I did not take the time on the previous posts to get many pictures out about Bimini and none of the Nassau crossing so following are some catch up pictures.

Main street of Alice Town on North Bimini.

Pier on Bimini where we moored. Doesn’t it look tropical?!

About 2 hours into our passage from Bimini to Nassau.

Sunsetting off the stern of Truansea. You can see one of our ‘buddy boats’ in the background. It was reassuring to have a couple other boats to see and talk to throughout the night.

Sun rising off the bow. Morning finally arrived!

Crew waking up in the morning. They opt to sleep in the cockpit where seasickness is not so apt to get you. Logan woke up several times throughout the night to help out with the passage. Cole has liked sleeping on the floor of the salon or the cockpit since he was a baby. We are just careful not to step on him!

We filled up with fuel on the way in, found a place to anchor and changed into our swim gear to cool off and snorkel around our boat.  We were quickly greeted by marine life.  The most exciting was the Eagle Rays and Mark was greeted by a barracuda peeking at him around the keel of our boat.

Fair Winds ~ Christine

We left Bimini at 2pm yesterday and arrived in Nassau at 10:30am today.  It was our first overnight passage and all went well.  A couple other boats were headed the same direction so we buddy boated with them.  It was nice to have other boats to talk to in the middle of the night.  They kept on going past Nassau this morning, headed straight through for the Exumas so we said ‘later’ to them (as we will more than likely see them in the Exuma’s in the next month).  We fueled up and anchored in Nassau Harbor.  We snorkeled off Truansea, to be greeted by Spotted Eagle Rays, a few other fish we have not identified yet and Mark met a barracuda while removing some fishing line off our prop!

I will send pictures another day when we have a better connection!

Fair Winds ~ Christine

I have time to do a brief post while waiting for the winds to die down.  We have had a great time in Bimini snorkeling, visiting a shark lab, exploring the mangroves, visiting their local museum, the Dolphin House, eating as much Bimini bread as we can…

Shark lab

Snorkeling Bimini.

Dolphin house.

Fair winds~Christine

12/10/12

We left No Name Harbor in Biscayne Bay at 3:10am and arrived at Bimini at 2pm.  The wind was out of the east to southeast the whole way and we were headed due east so that meant motoring the whole way for us.  The winds picked up to 15 knots for a large part of the day but slowed to 10 knots about 2 hours out from Bimini and the seas calmed as well.

Logan steering across the Gulf Stream.

Another sailboat following us to Bimini with one of the freighters we saw crossing behind them.

Amazingly we could see the Miami skyscrapers in the distance for 5 hours.  We were out of sight of land for a little over 3 hours before we spotted Bimini.  Flying fish accompanied us on and off throughout the day.  About half an hour from the harbor entrance to Bimini we started seeing the bluer water and white sandy bottoms.

We picked up a slip at Brown’s Marina and raised our quarantine flag.  Mark checked into customs and immigration, then we were able to take down the quarantine flag and raise the Bahama flag.

We had time to explore Bimini a little bit before nightfall.  There are beautiful fish around our boat.  You definitely know you are in another country.  It is a fun island full of interesting people and history.

Cole taking a nap during the crossing.

Fair Winds ~ Christine

Yesterday we cruised down to Miami and anchored at Belle Isle.  The skyscrapers of Miami were all around us in their vibrant, flashing colors.  One of them even had a huge scene of people dancing on it.  Very strange to be anchored in a bay with a huge city around us.

Today we topped off with diesel, gas and water then sailed down to No Name Harbor in Biscayne Bay.  As we were cruising down, dolphins graced us by swimming along for a bit.  This was the closest we have seen them.  They were about 3 feet from the side of our boat!  The winds were nice for sailing today and the boys had fun in the cabin ‘standing straight up’ while Truansea was at an angle.  This picture gives you an idea of how much our home tilts!

Cole standing in Truansea while we are heeled over sailing.

After we anchored in No Name Harbor, we saw the manatees again.  Truly gentle giants.

Manatee in No Name Harbor.

We headed to shore to do a load of laundry, empty the garbage and take an outdoor shower.

Cold waiting on the transom to get in the dinghy.

Cold holding down the shower pull for Logan.  Yes, you can shower outdoors in Florida in the winter!

We plan on leaving for Bimini at 3am.  The weather looks promising for a crossing and there are lots of other boats here staged to cross as well.  Hopefully we will be able to send out a post tomorrow night from Bimini!

Fair winds ~ Christine

Sunday evening, 12/02/12 we had our boat denaming and renaming ceremony officiated by Captain Nick Chiappani.  The dock had one of their potlucks that evening which completed the evening full of good friends and good food.  We appeased the wind gods during the ceremony and installed the lettering on Truansea so she is now official.  Our dinghy is affectionately known as Hooky, and although we didn’t put her name on the transom  she received a little of the champagne spray as well.

According to tradition, once all traces of the previous name have been removed it is not to be spoken again.  As a final gesture on the first voyage with the new name one also needs to sail the boat backward at least one boat length to  back over the old name and appease the spirits.

A toast to Truansea during the renaming ceremony.

Logan spraying champagne on the bow at the end of the renaming ceremony.

One of our friends introduced us to a group of his Canadian friends that made their way down the coast to Florida and are also crossing to the Bahamas.  We will be joining up with their boats this morning to make our way to Miami again.  We will anchor there and wait for a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream.  If the weather pattern holds, we should be good to go Saturday, Sunday or Monday.  I can’t believe we are finally ready to go!

We are going to miss all of our friends at Riviera.  When we moved in here, they said it was very easy to get comfortable here and it is a hard place to leave.  They hit the nail on the head.  We are very fortunate to have met them all and can’t wait for our paths to cross with them again.

Boats throughout Fort Lauderdale are beautifully lit up for the holidays.

Boat neighbors, sv Scarlet, all dec’d out for Christmas. Can you believe they had all these decorations on their boat?

Provisioning the boat has been an interesting experience.  Needless to say, our water line is lower than it used to be.

Provisioning the boat. IT is amazing how much stuff you can pack in a 37′ boat!

The last boat maintenance has been completed, including changing the engine oil.

Mark changing the diesel engine oil.

We will not have internet access until we get to the Bahamas.  Hopefully we will be making a post by December 10th letting you know where we are at!

Fair winds ~ Christine

After spending another night anchored at Lake Sylvia earlier in the week, we were finally ready to take a bigger shakedown cruise to Biscayne Bay in Miami.  The winds were forecasted to be from the north at 10-15 knots for the next 3 days which would be a great sail downwind to the bay so we decided to leave last Friday morning (11/16/12).

Logan checking out the mega yachts we pass by.

We are feeling comfortable navigating through the intercoastal waterway now.  To get our boat out to the Port Everglades entrance to the Atlantic in Fort Lauderdale, we have to go through the Las Olas Bridge opening and the 17th Street Bridge opening.  Our mast is 59′ high and we can not make it under these bridges when they are closed.  After we were out of the Port Everglades channel, we headed south, raised the sails and cut the engine.  The winds were only 10 knots at best, dropping to 5 at times.  Our sails were flogging and the south current against the north wind made an uncomfortable chop so we started our engine and motored.  We had a 5 hour journey to make and this was a good test of our engine, especially the new high output alternator Mark put on yesterday.

Mark installing a new 80 amp high output alternator.

We were able to motor at 7 knots and made it to Government Cut in Miami at 2:30pm.  We navigated the cut and out into Biscayne Bay then south to No Name Harbor where we anchored for the night.  We set the anchor, cut the motor and manatees started surfacing off the bow of our boat.  This is the closest we have ever see them and you could hear the big breaths they take, truly a magestic moment.

As we were motoring through the harbor to select a spot to anchor, some kids were waving from the back of their boat.  After we finished putting things away on the boat and making sure our anchor was holding, a dinghy motored over with the kids and their dad to say hello.  We arranged to meet them on shore in 15 minutes.

Making new friends at No Name Harbor.

We took a walk along the shore with the O’Sheill’s, letting the kids run off some steam, then headed back to our boat where the kids played a game of Clue while the parents kicked back in the cockpit.  The kids laughter coming up from the cabin was infectious.  They too are taking some time sailing their 37′ Islander with their kids to the Bahamas because as Candi puts it, “Life is short.  I want to show my children that life is to be lived everyday.   I hope it teaches them that fear is nothing more than a 4 letter word, and there is nothing wrong with watching a sunset instead of a television”.  Well said Candi!

The next day we explored for part of the day with the O’Sheill’s, touring a lighthouse, walking through the woods, swimming at the beach, cracking open a coconut and watching the local raccoons.

The weather for the following 2 days was forecasted for winds from the north at 10-15 knots.  We decided to head back to Fort Lauderdale the next morning.

We pulled up the anchor just after dawn and headed out around the southern tip of Key Biscayne and up the coast instead of going back up through Government Cut.  The winds were light and continued to pick up throughout the day.  When the winds reached 10 knots we hoisted the sails and beat to windward for a while.  Making headway against the north wind was slow and the winds kept picking up so we again decided to motor since we had a long day ahead of us.  We were glad we did as we were not able to make as good of time as we made on the way down.

The boys love the big waves and as they put it, they ‘defy gravity’ in the v-berth.  When a big wave comes along and they are in the v-berth, it sends them airborne which is great fun in their book.  Every now and then we make them come back in the cockpit to make sure they are not getting seasick.

Logan enjoying the waves on the way back to Fort Lauderdale from Biscayne Bay.

Mark put out a line on the fishing pole after we were underway and while I was at the helm in some pretty good swells, I heard a zinging sound coming from behind me.  It was a fish on the line.  Everyone took turns reeling in our first tuna.  Gaffing it and bringing a fish on board a sailboat in swells was a bit of a challenge to say the least but we had fish for dinner.

Little tunny we caught on the way back to Fort Lauderdale gave a good fight!

Emergency communications was one concern we had not yet addressed until a friend introduced us to Andy Cool, the owner of Explorer Satellite Communications. Andy gave us a great deal on one of his SAT phones.  We tested the phone on the way back from Miami and programmed in several emergency contacts and the Coast Guard’s number into the phone.  It will be a great peace of mind to have two way communication via satellite if the need should ever arise.

Testing out the Immarsat, IsatPhone Pro we picked up from Andy Cool at Explorer Satellite Communications.

We were all happy to see the 4 smokestacks at Fort Lauderdale in the distance at 1pm.  By the time we made it to Port Everglades and back to our slip it was 3pm.  It was a great shakedown cruise with a few more items added to the list to complete before our crossing.

We enjoyed fresh tuna for dinner.  Some we made on the grill and the rest we added to a jumbalaya mix complements of our friend Kurt.  Thanks for sending the Slap Ya Mamma mixes Kurt!

Fair winds~Christine