the Months before the Cruise
our
location - Fort Myers
NOTE
click on any of
the thumbnail photos for additional photos
'click' to enlarge
|
- we spent much time getting our two
Boats ready for the trip .. in
addition to all the normal 'stuff'
the Crew of RootBeer Float added a
Water Maker to their Boat and the
Crew of Dee Light added a Freezer
that the Crew of Front Page let us
use for the trip .. we also had a
Bimini Top made for Dee Light's
Dinghy .. the Water Maker on Dee
Light gave us a number of hiccups
but Ross ( Classic Yacht Service )
was able to baby it back for the
trip .. Joe from Universal Marine
Service also gave Dee Light a good
once over before we were ready to
head out ..
.. our departure date has been
centered around when we feel it
would the best time for us to make
'The Crossing'
Florida to the Bahamas ( Bimini
Islands ) so we have been watching
the weather forecast daily to try to
determine the best time for us to
leave Fort Myers .. one of the tools
that we used is BuoyWeather (
www.buoyweather.com
) .. 'click' on the image to the
left for one of the latest Reports
that we are looking at .. for a
number of days we had about a three
day Weather Window but as we got
closer to our anticipated departure
date our Window has become much
smaller ..
Tropical Depression ALMA has the
whole area stirred up ..
.. another tool that we use is an
Animated Wave Image ( see link to
left ) from
The Weather Underground
(
www.wunderground.com ) ..
..
it was opening weekend of the movie
'Sex In The City' so the
night before we headed out Betty and
Mary Kay went to get one last
culture fix so they went to the
movie ..
after their movie we moved our Cars
to Betty's place and had dinner at
The Pink Cadillac ..
|
Sunday June 01st
location - Fort Myers
Links to Log A
Photos A
Dinner
at Matanzas
BuoyWeather to Marathon
on June 2nd 2008
|
Travel -
Fort Myers to Fort Myers Beach 18.5
Nautical Miles - this
will be out 'shakedown' cruise ..
- first day of Hurricane Season
- and sure enough we have our first
Tropical Depression ALMA and
Tropical
Storm ARTHUR that are
passing thru the Bay of Honduras area as
I write this update .. when I checked
the BuoyWeather this morning I noted
that our 'window' to do The Crossing has
shrunk !! .. UUFDDA !! ..
..
a number
of Months ago when we first started to
talk about returning to the Bahamas we
set June 1st as our target date to start
our adventure .. when we were just in
the process of doing our last minute
'stuff' our Toaster died .. UHG !! .. so
Betty took off for Wal-Mart and got a
new one ..
..
departure day finally arrived, Sunny,
Winds at 8 knots, Seas flat, all systems
working on both Dee Light and Root Beer
Float .. weft Legacy at 10:30 with
assistance and good-byes from Ron and
Peggy and headed out
for our Shakedown Cruise from Legacy
Harbour Marina to Fort Myers Beach ..
..
both boats appear to be sitting very low
in the water, maybe the 76 cases of Diet
Coke + the 15 6 packs of bottled Diet
Coke and the 10 boxes of Ice Cream had
something to do with it .. many weekend
warriors were out on their Boats along
with several wave-riders and Dolphin
accompanied us down the river, with
Miserable Mile living up to its
reputation.
Arrived
at Moss Marine (
Moss Marina - 239-765-6677) at 01:00 pm
.. Moss is home forthe Big M Casino
Boat .. before we left Legacy we
both had our bottoms cleaned but with
the water in the River being so dirty it
was difficult at best to do a good job
so I called Chris from Dive Master to
take a look at both of our boats ..
Chris cleaned our 'bottoms' and polished
our Props so we will be set for the
morning ..
After
getting tied off with a deck hand from
Michigan and very little experience, we
girls earned our cowboy hat roping the
pilings .. after a quick snack and Mary
Kay and Betty headed straight to the
Beach to enjoy the low, low, tide and
finding many sand dollars.
.. Marv's
son Jon and his friend Mendy joined us
for dinner at Matanzas, where with
Marv’s recommendation enjoyed the
Stuffed Grouper yummmmm!!! Then you
guessed it we walked to the Ice Cream
store for Marv and Johns usual 3 dipper
.. the day ended with showers and Autumn
hiding under Marv’s legs.
|
Monday June 02nd
location - Fort Myers Beach FL
Pancho's Fuel .. UFFDAA !!
Sunset at Marathon |
Travel - Fort Myers Beach to
Marathon 130 Nautical Miles -
.. when
we went to bed last night we had a good
thunderstorm and again at about 04:30 am
another thunderstorm moved in .. the
rainy season is here in SW Florida .. the
BuoyWeather Reports for today look
good but now we have the thunderstorms
.. UFDA !! .. we left
Moss Marine 6:45 am with the sun just
coming up .. winds 8 knots from the
South with two footers .. we noted big
thunderheads between here and Naples ..
the thunderheads became smaller storm
cells which Marv managed to slither
between ..
.. John
kept asking How far it was to the next
“Lock and Dam” .. those river boaters
never change ..
.. we
saw only
4 dolphin and 1 flying fish and no other
boats between Marco and Marathon ..
..
we were at Poncho's Fuel Dock at Marathon FL (
305-743-2281 ) by 03:00 pm taking on
Fuel UUUFFFDDA !! .. $4.99 per gallon
for Diesel .. but by filling our Tanks
here we got FREE dockage .. after taking on our Fuel
we moved Dee Light for the night .. while
moving around the corner to our
tie-along, and thrusting over to the
dock , we heard this KLUNK so we got
this non-english speaking person
to dive down and have a look and
shur-nuff the very tip of one Blade on
our Port Prop had been damaged ..
needless to say Marv is NOT happy .. but
the dockage was free .. UFFDA !! ..
.. Betty
and Mary Kay went exploring the area of
small mobile homes on canals each with
a very weathered fishing boat tied
outside .. there are cats everywhere,
each person living here must have at
least one .. later John and Marv joined
us and we had a bite to eat at Burdines
upstairs looking over the channel and
out into the Atlantic .. the food was
good, the No-See-Ums were horrible ..
.. after
showers John and Mary Kay came over and
you guessed it, they had their usual 3
scoopers of Ice Cream to end a great
day.
|
Tuesday June 03rd
location - Marathon FL
BuoyWeather to Bimini
on June 3rd 2008
The
Crossing
|
Travel -
Marathon FL - Bimini Islands 126
Nautical Miles -
.. at
first light we left Marathon at 6:45 am
.. partly cloudy skies, winds 6 knots
from SE, seas of 1 foot increasing to 3
feet and quickly flattened out as we got
out into the Florida Straits and then
remaining flat for the remainder of the
trip .. when we first headed out Marv
brought the engines up to 16 plus knots
to check out our Port Prop and there was
no noticeable vibration from the damaged
Port Prop .. we maintained this speed
increasing 3 knots from the current of
the Gulf Stream ..
.. we
met several Freighters and Tankers
probably bringing some more of that
$5.00 diesel from our friends in Iran
.. we also saw several Flying Fish ..
Betty had a couple of good naps and when
she woke from one of them she saw a
'mirage' thru the front Windshield ..
see photos ..
.. when
we arrived , one of the sets of Buoys
marking the entrance to Bimini harbor
was missing .. ie numbers 3 and 4 ..
Marv very carefully picked his way down
the channel .. arrived at
Bimini
Blue Water Resort, Bimini Islands (
242-347-3166 )
at 2:00 PM .. the dockage here is $1.00
per foot per night plus a $20.00 flat
rate for electric per day and 50 cents a
gallon for water .. what a deal ..
.. once we were
docked and had our Customs and
Immigration Forms filled out we walked
to the Customs Office .. once checked
in they wasted no time in taking our
$300.00 and we were on our way ..
.. Marv
and John returned to the boats and Mary
Kay and Betty went straight up over the
hill to the Beach .. Betty just had to
get into the water .. they found tons of
Sea Glass and several unusual Shells ..
.. later
we
decided to celebrate our great crossing
.. John grilled steaks and New Orleans
Sausage and the girls made all the
trimmings .. what a feast we had .. and
you guessed it finished off a wonderful
day with fresh baked cookies and their
usual 3 dippers of strawberry Ice Cream
..
.. there
was a wonderful breeze so we opened up
the Boats and will not need the air on
tonight ..
|
Wednesday
June 04th
location - Bimini Islands
North Bimini Island
Shark Research
Lab
The Sheller
|
In
Port - Bimini
Blue Water Resort, Bimini Islands (
242-347-3166 ) ..
.. we
will be spending the day exploring the
area ..
.. we had a partly cloudy and VERY breezy day .. Marv was quite unhappy this
morning as the Watermaker has failed again
so with several e-mails and photos over the
Internet to Ross Lund in Ft Myers by noon
Marv and John have it operating again ..
.. we splashed the Dinghy and went over to Bimini Sands Resort
and
Marina on the island of South Bimini .. with the help
of “Katie” from White Bear Minnesota we
secured a Golf Cart for the afternoon and we
set out to explore the Island .. we soon
came upon Marv and Johns favorite place
“Booze and Screws” .. that maybe the Screws
part was a hardware store but all that John
found was Booze and a closed door .. we then
visited the “ Fountain of Youth” and walked
part of the Nature Trail ..
.. we also visited the Shark Research Lab where we saw several Sharks, Rays,
and small Fish .. they let us pet one of the
Sharks .. John said it felt like sandpaper
..
.. we had a late lunch at Bimini Bay in their really nice restaurant ..
John and Mary Kay had their first Cracked
Conch .. I don’t think they were impressed
..
Marv put up his new Bimini Top on the Dinghy and we returned to
the boats .. immediately Betty and Mary Kay
headed right up over the hill to the Beach
in search of more Sea Glass .. Marv and John
joined them for the sunset .. on the return
walk to the Boats we met a man who is a
local artist and author .. he has spent 15
years working on his “Dolphin House” it was
very unique and of course Mary Kay had to
get two of his books and Marv took many
pictures ..
.. when we returned to the Boats Betty and Mary Kay headed right for
the shower while Marv and John, you knew it,
had their usual 3 dipper .. and it was sooo
good .. |
The Dolphin House
|
THE
DOLPHIN HOUSE -
when we walked by The Dolphin House the
owner and builder ( Ashley B. Saunders )
was at his House working away .. he gave
us the full tour of the historic two
story House .. it is must unique and
interesting .. click on the photo / link
to the left for many photos ..and for
more information check out this Website
..
http://inmyrighthand.homestead.com/DolphinHOUSEindex.html
|
Thursday
June 05th
location - Bimini Islands
Autumn and John
Lil Dee's New Top
|
In
Port - Bimini
Blue Water Resort, Bimini Islands (
242-347-3166 ) ..
..
clear- breezy, slept without the Air on
all night and the window open, great
feeling ..
Marv and John not happy, secured the
dinghy last night and the Tide went down
but dinghy did not, one of the rubber
handles had pulled off and the poor
thing was hanging by one small cable ..
you know those River Boaters ..
.. we all explored by Dinghy the “Bimini
Road” or “Atlantis” .. we used Johns
Viewing Bucket and was able to see the
flat areas and in one place there were 6
large square pieces of stone, resembling
Pillars.. very interesting .. the girls
went shopping and came back with Bahama
Bread and Cookies along with
reservations for dinner at “Ediths” She
will take us at 07:00 and serve some
type of Seafood ..
..
the afternoon found the boys tweeting
their Water Makers and retying the
Dinghy several times .. of course the
girls headed over the hill, snorkel
tubes in hand to practice and maybe find
a little Sea Glass ..
.. Edith's is located on the water in
Porgey Bay .. a good distance from the
Marina .. we took the Tram there and
back .. the food was local Bahamian fore
and very good .. John and Betty had
Lobster, Marv and Mary Kay had snapper,
Marv’s fish still had the head on and
kept looking at everyone .. YUCK ..
.. after we returned to the boats, guess
what? 3 dippers each of Butter Pecan ..
|
Friday
June 06th
location - Bimini Islands
Dinghy to Bimini Bay
Fixer Upper - Bimini
|
In
Port - Bimini
Blue Water Resort, Bimini Islands (
242-347-3166 ) ..
.. we had a clear, sunny and WINDY ..
Marv has extended our days here till
this wind decreases .. looks like it
will probably be Monday before we head
out from here ..
.. this
morning we
took the Dingy and explored the new
complex about 2 miles North of our
Marina .. ie “Bimini Bay” .. we had
stayed there a year ago and it is
amazing how much they have accomplished
in one year .. there is a huge new
Marina that is still under construction,
many more Houses and countless Condos ..
they have even made a man made Island
with lots for 30 homes with boat docks
behind every house .. their Five Star
Restaurant just opened for business ..
and they many more things in the plan,
they say it is only approx one third
done .. we had lunch “Grouper Fingers”
at the Pool Bar area .. the boys found a
shop that had Gelato “Italian Ice Cream”
so you already know what they had for
dessert ..
.. when
we made it back to the Boats
Marv and
John set off in search of some fresh
fish for dinner, but came home empty
handed so Mary Kay and Betty prepared
dinner
..
.. after
the sun had lost its intensity about 4pm
the girls once again went over the hill
to the Beach in search of Sea Glass and
YES Kim we found 4 pieces of BLUE glass
.. they even had a nice swim and got
cooled off .. this weekend is the Bahama
Labor Day and they set up a DJ and some
huge speakers just down the street ..
very loud speakers ..
.. we had
a fishless dinner on Back Deck on Root
Beer Float ( fresh green beans, with
little potatoes, onion, and Ham) .. Marv
made some Cornbread while we were at the
Beach .. the guys had a warm cinnamon
baked desert with the last of the Butter
Pecan Ice Cream on it
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOTE
- the free Internet System at Bimini
Blue Water went down so I signed up for
the Internet at the Big Game Marina but
I am unable to connect with the Dee
Light Server to update our Trip Log ..
??? ..
|
Saturday
June 07th
location - Bimini Islands
Bimini
Sunset Picnic on the Beach
|
In
Port - Bimini
Blue Water Resort, Bimini Islands (
242-347-3166 ) ..
HEADLINES - WASHINGTON (June 7) --
Sen. Hillary Clinton on Saturday
formally ended her presidential campaign
and expressed her support for the
Democratic Party's presumptive nominee
Barack Obama ..
.. we had
another Sunny and Windy day .. the
breeze feels awesome but we rocked and
rolled all night .. the Girls did
laundry, Mary Kay took theirs to
Laundromat and cost her 11.00 for 2
loads .. water sells for 50 cents a
gallon here, must have had something to
do with it .. the Guys stayed on the
Boat and looked at Charts and Maps and
lats and lons ect.
.. in the
afternoon Mary Kay and Betty took off
for a really long bike ride .. they ran
out of road and had to push their bikes
thru sand and over rock but saw a lot of
the town .. one of the 3 Billy Goat
Gruff live here under a porch, we wasted
no time getting on down the street
.. Mary Kay learned about harvesting the
Conch and picked out a beautiful pink
shell from a huge pile of discarded
shells on the Warf .. they stopped by
the Straw Market and got Marv another
loaf of Bahama bread and a coconut roll
.. Julia called the Church where she
goes and I talked to the pastors wife
and the Church Bus will pick us up at
7:30 am .. Betty loves Black Spiritual
Music ..
John went
for a ride on his bike to look for fresh
fish for Sunday Dinner but came back
with barbeque ribs hmmmmmm .. in
addition to the Ribs for
dinner Mary Kay made a delicious picnic
and we ate it on the Beach at sunset
time .. we walked back to boats and of
course had their 3 scoopers of
Strawberry !!!!!!!!
|
Sunday
June 08th
location - Bimini Islands
Gateway Church
Mary the Sheller
|
In
Port - Bimini
Blue Water Resort, Bimini Islands (
242-347-3166 ) ..
.. we
woke to a brief rainstorm, and the sun
came right out along with the breeze
and another glorious day ..
the Gateway Church Bus was late so some
native man gave us a ride .. Julia had
recommended her church, as we had
asked where to go that the music was
good .. the congregation was very
friendly, the worship service was very
different from the Lutheran or Catholic
Church but the message the same, the
music was much different also .. more of
a chant than the hymns we use .. the
pastor drove us back to the Marina, and
told us of the School and work of the
church .. Pastor Gilbert Rolle was born
here on the Island of Bimini .. he
became a member of the Universal
Household of Faith. , and was ordained a
Minister in 1997 on Grand Bahama,
returned to His native island to preach
for one month, after seeing the
desolation of the people he remained and
started the Gateway Outreach Ministry,
named as Bimini was known to be the
Gateway of the Bahamas for drugs and
illicitness ..
.. in
the afternoon we
took the Dinghy out for a shakedown
cruise to look at taking a shortcut when
leaving tomorrow am, but the guys
decided not to go that way as it would
be low tide and didn’t know if there
would be enough depth .. when we got
back we loaded it back on the bow of Dee
Light in preparation for the trip
tomorrow .. we had a Pasta Salad and
grilled chicken on the Back Deck of Dee
Light and right after dinner the Gals
headed back to the Beach for a few more
treasures .. and were they lucky again
!! ....
|
Monday
June 09th
location - Cruising
Southern Boating's 2008 Swimsuit
Edition
Fishing Boats
NOTE
.. to
continue with our
Trip Log
click on
Log B
|
Travel -
Bimini Islands to Chub Cay Club Marina
85
Nautical Miles -
..
Great
Sunrise has Marv out taking pictures
.. John wanted to top off his tank
so moved to fuel dock at 7:00 am
when they open but guess what they
are operating on Island Time .. so
we pulled out of Marina at 7:45 ,
OH-MI-GOT the diesel is $6.25 and
gasoline 6$.00 .. never in your
wildest dreams would you think fuel
would ever reach this level ..
the
86 nm cruise to Chub could not have
been better Betty even had three
LONG naps ..
the
Seas were calm all the way to Chub
Cay we noted a great variation in
the depth from less than 6ft. mlt
all they to 7,000 when crossing the
Tongue of the Ocean ..
..
arrived at Chub Cay Marina 1:30 pm
.. it is a primo Marina filled with
ALL large boats most of them
bristling with fish poles .. Chub is
the location of Southern Boating's
2008 Swimsuit Edition photo shoot in
April .. so the first thing that we
did upon arrival was to check out to
see if there were any Bikinis left
from the Photo Shoot .. but we are
out of luck .. gotta keep looking ..
..
right after we got checked in at the
Marina the Gals took off for the
Beach near the Marina Entrance .. it
appears to be man made and the
Sheller's returned with near empty
pockets ..
they
were quite disgusted with the little
man-made beach finding only a meager
few butterflies
..
when we were in route
Betty
had spilled her “lunch” all over the
galley as Marv hit a wake from a
larger boat so had to look up the
laundry and wash the throw rugs
.. it was on the other side of the
Marina, on the way she passed a
“fish cleaning house”. Inside it
was very cold and smelly with sinks
and metal cabinet tops all the way
around filled with fisherman
cleaning their catch .. she saw many
large dolphin ( not Flippers) ..
must have been a great day in the
fishing world ..
..
a few years ago the Marina was
closed down for remodeling .. it
reopened a few years ago but the
remodeling is still going on .. with
DEEP waters just outside the Marina
this area is a very popular fishing
area .. a real
fishing haven
.. thus the Docks have many fishing
Boats .. shortly after we were
docked a group of six Boats arrive
that are traveling together .. they
are from Miami .. they were at
Bimini the last two nights and will
be heading to Nassau from here .. we
spent much time sharing notes with
them ..
..
later we had dinner at the Marinas
quite small
Harbor Club
.. the Catch of the day was great ..
once back to the Boats
it
was time for a 3 dipper treat for
the guys and diet Jell-O for the
gals ..we
had a trip planning session over YUP
Ice Cream ..
|
|
Tuesday
June 10th
location - Chub Cay Club
|
In
Port - Chub Cay Club Marina (
242-422-7183 ) ..
NOTE
- this is
the End of
Log A
..
Links to
Log A
or
Log B
or
Log C
or
Log D
or
Log E
or
Log F
or
Log G
or
Bahamas Main Menu
|
