Florida Nov. 2014
Again this year our winter season started late. We had originally thought to leave around Nov. first to head to the boat. Being retired has its advantages so our schedules are flexible. Our plan was to have the boat moved from the storage yard to the work yard in order to sand and repaint the stern (back of the boat). After working on the cottage all summer, our energy level was pretty much depleted. We decided to defer this work to next year and enjoy a longer cruising season instead. Upon arriving at Indiantown Marina, our home in Florida, we readied the boat for the water and launched it. It was great to be afloat again in our winter home. By then it was Thanksgiving week in the U.S. so we decided to stay at the marina for a few days to take advantage of the free meals and party the marina puts on the week leading up to the holiday. Indiantown Marina owners and staff do an excellent job of planning the festivities. Four days of meals, including beer and wine and live entertainment for their customers.
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| Michelle, Alex(marina staff), Carole |
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| Ian, Alex, Roly & Jesse (marina staff - great guys!) |
After our week of merriment, we cruised the Rol & C's up the Okeechobee Waterway to Stuart where we rented a slip at Stuart Landing Marina until January. This gave us some time to relax and also perform some small repairs to the boat. Stuart, FL is a great city for boaters. You can find most anything you need nearby, which is great when we're preparing for a long cruise.
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| Rol & C's (left) at Stuart Landing Marina |
Our plan this year is to travel to the Exuma chain of the Bahamas. We'll be on the hook (at anchor) most of the winter in places that don't have much in the way of provisions. Our generator will provide the power to charge our batteries but we decided to give it a little help and installed two solar panels. The panels worked great and cut our generator run time by half.
December 2014 - Back to Welland, Ontario
We flew home for Christmas to be with our family. Our kids would never forgive us if we weren't all together for the holidays. We're hoping that next year they will come to see us down south. We hate the cold!
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| Our 3 beautiful kids, Lisa, Chris & Leanne |
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| Our sweet granddaughter Lily |
January 2015
It was great to be with family and friends. We miss them as soon as we leave, but it's so nice to be back in the land of sunshine and warmth.
Now the real cruising season starts but not before we fill every nook and cranny of the boat with supplies, food and beverages! Where we are going, there aren't many stores! The prices in the Bahamas are more than Canada but now they added a VAT (value added tax) of 7.5% to everything including food.
January 16, 2015
Departure date...finally! We'd been waiting for a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream for a week and now it seemed we would finally get one. Along with our buddy boat and friends Ian and Michelle, we headed down the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) to Miami. It takes two days to get there from Stuart. The ICW is a protected system of canals and rivers that follow the Atlantic ocean. Lined with beautiful homes and gorgeous yachts, there is always something to marvel at!
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Our buddy Ian on his boat, Southern Flite cruising the Intercoastal through Fort Lauderdale
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| Fort Lauderdale - Stephen Spielberg's yacht on the left |
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| Rol & C's |
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Last overnight stop in Hurricane Harbour on Kay Biscayne, Florida
Guess what the men were looking at?! |
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| Topless girls!!! |
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| Beautiful view of the sunset from Hurricane Harbour, FL |
January 18, 2015
We left the U.S. at sunrise via Key Biscayne.
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| Southern Flite ahead of us leaving Florida |
Our crossing was uneventful, which is the way you want it! The blue water of the Atlantic is so beautiful on a calm or fairly calm day. When you look down and think that there is more than half a mile of water under the boat, you can't help but wonder what living creatures are down there. We didn't see any dolphins or whales but there's always flying fish about. Unbelievable how far those little buggers can fly!
Upon arriving in Bimini around 1:00 pm, we rented a slip at the Bimini Blue Water Club and set off to report to customs and immigration to obtain our cruising and fishing permits. A $300.00 fee was paid and we were legal. Just when we were deciding what to do for supper, a gentleman walked down the dock with a bag full of fresh caught lobster and asked if we were interested. At $35 for 13 tails, it was a great buy and supper was on. We cooked them on the bbq and had an awesome first meal in Bimini.
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| Roly preparing the lobster |
We stayed two nights at the Blue Water Club to get a chance to see Bimini. It's the first time here for us and we wanted to get to know the island. Down came the bikes and away we went.
There's more to Bimini than we thought. There's a new casino at the north end along with a beautiful new development of hotels and shops as well as homes and condos. By the way Carole won a whopping $13 at the slots!
We took a short ferry ride along with our bikes to South Bimini. We rode all the way to the end of the island with the plan to eat at the restaurant, only to find it closed! Got to love island time mon!
We liked Bimini and would certainly go back.
January 20, 2015
A long day on the Bahamas Bank. We travelled twelve hours in 2 to 3 foot seas to reach Chub Cay in the Berry Islands. We anchored for the night and left early the next morning for New Providence Island, the capitol of the Bahamas. On the way, we decided to try our luck at fishing. We were crossing an area called the "tongue of the ocean", over a mile deep, so we didn't expect much. We were surprised when the fishing reel started to "sing"! Our prize was a 30 lb. mahi-mahi at about 45" long. First of the season! Finally got to put the new fish cleaning table to the test.
Supper was supplied for the night and a few other nights as well.
We stayed at the Palm Cay Marina just south of Nassau for the night. This is a new development with big plans for the area. Good stop with friendly people but lots of noseeum bugs! They're like our northern black flies and once bit, they itch for a week or more!
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| Carole & Michelle enjoying a drink at the Palm Cay Marina |
Jan. 22nd. Allen's Cay, Exuma. This island has all the charm of a lizard, literally! There are hundreds of iguanas on the beach to greet you, big ones, small ones, young ones, and old ones. They all come running out of the bushes when they hear a dinghy coming to shore. They're used to boaters feeding them, even though it's forbidden, and they come right up to you looking for handouts. We stayed three nights. The winds were up from the east, which made for a pretty rough anchorage. We did make the most of it and explored the Cay and its waters.
Jan. 25th. Norman's Cay. We chose to stay at Norman's for a few days to wait out a strong east wind, one that lasted most of the winter I might add! There is a large pond inside this cay that is very protected but can only be accessible at high tide because of the draft of our boats. It was a great choice. We got to relax a bit and enjoy some calm water. We got to dinghy around and explore. We tried to find lobster without any luck and met some new friends, Dwain & Julie on the sailing vessel BoomDeYada. We crossed paths with the couple from Oakville, Ontario many times over the winter.
We went to a bar called McDuffs for a drink and learned some of the islands history.
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| Beautiful stingray while on dinghy ride |
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| Carole at entrance of Mac Duff's Bar |
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| MacDuff's Bar on Norman's Cay |
According to local knowledge, the cay was home to a gangster called Carlos Lehder in the late 70s to the early 80s. He ran a drug smuggling operation from here. The remnants of his buildings are still there as is a downed aircraft in the waters nearby as a result of engine troubles while being chased by the cops.
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| The remains of the drug lord, Carlos Lehder's plane |
Jan. 28th. Oh what a night! At high tide on this day we said farewell to Norman's pond and headed out to the pass south of the cay in order to anchor for the night. There was to be calm winds the next day and we wanted to head further south. We dropped the hook not far from the plane wreck that is mentioned above. The winds were fairly light but there was a good current running through the cut from the ocean. That night the winds picked up considerably and made for quite a bumpy and sleepless night. We both got up a few times throughout the night to check our position and the dinghy tied to the stern of the boat. At 7 AM we got up and were glad to see that we hadn't dragged our anchor and were still in the same spot. All was good until we looked to the back of Rol & C's and found the dinghy missing! We immediately called out on the radio to ask if anyone had seen it float by. There were many boats anchored in this area and no one had spotted our tender. We gave out our phone number and a description and told them what channel we would be monitoring on the radio. We looked quite awhile for it without any luck. Sadly we had to move on without it.
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| Southern Flite leaving area where our tender went missing at Norman's Cay |
Our next stop was the Bahamas Land and Sea Park Ranger station on Warderick Wells Cay. We reported our missing dinghy to them and asked if they could broadcast its description on their radio in hopes that their stronger signal could reach boaters further away. We spent the night there in hope of hearing something positive. Being on a cruise without a tender to get back and forth to shore or to explore with, is like living out in the country without a car! Many thanks to our cruising companions, Ian and Michelle for their help in getting us around until we found a dinghy to rent in Georgetown, Exuma.
Not to waste an opportunity to explore, we took a hike up to Boo-Boo hill with our friends. It was named as such because of a reported ghost who haunts this hill. At the top we found a large number of driftwood and boards with the name of cruising vessels piled in an unorganized heap. They are all from boaters that have made the trek up this hill to get the privilege of seeing the outstanding view.
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| Whale that washed ashore at Warderick Wells Cay in 1996. The poor thing swallowed a bag which caused its death. |
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| Michelle and Ian Macpherson on BooBoo Beach |
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| Beautiful view on Warderick Wells |
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| Had to add the Rol & C's name up on Boo Boo Hill |
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| Gorgeous view from the top of BB hill |
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| Little lizard loving Carole's pink toenails |
For us there was another reason for the climb, It's the only place for miles around where we could get a cell phone signal. Roly used it to give our insurance company a call with the bad news about the missing dinghy.
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| Roly trying to "phone home" |
Jan 30th Dinghy-less, we forged south to Staniel Cay, one of the more popular of the Exuma Cays. After docking at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club, we made a call to the local police. Officer Curtis of the Bahamas Police Force went out of his way to meet us at the yacht club in order to take our statement concerning the missing boat. With that out of the way, we made time to check out this little gem in the centre of the Exuma chain.
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| Rol & C's centre back in beautiful Staniel Cay |
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| Roly always getting in trouble, lol |
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| Gorgeous Mega Yachts at Staniel Cay (one of these days when we win our millions, lol) |
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| Mama & baby nurse sharks along Staniel Cay docks |
Staniel has quite a few attractions as in Thunderball Cave, where the James Bond movie bearing its name was filmed. We had a chance to snorkel the cave and got some great pics and video. Lots of fish to swim with.
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| Opening of the grotto (oops dates are incorrect) |
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| Carole taking a break in the grotto |
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| Michelle snorkeling in the grotto |
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| Ceiling in the grotto |
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| Many sergeant major fish in the grotto |
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| Nice hair after snorkeling! |
We anchored around the point of the neighbouring Big Majors Cay where the wild pigs swam out to the dinghy looking for food handouts.
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| Hey piggy piggies! |
We went to the yacht club for the Super Bowl party, had a great time with our friends and even won $100 on a pool that we split with Ian and Michelle.
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| Superbowl dinner at Staniel Cay Yacht Club |
Feb.2. With two foot plus waves on the nose, we set course for Rudder Cay. This is David Copperfield's island and there are no trespassing signs and cameras all over. Even a guard dog on the beach!
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| Beautiful huge cave on Copperfield's Island |
We went to visit a cave on the water's edge and snorkeled around David's underwater statue of a mermaid and a grand piano, all made of stainless steel. Absolutely beautiful!
As we were heading back to the boat, along comes a pleasure craft with none other than Copperfield himself with some very attractive guests! Sorry no pic as his captain sped by us.
Nearby on Little Darby Island we checked out a supposed submarine penn that a Nazi sympathizer built near the end of the second world war. The apparent reason for it was to hide the U-boats from Allied Forces detection. It's doubtful that it was ever used.
Feb.3. Finally, a beautiful calm day. Perfect for the last southern leg of our voyage. Taking advantage of the calm waters, we decided to fish all the way to Georgetown off shore. Excitement built as we saw bait fish jumping in circles along the way. A sure sign of tuna feeding on their prey. We zigzagged our way through the feeding frenzies and were rewarded with our first black fin tuna! At five pounds, he's a light weight, but just right for sashimi (eaten raw). Not long after that, both reels started to "sing"!
At first we thought the one line had snagged the other but it was actually two mahi-mahi at the same time! Both of us worked like crazy to reel them both in and try to gaff them into the boat. Our success bagged us one 9 lb. and one 6 lb. fish. What a meal we had that night after anchoring in Georgetown!
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| Our proud catch of the day |
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| Enjoying the sashimi with our friends Ian and Michelle |
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| 1st time eating sashimi (raw tuna). To my surprise it was very good! |
Georgetown, Exuma Feb. 3rd
We spent over a month here for a few reasons. First of all, we really like it here. This is our second visit to Great Exuma. If you look back on our blog to 2012, you'll see that we had rented a beach house here for the month of February. We got to know the island pretty well back then and we were excited to be back with our boat.
This is one of the most popular boating destinations in the Caribbean. It's also called "chicken harbour", because most boaters are scared to venture any further south! We had planned on going south to Long Island but the winds wouldn't permit. During our stay, there were over 300 boats in Victoria harbour. Apparently, this is a record. One of the reasons that this place is so popular is a land mass called Stocking Island which protects the harbour and Georgetown from the prevailing easterly winds.
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| Southern Flite on left & Rol & C's on right anchored out at Stocking Island |
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| Boats anchored out at Stocking Island, Exuma |
It has a few great beaches, notably, the most popular called, Volley Ball Beach where four beach volleyball courts are set up for use by the boaters. There's a conch shack where you can get fresh conch salad made while you watch. Chat & Chill, a beach bar is the main attraction to this area. Every Wednesday they have a dance on the patio and on Sundays a pig roast. This is the main gathering place for boater activities, like meetings, seminars, and event planning. The boaters regatta was on while we were there this year. It's the best time to be in Georgetown as there were games, races, contests, and even a Texas Hold-Em poker tournament.
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| Sailing Regatta |
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| Carole & Roly in front of the Chat & Chill on Stocking Island |
There's a little lake in Georgetown called, Lake Victoria, where the boaters head by dinghy to access the town. The Exuma Market Grocery store supplies a long dock as well as free water for the boaters. Across the lake is a bar that we would frequent most Monday nights called Eddie's Edgewater. Good food and a Rake and Scrape band in the evening always brings in a crowd. We even got to sit in with the band one night on Carole's birthday and play some of their more "primitive" instruments. We'll let the pictures explain!
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| Heading across Victoria Harbour from Stocking Island to Georgetown for supplies...check out that gorgeous blue water & schooner! |
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| Dinghy dock in Lake Victoria, Georgetown, Exuma |
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| View from Exuma Yacht Club |
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| Kid Cove where we would throw anchor a few times if winds were too strong at Stocking Island |
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| Carole dancing on her birthday with Bahama Obama |
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| Roly jamming with the Rake & Scrape band |
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| Carole having a little too much fun on her b-day with the gals, Donna, Michelle & Julie |
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| Dance party at the Chat & Chill |
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| Our friend Ian grew some hair while in Exuma, lol |
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Oh, oh, no more tequila for Carole! lol
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| Enjoying the beach on Valentine's Day |
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| Roly taking a saltwater bath |
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| Carole enjoying the gorgeous view on Stocking Island |
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| What was it our friend Brad said? "Too bad that whale got stuck on the beach" hahaha! |
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| Some guy up there checking out the nudies |
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| Carole found a rock that looked like a skull |
It was nice to have Carole's sister, Linda and Hal visit us for the week. We took a long hike over to the ocean side of stocking island to enjoy the beautiful beach.
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| Carole & Linda enjoying drinks on the beach |
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| Hal & Roly |
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| Linda getting soaked by the splashing waves |
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| Linda & Hal |
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| "Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters" lol |
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| Ian & Michelle in front of Monument Hill on Stocking Island |
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| Carole loved kayaking even after tipping over a few times getting in and out |
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| Carole, Marsha & Michelle after a hard day of kayaking |
We entered the Coconut challenge along with Carole's sister Linda and her sig-other Hal. Of course there is always a little mischief going on in this type of competition. We had our drain plug pulled out of our dinghy in hopes to sink us, thanks to Dwain! Luckily we spotted it before we launched. Squirt guns and water cannons were of course encouraged! We wish we could post videos but wifi here is way to slow.
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| Notice drain plug pulled out as Dwayne, the culprit is staring right at it! |
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The cheaters! lol
Good thing Roly noticed our plug out right before the race! |
This contest consists of a group of 4 people in a motor-less dinghy. We had to paddle out into a lagoon with the use of one swim fin each and gather as many coconuts that were placed in the lagoon as we can. Points are awarded according to the amount of coconuts that your team recovers. In our opinion, there should have been points awarded for the only team to lose members overboard...us! Roly blames it on lack of communication but others may have a different opinion! Carole & Linda shouted, "it was all Roly's fault"!!
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| Dwayne throwing coconut to Michelle & Julie |
It's a three part game, therefore the next part of the challenge had the four participants tossing three coconuts over a volleyball net and into a circle on the sand all at the same time as quickly as possible. We aced that one! The third part had a football type of hand off to a thrower, who tossed the coconut over his head and back to be caught by a green plastic garbage bag held by 2 people. This was hilarious to spectators because the thrower can't see where he's throwing and the catchers have to run around with the bag to try and catch the coconuts. The catchers wear helmets, and for good reason...our friend, Michelle, was doing great catching the coconuts in her bag until one of them hit her on the head. It was so funny watching her hide behind her partner, Julie, after getting hit while trying to avoid the coconuts.
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| After Michelle got bonked on the head trying to hide behind Julie...so funny! |
While our team didn't do very well gathering the coconuts after tipping over, we did pretty good on tossing and catching the coconuts without Carole nor Linda getting smacked on the head, lol. All in all, neither of our teams won, but we had a blast!
Through all these fun and games, we were still dealing with our missing dinghy. To our surprise, our insurance company agreed to replace it with a new one and had it shipped to Georgetown for us...now that's service! Nothing happens quickly in the Bahamas as it took over a month and many phone calls and emails, but we finally received our new dinghy on February 28th! Coincidentally, Roly's deceased dad's birthday!!!Thanks dad! While we were waiting for our delivery, we were lucky to find someone who had an extra dinghy that we rented from them. Made life much more convenient.
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| New friends, Dwight & Karen on Popeye |
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| New dinghy |
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| Roly having fun in his new toy |
What's nice about returning to a destination that you've already been to, is that you get a chance to visit some old haunts. While Linda and Hal were here, we motored over to Hooper's Bay where we had rented the beach house three years prior. They were guests of ours back then as well, and we all enjoyed walking that beautiful beach again and swim in those gin clear waters!
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| Ya right guys! |
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| View from the beach house we stayed at a few yrs ago with our boat in the background |
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| Linda feeding stingrays back on Stocking Island |
The waters calmed enough one day for us to go out deep sea fishing. Linda, Hal, Ian and Michelle joined us. We usually try to fish in 300 to 500 feet of water. Seems a little strange to be so deep when you consider that our lures are trolled on the surface. In any case it works, we landed one good size wahoo (Ian), a barracuda (Linda) and a small tuna (Roly). Another great feast with appropriate beverages was had on the Rol & C's!
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| Ian's nice wahoo catch |
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| Linda's barracuda catch |
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| Happy Hal |
One windy day, (most days were windy), six of us on 2 separate dinghies decided to head across the harbour to another old haunt of ours, the Fish Fry. Most Bahamian islands have an area called the Fish Fry. It usually consists of an area with a number of small cottage like buildings that prepare and serve their own specialty, be it fried fish, conch dishes, bbq etc. In Georgetown the fish fry has a place called Charlie's. Charlie is quite the entertainer, he serves great food but he also serenades you with his karaoke! Of course anyone is welcome to take the microphone, but Charlie sings the rest of the time. Not one to let a chance go by to take the mic, Carole asked Charlie to join her in a duet. They did a great rendition of Natalie and Nat King Cole's, Unforgettable. Needless to say, they were "unforgettable"!
We must mention that our ride back from Charlie's was unforgettable too! In the dark, we traveled the half mile or so back to our boats. Though they were no more than two foot waves, we were heading into them and with every wave, the spray would come back at us. By the time we got back, we were soaked to the bone!
Took advantage of another calm day to go fishing on Ian and Michelle's boat, "Southern Flite" also accompanied by Grant and Donna from "Primadonna". What an exciting day of fishing! After a few hours without even a bite, all 3 lines started singing at once. We got lucky and a school of mahi mahi fish swam by the boat. Talk about chaotic! Everyone was yelling at once "get the gaff, get the liquor, get the cooler, get the camera, put the boat in neutral, put the boat in drive, whose driving the boat?!" It was hilarious! The liquor is used to spray in the fish gills to calm them down and peacefully go to sleep. We ended up with 4 mahi mahis and a black fin tuna... awesome day!
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| All 3 guys frantically reeling in their catch |
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| What a catch! |
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| Time to celebrate!! |
March 7th.
It was time to say goodbye to Georgetown. We were sad to leave the new friends we had met and all the activities that we were part of, but we had a lot more to see and do. We missed many of the cays and their attractions on the way south, partly because of the lost dinghy. We fished off shore on our way back to Rudder Cay and were rewarded with a nice mahi. We anchored there for the night and the next day moved on to Little Farmers Cay.
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| Roly found out the head of the fish had the best meat! |
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| The meat on the spine was great too! |
Still with our travelling companions, Ian and Michelle, we walked up to the Ocean Cabin Bar and restaurant. Sat at the bar, had a couple of cold ones and a great conversation with the owners, Terry and Ernestine. These two people had a wealth of information about the Exumas and Terry was surprisingly well informed about our own Canadian politics, even though we agreed to disagree about which party was the better one!
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| Little Farmer's Cay |
Mar. 9th brought us to Black Point on Great Guana Cay. It's a popular area for boaters but there doesn't seem to be much to do there. Ian and the girls took the bicycles to shore for a ride of the island while Roly did some maintenance on the Rol & C's.
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| Most pristine beach we found while biking with a castle in the background |
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| Limestone cliffs on Cambridge Cay. |
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| Fire Coral |
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| Little stingray camouflaged over the sand |
We later went over to Scorpion's Bar for supper and some lively conversation with other boaters. The place was packed for "Happy Hour". Carole and I took the opportunity to do some near shore snorkelling and found some beautiful conch shells. Like we needed more shells on the boat!
March 11th
Back to Staniel Cay for a fill up of water and a tasty lunch at the yacht club. After lunch we headed north to Pipe Cay. Roly worked in a pipe mill for 31 years and really didn't want anything to do with anything named "pipe" even though, he had to admit, this is one of the nicest spots that we've dropped the hook in. There was some good snorkelling along the shore, and even speared a lobster that Carole spotted.
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| Carole spots the lobsters antennas sticking out of the rock then Roly takes over |
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| Roly handing the lobster to Michelle |
On the other side of the island, there is a huge sand bar that amused the girls for hours. Well Carole at least! When that woman is snorkeling for shells, you can't get her out of the water! Not even for sharks or even after brushing her arm up against fire coral that burned like hell!
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| Carole's treasures |
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| Fire Coral |
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| Michelle at Pipe Cay |
Compass Cay, close by, has a marina for the "rich and famous". The yachts there are quite impressive, but their main attraction is the sharks that come to the dock to feed. The dock master feeds them regularly to keep them around and charges arriving boaters a $10 each landing fee that we didn't notice, for the "privilege" to swim with the nurse sharks and stingrays. As we were leaving in the dinghy, someone yelled out "you have to pay a landing fee", Roly heard "laundry fee" and said "I don't have any laundry" and left! His hearing's not so good. Carole clued him in and he went back later and payed the "laundry fee"!
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| Carole braver than the guys next to her with their arms up. What actually happened is, one of the guys pulled on a shark's tail and it turned around and bit him, so they were afraid after that. |
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| Plane dropping off people to the mega yacht |
March 11th
Little Hall Pond Cay, or better known as Johnny Depp's Island! We circled the cay looking for him but, alas, John wasn't home. Sorry Carole, I guess he must be off on his honeymoon!
We could see that the tents were still set up for his recent wedding. We noticed each huge tent had an air-conditioner hooked up to it. Of course his island is private as are many in the Bahamas. Tourists are asked to kindly refrain from landing on the beaches but Carole just couldn't resist!
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| Johnny's Island |
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| I guess Johnny doesn't like dogs pooping on his beach! |
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| Tents set up for Johnny & Amber's wedding |
Luckily there are other attractions nearby to soften Carole's disappointment. There's a small plane that crashed there some time ago. It's under some ten to fifteen feet of water and make for a great skin dive.
Carole also snorkeled unknowingly into a conch nursery and got so excited to see so many shells until she came out of the water and noticed a big sign notifying to NOT take any shells out of this area.
Also, an area called the aquarium, brings in a lot of attention from the boaters. For some reason, many types of tropical fish are attracted to this specific spot and allow us to swim and snorkel among them. It makes for a great photo op. Apparently we are not allowed to feed the fish as Ian was told later, lol!
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| Ian & Michelle |
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| Ian surrounded by fish while feeding them |
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| The amount of fish were unreal |
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| Roly |
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| Sergeant Majors |
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| Carole & Michelle |
March, 15th. Shroud Cay is an uninhabited and mostly low lying island. The low spots allow for the tide to create rivers that run-through to the sea in a few different spots. We had a great time with the dinghies exploring these waterways. We climbed a hill on the ocean side of one of these outlets. It was reportedly used as an observation point for law enforcement spying on the drug smuggling activities on Norman's Cay.
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| Ian & Roly just dying trying to hold it in! What is it with men every time someone takes a pic?! |
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| Ian & Michelle's boat Southern Flite |
The water colour on this river outlet was the most beautiful emerald green we'd ever seen. It seems that natural beauty is for the rich as well. There were more mega yachts here than any other cay we stopped at. The crews of these "ships" would set upon the beach, shade canopies and lounge chairs as well as all sorts of expensive water toys for their owners or charter guests to enjoy.
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| Same mega yacht as above at night (pic really doesn't do it justice) |
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| Rachel's Bubble Bath north end of Compass Cay |
March, 16th
Highborne Cay was our last stop in the Exuma chain. We had decided, because of the weather, our cruising speed and the distance to our next destination, that we would forgo the more northern cays of Exuma. Highborne has a beautiful upper scale marina and restaurant, which unfortunately was closed the day we were there. They have a fish cleaning station for the use of their patrons. The scraps thrown in the water attract an amazing assortment of sea life. We could see tuna, tarpon, bonefish, snapper, rays and three species of sharks all mingling, happily it seems, and waiting for scraps from fishermen.
We again, did more great snorkelling around the coral shores and one elusive grouper would just not let Roly spear him!
The Exumas have the most inviting
clear blue waters we've seen to date. At 80 degrees, we didn't need wet suits even for extended stays in the water. Although, Carole did wear a light suit as the sea lice (larvae of jellyfish) love to bite her. The sea life seen from below or above the surface is just totally amazing and will not soon be forgotten.
March, 17th
Happy Saint Patty's Day...well, it didn't turn out to be too happy for us! Today we left Exuma for Spanish Wells, Eleuthera. We've never been to this chain of the Bahamas and heard that the off shore fishing is excellent. The weatherman was forecasting light winds for the next few days so now was our chance. We left at first light for the approximately 55 mile journey. First we'd cross the Exuma Yellow Bank and then onto deep waters and fishing the ledges to Spanish Wells, or so we thought! At 11:17 am, and we know this because the battery fell out of one of our clocks, as we hit an uncharted submerged coral head, in nine feet of water!
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| Starfish in 9 feet of water! |
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| Coral supposedly in 9ft of water! |
They say that coral heads keep growing but this one must of had a growth spurt because it was right on a charted course and we had to be the ones to give it a hair cut with our props! Quickly, the anchor was dropped and into the water Roly went to assess the damage. It wasn't pretty! Two mangled props, two bent prop shafts, and one bent rudder. We guessed we were not going fishing!
We couldn't get anywhere under our own power without risking more damage, so we asked Ian if he would agree to go out of his way and tow us with Southern Flite to Nassau. He agreed and off to New Providence we went. We called some marinas when we were in cell phone range and made arrangements with a repair facility that could handle the job at hand.
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| Thank God for Ian & Michelle! |
So now we sit here at the very bumpy Nassau Club Marina and wait for prop shafts to be machined in Florida. What's the saying about life throwing you lemons? Guess it's time to get to know Nassau and Paradise Island!
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| Nassau Harbour Club Hotel and Marina |
This is the marina where we stayed while we were waiting for the parts we ordered from Florida. The bridge you see in the background joins Nassau and Paradise Island where the popular Atlantis resort is.
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| Atlantis |
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| Atlantis |
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| No, it's not singer, "Usher's" yacht, Leanne! |
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| Inside Atlantis Casino |
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| Atlantis Aquarium |
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| This guy was talking to me...such language! |
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| Gorgeous colours! |
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| Roly inside Atlantis Aquarium Cave |
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| Shark swimming overhead of us in the Aquarium tunnel |
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| Nighttime view of Atlantis Casino |
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| On dinghy ride to check out the Cruise Ships anchored in Nassau |
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| We've never been on a cruise ship but we've been under one! |
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| One of the small cays east of Paradise Island. |
Baha Mar Casino & Hotel is suppose to be one of the largest and most exciting resorts in the world. Experiencing thrilling Vegas-style casino gaming and unparalleled luxury....and bankrupt!
Apparently the Chinese investors behind the development backed out within months of completion. A very sad state of affairs for the Bahamas and all the jobs it affected. Lets hope some other investors can take it over and put all these people back to work.
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| Baha Mar Casino & Hotel |
Since we were to be in Nassau for some time awaiting repairs, we decided to contact an old aqaintance from home that had been living in Nassau. Roly new Marc Larouche from high school and thought that this would be a great chance to catch up. As it turned out, Guy Beauparlant, Marc's good friend, was visiting him at the time. This made for a great reunion as Carole and Guy went to school together. The following month turned our repair ordeal into an excellent opportunity to reconnect.
We had a chance to meet and enjoy the company of many of the Larouche's friends at the many get togethers over our month long stay. We're very grateful to Karen and Marc for helping to turn this ordeal of ours into a great experience and also the start of a great friendship!
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Karen & Marc Larouche with two of their three pups.
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| Old school buddy Guy Beauparlant |
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| On the beautiful beach in front of the Larouche's home |
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| Gorgeous view from the second floor. |
Karen works as a property manager and manages the house next to theirs. When the house is vacant of guests they get to enjoy the amenities. Nice perks!
After something like 9 years, Marc and Karen decided to relocate back to Canada. At the moment they're living in Crystal Beach, just down the road from our cottage in Port Colborne, which is great for us as we can get together in the summer months.
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| Sexy gal Karen! |
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| Roly & Marc |
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| Guy, Roly & Marc |
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| Boys enjoying drinks in the beautiful warm water |
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| Another great dinner at Marc and Karen's, along with good friends Jackie and Jim. |
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| Party time with Marc and Guy's friends! |
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| Snorkeled not too far from Marc & Karen's |
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Gorgeous sunset from the Larouche's place!
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| Bye-bye Nassau, April 17th - exactly one month to the day we arrived |
On the way out, we caught a nice mahi for the freezer. Can't get enough!
Carole can't go more than 3 days without skyping her daughter, Lisa and granddaughter, Lily...
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| Our beautiful girls, Lily & Lisa |
Berry Islands
On our way back to Florida from Nassau we stopped to explore the Berry Islands. This chain has a very sparse population. The islands are mostly unpopulated which is great for cruisers. We found a great anchorage on Bond's Cay. This cay is owned by three people, two of which are celebrities. Roger Waters of the band Pink Floyd and Shakira the latin singer. The island was posted "private" so we didn't stop in when we cruised by a tiki bar on shore. The next day, a couple of locals in a small boat stopped by to ask if we spotted any lobster in the area. They saw that we had just returned from snorkelling. The one driving introduced himself as the manager/carpenter/caretaker of the island. In appreciation of my telling him where I'd seen some lobster, he invited us to the bar we had passed. We were even given a great tour of the area as well as the cottages that he built for this little get away for the celebrities. We even got to enter Shakira's cottage and sit on her bed! Too bad she wasn't there on that day!
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| Interesting coral formations near our anchorage |
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| Beach on Bond's Cay |
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| Don't worry, it's NOT our boat! |
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| Roly enjoying a cool drink at Shakira's bar! |
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| Shakira's beach house getaway (Roly wanted to hide in there and surprise Shakira) |
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Beautiful view from Shakira's balcony
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Little Whale Cay is just south of Bond's Cay. It's a private resort established quite some years ago. There were no guests at the time that we were there so we stopped in at the store that services the cay.
As far as grocery stores go, this one's a little meagre! But they did have beer! So we sat at the counter and had some interesting conversation with the store keeper/island caretaker. It seems that most Bahamians in these out islands hold more than one job.
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| Little church on Little Whales Cay |
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| The "grocery" store! Check out the antique cash register and scale. |
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| Cute little cottages all over the island usually rented out by Canadians |
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| Pink Flamingos |
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| Pet turtles |
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| Roly checking out the view |
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View from the infinity pool
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Snorkelling back at Bond's Cay rewarded us with some nice size conch for supper.
Conch is a food staple of The Bahamas. Eating it raw in a conch salad is certainly among the most popular and flavourful ways it's enjoyed. Another popular way to prepare it is to chop it up and roll it into seasoned dough balls called fritters. Roly's favourite is to cut it into strips and deep fry it to make cracked conch.
Eating conch "pistol" as it's called, however, is a whole other story. As told by the Bahamians, this long translucent worm like "part" is a supposed aphrodisiac nick named...
BahamianViagra.
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| Roly eating the aphrodisiac "snot" from the conch shell because he needs it! lol |
Great Harbour Cay
The largest of the Berry chain, Great Harbour Cay offers a great marina protected from the winds and some of the nicest beaches in the Bahamas. We spent a couple of nights here to get away from the constant easterlies. It's quite deceiving while docked here because you feel none of the wind that is creating some nasty waves out on the seas beyond.
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| Rol & C's docked in Great Harbour Cay Marina |
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| Check out the sign on the blue door |
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| Berry Islands |
With the sun rising in the east, we took our leave of the Berrys. Our 2015 cruising season was remarkable in so many ways. We saw some of the most beautiful waters in the world, enjoyed the company of friends, old and new. We experienced some bad luck but none that would put a damper on our awesome winter. A big thank you to our friends Ian and Michelle for cruising along with us and helping to make this a most enjoyable season.
