Wish you were beautiful, we're here.

Pictures, Sunrise in Nassau; Flo’s Place on Little Harbor, Triumph on the hook; Blue Hole; Our happy hour beach, and Elaine enjoying one in the chair we found.; Sunset at Devils cay; The anchorage at Devils Cay in the Berry’s.




We got the heck out of Nassau after laundry, groceries, and fueling up. It was like a work day. We updated the blog and set sail for the berry islands. We landed at Alder and Frozen Cays just as a big squall was descending on us. After it passed, we reanchored and had a very peaceful night. The next day we snorkeled the nearby reef, which was loaded with fish. Bill shot at a nice grouper, but didn’t get the spear in him enough. Bill called it an equipment malfunction, which he repaired later. We’ll be back next year for him.

After the morning swim we dinghied over to the next island, Little Harbor Cay. We met Curtis and his son Curtis Jr. We visited Flo’s restaurant, which is the only thing to visit. Nice folks.. we’ll be back next year for a meal with them.

We met a Canadian couple there on a large catamaran named Ruahk who had their 6 kids (yes, as in 3 boys and 3 girls ) aboard aged 15 down to 3. Nice couple, we talked to them for an hour and met most of the kids. He is a dentist, and they go to the D.R. every year to do gratis dental work for the kids there. What a great experience for the kids.

Next, we headed up to Devil Cay and Hoffman’s Cay. What a great place! See the pictures of Elaine with the coconut trees behind her. We brought our Rum drinks to this beach, and just couldn’t get over what a beautiful spot this was. (Wish you were here, it’s beautiful) We explored nearby beaches, and took a hike to the Loyalist ruins and the “Blue Hole”, (see pics) which was inland about in the middle of the island (Hoffmans Cay). The hole was about 100 yards across with shear cliffs all around..

Based on the weather outlook, we decided to head back to Florida a day earlier than planned. We are going to have dinner at the Berry Island Club on Frazier’s Hog Cay, then this evening we’ll set sail for Florida, crossing the banks tonight, then the Straits of Florida on Saturday afternoon. We hope to arrive at Rodriguez Key Saturday early evening. The next AM we are going to try to get into Dana and Nancy Vihlen’s dock just south of Tavernier. We’ll visit with them, then weather permitting, we’ll set out for the final leg back to Tampa through the Keys and up the west coast.

We have now safely arrived at our friends Dana and Nancy Vihlen’s house.

Black Point to Nassau

We left Black Point and headed to Sampson Cay on Friday morning. On the way there, we stopped at Big Major Cay which is also known as “Pig Beach.”. The only inhabitants of this island are a few rather large pigs who seem to be well fed by passing cruisers. We had saved a few food scraps to feed them so we were prepared. We watched from our boat and saw that the pigs seemed to be conditioned to the sound of motors coming toward shore. We took our dinghy close to shore and threw some of our food in the water. Three large pigs waded into the water to eat it. As we were getting ready to leave, a motorboat of tourists came up. These people had obviously paid plenty of money for the excursion and they had cups of fresh fruit to feed the pigs. The pigs swam out to the boat and the people put the food into the water to feed them. It was fun to watch but the pigs got a little close to our boat for our comfort!!! In fact, it almost looked as if one of the pigs was going to get into one of the other dinghies when some people tried to feed it!

Our anchorage tonight was at Sampson Cay. The island has a few nice buildings that looked like they were private homes. There is also a marina here. We decided to stay on board and have dinner on the boat. We had several sailboats in this anchorage with us. One was a large sailboat about 85 feet long named “Seahawk”. There was a crew onboard this boat who were obviously busy getting ready for the arrival of the boat’s owners. They were very busy cleaning and polishing this beautiful boat.

Our next stop was just a short sail away to Hawksbill Cay. This island is a part of the Exuma Park. There were some ruins there from the days of the Loyalist plantation owners who had fled colonial America in the late 1770’s. Wonderful beaches there, we had them all to ourselves.

We set sail for Shroud Cay right after a nice night at Hawksbill. It was just around the corner from us. We got a call on the radio from our friends, Rick and Doreen on “Breathless” and they invited us to go with them through the mangroves at Shroud. Our friends had done this several times before so we were glad to have someone to show us the way. Because the water is so shallow through the mangroves, you can only get your dinghy in at high tide. We wound around the clearing in the mangroves through the crystal clear water from the ocean side of the island. When we got to the end, we left our dinghies and walked up a small hill . On the other side, was a nice beach. We walked on the beach and did a little beachcombing. It is amazing the kinds of things that wash ashore! We did not find any treasures but we definitely will put this spot on our list to return to in the future!



Late in the afternoon, we headed for the anchorage at Norman’s Cay. As we came into the anchorage, we looked at the boats and were surprised to see one that we recognized! We had spent some time with a very nice couple while staying on our boat in the Dry Tortugas four years ago! Pat and Kat live in Sarasota and have a sailboat named “Jade”. We had corresponded with them only a few times since meeting them and knew that they had been cruising in the Bahamas a few times. We were very glad to have the chance to spend some more time to catch up with them. Unfortunately, they are headed the opposite way on this trip but we will definitely get in touch with them when we all get back home to Florida.
We were hoping to stay to stay to explore Norman’s but the wind was perfect for our sail farther north. We decided to leave and get a little closer to Nassau. The day was just perfect and we sailed all of the way to Rose Island. Tomorrrow (Tuesday), we will sail just about four miles to Nassau.. We plan to stay in the marina there and get some things done. This will definitely be a “work day” because this destination had all of the modern conveniences of civilization: a grocery store, laundry facility, and internet nearby! We also plan to get fuel and water for the boat before we head to the Berry Islands, then Key Largo on Monday about 5 days from now. Then it’s back towards Tampa after that.

Pictures of boat at anchorage, osprey nest, beach at White Point, Boat anchored off beach at White Point, Bill’s fish, Rainbow and rough ocean on the other side Black Point.



On Sunday, we continued to head north and stopped at Isaac Bay. We anchored by “snugging” up to the shore and dinghied ashore to explore the island. We counted three inhabitants here -- two rather large spiders (snuggly attached to their webs, thank goodness) and an osprey. Under the watchful eye of the osprey who was perched high above us on a tall decaying palm tree trunk, we walked the shore.

The next day, we sailed just around the corner to White Point. The shore was a little rocky in spots but we managed to find a place to land the dinghy so that we could go ashore. We walked the rather long beach and enjoyed the scenery. It was a peaceful walk until we noticed a helicopter flying over the island several times. It got rather close to beach at times. We were speculating that it could be someone looking at the island as a place to develop the property. We were hoping that this was not the case, as it is such an unspoiled area. It would be nice to leave things just as they are.

We discovered a large osprey nest perched high on a rock.. We were able to get close enough to see the intricacy of the weaving holding the combination of sticks and old fishing net together. It looked as though the nest was abandoned. I was wondering if the osprey that we saw yesterday may have once made its home there.

Bill has continued to try his hand at spear fishing. This time he was able to catch three small snappers. He saw some lobsters but it’s past the season. We’ll get ‘em next year! Overnight, we had a few light rain showers. We were surprised to look out over the ocean from our cockpit and see a beautiful rainbow early in the morning.

Yesterday, (Tuesday) we have stopped at Black Point. This is a small town that we visited a few weeks ago. Our “to-do” list was short. We hopped to get a few things at the store, do our laundry, and get a little water for our tanks. By 5 PM and the only thing that that we had scratched off of the list was the laundry! The store did not have any of the four items that we needed. If you could compare the grocery stores on these small islands to our 7-11 stores at home, our 7-11 would be like a well stocked grocery store! The prices here would be comparable to Neiman Marcus!!! Thank goodness we provisioned wisely and have most of the things that we need!

We were hoping that the pump on the city water spigot will soon be fixed. They said that it would be fixed by 11 this morning but by nightfall it was still just a drip! I guess we are still not used to this “Island Time, Mon”! Luckily, we have enough water to see us through for several days, but we’d like to just top our tanks off.
While checking email at Lorraine’s Café, Elaine struck up a conversation with a fellow cruiser. He showed her some pictures of a five and a half foot bull shark that he had caught from his boat in the anchorage just yesterday evening. I guess Bill won’t be taking his daily bath off of the back of our boat! Elaine will gladly share her shower water with him!!!

At high tide, we decided to take a walk through town and visit the “ocean side “ of the island. Since it was so windy and rough, the blow hole was quite a sight. Several times we watched it spew water and seaweed up into the air.! It was quite a sight to see!

We need to wait here at Black Point for a day to see if the water pump ashore gets fixed and perhaps for a little better weather. It’s blowing 25 out right now, which isn’t bad, except for dinghy ride to the dock, which can involve a good splash or two. We’l lhead to Big Major next, then up to Shroud and Hawksbill Cays.

Turning around and heading north

Pictures are : Triumph anchored in center of picture; Bill on the beach; Bill and Elaine on a cliff overlooking the rocky coast at Stocking Island; The vacation spot of the rich and famous, Musha Cay.


We stayed in George Town through Thursday and decided to start heading back north so that we can begin to make our way back to Florida. Our first stop was Rat Cay. Elaine was a little skeptical of the destination upon hearing its name but once we arrived we found yet another beautiful anchorage. We explored a few beautiful white sandy beaches and did some snorkeling. The water is still a bit chilly but it’s worth the chill to see the beautiful coral heads and fish. Bill even saw a lobster but the season ended at the end of March. We just figure that he will be bigger next year and we will get him when we return!
On Saturday morning we had to say good bye to our friends Gordon, Lori, and Boomer on “Awesome Asset”. We have been traveling with them since leaving Nassau and they still have another month and a half of cruising left. Both Bill and I thoroughly enjoyed the time that we spent with them. Even though we will miss them, we know that we will see them again. If we are lucky, maybe we’ll see them before we leave the Bahamas!
You must know that Bill stayed up until 10 o’clock on Saturday night! I think that he was not as worn out because he did not have play time with Boomer on the beach!
We are back at Musha today. It’s the private island owned by David Copperfield. Even though we can’t go ashore, there are a few beaches nearby to explore. We will continue to head north and try to go to a few places that we missed on our way down. We hope to get a few provisions in the next few days. Hopefully, we can find a place that has the four items on our shopping list.

In George Town Now

Pictures are of the anchorage at George Town, a picture of TRIUMPH on the hook, and a picture of the sunrise church service on the beach on Stocking Island on Easter morning.



Upon our departure from the Emerald Bay Marina, we topped off our fuel and water tanks and set sail for George Town. We had a great sail with plenty of wind and beautiful scenery along the way. We arrived at the anchorage known as “Volleyball Beach”. Those of you have been here before, know that it is the destination of many cruisers. There was plenty of activity going on at the beach! There were people playing volleyball, lots of people on the beach, music and people at the bar and kids playing on a rope swing, It’s just like a little community here. Even though we were told that many boats had left the anchorage a day or so ago, there were plenty of boats still here.

George Town has a well protected anchorage, particularly from the prevailing winds from the east and southeast. It’s a good thing too, because those winds have been blowing 20 knots for a few days now. Because of this we have dropped our plans to cruise Long Island and Conception Island. Winds are just not favorable, and we are here to have fun, not beat ourselves and the boat up to get anywhere. We will hang out here a few more days, then head back up the Exumas.

Our Easter Sunday morning got off to an early start. We made sure that we were up and ready to take a dinghy ride ashore in order to attend the sunrise service on the beach. We walked over the hill to the ocean side of Stocking Island to find a gathering of people. There was a very nice service complete with a choir made up of cruisers. The sunrise over the ocean was a beautiful backdrop for the service and it is definitely something that we will remember for a very long time. Most people were dressed very casually and most of us were barefoot. It’s a good thing because Elaine forgot her flip flops on the boat!!!
In case you are wondering if we saw the Easter Bunny, the answer is “Yes”! We heard a bit of commotion of boat horns honking and looked out just in time to see a motorboat parading through the anchorage with someone dressed in an Easter Bunny suit on its bow! So we feel like we really had the complete Easter experience even though we are so far away from home.
On Sunday we moved the boat to Monument Beach which is just a few minutes away. The next morning we hiked a rather steep trail up to the monument at the top of the hill. The view from the top of the hill was another great look at all of the boats in the anchorage. These views often remind us of the pictures from the “Cruising World” magazine.

In the evenings, one of the cruisers here on a boat named “Mariah” does a celestial lesson for everyone over the radio. We’ve seen Venus in the northwest sky, with Mercury just below it. We’ve learned about the Orion constellation, and several other stars. It’s really interesting to have someone narrate as you look up to the heavens. Bob Tintera loaned us a “Planishere” to map out the stars and we’re also using that to follow along with the descriptions of the location of the constellations.
Today (Tuesday) we’ll go into town, shop for a few things, and try to get a battery for Elaine’s watch. That may be the biggest challenge of the day. We have been here for five days already and the time has passed very quickly. We are going to stay tuned to the weath

A day at work in the Bahamas

From Bill:

To Do List: Sharpen Spears, climb coconut tree.



I don’t know what your day has been like today, but mine has been strikingly different than when I was in the corporate world. This came to me as I sat in the cockpit of our sailboat sharpening my spears with a file. I guess in sales, you could draw some analogies couldn’t you? But, it’s a lot more fun to really be sharpening real spears. If you ever want to get over some stress, try sharpening a spear. It's a very satisfying feeling. I guess it goes back to our pimal instincts or something.

I had to sharpen the spears because I had bounced them off of a rock or two while shooting at this one very talented fish. I’m thinking I should film him for lessons for Laura’s dodge ball team. I hope that I see him again.

Besides sharpening spears, I have also climbed coconut trees. In my younger days, I could do this to the top of the highest tree. Now, at my age, I probably don’t bounce as well when I hit the ground, so in this picture, I went no higher. (Hurry up with the picture Elaine!)

So, I can check these two big items off my to do list, sit back, relax with a cold beer, and think about tomorrows big tasks. Maybe I'll fix a flip flop, or polish a little stainless steel.

Travels the past week late March

View from the highest hill around.

"Uncle Ray"
our little tahiti beach


Musha Cay

Musha Cay




the harbor at Little Farmers Cay

about to go spear fishing

Little Bay, a beautiful anchorage




Monday, March 22
After a delicious lunch at Lorraine’s and a little free internet use, we left Black Point and headed to Little Bay which was literally just around the corner. After a very short sail, we arrived at our destination which was a truly gorgeous anchorage. There were several beaches just a short dinghy ride away. We were surprised that we were the only two boats in the anchorage (Ourselves and Awesome Asset).
Bill being as persistent as he is, decided to try his hand at fishing once again. Using a few slices of ham he caught enough small fish to use for bait for his next fishing expedition..

Tuesday, March 23
On Tuesday morning, we decided to hike to the other side of the island to enjoy the beautiful beach on that side. It was a short hike. Wow! We had our own private beach, complete with umbrellas and beach chairs (which we had carried across the island) We had rocky cliffs on either side of us and a nice sandy beach to relax on. While Elaine, Lori and Boomer relaxed. Bill and Gordon were still trying to catch dinner so they did some spear fishing and snorkeling. Still no luck!
After a nice lunch on the beach (Why does PB and J taste so good at the beach?) We headed back to the boats. The guys decided to go fishing in the dinghy and finally were successful in the fishing department. Bill caught bait fish and Gordon caught four nice snapper. Our friends were kind enough to invite us over for appetizers and a spaghetti dinner this evening and we had the fish as an appetizer! It was delicious!
This afternoon we were joined in the anchorage by a few other boats, one was a beautiful mega yacht named “4 You”. This was one of the nicest places we’ve anchor so far, just gorgeous! We kept the VHF radio on just in case an invitation to the mega yacht might be issued to us but we never received it!

Wednesday, March 24
We left for Little Farmer’s Cay at lunchtime and anchored off the southeast end of the island. We walked into town at stopped at the Little Farmer’s Cay Yacht Club which has another view of the beautiful harbor. When we first arrived we noticed a Bahamian man cleaning fish on the dock. We started talking to him and found out that he has been the owner of the Yacht Club for a number of years, Roosevelt Nixon was his name. We continued to explore the island and found many of the businesses that the town has to offer including very small grocery store, liquor store and post office. We also visited a small wood carver’s shop. While in town we inquired about the availability of lobster. We were able to buy four huge lobster tails to have for dinner. Bill volunteered to cook them for all of us. His experience from his “Camp Hugo” days back in the 70’s sure came in handy! We all enjoyed a delicious home cooked lobster dinner.
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Thursday, March 25
We left Little Farmer’s Cay in the morning and sailed to Musha Cay (pronounced Moo-sha), which is a private island owned by David Copperfield. Even though we could not go ashore, the view from the boat allowed us to see that the island is very well appointed. The beach pavilion looks like something that you might see at a first class resort.. The island has several beautiful homes and even has its own helicopter landing pad.. We were hoping that Oprah might be visiting as we have heard that she has loves to vacation here. Unfortunately we did not have any famous star sightings. We enjoyed seeing the island from our dingy and also enjoyed the beautiful water surrounding it.

Friday, March 26
This morning we headed for a sand bar which was a bit of a dinghy ride from the anchorage. It was a beautiful setting and we were able to find lots of sand dollars and a few other little shells. The dinghy ride back was quite choppy. Thank goodness the weather has warmed up because we were soaking wet but not cold! A fresh water shower sure felt good after that!
In the afternoon we headed to Lee Stocking Island where we had a quite nice sleep after a few “sundowners” and a movie. Dinner was red beans and rice with Kielbasa sausage, yum.
More later. Life is good.

Saturday, March 26
We went ashore at Lee Stocking Island this morning hoping to be able to get a tour of the research facility. We walked around the island and discovered a small beach on the other side. After lunch, we took a short dinghy ride over to a place that we have named “Little Tahiti Beach”. We spotted about six or eight huge sting rays in the water. Most of them were at least four feet in diameter. They are quite easy to see as the water is crystal clear here! The beach looked just like a beautiful setting for on a TV show or a movie with its beautiful white sand and tall palm trees. We were expecting Gilligan or the Skipper to appear. (I think that Bill was hoping for Ginger!) We went ashore and hiked to the highest point in the Exumas, Perry Point. Its elevation is 123 feet and it gave us a spectacular view of the many different colors of the waters and depth surrounding the island. We hiked back down and sat and relaxed on the beach. Later in the afternoon, we went snorkeling on a reef and enjoyed seeing many tropical fish and beautiful coral formations.

We left Lee Stocking and headed down to The Marina at Emerald Bay. This is a former Four Seasons resort marina, now owned by Sandals Resorts. It’s a little R&R stop before we go back “on the hook” in George Town. We have internet, laundry, grocery store and restaurants nearby. We have had a few great lobster dinners at a small four table eatery named the Chat and Chew. It’s a very local place, and the dinners only cost $15. There are no menus, Sondra, the owner, tells you what’s available, you order, then she disappears to the kitchen and soon returns with an outstanding meal, complete with three sides. We will be leaving here tomorrow AM, April 1st, and heading down to George Town where we will hang out for a few days.