Connected

Today 12/8, we are in the Berry Islands, happily connected to wifi.  The long lapse in communication was due to our trip across the Great Bahama Bank from Bimini to the Berrys, and then anchoring outside of Bullocks Harbor.  Our wifi antenna is almost completed- Tyler did his part and now I have to make all the components talk to each other...I hope I can make that work!
Details of our trip:
After leaving Alicetown in north Bimini, we anchored and played in Nixon's harbor in south Bimini.  We snorkeled together for the first time and were able to see the anchor under water.... not sure that really made ME feel better... but it is cool to see how the anchor actually works.

This sea star was actually super huge... he was hanging out near the anchor

After a very rocky night in Nixon's harbor, we pulled anchor and visited Turtle Rocks nearby.  We were a little shy about snorkeling around a shipwreck in the seas we had, but we were able to dinghy around and take some cool pics.

Shipwreck!

Turtle Rocks was great for some shallow snorkeling, and we began our new photo series entitled "See those tiny white things- those are fish!"

I swear there are fish in this picture and the one below...

We spent the night in Honeymoon Harbor- had a very nice sunset snack on the beach and managed to leave Cyrus' snorkel gear on the beach...bummer.  We had a much calmer night with great protection from the wind, and awoke at 5am to begin our journey across the bank toward the Berry islands. 

We knew that we would not be able to make the trip in one day (sailing only in the daylight) and hoped that we would be able to anchor near the shallows in the twilight and have a pretty calm night before heading in to Bullocks Harbor on Friday.
We motored into a head wind the entire day with waves bashing against our bow- Cyrus had a great time sitting at the front of the boat for the roller coaster ride- but those waves also meant that we barely made 5 knots- a 50 mile trip at less than 5mph...we soon realized that we would be anchoring in the dark.
Traveling over the sea at night is actually quite beautiful.  The stars are amazing and even the sliver moon is bright.  Anchoring at night is not beautiful- nonetheless, we hooked up and rocked and rolled all night- our theory about the shallows killing the waves was not correct.
The last leg of our trip took us northeast 20 miles to Bullocks Harbor.  Because of our new heading (not dead-on into the wind) we were able to sail the entire leg.  Tyler set up his fishing rod for trolling and...success!!.. he caught a rather large mackerel!  The whole family was in the cockpit as we tried to haul the fish onto the boat, remove the hook and then....we weren't sure what to do.  We ended up "storing" our catch in a bucket until we made our destination and then Tyler used his fish cleaning skills (learned on an Alaskan salmon boat) and we had a terrific lunch.

Tyler caught a 25 inch Cero Mackerel en route to Bullocks Harbor.



Mackerel fillets!

While in Bullocks Harbor on Great Harbor Cay, we have explored the island a bit while staying in the marina for a night.  We rented a golf cart- which provided some entertainment for all of us...

Cyrus driving the golf cart

 Perhaps a foreshadowing of the future (teenage years), Cyrus accidentally started the golf cart while waiting for Tyler and I at a restaurant.  When we heard the golf cart motor start, Tyler and I leapt from our table to the restaurant doorway- nearly getting stuck as we both tried to get out the door at the same time.  Karma was good to us, and Tyler was able to stop the golf cart before hitting a house or the restaurant.  Heart. Attack.
Cyrus was able to safely drive the golf cart later that day... even staying on the left side of the road.

Finally, we met another sailing family last night at dinner.  We had a very enjoyable night chatting about sailing misadventures while Cyrus played LEGO video games with the kids.

We plan to move on from the marina today, anchoring in protected water and hopefully snorkeling an airplane wreck.  If all goes well, we will make a passage from the northern part of the Berry islands to Sandy Point in the Abaco islands on Tues, Wed or Thurs this week.

Mirage from afar- on my kayak:)