Well, Marina is back at it...the saga continues

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Nov.29 - Dec.31, 2013
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We got "too busy" life lately and did not put any effort in updating our blog for some time....
We spent more than 3 weeks at the anchor in St.Pete Beach and we loved it there every minute! So far, it's our most favorite stop
while traveling from Clear Lake,TX to Florida.
I had my Carpal Tunnel Syndrom surgery done Dec.16 in Tempa and in couple days we got our new main sail done. It's time to move on to Keys...
It was very sad to leave this beatiful old little beach town with miles of the white beaches.
The next stop we had in Venice, Fl. Spent a night there and sailed next day to Charlott Bay - we finally got 4 hours of pure sailing on broad reach!
Tested out our new main sail - great!
From Charlott Bay we took 24 hours sail straight to Key West since weather was getting bad again. In Key West we stayed at ABC Marina for couple days and
waited for our daughters to show up for Christmas vacation. We were surprised to find out that there are no nice beaches in Key West and in Keys in general.
But we spent our time walking a lot around, visiting Hemmingway house filled with sixtowed cats, movie, bars, restaurants,etc.
In couple days we moved down the Keys ancoring at a secluded place, then Bajia Honda state part, and finally made it to Marathon.
The Boot Bay in Marathon was full of the boats (at least 250!) of different kind, ancored or on moorings. So far it was the best setup for boaters at the
City Marina. Restrooms, showers, laundry, community room with working wifi, "boat projects" rooms, dinghy lift, water, etc - everything to support
normal life of the sailors on the way to their destinations. And finally, we made some friends sailors, who planned to get to Bahamas too.

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January 18, 2014 -
Day? Who knows...lost track of days we are on our trip. I guess, this is a good thing?
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We made it to Bahamas, North Biminy, on Jan.14th. 2014
The crossing of the Golfstream was a team effort. In Marathon, Fl, we met with other boaters with the same sailing plans as ours - make it to
North Biminy, Bahamas. Every day at 9am we had a chance to chat with other boaters in Marathon via VHF sessions and had "Bahama" meetings
periodically. That helped us a lot in preparation of the Golfstream crossing and we made good friends with couple "buddy" sailers. The harderst
part was waiting for the favorable weather for this crossing.
As soon as we came back from our short trip to Austin (trying to fix Kevin tooth), the weather changed in our favors and our buddies were planning
to leave next day! We just had couple hours to prepare for departure to Bahamas: got provision from Publix store, got gasoline for our dinhgy, filled up
water tanks, etc. In such a rush we did not have time to do laundry at the City Marina - we accumulated a lot of dirty clothes after our daughers visited us
for Christmass and New Year celebrations. But oh well, we got to go finally!
We sailed for 22 hours with three "buddy" boats. It was interesting that everybody had chosen about the same pass and while sailing overnight we could see
lights of our friends boats everywhere around us - false feeling of security. Next day, around noon, everybody made it through the dangerous pass to the Browns
Marina in North Bimini.
After clearance with customs we finally could relax, "lick our wounds" and take a nap.
For couple days we got sucked in to close socialazing with our new friends: dinners, lunches, happry hours, fun, helping each other with boat
projects - feels like we are back to college dorms! Feels good!
There are not many attractions on Bimini, except of the beatiful ocean and banks waters of different colors - there are more than five different shades of
aquamarine, and blue, and green. Kevin tried to catch some fish on the first night, but we were so surprised to find out that our catch of the day was a neighbor's
dinghy! Since then we did not have much luck with fishing, however, we saw couple sharks and enourmous tarpon swimming around our boats.
The main food around here are different dishes from conch (I like salad from raw conch - delish), and of course, fish.
But, it's time for us to continue with our trip - tomorrow we are planning to start our couple days trip to Nassau, and yes, we are going
with our "buddy" boats again.
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