Directions

Our latest entry always comes up first...

Click this link if you want to start at the beginning of our trip from
South Carolina (where we bought the boat) to Lake Ontario Click this link:

If you want to see the story of our 2 1/2 year project getting
Blowin' Bubbles ready for our life on board click here:
FIRST "REFIT" BLOG ENTRY - March 2011

If you want to start at the beginning of our trip:
START OF TRIP - July 2014
2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019

Sunday, January 17, 2016

4000 Nautical Miles!

Welcome to our Blog. Our latest entry always comes up first... 
Click this link if you want to start at the beginning:
FIRST BLOG ENTRY
If you want to start at the beginning of our trip:
START OF TRIP
If you want to see the story of our trip from South Carolina
(where we bought the boat)
 to Lake Ontario Click this link:
  SOUTH CAROLINA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This week as we welcomed Shelley's brother, bob and his wife Kelly, we cruised over the 4000 nautical mile maker on our adventure!

4000 NM equals about 4600 statute miles (or 7400 kilometers for us Canadians).  While on land, that is not such a great feat, We were quite proud of our accomplishment over the sea so far.

Bob and Kelly will be with us for about a week, then we will be making our way back to the Panama Canal, with hopes of transiting the Canal around the 20th of February...  More on that later.

Since our last blog post life has been awesome!  We continue to enjoy the San Blas Islands and the Kuna Yala people.  We have met a number of people who, like us, are planning to transit the canal and venture to the South Pacific.  We hope that we can maintain these great new friendships.

As most of you know our Canadian Dollar has tanked so we are having to be very careful with our spending... someone sent us this joke... sad but true...


Here are some pictures from the last little while:

Some more time working on the Scuba Compressor.

Our favorite  snorkeling island....







Pelecans on the roost....


Our good friends, Robin & Mike....





 There seem to always be more LIONFISH!



Fish delivery...


 We met some new folks from s/v Swift Sure (Ginger & Lanny).  They live on a catamaran, which has lots of space for friends...



The cat always finds me....

more snorkeling...


more STUNNING beaches...


Hunting Lionfish....





 We met Debbie and Breeze from s/v Blue Sky and got together for dinner and a music jam session with them and other cruisers...


everyone played something....



Life is just great... Thank you for following our story.  We will share more soon...
Cheers!

Friday, January 8, 2016

Birds, Birds, Birds.....

Welcome to our Blog. Our latest entry always comes up first... 
Click this link if you want to start at the beginning:
FIRST BLOG ENTRY
If you want to start at the beginning of our trip:
START OF TRIP
If you want to see the story of our trip from South Carolina
(where we bought the boat)
 to Lake Ontario Click this link:
  SOUTH CAROLINA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This week we met up with some friends we met when we were in Bocas del Toro.  Robin & Mike from s/v Mermaid met up with us in Nargana when we both needed some provisions.  There are about 1500 people in Nargana and at the moment they have no running water.  This means they must send pangas and ulas 3 miles up the nearby river all day long to bring back fresh water.

While we were there we bought some of this water to save running our watermaker.  They charged us $12 for 125 gallons.  For us to make water it would have cost about $30 for the same amount.  Water here sure is precious!


Anyway, after we re-filled our water tanks we went with our friends on a tour of the river.  We motored up the river slowly then spent some time enjoying a swim in the cool clean fresh water...



After our swim we simply drifted down the river for a few hours with the slow moving current.  Along the way we saw some AMAZING birds...  We also got surprised by a huge crocodile along the bank but didn't get a picture...  It was only after our swim we realized we were sharing the river with crocodiles...

                                               White- ringed flycatcher
                                                   Tanager
                                                       Black and Yellow Tanager
                                             Bi-colored Hawk
                                                           Immature hawk
2 Parrots

                                     immature  little Blue Heron
                                    Short-tailed Hawk
                                            Acorn Woodpecker
                                         Crimson-backed Tanager

After we left Nargana, we took our two boats to a very secluded island called Esnasdup where we have been anchored for the last few days.  We have spent our time swimming, snorkeling and diving.




Yesterday, we went for a dive and shot a few more Lionfish...  There may be another video soon...  Here is a short clip of the hunt...