Quick Exit

We left Long Island on February 19th after spending a fun filled week and a half. We decided to head back to Georgetown for a few days to provision. The trip back to Georgetown proved interesting (as usual). The wind was decent enough to attempt to sail, so as soon as we got out of Thompson's Bay, we hoisted the main sail. One of the lines caught one of our nice winch handles and chucked it overboard. Fortunately it floats. However, by the time we got the boat spun around to attempt to retrieve it, we had lost it in the glare and the chop. So, if you find a gray winch handle with red trim floating that direction, feel free to pick it up and give it a new home! We re-directed the boat to its correct heading and had a fairly pleasant day trip to Georgetown. About two thirds of the way there, the starboard engine made a horrible noise. The ever ready Captain heard it immediately and killed the engine. Turned out the raw water intake pump belt had broken. So we slowly crept into Georgetown on one engine. Even more boats had arrived since we had left. The place looked like a boat show, since the Georgetown Cruisers' Regatta was just starting. The anchorages were incredibly crowded. We found a good spot in Kidd Cove by the town to make provisioning easy. We finished the day swapping out the raw water intake belt with our last spare.

That belt caused us to start thinking. We decided that having no spares for the raw water intake belt and impeller were unwise, so we needed to obtain at least one spare of each. Georgetown is not a cost effective place to obtain such items. Also, while we could obtain a decent amount of groceries in Georgetown, the selections were essentially the same and we were getting a bit tired of the same thing every week. We had been in the Exumas for almost three months and our visas were going to expire in mid-March. We decided that perhaps it was time to head back to Nassau at least, and perhaps on to Florida.

So we spent the next week making our way back up to Nassau. We pretty much retraced our steps from before. The weather was supposed to be calm for awhile, so we headed back to Galliot Cay and on to Black Point. As usual, the weather never seems to be as predicted. We got stuck in Black Point for several days before getting a weather window to go on to Highborne Cay. The weather was truly awful, high winds straight out of the west. There was absolutely no protection from west wind and waves in Black Point, so we had a pretty rough stay. Fortunately our Rocna anchor held, even through the two to four foot waves tossing and throwing us around. Even worse was the fact that we couldn't even get off the boat and go to shore. The wind and waves were too rough to consider putting the dinghy down at all. So the groceries began to quickly deplete and the laundry was piling up. As soon as the weather broke, we left for Highborne Cay. Then it was just an easy day trip up to Nassau and into Bay Street Marina for three nights. Staying in the marina at least allowed us to get off the boat for awhile and get some laundry done. We also spent a day walking around several marine supply places looking for a new impeller and belt. The fourth stop had the items in stock. While we were forced to pay double price, at least we had spares in hand. We made a large grocery run and began to plan our route back to Florida. We had decided in Black Point that we all needed some time off of the boat for awhile.

We had been looking at a few different ways to get up to Bimini to stage to get back to Florida, but then, the decision sort of made itself for us. There was a front coming in that was threatening to last a week with extremely high winds from the North and Northeast. While Nassau was nice, it was also expensive, and the Berry islands between Nassau and Bimini would not give us any protection from the coming winds. We decided that if we had to get stuck in a marina for awhile, it was much more cost effective to get stuck in Bimini. So we made an eighteen hour overnight trip from Nassau to Bimini to beat the front. We almost made it. The front showed up early and caught us about an hour and a half before Bimini, so the trip was only rough right at the end. However, it was incredibly rough. It was another one of those launching off of waves with the boat for the last few hours. The Admiral was fairly certain that if she ever managed to get off of the boat, she might never get back on again. Brown's Marina in Bimini never looked so good. We tucked into the dock and tied up. Needless to say, dinner was on shore that night!

The front proved to be as bad as everyone expected. Even in the harbor we were getting two foot breaking waves at times. We double tied all of our lines to ensure the boat would stay put in case any of the cleats, lines, or points on the dock let loose. We did have one line snap, so the doubling up proved useful. We all sat around the marina and listened to the wind howl for a week. We had a lovely cruiser's pot luck dinner with the other boats that had come in to hide from the weather, and spent a lot of time on shore looking around. We grilled on shore and threw our leftovers to the fish. We saw stingrays fly up out of the water attempting to avoid the sharks. We saw hundreds of little fish that would swarm from around the boat at anything dropped in the water. Needless to say, we didn't get into the water. Here's a few pictures of the fish swarming at mashed potatoes tossed into the water:

We had decided to wait on a completely calm day to make the trip across the gulf stream back to Florida. Friday, March 10th proved to be the right day. We made plans to leave at 5:00am to ensure we arrived in Florida in the afternoon. However, sleep eluded both of us at 3:00am, so we decided to leave even earlier. By the time the kids woke up, they could see the coast of Florida on the horizon. The trip proved completely event free until we entered US waters. Then for the first time ever for us, we were stopped by the US Customs and Border Patrol. They asked us a million questions, but seemed satisfied enough with our answers to leave us without boarding us. We shook it off and made our way back to the real world. The cut into Florida was crazy as Spring Break was upon us. We slowly maneuvered our way in and arrived onto our pre-arranged private dock in Fort Lauderdale three hours early. We tossed our luggage onto the dock, placed Tiger in his carrier, and made our way to a hotel. It's time to get off of the boat for awhile. We'll keep ya posted as to where we end up!

The boat sitting at a rented private dock.

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Long Island

We arrived in Long Island on the early afternoon of February 9th, as planned. We anchored in Thompson's Bay outside of Salt Pond (that's the name of the town there). After leaving the crowded area of Georgetown, the huge bay with less than a dozen boats was a welcome sight. We settled in, made ourselves dinner, and sat and enjoyed the quiet. We figured out where the nearest dinghy dock was and where to offload our trash. Then we proceeded to enjoy ourselves.

Cruising isn't always about what you get to do and experience, sometimes its about what you see. As we were all sitting around, suddenly a small winged creature flew into the boat (about the size of a small bird). Fortunately for us, this has happened on 2-3 other occasions. Florida doesn't have anything on the size of the insects here in the Bahamas (which is saying a lot since Florida's sizes absolutely dwarf what we were used to seeing in Texas). The first time it happened, there was much screaming and diving for cover - since we weren't sure whether a bird or a bat had just flown in. Turns out, it was a giant moth. It goes by a few different names; Money Bat, Bat Moth, or Black Witch Moth. Of course, despite it's name, it's not a bat. It has been named such because of its large size and fluttering flight, which is a lot like a bat. In fact, I've actually seen smaller bats that this moth! It's wing span was easily 4 inches. Like I said, we had seen its like before, so we knew what it was. However, it still creeped us out. It's a nocturnal insect, but it's drawn to light. So it came flying in, freaking us all out. Having dealt with it a few times before, we knew what to do. We turned all the lights off inside the boat, and shined a light in the cockpit. After awhile, the moth fluttered out (mind you, there was still squealing and mad dashes to duck under the table while it fluttered around).

Saturday mornings in Salt Pond brings the Farmer's Market. This worked out really well in our favor. We met a few people and managed to pick up a Long Island visitor's guide. The visitor's guide was really handy as it showed a map of the whole island and things to do. The only downside to Long Island is that it's really long (duh), for walking anyway. The whole island is 80 miles from the north point to the south end. The things to do are scattered across the island. So, we decided to do something we haven't done yet in the Bahamas so far - rent a car!

There was a car rental place just up the road from the dinghy dock, and while slightly expensive (as everything is here in the Bahamas), they had a vehicle for us to rent. Now for those of you who don't know, here in the Bahamas they drive on the wrong (or rather left) side of the rode. As there is just one long highway that runs from the north side to the south side of the island, driving is still fairly easy - even for those of us used to driving on the correct (or rather right) side of the road ;-)

Our first stop was to get breakfast at a department store (wait...what?). Yes, a department store called "Everything Under the Sun" also serves breakfast and lunch in their back cafe. It honestly was the only place we could find that served breakfast. So we partook of their waffles and bacon special. Then we were off to our first destination: Hamilton's Cave

Hamilton's Cave is the largest underground cave system in the Bahamas. It was also one of the homes of the Lucayan Indians, who lived there in about 500 AD. The cave has recovered the biggest Lucayan artifact findings in history (back in 1935). The cave has parts that have never even been explored. We met our cave guide who took just the four of us inside for a tour. With flashlights in hand, we set out exploring. We saw several species of bats, and a few different species of land crabs. There were also various other insects including ground wasps and very large roaches (the roaches love the bat guano). We saw writing left by other explorers (some believed to be part of Christopher Columbus' group), as well as cave writing and sculptures believed to have been left by the Lucayans. We went into parts of the cave that were so dark you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face (that is, without your flashlight). Obviously there were lots of stalagmites and stalactites (as with any cave), but some of the larger ones have been given names since they depict the objects they're named for. The pictures below don't remotely do the place justice.

After spending a good hour or so cave exploring, we headed off to Dean's Blue Hole. Getting to Dean's Blue Hole proved interesting as things aren't really marked or advertised here in the Bahamas. So, we turned off onto the private road that had a sign for it hoping we were heading the right way. Fortunately, at about the point we thought we'd turned wrong (due to the fact that we had gone a long way out into the middle of nowhere), we saw another small sign pointing us in the right direction. Once we started driving on sand, we figured we must be close. Eventually we arrived. Dean's Blue Hole is said to be the world's deepest known salt water blue hole with an entrance below sea level.  It's also thought to be the second deepest blue hole in the world, second to only the gigantic sinkhole in China. It's 663 ft deep and teaming with sea life. The kids spent a long time snorkeling in it while we watched from the beach.

So far, everything we had done had been on the south side of Long Island. Now it was time to go to the north side. Which meant a long drive ahead of us (the speed limit on the road was only 20 mph, most people - including us - did more like 40 mph). We figured on our way we would pick up something to drink and maybe some ice cream. Well, maybe not. We did eventually find some drinks in a convenient store, but the only ice cream we found was with a bar that wasn't open yet. Weird things in these remote places! The kids dozed in the backseat while we meandered our way north enjoying the scenery. 

We were looking for a restroom stop when we found one of our destinations. We had wanted to visit the secluded beach on Cape Santa Maria Beach. We turned onto a dirt road that had a lot of cars coming out of it (we figured with so many cars coming from somewhere, there had to be something there). We found a resort that let us use their restroom, and we also found the beach. Cape Santa Maria Beach was named after one of Christopher Columbus' ships. It's supposedly one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Unfortunately, the beach was for the resort only. So it was off back to the main road to continue on. We almost missed the lonely sign to our next and last destination: Columbus Monument.

We thought the road to Dean's Blue Hole was remote, it paled in comparison to the road to the monument. The only type of road I can think of to describe it as is those steep rocky fire roads in New Mexico and Colorado. It's a good thing our rental car was old and scratched up, because we definitely added some more scratches to it! However, while the road was truly awful, the views we were rewarded with were worth it. Columbus' Monument was erected as a tribute to the arrival of Christopher Columbus on October 17th, 1492. It's next to Columbus Harbour/Columbus Point which is a mile long, protected, shallow inner bay reportedly entered by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage to the New World. The views were spectacular. We hiked up to the top and looked out over the cliffs onto the harbor. As usual, the pictures do not do the place justice.

The last bit of the mile long rocky road.

Our kids looking over the cliff.
(The Admiral almost had a heart attack!)

The Columbus Monument itself.

Spectacular views of the harbor:

After our bumpy ride back to the main road, it was time to head home. We took the long drive back and decided to stop for dinner at a little place called Tiny's Hurricane Hole. It's a little restaurant sitting on a beach overlooking Thompson's Bay. They also have a few bungalows and laundry facilities. We coordinated our laundry for the next day while we were there. It was dark when we drove up to return our rental car. We took the short walk back to the dinghy and headed to the boat. We didn't realize we would be out so late, so had neglected to leave any lights on in the boat (or even our anchor light). Fortunately, our son had keen eyesight to find the boat floating in the dark. We all slept well after a fun day of sightseeing. Needless to say, a side trip to Long Island had definitely been worth it.

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Georgetown

They say time flies when you're having fun. I guess that's true since we spent 7 weeks in Georgetown, Exumas, Bahamas - and it felt like a blink of an eye. As you recall, we had arrived in Georgetown in time for the New Year and had anchored in front of the Chat & Chill on Volleyball Beach. We didn't stay there very long as a front was moving in with winds predicted to be over 40 mph shifting from east to west and back. So we decided to move our boat to an anchorage called Red Shanks.

Red Shanks is a very secluded little anchorage that we had to maneuver into around Crab Cay. It's very shallow, and some parts of it you can't get through at low tide. So we headed out just before high tide and wormed our way into the northern most spot. We had left early, since these anchorages are small and can fill up quick. We got lucky and got a great spot and watched as others came in and filled our little anchorage up over the next 24 hours. All of us got to know each other fairly well, since we were all basically trapped together for awhile. We had a dinghy raft up to meet each other, exchange boat cards, and discuss strategies for when the storm came through. When the storm hit, there was only one boat that drug anchor. We all knew it too, since immediately the VHF went nuts with people pointing out that the boat "was dragging" or had "gone walkabout." It took the poor people on that unfortunate boat multiple tries, and eventually a different anchor, before the boat stayed put. Fortunately, they didn't hit anything or anyone else with their boat, so nothing but their pride was injured. We proceeded to spend a week in Red Shanks riding out the front. The good part about this anchorage, is there is cover on all sides, so no matter which way the wind blew, we were protected. There were several 'kid' boats in the anchorage (meaning boats with kids on board). Our kids took off several times to watch movies or play legos on other boats. The bad part about the anchorage was that you were effectively trapped except at high tide, and it was an incredibly long, wet dinghy ride to town. So when the week was up, it was a race at high tide for us all to get back out to other anchorages. We proceeded to go back to the anchorage in front of the Chat & Chill.

Chat & Chill Beach next to Volleyball Beach

The Chat & Chill anchorage is the busiest anchorage of the bunch in Georgetown. There is a net broadcast on channel 72 every morning at 8 am. The net is sort of like a radio talk show every morning. You get the weather, information from local businesses, community announcements, buy-sell-trade-giveaways from other boats, introductions of newly arrived vessels, goodbyes to departing vessels, and all kinds of other pertinent information. Once the net is closed, the entire area keeps their VHF radios on during the day tuned to channel 68. This becomes a sort of party phone line as people hail each other and then move on to other channels to talk. It didn't take long for boat kids to start hailing each other on channel 68 and discussing their plans for the afternoons. I guess you can say we fell into a kind of routine.

We did school work in the morning (just like all the other kid boats). By lunch, the other boater kids were hailing each other to make plans for the afternoon: kayaking, going to the beach, hanging at each other's boats, swimming, etc. By 3 pm everyday, us adults would head over to Volleyball beach to hang out at the Chat & Chill. The kids on the beach would swim, pet the local stingray (he loves it), swing on the rope swing, build tree houses, or just wander the beach. The adults would drink beer, play volleyball, drink beer, play dominos, drink beer, hang around and talk, drink more beer, and eventually head back to their boats at sundown to prepare for dinner. So, lots of drinking, multiple games of volleyball daily, the occasional domino game, and lots of sitting and chilling with other people. Our children began driving the dinghy by themselves so they could easily hook up with their friends. Our son became a sort of chauffeur for the younger kids. He was constantly getting hailed by other boats to ask for a ride. He loved it. The Admiral got very good at playing volleyball, until she woke up one morning with neck and back spasms. She managed to tweak one of the discs in her neck, so had to forego the volleyball games. The Captain enjoyed a few games of dominoes, but mostly watched the Admiral play volleyball while he chatted with those around him. We didn't even participate in most of the other things going on - poker, trivia, yoga, water aerobics, ARG (Alcohol Researchers Group), ukulele/guitar get togethers, etc. Our daughter did manage a few boat sleepovers complete with popcorn and movies. Now, don't get me wrong, it wasn't all completely fun.

Volleyball court at Volleyball Beach

Daily other boaters could be heard on the VHF asking for help. That's one of the other benefits of Georgetown - hundreds of other boats. So, when you have a problem, you simply get on channel 68 on the VHF and see if anyone out there has what you need, or can help you out. A boat got stranded while out sailing for the day, and several boaters ran their dinghies out to the rescue to tow the guy in. A boat hit a reef and bent their rudder, again dinghies showed to help him move the boat and he had daily help in rebuilding his rudder. One poor boat tried to enter a cut at night and hit a reef. They sunk their boat and lost everything, so the whole boater community pitched in and gave them clothes and money. Divers even helped them retrieve their important paperwork from the wreckage. Even small requests like needing a ride across the bay, needing to borrow tools, etc. all went answered by the other boaters. Sometimes you didn't even have to hail the other boats. When our dinghy decided to go walkabout on its own (we had it tied off the back of the big boat - and the line snapped), a guy in a dinghy magically appeared asking if we needed help. Without hesitation (as we watched our dinghy drift off into the bay), it was a "Yes, please, our dinghy's getting away!" The Captain caught a ride over and brought the wayward dinghy home, no problem. Basically, help is just a VHF hail away. The whole boater community helps each other out and watches out for each other. It's like a friendly neighborhood where everyone knows your name (or your boat name in this case).

We had our starboard alternator go out on us prior to our trip to the Bahamas. So we had bought two new alternators back in the states - one to replace the bad alternator and one for a spare. By the time we had reached Georgetown, we had managed to go through both new alternators as well. So, we literally ate three alternators inside of a month. We figured we must have had something else wrong since we kept killing alternators. So after several attempts on our own to figure out the problem, we finally resorted to asking others for their opinions and advice. A very knowledgeable guy came on board and checked out both engines for us. It turned out we had a few different problems - an engine starting problem (turned out to be simple fuses), and a charging problem (the alternator). We knew it had to be the regulator in the alternators that kept failing, but we couldn't figure out why they kept failing. He couldn't figure it out either. Finally, the Admiral had an idea that perhaps the two new alternators had not come with regulators up to the task. So while the original alternator's regulator went bad (it had been fifteen years old), the two new ones weren't rated for the use we were putting them through. After some thought, our friend agreed that must be the problem. Fortunately we had kept our old original alternator with the intent to eventually rebuild it for a spare. Our mechanic friend knew some folks in Ft. Lauderdale who could rebuild our original alternator quite cheaply. Also, his girlfriend was headed back to the States. So we boxed the old alternator up, labeled it, and had her drop it in the post office when she arrived. A week later, our newly rebuilt alternator arrived into the Georgetown airport. We had a local service retrieve it for us, paid our fees, and installed the part. So far, it's been working flawlessly.

We were having issues with our watermaker not producing as much water as it was supposed to. A Spectra Watermaker dealer announced his arrival on the VHF, and just like that we had someone looking at the system for us. Apparently there wasn't enough power going to it, so out came more of our electrical skills to the rescue. Not long after getting the alternator squared away, we began having a problem with the same engine not spitting out water like its supposed to. After asking around, it was suggested we look at the impeller, since they have a tendency to crack or lose a paddle. Sure enough, the impeller was missing a paddle, fortunately we had a spare on board. After the Captain got the new impeller on, the intake hose started leaking (on this same engine). It didn't take long before another friend took a look at it for us and helped us figure out the problem (a flattened hose end). So between the repairs, chilling on the beach, and watching the kids run everywhere time has flown.

When we first arrived in Georgetown, there were around 150 other boats here. By the end of January there were over 200 boats here. Needless to say, the little community was getting bigger. The more people you cram into a place, the less friendly it tends to be. We literally watched that shift happen here. Suddenly, the dinghy dock was getting so crowded that you could anticipate a confrontation while there (the Admiral did get into a confrontation with a rude French lady and her Boston Whaler). Small boat traffic became endless with people flying through the bay creating wake everywhere they went. The tiny grocery store became a frustrating place with people crowded in looking for food. The beaches were crawling with people blaring their music and leaving their trash. The end of February is Georgetown's Annual Regatta. They regularly have around 500 boats in Georgetown for the Regatta. Everyone says you have to stay for Regatta week. The whole point of boater life for us is to not live in crowded noisy places. Georgetown had become a crowded, noisy place and it was only going to get worse. By the end of the first week in February, we realized it was time for us to move on.

On February 8th we moved our boat over to Kidd Cove, which is the anchorage right outside town, so we could provision. We got groceries for a week, tied everything down, and prepped for leaving. We left early on February 9th headed to Long Island. Georgetown had originally been the furthest point south we had intended on traveling this season. But, people say Long Island is not to be missed. It's only 5-6 hours away so, Long Island, here we come!

Us (circled) anchored in Kidd Cove

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Water, Sand, and Sun

After arriving in Nassau on the 15th, we first had to clear customs. We had prepared everything ahead of time and had all of our paperwork in order. Except.....we hadn't had time to have our cat Tiger seen by a vet, for his health certificate, prior to leaving Florida. Now, we had heard multiple versions of what might happen to those with pets on board, when clearing customs. We knew what the rules and regulations were, and what paperwork, vaccines, health certificates, etc were required. What we weren't sure of is whether or not we actually needed any of it. People with dogs don't have much choice, as they have to take their pet to shore on a regular basis. However, we have a cat, who never leaves the boat. So did we even need to clear him into the Bahamas? Many people told us that they don't even come on board, when you clear into customs, so they will never know we have a cat. Others told us how they had a cat and a dog on board, so they cleared the dog through customs but simply didn't mention the cat (since the cat stayed on board and typically hid). So we had pretty much decided it would all be fine. As we were motoring over from Florida, the guy we buddy boated over with asked us if we had all of our paperwork necessary for customs upon arrival. He told us to be sure we had the cat's paperwork. We asked if they would actually board the boat. His answer was: "Yes, that's standard procedure. They will come aboard to do your customs paperwork. If you don't have the paperwork needed for your cat, then he will be instantly euthanized." What?

We looked at each other and slightly panicked! Okay, time to whip out the computer skills. Since customs really likes paperwork, but never really verifies any of it, time to come up with a health certificate! So the Admiral sat down and spent a few hours creating and filling out a fake health certificate. Now, typically this is something we would never do, but our cat had everything else he needed to enter the country, and had been seen by a vet within the last month. However, we didn't get a health certificate, because we had to have one dated within two days of entering the Bahamas. We waited, but then didn't get a chance to take him back to the vet before we left. Also, the cat was never going to leave the boat or go ashore. So, we tucked the newly made health certificate into the cat's 'passport,' with all of his other necessary paperwork, and crossed our fingers.

We had buddy boated over with a friend of ours, who was putting the boat he brought over into the Atlantis Marina. If you have a boat in the Atlantis Marina, you get free tickets to the Atlantis Waterpark for everyone on board. We thought about putting ourselves into the same marina (and enjoying the waterpark as our Christmas present to the kids), but at five dollars a foot (with a fifty foot minimum) per night, the price was a bit steep for us. We typically don't stay in marinas, but Nassau isn't a great place to anchor. Since we weren't up to the increased odds of a fouled anchor, nor were we yet prepared to anchor "Bahamian style" (where you put out two anchors instead of one), we decided to spend a few nights in Bay Street Marina. Their prices were much more reasonable.

Once arriving into the marina and tying up, customs was called to arrive and clear us in. Until that time, we were confined to our boat with our yellow "quarantine" flag flying. It was apparently a busy day, so it took customs a few hours to show up while we paced and worried. Finally, a gentleman arrived, and seated himself in our salon to fill out the paperwork and take the fees. The Admiral noticed right away that the gentleman seemed in a hurry. He was finishing a phone call, when he came on board, about how he just had "this one more boat real quick and he'll be done." So the Admiral quickly grabbed the cat's paperwork and removed in from the pile. We figured last minute, that if he asked for the cat's paperwork, we would give him what we had. But, if he didn't ask.......well, you get the idea. Fortunately, our cat Tiger was blissfully asleep down in the starboard bow cabin. The customs gentleman was there and gone within fifteen minutes. He never searched the boat, nor did he even notice the cat's food and water bowls directly across from where he had been sitting. We thought we were in the clear, but were confused that he didn't look at or stamp our passports. Upon further investigation (and asking the marina personnel), we discovered that it had been his job to clear in the boat itself. Someone else would be coming to clear in the people on the boat. Okay, so now more waiting.

It didn't take but about fifteen more minutes for a lady to appear at the edge of the boat. We welcomed her aboard and she sat in the same location in the salon as the prior customs gentleman. She looked through everything (except the cat paperwork - it was still hidden), stamped passports, and chatted with us. While she was talking, our cat Tiger decided to venture upstairs to see what this new female voice was. The Captain (standing right next to the customs lady, on top of the stairwell to the starboard hull) saw Tiger and attempted to thwart the cat by sticking his foot in the way and pushing the cat back downstairs. Tiger, not to be deterred, hissed at the Captain and skirted right around his foot, behind the custom lady's legs, and wandered under the table. We all held our breaths. After a few seconds (which felt like several minutes), the customs lady stood up, shook our hands, and departed the boat. As she walked across the dock directly behind our boat, Tiger stuck his head out from under the table and looked right at her. She continued on her way and never noticed him. We all looked at each other and burst out laughing. We couldn't believe that we had just managed to sneak our cat into the Bahamas! We quickly changed out our quarantine flag for the Bahamas courtesy flag, and headed off for dinner on shore.

We spent a few days hanging around the marina, going to the grocery store, and washing our boat. We had seen our buddy boating friend a few times on the dock, as he had another friend's boat in the same marina. Our friend was very grateful to us for buddy boating over with him, so he decided to give us all an early Christmas present. He was only dropping the boat he brought over off, and flying home. The owners of that boat were not arriving on the boat till after Christmas. Since he wasn't going to be using the Atlantis Waterpark tickets, and the owners weren't around, he gave us his marina key card good for four persons into the park. Yay! Free tickets to Atlantis were not be refused! Needless to say, that was our Christmas present to each other. We went and enjoyed two full days at Atlantis!

The Atlantis Waterpark is on Paradise Island across a bridge from Nassau. It is Atlantean themed with neat architecture, pools, and underwater tunnels. It has water slides, river rides, beaches, pools, and shopping. It also boasts aquariums and water habitats. It is definitely a must see for anyone near Nassau. We all had a blast. It was definitely a great start to our adventures in the Bahamas!

We spent a full week in Nassau before departing. We had run out of funds to hang around a marina, so it was time to get out of Nassau to be back on the hook. We went 30 nm (nautical miles) to Highbourne Cay (pronounced like 'key'). It was the first time we had actually sailed to our destination. We've put up the sails before to gain extra speed, or for a few hours when the wind was right, but never for the whole trip. As soon as we were out of the cut, the sails went up and the engines went off. We sailed all the way down, hearing only the wind and waves. The water was crystal clear and beautiful. We anchored over sand and could actually see the anchor, chain, and bridle under the water. No risk of fouling an anchor here! We spent only the one night and immediately moved on to Shroud Cay.

It was a short trip to Shroud Cay. There is a marina there with a lot of mooring balls, but we anchored around the point from there to be all by ourselves. People don't anchor in there because it's shallow and there are a lot of rocks to watch out for. We took it slow, watched the depth, and stood watch for rocks. Fortunately, you can see the rocks with the water so clear. So we wormed our way in, dropped our anchor, and stared in awe around the place. You would have thought that we were the only people in the world sitting in paradise. We dropped the dinghy and took the kids snorkeling. The rocks, while treacherous for the big boat, were great snorkeling spots and easy to get to with the dinghy. After snorkeling, we dropped the kayaks and the kids paddled around enjoying the afternoon. When night fell, it was so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face when you were out on deck. We had never seen so many stars before. We decided to spend another day in the area to check out a beach.

Shroud Cay is in the Exuma's Land and Sea Park. We were anchored very near to the opening of Shroud Cay Creek, which winds it's way to the other side of the island (surrounded by vegetation and mangroves) to a hidden beach. We set off mid-morning to check it out. We had been warned that the entrance was a bit shallow, but we were still surprised at just how shallow. We had taken the dinghy only halfway through the entrance when our outboard began chewing sand. We sat for a few moments wondering how we were going to get through when the Admiral suddenly told our son: "Get out and tow us, it's only knee deep." Sure enough, he jumped over board, grabbed the painter, and hauled us across the entrance to deeper waters. We then slowly began to make our way through the creek. We were watching both for shallow spots and rocks. The deepest water (only waste deep) was directly on the edge of sand and rock. So we began pointing out large rocks to go around. As we were moving along, the Admiral saw a large rock off our port bow. She yelled, "Rock, right there. Wait, it's moving! That's not a rock, it's a huge fish!!!" Sure enough, three more times the rocks "moved." The Captain thinks they were groupers. We continued winding our way through the mangroves, around the rocks, and across the shallows. We bottomed out near the exit and had to be towed the last twenty feet. It was worth it. We had arrived at what is easily the most gorgeous beach we had ever seen. The sand was like sifted powder sugar. The water was brilliant turquoise with blue accents. We walked the beach in awe of its beauty. The kids played in the water while we watched on.

Shallow Entrance

Eventually we hiked the small trail to Driftwood Camp. Apparently a hermit used to live there on his boat and had made a trail to the top of the island. He had collected driftwood and made various things in his little camping spot. The stuff has all been cleared out now, but a sign remains informing you of the location. With it comes a spectacular view of the entire island and its surrounds. Picture perfect is not an adequate term to describe it, as no picture could ever capture how beautiful it is. We spent several hours there before making our way back. We had the beach pretty much to ourselves. A few people had come and gone in their dinghies. One other family was spending the day on a small part of the beach. The entire rest of the place was ours. We stayed until sun and thirst drove us back to our boat. The winding trip down the creek was easier (high tide) and we made it back easily. Weather was coming our way with high winds, so we decided to move on to Staniel Cay.

Views from Driftwood Camp

Staniel Cay is touted as the gem of the Exumas. We're not necessarily in agreement to that statement, but it is definitely an interesting place. The trip down was fairly exhausting. We were headed straight into the waves with fairly high winds. The waves were easily six to eight feet in height. So we had five to six hours of roller coaster riding. We literally caught 'air' with the boat several times. She would plummet down, and then launch up (sometimes slamming into the next wave, but other times soaring over it). We were not the only ones heading that direction. We were surrounded by several boats, all heading the same way, all see sawing up and down like we were. You'll be happy to hear that no one got sea sick, not even Tiger. In fact, Tiger literally laid under the table and slept most of the trip. I'm not sure how, with the slamming and banging of the waves, but he managed. It was hands down the roughest ride we've had to date in the boat. But with that behind us, three to four foot waves now seem tame.

So we arrived in Staniel Cay exhausted. The wind and waves were still pounding, so we opted to stay put on the boat for the remainder of the day. The next day was Christmas day. Obviously everything on shore would be closed, so we spent the day hanging out together. The kids opened their presents while we made a pancake breakfast. The Captain spent time talking to his family over WhatsApp, and the Admiral spent time talking with her brother over Skype. We eventually whipped together a decent dinner for the four of us to cap off the day.

 We had accumulated three bags of trash as we'd had no where to put it since Nassau. So the third morning, we decided to try getting to shore anyway to drop off trash and get some groceries. We knew that it was choppy and windy out, but opted to go for it anyway. That was a huge mistake. Where we were anchored wasn't nearly as bad as the waters around the point towards the marina and trash dump. We kept ourselves from being completely wet prior to achieving the point, but then it got worse. Wave after wave was crashing into the dinghy. The dinghy would go over a wave, then crash down sending water over the bow and onto us passengers. We had only gotten about forty percent into the trip and we were all soaked, the dinghy had water standing in it, and we couldn't see for the salt and spray. The Admiral yelled at the Captain to go back and try another day. Frustrated and wet, we pulled the dinghy back up. The Admiral quietly asked the Captain to fire up the generator so she could have hot water for a shower.

The fourth day finally arrived sunny and calm. We took the dinghy over to the trash dump and disposed of our pile of trash. Then we took the dinghy over to the dinghy dock (which is actually a small beach - so you just beach your dinghy) and set off on shore. Having heard so much about Stanial Cay, we must admit to being a bit disappointed. Other than the marina and the small grocery store, it doesn't really have much on the island. We walked the island three times before stopping and eating lunch at the marina. Our beached dinghy had become even more beached with a pile of dinghies behind her. The four of us attempted to pick her up to put her into the water, but she proved a bit heavy. Fortunately, just as frustration was setting in, two burly guys showed up asking if we needed help. The Admiral quickly confirmed the need and they easily hoisted the dinghy up and back into the water. We went back to the boat with plans to go visit the pigs.

Pigs? Yes, pigs. Stanial Cay has a small island full of pigs. They are used to people and will swim out to your boat for food. Of course, they've gotten a bit lazy and now just hang out on the beach knowing people will beach their dinghies up there and bring them food. So that's what we did. We took a head of lettuce and a bagel over, beached the dinghy, and fed the pigs. The kids were very excited as they had never seen a pig close up, let alone touched and fed one. The Admiral was not so keen on the idea. The pigs were big and pushy. The Admiral stayed in the dinghy and warned the kids to run for it when they ran out of food. A few other people in other dinghies actually got bit, since the pigs didn't feel they were getting their food fast enough. One large pig tried to get into our dinghy where the Admiral was sitting and taking pictures. The pig had assumed the camera was food and was preparing to board the dinghy in order to get it. The Admiral quickly set the camera down and showed the pig both hands empty. It took a few times, but the pig got the message and wandered off. It didn't take long for the kids to run out of food (thankfully they didn't get nipped) and we ran for it. The area was beginning to fill up with mega yachts coming in for some fun, so we decided to move on the next day to Black Point on Guana Cay.

She thought the camera was food!

The trip to Black Point was quick. It was less than two hours south and we were anchored in a beautiful little area. Black Point has a few restaurants, a grocery store, and a coin laundry. With three loads of laundry looming, a coin laundry sounded great. They also had Bahama bread. We bought three loaves which were consumed within twenty-four hours. We spent the night and did laundry the following morning. We had planned on spending a few days in Black Point, but a cold front was coming through with high winds out of the north. We decided that perhaps it would be wise to use those winds to get to Georgetown. If we didn't take advantage of it, it would be close to a week before we could head that way in calmer weather. So we quickly went over to Big Galliot Cay to spend the night to stage for Georgetown the next day.

Sunrise on the 30th

The morning of the 30th dawned early. We had set an alarm for 5:00am to get up and moving at sunrise. It was a long way to Georgetown and we wanted to be anchored before the high winds reached us. It proved a smooth trip and we arrived in record time to Georgetown. We anchored off by ourselves and then took the dinghy into shore. Groceries were a must since we really hadn't had a grocery run since Nassau. Things in the Bahamas close on the weekends, and it was a holiday weekend. So we made a quick grocery run, but unfortunately not quick enough. The front arrived while we were shopping. So we received a rough wet dinghy ride back to the boat. After spending the night in what felt like a washing machine, we decided perhaps we should move to another location. Georgetown has several anchorages, so it was only a matter of finding space in a different one. We looked a two anchorages before finally settling on the main anchorage in front of the 'Chat & Chill.' Georgetown is THE cruisers places to be. They have lots of things specifically geared towards cruisers. The Chat & Chill is supposedly the place to meet new people and hang out. We took the dinghy over and beached it for the afternoon. The place was crawling with cruisers. Also, there were kids everywhere. Finally, we had reached an area with lots of kids. Our kids ran off to meet others their age while we sat, watched, and chatted with others.

So we will begin 2017 in Georgetown. There was a fireworks show at midnight. Georgetown will be an interesting place to be for awhile. We're not sure how long we will stay. Certainly a few weeks, maybe a few months. We'll let you know how it turns out. Happy New Year!


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The Things You Stumble on While Traveling....

We've done a lot of traveling since our last post. We left Daytona Beach on November 18th. We enjoyed our 'dinghy over for a drink' with friends, and they allowed us to use their shower facilities at the marina they keep their boat in. We headed out towards Titusville with the intention of spending a few nights to watch a rocket launch. On the way there, we had to go through New Smyrna again. We recalled the eventful time coming north through the area (you can read about that adventure here: 'Bailing From New Smyrna To Daytona'). We were making good time, passing a few boats, when all of a sudden we heard this really loud noise.

Our daughter said, "It's sounds like the anchor chain!" The Admiral went running up, and sure enough the anchor chain was dumping itself overboard. The Admiral quickly ran in and shut off the breaker. The Captain immediately dropped to idle and pulled the boat over towards the side. Fortunately, the Admiral had remembered the safety line on the anchor, so the anchor had stayed put, but a good 50 ft of chain was hanging under the boat. The windlass would not work properly, so the Captain and Admiral quickly pulled the chain up by hand. With the crisis temporarily averted, we continued on. We realized that this would make anchoring at the next location difficult, so we got a spot in Titusville Marina to tie up. The Captain immediately went up to fix the windlass issue, only for there to not be an issue. That's right folks, the windlass was working flawlessly (and has been ever since). We decided that apparently New Smyrna does not like us (considering this event and the prior event going north) and vowed to avoid the area from now on. The weather was turning colder, and the marina was costly, so we decided to bail on the rocket launch and head to warmer weather in Melbourne.

We spent five days in Melbourne through the nasty cold front that came through. Fortunately it was warmer than it would have been further north, and it gave us the opportunity to get groceries. We left Melbourne in time to have Thanksgiving in Ft. Pierce:

It was not the lavish affair we were used to, but we did manage to whip together something decent. We had intended to remain in Ft. Pierce only long enough to get a window to go outside into the Atlantic to continue south. After spending a week there, with no window in sight, we decided to continue south inside on the Intracoastal.

We spent a midge filled night in Peck Lake before arriving in Palm Beach. Palm Beach turned out to be a very interesting place. You encounter interesting things while traveling. We anchored right near a city park that was decorated for Christmas. They deck out the park and have a nightly show for the city all through December (completely free to the public). We got to experience Sandi, a 600 ton sand castle decorated as a Christmas tree:

There were also other sandcastles, a mini golf course, an area where you could make your own snowman (out of sand), etc.

 

        

The whole park lights up at night and plays music for four hours every evening.

We knew we would have to remain in Palm Beach until a window to the outside opened up, as the trip south on the inside was very unpalatable. There were dozens of draw bridges and a 40 mile stretch of rough waters. Not that Palm Beach was devoid of it's own rough waters. On our second day there, while we were playing tourist on shore, our boat had a bit of a mishap.

We knew something must have gone wrong, when we arrived back at the boat, since the interior looked like the boat had been massively thrown around. We had a few broken items, and stuff that typically never moves had been misplaced. Confusion ensued until we got a message from the boat that had been anchored near us (and were gone when we returned). Apparently in the wind and wakes, our boats had collided. They immediately pulled up anchor and left after the mishap, having only gotten a minor scratch on their bow. We, however, had a nasty gouge in our bow that would have to be repaired prior to going outside. So, we contemplated looking for a fiberglass repair shop. Unfortunately, it was a Friday, and the next pretty window for going outside was the following Tuesday. So, if we waited to have the repair done, we would lose the window. The Captain and Admiral decided it was time to try and tackle a fiberglass repair themselves. So the Admiral set out patching the hole:

With the hole filled, solid, and strong we knew we could head on with our own schedule. The Admiral put gel coat over everything, to blend it in with the rest of the deck, prior to departure. She wasn't pleased with the final result of the gel coat (hence no pic of it), but it wasn't too bad considering it was our first time attempting such a thing. She intends to redo the gel coat after she's had a bit more practice making it look nice.

The following Monday we decided to pull up anchor and move north of the draw bridge we were anchored near, so we would have easy access to the inlet on Tuesday. The draw bridge only opens once an hour, so we aimed for the 2pm opening in the event anything went wrong. It was a good thing too, since when we pulled up anchor, we pulled this up instead:

Our anchor chain was wrapped six different ways around the bike. So we had to slowly motor over to the city dock, tie up, and spend an hour (and lots of bruises) untangling the chain and retrieving our anchor. We left the offending item resting on the public city dock figuring they could dispose of it for us as payment for the small amount of dredging we unwillingly did in their waters. We then made the 3pm drawbridge opening and anchored to await the morning.

We headed out Tuesday morning into the Atlantic Ocean to head south to Ft. Lauderdale. It was a perfect trip. The water was incredibly calm. The kids couldn't believe we were actually 'outside'. The Intracoastal had been rougher on us for the past few weeks. We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale in a timely manner and anchored north of the Los Olas bridge. Again, the things you stumble on while traveling are interesting. Anchored where we were, right on the edge of the Intracoastal, we had front row seats to the Winterfest parade. There were over 50 boats, decked out with signs and lights, all passing in a parade right next to us. Pitbull was actually on the 3rd boat that went by! The kids were so excited! Here are just a few of the pics we got:

We were originally going to stay in Ft. Lauderdale until we got a good window to go outside (a necessity since it wasn't possible to take the inside route down) to Key Biscayne, and provision for our eventual trip to the Bahamas. However, Ft. Lauderdale proved frustrating to attempt to provision. All of the marinas and moorings were full, so we had no way to get mail, rent a car (nowhere to park one overnight), or have access to a dinghy dock past 4pm. A window for going south was opening up, and rumor had it that it would be the last window to head south until after Christmas. So, we decided to throw caution to the wind. We made a quick trip (via Uber) to the nearest Wal-Mart and got a few supplies. Then on December 14th, we headed back out into the Atlantic for a 28 hour trip to Nassau. Here is a pic of the water just as we left cell phone range outside Ft. Lauderdale:

The trip over was incredibly calm. The only mishap that occurred was our port side navigation light went out on us as we were leaving Ft. Lauderdale. The Admiral came to the rescue. She hung out on the bow of the boat, going 7 knots underway, with 1000s of feet of water beneath us, and rewired the whole light on the go so that it was working properly before nightfall. Even our cat Tiger found the whole trip uneventful. He's finally acclimated to it all:

We stopped in the middle of nowhere for a few hours overnight to sleep. Then, at around 2pm on Thursday, Nassau was in sight:

So, we've done it. We've finally made it out of Florida, and are enjoying the beautiful blue clear waters of the Bahamas. We are going to stay for awhile. However, we aren't making any real plans. Or rather, the plans we do make are in the sand at low tide ;-)

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