Customs, Riviera Beach Marina and on to Okeechobee Waterway

As I said previously, we arrived Lake Worth Inlet 6 pm on the Friday. Made our way to the anchorage just inside the inlet and got settled. Time to read up on the Customs protocols. Oh no, it says we should proceed immediately upon arrival to Customs. The sun was beginning to set, so it made it a little more difficult to make our way and find the Riviera Beach Marina that is very close to the Customs office. 

Of course there was no one answering the marina radio and we just made our way into the marina and tied up to some very new docks, that had no one else tied to them. We could just choose whatever one suited us. Music from the local Tiki Bar welcomed us. We figured if we were not supposed to be here someone would let us know. 

Peter started to make his way to the Customs office and sure enough the security guard said we had to move. The docks were under construction and there was no insurance on these docks. They guided us to where we could tie up, and helped with the lines. In the morning we found out that we could not have been any further from the office and showers if we had been in another marina. The office building is the furthest one away in the picture. I will remember this and avoid this marina at another time. They would need to give me a golf cart to entice me to return. The entire marina is under construction, a $326 million project. 

The security guard told us that we could wait till the next morning for customs. We had just missed the customs office that was a block away, and it closed for the weekend. We would need to rent a car and go to the airport.

A Jimmy Buffet Concert at the Amphitheater. And there were still some tickets available. No printer on board to print them, so off we went to see if we could buy some at the gate. A scalper offered us some tickets for $150. and we bought them hoping that they were good. And they were. We are getting too old for this kind of thing, I think. The tickets were for the lawn area. And after an hour of standing, feet tired, back and legs aching. Can't hear very well because people all around us are talking. Some are on cell phones, trying to find their friends in a crowd of about 25,000 or more. Saying, "I am here by the bar at the top of the hill, waving my hat" Who are they kidding. There is no way they can find their friends with directions like that. After about 15 minutes on the phone they would move off, very frustrated not to find their friends. After an hour we left, and went out for dinner. All in all, it had been fun, and we did hear a few of our favourite songs.

The next morning we were off for St. Augustine to get our car and move it to Indiantown Marina. As we were leaving we noticed a gecho on our windshield. Thinking that he did not want to be relocated to St. Augustine, Peter got out of the car and got him off.

Monday morning we had breakfast out, returned the rental car with the usual problems of them trying to overcharge. Peter sent an email to complaints department, and then we could be on our way. We will have 2 travel days to arrive at Indiantown Marina. Picture is of the Jupiter Lighthouse. We made really good time, travelling with the wind and the current. We settled for the night just north of Stuart in the North Fork. Good timing. The sun was setting as we put our anchor down for the night. During the night the cabin got a little warm for me as the winds had died down and there was no longer a breeze through the forward hatch. 3 am I moved out to the cockpit where it was cooler and fell asleep under the stars. Nice way to spend our last night at anchor.

Tuesday morning, we awoke early and were able to get an early start. Made a pot of coffee. Always nice to enjoy a cup of fresh brewed coffee while you travel in the morning. Mornings are also the coolest part of the day. That is if you think 75 plus is cool. We pulled up our anchor for the last time for our winter boating in Florida.

Okeechobee Waterway, here we come. We have not travelled this area, so once again this will all be new to us. The first bridge we encountered is 54'. A test for our measuring capabilities. We think we need 51'. That is 49' of mast plus allowing another 2' for antennaes. We should be good???? "Approach the bridge at the speed in which you intend to hit it" We made a very slow approach just to be sure. Heh! No problem. Piece of cake. The antennae didn't even rattle the underside of the bridge. Test complete. We now know we can go under a 54' bridge. There will also be the Port Lucie Lock. We haven't had a lock ride for a couple of years. Hope we can remember what to do. 

We will arrive at Indiantown Marina around lunch time.

Marsh Harbor and Back to Florida

Well once again I have been remiss in my blogging. When we have had a busy day, there is no time for blogging. And then if I am tired, I can't make the time to blog. Oh Well. Now I will just go back to my pictures and try to piece the events together in some order and share.

After spending 3 or 4 days at Green Turtle Cay waiting once again for good weather to go thru the Whale Cut Channel. This channel takes us out into the Atlantic Ocean for about 2 miles. The channel is exposed to waves that come across the ocean, and we were told not to enter the channel if there were whitecaps. And we had agreed that if there were whitecaps we would return and wait for another day. Well we did see whitecaps, but we finally determined that it was the waves breaking on the reef. Not the waves in the channel. So we pushed on thru the channel. While the waves were at least 5' with some 6' the boats handled the waves well. Looking at Yesterday's Dream when they were in a trough and we were in a trough, all we could see of her was the blue of the canvas above their flybridge. Unfortunately, no pictures of this.

 We got settled in Marsh Harbor and it was time to take the dinghies out to do some exploring.

 Oops. It got a little shallow and Steve had to get out of the dinghy and push it over the sand bar.
They haven't learned about following Peter yet. Peter seems to live a charmed life. We had just gone over this exact same area with no problem.
Below is some of the sea life that attached itself to the poles at the dock where we tied the boat.

Another day we went on a bike ride out to the airport, about 3 miles one way. Peter went to check at the airport for some water and we waited at a garden at the interior of a round about. Steve and I are posed with a statue of a parrot at the center of the garden.

 Linda took the opportunity to have a rest while we waited for Peter.

Of course there were a couple of trips to the local grocery store. Maxwell's would rival a lot of grocery stores in Florida. On the way back to the boat we found a delightful bakery that had fresh cinnamon rolls. We bought 2. Peter and I shared one and then that left a spare one that we shared with Steve and Linda as dessert after dinner. They were sooooo good.

We spent 4 days puttering around Marsh Harbor waiting for the weather to allow us to go out to some of the Cays to do some snorkelling and some fishing. I can't remember what all we did. There were some bike rides, some lazing around reading books and relaxing.

Word came around that in a few days time, there would be a weather window to return to Florida.  If we didn't join in with the mass exodus at this time we could have to wait another week or longer as there was some bad weather following this opportunity. It seemed like we just got here and it was time to return. There were a number of boats planning to go, and it is always good to buddy up with others for the trip.

 So we said goodbye to Steve and Linda. They were going to stay, and do some snorkelling and some fishing with the good weather that was coming into the Bahamas.
We know that we will be seeing them again very shortly on the Trent in June, and they plan to join us for the Rideau trip this summer.

What a difference the return trip was. This is a picture of the waves from the Atlantic hitting the shore of Whale Cay. What a sight.

 Our first day was Marsh Harbor to Crab Cay thru the Whale Cut. North west winds at 11 knots falling to 9 knots with waves 3 to 4 feet.

 We had a beautiful sunset, a huge sun. We heard a conch shell horn being blown and it sounded like it was coming from Powell Cay. 7 boats were travelling together in our group and we found 2 other boats already anchored when we arrived. It had been a perfect day, only once again, no sailing. The wind was on our nose. We seem to be cursed. Perhaps tomorrow.

We have decided that we will go with the group to Great Sale Cay and then we will go to the West End, then on to Lake Worth on Friday in the daylight. No overnight sailing. The majority of the boats plan to sail overnight.

Peter tried to get some more fishing in as we travelled to Great Sale Cay the next day. He seemed to be catching a lot of sea grass. I wonder what kind of a salad I could make with that????

We could here the sing of his fishing line as another fish hit. I take the wheel and slow the boat down, and Peter reels in his fish. And it is a fish this time and not more sea grass. But, oh no, it's a barracuda. Not good for eating. And all those nasty teeth. Now to get him off and away. Peter uses some thick gloves and a pair of plyers. The barracuda gets to live another day.

 Another fish on the line. This time it is a flying fish. I have been enjoying watch them fly over the water. They are quite talented. It is amazing how far they can fly. Impressive. And they can even turn in mid air.

There are 42 boats anchored on Wed night at Great Sale Cay. I have never seen so many sailboats all in one anchorage on our entire trip. This has been another picture perfect day. This is more like what I thought the Bahamas would be like.

During the evening there is a lot of radio chatter between boats trying to firm up their plans for the next day and their crossing to Florida. The majority of boats plan to listen to the local weather pundit Chris Park at his 6.30 am broadcast and it all is the same they will leave for Mantanilla Shoals. Some plan to sleep for 4 hours then get up at about 10 pm and head out to cross the gulf stream for Florida.

We watch the sunset in the hopes of seeing a green flash. Peter thinks he may have seen the flash. 3 conch horns serenade the setting sun.

In the morning the radio chatter begins again. The weather is a go for everyone. It will be good for Thursday and Friday for a gulf stream crossing.

There was a mass exodus of boats from Great Sale Cay.



It was so calm on our travel to the West End that we could see the shadow of the bow of the boat as well as the forestay and mast in the water.

 We were travelling in 15 to 20 feet of water over the Little Bahama Bank and yet we could see the bottom and grasses clearly. The bright areas are the sun reflecting off the waves on the sand below.
This is what we thought the Bahamas would be like.

As we made our way to the very shallow Indian Cay Channel, we were in 11 to 9 feet of water. We could see starfish on the sand bottom. We must of seen 50 or more.




We arrived at the West End at the end of another very long day. We got the boat settled. Had a shower. And decided to treat ourselves to dinner out at the restaurant. I had become very accustomed to only cooking every second night when we travelled with Steve and Linda. Steve is a wonderful cook. And he really spoiled us. It will be a shock now that I need to cook everyday.

There was a little excitement in the morning at the West End. There were a number of boats wanting to make the crossing, but there was some squalls showing up on the radar with some yellow areas in it, directly in our path. A lot of discussion among the boats, but then it was decided that it was travelling to the north of us and it had passed or would soon.

Time to be off. Six boats left the marina for another long day of travelling.

 Now this is something that could ruin your day. A Carnival cruise ship was out in the waterway. While it looks like it is right on top of us, it is still a long ways away.

I finally got a decent picture of dolphins. There were 5 or 6 of them travelling together. They are so graceful, and such a delight to watch.

And then this little bird came and rested on our boat for awhile. You can see him sitting on the wheel just above Peter's foot. He had already been around the boat a couple of times. Had rested in the dinghy. Sat on Peter's foot. Sat on the edge of Peter's pop can. He probably stayed with us for about half an hour and then disappeared as quickly as he had appeared. He was out in the middle of the gulf stream. Not sure where he was going, but we hope he made it.

Here you can see on the chart plotter that we are almost half way across, travelling in 2179 feet of water, with a lot further to go. We are not in the gulf stream yet because we are still doing 5.3 knots. Once we hit the gulf stream we dropped to about 4.5 knots if we kept this same heading because we were trying to go straight across to Lake Worth Inlet.

Look at the blue of the gulf stream. What a sight to see. And look at how calm it is. The swells are less than one foot, and I think the wind was well under 10 knots at this time.

We had an idyllic crossing. We arrived at the Lake Worth Inlet at about 6 pm. Quarantine flag is up. Time to decide how to contact and clear customs. We have no telephone card so we have no telephone service. Hmmmm. We decide to anchor and do some reading.

Well that is another story that I will finish in my next blog. I am tired, it is midnight now and I need to get some sleep. Perhaps tomorrow I will finish this story as we travel towards Indiantown on the Lake Okeechobee waterway.

Exploring Green Turtle Cay

Mode of transportation is to either ride your bike or rent a golf cart to explore. Hmmmm??? We chose the golf cart. Steve and Peter are our tour guides.




One of the beaches on the east side of Green Turtle Cay. Beautiful water.

 Here are some boats up on the hard. Hurricane straps installed to hold the boats down. In Florida they only put the straps on when they know a hurricane is coming thru. Perhaps they do it automatically here, as they know that sooner or later a hurricane or a tropical storm will come thru.

This was a pretty section of one of the roads to the north of the marina. It is a good 10 degrees cooler in the shade, vs the direct sunshine.

 The main street in New Plymouth at the most southerly end of the island. All of the houses are painted in these pastel colors. And the road is only wide enough for 2 golf carts to meet and pass safely. There are cars and trucks on the island, but they seem to be few. Most popular transportation is the golf cart.

The back of the Bluff House Restaurant. No longer in use, closed. Looks like it took a lot of damage in a storm and no one has repaired it and it doesn't look like there are plans to do any repairs.

 Peter is climbing up onto a stand at the very north end of Coco Bay which gives a view of both the Atlantic Ocean on one side and Coco Bay (Sea of Abaco) on the otherside. The vegetation is so thick that there is no way you could walk thru it.

 Lunch out at the Lizard Bar and Grill half way between the marina and New Plymouth. Great lunch of snapper. The day is too much for Peter, he is trying to take a quick rest while he awaits lunch. Seems like he missed some sleep time during the night due to the lunar eclipse. Quite interesting. I have never seen a lunar eclipse. They talk about the blood red moon, and it truly turns a reddish color during the eclipse. The full covering of the moon takes about 1 hour. It seems to take an hour for the moon to become fully covered, then another hour where it remains covered, and then an hour for the coverage to wane and the moon shines thru again. I took a pillow and a cover out into the cockpit and was able to lay down and watch the process. It basically took 3 hours; from about 2 am to 5 am.  An afternoon rest is definetely in the plans.

Very strange color to these clouds. The bottom of the clouds have a green color to them.

The motor on Steve and Linda's dinghy still isn't working well. They took the outboard to a local repair shop, however they had no way to test the outboard. Peter towed their dinghy down to the shop so they could put the motor on dinghy to test it. Here a dinghy is called a "dink".

 The normal tide in this area is about 3 to 3.5 feet. After the lunar eclipse it seems to be even more extreme today. That is a very big step. Boaters here need to be half mountain goat.

Being as Steve and Linda had rented the golf cart for the outboard repairs they had it until 11 am. The original plan for the day was to get up early and go to the beach to watch the sunrise. Everyone was up early, however Mother Nature once again had a mid of her own. It was raining. No point going for the sunrise. As the morning wore on, the skies were clear and it was decided to go to New Plymouth for breakfast and a visit to the hardware store to find something to repair their broken dinghy oar. Success on both accounts. With full tummies we returned to the boats. Looks like some nasty weather could be coming in from the north. An ominous dark cloud is approaching.

Just checked, and that ominous cloud has passed us by. Now the skies are just a grey overcast sky. We had a few sprinkles but not enough to even close the hatches. Wonder what the rest of the day will bring.

There are signs around the marina that the "#1 Band in the Nation" will be playing at the patio tonight. We will need to check this out for sure. Who can resist the #1 Band in the Nation. Now, just not sure what nation they refer to? Probably the Bahamian nation, don't you think.

West End to Green Turtle Cay

We stayed at the West End for several days waiting for the storm front to move thru on the Tues and Wed. There was a very shallow area that we wanted to travel thru at high tide. We were told we would have no less than 7 feet all the way thru at high tide. It was worth waiting for as it would cut off 3 hours of travel time. 

 There was lots to do while we waited. First there was some fishing to be done. Unfortunately Steve and Linda's outboard motor gave them some trouble and Steve ended up finally rowing back.

 Then there was the swimming pool which beckoned us in the afternoons. Peter is here in the top pool talking to another boater in the lower pool.

 Then there was a number of bike rides into town. My bike broke down and we did not have tools with us to fix it. Now what do we do. We are about 2 miles from the boat?

 Steve and Peter tied the bikes together with two bike lock cables. Then Steve towed Peter on my bike. That's right, Steve had to drag Peter back to the boats, 2 miles away.

 Peter and I took a side trip to Port Lucaya one afternoon. Enjoyed the local sights. First an ice cream cone, then wandered thru a touristy flea market where Peter couldn't resist buying a Bahamas shirt. Definitely a tourist. Then we went to the marina and enjoyed  a slice of pizza in a open plaza area right at the marina. The visit was very short as we had to be sure to catch the last bus from Port Lucaya and Freeport. There was a casino in Port Lucaya. Too bad Linda missed it.

The day to move on finally arrived and we said goodbye to the West End. 5 boaters were up early and away from docks to catch the early morning high tide thru Indian Cay channel to Barracuda Shoal. No problem. Then we were onto the Little Bahama Bank. Wind and waves were on the nose. 3 foot waves with some 4's and 5's thrown in. Every once in awhile the bow of the boat would rise way out of the water and then bang back down into the next wave. Suspect these were the "square waves" we have been told about. The photo is of "Eagle Wings" on the crossing. We were glad to reach our destination of Great Sale Cay. A delightful anchorage.

 Peter had to do some fishing. Around noon he caught a fish. Took him about half an hour to finally bring it in. But how disappointing; it was a barracuda. What an ugly fish, and all those nasty teeth. Now what do we do with it?  Well we just towed it behind the boat. We left it in the water overnight, still not sure how to safely get it off the hook. Thinking that we could use it for bait, as they are not good to eat.
Problem solved. The next morning when we got up, there was nothing on the hook. And I mean nothing. Overnight the local fish had a feast and solved our problem.

The next day we were off for another full day of travel. The winds were picking up as the day wore on and we decided to get out of the weather sooner rather than later and anchored near Foxtown, behind Hawksbill Cay. It was a bouncey anchorage, but better than another 3 hours of banging around in the weather. The next day we were up early and made our way to Powell Cay. Our anchor set on the first try, but there was a storm front coming in with high winds blowing thru making it uncomfortable. Steve and Linda looked like they had a more protected spot. We decided to move over to where they were closer to shore. Of course, as we were trying to change our spot the leading edge of the front moved in. Making for an exciting few minutes. Our anchor dragged for quite awhile, but it finally set. The 30 mile an hour winds assured us that we were secure. We could be quite comfortable that we would not drag during the night.

Then off to Green Turtle Cay and a dock and internet. There are green and red balls in the water marking the channel. Strange, very strange. But they sure do the job.
It gets unnerving not to have your communications. We have been 3 days and 3 anchorages without communications. We have no idea of what the weather is going to be. It is good to get to a marina and get some current information. Weather, Wind, Wave Heights, Wave Intervals, Facebook, and emails. How civilized. Still no weather reports on the VHF. No cruisers net on the VHF yet either.

Now we wait for an opportunity to pass thru the Whales Cut or Channel to make our way south towards Marsh Harbour. Multiple conflicting reports. The locals (dock hands) say don't go now, then there is a local pundit, Chris Parks, who says go on this day early, but after that it is a no go for several days. OK, we wait. There are worse places to be. We could be at home, still shovelling snow. Heard they got another 8 inches overnight.

While everyone raves about the Bahamas, they fail to tell you that after you arrive at the West End, that you still have another 3 to 4 travel days to actually get to the islands where you can enjoy the snorkelling and the fishing. And that is only if the winds subside and allow you to enjoy these activities. I am quite contented to be tied at a dock and enjoy the local area.