Alright we are on our way, anchors up! Out into the ocean with the wind SE and waves on our starboard bow. Waves are 3-6 feet today with swells also. Pleasant sail today with some motoring due to weak wind, cant use spinnaker due to fact we are not going downwind. or wind isnt on our stern(back of boat). The spinnaker is like a huge billowing light light sail that fills with wind and we love to fly it! Steve is doing well I am enjoying piloting today watching the clouds  change and move slowly, the dolphins in 10-15 numbers in a pod. They are in line like the Rockette’s. Looks like a beautiful water ballet. The sea turtles have not been sighted today. I keep watching for a whale or something big out here. It is so quiet even with the engine running some it is still peaceful and free. Check out my facebook page under Denise Smith. I am going to post a neat movie on there of the Atlantic for all my friends who have been following my trip. Looking over to my port/left side i see a sailboat and a huge supply ship. The ship is headed dead across my path and we will have to veer port to get out of his way. The dolphins have run across the bow as if to warn us of impending danger. I love dolphins too they are so graceful and smart. They are a good sign out here in the ocean. The sea is app 7 fathoms deep about 9000 feet i guess. I will have to look up fathoms to feet. Lesson number 6320, lol. Any way we are enjoying the sea today, she is in a good mood so far today. I piloted until we were about 13 miles away. That is 3 hours travel time. The flying fish are plentiful today with the sun glinting off the blue and silver of the fish as they glide from one spot to another looking like shiny silver coins bouncing off the waves as they glide. They scatter like dandelion seeds when the boat gets close. The sun is shining today and looks so pretty on the water. We turned off the motor when the wind picked up and just sailed with the wind for the rest of the trip until we came into the harbor. It is so peaceful with the wind filling the sails, the water splashing against the boat and the swells gently moving us up and down. The waves has picked up and we are riding high and then low like riding a bucking bronco at the rodeo. Good Times! We have learned the waves and currents and winds and loving the ocean. I still have a lot to learn about this sailing stuff, but it is never ever boring. This place is peaceful, watching the clouds and the water is so relaxing you don’t ever won’t to leave. Well we see land ahead and will wait till we get about a mile from the harbor to check on the breakers and see if we can get in on the south end or have to sail to the northern entrance. When these breakers “rage” they block the inlet and you cannot safely pass if they are too rough. Luckily we were advised that they were low and not dangerous at the south end. We took down our main sail as we got into the harbor area and waited to take the headsail down as it was guiding us in. As we got  closer to the anchoring area we started to take the headsail in. (Here is where lesson 6999 kicks in) as we were taking the  sail in we veered about 10 foot off of our course and we stopped moving.The water is really shallow outside the main channel and neither of us were watching the depth. So we tried to motor off the shallow bank and we just turned in a circle, we figured we would just sit out and wait until the tide came in. It would be high tide in a few hours anyway. Just our luck a big catamaran came by and the lady on board yelled out “well you can always just have lunch”. That is what you do when you get stuck and have to wait for high tide to get unstuck, lolol.Our friend had anchored out close to us to wait with us and advised us to put out an anchor so when we got unstuck we would not drift closer to shore. Steve put the anchor out and as we sat on the boat steve said suddenly, “hey go pull on the anchor when that boat comes by the wake may help us out” I pulled on the anchor as the wake hit us and WOW our boat came right off the shallow bank with Steve at the helm motored us right off it. Great Captain! We were stuck for aboout 20 minutes. As we moved the boat we saw a 5-6 foot shadow swimming in the water which we deduced it was a shark. Must have smelled the peanut butter and jelly sandwich we ate, 🙂 One of those sharks with a sweet tooth. Our friend was so surprised when we yelled at their boat to come on we were ready to go in and anchor out. We anchored out by the beach. We have to anchor out in sandy spots for our anchor to hold. I am learning to hit that patch of sand with the boat speed and wind direction. It is not easy but i like it, sorta like target practice. After anchoring and making sure it holds we went t o the beach and explored. Some people from Boston were cracking some conch they caught and tenderizing it for dinner. We left after introducing ourselves and headed across the bay to a restaurant , but as we started to get into our dinghy we saw a shark headed in close to the beach and swimming around with his little fin out of the water.  He was probably about 3-4 foot long. As we headed to the restaurant we saw some more with their fins up out of the water, we think the guys cleaning conch must have caused them to come in to look for something to eat. On to the restaurant dock across the bay, we arrived tied up and climbed the ladder to the restaurant. It was closed for supper but you can get drinks. Next door was a great little restaurant and bar that was serving supper. I had a conch burger and steve had a reg burger. Not a big menu on that island. It was a wonderful atmosphere at that place it had a little beach with a fire pit and bed sized bench with the whispy sheer curtains blowing in the breeze, next to the water. The deck we were sitting on had beautiful stools tables and four cats wondering around. It was getting windy and cold and the storm clouds were rolling in on us. Luckily it did not rain and we made it back to the boats without being eaten by a shark or being blown out of the dinghy. Whew it is nice here between the islands. Well goodnight everybody stay tuned!

Good morning everyone, we are staying at boat this AM i do not feel very well today due to congestion on and off down here. We have to get ready to take off to the Abacos tomorrow across the Atlantic. The boat is clean and ready and we have to leave early because it is a 10 hour voyage. Looking so forward to getting into another island area to explore. We are headed to Little Harbor first anchor there and head to Hope Town and Marsh Harbor the next day. We got our dinghy put on deck and OH YEAH we are ready to sail. Atlantic here we come again!

Well today started well with the sun shining and warm weather. Last night we were prepared for a big storm coming through, Steve and I bundled up in rain gear prepared for the worst. A storm can cause real damage to your boat when you are sailing or anchored out. We had to reposition anchors, move boat, and pray the storm goes the other way. We watched the radar system moving in until we could not get clear signal anymore. So here we are on the deck looking like eskimos in rainsuits and prepared for the worst. After sitting out there for a couple of hours with just sprinkles of rain we decided we were going to bed. So we took off our severe weather gear got into bed with our gear close by and fell asleep to the gentle raindrops hitting the boat. The storm decided to go around us on both sides and we were safe. Thanks again to my sister who lent me her gore tex rain and wind suit, you cannot get a better suit for this sailing rainy weather when it hits, or it turns cold. So we woke up to a beautiful day in the Bahamas. I am at the store using the uninterrupted WIFI signal so i can resize and post pics. There is a little yellow finch that comes by every once in a while to check me out. Such pretty birds. The little shop here sells jewelry that is made from a shell that i have found several of. It looks like Mother of Pearl and I bought a pair of earrings. They were reasonably priced too! That is a change from all the high prices i see here. 29.00 for a t shirt, 39.00 for a sweatshirt. I am awaiting my other half to go eat lunch today. So i will sign off for now and cont later this evening.

Raining today with scattered thunderstorms and we are just having a slug fest watching movies and Frasier on DVD. We were expecting the storm and are in a good place to be anchored. The most important thing we do is watch the weather and keep up with all the winds, currents, waves and storms. The boat looks like a laundromat with all the raingear hanging on everything where we had to go set an anchor outside in the early AM. Now we are just trying to dry off. Looks like the sun is coming out and its time to cook our lunch. The sky is gray with scattered patches of sunlight coming in to the boat. Hopefully the weather will turn and we can safely get to the Abacos soon. I saw a little sting ray yesterday by the street wall along with lot of other little fish swimming around there. I see a lot of purple and gold fish everywhere. I call them Laker Fish. Gotta go now Everyone have a great day!

Not too much to write today, we are enjoying the internet on the boat from our new antenna and taking it easy. I did go into town to the little grocery store to get some stuff for dinner with Debbie and we missed the craft shop it was closed. Just missed it by a few minutes.They have a material here that is printed in the Bahamas in Andros that is sea life and it is so pretty. We are going to check on it if the weather is pretty tomorrow. We had a great walk looking at all the houses for sale here on the island. The average price for a small home is around 200,000.00. That is for a real cute cottage like home. The med homes run around 5000,000.00 average price. It costs to live in paradise. I love the islands only with golf cart traffic no cars or trucks. I need to come home and make a few million so i can live in the islands. Having a ball looking at the houses here. They are trimmed in pink light blue, purple, tan and just all kinds of bright colors also. The gardens are all in rocky sandy soil and there are not many on this island. There are some beautiful yards though. Plenty of beach front property and lots of water for boats in front of the houses. I found a neat rental cottage on the beach and i hope i can get the picture to load. Debbie and I took the street back to the little gift shop and sat there checked the weather on our phones and looked at boats for sale on the internet. We went to the dinghy after a few and got back on the boats. Steve was resting and I enjoyed just sitting on the boat reading and playing Angry Birds, lol. Everyone have a nice day tomorrow. Goodnight!

Steve and I took off in the dinghy today. Steve had a surprise for me we took the dinghy and went down the Devil’s Backbone to the beach and a small pathway that led us to the Preachers Cave. It was isolated i did not think we would see anyone there. But there were 5 people there the owner and heirs to Heinz Catsup. It was nice to meet them and they were very friendly. They own a house on Spanish Wells that their father bought in the 1950’s. After we met them we pulled our dinghy down from the top of the beach and started out when Steve mentioned my shorts they were floating in water, OK number one-the waves were crashing on the beach, number two -the current was strong. Well i jumped back in grabbed my shorts a wave almost knocked me over as i bent over and Steve was enjoying the whole circus like show. I finally got back in the dinghy and I did some “speed snorkeling” (Holding my head under water while dinghy is moving over the reefs) and i saw a sea turtle, a lot of big fish and some big huge fish we could not identify that was close to the surface in the waves so i could not see it clear. The reefs are so pretty and i just loved it. Steve would stop when i squealed under water because i saw something awesome. This trip has been so much fun and I am so lucky to have a man who treats me so well. We have had a ball. It is an adventure on its own living on a boat for 6 months.Making grocery runs water runs anchoring out etc etc.. We finally made it back to the town and our favorite place to eat was closed, 😦 Steve grabbed us a lunch to share from the Snack Vault on the island. He came back to the place/store where i get WIFI and found a utube video on how to make an antenna from a strainer, a usb cable and a wifi connector. Now I can get WIFI on boat and don’t have to go ashore to check blog.We had been invited to Joseph and Marina’s house for supper. We had chicken salad, pizza, baked beans, salad and a cookie for dessert. It was a wonderful day with wonderful company. I went back to boat with Steve to enjoy our new found internet connection. Enjoy the pictures.

Today we got up and headed to town so i can get internet for me. I found a place that gives you a one time charge for as long as we are in town. Debbie and David went also to help out the minister here with his car. Steve and David helped with the car while Debbie and I went to the snack vault and bought a large iced diet coke and a root beer slushie. Went back to the store where i have the internet and i got started on the blog and checked my Facebook. I was sitting there listening to a guy talk. He said., “she was doing good when i left but she is in bad shape when i get back” After listening for a while i realized he was talking about his boat! You hear a lot of guys talking about their boats like that here. lol Steve and David came by and we all went to a small restaurant called the Snack Shack and had a great salad and some chicken. They had everything to eat there, it reminded me of a small restaurant back home in Rossville called Country Place Restaurant.

Got up early and checked the weather started for the Abacos but decided to stay one more week due to the weather did not look good for today to cross the Atlantic. We rested the rest of the day due to my congestion and Debbie feeling bad too. Well i will keep you informed on tomorrow. Keep reading the blog. Denise and Steve out. 🙂

Day before Easter. We are going to go to the island today to finish our tour with the golf cart. We took Debbie  with us and toured Russel island again with her. Watched some guys jumping off a bridge into the water. It looks like you will hit the water from the bridge but they never did. The water is so clear it looks like the bottom is right under you. 🙂 We went and ordered 6 gallons of drinking water from the person on the island who does reverse osmosis so you can have pure drinking water 6 gallons for 7 dollars. Boy do we need drinking water, we went to the grocery after we picked it up at 11 and bought groceries for the  boat. We took our loot back and Steve stored it away while i stayed on the dock.The boat was too crowded for all of us so I stayed on shore. Steve and I went to the showers and had a nice hot shower. The walls are so thin i heard Steve calling my name on the other side asking if i had hot water, obviously he did not. After we got clean we headed back to the boat for a relaxing night. The showers mean a huge thing to me because it takes so much water to rinse my  hair. The boat water is only 50 gallons and i probably use 5 just to clean my hair. Movie and sleep, everyone have a great night.

Not much going on today. Just another lazy day on the boat. 🙂