Back in the USA

We made our crossing back to the US yesterday along with Brown Eyed Girl and Something Special.  The crossing went well no chop just swells.  The swells got a bit confused at the apex of the Gulf Stream, which was about 16 miles of the Florida coast.  Overall a much better crossing than the one to the Bahamas.  The color of the water was the deepest indigo you will ever see.  There were lots of boats both coming and going.  We even heard from Rich on Salt and Sand along the way.  Him and Carol are staying here at the same marina in North Palm Beach. 

Sunrise as we were leaving the Bahamas at West End

Ships that we saw in the distance on the way across.

Cruise ship  Celebration with Browed Eyed Girl passing as we came into Lake Worth
Fl.

Mega Yacht ICE, one of the 10 largest private yachts in the world

We arrived at 2:30pm which gave us until 4:00pm to report in person to customs at the cruise ship terminal.  If we didn’t get there by 4:00pm we would have to take a $100 plus cab ride out to the airport.  As it was the cab ride was $60 but all six of us went and split it 3 ways.  The process is you call an 800 number with all your information and then are told to report in person within 24 hours.  What a joke, the agent took all six of our passports and the check in numbers we were given went in back room and came back in 5 minutes, handed back the passports and said we were done.  Never even looked to see if we matched the passports. 

After cleaning most of the salt off the boat (not sure if we will ever get it all off)  we got together with everyone including Rich and Carol for docktails.  The six of us then walked up to a shopping area to look for a place for dinner.  We found a fabulous Italian restaurant, La Scaletta with a young chef from Italy who comes out every 20 minutes or so and sings a song in Italian.  Very unique plus the food was excellent and reasonably priced.

The ICW was quite busy and we all agreed we don’t want to travel on it on the weekends.  So we will be here until Monday and then begin our journey up North. 

It was a great trip to the Bahamas but is  also good to be back and headed north towards Mackinaw.  Catch up with you all soon.

Hugs,

Mary & John

Spanish Cay to West End

Our crossing to the anchorage at Great Sale Cay while a bit windy was not bad.  We arrived early in the afternoon, launched the dinghy to check the set of the anchor and went to explore our last Bahamian beach.  We found lots of choral and small shells.  We also found the ruins of a large building with supports for multiple oil tanks.  Not sure what it was, also it was odd that there was no remains of any walls or roof, just cement with some asbestos tile on it.  On our way back we went to look at a boat we had seen in Little Harbor a week ago.  It is a wood  replica of a 1920's design that is only 6 months old.  We had nice chat with the builder, Ted who convinced Mary we need to come back to the Bahamas and explore the Exhumas,  John was already convinced.  All we have to do is figure out how to get Passport back here without a six month cruise.

We didn't have any problems with the anchor overnight but Brown Eyed Girl did and were gone when we got up.  We had flat water all the way to West End.  Saw another large sea turtle, but he was camera shy.  The lobster man came around and we all bought lobsters and had another feast aboard Something Special.  This time John was able to get 6 for $20 and two beers.   The lobster tails were still moving as we prepared them for grilling, quite spooky.

The price includes cleaning

Greg and Ginny

We have had a good time here in the Bahamas and are sorry to be leaving.  But it's time to continue on with our journey and working our way back to Michigan.  We will be crossing back over to the states this morning.  It will be nice to have our own cell phones and wifi again.

We will blog again soon.  Love to all,

Mary and John

Treasure Cay to Spanish Cay

On Thursday we moved to Treasure Cay Marina on Treasure Cay.  It was a nice easy run with following seas which are a bit of a problem for our boat.  The marina is large with lots of condo’s surrounding it.  While nice it does not have the Bahamas feel we have been used to.  There is a three mile beach that is fantastic, National Geographic has rated it one of the ten best in the world.  We feel so fortunate to be able to see it. 

Thursday night was pizza night at the marina bar.  It was quite an event, just about everyone who was on the island attends.   The lines were longer than some we have seen at Due’s in Chicago.  Luckily we had been told to get in line early so we didn’t have to wait too long. We enjoyed dinner with Craig ,Ginny, Sid and Evelyn

Friday we took a long walk on the beach and found a few shells.  We had a late lunch at the beach front bar and then spent the rest of the afternoon on a lounge chairs under an umbrella. What a life!  After happy hour aboard Brown Eyed Girl we had done something we haven’t done for a while, watch some TV. 

Saturday after filling up the fuel tanks @ $5.80 a gallon OUCH! we headed back to Green Turtle Club.  Looking at the weather John doesn’t feel we will be able to crossover to West End until Thursday and Friday.  This is the same crossing we made when we first arrived and it entails a night at anchor.  Our previous crossing was uncomfortable and this time we are looking for smoother waters.  In addition we are also looking for the right weather window to cross back to the States.  Right now that looks to be Saturday or Sunday.

All that being said we have five days to fill so we thought we would stop back at Green Turtle Club and eat up some dockage.  They offer a special where any charges in the restaurant or bar are applied to your dockage charges until you dockage is free. After an easy passage with hardly any salt spray so the boat cleaning went quick we headed out in the dinghy to look for more some sea shells.  We explored two uninhabited islands and found quite a few different shells.  Not sure what we will do with them but we got a box from the grocery store and have them all wrapped in grocery bags.  Back at the restaurant we were all treated as old friends.  We had spent a week here before waiting for the winds to die down.  That was a nice feeling.

On Sunday we awoke to the winds we were used to here on Green Turtle.  Didn’t do much, just hung out on the boat.  John took a walk over on the Atlantic beach which due to the wind direction was quite calm..  He found some nice pieces of sea glass.  Now all we have to do is figure out how to turn them into a necklace for Mary.  We had dinner aboard because we had splurged the night before with Lobster, wine and dessert and had already eaten up our dockage the night before.

Monday we awoke to no wind in the marina and we all decided to move to Spanish Cay.  The winds picked up once we left the marina but were on our nose and all in all it was another nice ride.  Lots of sunshine and turquoise waters.  Spanish Cay is a private island with a fairly large marina, a few condos and an air strip.  We were told about a few close by beach’s to visit but they were not nearly as nice as the one on Treasure Cay. How soon we get spoiled.  There was lots of trash washed up on them.  The marina has a nice pool and hot tub overlooking the water, we came back and enjoyed the water.

From this shot the beach looks good.

We will need to get another picture once we get to New York.

We had our own gazebo for docktails.

Tuesday we awoke to lots of clouds and light rain. John changed the oil and Mary cut her hair.  Oh how I miss Tracy !   The crossing window to the States is looking like Friday instead of Saturday.  Unfortunately, to make Friday we may have more wind and waves than we wanted from here to the anchorage.  Everything has it’s plus’s and minus’s I guess.  We will keep you posted. The sun came out in the afternoon and we had a nice sunset.  

John & Mary

Marsh Harbor, Hope Town, Little Harbor and Man O War Cay

We moved to Mangoes Marina in Marsh Harbor on Monday, March 12th.  The trip was fine with moderate wind and waves.  The harbormaster, Ray was fantastic in getting everyone secured in their slips.  The town was not at all what we were expecting.  It is good for reprovisioning but as far as we are concerned that is all.  The roads are narrow making walking very difficult and there is trash everywhere.  We were able to get a sim card so we now have a phone, though it's $.80 a minute to call the States.  We tried twice to stock up with fresh produce but both times the shelves were quite bare.  Oh well we were able to pick up a couple of items.  Thanks to   Craig and Ginny, from Brown Eyed Girl , they are members of the Royal Marsh Harbor Yacht Club and we attended their beach cook out at the Abaco Beach Resort on Tuesday.  Sid from Something Special met up with a local fisherman and got 5 lbs of lobster tails for $55.00 and we had a lobster feast aboard their boat Wednesday night.  We all brought a side dish and dinner and company was very enjoyable.

Hurricane damage

These were not our docks for the evening, thank goodness

This was our dock at Mangoes.

On Thursday we moved to Hope Town and except for quite a bit of confusion from the dock attendants at the marina the trip was short and sweet.  We are all squeezed into narrow slips which will prove to be interesting when we leave.  The marina, Hope Town Hideaways is undergoing major renovation and will be very nice once it is completed.  Right now however only certain slips have power and the place is very torn up.  The harbor basin itself is small with lots of boats moored.  Our marina is across the harbor from the town so to see or do anything you need to use your dinghy.  This town is very quaint, just what we were expecting. Pastel colored cottages, narrow winding streets, great views of the Atlantic, numerous shops and even a couple grocery stores.  

On Friday we took a ferry back to Great Guana Cay and went to the Barefoot Man concert at Nippers. We had heard about the concert when we were there, in fact one of the boats we were traveling with, Sweet Pea had decided to stay there so the could attend the concert.  The Barefoot Man is known as the "Jimmy Buffet" of the Bahamas.  It was lots of fun.  

Not sure if it really was but did not experiment

Barefoot Man and his grand daughter before the show

Barefoot Man 

She was having fun

On Saturday we went over to town, toured the local museum  and then took a shuttle to a resort about 3 miles from town, called the Abaco Inn.  They were having an Arts and Crafts show.  It was a beautiful setting and we had a great lunch overlooking the Atlantic. We also took a look at Sea Spray marina, it looks like a very quiet marina. When we got back to our marina we walked over to the lighthouse and climbed to the top, all 101 stairs.  It was built in 1864 and is still fired with kerosene and hand cranked every two hours.  It was quite impressive, both the view and the machinery.  

Overlooking the Atlantic at the Abaco Inn

Views at the base of the lighthouse

On the way to the top

Some of the machinery

The views from the top made going up the 101 steps worth it

Her palms were sweating

There were four of these used to collect rain water

Looking Down

Sunday we decided to go to church with Sid and Evelyn from Something Special.  It was a Methodist church that had two large windows on each side of the alter with fantastic views of the Atlantic Ocean.  After church we settled up our bills and left for Little Harbor which was 16 miles away.  We wanted to leave and  arrive on higher tides  which is why we left later in the day.  Some of the harbor entrances are so shallow that you have to time your passage through them at higher tides.  Something new that we have had to adjust to.  Craig and Ginny were very helpful in assisting both us and Something Special as we left our tight slips.  We have truly enjoyed our stay in Hope Town.   Craig and Ginny from Brown Eyed Girl have decided to pass on going to Little Harbor, we have enjoyed traveling with them and hope to meet up again soon.  

The Methodist Church

Little Harbor only had mooring balls and we got the last two, though we were quite close to the sailboat moored behind us.  At Little Harbor there is a restaurant called Pete’s Pub which is another one of the must see places here in the Abaco’s.  You sit on picnic tables and the bar is right on the beach.  It was an experience to order drinks and a meal while your toes were in the sand.  The dinner was very good. 

Pete’s father, Randolph Johnston,  was a college professor who wanted to get away from the rat race, live on a beach and produce art.  He built a foundry and made bronze sculptures using what is called the lost wax method.  It is quite a process first a piece is carved in wax, then it is dipped in a ceramic slurry to coat the wax. This process is repeated until they have a sturdy ceramic mold.  The mold is then put in the kiln to remove all the wax.  The mold is then fired a second time set in sand and filled with molten bronze.  Once everything has cooled the ceramic is broken away, the sculpture is cleaned and treated with chemicals to give it the desired patina.  Can you tell John and Sid had a brief tour of the foundry.  Pete is an artist himself and continues to produce sculptures.  There was a gallery at the complex that some of both his and his father’s art.  It was all very impressive as well as expensive.

Pete's Pub

One of Randolph Johnston's sculptures

Monday morning three sailboats left first thing at high tide and we moved to another mooring, we didn’t have a problem overnight but just wanted a bit more room between boats.  We took our dinghy’s and explored two caves that is suppose to be where Pete’s family stayed in when they first settled here in the early 50’s.  after the caves we went around the point to explore a beach we had seen on the charts.  We had lot’s of fun beach combing.  The only problem was that there was a falling tide and we had to pull the dinghy’s out into deeper water.   The ride back was a bit rough and we took a bit of salt spray.  Once we all got cleaned up we went back to Pete’s for lunch.  After lunch we walked out to the lighthouse ruins, visited the gallery and John & Sid toured the foundry.  After a very nice morning and afternoon it was back to the boat, get the dinghy secured and dinner aboard.

Sign says it al

Light house ruins

Read the sign

Now how did it know where to cross??

Tuesday morning we left at 7:30 in order to arrive at Man O War Cay before the tide got too low.  The ride was not as bouncy as the one to Little Harbor but were still covered with salt when we arrived. 

Craig from Brown Eyed Girl was there to offer assistance in docking.  It's nice having your own personal dockhand who helps you out of your last slip and then is there to help you into your next one, thanks Craig.   We gave the boat a thorough washing to the tune of 130 gallons.  Here in the Bahamas water is scarce so in addition to paying for your dockage you have to pay separately for both water and electric.  No sooner than we had the boat all dried off it started to rain and continued on and off for the rest of the day.  This island is famous for it’s boat building, other than that there is not much here.  It is still quaint with the pastel colored homes and narrow streets.  We had a walking  tour between rain drops. 

Wednesday we took a dinghy tour of the island and harbor. After that we walked up to the grocery store and Lola's bakery.  The bakery is in Lola's house, she and her husband bake bread and goodies every day and sell them at their house or from their golf cart as they make their rounds around the town.  Lola is 78 years young and going strong.  After touring the town in the sunshine and stopping a the shops we had a nice dip in the pool to cool off.  We asked Sid and Evelyn over for happy hour as well as another couple Bob and Cathie we had met the night before.  Bob and Cathie are an interesting couple.  They have been married 53 years and he is a retired orthopedic surgeon and Cathie is, well, in the Guinness Book of Records.   She has the smallest waist of any living person at 15".  Sid was the Oprah of Man O War in questioning her about it all.  You can see more at her web site www.cathiejung.com. 

Mary's maiden name was Potter

Some of the wooden boats built in the town

Our first cabin cruiser was "Last Toy?" so we had to take a picture

The New Cementary, the old one was damaged by a hurricane and all the graves had to be moved away from the ocean and are now in cement vaults. 

Hope all is well with your early summer.  We will try and blog asap.  We miss you all.

Hugs and Kisses,

Mary and John