue

hauled out in North East

Great news! There is no evidence of any hull problems. Remember the under water "tree" we hit on the alligator/Pongo Canal? Well, no damage. The blue strip we painted on the hull did not last and we are getting the hull ready to repaint the hull strip.

Back in Maryland

DATE: MAY 28	TIME START: 1105	CRUISE FROM MIAMI, FL	CRUISE TO NORTH EAST, M
ENGINE HOURS START: 1453	ENGINE HOURS FINISH: 1623.4	SEA CONDITIONS	WEATHER CONDITIONS

JOURNAL

Well how to start this one? In the middle of April Bob started having what he calls “heart events”. His “heart events” started happening often. They started causing him pain almost every 15 to 20 minutes. We decided to go to the doctor in Marsh Harbor. The Doctor put him on an ekg machine. The doctor turned the machine on and abruptly shut it down and called the air ambulance to fly us to Nassau. Once there, they took one look at his heart and sent us to Miami FL. When we got to the hospital they kept him sedated for about a week. They did a bypass operation. When fully recovered, Sue flew to Mangoes in Marsh Harbor to meet up with a friend of ours, Chuck Lilly. Chuck flew down to Marsh Harbor and the two of them brought the boat to Miami. While they were bringing the Butorfleoge to Miami Bob had a set back. When they got to the hospital Bob was placed on all kinds of machines and Bob was completely sedated. He stayed that way for a week. Once he recovered, he went back to the boat to build his strength up. After three weeks of lying around the boat, John Miller flew down and helped get the boat back to Maryland.

On May the 28^th, we left Miami. We left the marina at 1105 in the morning. We headed out to sea for some quick blue water traveling. On Friday we went into Fernandina Beach for fuel. We went back out in the ocean and headed for Cape Fear. We got back in at Cape Fear on Sunday. We had to come back in there because the seas were very rough and we saw some waves that were at least 10 feet. We then spent the night in Southport Harbor, NC. From this point on we stayed on the I.C.W. We went to Mile Hammock Bay and anchored for the night. We then left Mile Hammock Bay and went to Oriental NC. We stayed in the marina because Bob could not get into a dinghy. With the Bypass surgery he could not climb in and out of the dinghy. The next day we went to the Alligator River Marina and stayed the night. When we left the marina, we headed towards the Albemare Sound. We traveled close to the magenta line for the I.C.W. We ran aground. It was a soft grounding and we got off with very little trouble. We then went to the left of the line and bumped again. We went to the right of the line and bumped again. We started heading back when we saw a trawler coming our way. The trawler offered to assist us getting the boat through the shoaling part. We went from green buoy to green buoy. This made us run across a part on the chart and on the chart plotter that was supposed to be 5 feet deep. It was 12 feet deep and we made it with no problems what so ever. We then went to Centerville Marina. From Centerville we went to Fishing Bay on the Chesapeake Bay. We anchored there for the night. From there we went to Annapolis MD. We stayed on the hook and the next morning we went to the North East Yacht Club. We stayed there for two days and then moved the boat to Bay Boat Works. When we get the boat hauled, we will check on the bottom to see how long we need to be on the hard. The trip took a total of 12 days from Miami FL to North East MD. This adventure is over and we are getting the boat ready for the next adventure. (with out the heart events, hopefully) We will do a weekly posting on the progress of the boat while getting the boat ready for the next adventure.

In Miami with an update

It is Friday May 09, 2008.
Bob Got out of the hospital last Sunday. We have a doctors appointment on Monday to see when we can head north. There is a lot of healing going on.

WHAT ? MANGOES AGAIN???

DATE MARCH 28,2008	TIME START 0945	CRUISE FROM MANGOES	CRUISE TO BACK TO MANGOES
ENGINE HOURS START 1409.6	ENGINE HOURS FINISH 1411.5	SEA CONDITIONS ROUGH SEAS	WEATHER CONDITIONS WINDY

JOURNAL

We went to Red Bay to try to find the anchor. The weather forecast was for calm , light to moderate breezes. They were wrong! We could not find the anchor and I don’t think we will, but we will try next week. The new anchor (fortress knock off) held great. It is for a 38’ boat and if the weather gets bad we will have another mess on our hands. Our buddy boat went to fisher’s bay to catch a mooring ball. We have a forecast for “strong” winds so we will stay put in Mangoes.

APRIL 9, 2008

Left Mangoes at 0940. We headed to Great Guana Cay. We picked up a mooring ball in fishers bay. Half way across to Guana Cay, the auto helm showed the rudder at 26 degrees when we had the rudder at mid ship. The indicator slowly fixed itself. When we tried to use the auto pilot, the helm went hard over so we had to shut it down. We worked on it when we got to the mooring ball. We were able to fix the problem some what, we need to get some parts and we will look for the parts in Marsh Harbor the next time we go over.

APRIL 10, 2008

We went from fishers bay to red bay. We dropped some buoys to look for the anchor. We still did not find the anchor. We sailed the whole way. It was great.

April 11, 2008

We motored from Red Bay to Marsh Harbor. The wind was on our nose. We anchored near the East side of the harbor. We went into town and got the parts for the auto helm.

April 13, 2008

We pulled anchor and motored back into Mangoes. The weather is calling for strong winds and rain with 20 to 30 knot winds. During the passing of the storm front, we will see gale force winds. Safety dictates we come into the marina during this cold front. We got another anchor, this is a fortress 40lb anchor. The fortress knock off we had for a 38’ boat was only 20 lbs so we are in great shape with this one.

still in Mangoes Marina in Marsh Harbor

DATE March 23,2008	TIME START continuous	CRUISE FROM Still in Marsh Harbor	CRUISE TO Still in Mangoes Marina
ENGINE HOURS START	ENGINE HOURS FINISH 1406.6	SEA CONDITIONS calm in the Marina	WEATHER CONDITIONS Raining

JOURNAL

We are still in the marina. We have been enjoying the company of Karen. Karen is our contact from the states and she came down to enjoy the Bahamas for a few days. The weather has not been very good so we did not get to do much. We did go to Man o War for one day trip and we went to Hope town for a day trip. We finished our day trips with a trip to Guana Cay. While at Man o War we did some shopping and walked around the Island. We walked to the ocean side of the Island and saw the ocean. When we went to Hope town, we showed her the famous light house. The light house was on the other side of the water so we were not able to get to the top of it. We walked around Hope town to see the sights. We showed her our trash can. We bought the trash can during a fund raising and our boat name was painted on it. We went to the Guana Cay Island and showed her Nippers and Grabbers. We walked the beach and we found two sea hearts, one horse eye, and one seed we did not know what it was. We have walked around the Marsh Harbor area. We wanted to go snorkeling but the weather did not co-operate with us so we told her next year we will have better luck. She came here with out a tan and she is returning with about the same look. Maybe a little tan but not much.

tucked in at Mangoes Marina

We are still in a slip at Mangoes Marina. We are waiting for our new anchor. We will be here until Monday. The anchor is supposed to be in but the store has to wait for it to clear customs. The anchor came in on Wednesday but they unload the food first. So it will be checked in whenever they find the time. Island time equals; not today mon. We hear that phrase a lot of the time. No one and I mean NO ONE, is in a hurry around here. Which is o kay but that also means more money goes out to the slip. $1.35 a foot isn't bad for where we are at. (Bahamas) but it is still money that could go to better usage like Kalik beer. Oh well! We will just have to sit back and drink a few cool ones and wait for "later".

OUCH !!!

March 8, 2008
We cruised from Great Guana, Fisher's Bay to Red Bay and back to Fisher's Bay.
To start this little adventure we were on a mooring ball, Troy's, and went to Red Bay. We went to red Bay to get out of the wind. We let out 50' of chain. The anchor would not set. Then we let out 100' of chain and the anchor seemed to take hold. After we were settled in we let out 100' more of chain just to make sure. We set the anchor alarm at 350'. We will see if this works. It did not. In the middle of the night a big storm came through. A couple miles north of us in Green Turtle, the winds were measured at 55 knots. The anchor alarm went off. While trying to control the boat we heard from our buddy boat that we were heading straight for them. We let out about 30' of rode and that did not help. We started the engine and the line cutter on our shaft cut the rode. We lost the cqr again but this time we also lost 200' of chain. We motored back to Troy's mooring and did this in pitch dark. What an experience. When we got back on the mooring ball, we discovered that we did not have a radio anymore. We took the mike apart and it was full of water. We dried it out and it worked okay. Now we need a new mike. "Good judgment is the result of experience! Experience is the result of bad judgment. We are now experienced in this situation. We are now in a marina called "Mangoes". (Marsh Harbor) We ordered a new anchor. We are getting a 40 lb. fortress. Once we get the anchor, we are going hunting for the 200 feet of chain we lost. We got another mike for the radio and it is working just fine. We have been cleaning out the water that we took on during our little adventure as the wind was blowing from one direction and the rollers from the Whale came from the opposite direction. We are fine and now that it is over and we discussed our adventure between each other, we laugh at the experience. Attitude is what made this an adventure and not an ordeal. We are fine and we are doing a lot of laundry today. Darn near everything got wet inside the boat.
Cruising the Abacos is great and next year we are planning on going all the way to the bottom of the Bahamas. From there we will slowly work our way north.

Here in Guana Cay

Well we are on a mooring ball in Great Guana Cay. We are here for the famous Nipper's party. What a party is was. We listened to the Barefoot Man in concert. It was one big party. When we left the party we went down to "Grabbers". They had Steel Daddy in concert there. We are partied out.

Batelco phone

DATE: Feb 16,’08	TIME START @0900	CRUISE FROM Marsh Harbor We took the ferry	CRUISE TO Man-O-War
ENGINE HOURS START none	ENGINE HOURS FINISH none	SEA CONDITIONS Rough	WEATHER CONDITIONS Windy

JOURNAL

We went into Man-O-War to enjoy the fair. It was to raise money for the school. The fair was more like a flea market. We enjoyed great food and saw lots of items for sale. We bought two new weight belts for Hook-a Diving. We wanted to make some phone calls but Sue did not want to lay down in the phone booth to make the phone call. The Butorfleoge is still anchored in Marsh Harbor. We are waiting for some less windy weather so we can head out on a new adventure.

Back in Marsh Harbor

We left Hope town and headed to Marsh Harbor. It was about a one and a half hour trip. We are staying here until the weather settles down and the cold front passes through. A cold front here is not that cold. The cold front just brings strong winds and the water gets real choppy. So we head to the lee side of the islands and just stay put. We do this just to be safe. Knock on wood, we have never been in an unstable situation since we have been here and plan on not getting into one either. We have been enjoying the trip and it is all it is cracked up to be. The Abaco is a small Chesapeake bay. As long as we respect the weather conditions, it is great. At least in the Abacos, we know in advance what the weather is going to be. There are no surprises like those pop ups we get on the bay.

Rough week Here

DATE FEB 07, 2008	TIME START 0915	CRUISE FROM HOPETOWN MOORING BALL	CRUISE TO HOPETOWN MARINA
ENGINE HOURS START 1390.8	ENGINE HOURS FINISH 1391.1	SEA CONDITIONS ROUGH	WEATHER CONDITIONS VERY WINDY

JOURNAL

It is going to be a rough week and for safety reasons we decided to go to a mooring ball in Hope Town. Buddy needed the mooring ball and gave us the slip at a discount. We decided to hook up to the water and the electric so we could give the boat a rest. On Saturday, we went out into the ocean in the dinghy. While we were coming in, we saw a shark and we followed the shark around. While playing with the shark, we looked up and saw a water spout over Marsh Harbor.

If you want to hear what is going on in the Abacos, just go to:

abacomessageboard.com

At 0815 every morning, you will hear the announcements. They tell the weather. You will be able to hear the other boats talking to the net anchor. It is what we listen to every morning to let us know what the weather is and when we can cross different passages through out the Abacos. You can hear the activities that are going on. The high only got to 78 today and the low got clear down to 73.

Rough week Here

DATE FEB 07, 2008	TIME START 0915	CRUISE FROM HOPETOWN MOORING BALL	CRUISE TO HOPETOWN MARINA
ENGINE HOURS START 1390.8	ENGINE HOURS FINISH 1391.1	SEA CONDITIONS ROUGH	WEATHER CONDITIONS VERY WINDY

JOURNAL

It is going to be a rough week and for safety reasons we decided to go to a mooring ball in Hope Town. Buddy needed the mooring ball and gave us the slip at a discount. We decided to hook up to the water and the electric so we could give the boat a rest. On Saturday, we went out into the ocean in the dinghy. While we were coming in, we saw a shark and we followed the shark around. While playing with the shark, we looked up and saw a water spout over Marsh Harbor.

If you want to hear what is going on in the Abacos, just go to:

abacomessageboard.com

At 0815 every morning, you will hear the announcements. They tell the weather. You will be able to hear the other boats talking to the net anchor. It is what we listen to every morning to let us know what the weather is and when we can cross different passages through out the Abacos. You can hear the activities that are going on. The high only got to 78 today and the low got clear down to 73.

WOW!!! where to begin

On 27 January we motored to Marsh Harbor Marina to get fuel and water. The trip only took a half an hour. Pulled anchor at 1120. The water is real clear. We can see the bottom standing in the cockpit! The wind gusts went to 2 knots. Just a great motor to Baker's Bay. The water was so clear we could see the anchor 100 feet away from the boat. We took the dinghy to spoil cay. We collected shells and saw a diver with 8 conch shells. We will try to catch a conch ourselves tomorrow.
We snorkeled spoil island where we got two conchs. While snorkeling, out the corner of my eye I saw a BIG and I mean BIG. He was big enough to eat me. (Barracuda)I was very fast swimming out of the water. While walking the beach, in knee deep water, Sue saw something in the water that looked interesting. When she started to pick it up, she was startled by a big manta ray.

Feb 01
We drug anchor last night. We lost the cqr anchor and then found it the next morning. We are using the cqr now and keep the bruce as a back-up. While we had the anchor up, we decided to go to the next cove. Fisher's bay. We have 200 feet of chain and 15 feet of rode out. anchor alarm is set.

We went to Grabbers for the supper bowl. We had a wonderful time.

We tried the Hooka today and it worked great. Swam the boat and found no growth. If you remember the "tree" we hit while coming down the ICW, it left a big scratch down the side of the boat. We dived Gary's boat while he changed the zinchs. My mask leaked so I will get a better one.

We are back in Hopetown. there is supposed to be a bad cold front comming through. The temperature might get clear down to 70. The wind is going to be real bad and for saftey reasons, we decided to find a protective harbor.

back to marsh harbor

Start Time: 0645
End Time:1545
Cruise From: Lanyard Cay
Cruise To: Marsh Harbor
Weather/Sea Conditions: Great 80 degree weather. Sunny and calm seas a little rough by the cuts to the ocean but manageable

Captain's Log: While heading out of little harbor heading to the Elurathia our buddy boat, windkist had engine problems. We came back in to Lanyard Cay. We dropped the anchor and we are waiting for windkist to get their engine running. We will head north for repairs to windkist. We towed windkist back to rocky point. We will tow them the rest of the way with the dinghy, then come back and bring the Butorfleoge into Marsh Harbor. Under anchor now off rocky point . Motored back to marsh harbor.
NOTE: The Butorfleoge and the dinghy handled like a champ with no problems what so ever. We couldn't be more prouder of a vessal than we are right now.

Lanyard Cay, across little Harbor

Start Time: 0855
End Time:1500
Cruise From: Hopetown
Cruise To: Lanyard Cays
Weather/Sea Conditions: 5 knot winds, rolling seas. Sunny and pleasat

Captain's Log: Heading south!!! Once out of Hopetown, we set the sails and sailed. We had top speed of 4.1 knots and averaged @ 2 knots. Slow but beautiful. Felt great going under sail. Motored to dump sanitaries and catch up with Windkist. Placed the car forward until we were 2 and 3/4 holes from the front. Boat speed encreased to 3.9 knots. Back on sail. We motored a couple times as we felt the area was too narrow once and we werre to far back from Windkist. Nice sailing and a beautiful day.
Note: We were having trouble getting the CQR set anchor. It kept laying on it's side. We switched back to the bruce.

Hope Town

Start Time: 0140
End Time:1630
Cruise From: Marsh Harbor
Cruise To: Hope Town
Weather/Sea Conditions: 7 knot winds, rolling seas. Sunny and pleasat trip of @ 6 1/2 km

Captain's Log: Un eventful trip just like we like it! Saw Driven and talked to Chuck for a while. On the trip over, Sue saw a big shark! Nice to see from the deck of the boat and not while swimming. lol We stayed on a mooring ball as the cold front was coming through and we wanted to be safe and tucked into a nice protective cove. Hope town had all this. Oh yea, and a beautiful lighthouse.

In hopetown waiting for warmer weather

It is getting cold here! It is down to the upper sixties at night and only 78 in the day. Once we gett this cold front out, south we are a headin mon !!!! We came over to Hopetown to stay on a mooring ball as the wind would make it un safe to stay in Marsh Harbor. above is a picture of a curly tail.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM

Just wishing you a happy birthday and we hope you get well soon!!!!
With all my love
Captain Sue & Captain Bob

Leaving Marsh Harbor

We are heading to Hope town today at @ 1 o'clock. Hopefully, we will find a better inter net access there. Sue saw this wale and took a picture of it. Funny how a whale can have a snorkel instead of a blow hole. This picture was taken at Great Guana Cay. The weather has been in the 80's during the day and cool in the evenings. Great sleeping weather.

just an update

Just an up date on what we have done. On January 11th. We went to a protective cove and learned how to snorkel without drowning ourselves. We did real good on the first lesson. On January 12th we went to mermaid reef and snorkeled over the reef. Sue took some pictures of the fish swimming on the reef. We won't know how they turned out until we find a place to get the pictures placed on a disk for down loading on the computer. We have been hanging around Marsh Harbor waiting for the weather to make a safe passage south. No hurries mon!!!!

IN MARSH HARBOR, BAHAMAS

We are in Marsh Harbor. There is a cool front coming our way so we will stay put until it passes. That will be either Tuesday or Wednesday. The cold front will put our temperatures way down to the low 70's. We will survive the cold and wait for the warm weather which puts us into the 80's. After we leave here, we hope to head to the Exummas. We are having the time of our lives and are enjoying every minute of our adventure. We are on Island Time now which is to say we never really know what day of the week it is or what day of the month it is. I do carry my watch as tides are very important and we need to know when the high and low tide is. If you double click on the pictures, they will enlarge and you will see a sailboat in the branches of the picture.

Junk a noo

Now this is how to spend New Years Day. There was a lot of things to see and boy were they making some noise. The dancing and drumming was great. They even had an evil spirit. The kids would sneak up and touch the spirit and then take off running.

Da Crossing Mon

This is us crossing the Gulf Stream. It was a little rough at first. Later it settled down to a nice roll. The crossing was great and but for the excitement of crossing to the Bahamas, uneventful.
We were in Great sail for one day then headed to Green Turtle.

WE ARE HERE SAFE AND SOUND

Just a short message to let all know we made it safe and sound. We can't send pictures as this is a very shaky e-mail connection. WE are safe and sound. We will post with pictures once we find a better connection. We are at Green turtle waiting to head to Nun Jack for some snorkeling and diving. Then once the Whale settles down, we will head south and work our way north.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL
Bob & Sue

WE ARE HERE SAFE AND SOUND

Just a short message to let all know we made it safe and sound. We can't send pictures as this is a very shaky e-mail connection. WE are safe and sound. We will post with pictures once we find a better connection. We are at Green turtle waiting to head to Nun Jack for some snorkeling and diving. Then once the Whale settles down, we will head south and work our way north.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL
Bob & Sue