Bimini Feb. 2011

We're on the boat sailing...what a beautiful sunset.  It's Feb. 2011, last year.  I'm still catching up.

Here we are going out the canal.  Bohdan is on the bow watching the bottom to let Anthony know how to miss the shallow parts.

The pathway on the jutting out part of land on the side of the canal.

Bohdan, watching for the reef.  Boh we miss you.  Hope you're enjoying the Dominican Republic this year.

It was good wind to fly our spinnaker.  Isn't she just gorgeous.

On our trip to Bimini a little warbler joined us on the boat.  I think it is a Cape May Warbler but I could be wrong.  She stayed with us for two days and then one morning we came up on the deck and she was dead on the back deck.  It was very sad.

Isn't she cute.

We trolled our hand line and the fishing rod behind while we were sailing to Bimini and caught this Baracuda.  It didn't look that healthy so we cut it up and used it for bait.

Sunset coming up.

It's melting into the ocean.

So this is what it looks like below after a rough passage.  We thought we had anchored everything down but everything went every where....what a mess.

Anthony and Bohdan up front...it's realllllllyyyyyy windy.

I love being out in open waters.  We're on the Atlantic Ocean between Grand Bahama Island and Bimini Island.

There is our little warbler.  She went all over the top of the boat and ate all our little bugs and then she went down below and ate all our little bugs down there too.

There's Bimini Island in the distance.  It takes about 8 to 9 hours to sail to Bimini from Grand Bahama.  We didn't get into the anchorage before sunset so we anchored out on the ocean in about 30 feet of water until morning.  The waves were very lumpy so we moved around a lot on our beds.  It's hard to sleep soundly when it's that rough.

Then we caught a Mackerel and we filleted it and ate it.  I love catching fish and eating it the same day.  What a thrill and ummmm so good.

A cemetery on Bimini Island.  There are two Islands at Bimini, I think it's Bimini North and Bimini South.  You can see Bimini South in the distance and I don't think any people live on it.  There is a small airplane strip.  There are three small villages or towns on Bimini North and a resort that isn't finished.

An old sunken boat.  It looked like a small fishing boat.

Anthony, Bohdan and me in the dinghy.

The Swan on anchor off of Bimini Island.

Doesn't the Swan look exquisite out there in the bay.

No Burger King but yes to Burger Queen.

Anthony in one of the parks on Bimini.

Coral Beaches and Sand Beaches.

This old relic must have run aground quite a while ago and now it is all rusted.  It's huge and right up on the beach.

The same cemetery.

One of the little shops on main street.  There are only two streets running parallel to the Island.

That gives us some thought.

The Swan out there all by herself.  There weren't any other boats in the anchorage that night.

Anthony and Bohdan taking a break.

There are three small towns on Bimini.  Bailey Town, Alice Town and .......what is the name of the third town?

Anthony and Bohdan pulling up the very last part of the anchor.  We must be about to move.

LSYC bur-gee, Seven Seas bur-gee and Courtesy Bahamian flag.  I lost the Seven Seas bur-gee last summer and the courtesy flag blew to pieces.

In the cock pit to the Swan of Tuonela.

When we're doing a passage we put the dinghy on top of the boat to keep from losing it, if we pulled it.

A storm is coming in and we are in open water on our way to Grand Bahama.  It's veryyyyyyy windy.

And it got foggy and started to rain with torrential winds.

Oh noooooo we're going to drown.  You know we didn't since I am writing this blog to tell you the story.

This huge freighter crossed right in front of us.

Look at the clouds on the horizon....ohhhhh nooooo!!!!!  Here they come.

Then it calmed down...the storm has passed.  These are clouds on the horizon and we are looking towards Miami.

Another huge mess below.

Even everything in the aft cabin rolled around.

Nothing broke but it took a day to clean up the mess.  We back home to Ocean Reef.  Had a great trip to Bimini.