Bobthebuilder's next adventure - Part 1, Ft. Lauderdale to Turks & Caicos

[Ratickle]

I'm looking at the Bahamas weather on my laptop over breakfast this morning and am really frustrated with this windy weather. There are whole host of options before me and I even considered pulling the plug on this thing and heading back to FL. I am not a quitter of coarse and I soon settle down and decide we should get started with our day doing a bit of local boating and make the best of it. We did poke our nose out a mile offshore to see just how bad it was out there and after eating some 8 ftrs came back in to the protected waters. The decision not to go to T & C today was the right one. It was truly nasty water.
So we find this gorgeous little bay with deserted sand beach on the leeward side of an island and drop anchor. We snorkelled some, swam to the beach, got the DUX boat out and just had fun. We then went over to Chat N Chill for a late lunch in the DUX boat and decided life at Great Exuma is not so bad after-all.
We also moved from the Beach Inn into a 3 bedroom villa at February Point overlooking the bay and marina where Team PREDATOR is safely put away.
One of the girls that works at February Point is anxious for a ride on Team PREDATOR and has offered to be our guide tomorrow and take us to a great local dive spot. ( You will just have to wait for those pics. LOL )
If there is some let up in the winds by Saturday we will then make our assault on Turks and Caicos . Until then, we will just tough it out here on Great Exuma.

Did you drive the DUX? That's a cat you know>>>>>>

[Bobthebuilder]

Did you drive the DUX? That's a cat you know>>>>>>

Yes, I drove the cat (DUX) and did not kill myself !! LOL I have the pics to prove it but cannot post till early next week when home.
Maybe I could handle it as I left the 20 HP at home and just brought the 5 HP for putting around. Was wishing I had the big un today tho.

[Airpacker]

I'm looking at the Bahamas weather on my laptop over breakfast this morning and am really frustrated with this windy weather. There are whole host of options before me and I even considered pulling the plug on this thing and heading back to FL. I am not a quitter of coarse and I soon settle down and decide we should get started with our day doing a bit of local boating and make the best of it. We did poke our nose out a mile offshore to see just how bad it was out there and after eating some 8 ftrs came back in to the protected waters. The decision not to go to T & C today was the right one. It was truly nasty water.
So we find this gorgeous little bay with deserted sand beach on the leeward side of an island and drop anchor. We snorkelled some, swam to the beach, got the DUX boat out and just had fun. We then went over to Chat N Chill for a late lunch in the DUX boat and decided life at Great Exuma is not so bad after-all.
We also moved from the Beach Inn into a 3 bedroom villa at February Point overlooking the bay and marina where Team PREDATOR is safely put away.
One of the girls that works at February Point is anxious for a ride on Team PREDATOR and has offered to be our guide tomorrow and take us to a great local dive spot. ( You will just have to wait for those pics. LOL )
If there is some let up in the winds by Saturday we will then make our assault on Turks and Caicos . Until then, we will just tough it out here on Great Exuma.

I sure wish my life sucked as badly as your does Bob

[Airpacker]

Yes, I drove the cat (DUX) and did not kill myself !! LOL I have the pics to prove it but cannot post till early next week when home.
Maybe I could handle it as I left the 20 HP at home and just brought the 5 HP for putting around. Was wishing I had the big un today tho.

Theres still hope for you yet then Bob. First driving a cat without dying and then wanting one with more power

[baywatch]

I'm looking at the Bahamas weather on my laptop over breakfast this morning and am really frustrated with this windy weather. There are whole host of options before me and I even considered pulling the plug on this thing and heading back to FL. I am not a quitter of coarse and I soon settle down and decide we should get started with our day doing a bit of local boating and make the best of it. We did poke our nose out a mile offshore to see just how bad it was out there and after eating some 8 ftrs came back in to the protected waters. The decision not to go to T & C today was the right one. It was truly nasty water.
So we find this gorgeous little bay with deserted sand beach on the leeward side of an island and drop anchor. We snorkelled some, swam to the beach, got the DUX boat out and just had fun. We then went over to Chat N Chill for a late lunch in the DUX boat and decided life at Great Exuma is not so bad after-all.
We also moved from the Beach Inn into a 3 bedroom villa at February Point overlooking the bay and marina where Team PREDATOR is safely put away.
One of the girls that works at February Point is anxious for a ride on Team PREDATOR and has offered to be our guide tomorrow and take us to a great local dive spot. ( You will just have to wait for those pics. LOL )
If there is some let up in the winds by Saturday we will then make our assault on Turks and Caicos . Until then, we will just tough it out here on Great Exuma.

Hey is the chick that wants to go boating named Amy? Blond hair, British Accent drives a beat up old Mini Van? If so, take some pics to post up for sure .

Have you met Johnathon and Moira (they have the Glacier Bay parked @ Feb. Point). They are hoot to hang out with as well. If you stay in Georgetown long enough you will start to develop a british accent. LOl

Glad you are making the best of it while waiting for a weather window.

[Bobthebuilder]

Hey is the chick that wants to go boating named Amy? Blond hair, British Accent drives a beat up old Mini Van? If so, take some pics to post up for sure .

Have you met Johnathon and Moira (they have the Glacier Bay parked @ Feb. Point). They are hoot to hang out with as well. If you stay in Georgetown long enough you will start to develop a british accent. LOl

Glad you are making the best of it while waiting for a weather window.

Not Amy. Claudette. Petite with dark hair. You may recognize from pics I will post when back. She is a sort of concierge, take care of people person here at February point.

Have not met Jonathan & Moira but think I see their Glacier Bay here. We did meet the people that have the Donzi CC. No British accent yet, eh. Just some left over Canadian. It's a laugh trying to figure out what the locals are saying to you as we just catch every third word. People are very friendly here. Roland Ferguson is our driver and gives us a running account as we drive along.

Interestingly we find out that a person we know from Waterloo, ON the Haycocks have a place here at February Point. My son in law Lee who is with us is good friends with his son. Small world is getting smaller.

[Bobthebuilder]

We had another great day here today at Great Exuma. Dove on some reefs, chased sting rays and lots of colorful fish. Got more unbelievable pics for posting later. Went surfin in the DUX boat. What a blast. Anyway the fun and games are over. Tomorrow at 7 am we will leave here for Turks and Caicos. The winds have let up some and we are going for it. When we were out in PREDATOR today we went outside of the barrier islands and while there were some big rollers it was a whole lot better than yesterday. We could run 45 MPH and not launch and that was in an exposed area. When we get some protection from Long Island and Acklands Island we expect we can run closer to 55 or 60 so will make up some time we hope.
Anyway I am looking forward to the next phase of this adventure and it's time to move on. Be sure to check on our progress on Saturday by going to the link to our "SPOT" GPS tracker. The link can be found at the end of post #!.
Bob

[Ratickle]

We had another great day here today at Great Exuma. Dove on some reefs, chased sting rays and lots of colorful fish. Got more unbelievable pics for posting later. Went surfin in the DUX boat. What a blast. Anyway the fun and games are over. Tomorrow at 7 am we will leave here for Turks and Caicos. The winds have let up some and we are going for it. When we were out in PREDATOR today we went outside of the barrier islands and while there were some big rollers it was a whole lot better than yesterday. We could run 45 MPH and not launch and that was in an exposed area. When we get some protection from Long Island and Acklands Island we expect we can run closer to 55 or 60 so will make up some time we hope.
Anyway I am looking forward to the next phase of this adventure and it's time to move on. Be sure to check on our progress on Saturday by going to the link to our "SPOT" GPS tracker. The link can be found at the end of post #!.
Bob

Stay safe Bob, we'll be watching...

[catastrophe]

Yeah......what he sad......be safe buddy

[Davidmnc]

They must not have gotton that 7am start. Spot has not moved.

[jayboat]

Looks like they gave it a shot - made it almost to Long Island and then turned back.

Weather shows winds out of the SE at steady 10. I'm gonna armchair-captain here and guess that's enough to keep it stirred up and there is probly some big stuff right there at the edge of that underwater ridge.

[Ratickle]

Looks like they gave it a shot - made it almost to Long Island and then turned back.

Weather shows winds out of the SE at steady 10. I'm gonna armchair-captain here and guess that's enough to keep it stirred up and there is probly some big stuff right there at the edge of that underwater ridge.

You'd think steady 10mph winds wouldn't be all that bad. Maybe he forgot someone....

[jayboat]

Yeah, but the water has been nasty and steady 10 could keep it active. Plus, if the wind and water funnels up along the bottom side of that island... that one spot there could be interesting. again, total speculation on my part- just trying to live vicariously through the Bobfather!

[Bobthebuilder]

Hi everyone from Nassau!! LOL We got started at 7:30 am and did not get far when we had an overheating issue in the starboard motor. I expect we picked up some grass and sand from some of the shallow water we ran in just before putting the boat away yesterday. Anyway we returned to the dock, cleaned the strainers and flushed our engines and were back on our way by shortly after 8. No more overheating and that was fine.
The winds had picked up overnight again and swung to the SE so we were going right into it. Some areas were fine but as we were heading across towards the south tip of Long Island we started to take a beating and had our speed backed down under 40 MPH. The forecast from Weather Routers, Inc had it even worse after we cleared the tip of Acklands Island and crossed the big water to Provo. We had gone about 45 miles and I just did not feel up to an all day beating so made the decision to return to Georgetown. We then secured the boat at February Point again and caught a ride to the airport in time to catch a 1 PM flight to Nassau. We will catch some (more) R &R and fly back to Toronto from here tomorrow afternoon as my crew needs to back to work Monday. I will return again if and when these relentless winds ever settle down. Sorry for the false start.
Bob

[Ratickle]

Hi everyone from Nassau!! LOL We got started at 7:30 am and did not get far when we had an overheating issue in the starboard motor. I expect we picked up some grass and sand from some of the shallow water we ran in just before putting the boat away yesterday. Anyway we returned to the dock, cleaned the strainers and flushed our engines and were back on our way by shortly after 8. No more overheating and that was fine.
The winds had picked up overnight again and swung to the SE so we were going right into it. Some areas were fine but as we were heading across towards the south tip of Long Island we started to take a beating and had our speed backed down under 40 MPH. The forecast from Weather Routers, Inc had it even worse after we cleared the tip of Acklands Island and crossed the big water to Provo. We had gone about 45 miles and I just did not feel up to an all day beating so made the decision to return to Georgetown. We then secured the boat at February Point again and caught a ride to the airport in time to catch a 1 PM flight to Nassau. We will catch some (more) R &R and fly back to Toronto from here tomorrow afternoon as my crew needs to back to work Monday. I will return again if and when these relentless winds ever settle down. Sorry for the false start.
Bob

I'm tellin you. Grab Charlie and Rich. They'll get you there. Well, maybe....

Take care, till next time.

[Bobcat]

Hi everyone from Nassau!! LOL We got started at 7:30 am and did not get far when we had an overheating issue in the starboard motor. I expect we picked up some grass and sand from some of the shallow water we ran in just before putting the boat away yesterday. Anyway we returned to the dock, cleaned the strainers and flushed our engines and were back on our way by shortly after 8. No more overheating and that was fine.
The winds had picked up overnight again and swung to the SE so we were going right into it. Some areas were fine but as we were heading across towards the south tip of Long Island we started to take a beating and had our speed backed down under 40 MPH. The forecast from Weather Routers, Inc had it even worse after we cleared the tip of Acklands Island and crossed the big water to Provo. We had gone about 45 miles and I just did not feel up to an all day beating so made the decision to return to Georgetown. We then secured the boat at February Point again and caught a ride to the airport in time to catch a 1 PM flight to Nassau. We will catch some (more) R &R and fly back to Toronto from here tomorrow afternoon as my crew needs to back to work Monday. I will return again if and when these relentless winds ever settle down. Sorry for the false start.
Bob

the wind has been steady since january down here, great for working but a stinker for boating, 15 today is the lowest it has been

[Bobthebuilder]

Stormsurf site shows 4 to 6's thru most of the Bahamas right into the Caribbean. The swell ht and wind direction were factors as well. Even east coast of FL looks better with 2 - 4's and less than 2 ft on the west coast. Was wishin ( well sort of ) that I was back in FL today.

[Bobthebuilder]

Looks like they gave it a shot - made it almost to Long Island and then turned back.

Weather shows winds out of the SE at steady 10. I'm gonna armchair-captain here and guess that's enough to keep it stirred up and there is probly some big stuff right there at the edge of that underwater ridge.

Jay you are absolutely right about a change in conditions where the shelf drops off. There were no more shallow banks to run across and it was a deep water crossing for the next 240 miles. While it was probably doable, I just was not willing for the beating we would have taken. We did enjoy our time in Georgetown and the local waters there. I have more great pics for posting but probably not till Monday since we will be travelling tomorrow.
Thanks for keeping an eye on us.
Bob

[MarylandMark]

I use to want to be you but you are having to work harder having fun than I do at work.

Nevermind- after 2nd thought I still want to be like you. LOL- have a dafe trip home!

[Bobthebuilder]

I use to want to be you but you are having to work harder having fun than I do at work.

Nevermind- after 2nd thought I still want to be like you. LOL- have a dafe trip home!

He, he. Mark, I'm starting to feel like a loser. LOL What a way to lose tho. It still has been a lot of fun and my crew(s) and I have enjoyed the Exumas and it's beautiful waters. We will see what next week brings. We're not done yet.
Bob