TIMELINE 2023

Tuesday, June 13 We have left Time Out. This boat is hurricane ready as we won't be back until November. We will enjoy our family, friends and our travels until we return. It is super hot and humid but weather up north is same. 😆 

Tuesday, June 6 We are tucked into our slip in our home marina. We have our Bimini top and icing glass in the flybridge all put away. We are getting Time Out prepared and ready for hurricane season before we drive back home next week. One more post soon.

Reflections of Time Out travelling north on the ICW.

Friday, June 2 We will be docked in our home marina this afternoon.  We will be back to "reality" of driving, dock life and prepping boat for hurricane season. We bought fuel yesterday so we are set for the season.

Wednesday, May 31 WE CROSSED THE GULF STREAM. We wanted to head to Lake Worth/West Palm but the waves and a big swell were on our beam. This was very uncomfortable for one hour and we made a decision to head to Ft Lauderdale.  This was a more comfortable ride but does add a day on our trip to arrive in our marina. We will buy fuel tomorrow and get to our home marina on Friday. 

About fifty dolphins were swimming beside our boat. By the time Paul yelled for me to get my phone out here on deck there were only 3 left. Just at the Ft Lauderdale inlet I saw a huge loggerhead Turtle too. 

Tuesday, May 30 According to all the weather forecasts, websites, apps etc., tomorrow is the day to cross. We leave Bimini for Lake Worth. We are expecting two footers which is manageable. Of course there will be bigger ones than that. We had our lunch out yesterday at Big Game Club where we shared French Fries and a Mahi Mahi Reuben.

Bimini sights

Friday, May 26 We begin in Bimini and our Exumas trip ends in Bimini, the closest island to Florida east coast. We are in Bimini. Now we wait to cross the Gulf Stream.

Wednesday, May 24 We have pulled anchor and heading to West Bay on west side of Nassau. Weather may be good enough to cross the Tongue of the Ocean to Chub Cay or beyond tomorrow.  We met some wonderful fellow boaters in our anchorage from Germany, France, Cuba and Canada. We had cocktails on Bonaparte's boat. 

Sunday, May 21 We are anchored at Rose Island, 20 minutes from Nassau. A big day for us as we are featured in footage of Searching For C-Shels YouTube channel. A great video of their journey here but even better footage of the drone shots of C-Shel and Time Out. Thank you for a great season Cyndi and Sheldon! 

Saturday We are leaving the Exumas and heading to Rose Island near Nassau. Goodbye.

Thursday, May 18 Yesterday we arrived in Paradise on steroids! Calm on the ocean side of Ship Channel Cay. Absolutely 💯 beautiful.  A very rare day on the OCEAN, calm. Paul captured excellent drone footage. We fished and no luck until we caught a remora unfortunately.  Let him be free.

Tuesday, May 16 We spent one night at Hawksbill Cay as we head slowly back to Florida.  The weather is glorious. 

We had one last meal out at Staniel Cay Yacht Club and bought some groceries too before we pulled anchor.

Sunday, May 14 We had clouds and wavy weather for two days. We are now in Staniel Cay, Big Majors anchorage. Nice and calm. Off to shops and a lunch out tomorrow.  

Thursday, May 11

Need I write anything? 😆 

Feeling blessed!

Wednesday, May 10 We pulled anchor and now at Musha Cay. David Copperfield owns an island here that he has on Airbnb. It is a very private and expensive place. There is a sunken piano to see and many sandbars. 

Beautiful scenery!

Monday, May 8 We are exploring the area including a lunch in Barraterre, 5 miles away on Saturday. We dinghied over with friends. French Fries taste delicious if you haven't had them for weeks! High winds out east so just anchored here behind the island.

Friday, May 5 All is well anchored in William's Cay. Beautiful and enjoying the scenery. 

Tuesday, May 2 Paul had a fantastic birthday. One to remember because we caught 2 female Mahi and had Cyndi and Sheldon over for pizza on the grill. 

Today we are anchored close to a famous country singer's Island. 

Monday, May 1 Time Out and many other boats were anchored last couple of days because of the winds. Tomorrow we travel out in the big blue waters (ocean, Exuma Sound) and fish. We are heading south about 30 miles. New places to see.

We hope to catch a Mahi but anything would be great except a barracuda!

Friday, April 28 We have two engines working again. We had Sheldon and Cyndi over to celebrate! We are travelling south early next week since we are provisioned again. 

Cool photos from our friends that flew home.

Wednesday, April 26 Paul flew to Nassau to get something welded. We have been using one engine and he missed the flight back so he spent the night in Nassau. I was on anchor in Staniel Cay with C-Shel close by. Great friends! 

This is sunrise Thursday morning taken by C-Shel.

Tuesday, April 25 Goodbye friends. A fantastic week. 

Monday, April 24 Took our friends to see the local sharks!

Sunday, April 23 We had a tasty lunch out at Staniel Cay Yacht Club.  Our friends J&L took us out as they depart on Tuesday morning. We love to share Time Out and Exumas with them.

We share all the same sights, blue waters, the restaurants and islands. This Yacht near us.

Saturday, April 22 We have guests on board for the week. We are enjoying the ribbons of blues with them.

Sunday, April 16 Yesterday we went out for a fantastic lunch with friends at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club. We also bought produce at two shops. We have guests arriving Monday for 8 fun days. We expect prices to be high but if you are curious here is our receipt from the Blue Store. 

Beautiful sunset last night.

Thursday, April 13 We are anchored at Big Majors near Staniel Cay. We have guests arriving on Monday. We will get produce at the shops and a lunch out. 

Monday, April 10 We are now anchored between Compass Cay and Decca Centre. The water is flat and calm. Amazing! See our anchor chain and the ripples it leaves in the sand.

Saturday, April 8 We enjoyed a day at Shroud Cay. This is a gorgeous Cay! We will be back.

Wednesday, April 5 This morning a tiny rain shower and I captured a photo of our friend's boat C-Shel. 

Tuesday!

Monday, April 3 officially in the Exumas! 

Sunday, April 2 We bought 130 gallons of diesel and some produce in Nassau. We are now anchored at Rose Island. We plan to head to Norman's Cay, Exumas tomorrow.  Five cruise ships in Harbour as we went by. 

Wednesday, March 29 We are anchored at Clifton Bay, West Bay, Nassau for the next few nights. We had a wonderful night anchored the the banks last night. 

Tuesday, March 28 We have departed Bimini for a night on the banks on our way to Nassau. 

Sunday, March 26 We have arrived in Bimini! The first 5 hours were awesome but the last hour ugh! We had to turn our stabilizers off. One compressor needs fixing. We were supposed to have 1-2 foot waves, we never once saw a one footer! All 2-3 feet or more. 

March 25 We plan to leave anchorage tomorrow morning for Bimini. The Gulf Stream is in our favour and C-Shel will be with us for the crossing. 

March 23 Cyndi and Sheldon are here in the anchorage as we wait for the day to cross to Bimini. Our water maker is working. We are officially OFF GRID. We have not ran a generator since we left the dock. We run our convection oven, washing machine, water maker etc. Our solar is amazing (and lithium batteries)... and Paul getting this all working together nicely.

Many cruise ships in Miami too, including Virgin. 

They have a whole port here.

March 21 We went to a nearby marina and got a pump out and topped up with water. We then headed to Key Biscayne near Hurricane Harbor. 

March 19 We took our dinghy to a nearby anchorage and visited Cyndi and Sheldon on C-Shel. It is so good to reconnect with friends! This is not their boat, hahaha.

We left the marina March 16! Yippee

A big party at this mansion today planned!

Miami Skyline

Today we are in Miami as Key Biscayne is not accessible to us right now. A bridge south of Miami is not working so therefore we headed back north to a Miami anchorage. We may try again tomorrow after we find out the status of that bridge. There is no weather window for a crossing to Bimini any time soon anyway.

GOODBYE ABACOS

 The Gulf Stream crossing was excellent. We left at 7:15am and arrived in Vero at our marina slip at 6:30pm. The wind and waves were great but it was the extreme heat in the fly bridge that was tiresome.

We are out at the Tiki Bar at Old Bahama Bay Marina. We were told they make excellent hamburgers, so we each had one. The Mudslide was super delicious too!

We are now getting Time Out ready for hurricane season; we drive back to Canada August 4. Next post will be By The Numbers for this short trip.

SPACE X SEEN FROM ABACOS

 We are anchored out at Powell Cay and just happened to go out to our swim platform and WOW! Great timing, grab the camera and start taking photos. Absolutely amazing and beautiful! 

INDEPENDENCE DAY BAHAMAS

Forty Nine! This is what Bahamas is celebrating this weekend. There are proud flags everywhere and parties. We are staying the week at Donny's Marina but took our dinghy to Green Turtle Cay for a lunch out on their patio. The inside bar is full of signed dollar bills. No wallpaper needed. 

See the walls in the background, no room for us to put a bill up. Of course, we are Canadian and I would need to tape a loonie lol!

 

We took our dinghy around to an excellent mangrove area and saw turtles and large fish. We say we should go back with our fishing gear but it is 101F with the humidity ..... no, we don't want to venture far. We did stop at Big O's and had a great cocktail and saw all the signatures with the Sharpie all over their walls and beams. Such a friendly place.

Our dinghy is there as it is the only one. Many tourists arrive on rental boats or tour groups that they have joined. 

Above photo is a pair of my flip flops. I had to throw out. 

The hot sun shrank them. And look at the shape of them!

I have a back up pair which I am keeping INSIDE the boat. 

CHEESEBURGERS IN PARADISE

 We stayed a few days anchored at Allan's-Pensacola Cay here and at one time it was two cays. Weather and hurricanes change the landscape whether it is a natural landscape or man-made.  There is a path on this island where people leave items they have found on their travels.

After we left this anchorage we headed to an anchorage that was close to Fiddle Cay near Green Turtle Cay..... because a huge Cheeseburger in Paradise Festival was happening July 5. Facebook is so great when you join groups and get real time information. The Green Turtle Bulletin gave information about this festival in Paradise. Free hamburgers and free margaritas is something everyone loves! Paul bought a cool shirt to remember this awesome day. It looked like a boat show when actually it was just a festival on the water with many boats. 

On our way to Donnys Marina in Green Turtle 

we were greeted by Dolphins! 

Our dinghy has a hockey stick too as it was Canada Day 

on July 1 and thought it would be fun to fly our flag at the Cheeseburger Festival. 

Paul's cool shirt as a souvenir and support the

Green Turtle Foundation

ABACO ISLANDS WE HAVE ARRIVED

 We have arrived from Florida to the Abaco chain of islands. These islands are different from the Exuma islands and further north. It is hot this time of year and it is hurricane season! The good news is that we are close enough to Florida most times to just get back to our home marina if a named storm is heading our way.

We arrived last week just after the restrictions changed for travellers to the Bahamas. We did not need a test anymore if we are vaccinated yippee. This is very convenient for boaters as we had to walk or dinghy to a testing place and if weather did not permit us to travel, we needed to be tested again.

We checked in to Customs and Immigration at Old Bahama Bay Marina at West End (like most boaters). Then we carried on to different anchorages. The weather is very unpredictable from one hour to the next so we have to be prepared. It can rain 4 or 5 times a day, winds heavy, then light, cloud, rainbow and sunshine. .....etc.

Our view from back of boat last night. So amazing!

We have seen water spouts every day. They are a common occurrence.

We see rainbows too!

I have started this mushroom kit. The above photo is BEFORE. Will post more photos along the way. I have microgreens on board too. 

HAPPY CANADA DAY JULY 1! 

We plan on decorating the exterior of Time Out. Check out the post Time Line Abaco.

TIME LINE FOR ABACOS SUMMER 2022

 We travelled home to visit family and friends. Why rent a place up there when we can use Time Out? We decided to venture to another part of the Bahamas, the Abaco Islands. It is super hot however we now have two air conditioners that can run off of our lithium batteries. 

I will update this specific post on occasion like previous seasons. We plan to be gone about five weeks, leaving next week for West End where we check in with Customs. 

Next summer IF we plan to visit Bahamas, our boat insurance requires us to have a rider for that area. So this is the summer to visit. 

Thursday, August 4 We left our marina this morning for our long drive back home. It was super hot while getting boat hurricane ready but hot everywhere. 

Saturday, July 23 We are enjoying the break from the heat here in Florida as Time Out has the AC on throughout whole boat. Paul will do oil changes, pickle the water maker, we will fill up tanks with diesel and more. We are getting boat ready for the hurricane season. 

Wednesday, July 20 We are crossing the Gulf Stream today to Ft Pierce Inlet and go right to our marina. It is a ten hour day but worth it. It is 105F with the humidity! Crazy. We spent two nights at Old Bahama Bay Marina, plugged in ....AC on in the whole boat. A blessing.

Monday! We are in a marina again! Old Bay Bahama for next 2 nights. Plan still is we cross on Wednesday. Today was boring but thank goodness for Sirius Xfm ...channel 167! 

Sunday, July 17 We were anchored at Allan's -Pensacola Cay and now today at Great Sale Cay. We plan to do the 6 hour journey to Old Bahama Bay/West End tomorrow. Wednesday is our plan to cross to Florida as it stands now. 

Last night a shark was in the anchorage and not the friendly nurse shark! Did I go for a swim after that? No. 

Thursday, July 14 We are anchored at Powell Cay and saw the Space X send up a cargo supply ship up into space. We saw the booster release. It was amazing. Even people in Cuba saw the sight. This is the 30th launch this year!! 

Tuesday, July 12 Another scorcher! Our last day at Donny's as we leave here in the morning. About a week from now we will cross back to Florida. We ate lunch at The Wrecking Tree. This very old tree was super large and gave alot of shade. Long ago many ships crashed and wrecked themselves on the reefs. Locals would go out to the wrecks and bring in the bounty to this huge tree ..... nicknamed the Wrecking Tree to share the loot. There is only a large base to this tree outside of the restaurant as weather has destroyed alot of this local, well known tree 

Sunday, July 10 We took our dinghy to a mangrove area and explored then stopped at Big O's for a drink. There are pigs here too but because they are so common in the Exuma where we anchor I did not see or take photos of them. 

Saturday, July 9 A special celebration this Sunday as Bahamas celebrates 49 years young. It is their Independence Day. We went to Green Turtle Resort and Marina for a lunch out. Delicious but I am so full.

Thursday, July 7 We have decided to enjoy a little marina time. We are at Donny's Marina here at Green Turtle Cay. We want shore time, walk, walk and more walking. Unfortunately, it is extremely hot! We can only run one air conditioner at a time at this marina because of the power available. Dorian has left a big huge impact here. So much devastation. 

Tuesday, July 5 CHEESEBURGER IN PARADISE festival. We dinghied over to Fiddle Cay to enjoy free hamburgers and margaritas! Great boats of all kinds there. 

Monday, July 4 We are anchored at Crab Cay close to Fiddle Cay because tomorrow is a Cheeseburger Festival there. Today was beautiful as we explored the area in our dinghy. We are the only Canadians here surrounded by Americans. No other country flag. 

Sunday, July 3 Off to Powell Cay to walk a fantastic beach and see a sunken wreck!

Friday, July 1 Canada Day! We put up extra flags and wind scoops. This anchorage is great. 

Wednesday, June 29 Yesterday we left our anchorage and travelled to Allan's -Pensacola Cay. We will stay here for a few days as we are picking up a tower for internet. We had to wait to anchor here because a rain storm was overhead. We just circled around until the squall left. 

Monday, June 27 We have had a problem with our water maker last two days. We thought we could explore the area yesterday but Paul dedicated everything to get our water maker in working order. Today it is ok! Yesterday a water spout nearby. 

Saturday, June 25 We are in the Abacos. We anchored in Mangrove Cay last night, no internet there. Today we are anchored at Little Grand Cay. Tomorrow.....photos! We start our exploring. Super hot here but better than in a marina in Florida 😆.

Thursday, June 23 We crossed the Gulf Stream and now are at West End, Bahamas. We look forward to seeing the Abacos in the coming weeks. 

Wednesday, June 22 We have left the dock and hope to cross to West End tomorrow. The Gulf Stream looks great for us.

Monday, June 20 We took the dinghy to Riverside Cafe for lunch. We like to test everything. Our friends Kelly and Mike were great company to share the afternoon with. 

Saturday June 4 I arrive at boat at 3am from flight to Orlando from Vancouver via Toronto. I was on Vancouver Island and overnighted in Vancouver. Long, long day from Vancouver!

Sunday, May 28 Paul drove down himself and arrived at the boat.

SUPER HOT OUTSIDE..... 8am in the morning. 

This is a reason to leave Florida for Abacos.