Author Archives: Eric

Keith’s Perspective on Our Last Few Days in the Bahamas and West Palm Beach, Florida/Le point de vue de Keith sur nos derniers jours aux Bahamas et à West Palm Beach, en Floride

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This week has been interesting. On Saturday, we went back to the Washing Machine again, this time with the Ukrainian family and the family from Mississippi. After we got back, I went over to one of the boats to watch a movie. It was a Christmas movie, which was a little bit cheesy and out of season. 

The narrow opening from the ocean into the estuary is called the Washing Machine, Shroud Cay, Exuma Islands, Bahamas

Cette semaine était intéressante. Samedi on est retourné au washing Machine avec la famille Ukrainienne et celle du Mississippi. Quand je suis rentré, je suis allé sur un autre bateau pour regarder un film. C’était un film de Noël, qui était ringard et hors saison. 

The Washing Machine is a deeper channel with a fast current, and a sandbar at each side so you can’t get swept away. Eric and Keith playing in the water.
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Exploring West Palm Beach, Florida, USA

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Sunrise on Friday, May 16

The 2/3 moon was bright in the sky even after dawn.

As part of morning chores, Eric ran the water maker. As suspected, the water was dirty. We’re probably going to go through a lot of filters here. After we finished schoolwork and chores, we headed back to shore for lunch. We noticed that a Nordhavn 57 had anchored near us.

We went to a Mexican restaurant called Rivales, which was a short walk from the French bakery that we’d had breakfast at yesterday. The decor felt more like a modern art museum than a traditional Mexican restaurant. The food was good.

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Welcome to West Palm Beach, Florida, USA

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Thursday, May 15, continued… We traveled south down the channel, taking in the scenery as the sun rose. The barrier island between us and the ocean was the infamous Palm Beach. Palm Beach was the first tourist destination in Florida, with three fancy hotels that catered to high end guests. As it blossomed into a city, it became known for wealthy and powerful inhabitants, including former President Kennedy and current President Trump. Initially, we passed mostly lower buildings that looked like houses, though we did eventually pass a cluster of larger buildings (though no hi-rises) that looked like they may be hotels.

The mainland side was West Palm Beach, which, in the early days, was purpose built by one of the hotel owners to be a blue-collar area where the hotel staffers lived. Nowadays, it’s also an expensive zip code. It had a lot of high rise towers with an assortment of other types of structures in between, as well as several marinas.

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Passage From Highbourne Cay, Exuma Islands, Bahamas to West Palm Beach, Florida, USA

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The sunrise on Monday, May 12 was blocked by low atmospheric clouds.

And the rest of the sky turned an odd violet-ish color.

We’d decided to move around the corner, where it was more protected from the wind/wind chop (the blue dot on the map that we’d posted upon arrival at Highbourne Cay). We had to bring in the flopper stopper no matter what, as they weren’t meant for use in motion. Even though it was a short ride, we decided it was best to bring up the dinghy, too.

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