BAHAMAS REPRISE

Don't tell our dermatologist about our tans!


View of RISING TIDE from the Canadian yacht FREE SPIRIT


"Waterfront Shack in Man 'O War Eastern Harbor, Abacos


This is being sent from Vero Beach FL -- we made it back on Monday 4/13/09.

MARCH 28 - APRIL 12

We are in our final days in the Bahamas. It seems fitting that we should get a chance to find, again, those experiences that we enjoyed the most while we have been here. So to wind up our trip we have been searching out more local bakeries with Bahamian bread, participating in Bahamian music/food/culture events, snorkeling “one last time“, and relocating some boats that we have seen or known while down here.

March 28 We bumped into people we met earlier in Warderick Wells, Peggy and Jack on FREE SPIRIT from Ontario, and our two boats left Nassau early this day bound for northern Eleuthera. We will only be in one spot in Eleuthera, Royal Island, but going there gives us a good jumping off spot for the Abacos, and we get to check off one more island chain that we have visited in the Bahamas. We had plenty of wind for our sail and wonderful weather. The next day was an early departure since we needed to cover 53 miles -- probably a 10-hr. sail -- and it was a wild weather day with high winds, large following seas added to by easterly rollers leftover from last week’s weather. At the end of the sail as we approached the Abacos, we were greeted by about a dozen dolphins, who stayed by our boat for about 3 miles, swimming up and back and riding the ocean swells and our boat’s bow waves!

March 30 We are spending several days in Marsh Harbor in the mid-Abacos as it is the largest town here and has a very protected harbor. We should see some other cruisers here that we know, and we still have FREE SPIRIT to play with and share stories with. We got back in contact with AQUILA, new friends that we shared Christmas Eve with in Florida and then got separated from when Barb got injured and laid-up a few days later.

April 2 We have planned a side-trip to Treasure Cay, not really a separate cay but on the same island that Marsh Harbor is on. Good friends Mary and Neil Rice have invited us to visit them at their second home there. After a 3-hour sail we found a marina, a well-protected small harbor, and a large number of homes and businesses at Treasure Cay. There is also a 3 ½ mile-long pristine beach and free internet in the harbor. What more could you ask for?

It’s so easy to meet people when you’re with vacationing people in the warm climates! Mary and Neil were already booked the first night we arrived so we took advantage of the Pizza Night at the outdoor bar, part of the marina. We became fast friends with a couple we shared a table with (it was crowded). They had just flown in from North Carolina for a long-weekend in their private plane. It’s the kind of place you can bump into people again, so in the semi-darkness the next night returning from dinner with Neil and Mary in their golf cart, we were hailed by our pizza friends, and saw them again in their boat in the harbor.

We were treated royally by the Rices and enjoyed cocktails on their balcony and a delicious dinner out. We got to discuss Marblehead news and people, and catch up on what children and grandchildren are doing.

Treasure Cay was a little more up-scale than what we have seen in other places in the Bahamas, but one morning we got to experience Bahamian small-town entertainment as the primary children from a local school were dressed in costumes from the Wizard of OZ and were parading through the small shopping area and singing songs from the show. There were about 25 students, and they stopped to act out some of the parts.

April 5 There is more strong wind predicted for the upcoming week so during the short lull we sailed to Man ’O War Cay where there is another very well protected harbor. Most of the cays surrounding the Sea of Abaco are short sails from each other and the Sea itself is fairly calm and shallow. Man ‘O War is known for boat-building and furniture-making. A few days later we sailed to Great Guana Cay. We did meet up with BRIAR PATCH and SERENADE, boats we have been looking for.

April 9 This was a perfect day and we headed north from Great Guana Cay, stopping in between cays to snorkel. It was calm, warm, and the reef we stopped at had tons of fish, fan coral, and other types of coral. I saw a shark, a turtle, and a ray as well as the small brightly colored reef fish. Our destination this day was Green Turtle Cay and the next day we enjoyed a Good Friday fried fish lunch there, put on by the youth group of one of the churches. The fish were fried whole and were served with small sweet banana pancakes. Bahamian gospel music was playing on loudspeakers.

April 11 We’re just about to cross back over the Gulf Stream to the Florida shores (this takes three days of sailing through uninhabited cays). We are hailed on the radio by the crew of LOS GATEOWS. By chance, they are sailing up the west side of the island that we are sailing up the east side of (they are just sending a random radio call)! So, one final meeting and rum drinks with “old” friends, Mike and Debbie and girls, at Great Sale Cay. As we compare notes from the past few weeks, we look forward to being back in the U.S………..

MARCH 16 - 27 FIRST HALF OF TRIP: 2200 MILES, SECOND HALF: ?

Proud fisherwoman with catch, off Nassau



Recess at Black Pt. Primary School



"Slaughter", a local racing boat in Black Pt., Exumas

March 17 Technically we are heading back, because we have gone as far south as we want to go. We still have some places to see that we didn’t see on the way down and we should be more direct on our way back, as we’re not planning any side trips (like our diversion to the Florida Keys in January and February). In general our first “half” took 6 months and our second “half” should take about 3 months.

The first week of our return trip we went to Black Point in the Exumas. It is about half way along the Exuma chain and is a small, friendly, non-commercial island settlement. Most of the houses in the center of the settlement have a couple of ladies sitting outside in the shade of a tree plaiting grass strips. We also saw one man doing this and he said they sell the strips to Nassau. There is a “laundermat” and a grocery store, a grade 1-8 school, a police station, and two restaurants here. We followed up on a sign posted at the laundermat and volunteered to tutor in the school for two mornings. Ken had Gregory on the first day, a first grader with a very soft voice; I had Tyrelle, an 8th grade girl who needed remedial work in math and reading. The second day we both worked with 4th grade boys. There were 3-4 other boaters each day who also were volunteering. We went outside with all the children at recess (40 children in the 8 grades). Ken was the goalkeeper for an impromptu soccer game with the little ones!

In Black Point we tried sopadillo fruit. It looks a little like a kiwi and tastes like a dense, very sweet peach, but with no juice. We also got more fresh bread from the mother of Lorene at Lorene’s Restaurant. It smelled so good we had to have some as soon as we got back to the boat, even though it was 5:30 pm and normally we would have been having rum punch and some crackers and cheese.

March 21 Continuing north we sailed to a few favorite stops from three weeks ago. We are seeing some familiar boats, including LOS GATEOWS, a cruising family from New Hampshire with 3 young girls. Debbie and Mike are home-schooling the 2 older girls and the day we saw them this week they had a surprise “field trip” day for their students -- translation: snorkeling and exploring the trails in the Exuma Park at Warderick Wells. We went aboard their boat that night. They have a catamaran and it is very wide, with two pontoons on either side of a large main cabin. Each pontoon has a bathroom and one side also has two bedrooms while the other side has one bedroom and an office. The main cabin has a large galley, a raised counter with bar stools (!) and an upholstered L-shaped settee and dining table. The flat-screen TV is on the dining side of the cabin. There’s also a back deck, maybe 10 ft. wide off the stern of the boat. Pretty comfortable!

We snorkeled a few times during this part of our trip and at one point I noticed there was a 5 ft shark cruising along going the same way I was, maybe 25 ft. away from me. I kept an eye on him/her and kept on snorkeling on the reef. There are little yellow-breasted birds here. They are friendly and come land on your hand if you hold it out. Even better if you have sugar in your hand! Ken had seven at one time feeding from his palm! Our fishing has still been coming up with little results, but yesterday I caught a Spanish mackerel. We had it for dinner last night, just enough to feed two people and delicious.

March 26 We had two great sails the past two days, as it is still quite windy but now in a good direction for sailing. We are now in Nassau at a marina, and plan to head for the Abacos in the next day or so. We haven’t been in a city of this size since Fort Lauderdale in December. There are great stores across the street from the marina and Paradise Island is across the harbor, with it’s large hotels and casinos. In this small marina there is a sailboat from Marshfield and a trawler from Hingham.

We are starting to get a little homesick after almost 6 months on the boat; of course, daydreaming of home is easier since most of the bitter cold weather must be gone by now! We should be winding up our time in the Bahamas in the next few weeks and plotting our passage back across the Gulf Stream for the U.S. We look forward to it being easier to keep in touch with friends and family, but it has been very nice to be in warm weather and in warm company here in the Bahamas.

FEBRUARY 27 - MARCH 15 SMALL CRAFT WARNINGS

Heidi and friends on tournament volleyball team



Ken and crab found on beach in George Town



School Kids in George Town (more pictures next chance I get)

Feb 27 Everyday there is too much wind! It’s sunny and there is lots to do in this area but the wind rules all! It’s somewhat better if we go into the beach on Stocking Island because that is out of the wind somewhat. We have changed our anchoring location twice because of the wind and at one anchorage we were bouncing off the bottom for an hour-and-a-half as the waves caused by the wind rocked us up and down.

Our final anchorage (so far) is quite a way from town, and we need to go to town quite often for supplies and entertainment. The dinghy ride is wet and rough, again due to the wind. But George Town has a fairly large grocery and a few vendors in the park with garden vegetables. We can get phone cards there to use in the payphones to call our parents and kids. There is a straw market where local ladies weave baskets and handbags and they also sell souvenirs there. We also went to George Town recently to watch the George Town softball team play a team of US and Canadian boaters. Lets just say that the locals are VERY good!!

Our timing has brought us to George Town right at the start of the Cruisers Regatta, run by the visiting boaters. This lasts for 10 days and includes a parade of boats past the town and local dignitaries, a children’s day that gets the local school children (3rd & 4th grades) together with the boater children for games, a volleyball tournament, a sand sculpture contest, a big “Ultimate” trivia contest, a sailing race, and MANY more activities. Our favorite so far was the No-Talent Show followed by a dance party on the sand.

We connected up with some friends from the past, Susan and Tom Maddigan from the Catboat Association (the 1970s and early 1980s). They are from Wood’s Hole, and we are finding many other Massachusetts boats here.

March 9 The wind has died down significantly. We are feeling freed up to go snorkeling, beachcombing, and maybe taking a side trip to some of the other small islands near the south of Great Exuma. However, first we need to straighten out a problem with the engine. It doesn’t start sometimes and Ken has narrowed it down to the solonoid (got a new one but still having problems) or the starter (this is a bigger problem as we can’t get a new one here).

March 13 We are very lucky in that the small town here has a BIG Auto Parts Store north of town and they have a mechanic that was able to look at our starter (Ken dismantled it and brought it in -- by dinghy to a beach near the store) and he fixed it the next day. It is back in place and starting our engine perfectly!

March 14 The grand finale to being in George Town was the final night of the Bahamian Music & Heritage Festival. We attended with Tom & Susan from Brilliant and their guests. And about 500 others! It is an outdoor evening music program (with daytime storytelling, straw work, and local crafts) that was 3 days and nights. The final night had some great Exuma performers and some bigger names flown in from Nassau. A Junkanoo group made an appearance (awesome!). What a night -- ending at 2 am with fireworks and another junkanoo group. Unforgettable!!

Thus ends two weeks of sports and partying with the other cruisers, shelling, snorkeling, meeting Bahamians and dancing with them, and fighting the overactive wind! We plan on leaving tomorrow and heading back up the island chain in the Exumas, and then visiting the Abacos in the northern Bahamas.

February 18 - 26 LOCAL HIGHLIGHTS: GOATS, RAYS, & FRESH BREAD

Gil on STELLA MARIS



Looking out from "Peace & Plenty" dock in George Town



Ken with a barracuda he caught on the Exuma Bank

Feb. 25 We’re several islands down the chain of the Exumas at Big Major Spot near Staniel Cay. We are enjoying the weather (mostly sunny every day) and the water (snorkeling to see fish and coral).

We were entertained yesterday morning by two goats on the otherwise unoccupied island. They had a face-off in a cave opening that was near our boat. They pawed the ground, butted heads, backed-up and charged. They paced themselves and several hours later were still going at it until some dinghy came along and came too close, disrupting them (maybe they were glad to end it at that point!).

But one of the best things here in this simple village is a bright yellow house with a “Bread” sign outside. When we first stopped in we were told that we could get whole wheat bread at 4 pm when it came out of the oven, so we went back at 4 pm promptly, and then we ordered coconut bread for the next day. Today on the VHF radio we heard that the Yellow House has conch fritter mix to take home and cook for yourself as well as bread. We’ll be there!

We’ve continued to meet interesting cruisers and exchange stories about where we’ve been so far and where we’re going. Some boats are now headed north and can give us up to date reports on where to stop as we head south and good advice about water depths and which cuts to consider using when we pass from the Bahama Banks side of the Exumas to the Exuma Sound. Some cruisers are seasoned and have made this trip many times and others are also new to this and can laugh with us at our first time exploits.

We met Gil from Miami in the Exuma Land and Sea Park a few days ago. He is single-handing a large John Alden sailboat with old charts and this is his first trip to the Bahamas. We have exchanged information and questions and have traded-off on cooking dinner the last two nights.

We’ve had some beach meetings with larger groups -- some planned and some impromptu -- where we get to gab and get more advice and info. The evening beach gatherings usually include a campfire of driftwood and BYOB. We’re experimenting with different rums and different mixers so the combinations are endless.

Today we snorkeled in Thunderball Cave, and saw many of the colorful tropical fish that hang out there. The area around this cave was used in the Thunderball James Bond movie some years back. There are also large rays that coast along the bottom, mostly ignoring us. Some are more than three feet across and today we saw a very large one that was a gray-blue color.

Feb. 28 We sailed to George Town today. There is a route in more shallow water that is more protected from the wind, but since we are trying to avoid shallow water, we took the route through a “cut” to the Exuma Sound and motor-sailed all day to Elizabeth Harbor where George Town is. We fished on the way but only had one bite, and no luck. The town is large compared to others in the Exumas and has more facilities and supplies. There are estimated to be 300 cruising sailboats anchored here, spread out between 4-5 different areas all in sight of each other. It is quite protected here from pretty much all directions.

There is a morning “Cruisers Net” in this harbor on the VHF radio that is moderated by one person but includes information from other designated volunteers. People take turns reporting on the local business schedules, the weather, the up-coming cruisers regatta (The 37th Annual!). Then each interested boat, in turn, can announce that they have just arrived, or that they have some equipment for sale, or that they need to borrow something, etc. This weekend there were church schedules, information about upcoming trivia contests, announcement of a workshop on understanding the weather in the area, and many other subjects.

March 1 Meals are an interesting subject and ours are almost always good; on board our boat we can cook almost anything and it tastes delicious! Must be the fresh air and the anticipation that if we’re roughing it how can it turn out so well. We often make substitutions in a recipe and the results are so good we plan to replicate them when we get home. Eating out for a lunch or dinner in this area is interesting. You usually get a limited menu and then pick out what you want and then you are told they are out of that. After a few tries you settle on what they DO have. Sometimes as you walk in they tell you they “just have chicken” or that they “will have hamburger when the next mailboat delivery comes in a few days”. The food has been good but you can’t have your heart set on any one favorite! Even conch, the local shellfish, is not always available. Today lunch was not grouper or conch chowder, but the mahi mahi and the chicken on ceasar salad were excellent.

In George Town we have connected up with Gil from Miami and his girlfriend Manny has joined him. There are several other boats here that we remember from other places. Stay tuned for more adventures from the Bahamas!

February 12 - 17 CROSSING THE GULF STREAM, THE “BANKS”, AND ANDROS ISLAND, BAHAMAS

First land passed after crossing Gulf Stream, lighthouse on Gun Cay



Relaxing on gulfside beach in Marathon before setting off for the Bahamas

February 13 After yesterday’s uneventful day sailing and then motoring to Rodriguez Key (I have to mention the beautiful turquoise color of the water all day in Hawk Channel) we are up at 4:30 am today and find that the wind is now changed and is coming from the north. We have been warned innumerable times not to sail to the Bahamas if the wind is NW, N, or NE! Seven or eight other boats are calling on the VHF radio in the dark, talking about what to do. The north wind could make the Gulf Stream almost impassable with huge waves and buffeting winds. The Gulf Stream always flows north and can be between 2-7 knots of current. In the end six of us decide to try it. “You can always turn back” is our thought. However, the one boat that we have designated as our buddy-boat, SERENADE, feels strongly about not going and so we are parting ways, and we feel badly about that.

The start of our day at 5 am is difficult because of the dark, but we are for a while able to follow the first 5 boats through the opening in the reef outside of Rodriguez Key. After that it is a great trip, as the sun came up around 6:30 am, the north winds were light and the waves in the Gulf Stream were small. We altered our course from heading for the southernmost entry into the Bahamas Bank so that we’d follow a boat from the group what was going to the middle entry (Gun Cay and Cat Cay) and the rest headed for Bimini, the northernmost entry in this area.

By 4:00 pm we reached the cut between the cays and entered the Bahamas Bank. We had decided to find the Customs station at Andros Island, on the other side of this part of the Bank. So all we need to do at this point is anchor for the night and then sail for Andros tomorrow. One little challenge lay before us, however, as the Bank in this area is very shallow (no where on the Bank is it deep, averaging between 4 - 14 ft. at low time). We inched our way through the beginning of the channel that our chart suggested, but went aground at about 5:00 pm. After a half hour of gently running the engine we did get off and gingerly moved the boat to 8 ft of water and anchored just before sunset. We now know that if our depth-sounder starts reading 6.1 ft. that we are about to hit bottom -- which luckily is all sand here.

Just as it gets dark we hear voices and see a light maybe a mile away -- another boat anchored on the Bank. Otherwise there is nothing around for miles. We are about 5 miles east of Gun Cay and Cat Cay at this point.

Feb. 14 Valentine’s Day After checking the charts we can see that we will be on the Bahama Banks all day and won’t reach Andros until tomorrow. The weather is warm and sunny and the water is crystal clear and about 10-13 feet deep all day. We motored in the morning, sailed slowly in the middle of the day and then motored again in the late afternoon as there was not much wind. We have seen a few sailboats in the far distance and one or two motorboats pass on our course but that is all we see above the water. Below is sand, some grass, starfish, and some small shiny fish that jump out of the water and skim the surface for about 2 ft before diving back in. It is like dropping RISING TIDE into a stretched out version of Snow’s Pond back home. We anchored at the end of the day for our second night on the Bank.

Feb. 15 For another sunny, warm, light-air day we travel to Morgan’s Bluff on the northern end of Andros Island. To get there we are in the Tongue of the Ocean, which is in the middle of the Bahamas and is 600-1800 meters deep. This was a shorter trip, about 6 hours, and Ken saw Customs when we got there and anchored. After that we exchanged our quarantine flag for a Bahamian flag, flown above our U.S.flag. Morgan’s Bluff is a small town, seems to have about 4 small buildings and a park that they use for their annual regatta. Further out on the back side of the bluff is a dock for water tankers that come from Nassau to fill up with Andros water and take it back to Nassau. Our second day on Andros we watched a gang of local boys prepare to go out for some diving, then sailed to Fresh Creek which is 2 towns, Andros Town and Coakley Town. The wind kicked up and we had a lively sail down there, another 6-7 hour sail.

Fresh Creek is also small and there is only room for shallow-draft boats to anchor. We are therefore docked at a small marina along with about 7 sailboats and 7 power boats. It is windy and clear. We will probably stay here one more day until the wind dies down to medium strength. Our first night here we were given fresh fish from the local guy cleaning it for the power boat owner who caught it. We watched 3 bull sharks circle near the fish-cleaning station. Other activities in town are a factory that makes batik fabric and clothing, and several bonefishing lodges that cater to fishermen who fly in to fish for the week. Between the 2 towns there are about 5 restaurants, and 3 small grocery stores, plus 3-4 other small stores. We are happy that the marina has wifi so this information can go out and we can check our email! We are planning to switch from phoning to email and texting as phone charges are very high here.

Our introduction to the Bahamas and Andros Island has been great and we look forward to more interesting days in the Exumas where we will be heading next.

February 4 - February 11 REUNIONS AND GOOD-BYES

Pelicans waiting for fish scraps as a charterboat captain cleans the day's catch in Key West.



"Diver Dave" (that's what he's called!) preparing to put a new zinc on our boat prop before we go off to the Bahamas--another important but difficult detail to attend to.

Feb. 4 We spent the time since out last blog (we’re still in Marathon) fixing and tweaking things on the boat: adding a salt water pump so we can conserve fresh water, correcting problems with our alternator that were not addressed earlier, adjusting the wind vane. We played some tennis on the city courts. And we attended another Bahamas information meeting. Because of the cold and windy north winds there are many boats who are here waiting to leave, for either the Bahamas, the west coast of Florida, or south into the Caribbean and Central America.

We found some people from Lubec, Maine who we had “met” earlier in the trip. They had helped us when our boat was dragging it’s anchor and had secured it to another boat in St.Augustine. We only saw them in the dark then, but now we got to see them in the daylight and they are an interesting couple, sailing right now with a 20-something son who is a soccer player and former steeplechaser in college. We also found an earlier-in-the-trip Canadian couple who took 3 weeks off to return home for the holidays. They are now back on their boat and sailed into Marathon this week; Ian and Marlene on GUST ‘O WIND are both retired school principals.

The highlight this week was a gathering on our boat with several other cruisers. It was cold so we had soup and French bread and we all sat down below rather than in the cockpit. Two of the attendees were Chris and Kevin from upstate New York, who we met very early in our trip, in Chesapeake City in the C& D Canal.

There was also another bus trip to Key West, this time for me and Susan, from SWAN. Susan used to live in this part of the world so she was a great tour guide. We went to a realtor’s Open House, a fully renovated shot-gun-style cottage in the middle of town. And we talked through many of the residential neighborhoods checking out the details on the house facades and the gardens .

Feb. 8 Today Chris and Kevin on ANDROS sailed out, bound for Key West. The next day Barry and Susan on SWAN, our pals for the past six weeks, left Marathon for the west coast of Florida. The day after that we met the owners of about 7 other boats who are leaving for the Bahamas later this week, at a gathering planned so we could meet and exchanged information. Although it is still windy, the cold weather has moderated and it looks good for a weather break. We need winds from the south so that we can count on the Gulf Stream behaving (translation: no big huge waves) since getting to the Bahamas means crossing the 30 mile wide (or so) current.

Feb. 11 Today is the busy day doing last minute shopping and preparing to sail to a small island (Rodriguez Key) off the coast of the upper Keys, where we should have a good shot at crossing the Gulf Stream on Friday. We hope that in the Bahamas we have access to the internet -- and have time to access it in between all the fun we hope to have!! -- so keep tuned but I expect that blogs will be fewer for the next 2 months. Our long-range plans are to head back to the U.S. in mid-April but as you may have seen from our past exploits on this trip, all this is subject to change.

January 26 - February 3 PART OF THE CRUISING CROWD

The "cruising crowd's" dinghies, this time in to watch the inauguration at the marina



Sponge fisherman near Big Pine Key

January 26 The cruisers here in Marathon are a pretty homogeneous group; they are for the most part retired-age couples, a good number of them have one small dog, they are often staying here for weeks or months, they mostly are on sailboats, they like to share tips on saving time and money, they are from Eastern Canada or Eastern U.S. This is our “crowd” for the time being.

A few exceptions to this make things interesting, so when a boat from Luxembourg or Australia enters the harbor, everyone pays attention. There are a few boats with children (one is even a boat from Australia with children!). Some boats have, in addition to their country flag, flags that tell more about them. We have Justin’s Tenth Mountain Div. 2-4 flag he sent us. One boat has a 6 ft. Pittsburgh Steelers banner and a Steelers flag, another flew his U.S. flag upside down during the week of the inauguration--that caused a bit of an uproar!

We also compare notes on dinghies, our transportation to shore. One might be only 5 ft. long (ours is small but is 10 ft.), another might have 3 golden retrievers in it with the owners, another couple might be kayaking to shore in 2 kayaks, one each with a dog standing on the kayak deck. Other things to notice are how the dinghies are lighted, what registration numbers are on them, the size of their outboard engine or if they are rowing.

Our latest quest is to find two specific boats: we heard there is a boat from Marblehead here in the harbor, just arrived, and also were told by the marina staff that there is another Maitland owner here somewhere. This is how we fill our days for now, waiting for both the weather to turn in our favor and for all the boat projects to be finished so we’re not trying to fix too many things in the Bahamas.

January 29 We took a side trip out of Marathon, west to Big Pine Key. There are less cruisers there -- we only saw 6 or 7 boats anchored in the channel. It is shallow at the entrance and again about mid-channel, and we got stuck on the bottom a few times but we did get ourselves off the sandy bottom and proceeded to anchor near a wildlife refuge called Coupon Bight. There was a beautiful sunset there our first night, and the stars were spectacular as it’s wide open with very few shore lights, and during this time only a crescent moon detracted from the stars’ lights.

We didn’t go ashore, but dinghied into the Bight and watched a sponge fisherman pull up black sponges from the bottom there in shallow water. He said he would sell them and they would be used for cosmetics, fuel filters in planes, and that Australians liked them for grooming horses. We also saw a large frigatebird that was gliding/fishing near our boat (the bird book helped us to identify it as a male Magnificent Fridgatebird). The rest of our time in the Big Pine Key area was spent staying on our boat as a very windy storm blew through the area and stayed for 2 days. It was a good time to catch up on crossword puzzles and naps. We also watched a beautiful 35 ft. varnished powerboat go back and forth past us. It is THE TRUMAN, and is used to take passengers and employees out to an exclusive island resort (no bridge or other shore access).

February 1 Traveling out the Newfound Harbor Channel to leave the Big Pine area we were escorted by a half dozen dolphins. I think I got them on video since they hung around for quite a while. The weather was still windy, but even worse wind is predicted in a few days, so we decided to go back to Marathon and the nice protected harbor there. That night we watched the first half of the Superbowl at a waterside restaurant and the second half in the city marina with our “cruising crowd”. The next night a bad gale did blow through along with thunder and lightening.

Projects for each of the next few days are to fill up on propane (our fuel for cooking), diesel (fuel for the sailboat engine), gasoline (for the outboard), water for our boat‘s watertanks, fix a few more small things on RISING TIDE, and stock up on some more groceries and supplies. It looks more sure that we will be heading for the Bahamas now, we’re just not sure when the weather will cooperate. We also have to head back to the northeast before we head due east for the first of the Bahamas islands. Right now we are about 110 miles from the closest Bahamas island; we also have worked our way so far southwest that we are about the same distance from Cuba, maybe even a little closer.

PS Forgot to mention last week that our son Pete turned 25 on January 19th!