The Last Leg of our Journey

Thursday we left  Tavernier Key and cruised to Jewish Hole...our last night in the keys :(  We had pulled the Dink behind us so we could do just a little more exploring.  The Captain found a neat mangrove canal that was loaded with nurse sharks, snappers, and manatees! Jess layed up at the bow of the Dink and had a birds eye view!
We have had to run mostly on one engine duo to what we think is a worn out cuttless bearing. Also we are going slower than usual. The clanking noise in the stateroom is very unsettling!! The Pearl keeps on going though!

Watching for sea creatures!

Last sunset in the Keys..

Friday we took the long cruise over the Florida Bay to Shark River. It rained  when we first got there and there was a beautiful double rainbow!
 Word to the wise about Shark River...do NOT go there in the summertime.  There were so many mosquitos!!!! We could watch them hovering around the windows. The next morning we sprayed ourselves down and for the next 2 hours we were killing mosquitoes!!! House flies too! No fireworks for us this year..we were too busy dodging bugs!!
 We are still making a clanking noise!

Double Rainbow! 

Jess driving the Pearl across Florida Bay

Saturday we headed for Marco Island...an 8 hour day. We anchored at around 4:30.

Sunday we pulled anchor around 8:30am and cruised till 5:30. These long days are tiring... especially worrying if this is the day we call Seatow!!
  Sunday we made it to Boca Grande...another long day- 8 1/2 hour run! The  sunset was another beautiful one...that's one thing I will miss. Seeing sunsets in different places!

Monday.....our last day cruising....still clanking and Phil and I keep checking to see if it's getting worse!  We are excited to get home but also sad to know this journey is behind us. Kind of wish we still had it in front if us...the excitement of the unknown!!

Our hitchhiker! 

The Elizabeth Pearl at home port!!

I have been thinking about what I will miss and what I won't miss about cruising on the  Pearl.. 1st what I won't miss....

I won't miss bruises!

I won't miss the stairs.

I won't miss worry about what is going to break today!

I won't miss worrying if it's going to rain or not.

I won't miss washing down all the poop and pee on the bow of the boat!! 

  2nd what I will miss.....

The excitement of the next anchorage.

The colors and clearness of the water..from every color of turquoise all the way to cobalt blue. 

The "Where shall we go next" question we would ask each other when we were ready to move on.

The next view and the next discovery.

Exploring in the Dink. 

Writing this blog!

Our favorite things were seeing the Sperm whales, listening to Bruce Knowles on his front porch, Elizabeth Harbour with Sue and the Cruiser's Net,  Long Island, the submarine, and just cruising!

We did good on provisions. ..would bring more steak, wine and coffee. 

We have been home now for 2 days and I am  very "land sick" I keep thinking I'm still moving...

   We will be pulling the Elizabeth Pearl out for a bottom paint job and to fix the cuttless bearing.   Already making lists of what to buy and what needs repaired before the next cruise.  Who knows maybe next time we will make it to St. Croix USVI!

THANKS FOR SHARING OUR ADVENTURES WITH US !!

Not Quite the Exumas!

Tuesday we left Biscayne Bay by way of the Atlantic near Stiltsville. The 1st stilt house  was built by "Crawfish" Eddie Walker in 1933. You could get beer, bait, and crawfish chowder there. You could also go there and gamble.  In it's prime there were 27 houses built in all. They were known as social clubs!   Now there are about 7 houses still left. They are trying to preserve them.
 We trolled for tuna and dolphin and for the 2nd day got skunked!!
  It was cloudy all day. We anchored in Key Largo by the Ocean Reef Club. The sun didn't show it's face till sunset...then all of a sudden it popped through a little opening and gave us a very nice sunset! After that the mosquitoes ate us and we had to retreat inside!

Coming up to Stiltsville

They are all painted very colorful!

Blowing the horn at sunset!!

Wednesday we headed to Pennekamp State Park to snorkel the Christ of the Abyss statue.  It's not the Bahamas. ..but it was very nice. Visibility was about 50 feet...not bad.  We had a sea turtle that stayed swimming beneath us for awhile!  And my underwater camera was dead as a door nail! We have anchored by Tavernier Key.....wish is where we anchored before making the crossing to Bimini at the beginning of our journey!

It was nice until the the tour dive  boats started showing up! 

What a Contrast!!!

We didn't leave our beautiful Marina till about 11:30. Phil was doing some troubleshooting with the AC unit that cools the stateroom and V-berth. He fixed it temporarily. .also the watermaker shut off. Thank goodness it was just a reset button. I do think Phil is tired of always having to troubleshoot something!!
 We headed toward Miami by way of the Atlantic Ocean. Phil put a Tuna rod out in hopes to catch one.... no sushi tonight. Maybe tomorrow!
  A thunderstorm started heading our way so Phil turned in toward the ICW by way of the Port of Miami.  Geeze what a contrast to where we just were!!
 We headed into Biscayne Bay. There was thunder and lightning all around us. Jessy went down into the cabin and came running back up to the upper helm yelling  "I smell somthing burning!" So I went down and smell it too and went back up to the "Lido Deck" and yelled the same thing! So I take the helm and Phil ran down and smelled it too and he turned everything off! Sometimes it takes a village to run a boat!! Turns out we have a window leak in the front of the boat and I had put our computer there. The transformer for the computer was laying in water and fried!!! On a good note our computer is still working! We gotta fix that leak....
  We are making our way towards the Fl. Keys  then up the west coast. Still an adventure every day!!!

One freighter after another!

Freighter worker saying "Hi"

Miami skyline

Jess and Chewdog

Sunset over Miami! 

Notice the boat under the helicopter! !

Back to Reality!!!!

Crossing the Gulf Stream was beautiful. It was calm and very busy with freighters! The current from the Gulf Stream actually got us up to 10.8 knots!!! We usually run 7 to 8.
It took us 8 hours to cross from Cat Cay to Ft. Lauderdale.  That's when reality hit!!!!!!
OMG so many boats..it was like Grand Central Station only with boats!!!!
  The "plan" was to come into the channel here to Pier 66, a nice marina that has been here for years, to get fuel and spend the night at a slip. Go to the pool and relax!  We kept calling the dock master but no answer...we tried hailing them on channel 16... nothing. All we got was a lady saying...If you would like to leave a message. ..etc
  When we finally got under this huge bridge we saw a sign saying Pier 66...yea!!!
Then another sign saying....closed for renovations!!  Boo!!!   They could of left some sort if message saying they were closed!   We had passed another sign saying Sail Marina and Fuel Dock. So we had to turn the Pearl around in the middle of a boat highway!!!! Finally got that done and pulled into the fuel dock....As we were getting fuel I asked if the had any slips available.  He said yes so we paid for the night...$99.00. Not bad!  I asked him where the pool and facilities were....Oh, we are just bare bones right now, he says!   No pool...actually nothing but a parking lot!! The Marina hasn't been built yet just the docks. We weren't about to go back out in that mess so here we sit... at our "slip" about 10 feet down from the fuel dock.....Reality sucks!!
  Only good thing about this place is Nancy brought Jessy down and met us here. She gets to ride the rest of the way home with us!!

Sooo many boats!!!

The fuel dock and marina

The facilities..picnic tables with a potted plant between them!!

Last Day in the Bahamas!

It was a another 10 hour day!! Went across the Great Bahama Bank. ...depth is 15 feet max sometimes 8 ft!
  We are anchored in front of the Cat Cay Yacht Club.  This is a private island and some of the homes here are massive! Private planes and helicopters have been coming and going all afternoon.
We took our last swim in the Bahamian waters...gonna miss watching the bottom underneath you....without using a mask!
The Florida waters are clear...but not like this!!
 This trip was a childhood dream of Phil's ever since he and his family went to Bimini back in the 60's. To travel the same waters that pirates have....we anchored in Kidd's Cove, where Capt. Kidd has his home base for a while!  A lot of the islands look the same as they did back in the pirate days.   He respects the navigational skills it must of took to navigate these waters before there was GPS!!!
  The Exumas wasn't has isolated as we thought it was going to be and there is very little crime here especially with cruisers. There are cell towers at every settlement so you can choose to stay where you have service.  Or you can go to the isolated islands and not see a soul.  In the Exuma cruisers anchor out they don't use Marinas.
We liked the Far Bahamas and hope to go to the Ragged Islands next time.
 There are so many islands here!!! We  have just scratched the surface! We still have a lot of exploring to do....

Cat Cay Marina

Last Bahimian sunset......till next time!!

Last Day in the Exumas

Thursday we spent our last night in the Exumas at Shroud Cay in the Exumas Land and Sea Park. Service there was very poor.  We got here around 1 pm and of course put the Dink back in the water... for the last time!
  There is no settlement on this Cay. Just rock and mangroves. The beaches were breathtaking! We went all over and through the island. Storms started brewing so we took the Dink back to the Pearl and put her up top for the rest of our journey.  Poor Dink...she's had a rough go of it. Front all banged up, cleats coming out, and her bottom is blistering! When we get her home she will get some much needed TLC from Phil...she was good to us and got us where we wanted to go!

Amazing!!

It was a breathtaking last day in the Exumas

Hitching a ride on the Dink

Friday we pulled anchor at 6:15 am....long 10 hour day of running!! The thunderstorms were all around us but we managed to stay clear of all but one little one. We  went all the to New Providence and then turned to go to Chub Cay. At the beginning of our journey we made that a 2 day run. Anchored  at Chub Cay and also anchored at New Providence.
  As we were leaving New Providence we saw something in the water about 1/4 of a mile ahead of us. It was crossing in front of us...Phil got the bonaculars out and saw it was a submarine!!! This thing was huge...at least 400 ft. One of those big Navy ones!  The Captain wanted to hail them on the radio!!! But the Admiral nixed that idea!! We are still reeling from seeing the Sperm Whales. ..now a submarine!!!
The ocean has amazed me this trip.  I can't believe all of the beautiful and unusual things we have seen.  It's like good ole' Jimmy says...."In your belly you hold the treasures few have ever seen!" We have been so blessed to be able to make a trip such as this!!!    Still pinching myself!!!
 Next on to Cat Cay.

Submarine!!

Chub Cay. ..looks like Useppa Island!l

It was a WHALE of a day...no kidding

Pulled anchor at 9:30 am and said our thanks and goodbyes to Sue and Elizabeth Harbour. The seas were about to 3 to 4 foot chop.  We were right off Rudder Cay in about 2,000 feet of water! Phil spotted them 1st.  We think there were 2 but maybe more....Sperm Whales!!! They were at least 40 feet long!  We tried to get closer but they went down.  We got about 100 feet away from them. It was so exciting!! I got a video but this is the only picture I got.

Sperm Whales!!

Going into Little Farmers was quite intense.  It was a narrow passage going right up next to land and the current there had us going 10 knots plus!!
  We anchored in Galliot Bank on the south side of Little Farmers at 3:30 PM and immediately put the Dink in the water to explore. We went into Little Harbour where there were turtles popping their heads up everywhere.  We beached the Dink and an old gentleman named Johnny told us were we could eat. He told Phil to follow the music up the hill! It was very loud music! Sure enough we found the Ocean Cabin Restaurant.  Great place...we had cracked conch of course!
 This is a cute little settlement.  The lady at the restaurant told me that the children here are sent away to Nassau at the age of 12 to finish their education.  They only come home for the summer and holidays.     Right by the restaurant was a 100 year old house they were working on. I'm glad we stop here.
It was a great day full of adventures!!

Little Harbour

Phil talking to Johnny

Restaurant up the hill

Cleaning their catch!