Bahama Time

We have been exploring the islands. Blackpoint was such a great community. Lorraine’s Cafe is the place to be. She is also a very nice lady. Scorpio’s bar has happy hour at 4 and internet. Can’t beat that combo. Sadly we didn’t take any pictures while we were in Blackpoint. On Wednesday July 22, we left Blackpoint to go to Safe Harbor on Cave Cay, since there was a storm brewing over Hispanola. We are waiting it out here and have confidence that this is the safest place that we can be right now. It is a SUPER nice place and the owner is super nice too. He is from Lubbock Texas. We are not sure how long we will be here, until the storm is clear and the seas calm down.

The club house. Not yet finished indoors but has a great porch.

All the other slips are empty right now.

  Exploring on the island.

 

Not much else to report here. Just lazy days in paradise.

July 14th

We are enjoying ourselves here in the Bahamas. I don’t know when we will next have internet but I wanted to write a few of the things that we have done and seen. We are currently anchored outside of Highbourn Cay. The plan is to next go to BooBoo Hill, where there is supposed to be a hill full of drift wood with boat names on them. I had heard of this place from another blogger and told Ryan that if we were in the area it is a place that I would like to go.

I found this piece of wood, literally drifting, in Key West. I thought it was a good piece although it is not technically drift wood, it is perfect for the job. I carved our boat name into it and now I’m ready to see Boohoo Hill!

I have seen in others blogs where they post prices of things in the grocery store. I found this information useful in stocking the boat before we left, as well as interesting. Although I have been reading about it for some time now it is still shocking to see the prices. A can of spaghetti O’s $2.75, a loaf of bread $4.00-$5.00, a case of Bud Light $47.92 (Yes you read that right), the local beer Kalik goes for a bargain at $42.75 a case, a Coke goes for about $1.00 a can didn’t see cases available and my favorite was the Rum $8.15 (Of course I had to get some of that to stock the cabinets with-Looks like Ryan will be switching drinks.)

The water here only gets better. We are currently anchored in a little over 10’ of water and can see our anchor and chain on the bottom. Beautiful! We went snorkeling the other day and we had fun playing in the water. We have seen Sting rays, starfish, Conch, and numerous tropical fish.

This is what Conch look like. They taste like calamari, and yes Ryan is allergic to them too, so they are a type of shell fish.

Ryan has been fishing/trolling and has only been able to land one of them. The fight took him a little over 30 minutes. He has snagged other fish but they have been able to get away during the fight, most taking the lure with them. He has been quickly dwindling the lure supply since Carrabelle. Before to long he is going to have to get in there and grab them by hand. :) Sis is soo funny to watch when Ryan has a fish on the line. She sits and watches, whines and paces, and sits and cries until he gets the fish on the boat. We are going to have to get some video of her. It is too cute.

Watching Ryan fish is a popular pastime here.

A Barracuda Ryan caught. He wanted his lure back. Does anyone know…Can you eat them?! We didn’t know so we didn’t try.

A small throw back fish.

I was looking over our last few post and see that I have not posted any of the pictures that I took of the Fourth in Miami. So here are a few of the better ones (Most didn’t turn out due to the boat/me moving or not knowing where there fireworks were). The show was everything that I thought it would be and more! We had a 360 degree Fireworks show. I think it was something like 5 major city shows, 3 or 4 big shows that were either professional or people had a lot of money to burn, and several small personal fireworks displays. It was such a perfect spot.

Miami sky line

 

We were this close.

Let the show begin

(Sorry I deleted the album because it would not download.) ~Jen

Can’t think of much else. To date we have traveled approximately 1624.4  miles.

July 16th

We are currently in Staniel Cay Harbor we left Warderick Wells about 11 today and made the 24.9 nm trip with no major problems. We are currently anchored just outside the marina, because unfortunately there are no empty slips at this time. Lucky for us we have plenty of water and power. We are just lacking internet. So tomorrow we will head into town and spend the day. While we are there we are going to get directions to Thunderball Cave. It is the cave in the James Bond Movie “Thunderball”. We have heard that it is near here and that we can swim it.

On July 15th we hiked BooBoo Hill and left our driftwood for good luck. After reading the signs and learning more about Warderick Wells it is a neat spot to see.

When you first get there the first thing you see is the beautiful water and white sandy beaches.

The next thing you notice is a big whale skeleton. It’s size is impressive, it’s backbone is over my head -I guess the ribs to be about 6’ maybe more.

Sadly the whale died from choking on a plastic bag in ‘96.

That is BooBoo Hill in the background. And Ryan and I getting ready for our hike.

Marilyn working at the office.

  On the hike up to BooBoo Hill I took a couple pictures of Sandy Dreams and Sis. Since it is a nature preserve dogs aren’t allowed on the trails. She was VERY unhappy to be left behind.

 

   BooBoo Hill

You bring a piece of driftwood up with your boat’s name on it as an offering to the spirits for good weather and to placate the ghost’s of sailors that were lost at sea and that now inhabit the island. If you listen at night you can hear them singing hymns.

Sandy Dreams and our sign

While we were looking through the names we thought of some of you.

Hopefully I will get some cool pictures tomorrow at the cave.

Andros Island

We are in Lighthouse Marina at Freshcreek. The water here is so clear that on the way in I could see the bottom perfectly (at 46’). Unfortunately I was busy getting the boat in and getting lines ready to dock that I didn’t get any pictures. But I do have pictures of the blue, BLUE water on the way over. It is all so pretty here, that instead of a blog with lots of words I am just going to post a few pictures and go out and explore. We are doing good here. Hope the same goes for you.

Trying to get a picture of the bottom. It looks like a swimming pool.

No bottom here the water is over 2,000’ deep!

  The water really was this blue. It looked like paint.

Bimini Bahama

We are in the Bahamas!

We arrived at our dock in Alice Town at 4:30 pm July 5th. It was a rainy but uneventful trip. Everything went well with both the boat and the crew. We are excited to be here and had no problems clearing customs. We had been worried about Sis and her paperwork, but they hardly even looked at it.

My first passport stamp!

Not much else to report. From here on out internet will be iffy. We will answer emails and send out updates when we can.