Walkers Cay to Grand Cay

We’ve made it! After a long but very successful crossing, we’re in the Bahamas! We were up before the sun with excitement and were treated to a beautiful sunrise. With the sun up, we could now finally see the beauty that surrounded us. The deep navy blue of the deep waters giving way to the pale turquoise waters of the shallow sandbars. We could see the sea stars and fish below us as if we were in 2 feet of water, not 10 feet. Breathtaking!

So, now what? Well for starters, the Captain has to go ashore and check us all in to the country before any of us (including the dogs) can go ashore. Walkers Cay, a once popular and thriving little island was left desolate after a hurricane a few years ago. They are said to have a customs official there by the now abandoned Walkers Cay Marina. Steve headed in to the marina with all our paperwork. **Here’s a hint we learned from other experienced sailors that we’ll pass on to you. When going to customs in another country, dress and act respectful. It really does “grease the wheels.”

So dressed in his only nice clothes, armed with all our passports, Bahamas import paperwork, dog import licenses and our printed crew sheet for reference, off he went. Thirty minutes later, he returned…with a thumbs down. As Steve was walking around ashore a local, Marvin, came up and asked him if he was looking for customs.”" “Yes sir, I am.” Steve answered. “You’ll want to head over to Grand Cay, mon. No custom official here.” advised Marvin.

What Marvin failed to mention is that they would probably be there at some point but we’ll get to that in a minute.

Back on the boat, Steve replaced his one nice outfit for more appropriate “boat clothes” and together with Jake, they raised the anchors and we were off for Grand Cay. Only about an hour away, which is just enough time for Jake to have his “Titanic” moment on the bow and for Grandma to soak up some sun.

We pulled into Grand Cay and anchored between Little Grand Cay and Rat Cay. Steve donned his “dress clothes” again, and headed into Rosie’s to try once more to clear us into the Bahamas. Rosie, btw, is a he in case you assumed otherwise like we did. Rosie took Steve in his golf cart down to the end of the island where the Customs/Police/City office building is located. About 30 minutes later, Steve returned to Miss Daisy with another thumbs down. Turns out the custom official was…….at Walkers Cay. Yep. . . .well crap. As it turns out, the customs officer goes to Walkers Cay regularly to clear aircraft landing there. The several private islands in the area have helicopters to meet the aircraft that land here to shuttle their passengers to their destinations.

At this point it’s about 10 am March 1st. The dogs, God love them, have been on the boat since 5am the day before. We’ve had success so far, no accidents, no sea sickness with dogs and crew but by this point, we are really pushing our luck. Thankfully, all the dogs are trained to use the stern or the bow to potty if needed. That way it’s easy to wash down if necessary. (It was necessary.)

Fast forward five hours. It’s now 3:00pm and Steve is going to give it another shot. Back in his nice clothes, he gathers all his paperwork, and again, heads to shore. This time he knows where the building is so he heads straight there in the dinghy. 30 minutes later, he returns and ………you guessed it. Another thumbs down! Seriously? At this point disappointment is the prevalent emotion. The Captain however, said “Now worries, mon. I just need to grab something.” Oh, thank goodness. Now we’re getting somewhere. Turns out, if you list your firearm among your possession on your paperwork (and we recommend you do), you also need to bring in your bullets so they can count them. Leave your firearm on the boat though – they don’t want to see that, just the bullets.

Another half hour and we see Steve approaching in the dinghy. Thumbs up! Finally!! Steve takes down the yellow quarantine flag and replaces it with our still crispy new Bahamian courtesy flag while I ready the kids and the dogs. All loaded up, we are in search of a beach to stretch legs and put our feet in the sand. It didn’t take long and we spotted a beautiful strip of white sand. Along the way we spotted 3 giant spotted eagle rays, several sea stars, lots of fish and even a small shark! We hadn’t even beached the dinghy when all the dogs made a leap for shore. We all know what followed, I’ll spare you those details :)

After the beach, we took Miss Daisy into the water dock to fill up the tanks. Our water maker was having issues and we were out. While at the dock, we met a family on a Morgan 41’ OI, just like our old No Mas. They invited Steve to go spearfishing the next day and helped us off the dock so we could go anchor again.

Day 2

Steve headed out with his new friends and the rest of us chilled on Miss Daisy. With a full water tank, we were able to catch up on laundry and showers. Steve came home with fresh lobster, snapper and conch from his fishing trip – yum! He worked on the water maker and our 40 HP outboard. He fixed the water maker, didn’t have the same luck on the outboard. Steve can fix anything. I’ve seen him do it, I know he can. He is one of the greatest mechanic/handyman I’ve ever known. If he can’t fix our outboard, it’s time to look for outside help. Thank goodness we have our little 2hp outboard from the kids dinghy. We dined on the delicious seafood while watching a beautiful sunset and all agreed that tomorrow we would head into shore and locate a mechanic and explore the island.

Day 3

Went to shore to look around. We met Ed, who crowned himself our official tour guide. He was our new best friend. It was about 9am and he was slurring his words a bit – this was going to be a fun day. When I mentioned to him that we were looking for someone who can possibly look at our outboard, he didn’t hesitate to claim that Teddy was the only one we needed to see. “Teddy make everything run, baby.” Well then, Teddy is who we need indeed. Teddy was waist deep in the guts of

a forklift when we approached. He said he’d be happy to have a look see and to give him a little while. We agreed and set off to explore the rest of the island. Along the way we spoke to three schoolgirls who were racing back into school with their hands full of sweets, stopped to say hi to a friendly pot cake (local name for a stray dog) and take some pictures. We stopped at the green house for some Goombay (Bahamian fruit soda) and offered to buy Ed one. He said only kids drink soda – grownups drink liquor. He couldn’t get over the fact that we didn’t drink. “No drink on your boat?” No Ed, only water and lemonade. We did give him a dollar so he could go get a drink and join us in the shade. When we asked him where to get lunch, he didn’t hesitate a minute. “Follow me.” he said with certainty. We followed him into a little yellow house. “Shay!” he shouted. “Shay, where you at?” A young, round, happy woman stepped out to greet us. “Shay, what you cookin’? My friends are hungry.” She smiled and said she had ribs and pork chops with red beans and rice. Well we certainly wasn’t expecting that!

We sat down at her kitchen table and she said she would bring us two of both. Before we knew it, we had 4 heaping plates of steaming deliciousness in front of us. Jake ran back to the green house for

more drinks and we dug in. A huge mound of red beans and rice, the largest pork chop I’ve laid eyes on and warm potato salad. Now, I’ve had my share of homemade potato salad but none even came close to this! Even typing this several days later, I still smile thinking about Ms. Shay’s potato salad.

We boxed up the leftovers (at least half the food we received) and headed back in search of Teddy. Teddy was working in our dinghy when we got there. He said “No problem, I fix your engine right up. About $20 okay?” We only had a $10 in cash on us so Steve asked him if $10 and something in trade would be okay. “$10 is fine, mon.”

$10 and an old extension cord we no longer used later, and our little 40hp Johnson purred better than it ever has before! So if you ever find yourself anywhere around Grand Cay Bahamas and need some engine work, find Teddy. Best $10 we’ve ever spent!

Tomorrow we head to Double breasted Cay.

~Mimzie

Powell Cay

For the last stop before Marsh Harbor we decided to stop at Powell Cay for some protection from the west winds. There were already a couple boats anchored there when we found our spot with more arriving by the hour. We ended up with 8 neighbors by the end of the night. We had heard there were trails to explore on the island and the kids couldn't wait to get to shore to see. The boys took the dogs ashore for a quick walk while Dani and I readied some supplies for a hike. With water, snacks and cameras we headed out when the boys returned. Anchored off a mile long beach, we decided to head to the North end of the island by the bluffs and another beach.

We weren't disappointed when we rounded an outstretched bluff and found a beautiful crescent shaped beach.

 We pulled the dinghy up and quickly found a sign for the bluff trail and headed out. After a quick hike along a well traveled trail through some thick brush, we were treated to a view of our anchorage from the top of the bluff.

Back at the beach, we walked down further and found yet another trail. This one heading to the ocean side. A quick survey resulted in the unanimous decision to head out on that trail. This trail was not so short and at times, the only way we knew we were on the right track was the ocean junk that was strung up along the trail by previous island visitors to mark the way.

After what seemed like forever, we came up one last hill and the trail opened up to a spectacular view of the Atlantic. In looking back along the trail, we were looking over the top of the forest canopy. We'd come so far that we could no longer see the other side of the island where we'd started on this trail!

After resting and playing a bit, we headed north to journey around the island. Someone had said that at low tide, you could walk all the way around the north end of the island and come out on the beach where we had our dinghy. We set out and we were definitely NOT disappointed! I will let some pictures do the talking for me so you can see just how beautiful the hike turned out to be.

See what I mean? I don't think I oversold it, it really was a magnificent hike. We finally rounded the last bend and ended up on the beach where we had landed the dinghy. See Hudson, the dinghy, on the far side of the beach in the picture below? Only one problem. We didn't anchor the dinghy out quite far enough for the low tide so by the time we got back, the Whaler was completely beached! With all four of us, a 4' section of 4x4 that we happened to have in the dinghy and about 30 minutes later - we had her floating once again. Teamwork at its best!

We headed back to Miss Daisy to tell Grandma all about our adventures of the day. Needless to say, no one had to rock us to sleep that night - even though the ocean gently did.

~Mimzie

Marsh Harbor

After another day at Powell Cay, the winds clocked around to the South. Our protection from the East no longer helped in keeping the waves down. With the boats now bobbing around, all the boats in our anchorage began to head out, us included. The next stop was Marsh Harbor, the largest city we've visited in the Bahamas. The trip there was fairly short and we could definitely tell we were heading into a city by the amount of boat traffic. Boats everywhere!

We pulled into the protected harbor and found a spot in the busy anchorage and were secured in no time. There were about 100 other boats anchored and lots of boat traffic back and forth. Steve and I headed into shore to scout out a place to walk the dogs and see what was around. We walked the busy streets, disoriented a bit as they drive on the "wrong" side of the road here. It was Sunday and we didn't realize everyone would be closed on Sundays here. With the exception of a couple restaurants and a small general store, everything was closed. We were looking for an ATM so we had hope that we could find one, even on a Sunday and after asking the lady at the general store where the Scotia Bank was, found it without problem.

After getting some Bahamian cash, we went back to the general store and got some cold Goombays for everyone and some ice cream for ourselves. It was pretty hot and we did just do all that walking....so I think we deserved it! Back to the boat for relaxing for the evening!  We were able to purchase a 24 hour pass for  wifi and to quickly check in with Brandon. He had made it to the Bahamas but he said he had a rough start to their trip from Texas with 6-9 ft seas for the first two days. He was enjoying the warmer weather and they were working hard, getting the boat ready for guests. With that out of the way, we checked in with other friends and family and uploaded several posts we had written while we were out of wifi range.

Day 2 - Monday

On Monday we headed out to secure the parts we were needing. A new prop for Hudson the dinghy, a special screwdriver and thread set for Captain, and bakery goods for Grandma. Grandma was a trooper that day and must have walked a couple miles. Thankfully she had her trusty cane and sweets from the bakery to keep her fueled. After a full day of running errands, we stopped in for some conch fritters at a waterfront restaurant. Delish! Fueled and rested, we headed back to the dinghy and then to Miss Daisy. Steve dropped us tired ladies off and headed out to pick up the prop he had located and to get his dive tanks refilled. Then we were treated to a nice sunset over this bustling harbor.

Day 3 - Tuesday

Since we had everything we had come for, we were ready to head out. Honestly, we're not much for all the crowds. A lot of people like Marsh Harbor and I'm sure there was more there that we didn't explore but it's not our cup of tea. We headed to the Jib room Marina for a fuel top off and hit the road. Or would it be hit the water. Either way, we left Marsh Harbor on our way to our next destination which was Lynyard Cay. 

Grand Cay to Sand Cay/Double Breasted Cay

Friday, March 4th started off with a treat! We were able to log in to wifi long enough to use my iphone to call Brandon. I am still amazed how much that silly phone has bettered our lives, but I’m not entirely proud of it, since we strive to live frugally. Brandon told us they were getting ready to head to the Bahamas, too. They will be pretty far from us so we won’t be able to see him while he’s here. We talked about their upcoming trip to the Mediterranean and Europe. We’re still so proud of him and amazed that he is living the dream he’s always wanted. Proud indeed!

It was a beautiful morning when we pulled out of the harbor in Grand Cay for our quick trip to Sand/Double Breasted Cay. The ride was about 2 hours and after a little zig and zag, we had a nice anchor spot all to ourselves. The view was photoshop perfect.

We took the dogs and kids to shore, actually we took the dogs to shore, the kids jumped off the top of the boat and swam in.

We did a lot of snorkeling. Steve cleaned the hull thoroughly since he could see everything so well. There was a nice 4’ barracuda that hung out in the shade of our boat. We named him Bubba. The swimming slowed down after that. 

The water is so clear here!

Do I see Happiness?!

Sugar cookie Sophie

Jake and Dani jumping off the boat - one of their favorite things

We did a lot of snorkeling. Steve cleaned the hull thoroughly since he could see everything so well. We had a nice 4’ barracuda that hung out in the shade of our boat. We named him Bubba. The swimming slowed down after that.

The second night we took the kids and dogs ashore and had a campfire and we were treated to one of the most breathtakingly beautiful sunsets we have ever seen. We roasted marshmallows and read the kids daily homework of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet under the stars. These are the moments that sneak up on you that make you stop and think about how lucky you are. Watching our kids laughing and enjoying themselves while making memories I know they’ll have for many years. Surrounding them with love, nature, culture and adventure. Locking away the negativity that can consume so many people. This! This is why we’re doing what we are doing….not that this is much of a sacrifice on our parts.

~Mimzie

Sand Cay to Great Sale Cay

This was supposed to be Sand Cay to Marsh Harbor, but we know better than anyone, you can’t plan too much on a boat. We left Sand/Double Breasted Cay on Monday March 7th as the winds were continuing to rock us more than we like. We knew that the winds would last for a few days and after Sunday, with 20-30 mph sustained winds, we thought we’d try for a long run to Marsh Harbor. There were a couple items we wanted to pick up before we got too far into the trip. Marsh is about 70 miles, or about 9 hours of cruising. Not bad if the weather cooperates but not fun if it doesn’t. After about 2 hours of washing machine waves, even my iron stomach was crying for relief. Captain rerouted us to a nearby secure harbor in Sale Cay. Once securely anchored, a quick dinghy ride to shore for a dog walk and we all crashed. One of the great things about this lifestyle, if you need a nap, take one.

We headed out later to explore the island a bit. Word is, there is an abandoned missile tracking station on the island and as much as the Captain loves history, we were going to have to find it! No luck on day 1 but day 2 was another story. Steve and I went out to explore the western shore of the island which had a mile or so of empty beach. About halfway through our walk, success! We had found the station ruins. Not much left but broken concrete that has been overtaken by sand, sea and nature. It was still amazing to walk along the floor that still had tile on it and wonder what it looked like in its glory days. What it must be like to be out here so isolated. We left the the beach and headed across the harbor to the Atlantic side to walk the ocean shore. There we discovered a 10’ tall giant navigation buoy that had broken loose and washed away, only to run aground on this deserted island. We walked about a mile down the coast, finding treasures galore. Washed up milk crates, beautiful crab pot floats of varying colors, sea glass of blues and purple and even an old bottle that I’m convinced Capt. Jack Sparrow must have used to hold his rum.

When we returned to the boat, we donned our snorkel gear and with Jake in tow, Steve and I headed to a sunken boat for adventure. Thankfully, Steve brought along his spear and after 20 minutes, we had our bag full of lobster tails. I don’t even think the 5’ nurse shark minded one bit. We also saw a small lionfish that Steve tried to shoot, but missed three times. The lionfish, sneaky little fellow that he is, disappeared after that!


Day 3 of Sale cay was a relaxed day on the boat….for most of us. The Captain never seems to take a day off so for him it was spent fixing leaks, wiring, and salvaging the $100.00  worth of stainless bolts from a washed up wooden platform. For the kids, it was school and for Grandma and myself it was reading and writing for me. It’s been 5 days with no internet. No TV. No contact with the world. Most importantly, no campaign news. Do I miss it? I miss only the opportunity to speak with Brandon, but since he was going to be at sea for about 5 days, I’m probably not missing anything. The quiet is amazing. The stars are amazing. Showing the kids the Milky Way is amazing. Walking the deserted beaches with my love is amazing. No, I’d say I don’t miss a thing. Did I mention this is amazing?

Day 4, we ran out to take some pictures in the morning and heading out for our next destination about 10:00 am. This amazing journey continues!

~Mimzie