February 2017 – Crimson Kathryn and her crew

Blue water and white sand

We’ve been in the Bahamas for a week now and it’s been wonderful. The water is amazing shade of blues and the beaches are so white. So far we have anchored at 3 different spots – Honeymoon Harbour, Chub Cay and Little Whale Cay. Mark and I have explored a few beaches and did a very tiring walk to a Lighthouse on Cat Cay.

Crossing from Little Whale to Nassau was good. We had lots of wind and made good time. It was a bit rough at the end as we negotiated Nassau Harbour but we made it to the Marina. Nassau has been interesting – the people are super friendly and accommodating but the city is very run down. Even in the high tourist area (where the cruise ships tie up), there are lots of run down, empty and dirty buildings. Our plan was to not stay in Nassau but we needed a new stereo (car radio basically because ours got wet and fried itself on our trip over from Miami. We found a leak though😉) and there was a storm prediction that came true on Wednesday (lots of rain).

Friday we leave Nassau and sail to the start of the Exumas – a chain of islands that we have heard are amazing. Last day of wifi so it will be back to the inreach.

One thing I forgot to mention in my last post. When we landed in Bimini, we had to clear customs. They had a long form for us to fill out and there were a few interesting questions. “Did anyone die on the journey and if so, do you still have the body?” “Did an unusually amount of rats and mice die on your trip?” Okay Bahamas, time to update your forms!

I’ve collected some interesting shells so far.

Check out the cruise ships – the left one is Disney Dreams and it’s huge.

Coming into Nassau through the west Harbour entrance.

Bahamas at last

Hello everyone! We made it into the Bahamas yesterday and are at Browns Marina in Alice Town, Bimini. The last several days have been good – some good sailing and nice scenery. The crossing over from Key Biscayne was interesting. We had lots of wind which of course led to some big waves. It was bumpy but we were moving fast and got in at a distance time.

Our plan was to leave here on Friday but the weather might not cooperate so we may be here a few more days. We need fairly calm weather to get across the Bahamas bank. The inreach device is working wonderfully paired with my iPad. Sending messages is so much easier than the last time and we have unlimited messaging with the package we’ve purchased. I apologize in advance if I send too many messages 😄😄.

Here are some photos from the last 4 days.

Early morning departure from Palm Beach Gardens.

As we entered Fort Lauderdale, this cruise ship was leaving the harbour!

We waved to all the cruisers aboard as this big ship passed us.

Sunrise! We followed that catamaran all the way to Bimini.

Getting sails up on the ocean. Early morning again.

Our first dinner in the Bahamas – Spanish bubbly and Local lobster tails.

Someone is really enjoying that lobster tail!

That’s the entrance from the ocean. A bit tense coming in with big waves and shallow water.

Browns Marina. Love the colour of the water.

Time to head for the Bahamas

After 5 weeks and more boat jobs than I can list, we’re ready to leave Palm Beach Gardens and start the sailing part of our year off!! Mark has worked super hard to install the freezer, water tank and the water maker. The last few days have been a whirlwind of provisioning and getting last minute parts for the boat jobs that still need to be done.

We had lots of fun shopping for 10 weeks (it’s very expensive in the Bahamas so we stocked up big time). Do you have any idea how much meat you need for 10 weeks?! Well I sure do. We had a blast at Costco, buying all kinds of crazy large packages of things. Our little freezer is full and hasn’t stopped running as it tries to freeze all the stuff in it.

So here’s the plan for the next couple of days. Monday we go out on the ocean and will stop just south of Fort Lauderdale. Tuesday we’ll probably do the Intracoastal and be in Miami for the night. Wednesday we cross over to Bimini! We’ll be staying in a marina in Alice Town on Wednesday and Thursday so we should have wifi again at that point.

I will be sending a message via our inreach device tomorrow so if you want to contact us, just reply to that email. I have shared the link to the map where you can follow our journey and I believe it is working on. Here’s the link again: https://share.garmin.com/MarybethPidgeon

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