Author: BettyChurch

This is being posted a little late. We’re finding that wifi service can be hit or miss here in The Bahamas.

Our friends, Donna and Paul, made it to Nassau NYE to ring in the new year with us. A New Year tradition in the Bahamas is Junkaroo which is a street festival that lasts from 2am -10/11am New Year’s day. We went to sleep after the midnight fireworks but got up in time to catch the last hour or two of the parade. Costumes and music were amazing. It was a great visit and I even got my Christmas cookie fix, thank you Donna!

We motored over to Rose Island, about an hour away and decided to spend the night. Not one of our best moves. It was a little choppy during the day but we managed to get in the water and test a couple toys without any issue. Unfortunately it got fairly rough after dark and we were stuck. Next morning saw us pulling anchor first thing and we beat feet back to Nassau and the marina looking for brunch. Thank goodness for friends with a sense of humor and a high tolerance for motion.

January 4th,  we left Nassau and moved 40 miles south to Highborne Cay, a private island, where we are currently anchored. It’s beautiful with clear, turquoise water. Our neighbors are a couple large charter boats and we’re watching all the toys that come with that.

We also have two reef sharks, 3-5 ft in length, who have taken up residence under our boat. I threw some old bread overboard this morning and I’m not sure it actually hit the water before being gobbled up. So I followed it up with a couple old roasted beets and we had a soccer game! They’re actually very pretty and cool but I don’t think I’ll be swimming off the back of the boat.

Update: Next day we went into the marina at Highborne for lunch. It’s a beautiful resort, very high end. We also found out why there are so many sharks. They have discovered that the fishing boats clean and filet all their fish at the end of the dock. Then they come out to the anchored boats to see what is being offered.

 

 

 

 

 

Took the dinghy north a couple miles to Allen’s Cay to see the iguanas. They actually run towards you. Since we had no food and had been warned they can bite we kept our distance.

And now we count seven sharks under our boat….😱

We made it! The weather held Sunday and we crossed to Bimini for an overnight and check in with the Bahama government for our “cruising license”. Then an overnight at Chubb key in the Berry Islands and yesterday we made a bumpy ride to Nassau ahead of the incoming weather. The next few days call for 7-9+ foot seas and wind so we will stay put.

Our friends Donna and Paul were flying in to meet us at Georgetown for NYE but at this point we may be here in Nassau for a week or two. Good thing they have a connection at Nassau! Remember the previous post about weather? We respect it.

Nassau is an interesting place. If you want a little bit of Las Vegas you can spend time at Paradise Island. There is also a nature preserve, a pirate’s wax museum (I think we’ll have to check it out just cause it sounds so hokey), and a golf course so we’ll be able to stay busy.

Below is a picture of our newest boat holiday mascot. Rudy will be seeing some of the islands before we put him away until next year. Think he’s big enough?

All boaters are weather dependent unless they are crazy or have a death wish. We have several different weather applications we check each day, sometimes multiple times during the day as well as a weather feed we get from a meteorologist about the areas we’re traveling to. The weather is always gustier and more prone to storms in the winter even tho the hurricane season is in the summer so attention must be paid and respect given to what is happening outside the boat. To cross from Florida to The Bahamas we need to find a window of favorable weather and then make a run for it.

Work got done on the boat last week but I needed to be in Virginia as my Mom had passed away. Things happen for a reason and I believe the work on our boat was slow to allow me to easily travel home when needed. I arrived back in Florida on Wednesday and of course, that was the last day of a three day window to leave.

Today we finally left the boatyard and moved to an anchorage up the coast in North Ft Lauderdale on the ICW. The wind is gusting to 50 mph, rain showers come thru once in awhile but hey, we’ve not at the dock anymore. Progress is progress. We met up with the fuel barge on the way up and filled our tanks to the top as gas in the islands is much more expensive.

The weather is looking like it might be favorable for a crossing to Bimini on Sunday the 23rd. If we don’t make it then we may be stuck in Florida until after the New Year. So we’ll sit here at anchor for another day and a half, enjoying the quiet and readying everything to beat feet Sunday morning.

Cross your fingers the next post is from The Bahamas.

Our general plan is that we are going to be gone for the next 3-5 years and circumnavigate the Caribbean ending up in Panama. At that point if we’re still having fun we’ll turn around and come back the same way. If we’ve had our fill of the boating life we’ll take the north route off the coast of Mexico and the Gulf back to Ft Lauderdale to sell the boat and move onto the next phase of our adventure.

I’m sure everyone is familiar with the iconic song Hotel California and the line “you can check in but you can never check out”. Well we are in Hotel Florida Boatyard. We are starting week five on a two week project. Yes I know there was Thanksgiving and we lost a few days there. Then there were a couple emergencies and the guys had to be pulled from our boat to handle those. But enough is enough. WE NEED TO LEAVE! Problem is that even if they finished tomorrow we can’t go anywhere cause the weather is really not friendly to cross to the Bahamas right now. Hopefully by this weekend we will be outta here!

At least the boat is back in the water and we’re back aboard. Isabella is a much happier kitty and we are now in the midst of provisioning the boat.

In the meantime we’ve seen a few movies, played golf a few times and even managed to drive up to Palm Beach to have dinner with some boating friends that were passing through. Gary flew to Alabama to see his Dad and I managed to get back to Virginia to see my Mom for her 95th birthday.

The boat has new bottom paint and the props have been clear coated. We have a new forward looking sonar as well as a new single side band radio. There are a few other little goodies on board like a new air compressor so we can fill our scuba tanks ourselves, as well as some cosmetic fixes that were bothering us.

Christmas decorating on our boat is rather minimalistic but we do have a new addition that will show up in a future post.

But for now here are some pictures that we thought were entertaining.

Imagine moving out of your house for a few weeks. What would you do? We rented a furnished apartment here in Ft Lauderdale while work is being performed on the boat. Bottom paint, equipment enhancements and a few new goodies to make life in the islands easier.

The trouble is that dealing with boat yards is a lot like dealing with home contractors. If they say two weeks it will take four. If they say $10,000 it will be $20,000. You get the idea. It was supposed to be two weeks, I allowed three and it will probably take four. Needless to say none of us are happy.

At least the apartment is okay, has a pool and even a small back yard that is fenced in for Isabella. It does have fake grass tho which really freaked her out the first time she went out. She kept tip toeing across it to get from the tiles to the mulch border.

We played golf yesterday for the first time in awhile. Golf in Florida is very different from golf in Virginia. Flat course, fair amount of water and strange creatures to make it interesting.

So we’ll probably be here a couple more weeks before heading south where it truly is warm and the water is beautiful.

Leaving Daytona this morning and travelling south on the ICW we have seen probably 50 dolphins, pelicans flying in formation and even manatees.

Tonight’s anchorage will be at Canaveral followed by Ft Pierce, Lake Worth and then a little offshore to Ft Lauderdale.

We’ve rented an airb&b for three weeks while the boat is hauled out and prettied up. Looks like we’ll get some golfing in while there and maybe even a trip to the  beach.

The weather is sunny and warm and we are enjoying the trip.

Tonight’s stop will be at Canaveral.

We left the DC area mid September in shorts and tee shirts. It wasn’t until we reached Wilmington that we broke out the long pants and jackets. By the time we got to Jekyll Island, GA we were back to shorts and tees. When we left there this morning it was 51 degrees and as of noon today we are in Florida wearing jeans and jackets.

It seems we are not moving south fast enough. But there is a bigger issue. We’ve discovered that our favorite place when underway is on the flybridge, especially as we now have two really comfortable helm chairs up there. When the weather is brisk it can get down right chilly up there. As I write this I am wearing boots, jeans and two fleece jackets. As much fun as we make of sailboaters who are always bundled up against the elements we are starting to resemble them!

One thing we’ve discovered on the boat is that holidays seem to come and go without a lot of fanfare. Maybe it’s because we’re officially retired. Or maybe it’s because it’s hard to remember what day of the week it is much less what day of the month.

We happened to be in the marina at Jekyll Island for Halloween and discovered that other boaters are not as nonchalant about the holiday as we now are. We saw skeletons, pumpkins and even a costume or two. A fellow boater was even passing out candy ( thank you Trudy!).

I AM on the hunt for an inflatable Rudolph for the bow of the boat for Christmas. That is one holiday we won’t miss.

After our offshore run to Wilmington we anchored out at Wrightsville Beach overnight before running up the Cape Fear River to Wilmington. We had been followed by a flock of seagulls into Masonboro Inlet and thought they just confused us with a shrimpboat. Found out later several small fish (3-4 inches) had beached themselves on the swim platform. Forgot to get a picture before performing a mass burial at sea!

We had a really nice week in Wilmington. The hurricane damage was tough but the recovery is in process. Trees down, houses missing roofs and business signs either severly damaged or missing entirely. Only a few businesses are still not open and things are getting back to normal.

While in Wilmington we had the opportunity to finally see one of our granddaughters, Grace, play in the NC State High School Golf Championship at Pinehurst #3. Although we’ve played with her often we’d never seen her play in a competition. It was fun to watch her focus and concentration as she went toe to toe with some of the best in the state.

Another thing we took advantage of was having all the teak railing varnish stripped. I had done about a quarter of it while we sat at Deltaville and AYB waiting for hurricane Michael to pass but there was still a lot to do. It’s kind of like stripping wallpaper using a heat gun and a scraper. We like the look of the raw teak as it weathers to a pretty grey and requires minimal maintenance this way. On a boat that is huge!

By the time you read this we’ll be at Bald Head Island for a quick overnight before heading down the coast tomorrow. Next stop Georgetown SC and then Charleston. We’ll probably anchor out at Georgetown for a couple days and wait for a bettor weather window.

Docked at Atlantic Yacht Basin we got the port stabilizer repaired. It had stopped working on the way from Deltaville to Hampton. Hurricane Michael blew thru Thursday night with minimal fuss. Friday dawned and it was a beautiful day. Let’s go! Oh, not so fast. Seems although Michael didn’t give us much in the way of wind or rain it was enough to flood the entire area. We’re on a boat, no problem right?

Uh, no. We had a total of two bridges to get through heading south. Two small swing brides that are about 3 feet off the water. Seems the flooding buried the electrical junction boxes and until the water receded and they could dry out the system the bridges were fixed in the closed position. All day Friday and into Saturday morning we sat at the dock just waiting. At 11am we got word the bridges were operating and you should have seen the exodus!

We’re now a few hours south and heading for an anchorage at the top of Abamarle Sound for the night. If the weather finally cooperates we should be in Wilmington midday Tuesday.