Christmas in Bimini

Here is a shot of us enjoying Joanna's fantastic Christmas dinner dockside. We don't usually stay at marinas but this was a Christmas treat! Dinner at our own water front "restaurant" right next to the boat.

After checking in, we were able to pull down our quarantine flag and raise our Bahamanian courtesy flag . . .

We arrived in Bimini on Christmas Eve afternoon, in time to clear customs, take a swim and settle in for the holiday. Click here for photos.


Dropped a message in a bottle into the Gulf Stream as we crossed; the kids just finished reading a book called "The Voyager's Stone: Secrets of a Message Carrying Bottle Adrift on the Ocean Sea" and wanted to try their luck.

We're hopeful that Santa is keeping up with our travels and will managed to find his way to the Bimini Blue Water Marina to slide down our mast. The stockings are hung from the hatches with care; and the cookies, carrots and milk are ready and waiting right next to the gingerbread cottage and mini-Christmas tree. Click here for a photo album.

Merry Christmas to all!

Getting ready to make the jump . . .

Since Vero Beach, we've been in full provision mode in preparation for our jump to the Bahamas. We thought we had a weather window that would open in the early a.m. on Friday but it closed for us given the conditions we're willing to go out in. A number of other boats tried but we heard on the radio later that it did not go all that well. One boat left and sailed for five hours only to return to Palm Beach after realizing that the conditions were no good.

We stayed tucked into port just south of the Lake Worth Inlet in Palm Beach. Tomorrow we'll either run down some more ICW miles or bump out and do a coastal sail. With either plan we'll be moving toward Ft. Lauderdale and then to a location south of Miami. We'll be staging at that point to cross over to the Bahamas with the intent of sailing north of Bimini and on to the Great Bahama Bank the first day.

Given the current weather, it looks like our crossing will happen just before or just after Christmas. Santa will be visiting our boat no matter where we are so that's good.

We've gotten some new wi-fi equipment so we'll have internet when we can find it. We'll also have email by satphone thanks some very nice friends of ours who loaned us the phone. As soon as I figure out the connection stuff we'll also be getting weather emails via a satphone/computer connection.

Well, that's what's happening at the moment. Just want to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year. Hopefully our next posts will be of us in the Bahamas. Stay tuned!!

Vero Beach

Hello from Vero Beach. We spent some time in Titusville last week where we visited the Kennedy Space Center, then anxiously awaited a space shuttle launch that unfortunately just wasn't meant to be.


When the launch was finally postponed to January, we gave up our "front row" seats - about 5 miles west of launch pad 39A - to continue our journey south.

Here is a photo album of our day at the Space Center and other recent adventures.

St. Augustine

Spent the weekend in lovely St. Augustine, FL. We anchored just south of the Bridge of the Lions pictured behind Jake & Emily in the photo above.
Visited Castillo de San Marcos while there, got to reconnect with our friend Joe from Onward, and did our best to get into the holiday spirit. Here are some photos of our visit.


We're southbound again today, hoping to be in the Titusville area in time to catch Thursday's planned space shuttle launch.

Cumberland Island, Georgia

Spent the last couple of days anchored off Cumberland Island, Georgia, so that we could enjoy the National Park/Seashore there. Wild horses, hogs, turkeys, armadillos and other wildlife were everywhere, not to mention the wild landscape - huge live oaks draped in Spanish Moss mixed with Saw Palmettos along trails leading to beautiful marshes and miles of pristine beach. It was an amazing place! Here are photos from our visit.




Today, we crossed into Florida, in route to our next stop... St. Augustine.

Reports from the Field: SC to Georgia

Jubilee's top-notch field reporters just can't stop... here's the latest news from the ICW - Beaufort, SC to Duplin River, GA (our anchorage this evening, which we have completely to ourselves, except of course for the dolphins, river otters, etc...).

A Dolphin, by Drew
Today we saw a dolphin that came right up to the bow of our boat. IT jumped up in our wake about 6 times. It never got caught on camera because the dolphin was too fast. It was also so close that when it surfaced, you could fee its splash. As we watched we could see it under the water looking up at us from the depths of the ICW. Seeing dolphins is becoming a daily thing in our lives as criusers.

More Dolphins, by Jake
Hi, it's Jake and as you all know dolphins are very fun and playfull. You would probably know this even if you didn't see any in your life. So, guess what: ALL HANDS ON DECK!!!! That's what we say when we see a pod of dolphins. Again guess what: 2 dolphins jumped and rolled on their bellies right on our bow today. It was cool!

Beautiful Beaufort, SC, by Emily
Hi. Beaufort is where we are... well where we were at. It is beautiful. I swung on a rope swing and watched the sunset at my Uncle Sam and Aunt Joy's house. The sunset was pretty and colorful. We learned how to shrimp and ate "oysters"! We had lots of fun, too! The End.

Lowcountry Feast

Spent today at Uncle Sam's and Aunt Joy's home in Lobeco, SC enjoying some authentic lowcountry cuisine. The kids got to practice casting a shrimp net, explore some nearby deer hunting grounds, make some new friends and shuck A LOT of oysters. Click here for photos.