Bahamas Bound

  This morning, Jessica took a walk with Alli. They explored the nearby Greenway and parks that are near the marina. I ordered a water pump for the boat yesterday and received it today at the marina. Amazing how quick you can get items delivered in America, never ceases to amaze me. I installed the pump and then Jessica and I went on the free trolley over to the beach boardwalk area and had an excellent burger at Mulligan‘s. Now I know why Jimmy Buffett made the song “cheeseburger in paradise”in which he eats a cheeseburger while he is in port. Afterwards, we walked the boardwalk and through the neighborhoods back to the marina. We noticed a lot of foliage that had been damaged by the unusually cold freezing temperatures in early February here in South Florida. Every Thursday night, the marina throws a social gathering in which people bring appetizers and chitchat about their journeys. Tonight was our mooring ball mate Roger’s birthday, so chocolate cake was also served.

  Jessica grew up knowing to stay away from white sketchy looking vans, but this one was hard to resist. Just kidding, cute picture. Florigami is art where you fold paper to make flowers, this is an example of a turtle made with no cuts in the paper, only folds. Dinghy ride back to Methusala. This marina rafts two boats to each Mooring ball. We really have been enjoying our time at Vero Beach. There is a free trolley that comes to the marina as one of their numerous stops around town. We rode the trolley to a Thai restaurant for lunch and our taste buds went cray cray! The restaurant happened to be near a barber shop, so I broke down and sat in the barber chair and at the last minute, decided to keep my hair relatively long and just get it shaped up (for now), as opposed to getting it short like it was before. Jessica is waiting for her haircut when she is back home and can go to “her person”. The highlight of the day was touring McKee Botanical Gardens. The theme this month was fl...

  Jensen beach sunrise. Jessica on the dinghy dock. Jessica and I woke up this morning to the sound of trains and their whistle. When you are away from America, it’s amazing how you get used to not hearing things like road noise, jets, trains, trucks with no muffler, etc.    We motored for a half day North and ended up in Vero Beach municipal Marina mooring field. we took a walk around and so far have fallen in love with this town, it’s no wonder people call it “Velcro” Beach. There seems to be a lot of activity with Greenway trails, dog parks, botanical gardens, beach scene, boardwalk, etc. We hinted at the fact that when we retire, this is a potential spot 😊.    As you can see in the dolphin video, the Mooring field is set up a little different here in which they double you up with another boat rafted to the side, which is just fine.    We took Alli for a nice walk through the park, but at the end it was so warm that she was starting to pant and slo...

  Jessica and I had a wonderful night sleep, and we made our coffee to go and dingy’d over to the manatee wildlife center. Of course, there was no dinghy dock so we had to pull up on a beach nearby and walk down the street. When they opened the gate at 9 AM, the security guard said that no dogs were allowed. I sat with Alli, while Jessica walked in and toured the facility. There were no live manatees in the river today, but she learned why they like freshwater. We went in the ocean for 30 miles sailing to Jensen beach, hoping to get a tuna, wahoo, or mahi-mahi. It is amazing how the gulf stream runs so close to South Florida, evident by the color of water and temperature just 1 mile off of the beach. We had one    fish hit. I heard the reel click and ran over to pick it up just as the fish swam away. I slowed the boat down, which was a mistake because then the lure did not look like an injured fish, and I watched the mahi swim away from the lure. Jessica and I went to the...

  Last night in Bahamas.    Best boat dog ever!  Left Bimini at 7 AM and made our way across the gulf stream safe and sound. We hooked up with one mahi-mahi, but it was small and when we got him close to the boat, he threw the hook. That’s OK, we are going to get us a good old American hamburger at McDonald’s soon anyway. Ha ha. Came into Florida at West Palm Beach 11 hours after leaving Bimini and were totally amazed by the wealth of this nation by just looking at the homes and boats. America may not be perfect, but it is the best country in this world. We loved the Bahamas, and one thing we learned from the Bahamian’s is that you don’t have to have money to be happy. Truly wonderful, appreciative and happy people in the Bahama Islands. We have so many wonderful memories that we will reminisce about for years to come, but are soon looking forward to spending time with our family and friends!! Departure Arrival

  You might wonder why there are three conch salads, and only two of us, we always share the second bowl and make it extra spicy. As we left the conch shack, Jessica asked if we could add one more conch shell to our dozen or so that we already have on Methuselah. I told her only if it does not smell bad. So she took the sniff test and now we have at least 13 conch shells. Our Boat Neighboor saw us preparing this blog today so he took a picture. Jessica filling water that cost $.50 a gallon, one last time… Yes, I wimped out and wore my hoodie for the last snorkel because the water was a little chilly after three days of cool windy weather. For our last day in the Bahamas, we just HAD to eat one more conch salad. So we took the dinghy down to our favorite conch shack for lunch. Then we took the 5 mile dinghy ride to turtle reef and did our last snorkel in the Bahamas. I saw a Caribbean Reef shark when we first jumped in, but I did not tell Jessica until after our snorkel. However, sh...

  Remnants of a hotel where Ernest Hemingway and Jimmy Buffett like to stay in Bimini.  Fountain of youth. We took the two minute ferry ride from North Bimini to South Bimini. Then we walked 1 mile to the Fountain of Youth. We figured if the Bahamian sun took off some years on our skin this would help, however, Jessica did not need it as she is cute as a button, see picture with bungee cord in her hair from three days ago.    I went for one last grocery run in the Bahamas and Jessica caught up on her journal writing.    We had a good conversation with our slip mates who live in Minnesota, but keep their boat in Fort Pierce and come to the Bahamas every winter. We also enjoyed a restaurant for the last time in the Bahamas. If  the wind cooperates, we are looking forward to one last snorkel tomorrow.😎 High school kiddos performing a marching band called the Junkanoo parade. Junkanoo name was originated from Bahamian’s performing in the streets, dancing,...

  After yesterday’s rain, we were anxious to get out & about.    We went to the laundromat and were surprised to learn they required masks….what memories that brought! We took a long walk on the beach and enjoyed the sunshine and lower humidity.    This windy weather that we are experiencing even prevented the cruise ship from coming into port in Bimini, so it was nice to walk the streets without cruise ship tourists forgetting to drive golf carts on the left side of the road.    The weather models are predicting a favorable opportunity to cross the Gulf Stream to FL on Sunday / Monday. 

  Filling our Propane. The dog stroller makes a perfect buggy. Jessica and I are still waiting out the windy period. It has been rainy and drizzly all day so the weather has kept us down below on Methuselah most of the day. However, we did manage to get out and walk down to the end of Bimini to fill our propane bottle. We saw the school children getting on the ferry to go to South Bimini.    We also watched the weekly delivery of goods come off the mail Boat. We are hoping to get in another day of snorkeling before we leave the Bahamas this weekend when the weather gets better. 

  Jessica’s hair is getting much longer. We did not bring hair headbands, so we improvised, and I found a bungee cord in my rope stash to hold her hair out of her face,  I thought this picture was cute as a button. Due to the windy period for a few days, we moved from the anchorage back to a marina in Bimini to wait on fair weather to cross back to Florida this weekend. We ventured to the grocery store and took hot showers and let the water run and run….. we made friends with our slip neighbors who are just beginning their Bahama adventure. We are going to hunker down    this evening, watch our favorite show and    make curry chicken for dinner. We don’t even need the air-conditioning in a slip for once because it is chilly in the low 70s.

  We woke up to a beautiful rainbow overhead, except instead of a pot of gold, the rainbow ended right at the casino. We did not take it as sign to go gamble.    Although we are only 50 miles from Florida, we are going to wait for at least a few more days for safe weather   to safely sail cross the gulf stream.    A windy spell has us in an anchorage in North Bimini. The wind has created waves a little too big to take the dinghy out to good snorkeling reefs so we took a short dinghy ride over to a conch shack. These conch shacks in the Bahamas have been an exciting addition to our trip. We absolutely love talking to the locals and watching them clean and cut up conch, and mix it with onions, tomatoes, peppers, hot sauce, lime juice, orange juice. The conch is not cooked, it’s basically ceviche, which we plan on repeating back home with all of the ingredients except conch (using fish or oysters).    Then we walked to the grocery store and were impr...

  Enjoying Gelato  Boats that look like cars including the interior. Shark Lady is also a card Shark!  Our morning view drinking coffee. The official airport for North Bimini is right beside our Anchorage, which is a sea plane water landing strip. It sprinkled absolutely all day long. Jessica and I    managed to make it over to the cruise ship tourist area and we splurged and got some gelato. It was absolutely delicious as we have not had a homemade dairy frozen treat since Florida 4 months ago.    Even though we couldn’t get our favorite mint chocolate chip, I got pistachio and Jessica got Pomegranate and Banana.    We walked around the casino where all the college spring breakers were playing blackjack. We couldn’t help but chuckle when one college stud doubled down on a pair of 3’s and lost $375 in one hand. We came back to Methuselah and played the phase 10 card game for free and had a wonderful time chitchatting.    We worked o...

  Waterspout  This morning, we left the marina and went to Honeymoon Harbor on Gun Cay. While trolling and sailing, Jessica noted a spike dangling down from the cloud. We zoomed in and realized it was a waterspout that was about 10 miles away. Basically, a small tornado from the thunderstorm that touched down on the water. Then,    we went for a snorkel and found a beautiful reef with numerous fan coral, however, the tide was running strong, so it was all we could do to kick with our fins    and stay even with the current. We went over to the beach, and found stingrays that were begging for food like a puppy. We had some old hotdogs and celery in the refrigerator so we fed them. Then, as we were snorkeling back to the dinghy I found one rock with a overhead ledge that housed five lobsters, which made their way to our dinner table tonight. Now we are anchored back in Bimini because it was a little bit too rolly from the ocean swells to stay overnight at Gun ...

  Delicious restaurant called three sisters, but like most Bahamian stores there is no sign, so you just have to kind of assume it is the restaurant from what you saw on Google maps, and walk up to the front door. Our dinghy parking spot for the restaurant. Ritzy Sid elf Bimini Typical pen for conch as they await for customers to eat a conch salad Jessica and I had a nice lunch at Three Sisters restaurant. We both had mahi, never before fried like this but nonetheless it was delicious. Then Jessica and I took a dinghy ride to the ritzy side of Bimini today where it turns into a different world. We saw the casino, new homes, being built, fancy shopping areas, tourists getting off the trolley from the cruise ship. We saw the college spring breakers as they were waiting on their ferry to leave Bimini.    We walked by the casino, but decided it was not for us. Then, Jessica saw the ice cream sign!! We have not had our favorite mint chocolate chip ice cream since coming to the...