When we first got to the Bahamas the water was so pretty. We began to see the Bahamian culture as soon we cleared customs and were able to get off the boat people were fishing off the docks for dinner. The next day we walked to the water taxi to go into town. The shops weren’t what I expected. I began to realize how poor the island of Bimini was. The sad thing was that there was trash everywhere, beer bottles and plastic bags etc. Nassau is a city on New Providence Island, one of the biggest islands in the Bahamas. Nassau is where the “wealthier” people in the Bahamas live. We didn’t really get to explore a lot of the central area of Nassau because of Junkanoo, which is the Bahamian version of Carnival, which is a big party that almost everybody participates in. When we come back to the Bahamas next year we are going to go to the big Junkanoo party. We picked up our Dutch family on the 24th of April. We started at Palm Cay marina, and we were there for three days before we sailed to Highborne Cay. We were at Highborne for 4 or 5 days, but w came back to Nassau after being pelted by rain, wind, and thunderstorms. We were back at Palm Cay again for 2 days and unfortunately, during those days Reed fell and broke the humerus bone in his left arm. We went to Atlantis marina on Paradise Island because it got us free passes to the water park. We were in Atlantis marina for 3 days. We went to the water park and had a lot of fun. Since Reed couldn’t get his cast wet he explored all of the cool aquariums. Our Dutch family had to leave on March 9th and we took them to the taxi. It was sad to see them go. We had to be back in the US by June 1st, north of Cumberland Georgia. We had a lot of fun in the Bahamas. The water is the most brilliant blue and the food here is awesome. All of the people here are really nice, giving us fish and offering to take us fishing! Next season we are going to have more time in the Bahamas and we will be able to see so many more islands. | |
0 Comments
In order for us to get down to Florida, we had to motor down the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). The ICW is a channel going from Maine to Miami, Florida. It goes through sounds, rivers, and man-made channels. We started at Morehead City, North Carolina, and now (March 19th 2015) we are in St. Augustine, Florida. Our sail boat, Night Music, averages about 30-70 nautical miles a day, depending on tides, currents, and bridge openings. We have anchored twice, used a mooring ball once (mooring balls are buoys hooked up to a marina’s anchor, and if the docks are full you can hook your bow line up to them.) We’ve stayed in marinas every other night so far.
Wildlife: During motoring every day, we see all sorts of wildlife. The most frequent wildlife we see are fishing birds, such as great blue herons, egrets, cormorants, loons, ospreys, and bald eagles. The water animals we see are dolphins, jellyfish, and manatees. We have also seen wild horses, and people’s dogs playing in the water along the shore. The dolphins we see are very playful, and we have actually seen them jump out of the water. Sometimes if you get to the bow fast enough and sing a song or two, the dolphins will swim directly under the water on your bow. This has happened four times. We have only seen one manatee, and I was the only person who saw it on our boat. The people on the boat behind us saw it. We were traveling together and exchanging info about bridges and other stuff. Every day: Normally I wake up between 9:30 and 10:00. After waking up, I read a while and check my phone and Instagram. I then go up in the cockpit and look around for a while. If it’s raining or really windy I will go down below and fill out the cruising log that I fill out every day. I spend most of my time reading, sketching, or observing and criticizing really big mansions. If I see a dolphin I normally go and sit at the bow for a while looking for more. I went to the the New Bern animal shelter last week to see some of the dogs. My mom and I saw a pair of red bone coon hound puppies named Henry and Lloyd. They were the sweetest little balls of energy. Indie, who is a husky lab mix was full of puppy energy even though he's 2. My favorites were Maxine and Dottie, 2 adorable beagles. They loved being pet and were well trained. Below are all of the dogs's pictures; Above is a picture of Indie, the husky/lab. Indie loved that toy, even though it was for cats! :-) Above are the two red bone coon hound puppies. Lloyd is on the left and Henry is on the right Above is Maxine. I do not have a picture of Dottie but she was smaller and more chocolate color.
|
author<3I <3 dogs, live in Seattle, and play soccer, swim 4 ever, ride horses for life. |