ON THE MOVE

We are currently in a harbor with WIFI. It's been several days since we've been able to post.

We left Bimini Friday morning knowing that we would have to anchor out in the Great Bahama Bank. John fished as we cruised along. He caught his first fish right before lunch. Unfortunately it was a barracuda. The seas were rough all day. We stopped at 5:00 P.M. and anchored in 19 feet of water. We traveled 63 miles on Friday with 35 more to go on Saturday. Friday night was one long night. You had to hold on to something when you walked around in the boat. The waves rocked us so bad all night long. Laying in bed listening to the waves crash into the swim platform made us think the swim platform was going to rip right off of the boat. It was not pleasant. On top of that, our generator is acting up again. It shuts off after running an hour or so. That makes anchoring a whole lot more difficult. The good thing is we have the Honda generator we can use to charge the batteries.

On Saturday morning, it was still very rough and we pulled up our anchor at 6:30 A.M. because we were all awake and there was no reason to just sit there and rock and roll. I was on the front of the boat manning the anchor. Because the water was so rough, I fell onto the T shaped pipe just behind the anchor. That wasn't fun, but I'm glad it was only bruises and not broken bones or a cut that required stitches. Saturday's trip was only 5 hours. The seas stayed rough all day. Everything has a coating of salt on it. We arrived at the Berry Islands Club on Frazer Hog Cay. All we wanted when we reached the harbor was a dock to tie to, a shower, and to sleep, in that order. John and I went up to the shower house. Nothing came out of the faucet when you turned it on. So, we had to get showers on our boat. That is the first shower we've taken on our boat since we left Florida because you have to buy water here for 40 to 60 cents a gallon. We are trying really hard to conserve our water. Our showers have been taken in the shower houses of the marinas. This marina has no Internet service.

Sunday morning we were awakened at 6:30 A.M. by a guy who works for the marina. He wanted us to move our boat to an inside dock because their fuel barge had arrived and needed to dock where we were. (It was the same fuel barge that delivered fuel in Bimini while we were there Tropic Breeze from Belize). We left Frazers Hog Cay in warm, breezy, and partly cloudy weather. A few days ago, I was impressed by water that was 2500 feet deep. Sunday we saw water that was over 5000 feet deep. Sunday's cruise was only two and one half hours long. We anchored behind Cabbage Cay. After we got situated, John and I wanted to go swimming behind the boat. I got in and right back out because I thought the water was too cold. John got in, put his goggles on to look at the bottom of the boat when he saw a shark swim toward him. He moved out of the way, but the shark kept following him. I never saw John move so fast. He scampered up the ladder and stood on it while the shark swam in circles around his feet. It would go under the boat and when John would try to get back in the water, it would come right back out. So much for swimming.

Monday we went by dinghy to lunch at Flo's. Flo passed away a couple of months ago, but her son Chester and his wife are still running the restaurant. You have to make a reservation 3 to 4 hours ahead of time. When we arrived, we were asked what we wanted to drink - beer, soda, or rum runner. That was the only choice. The meal was served family style - coleslaw, rice, and fried grouper. Delicious!

Today we left our anchorage behind Cabbage Cay and took off, unsure of where we were headed. It depended on the direction of the waves and wind. We ended up at Great Harbour
Cay Marina. We saw a Norwegian Cruise Line ship just outside of this Cay. Because water is so expensive in the Bahamas, laundry is also expensive. It costs $5 a load to wash and $5 a load to dry. These are just regular size loads. It took $10 to dry the load of towels. Holy mackerel! I think I'll just live in my bathing suit from now on. We had dinner at the pool bar here at the marina. It is so nice to have Internet service. Tomorrow morning John and Norm are going to take another stab at fixing the generator. Keep your fingers crossed. Til then....