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Yes… it was a trip of a lifetime. Yes… it was amazing. BUT… it was not always perfect in paradise. While the majority of the trip was a dream come true, there were the sleepless nights at anchor, engine repairs, travelling through the night, spending the holidays without family… that made us wonder "why are we doing this?". In the end the good outweighed the bad and we are SO happy we did it.

Below are some of our not so favorite memories…

Island

Erin: New Providence Island ( Nassau ). Bimini was our first stop in the Bahamas – the beaches are beautiful, the resorts / marinas are beautiful and we felt very safe walking around this little island. Nassau… not so much. Its dirty. There are tons of people. You have to ring a buzzer at all the stores and restaurants for them to unlock the door. We still had a good time, but I could have done without this stop.

Braden: Nassau is actually on New Providence Island and I agree completely. It is the center of the Bahamas in many ways, but nothing like the out islands.

Excursion

Erin: Our first night trip with a local in his power boat. While Braden got a kick out of it… I was a nervous wreck. It seemed like a good idea when we agreed to go, but when we got to Staniel Cay Yacht Club all I could think about was… "we have to go back". Obviously we made it safely, but I was totally freaked out the entire ride.

Braden: A fishing trip on the ocean side of the Exumas that lasted 4.5+ hours in somewhat uncomfortable seas in a small, center console boat. We caught no fish and generally had very little fun.

Snorkeling location

Erin: All the snorkeling locations were so different, so there really wasn’t a bad location – some had lots of fish, some had lots of coral and one was in a cave. The only bad thing ( which applied to all of them ) was the current. It was pretty strong throughout the Bahamas, so we had to plan our snorkeling expeditions around low tide. But even then we could only snorkel for about 15 minutes before the current picked up and we had to get back in the dinghy. We missed a few places I would love to see, so they are on the list for next time – the plane wreck at Norman’s Cay, the reef at Warderick Wells and the Sea Aquarium in the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park.

Braden: This one is tough because I liked getting in the water everywhere – but my least favorite was getting in the water at Bahia Mar Marina in Ft. Lauderdale to get the coconut out of the propeller. Nasty, nasty water.

Beach combing location

Erin: Warderick Wells. It was a beautiful place, but no shell collecting allowed. Its part of the Exumas Land & Sea Park, so you can’t take anything.

Braden: Pretty easy on this one, what Erin said – I’m not a huge "beach comber" to begin with, so it wasn’t too major for me.

Meal on the boa****t

Erin: My botched attempt at making a loaf of bread. I had practiced at home with all the same ingredients and utensils I would have on the boat. It turned out fantastic at home. When I made it on the boat the dough didn’t rise. It wasn’t a big deal… except we really wanted bread… and it took me most of the day to make it just to find out it was no good.

Braden: When I was feeling sick at Warderick Wells, all the meals were my least favorite. I knew I had to keep eating – so I did, but it was tough.**
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Meal off the boat**
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Erin: Dinner at Poop Deck. The food wasn’t bad, but it was super expensive.

Braden: We went over to Atlantis while we were in Nassau and ate at a burger place there. The burger was awful – like leather – and the fries were soggy and overly greasy. Easily the worst meal.
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Marina

Erin: There were good and bad things at every marina, but Nassau Yacht Haven was my least favorite. The wakes could get pretty bad, sometimes there was a wait for a shower and the hot water was hit or miss.

Braden: The theme keeps repeating itself, but the marina in Nassau was probably my least favorite. We went there because of amenities advertised – like power, water and cable TV. Along with laundry, showers and a nice place to eat. Of those things – the water was not good to drink, the cable TV wasn’t at all slips, the showers didn’t always have hot water and the Poop Deck was overly expensive for food.

Showers**
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Erin: Bahia Mar in Ft. Lauderdale. The showers were always dirty and there wasn’t any hot water for 3 days. After the second day Braden got the marina to give us a hotel room so we could take a hot shower… on Christmas. ***Honorable Mention: ***Bimini Big Game Club. The showers were very clean and the water was always hot, but the design was terrible. There were 4 showers in a circle with canvas in between. You could see right into the shower next to you. They were small. My not so favorite part… the lights were on a timed motion sensor so they would always turn off while you were in the middle of a shower.

Braden: See Erin’s response – agree on both, although I wasn’t as upset with the Big Game Club showers.**
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Laundry facility

Erin: Dinner Key Marina in Miami. There were only 4 washers and 3 dryers for a marina of 500+ boats. There was always a wait… a looooong wait. One day it took me 4 hours to do 2 loads of laundry. The people doing laundry were very impatient. If you weren’t there as soon as your dryer stopped they would take your clean clothes out and put them on a dirty table so they could use the dryer.

Braden: Erin handled the laundry, but at Dinner Key we had to plan our daily activities around laundry and that certainly warrants it being the worst.

Picture

*Erin: *The plane waiting for us to board at Staniel Cay. It signified the end of our amazing trip.

Braden: The picture of our boat sign on Boo Boo Hill. Not because it is a bad picture, but because I was too ill to climb up the hill with Erin to place the sign and take the picture. I had been up a couple days before our sign had been made, but I was disappointed I couldn’t make it up again to see it proudly next to the names of other boats that had come before us. Its not as isolated and remote as it seems – but it sure feels like you’ve accomplished something when you’ve crossed a lot of open ocean to be in that place at that moment standing among some truly great voyagers of the ocean.

Quote

*Erin: *"Welcome home!" While we were happy to see our friends and family, it was really hard to leave the Bahamas and get back to reality.

*Braden: *On the trip from Bimini to Nassau Erin went down below and looked in the bilge and said… "Uh, there is a lot of water in here and its coming in pretty fast". Honorable Mention: Goes to Erin as well when we were crossing the Gulf Stream in the middle of the night and she said something like… "The screen says there is a boat coming right for us and it looks pretty close". We never did see any boat in front of us, but did end up seeing a dimly lit, large boat pass directly behind us. We later heard from a boat captain that is familiar with the area that Coast Guard ships often patrol the area at night without lights to try and catch the bad guys.