2/14/13  Ah, Valentines Day, time to look back on the sweet life with my sweetheart!

For those of you who have been looking for some pictures from our travels up to January 13th - here they are!  The beginning of January - First we stopped in at Black Point to do some laundry and to walk on the beaches.  Yes, we found some sea glass here.

Jerry at the beach at Blackpoint

Blackpoint Beach

Then we went a mile or two around the point to Doug and Jean's house appropriately named "Sandcastle".

Sandcastle

Isn't it fantastic!

It's hard to describe the process of building your own home here in the Bahamas.  It took more than 1 ship to bring all of the supplies needed to build this concrete structure.  The planning involved!  You have to bring in all of the supplies - there's no Home Depot.  There's not even a store nearby to sell nails or a shovel.  The home is incredible.  Doug and Jean were wonderful hosts with plenty of stories to tell.
While we were here visiting we offered to help with Jean's gardening project.  After years of trying to plant gardens in various ways, Jean has collected a number of tubs in order to grow her garden here.  The tubs are enclosed in the tin left from the garage project - a 7 or 8 foot tall round enclosure.  She needed steps to be able to access the garden without having to drag ladders around.  So, Jerry, Jerry, Donna, and Karen came in to help.

From top clockwise: Jerry, Karen, Donna, Jean

Looks like Donna's doing all the work!

Go Donna!

Jean's tubs for lettuce, tomatoes, herbs, etc.

Jean - the happy gardener

Since Doug and Jean had cinder blocks that is what we used to build the steps on the outside of the enclosure and steps on the inside of the enclosure.  Doug, with the help of a backloader he happened to have sitting around, was able to lift the blocks in the air where we unloaded them.  He also went to his beach and scooped up sand that we filled the blocks with.  What a project!  Doug and Jean treated us to dinner in town.  We loaded chairs into the back of their pickup and held on as we went out the dirt/coral bumpy roads to get to Scorpios in town for fish and burgers. 
From Doug and Jean's we headed south, out onto the sound to catch some fish and head for Georgetown.  We got the fish!

mahi (also known as dorado)

But we didn't make it to Georgetown.  We were pounding into the wind and having an uncomfortable ride.  Persephone and Bluejacket decided to stop and headed in at Rudder Cut Cay to anchor between Darby and Little Darby Islands.  For dinner Jerry marinades the mahi.

A marinade involving honey and soy sauce

We had never anchored here between the Darbys before.  As expected in the Bahamas, it was a beautiful anchorage, though isolated.  No towns or services nearby.

Persephone anchored behind "Mist"

Bluejacket is anchored just behind us.  We spend the week playing games, meeting the other sailors on their boats in the anchorage, snorkeling, and dining together.

Jerry & Jerry with something in the bucket

Spiny lobster

In the 1930s a castle was built on Darby Island.  Along with a coconut plantation, fences of coral stone to contain farm animals, and other structures.  Today, the castle is in poor shape.  You can read more about it here: http://www.darbyislands.com/location_history.html

 The views are incredible......

The snake we found at the beginning of our hike to the castle....(don't tell Donna, we told her there weren't any snakes on the island)

We also found the cave the owners used for their livestock.  A nature made sheltered barn.  Today, it is inhabited by bats and an owl.  We only heard about the owl and saw evidence of its meals.  We did see the bats though.

Looking up in a hole with bats

The Darby Island Research Station is located here.  Various marine research projects are beginning to develop from this small lab.  Erich, the director, came to ask for help ashore and we all pitched in.  Pam and Jack from the University of Miami and Barb of Nassau were on shore.  They operate the Bahamas Marine EcoCenter.  Look here:  http://www.tropicbirds.org/TB2012/?q=research

The Darby Island Research Center

The scientists bunk house

Martha and Karen paint a dresser

Jerry and Dave of "Mist" take down old solar panels

Looking at the anchorage from Darby Island Research Center

Erich taking Pam, Jack & Barb to catch a plane home

Erich organizes a music night and wows us with his accomplished instrumentals.

And, the coconuts.  Where there was a coconut plantation, there are still coconuts.

Jack showed us how to process a coconut.

First husking using a metal stake with a sharp angled top.......

The next step is cracking the coconut and draining the water or what's referred to as the milk.
Then, using the tool Jack had mounted on a board, we scraped the meat out of the coconut.  You actually sit on the board.  The next day Jerry came over from Bluejacket and they talked about making one of these tools.  Jerry from Persephone likes action.  It wasn't long before we rummaged through Persephone's metal and wood scraps on board and brought out all of the power tools for the Jerrys to get to work.  I don't have a picture but we have a beautiful stainless steel coconut scraper mounted on a board.  I left it with Bluejacket in the hopes they'll find some more coconuts!

One of the tools used to scrape the white meat out of the coconut

Jack behind us, Karen and Jerry scraping out coconuts.

Karen and Jerry scraping coconuts.

So, that's kind of where the story ends.  You've heard about the events from the 13th on previous posts.
Here's a picture we took for Sailor Jerry as we toast our arrival with a sip of Sailor Jerry rum in Lake Worth, FL.  Nassau, Bahamas to Lake Worth, FL.  I think it took us 34 hours.

The municipal docks at West Palm, FL

Looking north from the anchorage at West Palm.

 West Palm is the perfect place to hang out and wait for Jerry to arrive.  The dinghy dock is convenient, the library is a couple of blocks away, there's a great farmer's market on Saturdays, and the city of West Palm is full of life.  I've spent a lot of time sitting in the cockpit healing a sore hip/back.  I guess my muscles weren't ready for the anchoring but now I'm good to go.

Jerry and I talk on the phone every day.  He is so thankful to have a place to call home back in Syracuse with Brian and Deb.  They have taken very good care of him.  He has also enjoyed the attention from family and friends in the area he usually doesn't have a chance to see in the winter!
Jerry will be back on board next Tuesday to recuperate onboard where he won't have to worry about whether it's too cold or snowy to walk.
Happy Valentines Day!