April 22, 2016

OK, I am not finished with a blog.

We planned to be in St. Augustine today, Friday but the weather God's had other plans. We were out over night and nasty seas so came back into Bimini and here until maybe Sunday or Monday.

My reason for a quick journal is!!!!!!!! As we were coming in to Shroud Cay there was a beautiful boat, not a big slick one but like an old boat all fixed up. Our friends on Wandera also saw it as they were about 1/2 hour behind us.

Its name is Amphitrite now you have to look it up under mega yacht. Do it!! It is Johnny Depp's boat. A $33 million dollars yacht. He was married in the states and is now at his private island in the Bahamas. Do you remember when we were in Cambridge and snorkeled at the Sea Aquarium, I mentioned his island was there also.  Man the security must be huge and the coming and going of boats incredible.

Any way just please check it out as it is drop dead gorgeous.

Hope the seas calm and the moon shines for our journey back to the states.

Joyce

April 15, 2016

We have been going back and forth between Staniel Cay and Black Point with a group of friends because of weather.

Latest word from Chris Parker (or weather man) is we can leave Nassau on Wednesday and head back across the Gulf Stream to the states. We will go as far as we can and that might be 5 days to get us as far up the states as we can. We have to be at a place where we can check back into the US upon our arrival. We will have about 5 different cuts that we should be able to duck into if the weather should be forecast as a change and not good.

This has been an interesting year for both of us. We have gone to places that we have not gone to before, met so many different people, traveled with a few and continue to marvel at the beautiful clear blue water. The water changes color with depth so is easy to read to travel through it.

Our plans are to be back in VA for doctor appointments first part of May and in Annapolis but May 23. The renter moves out the 26 so if any of you have nothing to do we would love to spend time with you do some clean up, improving, yard work and sorting, sounds like fun!! We would love to have the house on the market in July and hope it sells fast.

Bo has so much on his plate this summer with editing for his project, making all new canvass and repairs on the boat don't know he will have any fun this summer. Seems like a few more things need repairs on the boat than any year. The boat is now 9 years old, does not seem possible.

Bo has all his big saws from remodeling the house to my family oak furniture to decide what to do with. We will see almost all his tools and must decide on what family furniture we want to keep as we will have to pay for storage and that can be costly. Lots of decissions need to be made this year.

Thank you so much for following another incredible year of our travels and hopefully next year some of you sill be able to join us again.

I will send pictures when we get back to the states as our time is running out on our Bahamian phone.

Bless each one of you and thank you for being a part of our journey.

Joyce

March 26, 2016

We left Highbourne and made a quick stop in Allan’s Cay.Allan’s is noted for its Iguanas that a university is doing a study on, these are not the beautiful pink ones that are found in Leaf Cay. Bo wanted to do a drone shot of the small anchorage here as it is a great spot for safe harbor with winds. If you would go online to Allan’s Cay Iguanas study you should find the study.

I will enclose a picture of a mega ship Laurel that was next to us. The ship was around 200 ft or could have been more. I have a picture that blew my mind. I was looking at the boat through the binoculars and all of a sudden the back, port side opened up and OUT came a tender that was maybe 20-30 ft in length. Holy smoke. The men were inside the boat and looked like little sticks. They put wind surf boards (3) in the tender.

(Sorry my photo skills need some work, I know what the picture is of but you would have no idea,sorry)

We then left and went to Norman’s Cay and arrived about 1:30. This is also a great harbor for winds. We just got settled and there were 4 other boats there and a float plane came and landed behind us so they could snorkel over to check out the plane wreck.

This island has a great history of drug smuggle,and corruption. We bought a kindle book called,”Turning the Tide-One Deadly Summer-One Man against the Medellin Cartels.” When you read this and look at the maps you get a since for the island. It was so exciting to read the book while we were there I have decided to read it again as I missed so much the first time.

We took the dinghy to what I called Robinson Crusoe Island and Bo flew from there, 

never seen so many small conch shells with creatures inside, was great, we looked and then back to the sea they went. 

We took the dinghy ashore to the beach and took pictures of what was left of the drug invasion that happened in 1976,and several more later on, the last was in the 1980’s. We were able to walk around the island by the airport and was so exciting to feel a little part of the DEA and other organizations that were a part of taking Lehder down.

We then took the dinghy around the island to where (in the book) hammer head sharks breed. It was beautiful getting there. At this end of the island was where Lehder had his house called the Volcano. There were caves,rays and huge starfish. We went by Lehder’s remains of the house. We got back to the boat about 7 pm. We fixed some supper, turned on the generator so we could run the air, got the boat ready to leave tomorrow for another short day to Shroud Cay.

March 29.2016

We left Normans at 8:30. 

Remember when I said the water temp when you are in the Gulf Stream how warm it is, we are in the banks as it is shallower and the water temp was 80 degrees.

We arrived at Shroud at 9:30 am anchored. This is a part of the Exuma Cay’s Land and Sea Park as is Hawkbill and Warderick Wells. This means it is a NO take anything area. You can not fish, shell but spend time looking at the beauty.

After we got settled we took the dinghy into some cuts, through mangros and got to the Sound side. Bo did some photo ops and be got back in the dinghy and did some snorkeling back at the boat.

March 30, 2016

We left Shroud at 8:45 and arrived in Warderick Wells Land and Sea Park at 12:00. We did not stop at Hawksville this time as we have been there several times.

We are on the inside on mooring ball #9. We are here for 3 days and will take advantage of the time we have.

We went on a dinghy drift float with a neighbor boat from New Bern, NC and we have friends there so that was fun. We did some looking with our look bucket and right in-front  of boat is a sunken boat so will investigate it tomorrow. There were lots of fish swimming around the sunken boat.

Bo fixed some of the tuna he caught for supper going to watch some more of out dvd’s of Homeland and then to bed ready for another exciting day.

We did a 3 hour walk around the island. We had to walk on rocky path and to me a little scary but did it. We crossed a man made walk bridge and to the other side of the island. Here there is what is called Boo Boo Hill. Boaters bring a piece of wood with their boat name on it and place it on a hight hill that overlooks the water. You look down on the mooring sites and you can see the dark blue water is the deeper channels . We then walked back to the boat and had a snack and then snorkeled for about 2 hours. The park has ball that you can attach your dinghy to and snorkel from there. We attached a floating line for me as the current was really strong. There was so much life under the boat mooring, beautiful. We then went back to our boat then right by our boat was a sucker boat that had caught fire and sank several years ago. This was awesome, so much growth on the boat and the fish, huge lobsters was so worth it. Bo later put on his diving gear and took the go-pro down and filmed the wreck and fish. He had a lemon shark come along and a huge Eagle Ray , he has done a video of this and so fun to look at.

A great close to a great few days.

April 2, 2016

We left Warderick Wells at 11:30, a little late but Bo had to do some filming in the office.

We arrived in Cambridge at 1:30.

We went on the Sound Side, I always have to remember Sound..deep. Banks…shallow.

Winds were SE at 10-14.

Dept. was 25 ft then bang off the chart so over 121 feet.

Water temp. does not even register as it is to warm.

Swells were 5-8 feet.

We are at another part of the Land and Sea Park that is protected. They have 14 mooring balls or you can also anchor. We choose a ball. A few minutes after we settled a dinghy came over to welcome us and give us lots of info. For doing this they get a cut on the mooring ball or sometimes they are free.

On our trip over on the radio a boat kept calling Valera, Valera so HA Val someone has a boat by your name wonder what you have named after you!!!

So many things to do here with snorkeling and we are next to Little Bell Island ( Johnny Depp island). We saw a sea plans land so they were bringing people into the private island.

Will keep you up to date and in about 5 days will be where we have internet and can send this along with pictures. Funny to be so out of touch.

Cambridge is a must stop for boaters. We were able to snorkel not far from our boat and see the best ever beauty. Fish, all kids and colors, purple fans that were huge, sponges, a turtle, I can go on and on but a must see. Bo took a video and if I can figure out when he has it done I will post it also.

We walked one of the beaches across the island and climbed some hills and were able to look out on the sound, we saw a boat going by and come to find out it was friends from 2 years ago from New Bern, NC so we were able to snorkel and spend the evening with them. Their son that is a nurse at Duke is with them for 10 days so good to see Travis again.

April 8, 2016

We are leaving Cambridge 8:00 for Staniel Cay for a short visit. We got to Staniel at 10:15. We got the dinghy ready and took 3 bags of laundry to the wash and the trash that we had collected for 10 days and went to a grocery store. I had 2 washer and 2 driers and they were big ones but it cost $36 dollars, OH WELL it is what it is. We bought some  Radler Red Grapefruit (Sands beer mixed with natural pink grapefruit.) We also bought some lemon Kalik Radler made with real lemon so we are set. Now the price for 2- 6 packs was $36. OH WELL!!

While we were in Cambridge a sea plane landed several times by us and went to a private island SO one day we went to check it out, oh my goodness they had made a cut in the rock and built a high class marina for themselves and friends. Don’t think we are included it that.

Our adventure continues.

Joyce