The cruising season for us always starts in the Fall as we get Time Out ready to leave the dock for our three months in Bahamas. This year is very different from the past years as we leave Exumas after about six weeks there and head to Eleuthera and to Abacos for a wedding in April. Lots of exploring of new areas for us.
FRIDAY, April 26
We crossed the Gulf Stream today. This was an eight hour day! Long and boring. We came in through the Stuart inlet which was very rough with a strong current. I saw our last sun rise this morning and I really have no need to see more for awhile! Let me sleep in now haha.
THURSDAY APRIL 25
Tomorrow is our big crossing day. We are anchored near West End, Bahamas and we will leave at light in the morning. Our plan is to go to Stuart, Florida inlet. Goodbye to Bahamas!
Sun rise this morning! We wanted to get to West End and pick up internet to check weather again. If weather was good we would have crossed the Gulf today, however tomorrow is still better. It will be rolly but doable. Another day to cross is far away.
Wednesday we spent days in Allan's Pensacola Cay and now off to Mangrove Cay. We may cross the Gulf Stream on Friday. Weather changes!
We had some strong winds and rain one afternoon.
No internet or phone tower for couple of days.
Sunday, April 21 We are motoring! We have left Green Turtle Cay and said our heartfelt goodbyes to the wedding couple and our friends. We are heading towards West End for Wednesday. Thursday looks like a day to cross the Gulf Stream. Florida.....here we come! The sooner we get there, the sooner we hug our family!
Friday afternoon we went to 6 different places for a Pub Crawl. There were 17 golf carts motoring around Green Turtle Cay with our special shirts on. Such a fun wedding week. The sunset was beautiful at Sundowners as per usual.
Green Turtle Yacht Club has a bar with dollar bills all over the walls.
Wednesday, April 17 A fantastic, amazing wedding day!
Our friends chose the Bluff House here in Green Turtle. Outstanding!
Tuesday Fun day at a beach!
We are attending a wedding! A week long of fun! East coast Canadians Rock!
Saturday, Aptil 13 We've had a mooring ball at Donny's Marina. Tomorrow afternoon we will head out to anchorage again so we can make water. I want to do some laundry. This town New Plymouth is so nice and very friendly. We walked around to check this town.
Wednesday, April 10 We have been anchored out near Green Turtle Cay but with big winds coming (again) we are taking a mooring ball inside Black Sound. This is a protected Harbour and I can walk to town, use the marina facilities at Donny's, socialize with others and just get off of Time Out! I can't remember the last day we had calm waters!
As we came to this Cay some dolphins greeted us!
Sunday, April 7 We bought fuel today at Boat Harbour Fuel Dock, Marsh Harbour. Price was $5.71 per gallon including VAT (Value Added Tax 10%). We also gave our trash to dock hand without charge. Woo Hoo.
We went through the dreaded Whale Cut Cay out to the Ocean for just a bit then back in to Green Turtle. Stabilizers did their job, it was rough even with them! A sailboat sank 2 weeks ago going through the cut. The persons on board are fine. It is too shallow to get to Green Turtle Cay unless you go out to the big Ocean and back inside to the Abaco Sound.
Did You Know? We can't bring meat into the USA unless in its original packaging? I vacuum seal most of our meat that is in the freezer. We are entering USA in less than 20 days so anything not in its original packaging, we are eating. The rest we will give away.
Saturday
Climbed up to the top of Hopetown Lighthouse! Long, wet, salty dinghy ride but worth it.
Friday, April 5 We are anchored near Marsh Harbour. We are not going to visit this island, we do plan to dinghy to Hopetown tomorrow to see the lighthouse and a lunch out. The wind has been terrible, so not too cheerful these days lol 😆.
However look at this cool photo with a reflection of our boat.
Wednesday Just another windy day. It really doesn't matter if we are in Exumas or Eleuthera.....now we are in the Abacos and we are trying to find anchorages out of these high winds.
We did get to walk a beach but just I am so tired of the loud, strong winds.
Monday, April 1
Up and at them at sunrise. Our crossing was good and I could even read my book on and off. We are now in another island chain, the Abacos!
Sunday, March 31
Our last day here as we plan to cross to the Abacos on the big, blue, deep ocean ! We ate lunch out yesterday with a friend. Paul had an amazing Wahoo burger. Look at last night's sky!
Thursday we went into Spanish Wells to buy some produce. A kind man drove us to the store in his golf cart (that is the popular mode of transportation here) the long way. This way he could be a tour guide. A beautiful, quaint town but a very busy weekend. There are many tourists here because of Easter weekend.
Great prices!
Wednesday We travelled through Current Cut to Spanish Wells. This cut is narrow that the current is very strong, hence the name. Almost all boats travelling east to west or vice versa wait until slack tide. Current Cut's tide table is about one and a half hours after Nassau's. There were about 30 boats all arriving at the cut around slack. We met some boater friends from our marina, therefore we captured photos and videos of each other's boats while travelling.
Update on our Tuesday
The ocean side has the Queen's Baths. Those waves put on a show!
Tuesday, March 26 we left Hachete Bay yesterday and went a short distance to the Glass Window Bridge anchorage The Atlantic Ocean is on the other side. We will walk over the bridge later today and enjoy a lunch out. Of course capture some unique photos of this man made bridge. It used to be a natural bridge but a hurricane destroyed it.
Saturday...... a very large boat started dragging and moving fast in our anchorage about 1pm yesterday. It picked up a catamaran behind him. Now two boats moving along. Paul got in our dinghy to help out. About an hour later both got anchored again. Many boats were concerned. The big boat only had himself on board. His crew were ashore. Another boater came on board to maneuver boat while the captain pulled up his anchor.
Last night saw gusts of 40mph with 35 for a very long time. Today another large storm cell arriving soon.
Friday, March 21 Check the anchor twice, get the range finder out, check 360 degrees around us! Hachete Bay anchorage is full! There are 35 boats here because of the strong winds and rain coming. Every boater in Bahamas is settled in a protective anchorage or marina if you had reservations or the funds! We arrived last Sunday and there were only 11 boats here.
Tuesday We are in Hachete Bay which is a great place for the winds right now. Two uncanny happenings in the last couple of days. A sailboat beside us was from the same city and they stopped by on their dinghy. It turns out our kids and their kids went to the same small high school! Small world. Late afternoon yesterday we saw a very familiar powercat come into our anchorage. How familiar? It was the exact boat we sold eleven years ago! New owner and new name. If you look at the full web version of our blog, over on the right you will see other blogs. One is titled Coyaba. This blog is of the two years we owned this power catamaran.
Sunday, March 17 We tried to pull anchor this morning to head to Hachet Bay. That anchor was stuck on a heavy -duty thick line/cord. There was no way the anchor was going to come up. The water was 15 feet deep! Paul got his mask and fins and did the "Paulgyver" again. Obviously I helped with the windless to drop loose chain down so he could move the cord off the fork of anchor. Then bring up and re-anchor feet away from that cord. There is weather coming tomorrow so we are now anchored in a safe harbour.
Time Out coming into Hachete Bay.
Island Link Ferry leaving Hachete Bay. We look forward to exploring around here.
Friday
We are anchored in Governor's Harbour and this mega Yacht anchored right behind us. Want to charter it for €650,000 for a week up to 12 passengers?
BTW....7 Cruise ships in Nassau today. 22,000 passengers are spending money in Bahamas. This is a record for Nassau. They have 7 docks for ships and all were occupied.
Thursday, March 14 We caught a Mackerel on our way to another anchorage yesterday.
Then we had fish tacos with a corn coleslaw. Delicious!
Tuesday, March 12. We had a great lunch at The Wild Orchid with some boater friends that were in our anchorage as a coincidence. Today we walked to a local grocery store here in Rock Sound. We were able to buy some eggs and produce. Tomorrow we leave Rock Sound.
Sunday, March 10 We had a fantastic crossing yesterday from Exuma Park to Rock Sound, Eleuthera. We caught a Mahi Mahi. We had two lines out and we were hoping we catch something worth eating.
Some Fish for many future dinners!
North Mooring Field, Warderick Wells, our view
Goodbye Exumas
Friday, March 8 We had an outstanding visit at the Exuma Land and Sea Park in the north mooring field. We hiked up the Boo Boo Hill and took some excellent photos of Time Out. You will see a catamaran stuck on the sand bar. This cat had to wait an hour as the tide came in.
Our crossing to Rock Sound, Eleuthera today was amazing. I will post on our blog in a day or so. I have many cool videos and an amazing catch today at 10am.
Wednesday We are planning to go to the Exuma Land and Sea Park. No internet. We plan to cross to Eleuthera Friday and back online with internet there.
Monday, March 4 We are anchored near Pipe Creek a favourite place to see at low tide. We had a big rain last evening. The weather here is so unusual too. We took our dinghy into Compass Cay but only 3 or 4 boats are there at the marina. Pipe Cay sandbars looked amazing as per usual.
Friday, March 1 We are anchored near Staniel Cay for a few days. We have met up with friends also here. We bought provisions and tomorrow we do a lunch out. The last for both until we get to Eleuthera Islands in about two weeks.
This above video is taken of the Exuma Sound after a hike that was not enjoyable lol.
Tuesday A beautiful sky last night. I took a couple of videos. It reminds me of a Safari sky I see on documentaries.
Sunday, February 25 We said goodbye to our friends. We shopped and bought some produce here at Staniel Cay Blue Store.
These above items cost $74. We are so happy to be able to stock up. We are now going to pull anchor and head further south. There are many boats in the Staniel Cay area right now and this year many Canadian flagged boats too.
Thursday Fun day here at Staniel Cay.
Wednesday, February 21 We are in Staniel Cay area after a couple of nights at Norman's Cay. The weather was rainy there but we did see some beautiful mangroves and beaches. This sunset is not filtered. It was amazing after a day of rain.
SUNDAY We are enjoying the Exumas!
We showed our guests Shroud Cay and today at Norman's Cay at Whale Tail. The winds and weather dictate when and where we go.
Thursday, February 15 We bought fuel at Nassau Harbour Club Marina before a very sloppy, salty and wet trip to Norman's Cay. We can officially say we are in the Exumas. The beauty cannot be captured in the photos we take.
Valentines Day We left Frazier Hog Cay yesterday. The first half of our trip on the Tongue of the Ocean saw 5 footers. The Gyro Stabilizers did their job! Needless to say Time Out arrived in marina extremely salty. There were eight cruise ships in port as we came into Nassau Harbour. Nassau has renovated and added slips to its cruise port here.
Tomorrow we head to the Exumas! Every year brings us new sights, new adventures and we meet new and old friends.
Monday We are anchored at Frazier Hog Cay close to Chub Cay but more protected here. The wind and waves are annoying us to no end. But yes.... there is an end. Tomorrow we are able to move to Rose Island (near Nassau).
Saturday We had a rough 11 hours on the Banks yesterday, especially the last 3 hours. After we anchored at Chub Cay it was still rough and a very rolly night. This morning we moved to Frazier Hog Cay near Chub but ten times more comfortable. We are here until Tuesday unless weather changes. Nassau can wait! We will get fuel and pick up friends there.
The sunset set was nice and gave us a taste of future nights ahead.
Friday, February 9 We have just left Bimini so no internet until we get to Chub Cay which is ten hours away for us. I walked on Radio Beach yesterday and so many jellyfish onshore. The ocean waves may have brought them in because I usually see these in Florida and not here in Bimini.
Wednesday, February 7 Many boats tucked into the marinas here in Bimini as we all wait for the wind and huge waves to calm down. Small world as one other Canadian boat here is from our town too. It turns out our son's friend has his in-laws on a boat here and this is the boat!
The sun is out!
The video below is from yesterday morning. They got worse over the course of the day.
Sunday Paul had to replace our watermaker seawater supply pump today. Again, we have extra one on board. The pump was ten years old so it was due.
Saturday. February 3 We made it to Bimini and will be here for a week as it stands now. Weather is not conducive to travelling anywhere. The Gulf Stream was sloppy but we have Gyro Stabilizers to make our journey more comfortable.
Friday, February 2 We are READY! We will depart Key Biscayne for Bimini, Bahamas tomorrow morning unless the weather changes. We had a busy day replacing our macerator, making water (whew, that works), doing two loads of wash and putting stuff away for the bigger waves tomorrow. We have a marina reservation and we look forward to the turquoise waters. The stabilizers work as they will be on all day tomorrow!
Wednesday, January 31 We are anchored here in Miami. We will enjoy the sunny weather and have a lunch out today. Tomorrow we will drop off our guests and continue on to Key Biscayne. We have enjoyed this trip south with our friends.
January 29 We are anchored near Ft Lauderdale as we travel south on the ICW with our good friends Steve and Susie. It has been very windy but still enjoyable.
January 26 We left the dock! Yippee. On our down the Intracoastal Waterway with friends joining us on board for a few days!
December 13 - January 3, 2024 We flew home to visit family and friends during the Christmas celebrations. This was the first time we flew home to a home and not an Airbnb. We rented a condo downtown so all our own furnishings and STUFF were waiting for us.
December 9 We enjoyed the Vero Beach Christmas Parade!
November 27 We took the boat south to Stuart to get our boat hauled out of the water. This is every two years. We got our bottom paint job done and stabilizers adjusted so one fin does not leak. We got back in the water on Friday. We rented a one bedroom apartment in Port St. Lucie at the Sheraton.
November We replaced our convection oven/microwave in the galley. We fixed the generator.
October 30, 2023 We arrived on Time Out after a two day drive south.
