Green Cay Park and the Bahamas

Because I've got internet.....

Because we couldn't leave yesterday, Ange was kind enough to take us on a walking tour of the Green Cay Nature Center . The bird life there was astounding. We saw...

Wood storks. They scrape at the bottom of the pond with one foot, uprooting what they may want to eat, beak ready and open, and then scoop it up with an open mouth.



Anhingas drying their wings. Anhingas and cormorants are the only water birds that don't have waterproof wings. They have to dry them after swimming before they can fly again.


This is what they look like in the water. That's why they are called "snake birds".



We also saw little ducks "dabbing" or looking for food below the water - butt, butt.

We also white Ibis.

Moorhens

Little Blue Herons

Tri-colored herons

A Tricolored heron with 2 fish !

Green Herons, with their short necks

Turtles of all sorts, all sunning together on a large log. Look how their legs are tucked and they are sitting on their "tummies"

And of course, the ever popular alligator (shutter)

It was a nice crossing today, a little rolly, but good weather overall. It took 9 hours, almost exactly what we expected. We sailed the whole way -- beam reach, wind 15 to 20 kts, boat speed 6.5 to 7.5 kts, speed over ground 7.5 to 8.5 kts, with a little help from the gulf stream. That's good speed for a sailboat, or a trawler! Great milage, quiet, the boat in it's element. As we crossed, we watched the water temperature rise from 74.4 deg near Fl to 77.3 deg in the body of the Gulf Stream, back down to 76.6 deg near West End. Sort of boring, but that is good.... We lost sight of Florida about 25 miles out (tall buildings held FL in sight for a lot longer than the land mass did....). The sea was SO blue!

Here we are on the chart plotter, our GPS. Florida is at the bottom, sort of beige. The Bahamas are at the top, beige with dark shallow blue water above it. WE are the black boat shape about 1/3 of the way to West End.

We weren't totally alone. En route, almost to the Bahamas, we were passed by the Monarch of the Seas, a HUGE cruise ship. Just look at this thing! It seemed like there were few passengers, and it was moving very slowly. Luke negotiated by radio contact with the captain (or his 15 th level underling) which side we should pass on (port to port).

We also saw several schools of flying fish take flight. They fly for 20 -30 yards. No pictures, we're not fast enough!

Finally, West End is in sight!

When we first enter the Bahamian water, we have to fly a Quarantine Flag, indicating that we haven't gone through customs yet.

After we got our slip and all settled down, Luke visited the on-site customs office and cleared us in, Wickie, the boat, and the dinghy. We are official now, and can now fly the Bahamian courtesy flag! We are legal for 3 months.

The weather is supposed to be very windy and rainy the next 3 days, so we are here for a while. We will have internet for that time. After that, I don't know. We will have to see how this goes. Best to all and I'll blog as I can.

oh, and it's DEFINITELY WARM!!!!! We're loving it!!!

Didn't make it....

The wind is higher than originally predicted ... we'll try again tomorrow (Thursday)

Pompano Beach, FL - ready for the crossing

We left Lake Worth early Monday morning and went on the outside for 40 miles. En route, we passed the beautiful Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach. Another one of Mr. Henry Flagler's luxury hotels (remember the Flager Collage?). A room on the water is a mere $800/night. Think we'll keep the boat.

We spent last night (and tonight) at a marina in Pompano Beach, FL. Visited with Luke's childhood friend Ange and her husband Ray. They have a beautiful home on a lake in Coral Springs. Lots of bird life, including this little duckie that they fed as a cute little chick a few months ago. He's quite tame....

Ange took us around for last minute errands today, getting ready for the crossing tomorrow. The boat is full of diesel and water, groceries bought, cat litter/food stashed, and charts at the ready. Unless the weather forecast changes drastically during the night, we'll leave Pompano via the Hillsboro Inlet around 7:30 am tomorrow, take about 10 hours to cross over the Gulf Stream, and be at a marina in West End, Bahamas tomorrow evening! We hope to stay until early March.

Phone coverage and internet will be marginal --- won't know exactly what we're into until we get there, but I'll blog as possible.

I know I put pics of sweet Wickie in the blog, but honestly, just who do you think he loves? :-)

48 days...

I feel like Noah .... 48 days on an ark, looking for warm weather.... and we found it!!!!

Finally, about 3 miles out in the ocean, transiting between Vero Beach and Lake Worth, we finally, after 48 days, put shorts on for the first time.

We loved Vero Beach - a beautiful town with Caribbean blue ocean water, nice shops, and great restaurants. Plus, our friends Marina & Dave live there. We had a wonderful, but too short, visit with them.

We managed short sleeves, too, on Saturday, but not quite shorts.


En route, we passed a lot of white pelicans. They are so beautiful, and larger than their cousins, the brown pelicans.

Tonight we'll be anchoring at Lake Worth, tomorrow the Ft. Lauderdale area to visit friends. Wednesday --- if all continues to go well --- we'll be Gulf Stream and Bahamas bound at long last. We can't wait.

Daytona, New Smyrna Beach, and Cape Canaveral

It's still cold but we're still heading south. We spent Monday night (Jan. 19) anchored at Daytona Beach. Didn't get to town or to do any of the exciting things there, but maybe on the way back north this spring. Here's a shot of the buildings on the beach side of Daytona. The ICW runs between the beach and the downtown area.

Next, a couple of days in New Smyrna Beach with our friends Ret and Joe. We met them a couple of years ago, riding out Tropical Storm Ernesto in Solomons, MD. They have a beautiful beach home on a lagoon. The view of the lagoon is amazing --- full of red mangroves, raccoons, a bobcat, and loads of gorgeous birds like snowy egrets, blue herons, wood storks, white pelicans. You can see the masts of the boats heading down the ICW from their back door. Ret has managed to train some of the snowy egrets to come to the house, sit on the railing, and be treated to fish chunks.

They wait patiently. Well, maybe not too patiently --- one actually strolls into the kitchen to remind her that it's time to feed him.

The raccoons come, too, and snack mostly after dark on grapes and peanuts.

One place we visited was Turtle Mound. Turtle Mound is an Indian midden (trash heap) of oyster shells discarded over a period of about 600 years. The successive layers of shells are a record of their culture over the ages. The mound is the highest midden in the nation, covering about 2 acres and about 50 ft high. It's amazing. Check out the link - it's pretty interesting.

We drove to the Cape Canaveral State Park to see the ocean. Yes, it's still cold.

On the way we saw an armadillo! First live one for me --- I've seen roadkill, but somehow, that's not the same :-) Look at those ears. They look like bunny ears.

You can barely see the NASA facilities at Cape Canaveral from the park. We passed much closer today on our trip down the ICW. Here are the launch pads.

And here is the vehicle assembly building. It's exciting to see this!!! Unfortunately, there are no launches scheduled until Feb 12. Probably a good thing it's that far off, or we'd be tempted to wait.

We are anchored tonight near the Cape Canaveral Chanel cut, between Titusville and Cocoa Beach. Luke is extra careful when we chose an anchorage, scoping out the entire anchor area. We don't want to end up like this guy...



Look closely and you'll see blue water (nice and deep enough) and yellowish water (sand bar and NOT deep enough). They can be very close together and you have to chose carefully.

Still chilly (60) but warm in the cockpit. 31 tonight but mid 60's tomorrow. We're hoping for a warming trend. Too, as we go further south, we get a little warmer in each area.

St Augustine

St. Augustine is a great place to visit. First, there are the birds. Just look at this Snowy Egret, strutting his stuff while hunting for small fish at the water's edge.

We spent a couple of days sight-seeing. We visited Flagler Collage. It's a 4 yr, accredited collage, no religious affliliationsions, and about 1/3 the cost of the average private collage in the US today.

It was built by Henry Flagler (partner of John Rockefeller, co-founder of Standard Oil) as the grandest hotel in Florida. Guests were there only by Mr Flagler's invitation, and had to purchase their rooms for an entire season. Flagler was the primary developer of Florida, pushing his rail road first to St Augustine, and then farther south. At each further extension, he built an opulent, exclusive, hotel. He's the one that initailly connected all the Florida Keys by rail road bridges. The Flagler Hotel was first in the state to have electric lights. It's said that one of the wives of Mr. Flagler even put light bulbs in the mouths of the downspouts...

They have the largest collection of original Tiffany glass in the US.

I loved some of the architecture. Look at this fish in the water. Just one of those small touches all over the building.

How's this for a collage dining room hall....

On the street outside of the collage sat the usual vendors. I thought this one was interesting. She was reading a Russian language newspaper and he had brought his battery on a cart so he could use his computer all day. They were selling some sort of red jewelry.... no I didn't buy any.

We also visited the Lightner Museum, a "lower calss" hotel built across the street by Flagler for guests who did not make the grade to the Flagler hotel.

The Lightner Museum has an endlesss collection of late 19 th, early 20th century "Golden Age" artifacts, ranging from ceramics to crystal, clothes, cutlery, stuffed animals, ladies hats, even a shrunken head.

Luke's favorite, the mechanical musical instruments. These included very sophisticated multi disc music boxes, including the Nickelodion, Violano-Virtuoso and even a German mechanical piano/band.

The old city is full of old buildings turned into shops, etc.

There are a lot of parks, this one dedicated to Queen Isabella.

Of course, we had to visit the fort, Castillo de san Marcos. A wonderful old fort.

They had musket exhibitions while we were there.

We made our way to Daytona today via the ICW. A little tight with "thin" water. We think we'll take the outside route on the way back ... :-)