Adventures on Mandate         

October 4, 2006, Scarano Boat Yard launch: Mandate hits the water after 7 years of refit in our back yard.  We prepare with great anticipation of the voyage to come.  Pictures below go from top left down to top right and down.

 Navigating in NY Harbor, October 2006

Still cold weather, we motor through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal with Dave, our stowaway. 

Foggy morning in the C D Canal, we witness a fellow cruiser  almost getting hit by a barge

Mandate rests at friends'  Mark and Marcy's dock in Stoney Creek, just south of Baltimore 

 Sunrise at anchorage in Rhodes River just off of the Chesapeake Bay

Deltaville VA boat yard arrival and Mandate's berth for the next month's stay October 24-November 24, 2006.

In D-ville  We had canvas work done for sun and rain protection.  We helped Albany friends, Bill and Laura get their 43 foot ketch ready to travel with us. 

Boat-buddying down the Great Dismal Swamp, "Washington's ditch" part of the irrigation system on the first president's plantation.  This is at the beginning of the southern portion of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). 

We saw a lot of the stern of Bill and Laura's ketch, Second Wind , from this point on to the Bahamas.

Early morning departure from Waccamau River NC.  

The Georgian rivers offer a more tropical array of vegetation.

We watch the space shuttle launch from Jack's boat after he fed us a lovely tenderloin dinner. 

Jack snapped this photo of Mandate (center),while traveling on the Indian River.  Winds were up so we raced several others down the length of Florida.

While in Deltaville, one cold morning we assisted this young couple in provisioning their boat.  Later we happened on them on the Indian river.

After staying in Vero Beach at a shared mooring, we find a secure berth for Mandate so that we could fly home for Christmas.

Coming back to the condo complex in FL where Mandate spent Christmas, we prepare for our journey southward.

Dolphins accompany us through southern FL to the Keys.

We stayed in quiet Biscayne bay near Miami Harbor where there was an international womens regatta. 

We sailed offshore to Marathon in the Florida keys to have our propeller straightened after suffering the bumps and bruises of our swamp passages.

We stayed in nearby Boot Key Harbor and spend the months of January and February in perfect weather and in the company of 100 other cruisers from all over the world.

Our trusty dinghy took us to stores, showers, washing machines, and to happy hours. 

 Our neighbors, Rick and Frank help us install a windvane to supplement power to Mandate's battery bank.

Crusing friend Jan and I take a hike on Florida trails. 

Rob sports a pony tail for a brief period of time. 

The Harbor at sunset  

We left along with Bill and Laura, for Gun Cay in the near Bahamas from Rodriguez Key, a 10 hour voyage crossing the Gulf Stream.

Day break approaching Gun Cay cut.

Mandate shows her bottom with just a jib sail in 15 knot winds,  

Crossing the Bahamian Banks in a following sea required us to steer rather than rely on the auto pilot.

We checked into immigration at Nassau Harbor.

Laura chats with us from the dock above as we sit on the boat in an extremely low tide. 

We head off to the Exumas in 20-30 knot winds of uncertain weather.

Exuma National Park is  10 miles of many protected islands in the central Bahamas.  This is Warderick Wells where we hiked, snorkeled, and met interesting neighbors 

Sun 21 traveled across the Atlantic on solar power alone.  Honored a month later by Al Gore and Mayor Blumberg in NYC Harbor, we were fortunate to have them as our neighbor.

We explore Staniel Cay's white sands and scrubby dunes with Bill and Laura; this was a day's sail and stop over further down the Exuma Park chain.

Rays and Sharks await fishermen at the cutting station on the docks of Staniel Cay.

 A typical inter-island sight from the cockpit of Mandate.  Crystalline waters on the Bank rarely exceed 13 feet in depth.    

The settlement of Black Point consists of simple one story houses along a road that circumscribes the 3 mile island.  One of our favorite stops,
We check in with Willie at his home "The Garden of Eden" with an array of driftwood sculptures and lava rock gardens. 

After a crazy ocean passage from Galliot Cut to Glass Cut in winds of 20-25 knots, we storm into a narrow opening between rocks and find this beautiful beach complete with chairs, a hammock, inhabitated by thousands of hermit crabs. 

Volleyball beach anchorage at Georgetown Exumas. We stayed her for the next three months, swimming, snorkeling, sailing, pot lucking, hiking, fishing, watercolouring, and cocktailing with other cruisers in a bay between several clustered islands.   

Bill and Laura left after a week in Georgetown to head "down island", to Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the Leewards and Windwards and Venezuela.  We met Pam and Rob, Becky and Joe, had our friend Joan stay with us for 9 days on the boat.  We celebrated Rob's birthday along with a riotous week of the Family Island Regatta, with competing Bahamian sailing vessels 

Cruising friends Becky and Joe visit Leon, our buddy who runs the "You and Me" bar.

We take a three day departure from Georgetown to Long Island, just south about an eight hour trip, with friends Pam and Rob.

Abandoned and  unabandoned churches below, Long Island, Bahamas

Rob, Sue, Pam,and Rob in Long Island, Bahamas

Long island Bahamas:  We spelunked a grotto, finding bats, stalagtites and mites, and root structures reaching into natural light shafts. 

Returning to Georgetown, we spent three more weeks in the harbor and then started up north through the Abacoes in northern Bahamas on our journey home.  Below, Eluthera Cay with friends Les and Susan who live there. They showed us the old Club Med beach.

From Eluthera, we sailed to tiny Royal Island where I snapped a starfish from our dinghy as well as the limestone formations on the perimeter of the island.

 We entered Marsh Harbor and spent tow weeks waiting for the passage of tropical Depression Barry so that we could cross over the Gulf Stream.  Below, our friend Bob joined us for our four day Atlantic passage.

A visit to Abacoes' islands, Green Turtle and Man O War Cays. 

Landing in the US, road weary travelers check and clean up Mandate.