Another fabulous week with friends

It seems impossible that a week has flown by and that we’ve just said goodbye to our friends, Meliza and Paul. We had a fantastic week with them and I find myself sitting in the boat feeling that post-vacation let-down. We did a lot of catching up,chilling out and enjoying each others company. A week felt way too short :/

We started our week at Atlantis…

Checking out the waterpark

The kitty waiting again on the light. This time he stayed and got a tuna treat when we left :)

This bug has glowing green lights on it's back. What is it? There were tons of them!

Then we headed down to Shroud Cay. What a contrast – from Vegas-0n-The-Water to a turquoise paradise. And our second day there, we took park in an amazing “Nordhavn Reunion”. The back story - I’ve been keeping in touch with a couple who we met back in 2010 at a Trawlerfest event – Jennifer & Mark. We were all “dreamers” and in the midst of doing the research that’s necessary to find your way to your perfect boat. Fast forward 6 years and Jennifer and Mark (aboard Starlet) have cruised the east coast of the US, crossed the Atlantic, cruised the Med for a couple of years, scuba dived their way throughout, including the Red Sea, crossed the Atlantic again, run up through the Caribbean – and come to Shroud in the company of 3 other Nordhavns J  How cool is that?

Southern Star arrives

And so we met Jo, Robbie, Kristie and Brad on Southern Star, Laust, Hans and Rick on L’Adagio and reunited with Bradley & Kathy on Shear Madness.

The gang had quite the welcoming into the anchorage as a waterspout formed just south of us. We noticed everyone on the aft deck of Southern Star looking over at us when Mel questioned, what is that over there? Well it’s a waterspout that everyone was looking at! I took a lot of photos, I thought it was really cool.

Blossom and spout (thank you Jen for the photo!)

It was great having so many Nordhavns in the anchorage! Here's some boat porn pics:

If you squint you'll see Southern Star, Blossom, Starlet, L'Adagio & Shear Madness

L'Adagio & Starlet in the sunset

 Southern Star & Blossom

I love this pic of Blossom (thank you Jennifer!)

Starlet in the sunset

Starlet in the morning light

 L'Adagio

Blossom

We decided we’d have a “dinghy raft up” that evening but the winds were picking up and we were just so excited to meet everyone that we ended up having the “raft up” on Blossom. Martin cooked hamburgers and we had a fabulous time with equally fabulous people.

Dinghy raft-up!

I look like Cousin It and we were wonderfully photo bombed by a gull

The Nordy ladies

Our guests :)

Things got a little crazy. What happens on Blossom, stays on Blossom, unless there's a photo...

The next day we all took our dinghies to the river that cuts across the cay to the east side. We hiked up Camp Driftwood and enjoyed the views.

L'Adagio & Southern Star crews ready to go!

Hans & Laust in their very cool tender

Tender convoy

Mart, Meliza, Jennifer and Kathy at Camp Driftwood

The guys - Bradly, Mark, Laust, Paul & Martin

 Brad, Kristie & Jo

Nordys in the distance

 Jo on the trail

 Hans and Laust chilling

 Paul and Meliza chilling

I love lizards, they're so photogenic!

Then we headed to the beach where and had a beach party.

 Cooling off

Playing Molki - look at that style, Mark!

Southern Star and L’Adagio headed to Highbourne that afternoon while we enjoyed cocktails on Starlet. Jennifer & Mark came over Blossom later that night for pizza and Sambuca J

On Friday we headed up to Highbourne. Starlet and Shear Madness stopped to do some diving on the way but we went straight to the anchorage, dropped the dinghy and took Mel & Paul to see the iguanas. We were smart this time and brought them lettuce, bell pepper, spinach and parsley! It was a highlight of the week and we had the added bonus of seeing a huge spotted eagle ray in the bay by the iguanas.

Paul feeding an iguana some spinach

A really big guy

Martin making a very less than graceful entry onto Petal :)

A huge eagle ray in the shallows of SW Allen's Cay

They looked sad to see us leave

Paul and Meliza enjoying a perfect day in Petal

Party on Starlet!

 Kathy, Bradly & Mark

The sweetest pup, Tori dog!

To top off the day we all went to Xuma’s for dinner. It was such a great evening – wonderful food and even better company!

Mark, Bradly, Kathy & Jennifer 

Martin and his salad

Jennifer generously shared her last bottle of Greek wine with us and it was Wonderful!

Saturday morning everyone was off on their own ways north, south and east. We headed up to Palm Cay where we plan to stay for a few days. We had a great time (and view) up on the fly bridge followed by dinner at the restaurant. We had a great time but couldn’t help but lament how very quickly the week flew by.

 It was a perfect day and a gorgeous cruise

We have awesome seats to watch the crazy busy fuel dock at Palm Cay Marina

And now here we are. Martin and I have to figure out what our next move will be. Our plan is to be at AYB (Atlantic Yacht Basin in the Chesapeake) by the 4^th of July but we haven’t figured how we’ll be getting there yet. We hope to head out within the week for a destination between Palm Beach and Norfolk. Fairly vague, eh? Tropical depression Bonnie is roughing things up along the Carolinas and something seems to be brewing south of us. We’re getting daily updates from Chris Parker and the latest says we may want to wait til the end of the week to venture as far north as Savannah or Charleston. So our next move is TBD!

Boat Business.

• Fuel. We underestimated our fuel consumption so we took on 700 gallons in Palm Cay Marina. That’s enough to get us to the end of the season.
• Power Management. We only have 1 50 amp to plug into here and are running the AC so we’re playing around with power again. We’re running the 9k for AC and using shore power for everything else.