Let's Try Another One

Since the first blog worked, here is another update. To bring everyone up to the present...We are in Hopetown, in the Abacos on Elbow Cay. It is one of my favorite places...a wonderful lighthouse is the icon for this island. I will just blog a couple of pics from different places we have been to wet your appetite...We have traveled with some of the most wonderful people on Blue Blaze, Seafox, Off The Hook, Majiks, Viking Dreams and certainly last but not least Cloud Messenger. All these people have made our cruise really great! A few pics...The first pic is John in Middle Bight, Andros..they have tons of starfish...orange, red...yellow...Then Greene's Conch Bar..also Middle Bight..a great tiki hut that served only conch salad(fresh) and libations...it only opened one year ago when Jimmy Buffet came to visit on his boat for bonfishing season..Middle Bight is the Bonefishing Capital of the World, really. Finaaly the last pic is the mooring firld at the Land and Sea Park in Wardetick Wells in the Exumas....

Finally A Vew Posting

What can i say, I am not a computer guru and have not been able to down load a pic for 2 1/2 months...Anyways our cruise has been great...We went as far as the Juemntos, which were pretty magical. Definitely the best snorkeling, fishing etc...We almost got tired of eating too much lobster...This is a place that has no stores...and very few people...I will try to send  a few pics for today's blog and see what happens...

Bimini,Bahamas

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

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

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

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

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...