Monday, August 7, 2006

Emancipation Day in the Bahamas. Everything is closed for the holiday so we relaxed at the mooring in Man-o-War while Buddy cleaned Escape’s bottom. Later in the evening we enjoyed a movie and pick foods aboard Star (a 40 ft. trawler on the mooring next to us).

What a tough way to wait out Tropical Storm Chris!

Admiral Ellie aboard M/V Star.

Tuesday, August 8, 2006

Left Man-o-War for Marsh Harbour at 9 am. Anchored by 11 am and into town for provisions & beverages. With supplies all stowed we weighed anchor and headed back to Man-o-War. Busy, busy day!! Escape picked up a knot of speed with her clean bottom - YEAH!!!

(total trip - 15.3 nm)

The Duke of Topsail is one of the supply boats we frequently meet
entering/exiting of Marsh Harbour.

Wednesday, August 9, 2006

Tired of being tied to the mooring, we leave the comforts of home and sail under jib to Fisher’s Bay in Great Guana Cay. Once secured there, Tom changed the transmission fluid while I worked on fixing up a dish for the Pot Luck Dinner at Grabber’s Sunset Beach Bar.
(trip - 8.7 nm)

Thursday, August 10, 2006

The winds from Great Guana led us back into Marsh Harbour under FULL SAILS !!
Escape was in her glory. With 3 consecutive days under sail and a clean bottom, she was in her realm, knifing through the waters of the Bahamas. (trip 15.6 nm)

Friday, August 11, 2006

Awoken at 1:15 am by an explosion and fire at Long’s Landing (a vacated dock with only an occasional boat tied up). A catamaran fully engulfed in flames, burned and sank. A total loss. No one aboard and the owner was up north taking care of business. Theory is it was deliberately set. Burning fiberglass is a horrible smell.

As the fire started, our view from Escape.

The next day at high at tide. The boat to the right was totally untouched, not even any soot or ash. AMAZING!!

Another view of the remains at low tide.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

A day sail - beautiful winds. Sailed to Water Cay (between Marsh Harbour and Treasure Cay to the north). Winds died later in the day. Took a tub and motored back to Marsh Harbour for the night. Persaides Earth Grazers were to be visible between 8 - 10 pm. Nothing seen.

(trip - 21.2 nm)

Sunday, August 13, 2006

M/V Silk Purse (Capt. Ron, Terry & dog Ocean) invited everyone in harbor to bring their drink of choice, a pick food, themselves and any instrument onboard to Silk Purse for a night of Karaoke, jamming and sing-along. What a great time and WOW a lot of talent!! Pat & Darnel from Island Dream were ukulele pickers from Louisiana, Hank from Typee Mistress was the new Frank Sinatra (now known as Hanky Franky), Dick from Gusto preformed 2 songs he had written and recorded, Rebecca from Angel played a native American Indian flute and a song to worship the gods, Capt. Ron from Silk Purse played the guitar and keyboard, & Bruce from Shearwater brought his guitar and sang a few songs he had written and recorded (Bruce was a former keyboardist and back up vocalist for Aerosmith).

Hanky Franky sing us “Those Summer Winds”.

Monday, August 14, 2006

Laundry day - a strange man with a service dog claims his can’t find his belt that had $6000 in it. He tells us he has short term memory loss due to being hit by a truck. Being the only one in the laundry with him, he was hoping we had seen it. Of course we didn’t pay any attention to his stuff but after endless searching he finally looked in his car and there it was. He showed us the tattered belt and the $6000 worth of gold Krugerands that were hidden under a flap on the backside. We were relieved he found it.
A front brings thunderstorms and winds causing power outages leaving no electricity to run the dryers. Dryer issues + wet bedding + rain + etc. = happy island life !!

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Thunderstorm and winds again kept us in Marsh Harbour.

Benny the barracuda hangs in the shade of Escape.

Wednesday, August 17, 2006

Finally we escaped out of Marsh Harbour and off to Tahiti Beach on Elbow Cay. Tahiti Beach is basically a sand bar that at low tides evolves into a spectacular beach. We found a bit of sea glass while we combed the waterline.

Tahiti Beach

Met up with friends, Katherine & Bryan aboard Highland Wanderer. Two entrepeneurers from Scotland that do Sea Scout charters and are now working on expanding their business.

(trip - 10.6 nm)

Bryan, Katherine and Babette enjoying noodle cocktails.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Waited for high tide to leave Tahiti and sailed to Man-o-War. (trip - 5 nm)




Saturday, August 19, 2006

Sailed from Man-o-War into Marsh Harbour for a quick stop to get water and ice. Then across the Sea of Abaco to anchor in Crossing Bay at Great Guana Cay.
(trip - 16.5 nm)

Sunday, August 20,2006

At the northern end of Great Guana Cay, Baker’s Bay was the site for the 4th annual Sail Away. This is a local fund raiser to benefit Every Child Counts and the Abaco Rage. Snappa’s Chill and Grill provided the hamburgers and drinks that we enjoyed with fellow cruiser and locals for the afternoon.

In the islands there are no snowballs - just sand balls.

With thunderstorms all around us - we were again chased out of Baker’s Bay back down to the more protected Fisher’s Bay. (trip - 6.2 nm)


Monday, August 21, 2006

In Fisher’s Bay we awoke to a beautiful morning sky but still full of stormy clouds.

Wednesday, July 19 - 26, 2006

Flew out of Marsh Harbour to Miami, Fla., rented a car and drove to Marathon. What a fast and crazy place Miami is when you’ve been out of touch with the USA pace of life for 4 months. While in Marathon we stayed with friends aboard, Wind Spirit, Dave & Brenda. We had a great time with them as well as a lot of very late nights. We even had time to go out to the flats by boat to wade and relax.

Brenda, Bab & Dave relaxing at the flats.

Marianne and Jorge had a cookout for us which enabled us to visit with friends we might have run out of time to visit. Great ribs, fish and all the trimmings!

On Sunday, it was off to Sarasota to visit Diane and family as well as get the truck settled into it’s new home. The drive was longer than expected, but we did see about 25 alligators sunbathing as we crossed Alligator Alley (Interstate 75). Diane showed us all around the Sarasota/Bradenton area. We have decided that we like the west coast of Florida much better than the east coast.

We celebrated Tom’s birthday by opening his present, with the help of Diane‘s grandkids, Casey and Haley, a Sageman Djembe drum. The large drum ordered was bigger than expected so we ended up returning it and keeping the smaller one in Diane’s arms.

Diane’s son, Tom took us to Sand Dollar Island in his boat on Monday afternoon. Had a lot of fun - shell finding, sand dollar picking and beach bocce.

Wednesday, July 26 was the day for driving back to Miami to catch our flight back home to the Abacos. Flight was on time, caught the Albury ferry back to Man-o-War Cay, picked up the dinghy and back to Escape in time for cocktails.

Thursday, July 27 - Wednesday, August 2, 2006

Off to Marsh Harbour for reprovisioning. Once provisioned, were forced back to our mooring in Man-o-War for a wait & see on the track of Tropical Strom Chris!! Everyone is carefully watching and preparing as well as giving the sky an evil eye to ward off TS Chris.

Thursday, August 3, 2006

Barometer Bob from the Abacos Cruisers Net was elated to report a new weakened and more western path of TS Chris but Chris Parker of the Caribbean Weather Net still holds some reservations… we’ll see. The evil eyes are now into overtime bringing in the air heads and thunder balls as backup. All of these things are Bahamian idols believed to ward off bad weather and provide protection.

Saturday, August 5, 2006

Good news!! Chris is now a tropical depression now making landfall in Cuba. Hooray!!