Mangrove Cay, Bahamas

We awoke to a beautiful day on our first full day in the Bahamas!  We took our time washing off the salt from the ocean crossing and cleaning and rolling up the Stratoglass so we could allow those fabulous Bahamian breezes to cool us off.  Jonny assembled the dinghy and by 2 p.m we were ready to continue our journey.

  We followed a  route that took us through a canal that bisected Grand Bahama Island.

The canal was built in the 1980’s with the idea of building/developing an area that was expected to be like the canals in Fort Lauderdale.  After many of the lots were sold and a number of homes built, the Bahamian

Lynn recalled that her father had invested and lost money in a land development scheme in the Bahamas many years ago and this may very well be the one he had invested in.  Unfortunately, no one is alive to consult about that particular folly!

As we cruised the canal which was well dredged and lined with a good sea wall, it felt like the “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.”

This is not the most frequently traveled route to the Abacos.  In fact, our original plan was to go via West End and around the northern tip of Grand Bahama Island.  But Jonny had met a fellow at Dinner Key who suggested this route and so at the last minute we decided on this option.  The depths were adequate throughout most of the canal but we wouldn’t go if our draft was any deeper and we had to plan our trip to correspond with a rising tide.  Towards the end of the canal, it got a bit skinny and we did bump once.  When we return, we will go the West End route instead.

After going through the canal, we cruised for another few hours on the calm Little Bahama Bank with a thunderstorm surrounding us.

 Fortunately we were only affected by a brief shower.   We arrived at an anchorage on Mangrove Cay at about 7 p.m.

Lacaya, Bahamas

This is the start of our month long trip to the Bahamas aboard Zendo!  We plan to spend most of our time cruising the Abacos.  We delayed our trip by a day awaiting a good weather window to cross the gulf stream.  On May 30, we left our dock at Dinner Key Marina in Coconut Grove to spend the night at the Pines Canal anchorage in  Key Biscayne so we could get the earliest possible start. 

And so we left at 4 a.m. on relatively calm seas headed for Lacaya in the Bahamas.  Early on we felt the swells, but the sea settled down after a bit and we witnessed the most spectacular sunrise!

We anticipated  a 10 - 12 hour crossing thinking that once we hit the gulf stream, we would get a significant lift and pick up speed.  The weather was sunny and clear and there was very little boat traffic.  However, the trip took longer than expected and we didn’t arrive in Lacaya until 6 p.m.  Needless to say, it was a very long day!

We stayed at the Grand Lacayan Resort on the advice of Active Captain.  Upon arriving, a dockhand ferried Jonny over to customs where he “signed us in.” According to the rules, only the captain can leave the boat until we go through customs so Lynn got to stay aboard for the moment.

Although we were very tired, we accepted the advice of the dockhand and got a complementary ferry ride to a local restaurant, Zorba’s,  in the little town of Lacaya.  The town was much cuter than we imagined it to be with the typical colorful Bahamian cottages and hand painted signs.  There was a charming square in the middle of town that on this night was very quiet.  Jonny ate his first conch of the journey while Lynn stuck to the basics of that Greek restaurant.

By this time, we were staggering with fatigue and we took the next ferry back to Zendo and fell fast asleep!

Jacksonville, FL–The End of the Journey!

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Our incredible journey came to an end (for now) on Wednesday, November 4.  That morning after a stunning dawn, we left our beautiful anchorage next to Cumberland Island for the relatively short cruise to Jacksonville. 

Our first decision was whether to travel on the outside (the Atlantic Ocean) or take the ICW.  Jonny was inclined to do one more outside journey but as we listened to the weather, we decided not to.  Although the wave heights were not too big, the interval or time between waves was only 4 seconds which makes for a very bouncy and often uncomfortable ride.  The downside of taking the ICW route was the frequent shoaling and the fact that we would be traveling at low tide which makes traversing those shoals more nerve-wracking.

The weather on this last day was stupendous – sunny skies, warm temperatures, very little wind.  A perfect way to end our trip! 

We left bright and early at 7:30 and threaded our way along Fernandina Beach and Amelia Island. 

We passed some cranes by Fernandina Beach that looked like giant metal dinosaurs!

We encountered the anticipated shoaling,  In only one spot did we bump the bottom but we were able to plow our way through to deeper waters.

As we got closer to Jacksonville, we crossed the St. John’s River and were getting increasingly near to our final destination.

Still, we had some wildlife to welcome us as we drew closer and we passed by some of the beautiful watery lowlands.

We arrived after lunch at the Palm Cove Marina where we’ll keep the boat until Sunday. 

It was with mixed feelings that we arrived – it seemed like we got home more quickly than expected and we weren’t quite prepared for the transition!  But the folks at Palm Cove were very accommodating and we were tied up and secure in no time.

We had just enough time to wash down the boat (and ourselves) when our friends Natalie and Alex Costas arrived. 

We had invited them aboard for a celebratory bottle of champagne to toast the end of our journey.  Many thanks to Lynn’s work colleagues, Deb and April, who had given us two great bottles of champagne as a bon voyage gift – one to drink upon our departure and one to celebrate our safe arrival home. And celebrate we did with a delicious tuna tartar appetizer courtesy of Natalie!

That evening we were all invited to the home of Nick and Alixe Stam for dinner.  They had recently moved to a new home in Ponte Vedra Beach.  We had a lovely time with them enjoying a vegan dinner  prepared by a chef they had brought in for the occasion.   It was so much fun catching up with everyone and sharing stories!

For those who are interested in a few facts about our adventure, here is some of the information that Jonny has been tracking each day.  He has a lot more information about costs and engine hours, etc. which he’ll be happy to share with anyone who is interested.  But here are a few tidbits that may be of general interest:

• Number of travel travel days  - 210
• Number of nights – 209
• % of time staying at marinas  - 67.5%
• % of time anchoring or staying at free docks – 32.5%
• Travel days – 130
• No travel days – 80
• Nautical miles traveled – 4,913
• Gallons of diesel consumed – 2,164
• Biggest expense categories – 1. marinas  and 2. eating out

We exceeded our budget by about 10% but we don’t regret a single decision we made.  We had anticipated staying at anchor 50  percent of the time which we didn’t do primarily because we had some extended stays due to family obligations and also because we were new to this cruising lifestyle.  Going forward, we are likely to increase the percentage of time at anchor because we have grown to love that part of the travel and we’ve become much more comfortable with that option.

 

Our plan for the next few weeks include picking up our two cats and driving down to Miami.  Once our furniture is delivered, we’ll set up our newly renovated home in Miami Beach.  And we’ll collect  our two dogs and bring them home as well. 

We want to thank the many people who helped us make this journey possible - Andy and Ed for caring for our dogs and  Holly for taking care of our cats;  Ken and Fred, Zendo’s previous owners, who patiently helped us trouble shoot any little issue that came up during the trip;  Duane and Diane for buddy boating with us during the big waters of the St. Lawrence and the Maritimes; Robbie for joining us to cross the Bay of Fundy;  Barbara and Barry and Jim and Danette for sharing  their experience and guidebooks with us.  We are grateful, also, to those who we visited during our travels and those friends and family members who joined us on portions of the trip.  We also greatly appreciate the positive feedback and encouragement from those who followed our blog and always cheered us on!

We plan to bring Zendo down to Coconut Grove before Christmas where she will live at a marina there.  We look forward to many more adventures on her in the future! She has certainly served us well!

Cumberland Island, GA (return trip)

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On our second to the last travel day of our trip on Nov. 3, we started off at dawn on a partly cloudy day.  But as the day wore on it cleared up nicely and turned out to be another beautiful weather day.  We were anchored next to Fort Frederica off of St. Simon’s Island and bound for an anchorage on Cumberland Island. 

We took a little detour to Brunswick, Georgia to take advantage of the lowest diesel prices around.  The entrance to the river was very narrow due to dredging.  From a distance it looked as if it was completely blocked!

There were a lot of working fishing boats there along the East Brunswick River including one with a typical Georgia name!

We cruised down the Fredericka River, a more appealing alternative to the ICW .  It wound circuitously through the north Georgia lowlands  and provided great vistas everywhere we looked.

We made our way down the coast along Jekyll Island and beautiful Cumberland Island.  For those who don’t know, Cumberland Island has been designated as a national seashore and is now a national park.  It is a great place to visit with miles of beautiful beaches, wild horses and an interesting history.

We saw lots of birds and playful dolphins and we cruised past Plum Orchard on  Cumberland Island.  We had anchored here on our way north but we wanted to make it a bit further south on this 17.5 mile long island.

We eventually found a perfect anchorage among at least half a dozen sail boats near the southwest coast of Cumberland Island.

We settled down to our last night at anchor and made more appointments for our week-long stay in Jacksonville.  We have to use up our provisions so we had a simple dinner of burgers, fried potatoes and summer squash.  After catching up with the family by phone, we settled down to watch one more movie and get to sleep early. 

We are feeling very nostalgic about the end of our special journey.  It has truly been a most wonderful experience!