On January 1st we left St. Augustine and traveled
offshore to Ponce Inlet and were secure in our slip at the New Smyrna Beach
City Marina. A quick hello to our friends on Salty Dog and a pleasant evening
onboard. Will have to remember that the
sand in the channel has shifted around red marker 34 and it’s best to stay more
to the east next time! The next morning
we were off to the Cocoa Village Marina where we stayed for two days waiting
for the wind to abate. We like Cocoa
Village. There are a few neat shops and restaurants there so it wasn’t a bad
place to have to lay up. On the 4th we set our sails for Vero Beach
and tried the City Marina there, as we hadn’t been before and we would be
spending a week so we thought it would be closer to shopping, etc. It was nice
to be able to walk to the beachfront and main village. We had a great lunch at a
restaurant on the beach. As far as the
marina goes, it’s just ok. We saw many feathered friends along the way.
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| Dolphins alongside, always a good sign! |
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| Southward bound |
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| Out on a limb... |
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| American white pelicans |
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| Osprey |
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| Blue Heron |
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| Taking a snooze |
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| Empty nesters? |
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| Haulover Canal Bridge. Weekend fishermen line the canal. |
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| Local visitor |
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| Uncommon sight on the ICW |
We left the next morning and arrived at the Mariner Cay
Marina in Stuart, located in Manatee Pocket around 2:45, fueled up and stayed
on the fuel dock overnight. I made reservations at Soverel Harbor Marina in N.
Palm Beach for almost two weeks and was glad I did. It was a great place and we
felt comfortable there. Jeff had to leave on business from the 16th –
19th. The day after he returned we flew to CT to surprise my mom on
her 90th birthday. We stayed with my brother and sister-in-law in
their home. Brian and Ama drove in from NY and spent one evening. My uncle,
cousin and his wife drove in from PA. All in all, it was a perfect celebration.
Wow, 90 years old and my uncle is 93! Way to go guys!
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| My brother Don, sister Sue and cousin Tucker |
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| Uncle Bob |
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| Mom and my son Brian |
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| My sister-in-law Karen served up a feast worthy of a photo |
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| Ama and Ridley |
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| Mom, looking great at 90! |
We hopped a flight on the 23rd back to Palm Beach
and the next morning our friend Kevin Oliver flew in from Maine. A day later we were off the dock at 6:55 and under the PGA Blvd Bridge at 7:00. We
were officially on our way to the Bahamas. The crossing was smooth and at 4:15
we cleared customs at Old Bahama Bay in West End, in Grand Bahama.
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| West End sunset |
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| Dolphin escorts on the way to Lucaya |
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| Soaking up the sun (Kevin's position is eerily similar to two years ago!) |
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| Great sailing weather! |
Next stop, Port Lucaya Marina in Freeport, which has lots of bars, restaurants and shops because cruise ship passengers are shuttled there to scout for souvenirs. We weren’t lacking for anything to do... We had a great dinner at Agave that evening. A young local fisherman was selling lobster tails, which we couldn’t resist, and had them for dinner the next night. We had the boat bottom cleaned by his brother!
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| Dinner at Agave |
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| Look close! |
Onward the next morning to Great Harbour Cay in the Berry Islands, an 8 ½ hour trip. We were dragging a fishing line and managed to catch a small mahi that supplied us with dinner for the night. Once we arrived at Great Harbour, Amico met us at the dock (it’s fun when the dockhands remember us!) and one of the locals took Jeff and Kevin to the local store for beer. Such friendly folks. The weather kept us at Great Harbour for two more days. It was actually quite chilly!
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| Goodbye Port Lucaya |
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| Red sky at night in Great Harbor |
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| Anchored off of the cruise line's private island, Little Stirrup Cay |
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| Dinner! |
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| Carriearl for Sunday brunch |
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| Can't beat the beaches |
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| Fishing for lunch |
On the 31st we were off the dock early and headed to the Royal Island Anchorage, a great place to anchor for the evening. It’s very protected and there are some ruins to explore. While climbing the steps, I stopped dead in my tracks… a snake stopped dead in his tracks too while crossing in front of me. We both stared at each other for a minute... Funny, how we’re both afraid of each other. A little shooing and he slithered off the steps and into the underbrush. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a snake over here before. Needless to say, we all kept our eyes open. I made Jeff lead from then on! Can’t believe it’s February already.
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| Royal Island Anchorage |
After exploring the ruins, we pulled up anchor and traveled
the short distance (1 ½ hrs) to Spanish Wells and took one of Bandit’s moorings
as we have in the past. We enjoyed lunch at Shipwreck, a relatively new
restaurant we like and then rented a golf cart to grab some groceries, fill the
propane tank and show Kevin some of the sights in Spanish Wells. Before returning the cart, we stopped at the Sand Bar for a cool one. Every year the young girl who owns it (a local Bahamian) has added something new. Hammocks, tables & chairs, a covered area and next on her list is to expand the kitchen. After stopping there we took the dinghy back to the boat and had dinner onboard.
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| Lunch at the Shipwreck |
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| Happy goat. What a smile! |
Bandit is a local boat pilot and many use his services to
travel the Devil’s Backbone to Harbour Island. Although we’ve done it several
times before by ourselves, Jeff decided to hire him this year. We heard many
interesting stories from him about the island on the way over including all the
local political gossip. He’s quite the character. He brought us a loaf of
homemade Bahamian bread, the absolute best.The trip took an hour and a half and by 12:20 we were in a
slip at Romora Bay, a favorite marina of ours. Rodney, another familiar face helped with our
dock lines and brought us each a complimentary goombay smash. Always a nice plus and quite refreshing! The
marina wasn’t very full and Valentines, the usually busy marina next door was
rather empty as well. I guess the fishing and tourist season hasn’t quite arrived. Usually
there are lots of 100'+ yachts docked there. We stayed at the marina for
two days, then fueled up at Valentines and sailed to Man Island, the next
island over and one of my favorite places to anchor.
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| The dogs know who'll be their best friend... Lunch at Coral Sands for the best pizza in the Bahamas |
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| No words needed |
Man Island has great beaches and is uninhabited making it a great place to explore. And that we did. We took Kevin to our favorite sea glass beach, and hiked until we couldn’t any more. We collected shells and other treasures and even tried to catch some trigger fish from the dinghy on the incoming tide. No luck there unfortunately. There were once again a couple of Remora fish hanging out under the boat waiting for handouts. They love food scraps and especially love bread and it’s fun to have “pets” while we’re there.
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| Remora, sometimes called sucker fish, for obvious reasons |
The next morning we took off in the dinghy to explore the other end of the island where the beach is beautiful and a sandbar goes on forever. It’s by far one of the best places to experience. We played with conch, Jeff found an octopus and there were rays, a nurse shark and fish hanging around. When Jeff put the octopus back in the water, he let out some ink with a whoosh sound and took off at lightning speed. It was almost impossible to leave this magic place but we managed…
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| Amazing beach and sandbar |
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| Jeff caught an octopus... |
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| ...who didn't want to leave |
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| Playing with the local conch |
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| Kevin, the conch whisperer |
Back on board that afternoon we headed back to Romora Bay Marina to get settled in and secure our place to watch the super bowl. Wow – what an amazing game. We actually left when it looked like there was no way the Patriots could win and listened to it on the boat. Incredible. We reconnected with a boat captain we had met on our dock at Camachee Cove in St. Augustine. Jeff thought he looked familiar and sure enough, he was. Small world. He volunteered to take us to N. Eleuthera (a short hop across from Harbour Island) the next morning to the ferry dock where we took a taxi with Kevin to the airport. Just amazing how quickly the time goes. Jeff and I rode the ferry back and watched his flight pass overhead from EXILE.
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| Superbowl Sunday at Romora Bay |
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| Our private ride to Eleuthera |
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| Kevin's on his way home |
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| The North Eleuthera airport |
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| In he goes |
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| Over he goes |
Jeff and I left the next morning, Feb. 7th, for
Rainbow Cay in Eleuthera, then on to Rock Sound where we could reprovision and
move on the next morning. After getting
supplies, we left for Cape Eleuthera, another of our favorites. We stayed until
the 12th after trying out the new restaurant, beachcombing all the
beaches we could find and taking a golf cart through the “trails” which
actually were roads that were built in anticipation of building a golf
community which never happened, and taking the dinghy through the canal. We
tried fishing there but were unsuccessful once again, although the birds we
spotted were apparently snuggling in for the night. There were many!
Terrific Nancy !.......the pics are all great and getting the boyz to pose looks like they enjoy doing it......great grins
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