We have arrived

We have arrived. We overnighted from Miami leaving Tuesday morning and arriving Wednesday at noon. A calm crossing. Motored most of the way with little wind. We were able to sail from N. W. Channel marker to Nassau. We pulled into Nassau Harbor Club Marina where we stayed last year and customs was there to check us in. We met up with several boats we met in Bahamas last year and some that we met in the states. It was a nice reunion.

Today we walked to McKensies under the bridge for conch salad which the expert makes in front of you while you wait. It is unbelievable how fast he is with his knife. Yum!! There are many outdoor stalls under the bridge with "restaurants" and veggie stands etc. We went to the Green Parrot for lunch and to use their wifi but it was down. 

Yesterday after we arrived we walked to Batelco to get our phone set up. We purchased a data plan but it is not yet working. When and if it is we only have 1 gig of use before we have to pay again so we can't download attachments like photos. Please email us as we want to hear from you but please don't send photos until we return to the states. I spent quite a while unsubscribing to many sites so they won't automatically download to my phone. If we can't get it to work then we will rely on finding free wifi as last year so our email access will be very spotty and infrequent. If you need to reach us our Bahamas # is 1-242-462-6820. If you text it is less expensive. 

Tomorrow we hope to leave and head to the Exumas. This year the fronts are moving through with greater frequency so travel will not be as easy as last year. It seems there is usually only a day to get from one spot to another before you have to set anchor and hunker down and wait for the winds to calm and the seas to lay down to travel to the next cay. 

We are happy to be here. It is beautiful and the weather is lovely. Will send an update when I can.

Elyse and John

Nassau

Yesterday afternoon things got exciting. The winds had been quiet high in the harbor overnight and John slept in the cockpit to keep an eye on our anchor. The guides all caution about poor holding in Nassau Harbor. We held fine but by the afternoon several boats had moved and re-anchored and 3 boats dragged. One large cat deployed their dinghy and attached a line to two of the smaller dragging boats that had no crew on them and tied them off to a huge ship mooring ball in the harbor so they would not drag into another boat or the docks until their crew returned. Good people.

This morning several boats in the anchorage left as the winds were down to 17-23 knts. Most ,according to their check out with Harbor Patrol, seem to be headed to Norman's Cay. You have to request permission to both enter and leave the harbor and when you leave you state your next intended port. We will leave tomorrow and head to Allan's Cay.

We think John got the new antenna to work. We can't get into the web unless we pay as they are all blocked, but we did get the pay sites to come up from the boat so we think the antenna is working. The restaurant, Green Parrot, that allows cruisers to use their dinghy dock and drop trash for $5.00 a bag, also has free wifi from 11:30 a.m. to closing but it was not on the list of possible sites. We carried the Mac into shore with us yesterday afternoon. Most often we feel that we should buy something if we use their wifi although they are a bit pricey.

Last night during happy hour at the Green Parrot we met a couple from Ontario, Canada (Cherry and Doug). Very nice people. They are on a Cal 39 called Momma Cal. They have a tiny Yorky type dog named Pinot. We visited for over an hour comparing experiences. It is always helpful to know that others have problems and scary moments as well. Sometimes it feels to me like we are the only ones.

Today John is making us a step for the side of Spunky's hull so we can have a step up out of the dinghy. It gets pretty hairy trying to climb back into Spunky when she is bobbing up and down in the waves and wakes of other boats.

We are sitting at the Green Parrot and I am going to send this out. Don't know when next wifi access will be.

Love you all,
Elyse

Still in Nassau

Hi gang,

We are sitting in a cafe using their internet. We left the marina yesterday and anchored out. Some days we operate like a well oiled machine. Other days we do not. When we started looking for a place to drop anchor we were like people who had never met and spoke different languages. We spent a long time up and down the channel. We would drop and anchor and then decide it was wrong. At one point we were in front of Lisa Marie Presley's house and then realized it was several miles to take Moose ashore. We finally found a place not far from where the cruise ships dock. We had lots of wind last night and Moose and I slept in the cockpit to be sure everything was ok. Our new Rocna anchor held without issue.

We will leave to head into the Exumas tomorrow or Wednesday. We are waiting to check the weather. The winds are supposed to be good but we are concerned about clouds. On the route there are coral heads just below the surface. They are easily seen in the sunlight but may be a problem if it's cloudy. We'll check weather in the morning and then decide.

Hope your life is good.
Love from Spunky and crew.

Nassau

Here we are in Nassau. We arrived Friday Jan. 13 after traveling overnight from our anchorage near Belle Is. in Miami off South Beach. We raised anchor at 4 a.m. and arrived Nassau around 9 a.m. I believe. We requested permission to enter the harbor from Nassau Harbor Control and headed past the cruise ship docks to our slip at Nassau Harbor Club marina. The dock master here is know as St. Peter the Turtle Man of Nassau. He attempts to save the endangered sea turtles in the area.

I am still on info overload and will probably continue to be throughout this trip as I am trying to learn all the navigation tasks as well as the cruising tasks and then the info about our locations and what to see and do. It is a bit overwhelming.

Yesterday we walked to the market under the bridge(which leads across to Paradise Is. and the Atlantis Resort) where there are rows of "shacks" selling the famous Conch salad and fritters as well as typical American fare. There are also vegetable vendors selling the most common veggies such as green peppers, onions, tomatoes, hot peppers, limes all the required ingredients for conch salad. There are also tables where men gather to play dominos and shacks where vendors cut up conch to sell. The area of town that I have seen so far is pretty dirty and trash strewn with tons of potholes on the streets, but the people are very friendly and colorful. We had lunch at "Doc Sands" shack which we chose since it was crowded with locals and the conch salad was excellent. We also had Kalik beer which is a local beer that was really pretty good. Then we walked down to another marina to have dinner with friends Bert and Maria Elena on "Not so Interim". They invited us to a wonderful lamb dinner and a lot of good conversation and wine. Maria Elena used to own a restaurant in Venezuela

Today we will move Spunky to an anchorage as it is expensive to stay here too long. The winds are high so it will be a challenge to get out of here and find a spot in the harbor to anchor. We are waiting for slack tide to try and avoid the current. We are hoping the wind dies down soon so we can leave and head for Allan's Cay our first stop. Allan's Cay is made up of 3 cays, Allan's, Leaf and SW Allan's. It is here on Leaf Cay where the rock iguanas live and come out to greet the cruisers as they land on the beaches.

John got us out of the marina with no problems. The current did push us around but he has a good feel for Spunky now and has become an expert at backing out of slips.

We then circled and circled looking for a place to anchor. The first choice anchorage was full and we are always concerned about being too close to someone. It sits between the cruise ship dock and the bridge where large commercial vessels unload. We couldn't be in the way of either and the one open spot had an obstruction showing on the chart. We dropped anchor once and changed our minds. We finally gave up on the area West of the bridge and moved East to an area near what is rumored to be Lisa Marie Presley's home. Once there we dropped the anchor again and found ourselves to be very close to the channel and lots of boat traffic so we raised our anchor once again and decided to go back to the western site as it is the only place close to a dinghy landing for Moose. We continued to circle and finally settled on a spot after much discussion and indecision. Deciding where to drop our anchor in a crowded anchorage is very stressful and creates lots of tension. John and I both seem to see different things that concern us. We did finally get situated and sat back to let the dust settle so to speak.

Spunky is in Nassau

Family and Friends,
Life is good.

We left Miami yesterday morning and sailed overnight to Nassau. It was a long 30 hour trip that was very uneventful. There was little wind and we motored the whole way. We are looking at weather to decide when to sail on to the Exumas. Nassau as several of you know is a tax haven. The extremes of the way people live is amazing. We are in a marina between to huge power yachts.

The water is incredible. You can see the bottom 20-30 down. If I had spent my time here I would have been able to have recovered the hundreds of tools and things I have dropped overboard over the years.

We have suspended our phones and will rely on email communication. I have enjoyed receiving forwarded articles, jokes and photos from several of you. I would ask that you take me off of those lists until we return back to the states in May. I do enjoy receiving the emails you have sent and encourage you to keep us posted on your life.

Spunky
Latitude:25.25409
Longitude:-77.69852
GPS location Date/Time:01/13/2012 03:10:59 PST

Message:This is the default SPOT Check-in/OK message. Please update.

Click the link below to see where I am located. http://fms.ws/6qibf/25.25409N/77.69852W

If the above link does not work, try this link:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=25.25409,-77.69852&ll=25.25409,-77.69852&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

My best to you all and I will send more soon.

John
Sailing on Spunky

Nassau

We made it to Nassau!! We raised our anchor at 4 a.m. on Thursday and cleared the Port of Miami at 5 a.m. We had planned on moving Spunky Wednesday afternoon to Fisher Island to be close to the Atlantic on Thursday morning but as plans go the package we thought would arrive Wednesday morning or early afternoon didn't get there until 6 p.m. By the time John picked it up at Fed Ex it was dark and we decided to get up at 3:30 a.m. and leave from Belle Is. which we did. The weather was fine. Not enough wind to sail and when it blew it was from the wrong direction for sailing so we motored. It was pretty rolly with the swells and Moose did not like it at all but he finally settled down in his bed and went to sleep. Our autopilot acted up and kept shutting off and for a short time we debated what to do as steering on the ocean is difficult and doing it all night long would be untenable but John was able to figure out the problem and we were on our way. Just short of Bimini the water turned a beautiful turquoise blue and we rounded North Rock at 2 p.m. which is the mark just north of North Bimini. Then we added all the waypoints into our GPS and settled in for a long night. Since John usually sleeps a few hours after retiring and then is up for most of the night, I took the first shift from 8 to midnight and then John took over and I slept. I awoke for a shift at 3 a.m. but he said he was fine so I didn't take over again until 5 a.m. We arrived in Nassau and were done with customs and immigration by 10:30 a.m. Moose pretty much slept the entire trip and when John took him forward just outside of Nassau he peed on the foredeck!!! Finally!!!

It looks like the weather is going to deteriorate tomorrow and Sunday with high winds and waves so we will probably stay in Nassau until Monday. Not our desire but we are learning to be cautious and prudent. As we came into the harbor this morning there was a huge Disney cruise ship at the dock. Interestingly it is flying the Bahamian flag as its country of registration instead of the US.

Just as we passed into Bahamian waters we both got an email from Verizon notifying us that if we used our phones for calls or data it would be very expensive so we immediately turned them off. After arriving here we went into town and purchased a Bahamian phone and some minutes. That is also expensive so I am giving you all our new number for EMERGENCIES ONLY. It is cheaper to text us or if we get a call from the states it will be billed at Bahamian rates we believe and not the even higher rates charged if we call out. We will communicate infrequently by email when we can get to an internet cafe or get wifi coverage in an anchorage so until we return to the states communication will be sparse.

We are excited to begin this part of our adventure and will write when we can. Feel free to write to us and we will enjoy hearing from you as usual. Hope you all have a great winter and spring we will be thinking of you. It is 83 degrees here today.