On December 3, we flew to Connecticut for the Christmas Holiday with family and friends. It was a very enjoyable trip and included a white Christmas. While waiting for Lisa to come home one evening, we had a glass of wine waiting for her on top of the snowman on her front porch. Needless to say, we had fun!We arrived back in Florida on December 28, with plans to provision for the Bahama trip, spending hours in Walmart, Publix, etc. The boat is now weighted down with as much wine and non-perishable foods we could fit.
As you know, the East Coast has been unseasonably cold, which kept delaying our leaving Palm City. It was hard to give up a wonderful dock with heat and plenty of hot water when the temperature was getting down to the 30's at night.
Finally, on January 11, it was time to start heading South down the ICW; warmer temperatures were predicted by the end of the week. Our plan is to cross over to the Bahamas from Ft. Lauderdale as soon as we got a good weather-window. We traveled to West Palm Beach, anchoring in Lake Worth the first night. We ran the generator all night for heat. The next day we traveled to Boca Raton, anchoring in Lake Boca Raton.
We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale on Wednesday, January 13, picking up the last available mooring at the Las Olas Marina. We saw lots of cruisers and manatees in the ICW heading South. Our friend Dave from Newport is also in Lauderdale waiting to cross. Thanks to his rental car, we have been able to get to the stores to replace provisions we have used. We had dinners at a local Pizza and Mexican restaurant, which were very good.
Ft. Lauderdale has a fuel barge, which makes it easy to get fuel; we made arrangements for it to meet us right outside the Las Olas mooring field.
Ft. Lauderdale also has a great water taxi service, along with beautiful, huge homes and yachts.
As I write this posting, it is Sunday, January 17, and the temperature is back to normal--80 degrees. At this time, there is a very good weather-window predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday. Our plan is to leave Ft. Lauderdale at 5 a.m. on Tuesday and travel across the Gulf Stream to the Bahama Banks, then onto Great Sale, which is an uninhabited Island. We will be traveling with Dave on his Mainship trawler and probably a parade of other boats. On Wednesday, we plan to travel the 50-miles to Boat Harbour Marina in Marsh Harbor. This will be our first time staying at this Marina. We joined the Royal Marsh Harbor Yacht Club, which operates out of there.
Once we get to Boat Harbor, we will be using Skype for phone service and signing up for the local internet coverage. We will be out of reach once we leave Ft. Lauderdale until we get to Marsh Harbor. We are hoping it will be only 2 days, but that is always subject to change based weather. We'll send a Duetto Update out once we get internet service.
We plan to continue to share our Bahama experience via this Blog, assuming we will have good internet service.
