We left Fort Myers on Friday with great regret. We had a great time with Hélène and Robert Bourassa, thank you again friends.
We did not have the expected winds but the trip went well. We saw a lot more dolphins here in the keys than in the Bahamas. It's so beautiful to see.
Arriving at Marathon in the morning after 26 hours of sailing. We went for a walk in the city the next day after a good rest. Nice little town with lots of people. We ate on the seaside a good 'Lobster Ruben' delicious but so big ... portions for Americans. Then, small grocery store and return to the sailboat for the preparation of the departure. We left around 8:30 to get to Long Key. Very quiet with a little swell caused by the tides.
We have no wind for our departure the next day was engine only. After 26 Nm we stopped at Rodriguez Key and the next day we made it to Key Biscayne. 38 Nm away and still there no wind or almost. We were in a small bay with lots of traffic as we are close to Miami Beach.
We had the opportunity to see a manhunt by boat. There were 2 customs boats and 2 helicopters which were chasing a small boat with 2 people on board. They are right next to us (making a lot of waves ...) and stopped them at 200 feet from us. Lots of suspense.
The next day no wind yet, so motor. But in the afternoon the wind rose, hardly. We had thunderstorms lurking around us and we could not avoid all of them. We were going good speeds with a top speed of 11.5 knots. We had up to 45 knots of wind, and waves of 8 to 10 feet. Not fun ...
We enter West Palm Beach Pass just in time (15:41) after 68 minutes. We had one of those storms with hailstones. The genoa opened and trying to wind it, it ripped, and the winch of the furler broke. More repairs ....
So we changed the pieces on the winch with ones that we used less, meanwhile, we are waiting for the winds to be weaker before the next start. The next day there is no wind so we decide to try the intra costal from West Palm Beach to Fort Pierce. Everything went well right until in the middle of the channel a temporary red buoy tells us to leave to the left which we did, but we had not been far enough from this buoy, so we are caught in the sandy bottom we try to get out by putting the sails and the engine but no luck. The tide rose quietly and the winds blew at 12 KM. The boat was lying but not enough to move. I decide to use the anchor to get us out. We put the dinghy back in the water and I put anchor on board and away from the boat. I pull throw the anchor in the water and suddenly the wind changes direction tilt the boat on the other side the boat starts to move Jacynthe who is on board does not know what to do with the sail and the engine is engaged, in addition the anchor is in the water and it holds while I rush to get on board de-power the sail and bring the boat as close at the anchor as possible and try to keep the boat there while Jacynthe stows the anchor. Finally we are free and continue our journey after all this stress. We anchor in front of the coast guards (Fort Pierce) and leave the next morning to the sea. (No more intra costal for us or as little as possible!)
We left for a short day, but as there was good wind and the passage. Where we wanted to stop was a dangerous inlet due to the last hurricane, we decided to continue to St. Augustine. After 35 hours of sailing we arrive in this small town of Florida which is the oldest of the United States. Lots of history, friendly people full of food. Lots of tourists so a lot of shops. We are at the City Marina for at least 2 weeks.
During this time, the varnish will be finalized on the exterior woods as well as the small repairs. We also have time to visit this small town. We went to the distillery where everything is done by hand. It was very interesting. Christian tasted rum, Bourbon and Gin. Not the best I ever tasted.
We have dolphins who took a home right next to us in the bay. They make shows for us all day long. It's so beautiful!
See you soon!

Our trip from Key West to Fort Myers took a total of 26 hours, we had good winds and navigation was pleasant. We took a anchoring berth once we arrived at Fort Myers Beach.

After 6 months on the boat we spent 2 weeks on land with our friends Hélène and Robert, whom we send our thanks to for their generosity. We had the chance to see the folks at the site where we had our mobile home. Some came onto the boat, Hélène and Robert gave us counsel on how to fish. We should have better luck, and I should be able to eat fresh fish now. Sadly, we didn't have time to bring everyone, Michel (the self proclaimed fisherman) and his wife Aline.

Jacynthe received private Pickle Ball lessons from Mike (the coach) which she greatly appreciated. Mike and his wife Aline came back to the boat with us on Sunday, and we spent a delightful day, the winds were very light. The next day was spent fixing things. We needed to get everything in working order. The engine for the toilette, the power inverter, the speedometer, the horn for the alarm system (that the birds broke), and the weathercock.

Today it was cleaning and putting things in their place before our departure, which is scheduled for Friday. There is a cold front with strong winds announced, so it might change. It should have calmed down for our departure to St-Augustine Friday.

We left Berry Island around 4:15 on the engine until we encountered good winds. Everything was going well until, without notice, the engine stopped working. We are in pitch black, no wind, no engine. We panicked a bit, we had changed the oil, oil filter, and gas filter a week prior, so we were stumped as to what the problem could be. Christian goes to see what is wrong and decides to bleed the injectors. Yes! It worked. We were relieved. The rest of the trop went well, we arrived at Bimini Islands the next day at 7am. With 20 kns winds we weren't able to make it into the inlet to get to the marina. We decided to anchor on the other side of the island. Once well anchored, we took a 2 hour nap, we needed it, as during the trip we took turns so the other could sleep but we didn't sleep well.

We stayed 2 days on anchor, there was absolutely nothing to visit where we were. The wind changed direction during the night and with the waves it was uncomfortable to sleep. We decided to change spots before even eating breakfast.

We then went to Blue Water Marina and were finally able to rest while waiting for good weather to get to Key West which is 32 hours of navigation from Bimini. We went exploring around Alice Town, a nice little town but even then there wasn't much to see. We saw a 5-6 foot shark around the boat so no chance we were going swimming! We left 2 days later for Key West. 4am and not a lot of wind, but the forcast calls for good winds in the afternoon. After hours on the engine we are not going very fast, the currents in the Golf Stream are 2.5 to 3 knots, with our speed of 6 to 7 Nm, our real speed is 2.9 to 4.3 Nm. With those speeds we go along with the engine and the sails to maximize speed.

We arrive at Key west around 11am, Jacynthe has fun counting and admiring the dolphins whom are enjoying themselves around the boat. We take a mooring in the City Marina around 1pm. We need a place to clear customs, we are not allowed to walk around if we are not registered with customs. Christian went to pay the mooring and gave him the information to clear customs. We have 24 hours to get it done.

After customs is taken care of, we walked around the touristic part of Key West. There are a lot of people compared to the Bahamas, and so many grocery stores! Restaurants too! A big change, the only thing is the water in the Bahamas is much nicer than in Florida. Not even comparable.

We stayed in Key West 5 days and we enjoyed everything in it's surroundings. We walked around town. What a difference. There was rain but mostly at night, which is great to remove salt from the boat. We have a big cleaning to do everytime we navigate the boat just gets more salt on it.

Sunday we leave to go to Fort Myers to join our friends in Bonita Springs!

We have left Georgetown with good winds of 15 to 20 knots and about 3ft waves. Everything went well. We anchored in Cave Cay where we were not able to sleep at all. The boat was rocking in every direction due to 'surges' which are caused by the tides. We couldn't wait for the sun to rise to be able to change location and finally relax, and sleep. With the sunrise we made it to Staniel Cay where we were able to truly relax. We saw pigs taking a swim, at last, and the Thunderball Grotto, the name came from the James Bond movie Thunderball (starring Sean Connery), which was quite impressive (the cave not the movie!). Coming back we stopped in Normand Cay and Allen Cay. Christian tried out his harpoon to no avail. No fish, or lobster :(

Although it's very humid, we have had nice weather and plenty of sun. It's always around 90% humidity.

With good winds and few waves, we left for another adventure 30 nautical miles away to Rose Island (near Nassau). On the same side as Exuma bank the islands shielded us from bad waves. From there we wait for the right weather, they are predicting strong winds and we need to pass near the ocean, I don't want to have too many waves ... so we wait a few more days at Rose Island.

Despite all our efforts to catch fish, it has proved unsuccessful. Even with 3 lines in the water when navigating, it's really not working. If we want to eat fish we will have to buy some in Georgetown.

We are now at the tip of Berry Island, in position to take sail to Bimini Island. We have 16 to 20 hours of navigation all depending on the winds. Tonight (February 14th) (Happy Valentine's Day everyone!) our sailing starts around 6pm in order to arrive during daylight. We don't want to arrive at Bimini Island during the night since we don't know the island, it's much too dangerous.

A DC3 crashed in 1982, in the bay where we are at anchor, with a cargo bay full of marijuana. We went to see the carcass and after a small inspection we were unable to find any pot.

To be continued...
Pictures to come...

We returned to Georgetown after the departure of our visitors (Marise, Yves and Sylvie). That’s the only place where there is a good grocery store. Germain and Nicole arrived on Friday, January 27. We visited the surroundings of Georgetown and then went to the marina Emerald Bay for the end of their vacation. We went to the beach snorkelling, and walking. On the last night we had a good supper at the French restaurant La Fourchette. Very good.

The temperature is still very warm, we stand in the 28/29 Celsius every day and not much wind at the moment. We are trying to hide from the sun.
We will begin our return to Florida around February, the 4th or 5th if the weather permits.
We cannot wait to see everyone again.
See you soon!

Sorry don't have time to write anything but i added some pictures . got to prepare the boat for a storm

Since we left Davis Harbor (we crossed the Exuma Sound), we stopped in small bays (Highbourn Cay, Allen Cay, Oyster Cay, Normand Cay etc. ...) for two or three days, we visited quite a few island and at the same time tried to find a grocery store with fresh vegetables and fruits.
We saw iguanas, turtles, sharks and many other fishes even a dolphin who tried to play with us but not for very long. We are using the dinghy to go to the beaches and take walks on the islands.
When on the sailboat, we are working on a few things to repair because there is always somethings that needs repair. Ex: toilet motor, leakage in the shower, leakage water declinator etc ... We have re-done the varnish on part of the exterior woods.
Christian finally took his first fish but it was a barracuda and we put it back to the sea. He was so traumatize (the fish) that I'm sure he became a vegetarian. Ah! Ah!
We met people from North Bound in Highbourn Cay and they are experts in lobster fishing. So they gave us a 2 tails since they had plenty. We enjoyed it! Delicious. We were very happy, this was our first fresh fish.
Dec. 20, we had to leave for Georgetown because there was no grocery with fruit and vegetables. In addition the boat that brings them will not come before Christmas, and no bank to have cash because here the credit card is not accepted very often.
We took two days to get to Georgetown we wanted to stop in Rudder cay bay so we can see the sculpture under the sea at 13 feet deep of a life-sized scenery of a siren and his piano that David Copperfield had installed. II There was also a magnificent grotte. We will have to go back for this since we did not had time to go.
Here in Georgetown we found a bank, a grocery store with fruits and vegetables and even fresh meat (very limited). Very rare here, everything is frozen even bread.
We will be able to spend a good Christmas with lots of good things to eat but your presence is missing.
So Merry Christmas to and happy New Year to all of you who follow us in our adventure! Xxx

Pictures to come when we will get a good internet

We left Spanish Wells on November 28 to go to the Glass Window Bridge. We had to go through the 'Current Cut' which worried us a bit. All the reviews we read were a bit mixed. So we left with a tide down and a wind on the nose. The current can be 8 to 10 knots in this passage if it is not taken at the right time. It went very good into the passage but after, since we had the wind on the nose, we had good waves on all sides.
The 'Glass window bridge' is a window between the Atlantic Ocean and the Exuma Sound. There are still rocks on the Exuma Sound side, and the great waves of the Atlantic that strike these rocks rise up and cross towards the Exuma Sound, these waves can reach up to 120 feet high in storms. This bridge has move several times in these storms due to the impact. It's impressive to see all the power of the water. Small dinghy stroll to the beach then we walked by climbing the corals to the bridge impressive!!!!!!
The next day with the beautiful wind, always between 15 and 25 Kn, not always in the right direction, we did sail but we did not advance much, it's okay we're not in a hurry. We ended up in a small bay (Hatchet Bay Harbor) very close to where we were and very well protected from the winds. There was not much to see but we met people from a other sailboat anchor nearby they came to see us. We invite them for a sun downer.
The next day, the same scenario, nice wind we advanced well. We stopped in a bay where there were private resorts. The beach were beautiful. We had dad to lift anchor because it was not hanging well and we snag an electric cable around our anchor ...... what fear I had. We managed to remove it without any damage. The second try was very good. Thanks my God!
Well, we have to do the washing so we are looking for a nearby marina. We had good wind so we went to 'Davis Harbor Marina' Very small and no grocery store nearby. When we arrived at the dock we had forgotten to put away the fishing rod, we hurried to bring it back and Christian, saw and I saw 3 nurse sharks around the docks we did not go for a swim.
We still fish every day and yesterday we had a fish at the end of the line but on returning it un hock itself, we do not even have time to see it. One day we'll have one....
The washing is done and the boat is clean, it makes a huge difference. There is always a layer of salt all over the sailboat and even on the floors inside. It is very humid around 90% and sticky.
Tomorrow we have to find a grocery store because we need to replenish.

We have just finished our stay at Harbor View Marina in Marsh Harbor. We took the opportunity to get the boat ready for navigation. Wash, replace the anchor and re inflate the dingy. We also took advantage of the pool to relax as much as possible. We went to see the grocery store and phew ... it's expensive and the grocery stores are very small so not much choice. we still have to eat.
We left around 11 am before the tide was low, because the people who left at low tide were stuck at the bottom. We did not want that to happen to us. There is a 4 'tide today, (Nov 14)
We did not have much road to do and no wind at all, we went to Man-O-War in a small bay. I saw seerays, the water is so clear, it's incredible. There is not much depth.
Small dinghy ride to get to the grocery store and bank. They do not take the credit card here, not used to it. In addition, if they do takei it there is a 3% charge.
We came back to Marsh Harbor because the bank had Man-O-War was out of phone for 5 days and no transaction could be done and we needed some cash. We did anchored in the bay for the night it was very quiet. We left the next day for Hopetown. A small town on another island. There are no cars on these islands only golf cars. The streets are very narrow. We visited the lighthouse, the view is superb from the top. On the way back to our boat we saw one of those big fish that came out just ahead of the dinghy, it was very impressive, even Christian was surprise ... Hi Hi
They announce a cold front coming from Canada, strong winds from the north, so we have to change hirings to hide from the winds. We move to the other side of the island. We take the opportunity to do a housework and repair a few things on the boat. There are always a few things that have to be done ... ..We wait for the nice weather to get to the next island
We do not use marinas because we prefer to be at anchor. The marinas as a fee for using current at the $ 0.75 KWH, and a charge of $050 a gallon for use (and it is so mush clorine that we cannot drink it even cooking pasta give an discosting taste . So we buy bottled water at the market.The internet pay per day at $1.00 a unit but very slow .
We are now at Spanish Wells on Eleuthera Island and the temperature is always between 28 and 30 without counting the humidity
We fish almost every day but nothing at the end of the line, yet we see plenty of fish in the vicinity. We also see big turtle and fish that we do not know also a dolphin. We were trying to buy lobster yesteerday but we could not find any the fisherman were still out before we when back to the boat. Today Sunday everything is closed except the snack bar and a convenience store.
The internet is really hard to find witch make it hard to take care of our blog. No internet cafe or McDo we have to leave the IPads open and steal the internet to those who do not have a secure code.
Tomorrow we will move to visit the 'glass window bridge'. It's about 20 Kn miles from where we are now.

Mr. Stuppy i have posted lot of PICTURES just for you

PS: Jacythe was see sick for 2 days on our way to Spanish well and she sear that she will not cross the ocean another time HI Hi !

We had our meeting with the meteorologist on Friday the 4th of November and advised us to leave early to be before sunset on Saturday in the Stream golf course. That's what we did. We left the same evening around 11 o'clock. In the dark it is not obvious because there is a lot of traffic and we must always check to see if they see us on their radar and also to avoid any confusion. The evening went well good wind but a lot of wave. We arrived at the Gulfstream around 7:30 pm. In the Gulfstream there was still a lot of wind and the waves were on all sides so it is brewing much. I (Jacynthe) started having seasickness. We did not sleep much.
Christian took out his fishing rig and put his line in the water. Result the fish left with all its stock.
He then tried again every day, the next day he had a fish which gave him trouble and arriving at the end he disappeared. The only fish he managed to get was a flying fish that landed on our sailboat. Hi! Hi!
After the Gulfstream the waves were 8 'and always good wind. We did not eat much because when we went down it was very uncomfortable and I did not eat, or only ginger cookie. When we received the weather for the next day, I was wondering if I was going to get through. Forecasted winds of 25 to 30 nautical miles and wave of 13 'OUF! I felt even sicker. We started the engine to avoid these winds and waves. We were successful, I was very happy. We are still sleeping in the cockpit because it is not comfortable down and we want to be with the other in case ...
Since then, we still have waves of 8'10 'but well distanced therefore a little more comfortable. The weather on Tuesday gave us winds of 13 to 17 knots which is good, we had a beautiful day. In the evening the winds are minimal so we left the engine at 8 hrs and we stopped at 18:00 on Wednesday. The temperature is beautiful. We are in shorts and belly for Christian and me T-shirt. For our last night at sea we had winds of 25 knots and burst of 30 with waves still. We had reduce the sails and we advanced at good speed 8 knots.
We arrived at Marsh Harbor on Wednesday, November 10 around 16:00 hrs. We were happy to see land and civilization. We took a marina for 4 days as we need to get the yacht back in order. We have not been cleaning since we left Hampton and we did not really have the time either. Also, it was not very comfortable down with the waves....
Today it is 28 degrees with a cloudless sky we took the opportunity to desalted the boat and take rest at the pool of the marina and of course updates our blog.
See you soon!