Crimson Kathryn and her crew

It’s hard to believe that we have been travelling on the water now for 7 weeks and we’re in George Town! It’s been an amazing journey from Bimini to here and we still have the Raggeds and Cuba to go before we head home and then back to the USA.
Reflecting on this first cruising experience, I can say that this is an incredible way to live. I think I mentioned this earlier but it’s worth repeating- life is so simple. You think about wind, water, food, and of course, emptying those pesky black water tanks! We listen to Chris Parker, our weather guru, at the ungodly hour of 6:30am, to find out the wind for the upcoming few days and then make decisions as to where to go and anchor. 

One thing I didn’t mention earlier is that Mark hurt his back almost 2 weeks ago now. He was bringing in our big fortress anchor as we were leaving Little Bay and pulled something. It was a rough first week but his back is slowly getting better. That was a real eye opener for us. Mark does most if not all of the heavy lifting on our boat and he was out of commission. So I picked up what I could. It was good in one way because now I know how to run the water-maker and bring in the anchor. I can also set the snubber and a few other things. Mark’s back is getting better and it won’t be long before he is back to normal.

Impressions of George Town: first of all, this Harbour has many names – chicken Harbour because many get here and don’t go on; Velcro Harbour…for the same reason. We arrived thinking we’d stay for a week and then travel around a bit to see where we could go when Caroline arrived but now we’re thinking we’ll just hang out here – Velcro Harbour has got a hold of us!!!! It is a very cool place because there are so many cruisers here. At 8 am each morning there is a cruisers net that broadcasts on channel 72. We get the weather and all the news -activities, boat help, for sale stuff, new arrivals and departures. It’s very cool. We’ve even met up with the boat from Newfoundland – Jill and Mike.

Here are a few photos for George Town and area.

We have some wifi again. It’s been a great week (we left Nassau just last Friday) and it feels like we’ve been here a lot longer. We’ve settled into the cruising lifestyle: travel a few knots to a new anchorage and then explore the land and water. Our favourite spot so far has to be the anchorage along side Long Cay. We had amazing snorkelling and great calm water. There were several beaches nearby and it wasn’t very busy.

Warderick Wells has the headquarters for the Exuma National Park. We’re in a mooring field with other boats. It’s a very beautiful island with lots of walking trails and some good coral reefs to explore. A cold front is moving in over the next few days so we’ll hold up here where it’s nice and safe. We’ve had great weather so far with some amazing sunsets!

Looks like our wifi isn’t good enough to upload photos. I’ll try again later.

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!

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.