Come Sail Away over the Ocean Blue!

We arrived in the Berry Islands on March 5 and left on March 11. This was our second trip to Great Harbor Cay.  Lots of fond memories!  Dolce Vita at the dock.  Just put the dinghy in the water getting ready for their event of a drink and drift.  Very much like the dinghy drift in Marathon.  A nice way to meet people! One thing both Bill and I were looking forward to was their Conch cerviche salad!  I had a visit from another manatee under our dinghy! Ed and I rented a Jeep and we toured around the island. Inky came along. Some of the sites: Roosters and chickens are everywhere in the Bahamas! Some of the houses in the area. We came across a cemetery.  At home I see geese all over the graves, here, there are Ibis everywhere!  This a juvenile Ibis. One of the beaches we found. We discovered a mysterious road and decided to go exploring. The road curved around in a kind...

This was my favorite part of Bimini.  By now, though, everyone knows beaches are the best!!  This beach was only a couple of blocks from our marina.  My first Kalik!  He makes a dynamite pineapple drink!  Didn't have one on this trip, but did the first time we were there!  Sparkling "diamonds!" Ed and Bill are getting some contract work done.

We made it to Bimini on February 27.  We had a good weather window and the voyage over was comfortable and safe!  It took us 24 hours so we had to do watches with 3 hrs. of sleep and 6 hrs. to stay up to look out for boat traffic while we kept moving onward.  Since there were 3 of us there was always 2 people on watch.  I opted for the midnight to 6 am watch with Ed.  That was rough for me since I ended up not feeling well and all I wanted was to lie down and sleep!  I kept nodding off, so it was good there were two of us on watch!  We did a second overnight trip from Bimini to Great Harbor.  I took the 9 pm to 3 am watch and that was much better for me.  I still had a tendency to nod off a bit but I was able to snap back quicker.  I learned a lot from these two watches.  We will have one more overnight passage from Bimini back to Florida and then we will only have just the 2 of us.  The shift will work out 4 hrs. off and 4 hrs...

We ended up being in Marathon for the month of February.  It was an enjoyable time where we made some new acquaintances.  Had a chance to meet with a group to play Mexican Train, a group to play bocce ball, and a group to do crafts with.  It us also where our friend, Bill, joined us for the second time on this trip. This is what Marathon looked like with a lot of boats in the harbor! Here's the three of us getting ready for the Bahamas crossing! We went to a Thai restaurant and I had a new favorite sushi - quail eggs! Ed and I took a dinghy ride to Sombrero Beach for the afternoon.  It was not a big beach and definitely not a secluded one! I had a cherry Italian ice to cool off from the hot sun! This Osprey's favorite hang out was on the top of a boat's mast!  The boat's owner says it leaves it's fish remains and waste products on their deck. The marina had a nice herb garden going for all the boater's to share.  ...