1-1-99 Happy New Year! We couldn't stay up till midnight to see the New Year in, so we celebrated at 7pm (which is actually midnight Universal Coordinated Time (UTC)). UTC is the same as Greenwich Mean time (GMT), the time at the Prime Meridian, 0 degrees longitude - Greenwich, England. So you can say we celebrated the New Year with the Brits! We had a special New Year's Eve dinner onboard SIMMER with our cruising friends from FREEBIRD and CHIEFTAIN. We even had rum raisin ice cream and brownies for desert - courtesy of Orrin and Nancy from CHIEFTAIN. What a treat that was, we haven't had ice cream in awhile. We're anchored in one of our favorite spots in the Bahamas - a place called Pipe Creek, in the Exuma Islands, central Bahamas. We actually sat out the "Storm of the Century" on our old sailboat on another excursion five years ago in March '93 in this same place. We've been thoroughly enjoying ourselves and keeping busy shelling, fishing, reading and slowly heading south. We've been averaging less than 5 miles a day, since entering the Bahamas. There are so many great anchorage's and coral reefs worth fishing and shelling, it makes it hard to move forward. So far we've caught 17conch, 9 lobster, and 8 grouper in the last 3 weeks. We plan to spent another month or so in the Bahamas and then sail south through the Windward Passage (between Cuba and Haiti) towards the San Blas Islands, just off the Panama Canal. It's going to be difficult to leave the Bahamas with the camaraderie of other cruisers and spectacular fishing and shelling. But we have another month, so we're making the most of it.
1-5-99 Last night a cold front entered the Bahamas, and today we are sitting in 20-25 knot northerly winds and gray skies. It's a little cool, because of the north winds and temperature differential (15 degrees) from yesterday but not nearly as cold as up home. This front is supposed to stall, so we may have crummy weather for a few days. We're tucked away in a very protected anchorage, keeping warm wearing socks on our feet for the first time in awhile. We heard on the radio that Annapolis, MD got 4 inches of snow and West Palm Beach, FL got 36 inches of rain from this cold front. We haven't had any rain yet, just alot of wind. We would've liked a little rain, to collect and store for later use - but our water tanks are actually fairly full, we carry 105 gallons. We topped off our tanks and caught about 40 gallons of rainwater a week ago in a major downpour. We're relishing the thought of shoveling snow, but for some reason, can't quite grasp the concept. Well, no diving or shelling today - we'll read, bake, and maybe play scrabble - no driveway or sidewalks to shovel. Our wind generator is loving this wind, it's putting out a steady 10 -12 amps, DC to charge our boat batteries. The wind generator actually generates power from the wind. There are several types available for boats, ours is a Wind Bugger, with a three blade propeller. It's similar to small windmill and pole-mounted on the stern of our boat. We have a bank of 4 golf cart batteries that supply power for refrigerator, laptop, radios, lights, CD player, etc ... on the boat. . The Wind Bugger allows us to be self-sufficient, so we don't have to plug in to AC shore power or run our engine to charge the batteries. So far in the Bahamas, we've had plenty of wind and no problems with lack of power! We've kept stuff cold and even frozen in our small freezer. We've made ice cubes (what we call "wind cubes") - a treat when you're on a boat! Little luxuries, like ice, you take for granted at home.
1-16-99 You're probably wondering what happened to us, right? We haven't updated our webpage or answered email for over a month now. Sorry, only explanation is island time, Mon. There's something about these Exuma Islands that makes you slow down, it must be contagious, the natives have it too. (Also there are very few phones to hook up and get online). We're anchored in between Darby and Little Darby Islands, in a former U-boat harbor. The islands are both privately owned and Little Darby has an airstrip for small prop planes. The hangar for the owner's plane is under the house, what a great setup. There's an interesting history to the Darby Islands. There is a large dilapidated house on Darby Island that was built in 1939 by an eccentric who was a German sympathizer. He also constructed out-buildings that served as a machine shop and radio room. He dredged a channel and built concrete docks to allow U-boats to enter and tie up. It is rumored that he ferried supplies to them and gave sanctuary to a few U-boat survivors during W.W.II. He was eventually asked to leave the islands. We also just finished reading a book "Wind from the Carolinas" by Robert Wilder. It describes the British settlers in the late 1700's when many Loyalists left the southern plantations in the States to try to recreate their cotton plantations in British-owned Bahamas Islands. It follows one particular family, and how each generation had to adapt to life in the Out Islands in the Exumas to survive. Very good reading, it's the second time we both read it. Other than reading, we've been snorkeling (fishing for dinner) and shelling alot. It's a shame our digital camera is not an underwater camera, because the beauty of these islands really is in the waters. The islands themselves have beautiful beaches and palm trees, but not alot of pretty flora to see. The islands are rocky with limestone (that's why the plantations didn't survive). But the coral reefs and sea life are awesome. We swim with so many kinds of sea life each day, we're starting to grow gills. We have been fortunate to swim with all kinds of tropical fish, sea turtles, spotted eagle rays (wing span 10-12 feet!), barracuda, sting rays, ... yes and a couple of sharks. We are very careful and only swim with our dinghy close by so that we can make a quick escape into it when "Jaws" shows up! We haven't been going hungry, the count to date is 35 conch, 17 lobster, and 15 grouper. Last night we had pepperoni pizza for dinner, not take-out from Pizza Hut or Domino's, but home-made. It was a nice change from the sea food. If you want to see more detail on the Bahamas and specifically the Exuma island chain to see where we've been the last month or so, you can check them out on their webpages. I'm sure the Bahamas Tourism Bureau has a webpage, with info on all the islands.
1-21-99 We arrived in George Town, Great Exuma on the 19th of Jan. George Town is the turn around point for most, a stopover for some and a winter refuge for others (we met a couple with the same boat as ours (a Southern Cross 35 named Mariah, and they've been here for 8 months). It is somewhat of a cruising Mecca for east coast sailors. There are currently over 250 boats in the many anchorage's in Elizabeth Harbor. The number is expected to climb to 400 the end of February with the annual Cruising Regatta. George Town is a large settlement, with many facilities - grocery stores, marinas, dentist, clinic, restaurants, hotels, UPS office and a small airport. For us it is a 7-10 day stopover to complete projects and get ourselves ready to head south. From here on, it will be new territory, since we haven't been south of George Town before. The many boats in the harbor is somewhat of a "civilization shock" after cruising the smaller Exuma islands and anchoring with only 4-6 boats in small coves. We called our mail service in Islamorada, FL to UPS our mail to us here in George Town. We haven't gotten mail since we left Ft. Lauderdale over 6 weeks ago. We'll be opening our Christmas cards a little late this year. We'll also download email and update our webpage shortly. We went out to lunch yesterday with a dozen other cruising friends and had Cheeseburgers in Paradise at a little local pub called Eddie's Edgewater Club. Tomorrow night (Friday) a group of us are organizing a wienie roast on the beach and a pot luck dinner with it. We have to make a trip to the grocery store to buy hot dogs and buns. Haven't had one of those for awhile either. Will try to get another update out before we head out from George Town, if possible. If not, next update may be in Panama. Oh yeah, we also got haircuts today, something we haven't done in 2 months, ... in our bathing suits, on the beach, after breakfast. A cruising friend we met that used to cut hair for a living in Cincinnati, OH, did us a big favor and coiffured us. We look a little less sea-haggardly now.
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