In the Bahamas, Mon!

We left Key Biscayne last Saturday morning 4/4 heading to the Bahamas. We had a beautiful, uneventful crossing of the Gulf Stream. It took about 8 1/2 hours. During our trip we saw a whale! Well, we saw its spout but Tidehiker, our buddy boat who was behind us, actually saw the whale. It was moving pretty fast for something that big.

Our destination was a small, private island, Cat Cay, which is just south of Bimini. (Cay is pronounced Key.) We got into a slip at the marina and filled out all the paperwork for customs. This is certainly still a very paper intensive place! Only the captains from the boats can actually check in and that they did with the very nice Mrs. Kara Bowleg, a Bimina native (yes, that really was her name). Neither Vicki nor I was supposed to leave our boats until they got back but we decided it was margarita time. After all, we are in the Bahamas. Below is the entrance to Cat Cay harbor.

The flag etiquette is that before we arrive to clear customs we fly the yellow quarantine flag from the front of the boat. Then when we have officially cleared customs, and paid our money, and have our permits, we change that to the Bahamian flag so that the government knows we are 'official'. Then the rest of the crew is allowed to leave the boat.

We left the next morning for another long day. The trip across the Bahama Banks to the Berry Islands was 81 miles due East in about 15' of water the entire distance, which took 11 1/2 hours starting at 5:00 am (yes, folks we do occasionally see that 5:00!!!) . Below are pictures following Tidehiker in the dawn light. It was black when we left and a good learning experience for both of us. As the sun rose it was a beautiful sight.We ended up in a very small marina on a very small island called Frazer's Hog Key. I don't know who Frazier is and we didn't see any hogs but we did have a good time. The marina only held about 4 boats and the marina restaurant consisted of 2 tables and 5 chairs at the bar! Bad weather was coming in (read that big winds) so we stayed there for 3 nights. Marinas usually charge by the foot, anywhere from $1 to upwards of $4. The Berry Island Marina only charged us $15 a night plus electricity which was $25 a day because they have to generate their own electricity. Good deal. We enjoyed the rum punches made by Herbie and the conch fritters made by his aunt Hilda. Below Lynnie is walking down the dock. Tidehiker was on the left and Rickshaw was on the right.

Above, Rick, Lynnie, Herbie and Vicki. What a great time we had.

Click here to see our location on Frazer's Hog Cay. You can zoom in to see the small 'T' dock where our boats were (although you can't actually see the boats.)

We were happy to get going to Nassau yesterday morning as the small island was getting really small! Nassau is the jumping off point for the Exumas. The trip to Nassau crosses a very deep (about 6000' ) body of water called the Tongue of the Ocean. Both Rick and Norm tried their hands at fishing in the deep blue water, hoping to catch a big Mahi Mahi. Rick got one good strike about 5 miles from Nassau.However, Rick's fish made off with one of his new $7 lures. I hope the fish enjoys it. There is always tomorrow!! We are now in Nassau with great internet access so we thought we should update the blog since it may be a while until we have access again. Yesterday we washed the boat and did some boat chores.

We're at the Nassau Harbour Club marina where water is $8/day which is cheap in the Bahamas - no kidding. It's typically 20-40 cents/gallon. This is why we invested in a watermaker to make our own H2O onboard from ocean water - quick payback. Electricity is also out of sight in the Bahamas - up to $50/night or 65 cents/kw hour. This is why we anchor out and use our own generator to make electricity. We paid the $8 here for water to wash the boat, but plan to run the generator for power instead of plugging in. Below are the sights entering Nassau Harbor. The first is the Atlantis, a combination of Disney and Las Vegas. The second was just a pretty sight of some new condos on Paradise Island which is aross from our marina. Click here to see our location in Nassau Harbor.

Today we walked down to the area known as Potter's Cay where there are many local food and vegetable stalls. Because it is Good Friday, many of them were closed. This is a 4 day holiday here. But we were able to get some of the famous conch salad and fried red snapper. It was great fun to watch them work and the food was delicious.

Tomorrow morning we will leave for the first of the Exuma islands, Allan's Cay to meet up with 3 or 4 other DeFevers. We haven't seen these guys for several weeks and are looking forward to catching up with them and hearing their adventures. We'll blog when we are able.

OK, OK, OK, we are trying it again!

Tomorrow looks like a good weather window so we are going to leave at 6:00 am to make the crossing to the Bahamas. The winds have been awful but for the next 2 days they will be OK. It will probably be a bit rocky and rolly but, hey, the boats can take it. There is always dramamine for us humans!

Four of our boat buddys are already over there so we hope to catch up with them at some point. They report that the winds have been high. In fact, one of our friends lost their swim platform and when they were in danger of losing their dingy they turned around because the seas were 6-8 feet! Hope we don't encounter any of those.

We will update the blog when we can. Miss you all!!

Still in Key Biscayne

We left bright and early yesterday. Well, it wasn't very bright, in fact the sun was just coming up. We aren't used to getting up this early. Anyway, we were making our way to the Bahamas when Norm noticed that the oil pressure on the stabilizers was low. The stabilizers are what keep the boat from rocking side to side. We were in about 3 to 4 foot swells so when Norm turned off the stabilizers it must have been pretty uncomfortable.

So, they decided to turn around. Better to get something like that fixed in the states vs. the Bahamas. We turned around with them, after all they are our buddy boat. Neither of us wants to do the crossing by ourselves. Norm has a call into a mechanic and hopefully he can come out and fix the problem in the next few days. The joys of boat ownership!!

The winds have picked up again so the next good weather window won't be at least until the weekend. We'll just wait and see. In the meantime, there are always lots of boat chores to take care of...or maybe we'll use this as a mini-vacation (a vacation from vacation??) and just read for a few days!!

Locator for Exuma Island Chain

Just wanted to include this map so that you know where we are going (you can double click on it and it will expand). We will be leaving Key Biscayne, which is south of Miami. We will travel to Cat Cay (pronounced Key) and check in with the authorities. Then we will make our way to Chub Cay and then to Nassau on New Providence Island. These islands aren't part of the Exumas but Nassau is a good jumping off place. We'll stay in Nassau for a few days then head south to the beginning of the Exumas chain, either Allen's Cay or Highborne Cay.

Here is a link that will show more info on the Exumas. http://www.bahamas-travel.info/maps/exuma.html

New River to Key Biscayne (Part 2)

We left off Part 1 coming into the marina on the New River. We left the marina on Tuesday morning headed for Key Biscayne. It was a great time to leave as most people were at work so we didn't run into any boat traffic and it was easy to get through the bridge openings.

It was a pretty uneventful run down to Key Biscayne. We just had to bother with those pesky bridge openings but that was no big deal. It was still very windy but didn't create much of a chop on the water. As we passed Miami we saw this helicopter sitting on a very small pad. While that was curious by itself, notice the two motors on the pad it is sitting on!!

We are planning on leaving for the Bahamas from Key Biscayne. Norm's sister, Joyce, also lives here so we will get to visit with her. We have had our mail forwarded to Joyce so we are looking forward to catching up with that.

We were not able to find a spot in the harbor of the state park, where we have stayed before, because of the large number of sailboats in there, probably like us waiting for weather to cross to the Bahamas. So, we anchored out the first night and the next day planned to take the dingy in to meet Joyce and have lunch with her. Unfortunately, the shores of Key Biscayne are all privately owned so there are no places to dingy ashore aside from the state park. We were told we could dingy to the church property not far from our anchorage but when we got there we were told we couldn't stay. Joyce was already at the church to meet us so Rick and I went with Joyce in her car and Norm and Vicki dingied all the way back to the state park which was quite a hike and the water was rough so they were drenched.

Joyce gave us a great tour of Key Biscayne. We saw the site of the Nixon 'Southern' White House, along with the helicoptor pad, which, I assume one must have if one is the President. At any rate, the old Nixon house was torn down and a beautiful new mansion now stands in its place along with the helicoptor pad. There was some problem with the new owners having to do with drugs somehow and the government took the title to the mansion for several years. It was amazing to see all the huge mansions. Key Biscayne is a really beautiful place. We met up with Norm and Vicki and had a wonderful lunch at a local Italian restaurant.

The winds were predicted to move around from the southeast and we weren't that well protected where we were so we came into a small harbor on the southwest side called Hurricane Harbor. It is well protected from the winds and is beautiful. Here are some sunset pictures that Rick took. The first was taken on Tuesday and the other 3 on Wednesday. Beautiful!

It looks like Tuesday, 3/31, is going to be a perfect day to leave for the Bahamas as the winds are predicted to die down and the seas will be calm . It is about a 6 hour trip from here. We are excited to finally be ready to go. There are 3 main island chains in the Bahamas. The northern- most chain is called the 'Near Bahamas' and includes Grand Bahama Island, Abacos, Bimini, the Berry Islands, Andros and Nassau. The second chain is called the Exumas and the most southern is called the 'Far Bahamas'.

We are headed to the Exumas. It is a chain of islands that stretches about 100 miles north to south. Unlike the Near Bahamas it is not very populated. We've talked with lots of other cruisers and they all say it is a beautiful place to fish, snorkel, swim and hang out. The down side is that internet service and phone service may be hard to find. So, we will update the blog as we can to let you know that we are having fun and have not fallen off the other side!! Below is one of the many dolphins that are here in the harbor. He came for a visit!

Rick took these two videos of Hurricane Harbor. It was a bit windy so you'll hear that but it is such a pretty place, we wanted you to see it!

With this entry we have included a Google Map locator feature. When you click the link below it will take you to a Google Map page with a satellite image and pointer to our current location. You can zoom in or out and use the 'hand' to drag the map around for other views. If you close the white box (click on the X in the upper right corner), you can see the helicoptor pad for Nixon's Southern White House and also some of the roofs of the houses from the videos above.

Click here to view Rickshaw's current location.

Stuart to Key Biscayne (Part 1)

We left Stuart and our friends Patty and Jimmy 10 days ago. Patty and Jimmy again lent us their car and that was a real treat. This was to be our last serious provisioning before the 'BIG' trip across the ocean and we spent 3 days getting things done. We really appreciated the free dockage that Patty and Jimmy set up for us at the Finz restaurant, as well as the use of their car. We surely did have a fun time visiting with them again.

We ran down the Intercoastal Waterway from Stuart to an anchorage at Lake Worth. The next day we had hoped to run 'outside' to Fort Lauderdale since running inside meant dealing with all those darn bridges. But the weather Gods were not cooperating so we spent most of the day waiting on about 20 bridges to open so we could continue on our way. The first time we did this stretch back in 2007 we said we would never do it again. But this will be our 3rd trip. We need to do more to appease the weather Gods, me thinks.

Anyway, we knew that the winds were going to blow hard for at least 4 days so Vicki found a marina that only charged 80 cents/foot which is the cheapest we have ever been charged. Both boats needed to take on fuel and she also found a fuel delivery service which would send a truck to the marina to deliver fuel to the boats at a very reasonable price.

There was one small problem...we had to navigate up the New River for about 4 1/2 miles. We didn't think much about that as we made our way in on a sunny Friday afternoon as the river was wide and didn't appear to be much of a challenge. But we didn't know what we were getting into! It turns out that the New River goes through the heart of Ft. Lauderdale's seemingly most exclusive residential area. Almost all of the multi-million dollar homes had multi-million dollar boats parked in the river outside of their homes and the river started to get very narrow. In addition, because it was such a lovely day and it was a Friday afternoon, it seemed like everyone took off work early to go boating on the river. It was a real traffic nightmare. Following are some pictures of the river. You can see that is is pretty narrow in spots.

There are 5 bridges that have to be opened along the way. After going under one of them, we were making our way to the next when the railroad bridge came down! We could also see on the other side of the bridge and a huge tourist paddle-wheel boat, which seemed to take up most of the water, was waiting on the other side coming our way. We had several very tense moments as we tried to find a place to hang out waiting for the train, as that can take as long as 3o minutes or so. The current was to our stern so it was pulling us into the bridge. Tidehiker was leading the way, then Rickshaw and a 60+ foot boat was behind Rickshaw, so there wasn't much room to maneuver. But both Captain Norm and Captain Rick were able to pull alongside a dock and wait out both the train (that never came) and for the paddle-wheel boat to pass us.

Since there was no time for us to take pictures on the way up the river, all of these were taken going back down which was at 9:00 on a Tuesday morning so it was much, much easier! Here is Tidehiker going through one of the bridges.

This house on the point had a beautiful yard and included 2 life-like alligators!

We had one last bridge to go before getting to the marina. It was about 4:20 or so and we called the bridge for an opening, not realizing that we probably wouldn't get to the bridge for another 3-4 minutes. There is a portion of the river that is called 'the wiggles' made up short dramatic turns, including one hair pin turn with not a lot of maneuvering room so we were going very slowly. The bridge tender came back on the radio and asked 'Where are those trawlers'? Another thing we didn't know is that all of these bridges close from 4:30 until 6:00 every weekday. Luckily, we had a caring bridge tender who held the bridge for us even though we were a few minutes late. Below, just another mansion along the way.

Yikes! We made our way to the marina and it was immediately time for happy hour!

Lauderdale Marine Center is the largest of its kind in Florida. We've never seen so many megayachts in one place. We spent 4 nights at the marina and even rented a car for a few days and got to see 2 movies! None of us had been to a movie since we left and it was nice to catch up.

Here is Tidehiker in her slip. The next one is not a building, but a huge boat!

This was the view from the back of Rickshaw and below is boat traffic passing by our slip.

More in Part II.

On the road again (or is that water?)

We certainly enjoyed our 'week off' but were ready to get back on the water. Norm's engine is running fine so we left the park where we were hanging out bright and early on Saturday. We continued East on the Caloosahatcheee River. We had to go through 2 locks and a 7 foot swing bridge that had to open for us. We spent the night at a small marina in the very small town of Clewiston on the rim of Lake Okeechobee. Rick had a chit for 2 free nights at this marina that he got from the last DeFever rendezvous. Unfortunately, it expired the end of 2007 and we didn't know if they would still honor it. But they did, so Tidehiker and Rickshaw each stayed for one night for free! It is nice when that happens.

Sugar Cane is the big crop in this part of Florida. They burn off the sugar cane at the end of the season (we are not sure why), but all along the way we could see the fires burning and smell the sweet smell of sugar burning.

It is a pretty interesting process of 'locking through' a lock. We drive the boat into the lock, which is basically a large rectangular shaped basin with side walls made of concrete and 'doors' on the front and back of the lock. As we go in, the lockmaster throws a line which is attached to the lock wall to Lynnie on the front of the boat. Then Rick puts the boat in neutral and runs to the back of the boat and catches the line on the back of the boat. When all the boats that are locking through are secured to the lock lines the lockmaster closes the gate behind the boats and starts opening the gate in front of the boats.That lets the water either in or out, depending if you are locking up or down. We locked up about 12 feet on the west side of Lake Okeechobee and then down about 12 feet on the east side. The water fills the lock and as the boat rises or falls we cinch the lines that we are holding. When the level of the water in the lock is the same as the level of river you are going into, they open the gates completely, we drop the lines and continue on our way through. We learned along the way where we should put the fenders to keep the boat off the wall and how much we needed to cinch the lines. It was actually sort of fun since we had not done much of this 'locking thing' before! Here is Rick going into the lock.

Here is Vicki piloting Tidehiker coming out of a lock. After the lock we went under a train bridge that was open as no trains were coming through at the moment.

This train lift bridge is rather notorious for sailboaters, as it is just 50 feet; lower if the lake level is up. Sailboaters with a mast height greater than 50 feet either can't go this way, or they hire a local team which brings out large containers, fills them with water, and then uses this extra weight to "heel" the sailboat over to one side so the mast is lowered enough to transit the bridge. There are always unique niches for marine services.

The way along the river was rather eerie. We thought that this desolate scene was because of the wild fires that had plagued Florida in the past few years because of the drought. It turns out that the fires were man made because of an Australian tree that had been brought into Florida to solve some problem but it turns out that the tree was worse than the original problem so the state of Florida has been burning them off. Still, a strange site to see for miles and miles. The pictures below are of the Clewiston canal which runs out into the lake.

We started seeing alligators in the river on Saturday. There were just a few and most were about 4 feet in length. Some people swim in this river, which is something we don't understand!! We have been trying to get a picture but they must be camera shy because as soon as the camera comes out they go to the bottom!

We left the marina in Clewiston on Sunday morning and started making our way across Lake Okeechobee. It is about 30 miles across with a lock on the east rim. Once across we found that the lock on the east side is usually open, as the depth controllig lock on the east side is about 12 miles east of the lake edge, so we were able to go straight through and continue to the St. Lucie lock where we locked down the 12 feet to the level of the St Lucie River which runs into Stuart on the east coast.

Last night we stayed in another small marina on the St. Lucie Canal. The coolest thing is that the space shuttle took off around 7:45 pm and we got to see it. That was a truly amazing sight. It went up so fast! We could see the capsule disengage from the rocket boosters and it was out of sight in just a few seconds.

We are now making our way to Stuart, FL, officially back on the east coast! We'll spend a few days doing probably our last provisioning run before heading off to the Bahamas. Our friends Patty and Jim again found us free dockage at the Finz Restaurant! We had stayed there on our way south. Patty and Jim are loaning us their car, once again, to get everything done and we surely do appreciate that. What great hosts they are.