John & Anne Wiley

2013/03/28

Crossing

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Islander Adventure,People,Random — John @ 18:23

We woke this morning planning to take an aerial tour of Grand Bahama Island and then make the short hop over to Abaco for a night or two at the Treasure Cay Resort. Some beautiful azure seas, snorkeling, beautiful beaches, and maybe a taste of elegance. All at a slightly more affordable hotel rate.

Freeport -> Treasure Cay

Freeport -> Treasure Cay

Pelican Bay hotel where we stayed last night offers each guest one free trip out the bay to a place where you can swim, but we just missed the boat we meant to take so we went for a walk to wait the hour until the next. We decided to cross the street and just see how exorbitant the Grand Lucayan Resort is. Looking past the lovely infinity pool to the azure seas I asked, “How much more would you pay for this?” After some discussion we settled on $200. Here’s what a small piece of the view looks like from the lobby.

0837 Why?

0837 Why?

This begs the question, “Even to save $200 why would we stay at Pelican Bay when this is across the street?” Next we discovered the 7 miles from airport to resort at Treasure Cay would cost at least $60. Would we pay $200 more to stay here with all the other attractions of Lucaya and Freeport an easy walk or $1 bus ride away? Well, the price difference for the location above compared with where we were last night was $5. Here vs. Treasure Cay might work out about the same or a little less. Yes, that’s a hotel pianist in the lobby, and no that’s not me in the hat enjoying the view. Yet. Guess where we’re staying tonite? We’ll take aerial tours of some other islands, but I have a feeling this might be our only Bahamian hotel. 🙂

Castaway to Peli

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Islander Adventure,Nature,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 02:23

To ensure we had a place to sleep when we had little time for planning, we’d reserved a room at the Castaways. We knew it was near the Freeport city centre and thus a long walk from the water. But it was fun to wake this morning where many of the locals live and shop.

0825 Castaways View

0825 Castaways View

We dragged all our stuff around the area, chancing upon what seemed to be the main Grand Bahama office of Tourism.

0828 Tourism Office

0828 Tourism Office

Along the way we met this spiral tail lizard, fat and happy in the sun. He posed so nicely for this shot!

0830 Spiral Lizard

0830 Spiral Lizard

We were helped immeasurably by Pauline in the Tourism Office, who went to extraordinary lengths to help us try to find accommodations on other islands. She has an especially good connection on San Salvador Island, which is the one I’d found most intriguing in my research before we left home. Looks like thanks to her we might be able to visit there. 🙂

0061 Patient Pauline

0061 Patient Pauline

Anne was delighted to find this enchanting mailbox in the hotel lobby, where she posted those two cards. You know who you are. 😉

0058 Magic Mail

0058 Magic Mail

We lunched across the street at a nice restaurant that to me is misnamed The Office. So far from the sort of stresses I associate with that title. Beyond it the beer sign marks a handy liquor store, and the pink hotel across the street is our Castaways.

5618 Office View

5618 Office View

We’d taken a reasonably priced taxi ride from there to Lucaya the night before, but today we discovered the Bahama Bus service. Basically a fleet of vans that roams an unmapped route punctuated by blue “Bus Stop” signs. It was great to save enough taxi money to buy a nice lunch and meet locals.

0062 Bahamian Bus

0062 Bahamian Bus

Locals like Greg here, who studied accounting in Paris and now works in the casino across from tonight’s hotel. He intrigued us with a saxophone case, and when he spotted my miniature guitar said we should jam tonight. The ride was far too short!

0063 Gregarious Greg

0063 Gregarious Greg

Tonight we decided to spring for a more upscale hotel, which sadly lacks the free internet we enjoyed at the Castaways. But it does have a great location on the canal just across the street from the beaches where tomorrow we hope to finally go snorkeling. For tonight, we’re enjoying some beauty.

0067 Pelican Bay Babe

0067 Pelican Bay Babe

2013/03/27

Carib Be In :)

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Islander Adventure,Nature,People,Random — John @ 02:52

Well, we went for it as you guessed. Took off from St. Augustine and flew over the fort we’d only seen from afar yesterday.

0699 St. Aug. Fort

0699 St. Aug. Fort

Also over the tourist part of town we’d wandered the night before while waiting to meet up with sweet Lettie and cool Roy for dinner. Turns out this is the oldest town in the country, and they have some fascinating archeological digs going on dating back into Spanish, French, English and American history.

0715 Tourist Quarter

0715 Tourist Quarter

Then down the coast at 1,500′ to 2,500′ intending to land at Vero Beach to top off fuel and take a stretch. Pretty constant light turbulence, but from what I’d seen forecast for winds aloft I thought it would be worse higher and with more crosswind slowing us down. I was so busy wresting with up/downdrafts I almost blundered into this restricted area over Cape Kennedy.

0742 Rocket Science

0742 Rocket Science

Since winds were plenty strong even low, we decided to just go for it and pay half again as much for fuel on the islands. That turned out to be a good decision, because once we started a gradual climb we were out of the turbulence by 5,000 feet. Again we picked up an express ride at higher altitudes, and up at 12,500 mid-crossing we topped out about 170kts. We were surprised how close both the island and the mainland looked from that high at mid-crossing. The crossing took only a few minutes before we passed this tip of Grand Bahama Island and turned descending toward Freeport.

0762 Landfall

0762 Landfall

Florida had several thick smoke plumes from what appeared to be agricultural burns, and over the island they spread into a high smoke layer that hung over everything.

0763 Smoke High

0763 Smoke High

I quickened our descent to get below it for a better look at the island, only to find that they had fires of their own feeding the layer. Luckily downwind of our turn back toward the airport after touring the town.

0816 Expected Colors

0816 Expected Colors

Down here the colors were more what we expected from the tourist pix we’ve seen. Before long the friendly and helpful guys at ATC had us on the ground. They had me land with a strong and gusty quartering tailwind, but that just made it more fun for me. 🙂

Also wanted me to taxi clear to the end of the long single runway and then all the way back to the customs office at the terminal. Maybe the connecting taxiways were unusable, or they just like you to burn gas. I never did ask what that was about, but wished the tower had told me in advance so I could have landed at the end to look around longer and shorten the taxi.

Update: Pilots can find more details on flying the Caribbean in this thread I started on POA.

Waiting for us on the ramp was the super friendly, soft-spoken and helpful Daron who kindly posed with us for this documentation of our first Caribbean landing. If you ever land there, please tell him you saw his photo here and treat yourself to his disarming non-posed smile. 🙂

0057 Darren & Admirers

0057 Daron & Admirers

2013/03/26

Currents

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Islander Adventure,Random — John @ 05:04

We saw evidence of currents today, in the patterns of sand on the Gulf coast near Pensacola. Also on our instruments, when strong and smooth air currents aloft had our 135mph Tripp going 190mph. Tomorrow we may leave our fun stop here in St. Augustine, to ride the same air current out to the Bahamas earlier than planned.

(sent from my phone)

2013/03/25

Eyes & Ears

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Islander Adventure,Nature,People,Random — John @ 06:46

New Orleans is a treat for the eyes, with fascinating architecture and lots of color.

0552 City Mix

0552 City Mix

The mix of ages we see in buildings seems to me wider than in most American cities. As we wander, the character is everywhere.

0555 Casual

0555 Casual

Some of the buildings host plant life.

0559 Life Emergent

0559 Life Emergent

Everywhere people are enjoying themselves and each other in the easy style we see everywhere.

0561 Relaxing

0561 Relaxing

We walked through colorful streets to Armstrong Park with its big white arch.

0570 Armstrong Arch

0570 Armstrong Arch

There was a great festival there, though in many ways the entire city is one giant festival everywhere with interesting and diverse music to caress your ears.

0583 Festival

0583 Festival

Walking back we wondered about the dates 1849 and 1899 on this mysterious building.

0588 Anselm Motto

0588 Anselm Motto

It’s next door to this restored Jesuit church with its distinctive towers.

0591 Two Towers

0591 Two Towers

Nearby is this costume rental store providing another example of the playful contrasts here.

0585 World Of Magic

0585 World Of Magic

Though we’re just beginning to get acquainted with New Orleans, tomorrow we’ll probably head for the Jacksonville area to visit relatives and start plotting our venture out into the Caribbean.

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