December 24, 2008


Port Lucaya, Grand Bahama Island
December 16, we made our first jump of 40 hours, basically motoring in a calm sea to Palm Beach and the next day perfect conditions found us crossing the Gulf Stream to make our entry to Bahamas in West End Marina, Grand Bahama Island. Our plan to move right away to Eleuthera was interrupted with weather broadcast of cold front (= strong winds) and so we decided to await more pleasant weather in Lucayan Marina. Just as we and the sailboat “Voila” (friends from Quebec spending winter in Bahamas) started to salivate (remember Pavlov’s dogs?), J-P’s first effort at fishing ended in disaster and the nice, fat, colorful Mahi-Mahi escaped at the moment of being pulled on the deck. Oh well, there’ll be many other times….We are spending the Christmas here, as the cold front is followed by SE winds and as we are moving in that direction, we have to wait for the wind to turn around. We wish you all restful and peaceful holidays.

November 10 - December 14, 2008

Beaufort, NC – Fernandina Beach, FL and Toronto
Family emergency kept me in Toronto for five long weeks, meanwhile J-P slowly sailed Nikan to northern Florida to escape unseasonably cold weather all along the eastern sea shore this year. He even had some snow one morning and another day, while rinsing the bow, the water immediately turned to ice. Only layers and layers of clothing kept him reasonably warm. I must have brought him warm temperatures, December 14 was the first t-shirt day for him since a while.