Turks and Caicos to the Dominican Republic

 We spent February 23rd through the 26th on the South Side of Turks and Caicos.  We rented a car and drove all over the island.  The first time through 10 years ago I wasn't that impressed with Turks and Caicos but my view changed this time.  They are actually very nice islands and the people there are so nice.  

We were waiting for the wind to let up and we thought we had a fairly good weather window to head over to the Dominican Republic.  Boy were we wrong.  The winds were supposed to be around 17-24 but it was blowing 25-30 the whole time and we were heading right into it, which made for a very unpleasant ride.  It took us 32 hours to get across and Wes and I agreed that it was the worse crossing we ever had.   We lost the new dinghy engine somewhere along the way.   The waves were coming up over the boat and water would just pour through the hatches. Everything got wet.   We lost the inverter, auto pilot and Wes's phone when he went out to tie down the anchor and forgot his phone was in his pocket.  The phone is toast, but hopefully once the auto pilot dries out it will start working.  We got to the bay in Luperon, which is very protected and the town is pretty nice. Wes has been checking the weather daily to see when this wind might let up and change direction so we can head over to Puerto Rico but it doesn't look good for the next week.  Hopefully it will get better soon.  Stay Tuned!!

We encountered this whale on our way into Turks and Caicos

These baby turtles were at the dock at the Marina in Turks & Caicos

The view from Bob's restaurant at the South Side Marina where we stayed in Turks & Caicos

Sights around Luperon

 

Making Our Way South

We've been working our way south through the Exumas and we are currently anchored off the South end of Acklins Island.  We have one more fairly big island (Mayaguana) and then we will be crossing over to Turks in Caicos.  The weather has been so different from the last time we came through the Bahamas, which was summer both times.  The wind has been crazy and it's a lot colder.  Certainly not as cold as Colorado though, even though they are having a winter heat wave there.  We may have to hang out here for a couple days and wait for a good weather window.  It was pretty rough today with swells and going straight into the wind.  

It's nice that the Bahamians went through and put cell towers on just about every island so we can get service most of the time. It's not very fast and we usually have to wait for things to load but we are on island time.   Last time through we had to buy a Bahamian phone that was very sketchy.  

This was a ray that was off the beach at the chat n chill beach bar on Stocking Island

Kalik is the local beer that made in the Bahamas and this guava one was wonderful. 

Bird Rock Lighthouse off Crooked Island

This is the beach where we are anchored tonight off Acklin Island. One lonely house and they have this wonderful beach all to themselves. 

Finally made it to George Town (bahamas)

 Well its been a little while since I blogged. We haven't had real good service lately. I couldn't get any pictures from my phone to my computer. So I didn't blog. That is fixed now.

We've been going through the Exemuas. The water is beautiful and there are sand dollars at the bottom. The last time we were cruising we couldn't find any sand dollars except in a bay in the US Virgin Islands.

We saw a couple of sharks 

 

Then we got stuck above George Town. The water got a little rough. We could have made it down to George Town but it would have been a little bumpy.

 

 

The weather is finally nice. 75 during the day and 65 at night. It make me want to go swimming.

That is a change from what we have had the whole way down here. The water is 78 or 79 so it is not bad getting in. We also feed some pigs on the way down

 

 

 Here is our boat in the blue water

 

 

 

 

Freezing in Nassau

We made it to Nassau on January 28th and we have been hiding out at the Bay Street Marina for the past few days waiting out this cold front that has been covering the Bahamas.  Talking to the bartender last night, it hasn't been this cold since he was 15 and he is now 35.  The weather app said it was 53 but feels like 37 in the middle of the day and it did feel like 37.  We had to break out the space heater again.  It was mainly the wind is why we decided to stay so long in the marina.  We have had winds between 20-25 mph with gusts up to 45 mph for 3 days.  Hopefully the wind will calm down tomorrow so we can head over to the Exumas.   

We rented a car and drove around the island and ran a few errands.  They drive on the right side of the road and the steering is on the the right.  Wes didn't have any trouble with this, just with the turn signal being on the right side of the steering wheel.  He kept hitting the wipers instead.  Needless to say, we had a very clean windshield.   The car was a pink nissan marsh (never heard of it) and it was pretty beat up but it was only $50 a day.

We also walked around town where the cruise ships come in.  It was pretty quiet when we went because there was only 1 cruise ship in port when there is normally around 6.  A lot of the cruise ships changed their itineraries to skip Nassau because of the winds and rough waters.  We stopped by Senior Frogs to have a drink (and a shot in the congo line) and then margaritaville.  They have some really cute little shops there.  

When we first got in with 6 cruise ships in port

The marina is right across the bay from Atlantis

The lovely pink car we rented

Stuck in Bimini

 We have been trying to get out of Bimini for three days, but the weather has not cooperated. Monday it was just blowing a little too hard. Tuesday it was just too rough to get out through the channel.  Hopefully we can leave tomorrow. We don't really mind being in Bimini but we've been here since last Thursday and we've seen everything that we want to see. So with a little luck we will be heading to Nassau tomorrow.

Here is some of the rough water I was talking about.

 

A little of the local wildlife

 

 

We spent the last few days getting through the Everglades and over to Elliott Key, where we were going to make the crossing over to the Bahamas.

While we were going through the everglades a crazy storm came up really quickly on us.  There wasn't much rain but the wind was intense.  We had both sails up and we were able to drop the main sail but the jib got torn a bit before we could pull it in.  So I spent two days hand sewing the jib and got it done in time for us to make the crossing.  

Wes checked the wind several times before we decided Thursday was the best day to cross.  Well, windfinder lied to us.  The winds were only supposed to be 10-15 mph but they were more around 25 mph.  Needless to say, it was a very tough crossing.  But we made it to Bimini and it is beautiful. We're going to spend a couple of days here in South Bimini and then head over to Nassau.  I forgot how beautiful the water is here.

  These were the storm clouds that snuck up on us.

The beach where we are currently anchored

Saw this spotted ray by the marina where we checked in

It's hard to tell but this is a shark that was also at the dock

Me working on sewing the jib sail

The Everglades.

 We got to the Everglades.  That is, we're tied up at Everglades Isle RV campground. Its about 3 miles up a winding river. There are a lot of air boats going up and down the river. I guess to look for alligators. We haven't seen any of those yet but we aren't that far up the river.

Yesterday I finally got my new mainsail fully installed. We got a new mast track two days ago and tried to put on the sail, but we didn't change the baton holders from the old sail to the new sail. Yesterday we got that done and today, sometime, we will try out the new sail.

Karen and I have lost some of our boating skills. The gulf has had some minor swells on it . They don't bother you while you are sailing but they do make for some 2 foot waves at the shoreline. We went in to get some sea shell and when we tried to leave we both got soaked. We used to be able to get the dingy through the waves with little problem. But I guess we forgot how to do that correctly. We just have to practice some more.

We bought some nice shrimp off the shrimp boat. They are pink shrimp and came with the heads still on. Here is a picture of the shrimp boat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back on the water

 Today we got back on the water. We sailed from Hearando Beach to Clearwater Florida. It took about seven hours. We had a little trouble with the boat but it seems to have fixed itself. We had left to boat for a month so something was bound to malfunction. We got to Clearwater and found they had the worlds largest rubber duckie. I have no idea why this makes people happy but it does seem to. Other than that not much happening. We need to get to Fort Myers by Wednesday so they can fix the mast track. Other than that we will watch some football and some hockey.  We got a cold front moving in tomorrow. High temp of 69. I guess that isn't to bad for Janurary.

 

We made it back to Hernando Beach on January 6th after spending a wonderful Christmas back in Colorado and the boat was still afloat-Yay!!

We had a bunch of stuff to get ready to take off again so we've been working on things for the past two days and we will be heading out tomorrow. We will be taking our time because we ordered a new mast track before we went home because the old one pulled away from the mast so we weren't able to use the main sail. They won't be able to install the new one until next Thursday and we are meeting them in Fort Myers to do this.  It will be so nice to have the main sail again.  It's only around 127 knots to Fort Myers which would only take around 4 days so we will probably spend a couple days in Clearwater and take our time getting down there.  I'm hoping to still be able to spend a couple of days in Key West before heading to the Bahamas but we will see how things go.  You never know on a sailboat haha.

There is a great place that Barry Gustafson turned us on to when we were here in November.  It's called the Freezer and and it has the best shrimp ever.  You can get a pound of steamed shrimp for $22, the beers are $2 and they have $4 margaritas on tap.  They only take cash and all of the the seafood is caught fresh~it is the best and if you're ever in this area you should stop there.  It's in Homosassa and definitely out of the way but so worth it.

Three of the four grandkids when we visited Blossoms at the Denver Botanical Gardens

The Shrimp at the Freezer 

The canal at night.

Hernando Beach

We made it to my friends house that is on the canal in Hernando Beach and they are being amazing and letting us keep our boat on their dock while we go home for Christmas.  We head out tomorrow and we'll be back on January 6th to start our treck down to Puerto Rico.  It's been really interesting coming up the Gulf Coast.  We've never really made it over on this side with our boat.  It is so totally different than the east side of Florida.  I'm flying back to Colorado in the morning and Wes has rented a car and will be driving (with Taylor) back to Delaware to get his truck and then driving the truck back to Colorado.  I don't think he is looking forward to it at all.  

We had dinner tonight with three other couples and they are all from Loveland and have a place down here.  It's crazy how many folks from Colorado have second homes in Florida, but I can certainly see why.  It's December and it's been 70 here.  I'm looking forward to seeing the kids and grandkids but not the 30 degree weather.

We will be posting again once we get back on the boat.  

        YES MORE DOLPHINS!!!

Clearwater Florida

 We made it to Clearwater Florida today. We are at the Clearwater Marina today and tomorrow. Its a nice marina right in the middle of town. They have a kind of Pearl St (Boulder Co) right near the marina. The street is roped off and they have a lot of restertants on the main drag. They have dualing pianos at one place we may check out tomorrow.

 After that we are off to Hernando Beach where we are going to leave the boat while we go home for Christmas. The nice thing about the gulf is we can go out into the gulf and there is hardly any difference between that and the intracoastal as far as waves are concerned. We continue to see a lot of dolphins and we have also seen a lot of rays breaching the water. They really jump high but I don't think I will ever get a picture of one. They seem to just pop up when you aren't expecting them to.

 

 

These are some manatees that we saw the other day. Kind of hard to see but there were 3 of them.