Happy New Year, we hope 2006 is a great year for everybody!

Last time we wrote we were on our way to Miami and then on to Nassau to collect Olivia in time for Christmas, and Gilbert and Jacqui early January.  Those plans collapsed as we were forced to wait for our repaired self-steering and hydraulic boomvang, and we motored slowly down the ICW (Intra Coastal Waterways system that winds from New York to Key West Florida) at the rate of about 50-55 miles a day, in temperatures around 4-10’C, waiting for bridges to open, and stopping in swampland or marshland, the home of many types of birds. We saw pelicans, herons, ibis, egrets, osprey, kestrel, and even some flamingos, but very few people and no animals. There were gales at sea and storms inland, so we just motored through the coca-cola coloured water to Vero Beach, where we hired a car and collected Livi from Miami in time for Christmas Day. There we met up with many of the yachts we had motored along the ICW with. The ICW is where many people have holiday homes, enormous with their own docks, most decorated for Christmas with thousands of lights and glowing statues. We left the ICW at Ft Pierce, having motored over 1000 miles down the ICW from Norfolk, Virginia, and through North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, passing through Beaufort, Wilmington, Myrtle Beach, Charleston, Savannah, Brunswick, Jacksonville, St Augustine, Daytona Beach, Cape Canaveral, Melbourne and Ft Pierce. Whew! The 16 hour sail from Ft Pierce to West Palm Beach was a welcome change from all the motoring, and we caught 3 fish en route.

We sailed from West Palm Beach to Miami with Livi, and motored up into downtown Miami and anchored outside the Miami Yacht Club, which suffered a lot in last season’s hurricanes; with many yachts still lying ashore and masts sticking out of the water. We had grandstand seats at the spectacular New Year’s firework display. Gilbert, Jacqui, and Livi’s friend Miranda, arrived in Miami on 4 Jan, and after a couple of days sightseeing, it was voted that we sail across to the Bahamas on 6 Jan, with a front coming close behind. We rushed to pick up our parts, provisions, clear out of Immigration, did laundry and had showers, and returned the hirecar, then off at dusk with a following wind and moderate seas.

Gil navigated and we all took 3 hour watches, arriving at the Berry Islands at 4:30 next afternoon, just over 100 miles in 22 hours. A few more gentle sails and lots of fish, including a huge dorado/mahimahi, and we reached Nassau on the 8  Jan. paid our US$300 cruising fee, put up our Bahamian courtesy flag, gave the Customs and Immigration men huge slabs of dorado, and we are in the Bahamas!  Off to town to look for James Bond at the casino and to see all the superyachts tied up at the Atlantis Casino. The girls loved the Straw Market, and we walked to the old prison and the fort, did our laundry and had showers, provisioned and left on the 10^th for some of the famous Bahamian beaches, reaching down the Exumas in 10 feet of water.

Gorgeous clear warm water, desert islands, lots of tiny fish, rays, starfish, lots of snorkeling, diving on 2 plane wrecks, and also in the ‘Aquarium’. A highlight was snorkeling with a million tropical fish in the grotto from the James Bond film ‘Thunderball’ at Staniel’s Cay. One night there was a huge lightning storm and our friends on ‘Orion’ 100 feet away from us were struck by lightning and lost all their electrics. Another night we rode out a front with wind over 50 knots in Norman’s Pond, the kids snorkeled in front of the boat, leading us through a rocky entrance and sandbanks into the Pond. Often we have been sailing in a couple of metres of water, relieved to have our centreplate and lifting rudder. We’ll be sorry to lose our enthusiastic crew, Miranda leaves us on 19 Jan, Gil and Jacqui on the 1 Feb, and Livi on 21 Feb, but we have other friends joining us! We do plan to be in the Caribbean most of this year, so if you want to join us, send us an email!