May 18 - Oriental

May 5 – Palm Shores to Daytona Beach mile 830
We had a really long day today. We left early and we traveled all day in the hot sun. We called the marina where we stayed in Daytona, but they didn’t think there was enough water for us to get into their marina! We tried to anchor in a spot where the cruising guide and the chart showed plenty of water, and we could barely find 6’ at high tide! Finally we went to Halifax Harbor Marina in Daytona. It is a lovely facility and it was nice to be there after such a long day. We had a nice walk through the "historic" area of Daytona. We tried to find an ice cream store, but everything was closed so we went back to the boat.
May 6 and 7– Daytona Beach to St. Augustine mile 778
Another hot, hot day! We left Daytona around 7:00 arrived at the marina in St. Augustine around 2:00 and got fuel and then tied up. We went for a walk through this historic town, and it is a lot older than Daytona! St. Augustine is the oldest city in North America. Europeans have been living there since the Spanish settled there in 1565. After a while, Dave and Kristen went back to the boat and Annie and I kept walking around and looking in stores. As we were walking down a cobble street, Annie said – Hey, look who that is! It was Chad and LeeAnn of Cambyration. We originally met them in the Exumas and it was LeeAnn that helped the kids win the Sand Sculpture contest in Georgetown. It was so nice to see them again! And hey – they were close enough to kids to count as kids for Kristen’s birthday party. We arranged to call them tomorrow after we settled on plans for Kristen’s big day. After supper Kristen and I checked out some restaurants for her birthday supper for tomorrow. On Kristen’s birthday we had a big day planned! We went to the Castillo de San Marcos, the spanish fort built beginning in 1670, in the morning. It is now part of the US National Parks system and it is a great museum. The walls of the fort are built of Coquina, which is a like sedimentary rock full of shells. They weren’t sure if it would be a good material for a fort, but it ended up being great as there was enough give to it that the cannon balls bounced off it. In the afternoon we played mini-golf at the mini putt right in front of the marina – it was orignally opened in 1949! Then Kristen had a mini scavenger hunt around the marina. We met Chad and LeeAnn for supper at Harry’s Seafood restaurant. The food was great! After supper we went back to the boat for birthday cake and presents. All in all it was a busy, fun day!
May 8 – St. Augustine to Fernandina Beach mile 716
It felt like another long hot day today. We left before 7:00 so that we could get through the Bridge of Lions before the restricted openings started at 7:00. We thought we were doing pretty until about 11;00 when we reached another high bridge, that didn’t require an opening, but they were doing construction and they had the ICW blocked off. They said they could have it blocked until noon, so we dropped the anchor and got ready to wait, and about 5 minutes later they pulled the barge out of the way, so we pulled up the anchor and went through. Not sure why they couldn’t have told us they’d only be 10 or 15 minutes. The ICW was really shallow today and by the time we got to Fernandina Beach we decided we’d had enough. We took one of the town mooring rather than continuing on to Cumberland Island which was our original plan. We had a really nice walk through Fernandina Beach again. We got ice cream at the ice cream shop, a few things at the 5 and 10 store, and got showers at the marina. Then it was back to the boat for supper and a movie.
May 9-10 – Fernandina Beach, Cumberland Island Georgia to Charleston SC mile 469
Dave and I got up and away from the mooring by 7:00. We motored the 5 or so additional miles to Cumberland Island in Georgia, and were anchored before 8:30. We all had breakfast and went to shore to explore this great island. Cumberland Island is part of the National Park system and the government owns 85% of it. There are no paved roads, and the only access to the island is by boat. It was as beautiful as we remembered it. There are big beautiful trees, covered with spanish moss creating a canopy overhead as you walk along the dirt roads and pathways. Lucy Carnagie, the sister-in-law of the famous financier, built an estate near the south end of the island at the turn of the last century, and the ruins of it still exist. There is a little museum with pictures of how it looked in its hey day – it must have been incredible. There are wild horses that have the run of the island and we saw three different groups of these horses – some look a little old and hungry, but others are really beautiful. We looked hard to see some armadillos, but they were being nocturnal, and we saw some wild turkeys instead. It was Saturday, and there was a program for birders on the island. We took part in a obstacle course that tried to emulate what the birds go through on their annual migration. Then we had our picnic lunch and headed back to the boat.
We pulled up anchor about 12:45 and headed out to sea. There was a cold front forecast to arrive tomorrow afternoon and we wanted to get to Charleston before the rain. It was an uneventful night. It was our brightest overnight ever with a 98% moon rising one hour after sunset, and setting 5 minutes before sunrise. During one watch there was a swallow that came out and fly by the boat a couple of times. We also had dolphins with us part of the way. We were fighting our way against the current up the channel into Charleston around 1:00 when the first showers hit. Then there was a break in the rain and were tied up as the Charleston Maritime Center a little before 2:00. Later in the afternoon and over night there were really heavy thunder showers and we were glad we had made it safely to Charleston. The marina was great with free laundry and a terrific grocery store only a couple of blocks away.
May 11 – Charleston SC
It was sunny in the morning so we thought we’d head off to see a bit of Charleston, including the Charleston museum. I thought that all of old Charleston was south of the marina, so without looking at the map we headed south to the Market, and then south down Meeting Street to find the museum. The Market was interesting with lots of stalls of crafts and gifts. Meeting Street was really pretty with lots of big houses. After we had walked quite a ways, I decided to look up the address for the museum, only to discover we should have gone north from the marina. We decided to walk the rest of the way down to see the park at the south end of Charleston at the juncture of the Ashley and the Cooper Rivers (Sheila are you reading this??). The homes were really beautiful. They have narrow facings on the street, and their "piazzas" or porches run along the side of the house, facing beautifully manicured, walled in gardens. For the most part, their "front door" or "Privacy Door" is a door in a full wall, that opens on to the piazza, not into the house itself. Unfortunately I didn’t have the camera with me so I don’t have any pictures of this beautiful part of Charleston. We went back to the boat for lunch and to get a few things done – like laundry. Of course this all took longer than expected and it was 3:00 before we were ready to leave again for the museum. We found it no problem once we followed the map! It was a great museum. The museum was set up in chronological order with the displays taking you through the history of Charleston. At the end was a nature history exhibit that dated back over 100 years. It was really interested to see the artifacts that had been imported into Charleston a hundred years ago to educate the people about the rest of the world. There was lots of taxidermy of animals from all over the world, including a polar bear. There were copies of Egyptian artifacts that had come from museums in England. There was a real mummy! There was also a Kidstory exhibit for children that had different activities for the kids to learn about Charleston History. We left the museum about 5:00, thinking we’d be able to walk back to the Market and do a carriage tour in the evening. The lady at the museum said that the carriage tours had to be finished by 6:00. We rushed down to the Market and got on the last tour. It was fun and informative, but I think it would have been better if we had gone earlier in the day.
We stopped at the grocery store on the way home and picked up some groceries before we went back to the boat to have supper.
May 12 – Charleston to Georgetown mile 403
We left Charleston a few minutes after 6:00 to get through a bridge a few miles away before 7:00. We had an uneventful day and arrived at Georgetown around 4:30. We finally found a good spot to anchor and got settled right off the town dock. Dave and I went to shore to see if we could find a post office while the girls stayed on the boat to play. We bought some shrimp for supper, and then after supper we all went for a walk. We chose to walk away from the water and through the old residential district. The houses date back to 1750, and there are plaques on the houses indicating their ages. It was fun to try to guess how old the houses were by looking at the size of the window panes and the house construction before you read the plaque. The streets are wide and beautiful, and the big old trees create a canopy right over the street. Georgetown remains one of our favorite places!
May 13 – Georgetown to Barefoot Landing mile 354
We had a leisurely breakfast and then left Georgetown around 9:00. We’re getting a little tired of travelling!! We got to Barefoot Landing around 5:00 and decided to go to the marina we were at on the way South. The kids had a great time swimming in the pool. It is one of the nicest pools we’ve ever seen – too bad it isn’t heated. There are little concrete islands in the pool and shallow (1’) sections leading out to them. The girls had fun sliding on their bellies on these little "beaches". Tiffany Rose was also in Barefoot Landing. We first saw them in Atlantic City and also saw them in Vero, but didn’t get a chance to talk to them. They are from Ontario, and are doing this trip with their 16-year-old son who has Downs Syndrome. They had stopped in Barefoot Landing hoping to meet up with another family with a Downs child that has a traveling Downs Quilt. The Quilt is moving around the country spending a week at a time with Downs children. It didn’t sound like it was going to work out for them to get to see the quilt, which was too bad.
May 14 – Barefoot Landing to Southport NC mile 309
We pulled away from the dock at 7:00 under overcast skies and it started to rain a little while later. We didn’t do a very good job timing our one restricted bridge today, and we had to wait for a long time for an opening. We decided to stop in Southport at 2:00 after a relatively short day, rather than pressing on against the current up the Cape Fear River in the rain. We were really fortunate and there was a spot available at the dock in front of the Provision company restaurant where were able to tie up for the cost of our lunch. We had a great lunch at the restaurant and then Dave and I went for a walk in town (in the rain, without our umbrella). We learned that there was a Lowes hardware a couple of miles away, so we went back to the boat and Dave got the bike and biked out to the highway to get more alcohol to light the stove. I took the girls back to town so they could go to this great gift store Dave and I had found. They had done such an awesome job merchandising all the books and stuffed animal by animal type I really wanted the kids to see it. They used every inch of the store, including the ceiling to display their wares – it was really well done!

May 15 – Southport – Mile Hammock Bay mile 244
We had a little walk around Southport in the morning before leaving at 8:00. We knew it would be a long day, and we knew we wouldn’t be able to get off the boat tonight. We were away from the dock at 8:00 as planned, but we must have miscalculated the current a bit as it was still against us, instead of being at slack water. We pressed on anyway and had an uneventful trip up the Cape Fear River. It was dark and gloomy in the morning, but it didn’t rain, and by the afternoon it was sunny and warm with a nice breeze. When we turned off the Cape Fear river and went into Snow’s Cut the depth kept shoaling up, then it seemed to get deeper again before "thunk" – we hit bottom. Fortunately we pushed right through it and didn’t get stuck. We were once again thankful for having a full keel and a steel boat. We had three bridges today with restricted hourly openings and so we had to travel slowly between the bridges rather than spend 20 minutes at each bridge doing circles waiting for an opening. It gave us a chance to sail slowly along the waterway without the motor, as there was no point in going at speed. We saw lots of nesting Ospreys today – it seemed like there was a nest on every marker in the channe. A couple of times we were able to see the babies in the nest and that was really neat. There were a bunch of other shallow spots, but fortunately we didn’t touch bottom again. We arrived at Mile Hammock Bay at around 6:00. It is on the Camp LeJeune forces base and so you aren’t allowed to go to shore. It was a pretty uneventful evening. There were about 10 other boats in the anchorage, including "the Dove" and we talked to Larry for a while on the radio.
May 16 – Mile Hammock Bay to Oriental NC mile 182
We left Mile Hammock Bay at 6:15 in order to be through a restricted bridge 5 miles away before 7:00. A couple of other boats also left around the same time. One was called Radical Jack and is a 34’ sailboat from just outside Yarmouth, NS. We (ok, I) had a confusing time getting through Beaufort and Morehead City. There were lots of small boats out fishing on a Saturday afternoon – it is amazing how they think they can anchor right in the channel! We arrived in Oriental a few minutes before 4:00 and decided to go into the marina rather than anchor off, as it was pretty windy and the anchorage isn’t that protected. We had a nice walk to the grocery store that is about a mile away, and then someone offered us a ride back to the marina. We heard from Seahawk and they are going to be here tomorrow so we are thinking we may wait out the cold front here
May 17, 18 – Oriental
Dave and Kristen went for a bike ride around Oriental on Sunday morning, and then the girls went for a swim in the pool. A little before noon the rain and thunder showers started, and shortly after that Seahawk arrived. We went over for a visit to Seahawk in the afternoon. It rained really hard and there wasn’t any opportunity to go for a walk, which was disappointing. Seahawk knows another family here - they spent quite a lot of time traveling with this family from Ontario with 6 kids. They are in the process of selling their boat and moving aboard a 42’ catamaran they just purchased outside of Oriental. Seahawk went over to visit them later in the afternoon. We went back to Bird to look at the rain and have supper.
On Monday we did school in the morning. It is still raining really hard! Dave and I walked up to the grocery store in the afternoon, and on the way a man asked if we wanted a ride. We said it was ok, it’s a nice walk. Then he asked if we’d like a ride home in 20 minutes, we said it was no big deal… we went on to the grocery store and were finishing up the groceries when the man came into the store to find us and see if we were ready for a drive back to the boat!! Seahawk came over for a visit in the evening.
The high wind is blowing all the water up the river to Oriental and the road is flooded!

Vero Beach - May 3

April 22 – May 3 – Vero
We had a long and busy stop in Vero. The first highlight of the stop was when we went to the children’s bookstore and saw that Mary Pope Osbourne, the author of the Magic Treehouse books, was going to be there for a book signing on Wednesday. These books have been some of Annie’s favorites since grade 1, so on Wednesday, Annie and I rode our bikes back to the bookstore to meet her. I have never seen a bookstore with so many people and kids in it!! It was a great event and Annie got a couple of books signed. On Saturday, Dave’s brother John came to visit us for a week with his wife Ingrid and their six year old daughter Margaret. They rented a really nice house where there was room for all of us – as well as a pool (and a washer and dryer!!) We played the tourist and had a car too. They arrived on Saturday afternoon, so we went to their house where the kids swam and we had chicken on the bbq. On Sunday we all went over to the boat so they could see the marina and where we were. On our way out to the boat in the dinghy with Margaret, we saw some dolphins up close and that was great. We had lunch on the boat and then Dave, John, Margaret and Kristen went back to the house and Ingrid Annie and I went shopping. On Monday we traveled north to Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center. It is huge! You couldn’t really see it all in a day, and it was pretty hard to figure out what to do first. We went to the space shuttle exhibit where there is a mock up of a space shuttle that you can go inside and see the cargo bay and the control station. There is also a shuttle launch simulator that is really neat! You sit down and buckle up, as if you are in the cargo bay, and they take you through the launch and out into orbit. Very cool! We also took the bus tour out to see the shuttle launch platform and the Apollo/Gemini exhibit. Not only did we see interesting stuff about the space program we saw alligators, raccoons, roseate spoonbills as well as eagles, ospreys, herons and egrets. We finished the day by watching a 3D IMAX film on the building of the international space station. It was really well done and really interesting. Even Kristen who hates 3D movies kept her glasses on for the whole thing. On Tuesday we had a quite morning, and then went to the Environmental Learning Center on Wabasso Island in the afternoon. There was a great boardwalk through the mangrove swamp and there was a scavenger hunt for the kids. We managed to find everything on the list including green anoles (lizards), animal footprints, a bat house, and butterfly, as well as learning about the mangrove swamp and the Indian River Lagoon – did you know that sea horses lived in the Indian River lagoon? On Wednesday we to the Oceanarium in Ft. Pierce. It is similar to the environmental learning center, but there are more exhibits. They also have a big pond with sport fish in it, and we watched them being fed and learned about the different species. Then we walked their nature trail which was very well done, with lots of plaques with information about what you are seeing. The mosquitoes in that swamp can produce 38million offspring in a single summer! After our walk we fed the stingrays. That was really neat. Their mouths are underneath their bodies. To feed them you stand a shrimp or small fish up between your fingers, and then place your hand flat on the bottom of the tank. They swim over your had and suck the fish out from between your fingers. It feels like a vacuum cleaner! On Thursday we headed up to the Brevard County zoo in Melbourne where we had gone for Annie’s birthday. We did the kayak trip, fed the lories, petted armadillos, a monitor lizard and alpcas, and fed a huge giraffe. When you fed the giraffe, you had to stand back a couple of feet from the edge of the platform. The giraffe would reach over and stick out his 18" black tongue and wrap it around the cracker and pull it away from you! He really didn’t want us to pet him, but he loved to have his ears scratched by the keeper and the curator of the zoo. We went for supper at Unos, and then the guys went off shopping while the rest of us when to see the Magic Treehouse Musical, based on the Magic Treehouse books. It was very well done with great effects like a beautiful flying stag, dragons guarding a magic caldron and huge white stallion with a red knight. It was interesting to see how they made the dragons really beautiful so they weren’t as scary for the wide range of kids in the audience. On Friday we went for a kayak tour on the Indian River up and around where the marina is. We didn’t see as much wild life as I would have liked, but it was really nice and peaceful. On Friday night we went for a lovely supper at the Ocean Grill restaurant in Vero, and then went back to the house for an early birthday party for Kristen and John. At Kristen’s request we had 60 candles on the cake – 10 for Kristen and 50 for John! On Saturday we tidied up the house and said goodbye to them as they headed back to Orlando to catch an early flight to Toronto on Sunday. We had a busy afternoon trying to get some shopping done. On Sunday we got up early and drove to Orlando to meet our friends the Quanns at Seaworld! It was pretty neat that it worked out that their Florida vacation coincided with us being so close to Orlando and at a time when we already had a car rented. We had a great day and I think we saw the whole park. Probably the coolest thing was the brand new roller coaster Manta was unofficially open and Annie got to on it with the Quanns (Dave Kristen and I went and did the Shamu express). Apparently it is the only roller coaster in the world where you are strapped in and then tilted so you are facing down for the whole trip. Annie says that it feels like you are flying! (I think I’ll find anther way to learn how to fly). We also saw four shows: the Dolphin/Whale show which was fabulous, with acrobats and beautiful birds as well as the whales and dolphins; the sea lion show; the Shamu killer whale show; and another show that was done with cats, dogs a skunk and a pig that all came from animal shelters. So like I said, it was a busy busy time in Vero!


May 4 – Vero Beach (951) to Palm Shores (909)
We finally got away from Vero about 10:45 after getting groceries, returning the car and filling up the water tanks. We had an uneventful trip, getting back into the routine of travel on the waterway. It was a really hot day – mid to high 80’s with a 15 knot SW wind. We decided to anchor in Palm Shores around 4:45, as we were looking for some protection from the southwest, and there wasn’t anywhere else to anchor for the next 20 miles with any protection. We pulled off the waterway on the side of the bridge and carefully sounded our way into a spot with about 8 feet of water. We had a couple of dolphins come over to see us. I went snorkelling in the murky, murky water to try to clean off the growth on the knotmeter so it would spin again. I’m not sure how successful I was. I guess we’ll see tomorrow.

April 24 - Vero Beach

Pictures to follow....

April 15 – Green Turtle Cay
We had a quiet day today. School in the morning as usual. In the afternoon, Dave took the girls in the dinghy to go into town. On the way a guy whose dingy motor had quit flagged them down. They ended up towing him back to his boat with our little dinghy. We went into shore and had a swim in the pool, and then Annie and Kristen and I took Lily, the dog off Hale Kai for a walk. In the evening, Dave and I went in to hear the band that was playing at the Green Turtle Club. They were really good! It was a neat evening sitting out under the stars, watching the band playing under this big tree that was all covered in little white lights.
April 16 – Green Turtle Cay to Crab Cay
We left Green Turtle around 10:00. We weren’t in a big hurry and we wanted to make sure there was enough tide to get out safely. We rolled out the jib and motor sailed about 18 miles to Crab Cay. We got there around 2:00. Hale Kai was there, and they came over to see if the girls wanted to go to shore with them to walk Lily. Dave and I tidied up the boat and then went in too. We had a great walk. The beach isn’t sand here, it is either stone or rocks. We walked across the cay, and then back around the end of the island. It ended up being quite a long walk! We found lots of milk conch shells that are smaller than queen conch, but still really pretty. There was a deserted camp there too, made up of old sails and tarps. It was kink of weird!
April 17 – Crab Cay to Great Sail Cay
We left fairly early, around 7:00. It was a great day for a sail and we put all the sails up. We had a glorious sail for the entire day, and covered about 38 miles, arriving at Great Sail around 2:00. As we turned to go south after we went around the top of great sail, about a dozen dolphins came up and started swimming with the boat. There was one little one that was having a great time zig-zagging in front of the boat and then dropping back and catching up again. They swam with us for 20 minutes or half and hour. When we got to Great Sail we dropped the girls off on Gotta Life and Dave and I went for a walk on the shore. After our walk we picked up the girls, and then went back to the boat for supper. After supper we went back over to Gotta Life for a visit.
April 18 – 19 – Great Sail to Vero Beach Florida
Our original plan was to stay in Great Sail today, and then leave in the morning to cross to Fort Pierce in Florida tomorrow. As we listened to the forecast, we decided that we would prefer to sail the 50 miles across the bank over-night and then cross the 60 miles over the Gulf Stream during the day tomorrow. Based on that, we planned to leave at 7:00 tonight. The girls did some school in the morning and then went over to Gotta Life to go swimming. I went up Hale Kai’s mast to free up their topping lift that had broken free and gotten tangled. Annie Erin Dave and I went for a walk on the beach. We found some pieces of silver honeycomb that was likely dropped off from the space shuttle. We also found a 50lb bail of raw rubber. It would have been pretty hard to figure out it was, but they had one on display at the museum that we visited in Hopetown. The bales of rubber were being transported from South America to Europe during the second world war, and the ship was sunk by an Italian U-Boat. The bales of rubber have been washing up on the bahamian beaches ever since.
We had supper and left Great Sail at 7:00 as planned. Several other boats left around the same time, and we kept in contact with them throughout the night. We had a very uneventful night. We sailed off the bank and out of the Bahamas around 4:00am. The seas in the gulf stream were predicted to be quite high, but in the end it was fine. The waves were big, but they were far apart so we just went up and down without being rolled about too much. We went in the cut to Fort Pierce around 2:00pm. We had planned to spend the night in Fort Pierce, but the marina was full, so we went the additional 15 miles to Vero Beach and picked up a mooring. Dave called into customs, and they told us that we would all have to show up at immigration within 24 hours, so we planned to rent a car tomorrow to go do that and get some groceries. We got settled in, had showers, went for a walk, had an early supper and went to bed.
April 21 – Vero Beach
We rented the car at noon and went to Fort Pierce to get registered at immigration. It was no problem at all. Then we went and had lunch at Subway! We went to Walmart to get groceries! All and all an uneventful day, but pretty fun when you haven’t seen any of these things for a couple of months.

April 14 - Green Turtle Cay (with pictures)

April 6 – Black Point to Treasure Cay It was flat calm when we woke up in the morning – the calm before the storm! We left around 9:00 and headed up to Treasure Cay, on the other side of Marsh Harbour. There was a strong cold front forecast and we decided to tuck into the marina there. By 11:00 the wind was really piping up, and sailing was great. It was really shallow going into Treasure Cay, but we made it down the channel all right. Then, just as Dave was making the wide turn to get into the marina slip, we ran aground! It was kind of funny really, the gang from Gotta Life and Sandpiper, and the guy from the marina were all there waiting to take our lines, and we were stopped, dead in the water, about 50 feet from the dock. Some one came out and offered to try to get us off, but we knew we were on a rising tide and it wouldn’t be long before we were off on our own. We were just settling in for a half hour (or so) wait when there was a big gust of wind and Kristen said "We’re moving!" Sure enough, the wind blew us off the shallow spot and we were floating again. We got tied up after that with no more problems! Treasure Cay is a lovely spot. There is a nice marina with a pool, a great grocery store and a beautiful sandy beach. After we all walked around the little shopping center we went to the beach for a swim. The girls and Mark stayed in the water until suppertime! After supper the wind really blew up (over 40 knots) and we were all glad we were safely tied up.
April 7 – Treasure Cay It was school in the morning, with a trip to the bakery for cinnamon rolls at recess – they certainly know how to make cinnamon rolls here! When school was over, Annie Kristen and I went for a walk back to the shopping center and met a family from Miami that were over in the Abacos for a week on a charter boat. They are planning to go cruising next year so they were very interested in what we were doing. We went back and took a look at the tug-style boat they were chartering and are thinking of buying – there was lots of room! In the evening they came over for a visit and to take a look at the materials we were using for home schooling.
April 8 – Treasure Cay to Great Guana Cay
We left a little after 9:00 in the morning, not wanting to hurry away from Treasure Cay, but a little worried about the falling tide. We had a short hop over to Great Guana and dropped the anchor a little before 12:00. When we came into the anchorage there were only 3 boats, and within 15minutes of us dropping out anchor there were a total of 14! It’s a pretty busy spot. In the afternoon we went exploring on this pretty island. There is a small town that is very pretty, and then you can walk across the island to the popular "Nipper’s Bar and Grill". It is a fun and colorful spot that overlooks a great beach and the ocean. We had a good walk on the beach. On our way back to the boat we swung by a boat registered in Halifax. As we pulled up they asked if we were off "Bird on a Wire". They were glad to meet us as they had actually thought about buying "Bird", but in the end decided it was too much work! In the evening we went over to Gotta Life to play dominos.


April 9 – Great Guana Cay to Man-O-War Cay
We had another short day today to go to Man-O-War Cay. Again, we needed to time the tide so we had enough water to get into the protected mooring field. Gotta Life and Sandpiper decided to anchor off rather than go into the harbour and get a mooring. We finished up school and then went off exploring. Gotta Life had the same idea and we met up in the North harbor. We had a great walk through the town. There are some great shops here. In one canvas shop, there were three women sewing the canvas bags on old sewing machines. The bags were great, but we didn’t buy anything. We walked out towards the north end of the island and the girls looked for shells on the beach. Sheryl and I left the rest of them there around 4:00 to go back into town to pick up a few things at the store. By the time we got back, we discovered that all the gift shops closed at 4:00. Oh well. As we walked back to the dinghy we were looking in a shop window and the lady was just running back into pick something up and she said we could go in if we wanted. I ended up getting t-shirts for the girls (50% off J ). The ice cream shop was going to open up again at 6:00, so we agreed to meet Gotta Life and Sandpiper back at shore after supper for some ice cream. Ice cream was great but Dave ended up talking to some guys on the dock and missed out altogether! April 10 – Man-O-War We did school in the morning and then called Gotta Life in the afternoon to see if they still wanted to go snorkeling. They ended up moving to Hopetown in the morning as the wind had shifted around and they were getting bounced around in the anchorage. It was overcast and pretty chilly for snorkeling (yes, we are getting spoiled) so we went for a walk in town again. All the stores were closed for Good Friday. After we stretched our legs we dinghied back down to the sand bar and collected lots of sea biscuit shells (like sanddollars except fatter). April 11 – Man-O-War to Hopetown We left Man-O-War at 8:00 while we still had tide to get out, and headed the 8 miles to Hopetown. We got to Hopetown around 10:00 and there was still enough tide to get in. We eventually found a mooring and called Gotta Life, who was anchored outside. Hopetown is another really pretty Bahamian town. The beautiful red and white striped lighthouse overlooks the town and is one of the most photographed lighthouses in the world. Like Man-o-War, it is pretty touristy with lots of really high-end rentals and vacation properties. We went to the museum that was really interesting and well done. It was interesting to read that the Hopetown lighthouse was pretty controversial when it was built as it put an end to the wrecking industry in Hopetown. Up until that point, the locals supplemented their farming and fishing existence by salvaging thing off ships that ran aground on the reef – fortunately it wasn’t all greed and they saved a lot of lives too! After the museum we went back to the boat, and then went to visit the lighthouse. This lighthouse is pretty special as it is one of the few manned light houses left, and it is still lit by a kerosene lantern, and uses a fresno lens to magnify the light so it can be seen for 10 miles. The lens is turned by weights that must be wound every two hours throughout the night. The workings of the lighthouse have remained the same since it first started operating! We had heard that you could arrange with the lighthouse keepers to go up with them to light the light, so we knocked on the lighthouse keepers door, and sure enough, he said it was okay to come back at 7:30 to help light the light. We made a quick trip back to town for some groceries, and then went back to the boat for supper. We got back to the light at 7:30 and met Gotta Life, Sandpiper and Fred from Casa Mara there. We spent about an hour at the top of the light, watching the keeper prepare to light the light, and then light it. It works pretty much the same as the stove on our boat, where the pressurized kerosene needs to be preheated with alcohol, then the burner is lit. It does have a mantle (which our stove does not) and that generates the light. We wound up the weights with a crank, and then the lens started to turn around. It was a great experience!

April 12 – Hopetown.
The Easter Bunny found Bird on a Wire and left a trail of bunny chocolate! Gotta Life and Sandpiper left in the morning to go up to Green Turtle Cay, and we decided to stay another day in Hopetown. We had a great walk on the beach and found lots of sea glass. We spent a quiet afternoon on the boat and then got dressed to go out for an ‘Early Bird" Easter supper. Supper was great. It was a real treat to go out for supper! After supper the girls went back to the boat and Dave and I went for a dingy around the harbour and watched as the lighthouse got lit.
April 13 – Hopetown to Green Turtle Cay.
Kristen’s entry: Today we debated about going through the Whale cut or not. We were scared it was going to be rough, but if it was okay it would be stupid not to go. Eventually we went and it wasn’t that bad because we went at slack tide. We got to Green Turtle and we saw where Gotta Life was. They were anchored outside of White Sound. We went in White Sound and picked up a mooring. Then, a little bit later, we called Gotta Life and asked if they wanted to go town. They said yes, so about and hour later we went over to Gotta Life for a while. Then we took the two dinghies and went to town. Annie and I went with Gotta life and Mum and Dad took our dinghy. Because it was Easter Monday everything was closed. The town was neat. There was an "Olde Gaol" painted pink with green wooden doors that anyone could have broken out of any day (even me). There were a lot of chickens, and white picket fences around every yard. While we were waiting for Brian to come back with the dinghy after getting diesel, Mum asked Sheryl if Erin and Geneva could come for supper and a sleepover on our boat. She said yes, so Annie and I went back in their dinghy to Gotta life to get their stuff, and then we all went to Bird. Mum took us all to shore to go swimming and to have showers while Dad made supper (and brownies). We had a really fun time. (end of Kristen’s entry)
April 14 – Green Turtle Cay
We had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, and then Brian and Sheryl came to get the girls around 9:30. We made another trip to town so they could actually go in the shops before they left to go to Angelfish Point. (We planned to stay a few more days in Green Turtle.) In one store we found a Bahamian steel drum, so Annie and Kristen bought one with their allowance. Gotta Life got one too – I wonder what the concert will sound like! After Gotta Life (and Sandpiper) left we went back to the boat and had lunch and then did school. Dave worked on tightening the motor mount that had slipped again. Later in the afternoon we went into the pool and had a swim and a shower. We met Val and Peter off Valerie Arden, a Baba 40 that seems in the same places as us every night! They were really friendly, and gave us a brand new game "Voyagers" that they had had on their boat for a long time and had never played – they thought a family should have it! We had a fun time playing it after supper. As we were playing there seemed to be a lot of activity in the anchorage and then there was a lot of chatter on the radio about a squall coming. We turned on the radar and could see it coming towards us. There was a lot of thunder and lightning all evening, and lots of rain in the squall, be we didn’t see the really high winds that had been forecast. In any event, we were really glad to be on a mooring and not worrying about dragging anchor in the poor holding in White Sound.

Exumas and Nassau - March 18 to April 2

Finally - some pictures!

March 18 – Warderick Wells
We did school in the morning. In the afternoon we went into the beach. Priority and Zola came up to the park and anchored in Emerald Rock, around the corner from where we were on a mooring, so they came into the beach too. We went for a hike up to Boo Boo Hill, down the sound to Boo Boo Beach, and then back around to the bank side and back to the park office. The kids took the kayaks out and had a good time playing with the kayaks on the shallow water in the middle of the mooring field. Later in the afternoon Dave, Kristen, Brian and I went snorkeling at a little reef near the cut to the sound. It was really neat. There were lots of schools of large fish; there were dozens of huge lobsters and we saw two eagle rays. We saw a "real" shark – probably a reef shark or a sand shark -as opposed to the nurse sharks we usually see.
After supper we all went back to shore. Gotta Life brought in their computer and a movie that Geneva rented from the office. The kids all watched a movie on one picnic table and the adults sat at the other picnic table and talked. Warderick Wells Cay is inhabited by the endangered rodent species called Hutia. These little creatures look like a gerbil on steroids – they are about the size of half a loaf of bread with a thin tail about the length of their body. They are a dark sandy color. Most of us thought they were pretty cute. Like many rodents they are nocturnal, so as dark fell we could hear them rustling around in the undergrowth. There were some food scraps left around from last night’s pot luck so we think they were nibbling on that. The kids got quite a start when one of them ran under their picnic table and across their feet. It certainly was an experience to be sitting on the beach, with so many stars up above, and to be watching a movie!

March 19 – Warderick Wells
School in the morning again. In the afternoon we went into the beach and the kids went out on the kayaks again. Later in the afternoon everyone from Sandpiper, Gotta Life and Bird on a Wire went back to the place we were snorkeling yesterday. We didn’t see the shark again, but lots of lobster, fish and the two rays were there.
Dave finished the "Bird on a Wire" sign to take up to Boo Boo Hill. There were lots of little birds that were coming over to the boat and the kids were feeding them sugar and applesauce. We got some cool picture of the birds on the "Bird on a Wire"sign.
After supper and before sunset we picked up Erin and Geneva and we hiked up to Boo Boo Hill to leave our signs and to take some pictures of the anchorage at sunset.

March 20 – Warderick Wells – Shroud
We left Warderick around 9:00 and headed north to Shroud Cay. We had an awesome sail all the way there, arriving around 1:00. It was still pretty windy when we got there and the wind was a little more north than was comfortable in the anchorage, but it was a lot better than the night we spent in Hawksbill. We all piled into Gotta Life’s dinghy and went for the long dinghy trek through the mangrove swamps to the East side of the Cay. It was really beautiful. Once we reached the other side, there was a great beach. We all hung out there for the afternoon. The girls kept hoping the tide would turn to an ebb as there is a neat whirlpool that takes you from the beach out into the sound and then back into the beach when the tide is falling. Unfortunately the tide wasn’t going to turn until supper time and we needed to get back to the boats. It was still pretty rolly at anchor and we were all tired so we decided not to go out visiting tonight.

March 21 – Shroud – Warderick Wells
We pulled up anchor and were away from Shroud around 8:00. We called into the park office at 9:00 and were fortunate enough to be able to get a mooring again in the north anchorage. We debated about going on to Staniel where Priority was and Gotta Life was going, but we opted for the security of Warderick for a good night’s sleep. As we passed by the office all the little birds we were feeding the last time we were here came out to visit. We were assigned a mooring on the west side of the mooring field and we hadn’t been there before. It was a nice spot and there was less current flowing through than there was on the other side. We had a swim around the boat and looked at a little coral head growing on an old engine block near the boat. It was Saturday so we went into the Happy Hour on the beach. There were lots of people there and we met lots of new people.

March 22 – Warderick Wells to Big Majors Spot
There were some birthdays being celebrated in Big Majors today so we set off before 9:00 to be there by lunchtime. It was another great sail and we were relieved to see that the anchorage was well protected with no swell. We all went over to Priority for some "slingshotting". This is when a line comes down from the top of the mast (i.e. the halyard), and then additional line is added to the end so that there is about 100’ of extra line at the water line. The end of a line is attached to a dinghy, and a person (or two or three) hold onto a line either on the edge of the boat or in the water. The dinghy starts off, and as the line tightens up, the people get pulled out of the water. When they get high enough, they let go and drop back into the water. Pretty hard to explain, but pretty fun to do. The kids had a blast and Dave and I each tried it once. After slightshotting was over everyone was pretty cold as it wasn’t a very warm day. We all went back to our boats to get cleaned up. Annie and Kristen were invited to Priority for pizza, and Dave and I went into shore to the Happy Hour. It was great to see Annie and Dietrich from Calliope again. Dave met some new people on the beach – one of them was a car dealer from Missouri. He had his boat listed with Paul, our friend that summers in Scotsburn NS and winter in Florida and sells boats! Another man from Toronto knew a man in Saint John NB, and Dave went to university with his son. It sure is a small world! Around 7:00 we went over to Priority. The adults (10) watched "Office Space" in their cockpit, while the kids (6) watched a movie down in the cabin. Office Space was really funny and brought back lots of memories of life in the real world!

March 23 – Big Majors Spot
School in the morning and then water sports in the afternoon. The kids went over to Priority and did some snorkeling and then Brian took them tubing on our tube. Dave and I went into Staniel and tried to find the trail to the other side of the cay. We didn’t find the trail but we had a good walk.
March 24 – Big Majors Spot
The days are blending together! School again in the morning. In the afternoon all the kids got together at the beach. There were some new kids there too. Kristen went wake boarding. Annie gave it a try but wasn’t able to get the hang of it today. All the kids had fun on the tube. In the evening we had the Priority and Gotta Life kids over for pizza pasta and a movie. It was pretty funny to see the 6 kids all lined up on the bunks in the salon trying to watch a movie!

March 25 – Big Majors Spot
Another day in Big Majors - the girls did school in the morning and we went to the beach in the afternoon. There were water sports again. Kristen tried Wake Skating which is similar to wake boarding except that is on a shaped piece of plywood that is slightly curved. There are no bindings and no fins on the bottom of the board. She was able to get up and then went all around the harbour. Annie got up first time today on the Wake Board and had a great time zooming all over the harbour. The tube was once again a great hit.

March 26 – Big Majors Spot to Warderick Wells
We left Big Majors around 10:00, and weren’t really sure where we were heading, except North. Gotta Life and Sandpiper were heading back to Cambridge so they could go to Rachael’s Bubble Bath, but we wanted to get a little farther North. In the end we get a mooring in the North mooring field at Warderick and were settled around 2:30. It was another great day of sailing along the banks. You can see why people come here for the sailing! We’ve been able to sail (and not that motor sailing stuff either) each time we’ve set out for the last couple of weeks.
When we got to Warderick Dave and Annie went to shore to rent "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and get checked in. Kristen and I stayed behind and got some bread made. The kids got their school finished and then went for a swim, but the current was really strong so it wasn’t much fun. Dave and I went for a short hike down to Butterfly Beach, near Emerald Rock. No butterflies but a great walk. When we got back, the girls could hear the blowholes howling, so Dave took them back to shore for a hike to the blowholes and Boo Boo Hill. I guess the blowholes were really spectacular today! I stayed on the boat and made Chicken Parmesan for supper. After supper we watched the movie Annie and Dave rented.
We were able to check email at Warderick and SeaHawk (that we met way back in Maine with 4 kids) is in Nassau. We are going to head up there as quickly as possible to see if we can meet up with them before they head south to the Exumas.

March 27 – Warderick Wells - Allan’s Cay
Annie and Dave returned the movie and we put the dinghy up and left Warderick Wells for the final (?) time a little after 8:00. It was a pretty windy day, but the wind and waves were behind us so it wasn’t too bad. We put the jib out and motor sailed, making pretty good time. We got to Allan’s about 1:00 and for the first time since we arrived in the Bahamas we were alone in an anchorage. It was nice and calm in the anchorage which was a relief as we were a little concerned about protection there. As soon as we were anchored, we could see a couple of iguanas on the beach. Our primary reason for stopping here was that there is a colony of endangered iguanas here. We heard that when you went to the beach, and if you stood quietly, in a little while iguanas would surround you. Sure enough, we went to shore and in minutes (without standing quietly) there were about 50 iguanas on the beach. They are about 2-3’ long with big feet and long tails. They can be pretty assertive about looking for food, so we left our left over lettuce in the dinghy while we walked on the beach. After our experience with the pigs we were a little hesitant to encourage them too much – and we’d also heard that they bite. Just as we were getting ready to leave, when a large cigarette boat pulled up on the beach and let about 40 tourists from Nassau out onto the beach - so much for peace and quiet. Shortly after that two sailboats came in and anchored for the night. We did a little more exploring on a couple of the other beaches, and looked inside the ruins of a house that must of lost it’s roof 15 or 20 years ago in a hurricane.

March 28 – April 1 – Nassau
We left Allan’s around 8:00, after a bit of a challenge pulling up the anchor in the narrow channel with the strong current. When we got fairly close to Nassau we contacted SeaHawk on the radio. They weren’t able to get us a reservation at Atlantis Marina for Sunday night, but we could get in today, so we decided to directly to Atlantis. We were all tied up by around 2:00 and went to find Seahawk. Around 2:30 we headed over to the water park. Atlantis is a huge resort on Paradise Island. I believe it started as a casino, but now it stretches over acres of the island. Dave and I came to Paradise Island 13 years ago and stayed at a little hotel on the beach and walked half a mile or a mile over to Atlantis. At that time it was a good sized hotel with 3 restaurants, a small aquarium, a few pools and the casino. Now the hotel we stayed in is gone, and the beach is now part of the Atlantis complex with a new hotel tower. In addition to the hotel, now there is a huge water park and a large aquarium called "The Dig". It is set up like an archaeological exploration of the mythical city of Atlantis and the fishes, rays and sharks are all swimming around the ruin. There are two large manta rays as part of the exhibit, and they were pretty neat. Most of the other things we had seen snorkeling in the Exumas. The water park is great. There are two large buildings that house water slides – the Mayan temple has two really steep body slides (you go down without sitting on a tube), the Leap of Faith and the Challenger where there are two slide side by side and you race down with your partner. There is also a really fun tube slide (sitting on an inflatable ring) where you wind down inside the slide and end up sliding through a tube that runs through a shark tank. As you go down the tube, the sharks are lying on top of the tube and you can look right up at their bellies! The Power Tower has four slides. One is a body slide that drops you almost straight down a 50’ drop in the dark. The other three are tube slides. Around the outside of the Power Tower is ‘the current’. This is a mile long river ride with rapids and 4’ high waves. Once you are on the current you can keep going round as the waves push you back ‘up hill’. We ended up spending both Saturday and Sunday night at Atlantis. It was great to finally spend some time with the Seahawk folks. We went over to Seahawk after supper on Saturday and the kids played Pit. On Sunday night we did a bbq potluck. On Monday we got our Atlantis bracelets for the day before checking out and moving the boat across the harbour to Nassau Harbour Club. In the afternoon I walked back over to Atlantis with the girls and we hooked up with the family off Los Gostowes. Dave came over later after he did some chores on the boat. On Tuesday, Gotta Life and Sandpiper arrived at Nassau Harbour Club – It was great to get the gang back together. On Wednesday, Gotta Life went over to stay at Atlantis and took the girls over. We made a great trade with Sandpiper – two extra boxes of pancake mix we had for a lobster tail they had – what a great lunch! Dave and I walked around Nassau and then headed over to Atlantis to pick up the girls at 7:00. Gotta Life lent us their dinghy so we wouldn’t have to walk all the way back (wow that 25hp engine really goes!!) On Thursday, we took the dinghy back and got more bracelets. Dave and Brian brought Gotta Life back to the Harbour Club, and Sheryl and I stayed with the girls at the water park. As a note, we were really fortunate with weather when we were in the Exumas. It was generally warm and breezy during the day and then cooled off at night. We never saw rain. It hasn’t been quite as good in Nassau. We had really heavy rain showers on Monday and it has been really hot and buggy for sleeping – but then it is all good when you compare it with freezing rain and sleet! We were a little worried about the lack of school the girls are doing this week, until we heard that the kids at home have missed 17 days of school this year because of weather!!

Mar 17 - Warderick Wells

March 5 – Georgetown
First thing in the morning Dave and I went into Georgetown to try to get on to the internet, but the internet was down so that was a little frustrating. When we got back we headed to volleyball beach for registration for Regatta. We registered for the Coconut Harvest, the Scavenger Hunt and Annie signed up for the Sand Sculpture contest. In the end, we ended up staying at the beach all day. The kids from Mima and Side By Side were there, so Annie and Kristen played on the tree swing and in the fort with them. There was a lady making a straw basket and she showed me how to start one. It was slow work!!

March 6 – Georgetown
Dave went back to Georgetown this morning, and again there was no Internet. The girls and I stayed on the boat and got the schoolwork done. In the afternoon, there was a practice for the "Fish Net" skit that Sandpiper had made up in February and were going to perform at the "No Talent Show". It was a take off on the "Net" that happens every morning in Georgetown where everyone can listen on the VHF radio at 8:00 and hear the weather and all the activities that are planned for the day. There was room for lots of participants so Annie and Kristen were included. After that practice, Gotta Life took Annie and Kristen into to see the Pet Parade, and Dave and I went up to St. Francis Resort to see if we could get internet there. We were! We were able to check email and do banking, but Skype wasn’t allowed, so no phone calls home. After we were finished there we went back to the beach to see the No Talent Show. It was a great performance and the skits and performances were really funny! The "Fish Net" was really funny, as was a skit that Side By Side and Mima put together. It was a fun evening, but we decided to leave around 8:30 because people were getting tired.


March 7, Georgetown
Today was Coconut Harvest so we headed to the beach around 8:30. We were on a team with Brian and Cheryl from Gotta Life. For Coconut Harvest, you have to take the motor off the dinghy, and power the dinghy with dive fins on your hands. There were 25 teams in all, and the objective was to collect as many of the 700 coconuts that were let go on the other side of the little bay. We were only able to get 25 L . Then we moved on to the land based part of the challenge. This started with "Guts and Butts" where you and you partner had to first take the coconut back and forth across the volley ball court with a coconut pressed between your bellies, and then you had to do it again with the coconut pressed between your backs. Both Dave and I, and Brian and Cheryl successfully made it back and forth both times to add 8 points to our team score! Then came the coconut toss where you had to lob the coconut over the volleyball net and into one of 3 rings. The largest ring was closest and worth 1 point, then there was a slightly smaller ring worth 2 points, and the smallest ring was worth 3 points. Dave and I, along with some other folks saw the opportunity to practice this one down at the other volleyball court so we did a couple of practice throws before we started. When our turn was up, Dave successfully got his 3 point throw and I got my 2 point throw. 5 more points for the team! When that was all done we headed back to the other side of the beach to get set up for the junior version of the coconut challenge. A few minutes later there was a big call out for the "Bird Life" team. So after a few confused moments we headed back to the volleyball courts – Dave was up at the Chat and Chill getting a drink for Kristen and couldn’t be found. Apparently we had tied for first place on the land based activities and there was to be a coconut throw off. Where was Dave??? As he couldn’t be found I found myself front and center competing in the throw off! The other team showed up first, so they threw first – fortunately for me, he tried for the 3pointer and missed, so all I had to do was get a single point to win. The pressure was on… I did it! Yeah!! It was all pretty funny! Anyway we the standard prize of a bottle of rum for our efforts. By that time Kristen was feeling really awful. She was getting a cold and trying to do everything and she finally gave up and I took her back to the boat and put her to bed. Dave and Annie stayed for the junior coconut harvest and Annie’s team won that so all and all we did pretty well. In the evening there was a beach party to share our winning bottle of rum amongst the other boats, but Kristen and I stayed home.

March 8, Georgetown
Today was Scavenger Hunt day. We headed the beach around 11:00 for a 12:00 start. We had teamed up with Side by Side for both an adult team and a junior team, and then another couple from Lapedus
Joined the grown ups and a couple of other kids joined the kids so both teams had 6 people. When we got the list we were overwhelmed with the list of "red" things we were required to collect – red high heeled shoes, red knee sock, the "Hunt for Red October" (book, not movie), red balloons. It was a very challenging list. We spent the afternoon making things red, and going around to other boats to see if they had the things we needed – of course every other team was doing the same thing. It became apparent pretty quickly that there were only a couple of copies of a Hunt for Red October in the harbour. It the end we accumulated 24 of the correct things. This put us in a tie for 3rd place with three other boats, but we had the slowest time so we didn’t win anything. The kids got 22 things, tying with the Gotta Life team, but again we were slow so they came second – winning Frisbees from Chat ‘n’ Chill.

March 9, Georgetown
There we no scheduled activities that we were interested in with Regatta today. We did school in the morning. In the afternoon I helped Jennifer from Miakoda set up a scavenger hunt as part of a birthday party she was organizing for the twins. When we were in on the beach, Sunny from Slow Motion cut my hair – what a great cut! After the scavenger hunt was set up, I went back out to the boat and then Dave took the girls and I to shore for the birthday party. We went early so that we could go for a hike up to the Monument, but Sunny was still there and offered to cut the girls hair too. Kristen got a great trim and Annie got a lot cut off and a got it all layered – it looks really cute! (Hard to put in a ponytail now though). The birthday party was great and the scavenger hunt was a great success. It took the kids through a nature trail and across the island. There were around 20 clues, and it ended with a pirate’s treasure chest that was hidden in a cave on the beach. After the scavenger hunt we went back the west side of the island and they had lots of snacks and barbecued hotdogs. There was another "adult" party going on on the beach by then, so it was a busy place with lots of people and food. We stayed until sunset and then headed back to the boat.

March 10, Georgetown.
This was to be our last day in Georgetown. We started with school, and then I took the dinghy over to Georgetown by myself to get on the internet. It finally worked and I was able to catch up on email. It took longer than expected though and I was worried I would be late getting Annie to the beach for the Sand Sculpturing. In the end I got back around 1:00, and Marc from Side by Side was there wondering if we wanted to split the kids into a family team and then do an adult team too. I thought that would be fun and Dave was game, so we all went in to the beach. We also had Leanne and Chad from Cambyration and Angie’s Mom so we split the teams up and put the four kids and Leanne on one team, and the rest of us on the other team. A little while later Geneva from Gotta Life came the to the beach and she joined in with the kids. The sand sculpturing was really fun! We made a "Red Hot Knight" – in keeping with the Red Hot Night theme for the regatta. I thought he was really good! The strongest competition was a beach scene with three puppy playing in the sand. They were awesome. The kids built Eddie the Sea Serpent surrounding the island of Bermuda. It was great! When the results were in, the Puppies came first in the adult competition and we came second. The kids won the family class with Eddie. They all won gift certificates from Exuma Market in Georgetown, and as we were leaving the next day, Brian (Gotta Life) took all the kids to Georgetown to buy ice cream and candy at the market. We went over for a little visit to Side By Side when the kids were in town. We headed back to the boat as the sun was setting and stopped by Miakoda to say good bye to them too.

March 11 – Georgetown to Black Point
We left Georgetown a little after 7:30, along with a big group of other boats including Gotta Life and Sandpiper. We weren’t sure exactly where we were going to end up at the end of the day, but it was a good weather window to leave Georgetown. The winds had finally died down and the weather was great. The wind was a little too far north for real sailing, but we were able to motor sail. We went about 35 miles up the sound and then went in through Galliant Cut around 1:30, when the tide was still ebbing, but had started to slacken. It wasn’t too bad a trip through the cut, and then we were in peaceful calm waters. It’s not that it was too bad on the sound today, but we were rolling around enough that weren’t spending any time below. When we got out on to the back, we put out the air tube and sailed along at around 3 knots, pulling the kids behind the boat on the tube. We did that for about half and hour and then decided we should move a little more quickly so we pulled them in an put the motor on so we could get to Black Point at a decent hour. We were anchored around 4:00 after doing a 50 mile day – a lot farther than we had originally planned. Gotta Life and Sandpiper had stayed on the outside all day and come in a cut just north of Black Point and they were getting anchored at the same time as we were. The girls and I headed into town to put in a bread order and to get some water. Black Point is a great little town!

March 12 – Black Point to Big Majors Spot
Annie and I went into the village in the morning with her schoolwork, the garbage, the water jug and the laundry. We did two loads of laundry and got her schoolwork done. We picked up our bread from Lorraine’s Mom’s. We dropped off the garbage and got a jug of water. When we were done all that, we went back to the boat. The girls made a couple of trips back into town with Gotta Life to get water for them. Then we made a final trip in for another jug of water and bought some fish hooks and lures so we can try to catch a fish next time we go out into the Sound. We left Black Point around 2:00 to head about 10 miles north to Staniel Cay. When we got there we anchored on the south side of Big Majors to be a little nearer to the Grotto where we wanted to go snorkeling. The grotto is a big hole inside and underneath a little island. There are several entrances to it that have worn through the rock so you can swim through it from the east to the west side of the island. When you swim through the entrance, a big cavern opens up, and there is a hole in the top so there is light inside. The cavern is like a big room inside with a 20 foot rock ceiling and is a little bigger than a double garage. The water near the western entrance is teeming with fish and there is beautiful coral. There are a couple of smaller, underwater tunnels that lead in and out of the grotto, and it is really fun to swim down through the tunnel and back outside. There was a bit of current running through the grotto, and we were glad we were all strong swimmers and could get in and out without any difficulty. There were some people there that couldn’t get in against the current. We went back to the boat and moved it around the point of Big Majors and into a nice anchorage with about 30 other boats. Just after we got the anchor set we saw Gotta Life, Sandpiper and Priority coming in as well. After all the anchors were set we dinghied into "Piggy Beach" to see the pigs and goats. There was only one pig there to welcome us, but she waded out to great the dinghy. There we also a few goats around, but they pretty much stayed up in the woods. Apparently there are some baby pigs around, so we will have to try to come back in again when the babies are around.

March 13 – Big Majors
We did school this morning, and then we moved the boat up a little further in the anchorage to get a little more protection. We pulled up beside a beautiful schooner called Road to the Isles. After we dropped the anchor they called us on the radio as they had seen our Nova Scotia flag - they are from Mahone Bay! It was another warm and windy day, but it was overcast in the morning. After lunch the kids went for a swim around the boat. Later in the afternoon, Gotta Life came over and got the girls and took them into Staniel Cay in their dinghy, and we went over in our dinghy. It is a nice little town. It is tidy and the houses are painted in bright colors. There is a little general store, a yacht club and a little tourist shop selling t-shirts, hats etc. We were able to buy more lettuce J . After we went to town we went back to the grotto and went snorkeling there again. It really is a neat place to snorkel! After supper we went over to Priority with the folks from Gotta Life, Sandpiper and Zola.

March 14 – Big Majors
We had a quiet morning reading and tidying up the boat. Dave made conch horns out of the two conch shells that the girls found in Staniel yesterday. We took a trip into piggy beach and there were lots of pigs today (7 I think). They were kind of aggressive about eating our stale nacho chips, so that took some of the fun out of it, but they were pretty cool to watch. In the afternoon we went to the beach with the folks from Gotta Life, Priority, Zola. We took in the air tube and Brian from Gotta Life towed the kids around on the tube. Kristen had a great time learning to wake board behind Priority’s dinghy. I tried "sledding" behind Zola’s dinghy. A sled is made from a piece of plexiglas (about 1’x1.5’) hinged on a metal frame. The metal frame is attached to a rope towed behind the dinghy. You hold onto the sled and get pulled behind the dinghy, wearing a mask and snorkel. When you want to dive down, you tip the front of the sled down, and it takes you down under water. When you get to the bottom, you level off the sled and zoom along the bottom. When you want to go up, you tip the sled up and you back up to the surface. It is really fun!

March 15 – Big Majors to Cambridge Key.
Dave took a trip into Staniel Cay with Brian to get some water and dinghy gas, but they were out of gas! No big deal, we just wanted to top up our containers before heading back into the exuma land and sea park where there are no facilities. The kids made another trip to piggy beach with Gotta Life. We left around lunch time and had a lovely sail North towards Cambridge Cay. We arrived at Cambridge around 3:00 and picked up the last mooring! Gotta Life got the second to last one… We loaded up the two dinghies with snorkeling gear and headed down to the sea aquarium. Once again, it was beautiful snorkeling with lots of fish. I think we got a little spoiled by the coral at the grotto, because the coral at the sea aquarium was a little disappointing, but the abundance of colorful fish made up for it. When we finished at the sea aquarium, we dinghied over to the sunken plane. The current was almost slack, so it was a lot more fun swimming there than it was when we went a couple of weeks ago. We were able to snorkel down and look all around the plane. It is amazingly well preserved. We were invited over to Gotta Life to eat some of the Mahi Mahi fish that they had caught. It was terrific – even Annie who isn’t much of a fish eater was looking for seconds. Now we are motivated to try to catch one ourselves next time we are out in deep water! There was a shuttle launch this evening. Someone transmitted the count down over the VHF radio and that was kind of neat. We didn’t see too much of the shuttle, but about 5 minutes after take off, there was this strange cloud in the direction of NASA. It glowed white as if the moon was shining through it, but the moon doesn’t rise in that direction, and wasn’t up yet, so it must have had something to do with the shuttle but we aren’t really sure what it was. After we saw that we did see something heading up high into the heavens and we were pretty sure it was the shuttle.

March 16 – Cambridge Key
We did school in the morning. Movin’ On (the mooring hosts that we met on our way south) came over to invite the girls over to have pizza and watch a movie in the evening. In the afternoon we went hiking across the Cay with Gotta Life, and then went snorkeling at the little reef near the mooring field. Snorkeling was great once again! There are so many fish and the coral there is really interesting. Around 6:00, I took the (four) girls over to Movin’ On for pizza, and then we were invited back to Gotta Life for some quiet adult time and to enjoy some of the fish that Sandpiper had caught. Again great food and great company…

March 17 – Cambridge Key to Warderick Wells
Not much was done in the way of school this morning as the girls wanted to make the most of their last morning in Cambridge. We took thank you notes over to Movin’ On and said good bye to them, and then we went swimming in a "blue hole" down near the south end of Cambridge. The blue hole is a deep spot right of the beach, and while there wasn’t the abundance of fish that we see near the coral it was pretty neat. We also saw a couple of rays swimming across the shallows.
We left Cambridge at noon and headed up to Warderick Wells, arriving around 2:30. The girls did a bit of school when I went into the office to get registered.
At 5:30 there was a St. Patrick’s Day get together on the beach. We had planned to take cookies in, but that didn’t work out too well and ended up taking nachos again. It was a good time and we got a chance to meet some new people. We had a nice chat with the folks off Road to the Isles and learned that he had been the skipper of the Bluenose II for 20 years!

Mar 5 - Georgetown Exumas

Hi all - no pictures with this post as we have only limited access to internet. Will update with pictures next time we have good internet.


Feb 20 – Warderick Wells
It was nice to spend a day without thinking about moving. We did school in the morning and in the afternoon we went for a walk on the Cay. First we walked be the blowholes that were really neat. They are holes in the rock that lead down to the water, and when the waves come in they force the air up the hole with great force and a big howling noise. After we left the blowholes we walked up to Boo Boo Hill. Lots of boats leave a carved piece of wood with their boat name on it on Boo Boo Hill, so there is a big pile of driftwood. It was fun to try to find boat name that we knew. We tried to find a nice piece of driftwood to carve to leave for Bird on a Wire, but the driftwood was pretty scarce. We’ll have to get one ready for our return trip. From Boo Boo Hill we carried on to Boo Boo beach and had a nice walk down the coast of the island that faces the sound, and then back across the island to the calmer, bank side of the island. On our way back to the boat we saw a couple of Eagle Rays swimming across the shallows in the middle of the mooring field. At supper time there was a man on the boat next to us who was throwing some wet garbage overboard and some big fish were eating it, so we tried too. There were a couple big fish that were under the boat and they would come darting out to get what we threw over. We didn’t want to spoil the fish too much with human food so we only did it a couple of times.

Feb 21 – Warderick Wells
No school today as it is Saturday! We packed up a lunch and loaded up the dinghy and took the dinghy around to a beach near Emerald Rock. From there, we hiked though another Loyalist Settlement and then across the island to the sound. We walked down along the cliffs and the beach of the sound down to the other end of the island to the Pirate’s Lair and the South Anchorage. It is a beautiful spot. Protected from the sound by Hog Cay, it has more of that beautiful turquoise water. We could see waves crashing over Hog Cay which was spectacular. There is a beautiful sandy beach and a picnic table where we had our lunch. We were visited by two curious little lizards who were happy to enhance their regular diet with some Pringles crumbs. Dave tried to take a close up picture of one of them and it jumped up a couple of inches to bite him on the finger. Fortunately it was only a little lizard and the bite didn’t hurt, but it was certainly startling! After lunch, we were able to catch the eye of the folks on Nicki May and they came to shore for a visit (the wind was howling far too loudly for us to hail them). We had a great chat on the beach as the tide was coming in, and then realized that maybe our dinghy wasn’t that safe way away on the other coast. We had a hurried hike back across the island, and fortunately our dinghy was safe. We had taken our snorkeling things with us, but we decided it was too windy and overcast so we went back to the boat instead.

Feb 22 – Warderick Wells – Cambridge Cay
We left Warderick Wells this morning after settling up at the office at 9:00. We decided to make the long, 10 mile trip from Warderick Wells to Cambridge on the "outside" - on the sound. The Exumas are a chain of little islands or Cays that rise up on the Western edge of the Bahama Bank. On the East side, there is deep, deep water (1000’s of feet) only hundreds of feet from shore. On the West side the Bahama Banks stretch for several miles with deeps of 8 – 15 feet. On the Sound side the prevailing wind blows from the East, and there is very little protection, so it is like sailing on the ocean. There are narrow cuts between the cays where the water flows between the banks and the sound. All the water that travels between the banks and the sound as the tide changes have to flow through these cuts. When the tide is flowing out, it pushes against the waves that are created by the prevailing wind. (Note from Kristen – this causes very large confused seas). It was a bouncy trip through the cut that leads between the bank and the sound, but then we motor sailed down the Sound to the cut that took us into Cambridge Cay. After arrived and picked up a mooring, we thought we go down to go snorkeling at the "Sea Aquarium". We stopped by Calliope on the way and they were headed down there too. It was about a mile away and we wished we had a hard-bottom dinghy and a bigger dinghy motor! (Are any of you reading this saying "I told you so??")
Snorkeling at the Sea Aquarium was amazing! There were so many fish and they would swim all around you. You could reach out and try to touch them, but they would swim away, always keeping about a foot away from us. There were lots of different types of fish, and coral. It was really great! We left there and went to another snorkeling spot where there was a little airplane that had crashed in about 25’ of water. It was amazing to see this little plane lying there under the water. There was a lot of current so if you swam really hard to the tail of the plane you could coast back down to the dinghy in about 30 seconds!

Feb 23 – Cambridge Cay
Back to school today in the morning. I tried to make some white bread and it was a dismal failure – it wouldn’t rise at all. Very frustrating!
We went over to visit Movin’ On, the mooring hosts and they suggested that we should move down a couple of moorings where we would get a little less motion, so we did that.
In the afternoon we went for a hike across the Cay and up a high hill. Off the beach, there was a limestone tower that came up out of the water about 100’. The kids took their kites and had a good time flying them up on the hill. We hiked along the cliff down to the end of the Cay. It was a great walk.
Calliope came over for supper so that was fun. They brought some brownies over and we were able to cook them in the oven. They were great!

Feb 24 – Cambridge Cay
Today was a fairly quiet day with school in the morning and then a hike to the Conch Cay beach in the afternoon.
Feb 25 – Cambridge Cay
Calliope and Movin’ On were going to go on a dinghy adventure to Compass Cay. We were invited along and Movin’ On offered to take the kids in their dinghy to take some of the weight off ours. Our first stop was Racheal’s Bubble Bath. This is a break in the cliff on the sound side and the waves crash through and then tumble down into a big pool that then leads out to the banks. Rachael’s Bubble Bath is most fun when there are lots of big waves, and that means high North East winds. In order to get there you have to cross Conch Cut. We took off with expectations of getting pretty wet in the dinghy and sure enough, buy the time we reached Compass Cay we were thoroughly soaked. Rachael’s Bubble Bath was really cool! It was like swimming in a pool of alka seltzer. The waves would come crashing through the break in the rocks and bubble all around you. It was really fun and we stayed about an hour. Then we headed further down Compass Cay to the marina. Compass Cay is a quiet spot that has to make it’s own water and generate it’s own power. There are a few little cottages and a larger lodge with a couple of rooms. They sell hot dogs and hamburgers for lunch and they were great! They have a school of fish and nurse sharks they stay off the wharf and Movin’ On brought their wet garbage so we could feed them. You are allowed to swim with the sharks when they aren’t being fed, but having spent enough time in the water already today, we stayed dry and reached over the edge and touched the sharks from the wharf. After lunch we took a garbage bag over to the sound side and collected a bag full of flotsam to help Tucker (the owner) keep his beach clean.

Feb 26 – Cambridge Cay
Today was another quiet day with school in the morning and then snorkeling off the little island on the edge of the mooring field in the afternoon. This was another great snorkeling spot with lots of fish and coral to look at.

Feb 27 – Cambridge Cay to Black Point
We said "Good Bye" to Movin On and headed out of Cambridge Cay. Calliope also left, and offered to take our gas can into Sampson Cay to get it filled up for us as there is no fuel in Black Point. We had planned to stop at Big Majors to see the pigs that live on the beach, and go into the Thunder Ball Grotto that has been used in a number of movies, but it was too windy today, so we continued on to Black Point. Black Point is the second largest community in the Exumas with about 300 people. We got anchored off safely and I took the girls to shore to look around. People are really friendly. We were able to pick up some fresh produce, and ordered a couple of loaves of bread to be picked up tomorrow morning. We tried to get on the internet, but it took soooooo long to connected we pretty much gave up. We met Miakado (from Halloween) on shore as well as a few other boaters we had met along the way. People were going to get together around 4:00, so we went back to the boat to get Dave and went back to shore. We had a good visit with some folks, and then went back to Miakado for a little while. It was another late supper!

Feb 28 – Black Point to Lee Stocking
Kristen and I went to shore to get the bread, but it took a long time as Lorraine’s Dad, had a little accident and it is Lorraine’s Mom that makes the bread. We had a great sail down banks but we knew we would have to go out into the sound to get down to Lee Stocking Island. It was a really, really, rough go through Cave Cut as we went out at the time when the tide was moving out into the sound at it’s fastest, and there were still a lot of waves coming off the sound. It was a pretty rough trip for the 8 miles we had to do off shore, and but then it was a fairly smooth trip in through Adderly Cut just north of Lee Stocking Island. We were anchored by around 3:00. We went for a swim and tidied up the boat. We took the kids dragging on the Air Head tube around the anchorage behind the dinghy. Calliope came over for a visit before supper.

March 1 – Lee Stocking to Georgetown
We left Lee Stocking bright and early to get to Georgetown. The wind was on the nose, as expected, but the seas were much calmer than yesterday. Calliope decided to stay at Lee Stocking until the forecasted front comes through so they can sail down to Georgetown instead of motoring. We arrived in Georgetown at 11:30. We didn’t really think we would be able to find Gotta Life in amongst the 300 boats here, but we saw them right away. We couldn’t raise them on the radio, but Sandpiper called us, and then Gotta Life saw us and came over in the dinghy. They were going to the beach to do a science experiment so they took the girls along. We got anchored off Monument Beach (on of three beaches on Stocking Island that people anchor off) The holding was great and it didn’t sound like the front was going to be too bad, so we decided to stay here instead of going to the more protected Red Shanks harbour on the western side of the harbour. Dave and I went over to visit Sandpiper, and then Gotta Life while the girls were at the beach. After supper we all went over to visit on Gotta Life.
March 2 - Georgetown
It was school again this morning, and I made some bread and some cookies. When school was over we took some bread and cookies to Sandpiper and then to Gotta Life. In the afternoon, some of us went hiking on Stocking Island. Dave decided to stay with the boat as the wind had shifted some and we were fairly close to Sandpiper. It was a great hike up to the monument, and then we went across the island to the beach on the Sound side. It is another beautiful white sand beach. Kristen and Erin dug a deep, deep hole in the sand. The rest of us walked down the beach. There were really neat limestone formations and caves. When we got back to the boat, Dave took his turn and went for a hike and got some great pictures.

March 3 – Georgetown
The Georgetown Regatta begins this week, and it kicks off with Children’s Day so today there was a meeting for Children’s Day so we spent most of the morning at the beach making plans for tomorrow. Children’s Day centers around the grade 3 and4’s from the Georgetown Primary school and organizing events for them for a couple hours, finishing up with them watching the boat parade. Dave went to Georgetown and got on the internet and got a few groceries. In the afternoon the kids went to Volleyball beach and Dave and I went back over to Georgetown to get some water. We got really wet coming back in the dinghy with all the water! It got pretty chilly so we closed up the boat and made Banquet Lasagna for supper, with Brownies for desert and then watch Captain Ron that we borrowed from Gotta Life.

March 4 – Georgetown
Children’s Day was a great success! We all went over to Regatta Point in Georgetown at 11:00 and started setting up the games. At 12:45 the Exuma kids were supposed to come over to start with the games. We were a little disappointed when only 9 of them were allowed to come! The grade 3 class had acted really badly yesterday and the principal decided that as punishment they would not be allowed to participate. There were also several grade 4’s that were missing – I wonder if they suffered the same fate. We split them all up into teams (we had planned for 8 teams so that meant 1 per team) and then added in the 20 cruiser kids. Each team also had a team lead, who was either an adult or a couple of the older cruiser kids, so by this time there were 3 or 4 on a team. Someone went back to the school to see if the principal had changed her mind while we got started with the introductions. A few minutes later there was another group of Exuma kids coming towards the park. Originally we thought the principal had relented, only to learn that she decided to send the grade 5’s instead! They were added into the teams so now each team had 5 or 6 participants, as well as the some of the older cruiser kids. We did two sets of stations, with 4 stations in each set, and two teams were at a station at a time. In the first set there was a water balloon toss, a relay race where the kids had to get dressed up in a big t-shirt, big boots and big foul-weather pants, a tennis ball on a spoon race and another relay where they had to fill up a bucket at one end of the course by running across the course with a cup of water on their head. In the second set, there was a station to make posters, a freeze dance, an obstacle course and a tug-of-war. Unfortunately we ran out of time and not all the kids got to do all the second set of stations. Then we took all the kids across the point to watch the boat parade. Each team had cheers, and waved their posters as the boats came by. There was additional excitement when the sailboats started to go aground right in front of the marshalling station! It’s also worth mentioning that it was blowing about 20knots of wind, again, and still (it has blown an average of 20 knots everyday since we have been in the Bahamas). A boat called Pirate entered their dingy in the parade and they had suckers and necklaces for the kids so they were trying to through this stuff from the dinghy up on to the wharf. Up until then we had all the kids sitting nicely on the wharf, and that certainly created some chaos!! At 2:45 we took the kids back to the park and everyone got a t-shirt left over from last year’s regatta and a ribbon. We spent some time tidying up the park, and then headed back across the harbour to Stocking Island and the St. Francis resort where there was a reception for the cruisers. We didn’t get back to the boat until 7:30 so it was another quickly put together supper – tonight’s choice was tuna casserole.