The Missing Photos!

Here are the pics that did not load! 




 A "Peppermint Putt-Putt dolphin in West Palm.

 One of the sponsors was Florida Power & Light,  FP&L

 The entrance to the public dock at Green Turtle Cay.

 Leaving Green Turtle......

 Collected beach treasures!

 Whale Cay Cut........

 The beach at Nippers on Great Guana Cay.

                             Hope Town Light......

 Hope Town Light at night!

Hampshire Rose s the center boat.  Do you see who is sleeping on the main mast?

 Selfie at the top of the lighthouse!

 Our 2 "dinner fish" (tuna) caught off of Lynyard Cay and Littler Harbour Abaco.

 Christmas Tree at The Shipyard in Spanish Wells.

 Current Cut - off just south of Royal Island/Spanish Wells on the way to Eleuthera

 The mail boat - Current Pride at Current Cut.

 Another shot of Santa sleeping on the main mast at Annie Bight Eleuthera

 This is NOT a starfish..... this is an impression of a starfish left in the sand.  Do not know what happened to it!  This was in 15 feet of water, taken from the boat.

Hopetown and Lynard

We left Fisher's Bay with a sad sight.  A few years ago we met a nice couple by the names of Matt & Brittany.  Long story short, they sold their boat - Great Mysterious -to a  local who worked at Bakers Bay Resort.  This must have just happened as there was no distinct waterline from the sinking.  It could only have happened a day or two earlier.

                     

On we went to Hopetown as we decided that there was absolutely nothing we needed in Marsh Harbour.  We decided to pick up a mooring and had a wonderful couple of days exploring, going to the top of the lighthouse (again), seeing Vernon at the grocery (I was able to help him with the new VAT an his Quick Books) and seeing an old friend Brad Gunn that I met in NC several years ago with my friend Kathy Hill.  The lighthouse at night is beautiful and somehow I do not think the photos do it justice!

                

              

                

That is us in the middle with a resting Santa!   After a couple of days in Hopetown it was time to move on.  We had planned to spend a day at Tahiti Beach and go to Cracker P's and another day or two at Little Harbour and Pete's Pub but timing was against us!  Cracker P's had not yet opened for the season so it was closed up tight and Pete's Pub is closed on Monday, Tues & Wednesday as it isn't "season" for them either.  Oh well, such is life!  Off we went to Lynyard Cay to get underway at first light for Royal Island.  It was a bit lumpy at Lynard so we decided to tuck around the corner into the Bight of Ole' Robinson.  As we settled in we noticed a catamaran come near.  We had noticed them in Hopetown as there were 4-5 kids aboard.  After dinner we saw them get in the dink & head our way.  They were a nice family from Newport News Virginia!  What was really sweet was they said that every Sunday is cookie day onboard and they thought it would be nice to bring us some Christmas Cookies!  Not only were they beautiful, they were delicious too!  Thank you Anderson's & Merry Christmas!

         

Off we went to Royal Island were we had a nice day & Rob got a much needed haircut!  We thought we would head over to Spanish Wells for the day to see what had changed.  The entrance s narrow with a marina to the left & mooring to the right.  Several years ago with Mike & Frankie Monteith we had taken a mooring.  This visit we opted to anchor outside and dink in. There is a great deal of construction for a new resort & marina to the left as you enter & it appears to have been dredged in recent years as we do not remember it as being that deep.  We walked through town and in good English tradition, the shopes close about noon on Wednesday.  Of course it was Wednesday!  We really did not need anything so that was fine.  We did see a sign for Buddah's Bar & J & A Liquor Store.  Now THAT was new!

 

We Done Reach!

 

 

We got through the inlet about 2pm and motored with all the sails up.  We noticed a sloop off our starboard bow and figured we would have company for the night.  We check in with St. Jude and the Do-Dah Nets when offshore for position reports on the SSB (single side band) as both Rob & I have our General (Ham) Radio Licenses.  When checking in we discovered that the boat near us were Tom & Sandy on Anania, nice folks we had not seen for awhile.  It was a great crossing.  We turned off the engine and cruised along anywhere from 4.5 to 7 knots.  The moon was full and it was like a streetlight was on for us.  Luckily the containership traffic was light and we had no cause to call any via the AIS.  The AIS is an Automated Identification System.  When you call the huge ships and give an approximate location they just ignore you.  When you call them by name they answer in a heartbeat as all of channel 16 is recorded by the USCG. 

Twenty seven point 4  hours later we dropped the hook at Crab Cay.  Most people stop at Great Sale Cay but it was early in the day and we knew we should keep going until late afternoon.  We were glad we did as the sky turned very dark over Great Sale about 4:30pm.  We had some light sprinkles but we spoke with people who had stopped at Great Sale and they got hammered!  We had a well deserved meal, some wine and went to sleep before 8pm! 

The next morning we started off for White Sound on Green Turtle Cay.  Got in shortly after noon, cleaned up and off to Immigration to clear in and be legal!  The young lady was so very nice at Immigration.  When she asked us a question regarding our "Fishing Permit" Rob asked her if she would change it to a "Catching Permit".  I really do not think she had heard that one before by the way she laughed.  We saw Four Aces (West Palm folks) as we were checking in and then met up with Bobby & Francie for a Goombay Smash at The Blue Bee and lunch at McIntosh's. 

              

 

This pretty much sums it up!

The next day we ladies decided to walk the beach and we had a blast!  Sandy-Anania, Madeline-Chanceux, Francie-Barefootin' and me.

                           

                                              Sandy, Madeline & Francie                                                                                                                Beach Treasures

Well, it was time to move on so off we went around The Whale & into Fishers Bay.  Those of you who have followed us may remember that last spring do to transmission failure from an incorrect damper plate provided we had to "sail the whale".  That would have been impossible under the conditions we had - wind direction- and there were some nice sized rollers but all in all, not too bad.

We went over the dune to Nippers and split a Conch Burger & a Grouper Burger so we each had half!  While sitting with our lunch we met a couple that was vacationing in a rental home. The man asked what kind of boat we had and it turns out that their son had a Pearson 365 too.  His was the first blog I ever read and it was quite sad that according to the blog the wife left him for someone else.  It turns out that was not the case!  TMI!  What are the chances that of all the people in the world, we would met them at Nippers!  Fishers Bay was a bit rolly so today we are off to either Hopetown or Tahiti Beach.

Here are some Nipper Pics!

                                 

·        Whew, up to date!

Later!

Sandi Land in West Palm

We moved to West Palm and were glad we did!  The anchorage is between  draw spans so the speed of the powerboats is down and there are  3 huge public docks you can tie your dink to.  There is plenty of water & room for the big boats but you are not supposed to tie overnight.  We met some folks on a trawler who had engine problems and had been on the dock for several days without any problems so go figure. The waterfront area is chock a block with restaurants and shops.  Everything from a Ruth Chris Steakhouse to a Subway and Old Navy to Macy's.  Something for all tastes & price ranges.  They also have 2 free shuttle lines, the Yellow & the Green.  There is a Publix Grocery a few blocks away and if you buy too much you can take the Yellow Line back!  We arrived on a Monday and a place called Luther's was having $1.00 hamburgers!  For one dollar you get the burger, bun & lettuce.  Cheese is .75 and veggies and sauces are .50 each.  So a hamburger with lettuce, tomato, onion and mayo costs $2.50!  And to top it off, it was a good burger!  We had a group of 8 cruisers and it was a blast. 

The real treat at West Palm was their 6 ton sand sculpture of a Christmas tree.  The place was beautiful with decorations as well as "Peppermint Putt-Putt".  At night with the light on is was fantastic and the lights were coordinated with the music during the Tree Lighting Ceremony.  As Rob & I were walking through admiring all of the handiwork a Cuban gentleman started speaking with us and said that nowhere, nowhere in any of the decorations did the phrase Merry Christmas appear.  He said there was 1 Merry Xmas but no Merry Christmas.  There was no Happy Chanukah anywhere either even though there was a Menorah.  I looked at the man, shook his hand and said "Merry Christmas, sir". 

There is a fantastic Farmers Market on Saturdays at West Palm.  Since we were not sure what they had we provisioned on Friday as we planned to leave after the market.  What a mistake!  Not only was the produce much fresher & prettier it was also much cheaper at the Saturday Market.  We will definitely go back to West Palm!  After we investigated the market & bought some tomatoes we headed towards the inlet at Lake Worth to make our crossing.

                                              

           

We knew that if we got fuel & water we could still make the last of the outgoing tide to give us a kick to the Gulfstream and the Little Bahama Banks.  We made the 12:15 opening at the Flagler Bridge and off we went to the inlet and on towards the Bahamas.  The winds were light from the north and the gulfstream was forecast for 2-3 ft with occasional 4.  Sounded good to us.