What a difference another week makes!

Sailing across Eleuthera Sound

An update on our update ... what a difference another week makes. Once we arrived in Florida the reality of what was happening in the world became more apparent. As we entered the inlet in Fort Pierce we could see the beach was packed with people. So much for social distancing during spring break! The grocery store was busy, not packed so keeping a distance from others was easy. And like home, there was no TP, rice, pasta, tuna or potatoes to be had. Stop the hoarding people!! The bars were closed but the restaurants were open to half capacity only, but have since closed to seating and have take-out only.
We started looking at our route north, and became aware of some cities, counties and marinas closing. Then some states started to close all non-essential businesses and advise people to self isolate.
And the rate of spread in the US is huge. Hugh read an article on the CDC website that stated by the time this is done more than half of all Americans will be infected.  Moreover they warned that emergency services and policing could be impacted.  So, what to do?
We could haul the boat in Fort Pierce and leave it for another year. But then we would have to do this all again.
We could try to get as far north up the ICW on the boat as possible and if necessary leave it and go home with no idea of when we would be able to get  back to it to finish the journey home.
Or we could just bite the bullet and truck it home.
So, after some phone calls and logistics management we have booked the boat to be trucked back to Midland.
The mast is still coming down tomorrow, and we haul the boat out Thursday. We have rented a SUV to drive home, and due to the virus Enterprise has kindly waived the one-way drop off charge, and the CBSA is allowing people to bring rental cars across the border for a short while to get their stuff home before bringing them back to the US.
The good thing is we can leave a lot of our “stuff” on the boat, so we will only pack the car with essentials, (like toilet paper) to bring home. Once the boat is back in the marina we can unload the rest.
It’s all been very overwhelming being so far from home, and trying to make good, rational decisions. But this feels right, and we are looking forward to being home, even if we can’t see anyone for a few weeks.
Besides, I miss my lovely new house and now that we have all this unplanned time on our hands, we can get the basement started! Now there’s a bright side to all this.
So we will continue to self isolate and get the boat ready to come back to the sweet, clear waters of Georgian Bay ... one day at a time.

A Windy Week in Warderick Wells without Wi-Fi

Trekker moored in Warderick Wells

It amazes me how much our life is centered around the wonderful World Wide Web. Down in the Bahamas, you are lucky if the marina you are in has good Wi-Fi. Most have it, but the chances of it reaching your boat is slim. So, in our wisdom, we bought a BTC (Bahamas Telephone Co.) SIM card and put it in my phone. So we now have a Bahamas phone number, with a thousand minutes of talk, 30 GB of data and text for $30 for 15 days.  It works pretty well, when you have a signal. But, when you are being chased by a big system that is going to blow for days on end, and you decide to go to one of your favorite places, Warderick Wells, to sit on a nice safe mooring ball, but with NO cell service, life becomes different.

Our usual routine in the morning, is to check our phones, including emails, news, Facebook, Instagram and of course weather. Weather is huge when you are cruising. It dictates what you are going to do that day, or where you are going, or if you are staying where you are. Basically our life revolves around the weather when living on Trekker. So last week, while enjoying ourselves with our friends Sue and Randy, in a nice safe marina on Cape Eleuthera, we noticed that the weather was predicted to be very windy for the next week, so we decided to sail across to the Exumas and get a mooring ball to wait it out.

Exuma Sound before the blow

Exuma Sound during the blow

So here we sit, Monday March 9, 2020, day five, so far, on a mooring ball, and day three of a huge blow, with winds clocking up to 35 knots. The sound of the wind is endless, and at night the best way to sleep is with earplugs to dull the noise.  We haven’t been to shore much, because the wind is so fierce that you can be guaranteed a nice salty spray as you dinghy to shore, or walk around the island. Plus there is not much to do here when it is blowing. There are no stores, food markets, laundry or restaurants other than the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park office, which sells t-shirts. You get the picture. When it’s nice there is amazing snorkeling, hiking, and beaches.

But the worst part is how difficult it is to check weather, get emails, or know what is going on at home with our family and friends, or in the world. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, ignorance is bliss, but not knowing what the weather is going to do and when this blow will stop, is frustrating.  If we are lucky we do have access to some cell service. If you go to the fire hydrant by the park office, cross your eyes, hold your breath, and point south, MAYBE you will get one or two bars.  Or, you can walk up to the highest spot of the island, BooBoo Hill, and maybe you will get a bar or two there. But it’s always a maybe, and often a no.

So what are we doing while we wait to move again? Hugh and I are having a fierce tournament of Bananagrams, with Hugh winning 4-1 so far. Cribbage and Rummycube are played a lot. I am doing some baking; muffins, brownies, and gourmet meals (sort of), knitting and of course we are reading a lot.

Every Saturday night the Park office hosts a happy hour for all the boats in the anchorage, and despite the wind that night everyone gathered on the beach to exchange stories on their travels and survival of the weather.  It’s always enjoyable to meet fellow sailors and compare notes. We also get to visit with the Park Administrator, Cherry, who has been here since the first time we came to visit in 2018. She works three weeks straight, living in a small house built for the staff on the island, and then has a week off. She really is the soul of the anchorage, and everyone knows Cherry.

Cherry and Karen

We had our last Happy Hour on the beach Tuesday night (self organized) with the remaining boats, as it seemed that everyone was leaving Wednesday morning. The winds were getting slightly calmer, (only gusting into the low 20s) and we were all ready to move on! We had a brisk sail up the Exumas to Highbourne Cay, where we were surprised to see only three other boats when we arrived. But as the day wore on, it filled in until there were at least twenty boats anchored by sundown. It seems we weren’t the only ones ready to move.

Yesterday we had another great sail up to Nassau, where we will stay for two nights to get some food and do some laundry. Two nights is more than enough as it is a busy, noisy wavy place.

So now that the winds have blown themselves out, and the forecast is for a lovely week ahead, we will start heading back to Titusville in Florida, to get ready for our journey home. The good news is we have confirmed a ride for our mast with US Spars, and so we will be taking it down and getting it ready to travel to Buffalo, where we will put it back up for the final leg home along the Great Lakes. So once the mast is down, we will become a trawler, I am calling us the Ditch Witch (the nickname for the ICW being the ditch), and our aim is to enjoy the many small towns and harbours along the eastern coast of the States. With no bridges to worry about, we hope it will be less stressful than the trip down, although we still have to watch our depth in some marshy areas. We’ll try to travel on mid-tide rising so if we do get stuck we can eventually float off. It’s always something!

So stay tuned for our further adventures as “Trekker Travels Home” … one day at a time.

Hanging out in New Providence

There are definitely good and bad things about hanging out in Nassau. There is an amazing grocery store and a Starbucks across from the marina where we are staying. Hugh laughs at me as I wander up and down the aisles in the grocery store … you don’t see a lot of the brands at home, or anywhere else in the Bahamas. Plus it’s lovely and cool in there, I could spend hours looking, and buying a few things. A great place to stock up before heading out to the desolate islands of the Exumas!  

The bad things about being here are the noise, crowds and frustration of trying to get around town to see the historical and other attractions of New Providence Island.  We are quite far from the “downtown” of Nassau, so getting there requires either an expensive taxi, or a local bus ride, which we have discovered, is an adventure.

Alyssa arrived on Monday, after numerous delays to her flight from Tampa to Nassau, just in time to enjoy a lovely meal at Latitudes, the new restaurant in the marina. When we were here last year they were in the process of building it, so we were happy to see it was finished and busy!

L-R Hugh Alyssa and Karen at Latitudes

Our lives on the boat are mostly dictated by weather, and we had been hoping to sail down to the Exumas with Alyssa for a few days and bring her back to Nassau, as we couldn’t find any flights from Staniel Cay to get her back. But, the wind gods were not on our side, and we were worried about getting her back for her flight on Sunday, with a big front and high winds coming in Friday night. So the decision was made to stay on the dock Tuesday, go out for a couple of nights and anchor, then be back for Friday nights’ blow.

Tuesday was “Explore Nassau Day” and after “tour guide” Hugh did some research about what to see and do, we boarded a local bus that was headed downtown, giving us a cheap tour of some local neighborhoods.  Our first stop was The Water Tower, which was built in 1928 to supply water to the town.

Nassau Water Tower and Fort Fincastle

Beside the water tower is Fort Fincastle, a small fort built in 1793 to protect the entrance to the harbour. There was also a little market with local vendors selling tourist wares. It was a busy place, with busloads of cruise ship passengers coming and going. There were 4 cruise ships in the harbour that day! (a bad thing).

Cruise ships docked in Nassau Harbour

Also in the area was The Queens Staircase, which was carved out of solid limestone by slaves in 1793 to honour Queen Victoria. It is also known as The 66 Steps. It was quite beautiful, with a small waterfall and trees growing in the gorge.

Alyssa and Hugh on Queen's Staircase

We found the John Watling's distillery, and had a tour of the rum factory and a small sample. Established in 1789, it still makes very light to very dark rums.

John Watling's Rum Distillery

Our own tour continued down through several lovely areas of government buildings, The National Art Gallery, and an old hotel, Graycliff. We eventually made our way back to the downtown area and found a bus to take us back to the boat. A busy but interesting day!

Alyssa and a pirate!

On the Wednesday we decided to sail down to West Bay, an anchorage at the west end of New Providence Island, with good protection and holding. We had a lovely sail down, and found a good spot to sit for a couple of days. It was so nice to be off the dock, with the peace of sitting at anchor.

West Bay Sunset

Thursday we went exploring on shore, only to find out that lovely park we were walking in was private and in order to walk or sit there you had to pay an entrance fee of $11 each! So back to the boat we went, and decided to try to find some snorkeling sites we had read about. They are quite busy with tour boats during the day, so we waited until they were gone later in the afternoon, but were quite disappointed with the state of the coral, dull and broken, and few fish. The next area we found was one we had heard about called the Sir Nicholas Nuttall Coral Reef Sculpture Garden, with this huge concrete “man” crouched in the water. We were the only ones there, and I took my GoPro to take pics, but somehow it didn’t work, so no actual pictures to show you, (sorry!) just a copy of one I found.

Sculpture Garden

Friday we left bright and early, in windy conditions (as predicted) and even went through some squalls and fog. We made it back to the dock, and were glad to be there, as the winds really blew that night and Saturday.

We spent the last couple of days with Alyssa exploring more of Nassau, including going to a “fish market”, with locals selling their catch and actually filleting it for you, visiting the Nassau Yacht Club, and taking another local bus to Compass Point for lunch on a very windy, squally day.

Montague Beach Fish Market

Karen and Alyssa at Compass Point

We said goodbye to Alyssa yesterday, and we are now waiting for a good weather window (tomorrow?) to sail up to Eleuthera and visit our friends Sue and Randy who have rented a cottage there for two weeks. It will be really nice to get to another island!

From there we are hoping to go to the Exumas for a few weeks, then start the journey back to Florida.

Hopefully the weather gods will be with us … one day at a time!

Enjoying New Adventures

In Hugh's excitement to post that we had made it to West End, he forgot to mention the lovely day we had in Lake Worth. After sitting on the boat for a very blustery day (it amazes me how noisy wind can be!) we finally got off the boat and dinghied over to the town dock for a walk and a coffee. On the way over we stopped by Malarkey, the boat that we came down from Ft. Pierce with, to see how they fared in the blow and to say hello. They mentioned that they were going to go to the Flagler Museum in the afternoon, with another couple, Elaine and Steve off of S/V October, and would we like to join them? Of course we would! So we all met at the dock and called for Ubers to take us over to the museum on the ritzy Palm Beach side.  We are fairly familiar with Mr. Flagler, as we visited his hotel in St. Augustine on our trip down the ICW, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  The museum in Palm Beach is actually the house, Whitehall, that he built as a wedding gift to his third wife. It has 75 rooms and they only stayed there about two months a year. It was built in 18 months being completed in 1902, which at the time was amazingly fast. We took a tour with the resident Docent and enjoyed hearing all the stories of the couple and the mansion.

Flagler Museum - White Hall

The Museum also houses Flagler's private rail car in which he travelled to the house.  Interestingly, he also built the East Florida Railway from Jacksonville to Key West. Quite a feat!

Flagler Rail Car #91

After the tour we decided to walk over to the Breakers Hotel, which is a very fancy hotel right on the ocean, and have a drink. These cruisers were our kind of people!  I’m still surprised no one stopped us as we were dressed in “boat clothes” and I felt pretty conspicuous! We waltzed in like we owned the place and got a table, a beer and shared some amazing fries (drenched in melted gorgonzola cheese!).  A very fun day with very fun people. One of the things I love about cruising!

Breakers Hotel Palm Beach

So, the next day we crossed to West End (see Hugh’s post). In spite of Daniela and Dennis'  help taking lines we had one of our worst dockings, which Hugh failed to mention! (but no damage). Daniela and Dennis own Viaggio, a Beneteau Oceanis 55 from Annapolis that was docked nearby. We seemed to hit it off right away, and found out it was their first time over to the Bahamas, and they had lots of questions. Since we are such experts (!) we invited them over for swizzles and to talk about cruising. There was also a catamaran docked in the marina (that was it … three sailboats) and we invited them over as well, as it turned out they were also newbies. Tim, Ingrid and crew Mike (hired? We never found out) on S/V Wanderlust from Atlanta. We had a lively discussion about where to go and things to do and see, as Mike slowly got drunker and drunker.

After they left, Daniela and Dennis stayed and we all wondered how quiet Tim and Ingrid put up with Mike. Well, turns out they don’t, as he was released the next day.

So we hung out at Old Bahama Bay for a couple of days, waiting for the weather to calm down, with Daniela and Dennis. On the Tuesday we both decided to travel down to Port Lucaya, which is on the south side of Grand Bahama Island, just east of Freeport. We have never been this way, as we usually go over the top of the Island and head for the Abacos. Due to the devastation caused by Hurricane Dorian, we decided not to go there this year. I’m not sure there is much left of our beloved Hopetown, Man-O-War, and Marsh Harbour. It’s very sad. Even though West End and Port Lucaya were hit by the hurricane, they didn’t get hit as hard, but we can definitely see some damage, and the water is not potable as the treatment plant was damaged and is still not repaired. You could tell when you showered that the water was slightly salty (yuck).  Talking to some of the locals was very interesting as well. They had lots of stories about destruction and survival.

The sail to Lucaya was bumpier and windier than expected, and we were amazed to see two huge oil rigs , not marked on the chart, just before Freeport!

Unmarked oil rig being serviced off Freeport

We docked at Grand Bahamas Yacht Club, had a shower (still salty water) and then over to the pool bar for lunch and a beer! Daniela and Dennis joined us, and we decided to go exploring the next day, with the ultimate goal to find a BTC store to buy a Bahamas sim card, and groceries. After a false start, and a local bus ride (always adventurous) we found both. The grocery store was one of the nicest and cleanest I have seen in the Bahamas. Always exciting! We rode the bus home, right to the marina driveway, and then we had to get ready for our party night!

(L-R) Karen, Hugh, Daniela, Dennis

The marina has a wonderful dockmaster, Fabian, who invites all the cruisers in the marina every Wednesday night to a Fish Fry on a nearby beach. All 12 of us gathered in the parking lot at 6pm, and Fabian and his wife Rosie drove us over.  A good time was had by all, with a great dinner, beer and even dancing!

Fabian (left) hosts us at the fish fry

Friday looked like a good day to cross over to the Berry Islands, and I think nearly all of the boats at the marina left, except for Daniela and Dennis who have to fly home next week, so had decided to keep the boat there while they were gone. We left the dock at 6:20am and had a good motor/sail all the way down to Soldier Cay, passing three cruise ships anchored at Coco Cay, a cay which includes a "village" owned by a cruise line at which ships stop for a day. We anchored, and had a lovely quiet night. The next morning the winds were nil and the water was calm, so we motored to Nassau. On entering the harbour, we saw five more cruise ships waiting at the docks!

Cruise ships lined up in Nassau

So we are now in Nassau, waiting for our daughter Alyssa to join us tomorrow for a week of sailing. We are looking forward to her visit.

After she leaves, we will see where the wind take us ... one day at a time!

Another Year, Another Adventure

Trekker following her summer in Ft. Pierce

For those of you who have been faithful followers of our blog, we last left off with our deciding to sell Trekker, and our upcoming move to our new house in Midland.  The house was Ready for Takeover ahead of schedule and close to budget and we moved in September 18, 2019. Within a few  busy weeks Midland felt  like home.  We attended a few parties, welcomed 45 folks to our open house, joined Askennonia, A Centre for People 55+, (we call ourselves "Junior Seniors") and the Midland Curling Club. We've been curling a couple of times a week, I've  been taking Ukulele lessons and yoga and Hugh has been playing pickle ball occasionally and was acclaimed Vice-Commodore of the Midland Bay Sailing Club. We also volunteered at the local community theatre as ushers for their first play of the season. There's nothing like jumping into a community with both feet! And then there is the snow ... it was like a switch was turned on, and as of November 1st it has been pretty white up here!
So as time went by, and sailing friends started talking about heading south to their boats in warm places, we started thinking about what to do with Trekker.  She did not sell over the summer. Being located in Florida did not help. She is a Canadian registered boat, and can not be sold (or even shown) to an American resident without importing her into the States (at great cost, and time). Also, there are thousands of boats for sale down there, so our market was reduced to a Canadian or someone not from the States looking for a great cruising boat, ready to go.  Also, we starting doing some research into what we could  buy to replace her. Trekker is just a little too long and wide to dock at the Midland Bay Sailing Club.  The thought was to get  something a little smaller that we could keep at the club, since its only a four minute drive from our new house!  But we came to the conclusion that we have a great boat, upgraded the way we want. So ... after much thought we have taken her off the market and have decided to keep her. 
So, you ask, what now?  After much discussion we have decided that we would love to have her back in clean, fresh, wonderful Georgian Bay, especially now that we are living here and can go for a day or mid-week cruise without much effort or having to drive two and a half hours from Kitchener. 
We looked into trucking her back home, but that is super expensive.  The thought of bringing her back up the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) and trying to get under those bridges again  makes our hearts palpitate! And The Admiral (me) is not keen on sailing  her up the Atlantic coast for three to four days straight to avoid those bridges. 
So, we are now trying to find a trucking company that would truck just the mast north, and we will come home via the ICW, pretending to be a trawler! 
We have also decided to go across to the Bahamas one more time, since it is too soon (and cold) to start bringing her up the ICW in January. And this way we can avoid most of the Canadian winter!
We left on January 10th and drove down to the boat to get her ready for the season. We decided not to launch her until the end of January, so we spent a week getting the canvas on, sails on, and some provisions onboard.  We then drove back home. It sounds crazy, but we really didn't want the car to sit in Florida while we brought the boat back home,  then we would have to go back to get it at some point. So we are now home for a week, and are flying back down January 30th. The boat goes in the water on the 31st, and we will move on board.  
The plan right now is to sail over to the Bahamas for February and March, then head back to Florida at the beginning of April, take the mast down, and slowly head north.  We have wonderful memories of exploring the great little towns along the east coast during our trip down, so we plan to go to places we missed on the way down and do some more exploring. We will be re-tracing our voyage down, heading up the Hudson River and across the Erie Canal (and all those locks!) again. The Erie Canal does not open until mid May, so we hope to be back to Midland by mid-June. We will keep her at Hindsons Marina, where we docked her before we left, and even have the same slip we had three years ago! (its a ten minute drive to get there)
Crazy, I know, I really didn't think I would be doing this again, but hey, I'm always up for another adventure!
So we invite you to travel along with us, exploring new and old places ... one day at a time!

The Abacos

The Famous Hope Town Lighthouse

 We have been playing in the Abacos for the last couple of weeks, and time is slowly disappearing, before we return to Florida and home. We have been taking our time, and visiting a few of the islands that make up the Abacos, including one of our favorite places from last year, Hope Town, on Elbow Cay.

We were able to snag a mooring ball in Hope Town, going over from Man’O’War early one morning and grabbing the only one available in the harbour. One of our complaints regarding the mooring field is that there will appear to be many open balls, only to get close to one and see a “reserved” sign on it.  And it may sit empty for a week, as the renters are off somewhere and since they have paid for it for the time away, they can hold it. There must be some way to let people know they can have it for a few days while they are gone. We discussed an app for this ... lol … or a business of coordinating empty balls. We watched lots of boats, especially charter boats, coming in at the end of a day expecting to see an open ball, picking one up, then being chased off by a neighboring boat telling them its reserved. We had another blow while we were sitting there, and watched the chaos as boats tried to get secure before it arrived. We felt very lucky to have picked one up when we did!

Hope Town, much like the rest of the Bahamas, didn’t hold the same magical appeal for us this year. Maybe because it wasn’t all new this year. We also found that, even though we have met up with a lot of different boats and travelled together for a few days, we missed having a constant buddy boat. We were joined by Janice and Harley (Folly) in Hope Town for a couple of days, which was great fun. We even convinced them to go to Monday night JACKS (bingo) at Captain Jacks Restaurant, which was as crazy as ever. We enjoyed a drink and a game of euchre while waiting for it to start. Like last year, we had to get there by 4:30 to get a table for the 6pm game! After bingo we walked over to our favorite restaurant, Wine Down Sip Sip for a great dinner.

Hugh, Janice, Harley, Karen

We also had a great afternoon on the (empty) beach hunting for sea glass. The secret (we discovered) is to go at a calm low tide, and to search out pebbly sand, not hard sand, that hides these wonderful treasures. We got quite the handful in all shapes, sizes and colour.

One day of sea glass bounty!

Folly left Tuesday morning to start their trip back to Florida, and their ball was quickly taken by Lynn and Pat (Adamant I from Midland Bay Sailing Club)) who joined us for a night.  They are also on their way north now, but are taking their boat back to Midland, so they still have quite a journey ahead of them! We spent most of our mornings going into town and having a coffee at Hopetown Coffee House, which has great coffee and a lovely porch to enjoy it on.

We also climbed the 100 steps up the famous Hope Town lighthouse to enjoy the wonderful 360 degree view up there. Can you pick out Trekker in the mooring field?

Trekker is lower right boat!

There weren’t any golf carts available for rent the whole time we were there, so we did not go as far afield as last year. Lots of walking and exploring in the town, and along the beach kept us busy. We rode out another blow (sigh) which ended sea glass hunting expeditions, with the big waves crashing ashore.  We also had the pleasure of meeting up with another couple, Phil and Michelle on Mariposa, whom we met last year. They live in B.C., and had decided to take a year off working, sold their Café, and bought a boat in New Brunswick and sailed it down to the Bahamas. We met them practically the first day we arrived in the Bahamas last year, and kept bumping into each other throughout the Abacos, spending a few fun days together. They loved the Bahamas so much that they came back for another season, and we have been trying to catch up to them. Finally, there they were in Hope Town, so we had dinner together one night on Trekker, and a game of euchre one afternoon. We said another good-bye as they headed north back to New Brunswick to sell the boat and work for a few years to build up their cruising kitty for a bigger boat. We stayed in Hope Town for nine days, and really felt like it was time to move on and see some other spots in the area. We motored up to Great Guana Cay and our thought was to spend a couple of nights on the anchor while it was calm, and then move over to Treasure Cay for yet another “blow”. Since it had calmed down so much we decided to try to snorkel off the beach on the east side (Atlantic) of the island, as we had heard there was a great reef to swim out to. We were disappointed with what we saw, and wonder if we didn’t go out far enough, but it’s pretty creepy snorkeling in the Atlantic when you really don’t know where you are going! We had a nice lunch at the famous beach bar Nippers and then headed back to the boat. The wind had already started to pick up and it was blowing from the southwest, a direction from which our anchorage provided no protection. So we quickly decided to up anchor and go over to Treasure Cay and get a mooring ball (hopefully!) for the night. We entered to harbour with bated breath, after our experience in Hope Town, but were pleased to see quite a few open balls.  The mooring field is right beside the marina, where we have reserved for a night (or more) to get fresh water, and get ready for Alyssa to come!

Treasure Cay Beach

The next challenge is where we are going to stay while Hugh is away. We called Mangoes Marina in Marsh Harbour about a month ago to book a slip, but because it is small, and people don’t leave when they say they will, they will only tell us we are on the “reservation list” and to call the day before we want to come in, to see if they have a slip for us! We have also called all the other marinas in Marsh Harbour with either the same answer, or told they are full! So, tomorrow we will find out if we have a slip. If not, we will stay in Treasure Cay. There are worse places to stay for a few days!!

Treasure Cay Resort and Marina

Once Alyssa heads back home we will head to Florida to tuck Trekker away for the summer and head north for our next adventure, building a house in Midland! Crazy!

The adventure continues … one day at a time.

Cape Eleuthera to the Abacos

Sunset at Lynyard Cay

We spent three days tucked in Cape Eleuthera Marina alongside Touch of Grey, riding out the next weather system. Similar to last year it seems we have been chased by weather systems a lot lately, moving from one anchorage to another then waiting out the big winds. We were nicely protected in the marina, and they had great laundry and shower facilities. On the Thursday, Alan and Linda rented a car to try to find an Immigration office to lengthen their visitor’s visa, which expired the next week, and asked us if we would like to join them for the ride. Of course! We had explored the top half of Eleuthera last year, so this was a great chance to see the rest of the island. Our first stop was the Rock Sound Airport where there was an Immigration office. Not a big airport, but we were told they were expecting two charter flights that day from Nassau. While we walked around the grounds and terminal, Alan and Linda found the office only to discover that the Immigration Officer was not there that day, and probably wouldn’t be for a few days. They did take all their information and copies of documents and said if they couldn’t get to another office in time because of weather they could vouch for them coming there to extend it. They had been told you could get fined up to $5000 if you don’t extend your visa in time!

Rock Sound Airport

So with that done, we drove up the island to explore. Our first stop was a small town called Tarpum Bay, and we were quite excited to see a coffee shop with a Starbucks sign! How exciting! So after walking around the small town of 2000 people, we stopped into the coffee shop and all ordered coffees. Unfortunately the “barista” had not been trained very well, and the coffees were more like very weak lattes.

Tarpum Bay Starbucks

Heading further north we crossed the island to the Atlantic side and drove through the nice community of Palmetto Bay, ending up at a restaurant called Tippys, which is where we had lunch last year on our tour of the northern part of the island! We had closed the loop!

On the drive back we stopped in Rock Sound at their great grocery store where we were able to find some lovely fresh produce, always a treat!

With a calm weather window, we and Touch of Grey decided to jump from the bottom to the top of Eleuthera Friday and then hop up to the Abacos Saturday. Two long days, but with the end result being that we were in the Abacos. Our goal this year has been to spend the last part of our trip exploring and enjoying the Abacos. Both days were fairly long, about 10 hours each, with Friday starting out with a nice breeze so we could sail, then slowly dropping until we could put out the spinnaker, and then dying until we had to motor. Saturday was dead calm (no similarities to the movie), so we motored the whole way. A couple of boats that were doing the same saw some whales jump, but despite my lookout, we saw none.

One of the benefits of putting in two long days was that we finally caught up to a couple of boats we had been “chasing” most of the season. Janice and Harley on Folly, are friends from Midland Bay Sailing Club (MBSC) who have been down here since November and always seem to have been a few days ahead of us. The same with Phil and Michelle on Mariposa, a couple we crossed paths with a few times last year spending some fun days. So as we all anchored at Lynyard Cay, drinks on the beach were planned so everyone could finally see each other. It was a great reunion!

L-R Allan, Linda, Hugh, Janice, Phil, Harley, Michelle and Chica

Once again, we are being chased by another front where big winds are predicted to come in today, Tuesday, so everyone headed for safe harbours for this blow. We booked into Mangoes, a marina we stayed at a few times last year in Marsh Harbour, and were told we were on “the reservation list” and to call the day before to confirm a slip. Not thinking this sounded very promising, we booked Treasure Cay Marina as back up. Treasure Cay is quite far from Marsh Harbour, but has been recommended by a few people as a great resort. So Monday morning we called Mangoes and were told that no, they did not have a slip for us. Meanwhile, Folly had gone to Man’O’War (MOW) Cay, a great hurricane hole and had found a mooring ball. Another boat from MBSC, Lynn and Pat on Adamant I, spends the winter at MOW. Harley and Janice gave us a phone number of a man who manages quite a few mooring balls and we were told that we could have one of his.  Hurray! So we quickly motored over to MOW (after cancelling Treasure Cay) and picked up a mooring ball right beside Folly and close to Adamant I. A MBSC reunion! Lynn invited us all for over for a ham dinner last night and we all had a great time catching up and meeting another MOW resident, Dan.

So here we sit, waiting out the front, with winds howling and rain pouring, having a quiet day on Trekker. 

After this passes, we hope to get a mooring ball in Hopetown, one of our favorite places from last year, and spend a few days (weeks?) there. We have to be in Marsh Harbour by April 5^th as Hugh is flying up to Kelowna for a meeting for a few days. Alyssa is flying down to keep me company while he is away, and then we will take her sailing for a few days.

Once she leaves, we will be heading for Florida to put Trekker away for another summer!

But we still have a few weeks to enjoy the Bahamas … one day at a time!

Showing Off the Exuma Cays

We have talked about living aboard the boat, the different challenges that we have, including limited water, power and cell coverage when we are off the dock and into the beautiful waters of the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park (ECLSP).  We get by on what we have purchased before leaving the U.S and by topping up on fresh food in some of the small towns.  Last year we were very lucky that our visits to the stores happened to be right after the delivery boat had been in, so there were lots of fresh fruits and vegetables available. Not so much this year.

We arrived in Staniel Cay Marina on Tuesday, a couple of days before our guests, Sue and Randy, arrived so we could get ready. Laundry, boat cleaning, fueling, filling water tanks and groceries were on the list. The delivery boat arrived Wednesday, instead of Tuesday as expected because it had apparently gotten stuck on a sandbar and needed to wait for high tide to get off. Once it was at the government dock the deck cargo of building supplies had to be unloaded before the fresh food below. The Bahamas waiting game I call it!

Sue and Randy arrived 9 am Thursday morning on Flamingo Air, a 14 seater plane that they could not even stand up in. The flight came in from Nassau, along with three other flights, all landing one after another. When they deplaned, they went to get their luggage, only to find one of their bags was on another plane that had landed right after them!

Flamingo Air

With baggage in hand, we started walking back to the boat, stopping in two of the three food stores, only to find nothing fresh on the shelf and a promise that it would be there in the afternoon.  Our plan was to leave right away and sail up to Warderick Wells in the ECLSP, and that was about a four hour sail. So, we could either wait for food, and go up the next day, or leave with the few things I had on board and make do.  I was able to get a cauliflower, some pears and a couple of yellow peppers, as well as a loaf of Bahamian coconut bread. So we decided to be on our way and as Hugh says, we never starve on the boat.

We had a beautiful sail up to Warderick Wells, and arrived mid-afternoon and picked up our assigned mooring ball. One of the best things about having Sue and Randy on board was watching their reactions to the incredible views as we motored into the mooring field. Warderick Wells north mooring field is one of our favorite places and we were very excited to share it with them.

Trekker (closest boat) at Warderick Wells

We spent three nights, hiking, snorkeling, swimming and just relaxing on the boat and watching for eagle rays and turtles to swim by the boat. One of the spotted eagle rays actually jumped out of the water right beside us! Spectacular! We also walked up to BooBoo Hill to make a new offering to Neptune. And Sue found our offering from last year, it was still there!

2019 offering to Neptune on Boo Boo Hill

Saturday nights the ECLSP host Happy Hour on the beach, and all the boats in the anchorage gather together with the staff of the ECLSP to share stories, appetizers and libations. Always a fun time to meet other cruisers (a lot with their plus 2s = guests) and compare notes!

Warderick Wells beach

Sunday we motored down to Cambridge Cay, also part of the ECLSP, and sat on a mooring ball for two nights. It’s another great spot, with amazing snorkeling, hiking  and beaches. When we arrived there was already one megayatch on one of three balls designated for large boats up to 150 feet long. As we sat and ate lunch, another one arrived, and it was great entertainment to watch it pick up the mooring ball.  Just before dusk, another one entered the anchorage and took up the third ball. This is the first time we have seen three mega yachts in one anchorage, and needless to say we felt pretty small beside them!

Trekker surrounded by mega yachts

The ECLSP host boat, who stay at Cambridge Cay, for a month to be the representative for the Park, collect fees and make sure everyone behaves, arranged another happy hour Sunday night, and everyone gathered to watch a beautiful sunset.

Cambridge Cay sunset

We had a great couple of days exploring the area, including a whole morning visiting four different snorkel spots, including one Hugh and I had never been to. The weather was amazing, and with calm winds we were able to see places you can only get to when it’s calm.

Sue and Karen

Reluctantly we brought them back to Staniel Cay for their flight back to Nassau, where they are staying with Randy’s cousin for another week. They were wonderful guests, willing to do anything we suggested, and embraced our cruiser lifestyle with no questions. They got very good at showering on the swim platform too!

And we didn’t starve!!

Karen, Sue, Randy and Hugh

We are now sitting in Black Point, starting our journey south towards George Town, where we will decide our route back north. It sounds crazy, but we are half way through!

And so the adventure continues, one day at a time!

Exploring the Berrys and Nassau

On our final day at Great Harbour Cay we decided to go for a dinghy ride and explore some of the island. There is a creek not too far from the marina that goes right across the island, and the brochure from the marina said to go at high tide. So with Fred in the lead again, off we went, but before high tide, thinking that we would get there as the tide would be going up and we would be fine. We found the bay where the Shark Creek started, and headed in, only to find that is was really shallow, and we were stuck! The water was only inches deep so Hugh quickly lifted the engine up before it got too stuck in the mud. Hugh got out of the boat to push us out of the shallow, and immediately sunk up to his thigh in muck. So back in the boat, the oars came out and he slowly rowed us back into deeper water. I guess they really meant it when they said high tide.  Another “Misadventure with Fred”.

With the weather calming down, we decided to leave Great Harbour Cay Marina and take a couple of days to explore the Southern Berry Islands. They are mostly deserted and have a few protected anchorages that you can tuck into for a night, as long as the weather is right. A few other boats had the same idea, so we all left Sunday morning heading up over the top of Great Harbour Cay and past Great and Little Stirrup Cays. These two islands are owned by Norwegian and Royal Caribbean cruises respectively and have little villages for the passengers to spend a day at. There were two huge cruise ships anchored there that day, which we sailed past.

The first night we decided to go to Soldier Cay, which is a little island at the top of the southern chain. We anchored off a little sandy beach with no one in sight, and went for our first chunky dunk in the Bahamas! The wind direction was not as we had hoped, so it was a little bumpy, but all in all pretty awesome!

Imagine the dock is our swim platform ... 

Soldier Cay

The next morning we decided we would move further south down the chain so that the passage to Nassau would be a little shorter. We had originally decided that the next stop would be White Cay, but we noticed that a few of the boats from the marina had gone there. So as we sailed by, we counted five masts, and kept going further to Alders Cay. Again we found a lovely little bay, with no one around. There was a house on the island around the point, but it looked like no one was there. We were very excited and pleased with ourselves that we were alone again, until we looked behind, and there was another boat coming in. Darn!  We toured around the bay in the dinghy, and since it was a privately owned island, did not go to shore. We had a lovely quiet night, and the stars were unbelievable.

Trekker anchored off Alders Cay

Nassau was our destination for the next day, so we set off fairly early and had a wonderful sail over. We came across Nassau Harbour with little trouble, including going under the two 69 foot bridges (lots of room!). 

Atlantis viewed from Nassau Harbour

We are docked in Nassau Harbour Club Marina and have been here a few days now. We have had a slight delay here because while we were getting ready to anchor the first day in the Berrys, our remote control for the anchor windlass (the thing that brings it up and down) broke. So we ordered one from Florida and had it shipped “overnight” by UPS.  However, just because it got to Nassau overnight doesn’t mean we get it overnight. Two days later, it is still sitting in customs, with a possible date of arrival of next Tuesday (its Friday today). Sigh…..

However, one of the good things was meeting up again with Blue Train, who are also in the marina, so yesterday we had an adventure day, and took a local bus into downtown, then onto another bus to Compass Point, which is quite a ways across the island. We had a wonderful lunch right beside the water, and as we were walking around the resort before leaving we realized we had been at the same restaurant with the CCDC group in 2010. Great Memories of a fun trip!

Lunch with Julie and Mike at Compass Cay

So today Hugh found a marine electronic repair shop where they fixed the old remote. So now we can leave tomorrow and have our friends, who are stopping in Nassau on their way to visit us, pick up the new one and bring it with them.

And so the adventure continues ... one day at a time.