2007 - 8/12 - 8/16 - from home to Lubbers Quarter Cay

HO HUM...just another cruise

August 12th To 16th  Left the house at 10:00, cruised all day and anchored at Rodriquez Key. The weather was perfect to cross on the 13th – we left at 7:00 and arrived at Honeymoon Harbor, Gun Cay about 4:30. This area has sure changed since we were here in 2001; the beach area were we were then, is now covered at high tide but shallow enough to enjoy. There were about 8 small boats anchored there from Bimini but just for the day. We were too lazy to take the dinghy off so we put the girls on the float and swam to shore. We were greeted by a multitude of rays! The other boaters told us they’re ‘friendly’ (right!) & people feed them – I hopped a ride back to BLUE MAX to get our snorkeling stuff & camera. WOW, what a sight to see all those rays close up – the new underwater camera did well, I think. I took pictures of Wayne and the girls swimming…and a few of the boat. Did I say this was Wayne’s camera?? On the 14th we crossed the Banks and encountered storms all around us; the seas got rough with swells on our port stern…

Would this be enough to scare the hell out of  you?

kind of an icky day.  We battened down, turned on the air-conditioning and waited for the worst, which fortunately didn’t come, just some rain. We anchored about 6:30 between Great Stirrup and Little Stirrup Cays in the Berry Islands. One is owned by NCL cruise line and the other by Royal Caribbean. They are set up for the passengers to have a fun day at the beach. We've been to each of these islands on various cruises. 
We’re almost to our dream cottage but we don’t have phone or email access to contact Austin and Amy to let them know how close we are. We left the Stirrups at 7:30 am.  
I have to be honest, the type of cruise we're now doing is not all it's cracked up to be – they’re certainly not romantic. They’re boring and fatiguing but there’s nothing like being in the middle of the ocean, at night, with no lights, noise or other people. You take a glass of wine and go on deck to see the most magnificent show you’ll ever see – trillions of stars, the milky way in all it’s glory, shooting stars everywhere and you can clearly see some planets and satellites. I wish I could capture it with my camera to share with you. We do find plenty of things to do; I clean, download and name the pictures, write the log, Wayne is usually on the bridge reading a manual or a magazine.  The girls stay on the fly bridge unless they hear me in the galley or when it’s close to 5 pm when it’s their dinner time – we rarely check the time, but I always know when it's 5 pm cuz they let us know loud and clear that it's time to eat. I prefer to cruise 8-9 hours, anchor down, make a nice dinner, watch a movie, turn in about 10. I'm not comfortable to keep pushing it for 12 hours or more and be so exhausted that you’re not even hungry. At 1:00, we cruised around the southern most tip of Great Abaco called "Hole in the Wall".  I wondered why it

Hole in the Wall (see it on the right?)

 got its’ name – see for yourself. A beautiful spot that neither of us has ever seen with a non-functioning lighthouse, and cozy little cottages. We’re now headed north up the coast of Great Abaco. We arrived at Little Bay at Cherokee Point at 5:00 at the same time the girls were bugging us to feed them. We anchored in a small cove protected from the wind but had a surge so we rocked a bit – but great for sleeping. Another beautiful spot.  If all goes well, we’ll be at Lubbers tomorrow.
We arrived at Lubbers on the 16th. It was easy to spot Sea Level from the pictures I’d seen on their web site. We arrived about 1pm but since we didn’t get a response by calling them on the VHF, we didn’t know if we should go ashore to find Austin & Amy or wait to hear from them. I wanted to go – Wayne wanted to wait. So, wait we did.

Sea Level Cottages on Lubber's Quarter Cay

In a few hours a very fast speedboat came flying towards us. Finally we meet. This picture only shows the Dolphin house and part of the boats and dock. You can only see part of the Big House on the left, the Garden Cottage is behind and up from the Dolphin house obscured by the forest of trees and bushes.

2007 - 7/5 - 8/12 - Summerland Key

July 5th  We went to the grocery store in New Plymouth for a few things, packed up and headed for that beautiful anchorage on the east side of Allen’s/Pensacola.  We had time to swim, snorkel and visit the beautiful beach again. 
July 6th - 8th  No sense boring everyone with day-to-day cruising. At 0600 on the 8th, we left the West End and arrived in Lake Worth about 3 pm. We anchored in Lantana. 
We were looking forward to docking on the New River in Ft. Lauderdale, but Wayne suggested Bahia Mar, a very upscale marina on the intercoastal, across from the beach with many amenities including a pool. WOW- don’t have to twist my arm. We docked on the 10th.  Wayne had several things he wanted to get for the boat and Lauderdale is the perfect place to do it.  The boat was encrusted with salt – I could have scraped it off & put it into my salt grinder! As we were tying up, a man walked up the dock and asked if we could use help washing down the boat.  His name was Jerry, from Jamaica – we ‘hired’ him. He set out right away cleaning from top to bottom.  This gave us some free time to go to the pool and relax. The boat was immaculate!  We discovered that Jerry was a man of many talents and didn’t waste a minute of the day – we asked him to return the next day to do more work.  He waxed, buffed and even took the teak down on the grab rails-something we both put off doing as it was a difficult job. He worked the entire time we were there. We met a nice couple, Marvin and Rita from Palm Beach aboard the NAUGHTY RITA, a Sea Ray- It was always easy to remember her name.  We hung out with them most of the week- took a ride on their boat and they had a van and took us to West Marine- Marvin had a extra special discount card-we went a bit nuts! We had lunch and dinner, went to the pool, and to Sailor Man- I even got to spend time at the beach - very nice week but after 4 days, I was ready to move on.  We decided to stay just one more day so Bob and Stephanie could join us. We spent most of Saturday at the pool and had a wonderful, informal dinner outside at the restaurant next door.  We ended the night about 11 pm. 
July 15th to 17th- We left Bahia Mar at 10:45 and stayed ‘outside’ then went inside to Biscayne Bay. We slowly went thru Caesar’s Cut and anchored on the outside. The weather was favorable so we continued south on the outside and anchored on the North side of Rodriquez Key in Key Largo on the 16th .  I really dreaded having to go home – I didn’t want the vacation to end and I didn’t have to go back to work until the 23rd. I did that 'woman' thing - begged and pleaded not to go home just yet…I won. At 5:00 pm on the 17th we anchored at Molasses Key, which is in the middle of the 7-mile bridge- ocean side (are you going to ask how long the 7 mile bridge is?) We anchored here the first weekend we spent together back in April 1999 – very romantic and brought back lots of good memories. We met more nice people there – Jan and Don - who were camping at Bahia Honda. We exchanged emails and said we’d catch up with them if we stopped at Bahia Honda on our way home.
I forgot to mention, our water maker pump stopped working while in the Bahamas so we’ve been extra frugal and had to buy water on the way. So on the 18th we cruised back to Burdines’s in Marathon to fill up.($5.00) Had to have have lunch cuz they have GREAT burgers. We anchored that night at Bahia Honda.
Since back in the States, I'd been reviewing a real estate brochure from HG Christies and found beach property on Long Island Cay (not New York).  I emailed the broker and in the course of conversation, found a tiny cottage on Lubbers Quarter, Abaco Islands. This really appealed to me because I had been to this Cay over 15 years ago while vacationing on Elbow Cay (Hope Town) It turns out that the owners of Sea Level, Austin and Amy, are selling 3 of the 4 cottages because they are beginning another project north of Sea Level – another grouping of rental cottages. The one we liked is called the Garden Cottage; tiny, about 400 sq. ft, sits up on a hill and 150’ to the beach. We spoke to Austin who answered many of our initial questions; has electric from Bahama’s Electric; 6000 gallon cistern, no TV or phone and a deeded dock – just to our liking.  Lubbers is a small island SE of Marsh Harbor and SW of Elbow Cay and great cruising grounds - just 72 miles from Nassau.  We decided we had to return as soon as possible to see it for ourselves.
We arrived home on Friday, 20th and moored in Niles Channel. We took Joan and Richard to dinner at the Sugarloaf lodge – We were served wonderful rum drinks at the Tiki bar made by our friend, Nancy.
I returned to work on the 23rd, it was pure torture from the 40 minute ride to KW to having to sit for hours.  I worked all week but found I was unable to work comfortably more than 3 hours. I left early every day.  I got my 2nd epidural injection on Thursday but was unsuccessful in quelling the pain.
Mickey and Katherine arrived on Friday and other than a washout on Saturday, we had a wonderful time. Mickey caught a 10+ lb Tuna, which he prepared for a luscious dinner on Sunday.
Wayne returned with them to Ft Myers on Monday – I went to work in misery.  I saw my doctor, explained the situation… he took me off work indefinitely!  Before I told my boss the bad news, I finished all the end of the month work that had to be done because there is no one else who knows how to do my job. It was tough telling her – I felt badly but not as bad as it was for me to continue to suffer. I spent 40 years working – what do I do now? What a weird feeling…
I researched cameras and ordered two; one for me that has many special features and 100x Zoom and one for Wayne that can go to 10’ underwater, unfazed if dropped from 5 ft. and fits in your pocket.
I explored flights over to Marsh Harbor – most were expensive even from Miami/Ft Lauderdale. But did find good fares on Chalk’s - $270 round trip. I was just going to confirm a flight when Wayne called and suggested we take BLUE MAX back over! Makes sense, comfortable, can take the girls…OK-let’s do it.  
Wayne arrived home by ferry on Thursday. The girls and I met him at the pier then onward to Dante’s to swim and have drinks with Tom and Susan.  I felt so decadent spending an entire afternoon doing absolutely nothing on a workday!
Wayne had lots to do to get the boat ready to go including replacing and installing a new water maker pump. Then the swim ladder broke and one of the Bose speakers went on the fritz but both have lifetime guarantees and were replaced by West Marine without a problem.
We were busy getting the boat ready for the next 2 weeks. It was record breaking HOT so doing anything was difficult. True dog days of summer. We were also in touch with Austin about the Garden cottage and told him our plans to come over by boat. The tides were high enough to leave our canal from the August 8th thru the 15th.