We made some friends in Bimini. While cooking dinner at the dock, a couple cats. Also, a couple humans, Patrick and Alaina. They had just bought a beautiful 30 foot Cape Dory and sailed from Tampa to Bimini. This was really their first sailing experince other than sailing classes. We were very impressed how quickly they learned. They had a hairy moment running aground in the beginning and studied the Chapman's pilot thoroughly afterwards. They really took it seriously and they should. It ain't no joke out here on the water. They are about 24 years old, coming from Denver, CO. For Alaina, it was the first time she saw the ocean. Their boat is a real tuff build. I like it a lot. They got a really good deal after the financial collapse. They were just as excited as we were. Young people are rare. We hung out for a day, but had to go to Freeport to pick up Marantha.







I'm pretty sure this wreck is the same wreck my friend from St. Augustine photographed a few years ago. His picture had this ship wrecked on a big sandy beach. I bet this is a sign of global warming. Now the sand is all eroded and left on the underlying rock that is so familiar in these islands. I spoke with a Bahamian in Port Lucaya that told me they are well aware of the effects of global warming. They see erosion more and more. We noticed that Honeymoon Harbor doesn't have the beach we snorkeled off of just two years ago. Tell that to your grandma.



We photographed this ray while chasing it down in the dingy.



These are the Bimini rocks we snorkel off of.





The water lanes of Chalk's Airlines are a thing of the past. They went out of business in 2007 because of their first deadly crash in over 90 years.

We left Bimini and headed across the Northwest Providence Channel. We left at sunrise knowing this trip would take every bit of daylight. It was perfect weather. Once we had Freeport in sight, we noticed many freighters waiting to enter the harbor. A big freighter at anchor is very confusing even in broad daylight. You find yourself trying to figure out which direction they are headed to no avail. This one in particular was named after our niece.



We picked up a slip at Port Lucaya Marina for $50 a night. We really didn't care to much for this resort marina full of powerboats and spring breakers, but we needed a place to meet Marantha. She came to visit us over her spring break. So as soon as she arrived we shoved off with very little time to make it to West End, Grand Bahama. We wanted to give her the real deal. If we had stayed she would have to watch a bunch of frat boys take their shirts of and acting like fools out on the outdoor dance floor. It goes on way into the early morning.





The trip started out fine. Marantha manned the tiller and learned sailing basics. Then the seas started growing. She felt a little queezy and went down below for a nap. The wind was a bit mightier than we like. But we were able to do about six knots under sail alone for the rest of the day. By the time we arrived at Settlement Point, we were concerned. The sun had about ten minutes left and we still hadn't rounded the point. The following seas were looking like 8 footers, but probably just six. It was a lot of work steering her straight and the motion was chaotic. We made it into the anchorage just after the sun disappeared and anchored at dusk. The bottom was like a concrete slab. The CQR didn't catch. So I dingied out the Danforth to make a "V". We had swells and a lot of wind from the same direction. The anchorage was tiny and there were about six boats already there. We were in very shallow water and the current was ripping onto the back a speed we couldn't swim against. We noticed our new friends from Bimini had beat us there. All the boats swinging on one hook swang into the two-hookers. We had been smart to anchor in very shallow water instead of trying to squeeze in with the others. When the tide changed at 4 am everyone was re-anchoring. Our friends helped out one of the boats since it was too close to them. They became friends during the process. Now, we are all just enjoying the day together.



We went snorkeling today.





























This day was awesome. I would even say it was just as good as my best day in Key West when
I lost my wallet and $750 bucks. (That day I meditated and got over it allowing myself to have a good day anyway. I made some of my best friends that night.) Just having Marantha here was exciting enough. There's nothing better than to be able to share good times with your friends and family doing something that makes you feel alive and not just living. I wish more of you had been able to visit. Not only are we hanging out with Marantha, we have met two other young couples that are on sailboats as well. That's just rare out here.

I could stay in this anchorage forever. We have super fast wifi, good reefs and gulf stream water. Today after snorkeling, I saw our neighbors messing with anchor lines. I love just hopping in the dingy and seeing what the problem is and joining in on the solving. Patrick was trying to put another anchor out to the east because the wind is supposed to become 15-20 from there overnight. He had dropped the bitter end into the water and was trying to fish it out with a boat hook. Since I had been snorkeling all day, I said,"Let's just dive on it". I got my gear and dropped the dingy anchor in the suspect area. They were surprised my little anchor was holding me. They said their dingy anchor had just been dragging the bottom. I plopped in the water. Patrick was right behind me. As soon as we got in the water, we saw a hawkbill turtle about two feet in diameter. It appeared to be next to a baby turtle on what looked like an underwater sand dune. We immediately started following the larger turtle in greenish water about twenty feet deep. That's why the dingy anchor wasn't holding. Their line barely reached the bottom. My line was about twice as long. We followed the turtle over these underwater dunes until it reached the sea grass of the Little Bahama Bank. This is why the water was greener here. The sea grass extend east for miles in 12-15 feet of water. The grass was about three feet tall and the water was so creepy. That's when I turned back. Patrick was a little braver until he realized I wasn't coming. Then we saw his plow perfectly set atop a dune. The dune was like an old coral head covered with sand and grass. The current had carried his line toward the ocean. The tide was going out off this bank. You could barely swim against it with fins. Without them, you could drift out to sea. So it was in my mind meant to be. We would have to meet them in Bimini and they'd have to lose the bitter end of the line and we'd have to get in the water then... and the turtle would have to show us where the anchor was and we would have to join up that night for cocktails on Swift Ranger. Of course that would have to be after Piper cooked some excellent Thai Curry.

The seven of us talked for hours. Patrick and Alaina were philosophy majors and Marantha's boyfriend is too. I played them a few songs. The couple from the boat Madelaine brought fresh shrimp. He knows how to shrimp and told us all about that. We all hit it off great and will probably all travel in a convoy across the bank on Wednesday.

We are now in Bimini, Bahamas. We left at 2 am from No Name Harbor in Miami. We had about four hours of night sailing. It's really creepy. As we left the channel and entered the gulf stream, each wave seemed to get bigger and bigger. Finally, a huge one came over the bow and soaked us. We looked at each other and said, Okay, that's it let's turn around. But we gave it a minute to improve and turned down the throttle. The waves seem to stand up as they reach shallow water. We had the main sail up and the diesel running. A hardcore sailor would say, "why are you still using the motor, you have 10 -15 knot winds?" The main reason is we want to make sure we get the before the wind picks up again. NOAA was reporting that a cold front would come in the evening of the next day and we didn't want to hope we made it. It's no joke out here. The motor gave us an extra knot or two. When we turned the throttle down, she stopped plowing through the waves and we didn't get as wet. I was chilly at night with goose bumps. Anyway, when the sun rise came, all I could think about was Toko Irie's song "When the sun rises in the morning...." We were so happy to see the sky light up. We had a great sail. We rolled out the genoa to a jib reefing and hobby horsed over the waves. Up and down. It was awesome cresting a wave and then dipping in the trough. Delphine was designed for this and you could feel it. It was a wet ride though. Every now and then we would just get soaked.



About half way across, I heard a noise and looked back. So did Piper. we both did a double take. The wind turbine had fallen over and was hanging off the stern horizontally! I quickly jumped up and pulled it back up. All the mounts were still there. Nothing was broken in half. It has adjustable clamps that had just come loose and slipped. I tried to tighten them with a wrench, but the rubber gasket I had made to dampen the vibration had fallen out and now the clamp was just too big. I rigged up a line from the clamp to a cleat to stabilize it. That was holding it up just fine. I built the tower and this was ultimately the big test. Obviously, there was room for improvement. I later, in Bimini, installed some hose clamps to prevent the other clamps from slipping. We got lucky. We could have lost the wind turbine, the solar panel and an anchor I had hung from the tower. That's really a lot of weight. I can improve later. When we put the throttle in neutral, we were doing 3 knots with both sails. It was really very peaceful despite the wave action. With the motor, we were doing 5 knots. Crisis averted.



It took us about twelve hours to cross. We came in Bimini just ahead of four other sailboats that had made the crossing that night. The water is so beautiful here. Pictures cannot describe it. We try. This morning I dropped a bike lock cable in the water at the dock and had to dive for it. In seven feet of water, I could see it from the dock under the boat. Like a swimming pool. We stayed at Weech's Marina for $35 a night. Just as a treat. We never get to stay at a dock. It is $90/night in Key West and $200/night at Cat Cay, Bimini. The weather got worse that night after the crossing, just like NOAA predicted. High winds 5-7 feet in the gulf stream. 5-7 feet is awful. The ocean becomes full of white caps.



This time Piper made me do the check in with customs. So I gathered the paperwork and went down to the office. They basically want to know what you have on board. Guns, bicycles, motors, spears etc. We also get our fishing license here. It covers hawaiian slings as well. That's what we do here is snorkel and spearfish. However, We were talking with a local at a practice junkanoo parade. He was telling us about how much history that is here and often goes unnoticed. Like the stories of Atlantis, Hemingway hung out here, and US target practice on a ship we dove last time we were here. The Bimini Roads are pillars laid down like a road under water. Apparently, during the last Ice Age, the watewr levels were way down and somebody made it. There is also the Three Sisters. Three big rocks on the Atlantic side in 18 feet of water. the formations in the rock had to have been man-made.

Bimini is very poor. Everyone wants to sell you something. I passed a guy under a palm by a seawall on the bay, right in front of the police station. He asked me what I was looking for. That could be anything apparently. I said, "Milk". He told me where to go and asked me if I wanted some conch salad. he wanted to sell me two bowls, but I said, "How about just one". He left me standing there in front of the police station to go get it from his mother's house. It looked bad, but I waited anyway. He came back with a styrofoam bowl ( bummer) It was delicious. It was spicy with lime and green peppers and onions and more. I at most of it and had difficulty saving some for Piper. It was $12. Food is expensive here. But it was worth it and by looking around at all the dilapidated buildings, I wanted to buy something. His name was Fidel. He asked me if I ever dove for conch and said I should. He said fresh conch is excellent. He jumped into the water and waded over to a trap where he kept his conch about fifty feet into the water. He came back and showed me how to get the conch out. A conch is just a big slug in a pretty shell. With a hammer he punched a hole in the top. Then, with a butter knife he agitates it til he can pull the conch out of the shell. He cuts off the toenail and the guts and hands it to me. "Eat it All". I did. Although I must admit some parts were too tough and I tossed them. It was good. I ate it raw. It's better with lime. I thanked him for the experience and said I had to be on my way.

That night we were cooking food on the boat. A couple of cute cats came by to see if we were meat eaters. Unfortunately, we were having pasta salad. It was nice having cats around. This one kinda looked like a bobcat. We've been looking for a bobcat kitten for a boat cat. Let us know if you here of one that needs a home. We started hearing music playing in the street. Lots of drums and horns. We were watching podcasts and decided we had to take a look. We went into the street and there were about fifty people hanging out. Most of them were playing drums and horns of all kinds. Big plastic trash cans with skin heads, some cow bell type morroccos, some tin horns that looked like jewish minoras (spelling error Im sure). There were also trumbones, trumpets, french horns. The music was fast, hard, loud and trancy. It was a very slow moving parade. they moved down the street at about one inch per minute. The trash can drums were so loud and powerful. Kids were playing, adults were teaching, it was outstanding. I have some video clips, but I have to get better internet for that posting. Coming from a musical Key West, I was pleased to witness this Junkanoo homecoming practice at night in the street. What freedom they have. Apparently, they do this every so often. The homecoming is when their children come home from college from the states or elsewhere. Our friends from Christmas Tree would love it and do it on the Island.

I been sitting at this gazebo next to the immigration office blogging far too long. Peace Out.

Today is the day we were going to leave Key West, one year after we arrived. The wind turned out to be not ideal and we got a late start so we decided to pick up a mooring ball here in Key West so we can just untie in the morning rather than have to haul anchor again. At least we're really ready now. We can now spend our last evening here relaxing, not running around.


The wind was predicted to be 15-20knots out of the southeast today but it's really more like 20-25 from the ESE. We'll be going East for the first day so a SE wind is something we can work with but not ideal. Fri. is supposed to be SE 15-20knots. S would be great. Hopefully, by Saturday....
We have another sad announcement to make. Gold Guy, aka James (who we used to give rides to), drowned a few weeks ago. It was during the last big blow we had here. They found him in the submarine base still clutching a gas tank. He was kayaking to his boat we think when it happened. He was not a good swimmer, refused to carry life jackets and never paid attention to the weather. Living on the water is not something to be taken lightly.



Maybe we'll find an internet cafe over there and we'll send out a quick "hi". If not we'll be back by the end of May and that's when we'll do a full update. Take care.
Fair winds and following seas, Paul and Piper

On Valentines Day, there was a performers workshop before Sunset Celebration. I learned how to ride a unicycle on the first try by holding onto a street lamp pole. Mark, my juggling performer friend bought me a small unicycle for my birthday three days later. It is the one I learned on. Check it out. I bunny hopped it on the first day.





It's a lot a fun. I went to see Raven play at the BottleCap. There were three people out front that could ride it. Raven is a really good singer. She has a voice kinda like Billy Holiday, but she does all sorts of music. There was a guitar player from NC there with her. He was Country Dave. he was a really fast picker. I wish I'd had my camera charged. Raven has come out to the fires several times, too (see below). I was proud she liked my music. She's a very known and respected musician in town.





I started recording some music. If you click my StereoFame banner it will take you to my music. It's the butterfly song. I just use one stereo microphone. i've been uploading them to the internet. Stereofame hosts my music. It's some kind of game.



I've been selling on the street a lot trying to get ready for our trip to the Abacos. We are meeting Marantha there in Freeport April 8th. I have a lot of work to finish on the boat before we leave. It's going to be a busy month. We are very excited, but leaving all our friends will be very sad. We seem to have more friends here than back home. It's because we see them all the time because we all live within five minutes of each other.

Another Island party. It awesome when Toko's family comes out. The vibe is perfect. Robert and I hit it off one day taliking about the destruction of the planet and politics. He is the red head playing guitar.



Our friend, Lauren showed up. It was her birthday. She happened to be in town for a week. It was good to see her. We hung out with her a bit the first time we came to Key West. She gave us the scoop on Grainne. Apparently, Grainne went crazy, stole stuff from people and got deported back to Ireland after marrying a gay man on the island.









This is Arial (below), the newest member of the Newton family. She is named after the little mermaid.







This is just the dingy dock on a beautiful day.



Toko and Diana moved back onto the boat a week ago. We are looking forward to spending water time with them before we leave, March 25.









Piper has been taking kids from the Boys n Girls Club to pick trash out of the mangroves. She created the Environment Club over the summer. They are making a real impact. Passersby always thank them for their service. The Keys are way behind on environmental issues, recycling and protection of their water. The mangroves next to roadsides resemble landfills. Good Job Kids!



One of the best things about working on the street is when Randesh rides up in his Suzuki Samurai full of Green and yellow Coconuts. He chops the top off so you can drink the water. I usually cut the husk off with a knife and eat the nut itself too.I've gotten good at it and have come to love the jelly coconuts as well.





Here is a picture of my friend , Ryan's torch rig. He has water for cooling the metal and a lighter to light the torch all in one tool. He is also a wire sculpture. Here is one of his heavy metal sculptures modeled after his wire sculpture. We do the same type art but differently. I love this rig.



And for your boater's moment of zen, I leave you with a lesson in reuse. Piper discovered that a boatyard will almost always have thousands of stainless screws and hardware lying in the gravel. This is one plate worth. We have pulled out about five or six of these to start our stainless collection. Hundreds of dollars worth of stainless without the trips to the store. So all yee boaters and handypeople... stop with a bucket.