Great Harbor Cay - Berry Islands

Monday morning Jan 19th, was a beautiful clear day. We raised our yellow quarantine flag to indicate that we had not cleared customs and immigration yet. A call to the marina on the VHF for a slip assignment and we were ready to make our first landfall in the Bahamas. The marina has to call the local airstrip to have the customs officer come to the marina. Nathan arrived fairly quickly and the check was painless. The immigration officer was delayed and didn't arrive until later afternoon.

While waiting for immigration, the girls found a local bahamian that was trimming the palm trees and collecting coconut milk. It always seems that Emma and Ally are attracted to locals with machettes.

Next, Kenny aka. "Bubba" shows up with his catch of fish and lobster. He is a mainstay at the marina and is known for his abilities at spearfishing. We hired him to take Brian out for a day and teach him how to catch and clean fish.

Brian and Bubba made quite a haul (4 porgies, 2 marget, 1 hog fish, 33 lobsters, 10 conch). We have been eating fresh fish and lobster for almost every meal.

Emma, just like her sister and mother, is determined to sink the boat with shells. Here she is showing off a nice conch shell given to her by Bubba.

We found the people on Great Harbor Cay to be warm and friendly. Everyone waves and life is laid back. The girls were invited to attend the local school for a few days. They fit right in and loved it. Ally read books to the class and Emma taught the children how to make paper snowflakes. The local children always wanted to hug the girls or touch their blond hair. The girls would have loved to stay in school here. Here is a picture of the second grade class.

Great Harbor Cay has some beautiful beaches. Here is Emma and Ally's first beach / shelling experience in the Bahamas. They are yelling "We finally made it!"This beach is called "Shell Beach". You can see the first haul of sand dollars. The girls are getting spoiled. Just look at the setting for school today.

It is almost time for us to leave the marina, but not before one more surprise. We have been looking for Manatees for months. We finally had a mother, father and baby cruise by. Here is a picture of the father.

Until next time, goodbye from the crew of Miakoda.

The Crossing

We finally got a window of opportunity to leave No Name Harbor on Sunday morning. A front had just passed and we enjoyed light South and South East winds for the majority of the day. Crossing the Gulf Stream was uneventful. Our plan was to either bail out in Bimini to clear in, or continue on to the Berry Islands to clear in at Great Harbor Cay.

This passage was our first attempt at fishing since we left in July '08 and it paid off. The girlies were very excited about trolling across the Gulf Stream. As we approached North Bimini at sunset and the water was sh0aling from 700+ feet to 50-60 feet, we finally got our first catch. The excitement was palpable.
We were rewarded with a small blue fin tuna. OK, this is where our lack of experience really showed. The boat was total confusion. How do we bring it aboard? How do we kill it? How do we clean it? How do we cook it? And most important, what kind of fish is it?

Finally, we figured out that it was a Tuna. It had already died by the time I was ready to clean it.And Jennie made up a great sauce to sear it it.

On full stomachs and with a beautiful sunset over the Atlantic, we decided to continue on to the Berry Islands instead of stopping in Bimini. Customs was already closed in Bimini, so we might as well venture on. It was a very dark night with no lights. During the passage, we didn't see any other vessels.

In the wee hours of the morning, Jennie was standing watch when she started yelling for me to come up that she had a problem. There was a strange light we were about to hit. I quickly looked around and then imparted the wisdom that "the next time she felt she was going to hit the moon, don't! Just enjoy the view." The moon was a huge cresent laid on it's side just coming over the horizon and it looked like you could touch it. So cool!!!


Around 3:30 am, we were approaching Great Harbor Cay and decided to anchor outside until the morning. Once the sun came up, we realized how glad we were that we waited. The cut is very narrow and it was extremely dark. Here is a picture of the cut.





Until later . . .

Key Biscayne - NoName Harbor

We are waiting in No Name harbor for a narrow weather window to make our crossing to the Bahamas. It looks like Sunday, Jan 18th is the day. While waiting in in Key Biscayne, we have picked up some last minute provisions.



The harbor is located in a Florida State Park and has a great lighthouse that the girls couldn't wait to climb. The park is perfect for bike riding through the miles of trails. We had a few last minute fedex packages arrive on Friday and Saturday. The Park Rangers were incredibly helpful.



Say goodbye to Verizon Wireless. This is the last place they will work for us. We will have to find a new way to communicate in the Bahamas.

Miami, Florida - Waiting for the weather

Hello friends and family. We are still located in Miami, Florida waiting for decent weather to cross to the Bahamas. We were lucky to have some visitors over the past 2 weeks. It was wonderful to see our good friend Doris, Brian's sister Laura and Brian's Aunt Susan, her daughter Kristen and Brian's cousin Sara. The last 3 were down in Ft. Lauderdale for the Orange Bowl.

For New Year's Eve, we spent it with friends in Coconut Grove, Fl. It just happened that as we entered the harbor, we came across a couple that had kept their catamaran at our dock prior to the Annapolis Boat Show. Gary and Lisa sailed the Admiral 40 "Siya Sinana" from Cape Town, Africa to Annapolis. The evening was fun and was followed by fireworks from many different locations surrounding us. No New Year's Eve celebration would be complete without dressing up. Here is Emma in her self designed outfit. Emma and Ally were in heaven with Gary and Lisa's kid sized dogs.Miami is our last U.S. port of call prior to crossing to Bimini, Bahamas, so we are making sure to stock up on all our parts and food items. Parts are very difficult to get in the Bahamas and are subject to 40+% duty.