Week two of our Bahama Adventure

The colored dots on the black line indicate our locations during the dates of February 14-today.

(Click on any photo in blog to enlarge. Go to the go back arrow at top left of page to resume viewing of blog.)




February 14 Top photo, red dot- West End

February 17 Yellow dot - Great Sale Cay anchorage

February 18 Green dot - Green Turtle mooring ball

February 19-21 Green dot - Green Turtle Club, Green Turtle Cay

February 22- Blue dot - Sea Spray Marina, White Sound, Elbow Cay, Abaco








Great Sale Cay anchorage photo of us taken by the boat Kismet

Green Turtle Cay walk on the beach

Dinner with Jim and Lisa at Green Turtle Club







St Peter's Episcopal Church! Linda was a member of a St. Peter's Episcopal church in Tecumseh, Michigan, growing up!

To conserve water, rocks are placed to form water barriers.

We followed the tradition at the Green Turtle Club Bar by putting our dollar on the wall.

The Bahamian money and the U.S. money are interchangeable.

Lisa and Charlie doing the honors.

A refreshing happy hour beverage, tried and true

Sunset at our slip where we currently are - Sea Spray Marina, Elbow Cay

Things are definitely laid back here at Sea Spray. We have no cell phone coverage, just a phone card if needed, no TV, internet usage VERY limited, (no air card coverage here with Verizon internet so we sign up for once a week for $15 per day and it is not the greatest)

Charlie is getting out his new saltwater fishing gear and Linda is getting her watercolor paints and brushes ready!

Weather still not real warm here in February but we are enjoying mid 70's and lots of sun.

Good sleeping with the portholes cracked open.

Sincerely,

Linda and Charlie

More Photos of Ft. Lauderdale

Photos of us from our friends Jim and Lisa. We hope you enjoy!

Above- February 14- We are leaving for our Atlantic Crossing! This "Ruby Princess" cruise boat is the same one Jody and Carrie took for their Christmas Cruise this year! We felt so small here!

We are in our slip at Cooley's Marina in downtown Ft. Lauderdale; in the middle of photo

On right, Charlie likes the house rules...Maybe for the First Mates, he says?

Entering Ft. Lauderdale

Tribute to the U.S. Navy

Charlie took this photo and I smiled big to honor my Dad, Mel who served proudly in WWII.

Sincerely, Linda and Charlie

Freedom's Turn Arrives in the Bahamas

I write this on Thursday, February 19 and it marks our fifth day in Bahamian waters. We arrived with the boat Kismet this morning to the Green Turtle Club on Green Turtle Cay, Abaco, Bahamas. We are about 170 miles due east of West Palm Beach, Florida. It is a sunny but very windy day of 73 degrees. Weather is supposed to have gale force winds the next two days so we are glad to be tucked in here.

This blog begins with our Atlantic crossing on February 14, then reverts backwards to our stay in Ft. Lauderdale February 11-13 and ends on February 11 when we left Key Biscayne and cruised through Miami.

The Crossing: February 14, 2009

Freedom’s Turn made her Atlantic crossing safely on Saturday, February 14 from Ft. Lauderdale to West End of Grand Bahama Island. We had the pleasure of having the company of Jim and Lisa from the boat Kismet as our buddy boat and hope to continue traveling together to our mutual destination of Sea Spray Marina on Elbow Cay in the Abacos by Saturday, February 21 or so. Our Atlantic crossing was safe and a thrill. Up to that day, we had traveled 2,939 miles since leaving our home port of Cheboygan, Michigan on August 8, 2008.

And by crossing the Atlantic Ocean in our very own boat, Charlie and I have now accomplished a starred item on our “Bucket” list!

Day 192 of our Great Loop Trip- Ft Lauderdale, 6:30 a.m. Bahamas bound today.

This is the main channel to the ocean that all the big cruise boats come in and out of. We had to navigate around five big cruise ships. The main one above, is a Princess boat similiar to what Carrie and Jody just took on a cruise at Christmas and one in the distance is a Celebrity boat similair to what Charlie and I had taken two years ago, both out of this same channel. For us, coming back on our own boat now, it was a feeling like completing a life circle! Kismet leads the way for us as we navigated ourselves out of the New River, where we stayed three miles up river at Cooley's marina in downtown Ft. Lauderdale for the past three nights. We studied the weather several times each day while in Ft. Lauderdale and delayed our departure day by one day. Jim and Charlie said this was the day to go so go we did.

Our crossing took us 8 nautical miles east to the Gulf Stream, then crossed the 25 miles wide Gulf Stream in a path heading north and east to the West End of Grand Bahama Island. The trip took 9 hours and we traveled 75 nautical miles.

At 7 a.m. the seas were 79.7 degrees with the winds at 8.15 knots coming out of the WSW. Wave height was 2 ft with big rollers every minute or two and it became choppy until we reached the Gulf Steam where the seas settled down a bit. We felt more free to move around then, but Linda relied on eating her crystallized ginger root candy to settle her stomach.

Freedom's Turn's speed was set at 7 knots. When we settled into the Gulf Stream, our gage indicating SOG (speed over ground) showed 9.4 knots, telling us that the Gulf Stream was giving us about a 2.4 knot boost north and east. Thus, Charlie set our course 18 nautical miles south of West End, counting on the Gulf Steam currents to give us that 2 knot boost north and west over the 9 hours. The water temperature increased to 81 degrees in the Gulf Stream.

When planning a crossing of the Gulf Stream in a small boat, wind speed and wind direction are probably the most important factor in deciding when to cross. In all our readings and advice given to us, it was best to have no northerly component in the wind direction and only go with a wind speed of 10-15 knots maximum. We follow these weather web sites to help us: Passageweather.com, sailflow.com, ikitesurf.com and weatherunderground.

Other important factors to consider are having full fuel tanks, engine in top notch condition, acurate depth sounder, GPS on target and your VHF marine radio working perfectly. Charlie had gone over the entire boat from top to bottom with all mechanical systems a go. But you never know what may go haywire at any given boat.

Having a buddy boat to travel with in the Ocean is highly recommended for pleasure craft boats. Should a need arise, one can feel more comfortable to have other people nearby on a backup boat for help. Also, different boats can take turns leading the way. This offers relief from always being on top of things or from always looking into the sun directly. And it is a great way to share both information back and forth as well as help pass the time because the hours can get long while cruising.

The day was all about the color blue. The bluest of skies and the most beautiful shade of indigo blue for the water. (This ocean water blue reminded me of the same color of the bridesmaids’ gowns for Carrie and Jody's wedding!)

Out in the ocean with no land to see, we felt our insignificance in the grand scheme of things. The forces of Mother Nature were direct and all powerful. We felt like a small speck in the biggest field of energy and life we could have ever imagined. This notion can work on your mind in an unnerving way if you let it.

So we concentrated on business as usual and settled into eating our bowls of cereal with bananas at lunch time and kept telling ourselves we could and we were doing this! We talked about how far we thought we could see in the distance. Charlie gave me some of his trivia wisdom. ( as first mate I listen wide eyed and alert)) He said “if one is standing on flat land with nothing to block their view, one can see about 9 miles away and not much further, due to the curvature of the earth. Since we are up 12 feet while cruising, I bet we can see farther than 9 miles.” ( I smile and take this into account.)

I remember once seeing a long necked white bird fly past us at a distance. We were several miles out. I wondered how he could have so much strength to fly such a long distance, continuously. I watched intently as he flapped his wings 10 times then glided a rather long distance then repeated the sequence several times. This is a miracle of nature; the way a bird can fly in such a rhythm for such a long time and find his way.

Charlie said he saw some huge sport fish at one time leap out of the water. Jim from Kismet radioed us to look and find the schools of hundreds of little 6 inch fish that were literally flying out of the water. But then, everything was amazing that day.

These photos are among the first ones we took. We were approaching the Ginn Su Mar Marina in Old Bahama Bay, the marina where we stayed.

Around 4 p.m. we safely entered the port of Old Bahama Bay, West End, Grand Bahama Island.
We pictured having a very happy Happy Hour later.

All pleasure boats entering the Bahamas are required to clear Customs and Immigration at their point of entry. We chose the West End because it has such a port as well as a nice marina. It also is one of the shortest distances to cross over from Florida to the Bahamas. This port is on the way for us to eventually get to the Abacos.

As we entered the harbor, before going immediately to Customs, we were required to display a yellow flag showing we had not reported in yet. (“quarantine" flag it is called ) After reporting in and cleared, we then had to take the yellow flag down and display the Bahamian visitor flag which is red with a white cross on it and a blue rectangle in the upper left corner. (I will photograph one for you at some point.)

In the customs building, Charlie had to show our passports and our boat's proof of documentation. It was required for me to stay on the boat until he came back and we had then cleared.

We also had to buy a temporary cruising permit while visiting the islands. This permit is $150 for boats 35 feet and smaller and $300 for boats over 35 ft. This permit gives us both the right to fish while we remain here.

Our marina was beautiful and we were grateful to be there, believe me. We treated ourselves to some R & R time lounging around the pool and afterwards went to Kismet’s boat for a celebration of roasted pecans, cheese and crackers, heart shaped little sandwiches and heart candy. It was Valentine’s Day, you know. Charlie told us that Valentine's Day is not officially celebrated here, just individuals celebrate. This is according to Charlie again.

The staff at the marina were very courteous and wanted to help anyway, anytime. We enjoyed a delicious meal of grouper and conch in their restaurant during our stay.

Some of the basics were a bit different at our marina. The water was not always hot in the showers. Water is a valuable commodity here. It is made by reverse osmosis where a resin filter takes the salt out of the water. (and everything else out of it) We paid $10 extra a day for water for our slip. The electricity was not working at our dock so we had to run off the batteries for three days. That meant we could not make ice cubes(!) could not always have hot water or use all the cabin lights to conserve the 12 volt battery power. We managed but had to constantly check our main batteries. We were told we could run our generator in the morning and at night for a few hours which we looked forward to doing each day. The cost of electricity was normally $20 additional per day so we saved some there!


Views as we entered a foreign country!

Views approaching the beach and pool area.

Our friends Jim and Lisa enjoying the pool.

Charlie bought us all a fruity rum concoction at the pool bar that really added to the paradise feeling.

Second day we walked to the

westernmost point.

We spotted five huge black Manta rays in the water but they were too quick to photograph.

Above: we are checking the weather while at the West End. Notice the direction of the wind is shown by the handles on the lines. ( the beginning of an arrow pointing the way) The different colors show the wind speed. If you go to this web site, you can make it animated. Here, it shows the winds from the West End were coming out of the north and the light blue color indicated winds at 10-15 knots.

Let us now backtrack to Ft Lauderdale.

Ft. Lauderdale Day 189-191 February 11-13.

We came into Ft. Lauderdale on the Intracoastal and went up the New River about two miles to our city marina in the downtown, called Cooley's Marina. The ICW goes north and south here and the New River flows off of the ICW to the west. The main channel out to the ocean comes off the ICW on the east.

We enjoyed staying right on the riverfront where we saw many things as the Performing Arts Center and an exclusive shopping area on Olas Street. Water taxis were eveywhere, taking people to and from.

We were very fortunate to meet up with some boater friends of ours and Kismet's, Harold and Cheryl from the boat Victory. We met them in the fall on the rivers. Now they have finished the loop and reside back in Ft. Lauderdale. They invited us to their home and treated us to a wonderful dinner and even took us to get groceries, to Office Depot, and Charlie and I to the Bureau of Customs and Immigration to get a special card to use when we returned to the U.S. We will never forget their gracious hospitality! They actually live right on the main channel going out to the ocean and we waved to Harold as we passed by leaving Ft. Lauderdale.

Above- A view as we walked the riverfront on the New River, downtown Ft. Lauderdale, close to our marina. The yellow boat is a water taxi .

Linda went to the Ft. Lauderdale Historical Museum on the river where she took in a Frank Loyd Wright exhibit there. The relationship with Frank Loyd Wright and Ft. Lauderdale is brief but significant. One of his projects brought him here in the late 1930's when he came to design this circular river cottage for a couple. It never was built but it is a example of his early circular building designs.

Top: Circular living space,then circular bedrooms, and the patio at the bottom.

This is what Mr. Wright looked like during the 40's. I do not know his age in this photo of him.

Miami Day 189 February 11, 2009

Above: First entering Miami with Kismet ahead of us leading the way! What a view we had!

Miami Beach on our starboard.

I took several architectural photos especially for our architect daughter Christa, noting the interesting shapes as well as the abundance of color on several buildings. (Next time we watch CSI Miami, Charlie and I will definitely have to pay close attention to try and recognize any of the buildings!)

Some of our spectacular views
Buildings are so colorful in Miami

The sequence of our travels in the Bahamas this past week was as follows:

February 14-16 Guinn Su Mar Marina, old Bahamas Bay, West End, Grand Bahama Island
February 17 Anchorage at Great Sale Cay
February 18 Mooring ball at Black Sound, Abaco
February 19- 20 Green Turtle Club, Green Turtle Cay, Abaco
Leave tomorrow (21) hopefully, for Sea Spray Marina, Elbow Key, Abaco

Our photos for those days will appear in the next blog.

I will end for now.

Until next time,

Linda and Charlie

On our Way to the Bahamas!

Both photos are from Boca Chita Key, Biscayne National Park, Florida

Freedom's Turn left Key Largo on Tuesday, February 10 and spent the night here in the photo above. We were working our way up through Miami on the ICW to Ft. Lauderdale where we are currently spending two nights at Cooley's Landing City Marina with the boat Kismet and then jump over tomorrow, on Friday the 13th, to the West End of the Bahamas! We leave at 6 a.m. and we will travel 70 miles to the West End of the Grand Bahama Island at about 8 knots. That is where we will report to Customs and spend the first night or two. Weather looks great.

Back to the main photo at the top. The boat that is crossing over to the Bahamas with us, Kismet, is in front of us. The boat behind us is a very nice couple from Ft Lauderdale that we just had met. They are not going with us.

The lighthouse photo and the night photo of the bathrooms on the island are also at Boca Chita Key.

We will be staying at least one month at Speas Spray Marina on Elbow Key in the Abacos, Bahamas. We will not have phone service until we get back to the U.S. around the first of April. We will have limited internet so if you email us, just know it may be one or even two weeks until we get back to you. We would still love to read your emails to find out what is going on with you.

We will try and do a blog or two at some point.

We are good to go and so we shall....

Take care, all of you!

Linda and Charlie

Leaving Key largo

We saw our first alligators of the trip at the Everglades Alligator Farm. Here is my photo of an American adult alligator in captivity, measuring 13 ft. They can get up to 21 ft!

Today is Monday, February 9. I write this blog with bittersweet feelings. It is because today is our last day here at the Marina Del Mar in Key Largo and in the Keys all together, since arriving in Key West in the first week of January. We have really enjoyed this unique area of the United States that has a distinct beauty, culture and a relaxed pace that is all its own.

We have come to realize that our location here in Key Largo has become more convenient as the days passed. We walked or rode our bikes to nearly everything we needed to do except for three times when we rented a car to go sightseeing and to visit friends twice in the other Keys. Bike rides have taken us both to get our haircuts and to a local homemade ice cream place. The Sunday flea markets with fresh local produce have helped sustained us. The leisurely breakfasts here in the hotel with the guests and our fellow boaters have been great. Eating in the local restaurants has given wonderful tastes like conch soup and Key Lime Pie made with real key limes. We have grown accustomed to the music and happy hour laughter from the patrons at the Coconuts Bar next door as a way of entertaining us as we prepared and ate our dinners on board. (I just realized that most of our highlights mentioned here are about food)

We have an unbelievable amount of excitement building up! Tomorrow Freedom’s Turn will take us northeast about 35 miles to the “Gateway of the Keys “area to Boca Chita Key State Park in Biscayne Bay, on the inside or Gulf side. We will join our friends Jim and Lisa on the boat Kismet for a one night anchorage at the park’s free dock. Then another night or two in Ft. Lauderdale where Freedom’s Turn and Kismet, on Thursday or Friday, weather permitting, will make our 75 mile run crossing the Atlantic to begin another cornerstone of the trip; cruising the Bahamas.

Hopefully the local weather does what the four marine weather internet sites we check daily are telling us! The winds surrounding southeast Florida and east to the Bahamas will give us a decent weather window of one or two days of fairly calm seas with the Gulf Stream flowing north and the winds out of the south and southwest at 6-14 knots. Since we want to travel east and north, the Gulf Stream hopefully will give us an extra 2-3 knot of following seas, pushing us north. These conditions should make a safe crossing to the West End of the Grand Bahama Island where we will report in at Customs. We’ll make our way in the next few days, to the Abacos, where both boats have a one month reservation at the Sea Spray Marina and Resort on Elbow Cay. Jim and Lisa have already made this trip a few years back and we are very grateful we can travel with them on their second trip.

Getting one month reservations really brings the average per night costs down significantly. From our slip, we will come and go; visiting many other places with the big boat or the dinghy during our month there.

Before leaving Key Largo, we just wanted to share a few more photos of some of the highlights for us. One place we enjoyed was the Everglades Alligator Farm, where Charlie and I finally got to get some great looks at alligators and crocodiles. The Everglades Alligator Farm is located in southeastern Florida on the edge of the Everglades National park. The following information is from the brochure given to us from this farm.

“Alligator farming was licensed by the State of Florida in the 1980’s as a way to ensure the survival of the American Alligator. In the 50’s this ancient reptile had almost become extinct. Poaching to satisfy the demand for hides used in high fashion items such as purses, belts, and shoes caused the wild populations to decline to dangerously low levels. Commercial alligator farming supplied the market with a legal source of high quality hides and meat, thereby allowing populations in the wild to rebound to astounding levels. By 1987 the American alligator was removed from the Federal endangered species list.”

The article went on to say that the Native American Crocodiles are almost extinct. It is the Nile crocodile that we see much more often in nature and in captivity in the U.S.

The Florida Everglades is the only place where the Alligators and crocodiles live together. These hides below show the reptiles different markings. The main difference between the alligator and the crocodile is that the crocodile’s snout is narrower.

Alligator skin on left, about 1/3 of a 25 Ft Burma Python skin in the middle, and a crocodile skin on right, all captured here at the Everglades alligator Farm.

Feeding time above. They were getting rats for their meal.

We sawing an alligator feeding area, a breeding pond, both an alligator and snake show and took an airboat ride into the Everglades, which let us skim the waters in a rush. I did not attend the snake show but Charlie did and he said he got brave enough to hold a baby python. I missed out on a photo there! During the alligator show, I could not, as much as the adventurer in me was crying out, to seize the moment and hold a baby alligator when given the opportunity. If only I could have done it, I would have been so proud. But alas, I just could not hold it.

Currently, the Everglades as well as most of Florida are experiencing their dry season. On our airboat ride, the water was only 1-2 feet deep, in some areas. Our tour guide told us if we got stuck, one of us had to get out and push our boat out of the mud.

Then he proceeded to tell us what you find in these waters besides swamp grass, fresh water and no tides: many kinds of snakes, (including pythons) fire ants, alligators and crocodiles. Interesting and exotic but no one wanted to volunteer to be the one to get out of the boat if needed to push. (Of course he was kidding…. we thought) During the fast and wet ride, which lasted about 20 minutes, we saw many birds, gorgeous vegetation, and alligators! The experience was really fun. (I pretended we were in the opening scene from CSI Miami where the airboat rushes through the swamps)

Our airboat ride is about to begin

Here we go! We reached a speed of 65 mph!

We had to wear hearing protection because of the loud noise of the airboat motor.

Another boat coming in

The alligator show!

On a car rental day, Charlie and I stopped at the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center. Their mission is to provide a refuge for sick and suffering wild birds and to increase the number of birds, both common and endangered. Many of the sick birds there are due to environmental toxins and the injured birds come from man’s fishing related accidents. There were Owls, Falcons, Hawks, and a large pelican station.

Yesterday, a large powerboat came in next to us for one night with several men on board, all dressed in khaki pants, white short sleeve shirts, blue baseball caps and blue life jackets.
We learned that these men were Boy Scout leaders training to lead the next local Sea Scouts program, specifically the ‘Seals’ division of the Seas Scouts program. “Seals” stands for Sea Explorer Advanced Leadership. The “Seals” badge is equivalent to the Eagle Badge, only focused on marine knowledge and boating projects. In order to be in this program, youths ages 14-21 try out from a selection of difficult marine related tasks. Since becoming co-ed a few years back, the Seals program has flourished the men said.

Finally, I want to mention that one day I was walking near the place here at our marina where people can get on the Glass Bottom Boat tour when I heard a familiar voice from Okemos! Millie Martin, one of my friends from the Meridian Senior Center where I retired from, was passing me! Her sister was with her and we were delighted to exchanged hugs and warm hellos!

It is time to finish and get this blog published.

The day is done, and we will settle into our master stateroom berth soon, the tides will move our boat up and down two feet during the night and the winds and waves will rock us back and forth.

Life is good.

Good night.

Sincerely,

Linda and Charlie