Our last day in the Bahamas was an interesting one.  We had staged our departure at a remote anchorage on the south shore of Great Inagua in order to shorten the distance we would have to travel to Luperon, Dominican Republic.  Instead of 160 nautical miles, we were now looking at 147 nautical miles.  This would shave 3 hours off our trip and allow us to leave at daybreak, instead of in the middle of the night.  We were thankful for our decision the next morning as we started weighing anchor.  Our anchor chain had wrapped itself around a coral head and  refused to ..read more

Clarence Town, at the southeast end of Long Island, Bahamas, is a quiet and almost empty little town.  It has a small general store where we could get bread and a few shelf-stable groceries but no fresh produce or dairy.  There are also a few restaurants on the island and a fairly large marina/resort.  Besides the marina, the most active area in town was the government dock.  Every Monday, the mail boat arrives at the dock but by Wednesday all of the fresh items not snapped up by locals and cruisers are shipped off to other parts of Long Island.  We arrived on Wednesda ..read more

​Our two weeks in George Town were really wonderful.  It is a fun place to hang out for a bit, especially with our buddy boats also being in town.  We arrived in George Town with Steve from Lola, and about a week later Ted & Evelyn (Sensai) also arrived.  Fabulous! Lucky enough, the George Town Regatta was also on during our stay in George Town.  This annual festival is an event-filled, well-organized week of activities.  There was always lots to do – sailboat races, a dinghy poker run, various on-shore games and this is in addition to the usual sundowner get-toge ..read more

​George Town has been a wonderful place to relax, stock up on a few things but also to prepare for the next leg of our journey.  We have had very easy days of sleeping in and very full days of hanging out at the beach, hiking the many trails on Stocking Island and exploring George Town and a good portion of Great Exuma Island. The distance sign post at Chat n' Chill Beach Going under the George Town bridge towards the town dinghy dock We rented a car for a day and Mike did some great right hand side driving! A sea turtle hanging out by the dinghy dock Some unique bea ..read more

We have been blessed with good weather so far in the Bahamas.  Truly, it has only rained two days in the last six weeks and we have only had to deal with two wind storms.  The first, we rode out at a private dock in Coral Harbour on the South-west tip of New Providence.  The second occurred just this week and it was a doozy.  We decided to anchor at Black Point Settlement for the start of the wind storm because it offered us the most protection from the forecasted strong east winds and high waves.  Also in the forecast was a quick (6 hour) clocking of the winds where ..read more

We started last weekend exactly how weekends should start…with a great boater’s get-together!  The annual 5F “Cruisers Dinner” at Farmer’s Cay was put on by the Farmer’s Cay Yacht Club (FCYC) and was a fun event with free food and drinks.  Yes, you read that correctly!  Instead of charging a fee, donations were collected for the Farmer’s Cay All Age School.  Wonderful!  Certainly, that donation box got a lot of action, which made the event even more special.  ​ The dinner was a very casual affair with grilled chicken, beans and rice and, of course, Bahamian mac &a ..read more

​​​We now know first hand why people love to come to the Bahamas.  It is a quiet paradise for those that like to linger in tranquility and is jammed-pack full of excitement for the more adventurous.  In terms of exploring, Mike, Ocean and I fall into the second camp.  We are outside from the crow of the first rooster until the last conch shell has been blown (i.e. sun up to sunset ?) and we have had more “holy toledo” moments than I ever thought was possible. Active or not, most of us boaters are out here day after day saying “this can’t be real”.  I mean, the water alone m ..read more

This past week we have continued our trip south through the Exumas, enjoying the beautiful beaches, sunsets, sunrises and sailing of this region. ​ Our first stop after Highbourne Cay was Norman’s Cay.  This area gained notoriety in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s as the home base for a cocaine smuggling operation.  Yeesh!  It is now a very quiet island and the only remnants of its shady past is a small airplane partially submerged in one of the anchorages.  Once we set our anchor, our first point of business was to get to snorkel the airplane.  It was quite the sight ..read more

Oh Bahamas, the adventures you take us on ?.  After our one night anchored off Chub Cay, we set off with our boat buddy “Lola” to head towards New Providence Island.  Both Lola and ourselves wanted to avoid the bustling city of Nassau and were looking for ample protection for the winter wind storm that was forecasted to hit the entirety of the Bahamas late Friday and through the weekend.  Our solution for both issues came in the form of a private dock in Coral Harbour that Steve (Lola) had heard about by chance while we were in Bimini.  ​ In the southwest of New Providence ..read more

​We have caught the Bahamas slow paced “island time” bug!  After several months of rushing from port to port on our journey south through the canals, along the jersey coast and then through the ICW, we finally have time to rest.  And we have!  In total we stayed five days in Bimini and enjoyed every last moment. Victoria looking out over the beautiful Bahamian waters A bull shark swimming around the docks at Bimini Blue Water Marina A sting ray sighting! Beautiful sunsets ​Well, except when our bilge pump stopped working.  That was pretty annoying bu ..read more