Life on Lailia

No Name Harbor, FL to Brown’s Marina, Bimini, Bahamas (docked)

February 27, 2022

We left No Name at about 6:15 – there was enough light to make our way through the channel. The wind felt kinda great and we were moving well.

We expected the wind to shift from the east (the direction we were heading, so the wind was blowing against us) to the south (which would be in the direction of the Gulf Stream and push us along).  It did not happen.

We bounced around for most of the trip – hours of up and down with an occasional side roll.  We kept thinking the wind would change so we kept heading east.

After I got sick (ugh, it happened) I took a Dramamine and a nap in the cockpit.  I had such lovely dreams of living in a house!  I won’t make the mistake of napping on the sunny side again!

I woke up to deep blue Gulf Stream water.

In order to stay clear of a container ship in the distance, John turned Lailia.  Unfortunately that turn dislodged my kayak from where it had been strapped on the davit on the stern.  We tried several times to snag the kayak but ultimately we had to let it go.  It was upsidedown and there were no good holds for the boat hook to grab… Especially since we were bouncing around.

We’re not sure exactly what happened – whether the davit broke and loosened somehow cut through the kayak straps or if the movement of the kayak did something to the davit, but a bar from the davit came loose.  John and I had to  work to tie down that bar and to try to attach the dinghy to other parts of Lailia just in case we had a complete davit failure.

Gradually the waves started calming down and as we got closer to Bimini the water color began to change to let us know the water depth was a lot more shallow.

We are finally here in Bimini! We are sitting in the marina watching rays and tropical fish swim under our Lailia. John has checked us in with immigration and customs. Tomorrow we’ll explore Alice Town a bit and see if we can get some internet sim cards as well as some parts to repair the davit.

No Name Harbor (anchor)

February 25 & 26

Tomorrow we will attempt to make the jump to Bimini.  This will be an all-day trip and we will be in the open ocean for first time.  We have made the agreement that if it is too rough, we will turn around and head back.

Yesterday we had the bottom of Lailia cleaned.   This removed much of the growth that built up from being in the water.

Today we completed our health visas after we received our Covid tests.  We were able to complete these tests via an online proctored testing facility who watched us as we performed the tests.

After we finally received our health visas (I had apparently missed completing a box on both applications so they thought we weren’t vaxxed) we were able to apply for, and receive, our cruising permit. 

When we get to Bimini, we will have to fly the yellow “Q” (quarantine) flag until John, the captain, checks us in through customs.  We will also need to get another Covid test within 5 days.  That test is funded through our health visa fee.

I am very anxious about the trip tomorrow.  I think it is partially my worries about leaving Biscayne Bay – there’s lots of shoals – and partially being worried about getting seasick.  As a means to deal with that anxiety I will review (again) the charts to see the Biscayne Bay channel – and I bought Dramamine today to help with any nausea.

I am not sure when we will have internet again.  If you want to see our progress, you can download an app called Marine Traffic and search for Lailia.  As we travel we transmit through our AIS.

No Name Harbor (anchored)

When two dissimilar metals are immersed in water or electrically charged, they can galvanically corrode. Sacrificial anodes, made of zinc, can provide the electrons for the process instead of the electrons coming from the shaft or rudder. The zincs actually corrode and dissolve over time.

John replaced Lailia’s zinc this morning. This not only required him to hold his breath to get down to the propeller shaft but he also had to fight the current. On land this job would probably take five minutes; under water it takes longer. John also had to secure the wrench to his bathing suit so he wouldn’t have to worry about losing it. In the past, we had divers who regularly cleaned Lailia and about every four months replaced the zincs. They had air tanks and weights to keep them submerged.

We planned to get our laundry picked up and then ride the free shuttle to the hardware and grocery stores. Our timing was off – the shuttle arrived before the laundry ladies, so John went to town while I waited. Once the laundry was picked up I was able to hit the nature trail at the park as I waited for John’s return.

There’s a constant motion along this trail due to all of the lizards and iguana action. I got my nature geek on while John got his hardware store fix

Once we got our groceries on the boat and our laundry delivered, we decided to take our dinghy to get gas for the generator. We had a 2.5 gallon container and John purchased a new 5 gallon container today.

We dinghied first to the yacht club but since we are not members, they could not sell us gas. They did direct us to the next closest marina. It was kind of fun to be out and moving so fast although it was a bit bumpy. In typical Florida fashion, we even had a quick rain shower. All of this is a different experience by dinghy: it takes longer and there’s no shelter when it rains

John managed to make the trip even better by buying Twix (the only candy bar I like) ice cream (even better) bars.

No Name Harbor did not get rain (good thing because we left our hatches open). We did get a glorious sunset.

It looks as if we have found someone to “dive” our boat tomorrow. They will remove the layer of growth that’s built up underwater.

No Name Harbor (anchored)

February 23, 2022

We have a wind generator and some solar panels. We’re not sure that either of these options provides a significant amount of power. John hooked up a flexible solar panel (we had 3 that were stored on our boat) today and found that one of them produced about 20 volts. We were able to charge my laptop with this, which is great. Keeping my laptop charged has been a challenge – we normally have to use either the generator or the motor, both of which require fuel. That means we have to always make sure we HAVE fuel. Using passive source of power like solar or wind frees us up a bit.

We dinghied to shore and strolled a trail along the water. Iguanas are abundant here. I liked seeing them on the rocks looking over the Bay. They’re an invasive species that has found a foothold here. They’re also the species that fall out of trees when they get cold – they’re hefty enough (maybe a pound and half or more) that I can see why that would be hazardous!

There’s all sorts of non-iguana lizards, too. Apparently there are also CROCODILES here – I don’t need to see one of them.

We have had amazing weather – warm during the day with a cooler breeze at night. We don’t have air conditioning, so lower 70s with a breeze is great. We do a have fan that plugs into a 12-volt outlet (like a cigarette lighter) that we run at night. It not only cools our cabin, it also provides a bit of white noise that I need to help me sleep.

There were some structures on stilts off the end of Key Biscayne – they are actually what is left of Stiltsville, a community of clubs and fish camps that originally were built in the 1930s. These are the ones that survived Hurricane Andrew; none of these were built in the early years of Stiltsville. Today they’re part of the national park system.

Tomorrow we will probably go ashore to explore another park trail. There’s also supposed to be a free transportation system that will pick us up and take us to a local store. We might check that out – we always have room for more groceries like cheese and bread. I have been worrying a bit about toilet paper (we only have about 30 rolls) so that’s on our list.

Social media has been a great source of information. Today we learned that there is an inexpensive service who will pick up and deliver laundry. Since the closest laundromat is in Miami, which would require Uber, we think we’ll avail ourselves. I kind of struggle with having people do tasks that I am capable of doing, though.

No Name Harbor  (anchored)

February 22, 2022

Although we are surrounded by water we have been really careful to conserve out fresh water when we aren’t docked because we are limited to what’s in our 160 gallon water tank.  We fill a bowl or pot with soapy water to wash (dishes and bodies).  At the age of 54 I have learned how to wash my hair in the sink.

Today we hooked up our reverse osmosis water maker and it works!  We purchased it used from boat neighbor in Johns Island and had waited until we were in clear water to try it out. This is good news for us because we won’t have to try to find marinas with fresh water (a precious comodity in the Bahamas).  We’ll still practice conservation because it’s a slow process – 30 gallons an hour or so.

Because NOTHING is easy with boat life, we had to discard Plan A (running it in the head with hoses through the portlights) because we couldn’t generate enough power through the outlets and didn’t have a strong enough extension cord to reach from the generator to the water maker.  We (mostly John) lugged the two heavy components up on deck and made fresh water!

One of our boat neighbors stopped by and told us about a free service that will pick us up and drive us to stores in Key Biscayne. Another boat neighbor’s dogs have been entertaining me as they lounge around their boat.  The dolphins swam right next to Lailia, which was so cool.

We have noticed that people gather at the park by the entrance to the harbor to watch the sunset so we dinghied over.  It was definitely a gorgeous show tonight.

And…the dinghy needed John’s attention.  He fixed it while I checked out the sunset and got rid of our bag of trash

Our friends from John Island plan to join us here tomorrow to wait for the next good weather window to head to Bimini.  I am hoping to explore the park a bit tomorrow, as well.

New River Downtown Docks to No Name Harbor, Key Biscayne (anchored)

February 21, 2022

We left the docks before sunrise this morning and we’re out on the ICW early enough to avoid a lot of boat traffic. 

We passed two major ports on our way to No Name Harbor: Port Everglades and Port of Miami.   Lailia was dwarfed by the cruise ships and freighters.

Most fixed bridges (the ones that don’t open) on the ICW have at least 65 feet of clearance from the waterline.  Lailia’s air draft – the height of the top of our mast and antennae – is 53ish feet. While it always seems like we’re not going to clear, we have a good 10+ feet of clearance for most fixed bridges –HOWEVER the Julia Tuttle Bridge on the ICW in Miami has a fixed height of 56 feet.  A lot of boats “go outside” to avoid this bridge: they head out to the ocean at Port Everglades and come back in at Port of Miami.  We decided that the ocean was a bit too rough so we went the Tuttle Bridge route. Knowing how close we were – and knowing that there were some waves that might push us up a few more feet was nerve-wracking.

Most bridges have tide boards that show how much air draft is available.  They’re usually written in really large numbers that are easy to read from a good distance.  For whatever reason, the Tuttle Bridge numbers were difficult to read until we were right up on them.

I am pretty sure I held my breathe until we were clear of the bridge.

And then… We called ahead to one of the next bridges, the West Venetian Bridge, who responded by saying they were non-operational.  We called Boat US to see if they could help us figure out how we could reroute to EAST Venetian only to see West Venetian open.  We still are unclear what happened, although we did hear multiple times on the VHF that West Venetian was non-operational. it was the 12h restricted bridge of the day of a total of 16 we crossed under today.

The anchorage at No Name Harbor is lovely, though, so all of those bridges were worth it.  We saw two manatees in the water outside the entry to this very protected harbor.  After we anchored we saw a pod of dolphins feed for a good 15 minutes.

This anchorage is in a state park, so it’s monitored by rangers.  There’s also easy dinghy access and a place to take out trash.  The water is very clear, so tomorrow we can try our water maker.

We will probably wait here for a good weather window to head to Bimini.

New River Downtown Docks (docked)

February 20, 2022

We are leaving this dockage early tomorrow morning to make use of the slack tide (when the water is almost still).  We should be able to untie and turn around, then motor outbound on the river.  The tide will start coming in as we proceed which is beneficial when we have to stop at the two bridges (and maybe the railroad bridge if it’s down) because we won’t be pushed into the bridge.

We plan to get back on the ICW and head past Miami to No Name Harbor where we’ll anchor and wait for a weather window.  No Name Harbor is a staging area for boats heading to the Bahamas so it’s likely we’ll find others who will be heading east when we do.

Bimini is almost directly east of Miami but since the Gulf Stream will push us north, we will leave from further south.  The Gulf Stream moves north at about 2.5 miles an hour- Lailia comfortably motors at about 6 miles an hour, so for every hour we are in the stream, we will move (approximately) 6 miles east and 2.5 miles north.

We did another trip to Publix (John actually did two) today.  Since we don’t have a car our purchases are limited to what we can carry.  I tried to buy food for the week that we won’t easily get in the Bahamas (like meatballs).  We also don’t have a true freezer (just a really cold metal box in our fridge) so we really can’t just grab extras to freeze for later. 

I saw an iguana on the way to the store, so there’s that!

Tonight we’re refilling our water tank with fresh water   We hope to find a spot with clear water to try out our water maker further south of here.  We originally thought we might make some salt water in a bucket to test the water maker  but read that we don’t want to use “city water” because chlorine can damage the reverse osmosis membranes.  There’s heavy boat traffic here so we don’t want to use the system here and foul the membranes.

This dockage has been pretty entertaining.  We haven’t seen many super yachts this weekend, but we have seen all manner of smaller motor boats, paddle boarders, kayakers, water taxis, tiki bar boats, and the multi-level faux riverboat, The Jungle Queen.  The Queen does both a daily tour and a daily dinner cruise.

We will have to go under approximately 13 bridges tomorrow.  My enchantment with bridges has definitely diminished.

New River Downtown Docks (docked)

February 19, 2022

John changed both fuel filters today. It makes sense to get this done before we make the jump to the Bahamas.  Of course access to complete this task requires removing the steps and laying on the sole of the boat and kneeling into the engine room on the other side. John is so very mechanically inclined.

Of all the boats we have seen, the food boat may be the coolest.  It’s nowhere near the size of some of the super yachts we have seen (some of which are over 125 feet) but it’s perfect for its role.  It makes us miss food trucks, though.

It was a perfect south Florida day to take a stroll along the River Walk – sunny, breezy, and warm.  While it’s very urban here, I did get to see a bunch of ducklings as well as tropical flowers.

One of the benefits of being docked here is how close we are to “stuff’ – John was able to go to the auto parts store to get more oil (good to have on hand) and we were able to meet at a brewery and go to Publix.  Fort Lauderdale, at least this part, is pedestrian friendly which is a plus for us.

The wind changed direction and with this came a band of rain.  We knew this weather window was short and didn’t want to push our luck heading east.  Hopefully the window in the forecast for next weekend will hold and we will make the crossing to Bimini. 

New River Downtown Docks (docked)

February 18, 2022

Our dockage is between two bridges so sometimes we get a line of boats waiting for a bridge opening.  Today there were five boats lined up. There’s constant communication between boats and bridge tenders.  It’s really interesting to listen to the system of warnings and requests on VHF radio.

Lailia needed an oil change. Some major yoga positions are required to complete this -John is amazing at figuring out how to reach everything. I never had to change the oil on any house in which we lived.

There’s a gorgeous breeze tonight so John and I are watching Better Call Saul up in the cockpit rather than sitting in the heat down below. We also get to hear all of the music playing on al of the passing boats. We’ve noticed that it’s usually the small boats playing the loudest music.

We have some more maintenance tasks to complete as we wait for a weather window next week

New River Downtown Docks (docked)

February 17, 2022

How wonderful to have a quiet night of sleep and a hot shower in the morning!

As narrow as it is, there are still loads of yachts in New River. Today we watched one being towed with towboats at both the bow and stern. The towboat at the stern was traveling backwards in case it needed to correct course quickly.

John Ubered to a laundromat and caught up on our laundry. We also walked to Tarpon River Brewery on the way to Publix.

There is a wild flock of Muscovy ducks roaming near where we are tied up. Tonight we even saw some ducklings.

As we headed back to Lailia this evening we saw a yacht turn around right off our stern. It was a bit disconcerting because it seemed as if the yacht was only feet from us.

There’s a very small weather window tomorrow that we will not be able to use. We’re hopeful that another will open up next week so we can head to Bimini.