12-5-98 We're still in Ft. Lauderdale, on the New River, rubbing elbows with all the mega-yachts. It's amazing how many BIG boats there are in the area. Some of them in the 100-200 foot range. We're not sure who owns them, but they are impressive. Colleen's Dad flew down from Philadelphia for a visit. He's been here for the past few days (staying with Uncle Bernie) and we've enjoyed seeing him. We're still in the provisioning mode and all four of us (Pat, Colleen, Dad and Uncle Bernie) made some trips to SAM'S CLUB and WALMART to continue stocking up on essentials. We've also had fun visiting with our friend Chris (Max) Pilsbury, who we used to work with in NJ and he's now working in Florida. Look on the PHOTOS PAGE for a picture of Colleen, Pat, Dad and Uncle Bernie and also Pat and Max taking our new inflatable for a spin. Uncle Bernie has been our resident chauffeur for the last week, driving us to every boating store in Ft. Lauderdale. Today we plan to do our last supermarket run and stock up on groceries - specifically fresh stuff like fruit, vegetable and meats. Then tomorrow, Sunday, we plan to sail south to Miami (Key Biscayne) to await weather to cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. It looks like the first good weather to cross may be Tuesday, 12-8-98. There are most likely alot of boats waiting for weather at Key Biscayne - the winds haven't been good to cross for the last 10-14 days. The Gulf Stream is a very nasty piece of water if you don't choose the right time to cross. The stream flows northward along the east coast, and is about 3 knots strong here off the Florida coast. We have to go across it to get to the Bahamas. If the wind opposes the stream, big waves build quickly and it can be very uncomfortable, and dangerous to sail in those conditions. We're hoping for southwest or west winds to go across - or even no wind and we motor. Once we reach the Bahamas, our updates to the webpage will be less frequent as we'll be on "island time" and won't be near phones often enough to upload. We don't have the capability yet to upload through our radio on the boat. We're still working on that. Hopefully we'll be able to do one more upload before the holidays - maybe in Nassau, but if not, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!
12-11-98 Hey Mon, we're in the Bahamas! The turquoise waters are breath-taking, can't wait to go for a swim. We left Miami through Government Cut on Wed, 12/9 at midnight and motor-sailed across the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. We reached the first Bahamas islands (Gun and Cat Cay) at 1100am the next morning. It was a good crossing, winds were 13-15 knots, just off our nose enough to keep the sails full, but we motored-sailed since the seas were a little lumpy and we had to buck the Gulf Stream's northward flow. Overall, we motor-sailed for 26 straight hours and anchored in the Berry Island chain at Chub Cay to clear customs. There were at least 20-25 boats that left Miami and Key Biscayne area that night to cross to the Bahamas with us. It was nice to have company out there. We kept in touch on the VHF radio off and on during the 26 hour passage. We hope to get in the water today to do some swimming, fishing and conching. Conch (pronounced KONK) is a mollusk that has an edible muscle, like a big clam. It is a staple for the Bahamians, and we love it too. The meat can be prepared many different ways and once you eat it, you have a beautiful shell left. We'll probably stay at Chub Cay for a couple days since we are waiting for a forecasted cold front to pass. The cold fronts don't usually bring cold, cold temperatures here, but they can pack alot of strong winds. We tried our acoustic coupler here on a pay phone and downloaded some email. It worked well. It's an instrument that mates to the handset of a pay phone and serves as a modem for us to connect to CompuServe. We'll work on a webpage update soon and send from Nassau with the coupler. Hope you'll be able to get an idea of the water color from our digital pictures. Wish you were all here to see it!
12-17-98 We've been in the Bahamas for a week now, and loving it. The water is so beautiful, we've been snorkeling and walking the beaches most of the daylight hours. Christmas is a week from tomorrow. It doesn't feel like it, even though we have the boat all decorated (to include tree, trains, and stockings) and have been playing Christmas music for the last few days. Jack Frost hasn't been nipping at our noses, but the weather has been a cool 70-75 degrees the last couples days, since a recent cold front. We've started a great shell collection and have also had good luck spear fishing. So far we've caught 8 Conch, 6 Lobster, and 2 Grouper. We haven't taken any digital pictures of our bounty yet, but we will in the future so you can see them, especially the Conch and Spiny Lobster. The lobster aren't like the Maine lobster, they have no claws. Instead their body is covered in thorns as their defense. Pat spears them underwater with a pole spear. When we go snorkeling, I pick them out, similar to a restaurant with a lobster tank. I say "there's a nice one, Pat, go get it!". He's a pretty good shot. Next time we get one, we'll remember to take a picture. I think we were too eager to eat them, we completely forgot about putting some pictures on the webpage. We had surf and turf the other night, it was very decadent! We're on our way to Nassau now, and according to the Global Positioning System (GPS), we'll be there in 4 hours. We'll spend a couple days in Nassau, provisioning some fresh food, phone calls home, email, webstuff, etc. Then head "out island" to the Exuma island chain in the Bahamas. We'll probably spend Christmas anchored off some remote island with several other boater friends we've been traveling with. Hopefully we'll catch a big Christmas Grouper for dinner. If not, I have some chicken, steaks and shrimp in the freezer and we'll manage! We miss everyone at home, and will definitely be thinking of you Christmas Day. We'll do a toast at dinner time, thinking of all our family and friends. Merry Christmas!
12-25-98 Merry Christmas from the Bahamas. Not sure when we'll be able to upload an update, we are in a very remote part of the Bahamas - the Exumas, but it'll probably be next year sometime. The Exumas Cays are beautiful, they sweep in an almost unbroken chain of small islands that run north and south for 90 miles. They form one of the most exquisite cruising grounds around with over 350 cays, almost one for every day of the year! Settlements are few and far between, and they're somewhat primitive, but the people are very friendly. We are at Long Cay, anchored in turquoise water 12 feet deep and white sand beaches just off our bow. There is one house on Long Cay and they have a hangar with a sea plane. It's pretty neat to see it take off and land only 100 yards from the boat. We got up early this morning and did one of my favorite things - walk the sand flats and look for sea shells. Low tide was at 7 in the morning, so we packed a thermos of hot tea and headed off for the flats! We went with old cruising friends, Dave and Karen from "FREEBIRD" and new cruising friends, Wayne and Kristina from "PRESENT MOMENT". Wayne and Kristina are also from New Jersey and we met them on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) in Florida. We collected sand dollars and shells and had alot of fun. Then later in the day had a Christmas grouper and lobster dinner onboard SIMMER. It was nice to have friends to share Christmas day. We did several eggnog toasts to our families and friends back home. We miss you, hope your holiday was merry.
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