We are in Paradise!

Storms in Lobster Cay.........

Beautiful weather in Wardrick Wells.

Too many "elephants" in Staniel Cay but it still is very nice!

Right here in Black Point?  Really, really nice!!!!  The only question that remains is, why did it take so long for us to get here?????  We know the answer but it doesn't matter anymore.....we are here!

So lets go back to our stay in Wardrick Wells.  It seemed like old home days.  The beauty of the place is still great.  Our hike up Boo Boo Hill was treacherous in the area where the limestone is wicked sharp and one cannot afford one wrong step.  Nati's sign was still on the hill.  Maybe next time we'll do an upgrade....maybe.  We did our first snorkeling in a long time and saw some nice coral and a few fish.  Overall a very nice stay.

A view from our mooring in the north field

OH no....pirates!

and now they are eating our food!

Crystal clear??

Lots of color today

Scrawled filefish

Not bad, huh?

Our "local" fleet of stingrays.  The fleet had 8 of them!

Heading up Boo Boo Hill

Can you find Nati?

Looking east

Nati's name board from 2013

A cold beer after the hike

From there we sailed down to Cambridge Cay for a couple of days and that too was lovely.  Sv Celest was there again so I had some more chances to harass Robie.  After two days we moved down to Staniel Cay and finally got our Internet going.  Rose at BTC had a lot of patience with us and eventually we were able to find our emails and update the blog.  The yacht club on the cay has done some updating, probably since the big "mega yachts" like to come in there.  Of the 28 boats in Big Major Spot, 10 were in excess of 100 feet!  To us they are elephants and I don't like them one bit!

Thunderball grotto

Stained Cay Yacht Club

Colorful homes 

Colorful pubs

Grouper fingers was lunch of the day

Laundry time was necessary and so yesterday we made our way down to Black Point.  We have only spent one night here in the past so we have finally had a chance to to see what is going on here.  It's a quiet little settlement but the locals are so nice.  The laundry is nice (if not the nicest in the Exumas) so we had a good afternoon.

Celest sailing to Black Point

The view from the laundry

Have I said we are loving' it??!!

Greetings from the Bahamas!

Yes, we have finally made it.  The original plan was not to leave on April 1st but as we have said, our plans are usually make in soft sand and so be it.

Right now I'm writing this in the north mooring field in Wardrick Wells.  We sailed down here yesterday after a couple of nights in Lobster Cay.  But first a quick synopsis of the last few days.......

Outta Marathon, Fl last Wednesday and said our goodbyes to our friends.  Oh, it felt great to be going out the bridge and not have a plan to come back for a long time.  From there it was up the chain to Shell Key and then on to our anchorage near Snake Creek.  Then on 4/1/16 @ 0700 we went out the creek and into the "Stream".  The crossing took all day and we were 2nm from S Riding Rock at sunset.  The wind, which blew all day just quick 2 miles from our daytime destination so we went onto the Bahamas Bank in the dark.  No big deal but for a few miles we had to motor-sail.

The newest creature in Boot Key harbor.  A sea hare.

Our view 

Leaving our mooring of 3 months

OK, what the heck??!!

Good bye Marathon

At around 0100 the wind picked back up and oh man did it.  From 5 knots to 18-20kts!!  We ended up  putting two reefs in the main and two in the head sail.  Still, traveling  the traveler down all the way we blasted across the bank, in 15 feet of water, in pitch-black darkness at 8.5kts!

Sunset over the Gulf Stream

My newest weapon.  Score: 2 hits only

Daylight came early and we came off the bank at NW Channel light only to change our minds and not go to Chub Cay.  Instead we made our way to Morgan's Bluff.  It ended up being a cool desolate settlement but we got checked in, had our first Bahamian food in a year and toasted our 175nm trip with a, what else, a "rum"!

Look what we brought from the US!  Around our port prop

The next day we made an early departure as the run to Lobster Cay in the Eumas chain was 75nm and would take all day.  We got chased in by a rain squall just before we got there but we still made it by 30 minutes.......way too close.  The next day we were surprised to see sv Celeste sailing by on her way south so after a quick chat, they decided to turn and spend a night in Lobster.  Fun was had by all, even if they got soaked to the bone when they came over for dinner.

Here it comes.  Time to drop sail!

sv Celeste before the big blow

The three stooges

The time before the crew of Celeste came over was rather a long afternoon.  The rain they came over in was the remnants of a big squall that hit us from the SW.  Yep, pinned up on a lee shore for 2-3 hours with one cell blasting us with 40+ knot winds!  Good anchor!!  Good "Ace of Spades"!!!  When we finally finished our 360 degree circle our GPS position had not changed one foot!!!!!!

So, now we are in Wardrick Wells......loving the gin clear water.  Its raining and blowing here today but we don't care.  We are here!!!!!!!!!!

Yes.............."Dumb Luck Charters" is open for business!

We are still in Marathon.......just to clear up any questions as to what is going on.  We have been taking care of a bunch of things and then we decided it was time for a change and before we could blink an eye our first, inaugural guest have arrived!  Yes there are suckers born every day!

Finally, a sunset!

Last week Jim & Jo arrived in the Keys for a week of sun & fun.  In spite of having to change our original plans 180 degrees because of the high winds blowing for a good portion of the week we still pulled off some very good times.  So just what did Anne & I give our guest for a taste of the Keys??

Since sailing will have to wait we decided to head down to Key West via auto and check out the town.  We haven't been there for a long time and the Perks have never been there.  We saw "Petey"of Pete's Meats, a very nice sunset and a good meal at Pepe's.

Pepe's Pub

Jo's new vehicle

Mallory Square at sunset

The gang

How about fishing?  Big game fishing is big down here so we went and found a pole for Jim, purchased the first shrimp either of us has ever bought and went out for two days.  The big ones escaped our expertise but we still had a appetizer for one night and actually had some good fish which ended up to be more than we could eat for dinner the next.  We now know a lot more about mangrove fishing in the Keys.......

Rigged for bear

round one for an app

The Jack was at least 5 feet long!!!!

Jim is fighting our fish to the bitter end!

How about an afternoon in the Turtle Hospital?  Well we did that too and Anne and Jo got a chance to see many injured turtles from Leatherback, Green, Loggerhead and others.

"Charlie"

Then it was time for a sail.  We had a good 35nm sail up the Keys to Islamorada and spent a couple of days hanging out up there.  Nice weather and then when it was time to come back south we actually had another good sail.  Captain Jim drove the whole way and he didn't pick up one crab pot.  That in itself required an "expert" to be driving Nati.

Hanging out at the Lore-a-lei

The "doctor" keeping an eye out for pirates

Overall we had a great week......just how "lucky" are you?

Alive and well in Florida!

Its been a few weeks since the last update but..........

• When we are hanging out in Marathon taking care of "stuff" it just is not the most exciting time in the world and there is no need to write about it.
• The weather has been status quo until just recently.  Still basically the temp is too low to swim and the water is cold!

Now though, we have moved Nati and put together some nice days of action in the tropics........OK not tropics but I'm going to be optimistic.

Last Sunday we traveled to Miami as Bob, Steph & Teagan were coming south to escape the really cold weather up north.  They sure timed it well as the cold was really COLD!  With that in mind we departed Marathon with the hope we would be able to get north with some sailing.  Well, we did get more sailing than we thought and only ended up motoring a short part of the way.  We pulled into South Beach on Friday and got Nati ready for the gang.  As a side note.....Miami Yacht Club could not have been better!  We met Dave, the club manager and Teagan was in Miami for less than 15 minutes before she was swimming.  Note, I said "she" and not "us".  For the rest of us it was much too cold!  We also were able to run into Kenny & Dana at the club and had some good laughs.

yes, plenty of wind and clouds!

Captain Teagan

over 40 flowers this year!

One of the reasons B,S & T came down was to attend the Miami Boat Show.  The weather really didn't cooperate but we pulled through and perhaps the show was even better since the wind, cold and rain kept many people away.  We got to see plenty of boats, equipment and I think we all had fun.  It did however feel good to get back on board and away from the chill.

Taking the water taxi

On Tuesday we talked about sailing south but it was cold and "T" wanted to do the pool at the club again.  OK.......no problem!  We had a lay-day and we all ended up in the pool.  The pool is heated..........Yeehaw!

Teagan & Mom

Teagan & Dad

Teagan & Granny

On Wednesday we tried sailing south but the wind gods were not being too friendly so at the end we took the gang over to No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne.  The harbor is pretty cool, has a restaurant adjacent to it and one can easily make it to the ocean and nice beaches.  We all had a chance to check out the park, ride around on a rented buggy like the "Griswold's", bury Teagan in the sand and relax.  Fun was had by all and we ate like Kings & Queens.  Our biggest challenge was keeping fruit on the table as the "fruit mouse" was being very active!

Nati in No Name Harbor

95" high and 109 steps

Too high??!!

The beach looks way down.

It sure seemed higher........

Captain Teagan telling what is next on the agenda

The "boys" taking the buggy back......cute, huh?

The "salty" crew

The last breakfast....steak & eggs!

After we said our goodbyes we headed back south the next day and had a really good sail down Biscayne Bay.  Anne saw 9+kts of boat speed and it was one of our better sails in a long time.  We dropped anchor in Tarpon Basin, had a quiet night and headed south the next day.  This time we only sailed 15nm as we decided to rendezvous with sv Celest out in front of the Ocean View Hotel and Grill.  We had a lot of laughs while having a late lunch.  This place may be one our frequent stopovers!  Good food, reasonable prices and good holding at anchor.  In the morning Celest continued thei trip north and we elected to have a lay-day.  It is Sunday anyways!

Robie & Patsy

sv Celest......a Bristol 355 centerboard

We are going back to Marathon as we have a few more things to address.  The weather has to warm up sometime.......March is right around the corner!!