Great Harbor, Bahamas

Anchor up

After leaving Mackie shoal we briefly motor sailed and then just motored on a very calm day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunrise on Mackie Shoal

We get into Great Harbor around 2:00 PM. The marina tells us they are very busy and can not take us right now. We have had reservations for weeks and have stayed in touch and we arrived almost exactly when we said we would. There are a lot of other boats clearing in with Customs and Immigration and the Marina strangely allows them to dock for a few hours at no charge. We are told we will have to wait outside a while. We drop anchor in the outer harbor and Sea Vu Play rafts up to us and we dinghy in. The Customs and Immigration officers are at the Marina Pavilion dealing with all the new arrivals and us. The marina finds space for us after some boats leave and we come into our dock spaces.

Great Harbour Marina

The following photos were from three brochures that the Marina manager during our 2019 visit had created. Unfortunately they are no longer available. I let the current manager copy my copies.

 Great Harbour Cay

 

Great Harbour - Northside

Great Harbour Cay - Southside

Key Biscayne

Crossing the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas, two day trip to Great Harbor

 

The Crossing

We left No-Name Harbor on Key Biscayne on Saturday morning. Had hoped for more southerly winds, by they persisted out of the southeast too much on the nose to sail. It was mostly a motor crossing, initially wet, but the waves got smaller mid-Gulf Stream.

 

Deja Vu Play, leaving Key Biscayne

Stiltsville south of Key Biscayne

More Stiltsville

Once we rounded the northern end of Bimini and got on to the Great Bahama Banks, the water turned flat. We motored across to Mackie Shoal, just south of the shipping routes and anchored in 10 feet of water. Local shipping does not venture over Mackie Shoal, so it is safe to anchor here. A couple miles to the north and you are at risk of a collision, from boats without night watches. It does happen, occasionally.

Sunday we had a very pleasant ride to Great Harbor and we arrived around 2:00 PM

 

Mackie Shoal marker

Sea Vu Play

Waterspout trying to get started

 

 

Enjoy the "Fly over" videos

To Mackie Shoal (Satuday)

https://www.relive.cc/view/vZqN75rkNGv

To Great Harbor (Sunday0

https://www.relive.cc/view/vxOQ4kZwr2v

Key Biscayne

 trip to Key Biscayne

 https://www.relive.cc/view/vRO7JPAr7Kv

Maule Lake, Miami

Trip to Maule Lake

 https://www.relive.cc/view/v8qVnWZ9W7q

We pull up anchor at 8:45 to catch the first bridge opening at 9:00 AM. Beautiful day back to warm and sunny . Linda enjoys sitting on the stern rail seats. We have a fairly short day to Maule Lake and a few bridges. Lots of wind and waves as we pass the Fort Lauderdale inlet, not many boats heading out on to the ocean today. 

 

Fort Lauderdale

A big power boat “Lumber One” passes us to get the next bridge south of the inlet, which opens at a specific time, no reason for him to rush we are all going to wait for the opening. As I approach him waiting at the bridge he starts backing up into the current and us. I wind up having to move ahead between him and the shore to move get ahead of him to have room to maneuver. We wind up being the first boat through the bridge. After that, I slow down and let him get way ahead of us so we don’t have a repeat at the next bridge. 

We get to Maule Lake around noontime. Maule Lake is a little off the beaten path and has few boats anchored. Maule Lake was a limestone quarry from way back when few people lived here and the land was not so valuable. I'm sure developers would love to fill it in and build more condos. Before we anchor, we head to Marina Palms Yacht Club for fuel, water and a pumpout. The dock hand was very helpful and we gave him a good tip. Maule Lake is noted for not having any shore access for anchored boats. I ask him if we could pay to tie up our dinghies and he offers us the gate combination and tells us where to tie up if we come in later after closing.

 

Maule Lake, pretty much to ourselves

We anchor and relax for a couple hours. Later in the afternoon we tour around in our dinghies to check out the area. We then head over to the marina and tie up our dinghies out of the way of any of the members boats, so no complaints come back to the dock hand. We walk up to West Marine and Plum Market. We then walk over to P.F. Chang’s for dinner. Then back to Plum Market for Keto Bars for desert. We head back to the boats for the night.

 

Mark and Karen

 

 

 

Sunrise

Sunrise

We get up early and dinghy to George English Park Boat Ramp and Dinghy Dock and walk to a Laundromat with Mark and Karen. Mark and I walk another 1-1/2 miles to Advance Auto for filters.

We find a Dunkin Donuts that has Toasted Coconut donuts, Karen’s favorites. We pick up a few.

 

 

 Linda and Karen finish before we return and we meet them back at George English park. After we load the dinghy, I take our folding cart to Publix to get a couple sleeves of soda and paper towels. We dinghy back to our boats, about a 2 mile ride back to the east side of the Sunrise neighborhood.

After we get everything put way we head back to the “Park and Ocean” Restaurant for cards and beer. Had dinner there, great blackened Mahi sandwich. Later we head over to Mark and Karen's boat for more cards. Back to our boat later for showers off the stern in the dark, so not to scare our neighbors.

 

Same old, Same old

Happy card player

Sunset

 

Sunrise Bay

We take the dinghies to the Park dock again and walk over to the mall for lunch at P.F. Changs. I have an appointment at pm at the Genius Bar at the Apple store, for a couple issues I am having with our new iPads. I leave lunch early to head to my appointment. The Apple store is very crowded, as they usually are. I was there for about an hour and was not able to get much help. I did not want to bother with the suggestion to reinstall IOS, so I left.

We all walked over to CVS and Publix, before walking back to the Park. Again we return to “Park and Ocean” Restaurant for cards and beer. 

Getting warmer

“Park and Ocean” Restaurant

Hugh Taylor dinghy dock, boats under 30" day use.

 

Sunrise Bay

 

Shorts & Down jacket

 

After breakfast we dinghy back to the park and the four of us take an Uber to Downtown Fort Lauderdale to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. 

Amusing outfits on some people shorts and down jackets on the same person. 

 

Cheesecake Factory

The usual cast of characters

Then we walk over the Municipal Marina office to see if any space on the New River was going to be available. We could see very few empty wall spaces walking over. Then Mark and I walked a mile or so to West Marine, Boat owners Warehouse and McDonalds Marine hardware store. McDonalds was closed, but the other two were open. Karen and Linda Uber to the large shopping mall near Sunrise Bay. When Mark and I finish, we Uber back to Hugh Taylor State Park. Linda and Karen walk back to the Park from the Mall. We return to “Park and Ocean” Restaurant for cards and beer. I could get use to this.

Sunrise Bay

Karen had done some research yesterday, for some place for Christmas dinner and found a near by Brazilian restaurant “Lasso Gaucho”. She made reservations for 1:00PM. We had hoped to get permission to get dinghy access at the adjacent Coral Ridge Yacht club that has previously extended such privileges to members of other Yacht Clubs. Being around Xmas, I was not able to get much response one way or another. They are actually closed for two days. We tie one dinghy up to their old dinghy dock, but find their road gate is closed. We find a place where members who have forgotten the gate code can hop the wall and we do the same. They have cameras, so hopefully we amused someone.

The dinner at “Lasso Gaucho” was fabulous. Its a slow dinner with a fabulous buffet and waiters continuously circle around with different meats, fish and fruit to try, which they cut right at your table.

 

Happy diners

Late afternoon we head back to the Cafe at Hugh Taylor Birch Park. They said yesterday they would be open on Christmas and they are. We get some more cards in and local beer.

Sunrise Bay

Cold weather is back. I had put away the heavy blankets and the electric blankets. Well, we had them out last night. I made Pop-overs for breakfast to warm up the boat. Today's high is in the 50’s. After lunch we all dinghy over to the dock across the ICW from Sunrise to the State Park docks that were put in since our last visit. This gives easy access to Hugh Taylor Birch State Park and the beach within the
No Wake Zone of the ICW here. 

 

"A walk in the park", have not been this dressed up in a month

We have a nice walk on the nature trails around the park. We discover the park has a nice outdoor cafe, “Park & Ocean” Restaurant with a good menu and local beers on tap. It is still a little cold, even though I am wearing jeans, so I run back to the boat to put on socks and bring our garbage to empty. Linda who is better dress stays and talks on the phone with our daughter in law, Lori. We all get back together to play cards and drink beer at the cafe. As it gets close to the 5:30 closing time we head back to our boats, just before it starts raining. Tonight I make pizza for some more boat heat.

Cold Beer, Cold People

 

Sunrise Bay, Fort Lauderdale

 Video of today's trip

https://www.relive.cc/view/vxOQ4xprAMv

Long day of bridges, 16 to be exact. We prefer to go off shore here and sail down to Fort Lauderdale to avoid all the bridges, but the wind is not in our favor. The weather is overcast and it is a weekday so traffic will not be too bad. On a warm sunny weekend this waterway is a zoo, loaded with people who have no business owning a boat.

 

"Red sky in morning sailors take warning"

We leave at 6:45 to catch the first bridge opening at 7:00. It is still a little dark. The morning starts out with a little rain and some distant lightning. But towards noontime the sun is out and we reach 81 degrees. We go through 16 opening bridges. 

 

 

The opening times are generally scheduled, so that a boat going 6-7 knots can make all the bridges without much waiting. Doesn’t always work out that way for unplanned problems. We have one bridge that skipped one of their scheduled openings for some maintenance work that wastes about 45 minutes of our time. Our previous visits to Sunrise Bay had found few boats. Now, that Fort Lauderdale has limited anchoring in some other areas, Sunrise has become more popular. There are now two buoys stating no overnight anchoring. These are not official buoys, most likely put in by local land owners. The authorities do not enforce them. There are about 10 -12 boats anchored here which is getting a little tight. We do not get off the boat today.

Crowded Sunrise Bay

Shore access

Hugh Taylor Bitch State Park and the beach to the east

George English Park to the west

 

West Palm Beach

 Lake Worth

https://www.relive.cc/view/vRO7J3KX8yv

Sunrise at Peck Lake

We leave at 7:30 am. We have some friends that have anchored at West Palm Beach and liked the shore access. The town has two docks for day use and for dinghies. Very accessible and convenient to restaurants and stores. The day started rather dreary, but the sun came out for a pleasant afternoon. We get to West Palm early enough to go ashore and walk up to a Publix to get something for dinner. We have hamburgers on the grill and an evening of live Big Band music on shore from the town Park.

 

Lots of bridges today

Our Namesake

Peck Lake

 Today's video to Peck Lake

https://www.relive.cc/view/v8qVnAAMp7q

We have a relatively short day to Peck Lake and don’t leave until 9:00AM. Late afternoon Mark and Karen come over to our boat to play cards in the cockpit. I do some bridge planning for the next day. 

North Mooring field Vero Beach

Dinghy Dock

Sea Vu Play at Peck Lake

 

Vero Beach

Linda goes to Aldi’s with Mark and the two Karens. They also stop and get propane cans filled. I move the boat to a mooring after getting the holding tank pumped out at the fuel dock. I layout all the water maker lines to make sure all the hoses are long enough to reach our three water tanks. Everything looks fine.

We all get together on Bellaventure in the afternoon for Happy Hour. It is raining so we hang out below.

Karen, Linda, Robert and Mark

Karen & Robert