Well, it's Saturday January 23 and this is a pic of The Swan at our dock. The kayak is up in the air because Anth is spraying some foam into the ends so that when we take it out to the reef to snorkel with we might be able to get back into the kayak from the water. We're really loving it here. We just said goodbye to The Girls in 11o. We met new friends in Room 110, they asked us to come and sing in their unit so Bohdan, who is here for 3 months, Anthony and I took our songbooks over and our instruements and had a great evening singing lots of old songs. I'm playing my guitar again and Bohdan is playing my mandolin. I'm enjoying playing my guitar again. One of my plans for my retirement was to do more with my music sooooo I'm playing guitar and the drum at times, I have a keyboard here from brother Robert and my harmonicas now all I have to do it DO IT. OK back to the Sailingblog.
Here is the map on our Raytheon Chartfinder. In the very centre, the triangle is our boat. To the right is a land mass, Florida and we are heading for Miami. To our left is The Grand Bahama Island, that is where we are now. In the upper left corner of the picture is a bunch of blue water and to the right of the blue is two little wee islands called the Bimini Islands, north and south. That is were we are heading in this sailing story. We want to sail from Miami to Bimini then down to Georgetown. Georgetown has about 200 cruisers in a bay there and the are many very active groups, artists, musicians, small motor repair, diesel repairers, yoga people, beach volleyball, a cruisers net on the VHF 68, etc, etc. and we have heard lots about Georgetown being a great place to go for Cruisers so that's where we are headed.
Looking off the boat on the left, east side there is the Atlantic Ocean.
Looking off our boat on the right, west side, there is Miami. Our timing was off, you should never sail into a port at night and as you can see the sun is almost set and we are coming into one of the busiest ports ever, Miami.
We headed down the canal that was suppose to lead to an anchorage where we were going to anchor for the night. It took us about a half hour to get down this canal. We had to radio ahead to get the bridge master to open the bridge and then .... where?????? We were following our charts and reading Skipper Bob's book on Anchorages Along the ICW, trying to figure out how to find the anchorage and not run aground, there wasn't alot of water to work with, it was very shallow in spots. So after dodging ferries and other boats, and water taxis and large boats, etc. we decided this was not the place for us so we turned around and sailed back out to the ocean which took another half hour. Now it's 10:00 so what to do....???? We dropped hook near the shore out of the canal on the ocean and slept until 2:30 in the morning, then got up and headed across the ocean to Bimini. It would take us about 9 hours to get there and the other cruisers had told us to try to get there when the sun was high in the sky because then you could see through the water and see the reefs and bottom.
This is sunrise on the boat facing the Bahamas. I loooooovvvvveeeeee being at the helm at sunrise. Anth let me sleep until around 6 and then I get the sunrise shift in the cockpit. It's it amazing.
Look how golden my face is...that's the colour of the air when the sun is rising on the ocean. Wooow!!!
Oh, we have visitors out here. Our AIS tells us these big guys are in the area but you can see them too.
This is the same boat in the distance. The water is pretty calm today but there is enough wind to sail.
We're heading to Bimini and this is our Quarantine flag notifying the officials that we are just arriving into their country. After we go and purchase our cruising permit for $300 for six months and show customs and immigration our passports and registration for the boat we can take down the yellow flag and put up the Bahama courtesy flag. We are on our way to the Bimini Islands.
Well, it's Saturday January 23 and this is a pic of The Swan at our dock. The kayak is up in the air because Anth is spraying some foam into the ends so that when we take it out to the reef to snorkel with we might be able to get back into the kayak from the water. We're really loving it here. We just said goodbye to The Girls in 11o. We met new friends in Room 110, they asked us to come and sing in their unit so Bohdan, who is here for 3 months, Anthony and I took our songbooks over and our instruements and had a great evening singing lots of old songs. I'm playing my guitar again and Bohdan is playing my mandolin. I'm enjoying playing my guitar again. One of my plans for my retirement was to do more with my music sooooo I'm playing guitar and the drum at times, I have a keyboard here from brother Robert and my harmonicas now all I have to do it DO IT. OK back to the Sailingblog. 
Here is the map on our Raytheon Chartfinder. In the very centre, the triangle is our boat. To the right is a land mass, Florida and we are heading for Miami. To our left is The Grand Bahama Island, that is where we are now. In the upper left corner of the picture is a bunch of blue water and to the right of the blue is two little wee islands called the Bimini Islands, north and south. That is were we are heading in this sailing story. We want to sail from Miami to Bimini then down to Georgetown. Georgetown has about 200 cruisers in a bay there and the are many very active groups, artists, musicians, small motor repair, diesel repairers, yoga people, beach volleyball, a cruisers net on the VHF 68, etc, etc. and we have heard lots about Georgetown being a great place to go for Cruisers so that's where we are headed.
Looking off the boat on the left, east side there is the Atlantic Ocean.
Looking off our boat on the right, west side, there is Miami. Our timing was off, you should never sail into a port at night and as you can see the sun is almost set and we are coming into one of the busiest ports ever, Miami.
We headed down the canal that was suppose to lead to an anchorage where we were going to anchor for the night. It took us about a half hour to get down this canal. We had to radio ahead to get the bridge master to open the bridge and then .... where?????? We were following our charts and reading Skipper Bob's book on Anchorages Along the ICW, trying to figure out how to find the anchorage and not run aground, there wasn't alot of water to work with, it was very shallow in spots. So after dodging ferries and other boats, and water taxis and large boats, etc. we decided this was not the place for us so we turned around and sailed back out to the ocean which took another half hour. Now it's 10:00 so what to do....???? We dropped hook near the shore out of the canal on the ocean and slept until 2:30 in the morning, then got up and headed across the ocean to Bimini. It would take us about 9 hours to get there and the other cruisers had told us to try to get there when the sun was high in the sky because then you could see through the water and see the reefs and bottom.
This is sunrise on the boat facing the Bahamas. I loooooovvvvveeeeee being at the helm at sunrise. Anth let me sleep until around 6 and then I get the sunrise shift in the cockpit. It's it amazing.
Look how golden my face is...that's the colour of the air when the sun is rising on the ocean. Wooow!!!
Oh, we have visitors out here. Our AIS tells us these big guys are in the area but you can see them too.
This is the same boat in the distance. The water is pretty calm today but there is enough wind to sail.
We're heading to Bimini and this is our Quarantine flag notifying the officials that we are just arriving into their country. After we go and purchase our cruising permit for $300 for six months and show customs and immigration our passports and registration for the boat we can take down the yellow flag and put up the Bahama courtesy flag. We are on our way to the Bimini Islands.
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