This is a Blog entry by Brady
Written Tuesday, January 20

Hello everyone!
Last night was Awesome! We (us, Gotta life, and Nina) went over to Three At Sea and had an super fun
Mexican dinner/ Wii Party!!! I completely failed on Wii sing, but I PWNED at Mario Kart. I also beat
Geneva at Wii sports boxing. But I think the real winner of that was AnnMarie, who kept knocking us all
out first time. Just after boxing, we had the equivlent of Wimbledon on the Wii. Brian and David were both
really good and beat everyone else there. It was a ton of fun.
I’ll type more later,
Bye peoples!

This is a Blog entry by Brady

Hi everyone!
Were having a great time now that, by some amazing stroke of luck, we came across another Catana 471
That just happened to have 2 SPARE PROPELLERS!!! Just what we needed after getting what we thought was electrolysis at Dataw Is. The bad news is that my dad wants to move somewhere just because he can! I really don’t want to leave g-town! There’s so many great kids this year, and, just to name a few,
There is: Chris and Josh on Liberty, Sam on More Cowbell(no joke, that’s really his boat name),
David on Nina, Ayla on Three at Sea, and a bunch more. I still don’t want to leave.
Today is the first day of our special swim aerobics/ classes/ thingys and they look kind of boring.
I would rather be tubing with Erin and Geneva like we did the other day. Now THAT was fun.
Well, my time on the computer is quickly winding down and my dad keeps telling me to get off.
Oh well, I’ll write another blog entry when I can,
Later everyone!

It was a quick sail down to Shroud Cay, one of our favorite anchorages. Unfortunately for the spear fisherman, Shroud in in the Land and Sea Park, where fishing is prohibited. Funny how I didn’t care if I was in the country illegally but I didn’t want to break the rules of the park. We only spent a day playing in the mangrove canals of the island before pushing off for Warderwick Wells, headquarters to the Park. It was fun to stop in and see the caretakers and walk the paths. What a beautiful place. They’re working hard to keep the area from being decimated by local and pirate fisherman.
The next day we jumped off for a short sail to Staniel Cay. Since we had last fueled up at Ft Pierce I thought it would be good to take on fuel and water here. We weren’t sure what the status of services would be in Gtown. Diesel was a bit pricey at $2.00/gal more than the States. Water had jumped up to .40/gal but it’s good RO, no complaints there. Only thing different is they dropped their free wifi. Now it’s $10/day. Too bad as I thought that was one of the nicer services in the Bahamas. I guess everyone is trying to figure how to make a buck these days. \
As we left the dock we heard the port engine cavitating. That’s strange I thought. And after a quiet night at anchor, we left early the next morning for Gtown. As we powered up I heard the same cavitation. No problemo, just run on the starboard engine. Fortunately, it was an easy sail down in fair northeast winds. We pulled into Elizabeth Harbor around 3:00 PM and were amazed at the number of boats. I figured there may be ten to twenty but there was easily double that. The timing was good as Brian’s sister was due in two days and we could check in here.
As soon as the anchor was down I went over the side to see if I has wrapped my skivvies around the prop like I did last year. No such luck. It seems we were the victims of massive electrolysis at the marina in Dataw. The gears on one blade on the port prop was broken and just hanging like a limp noodle. Electrolysis is where stray electrical currtent gets in the water from bad wiring and turns your underwater metal into a battery. Apparently the prop was shedding metal for the past month or more. So here we are in the Out Islands with one working engine. Oh well, at least we should be able to check in and buy Kaliks.
Now it was time to forget about boat problems and start to get ready for Christmas. You’d think it would be hard to misplace a string of lights on a 47’boat but after tearing apart both vee berths I finally found em.
And if we’re going to have lights we need electricity. I guess there was no better time to start replacing alternators now that I have McGiver anchored next door. I don’t know who was more excited to tear the engine room apart, Brian or me? Marianne’s dad had given me a large Balmar alternator he couldn’t use so that was our first victim, I mean experiment. You know that Twelve Days of Christmas song where the guy is screaming about the !$%(&(^ mn wires. Well that was us. For those of you who have never changed an alternator, let me be the first to tell it aint’ not plug and play. After three days of brainstorming we finally connected the wires as best we could. Now the battery alarm only goes off randomly when the engine is running. Since we were deep into a basic rewiring of the boat I figured why not change the port engine alternator. I can’t use the engine for propulsion, but it should still make electricity. That alternator went on easier as it was a matching Volvo. I was finally able to call the tech support from Balmar. Their solution is to disconnect the alarm. Thanks for that great tidbit, guys. But what the hey, we have colored lights on the cockpit and everyone in in the festive spirit. And Christmas is only five days away.

The dinghy problem was finally resolved as we decided to buy a new dinghy in Ft Pierce, Fl. That was the last thing keeping us in Dataw. So at 2:45 pm I looked at Marianne and asked if we should leave. At 3:00 pm we were pulling in lines and motoring away from the dock. Nothing like a lot of preplanning. The wind was light for the next forty hours as we motored down the coast. There was a short discussion about pulling into St Augustine as we had spent Christmas there two years ago. The command decision was made to keep going as the weather was making the trip so easy. We arrived at the Ft Pierce inlet Friday afternoon and promptly anchored. Lo and behold the anchor grabbed on the first attempt.
At first light on Saturday we scooted over to the marina and hooked up to shore power. West Marine opened at 8:00. I walked in at 8:05, bought the new RIB (rigid inflatable boat for those non sailors), and promptly put it in the water by 9:00. We were ready to leave for the Bahamas. Oh right, I had no depth sounder, wind instruments, or white caulk (can’t have enough caulk, see previous post) Fortunately the ray marine tech works on Saturday so we got the electronic problems solved, or at least the depth sounder problem. The wind instruments will have to wait til next year as I had to send that part back to Raymarine.
Our friend from Idaho, John Marsh, was visiting his folks in Vero Beach. He stopped over and we laughed that there was no snow on the mountain. Last year this day we were skiing down all the runs. After a short stay in the marina we went out to anchor again and wait for weather. It gave us a chance to spend more time with John and enjoy a dinner off the boat at his parents house. Thursday looked promising with the wind out of the right direction to head south. On the down side there was a lot of wind. It looked good to us so off we pushed that afternoon with plans to get to Ft Lauderdale the next day. At midnight we realized the winds were coming too far out of the south to keep going to Lauderdale so we ducked into Lake Worth/West Palm. Once inside the anchorage we dropped the hook. Before we started to congratulate ourselves on another successful passage, we looked at the wind again. Wind out of the SSW, gulf stream out of the south, and we want to go east. Sure looks like decent crossing weather to me. So after an hour at anchor we picked up and headed out, this time heading southeast instead of south. With this much wind the gulf stream was choppy but certainly doable. By nine the next morning we we across and headed to Great Isaac light with is due south of Freeport just on the northwest tip of the Great Bahama Banks. No reason or place to stop there so we continued on to Chubb Cay. When it became clear we were not going to get to Chubb by daylight, we decided we would continue on to Rose Island, just off Nassau. The wind kept pushing us the whole way. After a day and a half, Marianne hit the wall and turned the watch over to me. This was at 4:00 am. By 5:30 it was time to make our entrance through the cut and Marianne was still making zzzzs. I grabbed Brady to help take in the sails, make the entrance, and anchor. After the anchor was set , I listened to the weather forecast and then went to bed.
It couldn’t have been a half hour when the world exploded with all commotion on deck. I could hear one of the kids yelling “they’re here, they’re here!” I crawled up from my rack to see the crew from Gottalife on our stern. Man was I surprised. But not as much as Marianne. She was still trying to figure out how she slept through dropping the main, rolling in the jib, and dropping a hundred feet of chain. All of which create a tad bit of noise through the hulls.
Amazingly we run into the same boat here at our first anchorage we were hoping to meet in Georgetown. We had last seen them as they were anchored in Beaufort, SC. It was a short nineteen years ago that Brian and Sheryl and us had hooked up on our first boats. Gottalife was transiting with Sandpiper. Onboard Sandpiper were Brian’s parents and two nephewss. It was a bit too early for sundowners but it was nice to know we wouldn’t be celebrating our crossing alone.
Now that we made it to the Bahamas it was time to check in. Not so fast Mr Costigan. Seems someone forgot the passports in Akron. (I’m not naming names but after I forgot my passport last time I flew into the Bahamas I was told in no uncertain terms who the keeper of the passports would be.) You’d think by now we have the hang of this. So it was over to Nassau to make the call to Conlon once again to get me out of a jam. Fortunately, Brian’s sister was flying down in a week so she’d be able to bring the passports down with her. We’d only be illegal until we got to Georgetown. So after a few days of waiting for better weather we pushed off for the Exumas.

The Breakdown of Rio Dulce

I know many of you are wondering why we’re still in South Carolina. No, it’s not because we’ve fallen in love with the area. That was Idaho, not Dataw Island. We’re here because each day brings a new surprise in the what I call “The Breakdown of Rio Dulce.”
It all started so well as we arrived and got right down to provisioning. After a few days we were loaded for bear, ready to cut the ties to the American economy for a good six months. I was putting things away and tidying things up as there was nothing to do. I had left the boat in such great shape last May, so I thought. I even splurged and had the marina crew compound and wax the hulls to give them that showroom shine. Things were looking up. Then it rained and we realized several of the windows were leaking. Nothing a little caulk wouldn’t fix. Let me warn you now, black caulk on white fiberglass isn’t a pretty sight. I was afraid to look into the mirror to see where the caulk ended up. Finally got one window leak stopped, then another popped up. Hit that one, then another one started dripping. I’ve been running to the hardware store everyday to buy more caulk. I feel like I’m Christopher Walken on Saturday Night Live screaming “more cowbell, give me more cowbell.. I mean caulk, more caulk!”
I had brought the parts to fix the anemometer at the top of the mast. You should all know how much I like going up the mast. When I got up there I realized the wind instrument was jammed on. Nothing a very large wrench couldn’t unbudge. I knew something was wrong when I saw the entire thing start spinning. Oh well, fortunately they’re readily available for a small price. Just think Best Buy pricing times three.
We had decided that we would splurge and buy a new dinghy engine. The Mercury POS (piece of …) had been a problem since day one, so we planned to pick up a Yamaha. The only thing that had provided more headaches than the Mercury have been our batteries, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself. Buying the Yamaha was easy, it only takes money.
Now with new engine we prepared to mount it on our trusty dinghy. Something looked a little wrong as the piece that holds the inflatable tubes to the fiberglass hull had pulled apart. That didn’t look good. No problem, nothing a little glue couldn’t fix. Hmmm, seems the other side was coming apart also. No problem, just more glue. I quickly realized this was a job for a professional. Yes, there are companies that do nothing but repair dinghies and life rafts. I drove the tubes up to Charleston for a quick repair. One look at the tubes and the guy says they were shot. The good news is the new tubes are in stock, the bad news they’re in stock in France. The French say ‘no problem monsieur, we can ship in three weeks’ (I can just see the cigarette dangling from the side of his mouth.) My experience with the French tells me the tubes should arrive sometime next summer. It’s off to look for a dinghy replacement. After realizing there are no used dinghies on the East Coast, I decide to buy a new one that can take us through the season. Next summer I’ll order the tubes from France and then I’ll have two like new dinghies. Thinking the new one may get here before Thanksgiving, I start making plans to leave the day after. What an optimistic fool I am.
I’m told the dinghy won’t arrive til the following Monday. Again, no worries mate, just gives me more time to go down the to do list. I figure it’s time to change the engine fuel filters. Three years per set of filters is ok isn’t it? During the process of changing the filter I decide I’ll bleed the engine. The bleed nut takes a lot of pressure to loosen. Time to break out the big wrench. What’s the saying? Lefty tighty, right loosey? It’s amazing how quickly you can torque the thread off an aluminum housing. Good news its in stock, bad news Vovlo isn’t feeling very generous these days. Really bad news, I never needed to bleed the !$^%$#%^*! engine in the first place.
It’s now time to attack the non functioning depth sounder. I work my way back from the transducer through all the connections to the main computer. As I look at the display, I notice a large number of functions missing from the screen. Shades of lightning strike cross my mind. A quick call to Raymarine confirms what I’ve got can’t be fixed on the boat. Oh well, I’ve already ordered a new anemometer, why stop there? Yes Mr Raymarine, I’ll send you my data computer for you to replace.
Since we’re waiting for the dinghy, I figure I’ll check to see how the batteries are doing. I unplug from shore power and watch my nine batteries drop to nothing. I hook up the shore power and it appears they aren’t charging. Six years of dorking around with this system. The batteries onboard now are only two years old. I decide to separate all the batteries and load test them. The load test shows they’re all good. Now I’m more confused than ever. Which isn’t saying much. Sometime during this cruise I’ll install the big alternator I’ve been carrying around to see if that makes the batteries any happier.
Still waiting on the dinghy gives me time to clean the bottom. Trust me, a shorty wet suit doesn’t work too well in South Carolina on Nov 27th. The marina folks were entertained watching me surface and singing soprano. I have never seen such marine growth in my life. I’m not exaggerating when I say there was a foot of plant life hanging off the bottom. It’s a good thing I got that speed brake off the boat.
The big day finally arrives as the truck brings the dinghy. Wow, it sure look big. There’s another saying I should remember. Measure twice, cut once. In this case it’s measure twice, order once. Seems the dinghy is over a foot longer than our old one and won’t fit on the davits. At this point Marianne is starting to look for flights home. Fortunately, the dinghy is an inflatable. I figure it’s like a balloon and I’ll make it fit.
During all this time we have been having our mainsail cover, bimini window, and cockpit cushions redone. This is one project that doesn’t catch us by surprise. I contracted this job to be done in the summer. And like every good contractor, what’s one month late between friends. So as various things are breaking about, our canvas man shows up at all hours with a cushion here and a window there. Fortunately, our to do list has dragged out so his delays are a non event.
Well the boat looks a lot better even if she does sit lower in the water. With any luck, we’ll be leaving in a few days. From here we plan to sail directly to Fort Pierce, FL. We’ve already had all the shipments sent there. They must be wondering who we are with all this boat gear showing up and no boat.
Did I mention it’s been unseasonable cold? The locals are telling us it’s more like February weather. That gives us more incentive to shove off. Rumor has it, it’s in the high 70’s down there. Dataw Island is a bit of southern heaven, but it’s time to go. We’ll fill you in when we get to Florida.

Well, finally. We're back on the water with our faithful ship. Preparing for our voyage down the east coast, making huge Wal-mart and Sams club shopping runs every day, running around in circles, yes, it seems like the start of another great year aboard the Rio Dulce. As we're pulling stuff out from under the beds that we don't remember buying, we find empty duffel bags that we were looking for 2 years ago. Jeez. I really didn't know we had this much junk on this boat. I didn't even know this much junk could fit onto this boat. Oh well, there goes that rain jacket from the first voyage. just another brick in the wall, or, just another coat in the trash. At least we've got a great marina to stay for the time being. The only down side is that here in the palmetto state there are plenty of palmetto bugs. Brian can't stand it. AnnMaries hair is getting longer by the minute, and Brady is catching geckos all over the place. Can't wait to get back to the good ol' Atlantic again. once again, we have no plans for visitors. so if you want to get away for a little, just call the Rio Crew.

It's time to get ready to pack. You'd think after six years we'd have this down to a science. At least we don't have to try to check 15 Rubbermaid containers at the Airtran counter. With any luck we'll be in South Carolina by Nov 11th and the boat will still be floating. I've gone through the to do list from last year and their are still a few items to check off. Biggest on the list is replacing the Mercury outboard. My thriftiness tells me to just rebuild the carburetor and milk it for another year. Logic tells me I will be left stranded three miles offshore after trying that stupid fix. I can see a new Yamaha in our future.
Our travel plans have us going down the east coast with stops in St Augustine and Ft Pierce. Hopefully, we'll be able to get over to visit the crew of Kal Ikal in Orlando. Then its off to da Bahmamas mon. We plan to meet another cruising family, Gotta Life, in Georgetown for Xmas. This will be the first time we've spent a Christmas in that sailing mecca. After the new year, we plan to head up the Exumas and over to Spanish Wells to hook up with the Sutherlands. Mike and Becky and their five have a house on Spanish Wells that serves as a gathering spot for sailors all over the world. After that it's anyones guess where the winds will blow us.
Our calendar is wide open. As you should know we love visitors. So if your travel plans call for leaving the cold of winter, think Rio Dulce.