Nassau (March 24 - April 9)

The Nassau Harbor Club became our next "home" for awhile.  The pool was quite refreshing after a day of tooling around the island.  We walked to some nearby places (Starbuck's, City Market, and Potter's Cay), and rode the bus (jitney) downtown and all-around.  We got to know some of the other sailors at the Marina, including Jeff and Jules on "Baka".  They are traveling with their two schipperke (pronounced skipper-key) dogs, Ted and Emily.  Jules treated us to some homemade pizza and gave us some dim-sum appetizers to share with Chad and Becca when they came. Getting to know a chef has it's advantages!  We also enjoyed spending some time with Lee and Susan on "Door Number Three".


The Nassau harbor is a bustling place for boaters on the water, and cars and people on the streets.  Potter's Cay is a place where there are many food "shacks" and markets for produce, fish, conch, and land-crabs.  We enjoyed sampling the Bahamian food at various resturaunts including Double D's.  A typical Bahamin meal consists of Conch, fish, ribs, chicken, or pork, served with Peas and Rice (Pigeon Peas), Macaroni and Cheese, and fresh coleslaw.


The workboats (right) are located near Potter's Cay in the Nassau Harbor.


 The tailor shop to the left is typical of many of the Bahama island's stores and shops.  At the market, rice is abundant, and evidently sold in large quantities.


To go downtown, we take the bus.  Walking down East Street, you see the cruise ships, cars, people, and the traffic cop. 


There are shops of all kinds downtown:  Tee-shirt/souveniers, luxurious diamond and emerald stores, clothing stores, and the "straw market" where local vendors come to sell their wares.

Chad and Becca joined us during Spring Break, April 2-8.  The Straw Market wasn't the first place we went with them, but it was a "must-do" activity before they left.

Past the Straw Market and downtown, we walked to Arawak Cay and ate at The Fish Fry restaurant.  On the way, we passed Junkanoo Beach (below), a popular beach for cruise ship visitors and local islanders.

And, last but not least, here's the current installment of "Potcake Says...".  Potcake is known for his words of wisdom, which he displays as he rides his wheel-cover vending bike around the island.  So popular, he has a regular feature in the local newspaper.

(To be continued...)

Getting to Nassau (March 15 - March 23)

From Great Harbour Cay, we hopped down the eastern coast of the Berry Islands chain, anchoring off of Frozen Cay in Little Harbour the first day, and then Bird Cay, the next.  We took a mooring ball at the Berry Island Club at Frazer's Hog Cay, where we spent some time in the breezy east wind.

The picture to the left is from our boat looking at the bottom in 15 feet of water at Bird Cay.

We enjoyed meeting Nevil, a Bahamian conch-catcher, at the Berry Island Club who had just brought in a boatload of conch.  His small work boat had a huge pile of conchs which he had scooped up using a pronged stick in just one hour.  We chatted with him and his niece for awhile and he treated us to some of his catch, including the "sinew" as the Bahamian's call it, or the "pistol", which he informed us was the American word for it.  It looked like a 10-inch string, and it tasted like a salty gummy bear.

The main road on Frazer's Hog Cay is shown to the left.  We found that this was a good spot for reading (Genghis Kahn was one of our favorites this trip), working crossword puzzles, playing scrabble, backgammon, and reading (napping?).

 We became familiar with listening to Chris Parker's weather-net each morning at 6:30AM on the SSB radio.  When the strong east wind calmed down, we spent one more day on nearby, peaceful Bird Cay before heading southeast to New Providence Island (Nassau).

Great Harbour Cay, Berry Islands Days 2-6 (March 9 - 14)

We rented a car (the red Tracker) and put it to use exploring the island. It was a bit "rough" - just what you need for driving on coral roadways that lead to the beaches.  Distances are short - the island is about 7 miles long and 1 mile wide.

Dotted throughout the village are the police station, school, restaurants ("Until Then..." is pictured), two grocery stores, and the post office/government offices/hospital.  The population here is less than 800 people.  The airport is away from the village not too far from the marina and the "Beach Club" restaurant and bar.

We enjoyed meeting many of the friendly people who live on the island as well as other visitors.  Tammy, an islander who's been here for awhile, told us that the creatures here are very curious.  We had a sea turtle take us for a walk up the beach one afternoon, and at Shelling Beach the stingrays come right over to check you out if you splash around the shore.

The abandoned hotel was one of our favorite places to "beach it", but the caves of Sugar Beach, and the expanses of shallow water when the tide is out at Shelling Beach were also wonderful.

At "Until Then...", in the village, we found a 'cheesburger in paradise'. 

mmmm mmmm

Great Harbour Cay, Berry Islands Day 1 (March 8, 2011)

Here is a view of the beach on the ocean side of Great Harbour Cay.  We walked here from our marina and stopped at the Beach Club bar/restaurant for a Kalik (beer of the Bahamas) before we walked back to the boat.  The picture doesn't really capture how beautiful the water is. 

On our way back, we noticed that it really IS true.... Kentucky Wildcat fans are everywhere! 

The Rocky Hill Pool and Tiki Bar are only steps away from our boat. The pool is salt water - haven't tried it out yet, but probably will soon.  Last night we met Godfrey, a pilot for Bahamas Air who flies from Nassau to Ft Lauderdale.  He may be flying our kids over soon! 










Conch shells are quite prevalent here - they are used for erosion control in many places....

We're in the Bahamas now!

We had a calm sea without much breeze sailing over from Marathon, FL in the Keys to Great Harbour Cay Marina, Berry Island, Bahamas.  We left at 8:30 AM on Sunday, March 6 and arrived at 12:30 PM on Monday, March 7.  We got checked in with customs by 2 pm. Then we crashed for some much-needed rest.

So far, I haven't left the boat - but as soon as I have everyone back home updated, I'm outta here :)  Islands yet to explore, Kaliks with my name on them, and postcards to send!

More later....
p.s.  If you want to see where we are, click the "Where are we?" Link on the upper left of this page.

Sights of Key West (January 31 - February 28)



It feels like home here at Safe Harbour Marina in Stock Island, Key West.  The Hogfish Bar and Grill are just up the dock from the boat.  The sea grapes, chimes, awnings, and nautical collections along the dock made this a great place to enjoy our boat.   

To get to town, we make a 5 minute walk up the road to catch a bus.  We enjoy visiting Old Key West:   Schooner's Wharf, The Green Parrot, Sunset Ceremony, Martello Towers (Key West Garden Club), Flagler Beach, shopping at Local Color, French Kiss, and the Key West Cigar Club, dining at Pepe's, El Siboney's, Blue Heaven, Mangia Mangia, and just strolling the quiet streets with many colorful qauint old homes.  Oh, and of course the roosters! 

  

 

We've had time to work on our tan (about 15 minutes on each side every day), work on the boat, and read books. It's been beautiful here - kinda hard to leave, but we are excited about traveling to the Bahama's too. We'll be on our way shortly - on to other adventures!  

While Larry and Darlene were here, we got to play Password!  And now, the fish under and around the boat keep us entertained.   The big 7 foot Tarpon occasionally drops by to check out the menu.  The Queen Angelfish brightens up the bottom, along with Sargeant-Majors, and schools of Mangrove Snapper.  The Houndfish, with their long needle-nosed shape, are fun to watch as they leap over sea grape leaves floating on the surface.  And every now and then we are treated to a coot (sea duck) swimming underwater, chasing the minnows. 

From Titusville to Key West

Home for Christmas:  (December 10, 2010- January 2, 2011)  We left our boat at the Titusville Municipal Marina, rented a car and drove home to be with our families at Christmastime.  It was good to see and visit with our kids, parents, brothers, sisters, and nephews.  But it was COLD and snowy in Kentucky and West Virginia!  

Back to Alexandra:  We got back to our boat in Titusville on January 4 and spent the next couple of weeks reorganizing, fixing and updating things, (a.k.a "piddling" on our boat), waiting for our friend Larry to join up with us again.  We enjoyed exploring Titusville and the warmer weather.  This gave us time to get our new dinghy put together, paint the name on her, and  finally get the needed registration papers from the County Court Clerk (there's always an adventure when it comes to owning a boat!).  We love our new Seamax inflatable dinghy and the red color makes her easy to spot at the dinghy dock.

We found lots of great places to eat in Titusville, including Dixie Crossroads, El Leoncito, Steve's Diner, and Your Place.  We bought Rock Shrimp and Royal Red Shrimp at the seafood market and both were soooo good - just steam them for 5 minutes in Old Bay seasoned water, peel and eat.  Don't forget the melted butter for the Rock Shrimp!

The Journey Continues:  We picked Larry up at the Orlando airport, and left Titusville on January 18.  We were not able to go offshore from Cape Canaveral because the lock to get to the inlet was closed until April, so ICW here we come.  We stopped at an anchorage in Melbourne, after a day's travel and continued to Fort Pierce on the 19th.  We had a bit of a struggle finding a spot to anchor here with our 7 foot draft, but were glad to get a call from Tow Boat US, who advised us to anchor in the deep water turning basin behind an anchored barge.  Phew! That was a relief! 

By the 22nd, the winds and weather looked good for continuing  from Ft Pierce offshore to Palm Beach.  We raised the anchor at 08:00 and arrived at Palm Beach at 5:30 PM.  We stayed at anchor at Palm Beach until the 27th, then went in to the Riviera Beach Municipal Marina to do laundry, refuel, fill the water tanks, and to pick up Larry's new friend, Darlene.  Darlene brought sunshine and fair breezes with her, and we took off at 3:30PM Friday, the 28th, sailing offshore to Rodriguez Key, arriving  at 1:00 PM on Saturday the 29th.  From here, it was just two short day trips to Safe Harbour Marina, in Stock Island.   Ahhh, it feels like home again!