Atlantic Paradise, Nassau and the Northern Exumas

Greenstone, Summer 42 and Saber Tooth dinner at East Villa, Nassau the night before

Judy and Conny

It seems like Walter has new look, for the first time after long years without mustache

They posed for Jeff but..I would like to have them in our camera too

Houses in Paradise Island, cross of Nassau Harbour Club Marina

Our passage from Nassau to Exumas (Saturday, February 19), we took the Yellow Bank Route out the back side of Nassau harbor, after a short 6 hour beautiful sail we arrived  in Highborne Cay. Departure from Nassau had to be relativly early to make the passage over the shallow Yellow Banks with the sun at high noon to improve the visibility and detection of the locations of the coral heads.The depth in Yellow Bank is about 10 to 15 feet. Passing Yellow Bank somebody has to keep watch for the coral heads and tell the captain "where to go" ...

Series of Saber Tooth taken by Jeff aboard Greenstone

We are anchoring at Highborne Cay besides this gorgeous sail boat (they get big here ... this one had to have been 100 feet long) ..there is a guy up the mast..

Watching the sun goes down as another "big one" comes in for the night. His dingy was bigger than Saber Tooth!

Our first morning in Highborne Cay..amazed to see the Sunrise

Really gorgeous!

You have to quick to capture it..

And this is the view at night...the moonlight..

It's really make us speechless to see the view around us..moonlight and boats..

We are in Nassau

More boats come to dock..and guess... more Canadian boats, they are really escaping from the snow..
The temperature is warm about 74 degrees. We are busy washing the boat, rinse the salt water away from deck, canvas, wood, stainless etc..

Florida to Bahamas - Keep the good spirit to "press on" ...

This is really fun. We did 2 days passage from Fernandina Beach to St. Augustine through ICW and then Sunday morning 7:00 AM we left Municipal Marina, wait for the 7:30 bridge opening at the Lion Bridge and out in the ocean to Lake Worth, 220 miles south or about 33 hours cruising. It's really a nice passage even though we didn't sail as the light wind was from north..

St Augustine Inlet. St Augustine is famous for the number of churches they have and in the background you can see the huge cross of the Catholic Church Cathedral in this town.

Taken by Jeff and Jean aboard Greenstone ... 

About 60 miles out of St Augustine to Lake Worth or at about 16:00 on Sunday, we saw some of natures amazing creatures ... 3 Right Whales, on the starboard side, about 3 boats length away. They broached three times ... each time getting closer and closer to our boat ... was a little scary once we got over the excitement of the event ... and then tried to remember to grab the camera ... three breaches with a half twist ... still can not believe it ... our buddy boater "Greenstone" was in awe as well as they followed us from a distance ... these protected creatures are huge and powerful and awesome opportunity for us to share this wonderful time together (as long as they stay off our boat and we stay on our boat)  they decided to move away ... we are not sure if they knew we were there ... as one swims towards us and at the last minute turns sharply away from us ... phew!

A whale breaches ... and we just get the spash ... out of the water and a quarter twist ... really cool!

The end of another great day in the neighborhood ...

Arrival in Lake Worth ... anchoring temporarily to look at the systems that need attention ... Bob and Jeff aboard Greenstone get the watermaker and windlass "adjusted" to tip top running condition ... and then weather updates from Bob and Judy's friends support a good crossing if we leave immediately ... so we are off to the Bahamas after two hours in Lake Worth.

Really happy to be on the way ... starting out crossing the Gulf Stream ...



Greenstone under way with us ...

We are amost there and time to bring down the US courtesy flag ...

Anchorage at Great Harbor

Captain and Admiral sloshing some cool beverage ... celebrating our arrival into the Bahamas ... not landed yet still have to get checked in with Customs and Immigration in Nassau ... tomorrow. So officially we are quarantined!

Sunset at Great Harbor

Bringing up the anchor the next morning ...

Smooth Sailing ... so far!

... sailing in 20 knott winds ... only about 2 meter waves ... so far ... but building waves and weather.

Poor Saber Tooth ... getting wet again ... will have to rinse all that salt off in Nassau.

The weather continued to build through the day with winds up to 28 knotts and waves to 3 meters ... this ship was even having trouble .... it used to be in the eastern Nassau anchorage .. but even his anchor was dragging ... now in the middle of the wester port entrance. After calling Nassau Harbor Control for permission to enter the harbor we start our approach around this "big boy".

Here we are ... in Nassau harbor ... a few cruise ships in port.

Celebrational Dinner at the "Poop Deck" ...

Two Admirals ... Greenstone and Saber Tooth ... happy to be "there" ...

Delight in the local "beverage" ... Klick Beer ... it **is** better in the Bahamas ...

the admiral hoists the Bahamas courtesy flag ... we are officially here!

Just some pictures of the neighbourhood ...

Internet access at Starbucks ... updating the Blog ...

The Admiral adding her comments ...

Another 33 miles south...St. Augustine

We changed the time to leave, 10:00 AM the depth was 2.5 ft? So we waited couple hours, brunch at Billy's Boat House..by the time we finished, the depth was up to 5 ft..sound better..

The night before we had dinner at Billy's Boat House

Bob, John and Jeff in serious conversation..about boat of course

Marine Beach

Haha..even the cat enjoys the boating life