NautiNell

NautiNell
NautiNell in all her glory

Saturday, April 25, 2015

Off On Another Adventure! Bahamas April 2015!

Going under the Seven Mile Bridge
Saying goodbye to Marathon
One of the several "Fast Boats" we saw along the way
Playing Mexican Train in Bimini
Sign says it all?
Welcome to North Bimini
Beautiful costumes at the Junkanoo
in Freeport
One of the dancers at the Junkanoo
Saying goodbye to Rho-Jo in Ocean Reef
Inside the Two Dollar Bar
Having lunch and a beer in the
Two Dollar Bar
One of the local hangouts
Two Dollar Bar
Dinner tonight!
Can't beat fresh grouper!
Port Lacaya lighthouse
Visit to the Straw Market
Welcoming us to the market
Running ahead of the storm!
Just made it back in time!
Mike taking the dinghy out for a spin to
North Bimini
Our first Bahamian meal!
One of the huge container ships outside
Port of Freeport
He was staged and waiting for Customs
Our first sunset in the Bahamas!
The End of the World Bar
This was our view from Nautinell
every morning in Bimini
at Bimini Sands
Going fishin'!
Our boats in Bimini Sands

Resident shark here at Bimini Sands
Lunch at the Island House
Main Street in Alice Town
Our other resident at Bimini Sands
A Stingray
This guy came in our harbor to pick up a boat!
Quite a skillful maneuver!
Saying goodbye to Rambler
as they head to the Exumas
Point Isaac Lighhouse
about half way to Lacaya from Bimini
Beautiful day for a wedding
here at Ocean Reef
The day finally came – for several of us anyway.  Finally on Thursday, April 9 we untied from what has been our home for the last five months.  We weren’t alone though.  Ray and Linda (Second Noelle) snuck our early this morning.  They are on their way back home to Chattanooga, TN for the summer.  Richard and Kathy (Rambler) and Joey and Rhonda (Rho-Jo) left heading with us up the east coast to find a good day to cross to the Bahamas.  To say we left together is not quite right.  Rambler and Rho-Jo left about 8:30 and NautiNell pulled out of her slip about 9:45.  We still had a few things we needed to tend to.  That seems to be the Chapman way!  Anyway we’re going the same way so we’re bound to see them and hopefully cross the Atlantic with them.  Here’s how it’s been going for the last few days……

April 9, Thursday   We left with a plan to travel about 40 miles to Sunset Cove in Buttonwood Sound (Key Largo).  We stayed there last year when we were traveling with Jeremiah and Second Noelle.  It was a great day to travel although, we did go through some pretty skinny water!  There was a lot of wind but the waves were on our nose and it was just pretty much “choppy”.  We heard from the other two that they were at Gilbert’s where they were tying up to the dock.  Being still about an hour away from them, we dropped a hook about 6:00 and enjoyed the sunset in Sunset Cove.  It was a little noisy for a while with the music coming from the bars on shore but it didn’t last too late.  After that it turned out to be quite a nice evening. 

April 10, Friday   We left about 8:30 this morning heading for No Name Harbor.  We had originally planned to stay a couple of days in Boca Chita.  But it looked like we’d be crossing on Saturday so we passed on it and went to No Name where the inlet – Biscayne Cut -  is close by.  We made it to No Name which was about a 45 mile trip by about 3:00.  We like it there.  It’s very secure and there are lot of boats to watch – especially on a weekend.  There is a restaurant there too, but we didn’t eat there this time.  We wanted to just hang out on the hook and relax.  The others had gone to a marina and would be coming back this way to go through the cut early in the morning.  We were hoping to be able to cross altogether.

When we were in Biscayne Bay earlier getting near to No Name, we saw a dive boat tending to a dolphin.  They had it up on the swim platform.  We couldn’t tell what was going on but it must have been hurt.  There were SEVERAL dolphins jumping and swimming around the area – it seemed they knew he was there and didn’t want to leave him.  It was pretty interesting.  Hope he’s okay.

April 11, Saturday   We are finally going to the Bahamas!  It’s been three years since we were over there.  Things happen along the way and the best laid plans don’t always turn out.  But this time we’re on our way!  We left No Name Harbor about 7:15.  It was perfect timing – Rambler and Rho-Jo were just coming into the cut when we pulled out of the harbor.  There were also two other boats in the harbor that were also crossing just a few minutes behind us.  It was only about a 45 mile trip to Bimini.  There was a strong east wind that put the waves on our nose.  They were pretty good sized waves too.  We bounced around a lot.  Let’s just say it wasn’t the best crossing but it could have been much worse.  When we got past the Gulf Stream it seemed to let up some and as we got to the other side, the winds seemed to lay a little.  When we got to our destination I had quite a mess to clean up in NautiNell.  Things were strung all over – nothing broken – and I’ve definitely seen it worse!

Now along the way we chatted with Rambler and Rho-Jo.  In those conversations it finally came up that they had planned all along to go to South Bimini!  We had charted our way into North Bimini where we had been before.  We talked about it some and decided that we’d just go south too.  It’s not over a half-mile in difference.  Plus it’s was actually easier to go into the entrance of South than North.  We stayed at the Bimini Sands Resort.  Much nicer place than what we would have been in at North Bimini (Alice Town). 

The water is unbelievable!  I think I had actually forgotten just how beautiful it is over here.  The water is the color of turquoise!  You can see the bottom from way over 20 feet.  We soon were seeing all kinds of fish, a stingray and a shark.  The shark was about 4 feet long and just off the side of our boat!    We got to the marina about 3:00 and the guys took a taxi to Customs to check in.  Customs is here at the Bimini Airport.  They all cleared customs easily and then it was time to enjoy ourselves. 

Of course one of the first things Mike did was to take a dinghy ride over to North Bimini.  He said it wasn’t bad at all so I know we’ll be taking another ride tomorrow!  We all went to dinner at the restaurant here at the marina – The Petite Conch – conch fritters and cracked conch!  We’re in the Bahamas, baby!

April 12, Sunday   We had an easy morning this morning.  Mike went fishing.  Caught several but no keepers.  We went on that dinghy ride!  Went over to Alice Town.  It’s still pretty much the way we remembered it.   Not much has changed except they have built a huge new casino and a Hilton Hotel at the very north tip.  That didn’t really interest us – we tend to like the funky Bahamian style.  We had planned to go further south around the tip of Bimini where the Bimini Beach Club is located but it was a bit to “wavy”.  The others hung out at the pool.  Later we all played Mexican Train.  It was a hoot!

April, 13, Monday   Mike went fishing again early this morning.  Then we all took the ferry over to Alice Town (North Bimini) so we could get Bahamian phones.  Our phones won’t work over here so we got a cheapy phone and a sim card from BTC.  At least now we have a phone where we can call and receive calls if necessary.  It went pretty smoothly considering when we got to the BTC office – there was a huge line -  all boaters wanting phones.  We stopped at “The Taste of Heaven” bakery for some wonderful Bahamian bread! And had lunch at the Island House.  Now that’s a funky place!  Margery and Mike (Brave Turtle) from Marathon met us there.  They had crossed over on Saturday too and had stayed at the Beach Club.  They had moved over to Bluewater Marina in North Bimini this morning.  It’s such a small boating community!  Even Hugh – Mike’s barber from Marathon -  came walking in! 

When we got back to the boat we sat and visited with our new neighbors – Pete and Cheryl (Blue Moon).  They are on a sailboat and it turns out they spent the winter in Boot Key Harbor.  They’re on their way south and know Shenanigans who are traveling with the other group that is leaving Sombrero Dockside soon.

Mike and Cheri (Pura Vida) – our friends we met a couple years ago in Cocoa Village came in to North Bimini this evening.  They have been over here since January and are heading back to the US.  We took the dinghy over to see them.  It was great visiting with them and hearing about all their fun times.  They are headed up the west coast of Florida once they get cross back over.  They plan to leave Tuesday morning.

April 14, Tuesday   We spent most of the day just getting things ready to leave again.  I did laundry and Mike tied up loose ends.  We’ve been here now four days and the weather is going to be good for traveling tomorrow.  So Rambler will be heading south and Rho-Jo is heading the same direction as we are.  We are going to Lacaya where we’ll spend a few weeks.  That is -  if it’s the way we remember it!  We really enjoyed it there three years ago.  Let’s hope things haven’t changed.  We’ll be leaving about 7:30 and traveling about 65 miles.  It will be a long day.  Hoping and praying the water is our friend tomorrow.

April 15, Wednesday   We left Bimini about 7:30 – again not the best travel day but it was okay.  Rho-Jo traveled with us.  It was about a 72 mile trip to Grand Bahama Island where Ocean Reef Resort is located – near Port Lacaya.  Rambler headed south toward the Exumas.  We saw several big container ships and deep blue water.  It was a seven hour trip – we made it to Ocean Reef about 2:30.  What a cluster that was!  They had planned for us to share a big slip – only it wasn’t big enough!  Rho-Jo went to different slip and we tied up there.  BUT Mike managed to negotiate us a different slip which was over to the other side of the resort.  It was where we had been before – we really had requested that area earlier.  SO another cluster!  It took quite some doing to get us tied up for some reason – but “Cowboy Joey” came to the rescue and lassoed the elusive piling!  We had a cocktail with them and it was back to the boat for dinner.  An early night for all after fighting that wheel all day with the waves and wind.  But we’re here!

The next few days we’ve been lazy – spending some time at the pool and of course, Mike has been fishing.  Hasn’t caught much yet – but he will!  There are a few couples here that we had met three years ago.  The place doesn’t seem to have changed much.  That’s good!

April 18, Saturday   We caught the bus to the First Annual Junkanoo Carnival that was being held this weekend at Taino Beach.  It was pretty nice!  Lots of music, colors and food!  We really didn’t know what to expect.  We knew it’d be different! 

The rest of the week April 19, Sunday through Wednesday April 22 again has been pretty much just taking it easy so I’ll just hit the highlights.    Rho-Jo left Sunday morning.  It has been fun traveling with them and we wish them safe travels.  Who knows – we may see them again while we’re over here! And we plan to see them again when we make our trek up the east coast this summer to Norfolk.  We went on a dinghy ride.  It was too wavy outside so we spent the time checking out the canals. 

Mike has been out in the dinghy fishing again several times.   That’s pretty much a routine for him.  The Resort held its Monday Madness – meet and greet.  So we went to that – it’s free food and free Bahama Mamas!  Can’t miss that!    Mike played Bingo!  Won a T-shirt!  Wow!  We’re on a roll now!  There was a pool tournament going on but Mike passed.  After all, he was already a winner.  Ha!  Then there is Karaoke.  We, of course, were able to hear it from the back of our boat.  We had dinner and drinks on NautiNell while we heard the “Stars of Karaoke”.  That’s such a funny concept!  Everyone wants to be a star and here you can be!  Today we wanted to go to the straw market but it was a bit rainy.  We had planned to go over there by dinghy.  However, since the weather wasn’t cooperating, we decided to check out the local hangout “ The Two Dollar Bar”.  Pretty much a dive even by Bahamian standards. I do  love the name – but believe me, I don’t think there’s anything there for two dollars!  You can get beer for 2 for $5!  Now that’s not bad!  We had a few beers and a good lunch.  We had taken a taxi there because we weren’t sure where it was.  SO in our infinite wisdom – we decided it wasn’t so far and we could walk home.  What we won’t do to save a buck!  That wouldn’t have been a problem but we walked way passed our road where we should have turned.  We kept walking though pretty much knowing we’d gone too far.  Finally we flagged down some heavy equipment guys who told us we had gone way too far.  We needed to ”go back up that hill way back up there and turn left”!  They flagged someone down for us who was good to give us a ride back.  That was really nice of all of them.  The guy took us right up to the gate.  Next time we’ll either take a taxi, our bicycles or we can even get there by dinghy.  I guarantee we won’t walk and we won’t miss our road!  It was an adventure though!

We also took the dinghy over to the Lacaya Marketplace.  There are several shops and restaurants along with the Straw Market over there.  It's where the Cruise Ships bring their passengers.  It was a good day for a dinghy ride.  We managed to have lunch and a few beers.  We also shopped a bit - finding our favorite Bahamian rum!  "Fire in the Hole"!  Cheap and tasty!  We also brought home some conch salad.  The skies started looking a bit threatening so we decided to make a run for it.  It started to sprinkle just as we were tying up Lil' Nauti to NautiNell.   Then it poured!  Good timing!
A bit of trivia on the Bahamas:  I read this the other day -  The Bahama Islands consist of over 100,000 square miles, however only 5,000 square miles are covered by land.  That is about the size of the state of Connecticut!  Bimini is the smallest named island and Andros is the largest.   There you’ve learned something today!

Till next time!

Admiral "C"

BTW-we ended the day having fresh fish for dinner that Mike caught this afternoon.  Yum!  Life is good!




 

 

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Celebrating April in the Keys!

One of the last sunsets for us here in Marathon
Leaving soon!
Red Sky at Night........
Ray was bottom cleaning (diving) Jeff's
boat and this fish swam up to him with
a hook in its mouth!
Too bad it wasn't a keeper!
Jack Creville - not good for eating
View from Old No Seven
A beautiful day for a walk
View from Old Seven Mile Bridge
I love spending time out here
The girls having dinner before we attended the
Community play "The Producers"
Salt Mills brought up from the Atocha
Gold bullion
Silver treasure
Another treasure from the deep
Parts of crossbows were found
Hard to tell from picture -
but this was really beautiful
Key West Sunset
Never gets old
Attending Sunrise Services at Sombrero Beach
A beautiful morning to worship
Coen, our little "imp" on the dock
brought us Easter treats from the
bunny himself!
Easter Dinner on the dock
Sunset from Coco Plum while in the sling
Key Colony
At least we had a nice view of the canal
Playing "Heads Up"
Great fun!
BTW  - Girls won!
Jeff and his son, Scott taking Jeremiah
home for the summer
Bittersweet
Jeremiah standing proud
Easter Dinner gathering

Celebrating April in the Keys!
Well I had hoped that the next time I posted it would be from the Bahamas but here we are still in Marathon.  There are about 8 boats here that are wanting to leave but the winds and the waves just won’t cooperate.  However, it shouldn’t be long now – it looks like we’ll be leaving toward the end of the week and maybe cross over to Bimini this next weekend (April 11-12).  We’ll see!
So here are a few things that’s been happening the last few weeks.  Between several trips to the grocery store, liquor store, Home Depot and the local hardware store to stock up for our adventure – we have managed to have some fun! 
The other night some of the girls here had a “Girls Night Out”.  We went to the Cracked Conch CafĂ© for dinner and then on to the Marathon Theater for the production “The Producers”.  It was amazing!  Most of us now have been to several of these community plays – and they all have been enjoyable but this one was quite a production!  I haven’t laughed so much in a long time!
Mike and I made another trek to Key West.  We had a good excuse (as if we needed one).  We needed to get the Silver Bullet’s tires rotated and we can get that done free at Sears.  So we piled our foldable bicycles in the car along with a cooler and off we went.  Well, let me tell you how it really went – we took off and forgot the bikes first – we were practically over the Seven Mile Bridge before we remembered so we had to turn around once we got over the bridge and go back to Marathon.  THEN we picked up the bikes and off we went.  We stopped at Boondocks for a snack because we were starving!  I love their Bang Bang Shrimp!  Then we finally made it to Key West and to Sears where we dropped off the car and rode the bikes to Duval Street.  The guy told us that it would be about 4 hours before it would be ready.  So we had plenty of time.  We hit our favs – Sloppy Joes, Ricks, oysters at Hogs Breath etc.  We finally decided to go to the Mel Fisher Museum.  We had wanted to do this for a long time.  It was really quite interesting.  Thanks to the Atocha – Mel became one of the richest treasure hunters of all time.  Finally we got our call from Sears – BUT they were closing in about 45 minutes.  We didn’t feel like riding our bikes all the way back to Sears and it took us almost an hour to get to Duval Street from there earlier SO we decided we’d leave our bikes and take a cab back to Sears.  Why we didn’t get a cab that transports bikes I don’t know…..  Anyway – we picked the first cab that came by – turned out our cabbie was tweaking.  At least he really acted like it – I’m sure he was high on something.  Anyway – he got us to Sears safely and in plenty of time.  We then got our car and drove back to where we left our bikes – picked them up and then checked out the sunset over Mallory Square  - then hit another favorite “The Green Parrot”.  We stayed a little too long maybe but we had a great time.  All of this just to get a free tire rotation - value $15.00.  Trip to Key West priceless!
We had a beautiful Easter here in the Keys.  Several of us attended Sunrise Services on the beach.  After that we had breakfast on the dock.  Several took a dinghy ride.  AND then we had a wonderful Easter Dinner on the dock.  We do like to eat! 
Last year we had NautiNell pulled out and got her bottom painted.  Well they put on a boot stripe tape rather than paint which is usually fine.  But within two months one side of the boat had lost its stripe.  So the guy told us to bring it back and he’d fix it.  Luckily we were coming back to Marathon this year.  SO ANYWAY, we took her back to the marina in Coco Plum about 10 miles away from Sombrero.  It took us about an hour or so to get there.  It was pretty bumpy out there too!  Anyway he took her out and applied another new tape.  I could tell he really felt bad and was very accommodating.  We spent the night in the sling.  The next morning Ray came over to help change out the through hull – eazy pezy! He rode back with us in NautiNell.  Now when we got back and tied up in the slip – guess what!  The boot stripe was gone!  Yep!  All that for nothing!  At least we got the through hull changed out………….!
Later that night we had a pizza party and played “Heads Up”!  What a crazy night that was!  I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in a very long time.  It can get very exciting especially when alcohol is involved!  J
We spent today loading the scooters, stocking up on the last few items we forgot, and fixing a leak.  It looks like we’re finally leaving tomorrow (April 9).  We’ll be heading up the east coast to the Miami area (Biscayne Bay) where we’ll hang out until there’s a good day to cross over to Bimini.  There are a couple of boats leaving with us and several that will be following in a few days.  Finally, we’ll be on the move.
Now this should be the last post until we get to the Bahamas.  We’ll be on the move and once we get there my WIFI connections will be few and far between. So stayed tuned!
Till Next Time!
Admiral “C”