Category Archives: Wildlife

The Loggerhead Marine Life Center, Juno Beach, Florida, USA

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Dawn on Friday, May 23

Yesterday, Eric realized that the blackwater tank needed to be fuller in order to get the suction going, so he added some water to the tank. In good news, it worked and he was able to pump out the blackwater tank, although he was concerned that it may not have fully emptied out. 

After morning chores and school, Eric and Keith went to the water park. It was empty, just as it had been on Wednesday. The park had a lot of rides. They went on almost all of them, and the longest wait was 2-minutes. They had a blast. We later found out that the local schools finish the year on Friday, so they were glad they didn’t wait to go. It’s probably crowded when school is out!

In the evening, Johnny and Joanne had us over for dinner again. They also invited another couple they’d been friends with for many years. Joanne made a great dinner and we had a lovely evening with them.

Today, it was rainy. After morning chores and school, we went to the Loggerhead Marine Life Center, which we were told was a turtle sanctuary. We took the road that ran along Singer Island north. While there were plenty of houses and small condo complexes, one hallmark of the island was what felt like a never-ending line of high-rise towers.

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The Manatee Discovery Center, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA

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On Wednesday, May 21, it was a hazy morning, obscuring the colors of dawn.

In preparation for the haul out, Eric spent the morning stowing away gear that normally lives on the deck. Moving it all was quite a project. 

Once school and morning chores were done, we drove over to the Manatee Discovery Center. While the center itself looked like it was relatively new, it was located next to an electricity plant in an older, lower socioeconomic area.

We were pleased to find out that there was no admission fee, though donations were accepted. The upstairs was closed today for a private event, but the upstairs had traveling art exhibits and beautiful views, so we didn’t miss any important information about manatees.

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Lunch at Xuma’s, Highbourne Cay, Exuma Islands, Bahamas

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Continued… When Christi and Keith returned to the dinghy dock, they saw that Kosmopolitan wasn’t there. They walked out to the southwest edge of the marina to watch for Eric’s arrival. Looking north, we could see the marina, the little shallow bay next to it, and the sea wall that separates them. The marina was clearly a dredged portion of the little bay.

Looking south, we could see that the beach on between Xuma’s and this point was lined with chairs.

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Welcome to Highbourne Cay, Exuma Islands, Bahamas

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Sunrise on Sunday, May 11, 2025

Last night, we’d gotten a text from a fellow cruiser letting us know that the little market at Highbourne Cay Resort and Marina, which was a little north of Shroud Cay, had eggs in stock. We’d decided to move to Highbourne Cay this morning so we could buy some eggs. We really wanted to have eggs onboard because we were planning to leave on a passage from the Bahamas to Florida tomorrow (Monday). Eggs were a great passage food as they were easy to cook and digest.

We were up early and got the boat ready to go. We pulled up anchor at 0700, which was high tide. We had intended to follow the same track out of the anchorage as we’d taken in, but a boat was anchored in the middle of our track. We had to go into shallow water to get around it. We only had ½ foot of water under us, so had it been slack or low tide, we would have been stuck inside the anchorage until the tide rose.

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