We are planning the grand crossing of the U.S. by car. On our way to Finisterre, we'll see the East Coast. It will be a great adventure in our own country, something we've never done! So, watch for photos.

We are in search of the fall colors and should come through New Hampshire, Vermont and up into Maine right at the best time. Would be fun to buy a bottle of maple syrup from someone local, sample harvest veggies from a roadside stand, shop for Shaker furniture, check out antique stores and old boat building sheds. Ah, travel to new places, where we don't have to have a second language. I'm sure missing the sound of Spanish spoken everywhere by everyone. Hope the language knowledge is still with me, when we get to the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico! And maybe the French will still be viable after 40 years from my last French class. It will be useful in some Caribbean stops!!

There may be more photos to add, but the blog now includes some of our best from Florida and the Bahamas, 2010. Please go to the last photo gallery--left hand column: Florida/Bahamas, and see each photo with short pieces about what we did and saw.

These photos remind us of the delight we experienced learning about the land of the Bahamas. The experience of the "banks" side, where the sea is turquoise and shallow and the "ocean" side where it is dark inky blue and very deep. Hiking on the trails on Warderick Wells and Cambridge Cay, where the limestone is so rough it wears out your crocs very quickly. Please read the captions with the pictures, as they tell the story of our adventure sailing the Bahamas, a place we came to love because of the wildness, the peace and the people.

We are currently in Salt Pond, anchored in Thompson Bay, Long Island, the Bahamas. Yesterday we traveled the whole island by car and got to visit mutual friends' local friends here on the island. It was great fun to talk with a family, Mom, Dad and son and visit their home right next to the water of the bay. We learned so much about the flora in their garden and came back with gifts of guavas, homemade guava jam, sapadilla fruit which I'd never tasted before--very unlike anything else, but look like brown apples while on the tree, hot sauce homemade, hot peppers dried, bananas, plantain, etc! We had a great visit, a highlight of our trip to Long Island. We also saw the Columbus monument at the other end of the island and had a nice overnight off the boat at a resort. A bit of luxury! Watch for upcoming photos! In a couple of days we return to Georgetown and the Family Island Regatta. Should be fun. Then, it's working our way back to Florida.

Monday morning, early, we left No Name Harbor, near Miami for the Bahamas. All day Monday we were crossing the Gulf Stream toward Bimini with a North swell and South-East winds. It really was a great weather window for the crossing! We headed for North Rock, an entrance onto the Banks, where depths go from thousands of feed to around 25 feet and sometimes less. The water changes color to a fabulous turquoise from dark blue right at the entrance to the banks. It's breathtaking! The water is very clear and we did see somewhat less swell over the area. We were in the banks the rest of the day and until around midnight as it's quite a ways across. We had a few places where we worried about the depths which got down to around 9 ft. As we got toward the far edge of the banks, late at night, we had to pass a light to get back into the ocean. It seemed like it was taking us forever to get past the light and we realized that there was a strong current coming into the banks from the ocean. We had to "put the pedal to the metal!" to get our speed high enough to make it past the light, while at the same time we were waiting for a freighter to pass us so we could both get off the banks. It was quite exciting and having to take watches and try to sleep for three hours and then be on duty watching-- depth, wind direction (we were sailing and motoring both), and other boats was pretty challenging. We hadn't done this kind of sailing for many months. We reached Nassau about 1:00 Tues afternoon and went to a marina. Sleep was a high priority after checking-into the country--officials came right to our boat, so it was very easy, just a lot of paperwork. We walked around and discovered that Bahamians here have cars with steering wheels on different sides of their cars and they drive on the other side of the road like in England. There are few sidewalks and some very narrow spots for walkers!

After a great night's sleep we explored the downtown area, historical museum and fort, walked around the straw market and ate a great breakfast in a downtown coffee shop with locals and tourists. People watching is high art in Nassau with all the cruise ship folks and locals who work in all kinds of jobs, including running their country. Cruise ship development around town is pretty sureal with all the super expensive international shops, but the buildings are colorful and it seems like tourism is a productive way for the Bahamas to prosper. When we got back to the marina, we enjoyed a Kalik (beer of the Bahamas) at the Poop Deck Restaurant here at the marina and had some conch fritters as well. Yum! We are planning to leave tomorrow for either Rose Island or Highbourne Cay, or maybe anchor in Nassau harbor, all depending upon the wind and swells. It's been pretty blustery and very cool.

We enjoyed seeing some of the sailboats that the local people sail between islands and in local regattas. We may be able to see one of these regattas in Georgetown, farther down the Exuma chain of cays in the next few weeks. We're so glad we finally made it here and are looking forward to all the anchorages and cays to explore!