Rosie crosses the Gulf

We made the crossing with our friends on "Jenny" - We met Roger and Ginny on our first trip to Marsh Harbour so it was fitting that we made our crossing together!


We stayed one night at Great Sale Cay - a deserted island near the edge of the Bahama Bank. We anchored on the edge of the Bank for our second night of the crossing. It was very rough as the tides opposed the current and the wind rose to 20 knots! When we started out at 4am the winds had died to 5 knots and the crossing was totally uneventful - except for dodging a giant sea turtle !




We arrived in Fort Pierce Florida and Rosie underwent a refit - everything from the teak to the electronics was redone. It was a hard couple of months but everything works great and we are set for the next year of sailing!!






The highlight of our Fort Pierce trip was Robb's visit - here we are in Ft. Pierce and South Miami Beach !



I love this poem - It explains exactly what our winter has been ! No one understands when we complain about what went wrong - the skinny water that grabbed us, the propeller coupling that refused to stay coupled, the barge that knocked out the directional markers...however all this did happen in Paradise with all those fruity drinks and lots of great friends who knew exactly what we were talking about so maybe..... we'll go back again next year ....

Some photo highlights of our last month in the Abacos!

Our last look at ManOWar and our good friends that we made!

This is our approach (in a dinghy) to New Plymouth, Green Turtle Cay. It is an interesting town -the highlight is Miss Emily's Blue Bee Bar - She makes the best Goombay Smashes. Look up the recipe on Google !

Charlie and I at New Plymouth.

We enjoyed Ken and Sherri's visit to Man O War!

Rosie's first race - She did very well - sorry Fred !

Charlie likes this Bahamian version of a backhoe - I don't think it would work at Hook Point!

Judy and Eric visit and enjoy the view and drinks at Nippers on Guana Cay.

Karin & Ed Visit

Here we are at the Marina .

Charlie and Ed admiring aboat on the waterfront.

The beach is absolutely beautiful!

Again, no sailing but lots of snorkling and walks around the island!

Hopetown

We sailed to Hopetown on Tuesday. It is another quaint island with spetacular beaches, lots of great restaurants and bars and a museum. They are mainly known for the pituresque lighthouse. Apparently the local people were very upset when this was being built. Many of the islanders were "wrackers" which mens that they made their livliehood from salvaging the wrecks. They were known as being very honorable - always saving lives before the salvage ! Anyway I guess that the shippers won that battle as the lighthouse was built and still stands today. You can see the lighthouse in some of the pictures.

Janet & Daryl Visit !

Janet and Daryl visited us in January. We had a great time - lots of work, snorkling & exploring, good meals with new friends even discussions as to the relative merits of sailboats vs trawlers - but not a lot of sailing ! We pulled away from the marina to go to Marsh Harbour to get Janet and Daryl, when we realized that we didn't have any transmission! We did get the coupling on the prop shaft reattached, then Daryl and Charlie got the nut on the stuffing box readjusted, then Charlie went diving, with Daryl's assistance and fixed the plate that held the "stuff" together. Meanwhile we managed to get in some fun and lots of great drinks ! And...





Lobsters! Fresh from Nova Scotia !







See Rosie does actually sail !!


Exploring the island!

This was a working holiday for Jackie!

Meanwhile we are working hard too!

Well here is Christmas in the Bahamas ! The weather is cooperating ( according to Charlie) we are getting liquid sunshine. We are going to see Junkanoo tomorrow. It is a traditional Bahamain Christmas/ Holiday celebration. It dates back to the days of slavery. A slave named John Canoe insisted that he be given a holiday and allowed to celebrate with his friends and family. In order to hide their identities and not get into "trouble" the slaves would disguise themselves as they danced and partied to their traditional music. This practice dates back to the 16th and 17th century. Today it is a grand street parade with music and intricate costumes. We are in Marsh Harbour and the celebration is on a much smaller scale than in Nassau. We will publish some photos of the celebration.

Otherwise we are missing home and family and even snow. However we will drown our sorrows at the beach bar with a pink drink with little umrellas in it ( to catch all the tears).

Merry Christmas!!

Well... Here is our new home... Rosie. The name is a compilation of Sean,Rob and Jackie. We found her in the Bahamas and had an adventure getting here ! I should have taken photos of our trip here, it was a cross between the Hillbillies and a bad Chevy Chase goes to the Bahamas movie.
We came well equipped, we had everything from our life jackets to pots and pans to a computer to a down comforter for our trip home. This was all packed in 4 moving boxes, three suitcases and two carryons. We had spoken to several people at customs in the Bahamas to find out what things could be shipped and what we could bring with us when we came. As is typical here we received several different answers. The main theme was that what was not allowed was taxable by 30%. We deduced that what was shipped was always taxable, what was brought was sometimes taxable. so... we decided to take our 4 boxes, three suitcase and two carryons with us. We arrived at the airport, and got checked in thanks to some very helpful BahamasAir check in people. (imagine what would have happened if it was Air Canada). We were feeling quite good - the ,cost of extra baggage and a few tips were well under the shipping costs, and we were on our way to the Bahamas!
We arrived in Marsh Harbour, Abaco, Bahamas in a torrential downpour. They had started to unload the luggage, but due to weather conditions threw a tarp over the cart and came into the terminal to wait out the rain. It was at this time that we rethought our packing material, however we were here in the Bahamas and ....
The rain let upand they unloaded the plane . Our boxes were wet but still held together so we were feeling good. We then met up with the customs official, who had charged the woman in line in front of us over $200.00 for a bag of vitamins and medications that she had brought with her.He said that it was all taxable - but because they were trying to encourage tourism, wanted boaters to come to the islands ( we later heard that this was when a little currency should exchange hands to facilitate the process). However, we just sort of stumbled through, he thought that only one of the boxes was ours, he said maybe we should pay some duty, we agreed , paid the princely sum of $70.00, and tipped a fellow to quickly take all of the boxes, suitcases and carryons to a taxi.By this time the boxes were quite soggy, the bottoms were not quite as secure...Anyway we were in the Bahamas and life was good....
We took the taxi to the ferry, drove right through a street parade with the police marching band (they wore the traditional uniforms with the white helmets and red braid) playing Christmas Carols under the palm trees! It was great ! We got on the ferry with all the revelers and holiday shoppers so it was quite crowed, but very festive. We had lots of help with our4 boxes.... etc, a few more tips and... we arrived in Man o War Cay.
The ferry driver was great he dropped off all the passengers then took us directly to our boat ( I think he was afraid that if we moved the boxes all the cardboard would disintegrate !)We were here, our luggage and boxes in tact, our wallets perportionally lighter but we were in the Bahamas !!