Firefly
On November 4th 2013 Jonathan and Brittany bought sailing vessel Fire Fly. She is a Ericson 35 mark 2 built in 1975. We spent the next year replacing almost everything on the boat. Now it is November 2014 we are almost done with the project (read more about the refit on The Boat page) and getting ready to head south. We plan to cruise the inter coastal to Florida, and then cross to the Bahamas for the winter.
We are now in Oriental North Carolina. We have been here for 3 days now and are planning on leave tomorrow morning. Oriental is a beautiful small sailing town, there are 900 residences and 2800 registered sailboats!
This is a small story that will give you a feel for the town. When we pulled in there was a gentleman on the town dock who helped us dock, as soon as we where tied up he started to tell us about the town and asked if we needed anything. I told him that we need part of our genoa sail to be restitched and if he knew of a good sail repair shop. He told us of a few shops in town, then suddenly he said “ I have a sail rite sowing machine at my house and I have all the thread you need, why dont you come over and repair it yourself”. He proceeded to help me pull our sail down and put it into his car. We drove over to his house and helped him winterize his 37 foot Shannon sailboat. Then I spent about 2 hours working on our sail, at one point Brittany myself and Marshal had the sail spread out over his work room and his bedroom to get all the material lined up before I stared to sew it all back together. We got back to our boat at 9pm that night, it was a long day. Since then we have seen Marshal at the town movie night and before he left town he came by to see us off.
Everyone here is willing and ready to go out of their way to help cruisers. On Saturday we went to the local winery where we tried blueberry wine, blackberry wine and for the first time mead. All where delicious, and after we bought a few bottles the owner gave us a ride back to our boat. We have loved being here in Oriental but it is time to move on further south to warmer weather, but this is a town we will look forward to visiting again.
Tuesday January 6th 2015
Jonathan and I left Fort Lauderdale on firefly heading further south to key Biscayne along our awesome sail we caught a 15 lb wahoo!!!! it was an awesome fight and turned out to be 4 awesome meals as well as great fish bait for snorkeling. Along our trip south we had a crazy encounter with the coast guard. It was around 9pm and it was pitch black out we had just past Miami when a fully blacked out boat came speeding strait at us. At first I asked Jonathan if he thought it was a drug boat or something but he said it was probably the coast guard. Right as they approached us the boat lit up there hull which read US Coast guard. We were under full sail with some motor assist going 5.5kts when they asked if they could board us. Jonathan asked if they wanted us to slow down and drop sail but they said no they would board as is. It was the most crazy stressful thing I've ever been a part of. I ran down stairs to get our documentation and drivers licenses and when I came back up here was this boat a foot from us it was so scary I was worried some one would fall in the water. No sooner did I start asking if this was a good idea or if it was safe that the coast guard had finished checking to see if we were legitimate and they decided not to board. They turned away with one quick move and in seconds were black again and heading further out to sea. WOW what an exciting experience!!!
Wednesday January 7th 2015
this was our first day in the keys and one of our funnest so far! We went exploring in the mangroves and snorkeling for the first time since we got south, with our new gear. It was a blast we saw a school of barracuda, parrot fish, sting ray and many other fun sea creatures!! we are so excited to get to clearer warmer water and start snorkeling and spearfishing daily!!
December 24th 2014
our Christmas vacation.... we arrived in rock port mass on Christmas eve for my first east coast Christmas with Jonathan family.. It was so nice to see everyone. When we arrived the tree wasn't decorated. They were so nice as to wait for Jonathan and I to decorate the tree with the whole family! And get this we put real candles on a real tree as an addition to lights!!!!!! how cool is that! After decorating the tree we had a nice dinner then Jonathan whole family, cousin, aunt, uncle, and gomommie all sat around the Christmas tree with lit candles singing Christmas carols. It was so fun and educating. I learned that evening that all the carols I knew were only the first verse and they were much longer then I thought. Who would have thought... well anyways on Christmas morning we all got together to open presents and have a wonderful Christmas breakfast. That evening vanya jonathans dad and I played in the kitchen making a Christmas feast!!! it was wonderful we made a crown pork roast, a pork rib roast, a roasted duck which jonathans little brother had butchered and cleaned the night before, Jerusalem artichoke and sweet potato Au gratin, green beans, mashed potatoes, and we finished the meal off with some Christmas cake jonathans gomommie made. It was a wonderful evening. We spent the rest of our visit enjoying the company of family and hoping for snow which never came but such is life. We hand a great new years with the family as well. Once again the whole family got together and Eric and Sallie jonathans aunt and uncle made us a wonderful dinner of fondue we had a blast and let off Chinese lanterns to celebrate the new year!! thanks to everyone who made this visit so fun and memorable.
January 17th and 18th Bonds cay!!!
when we arrived in chub cay Bahamas to check in to customs we met Steve and Roy. These two amazing people run a private island “bonds cay” for Shakira, Penelope cruse, And many other wealthy people. They were so amazing!! as the island was empty they invited us to come visit for an evening. We spent 2 days snorkeling, barbecuing, drinking and being marry! I was trying to recover from a minor slip and fall on our boat so you can only imagine the luck when we were introduced to another cruising couple visiting the island who specialized in physical therapy and massage therapy. That evening at dinner I received an hour massage and the next day I received another. By Monday I was feeling as good as new. While on the island we caught 2 lobster spear fishing and had a close encounter with a huge black tip reef shark!! I also had the honor of trying a local delicacy... conch salad! It was tougher then I thought it would be but when all the ingredients were mixed together it was great. I also picked up a great new rub recipe and I tell you I am officially in love with the Bahamas its warm the waters clear and the people are kind and friendly! Bonds cay was the perfect introduction to the Bahamas.
January 20th and 21st !!
we spent the last 2 days in Allan cay it has been amazing! We have been snorkeling and spear fishing in half a dozen places. We have caught 3 lobster one of which is the biggest lobster I've ever seen. It reminds me of the ones you buy for $50 a piece from Costco around valentines day!! we also caught a gray grunt and a grouper. Long story short we have been amazingly well fed. It is amazing to be snorkeling in a place that looks like you're looking through the glass of a fish tank, its beautiful. While here we also had the opportunity to visit southwest Allan's cay where we were greeted by dozens of rock iguanas they only exist on this island and one other. It was cool and creepy at the same time the iguanas greet you on the beech. They also charge you because they think your going to feed them. None the less it was a very cool encounter. tomorrow we leave for Normans cay.
January 25th and 26th
we have been holding up in a small anchorage near ship channel cay just large enough for one boat for the last few days. There is a strong blow coming through and is not said to calm down till the 28th. In the last 24 hours we have lost our second anchor twice!! it has been an ordeal. At around 6am this morning we woke up hitting bottom every time we came down a swell. We had lost our 2nd anchor, we pulled our primary anchor and moved to what we hoped would be deeper water. Once the sun came up we went in the dink to get our second anchor so we could make a second attempt at anchoring Bahama style (Bahama style is putting out 2 anchors one off the bow going forward the other off the bow going to the stern. The idea is that you'll only swing the length of your boat). About 10 minutes after we finished anchoring the line parted again and we had to go fishing for the anchor once more.... at the moment the second anchor is attached with a dock line and holding better then with our back up anchor line!!! other then this craziness the anchorage is beautiful there's good snorkeling and ship channel cay has a beautiful beach and there are wild pigs on the island...
January 28th
Jonathan and I went snorkeling on the leeward side of ship channel cay which in this case was the sound side of the island. There was a beautiful reef with huge grouper snapper and lobster on it!! while snorkeling Jonathan speared our biggest snapper yet!!! as per our usual routine once we spear a fish we both head back to the dingy to put the fish away and to check that there are no sharks in the vicinity... once were clear we go snorkel some more. Only this time we got to the boat and I do my check and theirs a huge gray reef shark behind me heading our way!!! I scream shark and we fly into the boat!! I of cores am freaking out and Jonathan is saying oh he is just a little tyke... so we wait about 30 minutes and he is long gone so we decide to get back in the water because Jonathan saw a huge lobster!! we aren't even in the water 5 minutes and this shark is back!!! Jonathan and I jump back in the boat and now Jonathan is in agreement he is no little tyke he is a big boy!! after that we waited around for like another hour trying to spear these lobster from the dingy. The shark was once again gone so Jonathan said lets just jump in and ill get it and we will get out... no sooner was he in the water that the shark \was heading right for him. That was the end of our snorkel its not worth going up against that many teeth just for one dinner... we had fish and chips with the snapper that night for dinner!! it was amazing.