Nature: pretty badass

It was a nice sunny afternoon, until this beast showed up.  We thought the apocalypse had arrived.

We were like kids in a candy store during our first major storm (anchored at Allans-Pensacola). In retrospect it was rad, but during the peak of the storm we were pretty sure that getting struck by lightning was a very real problem. Seeing a neighboring boat start dragging anchor and heading into the rocks did little to calm our nerves. Matt and I stared at the vessel and wondered aloud what we could possibly do to help, with a dinghy with no motor and a boat of our own to look after.  We listened to channel 16 and felt helpless until we finally saw a light appear on the bow of our neighbor as they re-set their anchor amidst the squall.  Our anchors appeared to be holding so we unplugged our gps and electronics and counted the seconds between the thunder and lightning to convince ourselves that it wasn't as close as it seemed.  We calculated about 3000 lightning flashes that evening and later heard reports of 50 knot winds. How that much lightning missed all 4 big metal poles in the sky at our anchorage is beyond me.  Matt and I didn't sleep much that night, unlike Wookie who slept soundly during the entire storm and wasn't bothered a bit.  What a salty dog.

Allan's-Pensacola

The tree of lost soles.

More like Allan's-PensaCOOL-ah, this place is RAD!!!!  We anchored for a couple nights on this uninhabited island.  We took Wookie to shore and found ourselves at the tree of lost soles - a tree with numerous flip flops hanging from it's branches.  It led to a path with a sign saying "this way to the beach".  I thought maybe it was a trap.  I know, I need to stop watching horror movies, but to my credit, there was an old baby doll with no legs in the tree. And it was staring at me.

We decided to be brave and headed down the tree canopy covered path.  The path itself was beautiful.  We walked on as the trail started getting narrower, nervous that maybe we were walking our way to our doom.  Boy, were we wrong. The last corner we turned revealed the most spectacular beach ive ever seen.  This place is paradise!

Are we going to get mugged?

There was another tree on the beach decorated with signs of visiting vessels and old buoys. In fact, there were dozens of decorated trees lining the beach.  We later learned that the trees were decorated with wreckage from the last hurricane.  They've turned the garbage into art.  We met a couple from Canada that have been coming to Allan's for over a decade and are responsible for keeping up the trails. Way to go Mike and Sue! You are cool!

The realities of sailing with Matt

Moraine Cay a.k.a. Breakfast Bonfire!!!

We landed at Moraine Cay to find a deserted island that we had all to ourselves.  (Perhaps because it didn't offer a lot of protection from the ocean swells and others knew that would mean a bumpy, sleepless night.) We rowed ashore and went for a walk around to explore. There were abandoned boarded up houses which were equal parts quaint and creepy. On the other side of the island was a gorgeous beach with turquoise water.  We ran up and down the beach naked yelling like banshees (because....why not?) and had a swim.  Later that evening, Matt became obsessed with the idea of having a bonfire, but to be honest, the idea of rowing to shore in utter darkness made me not too keen on the whole idea.  So we made a compromise.  We would get up at 5:45 am, row to the beach and have a BREAKFAST BONFIRE.  Best.  Idea. Ever.  Watching the sun come up the next day by the warmth of the fire, with my two favorite fellas, made me feel like the luckiest chick in this crazy coop!

Leaving land for a while.  Not sure when we'll find the next Tim Horton's for a wifi signal.  Peace.

It's been 6 days since we landed in this quaint little fishing village.  Here is a summary of our week in Grand Cay....

1.) we seemed to be the only vessel not donning a national flag, so we made a canadian flag out of paper, duct tape and a zip loc bag, just to show the world how classy we canadians are. 

2.) matt dove for conch, spent an hour trying to open it and then cooked it for dinner.  gooooo hunter gatherer!

3.) we found out that the area matt was diving for conch in was teeming with sharks. damn, back to rice and beans.


4.) we rowed against the current to a nearby beach and broke an oar lock. we alternated between swimming, walking and canoe-style paddling the dinghy back to the boat (for two loooong hours).


5.) we made a movie!


6.) we met super cool people and had margaritas, nachos, couscous and FUN!

Maranatha sits on her two anchors in Grand Cay Harbour.  Tomorrow we pull them and head south in search of more potato chips (we're out!).

Channel 16...if you know what I mean.

In my mind cruising the Bahamas was going to be laid back and eaaaasy.  After the past few days beating into the wind, big waves spraying us relentlessly, we were ready to do some hardcore chillin'.  We made it to Grand Cay yesterday afternoon and found a quaint little fishing village with a nice anchorage (and plenty of reefs where lobsters are to be found).  Mmmmmmm, lobster.  I haven't quite wrapped my head around actually killing and cooking the lobsters, but one thing at a time.  Our current diet of rice and beans, and the odd can of tuna, is making the idea more and more tolerable.

Our dog desperately needed some time on land after being stuck on the boat for two days, so we rowed to shore and set out to walk the length of the island.  We passed a group of kids playing, said hello and then noticed they were following us. Wookie (with his mesmerizing powers of cuteness) had enthralled them.  Before we knew it, 12 kids were trailing behind us, begging to take turns holding the leash and picking him up.  Wookie's canine mind was blown.  He loves kids.  And attention.  Most of the dogs on the island are pit bulls, and are fairly aggressive, so the sight of a smiling, furry, mini dog was pretty exciting to them.  We barely made it into our dinghy without taking a few children with us.  We promised to see them soon and made it out of the marina (just barely with our dog).

Today we set out to find "said" lobster.  What we found instead, was a storm a brewing.  We forgot to check the weather before rowing out in our dinghy to find the reefs.  Out we were, with our packed lunches and our dog, when it dawned on us that there was a black cloud rapidly approaching us.  So we started to frantically row back to Maranatha (afraid that a gust of wind would drag our anchor and land our boat on the rocks) and ended up rowing against the current in a torrential downpour. It was FUN!

Afterwards, Matt decided to pull out the big guns and set this anchor (as our backup). BBBBRRRRRAAAPPPPPP! We ain't playin' around now.

This is just before the dinghy started to sink under the weight of that ridiculous anchor!

Happy St Patty's day! Forget the food colouring and just enjoy a good 'ol Canadian brewski for us, will ya?

There are several things we've been told repeatedly by other sailors but it took until yesterday to fully appreciate what they meant.  Yesterday's passage taught us:

1.  Why sailing is called a sport
2.  Why people keep telling us to do it while we are young
3.  Why relationships often end at sea

It's called a sport because while struggling to maintain your balance at all times, you are often left huffing and puffing cranking a winch handle to pull up/ or in a sail.

A lot of older people we've met remarked that it was great to see us here doing this while we're young.  It's nice to hear, but their actual meaning was somewhat lost on me.  Until I awoke this morning to the sensation that I had been hit by a truck.  Every muscle in my body is sore and I have multiple bruises from being tossed around inside the cabin and on the deck.  (Matt has more bruises and a bloody toe :-)

And regarding the relationships....let's just say that there were some pretty tense moments where we weren't exactly cordial to one another.  It's a good thing Matt's cute.

But alas, we are now in the Abacos and I'm hoping that was the last major passage on our trip.  To be honest, I thought that once we were in the Bahamas, the hard part was over.  I guess it pays to do your research.

Ahhh, the sea.  She seems so sweet, but she can really beat the crap out of you.

PS.  We are 20 minutes from Freeport, a Westjet destination.  Any takers?

Here's video of us sailing the Northwest Providence Channel on our 15 hour run over to Grand Bahama Island.  Marianne rocks the camera (and the helm too), while I take a much needed break!

You may be wondering why Matt is doing dishes with no clothes on, looking pretty unimpressed. Well, let me tell you - Captain Comeback (aka Matt) and Shuffle-ufagus (aka Marianne) were engaged in a week long card game called Nertz up to, not 150 points, but 1500 points!  Needless to say, Matt lost and thus if forced to do all the dishes for a week in the nude. Ha!  

Matt gets angry whilst I throw pennies at him.

Also, we finally got our weather window and as I write this at 5:30 am, we are prepping to cross to the West End of Grand Bahama Island. Another long deep ocean passage, but from what we hear, it will be worth it :) xoxo!

Max teaches Marianne how not to die when underwater

The wind died down for about 24 hours, not enough time to cross to the Berry Islands, but enough time to go SNORKELLING!!!  


I'd never really been snorkelling before, so when our wicked, awesome new friend Max (who was a navy diver and a doctor among other things) asked us if we wanted to go, I was stoked!

We set off this morning in search of a coral head, where we saw loads of beautiful fish, sea life and even a SHARK!!!!

Max snaps a photo of the resting shark while Marianne and I tremble from above

I'm not in the video below, because the shark already ate me.  Just kidding.  It was a Nurse Shark and they aren't really dangerous to people :)

We've had some mixed reactions to our last post. (Sorry mom :) It is definitely not our intention to offend anyone, but to the easily offended, I say this:  don't worry, it's all for the sake of humour.  It's always been our intention to steer away from a conventional travel blog, and create something a little more entertaining and whimsical.  Matt and I are just having fun (and we have a lot of time, since we have been stuck in Bimini for over a week now).  We may seem silly but it's just because we were born that way :)

And now, a public declaration of my undying and relentless love..................

What do you do when the weather is crappy and you can't go to the beach, or sail to your next destination?  Why, you colour, of course!

The term "go where the wind takes you" has taken on new meaning now, and we have been stuck in Bimini for almost a week due to a cold front and winds that aren't in our favor. Not that Bimini isn't a nice place to be stuck. Some of Matt and my favorite phrases (told to us so far by the locals and other travelers) are as follows:

"Cover yourself girl - you look like a stripper." (I forgot it was Sunday and that I should not be in shorts and a tank top).

"That's not your boat is it? Your Bahamian flag is upside down!" (not very courteous us of us to be flying the courtesy flag incorrectly - whoops).

And my favorite, wasn't said at all, but a local came up to us and showed us two fingers (which we later remembered was the British sign for F#%* you) to which Matt replied, "yeah, peace man!".

Anyways, we like it here. And so does Wookie :)

We were anchored at Rodriguez key waiting to cross the to the Bahamas.  Somehow we got out of bed at 1:30 am, pulled our anchor and headed out into the black.

I'd say we had a healthy dose of nervousness considering that we were about to see ocean on all sides for about fourteen hours of our crossing (and that we were entering part of the bermuda triangle).  The route took us through the gulf stream, a 50 mile wide river in the ocean.  It has a current of about 4 knots and is scary deep.  The swells were pretty big, at least to us.  We kept wondering to ourselves, "how did we end up here?".  It was too rough to make any meals so we snacked on salteen crackers all day.  We also discovered that using the head in 10 foot swells involves getting pee all over yourself.  Hey, it beats falling overboard!

Landfall came at about 4pm, and it was a relief.  I yelled, "Land Ho" and Marianne was like, "what did you call me?" 

We made it!  I know, we didn't think we would either!  

So what do we blog about now?