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.