Testing, 1,2,3 ...from the iPad

We are back home now,  but I'm trying to experiment with sending a blog post from the iPad.  My camera did not recover from its last submersion, so I downloaded some of George's camera.  If this works, you'll see some of them.

While we were anchored at Emerald Rock, we visited the coral head site where we had seen so many lobsters last year.  No lobsters this time, but George went in hot pursuit of a pair of Eagle Rays and got a great picture of one of them.  He had a remora hovering under his right "wing".

We were treated to several wonderful sunsets and Lisa and I managed to use a screw driver and winch handle (there was an amazing lack of any tools on a charter boat)  and nail file to knock the top off a conch shell we had found on the beach in The Majors to fashion a conch horn.  We were successful and were able to herald the closing of another wonderful day.

Our last day was spent at the new departure building of Nassau's airport.  It offered 4G  and free wifi and lots of shops and eateries. 

Adios for now ~~~~_/)~~~~ M&D, L&G

It's Sunday and we're still at Emerald Rock in Exuma Park. We took a dinghy ride yesterday to the southeast side of Warderick Wells to check out the Pirate's Lair. No pirates, but a curly tailed lizard took a shine to Dan's shoe


We were surprised at the size of our dinghy, it's an 8 passenger beast, but it is a very comfortable ride.


After lunch aboard we headed into the park office to sign up for another day of wi-fi and took a hike up to BooBoo Hill. Sadly the sign we put there last year was not to be found.


The weekly Saturday night beach party last night was well attended, including at least three Hutias. The Hutia is a Bahamian native rodent that is on the endangered list, but they seemed to like a good party!


We are planning to head out in an hour or so on our way back north. We plan to spend tonight at Shroud Cay and then Highborne Cay on Monday night. Not likely to have wi-fi, so the next post will probably be from Nassau when we return there Tuesday. ~~~_/)~~~M&D,L&G

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