Tag: beach

Welcome to The Bahamas

You know when you are trying to get away for a holiday or long weekend and everything takes so much longer than it should? That was us trying to get to Bahamas last Saturday, only our problem wasn’t traffic, it was the Gulf Stream.

Longer Than Expected

We figured the 40 nautical mile (nm, or knot) trip would take us 8 or so hours. Nope. With the wind at our front and the gulf stream pushing us north, we had to give up on sailing and turn on the engine. We discovered that the engine overheats when we go too fast. That 8 hours took 12. We cut it short and stopped north of our destination and anchored in the dark. But we made it to Bahamas in one piece! Success!

Our route from Miami to Bimini
Our route from Miami to Bimini
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Beach Clean-Up with Utila Dive Center

One of the requirements of UDC’s Divemaster program is to participate in a beach clean-up, which is a great way to ensure all the students are aware of the environmental problems with our oceans. Last Monday, I participated in my first beach clean-up with Utila Dive Center. It was enlightening and a little bit depressing but ultimately rewarding.

Getting to the beach clean-up

We met at UDC and drove in a van to the beach at the southeast end of the island, where I had never been.  From Google Maps, I guess it is Iron Shore Beach. There’s no road across the island, so we went all the way south and then back up the east side.

Iron Shore Beach Utila map
UDC to Iron Shore Beach, Utila

Advance preparation

One of the UDC instructors, T, led the group and she organized everything, providing gloves, garbage bags, rakes, and trays to put special types of refuse on, like glass bottles (of which there were few) and bottle caps (many). We were prepared and we needed to be. The amount of trash that washes onto that island from the ocean has to be seen to be believed.

Organized into teams, we competed with each other a bit: for most trash, and most of each type of trash. It was just one element to keep people involved, but most of us didn’t need the game.

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South Africa’s Garden Route

South Africa’s garden route is beautiful and world renowned as a great road trip. We drove from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, with stops in between, and the views were gorgeous.

About South Africa’s Garden Route

Technically, The Garden Route begins west of Stellenbosch, our first stop after Cape Town, and runs from Mossel Bay in the west to Storms River in the east, so we covered that and then some.

South Africa's Garden Route map
Garden Route map

Between Stellenbosch and Port Elizabeth, there are a lot of beautiful stops to make!

Oak Valley Wines

Oak Valley Estate on South Africa's Garden Route
Nice view with some wine at Oak Valley

Oak Valley was one of those fortuitous stops along South Africa’s garden route because we needed a break from the car. Plus, we had driven to the fringes of the wine region, and we wanted to visit another winery while we could. This was a good choice: the estate has beautiful grounds and some nice wines too!

On the way back to the highway, we stopped at an incredible “farm stand”/tourist attraction, where we stocked up on picnic foods and local craft cider.

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