Friday, October 23, 2009
Blogging Woes
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Wow...This blogging thing got stuck
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Where have I Been?
Until next time,
M
Monday, September 22, 2008
Overdue Update
Wow, I just looked at this blog and realized that I haven't updated it in quite a while. Let me do the quick version…While we were at Great Guana Cay, my wife injured her knee while entering a fiberglass insert pool at "Grabbers". We were there to observe the magnificent sunset and to snap a few photos with our friends. Following sunset, we made our way to the pool located next to the bar and my wife slipped during entry and twisted her knee and hit her head on the edge of the pool. It was quite a scare and the weird thing was, she wasn't even drinking and alcoholic beverage. We made our way back to the boat and she started nursing her knee by applying ice and elevating her leg. It was obvious that something serious was wrong even though there was no evidence of swelling. After a very difficult night, we decided to continue our journey to Hope Town, our final "leg" of the Abacos journey. It quickly became apparent that we should consider heading back to get her to an orthopedic specialist. During our discussions with fellow boaters, one of the owners was very knowledgeable in this field and offered to contact his personal friend to arrange a telephonic consult. We were grateful for the offer and during the consult we were assured that no further damage would be inflicted if we kept it immobilized. So, with our new peace of mind, we realized that we were restricted to the boat and could not participate in the festivities (snorkeling, dinghy races, etc…), we decided to depart Hope Town and abort our vacation. We left Hope Town the next morning and made our way back to Jupiter via West End Bahamas. We arrived at our dock on Wednesday at 10:30 AM after a smooth ride across a peaceful sea. We contact the orthopedic surgeon and were granted an appointment at 2:30 PM. To make a long story short, my wife had a severe sprained knee which does not require surgery. She is currently in physical therapy and continues to make progress towards a healthy knee.
By the way, I caught a really nice lobster during our stay at Great Guana...
Since then…We were threatened with a direct hit from hurricane IKE and we hauled Wonderfun out of the water and had some minor maintenance performed during the dry dock period. The bottom was high pressure washed and repainted. We had a minor leak in the engine compartment that was traced to a leaking clamp and we had some minor snaps replaced. We are scheduled to retrieve the boat from Stuart on Wednesday. So, all is well again and I can't wait to get back on the water.
Until next time…
Mike
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Abacos Day..Honey what day is this?
So I planned on writing in this blog each day and I must say, that's not going to happenJ It appears that there is so much to do here that I never even get this computer out and quite frankly don't want to either. So I'll catch up to date with the latest goings on…As reported earlier, we made it to West End on Wednesday and departed there on Thursday in route to "Green Turtle Cay"..Jen and I departed an hour prior to the rest of the gang because we just wanted to travel through the Bahama Bank on our own. And because we didn't want the pressure of being the slowest boat and making the large boats travel at our pace. We also are seasoned enough to navigate through the Bahamas alone. So we headed out at 7:00 AM sharp and made our way to Green Turtle. The trip took about 5 hours and it was absolutely beautiful. There is nothing like traveling in a boat and not seeing another vessel for miles.
Upon arrival, we stopped at the fuel dock and were surprised to only take on 148 gallons of gas. Our little boat made a 5 hour trip in under 30 gallons/hr. Wonderfun is rated at 32 gallons/hr not including the generator consumption. We ran the generator the entire trip and it is rated at 1.5 gallons per hour, so that means the engines consumed approximately 141 gallons…Awesome! I attribute this to taking our time and not trying to keep up with any schedules or faster boats.
While we were at Green Turtle we took the MarineMax dinghy out for a little lobster hunt. Dan, Larry (A.K.A. Larpy) my wife and I were going to go out an "slay" a boat load of lobster…Well after four hours of snorkeling, we finally bagged three of these ever elusive delicacies. I say "we"..I found a couple of them and Dan speared them. My wife bagged the first one of the day on her way to help spear the ones I found. So once again, I didn't catch a lobster…Maybe todayJ
We departed Green Turtle yesterday (Saturday) and headed south to Guana Cay at 8:00AM. Dan (MissMax) led the way and we followed. The trip was only 15 miles and we were traveling at approximately 22knots which was a nice comfortable pace. We arrived about 45 minutes later and set up camp. My wife and I enjoyed the local beach and tried snorkeling for a little while, but our suntans couldn't take very much more. Dan invited us to travel with him on the MarineMax boat to Marsh Harbour to pick up his sisters and his girlfriend due in around 5:30 PM…so, off we went. I must say, there is a huge difference traveling on a 58' Sedan Bridge versus a 32' Sundancer.
Until next time…
M
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Abacos Day 1
Well we started our day with the most pleasant ride to the Bahamas. We departed our slip at precisely 6:20 AM and through the Jupiter Inlet by 6:30 AM. We were elated to find the ocean as calm as we've ever seen and were able to cruise at 22 knots all the way to West End, Bahamas. We arrived in a mere 2 hours and 50 minutes, refueled ($5.86/gal), cleared Customs and Integration and were ready to head to the Ginn Sur Resort pool by 10:15. We are truly amazed how close we are to this tropical paradise. The remainder of our group of 9 boats arrived approximately one hour later and met us at the pool around 1:30 PM. What an awesome day lounging around, bike riding and just enjoying life with our boating friends. We are currently preparing to leave Wonderfun and join the group on the MarineMax 58' Sedan Bridge for a "Docktail" party. My wife prepared a nice little crab dip as our favorite appetizer and I am truly ready to hang out with our friends again.
Until next time
M
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Abacos Preparations
Well it's finally here, we are within a week of taking our 10 day trip to the Abacos. We are traveling to West End on Wednesday and staying at Old Bahama Bay Resort for the night. We will then motor to Green Turtle Cay Thursday morning and docking at Green Turtle Yacht Club. The trip will take approximately 5.5 hours and we will stay through Saturday morning whereupon we will travel to Guana Cay and dock at Guana's Orchid Bay marina. This trip will only take two hours and we will stay on this Cay until Monday. Monday morning we travel to Elbow Cay and visit Hope town. I can't wait to visit this cay, I really want to see this place. It is described as the best of the Bahamas. We stay at Hopetown through Wednesday (8/6)…We head for Marsh Harbour which is only 4 miles from Hope town. We stay at Marsh Harbor until Friday at 9am and we head back north to Spanish cay which will take about 2 hours. We only stay one night at Spanish Cay and depart the next morning at 9AM and travel back to West End…about a 5 hour trip. We are so excited and can't wait to get under way!
Our plan is to go to Costco this weekend and purchase the bulk of our supplies…water, coffee and beer. We don't really drink that much beer, but it seems as though we host a lot of people when we are at our slip. We actually paid $67 dollars for a case of Bud Lite when we were in Bimini and learned our lesson quickly to always bring extra "provisions" when in the Bahamas. We are currently authoring our list of meals during the trip…mostly steak, chicken and hotdogs…Our freezer section is so small that we can only take a small supply for such a long journey, so I guess we'll have to eat at the local restaurants…Yeah!!! Don't get me wrong, I love grilling on the boat, but the fresh seafood in the islands is absolutely out of this world. Most restaurants require you to make reservation in the morning and decide what you want so they can catch your desired dish…How awesome is that! Anyway, we are taking a few filet mignons, chicken breasts and a couple of packages of hotdogs. The last time we rafted up in Lucaya at Petersen Cay we fed three boats full of people. It was so much fun having everyone enjoying a surprise lunch!
Until next time,
Mike