Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Pipe Creek and Gale-Force Winds


The pre-front and cold front came through as predicted but nothing like the blizzard the states had so we heard.  The winds were strong all day Sunday and it was a good day for me to do some scrap-booking while Al worked on our one toilet that wasn’t working quite right. Thank heavens we have two heads on board! As night fell the winds keep getting stronger and they were as high as 39 knots at one point which qualifies as gale force winds.  Luckily all the boats around us had been here for at least two days so the anchors were secured and no major problems occurred.  The winds blew 25- 30 knots all day Monday so again, not a day to go ashore.  We did a lot of reading and organizing due to the fact we wanted to get our snorkel gear out which was way back in the quarter berth where we store our folding bikes and everything that we don’t know where else to put it.Our hope is that it will warm up so we can get some snorkeling in.

Today, Tuesday, the winds lessened to 12-15 knots so we decided to move back near Staniel Cay so we are there for their festivities coming up for New Years.  They have regatta races, an auction, happy hours, special meals and a pirates party to name a few of the activities.  We hope to join in on some and be spectators for others.  Have a Happy New Year.

The Real Paradise Found

The last blog entry was entitled Paradise Found but we should have named it Man-made Paradise Found because of the resort Atlantis.  Now we have found the true paradise of the natural sort.  The waters have so many shades of teal and blue that they are just amazing! From Nassau we had a great sail to Norman Key and then the next day to Warderick Wells Land and Sea Park.  It took my breath away when we arrived at Warderick Wells.  It was just so beautiful.  While we were tying to the mooring the prettiest bird called a Banana Quip greeted us on our life lines which seemed like a good omen. 
Banana Quip who Welcomed Us
We used our “looky bucket” (a bucket with a plexiglass see-through bottom) to see some of the marine life on a coral reef nearby and then hiked the island with Dave and Toni.  At the highest point on Boo Boo Hill we had a spectacular view of the harbor where Blue Heaven was located and the deep blue ocean on the other side of the island.   The next day we had a motor sail to Big Majors Spot.  However, the wind was not as far north as we hoped so had a roly-poly night and decided to move north to Pipe Creek because a front would be coming through on Sunday out of the west with wind predictions of 25 to 30 k.  Time to find a protected spot!   Pipe Creek is another wonderful spot.  So wonderful, quite a few boats come and stay here all winter.  At 3pm we had a beach party at the designated “Yacht Club”(a few signs and various nautical items left by past cruisers) complete with good food and Christmas carols with accompaniment by a guitar and a recorder..  It was a great way to meet all the people on the boats in the anchorage and get into the Christmas spirit..

Christmas Eve day I baked all morning getting ready for our dinner on Blue Heaven with the Englers and Mershons.  After lunch we hiked to the ocean side looking for shells and sea glass.  Toni, the experienced one, found two beautiful shells.  I have to open my eyes more!  We had a wonderful ham dinner complete with all the fixings.  We are so blessed to have such good friends with us when we are so far from home.  It makes it easier being away from family.   Christmas morning people came by dinghy bearing a lot of home-made goodies.  There is such camaraderie and caring among the cruisers.  A lot of us  headed to Sampson Cay marina by dinghy for Christmas dinner.  We had a wonderful meal of Rosemary chicken with gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, sautéed peas, berry cheesecake and coffee.  When we first entered they had out fresh strawberries, raspberries, chocolate dipping sauce and fresh home-made doughnuts for which they are known.  Everything was delicious and as usual a good time was had by all!
Sorry we have no pictures because they are beautiful but the WIFI here is so slow we cannot upload them.

The Real Paradise Found

The last blog entry was entitled Paradise Found but we should have named it Man-made Paradise Found because of the resort Atlantis. Now we have found the true paradise of the natural sort. The waters have so many shades of teal and blue that they are just amazing!


From Nassau we had a great sail to Norman Key and then the next day to Warderick Wells Land and Sea Park. It took my breath away when we arrived at Warderick Wells. It was just so beautiful. While we were tying to the mooring the prettiest bird called a Banana Quip greeted us on our life lines which seemed like a good omen. We used our “looky bucket” (a bucket with a plexiglass see-through bottom) to see some of the marine life on a coral reef nearby and then hiked the island with Dave and Toni. At the highest point on Boo Boo Hill we had a spectacular view of the harbor where Blue Heaven was located and the deep blue ocean on the other side of the island.

The next day we had a motor sail to Big Majors Spot. However, the wind was not as far north as we hoped so had a roly-poly night and decided to move north to Pipe Creek because a front would be coming through on Sunday out of the west with wind predictions of 25 to 30 k. Time to find a protected spot!

Pipe Creek is another wonderful spot. So wonderful, quite a few boats come and stay here all winter. At 3pm we had a beach party at the designated “Yacht Club”(a few signs and various nautical items left by past cruisers) complete with good food and Christmas carols with accompaniment by a guitar and a recorder.. It was a great way to meet all the people on the boats in the anchorage and get into the Christmas spirit..

Christmas Eve day I baked all morning getting ready for our dinner on Blue Heaven with the Englers and Mershons. After lunch we hiked to the ocean side looking for shells and sea glass. Toni, the experienced one, found two beautiful shells. I have to open my eyes more! We had a wonderful ham dinner complete with all the fixings. We are so blessed to have such good friends with us when we are so far from home. It makes it easier being away from family.

Christmas morning people came by dinghy bearing a lot of home-made goodies. There is such camaraderie and caring among the cruisers. A lot of us headed to Sampson Cay marina by dinghy for Christmas dinner. We had a wonderful meal of Rosemary chicken with gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, sautéed peas, berry cheesecake and coffee. When we first entered they had out fresh strawberries, raspberries, chocolate dipping sauce and fresh home-made doughnuts for which they are known. Everything was delicious and as usual a good time was had by all!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Arriving in Paradise


Arriving in Nassau at Dawn
 Just a brief addition to tell you we made it to the Bahamas. Yeah! The wind was directly on our nose the entire trip so it was a very “loooong” motor. We were so glad when we could finally shut the engine down. We made it from Miami to Nassau in twenty-eight hours which according to experienced cruising friends was good time. It was a little lumpy in the Gulf Stream but not too bad, and the entire trip across the Bahama Banks and even down through what they call the “Tongue of the Ocean” was quite smooth. We cleared customs and immigration but were granted only a ninety day cruising permit. We were hoping for twice that, but they assured us that if we go to the customs office the week of expiration that we will be granted another ninety days. It just makes more work for themselves and makes us cruisers have to move to an island that has an office. Oh well, that is just the way it is in the Bahamas.



Entrance to Atlantis
 We are in a marina to do laundry, replenish fuel and wash off the salt encrusted boat. Today we played a little by visiting the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island. Wow, talk about opulence. It is beautiful and just reeks of wealth. You all need to take a vacation there. It really is quite nice! Maybe next time we will stay at their marina and really live it up!


Atlantis on Pleasure Island
 Tomorrow we will leave Nassau and head south toward the Exumas, hopefully, to spend Christmas at Staniel Cay before reaching the fabled Georgetown (aka. Retirees Day Camp).

(Remember, blog additions will be much less since internet connections are fewer the farther we head south.)

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Goodbye Miami, Hopefully Hello Bahamas!


No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne

The time has come!  We plan to be out of this anchorage at 3am to leave for crossing over to the Bahamas on tomorrow (Thursday) and continuing straight through to Nassau hoping to be there around 8am on Friday.  We have dealt with some serious cold this week with night time temps down to 37 degrees and highs only in the fifties.  That is cold when you are on a boat on the water with wind gusts up to 32 knots! And that is in a totally enclosed harbor! The wind quieted down today so the ocean should be fairly calm.  So calm in fact that we will probably have to motor due to no wind prediction.  Better that than too much wind! 

Since we have no idea how much we will be able to get wifi this might be the last blog entry for a while.  We hope to get into a marina in Nassau but with approximately 50 boats crossing tomorrow there might not be any " room at the inn."  If not a blog entry, I might send a brief email saying we made it so all you "worry warts" don't have to worry about us over the Christmas holidays.

Speaking of Christmas, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 


We wore our winter clothes so you would not feel so bad!  I wish that was the only reason.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Waiting,Waiting and More Waiting

  
View from our home for the week

Miami Beach Marina
 
Monument Island

 Well, we are getting to know the Miami area better than we want. We are so ready to get to the Bahamas but the weather just hasn’t quite co-operated. This past week had been so cold that I wore a sweatshirt and fleece long johns to bed under a sheet, summer blanket, fleece blanket and a coverlet. Did we turn the wrong way? We have seen quite a bit of South Beach, Monument Island and Miami from a distance from our anchorage near the Venetian Causeway. It has been home to us for a week and even longer for Sequence and Jubilee



Jubilee and Sequence in our anchorage in Miami Beach
Our group moved yesterday for a change of scenery to the Key Biscayne area. We wanted to go into No Name Harbor but there were 19 boats in there and would not take four more. So we went around the corner to Hurricane Hole which worked well except for the birds bombing us in the morning with their blue splats all over our deck and white bimini and sail cover! I guess I will be putting my cleaning skills to the test.
It started to warm up but our group of boats waiting to cross, hesitated on going (Saturday) because it was only a short weather window followed by a very strong cold front to come in Sunday night. The winds are still out of the north although lighter (10 knots) but we were taught that you don’t want north winds crossing the Gulf Stream which flows north because it can be very uncomfortable. Also the cold front will have winds of 25 -30 knots and we don’t want to have to stay put for several days in Nassau where thievery is common. The next good crossing is predicted around Thursday and looks good for several days after. If only that could be written in stone!



Dave Mershon and I kayaked the anchorage hoping to find a way to get to some of the canals in the area but unfortunately discovered it land locked. Don and Sue decided to move and checked out No Name Harbor and were pleasantly surprised to find only five boats in there. That means that fourteen must have decided to try for the short weather window. Al and I decided to pull up anchor and motored over and got a spot near Don and Sue. The Mershon’s decided to stay put in Hurricane Hole and use their dinghy to motor over.

 We packed our lunches and headed off for a hike to the lighthouse and to explore Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. It felt good to have shorts on again. Once back on the boat we were entertained by the locals on various boats blaring music with the hot babes on deck. The men especially enjoyed themselves! With the sun setting the anchorage quieted down nicely. After dark we also enjoyed  some of the decorated boats for the holiday

Cape Florida Lighthouse
 
The group checking out history of Stiltsville.


Power boat decked out for the holidays in No Name Harbor

                                                               
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Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Hello Miami! Time for a Road Trip.

Container ships being loaded in Port of Miami
We safely made the trip from Fort Lauderdale to Miami sailing half the time in a fairly quiet ocean. The wind actually wasn’t quite strong enough to move us at the pace we like to go when trying to make miles, so we sailed with the motor the second half of the trip.  Arriving in Miami definitely gave us a variety of things to look at which we have not seen else where.


Miami skyline.

We made it to the anchorage by 2pm where our friends on Sequence and Jubilee were located between San Marino and Di Lito Islands near South Beach.


Welcome Happy Hour on Jubilee
 Later in the day they had a welcoming happy hour on Don and Sue Engler’s boat, Jubilee. It was a lot of fun meeting the other couples on boats in the anchorage who are all waiting to cross over to the Bahamas as well. Englers and we are the only “newbies” being our first time. One couple has done this fifteen times and most of the rest have done it three or more times. Some said they have waited as long as 3-4 weeks for a weather window. I hope it isn’t that long for us but it is not looking too good at this time.

Our  Own Little Christmas Tree

Al praying or thinking?


On Sunday Al took Sue and I to the dock in South Beach where we caught a bus to church. The bus cost all of $.25 a ride which is great for getting around town. Before going back to the boat we stopped at the local Publix to get a few more things and could not resist some free greens next to the Christmas Trees. Back on the boat I decorated for the holidays while Al worked on doing navigational "stuff" for the Bahamas or maybe he is praying for a weather window!  Who knows???



Later the Mershons and Englers came over to discuss how we might get to Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens in Coral Gables to pass the time while waiting for good weather. We talked about moving the boats to the mooring off Dinner Key Marina in Coconut Grove and taking bus transportation, but finally decided on leaving the boats here and renting a car to get the six of us there.


Al, Dave, Toni, Sue and Don ready to explore Fairchild Gardens
It took some time to figure out all the logistics but we did it and it was well worth it. We spent the day touring the gardens and looking for the wild life. We started the day with a tram ride to give us an overall view of the 83 acres that is included and to learn about many of the tropical plants there. One fact we learned was that there are 2700 species of palms. And I thought there were only a dozen or so! Being so chilly in the high fifties, we were afraid we would not see any butterflies but after lunch in the warmth of the sun they came out of hiding. Not quite so true for the birds but we enjoyed the magnificent gardens with all the various sculptures, flowers, insects and cacti. It also felt great to just walk most of the day on solid land instead of sitting and moving on the boat. All agreed it was a great road trip!
Hope you enjoy the photos of what we saw.

  

Don't miss the two bugs kissing!


Friday, December 3, 2010

CBP Checks Us Out


Arleen meets local celebrity in Riviera Beach
 Up early and off the anchor we went, headed for Lake Worth. Al wanted to get in early because we had the appointment at Customs and Border Protection (CBP). We motored the ICW and got through the bridges even with one having a span just ¾ of the way up. We anchored at the southern end of Lake Worth so we could take the dinghy into Riviera Beach Marina to dock and go for our appointment which was only about a block away. We had all the right documents for them so things went smoothly so now we are the owners of our own local boaters cards which allow us to just call in at any port we enter in the United States on our boat instead of having to physically present ourselves at the office. Afterwards we strolled the docks at Riviera Beach and I had my picture taken with the local celebrity. I think I have a real catch with Al, compared to this captain!

 
 Before we went back to the boat, we motored across to Peanut Island which is open to the public for picnicking, swimming, hiking, and camping. It is a lovely well kept area and had some great views of Lake Worth inlet. As we walked around the island we saw interesting sites of a kayaker using an umbrella to bring him right into shore and the local turkey vultures drying their wings in the trees.   
Turkey Vulture drying its wings.




A new way of kayaking!












It was blowing quite hard out of the north so it was a bit rough in the anchorage but luckily quieted down for sleeping. Our friends the Mershons called and said not to be in a rush to get to Miami to meet them because the weather window for this weekend for crossing has gotten too short. Also, strong winds for the days after arriving would trap us in Nassau where we planned to check in. From experience they said you want to get in and get out due to a lot of thievery in the area, so now it might be another week until a possible weather window opens.


Al with his early Christmas present.
We listened to the weather and Chris Parker who is the cruiser’s guru for predicting wind and wave conditions before we left Lake Worth. We decided at the last minute that it would be okay to go outside from Lake Worth to Fort Lauderdale so we could avoid over twenty bridge openings. The wind wasn’t very strong but the waves were a little “roly poly” so we motor sailed the entire day to Fort Lauderdale. Al pulled out his new rod and reel to do some fishing but lets just say I am glad I had something thawed for dinner!

As we came up through the Fort Lauderdale area, the opulence is unbelievable. The one house had not one, but two huge yachts at its dock!
We got in to the anchorage called Lake Sylvia about 4 pm to see about fifteen boats already anchored in this small area. We snuck in and about five or six other boats came in after us! It is amazing how you can make room when you have too.

We plan to go out in the ocean again tomorrow to reach Miami and meet up with Sequence and Jubilee. It looks like we will have plenty of time to explore South Beach and Miami before crossing to the Bahamas.


Wednesday, December 1, 2010

On the Water Once Again


Lore, Christopher, Arleen, Al and Nate

Shopping with friends.

Ten days at home seemed like a whirlwind! A visit to Al’s parents was a must and visiting with friends and prepaying bills was all we seemed to get done. My sister held the usual delicious Thanksgiving feast in Baltimore and getting caught up on all the news from our sons and relatives was accomplished. Flying back to Stuart from BWI was a bit more taxing than flying from West Palm Beach. The check in line seemed to wind around the entire airport even though they were doing just a few “pat downs” or scans. Al’s bag got pulled out for a special check. I knew those oil filters for the engine would probably get questioned! They were looked at thoroughly and then we were allowed to pass on to our boarding gate.



Al getting the boat ready to leave.
Back on the boat once again we went to the grocery store three times to shop. You can only carry so much in the bikes baskets and backpacks! Al got all the packages for more equipment that he ordered and so worked on various projects the last two days. We fueled up, pumped out the waste tanks and were ready to go.
 Being well stocked we headed to Peck Lake where our entertainment for the afternoon was watching a power boat run aground and have to be pulled off by Towboat US. 


Tomorrow we plan to go to the customs office in Riviera Beach for our interview for the “local boater’s option.” That way when we return from the Bahamas in the spring, we will only have to call in and not have to present ourselves physically at an office. We hope the weather will cooperate and allow us to sail outside down to Miami to catch up with our friends on Sequence and Jubilee. There is a possibility of a weather window to cross over to the Bahamas on Sunday and Monday. All we can do is wait and see.  One last thing, it feels great to be out of daytime temperatures in the forties and back to beautiful sunsets and warmth although it is going into the forties tonight!

Peck Lake Sunset