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.