Ben checking out the back end of one of the caves at Rocky Dundas.

Cool stalactites and column formations in the caves.

Bones! Can you see them?

Trying to fool said bones . . . . We left the fly rod at the boat but were able to hook several.

Heading off on a conch hunt.

View from the top of Cambridge Cay.

Big guy cruising through the anchorage at dinner time.

Nat with a HUGE land hermit crab.

Exploring.

Betsy found this full, intact spiny lobster molt.

Feels good to stretch the legs after being on board for so long!

Heading back from a hike up a mangrove creek.

Just before he hopped on board!

Snack time.

Not something you see everyday.

Taking a break.

Beautiful flats, islets and cuts.

School is done for the day!

Dinner.

Northern Exumas

We are having an amazing time in the Exumas.  We have been off the grid for more than a week and it has been fabulous.  Most mornings we are up early listening to the weather on the SSB and doing schoolwork.  After lunch we play, and after we play we typically cook up something that we caught or found during the day.  And then we end the day with a sharp card game, usually poker or hearts. 

We left Nassau last Monday and headed to Norman's Cay and arrived after a much longer than expected sail across the Yellow Bank and it's scattered coral heads.  We found a beautiful, quiet empty anchorage on the West side of the island and spent two days all by ourselves, exploring, fishing (Win caught a nice Bar Jack that we cooked up for dinner), paddle-boarding and recovering from "it" -- our pneumonia friend.  Sam battled a return of his fever and we decided to stay in the area for a few days until he improved and we were certain that we were not going to head back to the Dr. in Nassau.  On Wednesday we moved around to the south side of the island for two days and anchored in a cut that heads out to Exuma Sound.  The island used to be the base of Colombian drug runner Carlos Leder during the heyday of drug trading in the area.  It's mostly abandoned now, littered with bullet riddled buildings and home to an old plane wreck in the cut that we anchored in.  We spent two days gunk holing with the inflatable, spear fishing and conching.  The remoteness and colors of the water are hard to describe.  Sam caught his first bonefish of the trip and Ben hooked and lost a few others! 

After Norman's we moved to Cambridge Cay in the Exuma Land and Sea Park.  The islands and reefs are completely protected from fishing, conching, and shelling -- it's amazing what happens when nature is left alone!  From our mooring we explored north and south of the Cay for three days.  We snorkeled into big caves at Rocky Dundas, swam over beautiful coral gardens, hiked on high limestone cliffs, walked up a dry mangrove creek, and swam in the "sea aquarium", where fish swim right up to your mask.  One highlight was Ben spotting a Barn Owl tucked in a nook in the rocky cliffs above Exuma Sound.  After we watched it for a bit, it took off and soared up and over our heads.  Not something you expect to see in the Bahamas!  Another highlight was watching the sharks that cruised by the boat during the evenings, including a huge bull shark that hung off our transom a few times. On Saturday night we went to a sunset pot-luck on a small island with lots of interesting fellow cruisers.

On Monday we left Cambridge and sailed south to Big Majors Spot, where we were promised a visit with feral swimming pigs -- yes, swimming pigs!  Before dinner we took a quick trip to the beach with some rotten apples and much to our delight we were greeted by a half-dozen very large pigs that swim our from the beach to get hand-outs from passing cruisers.  All was fun and very silly until we entered more shallow water and a large spotted pig jumped up and onto the zodiac!  He rooted around in our bag and left when he realized we were out of treats.  When he returned, I scolded him and rapped him on the nose with a loud "leave it!!!" and he left (much like a well-trained dog). 

Tuesday morning we ventured into Staniel Cay hoping for internet and some fresh milk. We scored milk, fresh bread, fruits and vegetables but no reliable network.  In the afternoon we snorkeled Thunderball Grotto, which was made famous in the James Bond film "Thunderball".  It was beautiful and at low tide we were able to snorkel in without having to dive under the lip at the entrance.  The grotto is chock full of fish, which the kids fed frozen peas to.  The fish swarmed the kids head-to-toe and a big Queen Angelfish took a bite at Nat's finger.  The sunlight streaming through the ceiling of the grotto was spectacular.  Definitely a highlight for the whole family.  Nat and Ben spearfished on the way back to the boat and Sam and Win headed out for a quick fish at sunset.

We left Big Major Spot this morning and headed for a settlement called Black Point on Great Guana Cay. It has reliable internet and a coin-operated laundry -- two things we haven't seen for a while. Much to Ben's delight they also have a lot of sea glass on the town beach. We were able get online and catch up on some business from back home and download all of our email.  Win and Sam just returned from a short fishing trip (Win, as usual, outfished Sam and picked up a bunch of fish, including a huge needlefish and a nice Strawberry Grouper) and I found some home-made conch fritter batter in town today, so we're in the process of cooking up a fantastic dinner of grouper, conch fritters and plantains.  Then onto a competitive game of hearts. 

We should have reliable cell coverage for the next few weeks, so please feel free to call us at anytime, for any reason (incoming calls are free for us).  We always love to hear from folks back home.   
 

Across and Healthy, Finally!

Hello all. As Betsy mentioned earlier, we're all safe and sound in Nassau after a fairly uneventful crossing. We left Ft. Lauderdale around 2am on Wednesday morning, and headed about 15nm south for the first leg of our trip. Even though our destination was almost due east, we needed to head south in order to counteract the 3+kt Gulf Stream current, which would carry us more than 20nm north during our crossing. The wind wasn't exactly as forecasted -- a north wind filled in early in the morning, which made things a bit choppy for a while (wind against current = steep waves). But things settled down nicely in the late morning. By noon, we were on the Bahamian Bank, cruising east in about 20 feet of crystal clear water. We finally dropped the hook around 7:30pm at the NW Shoal, in about 10 feet of water. Kind of strange to be anchored up in the middle of the ocean, tens of miles away from any land.
The next morning we shot straight over to Frazer's Hog Cay to clear customs and anchor up for the night. Frazer's is a small island in the southern Berry Island chain, right next to its more well-known and more well-populated brother, Chubb Cay. I had an amusing ride to the Chubb Cay airport/customs office (the islands are connected by a dirt road that is mostly dry at high tide), which turned into a 2 hour scavenger hunt for 4 bolts that another sailor staying at Frazer's needed for his engine. Herman, who lived on Frazer's with "five, maybe six" other full time residents, led me through a half-dozen warehouses, dumps and shipping containers in an ultimately successful attempt to find the bolts. A great back-stage tour of of Chubb and Frazer's. When Herman finally presented the bolts to the sailor back on Frazer's, he refused to accept anything for all of his work.
That night, Ben, Nat and I really started to go down-hill healthwise. So we hightailed it over to Nassau the next morning, picking up a nice Mahi on the way in, and headed straight to the clinic. The entire clinic was fantastic, and the Dr. immediately suspected that the "virus" we had been diagnosed with in Ft. Lauderdale (and thought we had recovered from) was instead bacterial pneumonia. She confirmed this with x-rays, etc. and started Nat, Ben, Betsy and me on an aggressive course of antibiotics and other treatments. These have done the trick; after several days of meds and rest, we're all feeling great and ready to start enjoying the trip again.
On another note, Win celebrated his 7th birthday yesterday. Betsy somehow managed to bake a cake (the boat was rocking and rolling at the dock in 25kt winds), which we shared with a really interesting family from Florida whom we met a few days ago. They have two young boys and are just starting out on a circumnavigation in their 46 foot cat. Very, very cool. We had fresh Mahi for dinner, which was fantastic. And even better, Win, Ben and Nat (and their mom) managed to get finagle a few Wahoo steaks from a sportfisherman just down the dock. Can't wait to have those!
Our tentative plan is to head down to Norman's Cay (northern Exumas) this morning, and then slowly work our way south along the Exuma chain. Hopefully, we can catch up with our friends the Schnaucks down in Georgetown, Exuma, and possibly a few other folks that we've met so far. Then, who knows?
ONE LAST POINT -- We have a Bahamian cell phone now. The number is 242-449-3101. I believe incoming calls from the states are free for us (and pretty cheap for the caller), so feel free to call us anytime.

Safe in Nassau

We are safe in Nassau.  We will fill-in the details of our travels later when we have better internet.  We are tied-up in a marina waiting out a blow and getting better from our dreaded illness.  We are celebrating Win's 7th birthday today with a fresh-caught mahi mahi.    

Waiting

We're waiting and coughing. Our cold is more of a flu and we have battled several days of fever and aches. We were too sick to leave Thursday and now it's blowing hard. We are looking ahead to possibly going to Bimini on Sunday where we might catch part of the football game. Fortunately there are always projects to do on boats so we are not bored. Win and Sam rallied for a five minute fishing trip under the bridge last night and caught a couple of Jacks. It was nice to see a few smiles!

20 Bascule Bridges, And now we wait....

Greetings from sunny Southern Florida.  We are on a mooring in Ft. Lauderdale waiting for a weather window that will allow safe passage over the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas.  We spent two days in Ft. Pierce to get projects done and rest.  Noni treated the boys to a nice dinner at the local "Tiki Bar" and they had their first conch of the trip.  Sunday we moved down the "Gold Coast" to Palm Beach.  This was an interesting stretch of the ICW that shifted between heavily developed canals and intermittent pockets of wild mangroves We anchored just off the ICW in front of multi-million dollar homes within sight of cruise ships, mega-yachts, and the famous Breakers Hotel.   We enjoyed our last night with my Mom and the boys kept her up playing poker with the poker chips she gave Ben for his Birthday.  Lake Worth (Palm Beach) was the Northernmost spot that we considered crossing to the Bahamas.  Unfortunately the weather was not going to cooperate for the next few days and we decided to move further South to Ft. Lauderdale.  The stretch of the ICW we faced on Monday has 20 Bascule bridges (double draw-bridges), each with it's own schedule.  Needless to say, hurrying to the next bridge and then other times waiting for bridges is not easy on the Captain.  As you approach a bridge you contact them via radio, ask for their next opening and then wait.  Waiting in a narrow canal with currents in a 46 foot sailboat would unnerve most people but Sam is a cool cat.  Midday Monday found us in Delray Beach and we dropped off my Mom on a dock where she is visiting friends and hopefully catching-up with her brother.  We slowly, thanks to the bridge schedule, made our way to Ft. Lauderdale and tied up on a mooring at a municipal marina.  Tomorrow we will rent a car and supply the boat for the crossing.  We need fuel, propane, food, and a few things from West Marine.  We are considering a short passage on Thursday to Bimini if the weather looks right.  Everyone except Win has a cold and we may wait it out here until the next weather window on Sunday.....

Fish On!  Win hooked a nice Fluke in Palm Beach......

Much to everyone's delight it was attacked by a large barracuda before he could land dinner!

Mega-yachts in West Palm - notice the sailboat in the foreground.

Sign on the 18th bridge, welcoming us to Ft. Lauderdale.

View of the 20th bridge from our mooring