Changed oil and oil filter. Changed primary and secondary fuel filters. Homemade Pizza cooked on the grill.

Dinghy ride around Spanish Wells harbour, cribbage, and sitting out rain that finally came. For hurricanes a safe place to put your boat is tied up in the mangroves. Could this motor yacht have been here since Hrricane Sandy? The photo on the right is a little resort at the west end of the harbor. Given the shallow water i can't imagine that many visiting yachts make it up here. Mayb during the summer months when there are more sportfishing boats in the islands this little resort gets more traffic.

On arrival who should be in the anchorage but Daryl and Annie on "No Rehearsal." I met them here in December 2012. In between they have been through the eastern Caribbean to Granada to sit out the hurricane season.

Spent the afternoon exploring[loring ruins of the estate built by an American many decades ago. The island is currently under development with planned marina and many lots in the sub-division.

. What remains today is the concrete foundation of the buildings which are now overgrown with trees and vines, absolutely beautiful in its own way. After tying up the dinghy to what remains of the dock there (a couple of concrete blocks and metal rebar) you climb up the hill to the house. The entire front of the plantation was terraced, and rose bushes still grow there today. We explored all of the estate and found many places where very decorative and intricate tiles still remain. We found the old kitchen with its big hearth and the remains of a guest quarters with its own bathroom and fireplace- very neat. Our favorite area we found was an outdoor covered patio which opened up to a beautiful view of the bay. Wayne and Dana also visited the ruins and Dana has a nice essay posted on her web site Galley Wench. Before turning to the ruins let me start you out with a few butterfly pictures.

This photo of the ruins predates my visits to Royal Island. You can sea the terraces running down to the harbor. Apparently at one time the terraces were planted in roses.
The back side of the main structure seen in the photo above this one.	The kitchen
A bathroom. There is an interesting solution to the hot water problem. You can see it in the detail of the photo to the right.	If you look in the fireplace you can see a network of pipes. These go through the left side of the fireplace into the hot water heater to its left.
The bar and patio that overlooks the harbor.
Another bathroom attached to some of the outbuildings.	The ballroom. Great for entertaining a 100 of your best friends.
	On the north shore of Royal Island one can find what must have been a swimming pool. You can see the cut to let sea water in and out. There must have been a ladder for bathers to climb in and out. And I am sure that the walls of the pool must have been surfaced with something that made them smoot to the touch bu which has since been eroded away.
This is all that remains of an artificial small boat harbor and beach. Most of the sand has been washed away and the break waters broken down by storm surge.	And now we come to the modern era. A company owned by Roger Staubach and Jack Nicklaus envisioned a marina and golf community on the island. They abandoned the project in 2008. There are signs that a new vision of the project is being resurrected.
Want to buy a lot in the planned subdivision?	While these are waterfront properties they all have iron bound rocky shorelines. Very uninviting.
The current developers have built this overlook so that prospective buyers can view Spanish Wells and the Atlantic to the northeast.

During this period I spent my time on the usual tasks: H₂O, grocery shopping, fuel, laundry, washing the salt off the boat.

Spent one day in Hope Town.

Wolfgang flies in to crew on the trip back to Florida. The plan is to sail stright through from Great Sale to Fernandina Beach. Plans and commitments to airlines have to be made before one knows how the weather will evolve. There is a threatening tropical wave with strong NE winds to be followed by a collapse of the wind for a week or more. Given the forecast it is unlikely that we can sail all the way to Fernandina.

To give battery bank 1 a full charge we motorsailed for the first 1 1/2 hours. Great sailing across the Little Bahama Bank, good sailing until 0130 on 05/21/2014 when we had to start motor sailing. Eventually we had to bring down the sails as they were hindering more than helping. All-in-all this was a pretty easy crossing. Those who waited another day had to motor the entire 158 miles.

After clearing customs we went on a pub crawl to celebrate being back in the US.

Ann really got into the scene at the Fishlipss Bar and Restaurant, so we made the acompanying promotional video on the right.

We got up early to catch the last opening of the bascule bridge before rush hour. But we were stuck waiting an hour for the next bridge closed for rush hour. Went up the waterway since there was predicted to be no wind at all. Did a little motorsailing. On departure Wolfgang and I sang Happy Birthday to Ann on Krazy Lady. As we turned out of the Barge Canal into the ICW we tried to convince Ann that we arranged the missile launch on the occasion of her birthday. The below clip tracks the contrail of the rocket:

Appropriate to May we had to endure swarms of these oversexed love flies.

Went out the Ponce Inlet to motorsail up the coast and avoid the many opening bridges. Below is a photo of the distinctive lighthouse at Ponce inlet.

Ann put her dinghy in the water so we all went in for showers and then headed to the American Legion Post for a $12.95 lobster dinner.

In recent years there has been considerable debate in Florida about anchoring rights. On one side are the cruisers. On the extreme of the other side are waterfront property owners that believe that they have an inalienable right to a view of the water that does not include boats. Somewhere in the middle are folks that believe that the real problem is permanently moored, nearly derelict boats. The legislative so,lution has been to encourage municipalities to turn anchorages into mooring fields. St Augustine is one manifestation of this implementation. There are pluses and minuses to the mooring fields in St Augustine. On the plus side you can safely fit more boats into a small area. On the downside, it is nearly impossible to find a safe place to anchor for free. My own reaction, as I have been up and down the ICW, is that the derelict boat problem is far from being solved. That said, At Augustine is a great stop. In the photos below are some of the ships that can be seen under the watchful eye of the old Spanish fort.

Tried again to get the engine running. No Luck. Called Wayne York, the diesel guru here. He can't and won't come until Tuesday; can't complain, it is after all Memorial Day weekend. Grocery shopping and running around trying to find someone that carries my Brown-Dahl fuel filters. Laundry. Up the mast to see if there is a loose wire for the masthead navigation lights; no luck.

Like St Augustine, Fernandina Beach has been occupied by the Spanish, the British, the Americans and both sides during the Civil War. There really is nothing more than mounded soil where the orignal settlements were located. Nowadays we rely on roadside historic markers to tell us about our heritage.

Robert, who works for Wayne, traced the fuel problem to the pick-up tube. When he got back from the shop he told me there is a screen in the interior of the tube that was clogged with lots of gunk. He got cleaned up. When everything was put back together and the engine running Franky noticed that the fuel-water separator bowl was accumulating air. Sure enough, when a flashlight was shined on it we could see bubbles rising from the drain valve at the bottom. Robert tried to find a replacement bowl for this antique. No luck, so tomorrow he will put in a new Racor filter, which is what nearly everyone is using nowadays.

Meanwhile, over the last couple of seasons my rudder has been developing a shudder cum flutter. My suspicion was that the busings in the rudder tube needed replacing, so I posted a query to the Yahoo Caliber owners' group. In response I got a call from George McCreary, the owner of Caliber Yachts. His recommendation was to not come to hasty conclusions but to tighten the four bolts holding the upper bearing plate to a shelf built under the helmsman's seat. Once I got in there I found that two of the bolts went through rotten wood. My temporary solution has been to use stainless steel bar stock under the shelf running longitudinally tying the bolts fore and aft in pairs. The bar stock is long enough to lay on solid wood.

The Fernandina Harbor Marina has a long face dock and fuel dock combination. On any given visit I have seen interesting boats tied up there. Below are two shots that illustrate that we don't all share the same tastes. In the first row are photos of Sycara IV. With her clipper bow and fantail stern she is supposed to be reminiscent of the yachts built for the wealthy in the first decades of the twentieth century. She is flying the flag of a small island nation in the south Pacific. There must be distinct tax advantages since I have seen innumerable large boats flying this flag. In the second row are two pictures of Da Rose out of south Florida. She clearly is meant to evoke the modern era. When I walked by she was refueling after the one day trip up from Ft Lauderdale. At 30 knots she burns 20 gallons of fuel per hour!