Bahamas Bound

  The boat still has its sails..  We left Nassau after a brief stay, and we held ourselves back from eating breakfast at McDonald’s. Ha ha. It just did not seem right being in the Bahamas. We made our way to the Berry Islands today. We visited a nice secluded beach and took a walk up the trail to a blue hole, which is basically a lime stone sink hole that has filled with water. Then we went for a nice snorkel and Jessica found a sunken shipwreck. Just before Jessica alerted me of the shipwreck, we both had raised our heads above water to touch base. I announced to Jessica that I saw a big stingray and to come look however I was trumped by Jessica‘s discovery of the shipwreck. Very sad to know someone’s dream is at the bottom of the ocean. Not to mention the story that went along with it, who knows…. Then we talked on the phone with Jessica‘s father Don and wished him a Happy Birthday! Tomorrow, our plan is to sail to Great Harbor Cay, here in the Berry Islands, and get a slip ...

Scott sitting in the Ocean Atlas lap. Jessica free diving down to the Ocean Atlas. We left the Exuma‘s at the crack of dawn and made it to New Providence Island early afternoon. We are on the opposite end of the island from Nassau, but it is still quite a shock to see all the homes and development because it is so much more developed than the out islands that we have been accustomed to in the Bahamas. Jessica was scrolling through the Google map when we approached the island and she discovered there was a McDonald’s and a Wendy’s. Her face lit up. However, I informed Jessica that crime is bad and we cannot just leave the dinghy on the beach and go to McDonald’s. Ha ha. Therefore, we picked an anchorage that is far away from the cruise ships and big city life. Then we snorkeled at the ocean Atlas Garden, where the largest underwater sculptures in the world are located. Jessica swam down and touched the top of the Ocean Atlas Statue which is a Bahamian girl carrying the weight of the oce...

  God sent us a “see ya later” sign from Exumas. Standing so I can read water depth. Mom, I made sure my gross toe nails were covered in sand!  Today we had a half day sail off the Exuma’s to Shroud Cay. We had two dolphins swim on the bow for a bit….. The water was choppy so we opted not to jump in the water and swim with the dolphins this time …. Ha ha. We anchored up, and waited for high tide to take the dinghy through the mangrove creek over to the “washing machine“ (for the second time, first time was with Jessica’s sister Noelle one month ago). We feel so fortunate to be able to repeat a few of our favorite places such as this. This is an area where the mangrove creek dumbs into the ocean and creates a swirling effect. We snorkeled around and had a good time going down current, then swimming sideways to go upstream. We took Alli to the beach and met an Australian Labradoodle that was cute as could be. The owners did not have the tennis ball to throw so I donated my sanda...

  Jessica and I sailed, with no motor, from Staniel Cay to O’Briens Cay.    We so enjoyed snorkeling at the “aquarium”with her sister Noelle, that we came back to snorkel it again today. We decided to put bread inside a water squirt bottle and squeeze out the bread for the fish to eat. It felt like we were inside the eye of a tornado with fish swarming all around us. One fish nibbled or brushed up against Jessica‘s hand and drew a little bit of blood. No harm done. But the highlight was when Jessica pointed out to me the scrawled filefish. It was absolutely beautiful. Then Jessica snorkeled over an airplane crash from long ago when drugs were smuggled into this Cay.

  Jessica and I went to the Staniel cay yacht club and had an excellent lunch. Then we walked to the grocery store and stocked up on fresh veggies and other provisions. We met up with some fellow cruisers at the beach when we took Ali for her afternoon beach walk. Then our friends Tim and Carolyn invited us over for a get together on their catamaran. We had a good time meeting four other couples and Carolyn served us delicious chili for dinner.    One cruising couple has a two year-old boy, so they took the dinghy and brought him to bed at a decent hour, and come back to the get-together. They were able to hear and watch the baby monitor from Tim and Carolyn‘s boat to make sure he was sleeping well. Then we played a few rounds of Mexican train. A good time was had by all.

  Today is what we call a blow. The nor’ easter that is impacting the northeast United States sent some wind our way. So there was no snorkeling or venturing off in the dinghy with the chop on the water being rough today. Therefore, we looked at our passports and verified our departure date from the Bahamas and made a tentative rough plan for the next 3 1/2 weeks. We put on our reading glasses, and opened up the cruising guide book. We are going to sail to some spots in the northern Exuma’s that we have not seen yet, and revisit some of our favorite spots, such as the washing machine and the aquarium. Then we will venture over to Nassau briefly for some fresh veggies and a good nights sleep, but do not care to stay long in the cruise ship Capital. Then we will go to a group of archipelago islands called the Berries. From there, we will sail to Bimini, then finally back to Florida. Jessica took a walk on the beach with her jacket, and I did a few boat chores such as change the strai...

  Look close, you can see the Puffer fish. Made our way back to Staniel Cay today. With a windy spell coming in tomorrow, we decided to snorkel today, but this time we picked a location that was not even on the charts. It was on the east side of the cays, and today was an unusual day with a west wind so we were able to snorkel on the ocean side in the protected waters.It paid dividends because Jessica and I found a really neat rock wall drop off with lots of brain coral and fan coral. Jessica found an interesting puffer fish that intrigued her. Jessica is getting really good at holding her breath and diving down to get a closer look at fish and reefs. Jessica is also really good at zippering up her own wetsuit, which is in the back. Me, however, I always struggle with zipping it up, and today when I asked Jessica to help me, we realized that I had my wet suit on inside out. We decided to keep it inside out knowing that next time I took it off it would be right side out. Ha ha....

  Waiting on laundry. Circled shark…..view while doing laundry. We left Rudder Cay this morning and took one last sail over top of David Copperfield’s Musician artwork of an underwater piano and mermaid.    Then we stopped at Oven Rock Cay and explored an underground cave. There were pools of water that you could snorkel into other parts of the cave, but we opted out of that adventure.    It was super hot and we were drinking our water every hundred steps it seemed like.    Then we made our way to Black Point Cay that has the best laundromat in the Exumas.    While doing laundry, Jessica made friends with a local cat, and I proved to Jessica that I could indeed fold laundry.    Then we had a rare experience in which we were able to go out to a restaurant for dinner. Most restaurants in the Bahamas are only open for lunch and happy hour, but we found one that we could safely take the dinghy to for dinner. We thoroughly enjoyed hot wi...

  Castle Gate. German U Boat docking spot. First half of video is rocket, 2nd half is the re usable booster landing in the Exuma Sound. More sand coming on the boat! Last night, following the blog post, we watched the Elon Musk rocket launch from Cape Canaveral come right over the mast, who knows how many miles high. We also saw the landing of the booster rocket in the middle of the Exuma sound. Very cool! Jessica and I emailed the owner of Darby Castle last night and got permission to explore the ruins. It was owned by a German Nazi in World War II and was used to resupply German submarine U-boats. You could still see the dredged channel leading up to the dock which was beside a local Bahamian boat anchored that we visited, and she introduced us to her talking parakeet.    We made the best we could around the cactus and up the makeshift trail to the old castle ruins. We explored it inside and felt like we were walking back in time.    Then we made pizzas on the...