Well we decided to brave the crowds and be kids again while in Orlando at Disney World. You definitely need to keep your patience levels in tow when going to the parks as the line ups can be silly. They have a great feature called fast pass which we quickly learned about, to help you get through the lines ups faster. Yes we like rides. Fun times….
Off to practice Spanish in Panama ready for Spanish speaking countries.
Our 3-4 day/night trip to Beaufort, NC had some squalls with winds clocking 30-35 knots and rather large waves. Unfortunately the wind and wave direction did not improve so we decided to divert to Port Royal Inlet near Hilton Head, South Carolina, but not to golf. Entering this channel had its own challenges as the waves were breaking over the shallows near the entrance. We hit our boat’s fastest speed surfing down waves at 15.6 knots.
We found ourselves a great anchorage just past the inlet and got some sleep while we waited out the weather. There were dolphins passing through, egrets feeding on the bank and pelicans diving for food. Bizzar so different from where we have been over the past few months.
Once the weather settled we continued our trip arriving into the Beaufort NC inlet at dawn two days later. We were really impressed with the marine life along the way. Saw our first hammerhead shark in the surf 90 degrees to the boat. Surfing into the Beaufort inlet we saw 19.6 knots on the GPS.
Beaufort, NC has an attractive waterfront with plenty of action all about. The town dates back to the early 1700’s with beautifully restored old homes, an esplanade to walk along and lots of boats about with people out cruising and enjoying the waters.
The old burying ground was interesting with old oak trees and tales of the people buried in the cemetery in the 1700’s. One of the most touching was of a little girl who was buried in a barrel of rum. Her father had taken her to London, England to see her homeland promising his wife he would return the girl safely. On the return trip she died so the father bought a barrel of rum from the captain and placed the girl in the barrel for burial in Beaufort. The grave has lots of toys on it.
Morehead City is just down the road with lots of box stores once we are ready to restock the boat. We enjoyed a meal out at the Ruddy Duck which is a seafood restaurant right on the waterfront and busy. The outdoor bar was a great place to take it all in and wind down.
Beaufort/ Morehead City is a big sports fishing area with lots of sports fishing boats about. The Big Rock sports fishing tournament had just started for the week. We wandered along the waterfront when the 120 teams were coming back in from fishing on day 1 and spotted a HUGE blue marlin on the weigh scale; 754.3 pounds, which took 4.5 hours to reel in. Wow!
A huge travel lift to get her up out of the water
Boat work needed to be done and so we organized the work at Jarrett Bay Boatworks on the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway near Beaufort. Very impressive place with such nice people.
We hired a car and took a road trip into North Carolina. We headed to Raleigh, the capital of the state. The downtown area is condense so great to walk around, with lots of old historic buildings.
We decided to go on a Segway tour to see the Oakwood historic district with its 19th century period homes, the Oakwood cemetery founded in 1869 and the Governors mansion. Great way to experience the city and fun. We’ll be doing this again somewhere.
Continuing our trip through North Carolina we went to Pinehurst to see golf at the Mens US Open. Great atmosphere and amazing watching the players up close. It was hot and there were lots and lots of people about.
We enjoyed the drive through North Carolina. Arriving in to Charlotte it was a lot bigger than we both expected with a downtown core and highways going in all directions. Here we boarded a plane to Orlando.
We had a great sail over to the USA spotting the apartment towers of Palm Beach from a long way off shore.
Once inside the Palm Beach Inlet we made our way through our first bridge of many to come on the US Intercoastal waterway, to a great anchorage and use of free docks at the City of West Palm Beach. We stayed a few nights on the dock and then moved just off the dock to anchor, but still take advantage of the cities facilities.
Daryl & Annie who we met in Grenada are anchored in the same area with us. Nice going out for dinner again and having a great choice of restaurants to go to.
The Palm Beach area is a happening place with lots of things going on; including free concerts in the park opposite the boat, an outdoor fresh produce market, miles of beach, great selection of shops and a good pathway system to go for walks and ride the bikes for exercise. Brett and I were busy going to his favorite stores; Best buy, West Marine and yes Home Depot.
Palm Beach itself is a classy area with streets lined with palm trees, beautiful homes and expensive shops along Worth Avenue. The floral wall mural was even impressive.
For a bit of culture we went to the Flagler Museum, the winter retreat of Henry Flagler a leading person of America’s Gilded Age. He was a founding partner in Standard Oil and also developed the Florida East Coast Railway and huge luxury hotels on the Florida coast, in the early 1900’s. The 75 room home included technologies developed during the gilded age. Not really our taste in decor though.
We spent just over a week in West Palm but it as time to head North so we are legal for insurance purposes given hurricane season is fast approaching. We are heading towards Beaufort, North Carolina first.
The Abaco Islands are a lot more upscale and built up from the other Bahama Islands we have been to. Such a huge variety in styles of homes. It seems to be a playground for the US, the reappearance of charter boats and lots of motor boats of various sizes buzzing about.
Abaco was settled by British loyalists who came from America during the Revolution in the late 1700’s. A number of the Cays have museums and parks that explain the history.
There are marinas on most of the cays. We moored in the bay of a couple to take advantage of the Internet and use of their swimming pools and for protection from heavy winds. Great for all that but…..you can hear everyone talking so yes they can hear us too!
At Hope Town we climbed to the top of the lighthouse to see the views out to the neighboring Cays. It was built in 1864 to steer ships clear of the reefs in the area. The lighthouse is one of the last manual lighthouses in the world with the keeper having to wind up the weights every 2 hours so it can be seen at night.
Most of the Cays have restaurants and bars that communicate their daily specials on a cruisers VHF radio net; so of course had to socialize. Love some of their names eg. Nippers, Grabbers, Tranquil Turtle.
The water was an amazing colour and there were great beaches and reefs all about for snorkeling. Even came across a golf course that reminded us of our golfing days and friends waiting to start the golf season in Calgary.
Heading to the northern Abaco Islands, which are a little more isolated and then its over to the USA.
Our sail to the Abaco Islands was excellent with us picking up 3 fish; 1 medium size Spanish Mackrel and 2 Mahi’s (8.4 & 10.4 kgs). The first Mahi put up a real struggle as you can see. I don’t think he liked being held up for a photo op.
After a shower and cleaning the cockpit the line had this beauty on it. What a beautiful colour they are as you reel them in. 
Eleuthera was a pleasant surprise with great little harbour’s to anchor in and a real community atmosphere in each of the towns. This island had more people than we have seen in such a long time (from none to some anyway). Every place we went to had something going on and music into the wee hours of the morn. As one of the locals in one town said to us “there’s a party nearly every night”. You better believe it, each community had something to celebrate and music playing somewhere. Maybe Easter celebrations had some part in the activities about but I don’t think so.
We entered at the Southern end of the island stopping in Rock Sound first. The folding bikes came out and we cycled about the town and over the hill to see the Atlantic Ocean making sure to stop at the big attraction in the centre of town; the Ocean Hole. You could see the local kids swimming in this great spot. Kids were feeding the fish that were in the hole. Rock Sound had a 5 day party for Homecoming where we enjoyed some local food and for one of us light sleepers heard the music till 3am!
On the pier at Tarpum Bay the locals invited us to join them for beer and fried fish for lunch. It was actually very relaxing sitting around hearing their stories of how they had come to the island and what they did. They said they don’t get a lot of cruisers anchoring because of how shallow the water in their harbour is. We wandered the streets and people waved out and said hello. The town actually looked like it had had a lot of damage from past hurricanes where houses had not been repaired etc. This one house stood out as it had been rebuilt using the castle as its foundation and looked a little on the strange side.
Tarpum seemed like a sleepy little place but alas, no, the music started about 9:30pm and went for hours. Once things cool down they obviously come out to play.
Governors Harbor was the first capital of the Bahamas and you could see that some money had been invested here in the past and even more recently via tourism. The walk over to see this beautiful pink beach on the Atlantic side passed a lot of fancy colonial style homes both old and new. There were a lot of historical buildings in town from the late 1800s. The pink building below is now used as a library, Est. 1897.
At Hatchet Bay, we entered via a small cut in the rocks and found a very sheltered bay that was tucked away. Again the bikes came out and we cycled 10 miles to the Glass Window Bridge a very impressive bridge where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Exuma Sound creating a window under the bridge to each side. The original bridge was a natural arch that had worn into the rock, but had been destroyed by a hurricane. Very picturesque. It was a long hot ride but believe it or not we both felt good once we were back.
Spanish Wells is a big fishing town. We decided to anchor off some islands near town that the locals also seemed to enjoy as Spanish Wells was a busy place. Most of the locals drive golf carts to get about so of course we had to rent a golf cart to see town, finishing up at the Shipyard for lunch with some other Canadians.
We navigated our way around the coral heads of Devils Backbone to Harbour Island, which is a lot more touristy. We saw the local Junkanoo band perform in the restaurant we were in, went to the Pink Sand beach and wandered about town. Nice place.
Jankanoo originated during the days of slavery when the slaves were given time off to celebrate the holidays with African dance, music and costume. They dance to cowbells, horns, whistles and goat skinned drums.
The Pink sand beach is tinted by crushed coral and seas shells and was powder-soft to walk on. it was amazing there just were not the people about yet it was so beautiful and the water a nice temperature.
In the Bahamas the locals gather up the fishing floats that wash up on the beaches and decorate their trees, turn them into planters and do carvings into them.
Heading to the Abaco Islands, which are still part of the Bahamas.
What an interesting area Staniels Cay through the Exuma Cays land & Sea Park to Allans Cay is.
The entry in through the cut to Staniels Cay was a little on the rough side with water rushing all around us. This was what we saw in front of our boat as we surfed some of the waves in and the following photo is Our Rose coming in after us. Needless to say not many boats leaving the cut at this time.
Once inside, Staniel Cay was very pretty with lots to see and do. Amazing coloured water.
The nurse sharks in the marina not so nice…..
Snorkeling with the fish and seeing great coral in the Thunderball grotto, from the 1964 James Bond movie Thunderball, was impressive. We may have to watch this movie again.
The wild pigs on the beach at Big Major Cay some of which swim out to meet the dingy for food were entertaining to watch.
Pirates beach at Big Major Cay made for a great place to have sausages over an open fire and marshmallows. Cruisers have made a great area to enjoy a BBQ and play games.
Of course more great sunsets….
Warderick Wells is in the Exumas Cay Park and is a no take zone so no fishing. The North Mooring field was so pretty with a small channel that you come up to get a mooring ball. There were great hikes on the island one of which took us up to Boo Boo Hill with terrific views of the area and to a monument made by cruisers where they leave driftwood with their names on it.
The snorkeling in the park was impressive with giant lobster climbing over the coral. We only wished we had caught a lobster as big but I guess they are in the Park so they can grow.
Shroud Cay was a great place to get in the kayaks and make our way through the mangrove rivers to the Exumas Sound side. No motorized vehicles in one channel so Richard rowed the dingy, which was a good effort given how far it seemed to go and how shallow it got.
Normans Cay, an island known in the late 70’s early 80’s for its drug smuggling operations. It was here that Carlos Lehder used it as a base for smuggling cocaine into the United States. The DEA set up spies on neighboring cays and gained enough evidence to indict and imprison him. Just off the shore towards the airport runway there is a wrecked DC3 in shallow water a reminder of the drug smuggling days.
At Allan’s Cay we went to see the Exuma Iguanas, which came running towards the dingy and stood waiting patiently for food. We counted 18 on the beach.
The sharks at Highborne Cay Marina were huge and hungry! Eeeek.
Public transport not as efficient by the look of things.
We had a delicious meal out at Highborne Cay Marina. We were celebrating a surprise early birthday for Richard and our final dinner out with Jen & Richard.
See you in the US Jen & Richard….lots of good times were definitely had. They are heading towards Florida, so West and we are heading East to Eleuthera Island.
Well there’s not a lot of Internet about, hence the reason I have not been able to update our blog. These islands are pretty much uninhabited.
You access different Cays or islands through small cuts so we need to make sure that its either a wide cut or its calm to see the reefs as you enter. The currents can be very strong going through the cuts too so can make for things being interesting. We first entered at Rat Cay Cut below.
The inside passages are well protected with lots of Cays and little anchorages along the way to stop at. We are still buddy boating with Jen & Richard from Our Rose and having lots of fun.
At Rudder Cay we snorkeled on a sculpture of a mermaid playing the piano in a bay at 23.52.162N 76.14.162W, supposedly put there by David Copperfield who owns islands in the area.
At Lee Stocking Cay we stopped at a now abandoned Marine Research Centre and went hiking on the many trails on the island finding our way to the highest point at Perry’s Peak of 123 ft, with great views along the coastlines. Amazing looking into the crystal clear waters from the cliff top and seeing sting rays etc below.
At Little Farmer Cay we were all wanting to get off the boats and enjoy a meal ashore. We started out at Ty’s on the balcony overlooking the ocean but unfortunately his cook had gone Missing in action. Great place, real shame.
So it was on to Oceans Cabin for dinner. Terry who owns the restaurant came down from his house out when we walked up the walkway, to open the restaurant.
At Great Guana Cay we enjoyed a fire and marshmallows on the beach at White Point. This has got to be the calmest anchorage we have had. The water is crystal clear right up to the sandy beach.
Till our next Internet location….
We spent 5 days anchored off Stocking Island opposite Georgetown. It’s a pretty area and well protected with a huge cruising community so yes lots and lots of boats. Someone had communicated that there were 200 boats in the harbour. Hmmmmm….
We found ourselves at Volleyball beach trying our skills. I think Brett could have stayed here for months!
The Chat & Chill was a busy place with dingeys galore parked on the beach, great food and lots of socializing. Sting rays hang out on the perimeter of the beach looking for food.
Even caught up with Judy, Bob and Leo from Grenada on the beach.
Stocking Island had some great walking trails which we had to take advantage of to see the views around the island including our anchorage. Someone had made some great trails with interesting things to look at along the way. This huge crab was the best.
Heading up the Exumas chain.
We spent a week anchored in a number of places around Long Island.
Little Harbor was a reasonably calm harbor that protected us from some Northerly winds that decided to blow for a few days. There were turtles all about, some sand roads to go investigating the very remote area we were in and reefs to go snorkeling around for lobster.
Clarence Town we hired a car and went to see the sights on this very very long island. We passed by lots of small towns all of which had lots of churches.
St Peter and Paul Church in Clarence Town was pretty impressive with its 40ft towers to climb and see the 360 view.
Dean’s Blue Hole the worlds deepest blue hole, which plunges 200 meters to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean with the oval at the surface ranging from 25 to 37 meters. The platform in the middle is for free diving competitions, to me a crazy sport. 
The Outer Edge Grill at the Flying Fish Marina was a great place to sit back and chill in the evenings.
Our final anchorage on Long Island was Calabash Beach at the Northern end of Long Island, which had a lovely white sandy beach and a nice looking resort. We awoke to a very flat ocean and so motored over to Georgetown in the Exumas.