Laundry at black Point

today is sheets and towels day at the Rockside Laundry, BlackPoint Exumas.  Ida Patton and her husband opened up a 10 washers, 10 dryers facility in the middle of the Exumas.  so now everybody stops here. she has expanded into fresh water showers and a small store with boat parts.

did not talk about Staniel Caywheer we stayed beforeBlackpoint but that is also a great place to stay

well just figured out how to laid phots using the IPAD.  here is a picture of Nate the Bread guy in North bimini.

Her is Joy with a fish she caught for supper.

laundry is finished and goipng ovetScorpio's for Happy Hour

Joe

We are in Black Point Settlement

Has been a long time between logs due to the inability to find free wifi and a broken PC.  so I am doing this blog on the IPAD, but may be a little shaky on attaching pictures.

Been traveling with some friends, array andAnnette Carter from our previous trips
.  they live in Stuart, Fly, not to far from Sally's house.  they have an
Island Packet 40 footer.  right now they are working on  refrigerator issues.

We are at the happy hour  at Scorpio's Restaurant.  going to headband to the boat fairly soon as the sun will be setting soon

Joe

In Nassau

Arrived in Nassau after spending the night on the Bank, spent Thursday night. The wind was light and the seas were pretty gently. We had motored 10 hours after leaving North Bimini.  Then the next day we motored 9 more hours and arrived yesterday afternoon about 3 pm

We are staying at the Nassau Harbor Club which is in pretty good shape and being remodeled by the new owners.  They are rebuilding the restaurant and bakery shop.  The docks are in good shape, the showers are okay,

The good thing is that it is across the street from City Shopping Center, which has a large supermarket, Drugstore, Starbucks - with free wifi, and a ton of other stores.  We are at the Starbucks right now.

I have included two pictures, one of Joy's fish that she caught on the way from BImini

The next photo is the side of the Norwegian cruise vessel which we passed in the Nassau Harbor

There were two large cruise ships in the Harbor yesterday

We plan on leaving on Monday for the Exuma chain.  The weather's only bad spot is Wed and Thursday.  Hopefully we can pick up a mooring.

Joe

Life in North Bimini, Bahams

Have been in North Bimini for the past three days, but planning on leaving tomorrow.

We have been here two times before and did some old stuff as well as some new stuff over the past 3 days.

Came in on an overnight from Marathon, left Sunday morning, and arrived Monday morning.  Seas were a little rough at first but calmed down after we took the 5 hour break up at Travenier Cay

this is a picture of Nate the Baker.  He runs the best bread shop in North Bimini out of his house.  He has a commercial bakery built into his kitchen.  Sells great Coconut Bread and Raisin Breads.

This is where we had lunch today, Wed, 2/11/15.  Joy loves conch salad.
Went there with Russ, Kathy, and Glen.  Three friends from Marathon City's Boot Key Harbor.

Here is a picture of Joe, pulling out the conch from the shell.  He uses sour oranges as his final juice to "cook" the conch and give it the traditional Bahamian taste

That is it for now.  On to the Exumas tomorrow with a possible stop either in Nassau or Palm Cay Marina on the southeast shore of New Providence Island for food and laundry.

Joe

Left Boot Key Harbor, on to North Bimini Bahamas

We spent a week anchoring having started number 19 on the mooring ball waiting list.  Finally moved up to #1 on Friday and Saturday, but nobody left so we stayed number 1, today, Sunday Feb 8, but left at 10 am to start the movement to the Bahamas.

We anchored in several places, dragged in one place, had to tie up at the fuel dock of Burdines one night, had to pick up a vacant mooring ball at 3 am as we were floating through the mooring field.  Finally went to Sisters Creek which was a nice spot to drop the hook, but twice as long to get to the dinghy dock.    Perhaps next time we will go right to Sisters Creek if we end up on the waiting list.  By the way, the all time record on the waiting list is 44, set in 2010-2011 winter.  Boats were all over the place as nobody could leave because of storms.

Had a great time in Marathon, saw friends from Cleveland, Steve and Linda Franko who were our dock mates at East 55th St Marina for several years.  Actually Linda knows my sister, Connie, as they were both math teachers at Cuyahoga Community College.  Lots of great card games, but as Linda said, we have to start video recording the game because people remember whose deal it is.

A good thing about Marathon is that it is very social, we saw some old boater friends,  Bob and Barbara, some newer friends, Gail and Don, and a really old sailing person, Captain Jack who celebrated his 93rd birthday three days ago.

Got the boat stocked with everything we need for a while.  So now it is just putting in the hours to get to North Bimini, one of our favorite places in the Bahamas.  Going to have dinner here, check the oil and coolant and leave about 10 pm for a 12 hour overnight. We did 8 hours today.

We did try to get the boat bottom cleaned but the guys pictured below had some equipment issues and had to pass on our boat.

They were trying to run their air compressor with a Honda 2000 but the current draw was too much for the little Honda so it was shutting off.

Next post will be from Bimini Blue Water Marina in North Bimini, Bahamas.

Joe