03/11/2010, Dinner Key Marina, Coconut Grove, FL
As the weather continued to be too cool to swim or snorkel, and it looked like there was a good window to cross the gulf stream , the consensus was that we were all (LIVING WELL, MIDORI, SOLUTION) ready to return to Florida.
We departed Warderick Wells on Saturday, March 6th, after spending a "rolly polly" night on a mooring ball. However, it was a rough day with the wind on our nose and fairly big seas. Not a pleasant five hours. We were happy to stop mid day and anchor at Norman's Cay for the night and catch up on our sleep.
On Sunday, we pressed on to Nassau. Again, a fairly bumpy ride, but we were able to put up both sails and turn off the motors. James managed to take some wonderful photos of MIDORI underway which I will attempt to post. During this crossing, the dinghy and motor dropped down on the davits. One of the shackles on the dinghy lifting chains broke! Just try and imagine us lifting the motor up off of the dinghy and putting it on the rail mount at the stern of the boat while MIDORI crashes up and down on the waves.
We arrived in Nassau on Sunday at around 3:30 p.m. and took a slip at Nassau Harbour Club. We had just enough time to get gas and groceries before the stores closed at 5:00 p.m. After hosing down the boats, filling up the water tank, and having nice warm showers ourselves, the day ended with a lovely meal at a nearby Chinese restaurant.
We departed Nassau on Monday morning at 7:00 a.m. and traveled all day Monday and through the night, arriving at S. Miami on Tuesday afternoon at approximately 4:00 p.m. - a total of 33 hours, to cover 178 nautical miles. Average speed 5.5 knots.
The crossing was rather benign, but we were certainly all exhausted! Ellen and James probably the worst as they had to deal with some engine problems en route that required both of them.
We are all on mooring balls at Dinner Key Marina which is situated in the lovely community of Coconut Grove. Brian and I spent most of the day yesterday, traveling by shuttle bus, trolley, metro rail, and taxi in order to get to Customs and Border Protection at the Miami Seaport and report our arrival from a foreign country! We also had to stop at the Verizon outlet, to get the broadband internet card reprogrammed.
The plan is to go back down to Marathon for a few weeks before hauling MIDORI for the summer season and returning home.
First Mate Lynn
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03/05/2010, Warderick Wells
We have spent fourteen nights on a mooring ball at Cambridge Cay and gone through about four weather fronts. These fronts have typically brought northerly winds with speeds of up to 30 knots, a couple of squalls and cooler weather. When the front passes through, we have been stuck on the boat for about 24 hours. However, once the front has passed, we have been able to get "out and about". We continue to be in the company of Steve and Mary Ann on LIVING WELL and Ellen and James on SOLUTION and have relieved some of the boredom by playing dominoes and farkle - as well as taking turns to cook and share some great meals.
We traveled north to Warderick Wells today and are all catching up on our E mails and blogs. This is the headquarters of the Exuma Land and Sea Park, but there is not much else here - except WiFi ..... and ice. We can't make skype calls though as the band width is too small.
We will continue north tomorrow - perhaps stop at Shroud Cay or more likely carry on to Norman's Cay. It appears that the weather may hold into early next week and we can sail northwest to Nassau where we all direly need to provision, for both food and drinks, do laundry, make some skype calls and have a meal or two out! Once in Nassau, we will start watching for a weather window to Florida - but there are still a couple of stops we can make along the way!
A picture is worth a thousand words - please see the new album in the photo gallery. Some photos were taken by Steve, some by James, some underwater photos taken by Steve and enhanced by James, and some by me.
Stay tuned,
First Mate Lynn
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02/26/2010, Sampson Cay
On Sunday, February 14th we moved from the protection of the Sampson Cay Marina back to the anchorage and then went to the restaurant for a scrumptious Valentine's Day Brunch. It was a cloudy day, but the sea was relatively calm, so the four of us dinghied south to Big Majors Spot where the Bahamians regularly maroon pigs which are fed leftovers by visiting cruisers. As soon as dinghies get close to shore, the pigs will swim out for food. They will even attempt to climb into the dinghy and they will bight. What an experience! And, we were lucky to see some little piglets on shore. Photos to come.
Monday, February 15th was a beautiful, hot & sunny day with calm seas, so we packed our lunch and dinghied north to Pipe Cay to see the remains of the old U.S. Navy Decca Station. Then we explored the Pipe Creek area which is the stretch of approximately seven islands between Compass Cay in the north, and Sampson Cay in the south. Pipe Creek has some very shallow areas with numerous shifting sandbars and channels, along with some large rocky bars and there are strong tidal currents in the cuts. Although there are several anchorages in the Pipe Creek area, we have not felt comfortable taking the big boats in there. We returned to our boats at about 4:00 and heard SOLUTION on the VHF radio trying to contact us. We had been waiting for them to get favorable winds to travel north from Georgetown and it looks like today was the day! They have motored most of the way on the outside, and will be arriving at the Sampson Cay anchorage at 4:30. A very Happy Hour is held on MIDORI with supper on LIVING WELL!
The remainder of the week was spent in the company of Mary Ann and Steve, Ellen and James doing walkabouts on Sampson Cay; playing dominoes; sharing meals and Happy Hours; learning how to play a dice game called Farkel and a trip to Staniel Cay to take our garbage to the dump, walk the beach and do lunch at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club. Unfortunately, the weather turned windy and cool and the sea conditions and tides were not favorable to snorkel Thunderball Cave - where the movies "Thunderball" and "Splash" were filmed.
On Friday, February 19th, SOLUTION, LIVING WELL and MIDORI, departed the Sampson Cay anchorage for a slow trip back North. Our first stop will be the mooring field at Cambridge Cay.
Stay tuned...............
First Mate Lynn
P.S. We got a nice day in between fronts, so we all came down to Sampson Cay to get water, gas, ice, provisions, do laundry and get caught up on WiFi. Will be returning to the relative comfort of a mooring ball in Cambridge this afternoon and stay through at least two more weather fronts!
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