South to Annapolis

Getting a 34,000 pound 51 foot sailboat transported to the east coast is no easy task. The first question that comes to mind might be why would anybody want to do this? I have spent hours dreaming about the warm blue waters of the Bahamas. Imagine a warm breeze filling the sails with dolphins playfully jumping off the bow wake and thinking to yourself this is the way to live.

Getting ready

My initial plan of sailing across Lake to Oswega, taking the mast off, going through the Erie Canal New York City, and then leisurely taking my time sailing south over the autumn months fell apart. There were three major reasons. First of all, United States was closed to land and water crossings because of COVID 19. Had I turned up there full of wonder and adventure, I would have been turned away. The second reason was that my plans for retirement took a slight shift. I had been a practising surgeon for 36 years. I made the commitment to retire at age 65 which sadly occurred this year. I retired from surgery in August, 2021. Understanding that it would be difficult to stop working as a surgeon after so many years, I made a project out of planning to go sailing. About one year ago I took up a temporary position as Chief of Staff at the Hospital where I work until they could find someone more suitable after the one that was there left suddenly. Unfortunately, I enjoyed working in the chief of staf f role and given that it is not a full-time job, I convinced myself it would be good to stay on. The third reason that I had to alter my plans to head south was that I had no idea what I was doing.

I have found that the best way to assure success with anything in life is to surround yourself with people that know what they’re doing. In the spring of 2021, Pat Sturgeon from Pat Sturgeon Yachts sat me down with a big map of the Bahamas and pointed to where I needed to go. He says this spot will ensure happiness, safety, and luxury. That spot was the Grand Bahama Yacht Club in Lucaya. I was able to become WhatsApp friends with Fabian, who is the dock master there. After much negotiation, we hassled about the price for docking over the winter and settled on a price. He explained that it was an extra hundred dollars a month for water. I had just spent $13,000 putting in a water maker into the boat specifically to avoid issues with getting water down south. This water maker produces enough water for showers, cooking, cleaning, washing the boat and any other water related activities you can think of. I have been told that when you go down south, there are many aspects of life that are viewed differently. Fabian explained to me this hundred dollars a month for water would include things like using the swimming pool, washing the dishes in the restaurant, flushing the toilets in the clubhouse and he listed off a few other water related activities that really had nothing to do with me that he felt justified his additional fee of hundred dollars a month. I felt it was just safer to agree…..

Getting good advice

A number of very experience sailing friends gave me advice that the safest way to get down to the Bahamas is with the Salty Dawg Rally. This is a volunteer organization of sailors who go down together to either Antigua or Bahamas every fall. Part of the safety plan is to track you as you make your way south. They also give free advice as to what is needed on a sailboat should problems occur in the middle of the ocean hundreds of miles away from land. I made a list that included satellite phone, Garmin in reach tracker, emergency liferaft, AIS transponder, predictwind subscription, and many other bits of safety equipment. It took several months to get all of this organized because each of those items required registration, a subscription, and then hours spent on YouTube trying to understand how it all works. The departure date is November 1, 2021……. depending on the weather.

I also had to upgrade my insurance. It’s a little bit difficult because many insurance companies are refusing to ensure sailboats. What happened during the pandemic was that there were many sailboats left either at anchor or left unattended because of Covid 19. The owners were unable to get to their boats because of border closures and many of these boats ended up on the wrong end of a hurricane. The insurance companies want a hurricane plan should you leave the boat for more than 14 days unattended. This hurricane plan must include a marina that is willing to fetch the boat should a named hurricane come into the neighbourhood, and haul the boat out of the water and secure it safely to land. Trying to explain to them that hurricane season in the Bahamas is over on December 1, did not hold much water…… I found a very pleasant gentleman at Bradford Marine Bahamas who agreed to do this hurricane plan for $1200. The cost of hauling out the boat, transport, and strapping the boat down to land should that named hurricane miraculously appear outside of the hurricane season…… would be extra.

The next project was putting in an auxiliary generator. The reason an auxillary generator is a good idea is so there would be 110 V electricity while off of the grid. It can also be used to recharge the batteries, watch Netflix films on TV, use the washer and dryer, and is an extra source of power should the solar panels fail. I ordered this generator about a year before my planned voyage so there would be plenty of time to install it. I also wanted time to understand how it worked and felt secure knowing that I would have all summer to use this so there would not be any surprises on the trip down south. Unfortunately because of supply chain issues related to the pandemic, The generator didn’t actually arrive until May, 2021. This is a busy time for anybody who is involved with the Marine business and so the project started about mid-September. It turned out it was a little bit more difficult than they had initially anticipated and they were madly connecting the last of the wires as the truck appeared in the parking lot to load the boat. I have been repeatedly assured that it is working perfectly and that there is nothing to fear but nonetheless I have crossed my fingers…….

I had organized a Marina on the East Coast to accept the boat, put the mast back on the boat, attach the stanchions, Bimini and dodger only to find that the truck did not think it would be able to get into that Marina because of low bridges. This is what led to the change of destination to Annapolis. Annapolis is a huge sailing community but it is about 140 miles away from Hampton, Virginia where the rally was set to depart from. It would be a two day sail to Hampton. The other logistical problem was that the Annapolis boat show was going on and many of the vendors and Marine operators were tied up with that boatshow, making them unavailable to help put my boat back together and launch my boat. Luckily, I was able to find that Bert Jabin Yacht Yard was very keen to help me. The other concern was that the entire height of the truck needed to be below 14 feet so as to clear the bridges. My rough calculation suggested it would be close but likely possible but we did not actually confirm this was the case until the boat was firmly on the truck and accurately measured. It was a huge relief. Plan B would have been to have the boat transported by state police escort at $250 an hour but there would have been a risk of getting stuck underneath a bridge…..

Getting Ileana on the truck

The next step in the plan was to get the boat ready for loading on the truck. The mast was removed, the stanchions removed, and all the rigging, Bimini, and dodger were taking off. The boat was pulled out of the water, and the bottom was washed of all the algae and debris. When the height of the boat was measured, it was still not clear whether it would meet the requirements of being under 14 feet and we would have to wait until the boat was loaded on the truck. Another concern was having the appropriate bottom paint. There are different bottom paints for freshwater and saltwater. If the incorrect bottom paint is applied, within days, there will be barnacles hanging off the boat making it very slow. To get some advice, I spoke to one of the more colorful marine supply store owners that I know. I explained that I have BottomKote and what would he advise. He said that I was going to need to get this sandblasted to get rid of all that useless freshwater bottom paint, and then apply three coats of bottom paint specific for the ocean. He said it would take about two months to do this project…… I explained that I was leaving in less than a week. He explained that I was truly #!*&!!*. Once again, Pat Sturgeon rescued me and in anticipation of taking the boat south in the fall, the paint that was applied in the spring was good for saltwater.