It’s our last day coming up the ICW to St Augustine, where we will leave the boat.

We crossed over a week ago and made our way to Vero Beach and then up to Melbourne where we had to wait out the winds for a couple of days. 

On Tuesday we set off for Titusville, stayed at the marina there.  It’s one of the friendliest and best run marinas we’ve dealt with.

We went over to Cracker Jacks, the little bar/restaurant on the water, to have dinner.

It’s a local hangout, filled with bikers and some rough looking characters, but the food is okay.

We stood out like a sore thumb; everyone else knew each other.

We were enjoying some chicken tenders when all of a sudden an explosion!  It was a CO2 tank.

Scared the beejeezus out of us, we jumped up and ran.

Where was Ziggy? She had disappeared.  

I ran around the corner and saw her cowering and freaked out.  Thankfully one of the bikers had grabbed her leash and held her.

Or she would have been long gone!

It took awhile for her to calm down, even when I offered her a chicken tender.

The next day we left early for the 40 mile trip to Daytona.  We were headed for the Halifax River Yacht Club.

Despite the name, it is cheap dockage for transients like us.

You have to be a member of s yacht club to stay there.  We joined the Royal Marsh Harbor Yacht Club last year to get discounts in the Abacos.

Ray the dockmaster had never heard of it but he let us stay there anyway.

Good ol’ southern boy, he called Ziggy “the commodore.”  Ray gave us a tour of the clubhouse, founded in 1898. We saw a wall filled with photos of all the human Commodores over the years.

The pool was open but the tiki bar was closed until Friday.  There were four little old ladies playing cards in the big ballroom.

We went up later to the bar/restaurant to get dinner. There were a dozen people in there, all old and dressed up.

We stood out like a sore thumb. Once again.

We were with bikers/rednecks the night before and high rollers this night.

Probably both groups are Trump supporters.

We are on our way today to the boatyard at St. Augustine, to unload the boat, clean it and drive home tomorrow.

Sayonara to Toucan.  We will miss your sailing ways. 

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
  

    
    
   

We set out in the black darkness of 4:30 am at West End, to cross over the ocean to Florida.  It would be at least a 14 hour day, depending on how the wind and waves affected our speed.

I stood on the bow and shined the spotlight to help us get out of the harbor without hitting the walls.

We made it.

Then we were in the channel going out, black as soot but at least we couldn’t hit anything.

We raised the mainsail out there.  Waves picked up and Ed was hand sailing, kind of rough out there. This went on for awhile.  We kept checking the time, looking for daybreak.  

Finally dawn.  That’s always the best thing to see when you’re sailing at night.

The seas continued to be swirly and we weren’t able to get much speed.  At less than 4 knots we were looking at 9pm or later in Ft.Pierce.

Frustrated and weary (Ed hadn’t slept any), we pushed ahead.

We didn’t get in the Gulf Stream until afternoon, hoping to get a knot or two push north from the current.

And it did.  But not as much as we had hoped because the wind had died down and turned west, right on our nose.

The sun on Ziggy’s spot in the back was getting hot, so I made her a makeshift tent with a blanket.

As the day wore on, I shifted it around to keep my precious puppy in the shade.

The good news over the afternoon was that the waters calmed down considerably and smoothed out, so the last few hours were smooth and faster (6-7 knots).

Nice.

The waters of the Gulf Stream are an amazing metallic hue, nothing you see anywhere else.

At 5:30 we sailed into St. Lucie inlet.  We had called several marinas before we found one just up the waterway near Jensen Beach.

Four Fish Marina is a working boatyard.  They had no slips but they could put us on the wall opposite the fuel dock.

We had taken down the Bahamas flag because we didn’t want to mess with customs. Last year arriving by plane we entered customs and they even took my orange.

This year on the boat we have numerous suspicious things we have brought back – a shotgun, veggies and meats from the Bahamas, sea fans and shells, tee shirts and hats, and a scary looking dog.

I wouldn’t want to give up any of that.

So we snuck in to the U.S. and moved north to enter the channel to the marina.  Ed wanted to go in the wrong direction but I kept yelling at him til he finally went to the right place on the wall.

I was sure everyone in the marina heard us yelling at each other, but as it turned out there was only one guy there – it was mostly a long term storage place for fishing boats.

The one guy came out and helped us tie up.  He didn’t mention our yelling.

We were both really tired, but happy to be there.

We set the lines, let Ziggy do her thing, and despite our weariness, we took the mile plus walk to the little downtown Jensen Beach area.  We wanted to watch the Heels play in the NCAA game.

But oh no!  We forgot it was St Patty’s Day.  The bars and restaurants were packed and overflowing into the streets, with wannabe Irish people reveling in their beer and burgers.

We made our way down to a place further away called Pineapple Jacks.  They had a steel drum guy outside playing music (do they do that in Ireland?) but it didn’t look as crowded or rowdy. 

We spotted a porch for Ziggy with outside tables and a TV.

Ed talked the hostess into letting us sit in chairs near the TV; there were no tables open and we couldn’t leave the dog unattended.

We ordered drinks and food.  Got the TV on the right channel and relaxed.

When my calamari and his burger came, we put them on an extra chair in front of us and ate.

Like homeless people.  One server came out to see us; he had heard there was a couple eating on their chair outside.  He thought that was awesomely creative.

We agreed, knowing in reality this was no big deal.  We’ve eaten ramen noodles with tuna on overnight passages, where I cooked in the dark so as not to use our batteries.  We’ve eaten meals in styrofoam containers that we bought out of the back of a lady’s car in Bimini.   Amazing roast chicken and macaroni.

Of course food always tastes better when it’s eaten from your lap.   

    
    
   

Although we had planned to stay another week or so, it looked like the coming week had several good days for crossing the Gulf Stream.

Since weather/wind is our travel agent, we decided to take advantage.  Also getting closer to April would mean more chance of thunderstorms.

So we left Green Turtle Cay Sunday afternoon for a short 3-hour ride to Cooperstown, the next decent anchorage we could see.

It’s not a tourist or cruiser stop, looked like a lot of poverty, but the people seemed happy.

We were close to a wall and Ed worried about it all night, so neither of us slept much.

We woke up early and pulled up the hook, ready for a fairly long day sail to Mangrove Cay, another anchorage.

This one, however, was 11 hours away.

The good news is we had great winds and sailed almost the whole time, getting over 7 knots in the morning with no motors.

The bad news was the afternoon ride got pretty choppy and uncomfortable.

We were pretty tired when we pulled into Mangrove Cay, dropped the hook, ate pasta and went to bed.

At dawn we took off for West End, our final destination before crossing back.  

We called to get into the marina, but, alas, there was no room at the inn.

Our trusty Active Captain app has reviews on all the anchorages and marinas, written by cruisers.

We thought about anchoring at West End but the reviews said they had seen anchors drag.

Nope to that.

Ed said we could go to Freeport and get in there.  Or we could start across the ocean and head back now.

By then it was about 1pm, meaning if we crossed we wouldn’t get there until midnight or later.

We would have to motor the whole way, wind in our nose.

We headed out the cut and immediately saw choppy seas ahead. Nope to that idea too.

So we reluctantly headed toward Freeport, another 3-4 hours away, and further south than we had wanted to be.

After about mile or so, we saw a small cat turn in front of us and head toward shore.  

Where are they going? We both asked, looking at the chartplotter which showed nothing.

Ed decided to hail them on the radio and ask where they were headed.

The Canadian lady on Party of Two said it was a man made canal going into a private development that went bankrupt and never happened.

Ed asked if they wanted company; she said sure come on in, the price is right!

Free of course.

It was a deep, 15 foot canal that went several directions.

We dropped the hook on the longest rode we had ever used, probably 90′ total with the chain.

Calm as could be behind a wall. 

And Ed paddled Ziggy ashore by dinghy to do her business.  After more than 2 days on the boat she was grateful.

By the time we grilled grouper and enjoyed drinks in the cockpit that evening, there were 4 more boats there.

We were ecstatic to have discovered this little hole, saving us 6 hours of time, not to mention fuel, going to Freeport and back up.

We celebrated a little too much, but all was well and we felt lucky.

Today we got the slip in Old Bahama Bay marina at West End after all. Lots of big yachts here, going to and from Florida.  Of course they get there quicker!

Today we are getting some more gas, water and doing laundry.

We are planning to leave at 5 am tomorrow – Thursday – and head across the ocean, hopefully arriving at St Lucie or Ft Pierce before evening.  

We will see which inlet to use based on our speed – Gulf Stream adds 2-3 knots – and how tired we are.

Winds are to be light and variable out of the south/southwest.

We have no beer or wine to celebrate when we get across tomorrow evening though.

Guess we will toast our bottled water!

   
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
 

“There’s that two-eyed dog,” said Dale, a fellow cruiser, about Ziggy as he strode up to the marina bar.

Uh yeah, Ed and I looked at each other.  “Don’t most dogs have two eyes?”

Everyone laughed, including Dale, who hadn’t even been drinking yet I don’t think.

Like last year, everywhere she goes, Ziggy gets lots of attention for her blue eye.

“What happened to her eye?”- ask the Bahamian children

“Can she see out of that eye ?” – asks most adults.

Ed has two standard answers.

“She told us she could see, yes.”

“We paid a lot of money for that eye.” 

In her travels Ziggy has met many potcakes – the Bahamian stray dogs named after the dregs they used to be fed from the bottom of the peas and rice boil.

Some of the potcakes are friendly, some not.  Many look like Ziggy, except for the eye of course.

I met a French lady who rescues potcakes and arranges transport back to the states to an adoption place in Atlanta.  They even have a Facebook page.

Speaking of pots, the roads here in Green Turtle Cay are terrible.  It’s limestone for the most part, and the many potholes are indicated with a red circle around them so you can be forewarned on your golf cart, which is the primary mode of transportation.

The road to White Sound is the worst, looks like they ran out of red paint.

Despite all that, we rented a golf cart yesterday to explore the island and drive the 2-3 miles over to the Green Turtle Club to watch the Heels play Pittsburgh in the ACC tourney (you can’t stream ESPN in the Bahamas).

By the way, when did Pittsburgh reach the Atlantic Coast?  Global warming and sea level rise must be worse than I thought.

Alas, we got to the swanky club lounge and the TV there only had the Bahamian package, which meant ESPN was showing not the ACC tourney but some kind of cricket tourney.

WTF? Are you kidding me? Cricket??

I’ve never seen Bahamians playing cricket. 

Some back room shenanigans must have been involved here with cricket organizations and the major sports network in the world. Cricketgate.  Someone needs to go to jail for this. 

Crestfallen, we took off in search of another TV.  So we maneuvered around the potholes back to New Plymouth, feeling less than hopeful about getting to see the game.  

Ziggy did not enjoy the ride, though she was sandwiched between us on the seat.

I held her tight as we passed several chickens that she would have been delighted to chase.

We stopped on a whim at McIntoshes, a family diner that serves breakfast and lunch.

I stuck my head in. Yes!! A TV on the wall.

Ed was not hopeful; he figured the cricket ESPN channel was to be our fate.

But no!  They had the upgraded ESPN – no cricket, just the U.S. version.  And the ACC game!

Despite having eaten a big breakfast at the New Plymouth Liquor and Cafe (yes they serve breakfast too), we resolved to stay there, eat lunch and watch the game.  Conch and grouper fingers were happily consumed

And a neighbor cruiser – Dan- walked up and joined us in watching the game over lunch.

After s close first half, the Heels stepped it up and buried the Pitt boys.

Turns out Dan is from Ocean Isle.  He is traveling with his “girlfriend” (they are in their 70s) of three months. His boat is a big ol’ trawler/yacht.  And best news – he has Direct TV on the boat.

Ed’s eyes brightened when Dan invited us to watch tonight’s game on his boat.

Yes!  Ziggy’s dream to be a yacht dog might yet happen.

We’re bringing chips/dip and homemade pizza that the Lizards bartender Erin makes each Friday.

Hopefully Dan has the U.S. version of ESPN on his TV.  If it’s not, and it’s cricket again, Ed might just kill himself.

  

    
    
    
   

That’s what Brendal said to me as he loaded Ed’s snorkeling gear and welcomed him aboard.

“He won’t be the same but he’ll be okay,” Brendal smiled.

“And you, that’s a big mistake you’re making, missing this trip!”

He waved at me and the dog on land.  I couldn’t find someone to watch Ziggy so I had told Ed to go without me.

Brendal is the famous, or should I say infamous, dive master for Green Turtle Cay.  The locals talk about his womanizing exploits, our server at Lizards said he had even been accused of rape. 

Brendal?  He’s in his late 60’s but is unbelievably fit.  His wife Mary works with him at the dive shop.  She must have a clue.

He has run his adventure tours here for 25 years.  Snorkeling, diving, partying on the beach – they’re all included in the day long tour.

Ed’s boat left about 10 am with a dozen people aboard.  When I met him at 4 pm the same boat was full of dancing party-ers – same people?

Yeah, I think they were.  Ed was the quietest one on the boat. He told me later they had all the rum drinks they wanted.  

And Brendal’s first mate speared 10 lobsters off the beach where they planned to picnic.  They grilled those bad boys right there on the beach and the group enjoyed lobster, shrimp and salad for lunch.  

Brendal flirted with the girls but Ed was safe.  Although Ed was not thrilled about Brendal’s speedo swimsuit.

Ziggy and I spent the day on the beach reading Dan Brown’s “Deception.”  Great book, relaxing day.

And not too much rum punch.

   
    
    
    
    
    
   

Taking a cue from the piling on we are seeing against Donald Trump, Ed’s pickle ball opponents are stepping it up.

Not liking the fact that he is a newcomer to the sport but has obviously better skills due to his tennis game, they are looking for flaws they can get him on.

He stepped in “the kitchen! ” That’s the area near the net that you’re not supposed to go in.

I stay out of the kitchen as much as possible, here and at home.

Then they ganged up on him- illegal serve!!

Now Ed, being the competitive sort he is, had been watching pickle ball videos on you tube so he could figure out the strategy.

It’s all about spin and placement, he told me.  So he was spinning the ball every chance he got, including on his serve.

But Noooo!  You can’t hit your serve that way, and they called him out on it.

So he reluctantly corrected his serve but still wins most of the time.

Now, I know Ed likes to hit people on his overheads in tennis.  He may be angling for that opportunity in pickle ball, especially on the guys who called him out.

Our neighbor Valerie said she doesn’t play because it’s too risky; she said there’s at least one injury every year.

This could be the year for whiffle ball bruises if Ed gets revenge.

   
    
  

  
    
   

We moved from White Sound to Black Sound to embrace our diversity and get a slip at the Leeward Yacht Club.

It’s a smallish marina with only a few sailboats and the rest big ol’ trawlers.  Not much diversity there. But we got a slip on the T dock in the shadow of those big boys so they blocked the wind for us.

And this place is our dream come true, with a little outdoor bar/grill and a tennis court.

Yes!!! You heard me, our very own tennis court.

Of course Ed made me leave the racquets at home in the bag with the big bottles of wine and vodka, so we had no racquets or balls.  He was worried about weight on the plane.

Of course our racquets ARE pretty heavy I guess.

But not to worry!  The marina office had spare racquets and paddles.

Paddles for Pickle Ball!!  

Now if you’re not familiar with the sport, it’s setting the world on fire among the 60+ crowd.  

Because the court is smaller and you don’t have to move as much.  Which is important for those of us who have had back surgeries and knee replacements.

So our first day here we got a little indoctrination on the sport and will be playing with people from all over the island on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.

Then we are playing tennis every other morning.  Ed had to adjust the rock holding down the middle of the net because it’s a little high.  But no complaints! If we play a lot maybe we won’t be so terrible when we come home for league play.

More to come as Ed develops his strategies to become the reigning pickle ball king – a sport he swore before that he would never play til he was 80.

We’ve been to the little settlement of New Plymouth a couple times by foot and once by dinghy.

It’s about a 30 minute walk and a 15 minute dinghy ride.

Sundowners is our 5pm destination, where the sunsets are gorgeous and the drinks are $1 off – not a great deal but hey every little bit helps.

And our bartender is Caroline, one of the pickle ball contenders.  

Small island.

   
    
    
 
   
    
    
    
    
    
    
 

We took a 15-minute dinghy ride over to New Plymouth on Tuesday afternoon and walked around.

Nothing much has changed since last year; actually it was pretty quiet everywhere.

There’s a new restaurant – I thought it was called Asian Foo until I realized the “d” was covered up by the Open sign- it’s Asian Food.

Guy riding by on a golf cart said “great food.”  Ed wants to try their sushi; I’m not so sure.  Fresh wahoo and mahi here anytime, but I’m not sure about raw imports.

We had probably the warmest day yet yesterday, in the high 70s.  We spent the afternoon on the beach watching kite boarders sail on the clear blue seas.

We learned that the 39-year old chef, Dominique, at the restaurant there had suddenly died at his 39th birthday party, right there last Saturday.  They don’t know why.

Last night we ate at Green Turtle Club across the bay, for steak night!  A 10 ounce strip steak with potato, salad and bread for $25, really good deal!

Ziggy got some tasty morsels too.

Later I had to stream Ed’s ballgame on my phone so he could watch the Heels beat up on the Woofies. He could only see 2/3 of the game on the screen but he was happy.   They got off to a slow start at first, but they came through.

We woke up in the night to a hard blow – 30+ winds – and rain several times.  Cap’n Ed had planned ahead so we were able to once again catch the rainwater and fill up our water tanks.

We’ve learned that many of the Abacos homes have big rain cisterns for drinking water, so they’re happy when it rains too.

The blow continued this morning, and temps had dropped into the 60s.  We had to shut the outside door into the boat cause it was too cold.

I concentrated in my jigsaw puzzle and we watched old Gunsmoke and Andy Griffith shows on TVLand, one of just a few cable channels the marina offers.

It’s probably the most entertaining.  Did you know Miss Kitty ran a brothel?  I didn’t know that when I was a kid.

I just thought she had really good hair and perfect makeup to be living out there in the Wild West.

  
  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

 

Our last day at Great Giana Cay was spent enjoying the debaucherie (sp?) at Nippers, the famous bar on the beach.

Ziggy had gotten attacked by a little dog and the wild cat Eddie that lives there the day before, so she had slinked in carefully to avoid another assault.  They had given us free conch salad due to her attack so it wasn’t all for naught.

Well, despite its reputation on Sundays, it wasn’t really that crazy, at least not while we were there.  The have a big pig roast buffet, with bbq, macaroni and cheese to die for, peas and rice, Johnny cakes, potato salad and some kind of bread pudding.  It was all you can eat for $26 – kinda steep but worth it if you go back for seconds.

I couldn’t do that, but from the looks of some of the diners around me, they more than made up for me.

The music was a lot of throwback 60s interspersed with Bahamian Junkanoo- cool.

We were told later we missed the best entertainment – when a young couple went out in the surf, took their swimsuits off and couldn’t get them back on.  So they ran around the beach naked for awhile.

Back home they would get arrested, at Nippers they got cheers.

We left Guana early this morning to sail the 3-4 hours to Green Turtle Cay.  To reach this island you have to traverse the much-dreaded Whale Channel.

You go outside on the ocean around Whale Cay, and if conditions in the ocean are in any way rough, the Whale can get really treacherous.

They call it a “rage,” if the Whale whips it up.  You’ve heard of mad cows, I think a mad whale might be meaner.

Where’s Captain Ahab when you need him? Not Jonah though.

Anyway Cap’n Ed had done his homework and found today to be the best conditions – light wind and the seas had had a couple of days to calm down.

So we set off, listening to the Cruisers Net for any reports from people crossing the Whale.

There were none, which was a bit concerning. But as we got near, Ed got on the radio and asked if anyone was in the Whale, could they give us a report?

One guy, I think a fisherman came back and said it was fine, no problem.  Whew!

Then he came back a few minutes later and said it was getting some fresh roll.  Whatever that means.

Well we had been in swells before so we thought it might be fine, better rolly than choppy.

And once we got there we got the swells.  Not too bad though, we’ve been in worse.

The worst thing about the Whale Ed said is you’re in it for several miles.

Nothing for a car, could be over an hour for a sailboat, even motoring like we had to do today.

But we made it and turned back into the Sea of Abaco to calm aquamarine waters. 

We are docked at the Bluff House Marina for now til the next westerly blow comes through on Wednesday.  They have free wifi and showers, laundry facilities and two bars/restaurants to enjoy.

Nice break, no stress, the Whale is behind us.  Only the Gulf crossing looms before us- but hey that could be weeks away!

   
    
    
    
   

   
    
    
  

  
    
    
    
   

Our last day at Great Giana Cay was spent enjoying the debaucherie (sp?) at Nippers, the famous bar on the beach.

Ziggy had gotten attacked by a little dog and the wild cat Eddie that lives there the day before, so she had slinked in carefully to avoid another assault.  They had given us free conch salad due to her attack so it wasn’t all for naught.

Well, despite its reputation on Sundays, it wasn’t really that crazy, at least not while we were there.  The have a big pig roast buffet, with bbq, macaroni and cheese to die for, peas and rice, Johnny cakes, potato salad and some kind of bread pudding.  It was all you can eat for $26 – kinda steep but worth it if you go back for seconds.

I couldn’t do that, but from the looks of some of the diners around me, they more than made up for me.

The music was a lot of throwback 60s interspersed with Bahamian Junkanoo- cool.

We were told later we missed the best entertainment – when a young couple went out in the surf, took their swimsuits off and couldn’t get them back on.  So they ran around the beach naked for awhile.

Back home they would get arrested, at Nippers they got cheers.

We left Guana early this morning to sail the 3-4 hours to Green Turtle Cay.  To reach this island you have to traverse the much-dreaded Whale Channel.

You go outside on the ocean around Whale Cay, and if conditions in the ocean are in any way rough, the Whale can get really treacherous.

They call it a “rage,” if the Whale whips it up.  You’ve heard of mad cows, I think a mad whale might be meaner.

Where’s Captain Ahab when you need him? Not Jonah though.

Anyway Cap’n Ed had done his homework and found today to be the best conditions – light wind and the seas had had a couple of days to calm down.

So we set off, listening to the Cruisers Net for any reports from people crossing the Whale.

There were none, which was a bit concerning. But as we got near, Ed got on the radio and asked if anyone was in the Whale, could they give us a report?

One guy, I think a fisherman came back and said it was fine, no problem.  Whew!

Then he came back a few minutes later and said it was getting some fresh roll.  Whatever that means.

Well we had been in swells before so we thought it might be fine, better rolly than choppy.

And once we got there we got the swells.  Not too bad though, we’ve been in worse.

The worst thing about the Whale Ed said is you’re in it for several miles.

Nothing for a car, could be over an hour for a sailboat, even motoring like we had to do today.

But we made it and turned back into the Sea of Abaco to calm aquamarine waters. 

We are docked at the Bluff House Marina for now til the next westerly blow comes through on Wednesday.  They have free wifi and showers, laundry facilities and two bars/restaurants to enjoy.

Nice break, no stress, the Whale is behind us.  Only the Gulf crossing looms before us- but hey that could be weeks away!