2/8/09 - Blogging in the Bahamas

The blog for this trip will be quite different from the previous one because it's a totally different kind of trip and the audience is more diverse. On the trip from Lake Superior we traveled about 5000 miles in 109 days, so we were moving constantly and there were many destinations to write about. Our trip to the Bahamas will be more like an extended vacation. The blog from 2007 was written as a simple way to keep friends and family abreast of our journey. Very few of them were cruisers, but this time around it's a different story - some people reading this blog have cruised to the Bahamas (and much farther) many times. I expect the diversity of my readers this time around to make writing the blog more challenging.

At this point I need to pause and thank other cruisers who have so generously shared their wisdom and experiences with us, which will help us enjoy a safer and richer trip. To them - and you know who you are - we send our heartfelt thanks. And I might as well 'fess up right now to the fact that I am nautically challenged because it won't take you long to figure it out.

During the last trip someone asked me early on what my objectives or goals were for the trip. I think my response was that I just wanted to make it all the way to Punta Gorda without abandoning Wayne. My objectives for this trip are to 1) soak up the beauty and splendor of God's creation., 2) scuba dive and snorkel, 3) do some decent underwater photography, 4) take lots of long walks on as many beaches as possible with Wayne and Emma, 5) collect shells, 6) enjoy the fellowship of other cruisers and native Bahamians, 7) eat all our citrus fruit before any spoils, and 8) read - if I have time.

I probably won't have the ability to post to the blog as frequently as I did last time. The Exumas are quite remote and internet access isn't widely available. That said, we do have a satellite phone with a very slow (think slow dial-up) data connection, which I will attempt to use to email my blog posts. By popular demand, I plan to post lots of photos, but they might need to be added later when I have high speed internet access. We'll see how it goes.