Salty Podcast: Sailing

Salty Podcast #53 | ⛵ Sailing the Bahamas LIVE with Dennis Jay & S/V Delta Blues! 🌊🏝️

• Captain Tinsley | Dennis Jay of SV Delta Blues • Season 1 • Episode 53

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Sailing legend Dennis Jay joins us to share his inspiring journey across the beautiful Bahamas. Discover how life's challenges can lead to new adventures and the vibrant community of sailors in Georgetown.

• Dennis’ early beginnings with sailing and his love for boats
• The story behind acquiring Delta Blues and its journey
• First impressions of the Bahamas and the coastal allure
• Unique experiences and memorable encounters while sailing
• Insight into daily life on board and practical challenges
• The strong sense of community among cruisers in Georgetown
• Valuable lessons learned through sailing adventures and challenges 
• Dennis’s advice for those looking to embark on their sailing journey 


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SALTY ABANDON: Cap'n Tinsley, Orange Beach, AL:
Oct 2020 to Present - 1998 Island Packet 320;
Nov 2015-Oct 2020; 1988 Island Packet 27
Feb-Oct 2015 - 1982 Catalina 25

SALTY PODCAST is LIVE every Wed at 6pm Central and is all about the love of sailing!
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Capn Tinsley:

Do you dream of setting sail, leaving it all behind and chasing the horizon one island at a time? Well, tonight we're talking to someone who is doing exactly that right now Bahama style. So join me as we vicariously hop aboard sailing vessel Delta Blues with Dennis Jay, a sailor who blends adventure with a true passion for sailing, and his beautiful Island Packet 380 sailboat. Who blends adventure with a true passion for sailing and his beautiful Island Packet 380 sailboat. From stunning anchorages to the magic of everyday life on the water, we're diving into it all. I wanted to put that banner up Before we get started. Do me a favor like, share, subscribe, drop your questions in the live chat so Dennis can answer them in real time. Your engagement helps keep this podcast sailing. So kick back, get comfortable and get ready to soak it all in. I'm Captain Tinsley of sailing vessel Salty Abandon and this is the Salty Podcast, episode 53. Please help me welcome Dennis Jay. Good evening, dennis Ahoy. How are you? You look very comfortable there on your boat.

Dennis Jay:

Yes.

Capn Tinsley:

I am Starling's working. Everything's working good.

Dennis Jay:

Everything's working good. Most things are working good on the boat, but I seem to spend my life maintaining it. It's now a 24-year-old vessel.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, what year is it? It's a 2001. Okay, okay, great. Well, I actually met you in person. I'll go ahead and tell that I had, like I mentioned, a lot of people here know that I lost my husband four months ago. So every once in a while I'll just get on a plane and go somewhere, just for a change of scenery. And I rented a jet ski. I was in South Beach and I wanted to go see no Name Harbor because I had heard Hayden and Radine talking about it. I went in there and there was this beautiful island packet and it had a blue hull. I was like, wow, that's a pretty boat. So I kind of floated around you until I saw you come out, or I think you came out of the restaurant and I introduced myself and you were gracious enough to give me your card and we set up this podcast. So I appreciate you being here.

Dennis Jay:

Glad to be here.

Capn Tinsley:

Yes, so we have some people watching on Instagram. We have people watching on YouTube and Facebook. We have some people watching on Instagram. We have people watching on YouTube and Facebook, so why don't we start with? Where did you grow up and what first got you hooked on sailing? We're going to talk about the Bahamas, but we want to kind of lead. How did you get to the Bahamas? Where did all this start All?

Dennis Jay:

right. Well, I grew up in western New York and I actually grew up on a little lake and never sailed. I always had power boats and I made my way down to Annapolis and bought my first boat in 1981.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, wow.

Dennis Jay:

A little yeah, a little 12 footer that I basically bought to impress the girl I was dating at the time and she took to it. She had never sailed either. And you know, the next year, I think, we bought a little bit bigger boat and a little bit bigger, and eight boats later I found myself on an island packet. Now this boat has a little bit of interesting history to it. It kind of started in 1999 when I went to the Annapolis Boat Show and I believe that was the first year that Island Packet had the 380. And I fell in love with it. I just thought that it was the right size and the configuration worked for a couple and it was a sturdy boat and I wanted to go and do some cruising.

Dennis Jay:

However, the new boats are very expensive and so I waited a couple years. I kept looking and, looking and looking for a used 380, but they held their prices. I think there were such solid, good boats at that time that I still couldn't afford one until we come down to 2006. And I saw one on Yacht World that was about $100,000 less than other used ones at the time and I figured, well, there's probably something wrong with it, but I needed to take a look at it. Well, it turned out it was a survivor from Hurricane Katrina. It was in Gulfport, mississippi, during the storm Got banged up moderately and the owner at the time the boat was basically four years old had gotten a good insurance settlement, had the boat towed to your parts, mobile, alabama, to Turner Marine. There Turner at one time was the second largest island packet dealer in the country and so I said, well, it's an airplane ticket.

Dennis Jay:

So I went down to take a look at it. I kind of guesstimated I spent all day on the boat of what it would take to bring it back. I added another 20% on top of that and said if I could do that that would be a hell of a deal and I would end up with basically a brand new boat. So I hired a hurricane surveyor out of New Orleans and we went through the boat again after I made an offer on it and I decided to go ahead with it.

Dennis Jay:

I had it trucked up to Annapolis, spent six months working on it. It did cost me more than that 20%, but at the end of the day I ended up with a real bargain, a brand new boat, and my wife had always wanted a dark-hulled boat. Wife had always wanted a dark hulled boat and I think this is the first dark hulled island packet. I had not seen any others out there. And, interestingly enough, island packet somebody saw my boat and they were getting a brand new boat made and they asked to have this color on their boat and subsequently island packet started making blue hulled boats.

Capn Tinsley:

It's beautiful. You can see it on the screen. This is a really good picture too. This is a beautiful boat. This is what I saw when I came to no Name Harbor. I was like I've got to talk to that guy. I don't know when this picture was taken. This was on your Facebook page, but it is a beautiful boat. It in annapolis harbor okay, yeah, that's, that's uh, that's a beautiful boat, so, um, so you went to annapolis, and then then what happened?

Dennis Jay:

well, so in 2007, um, we decided to go cruising uh, for the winter I was still working, but I could work from the boat and and we came down and we, we stayed in Amelia Island, florida, for for a couple months actually for five months and subsequently ended up moving there and and then took off for the Bahamas. Had never been there before and you know that wasn't that long ago, but still, you know there wasn't the technology.

Capn Tinsley:

Long time ago.

Dennis Jay:

There wasn't the technology, you were kind of like guessing as far as the Bahamas. But we went into the Abacos and just fell in love with with the Bahamas and then came back the next year and I think we've I've only missed maybe four years in the 18 since I bought the boat, so I've been in the Bahamas a lot. Oh, so you've been there every year for no not every year, but I've been here probably eight or nine times since we bought the boat.

Capn Tinsley:

I want to say hey to Goose. He's a regular on here. Hey Goose, His name is Augustus, but his nickname is Goose Good nickname. Yeah, so okay. So you went to St Augustine.

Dennis Jay:

Yeah, amelia Island, just just Amelia Island.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, yeah, I know where it is.

Dennis Jay:

Yeah.

Dennis Jay:

Which was a great place to spend. The weather there is is beautiful in the spring and the fall, too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter. So the winners we would, you know, go to the Keys or dry Tortugas went to Cuba in 2016. And we were part of the Conch Republic Cup, which was the first regatta race that was sanctioned by both governments. So that was a big deal, but mostly coming over to the Bahamas and just exploring more sections of it, more islands, and fell in love with the Exumas and that's kind of my go-to place, and I ended up now in Georgetown.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, okay, yeah. So after I saw you, you were in no Name Key waiting for a crossing, a weather window.

Dennis Jay:

Right.

Capn Tinsley:

Where did you go after that?

Dennis Jay:

I think the night I saw you. My crew came in that night. Yeah, two young guys, one from Miami and one from Albuquerque. Both had crewed for friends of mine and were excellent sailors and just really good crew. But they had never been to the Bahamas, so this is a real treat for them and they jumped at the chance to come with me. So we had a little bit of a tough crossing. At first the winds were pretty challenging, but once we got midstream and pointed a little bit more north and took the stream, we had a great sail and it really turned out to be a very nice crossing.

Dennis Jay:

And got into Bimini just about at dusk and we stayed there a couple of days.

Capn Tinsley:

Where did?

Dennis Jay:

you stay? We stayed at Browns Marina. I used to stay at Bimini Sands, which is not Bimini Sands anymore, which is it's just this, cut out, uh kind of in the island with a channel and right. I've been through there, yeah, and it's I.

Capn Tinsley:

I love that place, it's so you go through that little channel, hang a left and is it up there?

Dennis Jay:

yeah, yeah and then there's uh, there's slips all the way around and then there's condos around there and they used to have great deals. I think three years ago I stayed there for a week for like $200. They had a special going on.

Dennis Jay:

They were making some changes of it. Unfortunately, the channel has shoaled in a lot and I can only get in at the highest tide, so I decided to go over and stay at Browns, which is always very challenging in anything but slack tide. The tide runs through there like a banshee, so we had a little problem docking in in there, but it was. It was, do they?

Capn Tinsley:

do they dredge it regularly? I guess not.

Dennis Jay:

I guess not, huh the channel to get into the south bimini is not bad at all, but to get into bimini sands and they they were. They were dredging the last time I was there but I think just the positioning of it they've got to to dredge pretty often to keep it clear. One interesting thing while I was at Browns in the North Island at.

Dennis Jay:

Browns, there were always bull sharks under the slips and it would be fun to watch, you know, because there's charter boats there there that fish and they clean the fish and they throw it overboard and so the sharks have and down a ways they have, um, uh well, there's a cruise ship down there but mega boats could come in there and the gentleman, um, I think had a little bit too much to drink and decided to do a cannonball off the bow of a boat.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh my gosh.

Dennis Jay:

Actually I'm getting it mixed up. That was another story the same week. That happened in Harbourborne Key. This was two girls, young women, mid-20s I think that just decided at dusk to dive off their father's boat, and both of them got attacked by sharks.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, my gosh.

Dennis Jay:

And they airlifted to Orlando of all places and I think one of them lost a foot and the other one you know a big chunk out of her leg. But you know it's just a. You don't go swimming where there's.

Capn Tinsley:

Not a good idea.

Dennis Jay:

That's the third shark attack since I've been in the.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, after you've chummed the water, you don't jump in there with them.

Dennis Jay:

It's just not a good idea. You know, I think the guy in High Barn Key is in real bad shape. But you know it's just common sense. You know you can't blame it on the sharks, no they're doing what sharks do.

Capn Tinsley:

So Goose has a question here for you. A couple questions Are you buying water or putting it in a water maker? Also, what do you know about dogs in the islands? I know you can take dogs. I've seen other people do it.

Dennis Jay:

There's a ton of dogs here. In fact, one of the events we just finished the 43rd Annual Regatta in Georgetown and I'd be glad to talk about it. But one of the events was dressing your dog up as a pirate, and they had a parade of dogs doors.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, there's a lot of uh I would enjoy that. That's better than people dressing up absolutely, um I don't.

Dennis Jay:

I don't have a dog with me, but, um, you do have to make sure that the shots are up to date and you've got to get you know the proper papers in order to check in at customs. If you have a patent, they're very strict about that. If you don't have the right papers, they'll send you back. As far as water makers, I think most cruisers here or maybe not most, but a lot of them do have water makers the 380, there's probably room for one on the boat, but I try to keep things simple and try to have as few things break down as possible. Yeah, and there's a lot of people here that I know are not making water because they don't have the right membrane in it or there's something that goes wrong.

Capn Tinsley:

It uses a lot of power, a lot of juice.

Dennis Jay:

It does and even though I've got um, I got 800 watts of solar, I've got wind generation. I don't have lithium batteries yet, but that's going to be in the cards for me and I do have, I mean, the nice thing about tankage on an island packet. I've got 184 gallons of water and I just checked and I filled up in Grand Bahama almost a month ago. I still have a half tank and what did that cost you? You know I haven't checked my credit card yet.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, okay, I was in a marina and I forgot what the I know that when I was there they hook up a little, you know, they turn on the meter and they do charge. It wasn't that bad, but I guess if I had a big family on board and everybody was taking showers, that might be a problem.

Dennis Jay:

Yeah, it was.

Capn Tinsley:

You might have to have a water budget 50 cents a gallon.

Dennis Jay:

I've paid before but it's interesting. I mean, I've been going to the dinghy dock when I go into town and they have free water there. The Exuma Market is a service to cruisers. Nice has a dock. Yeah, some days the line to get there is is pretty long, but that's also how you get to meet cruisers, anyway, here but there was awesome there was a guy who was ahead of me, uh, on a uh inflatable dinghy and I only had my little six gallon, uh j can.

Dennis Jay:

And he says, oh, please go before me because I'm going to be here for a while. And I says, oh, really.

Capn Tinsley:

How many did he have?

Dennis Jay:

He had this ladder in the bottom of his dinghy that he bought on Amazon. That held 90 gallons of water. And I said well, how do you get that in your tank? He goes I just I have a water pump, I hook it, I hook it up and it just pumps right into my tank.

Capn Tinsley:

I says, what a great idea that is a great idea, yeah and uh, this is you heard it here on the salty podcast we should, we should market that that thing with the.

Dennis Jay:

Yeah, I probably wouldn't go for 90 gallons, because my that might be overkill well, I have an inflatable dinghy, but the dinghy I brought here is an old um, I don't know if you remember seeing it on the back of my boat. I did.

Capn Tinsley:

It looks like it has a mast. It is. It's a sailing digging. Oh my god. Yeah, it's in this picture right here. You can see it, yeah I have a little.

Dennis Jay:

well there, it is right there. Yeah, that's it right here. Yeah, and I I've got a little electric uh uh motor on the back and uh, I I love it, you know, and I love to sail it and and it's just very cool. It's not really practical, though it's not going to take you very far in high seas, right? You know? That's another thing about and I talk to a lot of people about who are coming to the Bahamas or want to come, and some of them have very deep-keeled boats, which I think is a real disadvantage in a lot of beaches in the Bahamas.

Dennis Jay:

Yeah, island packets are perfect, tend to be shallow, right Drawing only four and a half feet, I can get in pretty close to a lot of these anchorages so I don't have to go too far in my dinghy and so I can. I can afford to have a little. You know putt putt. You know hard sailing dinghy. You know everybody else has these. You know 35 horse, you know in their screen.

Capn Tinsley:

Mine's two and a half. Well, I mean, I'm usually by myself, and it's those. Engines are heavy.

Capn Tinsley:

Yes, and you know so, and when my husband would come with me, it, the dinghy, was enough. It was enough for two of us. I don't know about a whole bunch of people or anything, but it worked and we could fly, you know. So Hayden says on Island Spirit says we use 10 gallons a day for two of us Coffee, showers, dishes, flushing, toilet. I jugged water for 10 years and you know what I use. I use um to save even water. I I have these, um, these wipes, these bath wipes. I use. That saves a lot of money.

Capn Tinsley:

And then when I want to wash my hair, I'll just wash the hair you know, and so that saves a lot of money right so if you're really trying to, because a shower takes a lot of water.

Dennis Jay:

Yeah, I do have a sun shower and I can get three showers out of that and that's. That's easy to tote back and back and forth for the for the toilet Well, I do have. It's connected to fresh water? Yeah, I do. I do keep a little jug of seawater and actually I also have my wash down pump and the hose goes into the head so I can also use that I just use the shower one and just put some fresh water in there.

Capn Tinsley:

I have a waste filtration system, I don't use my holding tank and so I just figure it's all going to stay smelling better if I just use fresh water.

Dennis Jay:

That was one of the best things I ever did when I, when I redid my hat, was hooking up the fresh water especially.

Capn Tinsley:

You know I was in the Chesapeake Bay a lot and there's just there's a lot of little critters through when you're oh yeah watering yeah now I have the option to go ahead and pump the salt water, but you know I would do that if I had to, but I just use a little bit of fresh water yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dennis Jay:

so you know, you make, you make, do you know? And you're, you're efficient in doing the dishes. I fill up one sink and I wash them, and then I set them in the second one and then I rinse them all at the same time, and that saves water.

Capn Tinsley:

Now, after you're on the boat a long time, when you get home, do you like turning off the water while you're brushing your teeth and forget oh?

Dennis Jay:

absolutely.

Capn Tinsley:

It's like oh no, I can leave that water, I'm so true.

Capn Tinsley:

You know I don't like to spend money on water. Okay, so Goose says sun showers are the best. Sail from South California to Maine. Whoa, using just that to keep clean Didn't attract too many flies, thanks, goose. Hey, goose, tell us what kind of boat you have. Again, I know he was recovering from something and I think he bought a boat. It's hard to remember, but tell us, goose, what do you got? Talk to me, goose. That's from a movie. You know what movie that is? No, I don't Top Gun. Oh, yeah, of course. Talk to me, goose. Okay, so I had chat GPT come up with a few questions. What was the moment you knew you wanted to ditch land life and make sailing your reality? I think you already told us that, yeah.

Dennis Jay:

Oh, you know, I can remember very early on I think it was the second or third boat and I used to sail in the Potomac River, you know, near Washington D, a combination of things Discovering the Chesapeake Bay, which you know I've been so blessed that I think you know I've been able to do this in the two best cruising grounds in this hemisphere the Chesapeake Bay and the Bahamas. You know, both of them have thousands of really beautiful anchorages. But the first time going out in the Chesapeake Bay and and also meeting other cruisers and you know there's a kinship there that you know I've not felt with other hobbies or things like that, and you know the people that really they, they get it and they get you.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah. And and they're so helpful and generous with their knowledge and time. It's just you know if you need help all you got to do is ask, Especially in Georgetown.

Dennis Jay:

I hear I haven't been able to make it there yet, but I hear Georgetown's a very special place and I hurried to get down here and I actually went through some pretty nasty weather to get here and unfortunately my auto helm went out and so hello, so I hand stared, you know, for a couple days, nine hours straight, which, uh, which is a real interesting thing when you want to I've had to do that before.

Capn Tinsley:

it changes the whole vibe.

Dennis Jay:

Yes, Very much so, especially when you want to make lunch or have to go to the bathroom Without self-steering which I'm still struggling with or autopilot, and the reason I did that, which to some degree was a little bit foolish doing it solo, but I wanted to get here for the annual regatta because that's the high moment in Georgetown, which to me is the mecca for sailing cruisers.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, Last week there were Hayden talks about it being one of his happy places. He's got many happy places, but everybody's talked about it Like it's just. That's why a lot of people don't go any further than they call it Chicken Harbor, because people like, oh, I don't want to go any further, it's too scary and it's why not just stay here. It's a great place.

Dennis Jay:

And I would say probably 80 percent of the people. This is the farthest south, but it's interesting. A lot of people have left after the regatta. They're going down to Turks and Caicos, the Virgin Islands, puerto Rico, and then we've got people that are coming in that have been there most of the winter and they're coming back here and going to spend a couple of weeks. Last week we had 380 cruisers in the Harbor, which is down a little bit from from last year.

Capn Tinsley:

Was that crowded? Do you think that? Does that feel crowded?

Dennis Jay:

No, it doesn't. There there's several anchorages, some you know. The Elizabeth Harbor is in between Stocking Island and Georgetown on Great Exuma, and so there's a fair amount of room. Now you're talking about the best anchorages. Yeah, there's a little bit of you know, competition to get in there.

Dennis Jay:

Two years ago they put in moorings here, which the cruisers did not like at all because they put them in in the best anchorages. There's two sets of moorings here, but we had pretty stiff winds last night and I noticed that I think all but three moorings where I was anchored were taken. So, and some people, especially the trawlers, like to be on moorings where I was anchored, were taken. So, and some people, especially the trawlers, like to be on moorings and some of them stay there permanently and it's not too expensive.

Dennis Jay:

They kept it relatively reasonable and they're solid moorings, which is really good.

Capn Tinsley:

I want to say to Goose he had an IP37 until about 10 years ago and he's working on getting his next boat. Now we have a broker watching. That's Hayden. He's in the Caribbean right now, but we can make that happen. I'm not a broker, I get nothing, but I always like it when people are buying a boat. That's always exciting. But I also wanted to say here that, okay, so Hayden says Georgetown, exumas, is a great destination. After 10 years we made ourselves push to the Caribbean and they're in St Martin right now. St Martin is the awesome place to cruise.

Dennis Jay:

That was one of the first places. I think that was after 9-11. My wife and I think our son was maybe 12 years old cruised on a Sun Odyssey 37 for a week in St Martin and that was just a wonderful place. And I've cruised the Caribbean before, but I just have a special thing for St Martin beautiful place are you planning to go further on this trip? Or are you going to?

Capn Tinsley:

you're going to hang out there.

Dennis Jay:

No, I'm going to. I'm going to start heading north in another month.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, yeah, I've got you want to be out of there for hurricane season.

Dennis Jay:

Oh, I'm definitely going to be out of here for hurricane season. My boat insurer does not like me to be even in Florida during hurricane season and it gets a little bit too warm for me. And I love Baltimore and I'm in a condo marina. It's a very nice community. I own a slip there up in Baltimore and I have this beautiful view of the harbor. A lot of activities going on, so I kind of go from one community to another.

Capn Tinsley:

So you actually have you live in a condo the rest part of the year with your boat right there.

Dennis Jay:

Yeah, I live on a boat, in a slip that I own. Oh, you live on the boat, okay, yeah, so, and that works very well for me. But let me tell you a little bit about this annual oh here, look at this for Dennis.

Capn Tinsley:

You owe the crew of IP440. Don't blink a couple of beers before we leave Georgetown on Friday. Well, there you go. It's just don't blink. It's don't blink from Orange Beach. Yes, man, I need to meet you guys. You know I'm in Orange Beach. I live in Gulf Shores, the boat's at Bear Point Marina. I need to meet these people. They've got a Kenny Chesney name for their boat. That's just too cool.

Dennis Jay:

You got to buy them some beers well, um, we were together last night at uh uh, the main beach volleyball beach, where some of the cruiser uh musicians did a beatles tribute concert and it was very well attended and it was kind of uh I'm sure it's lots of boomers in the, in the in Anchorage, I'm sure.

Capn Tinsley:

Lots of boomers, old Gen Xers.

Dennis Jay:

And so Tim offered to buy us beers, which he did, and then I said well, you know I'll get the next round. And of course the bar closed right after he bought the beers, Darn.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, so so Hayden says Baltimore is a fantastic Harvard. He's from up that way. I guess you know each other up there, huh.

Dennis Jay:

I first met him in it was 2006. We had an island packet rendezvous in Rock Hall, maryland, and we raced in that one. I remember Island packets. Huh the boat was relatively new for us and there was a really good crowd. I think at one time Gratitude Marine was the largest island packet dealer in the US, so there's a lot of island packets up there. There's a lot of island packets here. In fact, there was a mini rendezvous here, I think two days before I got here.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh wow, which had.

Dennis Jay:

I known about. I would have tried to get here even earlier, but and there were.

Capn Tinsley:

I need to get my boat there.

Dennis Jay:

Oh, absolutely, and there were. There were two that were in the the big race. Well, there were two races here during the regatta week one Elizabeth Harbor race, and then we had a race, a 13 mile race around Stocking Island, and I just want to break here a little bit. I was that crossed the finish line, the first that crossed the finish line, and it was a tartan 37. And we first place honors, and it was captained by Captain Mike Beard and we just had the best time on that boat. The winds were perfect. It went out into Exuma Sound and then came back up into the Elizabeth River.

Capn Tinsley:

You know, there's a lot of people that follow my channel that want to do what you're doing.

Dennis Jay:

Yeah, you got any advice for them. Well, my only regret was I didn't do it a heck of a lot sooner.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh yeah.

Dennis Jay:

And the times I've been here, I haven't been able to stay very long, only for a couple of weeks or so, and so I decided now I'm going to go and spend more time, and I should have come a lot earlier this year, but I was waiting for my football team to get into the Super Bowl.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh well, you can watch from anywhere, as long as you're online.

Dennis Jay:

Well, yeah, I can go to New Orleans, okay, anyway.

Capn Tinsley:

So you actually went to the Super Bowl.

Dennis Jay:

No, I did not, because my team didn't get in.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, okay, what's your team?

Dennis Jay:

Buffalo Bills.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, yeah, all right.

Dennis Jay:

So next year I'm just going to come here.

Capn Tinsley:

Just go. They probably have a Super Bowl party at Georgetown.

Dennis Jay:

Oh, I believe they did. I'm sure they have a really good Facebook page, georgetown Exumers Cruisers and there's the best cruise net here that I've ever been involved in Very, very professional, but it was in its in its. It's where you go to get a lot of good information. You have a problem with your boat, you need help fixing your engine or your water maker or whatever.

Dennis Jay:

I love that, I love that you grab the radio at you know eight o'clock in the morning and I would dare say you know 90% of the time by the afternoon somebody shows up with your boat.

Capn Tinsley:

That's got the expertise to help you or the parts, or they might be flying home. If you're flying home, they'll ask you to bring something back that you can't get there. Right, and people are willing to do that. That's awesome.

Dennis Jay:

A very caring community. I'll give you a couple of examples. The second day I was here, there was a very big blow 35 knots it was just the hardest rain and it came in waves. It's not like the storms we have in the Chesapeake Bay that are like 15, 20 minutes and it's over All day long. And there was a young woman in a relatively small boat I don't think it was more than 30 feet and she dragged and she ended up on the beach.

Dennis Jay:

And so she fell out and everybody monitors 68 here and I would say within five minutes there were four dinghies that came to her rescue and they got her off the beach and the next morning on on the cruise net. She was just so appreciative, you know relatively young, you know thirties maybe, and she was just saying, you know, I'm just so appreciative to my heroes. You know, you know 30s maybe, and she was just saying, you know, I'm just so appreciative to my heroes, you know, came to save me. A couple of days later there was a woman who was sounded like she was in dire need of a dentist and there is a dentist on the island, but I think he only flies in once a week or so.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh my God, there was a dentist in the Anchorage. He was from France. Did he have his tools with him?

Dennis Jay:

He said he had an X-ray on board.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, my God.

Dennis Jay:

And one of his crew was an MD, and so you know he just said come on over, I'll do what I can do.

Capn Tinsley:

what's an MV? What's an MV?

Dennis Jay:

A medical doctor MD. Oh, md, okay, oh my gosh, oh you know we got it, we got to cover it they need a real estate agent.

Capn Tinsley:

You know, I don't know how handy that'll be, but a couple of days a week.

Dennis Jay:

There's somebody who conducts water aerobics at one of the beaches and there's yoga. But and there's the other nice thing I really really it seems like there's more kids here than there's ever been, most of whom are probably homeschooled on their boats. But they come here and they, they meet other kids, they get involved in all kinds of activities. They had dinghy races during the regatta and sandcastle building and and I'm sure the the, the parents also share, you know, homeschooling with them. You know there's a lot of.

Capn Tinsley:

I've interviewed people that are that were, that were grew up there Melanie Melody and then, before internet, she did the home. They had to mail in the test and now and then I've interviewed people that are doing homeschool there now on the internet.

Dennis Jay:

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

So this has been going on a while. It's so cool. Hey, can I do a quick introduction of the sponsor for tonight? Absolutely, and that would be me. In case you didn't know, my name is Tinsley Myrick and I'm with Remax of Orange Beach. Let me get that. We'll come back to Hayden's comment there and I sell Gulffront Condos in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, alabama, and I also am licensed in Florida for Perdido Key. So if you need anything, give me a call. I've been doing it a long time, I'm good at it, and that's all I'm going to say. Boom, thank you. I'm going to bring Hayden's comment back. So the FUBU is that the net that you were talking about on 16?

Dennis Jay:

No, I think that's a streaming service.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, okay.

Dennis Jay:

Yeah, and that's the one that you watch.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, okay, yeah, he watched the Eagles game that was in Martinique.

Dennis Jay:

Okay, I know a few of the boats had Super Bowl parties, depending on whether you were an Eagles fan or a Kansas City fan.

Capn Tinsley:

You had to put the flag out, and then people would just gravitate to the right boat.

Dennis Jay:

It's amazing the stuff they do. Earlier this afternoon there was a concert that took place on the top deck of a houseboat and I saw a photograph on the Facebook page and there were maybe, I don't know 30 dinghies rafted up around this and they, you know, just to sit there in your dinghy and have a drink and watch. You know musicians. You know which is pretty cool.

Dennis Jay:

Oh man, it sounds like a blast, it is a blast and, like you know, every day it's like you know which is oh man, it sounds like a blast, it is a it is a blast and, like you know, every day it's like you know something else.

Dennis Jay:

Um, and just, people do a lot of things together here and you, you meet some wonderful people, um, and I want to share with you the other. The other night I met this um, this 34 year old woman who, um, who was from Wisconsin, and she lived aboard a boat with her parents and her two younger sisters, and she came to Georgetown when she was 12 years old and she was just telling me how life was back then and how it was just such a rich environment to grow up on a boat and then to come to Georgetown. Well, her parents still have a boat. She had moved to Australia and got married and met this nice Australian guy who was with her and kept on saying I've got to take you to this special place in the Bahamas. You won't believe how cool it is there. Last time I was there was when I was 12 years old, and so her parents invited the two of them and they're recreating her childhood here.

Capn Tinsley:

And is she there right now with her Australian?

Dennis Jay:

Yeah, they're on a relatively big catamaran. So you know the parents have one side of it, you know the state road.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh yeah.

Dennis Jay:

And they have the other side of the state road.

Capn Tinsley:

Is he going to be convinced that he needs to get a boat and move to the States?

Dennis Jay:

You know sailing is. They live in Sydney States and Bahamas. They live in Sydney. That's probably the Annapolis of Australia. You just meet all kinds of real interesting people here from all over the world. I see flags. There's a lot of Canadians here, obviously Europeans as well. There's people here from Switzerland and Sweden and France and Spain so let me go to this next.

Capn Tinsley:

This is a chat GPT question. What's the most Bahamas moment you've had? Like a scene straight out of a postcard, but with a twist like it was like everything was going great and all of a sudden, whoa, you know well, well, just um.

Dennis Jay:

You know I tend to not pay attention to you. Know, there's a glorious sunset and this actually happened a few years ago. We're sailing up the exuma chain and it was just this beautiful, beautiful moment and I wasn't paying attention to the tides and just ran hard aground. And of course, in the Bahamas it's not like you can call towboat US to come in and pull you off and we were able to get off. But you have to watch it here because it does get shallow In some places.

Capn Tinsley:

I know there's coral down there, A lot of coral. You were just on a sand bank.

Dennis Jay:

I was on a sand bank the other day and hit a rock. It said it wasn't 12 feet of water, but it wasn't, and maybe I wasn't watching the tides, but but you hit a rock.

Dennis Jay:

Yeah, I still have to go under and see if I got a little chunk taken out. But you know I have done that a couple of times here, going going into inlets and not waiting for high tide and bumped really, really hard. And then, you know, I go under and like this is an amazing boat. It can yeah, so forgiving you can bump into a lot of things, but with this you know the whole integrity of the keel being part of the structure of the boat. With a long, you know keel, that's, you know, probably this wide at the widest, it can take a lot of beatings and you know there's a few chips taken out of it and I doctor it up when I pull it out. But it's a great boat to have in the Bahamas.

Capn Tinsley:

Do you go down there and put some 5200 or something and know to kind of just seal it up for the moment?

Dennis Jay:

I've never had anything so far knock on wood that I felt that I had to do that, that there might be, um, you know, an incursion into the. Um, you know, it's mostly just been some gel coat, uh, chips I see, but I I wasn't going in there, okay right, right.

Dennis Jay:

But know, this is another thing about the Bahamas, and I think this was the first year we were here, we were getting ready to leave with the Canadians. They kind of all leave together, at least of gradually leave the northern Abacos and go into. We went into Charleston, so it was like I don't know a two-day thing, but anyway, this one boat was coming into the anchorage where we're going to stay the night before we're going to leave and they ran harder ground and you know. So they got on the radio and you know there were again, there were four or five dinghies there and and they couldn't get off. You know tried everything. And finally this one guy had very powerful motor engine on his dinghy and we were able to tie a halyard to it and we had enough people that got on the boat and we were at probably a 30 degree angle.

Capn Tinsley:

So the dinghy was pulling the boat, kind of like.

Dennis Jay:

Right.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay.

Dennis Jay:

Yeah, there's a halyard going up, so this wasn't a rock, this was sand. Well, this was sand, but he had a thin keel. There's a difference, you know, with an island packet.

Capn Tinsley:

I like an island packet. I hear that's really hard when you go in a sand bank, that's really hard to get off.

Dennis Jay:

It's probably like as bad as a wing keel which kind of adds an anchor in sand.

Capn Tinsley:

So Hayden says splash is that. Splash zone is a good two-part underwater epoxy to have on board.

Dennis Jay:

Always hearing good tips from old hayden you know, I probably have five things on this boat, including my windlass, my wind generator and my batteries. Um, you know, because of hayden hayden would okay, yeah recommend it and I said, okay, I'm going to keep that in mind when and when I look to get a new. Uh, I think we still have the same windlass and we still have the same generator.

Capn Tinsley:

Uh, the marine beam lights I have on my boat he was talking about well, he needs to tell you, he needs to keep you up to date when he makes changes just a wealth of great knowledge for I understand.

Capn Tinsley:

I have the same situation. I've got stuff. It's like, what do you buy, hayden? And then I go out and buy it. You, he's going to be coming back on. They've been on about four times. I've asked him. He hasn't answered yet. I'm hoping he'll come on April 9th. I just say, hayden, what do you want to talk about? He brings visuals and it's awesome, but he's always got so much good information. So, um, uh, this is a chat gpt question, so I told it to give me kind of odd questions. What's the strangest thing you've ever bartered for in the islands? Bonus points if it involved rum of course, um, well, okay, so.

Dennis Jay:

So we have a thing in the islands? Well, it's not a thing, it's a requirement that you cannot sell If you're not a Bahamian.

Capn Tinsley:

You cannot sell. You can't get a job or sell.

Dennis Jay:

So you can trade or barter and every day there's probably a dozen things that people are either looking for or willing to trade and I've always wondered you know what I could give up. And there have been a couple of things that I have traded for and let me think if there's any really strange ones. I did.

Capn Tinsley:

When you hear about people trading, like maybe the Bahamians, mike, you give them like Budweiser beer and they give you lobster.

Dennis Jay:

Yes, yes, and this was up in West End in Grand Bahama. A gentleman came by and he wanted, and he had six lobsters and I think we gave him a couple beers.

Capn Tinsley:

A couple.

Dennis Jay:

Yeah well, beer is very expensive here. Everything is expensive here. I went in the Exuma market yesterday and eggs were going for more than $13 a dozen, and I know they're pricey back home but $13 a dozen.

Capn Tinsley:

But you know, they probably came from here, right. Yeah, probably, I mean it's not like they don't have chickens there, though.

Dennis Jay:

Manufactured here in the island.

Capn Tinsley:

You got to bring a little chicken with you on the boat.

Dennis Jay:

I do remember I had somebody aboard and and you know I don't remember what I got from him, but he saw, when we went to Cuba in 2016, we came back with a lot of rum. It was very inexpensive and it was really good rum and it was Cuban Club, I believe, and he saw the bottle and it was my last bottle and he wanted it and I said I'm sorry, I just can't part with it. It's my and I love that it's a white.

Capn Tinsley:

Was this? Was this like the officers, the coast guard or whatever, the border patrol or whatever it is that was greeting you, Did they ask for it?

Dennis Jay:

Oh, they asked for cash in Cuba. They wanted a tip. They had to tip them before you got your. They would stamp your passport to leave. I do remember that. But so so I had offered this guy, I said listen, I said I'm not going to part with the rum but I'll get you. I'll give you something that's even more valuable, and I'll clean the bottom of your boat. I have a dive set up here and I clean my bottom.

Capn Tinsley:

And so you would rather clean the bottom of his boat. Do that manual labor, then give up your room.

Dennis Jay:

Right, but but you know what? And I said just just let me know when you want me to do it. He never asked me.

Dennis Jay:

So you got out of it and I and I and I think I got a part that's what you got out of it and I and I think I got a part. Um, I got an engine part off of them. Um that I think was like brand new at the time that I I needed. I think it was a solenoid or a relay switch or something like that. But anyway, wow, but that was in cuba. It goes on every day and it's amazing what people are giving away Brand new batteries. Somebody had an auto helm this morning that they were looking to part with.

Capn Tinsley:

Because they just didn't want to store it on the boat I get it.

Dennis Jay:

You know, I think people come here with extra things to give away.

Capn Tinsley:

That's nice, yeah, and.

Dennis Jay:

I tend to like get rid of a lot of things before I come here because I don't want to wait, but there's a certain amount of things. I remember one year there was a guy who was desperately looking for massive quantities of white vinegar, which I carry a lot of it on here because that's the only thing because there's not a lot of fresh water you want to put it in the head off of your deck or off of your hall.

Dennis Jay:

Okay, okay, you just do 50, 50 with water and vinegar and that doesn't trip. And he I think he was going to it would have given away his firstborn for you know a couple of gallons. But they now sell white vinegar in the store here, you know. So how much is it it actually? You know it's relatively cheap. You know it's probably three times the cost of what you can buy, which still wasn't very expensive. It was maybe 15, $16 a gallon.

Capn Tinsley:

All right. So here's another question. Ever had a boat project go so wrong that you just had to laugh or cry about it later? That's a chat GPT question.

Dennis Jay:

Oh, like everyone, I mean, I've had boat projects from hell. I replaced my holding tank.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh gosh, in the middle of winter I've heard stories. I just bypassed that thing and I just used the waste filtration system Because I didn't want to. It was leaking, so we're just going to install this, because you have to do major surgery on the boat to get it out of there.

Dennis Jay:

They made island packets not to ever have to take a holding tank out.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, then why did they put aluminum?

Dennis Jay:

if you're never supposed to, I had to use a jackhammer to go through this pink fiberglass and I literally spent weeks and it was in the freezing winter of Annapolis getting to that.

Dennis Jay:

But, I was very proud that I got it and I got a new one made, and that was a year after I bought the boat. That was the one thing the surveyor missed. That was a year after I bought the boat. That was the one thing the surveyor missed. It was actually leaking when I bought it. Mine did too. At the time it was four years old and hardly used. In fact, I don't think the stove was lit prior to buying it, so now you have a hatch there.

Capn Tinsley:

You made you a hatch right there. You made your hatch right there, yeah.

Dennis Jay:

I have a piece of of Teak and Holly that comes out.

Capn Tinsley:

Is it in right by the V-Birth or is that where?

Dennis Jay:

it is Under the V-Birth.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah.

Dennis Jay:

But that was a terrible job. But, like you know, there's countless numbers Replacing my, my faucet in the galley, because you know you have the two sinks going down, and then there's this little space and you know there's a trash can that comes out and I got in there and you can't get at it.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, I hired somebody to replace mine. I wanted to update a little bit.

Dennis Jay:

That was one of the most frustrating jobs. Well, the other one and most island packet people know this is replacing your sanitation hoses from the toilet into the head is nearly impossible, and I ended up and I've replaced them twice. First time my son did it and I don't know how he did it, but he, I remember, after he did it he says don't you ever ask me to do this again.

Capn Tinsley:

It's nasty. Yeah, I had to get somebody to unclog, like I didn't put anything down there, but there's a lot of paper. It wasn't me, but somebody had the dirty job of doing it.

Dennis Jay:

It builds up in the hoses and that's why you know pouring vinegar down, like once a month will help, you know, clear that stuff out If you're using raw water.

Capn Tinsley:

I use unfiltered, I don't know what was done before I got it. I got it in 2020. It's a 1998 Island Packet 320, which I love. It's perfect for you know what I want?

Dennis Jay:

It's a 1998 Island Packet 320, which I love. It's perfect for what I want. It's definitely a good product.

Capn Tinsley:

I'm waiting for Hayden to weigh in on the sanitation hoses. He's probably got a little good story about that.

Dennis Jay:

I ended up. I got so frustrated. I was in a yard. This was two summers ago. I was in the yard. I had the yard guys come in and look at it and try to to force. I mean we tried all kinds of thing me feeding it through from the old one, and all that. I ended up having to cut a hole in the bottom cabinet below the sink in the head to get at it and um well, now you got a good hatch there, right well, exactly and like nobody looks at that anyway.

Dennis Jay:

Right, right, no piece back in. And actually I put some epoxy in it and like you know, there's, there's a whole bunch of things like that.

Capn Tinsley:

You just kind of curse you can't sell that boat now. You've made it so easy.

Dennis Jay:

I'm never going to sell this boat. I think I need to be buried in it.

Capn Tinsley:

Hey, that's a good idea. So Hayden says I ripped our sanitation hoses four times. He ripped them out four times in 25 years. The old IPs are easy.

Dennis Jay:

Well, I don't know about that, but the three, the old IPs are easy Well, I don't know about that, but easy for him. The three-letter IPs, which I think are 99 and later.

Capn Tinsley:

There's a whole bunch. Mine's a 98.

Dennis Jay:

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah.

Dennis Jay:

Oh, yours is a 320? Yeah, okay, so it's 90. That must have been, oh so he's on a 35.

Capn Tinsley:

He's talking, yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

So, he's saying his version is easy. And Goose says nothing beats a cedar bucket and a strong rope. And Tim Lynn says I bought the new sanitation hoses but have not screwed up the courage to replace them yet. Yeah, so he's on a 440. Tim, I got to meet you guys. I want to tour your boat. I'll do a video. If you're here in Orange Beach, I think I know where that boat is. Is it near the islands? Is it near Walker Key and all that? I think I've seen it. There's mostly powerboats here, so when you see an island packet, it stands out.

Dennis Jay:

So that was your project.

Capn Tinsley:

That made you cry.

Dennis Jay:

It's either laugh or cry.

Capn Tinsley:

Laugh, cry and swear. Okay, so I have one more question and then we'll wrap it up. Unless you, I I'll keep talking, if you want. They say sailors are great storytellers. You've already told some good stories, but what's your best? You won't believe. This actually happened. Sailing tale this actually.

Dennis Jay:

This actually happened on a previous boat in the Chesapeake Bay. I got lost in some islands near I think it was Tangier Island, around that way, and the boat didn't draw a whole lot, it draw maybe four feet. And I remember a waterman coming by and just looked in amazement at us and we wondered why is he giving us this look? And it must have been an extreme high tide, because we went back and looked at the charts where we got lost and there was only supposed to be like 15 inches of water and it was like, you know, there was some sailing god that was looking over us, that we did not, I mean, run aground and basically, you know, could have, like you know, sank the boat, um, in that level of water. We just always wondered how the hell did we get through? It was a passage through two islands.

Capn Tinsley:

I think God came in and lifted you up and got you through.

Dennis Jay:

It was just an amazing.

Capn Tinsley:

It was like your own little miracle. Yeah, it was an angel that came and lifted you up and got you through. Tim, I know where that is, walker Key. I'm a real estate agent. So, tim, can you, can I interview you like soon? Just, will you email me At saltyabandon at gmail? Would you be interested in doing See if you can talk them into it? You got to buy them a beer. You can lube them up. See if you can get them to commit. Okay, so, goose says. I woke up one morning to someone screaming Harder, deeper over and over, looked up and found a huge parrot Was showing this stuff by her owner telling the bird to shut up. That's a good story right there, that's a great story.

Dennis Jay:

I might steal that one You're frozen, you're frozen, and you're frozen, and you're muted, you're muted. I think we're done, thank you.

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