Photo Ops, Choppy Seas and Birthdays

     As planned, Betty, Julia, Pete and I left at 7:30 AM.  Pete had called for pick-up and the cart just suddenly appeared. He didn’t have time to grab his camera. We took the loop that Pete and I did yesterday. It took us through Predator’s Cave, The Cave Grill, the hammer head sharks, the falls and the rope bridge.  Then we headed over to the Dig/ Ruins where “20,000 marine animals live in a 2.3 million gallon exhibit”. It is the best aquarium I have ever seen. I took a series of 8 photos of a manta ray “flying” towards me.  It was simply amazing. However, there is not one exhibit, but perhaps 10-15 sprinkled all over the property.  We saw sea stars, nurse sharks, hammer head sharks, green sea turtles, sharks and other fish in the Mayan Temple; Southern stingrays , Lyon fish and lobster exhibits. And we did not cover all the areas!  Perhaps we will have a chance to come back this way again someday.

Hammerhead shark

Views from The Dig

Shark swimming over our head

    

"The Dig"

      We checked out and departed at 11.  Our destination was Highborn Cay.  It is only 35 miles from here, but it starts our journey though the Exumas.  We cleared our departure with Nassau Control and headed out.   We needed to follow the others as our charts are no good. There is no depth information on it. We only made headway of about 5 miles when the decision was made to return to Nassau Harbor Club for another day. The winds were 15 out of the East right on our nose.  The seas were very choppy and cut our forward progress to less than 3.5 knots.  Even with a course correction for Shroud Cay we would not make the anchorage until 7:30 and well past sunset. So we turned about and suddenly we were doing 6.5 knots and surfing the waves.  Requested permission to re-enter Nassau harbor and received slips back at Nassau Harbor Club.

Looking up at the outside restaurant

Swirling Stingrays in the morning

    

    We gathered at 7:30 aboard Brunelle to celebrate grandson, Ben’s, 3^rd Birthday.  Grandmar made him a sailboat cake complete with mainsail, jib and hull and one of his candles actually played the “Happy Birthday” music.
 

     When we returned back to Pekabu, we called home to wish our “baby,” Heather, a Happy Birthday.  It is simply amazing how time flies. Just “yesterday” she was so small and dependent. Now she is this wonderful, resourceful, young lady and we are retired and living our dream!

~  ~ (\_~ ~ ~     Kathy and Pete 

“Welcome” to Atlantis!

    I wanted to wash the new set of sheets before we left so I had to wait until 7:30 AM to get the tokens from the office. By the time I went down to the laundry, all four machines were in use. Since two were Martha’s, I asked her to let me know when she was going to switch machines so that I could grab her machine.  So much for planning to be first to use the laundry machines.

Pekabu docked at
Atlantis

   By 10:30 laundry was completed, Pete had completed his e-mails, I did more on the blog and the boat was ready to depart. We headed over to Hurricane Hole Marina for our diesel rather than fill up at our current marina due to the rocking and rolling. We were concerned about damage to the boat and to me (my shoulder is periodically problematic since St Augustine in early December.)

  11:30 AM we were in the channel of Atlantis, when the harbor master gave us our slip assignments near the entry of the channel. A golf cart was traveling on shore towards the point with a lovely young lady, who waiving and yelling “Hello Pekabu!” and pointing to the slip we needed to enter.  She took pictures of us as we approached the slip, waved and greeted us with “Welcome Pekabu,” and “How was your trip?” We thought the greetings from the staff here at the marina, was very energetic, welcoming, and personable and they were going to charge us for the picture. Then we saw her luggage.  This was Julia, John and Betty’s daughter. After a good laugh, we secured the boat and invited Julia on board, then radioed over to let Andiamo know that a” lovely package was here on Pekabu.” Brunelle questioned about their “packages,” but we haven’t see them yet.

Stores at the Market Place

Stores at the Market Place

    We helped Brunelle tie up next to the sea wall, but we had to wait for a while for Andiamo.  Casino Royal needed to clear the channel before Andiamo could come in.  All three of us are in the same area.  One of the pools is right here. We can call on channel 10 and guest services will come out for us in the golf cart to drive us to another location on the resort. We have our “room” cards that have “M/Y(motor/yacht) Pekabu” on the cards with our arrival and departure dates.

    As soon as we were checked in, we changed into bathing suits, put on the sun screen, locked the boat, said farewell to the others and headed in search of the water park. Our ride dropped us off at the Coral Hotel. From there it is a haze of just where we went wrong.  Somehow we found our way to the Cave of Predators, which is the one of the aquarium, and stumbled upon a restaurant, where we had a great lunch.  Our search continued past the ocean and when Pete went to ask directions, miraculously appeared an ice cream stand, with information where to find the Lazy River. Ice cream finished before we made it to the River, we thought we should have towels.  I volunteered to get them.  It was at that time I discovered we needed the wrist bands.  Wrist bands need the room keys. Pete had the room keys in his pocket and Pete was up at the entrance to the Lazy River.  I walked back for the keys.  When I returned to have the keys swiped for the bands, there was a problem. 5 bands had already been granted on my “room” key today.  They would not believe that we were only 2 people. Between phone problems, three boats registering together, and not wanting to charge me extra for the bands, things got a little crazy.  I finally asked for a time stamp for the 5 bands.  They were requested at 9:30 AM.  I explained that I only checked in at 11:30 AM so it could not have been me. They finally agreed to give me the band, but Pete needed to be there and we each needed to sign for them.  Back up to Lazy River I went.  He came back down to the hut and read them the riot act then signed for the band. Now we could have some fun 45 minutes after I had left for the towels.

SOULMATE in the harbor

     Lazy River was just that. . .lazy and relaxing and took only 10 minutes to complete the loop.  A couple of times around was great, but we decided to try and find the more intense one. A 10 minute walk and success!  The Current was very different. 2 sets of rapids, a wave area, a sharp turn, elevators, swift water, moderately running water, choices of rapids or tower where you can choose from two shoots with completely dark areas of water slides, one area that the water jets actually shoots you uphill. This circuit takes 30 minutes to complete.  It was so much fun, we did it twice, but the ride starts to close at 5.

Pete as a
Bahamian Junkaroo

     We came back to shower and change so that we could head out for dinner.  We had planned on an Italian dinner after taking some pictures, but the place was closed. We continued on and investigated the Seafire Steak House. Reservations were required so we ate at the bar instead.  The food and service were great.

     Needing to stretch our legs and walk off some of that great meal, we walked up to the Coral Hotel. We found the Kids Speedway and Club Rush area. Then went up to the shops and found shirts for Pete. Donated $20 at slot machine in the casino and then decided to walk back to the boat.  It was fun to glance into the larger boats as we walked by.

Some of the beautiful glass art

     John, Betty and Julia were in Andiamo’s cockpit when we got back and invited us to come aboard. After a lovely visit we agreed that if Betty and I were up at 7:30 we’d head out to take some pictures.  This is a great place for photos.

   What a great day!

~  ~ (\_~ ~ ~     Kathy and Pete 

Nassau - Two Views

    A number of phone calls were made to the dock master’s office at Atlantis.  We will be charged the minimum of 40’ and “Yes” the amenities, tour of the Dig, and water parks are all included.  Most importantly, they have space for our three boats Sunday.

   Pete did laundry while I walked over to the shopping center.  I found a “Bed, Bath and Home” store. I decided to check them out, just for curiosity sake, as one of the sheet sets has seen better days.  I was really surprised to find a good set of 400 count cotton for BJ’s prices and no tax. Then it was over to the City Market.  I was able to get everything on my list except for my yogurt. The few remaining Dannon’s were out of date.  As I was checking out, I realized I bought a little more than I could carry. I had opted for 2 more gallon jugs of water and there was no room in my canvas bags.  No Worries (Wo)Man! The store had Simon push the cart over to the marina for me and help me load my bags onto the boat. He actually pushed the grocery cart right down the finger pier. Yesterday one woman at the end of our dock had provisioned her boat with 4 full grocery carts with 5 staff helping from the store. Talk about customer service!

     When I returned, I found out that Pete didn’t realize that my Ziploc bag of drier sheets (all 150 of them), were in the laundry bag.  He had dumped them into the washer along with the laundry and laundry bag. Unfortunately, the Ziploc was not completely closed and all the sheets were all over the washer. Pete just kept pulling them from the wash and stuffing them into the garbage can. They were overflowing the can.  The laundry room smelled great!  I needed to buy new softener sheets.

This was the final choice of where
to eat . . . a good one.

      We finally left the marina around 1 in search of the bus to take us to the Fish Fry.  We walked about 2 blocks, and with directions from a young couple were able to catch the right bus (#17). Though we needed to the other end of Bay Street, we took a very circular route, seeing all parts of Nassau. In the heart of downtown, we needed to change to the #10 bus out to the Fish Fry. I had no idea of what to expect. The Fish Fry is similar to the food stands at Potter’s Cay in that it is series of various eateries serving similar food, only these are bigger buildings with hawkers trying to convince you their establishment is the best.  When a place was finally chosen, the decision was made to eat upstairs, outside with a water view so that we would have the shade and the breeze.  With the water comes the view of the gravel and sand pits on the other side of the canal. That would have been OK, but the cigar smoke was not. Instead we somehow wound up in a very comfortable room, very air conditioned and to ourselves for most of the meal.  It was a great meal for everyone, plentiful and very tasty. 

     I was very happy Pete insisted we take a taxi back.  It gave us time to stop at the dive shop to try to get water shoes for the water park. Everyone else also wanted to stop at the shopping center for some last minute items.

      Since we had a late lunch, John offered to prepare some items that had defrosted in lieu of dinner, for around 7.  We gathered, ate and discussed how unbelievably things have worked out. The “kids” are real excited about Atlantis and so are we. If we get there by noon, we will have all afternoon to play, plus Monday morning until 11.

    I still can’t believe we are going to Atlantis by boat, our boat! 

~  ~ (\_~ ~ ~     Kathy and Pete 

Adjusting to Bahaman Times

Interesting sign along the street
across from the Marina

     Pete had talked to Peter, the harbor master, yesterday about having a rigger come and check out our Jib.  Unfortunately, he wasn’t called until late afternoon.  Pete found the part on line and has ordered it directly from the manufacturer.  They made an exception for us, as they do not sell to individuals and they do not ship out of the states. Knowing we will not find the part here in the Bahamas, they will be shipping it out on Monday to the marina.  We just need to fax them the Bahamian cruising permit to avoid the duty tax.

    Everyone is having problems with Wifi.  Pete found that the powered extension has been damaged and was able to get a new one at Radio Shack in the shopping center across the street.  Brunelle and Andiamo bought a powered wifi antenna, which did increase the signal. Pete was able to set up the SAT phone with voice mail.  

    We opted to eat lunch at the Poop Deck. John and Pete opted to head back due to work and projects. On the way back there was a choice of 3 marine stores. Pete picked up a new hose and 2- 50 foot, 30 amp electrical cords as extensions, should we have future problems trying to reach to connect the electrical.

Eateries lined the sides
 of the road

Discarded conch shells

     Dan and we three ladies continued on towards Potter’s Cay.  We passed the harbor where there were quite a few abandoned small boats were submerged and/or overturned. Potters Cay was full of stands for eateries as well as fruit and vegetable stands.  We continued on to the next bridge then turned around as it was hot and very little shade.

     Back at the boat, I went in search of my small collapsible bag and in the process reorganized some of the space, again. I did find the bag.  With so much on board there is stuff all over and if not put away exactly where it belongs immediately, things get out of hand very quickly. Every time I reorganize, I justify a slightly different placement, which leads to more confusion in trying to locate items, hence more messes. By the time we complete this cruise, I will have found the right place for everything!

Preparing for the Fish Fry

     Andiamo has been having issues, too, with the temperature rising in the freezer when we are traveling.  He spent this afternoon tracing down the problem.  It appears the culprit is the placement of the engine exhaust hoses that are routed up behind the freezer where some of the insulation was removed to allow it to fit.  John has made some adjustments and modifications that should help.  I just wish I had some of the insulation I used for the sound blanket still on board. Unfortunately, all of the extra insulation is in the truck back in Florida.  

Local color at a garden shop

   We enjoyed a wonderful dinner aboard Brunelle while discussing various options. The most interesting option is the very real possibility of docking at Atlantis so that the “kids” can meet Brunelle and Andiamo there and we can all take advantage of the water parks.  From the web investigations it appears the with our dockage fee, the $110 per person Water Park fee is included.  This makes the $4/ft, 50 ft minimum dockage fees much more reasonable. We will see if we can get confirmation. Atlantis is a stop Pete and I definitely plan to make, this just makes it much more appealing.

   Can’t wait for tomorrow’s staff meeting!”

~  ~ (\_~ ~ ~     Kathy and Pete     

"We are not in Kansas anymore"

     Weather reports are “iffy.” Winds are supposed to kick up out of the east at 15-18 tomorrow and remain steady through Saturday.  That will cause problems crossing over to Nassau in time to meet family coming to meet Brunelle and Andiamo. So we listened in on our portable radios at 6:30 AM and made the decision to drop the mooring ball and head on out. 

Beautiful, but deceiving.

     We had a pretty sunrise courtesy of the clouds to the east, but there was a shelf of clouds above the horizon to the southeast.  Within a few minutes, we saw not one, but 4 water spouts emerge from those clouds.  Over the next 20 minutes they would disappear and reappear. 

I took this shot to show the tones of the water,
but you can see the shelf of the clouds where a few minutes later
we could see the water spouts.

 It was a first for all of us.  Thankfully, we continued east and the storm went south and dissipated.  By noon we were in partial sunshine.

Pete hard at work
on the Furler

     When we tried to unfurl our genny, she was really hard to unfurl.  Pete went forward and found that we had lost some very important hardware.  He was able to jury-rig a temporary solution so we were able to get some assist from the sail so we wouldn’t stray back too far from the others.  Brunelle, with her new propeller, really wants to move and we can only do 6 knots (7 MPH) as our cruising speed.

Nassau Harbor Control

     Pete had a real had a successful conference via satellite phone.  He did have problems, however, with the satellite voice mail system and is working on that. Once those were being handled, Pete wanted to reprogram what we see on the Garmin, I worked on editing pictures since there was only the same gorgeous blue waters to look at.

    As we approached Nassau Harbor, we called into Nassau Harbor Control requesting permission for entry. We needed to provide our name, documentation number, last port of call and where we are staying.  Once we were docked, Customs came to the marina.  We had already printed off the 5 sheets of papers that needed to be completed. Peter, our dock master, had given us a packet that contained two additional ones that we completed at attached to our packet along with our passports, driver licenses, boat documentation and entry fee. At 4:30 we had cleared customs and were able to replace the Q flag with the Bahaman flag. 

Nassau Lighthouse

      Pete was able to identify a lot of wifi, signals thanks to the wifi antenna we picked up over the holidays, and tried to get some work done.  I met some of our new neighbors.  Dennis and Mary are from Titusville.  This is their first cruise and they are loving it.  They leave tomorrow heading east after exploring the Exumas Land and Sea Park.  Bev and Bob invited us to join them for dinner at a Chinese place just down the road.

    We had problems with our 50’ electric cord being too short to reach to the connection.  The marina lent us a 25’ extension.  This might be a problem in the future. We will have to give this some thought.

     All of us gathered on the docks hoping to see the contrails of the Shuttle as it passed this way after takeoff at 4:45 PM.  Unfortunately, there was nothing to see.  This was the second to last Shuttle mission in the program.  Hopefully, we will be close to Titusville in April when the last one takes off.  Hopefully, it won’t be postponed like this one.   We were in Titusville when this was rescheduled in November for takeoff. How cool would that have been!!!!

     We met Bob and Bev at 6. It wasn’t a bad walk, but the marina area is rather seedy at night.  The Double Dragon Chinese Restaurant was a very clean place for eat in or take out. The food was good and plentiful; the service great. Bob and Bev shared their experiences over 30 years of cruising the Bahamas as well as the Great Circle. 

     As enjoyable as the company and food was, we were glad to get back to the boat.  The past three days had caught up with us and we had “hit the wall.” So good night all!

~  ~ (\_~ ~ ~     Kathy and Pete     

The Middle of Beautiful Nowhere

     6:30 AM came very fast. The storms that were predicted came through as showers.  Pete got up to check things once last night.  He had heard some prop planes go over head, but once he heard something else that turned out to be another large boat traveling along the preferred route well after dark.  I heard nothing. I slept straight through.

      It was mostly cloudy, but I managed to get some spectacular shots of Brunelle heading into a rising sun this morning. The cloud cover kept the temperatures down, but when the sun came out it was really warm.  As we were discussing the Banks being barren over the radios, we spotted a small pod of dolphins that Andiamo was also able to see.

     The shallows of the Banks gave way to the “Tongue of the Ocean.”  Since there was no wind today, the water was very smooth.  We could see a difference on the surface of the water where The Tongue began. We watched our depth meter change from 15 feet to “last” (meaning “can’t get sounding beyond 1000 feet”). Within a 150 foot passage we passed over an underwater cliff.  The charts in the area show a depth of over 2500+ feet. However, we needed to be very careful as the area just west of where The Tongue begins. It is shallow, but crested with rocks.  The currents in The Tongue are strong and decreased our speed by a knot. In order to get to Chub Cay we must cross through The Tongue.

Brunelle sailing into a ray of sunlight

     We made reservations for moorings at Berry Island Fraiser's Hog Cay. It is slightly off of The Tongue, so that we were able to see coral, sponge, and fish when the seas were calm. There is a very narrow channel to get to the marina.  Somehow Andiamo bumped something even though their depth meter stated 7’. 

     Once we were moored, the boat behind us had just cleared customs and Alan came over with his dog to explain the process he just completed. It included this marina is not for clearing customs, someone offering to drive him to customs in a golf cart, then with a school bus with wooden doors that needs to be jump started, which was then driven down the air strip by the gentlemen, who, by the way happened to be drunk. Alan had the paperwork, but not all. He had the money. The officials offered to complete it for him since he didn’t have his glasses. He just needed to sign here. STAMP, STAMP, STAMP.  As for the dog, since he had his receipts for the new adoption and the paper work was faxed to the Bahamas, he just needed to sign here and here, STAMP, STAMP, STAMP. He went back to the driver, who was about to get into a fight with the others at the airport and had to wait to see what the outcome would be.  He finally was allowed to get back into the bus, back to the guy’s house, back into the golf cart and back to the marina. The drunken guy got a tip and Alan got to switch his Q flag for a Bahaman flag 3.5 hours later.  After this story, Dan decided to try to clear customs tomorrow. We decided for the mooring ball tonight as it is already 4:45 PM.

The Berry Island Club

     With a lot of help from John, we served Beef Wellington with oven roasted potatoes and salad to the fleet as our “ We Made it to the Bahamas Dinner.”  YUM!

~  ~ (\_~ ~ ~     Kathy and Pete 

Today is the Day!

     The alarm really did ring at 3:30 AM.  We all had our deck lights on, engines running, running and steaming lights on and our anchors pulled by 4 AM. We were the first of 6 boats to depart the anchorage, heading east towards the Hawk’s Channel, the Reef, the Gulf Stream and the Bahamas, but first we needed to miss those nasty crab floats!  They are impossible to see in the dark even though we used the spot lights. Brunelle ran over one.  Thankfully, it was not snagged.

Pekabu's view as we crossed the Gulf Stream

     As we approached Molasses Reef, we began to feel the 3-4 foot ocean rollers as they came over the reef. The breezes were light and the seas were 3-4 feet, but a bit irregular in the darkness, which made for a rocky ride for the first few hours. As the skies lightened, the winds lessened and the seas smoothed out. We also increased our speed by 3 knots. We were in the Gulf Stream.   We could see the other sail boats, who departed the same time as we did, taking a slightly more northern tract. We also saw hundreds of Man-o-War. Their sails captured the early morning light, making the sail iridescent; the very early ones appeared golden. The Man-o-War closer to shore, had bases that were navy blue.  The ones further out had thicker bases that were turquoise and white.  I took over 70 pictures, but none were clear. They were too small on an ocean that was too big and we were moving too fast. As for other wildlife, dolphins only visited once in passing. Just before we reached land we saw a whole flock of flying fish.

Brunelle and Andiamo sailing east towards sunrise and the Bahamas!

     By 3:30 PM we made landfall in the Bahamas, 12 hours after beginning our passage. We passed through the cut between Gunn Cay and North Cat Cay, during the “rage”, while current was ripping through the cut. It picked up the boat about a foot and Pete could feel the resistance on the helm, but he was able to make the turn and pass through onto the Bahamas Bank.  We continued on until 6PM, which was another 15 miles, before we dropped anchor for the night.  The Banks are a large underwater plateau that extends for miles with a very consistent shallow water depth. We traveled a designated heading on the Explorer Chart that kept us in depths that varied from 8-20 feet.  Some areas are less; some are more.  Our Garmin Chip for this area is totally useless! Thank heavens we have Brunelle and Andiamo with the Raymarine chips, the Explorer Charts and the “Tides and Charts/Active Captain” on the IPad. They provided us with the depths and channel. It is amazing to see the silhouette of the sail on the bottom of the water, not to mention the intense colors of the water and sky.



Betty captured this wonderful shot of
us on the Bahama Banks



The shadow of our main
on the bottom

     Once the anchor was set, the anchor light on and dinner heated, we looked at each other and kept marveling, “We are here.” “We did it! We sailed to the Bahamas in our own boat.” We are 3 boats anchored here in the middle of this beautiful blue water as far as the eye can see with nothing else in site; No land, no other boats.

     Once the sun was down, we looked up and were astounded by the stars.  They were so clear, so bright, so many, and seemed so close.  If we weren’t so tired, I wanted to stay out all night at stargaze.   However, we have to move on at 7AM tomorrow.

   Good night from the Bahamas Bank!  WE DID IT!!!!

~  ~ (\_~ ~ ~     Kathy and Pete 

Farewell to Key Largo



Our final "Staff Meeting" in Key Largo

     At the staff meeting, our cruise dictator/director, Dan, verified that today was definitely “a go.”  Weather reports were all in agreement with seas calm tomorrow and clocking around on Wednesday from the SSE then SSW.  Pete further reported that Chris Parker also agreed that this was a good weather window for this area to traverse east.

Our harbor master,
Candi,
always there to help.

     The deeper draft boats, Brunelle and Andiamo needed to leave today around 1 PM due to the rising tide. We would too, but need to stop for fuel on the way out. However, I needed to rewash the boat as the birds bombarded us again. I also took advantage to top off our water tanks, including the collapsible bottles Lyn and Bruce gave us. Pete put in as much work time as he could before breaking for lunch.

Our fleet as we
prepare to depart

     Since it was out last day, Pete and I opted to eat at Coconuts, which overlooks the marina.  We had a great lunch and made it back in time for the departure.  Candi even cut her rounds short, so that she could assist us out of the slips. Tom, of Gambrinus, as well as Frank, Fonda and Buster, of Irony, were on hand to say farewell.

Sevilla at Anchor with
our fleet off Rodiguez Key

My favorite mailbox

     By 3 PM, we were fueled up and anchored off of Rodriguez Key, along with 3 other boats.  By 6, we were one of 20 boats, including Sevilla. Maureen and Glen had come up from Marathon with a buddy boat, which will be making the trip back to Annapolis with them. During the trip to Rodriguez, Sevilla encountered sea grass around the prop, which actually stopped the prop.  Glen was able to free the prop, but had Dan take a look and clean off the remaining grass.

    During the afternoon Andiamo was visited by Immigration.  Dan and Martha decided to lower the dinghy and do some inspections of the anchors with the glass bottom pail. We all did a good job of anchoring for the night.

     We tried to make it an early night as the alarm is set for 3:30 AM. We pull anchor tomorrow at 4 AM and the next phase of our adventure will begin!   

~  ~ (\_~ ~ ~     Kathy and Pete