Our stay in Key West, Stock Island Marina at the Perry Hotel was a little longer than we anticipated. Since we were leaving the states for about three months, we wanted to complete all our business activities such as our 2022 taxes and the final insurance stuff associated with the electronics re-fit. Of course, Key West is a great location to have fun on Duval Street or to just relax on the boat. Although we have been to Key West twice before, we found some new places to visit and add to our “fun places list.” We also met some awesome people, both sea adventurers and land adventurers. This nomadic life we live, we meet folks and so enjoy our short time together.

Duval Street, Key West, FL

New places worth mentioning are Goldman’s Deli. We understand that they make all the bagels for the island, and a visit reminds you of a classic Jewish deli shop in New York.  So good! We also found Geiger Key Restaurant and Tiki Bar, “on the backside of paradise.” It is one of the few restaurants in Key West we have found that is accessible by tender with a dinghy dock. We revisited Snipes sandbar a couple of times, watched the play-off football games prior to the Super Bowl at Sandbar Sports Grill and the Super Bowl at the newly opened Sloppy Joe’s restaurant on the marina grounds.

Goldman’s Deli creation. Open for breakfast and lunch.

Geiger Key “on the back side of Paradise” was a new find this year

Green Parrot, still our all-time favorite Key West tavern.

Chris and Chris, land adventurers joined us on a Snipes afternoon. Wonderful folks!

Scott and Chris at Sloppy Joe’s. I graduated from Ohio University a very, very long time ago. Go Bobcats!

Diane and Tim, on Wilma May, Mainship 40. Wonderful folks! Diane entered the 60th Annual Conch Shell Blowing Contest! What a hoot!

Storks resting in the trees on the way to Snipes.

We had a hiccup in Key West as well. Late one morning while I was doing laundry at the marina, Scott looked out the window and saw a person with bolt cutters out by the bike rack. Thinking it was quite strange, he walked up to the bike rack to check and…. Yep, both our e- bikes were gone.  Well, to make a long story short, Scott found his bike near the Shrimp Road marina entrance later in the day. It was dead and a little road dirty. About two weeks later, he was walking down another dock to meet some new Nordhavn boaters and…. lo and behold, there was my little bike sitting next to two other bikes! We notified the sheriff again and he came to the marina to find out if anyone was aware of how the bike might have arrived at its new location. He told us that e-bikes are considered quick transportation, and “borrowing” a charged bike is easy and quite convenient! Once done, they just leave the bike wherever! In the end, we re-captured our bikes and I am so grateful just to have them back!

My little bike has some stories!

Last provisioning trip in Key West. 3-months of beverages (guests expected)!

We topped off the diesel tanks and departed Key West for the Bahamas in early March. The cruise across the Gulf Stream was beautiful with nice seas. We checked into the Bahamas at Chub Cay on the Berry Islands again and were greeted by Alliance, N57 Rochelle and Jason and Odyssey N55 Karina and Rob. We spent a couple of evenings together and then began our voyage south.

Orenda entering Chub Cay (thanks for the photo Alliance!)

A visit to the Nauti Rooster in Chub Cay; Alliance and Odyssey crews

Karaoke in the Nauti Rooster! Bahamians are wonderful, friendly folks.

Our first stop was Highbourne Cay in the Exumas, and then to Black Point Settlement on Great Guana Cay, also part of the Exumas. By happen chance, our stop coincided with the SSCA, (Seven Seas Cruising Association), 2^nd annual cruisers festival at Lorraine’s Café. It is a 3-day festival with food, beverages, activities, and entertainment. On our last day in Black Point we celebrated Rochelle’s birthday and met their family who had come in for the celebration.

Black Point Settlement, population of 400-500 people

Beach Party with live music

Tug a war: the island kids kept us entertained!

Happy Birthday Rochelle, wishing you many more!

Jason and Rochelle’s family. Daughter Anne is with her mom!

Our next stop was Georgetown on Great Exuma Cay. We anchored in the Elizabeth Harbour between Georgetown to the southwest and Stocking Island to the northeast. This is a favorite haven for cruisers coming to the Bahamas, turning into a city of the sea from November to May. At sunset the mast lights switch on and the conch horns blow. Last year when we were in Georgetown, they announced on the Cruisers Net that there were nearly 300 boats in the harbour. There were at least that number this year.

Elizabeth Harbour, Georgetown in the evenings

We were excited to be at Georgetown! My brother and SIL, Joe and Lisa were scheduled to fly in for a visit and this was their first visit to Orenda! And of course, we had a ton of fun!

Day 1; just arrived in Georgetown and thirsty!

Island Boy and buckets of beers!

Joe and Lisa quickly acclimated to life at anchor and were good sports about “wet” tender rides created by wind and waves. We had fun afternoons at Island Boy Café with buckets of beer (Kaliks), visited Chat ‘N’ Chill with the sea rays swimming around our feet, new this year Da Sand Bar, and Splash Beach Bar. One of my favorite activities, Hooper’s Bay to feed the turtles was not disappointing.

Hooper’s Bay turtles; I like turtles, LOL!

Sting rays at Chat ‘N’ Chill Beach Bar & Grill.

Da Sand Bar

Chat ‘N’ Chill; we saw the kids doing this!

Joe in the tree walking the tight rope!

Shopping at the Straw Market in Georgetown; lots of hand-made items.

But, as they say, all good things must come to an end and sadly, Joe and Lisa had to fly home.  They were sad to leave the cruising life, but excited to hug their exceptionally adorable new grandson at home!

Bye my people; we will miss you!

And this is Arthur! Adorable little man!

Shortly after they departed, we cruised to Cat Island which is located near the Tropic of Cancer between Eleuthera and Long Island. We were buddy boating with Alliance.  Together, we climbed Mt. Alvernia to the Hermitage again this year. The Hermitage was built by hand in 1939 by Father Jerome using local stone. It is a small medieval monastery known to be a place where he could get away from the world. On the way up you see the beautiful and detailed hand-carved stone reliefs of the Stations of the Cross and at the top, a 360-degree view of the island.   We visited my favorite local, Duke at Duke’s Conch Stand and dined with Alliance, Zarpe N62 Dave and Jean, friend Mike, and Kariwa N62 Frank (Leslie was traveling) at Rollezz Beach Resort. Cat Island has a new brewery that opened last year called Hidden Treasures. Great service and super great food!

Happy Birthday Frank (middle)! Rollezz Beach Resort

Hidden Treasures Brewery; Samantha (she was so cute) was happy to pose for a photo.

Around this time, we noticed that our water pump was running a lot although we were not using water, so it should not have been running! Scott investigated and identified a leaking hot water tank. It took a couple of days to temporarily seal the leaks with JB Weld, so we again have hot showers! Alliance was also experiencing boat issues and later that day we received a photo text from Rochelle of a well-known boating saying: Everything on your Boat is Broken, You Just don’t Know it yet! LOL!  Seems that way sometimes!

Temporary water heater repair; a new one will be waiting for us in the US when we get to Brunswick, GA.

Ugh!

Our next stop was Calabash Bay on Long Island.  To get to the anchorage, we had to cruise through shallow fringing reefs. The water was just beautiful! We tendered in to Cape Santa Marina Resort and had a quick meal of fish tacos on Easter Sunday. The anchorage was quite rolly and not a good anchorage for weather we were expecting, so we cruised back to Georgetown, about 27 nautical miles away until the weather improved. 

Calabash Bay; looks like Paradise…

The following day it was partly rainy, but mostly rainy so we ate fajitas on Orenda and watched Under the Volcano, a 2021 music Documentary by Australian filmmaker Gracie Otto, centered around a 1980’s recording studio on the Caribbean Island of Montserrat.  The film features renowned 1970s-1980s musicians such as Sting, Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran), Jimmy Buffett, Verdine White (Earth, Wind & Fire), Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), to name only a few.  A very enjoyable evening with Rochelle and Jason.  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9598492/

We celebrated Scott’s Birthday at the Peace and Plenty Resort in Georgetown. We had a delicious dinner compliments of Alliance and Zarpe crews and shared a pitcher of rum punch.  

Da birthday boy!

Thanks for dinner!

Chat N’ Chill with Zarpe and Alliance crews

We found a beach camp with fun things to do!

We left Georgetown on a Monday afternoon and headed south of the Tropic of Cancer anchoring near Crooked Island. We celebrated Jean’s birthday with margaritas, enchiladas, and brownies. Jean was really celebrating because she is now 11 ½ months away from Medicare! For whatever reason, we celebrate birthdays. We are fortunate to have them!

Happy Birthday Jean! Celebration on Orenda

If you are wondering, the weather in the Bahamas this time of year is a mix of sun and clouds. Highs in the 80s, lows in the mid-70s. We usually get a daily rain shower, sometimes two which washes the boat down nicely. Last night the sky was full of lightening and a rain shower followed. Humidity is around 70% and the UV index is high. Water temperature is around 78 degrees.  Sometimes Scott fishes as we cruise, traveling about 7 knots. Water depths can be really deep, 13000 feet (stated on the charts). We anchor near the islands in 15 feet of water.  We move around at anchor within a 184-yard diameter so the scenery is always changing.  More when we cruise further south to the Ragged Islands. We are excited!

Orenda’s movement at anchor in Georgetown.

Orenda at anchor.

Scott enjoying a cool-off swim from the swim deck! The water is beautiful!

Fish dinner on Cat Island. No, not so much for me……