IT WAS A LONG WAY HOME...BUT WE'RE HERE!

Easter Sunday took us to Crandon Park Marina to take on fuel and water.  We needed to dump all the water out of the tanks we filled in Nassau as it did not taste good.  It was fine to wash dishes and take showers with but why not just put in all fresh water?  

From there we put up the sails and headed straight down Biscayne Bay.  At this point we decided we were pretty much just ready to get back to our home dock so we made quite a bit of progress every day. 

First stop was in Key Largo.  Went ashore for some music, food and fun.  First thing we saw was a rocket man, a guy on a jet pack.  It was fun to watch him maneuver.  There was an instructor on a jet ski who was running the “jet” so to say.  He had a long tether that supplied the water for the pack and he would shout out commands to the guy doing it telling him how to position his feet and distribute his weight to keep flying high.  I had never seen one of those before, looked like fun, although you do get wet  every time you come down but that is half the fun I would think. 

It was to the Caribbean Club for a beer.  This is a funky place and let’s just say there were a lot of interesting people.  Met a couple locals and enjoyed some music and the vibe.  

If you are ever in Key Largo, we can highly recommend the Big Chill.  For beer, atmosphere and great brick oven pizza, it can’t be beat!  We got back to Free Bird just as it was getting dark (yes, John was right to turn on the mast head light before we left) and settled in.  The Caribbean Club had a band that we hear from the back of the boat and they were great.  It was like having a private concert.  Great way to wrap up the evening.

Back to shore in the morning for breakfast at the Marriott.  Yes, we were treating ourselves a bit but don’t anticipate stopping a lot from here until we get back to the dock.  

I think the captain needs to build one of these for home!

 

Continued down through the ICW where again the water gets thin.  When I say thin I mean it is close to just 5 feet in depth.  We tried to time our arrival at these “skinny” points to coincide with high tide and must have done it just about right as we never felt the bottom.   To make my point about how shallow it was, check out this picture of the fisherman using the telescoping rod to push themselves along.  John thinks they were spearing fish, I am sticking with my version of the story.  Regardless it goes to my point that it was shallow.

It was time we got out of the sounds and into the Steamboat channel.  We actually took a free, yes, free mooring ball for the night at Lignumvitae  Key which is a State Park.  Unfortunately it was closed when we got there but it was time to stop as beyond this point we enter more of the Everglades and there is really no protected anchorages.  John went for a dinghy ride and I did some yoga and before we knew it another day was behind us.

Woke up and found we had a visitor in the night.  There was a shrimpy looking shrimp laying on our swim platform. 

I wanted to break out the cocktail sauce but John put him back in the water and we got underway immediately.  We had a lot of water to glide over to reach our desired destination for the day in Shark River.  We were in new waters for us now, the Yachtsman’s Channel which basically cuts off the rest of the Keys and we can finally turn to the North!   Another day of big travel as we needed to make it at least up to Cape Sable to find an anchorage.  There was a chance of wind and rain coming and we wanted to get to Shark River before it developed.  We got anchored there and within a half hour the wind started to build.  We watched a shelf cloud develop over us, reach out from the land to the sea and then the winds really picked up but we got no rain.  We watched it go right over the top of us and head south into Florida Bay.  Was kind of cool to watch it all, especially when we felt no real impact.  It turns out that days later we met up with some folks coming up the bay that day who ran into BAD weather that sunk 2 boats and forced them way offshore.  Guess we dodged a bullet on that one…

At this point it was pretty clear we had barn fever.  We were just ready to be back home at Fisherman’s Village.  The seas were predicted to be 2 feet or less and the wind 10 knots out of the East.  Sounded like perfect sailing weather to us so up go the sails.  I did not medicate Molly as we thought it would be kind of benign.  Well, needless to say, weather predictions are not always accurate and this day was no exception.  The winds were more like 15 to 20 and the seas 2 to 3 feet with like 1 second intervals.  We were offshore as our next waypoint dictated and the waves built, we were taking on sea spray and sailing like fiends.  Was a bit more than we anticipated but we were at speeds of up to 8 knots so made great time.  What I did not remember was that when I shut the top hatches over our bedroom area, I did not “dog” them down which would have sealed them and prevented any salt water from getting into the cabin.  By the time one of us went below to use the head, we discovered we had a lot of sea water all over our bedding.  Bummer!  I went down, disassembled it all and put it all in a net bag.  We arrived at our anchorage at Factory Bay in Marco Island and I draped all the wet linens I could over the boom and laid the rest on the deck to try to dry them out.  Things soaked in salt water never really dry but luckily we had one more set of clean sheets!

Weather had settled down and the following day we motored and sailed through Boca Grande Pass and into our favorite anchorage at Pelican Bay.  We were almost home!  It had been a full day and it was time to just relax before our final push into Punta Gorda.  We didn’t even put the motor on or take Marley out, we just chilled.

On Friday, April 1^st we woke to a beautiful day and sailed all the way up Charlotte Harbor under genoa only.  We got a call on the radio near the marina from S/V Avia.  They are the other boat from our marina that left the same day we did for Belize.  Amazing that they ended up coming back at the exact same time that we did as we looked over and there they were.  We both got in and were greeted by many of our fellow boaters.  Feels good to be home!  You know you are in Punta Gorda when you see the Easter Bunny manatee mailboxes! 

Nina and the Pinta are visiting our marina!

 

All in all, we put on 1,304 statute miles during this voyage and Free Bird performed flawlessly.  We enjoyed sharing our journey with you and are glad you came along for the ride.  Thanks to all of you who have joined our adventure by reading along.  

We will now be here in Punta Gorda for another month and then pull Free Bird up and store her in the boat yard before we leave around the 1^st of May. 

If more adventures come our way we’ll be sure to let you know.  In the meantime, happy Spring!!    

COMING FULL CIRCLE

From Shroud Cay we went to Highbourne Cay for a night.  Just anchored outside the harbor.  This was a natural stopping point before continuing to New Providence.  It was the beginning of John’s birthday weekend.  

And they meant it!

John taking in the view from Highbourne

Another Banana Chit kept us company

As we bid goodbye to his 60th year, we found ourselves at the Marina and Resort's upscale watering hole, imagine that!  It was too hot to even hike there which was a shame since others had told us it was a great place to walk and bike around.  All we got in here were a few drinks and a nice dinghy ride.  Left the next day and wanted to go back to that nice marina we had been too before at Palm Cay but they were full.  We should have called earlier.  

Weather was approaching and we needed to get somewhere so our only alternative was to go into Nassau.  We avoided Nassau on the way down as we’ve heard it is a zoo…and they were right!  Took a slip at Yacht Haven Marina for $2/foot per night. 

Pros – big laundry facility, store and awesome bakery not far away, Poop Deck restaurant on site, clean showers.  Cons – lots of wake form boat traffic, surge from the sea, constant activity, just a busy place.  And you need to pay for water, $10/ day which gives you shower privileges but the water pressure at the dock was a trickle, and nasty tasting to boot. 

Tall ship staying at our marina

We stayed here for 4 nights due to high winds and made the best of it.  The good news is that we actually got power at the dock and had air conditioning for the 1^st time since we left home.  Nice to dry out the boat and ourselves!  That was nice even if we were constantly rocking.  We got off the boat a lot and walked all over the place.  We had to reprovision and do laundry but the rest of the time we played.  Dined out a few times, hit a brewery and a rum distillery, explored walking the streets, bridges and beaches of the city just taking in all in. 

We went under and over the bridges atop Potter's Cay which is basically the lifeline for the local community.  Ferries dock and disembark from here, the fisherman and conchers all line up to sell their catch, the mail and inter island boats supply here as well as drop off cargo and more.

It is truly the heartbeat of the city whereas downtown is somewhat in decay. They are improving some of the areas closer to where the cruise ships dock but there is a lot of the area that is run down and not so great.  But then you get up on the hill where the distillery is and the museums are and it is kind of a cool area. And if you go further beyond that along the waterfront it opens up into the Junkanoo beach and Cable beach which are both nice.  

Junkanoo Museum

Hand dug 74 foot well

A mass baptism taking pleace on Palm Sunday

 

Junkanoo Beach

 

Cool tiled pictures on street fronts of shops

The last day we headed over to check out Atlantis Resort and Casino. It really is very well done with big Chihuly sculptures in the casino, a floor to ceiling, wall to wall aquarium and the grounds and waterparks were quite something.  It was worth a walk over the bridge to Paradise Island to check it out.  

And the super yachts, oh my! We have seen a lot of them on this trip but this was the biggest concentration of them yet.  Somehow, John and I got into a secured area where only the mega yacht guests could be and we were able to walk right in front of all these ships.  We obviously slipped through the cracks as when we went to get out, they looked at us like "how did you get in here"?

By the time the winds and seas tamed enough for us to leave, we were more than ready.  At 8AM we got permission from Nassau Harbor Control to leave (everyone has to call on the radio to get permission to move anywhere within the harbor due to all the freighters and cruise ships moving around) and we were outta there. 

Nassau Light

Put up both sails and sailed our way overnight 125 nautical miles, 21 hours all the way back to Bimini.  The weather was such we could have kept going to Florida but we were pretty tired.  We arrived and it was 4AM so rather than enter the harbor at night, we dropped anchor just outside and slept for 4 hours.  There was quite a bit of surge and it was rolly so we were back up at 9 AM and headed into Blue Waters Marina.  Should have gone to sleep but we just stayed up and made a day of it.  Went for a swim, took a walk and it was early to bed for us.

Since we had already spent so much time in Bimini, didn’t feel like there was anything yet to do but we needed to stay another night to wait for a weather window to cross back to Florida.  It was Good Friday and what a big deal Easter weekend is if you are Bahamian.  We knew there were going to be street celebrations but what we DID NOT know is that the LOUD music would go on until 4AM.  And it was that constant thumping bass that goes right through you kind of music – UGG!  Needless to say we got very little sleep, got up at 6:30 AM and were underway by 8:15.  Winds were great, we put up both sails and glided across the Gulf Stream.  Had a much better crossing than on the way over.  Waves were about 2 -3 feet and a SE wind gave Free Bird flight right over to Key Biscayne.  Got in about 5:30 and Floridians were out boating in force!  Wow, lots of boats, people, music, radio chatter, Coast Guard and Harbor Patrol activity – apparently we just traded one zoo for another! 

Our new Miami "zoo" anchorage

At least we were back in the “states” again.  We had applied for and gotten approved for the “Local Boaters Option” so all we had to do to clear customes was call an 800# and check in from our anchorage.  They gave us an authorization number and we were officially back with no more hassle than that.  Highly recommend it to any boater who is leaving the country to take the time to get the permit to do this, it was well worth it!  

The Bahamas portion of our trip is now behind us but we will continue to explore ans seek out new places, people and things as we head home to Fisherman's Village!

HAWKSBILL AND SHROUD

From Cambridge Cay, we took an unconventional path (John is getting into taking backwaters it seems) and headed north towards Hawksbill Cay.

Ultralights overhead - these islands must be gorgeous from the air!

Molly just being...Molly!

We had heard from several people that Hawksbill was great so we were really looking forward to it.  We found yet another great beach and in to hike we go.  
The trail started out great but faded quickly leaving us wondering which way to turn?  We did see some new animals and decided tomorrow was another day.

Can't get enough of these beaches...

This snail looks like it is made of wood?

This guy had a blue belly!  Saw lots of them here.

Trail when it was good...

The next day John was bound and determined we were going to get to the Loyalist ruins that this island is known for.  The Loyalists (who were loyal to the the British Crown) were peoples who left America and called this island their home and sought refuge here after the American Revolution.  That is what we were trying to hike to yesterday and to give up on.  There is another trail that we could only get to at high tide so we waited and made our appearance onshore accordingly.  It was only a short hike up and we came upn the Russell Ruins.  

John found a hand forged stake

Storage cellar

These conch shells are "really" old

In stark contrast, we watched the helicopter land on this mega yacht anchored nearby.

We had been watching for the elusive and declining White-Tailed Tropicbird. Was so happy to actually spot one!  They are one of the few birds who actually drink saltwater.

Next morning it was time to move to Shroud Cay.  When we got there it was HOT!  We were doing all we could to combat the heat on board and as soon as we got anchored we started covering and tenting Free Bird with anything we could find to shield her from the sun - tarps, sheets, it didn't matter if we looked like the Door County hillbillies (and I think we kind of did), but it was HOT!

Then we got off the boat and took the longest dinghy ride yet, like 5 miles. Friends had told us about taking a ride through a mangrove river and coming out on the ocean side.  It was really cool and unlike anything we had done to date.  I kept praying that the engine didn't die because rowing all the way would not be an option.

Mangrove river

Opening to ocean

 

Awesome bird, still not sure what he is?

 

It was really beautiful!  The tide was rushing in so we parked the dinghy and walked out the sand spit, got in the water and it carried us back in.  Really cool and of course, our faithful Marley got us safely back to Free Bird!