Blackbeard Cruise - The Bahamas
Oct. 30 - Nov. 5, 1999

This was Gale's birthday trip! And what better way is there to celebrate your birthday on a sailboat in the Bahamas!
Gale and I started our vacation early with an 8 o'clock flight to Miami - we got of to a great start - managed to get an upgrade to first class! The first night we stayed at a Best Western hotel just across from the Bayside market and also close to the docks where the Blackbeard boats were docked. We took a stroll around the area and then got an early dinner at the Cheeky Monkey restaurant over in Miami Beach. We were way early - and got the whole restaurant for ourselves. Great food and great company - what more can you ask for. Saturday morning we checked out from the hotel and got a cab to the docks. We were supposed to board between noon and 3 PM and we got there just at noon. We weren't first though - three crazy guys (Paul, David and Phil) had driven straight from Michigan! Gale and I got settled and stored our dive gear in the lockers on deck - it was plenty of space there - something you couldn't say about our bunk - fortunately neither me nor Gale are big so we fit just fine. Some stuff we stored below our bunk and some we put in the bunk or on a small shelf at the end of the bunk.
People arrived and stored their dive gear and got settled in - Mike (one of the three onboard) and Nancy were the last ones, arriving at 3 PM on the dot.
"Well, you said between noon and 3 PM..." they said.

We left Miami an unfortunately the sunny weather - we had a 7 hour very rough crossing wiht 6-8 foot waves the whole time. A few of us were lucky not to feed the fishes but the rest... It was cold, rainy, windy and high waves - not a very good start to the vacation. Fortunately it was just bad during the crossing. The rest of the trip was good, even though the weather forced us to cancel a few dives, most notibly the one that was going to be my 100th dive! I ended the trip, and the year with 99 dives under my belt.

Gale's pictures

Well, sometime life is tough...

A little wet and windy...

Jim Bob, Rusty and Ron

Erica - our divemaster

the boat at the docks in Miami

Tom, Paul, Gale, me, Sherry and Eric

 
 

The three flags we carried....

SS Laundry

Gale ignorant of the rough crossing to the Bahamas awaiting her.

Rick 

Mike

Joe and Terri, the couple we shared our cabin with.

Erica on the boat in port in Bimini.

It is COLD and wet...

Happy birthday Gale!!!

Sherry showing off her new fake tattoo.

You need nourishment even in bad weather.
Note that the photographer is not leaning when taking the picture - it's the boat..

A happy camper after leaving Miami behind. We haven't reached the really rough sea yet.

 
 


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