Some views of warm weather!

You already know that we have made it to the Bahamas and we are southbound.  We stayed in Nassau for two nights, had a great sail down to Shroud Cay and two days ago made a short hop down to Warderick Wells.  This is part of the Bahamas National Park so there is no fishing but it is so beautiful. The colors are spectacular and the swimming has commenced.

Enjoy some of the pictures we have taken.  Vinny has also been able to get a few of Nati under sail as we were heading across the Gulf Stream and also some of the sail to Shroud Cay.

Nati with her new sails

The only way to sail!

Sunrise leaving No Name Harbor

Sunset on the Bahama Bank

Hey Flight Plan….look behind you!

Shroud Cay has some very cool tidal streams.  We took Vin & Ralph over to the east shore on Exuma Sound at high tide.  If you don't make it back to the west shore……..you have a few hour wait as the stream will dry out at low tide.

Clean, clear and warm water!

Are we enjoying ourselves?!

Looking SE

A view to the west

Warderick Wells is a very special place.  You can only take mooring here as they don't want the seabed impacted any more than it is.  Yesterday while talking to a neighbor a 5' sand shark went right under Dingh-go.  I could have reached down and touched it since it was right at the surface of the water!  Whoa!!

Nati in the north mooring field

Hi Nassau!

We are here!

172nm and 29 hours and we are in the Bahamas....... Was a great sail over, very quiet and comfortable.

Will have to update later but just wanted to pass this along to friends and family.

Good bye Miami……..we hope anyways!

It's Sunday afternoon and we are motoring down to No Name Harbor for an expected departure for the Bahamas tomorrow morning.  The north winds are laying down for a day and a half, turning west so perhaps we'll have a downwind sail (cross the fingers) and get into Nassau before the strong N winds come back in.  Right now that is the plan.

It has been cold and windy for the last week or so and we finally decided to at least go south for a few nights to get out of the crazy city.  It seems to be more busy and noisy every time we pull into Miami.  I guess it's just not our thing for very long.  Some people like it more than us that's for sure.

So off to Barnes Sound for the best conch fritters in the "world"!  Yes, we made our annual migration down to Alabama Jacks and we timed it perfect!  The music was blasting and the place was packed.  We were the only sailboat in the anchorage but who cares.  Dingh-go took us to the dock and we had our dinner with music….

The sign says it all……

This is real "country"!

Just what is closed??

Anne & Janie

Our anchorage is at the top left

We were able to spend another night down in Biscayne Bay before the next northerly came through so we went over to one of our favorite anchorages at Sands Key and thought we would have it all to ourselves……well, almost as two other cats saw us and came near.  Not too bad but we had to have a boat in our sunset shots.

Not Nati….

While in South Beach "Cruz" is loving life….now we have a flowering orchid going across the Gulf Stream with us!

Cruz blooming again!

Teagan…..we have the latest butterfly for you……

See you all in the Bahamas……ah warm, clear water!!  We can't wait!!!!

Guess where we are???

Any ideas at all?

The new Centro bus coming to Syracuse!

Think its big enough?

Clouds are non-stop lately

Wrapping up a few items and we are are ready to cross to the Bahamas.  Hopefully by next weekend.

Alright! Nati is on the go……and oh yea…Happy New Years!

As promised we did get off the dock in Melbourne on Christmas day.  It was a good present to ourselves as we made it down to one of our favorite anchorages just north of Vero and had a nice, quiet Christmas dinner of ahi and shrimp.

Christmas dinner

Florida sunset!!

Next stop was Stuart for a few days with the Chief and Mom and also we got to see Dane & Ellen's new digs in town.  Dane was wrapping up the last of a huge home improvement project with their friend Melissa and invited us over for a drink and to see the work.  Sorry to say the pictures didn't come out but it was good to see Dane again.  The home looks great!  We also got to spend some time with some of our friends….Vinny on s/v Flight Plan is getting his boat ready for a Bahamas crossing and Jim & Irene (s/v Escapaid) are putting the finishing touches on their planned trip to the west coast of Florida for the winter.

Yep, we had some laughs

Dane's dock is in the center right on the  ICW

After our visit we continued to head south and spent a night in Lake Worth.  We had a little of everything during our 18 hour visit as you can see.  We have seen our share of strange weather since continuing south but one thing we know……..we ARE MOVING!

Our evening shower

and our morning sun…

Since the wind is howling we elected to continue down to Ft Lauderdale before jumping outside to Miami.  We will make our crossing to the Bahamas when the crossing window is right but in the meantime we will wrap up provisioning and boat work from somewhere in the Miami/Biscayne area.  Today the watermaker was turned on so now we are independent from shore!  No more lugging jugs to the dock or going to a marina just for water.  Now we have our own RO (reverse osmosis)  water factory!!  The Cape Horn is some of the best money we have spent!

Our anchorage in Ft Lauderdale