Docking for Dollars Special

http://www.bluffhouse.com/index.htm

We are now at the dock at Bluff House, Green Turtle Cay. They have a special here during the winter months that any purchases that you make in the bar, restaurant, gift shop, on laundry tokens or ice will be credited towards your dockage.. We have had some great meals and will spend a few days here. We also wanted to pull in to hook up to the 110V so that I could run the equalize function on our charger, as the house batteries have not been getting up to full charge from the solar, wind and engine chargers. We will know if that worked once we go out to the anchorage again.

windy

I am so glad to be on a mooring ball today-winds are over 30 miles per hour all day but is comfy now in the harbor except for the howling noise.Yesterday was beautiful weather-Brendel`s Dive Shop had a Christmas feast potluck attended by over 100 people with cruisers and islanders,Brendel supplied lots of Goombay Smash punch and music and we had a great time hearing peoples stories and nibbling all the food.Christmas eve we were on a huge catamaran owned by some very nice people from England-25 people on it seemed like nothing,they had a hot tub onboard even.We got to touch base there with team Dream catcher and hope to bump into them again down the line.We plan on staying still until jan. 1 for junkanoo then go south.The watermaker is working great so all is good with being stuck onboard today.

Goombay Smash !!

We rented a golf cart today and visited the other end of the island and the town of New Plymouth. One of our stops was Miss Emily's Blue Bee Bar for the world famous Goombay Smash, a wonderful rum drink. After a couple of those the day went goodbye and we didn't make it to any of the cruiser activities that we had planned to attend tonight. Oh well maybe tomorrow , or maybe another trip to Miss Emily's!

Green Turtle Cay

Green Turtle Club

We are now at anchor in White Sound, Green Turtle Cay. We are in front of the Green Turtle club and Bluff House resorts. This is a very secure anchorage, protected from just about any direction, and we will be here or in Black Sound just a couple of miles South of here until after New Years day and the we will head towards Treasure Cay for a while. We are going out tonight for dinner and to listen to a local band, The Gully Roosters. We are still having too much fun!

Lazy day

Yesterday when we returned from the beach a wind storm came up very fast with zero to 30 knots of wind in seconds.This led to several boats coming in quick for safety.The marina ( http://www.spanishcay.com/marina.htm ) expected a quiet day but had to send a call out for help and we all ended up in the bar for drinks,cruising conversation and very tasty food-fresh grouper for us.At the end of our meal the manager couple brought out 2 cheesecakes in a martini glass with lighted candles for our birth-aversay.This was truly a wonderful way to spend it.Today still finds a few brief showers and wind but most cruisers left as they have to meet family at airports.I was glad for the rest day as they had a hard time heading out with brisk winds.I made Mike his favorite mincemeat Christmas cookies then we explored another beach and I carried a beautiful conch shell until the conch showed its head and snorted at me-we put it back in the water after that.

12/18/10 Spanish Cay

Mikes birthday and our 39th anniversary today.We upped anchor and went to Spanish Cay Marina.The immigration lady couldn`t have been friendlier and we got the coveted 180 day allowed stay that we sought along with the included fishing permit.The marina staff are top notch and only a few boats-3 here-off season.After checking in we walked  to a beach right out of a movie set-crystal clear turquoise water,conch shells allover,huge starfish,beautiful empty guesthouses-there  are on 6 permanent homes here.A walk about the island led us to more beaches,a small airstrip,finches,humming birds,lizards-80 degrees-breezy sun.  .

Little Bhama Banks 12/17/10

Awakened to crystal clear turquoise water-nobody else in sight-heavenly-cool breeze needing a light fleece that was shed by noon.After receiving some shortwave weather we upped anchor and motor sailed in light winds seeing only dolphins,flying fish and 2 motor yachts the whole 50 miles to an anchorage outside Spanish Cay.It was 12-25 feet everywhere with the Explorer charts leading the way.For our power boat friends we used 7 gallons of diesel from Lake Worth to Mangrove Cay.

12/16/10 crossing over

We left North Palm Beach-Old Port Cove marina at first light with a positive forecast of light and variable winds predicted by noon but of course mother nature had other plans with 3 foot waves becoming 5 footers on the nose so a brisk motor sail that tossed the cabin about real good-sandwiches both meals.It was wonderful to arrive on the Bahama banks with just a moderate chop,so nice that we sailed past Memory Rock and arrived at Mangrove Cay and in moonlight anchored exahausted about 10-30 pm and slept fitfully until bright daylight at 6 am.

Still In North Palm Beach.

We are still in North Palm as we did not want to cross over to the Bahamas Yesterday. The window to cross was going to be a short one with the winds scheduled to increase to 30 to 40 MPH by noon today. If we had crossed we would of had to anchor out in that with the wind and waves or taken a slip in an expensive marina for two or three days. Instead we will stay here with a few other cruisers and cross over around Thursday when it looks like we will have a much longer and calmer weather window. We did want to cross over the other day but why not make the crossing a pleasnt one rather than a chore? We rented a car this weekend and are exploring the area and filling the boat up with more supplies for the trip. We also went to the Movies and had a great meal today. We are at a wonderful Marina that is close to everything we could want and we could move out to the anchorage, but I decided we could afford to stay here and enjoy ourselves.

stuck

Still in West Palm Beach because of strong north winds,cold winds but the sun was warm during the day.Today we visited City Place-outdoor mall here and went to the fancy theater and saw the Imax movie ``Hubble`` in 3D,amazing video of the space shuttle repairing the Hubble telescope.It was also hilarious riding in Glenn`s old VW vanagan down Worth Avenue surrounded by Rolls,Mazaratis and Ferraris.It was a fun day made better by dinner with Eric Innes-my daughter in law`s dad.We listen to weather guru Chris Parker each am and based on his forecast the next weather window is this weekend-I`m getting eager to go already.   chris

getting closer

Today we made it to North Lake Worth, we got waked  by huge power boats and spilled everything about,I would rearrange and get another rude boater that wouldn`t slow down to pass.Anyway we arrived in one piece past six lift bridges and are in one very upper class hood.Tonight we were treated to xmas fireworks-totally crazy good as they were on a barge that moved about.Our friend Glenn beat us here as land transport, too tired tonight so made us chili and cornbread and watched fireworks from the boat.Now is the wait for wind that is not from the north so that we can cross over from here to the Abacos.For my Ohio friends we had sun and short sleeves but cool nights and 40`s at night next week.     chris

Vero Beach Mooring Field

We are still in Vero Beach waiting for the right weather to cross the Gulf Stream and it doesn't look like it will be right for about a week. We will move down to Lake Worth in the Palm Beach area on Saturday as that is where we will cross over to the Bahamas from.

Tonight we met Tom and Amy from Dreamcatcher, who's blog we have been following for the last couple of years to get information on cruising the Bahamas.