The sea-faring life may not be for everyone, but Mick and Mary Steiner of Oakland Township seem to have taken to it quite nicely.
So nicely in fact, that the couple is planning to extend their winter stay on their 41-foot long, 14-foot wide boat the “Escargot” by a month this coming winter.
Mick, retired, and Mary, who still works part-time in real estate, have twice made the journey to the Bahamas via boat. The couple owns a 41-foot troller, which is a slow cruising power boat, reaching top speeds of seven-eight miles per hour.
“It’s about the same speed as a sailboat,” Mick said. “We go about 1,000 miles on a tank of fuel.”
The couple plans to leave Michigan this October for their third trip. They keep their boat in Norfolk, Virginia, and begin the boat trip from there.
“You can take the Intercoastal down,” said Mick. “It takes us about two and a half weeks to go down to Miami. We make a lot of stops.”
Mick explained that when you’re traveling by boat, you can’t really make any firm time commitments.
“Because of the weather going to the Bahamas from Miami,” he said. “Last year we were gone five to six months and we were only in a dock like three times. We like being out by the more remote islands.”
The couple began boating in 1987 when they purchased a 30-foot sailboat. After that, Mick began taking US Power Squadron courses on boating safety.
“It took probably about four years to go through all the courses, so you’re prepared to go out and take care of yourself,” he said, adding that besides food and other provisions, spare parts for virtually everything on the boat, along with tools, must be brought along.
“We eventually bought a 38-foot sailboat and we were preparing to take it on the ocean, but there was not enough room for air conditioning and making water,” explained Mick, a retired General Motors service engineer.
“We were invited onto a boat…the couple was selling it. Our boat sold the week before, luckily, so we spent the next year getting (the new) boat ready,” he added.
When they make the trip, the Steiners carry five anchors aboard their boat, along with the comforts of home, such as air conditioning, a television and a VCR.
“We have 1,500 foot of line in case of a storm,” Mick said. “We also have two air conditioners…it’s just like home. When we get back to our house, it seems like a castle.”
“It has everything we have at home, only smaller,” Mary said. “We eat practically all our meals on the boat.”
Because there isn’t a grocery store around every corner, the Steiners catch and cook most of their own meals while on the ocean.
“While we’re in the Bahamas, Mick catches most of our meals…he prepares fish and lobsters,” Mary said.
Mick uses a seven-foot spear for his fishing, and is contemplating purchasing a special flashlight so he can hunt for lobsters at night.
“We spend four to five hours a day out on the water spearing, and exploring reefs and coral heads,” Mick said.
One of the most perilous portions of the trip is crossing the Gulf Stream to get to and from the Bahamas, which must be timed just right.
“That requires the most planning because you have to cross under certain weather conditions,” Mick said. “We’ve been lucky in that we’ve gotten down there and the next day we could leave…a lot of times you only get a one to two day window.”
The Steiners usually spend the most time in the more remote islands of the Bahamas past Nassau and east of Cuba, because it’s warmer. They usually get a six-month permit to stay while they are in Nassau getting provisions. The large city has about the only real grocery store in the Bahamas, according to Mary.
“People have to put in food orders because the food is carried out by ship,” she said. “So most ‘grocery stores’ are just what is left over after that…it’s not like what we have here.
“Everything’s twice as expensive (in Nassau),” Mary said. “The boat’s pretty full of food when we leave (the states).”
Mick also carries a revolver and a shotgun on board, just in case they encounter any piracy.
“There haven’t been any problems with piracy, the only place you’ll have to watch your back is Nassau,” he said. “Most boaters always ask us (about piracy)…We don’t know of anyone who has had any problems.”
The Steiners are able to make their own drinking water on the boat, but say doing laundry is something of a challenge.
“You have to load everything up, and take it in the dingy to a laundromat (on the island),” Mary explained.
The “dingy” is an inflatable boat that tops out at about 17 miles per hour carrying two people.
“It’s like our car (when on the boat),” Mary said.
According to Mary, communication is done with VHF radio, but it’s important to know you’re conversations aren’t private.
“All the other boaters can listen in,” she said. “You hail by boat name. You can get Internet access down there, but it’s very slow and expensive…it’s a dollar a minute to have a phone hook-up.”
Mary gets around that, while still staying in touch with family, by using a device called Pocketmail which allows her to send emails directly over the phone line by hooking up to the phone receiver.
“With our kids, that’s the only way to keep in contact,” she said. The Steiners have three children, with one daughter living in Lake Orion.
The TV on board the boat is used primarily for the VCR, as Mick said it’s very hard to get television stations.
“We’re not big TV watchers anyway,” he said. “Once you leave the states you can’t get any signals.”