More of the Bimini Islands

11/17/2010
          We are currently in our third anchorage of our trip, so feeling like anchorage experts at this point, we agree that this anchorage is awesome. I keep thinking to myself, “should I be really trying to take this all in, capture a bunch of pictures, and relish in this beautiful and seemingly almost perfect anchorage; or is this the norm and there are a million more anchorages just like this and possibly even sweeter?“ The first day here we got up early and paddled in so Penny could run around and we could explore. Con and I walked on clean, white sand and climbed over grey, dried trees smooth to the touch from the ocean tides lapping over them twice a day. There I looked at the white sand stretching out into ridiculously clear water that has such a range of intense blues and claimed, with a laugh, that I had found paradise and I was done exploring. Of course not true, but I felt that way. This was the island I thought about in my head after I came home from work tired and frustrated and prepared myself to go back and do it all again the next day. The snorkeling is beautiful, tons of brightly colored fish and there are parts where almost the whole ocean floor is covered in different colored sea fans dancing with the ebb and flow of the gentle swell. I snorkeled yesterday with the flip camera to record how cool the snorkeling was but Con and I couldn’t even finish watching it on the computer because it was going to make us sea sick the footage was so shaky. So everyone is just going to have to believe me because the proof is too brutal to watch. When I get a steadier hand underwater I will post a video. Conor actually asked if I was swimming with the hand that was holding the camera.

          Our days at are filled with snorkeling, hunting for fish, lobster, conch, exploring, fishing and yes, reading and napping. When the sun starts to get lower in the sky, we get on the VHF with the other boats and discuss what we are bringing to the island campfire for dinner that night. We canoe in with our bounty from that day and chill around the campfire. We share food, laugh and tell stories, and we acknowledge what an incredible place we are experiencing.
M

　

Conch Clean Conor

          While snorkeling the Sapona, a wreck between Gun Cay and Bimini, I found 3 fat conchs and want to show the fam and friends how we cleaned them,…it was an interesting experience. First of all if you’ve never seen a live queen conch, let me describe them: aside from the shell which everyone knows, when you pick one up and turn it over you will see the fat meaty foot part first, with a pointy hook-shaped operculum, then you notice two eyes on the end of 1 inch stalks looking back at you. In between these eyes and a little south is a 1 inch proboscis, a tube shaped mouth part that the animal uses to suck up dirt and food. The animals never really seem scared when you pick them up, they don’t suck up into the shell like you‘d expect, instead they stay exposed and prefer to point their eye stalks back at who is carrying them around. I already had some reservations about taking conch because it seems wasteful to kill the animal and discard this huge amazing shell that will sit in the ocean probably for years. But seeing their eyes looking back at you conveys some kinda “tough guy” personality which also makes them difficult to just kill without thinking about it.
          Anyways, a quick flashback to eating cracked conch and I’m over my reservations about killing them, so I get on with it. I have never cleaned a conch before nor have I had any instructions, aside from the Bahamians telling me that if you kill the conch you must eat the thistle raw to pay respect to the animal and carry on its “essence”, which has the added benefit of making you “strong”. So the following picture diagram should tell the tale. The pictures start after the first conch came out, because that’s when Meghan discovered I was doing this and started taking pictures.And that’s it, now repeat two more times, including knocking the shells in the water.
Post script: after eating three thistles, and seeing the piles of shells around the docks that the Bahamians clean, I doubt they eat the thistle out of every conch.
There is some more work to do involving peeling the extra tough leather skin from around the foot with your teeth, but that hasn't been mastered yet, so i'll save that for another post
C

One conch worth of meat on the board, two conchs up on deck, feeling cocky at this point

pointing to where I’m gonna poke the whole with the screwdriver, which I learned  from looking at the already harvested conch shells all over the bottom

tapping in the hole, foot bracing is imperative

shell slips, knock 2 conchs in the water

concentrate on the conch at hand



also dropped the conch I was working on in the water, so hair is now wet after swimming down and getting all three conchs back.  but conch is now pissed, so he has to pulled out with pliers



Victory!!



  That clear gelatinous tube at the bottom is the thistle (I’m pretty sure)



Pull the thistle out

squint at the thistle in the sun, mentally preparing for what's about to go down

stop delaying and get'r done

try not to make a stupid face

For all those Penny fans out there. . .

          We know there are not many but maybe a few want to know how your girl is doing. The answer is fabulous. It’s been chilly lately and even though Con and my bed is the size a hobbit would be comfy in, she sleeps snuggled up and warm and we somehow all fit. She gets a morning swim or canoe ride into shore, depending on how far out we are anchored, to stretch her legs and sniff Bahamian grass and sand. She helps us snorkel and when she is tired she lifeguards from the canoe. Her diet has changed from dry dog food to whatever her parents are eating and she didn’t seem to mind having lobster, avocado, and tortillas for lunch today. We think that she is bored by the actual sailing aspect of the trip; she pretty much naps the whole time. She diligently attacks her job of pre-dish wash cleaner. She stays salty and crusty from the sea but she always make a good photography subject. There is definitely no shortage of Penny pics. The sea life hasn’t changed her much. She is still her crazy, goofy yet still lovable self. Yesterday she swam 30 yards in a choppy three foot swell to climb on top of a rock that only rose a few feet from the surface, to drop a deuce.
M

Bimini Ho!

          The waiting for weather was getting to everyone, and while we enjoyed the company of the flotilla, I think everybody was getting a little stir-crazy.  So when a moderatly acceptible forecast of NE winds 10-15knots, seas 2-4 feet, building to 4-6 feet in the gulf stream came from the NOAA weather radio's monotone male robotic voice, we dediced to go for it. 

Penny makes one last ditch effort for adoption out of the Gualby Nation

And then rejection holed her up in bed for days

          We woke up yesterday at 4am, upped anchor and headed out government cut, leaving the marine stadium anchorage behind.  We motor-sailed at about 7 knots through a long period 2 foot swell with a 1-2 foot chop for about nine hours, bringing us in to Bimini at 1pm.  Meg and I felt like we couldn't have asked for better weather this time of year.


Heading East towards Bimini and the Sun


 One negative thing I can say is that we caught no fish.  I still can't believe we could sail all the way through the gulf stream, countless schools of flying fish, numerous weed lines, and not have pulled up a single fish.  Guess I'll have to fine tune my spread of lures.  The winds started out from the northwest, which was perfect for us, but by 9:30am switched to northeast.  Although the northeast wind kept us motorsailing to make good time it was a sunny day and an easy first crossing.  The funny thing is we saw about 10 other boats sailing in the same direction, and then we saw all these boats pull in to Bimini the same day.  Meg was amazed that as we pulled into Alice Town channel the water truly is gin clear and the blue-est of blues.

This is my sailing hair.  When not sailing it looks like Justin Bieber's

 
          Alice Town, Bimini, is exactly what I envisioned a Bahamas town to look like:  very rough on the outside, with extremely friendly and nice people walking around.  A one lane dirt road is lined with small and dilapidated buildings.  The stores are small and devoid of frills, but seem to have everything one might need, from booze to school uniforms.  Customs officials were really nice, not overly stringent, and seemed to want to get us in and out of the office as quickly as possible so they could resume watching soap operas.  We paid 300$ for a cruising and fishing permit that is good for up to one year.  The dog was no extra fee since we already had an import permit.  We bought a 7$ bag of ice and headed back out to anchor and celebrate.  Right now we sit anchored in a currently "under construction" marina and subdivision which is providing Wifi over the anchorage.   

Penny sniffs the warm Bimini air as we approach

          The plan for today is to motor to the north end of Bimini and snorkel "Bimini Road", an underwater,  boulder-lined road of unknown origin, that apparently leads out into the depths and disappears.  It has been suggested that it once lead to the lost city of Atlantis.  Then we will head to the south end of South Bimini to Nixon's Harbour, anchor, and use the canoes to explore and hunt for dinner.  Hopefully the next Update will contain pics of our spoils.
C

Miami Update

I'm sure everyone is going to read this post thinking "what the EFF!?....still in Miami?" and believe me, no one feels this more than us.  We are definitely itching to move on out, but have been trying to play it smart and wait till Tomas is well on its way out of the Bahamas.  With that criteria now met, we are looking for favorable winds offering us a less than 1 day crossing.  Although everyone in our group has a strong drive to not be one of those vaginas who wait for 10 knot winds on the stern before they go anywhere, 20-25 knots out of the northeast pushing 10 foot seas in our face sounds like an  unfun first crossing.  Pretty much any other wind direction would have us waving goodbye to stiltsville: southeast, south, southwest, west, or even northwest and we'd be making our way due east.  Till then we chomp at the bit. 
C

We toast the city each night and offer sacrifice to Poseiden (or pour one out for the homies)

Stuck in Miami

     So we made it to Miami! Bienvenido a Miami.  We had the sweet pleasure of having Jimmy and Courtney with us from Key West to Key Largo. Tons of laughter and good times, great drinks and eats, some pretty fun sailing, and a general feeling of excitment and adventure was the energy of the trip.  So when we reached Key Largo and they did not spring the news on us that they have changed their minds and are coming with, we were a bit deflated and the good bye was tougher than anticipated.  Con and I and Pen Dog were left to fare for ourselves aboard Gualby.  We are have been so fortunate to have such a crew of people helping us that we really hadn't spent much alone time on the boat.  We honestly felt a bit lonely.



Girls stick together



drinkin and stinkin

 We sailed the rest of the way to Maimi and picked up a mooring ball in the dinner key mooring field.  Although we were feeling a bit bummed, we quickly started to adjust to our new lives on the water.  We get up, make some coffee and decide what we should do that day.  We still have quite a list of projects but the pace has become less frantic and more enjoyable.  Penny is having a bit of harder adjustment phase with the potty training and I have never said "Go poo-poo, go pee-pee" so much in my entire life. 

The Oed's came to wish us well

After few days of Miami life we had an emotional and super fun visit from our families.  We laughed, cried, laughed some more, looked at charts and made tenative plans for future meeting spots which made the good byes much easier.  We both have amazing families and the good byes were hard,... harder than I expected.  We both felt emotionally drianed after the weekend and I was starting to have trouble seeing because my eyes/face were getting too swollen from complete uncontained on and off tears.  Once you get that dam open, its hard to hold em back.  For example, after my fam left, thankfully out of site, Con and i flipped our canoe getting back into it and there was no penny lane to blame it on. We were covered in the nasty bight water which is more oil/gas/illegal holding tank pump outs than sea water.  Con climbed onto the dock and i pulled myself back into the shit water filled canoe and cried. Con thought I was hurt because usually I would be laughing but instead I tearily mumbled "I just said bye to my family and now I'm sitting in shit water and the canoe is sinking and you need to pull me out!" I sound tough and ready to sail the world, right? 

The fam checking out the lounging life

We orginally planned to be in the Bahamas by now but we are detained due to Hurricane Tomas.  We are hangin in Coconut Grove, frequenting such hot spots as the public library, grassy, shaded areas near our marina, coin laundry facilities, and the other boats in the Tortilla Flotilla.  We are sure to spot a celebrity visiting Miami soon.  We have found a sweet, dog friendly bookstore with free wi-fi to hang out at.  There are a surprisingly large amount of smelly people at the library so we feel much more metro-chic on our laptop at the bookstore and less like a homeless person.  Meanwhile we sit, wait, wonder, and try not to spend money.

M. 

Something I wrote months ago and never got around to posting

6/26/10

We’ve been working on getting ourselves shoved off now for over 3 years. And now we are just 3 months or so away from our proposed leave date, 10/10/10.  As the day comes nearer the excitement and anxiety and the stress is increasing.  I feel like we have bled, sweated, pissed and shat ourselves into the projects on this boat.  We’ve busted our knuckles removing and replacing thru-hulls.  We’ve sanded our fingerprints off in the bilges.  Despite masks and gloves we have had more fiberglass dust in our eyes, mouths, armpits, kneepits, and all over our bodies then we care to think about.  We feel like we are dangerously close to reaching our lifetime dose of epoxy.  The frustration of trying to finish all of our projects in time is overwhelming and we sometimes take it out on each other.  We are terrible at trying to make money, save money and spend money all at the same time (actually we are good at spending money).  We are finding it difficult to grant quality time to all our friends and family before we leave and maintain our strict schedule of “work at our jobs for 7 days/work on the boat for 7 days”.  I get pissed and curse the names of people we hear about who are living the dream we have dreamed.  I feel jealous when others are doing what we want to do and seemingly have had an easier time getting there, have more money to spend, have a nicer boat, or have accomplished these goals at a younger age than us.  I want to spit on the ground when we hear about all these young kids who’s daddies handed them a boat, outfitted it with top of the line gear, and fly around the world to meet them in port and pay for their repairs. 

Then right when I’m about to freak the fuck out Meghan calms me down and reminds me how lucky we are.    We’re lucky we have each other and we both desire the same goal, instead of one of us dragging the other along. We’re lucky we found a derelict vessel that we could afford to turn into a badass ocean cat.  We’re lucky we have jobs that (although we don’t love them) allow us to work 12 hour shifts so we can have 7 days off in a row.  We’re lucky we don’t love our jobs and don’t have an inkling of hesitation about walking away from them.  We’re lucky to have the friends and family support we have.  Most of all we are lucky to have been born in America, where we can make this happen for ourselves.  How can we bitch about other little punks and their rich daddies when our families have been nothing short of instrumental in getting us to where we are today, maybe not with cold cash but with advice and sweat equity.  Who are we to complain about unfinished boat projects or the size of our bank account.   So many others have done so much more with so much less.  Everybody in this world is doing the exact same thing:  taking advantage of the opportunities life has presented them with the best way they know how.  You can’t fault others for having different opportunities than you, and vice versa.  The best we can do is the best we can do.    

Meg is quick to point out that so many different factors will determine what type of trip someone has, you know, what the experience will be.  Things like when you leave, what boat you have, how it is outfitted, how much money you have, if you take your dog or not, if you have to go find water instead of make it, if you like to eat at Macdonald’s or if you prefer to let the land and sea feed you, how prone you are to sea sickness, etc.  She tells me not to try and make this trip fit some kind of mold, not to force it to be something.  I may not even know what I want it to be yet.  And there is no point in worrying about any one of these factors that could change it, let alone all of them.  We just have to do the best we can and then go.

Once Meghan slaps my perspective back into focus I usually feel a lot better.  She’s had to do this half a dozen times or so in the last 3 years.  Then I’m comfortable relying on our abilities to make due with what we have.  I’m confident we can take advantage of the opportunities life presents us with.  That’s what sailors have been doing for thousands of years.  For us, now seems as good a time as any to start.