1st Day Winter Green Turtle Cay Bahamas

Yesterday was the winter Solsitce -- 1st day of winter. Not bad here in the Bahamas. The picture of me is on the Bluff House Beach with New Plymouth in Green Turtle Cay in the background and the Sea of Abaco. Not bad. High was 75 and a low of 70. Eat ytour hearts out northerners!! The living is easy that's why I don't update every day now. We moved over to the Bluff House Marina yesterday but today we needed to do 2 weeks of laundry in their "new facilities". It was a disaster. They had 3 working washing machines out of 4 and NO working dryers. We were besides ourselves. The docks are not friendly to sailboats for egress and this was too much. I checked out and moved BACK to the more expensive Green Turtle Club to dry the clothes and wait out the coming severe weather which apparently is becoming less severe and taking longer to get here. Bubbles and Skat also checked out and moved over here. Ohh well it is only money and the entire Carolina Contingent is again together; Victoria Gaye, Bubbles, Skat, Temptation, and High Flite on the hook just a stones throw away. The laundry and moving marinas took way too much time but that's cruising somedays. I was able to get another swim in the atlantic though. Beautiful beach and just a bit too cool water but great nevertheless. This morning I heard distance drumming around 4:30am. I learned later that there was a tradition here of folks beating drums between 4 and 6 am to "awaken the Christmas spirit". I hoped it worked. Lots of decorations and Christmas music abound even though this looks like the tropics.

Great Crossing to the Bahamas

WOW we made it and in one piece with no equipment failure. This is a tough crossing when you do it in one day what many take 3 days to do. We left Lake Worth Inlet in Palm Beach Florida at 7:30am, found the Gulf Stream very mild and made it across to the Little Bahama Banks by 5pm. Got to see the ground come up in daylight.

We just carried on and crossed all the banks in the dark. No moon till 1:15am and it was small. We had very gentle conditions on the banks and used AIS and radar to navigate through the boat traffic and some rocky areas like "Barracuda Rock Channel". Lots of boats had stopped at Great Sale Cay and Mangrove Cay for the night but we just carried on. You have to trust your instrumentation and ability to use it to do that. We had daylight just as we passed Crab Cay and entered the Sea of Abaco. We made it to Green Turtle Cay by 9am and took a slip at the Green Turtle Club. We planned to stay a few days but I can't get emails on their WiFi system so may move tomorrow.

I'd write more but I need sleep. I only had a 2 hour nap today after being up nearly 30 hours.

It's still hard to believe we finally made it here today in our boat.

Just a lay day here at North Lake Worth

Not much to report.

We are just killing time till our Monday Crossing Window. All the forecasts still show Monday as a GOOD day.

Trying to get more info from the posse that crossed and arrived in Green Turtle Last night but they are stingy with the reports -- already on Island Time I guess.

Buck and I finalized our crossing plans, Karen made a run to CVS for last minute delicacies.

Wind blew moderate here today and one Canadian boat dragged anchor with no one aboard but didn't hit anything till the owners arrived and re-anchored the boat.

Too many clouds to see the meteor shower last night but I tried.

Early to bed tonight and off to the main Lake Worth tomorrow for another crossing attempt. Boy I wish you could store up sleep credits. When we cross I'll be up for about 30 hours.

Everything Changes and Carolina Posse in the Abacos

This morning we launched the dinghy and went to the "sand Spit" here to tie up and walk to the Publix grocery.

The sand spit which was always small for maybe a dozen crowded dinghies is 1/3 the original size. They expanded the bridge here and too the space from the sand spit. Real tuff to find a spot and tie up now.

Once at the Publix which used to be cruiser friendly I found no place that I could drop trash -- everything is behind chain link fences and locked -- really!! Trash is that precious now? It is to discourage the cruisers. The natives here really hate the carefree cruisers. Most have more money than most can dream about but boy they don't want to share anything with the cruisers. Very disappointing.

Grocery prices are almost twice what they were at home in October. Is just this part of Florida or has that happened everywhere?

Well with the latest weather reports we should be able to leave here Sunday and stage for a Bahamas crossing on Monday.

We heard from Craig and Dovie on Bubbles. They anchored at Great Sale Cay at 4am and expected to leave and continue on to Green Turtle Cay at 8:30am. No word yet but I expect they have either arrived or anytime now.

Nonetheless they are in the Bahamas and we are not!! Only time.

Victoria Gaye finished their sea trials today and all looks good. They plan to cross with us on Monday. Ohh Boy.

The anchorage here has many boats but not crowded. Either most have already crossed or it's being passed for more convenient areas.

Crossing?? Not today

Well we tried to do the crossing. Even waited till nearly noon before going out but the conditions were rock and roll. Not dangerous and doable but very uncomfortable and especially for Karen. We went about 3 miles offshore and called it quits. Our posse went on without us. Best of luck to them and I should hear from them tomorrow.

We ran back to the inlet and through a gauntlet of law enforcement before arriving at North Lake Worth. This is almost like Vero Beach but no bus. You have to dinghy to a little sand spit below the A1A bridge then walk a half block to a mall with a Publics grocery -- a VERY LARGE PUBLICS. Remember this is Palm Beach Florida.

Ohh this also the hole of JAck Nicholas and other PGA greats. That's why it is called PGA Boulevard.

The next crossing window is Monday so we won't have to wait long. The anchorage here is not too crowded since so many folks left yesterday and today for a crossing. More will fill in till Monday.

We are not alone. Victoria Gaye from the original Posse is also here but at the Old Port Cove Marina. Buck is sill testing his boat to be sure the vibration issue is resolved before attempting a crossing. Hopefully they will join us on Monday.

Gauntlet of law enforcement? This has got to be the icing on the cake for law enforcement. Circling he anchorage this morning we had 3 Florida Wildlife boats with 3 officers each, a Palm Beach Police boat with 3 officers, a Homeland Security boat with 2 officers, and a Coast Guard boat with 6 persons. Just circling and occasionally stopping passing boats to check them.. Unbelievable!! Just associating with the law abiding tax paying folks. Probably wouldn't want to associate with known criminal areas.

Ohhh Boy --staged to cross to the Bahamas tomorrow.

We are anchored here near Peanut Island in LAke Worth for a morning departure to the Bahamas. Wish us luck.

The forecast is for benign motoring conditions but we have been fooled before.

The whole gang minus Victoria Gaye are here tonight. Victoria Gaye developed severe vibrations this afternoon and they had to pull into a marina near the PGA bridge to have it looked at. Horribly the issue disappeared when the mechanic came. He made a few adjustments but recommend they run the boat in the ICW hard for a few days to see if the issue returns --- BUMMER... They won't cross with us tomorrow.

We fueled up and watered up at Old Port Cove Marina -- where Tiger Woods used to keep his boat until the scandal. Great place because it is also near where Jack Nicholson and some other PGA greats live -- North Lake Worth.

Because of the strong tidal currents in LAke Worth Inlet we won't leave until late tomorrow morning. Slack tide is at 12:30pm but we should leave before that.

Hopefully the next post will be from out in the great Atlantic while we are crossing tomorrow night.

Ahhh back in the saddle again

We left Vero Beach this morning. Had a long about 50 mile trip to HOBE SOUND in Jupiter Florida. It went well and fast. We left at 7:30am and had the hook down at 2:30pm. Nice timing. Only two bridge openings and they were on demand.

We have a FLOTILLA heading south. We have Bubbles, Skat, Victoria Gaye and Hi Flite (cory and dale) going with us.

It looks like a great crossing opportunity this Thursday and Friday so we are working our way down to Palm Beach -- Lake Worth Inlet to begin the crossing.

We should be in Lake Worth near Peanut Island tomorrow afternoon to stage for a Thursday morning crossing -- hopefully all the way non stop to Green Turtle cay in about 24 - 30 hours. Our good friend Mark Haskell is flying down to Palm Beach to join Jim and Barb on Skat for their crossing. Should be GREAT FUN.

Tomorrow is only an 18 mile day but 6 bridge openings. Two on demand and 4 on a schedule. That means it will take twice as long.

Once anchored in Lake Worth we will make the boats ready for the crossing. All loose stuff put away and everything else tied down. We hope to cross the Gulf Stream in daylight but run most the Little Bahama Banks at night and on instruments. It is not too terribly scary at night.

I like Vero but good gosh everyone has a Honda Generator or now and the air is filled with exhaust and noise -- not like back in 2005 when only I and few other had a generator.

Our boat Temptation has a HUGE generator built in. The 3-cylinder Yanmar that powers the 8KW Onan is bigger than the motor I had on Luna Sea where I made my first single handed crossing.

Temptation's genset will run everything at the same tine. Two heat pumps, Two battery chargers and water heater and microwave. It's BIG, but we do use it sparingly because it does like diesel -- about 1/2 gallon an hour.

Time to enjoy the sunset tonight -- hopefully Thursday night we will be enjoying BAHAMAS sunsets.