Laurie and Ken

Laurie and Ken

Friday 30 December 2016

We are on New Providence Island
 
This is the same Island as Nassau but, we don't want to go there. Nassau has a very high crime rate and we want to stay as far away as we can from there. We have dropped anchor in West Bay at the other end of the Island. We left Bimini on Tuesday Dec 29 because we saw a weather window opening. We needed 2 days to cross 120 miles over the Bahama Grand Banks to New Providence Island. We left at 7 am and it was a calm day on the water. We traveled until the sun was about to set and we dropped anchor, yep right in the middle of the ocean. we were in 15 feet of water and we didn't want to travel in the dark so here's a few pictures from where we stopped.

 No one in site but the three of us boats traveling together.
And here's the sun set.  
 
 
The orange seem to stay for a long time.
 
 
 
When it got dark it was very dark. We didn't have any moon and it was like being in a dark room with little lights. The stars were amazing and we stayed up for about an hour staring at the sky. We finally made our way to bed just before sailors midnight, 9pm. Next day we were up at 6am and on our way at 6:30. It was another long day to get to West Bay at New Providence Island. Laurie was very amused watching the flying fish, she has never seen them before. We cross over the Grand Banks and then the Tongue of the Ocean. The Tongue of the Ocean is between the Andros Island and New Providence and can be up to 2000 feet deep. We arrived around 4:30 and were very tired. Now the weather has closed in on us for the next few days. There is front passing by us and the wind and seas are up so here we will sit in our protected anchorage for the next 3 or 4 days.

 

Monday 26 December 2016

This is my first post by Laurie
 
 
Since Ken had some boat stuff to do. I did a bit of exploring around Bimini.
So now its time for "So Here's Interesting Tidbits" SHIT for short!

 A few interesting things that I found out about Bimini is. Some people here think that it is the remnants of the " Lost City Of Atlantis". Also Ernest Hemmingway called this his summer home.
Jimmy Buffett spent time here writing his book.


The highlight of this island for me is the Dolphin House...A local man called Ashley Sanders built this two story house over 20 years by hand. He created this house made from scraps that has been washed up to shore. The walls are made from shells, rocks, sea glass, coral and ground material. He is famous for 27 mosaic and sculpted dolphins. A lot of conch shells add to the charm . He built this house in 1993. It is truly a "Poetry In Stone". Ashly was inspired for his love and passion for dolphins from swimming with them as a child. He is also a local author who wrote books on the island. A scholar and historian makes him a truly interesting man. We were very fortunate to have a private tour by him and all he wanted was a 5 dollar donation. Here are a few pictures of the Dolphin House.
 Ashley and me
Beautiful Turtle Shell found on the beach
 Sea glass and stone
Sea horse made from shells
fan coral with sea glass 
 conch shells in concrete all hand mixed
sea glass and mosaic walls
 
Thought about you Cheryl, Edna, and Christine. You would love this.....

 
 
 
Bimini honors the great Martin Luther King Jr. with a memorial plaque. This bronze bust of his image is displayed at the craft center in Alice Town. This has a significant impact on the people. Martin Luther king Jr. composed parts of his famous Nobel Peace Prize speech while sailing with a local boat builder who still lives on the island today.
 
 

 
 

Sunday 25 December 2016

Merry Christmas Every One
It's Christmas morning and we are relaxing after a busy day yesterday We started off with a trolley ride to both ends of the island. Some one said that if you stood on the east side of the island and hit a home run ball it would land in the ocean on the west side. The island is about 300 yards wide and about 3 miles long. At the north end is a Hilton resort. Here's a few pictures from the trolley ride.


 Hilton Resort

 Sitting by the pool with the boats in the background
 Lunch on the beach, drinking the local brew
 Walking back from the beach. Very narrow streets and they also drive on the wrong side.

 We went to the Big Game Resort Club to watch them feed the sharks. They feed them every night at 6pm. These are Bull Sharks about 15 feet long
 
 
Today we plan to go to the beach and just relax. For dinner will be having lobster tails. Another day in paradise!
Also maybe tonight Laurie may do her first post. She has been researching what the Island is all about. So that means it will been time for "So Here's Interesting Tidbits" SHIT for short!
Stay close to your computers this good get exciting!
                                            Enjoy your Christmas day.
 




Thursday 22 December 2016

We Are In The Bahamas!
Every day we waited in No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne we had to provision with more food and other things. For example, Laurie told me if there are no ice cream stores in the Bahamas then she has to have lobster. So off to the dive shop to get a lobster snare.

 Lobster snare
Hawaiian sling to spear fish.
 
We have had a great time in this harbor, getting little jobs done and swimming and going to the beach. Here's some pictures of No Name Harbor.

 
We had been watching for a weather window to make our crossing to the Bahamas. We could see a window but we decided to get an expert opinion. One of our group hired a weather expert and told us we could leave Wednesday night at 10 pm but we decided we could still go early in the morning. We pulled up anchor at 4:30 am and off we went in the dark. When we got away from land the ocean was rough and we couldn't see a thing because there was no moon. This makes it hard because you cant see the horizon or you can see the waves coming at you. By daylight we could see the swells were 6 to 8 feet high. But it could have been worse. We were on our way and there was no turning back. After about three hours the waves settled down to about 4 to 5 feet. Then about 2 hours from Bimini they were about 2 feet. We arrived in Bimini Bahamas around 1:30 pm so that was a short day. Laurie was a little sea sick so we didn't get any pictures of the crossing. The ocean was a wonderful blue color. The only way I can describe it is it was the same color as toilet bowl cleaner blue. Sounds strange but that's the way I see it! As we got close to shore the color of the water got more a clear blue. Here's a few pictures.

 
Once we docked cleared customs and immigration it was time to celebrate. The three boats that crossed together decide to have a drink of champagne.
 Of course Canadian Champagne.
Christmas in the Bahamas will be great.
 



Wednesday 21 December 2016

We want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
 
 

Sunday 18 December 2016

Saturday 17 December 2016

Waiting for a weather window
 
Yesterday we moved over to an anchorage call "No Name Harbor" at Biscayne Key to wait for the right weather to make our way to the Bahamas. When we see a good weather window we will head south 20 miles to Elliot Key the day before, and leave from there. We are looking for a wind from the south or west or no wind at all. We also cant go if there is a north or east wind because the waves would be to rough. The Gulf Stream has a lot of current so the trick is to start 25 miles south of where you want to go and point straight across. As you sail straight across the current will push you north. So if your sailing at 5 knots and your going 50 miles you have to allow for a 25 mile drift north. You will also know when you enter the Gulf Stream by the water temperature. The Stream is warmer water so we watch the temperature as we sail over. When we get into the stream we will see the temperature rising and when it starts to fall we know we are past the middle. As we made our way here to No Name Harbor we noticed some homes on stilts in the middle of the ocean. So that means it's time for;
                                  So Here's Interesting Tid bits, SHIT for short

We saw these houses in the middle of the ocean and it's called stiltsville. So here's some information about that.
Stiltsville is a group of wood stilt houses located one mile south of Cape Florida on sand banks of the Safety Valve on the edge of Biscayne Bay in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The structures stand on wood or reinforced concrete pilings, generally ten feet above the shallow water which varies from one to three feet deep at low tide.
 
Party Central
Stiltsville in the 1940s and 1950s was a popular place where lawyers, bankers, politicians, and other moneyed, well-connected Miamians came to drink, relax and kick back. Law enforcement periodically visited the area, looking for vice activities.
 
Jimmy Ellenburg house
Florida's Governor LeRoy Collins (1955–1961) was a frequent visitor during the 1950s, a guest of Jimmy Ellenburg at his house in the flats. Ellenburg established his barge near Crawfish Eddie in 1939 and was known as the unofficial mayor of Stiltsville
From the 1950s to the 1960s, Stiltsville's style matured from ramshackle to lodge, some with architectural styles, including the "A-frame" house; the Leshaw House, with its distinctive Mansard roof; and the uniquely shaped Baldwin, Sessions & Shaw House, which was featured in a national ad campaign for Pittsburgh Paints. These three houses, as well as the Ellenburg house, were among the seven buildings included in the 2003 Stiltsville Trust. Nearly all of the structures included full wrap-around porches. At its peak in 1960, there were 27 buildings.
 
At the beginning of 1992, there were 14 "campsites" with structures present at Stiltsville. After Hurricane Andrew struck on August 24, 1992, only seven buildings survived and were still standing by July 1, 1999

Life Magazine featured another article on Stiltsville, 57 years after the original. The November, 1998 issue included an article entitled, STILTSVILLE: The residents of a fading Florida community make a stand to save it. Today no one lives in the houses but the buildings have been handed over to the National Park Service preserve.

The park service added hurricane strapping to protect the structures from wind damage in major storms. Caretakers still perform basic maintenance on their former weekend retreats, but the Stiltsville buildings are owned by the National Park Service and have been secured and posted with no trespassing signs. Access to the buildings by non-trust members is by permission of the park's superintendent 
 
There's some interesting SHIT!


 
 
Daytona Beach
When we stayed in Daytona Beach we could hear the cars racing from far away. Daytona is famous for the Daytona 500 race in February and for Bike week in March. I didn't know that in the 1900's Louis Chevrolet and Henry Ford would use the beach area for racing and testing the new engines. They liked the hard packed sand and the big open wide area.
There's some interesting SHIT!

Thursday 15 December 2016


Miami!
We moved to a marina in Palm Beach after leaving the anchorage in Peck Lake due to poor weather. We stayed in the marina for 2 days while the cold front passed. We left the marina Monday morning for another anchorage in Boca Raton. From Palm Beach to Miami will be very long days because of waiting for the bascule bridges to open. There openings are timed for the boater but if you get into a strong current because of the falling or rising tides sometimes you cant make the opening. Some bridges open when you get there and some open on the hour and half hour. Then some open on the quarter hour and three quarter hour. If you can time it right you don't have to stop. In the last two days we have gone through 33 bridges.

Passing through Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Miami was interesting. I thought the houses on the Inter Coastal Waterway (ICW) in South Carolina were very nice but some of these house are over the top. It's hard to imagine who owns these and why some one needs a house so big. Then you wonder if these are permanent homes or winter homes.

 Nice Xmas decorations


Then you see the big homes with there boat parked in front. These are some of the smaller boats we saw.
 
Finally we arrived in Miami. There is a lot of condo building going on in this area.


 
We are now south of Miami in Coconut Grove and it is hot. The temperature the last few days has been in the mid 80's and its humid. We arrived on the Tuesday 13th after a long day so Wednesday was a work day. Change the engine fluids, change the impeller and tighten all belts. Also put together and mount a new BBQ. It was a hot busy day. Today will be another busy day provisioning for the next step. Also tonight will be our last dinner with the rally group. The rally has now finish and we have reach our destination, Dinner Ker Marina in Coconut Grove. We left Hampton Virginia with 20 boats and finished with ten. Some broke down some went as far as they planned. This rally has been a great time and I would recommend this to anyone. We have met so many great people and visited so many great places with these great people. We have made some friends for life and it's sad so say goodbye to everyone. We plan to continue on to the Bimini Bahamas with five of the boats. Some of us will stay together and some will move on. Friday we plan to go to Biscayne Key which is 5 miles away and then to Key Largo. Here we will wait for a weather window to cross over and I hope we can get there before Xmas. This is where the start of our next adventure will begin.
Sorry again I have been to busy to gather any SHIT! Should have some next time.