Lake Worth to Green Turtle.

We left the Lake Worth Inlet on Thursday afternoon on the way to Great Sale Cay with two other boats, Lee Ann and Madeline. We had a good crossing, about 4 ft swells with a 12 second period on our stern quarter. It wasn't a great crossing, but it wasn't bad either. We arrived about 3 AM and dropped the anchor for about 4 hours of sleep.

  The next morning after a quick breakfast and a top up of our fuel from the jerrycans we keep on the deck we raised the anchor and started off for Spanish Cay. On the way there Chris baked a cake for the skipper of Madeline as it was his birthday and we wanted to celebrate his birthday and his first trip to the Bahamas. We arrived there around 4 in the afternoon, tied up at the dock and checked in at the marina and then went to bed to catch up on sleep. When we awoke the next morning refreshed we checked in with Immigration and customs and took a short walk around the island. When we got back we found out that Michael on Madeline was refused entry into the country. He did not have a passport, but he had called customs two weeks earlier and had been told that if he had a valid ID and birth certificate there would be no problem. While we had been traveling apparently the Bahamas changed that policy 2 days previously and he now had to return to the U.S. They did let him stay at the marina to prep his boat for the return trip, but it was sad to say goodbye to him. We did have a great dinner that night and were able to celebrate his birthday in the Bahamas. The next afternoon we saw a fisherman catching lobsters on the break wall around the marina so we hailed him and made a deal for 15 lobsters. That night the new managers of Spanish Cay cooked them up and we had a lobster feast with them and the other boats, of course since I am allergic to shellfish I had grouper.
  This morning we set sail for the short 20 mile sail to Green Turtle cay with Lee Ann, where we now are. We took a dock at the Bluff House where they are having a dockage special where you spend two days and get the third free. Also the rate is only 90 cents a foot, so it is a good deal. We spent the afternoon catching up with old friends and meeting new ones at the new beach bar that the marina recently opened, great fun.
  In a couple of days we hope to start out for Marsh Harbour Marina and Jibroom, that's all for now.

Finally on the move.

We left Titusville this morning with two other boats and are finally on the way South and over to the Bahamas. Presently we are in Melbourne FL and plan to stop at Ft Pierce tomorrow, and then on to Lake Worth where we will wait for a good forecast to cross the Gulf Stream and enter the Bahamas banks. We plan to anchor at Great Sale Cay to rest up , and then on to Spanish Cay where we will check in with customs and immigration.

We presently at Westland marina preparing for our trip to the Abacos in The Bahamas. We have finished prepping the boat and are ready to start down the ICW to Palm Beach where we will cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahama banks and on to Abaco. We made many repairs to the boat over the last year and are ready to start out. Our first stop will be Melbourne, then Ft Pierce, and the final stop on the ICW will be Old Port Cove in North Palm Beach.

Barefoot Man 2013

We left Marsh Harbour marina this afternoon and are now at Orchid Bay Marina on Great Guana Cay. This afternoon was the early concert, and tomorrow will be the evening show. We had a great time this afternoon with most of the boats from Marsh Harbour Marina and others from all over Abaco. There was a big crowd and we had perfect weather, blue sky, not too hot, and the ocean was perfect.

Junior Junkanoo

We left walking for the Junior Junkanoo about 6 pm as that was when it was scheduled to start and it never has started on time all the times we have attended. We arrived at 6:30 and the first school started around 8 pm.There were around 10 groups and the kids really put on a good show with a lot of drumming and fancy footwork. After we watched the last group pass us we started to walk back to the Marina, but we were able to hail a cab and able to ride back to the Marina in style (except for Gary on the floor in the back). Tomorrow will be a clean up the boat  and laundry day.

Great Guanna Cay

We had a good forecast so we took off for Great Guana Cay on Wednesday morning and had a great couple of days over there. We ended up staying at Orchid Bay Marina as they had a dockage special of $.50 per ft per night. By that evening we had  4 other boats from the Jibroom and we all had fun exploring, beach combing and people watching at Nippers Beach Bar. We went to the Wednesday night potluck at Grabbers Bar where there was quite a variety of foods to sample. On Thursday night we all decided to have our own happy hour on the Gazebo of the Orchid Bay docks and it was fun until the mosquitoes came out and had their own happy hour. the next morning we decided to head back to Marsh Harbour so that we could attend the Junior Junkanoo Friday night.

Jibroom !!

We left Lake Worth on Monday after Superbowl Sunday at Old Port Cove Marina in North Lake Worth. We left The Palm Beach Inlet around 16:30 in the afternoon and arrived at the little Bahama Banks just South of Memory Rock about 01:00 in the morning and continued on to Great Sale Cay, arriving there around 11:00 Tuesday. The Gulf Stream crossing was a good one, one to two foot waves with a 3 foot swell. Once we got on the banks the waves picked up to three footers for a few hours but it quickly calmed down and we had a nice ride to Great Sale.  After a good rest at anchor we continued on to Spanish Cay on Wednesday arriving there about 15:00 and checked in with Customs. We were disappointed with Spanish Cay Marina this year as they did not open the bar and restaurant after hurricane sandy last year, although it was was nice catching up with friends there. Thursday was raining so we decided just spend one more night there and wait till Friday to leave. On Friday morning around 08:30 we left Spanish Cay and set sail for Marsh Harbour. As we left for the first hour the winds were right on the nose so we motor sailed into the wind until we were able to make the turn to the Southwest and catch the wind. We were able to keep around 6.5 Knots of speed all the way through the Whale Cay passage and on to Marsh Harbour arriving about 14:30 in the afternoon. With the WSW wind and no North Swell in the Atlantic the Whale Cay passage was just a one foot chop, great passage. As we arrived at The Jibroom ( www.jibroom.com ) we were met with a dock full of our friends and the marina staff, it is great to be among all of our friends again. We are now checking the calendar to see what is going on in the Abacos and where we will go next.