I am remiss. February 27th post

I am such an awful sister. I missed my Baby brother's b-day by 1 day, and now as I post this my eldest sister is having a birthday tomorrow. In my family this is known as b-day season, from December to May it seems like it never stops.

The kid left on the 27th and made it home safely. It was a very short visit but very nice as well. Now we get to look forward to our daughter's visit in another 2 months. Our Stéphanie will be joining us as we pass through  New York City. In the mean time we get to enjoy this beautiful weather for another month before heading off to the continental US again. We are really enjoying this area, but I fear it will be boring for most reading the blog. For this reason, I will cut down the blogging to once a week while we remain here. I will post on Sunday evenings until our return to the US.

Now I better go call my sister before I miss her totally too! She's heading off to South Africa for a month long holiday, so I better catch her now while I can.

Have a great day everyone.

Happy Birthday Cécile and Happy Belated Birthday Alain. 

Duck, duck, Turtle – High 84◦F

You know like the duck, duck, goose game only without the goose! We had a full day today. We started out with a visit to the Garden of the Groves where we saw some awesome creatures.

Namely some Muscovy Ducks,

 Mandarin Ducks

and lots and lots of turtles.

This little fellow posed for Stephanie.

There were wonderful waterfalls 

and a labyrinth that Shawn, Jim and I all completed, although we were none the wiser afterwards!

  

After this morning excursion, we took a quick ride out to Dover Sound on the Lucaya Waterway where Stephanie got a few shots of the Atlantic Ocean among other things.

We then went to Port Lucaya Marketplace for Lunch at an Authentic Bahamian restaurant and then peruse the souvenir shops.

We ended our day with a quick dip in the pool and really, really, really hot  Blackened Jerk Tilapia and Jerk chicken for Jim. After we drank a gallon of water each; we than retired to the helm for a game of cards. A lovely day for their last day with us. We wish their trip was longer, but c'est la vie.

Good night all 

All pictures in tonight's blog are courtesy of Stephanie M Photography.

Burn Baby Burn

We started our day chillin on the bow, catching up with all the friends at home... well bragging really! 

 

Then we headed for the pool,

checked out a few little critters along the way.

and had a lot of sun. Did I mention a lot of sun. Despite the SPF 60 that they applied 3 to 4 times during the day, Shawn and Stephanie still managed to burn baby burn.

Tomorrow we will go check out a National park.

Nighty night all. 

Delays in Miami

Well this will be a relatively short post for Y'all. The kids made it after a 3hr delay in Miami due to airplane troubles. By the time we got them back to the boat and dinner ready, I did not think to get any pictures, then it was dark. I have attempted a picture of them in the hot tub, which we enjoyed after dinner, but it's not so good. Here it is none the less. It's an early night tonight as the kiddies are tired from their sleepless night yesterday and their long travel today, but they are here safe and sound. Night all. 

The kids are coming 26◦30'.244N 78◦39'.711W

Take note of these co-ordinates as they will not change for the next month. We have made it successfully to Freeport/Lucaya Grand Bahamas Island. We are kind of in between both cities and well even Bahamas does not know what to call it since they quote the address as Freeport/Lucaya. Either way does not matter much to us as we are here safe and sound and we will remain here for the next month or so. It is a really nice marina with lots of amenities and it will be nice to stay put for a little while. This was not part of our original plan, however every plan we make we write in pencil with a notation stating it is subject to change!

We tried to find a way to get the kids to Marsh harbor instead of here, but the costs where jut too great, so when handed lemons, we make lemonade. Our trip across the Grand Bahamas banks and back to this main island was relatively uneventful, although very, very secluded.

We spent an extra day in the Great Lucayan Waterway in order to wait out the big winds that would have the Atlantic Ocean dishing out more big waves at us. Truly we have had enough of those. Beside the Lucayan Waterway is quite majestic and you cannot beat the sunsets.

The extra day also allowed us to go on a little expedition to measure a bridge. All our books tell us it is 27 clearance at high tide, but never the less, we lowered our 26 foot mast down last time we crossed it, just to be on the safe side. This time we went by dinghy to the bridge and then walked up it to measure the distance to the water. Yep the books are right, it is in fact 27 feet of vertical clearance at high tide.  

So today when we crossed we were quite confident that we would make it under the bridge without any major drama. It was a short run to the marina, only 6-7 miles on the open ocean, so easy as pie. Waves where only 2-3 feet, so very manageable for us old pros...now! We arrived at high tide and made it through the channel without hitting bottom, another stellar moment! Once here we had to go get some groceries as mother hubbart cupboards where getting rather bare. I'll leave the discussion of the bus system for another day!

The kids will be here tomorrow at noon. We are so excited to see them. It was their 2^nd wedding anniversary on the 21^st and they are celebrating with a mini vacation to spend 4 days with us. The beginning of their holidays were spent in New York City and then Montreal so this will certainly be a change of climate for them! It is beautiful here right now, 73◦F at the moment and calm as anything. We look forward to our month here as we explore the island bit more than we did last time we were here. Well the hot tub is calling our name, so I will leave you with a Good night all. 

It was a dark and stormy night ...or two. High 61◦F low 55◦F

We are still in Turtle Cay, much as we would like to leave. Yesterday, the 18^th was rainy and cool all day long. We were woken this morning by what the Beaufort scale describes as mild Gale force winds. 32MPH winds rocked the boat and cause waves of 2 foot or so, in this protected bay. We were not brave enough to venture into the sea of Abaco to see what effect these winds had on that body of water! Although we were meant to leave today, still reeling from our experience on the Atlantic Ocean, we decided to stay put one more day.

 

Early in the am, we witness a sail boat who's mooring ball apparently broke. These poor people where anxiously trying to lay down an anchor while the wind pushed them in every direction. I bet they'll have a story to tell on their blog. We were fortunate enough to get a mooring ball who's line is brand new, so although we swung and rocked a lot, we stayed put. These types of days however are very long. Trying to find things to keep you occupied was made easier by our son's technological savvy. Before leaving, Shawn was nice enough to give us an external hard drive which he filled with our favorite TV shows and about 20 or so movies. 

I also took advantage of all this "free time" to finish my second basket 

and do a little wood carving; now that my knives are all sharpened. 

 Jim spent some time reading. I think he finished two books in the last few days. It looks as though the winds will calm down tomorrow and the next day, so our current plan is to take off at first light tomorrow and make our way to Great Sale, Lucaya on day 2 where the weather gods will send us another rough weather day. We will anchor in Lucaya for 2 days awaiting a weather window to get to Freeport. Shawn and his wife Stephanie are flying in on the 24^th, so let's hope our projections are right. Otherwise the kids will be needing to find a place to stay when they fly in.

One last note. The areas we will be traveling in for the next 3-4 days do not have great cell phone or internet coverage so I will not be blogging until we arrive in Freeport. Good night all.  

Happy Birthday Carole. New Plymouth High 83◦F Low 68◦F

No drama today and nothing broken either. We spent a wonderful morning in New Plymouth which is a town on Green Turtle Cay. The town was settled by Tories or Loyalists as they are called here; who fled the US during one of the wars as well as slaves who fled their captors. It is quite quaint with all the usual pastel coloured houses so familiar in the Bahamas. Jim and I walked pretty much the whole town from shore to shore.

 This particular town is a bit more developed then others we have been to and there seems to be quite a bit of construction going on. Everywhere else we have been, it seemed quite depressed economically. 

We stopped at signs for the entrance to the town on both ends of it. 

Made a quick visit to the garden of statues and went into a beautiful jewellery store and bought nothing. 

We also stopped at the local liquor store so I could get the next contestant in our Rum tasting evening. Man I hope you are thirsty Simon and Alex. Given the 5 bottles I have collected so far, we will likely need to do this over a few nights. I am a light weight when it comes to booze and I have a 2 drink maximum. If I keep going maybe I will cure myself of this problem!  

We retreated back to our boat and spent the afternoon working on baskets and sharpening my carving knives. Time well spent I assure you.  We are expecting Thunderstorms in the am and much cooler temperatures as well. Jim and I will stay put here another night before taking off on our two day trip across to Grand Bahamas Island. Good night all. 

Damage report 26◦46'.618N 77◦20'.208W

We made it through the 'Whale passage' but not without some non-human casualties. We entered the passage around 10am and were greeted by 6 to 8 foot waves, however about ½ hour in, we were hit by a 10 foot wave that caused bigger rocking than we have ever experienced. We prepared for this trip, tying everything down and taping drawers shut, but our preparations where not enough.

Things that never moved before, went flying this time.

Jim stuffed a coat in our dishes cabinet in anticipation of some rocking and rolling, but even that was not enough. When I opened the cupboard I was greeted with falling dishes, most of them broken.  

Our coffee whitener fell off the shelf and of course it broke open. White powder everywhere. Cabinets flew open, bottles fell out. One drawer actually broke. Our knife block; which is wedged in beside the microwave; went flying. 

We had some cards in the helm, and the deck fell out its shelf and down the stair case; resulting in an unwanted game of 52 pickup.

Five gallon oil pails fell over in the engine room but thankfully, they did not break open.

On the top deck, our patio table; which was tied down; actually jumped up and then flipped over; Taking the chairs with it.  

In our preparations, I did forget to close the port hole (window) in our bathroom and we got flooded in there. I could have rung out the toilet paper from the water. All of this in a short 2hr run. Thank god this was not one of our 8hr crossings! 

When we arrived in Green Turtle Cay we grabbed a mooring ball and Jim set out to go BBQ some hot dogs (don't judge us). Then the strangest thing occurred.  Jim called out "honey, what did you do with the grills for the BBQ"  I replied  "What? Nothing! Why?" "cause they are missing is why"

The BBQ was tied down of course, the lid was down, it had rocked some but our grills are heavy cast iron grills, I can barely lift them, surely to god they can't just jump out of the BBQ. Well apparently I was wrong, they can jump out and they did jump out because we now have a BBQ without any grills! Imagine that! The top rack did stay on, so Jim just flipped it over and laid it across our BBQ to grill our lunch. 

It's a small grill, but it works 

Anyway we are now safe and sound and tied to a mooring ball. Apparently the winds are light tomorrow, but pick up again on Wednesday. Since our next leg has us in open, albeit non-ocean waters for 2 days. It looks as though we will be stuck here for the next 3 days waiting on some favorable winds and waves. Lucky for us, since we never got to explore Green Turtle Cay when we were here last time. I must say good night now, as I still have some cleaning to do. 

PS It's my sister-in-law Carole's B-day tomorrow, So I will wish you a happy B-day now; In case you read the Blog in the am. 

Bison...Here? Orchid Bay Marina, Great Guana Cay, Bahamas

We had a beautiful Day in Great Guana Cay. The morning started off with Waffle breakfast in the Gazebo with several other boaters. Our host for the occasion was Diane from Boatel 1. 

Diane and Ted live in Toronto on their boat. In the winter time when the B&B is closed they head off to Bahamas for a few months. Not a bad way to live! Diane made all the waffles and we all brought toppings. 

Vince, pictured here is a teacher from Halifax. He was voted most appetizing waffle with black berries, bananas, pineapple and  whipped cream with a little Caramel sprinkles to top it off.  

After our breakfast we retreated to the boat for some more basket weaving, transferring and cleaning fuel for our next leg of the trip etc.. 

Later in the afternoon we went for a walk to the beach. We ended up in a bar named Nippers to catch a view of the ocean side of this island. The Atlantic was still angry, although less so than yesterday. Hopefully tomorrow bodes well for us. We'd like to see 5 feet or less for wave if possible. Please! 

We ended our evening with a Bison dinner on 'Esprit'. Kelly and Melissa are a young couple from Alaska. They invited us over for dinner with their 3 daughters. 

What a treat it was. The Bison we had was shot by Kelly and part of their provisions when they came on this one year adventure. They took a year off and are home schooling the girls during this time. The girls have prepared their own fish bowl and caught all of the critters in it. 3 hermit crabs, 1 little fish (which they hope to grow to eating size) 1 small crab and a snail. They feed the critters bits of fish and weeds. All of the fishbowl coral and plants were gathered from the Ocean here. Really cool project.  

We had a lovely evening with are three blond hosts. Olivia, Tate and Vivian. We wish them well on the rest of their voyage. Good night all