Key West

During our sail south the previous year we had not made it as far south as Key West primarily as we just ran out time on our visa.  A few people had mentioned that it was a nice place to visit and although we had previously not been that enamoured by the Keys we thought it was worth a visit.

Not sure either of us felt like that was the best decision as we started the drive south, the road from Miami through the Keys in dull, initially the outskirts of Miami is filled with the usual shops and restaurant, unbelievable how many of the same fastfood places you see within a 10 mile strip.

As you get into the Keys the road as far as Marathon is pretty dull and slow, we were wondering whether to turn round, we did have the highlight of seeing a deer but it was only a fleeting glimpse.  The scenery improves on the last stretch of the journey with longer bridges and more views of the sea but 4 hours drive was a long time!

First stop was the beach to have our picnic, we had high hopes for the beach, in the photo is looks nice than it was unfortunately it was very smelly, so lunch was quick.

We then spent some time driving around the streets just taking in the quaint houses and general  atmosphere, this was easier than walking around when we were short of time and there was no way we wanted to pay for one of the many tours which were running.  We did enjoy a wander along Duval Street which is the main street, full of shops and restaurants, yes it is a little cheesy in places but general we didn’t think it was too spoilt.

The drive back was just as painful especially as we had heavy rain for over an hour but the drive was slightly less tiring for Mark as Amanda was keen to take her turn in driving as we had a cool little Beetle.

Time flies in Miami South Beach

Well I am writing this having already spent 4 weeks anchored in Miami South Beach.  We are back in the same spot we spent 3 weeks in during December, funny that originally when transiting Florida we had no plans of visiting Miami but we really like it here.

So why do we like it so much? It is great that we do not have to pay to anchor, we do not have to pay to dock our dingy to get ashore, we can get free water from the Police dock but mostly because SOBE is a really cool place.  There is a colourful community here ranging from some of the mega rich people living in plush houses around Venetian causeway, millionaire row and other private islands, mixed with a vibrant gay community along with a large central/south American + Cuban population, and not forgetting the tourists who pile in from all over the world including lots of Americans.

What are we been doing in SOBE?  We have been taking in the local art, we visited the Wynwood Wall which is an area of Midtown where there is some great street art, we cycled there on a Saturday morning after reading that some of surrounding areas are a little dodgy.  It wasn’t the best time to take in the overall ambience as bars, clubs, etc were closed but we still enjoyed.  

We also visited the Wolfsonian Museum which has various collections of both international and local designers and artists, we spent an interesting couple of hours here and made sure we visited on a Friday evening when it is free.  We also popped into the Freedom Tower/Miami Art school which has a really nice gallery a few international pieces but mainly lots of Americans or Cubans who now live in America.  This again was free and was a great place to visit to get out of the baking heat.  To round off our art tour we spent an afternoon at the Perez Art Museum, it was a little busy on a free Saturday afternoon but a great place with lot of interesting Modern Art.

Sorry can't remember artist but this was part of a much larger design and very sparkly

I think we have walked every street in SOBE we often just wandering the streets to spend some time off the boat but it is a pleasant place to explore, there is the beautiful often busy beach, the canal with a selection of wild life, the art deco houses and the sites of Ocean Drive.  It is surprising how much wildlife you see in such a large urban area, huge iguanas sunbath near the canal, dolphins fish in the anchorage, a whole array of sea birds including pelicans, storks, ibis, we even saw a manatee in the busy harbour in downtown and was also a little odd seeing an spotted eagle ray gliding up the canal, we have only ever see one of these whilst snorkelling and diving so was odd to see it in this setting.

Ibis by the side of the road

Iguna sunbathing just off road on Venetian Causeway - Magnum at anchor in the distance

Huge Heron posing for a photo at the marina - in the background is the main road bridge over to South Beach

On our previous visit to Miami we never visited downtown but we have cycled across on several occasions, initially we had to head that was to check in with customs but we have also visited the galleries and just soaked up the atmosphere at the sea front.  Bayside offers waterfront shopping/entertainment bit like Port Solent at home but larger and with bigger brands including Hard Rock Café, it is also the marina to catch one of the many tourists boats that visit Venetian Causeway whether this is a pirate boat, a super speedboat or huge powerboat.

Waterfront in downtown

Mark relaxing in waterfront park in downtown

The weather has been surprising to us, we never realised that it would rain sooooo much, we are now experiencing thunderstorms almost every afternoon which is sometimes a relief as it manages to cool it down a little but often it just means we have to shut all the hatches and it is just too hot.  The temperature is almost always 35+ with humidity over 75% and it does not cool very much at night so one of us often has to sleep in the main cabin.

We often walk to the beach or harbour entrance although have only been actually sat on the beach and been in the sea once!  We were at the lower class end of the beach without all the pirate beach paraphernalia that is by all the fancy hotels and with all the private brollies, beach chairs and cool boxes – the American love their cool boxes.

Beautiful but busy Miami beach 

The channel is always being dredged at Miami due to the vast number of cruise liners arriving and departing on almost a daily basis, on a Friday/Saturday evening you often see 4 ships heading out.  A more exciting site was the US Coastguard ship leaving the harbour, great to see a working sailboat on such a large scale.

Our entertainment budget is very limited so Amanda enjoys a walk along Ocean drive on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, The Palace Bar has live entertainment with the best Drag Queens in town.  These amazing women perform out in the street and literally stop traffic with their show, the have such presence and provide an amazingly energetic performance in the unbearable heat, it is great entertainment and the bar is always packed with people.

Also much to Marks frustration we did have a trip to Saw Grass Mills which they promote as the biggest discount mall in the US and yes it is huge, we spent way to long there but did pick up a few bargains and Mark was pleased with the upgrade we received on the hire car.

What a colour!

Overall we have been trying to keep ourselves entertained, make the most of this cool location whilst trying to prepare ourselves for the transition back to landlife in the UK.  It may all seem idyllic but unfortunately we still have hanging over us the stress that the shipping date has slipped, the 20^th June has come and gone, we currently have no alternative.

Speedy departure to the States

Our provisional date for shipping was 20^th June and although a month away we felt under some pressure to have good communication links so that the shipping company could contact us, we knew that the Exumas would not give this to us so if we had reasonable weather we would just sail to Miami and prepare ourselves and Magnum for the trip.

We left Black Point with about 20 knots of wind and bashed up wind, with not much chop on the bank we made good progress and even enjoyed tacking in as close as we could to the anchorage at Bell Island. This must be one of the ugliest anchorages in the Exumas as there is a huge industrial building on this side of the island but it provided great protection and it was only for 1 night.

Huge Ugly building on Bell Island

Next day with 15 knots of wind we had a glorious sail, the seas were flat the sun was shinning and we remembered how much we loved sailing in the Bahamas.  We had a bit of an issue with some tangled reefing line and Mark demonstrated what a monkey he is by climbing onto the boom.

Monkey Mark

We whizzed along hard on the wind, it was nice after so many weeks of sitting in Georgetown, enjoyed a wonderful 20 miles sail on one of our last days in the Bahamas with our adventure now rapidly coming to an end. 

Amanda enjoying being at the helm

As we approached the anchorage at Shroud Cay we saw Oystermist anchored in prime location, it was weeks since we had said goodbye to Wendy and Graham in Gerogetown.  It was nice to catch up that evening and were really grateful for the distraction, we had both been feeling pretty stressed.

Next day we were up with the sun and motoring out of Shroud Cay.

Sunrise over Shroud - Silhouette of Oystermist 

The sail/motor to West Bay on Nassau was a frustrating one, we had 60 miles to travel and very little wind, we spent the day trying to get any speed we could from the sails but having to motor.  It was baking hot and we were both a bit sad to say goodbye to the beautiful Exumas.  We spent most the day in 3-4 metres of water and it was really good when we had to skirt around the end of the Tongue of the Ocean and were suddenly off soundings.  The anchorage at the western point of New Providence Island has good shelter although was little tricky for us to navigate into as it shallow.  It also has some amazing buildings at one end, it looks like a Disney style Polynesia village, we assume it is a resort, we never saw any people although could here peacocks crying for most of the night!

What is this place at West Bay, New Providence

We had a peaceful night at anchor but were again at first light to start our passage to Miami.  We hoisted the mainsail and pulled out the foresail to make the most of any wind but it was very light and we were motoring.  One other boat followed us out of the anchorage and there were 2 catamarans off to port and we were all on a converging course at the North West Passage.  We were quickly off soundings but the see what flat and glassy with no wind, we had around 50 miles to get to the Grand Bahamas bank and unfortunately the conditions did not really change so we were unable to sail but we still made progress.  This part of the journey was brighten by the sight of one or more whale on the horizon, in the flat sea they were easy to spot, it must have been 3 metres long with a short fin sitting quite far back, we had the book out to try to identify and we think it was a Beaked whale of some description, quite exciting.

As we reached the Bank the water came up quick to around 4 metres, this felt like the second leg of our journey.  By this time there were a few more sports fishing boats around and some sailing boats heading in the opposite direction but winds were still light and we were still motoring.  The highlight of this part of the journey was the sight of a very large loggerhead turtle which surfaced to say hello and then was off out of sight.

As the night approached we sat down to a delightful meal prepared by Mark, Courgette Omelette (aka egg mess in a bowl), baby carrots and roasted sweet potato, delicious and the seas were that flat we even had the table up, this never happens at sea!

mmmm yummy dinner

As night fell it was sad to think this was our last night in the Bahamas probably ever, not sure we would have the chance to return here when there are still so many other places in the World we have yet to visit.

Beautiful sunset

Amanda went to bed with Mark on watch as we crept across the shallows in never more that 4 metres of water until we reached Riding Rock where we left the bank we soon off soundings and into the Florida Straits.  Mark headed off to bed and Amanda was on watch as we headed towards the Gulf Stream and on the last leg of our journey to the States, still motoring!

Overnight there were a few tankers and cargo ships, ever glad of our AIS to tell us how far away there would be, always difficult to judge speed and distance, some passed under half a mile away which always seems relatively close.

As the sun came up the number of fishing boats buzzing around started to increase, we had not picked up as much Gulf Stream as we had expected so we had to start to alter course to head directly to Miami.  With such a prominent skyline we could see Miami for hours before we actually arrived into the harbour, it is so disheartening when you are moving  at 5 knots towards your destination!

Miami on the horizon

Downtown Miami getting closer

As we entered Miami harbour it was bumpy with the tide and the wash from the hordes of passing powerboat, you feel pretty close to the towering hotels and condos.

Entering Miami harbour

There were powerboats everywhere plus small ferries and various working boats, it was a challenge for us to drop out sail when we still in the channel.  We knew it would be busy at the weekend but we did not realise it was Memorial Day weekend, it was manic! It took a good hour to manoeuvre through the harbour through 2 bridges and various very very shallow patches to reach our anchorage at South Beach or SOBE as the locals call it, we were glad to be here but in for a bumpy few hours with the holiday traffic.

Anchorage overlooked by downtown Miami

Big Decisions

The days that followed were full of big decisions for us, we started to research the options for shipping Magnum home, as the weather in the North Atlantic generally looked like it was going to make for a difficult trip even if we made the first step to Bermuda.  This was not the option we really wanted to take, one because we had wanted to sail back and secondly as we had not budgeted for this expense.

It was good to be in Blackpoint as we were able to use the free wiifi at the laundrette, we soon had a number of quotes and Mark looked to negotiate the best rate.  We choose to go for a charter option out of Fort Lauderdale, our decision was taken mainly on price, wow it is expensive!  We were very grateful to the Government office in Blackpoint, who printed scanned and faxed our contract, again demonstrating how nice the people are in this small settlement.

The weather during our stay here was wet and windy for days on end and only made what was a difficult decision easier to come to terms with.

The wonderful laundry on a wet and windy day at Blackpoint

Ready Steady Go

We were itching to get away from Georgetown, with so many miles ahead of us we just wanted to get started, our plan was that although we could not see the ideal weather window we would get the boat ready and it would then be easy once the weather appeared.  We thought we would have one last walk Stocking island  from Sand Dollar anchorage before anchoring closer to Georgetown.  Our lovely walk ended in a small disaster, Amanda sprained her ankle and was unable to walk, so progress was then limited with Amanda hobbling around the boat. But we managed to move Magnum closer to Town and Mark ferried back and fore in the dingy collecting warred, fuel and food.  We then moved back to our favoured spot in Monument anchorage.

The amazing beach on Stocking Island

We then sat and waited, things were even more frustrating with Amanda unable to get off the boat and walk but after 3 or 4 days we were able to venture to Stocking Island for short walks providing they were reasonable flat.  We kept a close and very frustrated eye on the weather and saw a possible opportunity just over a week later.

Mark heading through the undergrowth on Stocking Island

Magnum at anchor in a anchorage with less and less boats

During this time he weather was quite unsettled and we often had strong north easterly winds and although we had good shelter it made dingy rides to Georgetown difficult with us both being soaked on the journey but it was nice to venture over and see a little of local life.  We enjoyed watching the school kids playing football, the children in the UK do not know how lucky they are, here there was no proper football pitch, it was marked out with a few cones scattered in the public green area/park in the middle of the settlement. This included playing around cars and dodging any people that decided to walk across the field and all of this often with no trainers just socks! But  they were as competitive and enjoyed as much as any kids.

School kids playing football in Georgetown

The approaching weather showed 20-25 knots easterlies which although not ideal would allow us a few days heading north and then the wind looked like it would swing slightly south or east so we could then head easterly. We bought enough food to last us for 4 weeks at sea just in case we had to head further south than Bermuda and straight to Azores. We did engine checks, rigging checks, grab bag at the ready, boat packed so nothing would move a sea, dingy packed away, we were as ready as we could be.  Mark woke up in the very early hours and did one final weather check. It had changed! Yep winds were forecasted to be stronger particularly overnight and potentially with some north, we could not leave.

Another week passed in much the same way, we tried to enjoy our time although getting increasingly stressed.  We walked every path on Stocking Island, the wild life seemed to be changing with the move into May we saw amazing hummingbirds, butterflies the size of birds and lots of Bahamian Mocking birds doing their mating ritual dance.

Those 3 little birds are hummingbirds, will be ever manage a good close up photo of one, they are just too quick!

We did not enjoy the weather so much during that week and walks were often taken dodging the showers and the evenings often had squalls rip through the anchorage.

Marks shorts holding onto the rails as a squall rips through the anchorage

As the next either window arrived all the same preparation took place.  On the 15th May we upped anchor and headed out of Georgetown, the wind was gusting 20 knots as we motored from the harbour, the sea was a little rolly but it felt good to be on the move.  We knew we had to make progress so we sailed hard on the wind making of 6+ knots in around 15 knots or wind, making good progress.  As we approached Cape Santa Maria on Long Island the winds started to build along with the seas as they often do at a headland.  We kept ploughing on but we were beating into the swell and it was quite unpleasant.  The seas continued to grow and the motion got worse, the wind was not swinging south easterly as forecast so we could not bear away so we maintain our course hard on the wind.  As dark approached we started to question whether we wanted to continued with potentially another week at sea in these conditions, its was not much fun.   We the. made the very difficult decision that we did not which meant that we really needed to change our plans for heading to Bermuda and the Azores.  We turned and headed back to the Exumas, we were running with 25 knots of wind and the motion became much more bearable, you then question have you made the right decision, it may have been ok, should we have carried on?  We sailed overnight and by the morning arrived in Blackpoint, Great Iguana.

3 Years onboard

On 27^th April 2014 was our third year anniversary of our cruising life.  Funny that we would celebrate it in almost exactly the same spot as last year! Who would have thought we would have been back in Sand Dollar anchorage in George Town, Great Exuma, Bahamas.  When we left here last year we had no intention of returning but here we are.

Magnum is there is  the middle of the beautiful Sand Dollar anchorage

The day we left the UK (April 2011) in brilliant sunshine with Portchester Castle in the background, this is minutes from  our home berth

Magnum getting last minute fuel as we leave Portsmouth harbour for the start of our journey

During the last 12 months we have sailed over 3900 miles which is almost half that of last year, but still a significant mileage as the previous year included an Atlantic crossing.  Surprising to us is that of the last 12 months cruising 7 months of these were spent in America.  When we originally left the UK on this trip with no intention on visiting America but about 12 months in, we started to consider this option for the hurricane season as we met people who had done the same or knew people that had travelled that route.  So after applying for a US visa and having to travel back to the UK to get the Visa we decided this would be a good option to fit with our plans, little did we know that our plans would change again but that is the nature of cruising

So what have been the highlights of this year:

• Meeting so many genuinely lovely and welcoming people in America, from our first weeks at Portsmouth where the liveaboard community gave us lifts to do our shopping, frequently invited us to fun and frolics on the dock and made sure we had everything we needed to make our stay as enjoyable as possible.  This welcome and helpfulness stuck with us as we travelled up and down the east coast with almost everyone we met, amazing how people can be so kind and generous.  We really hope we can remain friends with some of these lovely people.

Our lovely Portsmouth friends

• 4^th July spent in the US, how fantastic, a great fun time had by all.

• Seeing a bear whilst sailing the Intracoastal Waterway and then seeing more bears in the mountains. A REAL LIFE WILD BEAR still can't get over that!

• Resting and walking in the Blueridge Mountains, such stunning scenery and wildlife, a wonderful time away from the boat.

So pretty

• Our first baseball game, yes it was only a local game in Norfolk, Virginia but great to experience such a family friendly event.

• Sailing into New York. Wow this was amazing, something I never imagined we would do.  Our time in New York to our surprise was some of our best time spent in the States, we loved it much more than we thought.

Amanda sailing into NYC

That is Lady Liberty just on Marks shoulder

• Newport Rhode Island had such great sailing history and our trip to Boston was great fun.

• Spending Christmas time in Miami South Beach, yes we spent too much money, but it was such an interesting place.

Magnum at anchor in South Beach and downtown Miami with the sun setting

• Our entire time is Cuba was so special due to having friends and family visit and spending time with them whilst enjoying this interesting place.   We were lucky enough to visit Havana numerous times and spend time in the countryside in Vinales as well as lots of other day trips

• The Exumas in the Bahamas, the crystal clear waters are such amazing colours, yes it has sometimes been a challenge to navigate and the weather has not always been kind but we will never forgot this place.

We have done things slightly differently this year by spending longer time periods in the same locations with almost 2 month in Cuba and 6 weeks in Portsmouth, Virginia, a month around New York, 3 weeks in Miami and currently 5 weeks in George Town.  Although this has not always been by choice and the weather has played a part, it has enabled to get to know places.

So what did we do on our anniversary? Well the day before had seem rain and thunderstorms all day but the weather was kind and the sun came out.  We snorkelled with turtles and rays, explored the reefs in Elizabeth Harbour and walked on the amazing Stocking Island beach.  We topped this off with a glass of rum and reminisced about a great year.

Walking in the beautiful beach at Stocking Island

Mark enjoying his walk on Stocking Island