Jacksonville Landing, then Green Cove Springs and haul-out

We headed to JAX Landing on April 10th knowing that the East Coast RR Bridge was on a restricted schedule but were shocked to find out that the Main Street Bridge needed a two-hour notice before it would open.....but we were lucky and the bridge tender took pity on us and opened.  Next two surprises:  Around noon a sailboat lost engine power and hit the bridge

breaking the top of the mast off, and there was a huge festival going on in JAX with very limited tie-ups to the wall.  We held our breath and brought the boat in close to the bridge....Walt did a great job on the helm!  We were treated to bands, vendors, and all kinds of entertainment for two days before heading to Green Cove for haul-out.  See you next year!

Gulf Stream Crossing 4/1/2014

We had a great Chris Parker weather report so we crossed from North Cat Cay to Lake Worth with Clark & Barb on Undaunted.  We had the Gulf Stream with us most of the way so we made great time...about 9 hours.  We had to check in with U.S. Customs so we stayed on Wednesday, visited Peanut Island, had lunch at the Riviera Beach Marina and then just walked the 3 blocks to customs which is located at the cruise terminal.  It was easy to do despite the fact that there are no signs indicating where customs actually is located.  On Thursday we headed out into the ocean again and headed north to Vero Beach where we met friends from Sodus, Jim and Joyce

and cruising friends, Larry & Suzi who just bought a house in Vero.

Bahamian Basket

Deb from Our Desire not only taught me how to make a Bahamian basket, but also how to identify the silver palm which is strong enough to actually bind the basket together.   There are plenty of palm trees in the Bahamas!  I filled my basket with the shells I found on the ocean side of Stocking Island in Georgetown.

Underwater photos of Thunderball Grotto

Rich and Anna have an underwater camera and took these photos when we snorkeled Thunderball.  It was truly amazing!

Staniel Cay 2X 3/23-27/2014

We pulled into Staniel Cay with three plans:  We wanted to have a bonfire on the boaters' beach, all six of us wanted to snorkel Thunderball Grotto, and we needed a place to wait out some nasty weather coming our way.  Thunderball Grotto was awesome and something I'll never forget.  There were beautiful fish everywhere looking for handouts and the grotto itself had sunlight streaming down from the open top once you entered it from the water. In fact, Saturday was the annual James Bond week-end here with movies and a casino night for everyone.  At the bonfire we met a couple on the sailboat, Providence, who had damaged their prop and were waiting for assistance.  Then the bad weather came in......25-35 knot winds on the nose, from the west for 24 hours.....it was not pretty but the anchor held the boat!