Hello everyone, we are now in the Bahamas! Bimini actually and it is as beautiful as everyone said it is. The water colour is an amazing shade of turquoise in the shallower water to a navy blue as the water gets deeper. We left Marathon on Thursday, January 22nd for Rodriques Key. We were not sure when we left if we would cross from there or go further North to a place called Angelfish Creek. It just felt great to be off the dock and moving once again. Once on the hook again, we decided that we would in fact cross from Rodriques, thus taking full advantage of the Gulf Stream and had a very pleasant relaxing day on anchor. Two other boats came in and after talking to them decided that we would all cross together early the next day. We started out at 04:30 happy to have the company of someone else to cross with. We hadn't got very far before we realized that it was going to be an uncomfortable crossing if we continued forward. We decided to turn around and head to No Name Harbor outside of Miami along with one of the other boats instead and wait for better weather. We knew that Rick and Carla from Euphoria were in No Name and we could cross with them when the weather improved. The forecast was indeed better the next day with a lighter NE wind changing to a light East wind. We decided to try it once more with the option again of turning around. The next window would not be until Wednesday of that week so plan B was to head into South Beach and spend a few days there. I quite liked that idea also. We left at 0600 this time which was a bit of a mistake as every fishing boat in Miami also goes out at that time and the wake they create is much worse than anything we could experience in the Gulf Stream!
The first 2 hours were a bit rough but as the winds clocked around to the East, the seas actually became quite flat with waves only about 1 to 2 feet. All in all it was a very uneventful enjoyable crossing except for a small mechanical problem we had about 6 miles out of Bimini. We have always had trouble getting a fan belt for our engine that fits properly and all of a sudden an engine overheat alarm went off. Our fan belt had come off, thus causing the engine to overheat. Bruce changed the belt, let the engine cool down again and we were on our way. We did hear one boat turning around as they were taking on water so we felt lucky that our problem was one that could be easily fixed and that it happened when it did instead of in the small channel coming into Bimini!
We pulled into a dock at Blue Water Resort and Marina, cleared customs without a hitch and now we have begun our Bahamas adventure! There are as many Canadian boats here as there are American boats and we have been busy meeting lots of new friends and catching up with some old friends! Last night we had a big potluck dinner that boaters are famous for having. One of the boats had caught a Mahi Mahi coming over and gave us some to eat and some other boats bought some fresh lobster from a local who also stayed and prepared it for them!
We will probably leave here tomorrow as the weather is suppose to improve for the next couple of days and then another cold front is coming on Friday. We hope to make it to the Berry Islands before that and hide out there before heading to Nassau. We really don't want to be in Nassau over a weekend anyway. We hope to visit with Bruce's cousin Heather, her husband Mark and their 3 children for a couple of days before heading on to the Exuma chain of islands. Not sure when we will have the Internet again, probably not before Nassau. It is better in the Bahamas Dave, and we are having a great time. Talk to you all soon.

Happy New Year everyone! It has been over a month since I have updated this blog but what can I say, time sure flies when you are in the Keys! Hope everyone had a great time over the Christmas holidays. We had a very quiet Christmas and although we had Christmas dinner with friends, Pat and Dave, we missed not being at home (even the snow) and swore that we would never do that again. New Years was a different story as all of the kids drove down to spend a week with us. The gang arrived at 0130 on the 29th of December and we didn't stop until they left on the 4th of January! We had a lot to cram in in a weeks time and wanted to make sure we did as much as we could possibly do! Trevor celebrated his 30th birthday on December 20th and since we missed it at home, we decided to celebrate it one more time in the Keys. We all went to a great restaurant and had a fun night on the 29th of December. The next night we celebrated our Christmas on the boat and then the next night was New Years Eve! We are definitely getting too old for this many celebrations in a row! In between the night celebrations, we managed to fit in snorkeling trips, dive trips, golf games, beach volleyball games, pool time and a day in Key West. Needless to say, we were exhausted by the time they left but happy to have all the great memories of a wonderful time!





After the kids left, we had a visit from Dave and Judy Burns. They have a place rented in Ft. Lauderdale for 3 months but couldn't get it until the 7th of January so they came the 5th and stayed 2 nights. It is always great to see friends from home and we took the opportunity to have Dave and Pat over for dinner so we could all catch up on the news from home and the happenings at PCYC .





We are now planning our trip to the Bahamas and hope to leave in the next couple of days. We had hoped to leave last week after a short trip back to Mississauga, but the weather window was too short and we were not comfortable with it, so we signed up for another week at the resort. It has turned unseasonably cold here with temperatures at night dipping into the low 40's . Very unusual for Florida and the folks around here really don't like it much! The weather is suppose to improve as the week goes by and the winds are suppose to turn around and be from the South on Sunday and Monday. We will probably leave here on Friday to head North for a couple of days to position ourselves for an easy crossing to Bimini. We stopped at Costco on our way back from Mississauga and now have a well stocked pantry. Bruce has been busy getting the boat ready for the Bahamas. There is a lot to think about as it will not be as easy to get thinks fixed or to get spare parts once we leave Florida for the Bahamas. Once we start travelling again, I hope to post blogs move often to keep all of our friends and family up to date especially since we will not be able to call home as often as we have. We are also getting really spoiled but being on a dock for so long. We will have to get used to conserving water, fuel and power once we are in the Bahamas. Things are about to change but we look forward to the next adventure and hope to have lots of pictures and stories to share with all of you in the near future. We will miss all of our new friends here in Marathon but know that we will hopefully see them all again in the Spring or next Fall.