February 11, 2014 - LOVING WEST END, GRAND BAHAMA

We have had great fun in West End of Grand Bahamas! It is absolutely gorgeous here, even though the wind has been blowing like crazy. It finally calmed down this afternoon and tonight, and we are planning to join a large group of other boats to travel to Great Sale tomorrow, then on to Green Turtle Cay in the Abacos the following day. Thankfully, the weather has calmed down and it appears that the next few days will provide calmer seas and pleasant travels.

Yesterday we rented a car with Lori & Bill (Perfect Day) and went to Freeport to tour the area. We had a great time and saw a lot of the area on the island. LOTS of laughs and a wonderful, fun adventure.

There has been a lot of excitement around here, as a sailboat crossing from Florida to West End the same night we arrived crashed into the break wall of the harbor here and the boat was lost. The couple survived and is staying at the resort here at Old Bahama Bay and they have garnered a lot of attention throughout the Bahamas and around the world. The boating community here has rallied around them and they are now doing very well. They were planning to sail to the Virgin Islands to get married, but their crash aborted their plans. They are now planning to get married on the tip of the harbor on Friday. Interesting story...up for much discussion.

The harbor of West End, Grand Bahama

Very rough seas on Tuesday, the day after our arrival

The boat that crashed on the sea wall, attempting to enter the channel in high winds, rain and darkness

After one night in the crashing waves, all that's left of the boat

Very rough waves for two days! So glad to be safely tucked into our slip

Rough seas, blue skies, high wind, sunken boat

Bill & Lisa, our companions on the tour of Freeport...at the local art fair

Much of the same in all the booths...reminiscent of Mexico

One of our favorite parts of the day...visiting the Lucayan National Park

One of the largest collections of underwater caves in the world

Two trails lead us through the park, one to the underwater caves...

...and another through this mangrove swamp area...

Beautiful walk through this area...to....

This beautiful beach area, declared "the beautifulest beach in the Bahamas" by the park ranger

Friends Bill & Lisa, adventurers and kindred spirits

Felt great to take off our shoes and wade in the water

Large "tree collections" washed up along the shore

Natural works of art

Unassuming little restaurant on the beach...

Beautiful seashore

Good times and great food! Best conch fritters we have ever had! Featured in Endless Vacation magazine as the best, and we concur!

Sunset off the deck of the restaurant

Portugese Man of War swimming near our boat today. Stay out of the water, as this boy is dangerous!!

Mostly sailboats here. We are one of the few motor vessels in the marina.

Also a resort, this is one of the several buildings lined along the beach.

Our shower and bathroom facility

Nice area on the beach to relax in the hammocks and enjoy the beautiful view

This is truly paradise

This bike is parked along the beach by one of the fishermen who comb the shore for mussels, lobster and conch. Nightly, several of the locals come along the dock selling lobster, conch, conch salad, and freshly baked bread. Delicious!

The water is truly beautiful!

The boat today, continuing to shed its parts. Many items have now been salvaged off the boat as they wash ashore.

This guy, enjoying the beach, along with us

My afternoon resting place to catch a few zzz's and a great book

The pool area at the resort/marina

What more could a vacationer want?!

FEBRUARY 9, 2015 - P.S. COMMUNICATIONS

Forgot to mention the communication situation. We have very good internet connection here, so we can e-mail to our heart's content. In lieu of texting, if you have an iPhone, you can download the "What's App" app for free and we will be able to text, send pictures, etc. with just an internet connection. It works great, just like texting! We are going tomorrow to get a SIM card for Jim's phone so we may be able to talk via phone on a limited basis once that is taken care of.

February 9, 2015 - BAHAMA LANDLUBBERS AT LAST!!

WE MADE IT!!! Left Ft. Lauderdale today at 5:30 a.m. and buddied with a sailboat coming to the same marina. Fortunately, they had made this trip across the Atlantic to this same spot 3 other times so were very knowledgeable about the nuances of crossing the Gulf Stream and landing in the spot at West End, Great Bahama Island we intended. It was a mixed bag of weather...choppy seas, calm seas, then very choppy seas, sunshine, clouds threatening rain, the entire spectrum. Fortunately, it was a very enjoyable trip, and we arrived in West End (Old Bahama Bay Marina & Resort) at around 4:00 p.m., got settled into our very protected slip, checked in through customs and managed to meet several boaters around us. At least 2 of the couples we met are going in the same direction we are, so we will have buddies for our upcoming trip to the Abacos.

Weather is predicted to be VERY nasty for the next couple of days so we will spend time exploring the Grand Bahama Island before weather improves enough to depart on the next part of our journey. We had thunderstorms tonight, but only for a short period. We are both exhausted from the long day, so will embrace our pillows early and start tomorrow with new energy.

This is an absolutely GORGEOUS place! As we explore tomorrow we will take pictures and share them on the blog. The water is truly the most beautiful color we have ever seen...a sparkling deep blue (in the deep part) that gave the name to "sailing the ocean blue". The color is indescribable
and probably something we won't be able to capture with pictures. The resort/marina has a beautiful sandy beach with hammocks, and lots of other sporting opportunities while we are here. Stay tuned for more details.

Tonight we were treated to fresh lobster, purchased very inexpensively from a local who visits the docks with his fresh catch of the day...lobster, conch, etc. It was out of this world delicious!

We will likely be here at least until Thursday, when the weather is forecast to be relatively calm for traveling on the next leg of our journey. We will likely go to Great Sail Key to anchor for a night and then proceed the next day to Green Turtle in the Abacos. Our hope is to be in Marsh Harbor by Saturday, or Sunday at the latest. Again, Mother Nature will dictate.

Good-bye, Dinner Key mooring field. We won't miss your fierce roughness!

Good-bye, Miami

This is only one of the MANY huge boats in Ft. Lauderdale!

Leaving Ft. Lauderdale before sunrise this morning, met by several cruise ships coming into the harbor

Sunrise over the Atlantic, a welcome sight in the beginning of our journey to Bahamas

This, an even MORE welcome sight...the shore of West End, Grand Bahama Island

Ahhh...entrance to the marina

Sapphire blue water, impossible to capture the beauty in the photo

A closer shot of the entrance to the harbor. Beautiful contrast with the blue of the water and the turquoise of the water.

February 8, 2014 - Bahama bound...we think!

We made it to Ft. Lauderdale today and have a great slip along the main river walk right in downtown. Nothing like the marina experiences we've had and we love it! We are only sorry that we can only spend one night here. We would definitely recommend it to other boaters and hope to return another time. Lots of "city" life around us, totally safe, music and good restaurants very close.

Today we met another couple on a Nordic Tug so went to their boat this afternoon for wine and conversation. Very nice couple, and we'll definitely keep in touch. One of the best things about the trip is that we're constantly meeting great people who instantly become friends.

Jim completed a repair project on the boat (...little encounter with a bridge that tore loose our rub rail). I'm sure we both would have different stories about how it happened, but it's humorous now. No danger to us or the boat, and the rub rail is fixed. :)

We FaceTimed with the kids tonight and it was GREAT to see the cute, adorable angels in our life...including their parents, of course.  We aren't sure how much access we will have to technology and phones while in Bahamas, so want to get our "fix" before we leave. This is a trip of a lifetime, but missing the grandkids and kids is the only bad part of being away. We have been so fortunate to have seen friends while we've been gone, so that was really nice, and we're very much looking forward to meeting up with some Pentwater friends this weekend for an entire week in Marsh Harbor!

Beautiful sunset in our anchorage at Little Crawl Key, just North of Marathon

Sun setting in the West and moon rising in the East

Curry Hammock State Park overlooking the Atlantic. Good-bye, one of our favorite anchorages!

Crossing under the Channel 5 bridge. This is the Atlantic side...

...and now we're in the Gulf

Our fearless leaders, Tom & Sue Hamman on Andante...the famed dinghy on the back of their boat was ruined in the heavy winds we encountered for several days in Miami at Dinner Key mooring field. 

Andante, the site of our strategy meetings and rollicking card games. We are sad our friends aren't able to travel with us to the Bahamas but will reconnect with them this summer in Ludington & Bear Lake.

A beautiful day for traveling to Miami, but we encountered a little rain in the afternoon.

Part of Miami seen in the distance

Can't get enough of the beautiful sunsets that we all share as we gaze to the Westward sky in the evening

Ahhh!!

Approaching Miami and Dinner Key Marina

Land of the free and the home of the brave...we are blessed to be able to enjoy such peace and beauty!

The three musketeers, Tom, Connie & Jim in Miami. We miss our 4th musketeer Amy! :(

We love our slip along the boardwalk in downtown Ft. Lauderdale. It's a "happening' place"!

Across the river from us in Ft. Lauderdale. Crazy, busy day with boat traffic on the water.

Late dinner at the restaurant right next to our boat...anticipating our crossing tomorrow to the Bahamas. Need to get back to the boat and get some sleep for an early morning rise...5:30 a.m. Tonight we'll dream of the lobster dinners we'll have, as Jim is excited to go diving for lobster in the Abacos. Yummy!!

Tomorrow we hope to make the crossing from Ft. Lauderdale to West End, in Grand Bahama Island, where we will likely be weathered in for a couple of days, then will hopefully make the trek to Marsh Harbor in the Abacos on Friday. Stay tuned, friends and family. We may have internet and phone challenges once we get to the Bahamas. Not sure what to expect, but will do everything we can to be able to communicate to friends and family back home. Love to you all!

February 7, 2015 - Where's the sunshine?

We arrived on February 5th in Dinner Key Marina in Miami, FL...walking distance to Coconut Grove and were fortunate enough to have access to a mooring ball. Friends Tom & Sue, being on a larger boat, have to anchor in the harbor because there's no mooring ball available to accommodate their boat. We are VERY fortunate to have gotten a mooring ball because seas have been rough, even in the harbor. Yesterday and today have been especially rough, with the boat rocking and rolling but we are securely tied to the mooring ball so no worries.

We have been to shore several times in the dinghy, exploring the surrounding areas of Miami Flats (not the greatest area) and Coconut Grove, a very nice yuppy type community within walking distance of the marina. A shuttle service is available in the mooring field, which runs on the hour and takes passengers to shore and back to the boat. However, because of rough seas nearly every day, the shuttle wasn't running much of the time. Thankfully, we had our dinghy so we didn't feel stranded to endure the constant rocking of the boat.

Tom Hamel drove from Spring Hill yesterday, with plans to join us for two nights. We met him at the dock and then walked downtown Coconut Grove for dinner. We very much enjoyed his visit and took the rocky ride back to the boat in our dinghy only to spend a very uncomfortable night trying to sleep on the rocking boat. Poor Tom had a miserable night, unable to sleep, so decided this morning that he would feel better leaving a day early. It turned out to be a  good decision, as seas were rocky all day and still tonight.

This morning we got sad news that friends Tom and Sue had their dinghy destroyed in last night's wind so they won't be able to make the Bahama trip with us. We were SO sad for them, and sad for us that we won't be traveling together. However, they will be in Bear Lake for the summer so it's not good-bye, but "see you later". It has been a lot of fun traveling with them, and we know we'll have many good times ahead.

Sue, her friend Julie, and I took the shuttle to shore at 10:00 and Julie drove us to the laundromat, to a great lunch, and then to Trader Joe's. It was a great day, and a relief to be off the boat onto solid land.

While I was gone, Jim worked hard at trying to find other "buddy" boats to cross with to the Bahamas. He found that there are many boats waiting to make the crossing from Ft. Lauderdale, so it appears that we will have plenty of company on our anticipated crossing on Monday. Thus, tomorrow we will leave Miami to go to Ft. Lauderdale and, if the weather still holds, will make the crossing to West End, Grand Bahama Island on Monday. Yahoo!!

I will plan to do another posting tomorrow night from Ft. Lauderdale and update our loyal followers on the latest plans. Hopefully I will be able to post some pictures also, so please stay tuned....hugs to you all!

February 4, 2015 - One step closer to Bahama sunshine!!

We had a great month in Key Colony Beach with Bev & Gordon, so were landlubbers again. While we very much enjoyed it, we are so very, very happy to be back on the water again. There is something about the water life that has magnetism and gives great energy and excitement to our lives.  

After leaving the house in Key Colony on February 1, we took the short trip to Key Colony Beach Marina where we took over the pelicans’ resting place and settled in to “our” slip. Jim and Gordon watched the MSU/Michigan basketball game, we played our last game of cards, and went to Sharkey’s for happy hour snack & drinks/dinner/and watched the Super Bowl at our tableside television. Bev and I bowed out just before halftime and came back to the boat to get things ready for our early departure to the airport the next day.  We arose at 5 a.m. and drove to Miami to drop them off at the airport. Just a note…avoid Miami during morning rush hour at all costs. It took us FOREVER to get there because of construction and traffic.

After returning from the airport we returned the rental car, prepared the boat, and took a very short journey to Little Crawl Key, Curry Hammock anchorage. This ranks near the top of our list for anchorages, as it was well protected, private, nestled in the middle of a state park, but with a great view of the Atlantic just outside the inlet. On our way to the anchorage we saw dolphins, and a big stingray and then were greeted by a pair of manatee in the anchorage. We never tire of seeing the saltwater wildlife!

On Tuesday we met Tom & Sue Hamman "Andante" just outside our anchorage and traveled with them to Islamorada. Seas were great for traveling and, once again, crab pot dodging was the rule of the day.

We settled in at our anchorage in Islamorada and went for dinner at Lorelei Cabana Bar. Good food, fantastic tiki bar atmosphere, gorgeous sunset.  

Today we are heading to Key Largo where we will spend the night, with plans to cross Biscayne Bay on Thursday. We are keeping our fingers and toes crossed that the weather will hold and allow a Monday crossing to the Bahamas.