Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Jacksonville, Florida

Hello from Jacksonville,

We are still making our way up the ICW, we stopped here for Memorial Day Weekend so we didn't have to deal with the crowds on the water. We have no internet but will update with pictures soon. All is well.

Cheers Mike and Kim

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Monday, May 21, 2007

Back in the USA

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Here we are, back in the USA.......ouch. We arrived in West Palm Beach and have been working our way up the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW). We are in Cocoa Beach right now (the I Dream of Jeanie Cocoa Beach) and have a pretty good internet connection so we thought we'd do a small update. We are leaving early tomorrow morning...so will do a bigger update with more pictures when we stay somewhere for awhile. We should hit Daytona Beach tomorrow, then St. Augustine the next day and then Jacksonville, if all goes as planned. We think we can get out to the ocean at Jacksonville and then head into Georgia.




We've been having a great time, meeting a lot of nice people and seeing some of our homeland. We met Steve and Ann on Tai Ann who are ready to head out and do some serious cruising next season - if Steve gets someone to mow the lawn :)))))). They have an Islander (very nice, they have done alot of work to it), which is very similiar to the Vagabond. They excel at finding places to land the dinghy and get to a store..we were ready to leave and didn't have any beer, it was Sunday also...but they found it and took us there. Our kind of people, great explorers. We had a great time with these guys and hope to catch up with them down the road.
The ICW is very pretty and very different. There are bridges here that you have to go through or call and wait until they open. We had ten the very first day. It's very good practice for trying to stay in one place for awhile :) Lots to catch up on...but we will have to wait until we have a bit more time.






Cheers to all, we are happy and well Mike and Kim on Ka'imi

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Still in Bimini

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We are still hanging out in Bimini at Weech's Dock waiting for a weather window. We had planned to leave yesterday, but a Low developed a few days ago and yesterday it became the first named storm Subtropical Depression Andrea......eek gads, it is right off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina moving south towards Florida which is exactly where we are heading. We have changed our plans and will go to West Palm Beach, when the storm dissipates, and then tuck up in the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) and travel that way. If the weather clears we will go outside and head up the coast. We've met a lot of people here who have told us about the ICW and it sounds like a good way to go. We have had a great time in Bimini, here's a few pictures of Bimini and we will update more when we get to the states.

This is Gene and Edi from Lindsay Christine, they have been here waiting for a weather window to travel back to Florida too. They come from Wisconsin and it has been Edi's dream to come to Bimini since she was a child, she was very excited to be here. Gene (Dr. Goodman) is a retired professor has been giving us loads of information on the Florida inlets and ICW. We have enjoyed their company and it has made our stay much more enjoyable.
The sailing vessel Two Pelicans is docked right next to us. The Captain is Jeremy (to the left), he hails from Canada. His crew for this part of the journey is Cliff (to the right) a retired Fireman from Indiana. We have had a great time with these guys. Captain Jeremy is single and a single handler. He is looking for a female crew member if any of you ladies our interested let us know and we will pass the word.
We found another ship wreck on the west side of the island. This is the first one that we could get so close to. It had Belize City written on it, but we don't know when it landed here or why. We asked Kimani, the Dockmaster here at Weech's, and he said he didn't know and that it had been here as long as he has. The one thing about it being this close is that we actually got to use our stupidity genes and climb aboard, thank goodness for Tetanus shots!!
We are standing in what seems to be the dining area, behind Kim is the refrigerator. We were also able to see the pilot house but didn't see the sleeping quarters. It has definitely been here a long time.










To the left is a local Biminite who wanted his picture taken, he was mute so we could not get his name, but he enjoyed the many pictures we took of him. We also got a little film of him that made him giggle a lot.

The island is not that large and most people here drive golf carts instead of cars, so we rented one for a couple of days and explored the island (about five miles round trip). Ernest Hemingway used to come to this island back in the 1930's. He enjoyed big game fishing which is a big sport here. He kept his boat here at Weech's dock and stayed and played at the Compleat Angler Hotel. We were looking forward to seeing the hotel bar but found out that it had burned down about a year ago. This web link is about Bimini and there is a link that will show you the picture of the Angler before it burned down http://www.pelicanpower.com/Bimini/. Kim's sister Linda is such a history buff that we like to include as much as we can about the places we visit.
A favorite stop of ours was Sheri's Bar (pic to the left), Sheri was great and we had a blast, unfortunately we didn't bring the camera so we didn't get a picture. The other saloon at the the right is the End of the World Bar, it is said that everyone who goes in throws there underwear or bra in the rafters, we will have to go in there before we leave :)

This is Sailor, the resident parrot. He says hello and mimics laughter, we were told he says other things you just have to sit around and listen. He likes to hang upside down and have you pet his chest or the side of his head. If you put your finger in he will bit down, not hard, on your finger and feel it with his tongue. We were told that is the way he senses you. He was a great character.

It seems they are pretty strict about no pot smoking in bars. This is the sign at Brown's which is right next door to Weech's. They also don't like you to bring your own beer, boy they have a lot of rules in the Bimini :)



We still have updates and pictures for Farmer's Cay, Warderwick Wells, Norman's Cay, Nassau, the Exumas and more of Bimini. (For more on Bimini click here.) We'll do that as soon as we can. Cheers Mike and Kim on Ka'imi

Thursday, May 03, 2007

North Bimini

We are currently in North Bimini our last stop before we hit the States. We haven't had any internet connections so we will have to share the pictures and stories when we get back to the States. We will probably be here until next week awaiting a weather window to cross the gulf stream. We will enjoy the island until then. Hope everyone is well.

Mike and Kim on Ka'imi

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