OMG... we have been so deprived of our beloved cruising, we have trekked down by car and are sitting here at the Oriental Marina & Inn, sadly, in a hotel room, with car parked in the lot.

Have had a great drive down, seeing the Outer Banks of NC, and the Dismal Swamp welcome stop by car! Since we cruised on past on our journey in 2010, we stopped and bought the tee-shirts!

The bug has surfaced, and we will be heading back by boat sooner than later.

To all of our friends we met last time.... wait for us! We'll be back soon :)

Before we leave Titusville, we had to share a few highlights. While we were here, we visited the Kennedy Space Centre. With the second to last shuttle launch scheduled for April 29, we thought it would be cool to see the centre and maybe stick around to watch the launch from the Indian River.

Well, the space centre was somewhat interesting, but a typical tourist trap - much like the rest of the large theme parks in the US. They charge you an arm and a leg to stand in queues and sit on buses. We only got to see the tip of the shuttle that is sitting in the launch pad from about 2 miles away. Most of the displays were replica's with the exception of the crawler which moves the shuttles from the assembly building at 1 mph down a special roadway to the launch pad. It takes 8 hours to make the trip.

If we stick around for 9 more days and only get to see a puff of smoke and a loud bang, I think the Captain will rebel. Jim has already decided to tune the launch in on the Discovery Channel - better vantage point. That being said, we are leaving our options open to rent a car from wherever we are and drive back to Titusville if the notion hits. Us and about 200,000 other people that is!

Leaving the space centre, we spotted our first Florida Gator (not a jock, the real thing!). So, doing the proper tourist thing, we slammed on the brakes, backed up the truck and pulled over.

I got a few great shots before the authorities arrived on the scene and moved us along. I know, I know, alligators are fast and this guy really started to move towards the camera as soon as he saw me get out of the truck! Ha, another brush with danger!

Back at the marina, Jim got out the hose to rinse some salt off the boat and the fresh water attracted a few of the sea cows - manatees in the area. Some great shots of them are included in the gallery. They are very docile and slow creatures, but very fun to watch. If you stick the hose in their muzzles, they will slurp fresh water all day. Signs in the marina warn of big fines for doing this, but I'm sure the big guys get plenty of fresh water.

We will be off in about an hour, heading towards Fernandina Beach. It is our hope that this little haven where we spend several freezing cold days last November will be decked out for the summer and we can spend some warm days on the beach there.

After a 24 hour crossing from Great Harbour Cay in the Berry Islands, we arrived in Lake Worth around 10 am on Tuesday April 12. The crossing was fairly simple. We had the jib sail up for about an hour, watched it flutter and flop, and so decided to haul it in and motored across.

The excitement of the night was the spectacular sunset and then sunrise, and if you've looked at facebook, you can see a great (at least I think it's great) video of a dolphin racing on our bow. There were 2, but by the time I got the cameras out and back up on deck, I was only able to video one of them. They are much more spectacular than what I call the 'ditch dolphins' as the water is perfectly clear so you can see them in all their glory.

With all the promises I made (to myself mostly) of writing and keeping logs and writing blogs, once you get immersed in this life getting back to the grind to write something that might have a bit of wit or at the very least, something interesting for our followers/friends/family - I say, BLOG SCHMOG.

All of our fellow cruisers are officially off the hook with us if you haven't updated lately. Even the SailBlogs site harasses when we haven't updated our position in 30 days.

After Harrison and Marnie left in early March, we had Brenda and Peter pop in at Sunrise on Grand Bahama - what a blast. Those two know how to unwind! We biked around as much of the island as was possible, with only one little mishap - funny enough that was caused by a plane! So, thinking it was better to be on 4 wheels instead of 8 collectively, we grabbed a car and toured most of the island.

At the east end, we found a spectacular beach with a blue hole, or more specifically a boiling hole. The snorkeling around it was waist deep, and the hole was about 20 x 100 feet across, and deep! The water pressure from the tides pushing in kept the flow strong and steady, but we still managed to dive a bit to see fish, sea cucumber and coral. We learned later that these holes can also reverse with the tide, so diving into it wasn't too smart. Oh well, better be careful next time.

Recycling on Grand Bahama is non-existent. There is an official government dump site for conch shells, but that is it. Garbage is thrown into the bush along the roadsides. Bottles are a particular problem as they act as magnifiers and start fires, so plenty of the island is burning. Bizarre.

We enjoyed being incarcerated at Sunrise Resort & Marina with Brenda and Peter, took in a few fish frys (Put your hands in the air.... DY-NO-MITE!!) and will surely have to plan another beach party next year. Officially, I think it should be at Great Harbour Cay in the Berry's. Paradise, to say the least.

We have also made some great friends and hope that we can continue to be in touch with many of them (yes, not all of them!). I might have already mentioned Paul Reeves in a previous blog. He's they guy who came out and met us in his dinghy when we arrived at Sunrise. We got to know him on the sandbar in the entrance channel waiting for tide to float us off the bottom. We enjoyed the Superbowl game - all three of us, numerous games of pool and domino's. Paul left the marina just before us after being there for several months, bound for the Abacos. Fair winds Paul.

New Zealand arrived in the marina just as the devastating earthquake hit their home town. We are sad for the losses they have endured. This zany crew came all the way to Grand Bahama to finalize the deal on Dulcinea, their new sail boat. Captain Owen, First Mate Emma and Pirate First Class Roe are fixin' her up and taking her back to New Zealand. They have made it all the way to Tampa where they are outfitting the boat (West Marine will never be the same) and buying many silly hats and dancing with drag queens, and super-sizing their cocktails, and stuff like that - what cruising dreams are made of!

Thankfully, they have Gary De'Gnome on board to keep them on the straight and narrow, or the magenta line as the case may be. Quite a handful these guys will be for Gary, but he's up to the task. If you are interested, follow their trail on their Milk Run site http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/themilkrun as they set sail for New Zealand.

Now, Steve and April. A couple of hillbilly's from Alabama. I thought all hillbilly's came from Virginia McCoy?. They left us with all their booze and their beautiful Helmet Conch. (see photos). Steve, I know now why you left the shell in the bushes. It reeked for about 2 weeks. I had to hang it off the dock and let the sea vermin clean it up for me. But, she's a beauty and you can't have it back! The moon shots from the 'Night of the Big Moon' are courtesy of Steve.

Alex and Carol Lopez from Nepenthe left Long Beach California 5 years ago traveling south and through the Panama Canal, and managed to cross paths with us in the Bahamas. They dubbed us professional wine drinkers - not sure why...

Yannic and Evelyne, Reve d'Oceans from Brittany France. Eve showed me the very fine art of making French Bread. We sweated like crazy on the hottest day on record with the oven blasting. Needless to say the yeast worked well! It was my pleasure to reciprocate with a very favorite Banana/applesauce/raisensoakedindarkrum cake. How much fun is that!

Their sailing partners Yildiz and Yavuz have sailed to the Caribbean from Turkey. We made good friends from further parts of the world, practicing each others' languages. It took Yavuz scribbling their names in the sand for us to finally get them. A picture says a thousand words! It is our hope to meet them some day in the Mediterranean. I'll be better at the bread by then!

Today we will be starting the trek north. The wind is less than ideal, meaning that they are calling for 5 - 7 knots, so it looks like we will motor most of the way from the Berry Islands, heading to Lake Worth Florida. I can't say how beautiful the Berry Islands are. The seas are the most incredible colour of turquoise, the whitest sand.

Check out the photo gallery for some photos and check the comments on each photo for details.

We have a lot of miles to put behind us now before hurricane season, bugs and hot humid weather set in.

Ta ta for now.

C&J

What a fascinating little man. Brilliant, even if he is our grandson. H arrived with Mom around mid-day, and so we had lots of time to meet them at the airport and get them to the boat. They stayed for a couple of nights onboard, but we found keeping smarty-pants away from the edge of the dock, and from firing his trucks overboard, just to see Grandpa have to dive for them, it was time for a room at the inn.

That was an eye-opener. Maid service consists of a quick swing of a soggy mop on the floor. Never mind fresh towels or bedding. Deficiencies all around, but I'll wait for Brenda and Peter to enjoy their experience before I rip about the quality of services. Suffice it to say, my friends at the Hilton have spoiled me on quality, and so maybe I'd better lower standards a bit :) (Hey Cheryl-Lynn, we just enjoyed that nice Malbec from Whistler the other day. I had stowed it, forgot/lost it, and came across it while searching through a locker. Nice surprise! Yummy wine. Thanks!)

So, with Harrison here, we had a blast swimming in the surf and around the pool, took a trip to Port Lucaya for some mommy-shopping, and hit the Wednesday night fish fry with some other boaters and a few hotel guests. Gary, our new Gnome friend gave us hours of fun with his antics.

What a place! It is a clean as can be, staff everywhere tidying, replacing chairs around the pool, clipping and trimming hedges. The ratio of staff to guests is about 5:1. The only thing the place lacks - is people! The bar and restaurant are temporarily closed, the rooms are aired and cleaned each morning, but you can count on one hand the number of guests that have checked in since we arrived at the beginning of February, and mostly they stay for one or two nights. Bizarre. The economy in the Bahamas is suffering.

The peace and quite will change today when our daughter Marnie and grandson Harrison arrive at 1:30. They will be with us until sister Brenda and b-in-l Peter arrive on March 8. We have the run of the house, which is nice. Chairs and BBQ have found permanent spots on the dock. No rush to the pool to save lounges and we are becoming quite the sharks as there is never a line up at the pool table.

Aside from one night with 3 other boats who dropped in for overnight stops on the way to other destinations, our boat and that of our new found friend Paul who guided us into the channel when we arrived are the only occupants in the Marina. A few other boats have been left by their owners and are used only once or twice a year.

Quiet, to say the least, but the harbour is clean and from the dock we see sea horses, spotted stingrays (one night a big guy glided past our boat and then soared right out of the water. Unbelievable!) And, Charles the night watchman says that around 4 am each morning, you can see a shark in the basin. Well, he can see it, because 4 am is off my radar screen for a few more months! The beach is pristine, and empty of people. No complaints there!

We'll be here until Brenda and Pete leave, and then will head off to other islands. Keep watch for some posts from time to time as we explore Grand Bahamas.

Ta ta for now.