Sailing Freedom

Bimini,Bahamas

2012-01-05T09:06:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year!

We have been in Bimini for 2 weeks now...much longer than anticipated but we have really enjoyed ourselves. Bimini is usually a place you cross over to from the States and then move on but the weather was awesome and we decided to stay longer. We snorkeled, saw sting rays jump out of the water, fished, caught lobsters, meet some great locals and enjoyed a fun New Year party....I have included some pics for you..one of Stuarts Conch Stand...a great little shack where they make only Conch Salad and serves beers..but they have satellite tv and the door to the head tells you to (using their words)...piss is okay but leave number 2 at home...the toilet literally evacuates into the water below...a pic from New Years..great fireworks and a gorgeous sunset...HAPPY NEW YEAR! We are leaving today for Andros Island...

A National Treasure

2011-11-18T10:57:00.001-05:00

We spent 2 nites anchored off of Cumberland Island, Georgia...we could not get enough of its natural beauty...it did not hurt that the weather was spectacular. We motored our dinghy about 5 miles to the North portion of the island, so we could get a tour of Plum Orchard. Plum Orchard is a mansion that Lucy Carnegie built for her daughter, Margaret. It is well preserved and was a private home until 1972 when it was sold to the Park as a national treasure. It has 11 bathroom, 11 bedrooms, an indoor pool, indoor squash court.....The year it was built was 1918. A volunteer park ranger, living at the home gave us a wonderful tour of the interior. The house still has 3 gorgeous Tiffany hanging lamps worth about $50,000 each...plus a few original furnishing...There had ref rigeration and coal heat that was delievered thru pipes underneath the floor boards which was very new at the time. I included a few pics of the wonderful wild ponies that live throughout the island and also of the amazing live oak trees with the spanish moss hanging heavy on their branches.One curious point that was made to us was that the servants were definitely to be seen not heard...their living area was on a separate part of the house that was painted yellow...to be sure that if any visitors did any kind of "sleepwalking" they would know that they had traveled into the servants quarters....not to be confused with any other part of the mansion...the servants were from Ireland and Sweden...I wondered if that stopped any confusion?

Finding Warm Weather

2011-11-13T09:36:00.001-05:00

We finally left Beaufort,Sc with our cruiser friend David on his boat Cloud Messenger, after 3 very patient weeks of waiitng for a good weather window to cruise South in the Atlantic to Cumberland, Island...on the Georgia/Florida border. The night was gorgeous to start with..15 knots of wind from the North, a Harvest moon that lit up the sky like a spotlight on our boat....then the cold started, it dropped to 37 degrees..a frost advisory on the NOAA website. The coldest nite for a very long time...Needless to say we had multi layers of clothing on...I had 7 layers...it makes it quite a challenge when you need to use the restroom.....getting bored is never an option, that's for sure. We made it into Cumberland at 7 in the morning...we took a nap immediately after a very cold sleepless nite. I sat in the 70 degree sun to warm and and the day got better and better. Cumberland Island is a national Park...you can only see the island by ferry or by private boat. It has been inhabited for thousands of years but from 1881 on it was develped by the Carnegies as a summer getaway...at one point they built homes for each of their children....their home "Dungeness" was burned to the ground in 1918..the ruins still remain today..see pic, the island has wild horses, wild turkeys, a gorgeous windswept beach that stretches for miles, acres of oak trees heavily laden with spanish moss..beautiful dunes, a private inn that you stay in called The Greyfield Inn...only $395-595 per nite(ferry included)...The island is about 18 miles long...too long to hike but we have to say it is quite a memorable place...Not a bad place to spend your summers....

Cruising South

2011-10-31T13:57:00.000-04:00

We are now in Beaufort,Sc waiting for good weather to go outside in the Atlantic and down into the St Marys entrance for Cumberland Island....We have stops in Charleston,sc and lots of pretty anchorages along the shallow path of the ICW thru south Carolina...See pics from our stops along the way...

Cruising South 2011

2011-10-14T10:15:00.001-04:00

We finally headed out from Solomons,Maryland on October 3rd. The weather for the next 5 days was blue skies and 15-20 knot winds. On day 6 we made it to Oriental, NC, where we were provided by our dear cruising buddy, David a free slip for the next 4 nites....The trip prior to Oriental was pretty uneventful except for a deer crossing the ditch portion of the ICW right in front our boat...the ditch portion where land is on both sides and you are navigating in a ditch with pine trees and lots of gorgeous tall grasses and usually no homes. ...The deer saw us as we approached and he swam faster and looked to be exhausted as he reached the opposite side. See pic attached...also a pic of the ICW ditch. We also had a private air show of two fighter jets as they did their exercises over Freedom...at one point they shot straight up into the air...what a thrill that must be. We got to Whiitaker CReek just south of the entrance of Oriental and preceed our scary ride into the marina area. We have a 6 1/2 ft draft and the channed shoals to 5 1/2 feet...we dredged a new channel for them.......The people were incredibly friendly and helpful...We left on this past Wednesday to take advantage of the higher water levels as we exited the channel to head to one of our favorite towns, Beaufort,NC....Again plowing thru the channel...lowest depth was 5 feet 6 inches...SCARY SHALLOW!!!We are presently in Beaufort with our great friends on Seafox awaiting David and his crew on Cloud Messenger...The winds are howling 25-30.....but the skies are blue....I also attached a pic of our boat tied off to two trees on the ICW at Great Bridge, VA....free dockage...a great Mexican food...at least it seems that way...maybe the comapany is always great...either way a good stop...

Heavy Seas In More Than One Way

2011-09-07T16:21:00.004-04:00

Hurrican Irene left us in good shape...We, the royal we, got Freedom put to bed in a wonderful creek close to the Marina where it was empty of other boats, wide enough for lots of swing room and deep enough for our draft...then I stayed at a friends' house about 2 seconds away as the crow flies...John experienced 20-30 knots of wind and some gusts to 55... We are really glad this was all a non-event... I have to say that the day that preceeded Irene's arrival were quite stressful..I also have to report that our wonderful friend David more than survived his first experience of a hurricane right in Oriental, North Carolina..We have one picture of a motoryacht that anchored quite a ditance away from us but left the boat unattended...see pic. The other Heavy Seas I am discussing here is the Heavy Seas Brewery in Baltimore, Md....It actually started out as Clipper City Brewery a few years back back due to some great marketing it is now known as Heavy Seas...names like Loose Cannon, Peg Leg and Small Craft warning are some of the different brews. It is a small facility that is growing by 67% just this year...Awesome beer that even I,a rabid wine drinker deemed pretty damn good...

This Is What $1000 Looks Like

2011-08-19T09:38:00.003-04:00

I know I said I would keep everyone updated on our adventures but when the adventures are land-based, you kind of feel like you are cheating. We have been very delayed in our cruising due to a exhaust manifold. We found out that the cast iron version that comes with our Perkins engine sloughs off inside the manifold thus eventually clogging the flow of water. After 34 years the clog was at the root of our overheated engine. John would go into the engine room and repair parts and replace parts that he thought were the culprit and then finally when all else was exhausted (no pun intended) he took out the manifold and saw what a mess it was. After a bit of research we found that a replacement would cost $1695....no discounts for us. Then we found one little blurb on a cruiser forum that talked about a marine exhaust manifold company in Alabama by the name of Mesa Exhaust Systems...for $1000 in satinless steel Mark would make to order a new one for us. It took about 3 1/2 weeks plus shipping but lo and behold we went out on Wed and it worked perfectly.. We will resume cruising in the Bay for the summer and mix a few land based adventures...Of course with all the chaos in the world today we know how lucky we are to just be sitting in a slip in Solomons, Maryland...By the way, the pics are from a festival in Baltimore and of course Republicans going to work on their sightseeing bus in Washington DC.......

Back On Freedom

2011-05-30T10:10:00.003-04:00

Okay, we have been out of the blogging loop but we are back on Freedom now.....I will not even try to explain all our whereabouts for the last many,many moons. Some of the highlights was our nephew Westons' graduation from high school (great family get together),the Atlanta Aquarium and seeing the Petrified Forest in Arizona...The Petrified Forest is amazing...ever since I saw it as a little kid I wanted to go back to see it. It is definitely one of the last places in the United States where (when on Land) from horizon to horizon all you see is wide open spaces. The vastness is pretty overwhelming. The crazy part about being at the Petrified Forest is that we actually ran into a friend we had just met about 3 weeks earlier in Florida...it really is a small world.The Atlanta Aquarium was equally impressive...the largest aquarium in the world. It was built with private donations....100%. It hold 4- (19-24 foot) whale sharks, hammerhead sharks, manta ray, sting rays and 4 giant groupers about 7-8 feet long. They also have a separate aquarium with 4 beluga whales plus a penguin exhibition and of course dolphins. The coolest part of the aqauarium is the tube that you walk thru where the marine life swims above you... More adventures to follow ..of course water based....Still putting the boat back together...

Time To Catch Up

2010-06-08T13:08:00.002-04:00

We are staged in Jacksonville....due to a muscle spasm in my back and also a few important boat repairs...we went on a whirlwind drive to Naples to see our best bud Jennifer, onto St Pete for only one nite (sorry to all our good buds in St pete unfortunately time was way too short) to get a repaired stanchion and see Elise and then Bob and Kitty's new home and then onto Niceville to see our wonderful family....time flew by. Maybe that's why I have a muscle spasm....It was awesome to catch up...Unfortunately this boat has to be ready to move North as soon as we are ready...up to the Chesapeake. The attached pics are John and his brother and our nephews...miss them already. Did I mention that my sister-inlaw (the most talented stylist in the world) just bought her own salon, that just happens to be gorgeous...her and the salon...no pics.

Where Are We?

2010-05-22T15:56:00.002-04:00

Believe it or not this picture was taken after crossing the Gulf Stream and about 5 miles away from the Ft Pierce, Florida Inlet...The crossing 150 miles, starting at Crab Cay in the Abacos and crossing to Ft pierce...26 hours later. The nite was extremely dark due to a totally overcast sky...and a moon that went down at about 2 in the morning. On the other side the bioluminessence (little animals in the water that glow in the dark waters)was so bright...We had one boat with us within 2 miles and then about 7 miles away. We saw cruise ships...you could literally see them coming for 15 miles and then after they pass you they look like a small island...their power usage must be amazing...All in all very uneventful..As the pic dipslays how calm it was for us towards the end....The Water Gods were smiling upon us...

Great Birthday!!!

2010-05-17T10:31:00.003-04:00

It started our nice, slow and relaxing and we ended up dancing up a storm....We spent the day at Grabbers...a beach bar on the island of Great guana. After lunch they supply lounge chairs set up on the beach...NICE!!! Then about 4:30 we went over to Nippers for a the b-day cocktail...We spent about an hour in their hammock pool chairs...see pic. Then back over to Grabbers for the band Brown Tip...3 great musicians that play traditional and non-traditional Bahamian music...using a drum, saw and other instruments. Great singers and talented dancers...They sang Happy Birthday to me...What fun! See pic of band..My hubby made my b-day a ton of fun...

A Walkabout In Hopetown

2010-05-13T10:31:00.002-04:00

I had the great opportunity to discover Hopetown's non-commercial part of the island. The homes are gorgeous(starting price $1 million at least) but the scenery is amazing from every vantage point. I have added a few pics to give you a sense of what it is about...The roads are sand, the vehicle to get around the island is a golf cart or walking as in my case...There is 2 small grocery stores ..my favorite is Sweetings, owned by Vernon Sweeting. He is a quiet man that has filled his store with the basics and some of the luxuries like brie cheese or his homemade(by him) pies, breads and cakes. The store has lots of small pieces of paper taped throughout the shelves with anecdotes and sayings....We had a special nite with rack of lamb that is best marinated with rosemary. I asked him where we could buy some rosemary and he replied that the house down the block has a wonderful, healthy plant...just snip some. Good deal! As you could imagine there is lots of quirky things on an island such as Hopetown...

Back In Hopetown

2010-05-12T09:23:00.002-04:00

Cruising is a funny life sometimes...You are in new places all the time. When you return to a familiar place it is actually a very good feeling. Hopetown is one of those places that is fun to come back to. It has an amazing lighthouse..still working, a great community and a very protected harbour with mooring balls. All good!
We have been walking a lot, reading, a little food shopping, lots of internet...a some planning on what our next move will be. We met Linda, a single handed sailor...who loves sailing and her husband hates sailing...usually the other way around. She has a beautiful Island Packet..with her cat/crew named Paddy...We have also met back up with a great couple from Annapolis/Canada that we first met in March 2009 in Bimini. They are entertainers that have a mentalist show...I'll get back to you on that....A bit windy here...waiting for the right weather to move on...See pics of Hopetown...

Watch Out For the Coral Heads!!

2010-04-29T16:38:00.003-04:00

We are back in Eluthera...Harbour Island. It is a gorgeous island about 60 miles from the Exumas(southern Bahamas). We stayed 3 nites in a great, sheltered anchorage in Royal Island. After 2 cold fronts passed we went into a marina in Spanish Wells...a settlment that has been around since the 1700's. Most of the residents are decendants from the early settlers. We shopped in a huge grocery store that was about 20 times the size of any that we had been around since early Feb. It was like a kid in a candy store. Who knew one could get so excited about yogurt....Anyway, today we hired a pilot by the name of Ole Pot...a 6th generation Spanish wellian that has been piloting boats between Spanish Wells and Harbour Island since 1956...He arrived in his small skiff and came along side our boat and then hopped on and we towed his boat behind us. He steered the entire way betweeh Spanish Wells and Harbour Island thru an area know as THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE...The entire 11 miles is strewn (?) with coral heads. I think he could do it blindfolded... only a slight exaggertion. By the way his given name is Vivian...that is why he known as OLe Pot....I have also inclded a gorgeous pic of Shroud Cay...a favorite island in the Exumas...

Seaplanes and the Other freedom

2010-04-12T10:35:00.002-04:00

You would not know there was a recession going on in the Bahamas...The signs of wealth are apparent in the Exumas...Seaplanes landing where else but on the water and dropping off wealthy patrons to awaiting megayachts in the middle of the coral reefs...Certainly it is not across the board this booming economy but where it shows itself it is pretty amazing. There is a island inhabited only by pigs, placed there years ago. A seaplane came in for a landing by the shoreline, threw out an anchor and proceeded to drop off visitors to see the wild pigs...who are huge, aggressive and always hungry...yet picky food eaters. We had the same plane take off right next to our boat as the pilot waved to us from his cockpit...pretty cool. We are presently anchored off a private island that has a marina...Sampson Cay. We are here with 4 other buddy boats. In the past we had heard of another boat by the name of Freedom...upon seeing this 1926 motoryacht...there is no confusing our boat with this Freedom. It is gorrrrrgeous! Varnished wood like nothing we have ever seen...See pics...WoW!

JUnkanoo In Black Point

2010-04-04T17:12:00.002-04:00

We were in Black Point on Great Guana Cay for Easter...For tradition the Bahamaians have Junkanoo...a parde with music and costumes...The band on Black Point was from Nassau..they started playing music as they strolled down the main street...The crowd came from all over the island and joined in the dancing..We all followed the band down the street...What a fun time!The headresses were pretty cool...See pic..

Shark Attack

2010-04-04T17:03:00.002-04:00

Now that i have your attention....We were in Staniel cay...where they filmed the movie Thunderball in the 70's...starring Sean Connery as James Bond. They have a grotto...a cave of sorts that upon entering at low tide you can snorkel the inside. The "ceiling" is about 25 feet high and the the sun shines through....As far as sharks...they cut up all the fish that is caught daily at the cleaning station at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club...the nurse sharks appear and congregate to eat a morsel...sometimes the stingrays also gather...SEE PIC...

Little Farmer Cay

2010-03-29T16:21:00.002-04:00

Little Farmer Cay...a small 3mile by 2 mile island in the Exumas. The people are amazingly friendly and the island is surrounded by coral reefs. One of the 3 establishments on the island is Ocean Cabin...owned and operated by Ernestine and Terry Bain. Ocean Cabin is one of the major reasons you would visit the island. After eating lunch one day with OffThe Hook at Ocean Cabin...Ernestine was inundated by 13 people who all wanted lunch and drinks. We all got persuaded to help out...John bartending and Kristy and I cutting veggies and serving food. It was actually quite fun! We also met Jeffrey who is a fisherman on the island...he goes out wuth 2 divers that dive for lobsters in all their hiding places. We purchased 6 -6inch lobster tails, 1 3 lb lobster tail and grouper fillts all for $35 ...what a deala nd what a dinner. The next day John and snorkeled the reefs and saw a wonderful amountof reef fish and a nurse shark...sleeping....

Paradise Found

2010-02-28T17:30:00.002-05:00

Everyone can stop looking for Paradise. We found it on Long Island, an island in the Bahamas. Paraddise is THE BLUE HOLE near Clarence Town. It is a spit of a beach at the end of a dirt road. When you roun the bend you see this amazing BLUE HOLE and gorgeous little beach. We rented a car with our friends Anne and Chris, Jason and Laura...The Blue Hole is 660 feet deep...You can sit at the edge in 6 inches of water and shimmy yourseld into deeper water and then snorkel over it. It is the deepest Blue Hole in the world. The World Freedive Championship ios held here each year. The guy who won went down 300 feet w/o any fins...just a bathing suit. Amazing! The scenery is breathtaking....The water is deep, deep blue....See pic...Also to our delight when we cruised over to Long Island we (John) caught a 25 lb mahimahi....what fun it was watching him fight with this beautiful fish...Great dinner for 8...SWEEET!!!!!!

South Bound

2010-02-20T15:25:00.003-05:00

We finally made it to Georgetown in the Exumas....We motor sailed from Little Harbor in the Abacos to Royal island...then waited 2 days...(with our buddy boat Blue Blaze)and then we left on a very lumpy and bumpy ride to Georgetown...24 hours almost to the hour. The nite was extremely dark and when the sun came up...I can't explain how great that makes you feel. Then sailed into Georgetown which is like a huge camp for cruisers. The anchorage is HUGE...about 240 boats are here. The water is turquoise and very clear. Our other buddy boat, Cloud Messenger is also here with 2 visitors from California. We have been eating extremely well...Italian one nite, Greek the next. I need to back up for one moment. I have a pic of John from Marsh Harbor...he had Jason shave his hair off..Surprisingly (ha!) this occured during a "happy hour" at the JIB ROOM. Jason and John left for a while and when they came back, John had no hair. Quite the entertainment....Back to Georgetown...all 3 boats are leaving for Long island (Bahamas) tomorrow the 21st and then Rum Cay on the 22nd...we will wait out some weather on the 22nd at a Marina...Rum Cay sounds pretty exciting...pirates etc...Attached is a pic of John and yet another gorgeous sunset...

Pickle-Ball

2010-02-05T12:15:00.002-05:00

That's right Pickle-Ball...That is the name of the game when you are waiting for friends to come back to Marsh Harbor and waiting out a really windy cold front...As we listened to the daily cruisers net that comes on at 8:15 daily, we heard them announce that anyone interested could join in a game of pickle-ball...Laura, John and I arrived (Barry watched, wrong shoes)to learn a new game. Bob, a fellow cruiser (79 years of age)tried to explain the game. It is a cross between tennis(think of a tennis court about 3/4 the size of a regular court), oversized ping-pong paddles (padded like ping-pong paddles) ....you can play singles or doubles, whoever gets to 11 first wins...Great fun...The ball is like a wiffle ball..plastic with holes in it, about the size of a baseball. The wind did not do us any favors as we tried to win against Laura and another cruiser. John and I did finally win but the best part was the new found game and the exercise...to offset any drinking or eating...that is an ongoing challenge....Bob, at 79 is amazing. He played during the morning and then was going to play a tennis game in the afternoon...maybe there was something to this pickle-ball thing after all....No pics today....

Man-O-War---What An Island !

2010-01-30T15:17:00.003-05:00

Man-O-War....Sounds kind of creepy, war-like etc...but the island is actually one of the most beautiful islands I have ever seen. It was founded in the 1700's by Royalists from England. There are about 300 full-time residents and another couple hundred part-time residents that come in the summertime. The island has scenic trails through forests and flowers...There are incredible homes and some very humble abodes...The entire island seems manicured and well, perfect. It is a dry island...no alcohol or cigarettes sold...You can bring it in....you better come supplied. There is 2 small grocery stores, a boatyard(with a 50 tone boatlift), 2 ice cream stores, gift stores, a ball fiield ,one restaurant...and a wonderful elderly woman by the name of Lola that rides around in a golf cart and sells cinnamon rolls and bread. You can walk from one end of the island to the other in a couple of hours. The anchorage is either right outside the northern entrance or inside at the marina or mooring balls...Take a look at some of the pics to see why it is so amazingly scenic....

Drift Snorkeling

2010-01-23T15:11:00.003-05:00

When you have 2 divemasters on your buddy boat and one happens to be a marine biologist...lots of great experiences come of this friendship. We went to Snake Cay off the island of Great Abaco (northern Bahamas) and we dinghied into an inlet just south of our anchorage. The inlet has about 20-25 feet at the entrance..lots of water in the Bahamas. As we went in we decided to drift snorkel out with the tide...what this entails is holding onto the line that is attached to the dinghy and drift out with the current...no motor. When we got in the water we immediately saw 2 huge (5-5 1/2 feet across) eagle rays swimming about 15 feet below us. There are so incredibly graceful..the we saw about 2 turtles also swimming underneath us...Great snorkel...Then at happy hour on Bravo...we were all sitting and enjoying the sunset when a sting ray jumped out of the water...3 times. He was all of 10 feet away...it is a wild thing to see. They (marine biologist)do not know why they jump out of the water...Wonderful day!

Oops! Here are the Hopetown Pics

2010-01-18T12:31:00.002-05:00

The pics attached are:
Amazing Sunrise
Laura The Great Fisher woman
Hopetown Lighthouse

Hopetown...What a Gorgeous Place

2010-01-17T12:55:00.003-05:00

The day start with a fairy tale image of a lighthouse, add charming pastel painted houses, palm trees, soft, white beaches and you get Hopetown. We arrived on a windy morning at hight tide due to the skinny waters at the entrance. All 3 boats...Blue Blaze, Cloud Messnger and Seafox was already there to meet us. The days leading up to Hopetown were full of fishing and adventuring...Laura, the Great FisherWoman of the Abacos caught a 12-15 lb grouper...Wow, very exciting! Then John and the guys joined forces to catch 4 large lobsters and 3 conch...YUM! If you can beleive it, we had lobster ravioli...Paula has a manual crank pasta machine...we (royal we) all helped to make the goat cheese, lobster ravs...Amazing..!The day before we arrived in Hopetown, we anchored in some shallow waters to get us ready to go to Hopetown at high tide..The sunrise was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen...It was the payoff to getting up a 5 to be ready to move the boat...

The Weather outside Is Frightful....

2010-01-11T09:11:00.002-05:00

Okay, the holidays are over BUT it sure is cold here! We have a high of 60 with 20-30 knot winds at the moment....(9 am Mon)....with the wind chill factor it is in the 50's. The Bahamians have not seen such cold weather in a long time. The cold fronts have brought close to or up to gale force winds. That is why we are in a marina so we can get off the boat for a walk etc....of course hot showers are a real plus! I have included some pics of this crazy weather, a beautiful sunrise and a pic of Jason(Blue Blaze) with a huge lobster he snagged. John, Laura, Cheryl and I actually went snorkeling in our wetsuits (water temp 60) on Mermaid reef...a walk from the marina....Even the fish were moving slow...we saw a Nassau grouper, parrotfish, grunts and snappers....

A Beach To Dream About

2010-01-03T15:34:00.002-05:00

As my last blog stated, we are at Treasure Cay in the Abacos. The island has an amazing 3 1/2 mile beach...white soft sand and the water is the color of seafoam with a little turquoise. The island is well developed with condos etc. Fortunately the beach has only a few condos and one restaurant, the CocoBeach Bar. Since my last blog was totally void of pics, I have included some of the beautiful sites for you to see. We have another boat with us, since Green Turtle Cay. Their name is Cloud Messenger...a beautiful Crealock 38 sailboat. The owners are Cheryl, Dave and Ollie(a chihuahua)...a very cool couple from California. It is great to have Seafox back in the fold..off the dock and anchored out with the rest of us. As you might remember, Seafox is a motor yacht with paula and Barry from Rhode Island. They stayed in the Abacos for the entire summer...luckily that worked out very well. We did quite a bit of adventuring with them in April and May. We just got back from a dinghy ride where we caught a mutton snapper...Yum! Dinner tonite....

It's about time...

2010-01-02T23:43:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the lack of blog updating....We are in Treasure Cay with 3 other buddy boats. It's awesome to have such great friends along for the ride. We have managed to make Mexican nite for New Year's Eve and italian nite for John's b-day...(Jan 2nd)Hey Rick, Happy B-day!!! We watched the movie The Hangover for John's b-day...not for everyone but it was pretty hysterical. The cold fronts have been quite often and are accompanied by 20-25 knot winds...It makes it hard to make any kind of distance plus you want protection from the winds...also difficult. We are in Treasure Cay for a few more days. This island has amazing protection from bad weather. We finally realized that being in a hurry is totally unnecessary. We did do some great snorkeling before the cold front came...We saw puffer fish, a flying gurnard (look it up), lionfish,parrot fish, trigger fish....lots more. Pretty cool! All is well!
Happy New Year to all..lots of good health and happiness in 2010....

Green Turtle Cay

2009-12-21T08:49:00.004-05:00

What a gorgeous island! It is one of the first settlements in the Abacos (northern Bahamas)...The views throughout the island are incredible. The homes are pastel colors. There are lots of really green plants, trees, palm trees, hibiscus and orchids. Each time you can get a glimmer of the Atlantic side, you see a green/blue water that is hard to describ. You take your sunglasses off and the colors are still amazing. We ventured into New Plymouth to see the town. There are about 500 full time residents. The town is a mix of yelow, pink and lite blue buildings. They have wrapped the telephone poles with Xmas decorations. This year is the first time they have been able to do that. They pulled together a committee to raise the funds. We had a goombay smash at Miss Emily's....It is always a stop on the walk thru New Plymouth. Miss Emily's daughter now runs the place. She is known for her version of the goombay smash...needless to say it only takes about two to feel the effects. The sunsets here ahve been beautiful....see pics of the island.

My Lucky Stars

2009-12-15T11:20:00.002-05:00

They say cruising is repairing your boat in exotic places. The romance of fixing a macerator pump in a gorgeous anchorage like Great Sale Cay is not as glamourous as you may think. After 10 hours of motoring and then 3 1/2 hours it was fixed. That was at 9:15 at nite...but with crusing there is always give and take. John worked really hard to get it working. Our payback was at midnite when the meteor shower began. Imagine being in an anchorage where the seas were flat calm, not a cloud in the sky and you get to so many stars, that they are at the horizon. We saw 40 shooting stars. They were so bright that some them had a trail...AWESOME! We also had a star shine so bright that it shimmered on the water...Good stuff! Now we are anchored in Green Turtle Cay...we did talk to our dear friends on Seafox because they were lurking on the VHF radio...They are on Treasure Cay about 15 miles from here...We will see them when they get back from a snowy visit with their family in Rhode Island....

Total Relaxation

2009-12-12T14:01:00.002-05:00

We are all here in West End, Grand Bahama Island. Blue Blaze and Far Point have arrived and all is well. The other sailboats have been wonderful...lots to talk about, happy hours and time to just shoot the ____....We are waiting for good weather to continue on...Looks like everyone will leave tomorrow morning: 5 sailboats and a Nordic Tug. We will travel with Far Point and Blue Blaze to our first anchorage...about 58 miles away (Great Sale Cay). Then onto Green Turtle Cay another 50 plus miles away. The grounds at the Marina/Resort are gorgeous. The current owner demolished all the old buildings and built new. The style is Bahamian expensive. The actual rooms go for 300-700 dollars a nite. They have a infinity pool, lounge chairs on the beach, pool table, fitness center....A lot of money was spent to create this place. The boats that come in here are HUGE...sport fishing boats and pleasure yachts. I took a pic of one...Lots of money. WE have been eating lobster with mustard sauce, lobster with rice, lobster tacos and lobster with pasta. At $5 a piece, it is a bargain. Each day a male bahamaian lobster diver comes and shows his lobsters and we would hate to refuse them. The lobsters have no claws but a huge tail. Great eatin'. Laura and I went to town on the resorts' beach bikes and visited the local liquor store in search of our favorite french table wine...Lamouthe Parrot, available only in the Bahamas. Upon leaving the liquor store I found my bike had a flat tire. We rode a short distance and a local said he could pump the tire back up...We were set to go again and 5 mintes later the flat reappeared...We started walking back to the resort when a resort SUV stopped to help us...Colby, like the cheese took good care of us and drove us back to the marina. The people here are really friendly... The skies here are just gorgeous. There is usually some billowy white clouds with a gorgeous blue sky background. See pics....

We Made It To The Bahamas!

2009-12-09T13:35:00.002-05:00

Wow! What a crossing...We left at 8pm Monday nite with Blue Blaze and 3 other sailboats. At first we were motoring a little close to each other but we spread out for comfort...For some of the sailboats it was their first crossing. Unfortunately about an hour into the crossing, Blue Blaze had alternator trouble and smoke coming out from melted wires....They turned back and we asked if they were sure they could return safely...They indeed said they could...We continued on and the weather was right on our bow...18-22 knots of wind and about 6 foot seas...not the crossing we had intended but the moon came and lit up the sky....I saw a shooting star..pretty cool. We arrived 13 hours later, 3 sailboats later...the sun came out and all is good! We cleaned the boat and started to relax...sit at the pool...Pretty swanky place (my description not theirs)...see OLd Bahama Bay REsort and Marina website. Quite an indulgence...During the afternoon, 2 guys in a small boat came to greet us, selling conch and lobster..the lobster in the Bahamas has no claws but a huge tail. We bought 2 for $5 each...proceeded to boil them and eat them just as fast as we could. I cut up the conch and made conch salad...Yum! Blue Blaze has fixed their problems and will tentatively arrive Thursday morning at about 4am...Yeah! See pics of the conch on Kino's boat...

Time To Give A Hug To Those You Love

2009-12-04T11:00:00.002-05:00

One of the best things about cruising is the wonderful people you met. The most fascinating thing about meeting new people is that you become quite close in a very short time...Unlike the land version, your new neighbors are there to help through thick and thin. We met an amazing couple from Alaska, that had brought their dog, Buoy. Buoy was a golden retreiver/poodle mix. One of those newfangled cross breeds. Buoy happened to be a very special and loving dog. After meeting them in Beaufort, NC and then in Charleston,Sc and then Jacksonville,Fl and now we are finally together in Lake Worth,Fl...We realized that Bouy was just one of the sweetest dogs...big, white curly fur and the spirit of a puppy dog (only 2 years old)...This morning, a devastating thing happened to Buoy and he is no longer with us....Life is always a reminder to hug those we love each day...remind ourselves that all is good in the world...

The Passage To West Palm

2009-12-01T10:37:00.002-05:00

We left on Saturday morning from the St. John's River (Jacksonville, Florida) to go on a 2 nite passage to West Palm (about 240 miles)....along with our buddy boat, Blue Blaze. The wind was anywhere from 0 to 12 knots, the moon was full and the skies were clear. The most gorgeous sunsets and sunrises, shooting stars and lots of dolphins. The dolphins are atracted to your boat like a magnet, they love to cruise in your bow wake. We even saw some at nite through the water because the moon was so bright (like who turned the lites on)...amazing.John and I traded watches, about 3 hors on 3 hours off. You spend countless hours just gazing off onto the horizon to check for other boats...You can see entrance channel lights that from afar seem to take on other shapes until you are within a few miles of them. This passage was just perfect...We had to even slow the boat down to 4.4 knots to arrive during the morning hours into the West Palm entrance. Attached you will see a dolphin picture (not great) from alongside the boat and a pic of West Palm...

Lots To Give Thanks For

2009-11-25T07:45:00.003-05:00

Not to sound too mushy....Happy Turkey Day to all our family and friends. We have seen quite a number of you the last 3 months...thanks for being a really wonderful part of our life. We will be shipping out on Friday, down the Intracoastal due to some strong winds over the weekend, we will avoid the Atlantic for now...Have a lot of stuffing,gravy, turkey etc...worry about the calories next week.We will be in touch....To everyone we have not seen recently, we have you on our minds and hearts.
We are celebrating T-Day with our friends from Blue Blaze at the Manges household...always outdoing themselves in a culinary way....
Hugs
From
S/V Freedom (sailing vessel)

Blue Angels

2009-11-11T12:28:00.002-05:00

Wow! If you ever have the opportunity to see an Air Show with the Blue Angels, check it out. They were having a 3 day show in Jacksonville, in order to get ready, they had a practice day on Thursday. How exciting! They were using Beach Blvd as their air runway. Our marina is right on Beach Blvd. They buzzed past us, right over our heads, one at a time, three at a time and finally 6 at a time. We saw them , 4 at a time literally go straight up into the clouds at a 90 degree angle to earth.Then all 4 would meet up and then go upside down away from each other. Personally some rides at Disneyworld can produce fear and motion sickness....these pilots are unreal. You could hear them before you could see them. All of a sudden a Blue Angel would come out of nowhere and fly directly over our heads....you could almost see the pilot. The pics I took were not fabulous but it will give you an idea of what it was like. My Canon was just not fast enough to capture the pics I really wanted. All for free...

Friends and Vaccinations

2009-11-05T07:55:00.003-05:00

Our Halloween weekend in St. Petersburg was an amazing time with friends....catching up and making new memories. Our friend Bob (Capt. Bivalve) had the Halloween spirit! We met at one of our favorite bars in St pete, Moon Under Water and he brought his costume along. Usually a deeply philosophical person, his costume beckoned a different side. See attached. Perhaps it was just a glorified beer glass holder...what fun! We also caught up with our old dockmates and had a wonderful barbecue...Our generous hosts were ,Jeff and Elise who made it a great weekend. This is where the vaacinations come in....they are both nurse practitioners...extremely knowledgeable, capable and always willing to share their knowledge. They certainly convinced us to get our Swineflu vaccines...we were not smart enough to get them in St. Pete....after we turned our rental car back in, in fact one day later and about 20 phone calls later, we found the only supply at the County Health dept in jacksonville...2 buses later (2 hours later)we found ourseleves at the Health Dept and recieved our vaccines...2 buses later(2 hours later) we were back at the Marina.
Mission accomplished. The only catch was when we got on the 2nd bus going to the health dept we overheard a person talk about her chills, aches etc. We were concerned that on the way to getting our flu shots we would get the flu....fortunately we feel fine 24 hours later. Thanks to everyone for a fabulous weekend. Miss you guys!

The Chaleston Shuffle

2009-10-29T09:14:00.002-04:00

What an amazing city...Charleston,NC...tons of restaurants, incredible amount of history every turn you make, beautiful homes and really friendly people. Being the cheap sailors that we are, we took advantage of the local trolley to see the city ($5) for the day. We were in Charleston in 2001 and found a French resaurant that was affordable, casual and all the bread,stews etc are homemade. As I was walking hru the city I fell upon this amazing place once again...time to drool...cheese and pate platter with homemade bread..$9.50. We also walked throughout the Battery area that has all the old (Civil War) mansions that are in impeccable condition, beautifully manicured yards with fountains and flowers. We then left Charleston to Beaufort, SC and stayed until the weather was right to go on the outside to Fernanadina Beach, Florida. They have mermaid sculptures in the town near the businesses...pretty cool. We made our exit from Beaufort at 3:30 in the afternoon and made it to fernandina by 10:the next day. They sail mimicked a roller coaster ride that you could not get off of...big winds and waves and pitch blackness for most of the early morning. We did have 2 other boats that left with us and we were able to talk via the VHF....kinda nice to hear a familiar voice in the middle of such a wild ride. The other cool thing was all the shooting stars that we saw when the moon was bright!!!As we pulled into Fernandina, the sun came out and the weather heated up. It was a nice welcoming after wearing every piece of foul weather gear we have....Now we are in Jacksonville...back to warmer temps....Yeah!

The Skinny On The ICW (intracoastal waterway)

2009-10-19T11:13:00.003-04:00

We left Beaufort,NC 5 days ago and are now in a Marina in Charleston,SC....The trip down the ICW was filled with incredibly gorgeous scenery, amazing homes, beautiful wildlife and Scary Skinny Water..When I say skinny I mean skinny. Skinny means shallow...the Icw is maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers. Their job is to try to maintain the depths of the ICW at a minimum of 12 feet. Their mission is impossible because of one thing: Mother Nature. As you motor down the IcW you pass inlets that have water constantly flowing in and out of them from the Atlantic Ocean. This flow of water causing erosion and shoaling at each of these openings...One day (after the Corps dreges)the inlet could have 12 feet of water and then just a month later the water is only 5 feet..(at low tide)....Certain areas are worse than others. Bottom line: we never went completely aground.YEAH! We had some incredibly nerve racking scenarios but we did not go hard aground. Part of the time we had some huge motor yachts in front of us that would call us on the VHF and tell us about some skinny 5 foot depths and try to tell us what part of the channel we should stay closer to..At one partcularly shallow area John made the decision to go outside the channel marker to get to deeper water. This concept is counterintuitive...But it worked....Pretty cool! It's amazing you can actually start to think that 9.9 feet is deep water. We have a draft of 6.6 feet, meaning we need at the very least 7 feet to not go aground. We also anchored at a creek off the IcW
in rainy, awful cold weather. As soon as we started to anchor the wind popped up to 25-30 knots. The Nationl weather service came on to say that an unexpected gale came thru the exact area we were in...no where else. To say that the nite was dark(pitch black),windy and miserable is an understatement. The next morning in very foggy weather we preceeded to move further South. The sun finally came out when we got to Charleston...Thanks to Blue Blaze for their support...sometimes they would the lead boat and contact us immediately to tell us to go to the right or left to get to deeper water....Big help!Some pics of the ICW...

Time To Catch Up

2009-10-09T11:04:00.004-04:00

Since I last left everyone, we were on Tangier Island. We sailed onto Willoughby Bay, just off the channel from Norfolk Harbor. It is a crazy place where you have to keep very close track of container ships. Navy warships, barges, and other boaters. We almost had a close encounter with a container ship. They appeared to be anchored in the channel (not that unusual) but upon the sun moving and finally shinning upon the bow, I yelled to John that it was moving very quickly towards us. They were being pushed by a pilot boat and the captain came on the VHF to warn us to get out of the way. Luckily, we were already moving out of his direction and over into safer waters. We stayed a nite in Norfolk with 3 other boat(all friends) and moved a slow 10 miles to Great Bridege where you can tie up for free for a nite.Great Bridge is like an oasis for a cruiser because you are no more than a 15 minute walk to a grocery store, drugstore, landromat, liquor store, bank...you get the picture. I can not forget the mexican resturant...all good things. One of the great things about fellow cruisers is that everyone has a specialty...One of our friends loves to bake bread (which we are very fond of) and he gave all of us a baking lesson. He definitely has the touch..the bread turned out amazing. It looks simple enough so I have purchased all the necessary ingredients. After the bread baking lesson we were give a tortilla making sesson by another cruiser...again it looks easy enough. They do not last in the fridge very long because they are so fresh without preservatives...but they do not last long also due to the fact that they are scumptious! I know you are thinking that it is a lot of work making bread and tortillas from scratch but that is one of the wonderful things about cruising. If you go to places where the bread isn't tasty, then you just make your own. The Bahams is known for many things but the bread is not one of them Our nite ended with Chris jackson reading an excerpt from his book Scimitar Moon...he is very talented and it is a treat to read...Pretty cool!.Now we are in Beaufort, NC...great town, very sail friendly. Beautiful day...No pics today....problem with website....

Life in Tangier Island

2009-10-02T10:17:00.003-04:00

We are on the move again...going South. Our first stop was Tangier Island, Virginia. The island was founded in the 1600's..The town still has decendants from the original settlers. The main industry has been crabbing/fishing but tourism (ferries from the main land) helps when the fishing is slow. We came into Tangier on a blustery day and major concern that the depths going into the channel would be very shallow. We bounced off the bottom once coming in...not bad. We were glad to see Mr. Parks (79 year old owner of Parks Marina) waiting to help with the docklines. We had tried consistently to get him on the phone or VHF to no avail...His wife answers the phone but she is a bit challenging to talk with...he affectionately refers to her as "Fang"...as in Phyllis Diller. Anyways he helps us to tie up...our depth reader at the bow read 5.6 feet (we have a 6.6 foot draft---amount of water under the boat)..We were not going anywhere in a hurry. Then we assisted our friends on Blue Blaze...luckily uneventful. Then Mr. Parks, who was a crabber for 40 years took us on a golf cart tour of the island. What a character...he calls every guy on the island by the name of George...and every woman is Sweetie..The tour took about one hour...We met the local cop, known as Da Cop...he has a great sense of humor, definitely a half full glass kind of guy. His one daughter is the PA (Physicians assistant)on the island, the doctor comes once a week. In emergencies, a helicopter would arrive and whisk you away to Salisbury. The island has 3 resturants that basically close for dinner by the time October comes around. The internet and cell phone service is non operationalon the island. Despite how caught in time the island is, they have a part time resident who pilots his helicopter to his home on the weekends from DC....He also created a Tangier Island Museum that had closed by the time our tour ended. Here are some pics of the island and of course a pic of Mr. Parks...

Those Crazy Watermen

2009-09-29T09:48:00.002-04:00

We stayed on in Solomons to be able to see the Waterman's Festival. The Festival has been going on for 7 years....about 5 other water towns in the Bay have this Festival. About 20 waterman/boats participated this year. They have 4 classes...rookie, charter, medium and large boats. They have contests that scare the bejesus out of you...The most exciting event is the one where the boats must basically go full throttle out of a slip(going forward not backing out) and then have to make a very sharp, fast port turn and back into a slip (about 3 slips away) at full throttle and place a line on each of four pilings. It is a timed event. The event gets so competitive that at one point a waterman, as he threw a line on a piling,he proceeded to do full summersault into the water just so he could get the line completely over the piling.The crowd went wild! The waterman who participate are anywhere from 20 to 68 years old. They can manuver their boats (one screw)so amazingly fast and accurate. The event is free to the public but a boot is passed throughtout the crowd to gather all the contest winnings to be passed out amongst the winners...John had a unique opportunity to get a ride on one of the boats because as they say the squeaky wheel get the grease...The announcer appreciated his enthusiam....He said it was great! It was over before it started...Then Jason (another squeaky wheel) played announcer for a bit of the festival....

10 reasons to Start Moving South

2009-09-24T16:49:00.002-04:00

Life in the Chesapeake Bay is amazing...gorgeous starry filled nites, chilly mornings and Fall leaves on the trees....FALL LEAVES ON THE TREEEs...OMG...(omigod)..
Top 10 Signs that we should start to move South
10)Pumpkins being sold in the farm stands
9)Leaves are changing colors
8)Acorns are falling off the trees (dockmaster at Solomons said that is his first sign)
7)Lots of woolly caterpillars are being seen
6)Halloween decorations in the store windows(of course some are seen in August)
5)Fog in the morning
4)Cold temps overnite below 70 degrees
3)You start to rummage about your boat trying to find a pair of jeans and a fleece top
2)John dropped dinghy lock overboard in the murky Chesapeake water (need to go to clear blue waters further South)
1)We are weenies and we need lots of sunshine and warm days
See pic of the Chesapeake in the morning ....Great Summer!

Off the Hook with Johnny Depp

2009-09-19T09:12:00.002-04:00

We finally left the dock at Solomons and had an amazing sunset dinner with Jason and Laura....Then off to Harris Creek, Tilghmann Island and St Michaels on the Eastern Shore. These incredible creeks meander back and forth with gorgeous tall grass waterfronts. These towns are are steeped in history and charm...Now onto Johnny Depp. We borrowed a car from friends ( a huge perk of cruising, great friends in wonderful places)and drove into St Michaels...a charming (that word has a comeback)16th century town...complete with incredibly restored houses, shops, a microbrewery and Johnny Depp's boat. The town had sighting of him throughout the day but no one could actually confirm his whereabouts. The boat is a 156 motorsailer...it's pretty much gorgeous. Due to a Vanity Fair artcicle that we read a few months back, we could confirm it was his yacht. He also purchased an island in the Bahamas so further research is needed. It was all lots of fun...the town was abuzz. The next day, the St Michaels newpaper ran a pic of his boat on the front page. The elusive Johnny was never found and the yacht had sailed off to a new port. Great fun!

Water, Water everywhere--including here

2009-09-06T13:48:00.002-04:00

Wow! Time flies when you are having fun and working on a watermaker....This is definitely the royal "we". John has completed successfully building our new watermaker. Working towards self-sufficiency is a wonderful thing! It works really well! It will make 20 gallons per hour...our many thanks to Jason for his guidance and patience. On the pirate fashion front, John now has a pirced ear. Our multi-talented Jason transformed himself into a pierced earring piercer?(not sure what to call it)...either it was too much rum or a lifeling desire, John will be wearing pirate booty soon...Pics attached...

Pop The Trunk

2009-08-20T11:45:00.002-04:00

No, this is not a detective series being acted out...I am cetoling(varnishing)the wood trim on our boat. "Pop the Trunk" is a song by the Aggralites, a reggae band that will definitely make you smile even if you are varnishing....As I stain trim, John is installing a DYI (do it yourself) watermaker...it is a reverse osmosis deal that will filter out the salt from ocean water so it is potable for us to drink...Pretty cool! The fun of boat ownership! The cool thing about being in the Chesapeake is seeing a lot of friends that have traveled up to this area or that live here. We met a couple in Bimini(Bahamas) and we were able to contact them, we found out that they are right here in this area for the summer. One last thought for the day...remember when your parents said that as you get older time will go by even quicker...THEY WERE RIGHT! Keep moving and love life!

Take Time To Smell The Roses

2009-08-10T18:07:00.002-04:00

More land cruising..We are in Washington Dc and there sure is a lot to see. The Botanical Gardens were just reopened after a huge remodeling. The outside Gardens are amazing. See pics of the roses....They also have a small pond with cattails, a garden with orchids, and beautiful lilies....Then upon seeing that the Renwick Gallery (across from the White House)was free admission...of course we had to see what was being shown. The attached photo is of a gamefish made out of toys...see pics...art is sure "all-inclusive"....No matter how many times I have seen the White House, it always affects me, in a good way....see pics....

Tough Commute....

2009-08-03T16:01:00.002-04:00

We traveled to the Bandalier National Monument...about 15 miles outside Los Alamos. The park has Indian cliff dwelling that you are able to climb tall wooden ladders to see. The dwellings are purposefully, about 50-100 feet off the ground. The Indians made these cliffs their homes because they were near rivers( drinking water and fish), wonderful, fertile soil and lots of wildlife to eat. The only issue I had was that they would have to cimb, sometimes 2-3 ladders (to get to the penthouse)to get to their ciff apartment. I am sure they had lots of groceries and drinking water, which would make the evening commute a big pain in the butt. The area that surrounded these dwelling were beautiful...near windy rivers and wildflowers. John and I climbed the ladders to get an idea of how this all worked. Their small cliff aprtments were rather sparse and quite low...they must of been rather short. SEE PICS....we also made it to Albuquerque and visited the PLaza...a gorgeous, authentic Mexican/Indian plaza. Lots of great food..hot chile of course. See pics of John's new hat...possibly a 20 gallon...what do you think?

Heaven On Earth

2009-07-26T21:51:00.002-04:00

What can I say? I love the ocean and I love the mountains...We arrived in Los Alamos, New Mexico and we found the most perfect place...it's called Valles Caldera. Thanks to Prez Clinton, when he left office he signed off on a purchase of 89,000 acres called Valles Caldera. It was a privately owned ranch that was the most beautiful place on earth. It cost $110 million dollars, and it that was made into a preserve. The year was 2000...Until 2004, unless you were a researcher, you were not allowed into the park. We were able to go on a 4 hour hike that took place on the old 1930's logging roads. The cool part is that the roads were natural ....lots of tall grasses, wildflowers, wildlife and no other hikers becuz they limit the amount of people daily into the park. They have over 2000 cattle, 3000 elk, mountain lions, horses, snakes,chipmunks, squirrels,eagles,hawks and wild turkey. I am sure I have misssed a lot of other wild life. The place is spiritual...peaceful and big...BIG SKIES...See pics...right before we found this place we went through a hail storm...it went from 73 degrees to 53 degrees in 20 minutes...See pics....

Santa Fe Scenery

2009-07-22T12:49:00.002-04:00

The great thing about traveling to new places is all the wonderful new sights you get to see. The Santa Fe area has it all. Delicious food, beautiful adobe architecture and this time of year, gorgeous skies and flowers. We drove up to Taos, at about 8,000 elevation. There is a gorge with a bridge that you can drive over, about 10 miles outside Taos. It is a mini Grand Canyon. The view is breathtaking...you can see forever out in the desert. My fear of heights was definitely working against me as we walked over the bridge...its about 650 feet above the Rio Grande River.See Pics. Then we drove back to santa Fe and took in some of the museums in the Plaza area. The adobe architecture is so different from anything out East. The brick colors against the backdrop of the blue skies is memorable. See pics..The holyhocks, cactus and wild flowers are all blooming right now. It is hard to believe how cold this place gets in winter...We visited the Georgia O'Keefe museum. Her artwork is incredible...it is so simple yet incredibly colorful. It is great to view the Santa Fe scenery through her eyes...WOW!

Farming in Santa Fe......

2009-07-19T09:58:00.003-04:00

Here we are land cruising in Santa Fe...pretty cool. Visiting the in-laws...having a great time! We went to the most amazing Farmers Market I have ever been to. There were at least 40-50 vendors, all with locally grown food products. From veggies to goat cheese to gorgeous rustic breads....See pics. One of the coolest things is that the wild lavender is in bloom all over the city...as you walk through the market the lavender permeates the air...lavender honey, lavender goat cheese, lavender satchets, lavender body lotion...if it can be made with lavender they have it. I also checked out all the chili pepper dries spices...green and red, hot or mild they have it here. The thing is that when they say mild heat, they mean hot....no wussies here. We also checked out the area os the city known as "Canyon Road"...The area is full of the most beautiful galleries and artwork I have ever seen. The artwork is Indian, Mexican, contemporary and even a galley focused on fantasy art...From $200 to $200,000...One really cool gallery had fountains inside the galley with beautiful roses and goldfish...yeas goldfish..See pics.

Update from Washington DC

2009-07-15T11:13:00.003-04:00

July 14th
Solomon's Island, Maryland
I am trying to update everyone so we are all on the same page...up to date with each other. We are now in the Chesapeake Bay...Solomon's Island. What a wonderful place. We did spend a couple of days in the Dc area. We traveled to American University to see an exhibit focused on the Haitiian sailors we met in Bimini. To get everyone on the same page...when we first arrived in Bimini we met a dutch writer, 3 Haitiian sailors and a videographer who traveled on the Haitiian's handmade 21 foot sailboat from Haiti. It is the same type of sailboat that so many of the repressed haitiians try to sail away from Haiti on. The dutch writer wanted a vehicle to try to convey the plight of the haitiian people through the experience of these 3 sailors. They left haiti on March 11 and arrived in bimini on April 11th...Their end destination was Palm Beach Maritime Museum and then onto American University in june and July. We had the previlege to see the exhibit...When we arrived the sailboat was sitting on the grassy area outside the Museum...a small explanation attached. Once inside we saw the wonderful handmade sail that was painted with a "phoenix" by a haitiian artist....It was all pretty cool on many levels. I am so glad they got the focus that is necessary to even begin to explain what is happening in Haiti...See pics..

Computer Challenge

2009-07-11T11:39:00.003-04:00

July 11, 2009
This is the start of our new blog. For all of you who have admired and appreciated our website (www.freedom-csy44.com) ....many thanks to Paul who created it. Life has gotten a bit busy and Paul will not be able to continue as our webmaster...as scary as it sounds I will be taking over the job/challenge/ etc.....The new blog will not have all the bells and whistles that Paul created but the stories and pics will continue. The updates will happen at least 2 times a week. Thanks for your patience and the ADVENTURE continues.....