Back In Marathon

We are back from our Christmas trip to North Carolina. We could show many pictures but we will limit it to these three. The first is Spencer in his Empire trooper helmet; the second is Kendall playing with her Santa delivered doll house and the third is a beautiful sunrise taken at the Snake Creek bridge on the way north.

The trip was a long one; 970 miles each way. The trip back was marked by the worst traffic I have ever seen on the interstate. Sunday and everyone trying to get home . Traffic was a 10 mph crawl with a number of 30 mile backups. No accidents, no active road constuction; just too many cars on too little highway. Very tedious. So much for reduced holiday driving. Anyway here we are back in Marathon. New Years "celebration" will be a quiet dinner out with some dock neighbors. Happy New Year!

Heading Home for Christmas

We are driving back to North Carolina on Sunday. We will drop the cats off at home and then go to Holly Springs for Christmas with the kids and grandchildren. We will be back to Marathon on Monday, Dec 29. A couple of pictures from our walk to Sombrero Beach this morning. A cloud framed sunrise and a shot of the beach. This is a beautiful park.

Boot Key Harbor

Boot Key Harbor has had a difficult history. The harbor is large and protected 360 degrees but as usual government indifference and incompetence made a mess. When we were here for three weeks in 1996 waiting for a crossing opportunity to Bimini the harbor was totally uncontrolled; dozens of bum boats, no pump out system, no mooring field. Marathon was unincorporated and Monroe County could not have cared less. A different story today; Marathon incorporated after years of court fights and took control of the harbor. Most of the bum boats are gone and there is a huge mooring field patterened after Vero Beach. The first picture is as good as we could get of the mooring field. Lots of boats waiting to cross to the Bahamas. The second picture is of a cloud framed sunset.

A Day Trip to Key West

We took a trip down to Key West today. Its 50 miles and takes about an hour. We were surprised at the relative quietness of the town. The parking lots were essentially empty and the city marina in Key West Bight which is normally overbooked was, as seen in the top picture, empty. The locals said in a hopeful tone that things would pick up after Christmas. The second picture is of an empty Mallory Square. About an hour before sunset this area will fill with tip seeking acts, food vendors and thousands (maybe hundreds some nights)of people; every night, year round. The bottom picture is our (mine anyway) favorite restuarant in Key West. Love the raw oysters on the half shell and other great sea food. We'll be back to Key West quite a few times this winter.

Our arrival was timely.

Its good we pushed a bit and arrived before schedule. The weather has been windy with over 8 foot seas in the Gulf Stream for days with the forecast calling for another 5 days of the same thing. Dixie and I have commented several times that we are glad we do not plan to cross the Gulf Stream this year since there has been very few decent crossing days. Its surprising to us as we observe some boaters who try to cross when they shouldn't. Their whining about the uncomfortable crosssing does not get sympathy from us; the secret is to wait until its safe. The worst case of a careless crossing we encountered last year when a boat that finally reached Lucaya was followed by a CG helicopter for 2/3's of the crossing as they feared floundering;took them 17 hours to do what should have taken 9 hours. Not a good use of taxpayer money.
We have crossed the Gulf Stream at least 28 times and never have had a bad or even marginal crossing. The weathermen keep commenting that its cold everywhere except the tip of Florida, and here we are.

The car is "Home" also

The boat is here and after a long day the car is here for the Winter. In early November I drove the car to Ft Lauderdale and left it with John & Bonnie. I rented a one way car today and brought the minivan back; 140 miles each way. The Turnpike is the only way to do this. US1 through Miami would add hours to a 3 hr trip. One thing has not changed; south Florida drivers are the worst in the US, even worse than Boston, Houston, Atlanta and LA. In a 280 mile round trip I never saw a police car as some fools traveled 100 miles per hour weaving in and out of 70 mph traffic. Defensive driving is the key to survival.

Winter Home

Home for the Winter. The first picture is DIXIE IV at rest in slip B32. The second is the center of activity; the Dockside Grill, a classic Florida Waterfront bar and grill. The gentleman in the picture is Roy the dockmaster. The marina owners are trying to market these slips for $199,000, which seems more than a little excessive. Not much interest so far.

Miami to Marathon

Its 120 miles from Miami to Marathon; a two day trip. Its better to go outside but the sea conditions prevented that so we took the inside route where the control water depth at low tide is as low as 5 feet. We traveled for miles with a foot or less of water under the keel. We never touched bottom but the venturi effect of rapidly moving water between the keel and the bottom slows the boat down and makes it harder to control. We anchored at Islamorada the first night with most of the shallow water behind us, moved on to Marathon and docked in Boot Key Harbour at the Sombrero Marina about 12:30 the next day. The pictures are of a manatee that apparently has been swimming around Boot Key Harbor for years. We saw this one about 30 feet from our dock. Our plan is to be here until the end of March.

Commentary & Pictures, Palm Beach to Miami

The distance from Palm Beach to Miami is only 70 miles but for most boats its impossible to do in one day. There are more than 32 draw bridges between Lake Worth and Miami and most boats cannot get more than 50 miles to Ft Lauderdale. Sailboats of any size have to go outside at Ft Lauderdale since the Julia Tuttle Causeway in Miami is only 55 feet high even though all high rise bridges across the ICW are supposed to be 65 feet high. No one really seems to know why the bridge was built that way. Local legend says the state DOT put the bridge up for bid with the wrong height specified and the contractor built it that way even though he knew better. Anyway we were able to make the trip in one day since we can lower the mast and pass under all but 5 of the bridges.

A couple of pictures. Downtown Miami in the late afternoon, and a shot of the cranes in the Port of Miami on Dodge Island. Miami is the last city going south. The towns in the Keys are basically strips along both sides of US1. As a stretch Key West could be called a city but there are lots of other better adjectives for Key West.

Commentary and pictures, Vero Beach to Palm Beach

Some pictures from Vero Beach to Palm Beach (Lake Worth). They are actually in reverse order. The very large fin is one of the many thousands of very large dolphins that populate the waterway. They follow boats everywhere.

The brick lighthouse is the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse. Its one of the most attractive but like most lighthouses today are more of a tourist attraction than anything actually useful for navigation.

The large power cat was tied up at Palm beach. Its far larger than anything we have ever seen. Palm Beach itself is strickly an enclave of the very wealthy. Its a barrier island, very narrow with miles of mansions, no businesses, no industry, just money and social snobbary. Since Ted Kennedy loves it it tells you something about his real orientaion.

Arrived in Marathon December 10, 2008

Well we got here. No more cold weather this winter. More and pictures tomorrow.

Islamorada, FL December 9, 2008

We have been moving fast and I have not had a chance to at least tell everyone where we are. We have made remarkable progress in the last few days:
Vero Beach to Palm Beach (Lake Worth) 70 Miles
Lake Worth to Miami 70 miles. This segment is remarkable since there are over 40 draw bridges between Palm Beach and Miami. Since we can readily lower our mast we only had to stop for five of them.
Miami to Islamorda 70 miles.
Tomorrow on to Marathon, 5 days early but provides some flexibility.
More commentary and pictures when we get settled in.

Vero Beach, December 5, 2008

Turned out the things to be done exceeded the time available to do them so we will stay one more day and leave Sunday morning. Fine with us since we still have time to get to Marathon on schedule and we like Vero Beach. We have no intention of moving from North Carolina but when we speculate on where we would move its always Vero Beach (given the problems Florida has we wouldn't move here anyway; there are hundreds of thousands of folks leaving the state. The population is not going down but I will leave it to you to figure out where the makeup population is coming from.)

Vero Beach, December 4, 2008

Here we are in Vero Beach for two nights. One of our favorite stops. There are two meals out that over the years have become essential. A hamberger at Bobby's on the beach, and pizza at Vincent's on the Miracle Mile (about three miles away). We took care of Bobby's at lunch today, on to Vincent's tomorrow. Lots of chores to get done before we leave Saturday morning.

Some pictures:

The bridge at Haulover Canal is typical of the dozens that we are able to go under without waiting for them to open by lowering our mast.

There are hundreds of shoal islands and they all seem to be covered with birds. Just sitting there watching the world go by.

The shuttle hanger at Cape Canavaral is, literally, the largest building in the world. It can be seen miles and miles away.

Melbourne, FL December 3, 2008

Here we are at anchor off Melbourne. A good travel day. We took what should be some good pictures which I will post tomorrow from Vero Beach.

New Symrna Beach, FL December 2, 2008

We left St Simon early Monday and moved on to Pine Island, just north of St Augustine. This was our longest day trip, 90 statute miles. We got in just in time to anchor before darkness fell. It was a long day but in this area of the ICW both anchorages and marinas are in short supply. An uneventful (best kind) night at anchorage.

Underway this morning for Rockhouse Creek anchorage in New Symrna Beach, 77 miles. A fast but uneventful day. Saw more boats on the waterway today than we have so far, mostly sailboats. Anchored here about 3:30 with the most boats we have ever seen here. A little crowded.

A couple of pictures. Fort Morro may be the most famous fort in North America. It defended St Ausustine for hundreds of years. The second shot is the skyline of the city; no high rises here ever.

On to Melbourne tomorrow enroute to Vero Beach Thursday for a two night layover.

Not all is Fun At Sea

Sometime boating can be a drag (tow). The top picture was taken this morning as this sailboat was towed with mechanical problems. The bottom picture was taken yesterday afternoon as this older but well kept boat was towed in with engine problems. As I watched this one towed in I was surprised to find the mechanic with full set of tools waiting to go on board. I joked with him that they must have offered him a lot of money, he just smiled and said they don't yet know what this will cost! There was another drama on the radio yesterday afternoon. A power boat drifted aground at the mouth of one of the Sounds; for a half hour we listened to him plead with the Coast Guard for help as high seas swamped his boat every minute or so. We did not hear the end of the story as the boater said "If someone does not help me I won't be here much longer". The Coast Guard was more interested in completing their form than in actually helping him.

We are here in St Simons today as the front comes through. Hope to move on tomorrow.

Nice Kitties

The kitties are part of the crew, they are with us whenever we are on the boat. Sampson (the grey one), and Delilah (white and grey) , brother and sister litter mates, are 16 years old. Sam will always be the one to strike a majestic pose while Delilah is always a lady at liesure.

Waccamaw River, A Few Pictures

The Waccamaw River, a part of the ICW between Myrtle Beach and Georgetown running for about 30 miles, is the most beautiful part of the ICW. From the upper left, Osprey love to build their nests high in dead trees or top right, on top of navigation markes. These are not tempory nests, the Osprey return to them year after year. In the spring they will all be occupied with babies, hundreds of them. The bottom picture is a shot of the waterway as it essentially is for 30 miles.

St Simons Is, November 29, 2008

We had long but successful day yesterday. We left Beaufort early as usual and moved right along . The tides were generally heplful until we got to Hell's Gate past Isle of Hope at low tide. All the current advice is don't do that but we have gone through at low tide successfully a number of times. I won't say it was no problem but we got through with about 8 inches under the keel. We anchored just before dark in Walburg Creek after our longest distance day, 85 miles. Rained all night but so what.

Off to St Simons Is, this morning. The challenge was to get to Little Mud River before the tide dropped too much. This 5 mile stretch is the worst in the ICW. At low tide there are places with less than three feet of water. Made it at about 2/3 high tide so no problem. We intended to stay in St Simons one night but the current forecast is, in a word, miserable so we may stay another day. Stay tuned.

Beaufort, SC November 27, 2008

Things seldom work out as planned. We stayed an extra day in Charleston but it was strictly a sick day. Chet's cold is not getting any better. We left for Beaufort this morning after Chet decided we were not going to further delay. There were interesting events as we headed south. A two masted sailboat sank in Charleston Harbor while being towed by a good samaritan. Another boat lost it's transmission and had to be towed into Charleston. As we approached Beaufort it was revealed that the Sisters Bridge is mechanically damaged and normally only opens twice a day, but today only once. Doesn't matter to us since we can go under it. A number of sailboats do hate this. Enough for now. Further south tomorrow.

Charlston, November 25, 2008

We started early and got to Ashley Marina by 3 o'clock. The trip was a little unnerving since there were places,many places, that had very little water. If Obama wants to create jobs then get on with repairing the ICW.Old Chet has a very bad cold but we are moving on. I'll add some pictures when I feel better. Next year maybe. Tomorrow the target is Skull Creek Marina in Hilton Head.

A slow and cold start. November 20, 2008

I have been slow to get started with the blog this year. The weather has been, in a word, awful, We were delayed for five days by high winds, and having gotten underway we have had short days moving from marina to marina dealing with very cold days and nights. We are now at Georgetown Landing in Georgetown,SC, awaiting what is forecasted to be near gale force winds and rain tonight and tomorrow.

To summarize:

Thursday, November 20 (4 days behind already) Underway to anchor in Cedar Creek all of 20 miles from home. Night was not bad.

Friday, November 21. Thirty knot winds forecasted so made our way to Casper's Marine in Swansboro, all of 40 miles. The good news here was we found the cheapest diesel fuel on the waterway; 2.35/gal plus 6% sales tax. Since we did not know what Saturday would bring Dixie bought us a birthday dinner. Old Chet is 71.

Saturday, November 22 (my real birthday). Underway for ? Turned out we made it to a nice marina in Carolina Beach, 65 miles. Another cold night.

Sunday, November 23. To Barefoot Landing in Myrtle Beach. Sixty miles this time. The weather forecast now called for near gale force winds Monday night and heavy rain. No anchoring Monday night.

Monday, November 24. So off to Georgetown all of 50 miles. The excitement today was a collision with a log floating in the river. It made a lot of noise bouncing off the hull but we don't think any harm was done. A word about daily travel miles. Normally we travel 75 to 80 miles a day. Up to a hundred in the spring with more daylight. These short days don't get us very far. The current forcast is for high winds tomorrow and tomorrow night. If its that way in the morning, another day in Georgetown.

I will try to be better at keeping up the blog. Some pictures later.

Home Again or Timing is Everything

We arrived home Tuesday morning in what has become a recent tradition of moving in far too dramatic conditions. We anchored in Cedar Creek MM188 in the ICW Monday night. The weather forecast for Tuesday was awful; gale force winds, rain, hail, etc., so although we were only 3 hours from home we got underway at 6AM. The wind steadily increased to near gale force by the time we reached Fairfield Harbour. Then just to make the landing interesting the bow thruster quit working. We managed to dock safely with some unsual boat handling. Just in time; within another 1/2 hour the wind was over gale force and the water level in the creek dropped to a point where we would not have been able to get home had we delayed.

This blog is meant to keep folks who are interested up to date on our cruising. Since this cruise is over and we are moving into heavy duty boat maintenance we are going into standby mode with this entry. It will be active again with our cruise next winter. Have a nice Summer and Fall.

A Close Call

We are anchored in Wrightsville Beach in 25-30 knots of wind. The wind came up as we entered the Cape Fear River at Southport. With the wind behind us and the tide going out the river was very choppy with steep seas, The boat was difficult to keep on course and a freighter who overtook us disregarded all the rules of the road for overtaking vessels. Without any communication the ship passed us as as we had difficulty steering a straight line. The ship passed within 30 feet of us. Not a good experience. The weather this year has been lousy and even into late May it continues to be very windy. Home by Tuesday we hope.

A Distance Record

We left Ashpoo River early yesterday morning intending to anchor in the S Santee River, but as the day wore on the weather forecast for Thursday night and Friday got worse so we decided to press on to Georgetown if possible. We rode the favorable tide current for hours at a time, more than we ever had. We left Ashpoo at 0630 and tied up at Georgetown Landing at 1845; 12 hours and 15 minutes to cover 112 statue miles. Exceeding the previous record of 99 miles. The howling winds last night made us very glad to be tied up. We will stay here today as the wind continues to howl as a cold front approaches; will be off to some destination tomorrow. (note that the rising tide wiped out Plan A written in sand; we are now on Plan B)

Slogging Along

We left St Simons Tuesday morning and anchored just south of Savannah in the Vernon River. A long day but there is no point in stopping early. Today was Vernon River to Ashpoo River about 37 miles south of Charleston. The "plan" is South Santee River tomorrow, Myrtle Beach Friday, Wrightsville Beach Saturday, Cedar Creek Sunday and home Monday. Remember, its all written in sand. On we go.

Severe Weather Warning

We are surrounded by tornado warning sirens, emergency vehicles, winds and rain, and emergency weather broadcasts.. We sat in the pilot house and watched a tornado entrained in a severe thunderstorm, a real funnel cloud, pass in front of us and cross St Simons Island. It did touch down on the Island and cause some damage. The cold front is supposed to arrive late this afternoon and bring gale force winds tomorrow. We won't leave here before Tuesday. At least we are safe and secure (unless another tornado comes closer). I tried to get a picture but it was too dark. Fun on the water.

St Simons Island

After a long day we are moored at the Golden Isles Marina. At first we thought we could not get here from Pine Island but an additional incentive was a forecast of gale force winds Sunday and perhaps Monday. We will be here for at least two nights and maybe longer. I have no desire to anchor in the ICW in 30 knot winds again as we did last night. Age either makes us wiser or more timid (or both); your choice.

Progress of a sort

Here we are anchored at Pine Island in a near gale. We have gone from Vero Beach to Titusville to Daytona to here. A few days ago it looked like we could go outside and make some real progress, but the weather has turned windy and is forecasted to stay that way for another week. We plan on stopping in St Simons to see Artie who is recovering from a heart attack, and then continue slogging north. As previously noted several times the weather this winter (and now Spring) has been far from good. On we go.

A Place NOT to Go

When anchoring in the Causeway anchorage in Fort Pierce do NOT anchor in position 27 -27.355N / 080-18.282 W. The chart shows a large deep pool of water; what it does not show is the two sunken barges at this position. We found this morning that our anchor had become very attached to one of the barges. After vain attempts to raise the anchor, almost ruining the bowsprit in the process (we didn't) we called Tow Boat US. The tow captain said he knew what it was and would bring a diver out to try to save the anchor. They arrived promptly and found the anchor snagged on the corner of one of the barges; took 3 minutes to free it. Not a good start of the day, but a satisfactory ending. We are in Vero Beach for a couple of days and then heading home as rapidly as possible.

Here we are

We had a great crossing of the Gulf Stream today. As usual the weather people had it wrong, forecasting higher seas. Anchored in Ft Pierce tonight, on to Vero Beach tomorrow. Then a push to get home. More as the plan developes.

On the Way (we hope)

We are at West End in Grand Bahama planning on crossing the Gulf Stream to Fort Pierce tomorrow. The marina here (the most expensive we have ever stayed in) is stuffed full of boats all of which swear they are crossing tomorrow. Stay tuned.

A Visit to Hope Town

We took the ferry over to Hope Town yesterday. Its a beautiful little town located at the north end of Elbow Cay. The harbor is completely protected from all sides but it is small and very crowded. The town, like most of the Abaco Cays was settled circa 1780 by Loyalists from America who did not want to leave British rule. There are no cars in the town. Golf carts are the means of transportaion on what amounts to 10 foot wide sidewalks. Today a waterfront lot sells for almost a million dollars, and with a house can easily exceed 2 million. A two bedroom beach house rents for over 2100 dollars a week. A large number of Americans, Canadians and Europeans spend the winter there. I still cannot upload pictures so I cannot share a beautiful picture of the Harbor and lighthouse.

Nothing is Easy

We are in the Conch Inn Marina in Marsh Harbour awaiting delivery of a new inverter. The original failed after 16 years. Since the refrigerator / freezer operates on AC power we cannot anchor or move the boat unless we throw out all frozen and refrig food. We expect to be here until next Thurday at least, and that assumes that Xantack delivers the inverter as they promised. By then it will be time it start home. To add to frustration the weather continues to host high winds and a uncrossable Gulf Stream. To further complicate matters, Dixie's sister is very ill with a staph infection . More later as the situation, hopefully, resolves itself.

Moving on, we expect (hope)

The Internet has been down here for two days, and the wind is just dying down after three days of gale force or near gale force winds. The Whaleback Channel has been in a rage condition for three days; impassable for recreational boats. We expect to leave tomorrow after a week here that was supposed to be two days. The water maker hose project succumbed to Island Time so we'll get along without a watermaker for a couple of weeks. We will work our way down the Sea of Abaco and eventually get to Marsh Harbour. We don't expect to have an internet connection until then. We'll be back eventually.

Mother Nature is not Nice; Unforecasted Gale

We were going to leave for Marsh Harbour today but there was, and still is, an unforecasted gale going on. The anchorage was a circus last night; too many boats too close together.
We'll be here at least another night since Whaleback Channel is dangerous if not impassable. The current forecast is for another gale later tonight. Its very late in the season to have these kind of storms. The objective in waiting until March to come over was to avoid most of the winter storms. Didn't work this year. We have a ruptured high pressure hose on the watermaker so this delay gives us time to get it fixed. In Ft Lauderdale the problem could have been solved in 2 hours; in the Bahamas its days.

Good Samaritan, through incredible circumstances

We rented a golf cart for a tour of the island. Several hours after we started we took a wrong turn and before we got back to the beaten track we found in the middle of the dirt road a leather wallet full of credit cards, ID and I suppose money though we never opened the money compartment. We continued on for an hour or so, planning on leaving the wallet with the hotel. As we were returning to the Green Turtle Club we were passed by three carts going in the opposite direction and Dixie shouted "that's the guy in the driver's license photo". We turned around and caught up with them and sure enough they had been searching for the wallet. I will leave it to the statititions to calculate the odds of this happening. The guy who lost his wallet was, as you can imagine, astounded and very grateful. Dixie did it again.

Lucaya to Green Turtle

We left Lucaya on Tuesday morning and entered Dover Sound from the Grand Lucayan Waterway. The trip to Great Sale anchorage was a bit bumpy. The next day trip to Manjack Cay was very bumpy. Poor Samson was very sick. The Manjack anchorage is very beautiful. We tied up at the Green Turtle Club this AM. We'll be here until Monday; longer if the incoming front has as high winds as forcasted. No pictures because the blog site cannot seem to handle them at the moment.

Moving on

We plan on leaving in the AM for the Abacos. The internet facilities in the Abacos are not universal so there may be gaps in the blog until we can catch up. Don't give up on us; we'll be up as we can.

Best Laid Plans .....or NWS is unreliable

At least another day in Lucaya. The forecast changed dramatically from last night to the high winds and heavy rain going on as this is being written. The National Weather Service seems unable to accurately forecast 6 hours ahead. Stay tuned.

Kitties at Rest

The cats continue to sleep about 90% of the time and "rest" the remainder of the time. Samson likes to curl up in the catch all basket in the main cabin and Delilah seems to prefer one of the chairs in the aft cockpit or one of our laps. Not a high stress situation.

March in and out like a Lion

March is supposed to come in like a lion and end like a lamb. Not this year in Lucaya. There have been high winds all month and after a few good days the high winds are back. Twenty five knots from the east. Several boats were planning on leaving today but this is not weather suitable for crossing the Gulfstream. We will be here another week and its time to start taking care of the list of things that need to be done to get underway.

On the Way Home

Julie and Tracy left today. The trip home, a direct flight, should be better than the trip down. The weather today was beautiful typical Bahamian weather, a little late but they had a good time and we were glad they could come.

Open ocean swim with dolphins...

The alternate title for this blog is "Leslie, this one's for you!" It's guest blog time here at Marks Musings...Julie is here to let you know about an absolutely incredible experience I had today down here in Lucaya. It was an open water swim with dolphins through UNEXSO (Underwater Explorer Society). We went from Port Lucaya a short distance to the "dolphin lagoon" where we picked up a trainer and two dolphins and headed back out the channel to about 1/4 mile offshore. Once there, our group (there were six of us, me and a family of five from the Chicago area...two parents and three daughters ranging in age from 11-17). We hopped in the water and for about 10 minutes swam with the dolphins, just playing around. One dolphin stayed with me the entire time we were just playing. I would dive underwater, the dolphin stayed right by my side and we would come up together. Both of my contacts floated out of my eyes because I wanted to watch the dolphin by my side!
The first picture is the dolphins and I just swimming around. Then the trainer taught us how to ask the dolphins to do little tricks (waving at us, spinning, splashing, and "talking"). After that we got a hug from the dolphins (picture 3) and a kiss (I spared you the sight of me puckering up to the dolphin!). We were in the water for about 30 minutes with the dolphins. The last two pictures are of the dolphins leaping out of the water and getting their fish. What an experience! The most amazing part was just swimming with the dolphins and playing around with them.
The trainer told us that last week a group of wild dolphins joined the two trained dolphins and the swimmers for some fun. The wild dolphins even let the swimmers stroke them! The whole experience this morning was just delightful. Leslie, I told the dolphins you didn't believe in them. They laughed...

Lucayan National Park

The park is not large and consists mainly of ancient caves formed when the island was underwater thousands of years ago. (1) The highway sign marking the entrance (2) Explanation of Ben's Cave (3) Explanation of Burial Mound Cave (4) Interior of Burial Mound Cave (5) Marker for Gold Rock Beach

East End, Grand Bahama Island, a driving tour

Under Julie and Tracy's leadership we rented a car and drove East to the end of the Island. The Bahamians follow the British lead and drive on the wrong side of the road. I have done that in the past but not now. Tracy drove and did a great job. We have found that very few Island inhabitants have ever been to the eastern part of the island; now we know why-there is very little reason to go there since, quite literally, there is nothing there. There are a few interesting spots and a isolated restaurant that served terrific cracked conch. Otherwise, from the Great Lucyan Waterway eastward there are a few decrepit small towns, and vacant land. No telling who owns it or why they would. But it was a interesting day. Some pictures (1) The Island is split by a created waterway, the Grand Lucayan Waterway. The picture of the Waterway is looking north toward the Little Bahama Bank. The picture was taken from the 27 foot high fixed bridge which makes the waterway useless to sailboats and most medium to large powerboats. In addition, at the northern end, Dover Sound is not passable except at high tide. (2) The highlight of the trip (except for a great lunch) was the Lucayan National Park. More on that in the next blog. (3) A picture of the beach side of the park; looks much better than this picture (4) Many natives said to be sure to have lunch at Bishop's which was a good recommendation since it was basically the only restaurant, and the food was excellent. It is located on a beautiful beach in the middle of nowhere. Great lunch.

The next installment will talk about the National Park. Stay tuned.

Julie & Tracy Visit

Its been a dry spell on the blog, but not dry on Grand Bahama Island. First almost a week of high winds from various directions then three days of general rain. In all the years of coming to the Bahamas we have never seen three days of rain; usually its a shower, sun, shower.

Julie and Tracy arrived Sunday night with the usual air travel circumstances. Instead of 8 o'clock in the evening they got to the airport at 2 AM and , of course, Julies bag was not there. The bag was found by noon the next day, but not with any help from the airlines. The marina personnel and a very helpful taxi driver lead to success. To make their arrival even more fun a cold front has come through, and it is cool, but the natives consider it to be very cold and you will note in the pictures that all of us have windbreakers on.

Only two pictures today. (1) The four of us on the dock in front of DIXIE IV, (2) Off to the beach to Billy Joes's and conch salad. Tracy had never had conch before but enjoyed it.

Off on an Island drive tomorrow. Hopefully more interesting pictures tomorrow.