We stopped in Miami for a reason. Well actually several. One, we really like Miami. We have happy memories there from prior stays and it has a special place in our heart. Two, we feel secure in our anchorage options. And three, the vets there are used to doing international…
Hurricane season–officially from June 1 to November– but for us a time to have the boat hauled out of the water to have some maintenance performed. First we sailed from Brunswick, Georgia to Thunderbolt Marine in Savannah, Georgia. As we were leaving Brunswick, Benjamin got some pictures of us under…
All good things must come to an end and the time has come to leave The Bahamas. We are heading north, first for a brief stop in Daytona, and then to take the boat north of Florida for hurricane season. And we are leaving just in time. The kids got…
The Thunderball grotto is so spectacular that it merits its own entry. We stopped there on the the way returning north, it is right by Staniel Cay where we can fill up with diesel and water. The James Bond movie Thunderball was filmed here (which is how it got its…
Why I Wake Early (by Mary Oliver) Hello, sun in my face.Hello, you who make the morningand spread it over the fieldsand into the faces of the tulipsand the nodding morning glories,and into the windows of, even, themiserable and crotchety– best preacher that ever was,dear star, that just happensto be…
I am so blessed. For my 50th birthday two of our friends, Debi and Roxanne, flew in to spend it with us. Debi and I share a birthday, so we had twice as much fun celebrating together. And did we ever have a fun week! We picked them up at…
Anytime one travels to a foreign country a lot of the fun is finding things that are very different from home, and The Bahamas is no exception. To start with there are swimming pigs. Big Major Cay is uninhabited and the pigs are not native to the island. Some say…
Living on a sailboat is about exchanging convenience for simplicity. One thing about traveling in the Bahamas is I’m learning how to go back to basics. The few grocery stores that exist are tiny markets with limited selection. They generally have some canned goods, maybe eggs, rice and flour. If…
The Exuma Land and Sea park is a national park of unspoiled beauty. They do not allow any fishing, harvesting of conch, lobster, or shells. You have to pay each $20 each night to drop anchor. There are drop boxes like the one on the right side of the sign…
Normans Cay is famous for its sunken airplane. The story is that this island was used by a drug cartel in the 1970s and 1980s to smuggle cocaine from South America into the US. Around that time one of the small propeller planes crashed into the water, and now it…