We are back in the States

It seems like we do a lot of things on the spur of the moment lately, so this is nothing new. We woke up on Monday morning and got a report that Whale Cut was passable so we decided to get up and move right then. The cut was a little bumpy but nothing that we have not been through before however coming back in the north side looked a little scary with huge breakers that a surfer would be in their glory over. We had to time it and pick our cut and just go for it(no problem and a little exciting at that). We made our way up to a place called Spanish Cay which you have to take a slip and it’s not cheap, but we decided to go for it because everyone always talks about how nice it is. This island is very different from the other places we had pulled into. One thing is there is no one there. The only people that live there full time are the two that work the marina. We had enough time to walk the beaches and do a little exploring with the dogs. There was one bay we went to that there were hundreds of conchs all over the place and when we would pick them up they would come halfway out of their shell and it looked as if they were looking at us. We left there and our original plans were to anchor at Great Sale Cay and then go to the West End to wait for weather. A front was coming in on Thursday night so we did not know if we could cross anytime soon. On the way over to Great Sale another boat called to ask if anyone was doing the cross that night. Jon and I talked about it and then decided to go for it. As we passed Great Sale we looked for a beach and made our way over to it to let the dogs go potty and put the dink on the topside of Kasidah. It was amazing how many Portuguese man a war jelly fish we encountered this part of the trip. We left Great Sale at 6PM and had 10 hours of motoring in the calmest weather we had seen in the Abacos. We went off the bank at around 2AM and made Ft Pierce Fl. Around noon. The sea conditions were not bad at all, maybe 2 to 5 and a light roll. The autopilot worked great all the time and the stars and moon were absolutely beautiful. We only encountered three ships, one cruise ship and two very large cargo ships that made their way around our stern. One really cool thing I noticed at night was when I would pump water in the head fast there would be phosphorus things running in the bowl.
We are doing some cleaning on Kasidah right now and then will head up to Green Cove Springs where Kasidah will be hauled out and stored for a few months till our next adventure begins.

Still waiting.......

Just a few great people we hung with at the show.

This is (in center) Rich and Julie, they are future cruisers and had many questions for us. They came to the Abacos to do a little sailing for their vacation.

The show was fun with lots of partying, dancing and drinking going on. we saw lots of friends and even did a little dancing. The wind is down to about 20 to 25 but the air is still a little cold-in the low 60s. We still have not been able to do the Whale cut because of high seas in that area so we will miss the weather break on Wednesday to cross the Atlantic. We are now looking at crossing the Whale cut on Tuesday and then waiting for the next high to do the gulf stream. we need an East to South wind to have a nice pleasant crossing.

Great ending of a great day.........

People are coming in by the boat loads (click here to read about him)

Today is the Barefoot man show at Nippers beach bar. On our walk this morning we met up with the man himself, and of course I had to have a picture for the blog. George "the Barefoot Man"

is a very nice and friendly guy who you can tell has been coming here for awhile and seems to really enjoy the island and all the people here. He drove around on a golf cart(this is the number one means of travel, besides walking on the islands)and waved and said hi to everyone.

This is just one casualty from the wind we have seen so far.

Weather is calming down

We all faired well through the 48 hours of really windy weather. We did happen to see a cat come in that had some dinghy problems. This is not how you want to tow your dink......

We did a lot of exploring since the wind was so heavy and found some very cool beaches that were protected from the wind. We spent some time there with the dogs and doing a little cave exploring and climbing. the tempeture is only in the low 60s and is not supose to change till next week. The weather for crossing looks real promising for next week so maybe we will be back by then.

On our walk this morning we meet up with the Barefoot man, we did not know it was him till afterwards when we were talking to a guy who does card tricks at the show for people and who we had met last night at dinner.

Even though it is really blowing still, the boats are starting to come in for the really busy weekend, I guess it gets hard to find a spot by Friday morning. We are just sitting back watching the show out there.

Just waiting on the weather

We are just sitting back waiting for the weather to change.

It seems like that's all we do here. Last night was Nippers BBQ so we went to have some fun with many other cruisers we have meet on the way.

Here in the Abacos like other warm places, spring break has already started and there were lots of young people there. It was a riot watching them get trashed and dancing on everything. They were all having a great time, but not to sure how they felt in the morning. Even one 93 year old lady that lives on the island joined in the fun and even had a beer with us.

It is Monday and this is the one nice day for the week so we are going to the beach to hang out, the really heavy wind will be here by morning and last till Thursday.