Our Christmas Wish Came True!

We got a great Christmas present!

We made it to the Bahamas so our Christmas wish came true!  (The picture was taken at the restaurant in Coconut Grove but I saved it for this blog.)

It came true but not without some discomfort for about 4 hours at the beginning of the trip.  After waiting two weeks I guess everyone just wanted to go.  It was going to be a bit rough at the beginning but then it was to settle down which it did. (I kept saying, “We waited two weeks for this!”)

Dawn at Dinner Key

       

We had a very pretty sunrise while on the mooring in Dinner Key which I was hoping was a good omen.  We left the mooring around 7:30am after listening to the weather.  Discovery, Synergy and Blue Heaven (First Edition decided to wait until later in the day) opted to leave.

A house in Stiltsville, Key Biscayne

We went out through  Stiltsville  in Key Biscayne.  These are houses just out there in the open water on stilts.  We don’t think they are allowed to live out there any more although some did not look too bad.  The birds seem to really like them!

Once out it in the ocean it was rough, but my Bonine for seasickness let me sleep through two hours of it!  

North Rock where we entered the Bahamas.

We reached North Rock (not much of anything) which is the Bahamas around 2PM which is when we finally shut the engine off and just sailed until 5PM.  It was nice for the peace and quiet for awhile and we were going 7 ½ to 8 knots which is faster than we motor.   

Sunset over the Bahama Banks

Sunset on the open water is just always beautiful to me. However, the wind turned on our nose so we had to put the engine back on.  We motor sailed through the night taking two to three hour watches.   

Sunrise on the water is also neat and you can see that we were not far behind Synergy.  We followed them across closely while Discovery just sped ahead and out of sight with their fast boat.   

Sunrise on the water with Blue Heaven not far from Synergy

We finally reached Nassau harbor around 10AM.  It was great to see the man-made quay,

 the turquoise water,  

 the lighthouse, 

all the cruise ships in the harbor, 

the famous Atlantis Resort

Atlantis Resort

 and the colorful Bahamian houses.  We felt then that we really made it!

Pastel houses- your in the Bahamas!

We went in to Nassau Harbor Club to a slip where we waited for a customs person to come to us.   

Blue Heaven at Nassau Harbor Club

Al dealing with custom

The first customs agent was a lady who granted us 120 days which we asked for, and gets us to April, which shall work for us. 

The second customs agent came on board to finish the paper work.

The second customs agent took our money and gave us a cruising permit and fishing license.  It all went rather smoothly compared to last time.  It seemed that everyone in our group got what they wanted in days which were 180 for the others.

Look at the salt build-up on our stern rail!

Blue Heaven got a good wash down after all the salt build-up.  We got our Bahamian cell phone reconnected and were pleasantly surprised that they now have a Harris Teeter grocery store (for those not familiar, they are a very upscale grocery, however so are the prices.).  But it is nice to have before we leave to go into the Exumas where fresh groceries are at a premium.

We plan to head out tomorrow into the Exumas.  Internet access will now become more difficult.  So have a good holiday in case we don’t get access before then.  We don't know where we will spend Christmas, but we will be with friends (our new family for now) and that is what is  most important.