SPANISH WELLS CAY (ELEUTHERA)

We arrived in Spanish Well Cay on January 17 after a 10 hour sail from Little Harbour, Abacos, down to Royal Island before mooring in Spanish Cay. This Cay is a small fishing community just west of the island of Eleuthera. Their dialect is English with a touch of British. Although there are quite a few cars on this small island, the common means of transportation is golf carts. We find golf carts all over the Bahamas. The only way on or off the island is a boat. You can take a water taxi to the main island of Eleuthera or the big fast ferry around Eleuthera to Harbour Island, on the east side of Eleuthera. It's a sight to see a car being taken on a boat to the main island. Perhaps they have an appointment that is some distance away. We have met Americans that have purchased a house here and live here during the winter months. They spend their summers in New England. That's the way to do it!

GREAT GUANA CAY

We are now in Marsh Harbour. But, before we travelled to Marsh Harbour, we spent a couple of days on Great Guana Cay. This Cay is lovely. A walk along the beach along the Atlantic side of the island is fabulous. You will notice a picture of a resort(notice the lounge chairs). We were anchored in Fisher's Bay just off this resort. You can go in and sit and watch the sunset here. Great Guana is not a large cay. It is known for snorkeling and a couple of great beach bars. We did not get in any snorkeling time. Yet. we did manage to squeak in some bar time. Do you know what the difference is between an island and a cay? An island has fresh water available and a cay does not. We're still enjoying our trip. So many wonderful places to see.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

JUNKANOO: A Bahamian Celebration with wonderful colorful costumes, dancing down the street to a rythym of Drums and Cow bells. What a wonderful sight!

Christmas in Green Turtle Cay

WE MADE IT!!!!!

We made it to Green Curtle Cay, Abacos, Bahamas on Saturday, December 22nd. It took us a couple of days to get here after leaving Florida. But, we made it in time for Christmas. The boaters here are a very friendly and personable group. We all have one important thing in common. We all are living on our boats. As one person put it, "Our home is at the end of a string in the water."On Christmas Day, there

was a pot-luck dinner for the cruisers. It was alot of fun. We did miss our family and friends, though. Happy New Year Everybody!

P.S. If you click on a picture, you can enlarge it.

A LONG WAIT

Sorry we haven't updated things on the blog for awhile. As you can see, the blog's look is different and you'll be able to see more pictures. We spent the last 15 days in Lake Worth (North Palm Beach) waiting for the right weather window. We had a few mayby's. But, not good enough to go out through the gulf stream. We have a good window tomorrow. Hopefully, the next blog will be from Green Turtle Key in the Abacos.

"Anchoring in Lake Worth"

Although it was a long stay, we did meet some wonderful folks and made new lifetime friends. The boats we spent a few "happy hours" with were Cautauqua, of course, Salty Dog from Tennessee, Windspead from Canada, Kilissa from Solomons, MD, and a few more. We were able to get groceries, water, fuel, all walking distance from a dinghy area. We even had the chance to take a bus to do laundry, and also to sign up at the customs office. This means we only have to call customs when we return instead of having to find a customs office to check in.

We are really anxious to get going. We got down to Florida in such a good time. And we have been waiting to get over. We are really enjoying the wonderful weather of Florida. It has been pleasantly warm.





"Wash Day"

Last stop before Bahamas

I haven't been able to get onto the internet very much for the past 10 days. And we have covered quite a bit of territory. We spent a couple of wonderful days in St. Augustine. What a sensational place. The historical flavor of all of the buildings is so apparent. It was magnificent. An anchorage for a night, each, in Daytona Beach, Titusville, and Melbourne lead us to Vero Beach. This was an adventure. Vero Beach has a free (donations accepted) bus system. You can ride the bus all day. It'll take you to every store you can think of.(Walmart, Sams, Target, a mall, Home Depot, etc) You can also take it to the Beach. We stocked up on all of those things that we think we're going to need before heading over to the Bahamas. Our niece, Kim Hemphill, drove up from Jensen Beach and had lunch with us one afternoon. She braved the dinghy ride from the dock out to see our boat. It was wonderful to see her. Tomorrow, Dec 5, we will head down to Lake Worth. A couple of days there and hopefully a window of good weather for crossing will bless us and we will head over to the Bahamas. Hooray! I'm surprised we got here so fast. We thought it would take us longer. The weather was good and did not delay us very much. It has gotten up into the 80's in Florida and we are really appreciating it. We love you all and miss you.

Vero Beach