Green Turtle Key, April 15, 2012

Why we came to the Bahamas.

So here we are, playing the waiting game at a popular and age old lodge/resort on Green Turtle Key. Our stay has been nice, staff is great and they run this more like a resort than a marina in a hurricane affected island. Irene and storms since the twenties have decimated the history and the natural beauty of the small settlement of New Plymouth, sister city to Key West. Thanks to those storms, everything is new and freshly painted or replaced, you would never know the club isn't new but decades old.

The resort offers a "dock and dine " program: deduct everything you eat and drink from your dockage fees. We should stay for free if we eat often enough. The fun part is we have meals with new dockmates, and once again, we learn a lot! Water is 20 cents here and we finally had to fill up. Laundry is $10 a load so I am washing on the boat; I did the math and it is cheaper.

The winds have howled so we have not really enjoyed the pool or beaches as much as you all think we are. We rented a golf cart to get around and today we went shelling for sand dollars. Our net was minimal but our views: priceless.

Rick will bonefish in the morning, I cut out a quilt to sew tomorrow, and we are excited for Tuesday's calm winds, then . . .

Our plan is to sail just twenty miles to the infamous "whale" on Wednesday. Winds look to be in the right direction for this narrow passage and we will have given the seas time to settle down. Once inside the Sea of Abaco there are several great places to visit but we are now on a short time frame so Hopetown Harbor is our destination. ' Can't think of returning yet, I feel we just got here after years of planning and 6 months of travel.

The view of New Plymouth at the top of the hill.

Crazy Love Bakery

Historic home of Nevels Chamberland,
unpopular Prime Minister before Winston Churchill,
now covered in a giant Philadenreon vine.

Shelling at the beach on the Atlantic side of the island.

 

Meet the neighbors at Spanish Cay, April 10-12, 2012

Spanish cay is a small private island, accessible only by boat or small plane. A half dozen residents, including the owner and working help, maintain this three mile stretch in the Sea of Abaco. Once visited by the likes of J. Edgar Hoover and a trio of famous Mafioso, Spanish Key now includes a twenty year old development of a dozen stilt condos, a bar set IN the ocean, and a “hotel” for those not staying on their boat. We used this island as our introduction to the Abacos and to break up our sail. (I don’t know why we use that word; we are motoring most of the time.) There are beaches to walk to, a simple restaurant and pool, and our neighbors included 25’ to 150 foot vessels, and some strange sea life that appears at feeding time. Note how clear the water is!

Next to  the boat, before dinner.

Next to the boat, after dinner.
The sport fishermen clean their catch and call the sharks to the dock.
 Don't fall in here!

Photo credits to Rick on this one! Don't leave your tote bags on the ground.

Hotel at Spanish Cay

Promise at sunset, flyinging the Bahamian courtesy flag.

Happy Birthday, Brother John! April 13, 2012

Greetings form the Bahamas, April 3, 2012

To those of you who wonder, will they ever cross the ocean? We did it!

Like March anywhere, it was blustery. There had been 30 consecutive days of 15-25 knot winds which can double in the Gulf Stream; this weather window was a welcome break. As always, Captain Rick picked the weather for a flawless crossing. We left Dinner Key Marina before sunrise, having sailed out of the Channel two days before and laid tracks on our GPS system. It was go or sit in Miami another week by Tuesday, April third, and we were more than ready to go. Below you’ll see our final glimpses of Miami at 6 am, the stilt houses with Coconut Grove in the background, and our sunrise that day.

Good bye Miami at daylight.

Things were a little foggy but all went well. By the time we hit the Gulf Stream we were doing 10 knots, above our 7.8 hull speed. Sadly, that ended by noon, the winds died to 5, then less than 5 knots, and we roasted in the sun, rocked back and forth (not my favorite part of the trip) and motored into West End at Old Bahama Bay Resort at 6:45 PM. That’s 13 hours, over our 4 PM estimate. The worst part of the trip: having alerted loved ones we were due at 4 PM but when we arrived late we had no phone or internet service to alert them that we were safe and sound, and ready to enjoy ourselves. We cleared customs and found dinner off of the boat to feel solid land for a while.

Old Bahama Bay

We spent a week at OBB in the company of an old acquaintance, Bob, of Azure Skies, and three new boats/three couples from Florida we really enjoyed. Good company and a great pool helped time pass as winds raged and “elephants” appeared in the Gulf Stream. A front with two storms of 45 knots kept us in the resort for the week, but as with any storm, winds clock around and conditions always improve.

Weather improved greatly on Sunday but we waited for Monday and the seas to die down to make way to Great Sale Cay. Loved it! Only six boats anchored for the night and winds were on the other side of the island so it was unbelievably quiet and the stars were absolutely amazing, (my next photography goal.) We didn’t bother to launch the dingy and explore, we just wanted to break the next leg of our trip into two.

Sunsets are free!

We set sale at sunrise but had to stall for light fog to lift. Destination: Spanish Cay, a private 3 mile island with a harbor, restaurant, pool and beach. Not as high end as it sounds, but all of these bits of “paradise” are still on island time (third world country.) Water today is by reverse osmosis at 25 cents a metered gallon, and wi-fi was an extra $10 a day! We motored on a glassy Sea of Abaco and Rick caught a fish, kind unknown, as it broke free just as he went to land it! We arrived at 1 PM, refueled and relaxed. Hurricane Irene was not kind to the Bahama Islands. Things are a work in progress here.

No complaints, we have had such smooth ocean sailing compared to our lumpy fall.

Off to the Bahamas at last!

Our stay in Dinner Key Marina, Coconut Grove, Fl. Has been great. Unfortunately, we have had over 30 days of high winds out of the north, making a crossing to the Bahamas impossible for fair weather sailors like us.

But, April has arrived, bringing calm seas and winds out of the E, S, and good combinations there of. SOOO, tomorrow at first light we sail to West End in the Abacos. We expect variable winds out of the south less than 5 knots, seas two feet. Winds may shift out of the north late in the afternoon but we should be in Old Bahama Bay by then. This is what we have been waiting for!

Key West, Feb. 2012 The view from Duval Street



Hemingway's House, Key West

 

Congenital Restlessness: Feb. 8-20, 2012

Sometimes one wonders how others manage down time as we never seem to have any. Earnest Hemingway said he suffered from Congenital restlessness (Hemingway's Boat, 2012) and I think Rick has it, too. He does not handle sitting still to any degree so when the next few days looked "iffy", Rick moved to plan B and rented a car for a road trip, not a sail, down to the Keys and Key West! Who could complain. Our weather by road was fabulous each day, rain and winds happened at night, hence except for a cold spell on Sunday Feb. 12, we had a great trip. I hesitate to call it cold here, though 60 degrees was cold for us; we know it was frigid further north.

Our goal was to see as many marina possibilities as we could for future reference, as in next winter, and to see our NJ friends Bill and Laurel at the start of their winter vacation in Key Largo. In all we "did as the Romans do" in each hamlet and key, including Key West. We stayed at the La Concha in downtown Key West because we could walk everywhere. We viewed one sunset in the crowds at Mallory square, but availed ourselves of the hotel rooftop a second night for a different feel and crowd of twenty vs 2,000!

We spent our days touring Hemingway's house and walking to catchy eateries, tourist traps, and shops. Yes, we road the Conch Train and revisited the architecture and history of this last town in the continental US. In all, we laughed a lot and walked even more. By Monday we were happy to get back in the car to meander back up through Marathon, Islamarada, and Key Largo. We ran into friends on the dock at the Marathon mooring field and when we all returned to Coconut Grove, we had dinner together before they left for the the southern islands. Bill and Laurel served us lunch in Key Largo, shared a round of hugs and sent us our way "home." We confessed to exhaustion once back on the boat and happily accepted a day of rest and old Bogart movies in the spirit of the Keys. We accomplished what we wanted to do or see and we laughed a lot, who could ask for more.

You don't think this was enough activity for Rick do you? On Valentine's Day we ate at the Boater's Grill in No Name Harbor. (I didn't understand the Cuban love songs being played but it was fun.) Wednesday Feb. 15 we toured Vizcaya in Miami. This is a county owned house/museum two miles from the marina, and I errored big time in not bringing my camera. While photography was not allowed inside the home, the gardens and view of Biscayne Bay were breathtaking and the lighting was perfect. Vizcaya was a 180 acre winter estate built in 1914-15 by James Deering, a vice president at International Harvester. Rick and I are in awe that so many men of the day thought they were really "kings" and spent their wealth on these homes. This mansion includes rooms and ceilings, art and fireplaces Deering bought in Europe and moved here, so it became a monument to all things Renaissance and grand. Today, local children tour the building as part of their education in history and art.

Thursday Feb. 16 was the first day of the Miami Boat show. We had relinquished the car by then so we took a cab to the first of three sights around town for the show. In general, we were interested in cruising seminars but we did find some new technology to peak our interest in the vendor tents. Paul and Lynn Erb were there from Yachta Lettering, always great to see them.

You didn't think that was enough to slow Rick down, did you? Saturday Feb. 17 was the opening day of the Coconut Grove Art Festival, billed as the largest venue in the country. The heat was a record 87 degrees and the crowd was estimated at 120,000 over three days. We can attest to the quality of the artists and size of the crowds. One had to go: the 1 1/2 mile long event blocked off the marina and disconnected us from town. We bought nothing but enjoyed the photo shoot.

Next, a short trip back to Boca and Elliot Keys, then that weather window. Time to stop dreaming and sail to the Bahamas.