November 2018. Final Entry...Goodbye Rol & C's!

Little did we know when we arrived at Indiantown Marina that this would be the last few days of the Rol & C's.

Our arrival was routine. We removed the shrinkwrap from the boat and started our cleanup duties. The boat had fared well over the summer, there wasn't much mildew from the Florida heat and humidity. Our use of charcoal and formaldehyde throughout the boat when storing it helped a great deal.

We did have some major projects to deal with. Our inverter/charger which keeps our batteries charged and provides us with 110 volt power when at anchor needed to be removed from the boat and taken to Fort Lauderdale for repair. Our generator which blew a rod through the engine case last season, needed to be removed and replaced with a new one that I had purchased back home and brought with us. 

These jobs as well as other routine maintenance were progressing well until I decided to do some cleanup and fibreglass work in the area where the generator had been. This area hadn't seen daylight since the boat was built and it was dirty. I cleaned it all up with solvents and then sanded the area to be fiberglassed, applied the resin and glass mat and then proceeded to climb out of the engine room. As I did this I must have accidentally hit the cord of the extension light that I was using. I heard a crash behind me but didn't make much of it, just thought...there goes another light bulb and headed for the galley to make some lunch. Within a short time, the salon area filled with smoke and the fire alarm went off. Totally surprised by this, I tried to put it out with a small extinguisher we kept in the galley but it was all but useless. The entire interior of the boat was engulfed with smoke so quickly that all I could do is grab our laptops and get the hell out of there. I called 911 and watched as our beloved boat burned.

All this time, Carole was doing the laundry about a minute walk away, totally oblivious that any of this was happening. People walked in and out of the laundry room of the marina and no one mentioned the fact that there were seven firetrucks and several police cars just outside, not to mention a burning boat! When Carole walked out and saw this unbelievable sight, her first thought was "what the hell is happening?" When she realized that it was the Rol & C's that was on fire, she panicked! "Where's Roly?"

The boat was declared a total loss. 

Luckily no one was hurt. A couple of the firemen had inhaled some smoke and were being treated for it.  Our scars aren't visible but the pain we felt at the loss of our most prized possession, our winter home and our way of life, is indescribable. Over the nine years that we owned our Hyatt 40, we put a great deal of time, work and money into it to make it our own.  The one thing that the fire could not take away was the cherished memories. They will live on in us and the many of you who had the chance to spend time on her.

A big thank you to the Firemen and Policemen who came to our aid. We shudder to think how much worse this ordeal could have been if it wasn't for them. 

Thank you as well to the staff of Indiantown Marina who always gave us great service but really shined when we needed them the most. We thank our readers and hope that you enjoyed our adventures as much as we enjoyed living them.

This blog was dedicated to The Adventures of the Rol & C's and though sometimes it seemed a chore to write, it is now a testament to the lifestyle that it provided us. 

Roly and Carole Paré

With the following pictures, we remember the Rol & C's.

Now onward, to Another Adventure!!

Nov 2017 - April 2018 Bimini, Freeport

Oct. 31st - Arrived in Indiantown for our 5th year in a row, to begin our seventh season of southern cruising. We were happy to see that hurricane Irma did not do major damage to the boat. Only some of the canvas and isinglass were in need of repair. 

Thanksgiving festivities again at Indiantown Marina. Michelle's niece, Madeline and her friend Becky (behind Roly) came down for a visit.

Nice cruise on Ian and Michelle's new and improved "Southern Flite"

Michelle and Ian. We've been so fortunate to meet up with these two wonderful people from New Brunswick. It's been 5 years now that we've been cruising together and our adventure just wouldn't be as fun without them.

Alex, marina crew in his disco apparel

Marina office girls, Debbie and Antrinette.

Carole and Jesse, marina crew. Kudos to all the hardworking crew!

Nov. 7th - Launched the boat and cruised down the Okeechobee river to Jeff's Waterview marina in Stuart. Nice convenient spot, close to town for shopping and restaurants but it got pretty noisy at times with the construction of a new marina going on right next door.

Kept finding these little frogs on the boat. Threw this one overboard and he climbed right back up again on the hull of the boat!

Our boat on the left at the marina

We're here until Christmas so we got to work. One of our boat motors needed repair so we found a good diesel mechanic named Dennis Morrel from South Carolina. He replaced the intake gaskets on the starboard engine as well as turbo hoses on both engines.  Roly also had the injector pump rebuilt on the generator. Painted the back of the boat and finally put the Rol & C's name back on the boat after a 3 year absents! Pulled out the old rug on the flybridge and re-gel coated the floor and added new non skid and paint. Removed the dirty blue carpet from the sundeck floor and installed new deck flooring. Replaced the anchor rode and sewed new clear vinyl into the bridge enclosure. Roly also installed a new BBQ grill with pneumatic lift pedestal, (BBQ raises for use and lowers for storage).

New flooring....and Brad L., spilled red wine just rolls right off! lol

Roly took up a new trade!

Carole and Michelle enjoyed much shopping in Stuart as usual. They went to Palm Beach Mall for Carole to look for mother of the bride dress for her daughter, Leanne's upcoming wedding and Michelle looked for a lazy boy chair for their boat. When they met up again at the entrance of Macy's, there were all kinds of police cars flying by. As they were leaving the store, they were rushed back in by store staff and told a shooting was in progress. They were a little frightened as they were being guided to a back room to hide out. The entire mall was now on lockdown.  Took only 5 minutes when staff announced that the shooter was apprehended. Needless to say their shopping was done and they went to a bar for a good stiff drink! Heard later on the news that 2 friends were having an argument in the parking lot and one took his gun out and fired quite a few shots. The victim got into his car, took off as fast as he could, lost control and hit a tree. When the shooter was asked why he shot at his friend he said, his mother made him do it! LOL

Michelle enjoying a drink in her new lazy boy chair that she later found when the chaos was done!

It's sad to say that we have never seen the river water so dirty. They say that it's worse since the hurricane, as Lake Okeechobee flooded from the storm and they are pumping out billions of gallons down the rivers to the ocean.  One day we went to the Seafood Festival in Stuart and we were happy to see an environmental group raising money to save their rivers. We bought a t-shirt to support them. 

Dec. 3 - Happy birthday to Carole's dad, Doug Grant!

Dec 10 - Sunday drove Carole to the Miami airport to fly home early for Christmas as her mom had a bad fall and she also missed the kids. Well, she missed her flight as they closed down the I 95 all morning for a Toys for Tots Motorcycle charity run that we had no idea was going on. The traffic was so backed up, we thought there was a huge accident. Who closes a major highway going to 3 airports?!!! Thank God Carole was able to track down her sister, Linda who was supposed to pick her up at the Buffalo airport. We knew she would be shopping in Buffalo and after a few phone calls she managed to find her at one of the Kohls Dept. stores in Buffalo.  Boy was she surprised to hear her name over the store P.A. system! Had to drive 2 hours back to the boat in Stuart only to drive back on Tuesday to catch her next flight. When it came for Roly's flight home, he drove to Miami the night before and slept in a hotel to avoid any unforeseen traffic!

Dec. 31 - Had a wonderful time home at Christmas and were glad to see that Carole's mom was feeling better after a bad fall. Flew back to Miami.

My daughter Lisa and her beautiful family, Grant, Austin, Lily and dog Sadie

January 11, 2018 - We left Stuart at 9:00am. So nice to finally be on our way! Had the usual idiots cruising down the Intracoastal waterway. Some boaters have no respect for other boaters and pass  at high speeds causing huge wakes. One rocked us so badly that Roly and his captain's chair fell over! Screws fastening the chair pedestal ripped out from the floor! Carole had a good laugh! In hindsight it was a good time for this to occur. It would have been much harder to repair while crossing to Bimini considering the rough seas we experienced. At 4pm we anchored out in Lantana for the night.

Jan. 12 - We left the anchorage around 9am. Gorgeous homes and yachts down the Intracoastal waterway. Noticed many roofs that were damaged from hurricane Irma. We anchored in Sunrise Bay, Fort Lauderdale for the night.

Jan. 13 - We left Fort Lauderdale early this morning. Seas got rough and we both felt nauseous at times. What ever happened to our nice calm crossings?! We arrived 6 1/2 hours later in Bimini, Bahamas. We anchored out next to the casino for 2 nights then docked at the Big Game marina for one night. Weather has been cool but Carole enjoyed a relaxing day by the pool fully dressed while Roly checked into customs and immigration. His back has been aching from all the work on the boat before hand and the walk to the Immigration office didn't help.

Jan. 15 - Happy birthday to Carole's mom, Laurette Grant! Heard she had a good day until Carole's dad fell, broke 3 ribs and was in the hospital. Carole was feeling terrible not being home to help out but thank God for her brother Doug and sister Linda as they were home to help her mom and dad get through this difficult time.

Jan. 16 - Went back to the anchorage next to the casino. Carole had a nice kayak ride. She spoke to a frenchman from Montreal that just came back from swimming with the hammerhead sharks. Knowing they could be dangerous, he explained that you had to know how to deal with them.  While swimming with them, they feed them fish (good thing), and when they go straight to his face, he just pushes them away on their nose! Carole told him she'd rather swim with the more timid nurse sharks.

Jan. 17 - Carole went for her first salt water swim this year, unintentionally, as she tried to sit in her kayak and fell in, lol. Needless to say after getting all wet, she didn't bother going out for a ride as she was freezing, it was pretty cold out for the Bahamas. We've had quite a few cold fronts this season with strong north winds.

Jan 18 - Today, not wanting to take a chance of falling in the water again, she had Roly dinghy her over to the dock. She had a nice walk on Luna Beach. The beach was full of conch shells and Portuguese Physalia (man o' war) known as 'floating terror' as it's venomous tentacles deliver a painful sting, which on rare occasions has been fatal to humans. Even while beached, they can still sting days after the death of the organism. She was very happy that she kept her distance from them. We would always see these bubble like creatures floating in the sea on our crossings but didn't really know what they were until we read up on them. We thought they were some kind of jellyfish but they're not. They are a marine hydrozoa of the family Physaliidae. A few days later, she went back for a walk on that same beach and they were all gone plus no trash either. We figured the beach was cleaned up as it was the weekend when all the tourist come over on the ferry.

Portuguese Man O' War

Carole walking Luna Beach

Pelicans fishing and enjoying the water

Conch shells placed in the roots of a tree

January 19 & 20 - Docked at Bimini Blue Waters Marina as our generator broke down. There goes our plans to anchor out and travel east to San Salvador. Oh well, we're still on a boat in the Bahamas surrounded by beautiful blue water....we really can't complain!

Sea Crest Marina

Jan 21 - We moved over to Sea Crest Marina and decided to stay for a month as their monthly fee was cheaper. Electric bill was astronomical but all marinas in Bimini are. Hopefully now that we're staying put, Roly can relax and rest his back and heal. Carole's been enjoying many walks on the beach and started collecting sea glass.

Jan 22 - Roly was trying to grab the dock lines with the boat hook. It came apart and the end piece fell in the water. He decided to jump in to look for it right after a bull shark was just seen swimming by!! (after note in April.... we heard that a 14 yr old boy in Bimini tripped on a marina dock, fell in the water and a bull shark bit his foot. The boy received 53 stitches on his foot!).

Bull Shark

Hook must have floated away as he never did find it. He's just lucky the shark never found him!!!

Jan 23 - Carole snorkelled along the beach then the next day Roly's back was feeling better and we both snorkelled for lobster at our old spot but didn't find any there. We did find a huge nurse shark sleeping at the bottom. Roly got back into the dinghy to try some still fishing while Carole kept snorkelling. She had seen 2 beautiful spotted eagle rays swim by her and was so upset that she didn't have her camera with her. She came back to the dinghy to get the camera while Roly kept fishing and off she went to find the rays. She swam for quite a while and Roly lost track of her. When he finally found her, he said that he was ready to call the coast guard....thought came to mind that maybe she got eaten by a shark! Scared the hell out of him anyway! Got to put a flag or something noticeable on her head!

Pic courtesy of G. Johnson as Carole never did get to find the rays again but they looked exactly like this swimming by her.

Sleeping nurse shark

Took a nice dinghy ride over to South Bimini island. Very cute and beautiful beach houses. Noticed they kept this island very clean.

South Bimini Island 

Huge beached catamaran, probably from hurricane Irma

Carole snorkelled again and found a cute 1 1/2 foot long turtle. She watched him for awhile until he decided to leave.  The poor thing took off so fast that it smacked it's head or hopefully it's shell, right into a coral head! It must have been ok because it kept swimming away.

Sunday morning church service in the little market square. They had beautiful powerful voices while singing the hymns. 

Jan. 31 - Carole's been taking many walks on Radio Beach at the West End of the island. She got so sick of all the trash on this beach that she started picking it up. Every day she would bring grocery bags with her and fill them up then drop them in garbage bins on her way back to the boat. She ended up filling a good 40 bags with  beer bottles, plastic bottles, styrofoam food containers, plastic glasses, straws and many bottle caps. She read that plastic bottle caps are very deadly to birds and sea life because they think it's food. Caps are in the top 5 list of ocean trash that's dangerous to sea life along with plastic bags, balloons, plastic eating utensils, fishing lines/nets and cigarette butts! 

Carole doing her part for the environment and sea life

Restaurants on Radio Beach. Unfortunately much of the trash from these restaurants end up on the beach by either the wind and/or lazy patrons who take their food down the beach and just leave their garbage there! 

                    A fishing trawler that didn't survive a storm.

 Optical illusion...took a pic of a hole in the coral a good 2 feet deep down to the sand.

 Shows the hole better in this pic

 Many small crabs all over the coral on Radio beach...have to look closely, 2 top middle, 3 to the left on the rocks

 Cool waves crashing up against the rocks on Radio Beach.

Feb. 3 - Went to a potluck dinner on the dock next to us and met a very nice couple named Sara & Monty. Had a drink on their boat, a PDQ 34, power catamaran afterwards and found out this was their last year of boating after 25 years! Felt sad for them....don't know how we'll feel once we give up this beautiful cruising lifestyle. 

Went back to the boat and continued our 'Game of Thrones' binge watching...thanks Jeremy for loading up a hard drive for us of movies and tv series. It really helps when we can't catch any tv channels down here.

Feb. 5 - Happy birthday to Roly's mom, Marie-Claire Pare! 

Snorkelled the south end of south Bimini and saw some awesome schools of fish. 

Feb. 5 - Welcome home dad! Good news, Carole's dad, Doug Grant, finally went home from the hospital after 21 days. He suffered 3 fractured ribs in a fall at home.  Our beautiful granddaughter Lily with him.

Roly took up another new trade of making homemade pizzas! 

Is there nothing he can't do?! lol

Feb. 8 - Had an awesome day snorkelling and fishing. Took the Rol & C's out to Cat Cay. While snorkelling, Carole saw 3 sharks that definitely were not the usual tame nurse sharks that we normally  see. She just stayed calm and videoed them. She was so excited to see the pics and video when she got back to the boat only to find that her memory card was broken. Hopefully when we get back home, we can get a computer geek to get the pics off of the card. 

Stingray 

 Saw many jellyfish around Cat Cay. Carole was relieved to be wearing a full wetsuit.

 Beautiful spotted eagle rays!

On our way back to the marina, we hooked what we thought were 2 wahoo but lost one. Turns out they were King Mackerel. They are very similar looking and we only realized they were Kings when we cooked and ate them. Wahoo is much better tasting!

 3 ft l0 lb King Mackerel.

 Roly happily cleaning our dinner

Shark happily eating the fish scraps!

Lobster boats in our back deck view from the Sea Crest Marina.

Feb. 9 - Happy birthday Carole! She felt like starting off the day with a big pancake breakfast. Roly went across the street from the marina where Captain Bob's Restaurant is located to ask if they served pancake breakfasts only to find the place closed. After knocking on the door a few times, the owner answered and confirmed that he was not open for breakfast but with a little persuasion from Roly, he consented to make a full pancake breakfast for the birthday girl! Now that's good service and a good husband! 

And she ate the whole thing!!

The kids called to wish her a happy birthday. Love seeing the kids on Face Time! 

Later that night we had supper at the Luna Beach Club then off to the casino. Speaking of the casino, we talked with some of the people that came over from Miami or Fort Lauderdale by ferry to spend a night or two at the Hilton Hotel and Casino. $200 a night per person including the ferry and only $99 for the ferry ride alone to and from Florida. Not a bad deal to spend some time by the beautiful blue waters of Bimini.

Carole enjoying her birthday at the Luna Beach Club

Dinghied over to a conch bar/restaurant and had a few drinks. The guy with the drum was the local entertainment!

While out on our ride, we came across this boat stuck on a reef. Notice the empty bottle of rum on the dash, lol.

Our last night in Bimini

Until next time!

Feb. 16th - We left Bimini and headed to Freeport. We took the long way around in order to fish the drop offs but King Neptune was not giving up any of his prizes! We got to Freeport empty handed.

Gorgeous yacht outside of Bimini

 Captain Roly enjoying the ride as his wench Carole pilots the boat!!

Noticed a yacht on an ocean freighter. Wouldn't mind putting ours on one of them to head over to the Mediterranean, lol

Feb. 16 - After an 8 hour ride, we arrived in Port Lucaya. The Flamingo Bay Hotel and Marina will be home to us for the remainder of the winter. This marina and hotel are part of the Taino Beach Resort. It's a great place to entertain guests because of the many attractions in the area. We've stayed here before and keep coming back, friendly staff and a great beach and pool make this place very appealing.

Feb. 22 - We arranged a potluck party at the gazebo of the Flamingo Bay Hotel to get acquainted with our dock neighbours.

So nice to meet up with Noel & Sooki from sailboat, Point of Aries. We met a couple of years ago when we docked across the canal at the Grand Bahama Yacht club. Thanks Sooki for showing us where all the shops were in downtown Freeport!

It was a pleasure being acquainted with John and Steve (in white shirts) from catamaran, Cat Escape, from Britain for our 2 month stay.

It's so nice to meet up with fellow boaters and share our adventures. Boaters here together represent Canada (Ontario and Quebec), Great Britain, Australia, Italy and Malaysia. What a great diversity of experience.

Montana in the dark shirt, Noel's son from 'Point of Aries', stayed with his dad and Sooki for a few months (nice guy!)

Feb. 23 - Yay, our son Chris flew in today! He arrived early so we headed out to fish. Something big hit the lure and Chris started to reel it in. Soon after, the fight got crazy and then, nothing! We weren't the only ones fishing, Carole saw red of what must have been a shark attacking the fish we hooked!

Good try Chris!

Even though we didn't catch any fish, we enjoyed a nice steak dinner instead!

Feb. 24 - We went to the Lucayan Market and met up with an old Bahamian friend, Donny that works at Fairplay Bar and Restaurant. Awesome drinks and great music! Chris also met up with some Quebec guys and we all had a great time singing karaoke at Club Neptunes.

Chris & Carole singing their heart out!

Bartender and friend, Donny

Enjoying the beautiful Taino Beach

Feb. 29 - Tried fishing 2 other times without any luck...not even a bite, but we did go over to Peterson's Cay to do some gorgeous snorkelling and caught 2 lobsters.

Chris the Great White Hunter!

These are the kind of rocks we usually find lobster hiding under

Found one!

Cute little eel

Chris enjoying the view on our way back to Lucaya

March 2 - One week gone by already and sad to see Chris go home.  He had a pretty quiet week with the old fogeys. Too bad he couldn't come one week later as all the spring breakers showed up right after he left. They were wild!!

 Spring breakers cheering on their fraternity brothers wrestling below. Notice the worker on the roof taking pics of them.

March 3 - We went by dinghy back to Peterson's Cay to snorkel again as it was so beautiful. Roly speared a lobster, one yellow tailed snapper and five grunts. Later Carole walked the beautiful beach near Peterson's with not a soul in sight while Roly drove around in the dinghy looking for more lobster.

"Will you stop taking pictures and just let me eat my fish"!!!

March 6 - Went back out snorkelling, this time closer to the dive boats around Taino beach. Roly speared more snapper, found a lobster and put it back as she was full of pink eggs. Carole was holding the net full of snapper then noticed a bull shark below us. Yikes, time to head back before it attacks our catch or us! We swam back pretty fast with eyes behind our heads! Had a great fish meal again then relaxed while binge watching 'Black Sails' on Netflix. How fitting to watch a show about Nassau pirates in the 1700s while we're in the Bahamas.

March 15 - Went out fishing on the Rol & C's with Ian and Michelle along with friends from back home Lise (Brochu) and Lucien Bradley. Lise & Luc are staying in their son's condo at the Bell Channel just down the street. Super nice people! On our way out of Lucaya we saw a huge 4ft long turtle just sunning himself in the water. We were so amazed that none of us even thought about taking a picture. Stopped and dropped the anchor at Peterson's Cay to relax and have lunch. A 2ft turtle was nosy and kept swimming by our swim platform.

Lise, Luc, Ian, Michelle, Roly

Just love how the 'Gopro' camera takes pictures!

Fished again on our way out and noticed a big blue barrel floating in the water that was surrounded by fish. It was so nice to especially watch the colourful mahi swimming in the clear blue water around it. We managed to hook one mahi and kept going in circles to catch more with no luck. Kept seeing one which could have been the mate and we think it caught on to us and wouldn't bite. Carole and Lucien even fished from the bow of the boat to try and hook it to no avail. What a beautiful exciting day, and when evening came we all enjoyed a nice mahi meal.

Ian reeling in the mahi

Roly gaffed it

Michelle, Lise, Carole, Lucien

March 17 - Happy St. Patrick's day! Today was calm and beautiful so we took our dinghy along with Ian and Michelle's and drove to Banana Bay. Had a nice reasonably priced lunch (for the Bahamas) and a few Sands Beers. There was a bunch of kids and teachers from an environmental group there. So nice to see that they're teaching the young ones to clean up the beaches. 

Our dinghys anchored outside of the Banana Bay bar/restaurant.

Youth Environmental Group on the sandbar 

Carole liked her bathing suit so had to take a pic

Ian and Michelle

Us heading back. Absolutely love the water out there!!

Went back to town and hopped on Ian and Michelle's boat to try our luck at fishing again. When we're out fishing, we always look for birds hovering over fish jumping at the surface. This is caused by bigger fish chasing them from below....usually tuna. Today we noticed this happening quite a lot between Lucaya and Freeport. It was very exciting watching this and driving over them to try and hook us some tuna for 'sashimi sushi' appetizers. Don't know how many times we turned around and went in circles but never hooked a fish. We guess the tuna had enough live bait to eat!

Got out to where we noticed the blue barrel the other day and this is where 'Happy St. Patrick's day', turned into 'not so happy St. Patrick's day' for Carole. As she was going down the stairs from the flybridge on top, she grabbed the hatch door above for balance and caught her rings on a broken deadbolt. Her finger bled quite a bit as it ripped open her skin and swelled up immediately. Roly grabbed some pliers and cut open her 2 wedding rings in order to get them off of her finger. 

Well that certainly ended our fishing as Ian, our captain almost flew back to the marina, lol. We cleaned the wound and wrapped it up then took a cab to the little hospital. The triage nurse said that it was quite severe and got us in to see the doctor quickly. We were quite relieved as there were at least 25 people ahead of us. An hour and a half later, we left the hospital with 6 stitches on her finger. She wasn't too happy when the doctor told her that she couldn't swim for 10 days but very pleased to hear that she also couldn't do dishes! 

Before all of this happened, Carole mentioned that in the past we  have had eventful St. Patrick Days. One year boating in Exuma, we saw a couple dozen dolphin swim up to the boat while fishing (good event) but 2 yrs ago we hit a coral head and severely damaged the boat (not a good event). Next year, she's not saying a word and will just stay in bed all day for fear of something bad happening again, lol. 

Not too happy but she's quite proud that she never cried or fainted, lol

She's also loving that all her friends are telling Roly that it's time to buy her a new big rock!

March 20th - We were invited to Lise and Lucien's condo for dinner and had a wonderful meal and a great time!

Beautiful view from the condo on the Bell Channel

Such a pleasure meeting up with Lise and Lucien Bradley from Sudbury. We had some great times during our stay! Lise is the sister to our long time friend Ray (Broch) Brochu.

March 24 - Our friend Wendy and her sister-in-law, Cathy are flying in today for a visit. They got a good package deal at the Pelican Bay Resort. Non stop flight also from Toronto Sunwing airlines to Freeport.

 Wendy & Cathy enjoying the sun on the Rol & C's

Wendy as capitaine!

Cathy trying to get down the stairs on the rough seas, lol

Beautiful view from Pelican Bay

Drove our dinghy under this 134 ft catamaran..the girls freaked out!

Catamaran in the background

On the same day that Wendy and Cathy arrived, Pierre Brochu's family also came in on the same flight for a one week stay at his beautiful condo on the Bell Channel. 

Pierre, Ariel, Sophie and Karen Bradley

Ian and Michelle were very kind to invite the whole gang on their boat to go out fishing. No fish again but we had a blast singing and dancing to songs like 'Elvis hula songs' and 'Itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini'.

Lise was a pro at dancing the hula dances that she remembered from her honeymoon in Hawaii 50 years ago! 

Sophie was the dancing girl that got us all started!

Carole trying the limbo, yikes!

 Michelle taking a rest from all the dancing!

 No dancing for the men but they sure did enjoy the rum!

 Roly took Karen, Ariel and Sophie to see the dolphins out at the Dolphin Adventures. The girls loved it! More fun by dinghy as it would cost $90 each if they went with the Adventure Tours.

Later Wendy & Cathy also went out to see the dolphins

Great shot of the dolphin Wendy!

Great fun night!

 The guys enjoying a nice foot massage! lol

Carole & Wendy enjoying a day at the beautiful Taino Beach

 Carole and Cathy with their pink Sands Raddler drink at the Wed. Fish Fry. Penny's is our favourite restaurant there.

 Later the girls had a ball dancing at the fish fry beach bar. Felt like we were back at the Atlas Hotel in the 80's...so much fun!

Wendy at the Sabor restaurant attached to the Pelican Bay where they stayed for the week.

March 31st - Their week was up already and it was sad to see Wendy and Cathy leave. So happy they were both able to come visit!

 April 1st - Happy Easter!!! Beautiful blue moon!

April 1st - Ian's daughter Jenny and her twin boys Ian and James also checked in to the Pelican Bay Resort.

Jenny, her dad Ian, James and little Ian.

Went out fishing without any luck again but we were very surprised to see 6 dolphins swimming at the bow of the boat. In all the 6 years we've been coming to Freeport, this is the first time that we saw dolphins just outside of Port Lucaya. One swam for miles on his back and kept looking up at us. The boys were so excited!

April 2nd - Carole had a 'me' day and took advantage of a free bus ride to the east end of the island at Pelican Point to visit the Annual Coconut festival. The bus ride took an hour and a half but was very cool and comfortable. The ride didn't seem long as the bus driver entertained us with his jokes and the history of the Bahamas.

Coconuts! Enjoyed a nice cold pina colada

Junkanoo Parade

Little Junkanoo boy....so shy and cute!

Took a long walk on the beautiful beach

 You find all kinds of things on the beach...old life raft

April 4th - We decided to take the boat out and stay overnight near Peterson's Cay even though our generator was out of order. One night wasn't going to hurt. Had a beautiful day snorkelling. Southern Flight was also there and while Roly and I were snorkelling on one side of Peterson's, the MacPherson's were swimming with a turtle on the other side. It was very friendly as a fishermen was feeding it squid. We'll have to pick up some squid!  Ian is a fanatic when it comes to turtles and he was beyond thrilled! The boys also attracted a turtle back at the dock that they named, Terry the turtle.

 James and the friendly turtle

Little Ian following the turtle

Roly on the hunt with his spear.

Stingray digging in the sand for a crab lunch

Southern Flight at sundown

We had a beautiful serene night watching the billions of stars anchored out at Peterson's Cay.

April 7 - Carole's sisters, Susie and Linda, along with their husbands, Rheal and Hal arrived today for a week at the Ocean Taino Beach Resort where our marina is situated. The guys sure were happy when Roly greeted each of them with a Bahamian Kalik Beer at the airport.

April 8 - Trying to head out fishing, Carole threw a line from the swim platform over to the dock, lost her balance and fell in! Yes, everyone had a good laugh! 

Boohoo, no fish again! Hoping Linda would bring us good luck as she had in the past but she must of worn out her lucky charm. Roly said that he'd use her as bate next time, lol. 

Rheal & Sue getting ready to get wet!

Sue snorkelling

Multiple beautiful purple sea fans around Peterson's Cay

Pretty big and mean looking barracuda (they don't bother you unless you bother them, like most sea creatures)

 Soaking up the sun and relaxing after snorkelling 

Sue, Roly and Hal up on the flybridge

On our way back,  5 dolphins swam with us. Tried to get a pic with Linda & dolphins but blew it. If you look closely, there really are dolphins down there!

Heading back into the Lucayan Bell Channel watching the crazy fast jet skiers go around and in front of us! 

Didn't catch any fish so had a great meal at the Flying Fish Restaurant that night. Every Sunday night the owner sings and plays his guitar outside on the patio...he's very good and entertaining!

April 11 - Out to the Wednesday night fish fry again at Smith Point.

 Linda & Carole dancing to the Cupid Shuffle (to the left, to the left, to left, the left, the left...) Fun time!

The men enjoying a 'gullywash' drink made of gin, coconut water & coconut milk....very yummy!

The Ocean at Taino Beach Resort. Rheal & Susie stayed on the 2nd floor overlooking the pool/ocean.  Linda & Hal were right behind them overlooking the ocean. Good rooms but outdated. The Marlin section up near the front office are newer but you don't get the beautiful ocean view.

Relaxing time at the pool.

Carole & Linda floating around the huge pool while the men were enjoying happy hour drinks at the grotto pool bar.

Beautiful Taino Beach pool

Linda & Carole looking for sails at the sailing regatta & clothing sales at the straw market.

Sail boat races 

3 beautiful Grant sisters, Linda, Susie, Carole

April 13th - Happy Friday the 13th! Linda, Hal, Carole, Roly and another couple tried our luck at tennis ball golf on the beach. 

Roly demonstrating his winning form!

Linda helped a little girl named Hunter get it in the hole. Her parents were happy she won a 'Here Comes Trouble' t-shirt.

Winners!!! The 2 that rarely ever golf sure had good luck on Friday the 13th! Roly won the longest drive contest and a bottle of rum and Carole won closest to the pin and a t-shirt.

April 13th - The gals shopped the flea market then we enjoyed a great meal at Zorba's Greek Restaurant. Later we watched a lady entertainer in the market square and danced a few line dances.

Yummy Greek cheese flambe

April 14th - The sister gang were lucky to leave today as they were anticipating a cancelled flight due to freezing rain back home. They made it home safely after hazardous weather on the QEW. What a thing to drive home to after spending a beautiful week in the Bahamas! It was a pleasure spending time together with you all down here and hope we can do it again!

Rol & C's

Our neighbours at the marina, Terry and Gloria from North Carolina standing next to their sailboat, Just 'Air.

Terry and Gloria were kind enough to collect all these conch shells for us.....thank you!!

April 18 - It's time to leave this awesome place and start heading back. Winds were favourable so we left for West End, Bahamas. There were already quite a few boats in the anchorage when we arrived. 

On our way out of Lucaya, we had to pull the dinghy because the remote control for the crane got wet and wouldn't function.

April 19 - Left at sunrise and arrived at 5:00 at Waterview Marina in Stuart, Florida.

April 25 - Stayed in Stuart for a few days and have never been through so many thunderstorms. Big difference from the Bahamas as it only rained 3 times in 3 months. 

Roly cruised down to Indiantown while Carole drove the truck back to the Indiantown Marina to meet up with him.

April 26 - We've been cleaning and packing for about a week now and the Rol & C's gets pulled out tomorrow. 

April 27 - Heading back home to Ontario, Canada where it's still only in the 40s, brrrrrrr! Can't complain though, we had a great winter in the south. Until next time, that's if we don't sell the boat, lol.

We better catch some damn fish next year!!!