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.
|
Links:
|