DID YOU KNOW?

Did you know..... is a post on this blog that some might find interesting.

Did you know that this is our 6th time travelling to the Exumas? We did it twice on our power cat Coyaba. (there is a link to this blog on the right). The last 4 times has been on Time Out.

Did you know that we usually travel 8 knots.... if we decide to go faster and travel at 10 knots, we use double the fuel, if we go 18 knots, it is 4 times the fuel. 

We have a water maker on board. It turns the salt water into fresh water! We have to run the generator to use it. If you buy water in Bahamas, it will cost 75 cents per gallon and sometimes it is not good quality water.

Did you know that we have 2 freezers and 2 fridges? One freezer can be turned into a fridge later if we need it. 

We have a washing machine on board! And a dryer (same machine), but the high speed dryer is the clothesline!

Did you know that if you use a Credit Card down here, they will charge you an extra 5%? We bring cash! Big city like Nassau may not charge the extra 5%.

The U.S. dollar is the same as a Bahamian dollar in value. 

A bag of nacho chips or Ripple chips will cost $7+ so we bring all chips and other provisions with us.

There is a VAT (value added tax) on EVERYTHING in Bahamas, 12%. This is new in last couple of years. 

There are boats here that are flagged from many countries. There are many from Canada.

Conch is a very popular food here. There are the shells everywhere. But, they are over fished right now.

Boats our size have to pay $300 to cruise here which includes our fishing licenses.

We have satellite t.v. on board, every time we move the boat we can turn our tv on and it finds all our channels.

We are in Bimini now at a marina waiting to cross the Gulf Stream. The weather and winds are not in our favour. 

On our way out of Nassau, this beautiful Norwegian Cruise Liner was there with this painted on the side.

On our way to Bimini we anchored on The Banks, 40 miles from any land all by ourselves. We travelled through some light rain and then the above rainbow showed up. We could see both ends, we motored right under it. So cool.

This funnel cloud was not where we were travelling, we saw a few on our way to Bimini. 

THALASSOPHILE
a lover of the sea, someone who loves the sea, ocean

EXUMAS, SEE YOU SOON

In boating we try to remember it is never "goodbye", it is just see you later and safe travels.

We enjoyed the Exumas this year with company onboard for 5 nights of fun, friends and food! Then we reconnected for a few days with another boat from Canada. We enjoy the company of Sheldon and Cyndi from C-Shel.

Our last stop in the Exumas is our favourite! Norman's Cay, from beaches, mangroves, coral reefs and the great weather, it is an awesome place.

Our friends Susie and Steven gave me a Henna Kit! What fun that was and still remains. Will keep the Henna product in the fridge to do another design later. Maybe do the back of Paul's head? ;-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf1hLBpcN5g

When we left Staniel Cay (with C-Shel), we researched the weather from many websites and the seas were only 1 foot out in the open waters.... so a decision was made lets fish for Mahi Mahi on our way to Norman's Cay. Yipee! After about half an hour, those 1 foot seas turned to 3 or 4 foot seas, there was a major squall of weather and we have to turn into a cut to go on the inside on the Banks. This was NOT what we expected, so certain cupboards and miscellaneous boat parts were not tucked away safely! Moral is lock every cupboard and put everything away even if just a jaunt somewhere. So many boats travelling that day and had unexpected weather. The boat chatter on the VHF was busy. Visability was poor at times and we were relying on radar to see other boats. The above rain spout was just outside of Norman's Cay before we anchored safely there. 

We are heading to The Berry's, something new to see and post on our blog. Stay tuned!

WARDERICK WELLS PARK

We had guests on board for 5 nights and took them to Exuma Land and Sea Park, the first land and sea park in the world. This park is absolutely beautiful on water and on land. 

Above is the view down to our boat in the mooring field. Time Out is the motoryacht on left of photo. We are standing on top of Boo Boo Hill, a great little hike and fantastic scenery!

We love this park and visit it every year. This year we signed up to be members. We will head up there again next week just the two of us. We like to snorkel there at low tide. We did put our underwater lights on and WOW! Night time brings out alot of different water  creatures. Amazing.

The Exuma Land and Sea Park was established back in 1960. This park is one of many run by the Bahamas National Trust (not government). There are 32 national parks in The Bahamas, over 2 million acres of tropical biodiversity. Boaters know the boundaries of these parks on their charts, there is zero fishing and no collecting of shells. Pathways are in place so people stay on the "trails". These parks are wonderful and we hope to visit more this year as we head out of Exumas to The Berry Islands.

Paul at Sampson Cay, low tide

Shannon at Sampson Cay