Monthly Archives: January 2014

Wednesday was nearly windless so we went about our daily routine while we motored the 40 miles back to Shroud Cay. The surface of the water was like glass and we could count the starfish as we passed by.

That’s all we saw out there until the area of the Yellow Bank.

Here the sand is speckled with coral heads. So, out of curiosity, we anchored out there in the middle of nowhere and checked out the coral. It was certainly the best snorkeling we’ve encountered so far.

The bottom was white sand with little coral heads one to four feet high. Each a home to several schools of different types of tropical fish. A nice assortment of sizes and colors.

One coral head caught Roy’s attention, the lobster hole.

Eric found it and shot us the lobster sign using his fingers for antennas.

Roy took a couple of cracks at it and then I puffed up my expert lobster hunting chest and went in for the kill. Hey, I missed it, then I missed it again, then the poor thing woozie from the spear wandered out to where Roy could pick it up. How could this be, my pride was deflated.

Come to find out he had just molted and his shell was about as thick as a ziplock baggie so it’s soft body wouldn’t stick to the spear.

Oh well, in the end we got two bugs for lunch, yummy.

Here Marie is demonstrating our water saving dish washing methods while sporting a light weight cape which flows in the breeze.

We had a nice day yesterday (starting where we left off) on the river loop.

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Shroud Cay is the northern end of the Land and Sea Park established in 1958. These rivers are mostly cuts through the island lined with mangroves.

It’s all salt water moving back and forth from the eastern Atlantic side to the western Bahama Bank side.

We started at the south entrance with the Hobie Cat, sailed it a little but mostly walked it or dragged it across low tide sand covered by 6″ of water.

The water was super warm and clear. Along the way we saw needle fish rising up in the air and skimming along the surface at a 45 degree angle, little puffer fish looking things and nurse sharks between one and three feet long.

At the end we played and played in the waves on the east side of the island. Since the wind turned around from the south last weekend everything got warm. Around 4:30 we sailed the hobie back through the north river.

This is actually our 3rd time up the river.  Last time the kids and I took the trip to get out of Eric’s hair while he diagnosed the generator problem, and the first time up was last week in the dinghy.

We always meet nice people at the beach.  Yesterday we met a family on vacation from Quebec.  They were heading back to the great white north the next day with the dream to take an adventure in the islands in their future.

Here we are at Camp Driftwood where the U.S. drug enforcement officials posted themselves keep an eye on Carlos’ operations on Norman Cay before the raid in 1982.

As always Genny has fun with the camera.

Sunday morning Eric was filling a few scuba tanks and making water when he commented on an electrical smell coming from my sewing machine. I said the old one made that smell but not the new one. A few minutes later the generator shut down. After scrounging around he found that the rotor melted down. We did this all last winter but I think that this year the hot water heaters he fixed over the summer were on as well. Whoa, bummer. We need the generator to make water. So, Monday morning we made the half day trip up to Nassau and pulled up to a dock by 2pm with plenty of time to get chores done.

The north side of the harbor is Paradise Island full of gated communities, resorts and the famous Atlantis resort.  A house with a dock is taken to a whole new level when you see these places.

In 24 hours Eric learned it would take at least a month to get the extremely expensive part. So, with it on order he bought a gasoline generator that we can get by with until then. This generator doesn’t have nearly the power of our other one, our water making output has dropped from 50 gal/hr to 10 gal/hr. It’s loud, requires gasoline instead of the diesel in our tanks, the size of a big ottoman and in the middle of the cockpit.

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But we’ll have water which either isn’t available or costs 30-50 cents a gallon. Poor Eric was over the top stressed.

The kids and I manage to get rid of 3 weeks of trash, 5 loads of laundry including clean sheets and towels, and buy a Hawiian Sling for lobster hunting. We stocked up on triple the price groceries after hiking to the market through treacherous traffic, solicitors and creole cussers on the street corners. We got bag apples for $8, single apples were $1.50 a piece. Cheap white bread is $4/loaf and milk $8/gallon. We concentrated on produce, splurging on strawberries and watermelon. We filled everything we have that holds water and came up with a water conservation plan.  Solar showers use far less water than the the pressure pump squirting it out of our tanks.  So, I have a solar shower bag on the kitchen counter for dish and hand washing and we have a salt water sprayer for prewashing dishes.  The other shower will go in the back for our evening showers.  If we all stand in a bucket when we shower we can use the grey water to rinse the cockpit or maybe rinse Topaz with.

All in all, things are much less stressed at the anchorage where we’re not hemorrhaging money, we’re back at rose island anchorage for the night, we’ll head back down to the Cays at first light.

When I dropped the anchor Tuesday evening it still had sand on it from Shroud Cay from Monday morning. It was hard to believe we were only in Nassau one day. Sent from my iPhone

We’ve spent the last week at Norman’s Cay.  This island became famous between 1978 and 1982 when Carlos Lehder controlled it for drug smuggling.  He built an airstrip to refuel planes moving cocaine from Colombia to the United States while the Bahamian government looked the other way.  In 1982 the U.S. shut down his operation and eventually imprisoned him. Today the deeper water on the south side of the island is full of U.S. and Canadian boats.

We enjoyed a tiny island with one palm tree.   I could walk around the whole island in about 5 minutes. The west side of the island had a little beach and sand bar and the east side is mostly volcanic rock.  Genny and Marie scoured the island looking for building materials and made their camp.

They whipped up a little salad in half a coconut shell.

Topaz enjoyed a little roll in the sand.  Nothing better than getting sand right down to the skin, in your ears and eyes and up your nose.

Genny had been watching charter boat guests wake boarding and started craving her favorite thrill ride.  Since we’re not exactly sure where we’ll be able to get more dinghy fuel she decided scurfing behind the Hobie would provide a bit of thrill and conserve fuel.

Eventually she did get her time on the wakeboard.

The bottom of the whole bay is mostly sand with some grass.  This isn’t necessarily an environment the tropical fish flourish in, so the snorkeling can be a bit boring. So, its a treat to see a reef. The highlight of the bay is a drug plane that didn’t make the runway. I haven’t found any details on this wreck, a Curtis C-46 Commando, but I’m guessing it’s been there for about 30 years.

Coral is growing in little patches here and there.

Fish have made the fuselage their home.

Under the wing was a hide-hole for these giant dinner plate sized angel fish.

The sergeant majors really got in my face.  It was hard to take their picture because they were getting so close.

It is nice to see something that represents a disastrous time in history become a beautiful reef home for underwater wild life.

The picture below is a giant ray buried in the sand.

The other activity we enjoyed each afternoon is walking on the sand bars at low tide.

Low tide came in the late afternoon while we were here.  By then everyone was ready to run in the sand.

Many acres of beach appeared as the water receded and still more area could be explored with water ankle to knee deep.

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The sand is soft, white and clean and the beaches are empty except for another boater out for a walk here or there.

We waded out toward the east until the water was chest deep and then walked up onto another sand bar.

The water is clearer than most swimming pools.

Back in among the low tide sand bars there are occasional pools and streams.

The girls spotted a hidden mickey made by some little clam or crab thing.

Walking back to the dinghy we had to watch where we stepped to miss the star fish.  Eric spotted a tiny octopus but the picture didn’t come out very well because of his advanced camouflage abilities.

We noted that, yes, Eric and I both work very hard to maintain the boat, but his work goes largely unnoticed. I waxed the hull to a mirror like shine, made all kinds of beautiful and comfortable canvas and cushion items, painted the cockpit table and toilet seats.  Things used and admired daily.

Eric on the other hand does things that keep the boat mechanically sound like replacing fuel tanks, adding watermaker membranes, changing fluids and on this day he greased the propellers. .

Marie was his helper she passed him grease, bolts, and tools. While he was down there using the hookah, (100 feet of hose attaching the scuba tank to the regulator), he took some pictures of this weird situation with the current. Normally, the anchor digs into the sand, we always use at least 100 feet of chain and then down wind of the anchor Makai floats and tugs on the ground tackle.   In this anchorage the tidal current is so strong that the struggle between the wind and the current had Makai floating above the anchor with the chain somewhere in the area laying on the ground.

Here Marie, Eric’s prop greasing assistant, is snorkeling along the side of Makai and the anchor chain is squiggled up under the boat.

Another project is Makai’s bottom.  When Eric launched the boat one year ago he put fresh red bottom paint on it.  Over the winter we would inspect it for barnacles and scum.  Then we had an unfortunate run in with a shoal in Saint Martin where the sand scraped off the anti-fouling paint on the bottom of our keels.  Over the summer when the water was either too cold, too murky, or too full of jelly fish, we just ignored the bottom promising to take care of it in warmer waters. The result was a thick layer of scum which I started on at Rose Island, and a thick layer of barnacles that Eric scraped off the prop in Key Biscayne and barnacles on the keels that he took care of here in Norman’s Cay.  Next September Makai will be hauled and painted to protect the bottom from growth for another two years.

Even though the drug runners are gone, planes occasionally fly by.  I don’t think I’ve actually seen any land here but plenty of sea planes go by.

We moved to the east side of the island to get away from the tidal currents.  We’re the only boat anchored here and have enjoyed sailing the Hobie and playing on the beach.  If it could all just be 10 degrees warmer.  The 75 degree water has us wearing wet suits and the 70 degree night air has me in a sweatshirt, but the beauty it unparalleled. We still have plenty of food even though we’re coming up on 3 weeks since our last Florida grocery store.

The fresh produce situation is looking pretty grim, but most of the crew isn’t interested these items anyway.  Before we get scurvy we’ll have to go through a whole locker of tomato sauce, the bilges are filled with fruit juice, and there are several lockers of canned fruits and vegetables.

In a few minutes we’re heading to the next island Shroud Cay where the Exuma Cays land and Sea Park begins.

The chain of cays extending from just below New Providence Island containing Nassau is down to Exuma Island is known as the Exuma Cays.  There are hundreds of islands here ranging is size from a small rock to a sand bar and finally an island with an air strip or town.  We haven’t encountered the town yet.  Allan’s Cay has it’s own subspecies of Bahamian Rock Iguana.  Andros Island and Exuma Island are the home of other similiar species. This species is vulnerable  but not yet endangered.

They have become habituated by visitors to the beaches who offer food.  When we came ashore in the dinghy they came out to greet us.  Topaz had to stay home, we really didn’t want to know how she would react to these lizards.

Allan’s Cay anchorage let in swells from the north, didn’t have many beaches and because we didn’t want to disturb the iguanas, we didn’t stay long.  The Mermaids had a good time, and we hosted our first sundowner since the Virgin Islands last April.

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It has now been a week and a half since our last trip to Walmart, so the bread cookbook came out.  Everytime I get the book out I start with the basic white bread recipe and everytime, it flops.  Then I always move on to the swiss egg recipe and it always turns out great.  When will I learn to just start there?

Our time in Bimini was a great way to transfer us back to cruising.  The water was gorgeous and the boaters all had the same conversations over weather, anchorages and boat equipment. Saturday and Sunday the little marina filled up, all the people got their Bahamas SIM cards for phones and iPads on Monday, then we all left on Tuesday to cross the Great Bahama Bank. The bank is extremely shallow but the charts have commonly used paths or channels marked for safe passage. Half of the fleet took a more northern route and the rest of us went south of Bimini passing the Sapona Wreck.

The Sapona is a concrete steamer ship that lived many lives since its launch in 1920.   It was used for oil storage, liquor storage during Prohibition, destroyed during a hurricane in 1926, and used for bombing practice during WWII. We planned to snorkel here but the water was a bit choppy so we just took pictures and kept going.

The rest of the day was spent crossing the Great Bahama Bank, over 60nm.  The seas were calm, the wind was steady out of the south, and shallow water was crystal clear and a beautiful aqua blue color.

We knew this bank was going to be shallow (2.8 feet below our keel), but as you can see on our depth/speed instrument below, it was very shallow.  Never before had we skimmed the surface of such shallow water at these speeds.

Our sails made a shadow of Makai on the water.

If there’s one thing you CAN’T count on in the Atlantic ocean is a consistent direction for the wind.  Last spring we entered the Gulf Stream just above Bimini and enjoyed a wind out of the South driving us as far north as Rhode Island.  In July a weather system blew through providing us with wind out of the north to blow us back to Delaware.  This fall’s storms provided us with plenty of north wind to move us to Florida and after waiting just a few days we had a favorable south wind to cross back over the gulf stream to the Bahamas. It seems that every other week the wind comes from the opposite direction.

Now a big wind out of the North is predicted and we had to find a suitable anchorage.  Most of the boats we traveled with went to Marinas in Nassau, but we headed over to Rose Island and found an anchorage with good protection from the north wind.

Over the two days anchored here we only saw one person at the resort on the hill, a few boats anchored here on our last night, and a couple if lobster fishermen came by and sold us our dinner.

This sea monster wow’d us all into buying it.  Roy and I ate the legs like Alaskan King Crab legs, and over the next few days finished off the tail with cheese and crackers.

But, alas, the winter storms freezing the north eastern states and dumping truck loads of snow, managed to extend its fingers down to us in the Bahamas.  We still have our winter canvas up on Makai.  I never thought we would get this much use out of the canvas side curtains with windows, but we’re grateful for them now.  The outside temp gets down to around 70 degrees, which may seem mild to the people in New York, but we went to great lengths to be able to spend the winter wearing bathing suits. Luckily our enclosure blocks the wind and lets in the sun to warm up the cockpit.

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Quickly before we had to return to Makai, Roy took the camera and documented some of his underwater finds.  Lobster is his first quest. This guy is was too small, but it sparked his interest.

There were also a few little jelly fish looking things.

Here is an animal image in the water.  It reminds me a Topaz.

Don’t forget a selfie!

But now the rain has come and we have to go back to make sure Makai is safe.  It’s kind of funny that a bunch of swimmers would want to rush home to get out of the rain.

But I’m sure we left a few windows open and the wind and waves are bouncing Makai around.

A hot shower, nice dinner and beautiful moonrise is a great way to end the day.

Yes the kids were shocked that we could make it to the Bahamas in a day sail, but it was still a bumpy trip across from Florida.  Everyone was very hungry because crackers were the only food offered and requested all day.

The sandy beaches were a welcome sight. We’ve been dreaming about this moment for months.  Last May we stopped for a few hours just north of here so we could time our arrival into Fort Lauderdale.  Just as the sun was setting we anchored and could see 30 feet down to the sandy bottom.  It was incredible and had us thinking about returning for this season’s trip.

Because the dock master warned us about swimming off the boat, we hiked down a block and half a block to the west to the Beach.

Bimini is only about 50 miles east of Miami, FL and has three main islands, North, South and East Bimini.  We’re on North Bimini whose capital city is Alice Town.  This island is 7 miles long and 700 feet wide.  Walking down the road you quickly realize how close the beach is on either side.

In about 5 minutes we arrived at the beach on the west side of the island.  We had the whole place to ourselves.

Occasionally people would come and check out the waves, but for the most part we were the only ones splashing around on this beach.

Topaz, that crazy dog, took chasing her splashed to a whole new level.  I had to keep a tight hold on her rope because she was determined to track down and bite at every white cap from here to Miami.

Roy found perfect coconuts on the ground.  Last year this time he was climbing trees in Granada trying to hack coconuts down with his machete.  Picking them off the ground is a much easier method.

The first morning in the marina Roy and I got up early to check out the fishing.  If I weren’t just waking up, I could mistaken this sunrise for a sunset.

Roy found a favorite spot along the dock full of reef fish.  It was like fishing in an aquarium.

Throughout the day he must have caught dozens of Sargent Majors, squirrel fish, jacks, needle fish, angel fish, file fish.

Brown’s Marina is a pretty little marina with one dock and about 20 slips.  Except for two or three slips the rest are filled with people crossing from Florida.  We arrived in a nearly empty marina and the next day it was full.

At the top of the dock is a sandy area with lounges and beautiful patio furniture, BBQs, a BYOB tiki bar with a tv for football on the weekends and of course a bath house. Bougainvillea of many different colors cover the fence creating a wall of flowers separating the marina from the street.

Conchs are cemented into everything around here.  The posts of the marina gate display the pink of the inner shell.

Across the street is a wall with conchs cemented along the top.

One of our jobs here is to set up Bahamian communications. The BTC building is at the other end of town, so we got a nice tour.  According to the BTC coverage map we should have cellular service with data in most areas throughout the islands.  For $14 we bought a SIM card to fit into an unlocked iPhone 3 Eric bought before we left.  Due to a snafu with the phone that was later cleared up, we also bought one for the iPad.  Next for $40 (double what we paid in the U.S., but not outrageous) we add 2 GB of data usage and $20 for phone minutes.  This can be topped up when needed.  This summer we used our Sprint Phones as a hotspot and learned that 2 GB is more than enough for Eric’s work, emailing and googling, but NO streaming and limited up/down loading.  While here I also tested our Voxofon voice over IP account and managed to call my mother’s phone from my computer for 1.3 cents per minute.  So now we’re connected.

The best thing about taking care of business is we get to tour the town.  There are no supermarkets or fast food restaurants.  Eric picked up a gallon of fresh milk for $8, we can only hope that it was kept cold all the way to the store’s refrigerator.

Most buildings here are made of cement.  This one is missing a few things to make it comfortable, other than that the fireplace still stands.

Walking along the road during morning rush hour was dangerous.  Even though most people drive golf carts, there were a few full sized vehicles.  Two vans or trucks passing take up the entire width of the road.  On our walk we came across this very interesting little car.  I even spotted a Golden Retriever sticker in the window.

We stopped at the Bimini Big Game club to take a few pictures. A few of the famous visitors to this resort include Ernest Hemingway and Martin Luther King.

The Bahamas became a British Crown colony in 1718 when the British clamped down on piracy.  After the American Revolution many Loyalists along with their slaves settled here and over the years escaped slaves and black Seminoles Escaped to the islands from Florida.

We’re safely tucked In at Rose Key near Nassau and I have a quiet moment to finish up this post.

Back at the marina, the activity of the day is fishing fishing fishing.  I took care of some house work and Eric worked in the engine room, but the kids had fun.

Roy inspired several of the neighbors to fish off the dock. While Genny took pictures with the new camera testing out it’s many settings.

The ‘sports’ setting did a good job of Marie’s leap for joy as well as the earlier picture of Topaz biting at a wave.

Here is one of Roy’s elusive tarpon. Within 30 minutes of our arrival Roy was fishing and had hooked this guy.  This huge silver fish leaped out of the water, it’s scales illuminated in the sunlight made him look like fine jewelry hovering over the surface of the water. Roy was in heaven until the Tarpon’s sharp teeth bit through his line.  At least now Roy has a goal when his line is in the water.

Other fun fishing is never knowing what you are going to bring up.  It’s even more interesting when you can watch the fish take the bait.

On Roy’s lifetime fishing tally he has two Ramora, the last one he got at Peter Island in the British Virgin Islands.

In the afternoon several of the neighbors hovered at the end of the dock trying to catch the Bull Sharks we were cautioned to not swim with. They have underwater footage of these guys from a GoPro camera attached to a paddle.  Here’s a short video from our camera.

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Did I ever say I love my new camera?  Here’s a picture from the sand bar of Makai resting peacefully at the end of the dock.

Marie had been dying to swim since we arrived.  I promised her the sharks wouldn’t come over here. With her goggles on she can keep an eye out for them and went swimming.  I have to admit, I feel the same way.  Surfing or swimming in merky water is not for me, but scuba and snorkeling where I can see what might want to eat me is acceptable.

We met the kids on the boat next to us.  Their parents have cruised the world extensively but now have a business in Brazil that they have to tend to, so they keep their boat in different locations and join it for their 2 month summer vacation.  You know it’s summer in Brazil right now

Marie is my first underwater subject. The only complaint about the Olympus T2 is there is a common problem of condensation inside the camera.  I googled around and found plenty of complaints and no suggestions to resolve the problem.  Maybe I should just store it in a bag of rice or something.

The tide is coming back up and our island which was dry or only a few inches deep all the way to the trees is slowly disappearing.

I think Topaz agrees that sand bars are the best place to play.

We made it into Bimini, the closest Bahamian island to Florida. The kids were totally shocked when they asked how many nights would we be out and the answer was zero. Forty-five miles and into the Marina before dark. We zipped along at 7-8 knots with waves crashing over the bow and plenty of green crew, but no one remembers all that when they are celebrating. We arrived around 4pm, all salty and sweaty. The cockpit enclosure not only protects us from the weather but also boils us when its hot out.

Topaz jumped in and then we were all about to jump into the crystal clear water when the dock master fished us out because of sharks. GOOD GRIEF Charlie Brown, what’s up with that. I guess the fishing boats cleaning their catch attract resident sharks. While all that was happening, Roy had a “fish on” here at the dock. This huge silver thing jumped out of the water, I’m pretty sure it was a tarpon. Unfortunately, he was using a light rod and needed a wire leader line for teeth, but the thrill had him psyched the rest of the day.

Eric ran off to check us in with customs and immigration, then the crew was free to jump ship. Topaz the kids and I walked down a block and over a block to the beach on the west side of the island. The 80 degree crystal clear waves on the white sand beach made all the headaches, barfing, freezing cold night watches and chasing mold around the boat worth while. We only had a half hour or so before it was too dark to be out, but the beach was a great finish to the day.
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After everyone cleaned up and we got the boat rinsed off, we sat around an empty palapa tiki bar and ate hot ham sandwiches from one of our Winn Dixie spiral hams and watched “Castle” our new favorite detective drama show. The marina has great WiFi so tomorrow I’ll post some photos.

We’ll have to wait around until Monday so we can get our Bahamian communications card straightened out for continued hotspot wifi over the next few months.

Sent from my iPhone

Ok, this whole cruising thing is really one huge emotional roller coaster.  The desire I had to get OFF the boat, drive around in the van and buy things at Target in July has been equally matched by the desire to get ON the boat and away from the stores, away from cars, and return to the solitude of the family on Makai goofing off and living for the moment right now.  Finally, after some great times driving around the East Coast, visiting friends, family and historical landmarks, and also our holiday time in Florida, we’re back to cruising!

Monday morning the kids and I headed for Makai and the Aanonson’s headed for the Orlando Airport.  It was a sad time leaving our pals, but the beginning of a new cruising season.  Their grandparents, Mark and Sandy were wonderful hosts to take care of all of us for the week, loaning us their car for excursions here and there, trips up to the boat and back and even after everyone had left we had the car one more day to get Topaz’s Veterinarian certificates in order and Eric had to fix our propane system that failed right before we left.

Finally on January 7th, Marie’s 9th Birthday, we headed out to sea.  Poor thing had a special birthday dinner of crackers and water, her gifts included Dramamine and a bucket if needed and off we went for a wild ride.  The wind was strong but from the right direction and we made the trip to Biscayne Bay in 24 hours.

Once again our cockpit enclosure proved to be an asset.  I’ve never admired a new addition to the boat quite the way the side curtains with windows has struck me.   The sea spray, splashes, rain and wind bounce off the enclosure and we stay dry.  The last few days were frigid with some kind of a Polar Arctic Vortex stretching down to Florida, but being able to stay dry and out of the wind made a huge difference.

In the middle of the night the sea got bumpy, but the sea temp went up and we were bucking a current which is the tell tale sign that we were skimming along the edge of the Gulf Stream. The number one rule for the Gulf Stream is not to enter this strong current of warm water flowing north if there is a wind blowing to the south.  So, we headed toward the beach a bit and the sea calmed down, a favorable current gave us an extra knot or so and the trip continued scooting along at 7+ knots with the jib sail only. It was amazing that we were about 3 nm off the coast and had 3G cell service most of the trip.  With his connectivity we were able to monitor the location of the Gulf Stream using the NOAA weather website. This site tells us the approximate location of the Western Wall of the Gulf Stream so we can know how close to stay to the beach.  Last night it said the Gulf Stream is 3nm from shore so moved in to 1.5 nm and everything was great.  I’ll be really sad when I don’t have 3G anymore.

Outside of Miami was a tanker anchorage.  There must have been half a dozen or so of these guys coming, going or anchored.

Eventually the troops all woke up and started looking for breakfast.  Unfortunately, no one made them dinner the night before and no one was going to make breakfast.  But of course even though everyone was hungry, no one was interested in eating.  This is a great diet plan if anyone is interested.

Mid morning we turned the corner into Biscayne Bay.  I quickly put potatoes on to boil and my geezer glasses on to help Eric read the charts.  From the surface it looks like a wide open body of water, but the chart says other wise.  The marked channel has 7-10 feet of water under Makai’s keel and anything outside of the channel is 1 or 2 feet deep.  This is the way of the Keys and the Bahama Keys as well, good practice for the rest of the year.  This whole area, including the Bahamas, consists of underwater terrain that is the shallowest we’ve ever navigated surrounded by the deepest of the deep.  Just a half mile off of a several square mile bank of 20 feet of water and island keys is a 20,000 mile deep sea floor.  It’s just crazy.

Down the channel into the bay are houses built on stilts. These structures are part of Stiltsville  a community started in the 1930s.  Most structures were clubs serving boaters during prohibition and active until the 1970s when the lease was decided to terminate in 1999.  After hurricanes and neglect the structures remaining are the last of their kind.
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Now we’re here at anchor, we’ve picked up everything that fell on the floor, mopped up the seawater that dripped through this hatch or that hatch, washed dishes and fed all the hungry sailors.  Marie sequestered her self into her cabin and went to work on whatever she does in there.  It’s a crazy mess of clothes, stuffed animals, blankets, little petshops animals and trinkets. After awhile she came out with a gift bag and several birthday cards she made for her self.  Sniff Sniff, I’m a horrible mother.  She unwrapped each regifted package and surprised herself with items she found in her cabin.  I made cookies with leftover Christmas cookie dough, we all sang to her and everyone was happy.

Today we tried to get back to cruising life.  We all went for a swim, Eric got out the dive gear and checked on the hull and props.  The last time anyone saw the bottom of the boat was in July before we left it off in the marina in Maryland.  The water was full of jelly fish and he had full wet suit protection on with all of us watching for sea nettles drifting by.  After that the water was either to murky or too cold (46 degrees) to get in.  During those months, giant barnacles grew here and there and the poor propeller was full of them.  Makai had to work extra hard to move through the water with these crusty appendages growing on her skin.

The sky is cloundy and rainy, but it’s warm.  The girls had a great time being crazy Makai girls.  Miami is off in the background and we’re anchored in front of Biscayne Key, the first of the Florida Keys.

Topaz was once again a wild and crazy cruising pup.  She had fun barking, swimming, jumping, running back and forth and chasing stuff in the water.

Genny and Marie spent the day testing out my new camera’s settings. It takes great pictures.  Here the Sports setting shows clarity on a fast moving target.

Finally evening is here and I get to test out the camera’s night settings.

The weather looks good for sailing to Bimini on Saturday.  This Bahama island is only 45 miles from the coast of Florida but hopefully the weather will be better on the other side of the Gulf Stream.  I’m looking forward to clear water, white sand beaches and warm water.

Wow, it is 2014 and we celebrated the New Year with the Aanonson family.  Krista, Scott, Tyler and Cody our neighbors in Cypress, CA came to visit their grandparents in Palm Bay, FL and we managed to get Makai close enough to be able to spend the week at Mark and Sandy’s river house.

The anchorage at Port Canaveral is down a man made channel lined with cruise ships, under a draw bridge and through a lock.

We had a few errands to run like replacing a batten that shredded on our way down from North Carolina.

Krista spotted Marie’s braids and looked up some fancy braids on YouTube and Marie was a willing model.

Mark and Sandy opened their house up to their own Aanonson family of four, my family of five and Topaz and on New Year’s day my mom came down with JJ.

Krista spent the afternoon today putting together this great slideshow video.

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The backyard is a dock on the water with two boats.  The kids had a great time with critters, fishing, and boating.

Out on the Indian River there are a series of islands local boaters pull up to for picnics.
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Saturday was frigid cold so we went off to the Andretti Thrill Park which is an arcade on steroids.  Krista and entered armed with our cameras.  The Olympus T2 Tough underwater camera is the one Krista brought to the Virgin Islands which prompted us to buy one before we head to the Bahamas.

This park not only has an arcade but three great Go Cart tracks, a rock climbing wall, an inside laser tag room, and areal rope bridges. It was great fun for the adults as well.

The kids sat around playing with each other.  Krista got Genny a Rainbow Loom, the hottest toy of the year.

Roy and Tyler hogged the computers and playing Minecraft.

Sunday morning we all ate eggs and toast and watched church.

It was sure a great week, we’ll miss everyone but hope to be in the Bahamas in the next week.