Blogs from Bahamas, Central America Caribbean - page 4

Geo: 22.7439, -75.4511No need for early risers here today. We have no plans yet but I'm sure something will happen. As Queenie says, "live for the moment". To accomplish this, you make no plans and just let things happen. Hopefully, you're happy with the things that happen. I guess we're going to try this method today. First, breakfast at 10 am. As a rule, Queenie always orders room service for breakfast: bacon, eggs, sausage, potatoes, sweet rolls, orange juice, milk, cereal and coffee. Now no one ever eats much of it and sometimes they don't even deliver it. If they don't, she'll call and complain, they'll bring it and then we all go upstairs, leaving the plates, glasses and stainless covers still intact. Why she does this every day I don't understand. She says Jonathan likes ... read more

Geo: 24.5712, -75.9297Today we are at Holland America's private island, Half Moon Cay. It's a short stay, only 8am- 3pm but that's fine for us. We've been here before, back in 2012 when I rode the horses and Karen and I played with the stingrays. Today our plan is just to relax on the beach and enjoy the sunshine. We have reserved a clamshell, a place of refuse from the sun and the kooks where we have two lounge chairs and somewhere to keep our stuff together. Just $20 and it's reserved for us all day so no racing to the beach to find an empty chair. Adding to that challenge is the presence of another Holland America ship today, the Nieuw Amsterdam, with 2000 additional passengers, moored right behind us.Half Moon Cay is one of ... read more

Last night we spent the evening aboard a pirate ship!! Before anyone panics, it was of our own choosing; no hijacking or kidnapping involved. Captain Billy of the Flying Dragon, is a “real” pirate, complete with two gold hoops in his left ear, a scarf knotted around his head and an endless repertoire of sea shanty’s. Besides cruising over 45,000 blue water miles over the last 30 years, he spends some of his time traveling around the United States and the Caribbean, visiting “pirate” festivals as an entertainer and hosting groups of boy scouts and Montessori students on his pirate ship. We are anchored next to Flying Dragon in Red Shanks (yes, we are still in George Town), and being one of only a few boats in this bay, Captain Billy graciously invited us along with ... read more

Looking back, I realize it has been almost two weeks since our last post; the old adage is true, time flies when you are having fun. After another little “blow”, we located a mooring in the area where we could leave the boat for a while in preparation for the arrival of my parents and my daughter, Marina. They arrived last Sunday, January 15 for a week and had booked a condo on land. Since we were unsure of the weather, we decided we would leave the boat and take the big step to stay “on the hard” for a few days. It certainly is a big change to go back to sleeping on a bed that doesn’t move! The condo they had rented was on the main Great Exuma island, about a 10 minute drive ... read more

In the last week, we have weathered some high winds, meandered through mangroves of deep greens rising up from baby blue crystalline waters, seen the ruins of a drug lords lair, stumbled upon an abandoned camp, snorkeled with vibrant colored fish, seen caves etched out of the rock by the waves of the sea, and explored rocky trails accompanied by curious lizards. Our first full day in the Exuma’s was probably one of the most turbulent days at anchor we have ever had. We are pretty careful to watch the weather forecasts, both when we are traveling or at anchor to make sure we have as calm as waters as possible. Well, unfortunately, the forecast had predicted winds out of the N/NE, but the winds decided to gale out of the west. Our anchorage was wide ... read more