Here at Marsh Harbour – Week One

Sunset view from Snappa's

No it's not a pirate ship but it is one huge sailboat!

View of NautiNell among all the other vessels
here at HarborView, Marsh Harbour

We had a great time in Little Harbor. The harbor is well protected (Class A) and, of course, Pete's Pub was only a dinghy ride away. We visited there a few times. Mike had to keep trying his skill at the "Ring on the Hook" game. He got pretty good at it! He also had to banter with Pete regularly. We spent some time riding around in the dinghy. The waves crashing in on the rocks were gorgeous. We also saw several sea turtles. We met several people passing through and talked to the locals from Cherokee Point that supply Pete with his fish.

I must be starting to look a little rough – I got asked more than once if I live here! HA! Maybe it's the natural look (aka – no makeup) or the leathery tan. Not sure – but I'll take it as a compliment! I know! – it's the relaxed look! That's it!!

Saturday (April 21) we discovered we had a water leak in the generator so we decided to head to Marsh Harbor where we would go to a marina. We weren't really ready for the marina – but had no choice. We would have liked to stay at Little Harbor at few more days. Oh well……

We had a nice day for travel – and it was only about 20 miles. We saw "Laughter" - a Looper boat just like NautiNell - when we came into the harbor. Nice to know there may be some Loopers lurking about. We decided to stay at Harbor View Marina. It's a really nice marina with great reviews. AND our slip is just a shell's throw from Snappa's! We've eaten there before and look forward to some happy hours there! We'll be here for 3-4 weeks. We have friends flying into Marsh Harbor in a couple of weeks. This is perfect!!

Our first item on our agenda this week was to get someone to look at the generator. We contacted Basil who was highly recommended to us. He came by – discussed the problem and ordered the repair kit. Should be here and fixed sometime next week! Yea! That's a load off our minds. Now let's have some fun!

This first week has gone by so quickly! We have taken dinghy rides – saw turtles and several starfish. Mike saw a huge barracuda – didn't catch it this time! We've rode our bikes around town – nice little bakery not far from us. Mike got a haircut. I've done laundry ($4.00 each to wash and dry!) We've hung out at the pool. Get the picture? We've been really stressed! LOL! Oh, and Tuesday nights are pizza night at Snappa's. Great pizza! I had been needing a pizza fix!

We visited with Tom and Jan (Laughter). Mike and Tom spent a lot of time comparing notes since Laughter and NautiNell are both Jeffersons. Both boats look just alike! We had originally met in Carrabelle while waiting to make the Gulf Crossing. Fun visiting with them!

We have met a few couples on boats that are going to do the Loop. They are in the planning process now. Also, Tourist is here. We first met them in Manistee MI. Looking forward to getting together with them too!

A huge boat pulled in a few days ago. There are a lot of huge boats here but this one beats all! It's an 80 foot Catamaran with a 35 foot beam! The name of it is HAYFU. We found out that it was custom built and cost $7 million! They are out of Dover, DE.  Just a little out of our league!

Like I said – the first week here at Marsh Harbour has really gone fast. We are looking forward to our friends visiting in another week. They are coming in on May 6. We'll be ready!

Till Next Time!

Admiral "C"

Heading to the Abacos!



Pete's Pub - a great little hangout!

Mahi Mahi for dinner tonight!

On Wednesday, April 18 we left the marina about 8:30 heading across the NW Providence Channel to Sandy Point. About 40 miles – planning to anchor south down by the southwest tip of the Abacos but it was too windy and all rock. We had to go back up north a bit along the west coast toward the Sandy Point Settlement. We found a good spot but it was still a bit "rolly". Is that a word? It is – when you spend a year on a boat! 

Hole in the Wall
This was just beautiful although we were really
out by ourselves in over 10,000 ft of water

Ahoy!  There's land!!

Pete's Pub

Beautiful sunset from Pete's looking out at Little Harbor

Little Harbor is absolutely beautiful

Sandy Beach

Mike must be telling Pete a fish story!

Yeah, this is a little weird!  It's painted on the wall in the Ladies Room.
Hmmm!   Peace!

We dropped a hook about 1/2 mile out from shore but moved in to about 1/4 mile - we still rocked and rolled. It was weird because we had east winds so we faced into the wind but the waves were from the southeast so we kept getting beam waves which would jerk us around a bit. We enjoyed another beautiful sunset. And the anchoring wasn't so bad – slept like a baby – at least I did! Oh, and we saw our first starfish! They were everywhere!
Also when we had gone up past the Stirrup Cays on our way to Sandy Point we saw two more cruise ships anchored out -  Norwegian Gem and Majesty of the Sea.   And from Sandy Point you could see the huge Disney Ship. I imagine we're in some of the crowd's vacation photos. Now that's funny………

I must say that when we were making our crossing today – no land in sight for most of the trip – water a deep dark blue almost black – over 3200 feet deep - you begin to feel very small and rather insignificant. It was a time of reflection. I might say that we were both a bit out of our comfort zones. We were the only boat except for an occasional freighter a long way away – the water wasn't rough but Mike had to pay attention to keep NautiNell on course. It would have been a nice time to have auto-pilot. We have it – but it's still not working. L

Willie, the intern back at Great Harbor, told us that there are whales out a ways from Sandy Point. In fact, he is going there next week to study them when he leaves the Berrys. I kept my eyes opened - but saw no whale. There were some large USOs though (Unidentified Splashing Objects)! Who's to say whether it was ORCA or a "Freed Willie"! I'm just saying…….

We left our "rolly" anchorage about 7:00 a.m. wondering what that day would bring. We had heard several stories and read even more about how the Atlantic can be as we round the tip of the Abacos near Hole in the Wall. Again I think we both were a little apprehensive but looking forward to the adventure. It turned out to be fine – waves and wind did pick up for a bit but not for long. In fact, once we had rounded the tip
and was headed north Mike decided that he wanted to troll a bit. 

Now here's a great story - - - He put out two lines and must have read the signs well because in about 20 minutes both reels were spinning! We had just gone through a bunch of sea grass so Mike thought that was what we had tangled into - BUT…. Glad he only had put out two lines because BOTH of them had fish on! Two fish on! They were way out there and jumping high in the air. I know we must have looked like a couple of "Keystone Cops" trying to figure out what to do. Mike's yelling – put it in gear – take it out of gear – get down here and see this – we've got two fish on! And so on – you can imagine the rest. LOL! The bigger one of the two did get away though by breaking the wire leader and taking off with the lure and all. The other one wasn't quite so lucky. I didn't realize just how strong a fish can be until Mike told me to hang on to the pole and keep his head up in the water. It turns out we had snagged two beautiful mahi (dolphinfish, dorado) whatever you want to call them. They are beautiful and iridescent when they're in the water. Finally Mike got the gaff and brought in the HUGE fifteen pounder! We had just landed our FIRST big fish on NautiNell! All the others Mike had caught from the dinghy. This was so cool! We put him in the cooler and off we went. We still had some miles to go and now we were about an hour behind. No worries! We were all smiles! J

We had no problems – another beautiful day without the difficulties that we let worry us earlier. We got into Little Harbor without a problem although it was getting close to low tide – grabbed a mooring ball and let out a giant sigh of relief. We were now in the Abacos! We'd gone the long way around with lots of deep open water – wind – rain – but we'd made it!

Now let's go to Pete's Pub for a Dark 'n Stormy – drink that is! We plan to stay here for a couple of days. $15.00 a night for a mooring ball is more than reasonable to get a good night's sleep. And Pete's Pub is a great place to hang out!

 

Let’s Stay One More Day in Berry Islands

Can you hear the sizzle??

Pedro and Capt Chappy hanging out at Hot Shots

One of the beautiful beaches here in the Berrys

Local firetruck

Barracuda!

When's dinner???

Making conch salad
 

The winds had died down a bunch but we decided to say one more day to enjoy it. This is called pleasure boating, BTW! HA! It turned out to be a really good day too! Mike caught a four foot barracuda! He said it put up quite a fight. Never knew you could eat barracuda but the guys here say it's really good and makes good steaks. As long as they are not caught out around the reefs – this one was caught right out in the bay. Mike made a deal with Tehran'' to clean it and just give us a small amount to try. I'm still not sure about it. We'll see.

Pedro came by and took us on a tour of the Island in his car. The beaches here are so pretty. I found a huge sand biscuit! There is an airport on this island not far from the beaches. Interesting to see the planes there, along with the fire "trucks" – actually a jeep pulling a big water tank. Hope there are no fires on the second floor!

We had lunch at a local hangout named – Hot Shots. The special there today was Curried Mutton. Too bad they were out of it. Had to suffer with chicken wings. No problem!

There is an old hotel/resort here in ruins that used to be known as the Sugar Loaf Resort. This resort was built by the Rat Pack in the 1950s. Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr. along with Marilyn Monroe and Angie Dickinson (among others) used to come here regularly. Just think of the times they had. If this place could talk …….! It would be nice to see it brought back to life someday but that's really doubtful. It wouldn't be the same anyway.

We had drinks and dinner with two other boating couples at the Pool Bar. It was lots of fun listening to their stories. One couple was on a huge sailboat (Seadacious) and had lots of sailing experience around the world. They boated six months at a time and had a B/B in Wisconsin somewhere. The other one was on a trawler (Meander) a lot like ours only bigger and newer. They had been on a boat of some type now for nearly thirty years! They were from the Cape Cod area and were working their way on down south somewhere.

We also befriended the captain of a fishing boat (Hard Eight) named Tom. The boat had been at Coral Bay Marina when we were there. He took the owner out one day and came back with a bunch of yellowtail and trigger fish. Chester here at the dock cleaned them all and it seemed to take him forever. Tom was one of the guys that showed Mike how to clean a conch. I'm anxious to see if Mike can do it – a lot harder than it seems!

We are definitely leaving in the morning. Weather looks good and we can't stay here forever! We've got places to see!

Till next time!

Admiral "C"

Crossing to the Bahamas – is history!

Leaving No Name Key
heading across to Bimini!

Beautiful water with no land in sight!

We've arrived - "downtown" Bimini

Morning Ferry Ride

Alice Town, Bimini

Looking good - visitng Guy Harvey's Marina in Bimini

Colorful buildings - grocery, etc

No words can describe.......

Cool restaurant on the water

Cruise Ship out by Big Stirrup Key

Feeling kind of alone out here!

Hanging out in a local tavern in the Berry Islands

NautiNell at the Great Harbor Marina
Berry Islands

Finally, we left out of No Name Harbor and headed on to Bimini, The Bahamas! We started out about 8:00 a.m. and made it to the marina about 1:30 p.m. It was a great trip across although it was pretty skinny getting into the marina. As we were coming in we saw several huge stingrays! We had no problems with Customs and we can now stay here legally for 90 days! We stayed at Bimini Blue Water Resort for $1.00 a foot. Very reasonable – however they do charge $15.00 a day for electricity and .60 a gallon for water. They are supposed to have the best water around though – R/O - reversed osmosis. That's pretty important around here.

We walked about "town". I used that word loosely – not much of a town. Quite interesting though. The town is AliceTown. It's the capital of Bimini. Great little bar called – End of the World Sandbar. We had a drink there and added our names to the wall in felt tip. "Capt. Chappy and NautiNell were here"! The restaurant at the marina is closed on Tuesdays so we walked down to the end of the island for dinner at Coconut Plum. Only people there - but it was a great little spot!

We had a great night sleep. I think we'd been pretty anxious about the crossing. We were by ourselves and really stepping out of our comfort zone. More to come though – next we have to cross over to the Berry Islands.

We walked up to the bakery for fresh baked bread and coconut tarts. Walked around checking out more sights. The water is so beautiful here but the town is so poor. There is a resort on up the island that is now owned by Guy Harvey. This is a little more upper end. The word is also that there are plans to build another 1700 room resort along with a casino. We didn't see any signs of the construction yet. But we did see an ice cream truck! It looked just like the ones from home and even played the same music. The kids came out from everywhere!

We went on a dinghy ride along the beach on the outside. I know I keep repeating myself – but the water here is beautiful! It looks like a swimming pool, it is so clear. It's not really very deep either close to shore. Mike caught some fish – along with a huge "pencil fish" – about three feet long. It flipped and flopped – splashing all about. Cool! We also saw more stingrays. Some of them were really big!

Later we walked to the restaurant at the marina – Betty served us a great dinner for our last night at Bimini.

If weather forecast is good we will be leaving in the morning going to the Berry Islands. This will be a very long ride. Approximately 80 miles. We are working our way to The Abacos. Gotta see the sights along the way!!!

Thursday morning we were up and ready early. We bought more fuel - $5.85 a gallon – are we back in Canada?? HA! It was a very long day. We had 4 foot waves but at least they were following. It wasn't really too rough but Mike had to work at keeping NautiNell on course. We had to out maneuver a storm. The water was so deep that it went from the beautiful aqua color to a deep dark blue almost black. It was still pretty but a little unsettling. We did see a shark though – he passed about 50 feet from our boat! I expected to hear the music from Jaws but no such luck. LOL!

We planned to anchor out near Big Stirrup Cay. Both the Stirrup Cays (Big and Little) are playgrounds for the Cruise Lines. Here the cruise boats anchor and take their guests to the islands where there are several shops, restaurants and beach activities. These are all set up for their guests – private. When we went around the island we saw a Norwegian Cruise Ship anchored there. The weather was starting to blow so we moved right along around and dropped anchor just south of the lighthouse. This area is all known for poor holding (according to the guide books). However, we really didn't have much of a choice with the weather coming in. We didn't have any problems other than a storm came about 2:30 a.m. It pretty much missed us but did cause us to get up and pace! The real problem was there was just a very small bowl of water than had enough water in it and we didn't want to be blown aground. Lucky for us we didn't have a problem.

It's Friday, the 13^th! Great! Wonder how this day will go!!

Like I said earlier, the anchorage turned out to be pretty good. It looked pretty stormy in the direction we had planned to head. We couldn't get anything on the VHF and of course, no cell service, internet or television. We are definitely flying by the seat of our pants! We decided instead of another crossing of about 26 miles to Sandy Point (Abacos) we would go south a bit to the only marina in the Northern Berrys. The Great Harbor Cay Marina is located in a Class A harbor which means it is very well protected from the winds and storms. Sounded great to me! I'm not testing this Friday, the 13^th – just gonna go with the flow! We plan to spend a few days here at the marina and wait out the winds.

On Saturday we rode our bikes to town. Again, I'm using the word town loosely. It's not a very big place. They have no bank, post office, etc. The mail boat comes over weekly with supplies but hasn't been here for three weeks because of the winds. Some of the shelves in the stores are becoming pretty bare. We ate lunch at a local place called White Water. There was a pool table and a big checkers game going on. This place was rather colorful! There was an area that was enclosed and locked with a "teller" type window. People kept coming in and going in the room and coming out with some type of cash register receipt. We finally found out that this was one of the places that ran numbers! It's kind of like our lotteries but privately ran. There are three "numbers" houses on the island. Hope someone won big because there seemed to be a lot of money floating around there!

There are four manatees that live in the harbor. One of them looks like it may be a baby. They are so cool. There is a guy here that looks the surfer dude part but is doing an internship on the manatee. Not sure what that means – we just see him hanging with the locals. He did ask us some survey type questions though so he must be doing his job. HA! We also met Pedro – the chef from a restaurant next door called Tamboo. He's about 30 years old and is from Nassau. Has a great Bahamian accent!

We spent the evening mulling over our charts – trying to figure how to get where we're going! There just isn't a good way with the winds blowing hard from the east. Looks like we're stuck for a while. We will eventually cross to Sandy Point (about 40 miles northeast) then around the tip of the Abacos (Hole in the Wall) - nice name, huh! Then on up the coast to Cherokee Sound and on to Little Harbor. We're really not far from Marsh Harbor as the crow flies – but this crow has to go by boat!

Sunday morning Mike caught a huge Mutton Snapper! A 3-4 pounder! He caught it right outside the harbor. After that he learned how to open a conch and how to make conch salad. The local fishermen here make a great salad- ceviche. They gave him some for us to have. Oh, and later he went fishing again and caught another huge snapper right in front of the marina office. Mikey had a big day today!

Pedro, the chef, came over for a visit. He invited us to the restaurant where he would cook us a special Bahamian meal. How cool is that! We've never had a chef make us something special – off the menu. It turned out to be great! Minced lobster (chunks of lobster in a type of creole sauce with green peppers and onions), grilled grouper, Bahamian rice and a great spinach salad with pine nuts on top. We really enjoyed it until we got the check for $104.00! Oh well! Maybe that's why we don't have chefs make us specials!

After all, I had spent $20.00 doing laundry earlier. Just two loads! That's right, $5.00 to wash and $5.00 to dry. Oh and you have to fill the washer with water yourself with a hose. There are two sets of w/d but only one works, of course. You just can't sweat the small stuff around here – it's part of the adventure.

I do have to tell you this though – Mike was doing something on the sundeck of the boat and dropped a drill bit into the water. He actually got his magnet out and eventually came up with it! He also got an old broken boat hook out of the dumpster and fixed it to be a long handle for his gaff. He won't change – one night $100 for dinner - the next day – dumpster diving! Yea!

Monday we've spent just hanging out – looks like we may leave tomorrow or Wednesday. Weather forecasts show that the wind should be getting better. It will still be out of the east (not so good) but we should be able to handle it. We'll see!

Stay tuned!

Till next time!

Admiral "C"




 

Boca Chita Key and No Name Harbor

Finally left Islamorada -heading for Pumpkin Key

Think they should move to higher ground?

Entrance into Boca Chita Key

Tied up to the wall

Beautiful sky at Boca Chita

Checking out the island

Beautiful beach just on the other side

The boats just kept on coming in all weekend!

Great scenery all around

Are the burgers ready yet?

It just keeps getting prettier!

What a picture!!

Looking from our sundeck while on the hook in No Name Key

On Wednesday, April 4 we FINALLY left Coral Bay Marina around 11:00 a.m. It was a nice easy trip to Pumpkin Key where we spent the night on the hook. We really enjoyed being out on the move again. We saw several dolphins swimming alongside of us. At one time, we counted at least eleven! We cooked hotdogs on the grill – watched the dolphins play and enjoyed a beautiful sunset. It just can't get any better than that! We are getting a little anxious about crossing the gulfstream but we're ready! We planned to cross over to the east side of the Keys by going through Angelfish Creek. It's a good channel that will take you to Hawks Channel which will then take us on out to sea!

Early Thursday morning we were awakened by a storm (not in the forecast, by the way) that brought us 45 mph winds. We swung around quite a bit but our anchor held! The storms left windy conditions behind. In fact NOAA was calling for possible 60 mph gusts out in the ocean. We weren't going to cross the gulfstream in those conditions! We decided that we would go on to Boca Chita Key just a few miles north. We saw it on the charts and our waterway guides gave it high praise. It was a pretty easy trip, however, thanks to the boater than radioed us along the way. He kept us from running aground in an area that really fooled us. It looked like it had enough water according to the charts but he assured us that we should make a 180 degree turn. We did! Coming from the south you need to go through Featherbed Cut and then back over to the east to get to Boca Chita Key. Just a little out of the way but it's really the only way….

We were able to tie up to the seawall just inside a bowl with great protection. The winds were still really blowing and the waves were beginning to build. It is gorgeous here. There is enough room for about 25 boats to tie up to the wall. There are no amenities except restrooms but it is a great place. The cost is $20 a night - $10 if you're old like us! It turns out that it is the local weekend hangout. Most of the locals that come here are from Miami area. Boats continued to come in all day long. Of course, it being a holiday weekend there were probably more than usual. We were told that it would be like this all weekend. We would get to enjoy a little different culture – "Crazy Cubans"! Oh, and it was also a full moon!

We spent the evening just sitting back and enjoying the protection from the waves we could see on the other side. This was nice…………!

We spent most of the day (Good Friday) watching the boaters coming in and trying to find a spot. It was a lot like watching the launch ramp on the Fourth of July back on Table Rock Lake. Hilarious! Big boats – some not so big and some even bigger! Some boaters experienced – some not so much!

There are a lot of families here so there are a lot of kids. Its fun watching them all have so much fun. We walked over to the other side of the island to see the beach. It's really pretty over there – not very deep . There were several day boats anchored on that side just hanging out at the beach.

Saturday morning the winds changed direction but were still blowing. It looks like it may be Tuesday before we are able to crossover. Mike took the dinghy out to fish. Came back empty handed but didn't seem to mind. Again there were more boats coming in and very few leaving. 52' Hatteras – 15' runabout – and everything in between. Several know each other so they are rafting up. We have a premium spot since we got here on Thursday.

We took a dinghy ride out around the area. Couldn't go completely around because of the tide. It was trying to take us out faster than our motor could keep us in. Nice relaxing ride – huh! Just kidding, it turned out to be a great ride. We found a good place to snorkel - so we may try that tomorrow.
Right now Mike is visiting with the neighbors and I'm realizing that it's time for Happy Hour! Will write more later! TTFN!

Sunday, April 8 – Happy Easter! What a way to spend Easter Sunday! First - we spent the morning watching the little kids hunt for eggs. It was the closest thing we had to seeing our own grandkids – part of me felt rather sad – missing those kids! These kids were running all over like a herd of cats! I think most of the eggs found! We then took a dinghy ride over to a great spot to snorkel. We were able to try out our new gear – no leaks! Yea! We talked to a couple that was on a catamaran. Really nice – originally from New Jersey – have been here for six years. They are in the process of having a boat built. Really talked up this area to live in. We have really enjoyed the Keys. They're on our list! LOL!

When we got back to the boat – we sat and more "crazies" come and go. It was quite entertaining! We fixed a great steak dinner and toasted the day. Like I said – what a way to spend Easter Sunday!

On Monday morning we left our spot for a new one at No Name Harbor near Key Biscayne. This area is a State Park with different rules than the National Parks. No Name Harbor is a great spot where you can tie up to the seawall for the day. If you want to spend the night – you have to drop a hook out in the harbor. It still only costs $20.00 for overnight – not bad, I guess. Since it had been a few days since we had stocked up for the Bahamas – we had broken into our rations! SO! Off we went to Key Biscayne on our bikes to get more stuff! HA! We sure can carry lots of stuff on those bikes!! We had met a couple (Bill and Betty) on a the boat "Walkabout" earlier in Boca Chita – they showed up here too! In fact, they're the ones that had told us about No Name Harbor. Bill shared his knowledge and his charts with us. In fact he gave us some of his Bahamas charts for a bottle of wine! Can't beat that! He's written a couple of books that are available through Amazon.com. He gave one of them to me – Into the Land of Coconut Dreams, by Bill Hezlep. Planning to give it a read along the way!

We anchored out in the harbor - Again we were ready to go!
Looks like tomorrow morning we'll be off on another adventure!

Till Next Time!

Admiral "C"

Still More Time in Islamorada

Islamorada festival on the beach

Trying to de-stress a little.  Is it working?

Our big rig parked at the beach

 

Mermaids in the sand

One of the many sand sculptures

Well, we didn't get to leave Islamorada right on as scheduled. We did get the parts on Monday, but it took Mike longer than anticipated when it came to finishing the installation of the inverter.

No big deal! It's not bad being here in the Keys. Since we were here on Sunday and didn't really have much we could do – we decided to explore. We heard on the radio that there was an "Island Fest" being held in Founder's Park in Islamorada. Founder's Park is a little too far from the marina for a bike ride but we found that we could get there by dinghy. Yea! The Island Fest was great! There was the Taste of Islamorada being held – so we were able to taste some of the food from the local restaurants that we'd missed. Hard to think that we had missed some; but we had. I had some really good shrimp 'n grits! There were at least a hundred vendors selling their wares. AND there was a blues band playing – Pit Bull Blues Band was their name. They were really good! We planned to get a cd of theirs but we didn't. Oh well, maybe they're on the internet somewhere.

We sat in the shade of a beautiful palm tree, listened to music, watched the kids in the water and enjoyed ourselves! J Oh, and drank our own "cheap" beer. How good is that! Of course, the winds had picked up some when we decided to leave so it was quite a bumpy ride home in the dinghy. Woohoo!

Finally on Monday, Mike was able to do more work on his project. However, he didn't get it finished until Tuesday. No Worries! We just planned to leave on Wednesday. After all, the Bahamas will be there when we get there.

Till next time!

Admiral "C"