Bimini, ho!

Sunrise over the Straits of Florida.

In the middle of the Gulf Stream.

     Today we left Marathon on an overnight passage to Bimini, Bahamas.  From the time we hoisted anchor, until we tied up to the dock in Bimini it took 24 hours of non-stop motor-sailing.  

     We were sailing and motoring at the same time because the wind was blowing right on our nose, and the waves were pounding us.  To get to Bimini our night was filled with flying fish flying onto the deck, giant tankers and cruise ships passing right in front of us.  We felt tiny compared to the giant ships.We also got a little seasick from the boat rocking around so much.  But we did finally get to Bimini.  by Brady

One of the many tankers passing by.

Lumpy, bumpy seas. 

     “AAAhh crap, I’m seasick.”  I was seasick because the 6 foot waves were bouncing us around.  When the waves hit the boat I got sprayed by saltwater and, man, I knew I should have   

put on my raincoat.  And I slept up a wazzoo because I was seasick and it made me feel better to sleep.  I woke up hearing Brady screaming, “Jamie, Jamie, Jamie!!”.  He told me there was a tanker passing by our boat.  It had a red hull with a black deck.  The trip seemed like it took forever, BUT...we finally go to the BAHAMAS!  by Jamie

Jamie stands by as we close in on Bimini.

Bimini ho!

Ahhhh!  Tied up at the dock after a 24 hour passage.  Now we need some zzzzzzzzzz.

Obligatory handstand.

The colors are....unspeakably beautiful.

I know...Seriously. Paradise.

And the water is warm, too.

Jamie and a new friend.

Sand Key

Recently we took a daysail out to the reef to go snorkeling.  Had a blast, although seeing a shark sent Jamie into a mild panic attack.  Understandably, I suppose.  Sharks do look scary, and this was Jamie's first face to face encounter with one.  (Well, other than feeding them in the little Key West Aquarium, where, truthfully they seem more like pets.) But the "usually harmless" 5-6 ft. nurse shark didn't give us a second glance as he shot off in the other direction.  

Barracudas, on the other hand, seem to like to hang around, stealthily checking us out, and frankly, I'm more nervous about them than I am sharks.  They are stalkers, and seem to always be watching you, much like in a haunted house where the eyes in the painted portraits follow your every move....<shiver>  

Anyway, here are some pics of our jaunt, with some commentary from the boys.

Dad and me snorkeling.

 One day we decided to sail the boat out to Sand Key, about a mile away.  We wanted to go there to snorkel.  Here are some picures from our experience. - by Brady and Jamie
                                   

I (Jamie) am cranking the winch.

Brady is putting up the sail.

On our way.  We are sailing now.

This is the lighthouse at Sand Key.  They have the lighthouse here on the reef so people don't run into it at night.  There are mooring balls set up around the reef for boats who want to use them so they can go snorkeling.

I snorkeled all around the lighthouse.

There were fish all over.

A barracuda was hanging out around the bottom of our boat.  Some little fish were hanging around him, maybe cleaning him.  He seemed really curious about us.  I (Brady) got really close to him.  I could have reached out to touched him, but I didn't!

Close up of a barracuda.

Here's some of the fish we saw.

A blue parrot fish.  They eat coral.

It's fun to stand up front like this.  Dolphins came and swam next to our boat.

You can see the reef here.  It looks kind of yellowish.  We put up a red dive flag so other boats know we are diving and don't run over us.

This is us leaving the reef.  We had a great day.

Celebrity Dolphins

Flipper, and friend.

We see dolphins every day.  They are simply delightful, and we love seeing them. There is a pod of dolphins that seems to like to hang out near where we are anchored, and in fact we have come to be able to identify some of the members.  For example, there’s one we call “Crooked Fin”, whom we assume is the mom of “The Baby One”. 

Crooked Fin.

And there are many others.  They come and go in groups of 3 or maybe 5, and then sometimes we see a lone wolf flying solo.  Recently one of these singletons swam by and leapt straight up at least 10 feet in the air, and then disappeared. What a sight.

We are not alone in our love fest for the bottle-nosed ones.  

In fact, almost every day dolphin-watching charter boats hover just about 100 yards from us, hoping for a chance to glimpse these creatures.    And most days, the tourists get their chance, and we can hear the squeals of pleasure and see the pops of cameras flashing.  

But, I must admit....we have started to take the pelagics a little bit for granted.  One of us may notice that there are dolphins about, and sound the call: “Dolphins!”.  It used to be that this brought one and all running to watch the spectacle.  But lately I’ve noticed that we are all a bit slower to hop-to.  “Yah, yah, another dolphin.....zzzzzzzzzz.   I’m in the middle of a good passage here in my book...”  Sad.  But true.  We’ve become jaded dolphin watchers.

I’ve heard that dolphins might be telepathic.  Or magical.  Or maybe they are just incredibly full of their celebrity selves, craving the papparrazi love much like a Kardashian.  They must have some super-natural powers because somehow they apparently noticed that we were losing interest, and as a result figured they needed to pull out all the stops (a kind of dolphin wardrobe malfunction, perhaps?) to pull us back into their world.  And so they showed up at our boaty doorstep and literally swam circle around us.  They swam upside down along our rail and showed their bellies.  They giggled with each other and eyed us as we squealed at their antics.   

They played beside us long enough for us to get out the cameras and snap away.  And we will all come running quickly the next time, hoping for the same kind of personal attention.  Did they know that their photos would end up here on the blog for the world (or at least a few of our friends) to see? Maybe they did.  No doubt they are hoping we just spell their names right.  

Can I have a belly rub?

Our dolphin infested waters.

Showing off, right off our port side.

Fin.

Boogie Down

Boogie Fever

Today we bought a red boogie board for $35 dollars.  When we got back to our boat we wanted to tow one of us behind the dinghy.  A dinghy is a mini boat, but it doesn’t have a sail or mast.  It only has an engine.  So my dad towed us behind the dinghy around the anchorage.  I sat on the boogie board.  I hung on to a water ski handle.  I said, “Hit It!”, and my dad sped up and I hung on.  It pulled me on top of the water really fast.  It was really cool!!!  After that we got into our BIG boat and took a shower.

by Jamie

"Hit it!"

Wheeeeeeeeeeee!

Having a blast, we are.

Snorkeling Adventures

Explorers R Us

The cut, with current.

          The other day we went to explore a tiny island close by.  As we were driving around the island we noticed a narrow passageway and we realized it was actually two islands but they were very close together.  

It looked there was only one island but somebody cut them apart.  We went to go and check it out.   We stopped between the islands and decided to go snorkeling there.  We found a VERY fast current ran between the islands.  We saw a bunch of baby barracudas, coral, a big huge crab, and sponges, and lots of sea grass.  Then we decided to go some somewhere else to snorkel.  We saw a big sting ray and a bunch of of cormorants, frigates, seagulls, snowy egrets, and blue heron.  We had fun. 

Snorkel fun.

Just after seeing the Ray...

Wreck site from sea level.

Fish on the wreck.

                              
The next day we heard a roar of a dingy engine coming toward us and noticed it was our friends from the anchorage.  They said that they were going to go snorkeling on a wreck close by.  
So we hopped in our dingy and followed them to the wreck.  We anchored and jumped in the water and snorkeled on the wreck.  it was really cool.  There was lots of coral and fish everywhere. 

Jamie launching from the dinghy.

Thumbs up.

  
I (Brady)  also found a small anchor on the bottom and after diving six feet down several times I managed to bring it up from the bottom and put it in the dingy.   By BRADY and JAMIE 

Brady's first salvage treasure.