2/19- Conch Prep on Potters Cay, Nassau


Maxwell making the Conch Salad


2/21 Heading for Little Farmer's Cay where we met Rob & Carol on Bella


We found J.R. busy carving - note his delicate tool - as we walked around Farmer's Cay, we and bought an OWL.


2/23 We visited the pig beach at Big Majors right after a mega-yacht had dumped LOTS of "slops" Note the 11 baby piglets at George's right elbow.

We've been here less than a week and have already seen TWO green flashes! This one was at Big Majors. We are now at Emerald Rock in the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park and snorkeled on some reefs yesterday where my camera ended up shipping some water, so no more underwater pix. This is the last image I "took"

~~~_/)~~~M&D, L&G

We all arrived safely in Nassau on Saturday and had finished our run-through of Grand Illusion by 5:30 pm. Spacious, yes, well equipped, no! It's much tougher to walk aboard a true BARE boat after being able to have everything including the kitchen sink right at your finger tips! Here it is Tuesday, we've met up with Rob and Carol, aboard their newly acquired Sabre 38 and had to beg for a "little bit of string". Can you imagine being aboard without even a little bit of string. Alright, nyah nyah nyah, enough complaining. WE ARE HERE and its great to be back. The weather has been very cooperative and after spending Sunday provisioning and doing a little adventuring around Nassau, we headed out early Monday morning.

Provisioning ....I know you all think we're experts at it, but starting from scratch was a daunting task and it took three different trips to different stores (City Market is under new management and is NOT what it used to be. The new Super Value is quite good, but far enough away that it required a taxi ride back each time. We did have one wonderful adventure at lunch on Sunday. We walked to Potter's Cay where one can get great Conch Salad. We were wandering around trying to decide which colorfully painted shack would produce the best Conch Salad when Roosevelt accosted us on the street and pulled me into The Blue Hole promising his was the best.

We succumbed and gathered along the bar. Roosevelt then took Lisa and me through the back door to watch him hammer a hole in the conch shell, cut out the muscle that holds it in place and peel off the tough skin.

We then went back to the bar to watch Maxwell (who miraculously had all his fingers) wield a machete like knife while chopping onions, tomatoes, green peppers, a miniscule amount of some red HOT pepper and then the fresh conch at lightning speeds. The final touch was to sprinkle it all with salt, lime juice and orange juice. We ware amazed how delicious and how spicy it was.

With the forecast promising NW and NE winds for the next two days we decided to head as far south as possible and spend the rest of the trip leisurely heading back up the Exuma chain. We pushed a bit on on Monday and made it to Hawksbill where we picked up a mooring and had a slightly rolly night but full of stars and a pleasant breeze. We didn't do any exploring as we wanted an early start to shoot all the way to Little Farmer's Cay today.

The day turned out to be one of those crackerjack days when everything goes beautifully. Perfect winds, calm waters and an easy close reach all the way to Farmer's . We were averaging between 7 and 8 knots and were very glad for the extra speed a 50 foot boat gives you. There are no wind aboard instruments, so can't tell you the exact direction or velocity, but 10-15 kts. seems about right.

We took a mooring about 5 minutes before Rob and Carol arrived and took one right behind us. It was fun to catch up with them and they had arranged for dinner ashore at Ocean Cabin for the best lobster dinner, and definitely the best price in the islands. The plan is to go ashore tomorrow morning and use the wi-fi at Ocean Cabin to send this.....~~~_/)~~~M&D .....no wi fi at Ocean Cabin and lousy signal here at Emerald Rock(on Friday), so pix will have to wait. We've had great sails, good snorkeling and lots of fun so far.

We are here!

We all arrived at Grand Illusion yesterday afternoon, had the run though of all systems and still made it to the liquor store before it closed. We're at Starbucks for breakfast and wifi before heading to.......THE GROCERY STORE. Some things never change.

Brunelle's crew hits the Bahamas WITHOUT her!

It's hard to watch all the leaves fall from the trees, the ground turn brown and freeze and the temperatures drop after a winter like last year, but that's what Dan and I did. We decided to venture off only every other year to our favorite Bahamian haunts, so this was a stay at home year ....BUT Lisa and George Thuman (fellow CCYC sailors) came up with a plan to charter in the Bahamas, and luckily their plan included seasoned Bahamian cruisers - - - US. It seemed easier to do it this way this year instead of facing the ICW ONE MORE TIME!

As you might have gathered from the above picture, we have a new addition to our home. We commissioned Jen Wagner, an Eastern Shore (that's Maryland speak) mosaic artist to come and create a picture . She spent three weekends, and besides forming a strong friendship we are now the proud owner of a Jen Wagner original:

We have a 12 day charter arranged aboard a Beneteau 505 called Grand Illusion and although we are looking forward to the trip, we have NO grand illusions about trying to compare a Beneteau to our beloved Catalinas! It won't stop us from enjoying the adventure. George and Lisa fly out separately, arrive first and I'm sure will have everything under control by the time we arrive (sometime after 3 pm.) Our biggest fear was that we'd miss the liquor store (which isn't open on Sundays), but Dan spent his Skype pennies wisely and called them - - they are open until 8 PM, so we breathed a sigh of relief.

We will post as often as we are able and are sorry to miss the CCYC wine tasting next weekend. Somehow I don't think we'll be hurting TOO much anyways! Wish us luck and sign up for regular alerts if you want to keep tabs on us. This last picture shows just where the mosaic is situated AND the little bit of snow we've seen this year.
~~~_/)~~~ off we go! M&D

Last little tidbit

As we drove home across the Bay Bridge this morning - through the driving rain and cold blustery NNW winds - we marveled once again at our great luck with beating bad weather the whole trip!

I know, - we're home, - the trip is over, but the memories will linger for quite a while and one of them will be of meeting so many wonderful people in the Bahamas. One of them was the very talented craftsman, Andy Albury, of Man-O-War Cay. He is a third generation woodworker and makes beautiful half models. We fell in love with one of his new creations, a beautifully crafted lamp showcasing one of his half models.

When we got home this afternoon, one of the first things I did - after marveling at the amazing amount of room a full size refrigerator has - was to find a spot for our new lamp. It is nestled in among many of our other precious memories - photos of family - past and present. We cherished every minute of our time off cruising, but look forward to many minutes shared with family and friends here at home. Love to all, ~~~_/)~~~M&D

Two days up the Chesapeake - we're HOME!

Our luck - related to the weather - held out to the very end! As we rounded Green #1 at the south end of Parson's Island, just 2 miles from our home marina this evening, the skies still didn't show any signs of the large cold front that is approaching from the west.

We really didn't intend to make it home in just two days when we left Tidewater Marina in Portsmouth, VA at Mile Marker "0" Monday morning, but the winds were right and all of us were ready. The original destination for Monday night was Reedsville, but we actually shortened our sights as the afternoon wore on. We had a good SW wind and were able to motor-sail all day once we made it out of the craziness known at Hampton Roads and environs. There was a lot of movement of Navy vessels and we had to make sure we stayed clear of them.

Hampton Roads/Norfolk area in a nutshell.

We started studying all our different guides and iPad programs to decide where to stop. The trusty cruise dictator (Dan) found the perfect spot for what ended up being our last night out. We went into Fleets Bay just north of the Rappahannock River, and anchored in Little Bay at the mouth of Antipoison Creek. Betty had decided to get domestic as they sailed along and invited us over for dinner. We were anchored by 5:00 and dinghied over to Andiamo for another great dinner.

We watched these guys work their fish traps this morning as we headed out of Little Bay.

Solomons was to be our next stop. We knew we were facing another big cold front and we thought we would hunker down in Solomons to wait it out. We headed out at 7 o'clock and set both main and jib. The winds were from the south and around 15 knots most of the day. As the day progressed we began thinking about the possibility of making it all the way home. We were making 7 knots or more and would have arrived at Solomons by one o'clock. We had our little communicators humming for about 20 minutes as we all plotted courses to see just when we would get home. We figured we could be at our marina by 8 pm, Andiamo a little before that and Pekabu III was shooting for 8:30. We all made it!

The only problem with today was all the flies. They were everywhere, AND they were the bitey kind. I spent the last 7 hours of the trip with a fly swatter in my hand. We'll be thankful for all the rain that is due tomorrow morning, hopefully it will wash away most of the corpses.

This doesn't come close to showing the hordes of flies that descended on all three boats as we charged up the bay.

As we turned into Marshy Creek towards Lippincott Marina, Pekabu III motored on past on their way the the Kent Narrows Bridge - on their way to their slip at Castle Harbor Marina.

Good night all, it's been a great trip. ~~~_/)~~~M&D (Brunelle is turned around and ready to go again!)

We're in Virginia at Mile Marker "0"

No winning lottery tickets, but a winning day. We left our anchorage at 7:45 having gaged the time it would take us to arrive at the South Mills Lock at the southern end of the Dismal Swamp. It was slow going, partly because we couldn't get into the lock until 11:00 and partly because several other boats traveling the same route chose to move slowly. We all arrived in good time and were lifted 8 feet to join the level of the Dismal Swamp. It was quite warm in the lock and we shed a layer or two of clothing. The sun was out for most of the day but we're far enough north for the air to have a nip to it for most of the day.

We decided that this "nessie" lawn ornament was guarding the "lock(h)" we were about to enter.

Someone in the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway or US Army Core of Engineers has a real sense of humor. The very tasteful sign identifies this as the Superintendent's House!

The bottom three pictures show us in the South Mills lock. The top three show the lushness and closeness of the Dismal Swamp Canal. Surveyor George Washington did a good job making it straight!

Most of the Dismal Swamp is tree-lined on both sides, but occasionally you see a house or two. This house had placed the large "Flat Stanley" across the canal from their house. He was riddled with bullet holes!

One of my favorite Sesame Street number songs is "Ten Tiny Turtles", so when I started seeing several tiny turtles sunning themselves I made it a challenge to get pictures of 10. I just made it and some are a little fuzzy, but just count them! If you don't remember the song, just google ten tiny turtles and you can watch a U-tube video of the song!

We made it through to the Deep Creek Lock at the northern end of the canal with only a few bumps on deadheads (sunken logs) that lurk at the bottom of the canal. The depths were fine throughout. We emerged from the second lock 8 feet lower and headed towards Tidewater Marina. We were taken by surprise at the Gilmerton Bridge that used to be on request, but they changed their schedule in December and only open on the half hour and we arrived at 4:36! We decided to anchor for the hour wait and Andiamo and Pekabu III rafted with us - the first raft in our whole trip! Pretty strange for CCYC boats who usually are rafted each time we meet!

We went through the bridge at 5:30 only to have Andiamo's engine overheat. They dropped their hook and I dropped Dan off aboard - the engine belt had failed. They had a spare and he made quick work of putting it on and we continued on to Tidewater - arriving at 7 pm. Dinner ashore at Tidewater's restaurant after a long day. ~~~(\_~~~M&D

Sunset today found us wending our way through the busy port area of Portsmouth/Norfolk.