The end of an era

Looks like we got to the end of an era, we had our last big hurrah. We are going to be leaving the Bahamas in two days so we took time to go to “Nippers” which is a bar on great guana cay.
It’s a great bar but expensive.  7 dollars a beer, but it has a big following. There had to be 1000 people there yesterday. They are right on the atlantic, so you can get a beer and also swim in the ocean. They also have a pool and several layers of decks, which were all full of people and a lot of them were dancing. We took the dogs and it seemed like everyone there left a dog at home and could not get enough of Max and Lexie.

When I say its the end of an era, I mean that we will no longer have the turquoise waters that we’ve had for the last two years. So we will not be able to jump into these waters anytime we like. We are going to the U.S. up the inter coastal water way. Which I’m sure is nice in many ways but the color and clarity of the water will not be one of them. It’s really kind of sad.

On the other had it will be nice to get back to the U.S. I haven’t been there in a year and a half and there are things that I miss.
 1. Getting any kind of food in the grocery store.
            There have been times where we couldn’t even get hamburger or chicken breasts
 2. Having cell phone coverage everywhere.
             It will be weird to just pick up the phone anytime and call someone.
 3. Being able to talk with all the people.
             Even in “english" speaking countries you can’t always understand what the locals are         saying.
4. Getting parts for what they cost.
             In some places it would cost $100 to ship a part there and duty of $50 to recive it into the     country.

                                                         Dogs on the beach

                                                     Pigs on Gauna Cay

                                                Another sunset

Next stop the US of A

Exumas to the Abacos

We made the crossing over from Spanish Wells to Lynyard Cay, which is the southern end of the Abacos with good anchorage.  There are other cay’s further south but they are all surrounded by steep cliffs and no beaches with coves that you can tuck into.  It was about 52 miles and it took us over 11 hours because the wind seemed to change direction on the way over and it started coming more from the north which made it so we were going almost directly head on with it blowing around 15-20 knots.  Our cat does not sail very well directly into the wind, which from what I understand most cat’s don’t.   This was probably one of the worse crossings we’ve had so it was a very long day.  The water in the Abacos sure isn’t as nice as the water in the Exumu Cays.  I think the water in the Exumu’s is the prettiest water I’ve ever seen.  It’s so clear and full of beautiful coral, conch, starfish and rays.  I’m glad we got to spend a little time in Spanish Wells, which I thought was on Eleuthera but it’s actually on St. George’s Cay right next to Eleuthera.  We only stayed one night but we at least got to walk around the island and have dinner at Buddah’s, which is an outside bar with a school bus made into a kitchen but the food was pretty good.  The best I’ve had coming out of a school bus. The people in Spanish Wells are some of the nicest people we have run into.
They have quite a few marine parts stores and hardware stores in Spanish Wells, which is a good thing because the transmission cable on the starboard engine busted so we could only go forward with that engine and one of the connectors going into the hot water heater busted but we were able to find both of those on the island.

One good thing about the horrible crossing is Wes caught another Mahi Mahi just as we were heading into the anchorage.  It wasn’t as big as the last one but we at least filled up the freezer again after eating all of the other one at the beach fire.     

Now we are cruising up the inside channel of the Abaco’s heading to Hope Town, which is on Elbow Cay.  The inside channel isn’t as smooth as you would think though.  The wind is still blowing around 16 knots and the islands here are so low the wind just blows right over them into the channel.  

The pier leaving Spanish Wells

One of the beaches in the Exuma's

Another beach in the Exuma's

A fish Wes caught but a bigger fish got to it before he could reel it in

Sorry for posting all the sunsets but they are unbelievable down here-nothing like Colorado's

George Town, Exuma

We are back in George Town which is on Great Exuma.  It's the place where cruisers chicken out from going further South because there isn't really any civilization in the Bahama islands further South until you get to Turks and Caicos.  We actually got here on Tuesday after spending a couple of nights at anchorages on Plana Cay and Acklin Island.  We were able to get the dogs checked in after a couple of issues.  I don't know what I would do without having Amanda back home to help us out getting paperwork faxed and emailed down here. 

When we were on Acklin Island we met three other cruiser boats.  Two from Canada and one who actually lives on Spanish Wells in the Bahamas.  We had a huge bon fire on the beach and Kelsie who is sailing with Chris from Spanish Wells cooked up the rest of Wes's Mahi Mahi.  She also made some potatoes and she cooked it all over the fire.  It was pretty cool and tasted amazing.
 
We'll probably stay here until tomorrow than head a little further North. 

Potatoes Cooking

Left The Dominican Republic

(I actually wrote this post on the 15th but we haven't had any wifi until today 5/19 so hopefully I can catch up on the blog)

We left Puerto Bahia, DR at around 5 pm on Tuesday the 10th and we sailed straight through to the Bahamas. We got to West Plana Cay at around 6 pm Friday so it was a long 3 days. The dogs were very glad to see land. The sail wasn't bad and we had ok wind most of the way. We hit a couple rough spots but for the most part it was pretty calm with the wind coming from the east so it basically pushed us along and we could sail without engines averaging around 5 knots. Hopefully that is our last multi-overnighter. We'll probably work our way to Georgetown over the next couple of days, which is on Great Exuma. There really isn't much on the Acklins, Crooked and Long islands other than some beautiful anchorages. These islands are known as the Bahama Islands south of the Tropic of Cancer.

Wes caught a pretty big Mahi Mahi on the way over. Probably about 40 lbs. It took him a good 30 minutes to reel in and he was pretty exhausted after. So now our freezer is stocked with some real good fish.

It's nice to be back in the Bahamas with gorgeous beaches. The dogs are glad to be back crab hunting. Lexie caught four crabs today so she's getting to be quite the hunter. She even shared one with Max. Maybe cause she felt sorry for him because he hasn't caught any.

Stuck in the DR

We left St. Thomas Friday the 22nd as planned and since the wind was so good we decided to skip Puerto Rico and go straight to the Dominican Republic.  It took us about 2 and a half days because about 50 miles out of the DR the wind completely died.  We pulled into Puerto Bahia Marina Monday morning and got settled in a nice slip.  We stopped here on our way down and really loved the marina.  Then on Monday afternoon Wes started the engines and the port engine would not start.  Yes, again we had a starter go out.  So Wes got on line and ordered the starter from the same place he got the last one, paid extra money to have it fed ex'd down here.  The guy was a little skeptical sending it to the DR but he went ahead and did it.  We really didn't have a choice because there is no place to get it on the island and we weren't going anywhere without it.  I also read stories about it taking weeks and sometimes months to get parts here.  The dock master even said it is a challenge to get parts shipped here.  Well, Wes tracked the package and it got to the fed ex office here in Santa Domingo on Wednesday but it hasn't moved since then and it is now Monday May 2nd and it's still stuck.  Wes has tried calling fed ex and from what we can figure out, it is because customs is holding it up.  You also can't call the local office to and talk to anyone and if you could, they only speak Spanish so it wouldn't do us any good.  He was able to send an email and now we are just waiting for a response. 
We've been here a week and we are getting a little bored here.  We would really like to get to the Bahamas too.  Even though it's a beautiful place, it still gets boring after a week.  Last week we rented a car one day and ran around the island with another cruiser couple that we met here and then we were able to hitch a ride into town yesterday with a couple that has a car.  There isn't a lot right around the marina other than a couple restaurants, a couple pools, and a mini market.  And nothing really in walking distance.  So, I guess we have no choice but to wait for the part.  There are definitely worse places to be stuck though.

Our boat in the marina

The beautiful infinity pool and marina

The bridge to no where in Samana.  They built this and they were going to build a casino on the island but they never built the casino

Down town Samana

Our Last Visitors

We are back in St Thomas after spending a week in the BVI's with our daughter Jessica, her husband Ryan and his parents, Lonnie and Gene. And before you ask- yes we had the dogs on the boat too.  It was a bit crowded and I was a little nervous having that many people on our little bitty floating home but it was a lot of fun and nobody fell overboard. We checked in at Jost Van Dyke and it had to be the easiest check in I had with the dogs this whole trip. We spent a day at the Soggy Dollar drinking painkillers and the evening at Foxy's. Then the next day we headed over to Cane Garden Bay on Tortola after stopping at the bubbly pool, which wasn't too bubbly because there was hardly any wind the whole time they were here. Had dinner at Myett's which is one of my favorite places (theirs too now I think). Then we headed over to Norman island and actually spent Wes's birthday at the Willy T and needless to say we had a blast.  It was a great week and we did a lot of snorkeling. Knowing that we weren't going to back to the BVI's in who knows how long, we wanted to make sure we enjoyed it and we sure did.

Unfortunately there was hardly any wind the whole week they were here so we weren't able to do a lot of sailing. We motor sailed most of the time and on one engine because YES once again we had engine trouble. Wes ordered a heat exchanger because the starboard engine kept heating up and we had it rushed delivered hoping we would get it a few days before they came but of course it gets here the day before they came. Wes installed it but the engine was still overheating. Then the port engine belt kept slipping after we got over to the BVI's but Wes was able to switch the belts so at least we had one engine for the week. 

They all left on Wednesday and it's now Thursday and Wes spent the morning getting the engines working and was able to get everything fixed.  Then this afternoon we ran around getting the boat loaded with food, beer, wine and dog food because we plan on leaving St. Thomas in the morning and heading to Fajardo, Puerto Rico to start the last leg of our journey.  We were both a little sad yesterday with the kids leaving then realizing we were going to be leaving St. Thomas.  It's kind of been our home away from home since we have spent so much time here but I think we are both ready to start heading back to Colorado.  We will be stopping in the Dominican Republic for a couple days after Fajardo then to the Bahama's.  The plan is to spend about 3 weeks making our way up the chain and hopefully get to the US around the first of June giving us a month to make it up to Maryland through the Inter coastal Waterway, spending as little amount of time in Florida as possible since our experience there last time was not so good.  But we definitely need to be in Ocean City Maryland by July 9th because the whole family is meeting there for a week on the beach. 

Dinner at Myett's in Cane Garden Bay

Having cocktails at Quito's on Cane Garden Bay

Lexie found a new napping spot

Ryan, Gene, Jess and Wes jumping off the Willy T

Wes doing a backflip off the Willy T

Wes Snorkeling through the cave at the Indian's

Hanging out at Foxy's

At the Baths

Jess and Ryan trying to find shade on the boat

We opened Wes's 16 year old bottle of Rum he bought at the Bacardi factory.

and had a toast for his birthday

a couple of sunsets along the way

Loving the USVI's

We spent the last couple of weeks hanging out on St. Croix and loving it. We kept saying we were going to leave in the morning but then we would end up staying another day.  We spent most of the time in Frederikstad, which really isn't the main port but it's where the cruise ships come in and we really liked the anchorage. They get about 16 cruise boats a month, which really surprises me that more don't stop on this beautiful island. It gets a little crazy when a boat is in. The beach gets packed and shops open just for that day. They also set up a bunch of tents where the locals sell their stuff.
We did spend a couple of days at Christiansted, which is the main port.  We rented a car but this time we made it to the Cruzan Rum factory.  We tried last time we were there but it was closing just as we got there but this time we made it.  It was a lot of fun even though they weren't making any rum at the time but they were delivering molasses and we were able to taste it right out of the tank. They have been making rum there since 1760 and you pretty much just found it in the West Indies. But in 2008 Jim beam purchased the distillery and they brought all the bottling to the states. So they everything over on a boat to be bottled and then they send 20% back to St Croix to be sold in the islands. Needless to say we purchased several different flavors to try out.

Christensted fort

Old sugar mill made into a bar on the boardwalk in Christensted

The molasses you could taste right off the truck

Lots of rum aging

almost pure alcohol

The sugar mill at the entrance to the Cruzan rum factory

I Must Be Color Blind

I must be color blind. I have been looking for the green flash for two years now and still haven’t seen one.  For those of you who don’t know what a green flash is, its at the moment when the last bit of sunlight  goes under the horizon, there is supposed to be a green flash that I’m told goes up from where the sun goes down and proceeds across the sky very fast. That is why it is called a flash.  Oh, this only happens when the sun goes down on a clear night, no clouds near the sun.

I was at a restaurant on Friday watching the NCAA basketball tournament and we had such a sunset. I watched it very carefully. I didn’t blink or anything and I still didn’t see a green flash. Other people around me said they saw it but I didn’t. Some of me wants to believe that its like the emperors new clothes and they just say they saw it but really didn’t. Its either that or I’m color blind and can not see a shade of green.

Here are some resent sunsets.