January 9, 2023

After

• years of dreaming
• months of planning
• weeks of preparation, and –
• days of delay
  We are finally heading off to the Bahamas tomorrow!

We have been so concerned about ensuring a smooth passage across the Gulf Stream, that we decided to subscribe to a private weather service. Great decision, by the way, in terms of reducing our (Rod’s) anxiety. We called Sunday for a private, vessel-specific consultation about our plans. Chris (the head guy) advised us not to go Monday – that Tuesday would be the better day for an East-bound passage.

So, we figured, “What the hell…I guess we can hit a sports bar and watch the Eagles game, since we don’t have to travel the next day!”

And here’s a shot of me in my subtle, understated Eagles hat, complete with flapping wings and obnoxious shrieks.

But all that day (Sunday) and all day Monday, we looked at how calm and beautiful the ocean seemed. Here’s a shot of the ocean from the sports bar.

The ocean was so peaceful that I called Chris again today (Monday) to confirm his advice.

He said, “It may look nice where you are, but it’s deceptive. There is a cold front in the middle of the passage generating squalls with winds up to 30 knots. Don’t leave until noon tomorrow and you’ll be fine.”

So that’s the plan. We’ll leave Ft. Lauderdale at noon, and we should be in West End, on Grand Bahama Island, around 5PM.

On Wednesday, we clear Immigration, refuel, and relax. Then on Thursday, we travel 7 hours to the Green Turtle Club at Green Turtle Cay! It looks like we’ll have to hole up there for almost a week, waiting for a weather window to continue on to Marsh Harbor, which will be our home for about a month.

A week at the Green Turtle Club! What a hardship!

PS: Lynn here. Not sure if we mentioned our marina in Ft Lauderdale. Sounds nice – Bahia Mar right by the beach – quiet and peaceful, right? The first two nights we stayed here in December there was a rock concert on the beach which went really late with music we never heard of and groups we didn’t know – just lots of noise. This time, construction, a fire department next door, and motorcycles whizzing past with loud boom boxes. Guess the traffic and construction last time was stopped for the concert. Looking forward to some quiet time at Green Turtle!

January 7, 2023

WOW. Another BUSY day! I thought this was supposed to be a vacation!

On Friday, we had an electronics tech onboard to check out the depth sounder. No joy. It seems that the ONLY transponder that works with our Chartplotter has problems at high speed. Nobody told me. Very unsatisfactory outcome. I’ll deal with that when we get home. It’s under warranty for two years.

Then Uber to West Marine to pick up the spare water pump they were holding for me, but when I got there, no pump! Walked a few blocks to Boatowners Warehouse thanks to a quiet tip from a West Marine employee where I FINALLY got a backup water pump.

Then I spilled a small amount of diesel fuel into the bilge while changing the fuel filter. Had to crawl around in the bilge for an hour cleaning that up. Working in a confined space is exhausting! I call it Pilates With a Purpose.

We had fun at dinner, though. Muchos Mojitos and paella. Yummy!

Then today:
Make coffee,
Walk the dog.
Hurry up to get the laundry done so that we can Uber to the animal hospital for Guinness’s Bahamas health check. The machines required Lynn to create an online account to work the machines! (More hassle.)

PLUS, my laptop crapped out, so I had to go buy a new one. Three hours at the Apple store. Uber again.

The good news was that we had some yummy cheese steaks while we waited for an appointment with the Genius Bar.

I am writing this blog post on my new MacBook Air!

PLUS, there is some construction project going on here that starts. At 7AM. And now fire engines are screaming up A1A right past the marina. Sheesh!
All I want is my cigars and my Jameson.

Lynn has been a brick…putting up with my bad attitude and

helping with getting everything done. She is in the cabin now, ordering Chinese takeout. The height of luxury!

We are both hoping that we can just relax tomorrow, and get our heads straight for a Monday crossing to the Bahamas.

We are using a subscription weather service to maximize our chances of a smooth crossing, and I am calling them tomorrow at noon for a personalized, vessel-specific forecast. Very reassuring.

We are also hoping for a quiet night. Watch the final episodes of Madoff on Netflix, followed by a good night’s sleep.

TTFN

PS. Guinness here…..so sad the holidays are over. All I have left is my Santa cap!

January 5, 2023

Lynn here today….

We’ve heard from a few of you that are concerned because we haven’t posted in a few days. We left KW on Tuesday and started the three day trip to Ft Lauderdale, stopping in Marathon the first night. Heading out on Wednesday, the seas were a lot rougher than had been indicated and after a few hours of bouncing around, we decided to head into a marina cutting the trip short by about an hour. 

It was a great decision since we ended up in a beautiful resort marina called Postcard Inn.  Beautiful docks, a very nice beach (there aren’t many beaches in the Keys) and a dog friendly environment – of course, Guinness had to start chasing the iguanas on the rocks by the beach and entertaining those sunbathing. It was a little disconcerting heading into the shallow channel to the marina when we were still a half mile out and saw about 30 boats anchored with  people standing in knee deep water and picnicking on the sand bar.

So we will be in Ft Lauderdale for a few days before heading to the Bahamas. We have quite a list of things to take care of:

  Pick up a new water pump at West Marine

  Have  tech on board to look at the new depth finder which is still acting up

  Get Guinness seen by a vet so he’s cleared to enter the Bahamas

  Buy dog food at Petco

Uber will be happy to see us!

Our plan is to head over on Monday since the weather window looks best that day but we are very flexible since crossing the Gulf Stream requires certain wind and sea conditions. 

Navigation – its a beautiful thing!

So how do we get from one marina to the next?  While not autonomous, it’s really easier than you would expect. Looking at the paper or electronic charts, we create a “waypoint” giving it a name and entering the longitude and latitude. Many of these are shown on the charts, but Rod can also just touch the screen to create a waypoint.  Then we create a route on the chart plotter and enter the waypoints and save it with a name such as KeyLargo2Marathon. Rod will then select the route when we leave the marina and set the boat to “track” and the boat will steer itself to the waypoints. Based on our speed, it tells how far to the next waypoint and when we will arrive at our final destination. I may be making this sound a bit more difficult than it is, but when I was boating 30 years ago, we didn’t have this technology and everything was done with a compass and the paper charts. So much easier now and we can relax and read (or write this post) while keeping an eye out for other boaters.

Since we don’t have a lot of photos for this post, I thought I would share some of the funnier Rod pix. He’s such a good sport.

TTFN

Rod, Lynn and Guinness