Sailing Miles

  Bucket List: Elbow Cay Lighthouse in Hope Town, Bahamas We docked the dinghy, with a stern anchor out, right at the lighthouse dock for our free self-guided tour. The woman in the gift shop was very friendly and informative. The light in this ligh thouse is the only one in the world that still runs on kerosene and is hand-cranked! We saw the block-and-tackle they use to bring up the kerosene to the pressurized tank. OSHA has no jurisdiction here... 101 steps to the top. It's fascinating to us that a cochlea   is a naturally occurring geometric shape. Part of the beautiful way God made order in the universe. According to the brochure, "The lighting source is a 325,000 candlepower "Hood" petroleum vapour burner. A hand pump is used to pressurize the petroleum (kerosene) which is in the heavy green iron containers below the lantern room. The fuel travels up a tube to a vapourizer within the burner which sprays into a preheated mantle. Pressurized camping lanterns oper...

 While we were spending the five nights anchored in our "only one night" anchorage off Lynyard Cay (it was that fantastic!), we went up to Sandy Cay to snorkel twice. Both times were amazing.  I mentioned before that someone said it's the best snorkeling spot in the Abacos.  The good part of hitting it first, is that we did actually enjoy the best snorkeling spot in the Abacos.  The bad part is that it will all be downhill from here. We had learned that the Pelican Cays Land and Sea Park maintains a couple of moorings near the reef.  They were not rated for a 50-foot boat, and besides it is easier to grab a mooring from the dinghy.  We took the 2.5-mile ride on two consecutive days to enjoy the reef. The water is that amazing clear water of the Bahamas.  Heck, I think I've bought bottled water that is not so clear.  We shared a mooring with a family that was taking a sabbatical for a year and cruising the Bahamas and Caribbean on their trawler, Se...

After a great week in one of our favorite Florida anchorages, No Name Harbor, we found a great weather window to head to the Bahamas. We were D-U-N, done with Florida after a year of repairs. Even though the time in No Name was amazing, with dear friends, we were excited to move on. We checked into the Bahamas in Bimini.  We had been there in March of 2020, just before Covid created such trouble. We sailed with Danny, Cindy, Steve, and Glenn. We had been using Glenn as slave labor for almost a week, so we thought sailing would be a good reward.  Checking in went well, even though I had to call on our IT guy to help me fill out the Click2Clear website.  We had missed the detail that it is mandatory now. The first Customs guy was a bit touchy about our ignorance, but after I secured Steve to help make things happen, the first guy was at lunch.  The second guy was like a website support specialist for cruisers.  I think the paper method took less time, but maybe we...