Bimini

Tuesday, February 24, 2015.  5am.  Dark, moon has already set.  Kachina stayed rafted to us last night and we cast them off.  Adagio has cast off the wall where they stayed last night after finishing the water maker repair, and our anchor is up. It is clear, 65 degrees, the wind is Northwest 10-15.  It is supposed to be southwest.  Everyone says do not go into the Gulf Stream in a northerly wind.  We figure we will turn back if it gets too rough.  The water is lumpy, but not intolerable as we approach the Gulf Stream.  Apparently the current is down to 2 knots and the waves build a bit – maybe 6 feet, but with a 10 second period in between and the ride is not uncomfortable.  We are making 6.5 knots over ground with both sails up.  Clouds in the east as the sun rises, but clear overhead.  By 10am, the wind has died to 5 knots and the seas settle a bit.  11am and Bimini is in sight. We are out of the stream, the seas have settled to 1-2 feet, and the weather is glorious!  At 2pm, Kachina, Adagio and Rhiannon are tied to the docks at Blue Water Marina.  We walk down to Customs to check in.  It has moved to the Big Game Club, just down the harbor.  Then on to Immigration, which is now at the Police Station.  We have paid our “entrance fee” of $300 for a 3 month visa and are officially in the Bahamas.

Two other boats arrive in this marina today – Selene (Jan and Jean Windscheffel) and Kintala (Tim and Deb Akey).  There are also boats here that arrived yesterday.

On the way across, Camden (age 8 on Adagio) caught a 55 lb. Bull Mahi (Dolphin (fish not porpoise).  His Dad, Marc cleaned the fish and there was pot luck at the marina, with the Mahi being cooked on the grill and everyone bringing another dish.  We met a lot of people and the food was great!

66SM, 55NM today. 25°43.47’N  079°17.86’W

Wednesday, February 25, 2015.  First glimpses of “island time”.  The office at the marina said to let them know when we decided to leave and then we could pay.  We went to the Bahama Telephone (BTC) office/store.  There was a line of people trying to discover how to communicate in the Bahamas.  There was one person working, selling phones, getting them to work, selling plans, taking money, etc.  “no hurry, mon, I am here all day”.  Our iPhone 5 is supposed to be unlocked, and sure enough it is!  It came from Verizon that way.  Verizon could not figure out how to do 4GLTE on the iPhone 5 when it came out and lock the phone, so they sold them all unlocked – but did not tell anyone!  Anyway, after only ½ a day, we have a working Bahamas phone.  The service is still expensive, but much less so that using Verizon over here.

The marina here has reasonably good wifi, so communication for now is OK.  I understand that farther on, that will not be true.

We went to the beach in the afternoon.  It is a short walk across the island.  Beautiful.  The water is 85 degrees!  You cannot swim on the east side of the island (where the harbors are) because there are sharks.  You can see 8 foot bull sharks swimming through the marina!  The Big Game Club feeds them at 9 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon. You certainly do not want to be in the water during those times! A guy came by selling fresh coconuts and would open them for you to drink the “milk” - $3.

Lisa bought 12 fresh crawfish (we call them lobster) tails for $20! Tomorrow’s dinner.  Tonight we are having burgers on Adagio.

Thursday, February 26, 2015. Sunny, 80 degrees today.  Wind North 15+. Today we got the internet working. Everyone who offers wifi in the Bahamas is very secretive about their passcodes.  They will not tell you what it is, you have to bring them your device (computer, phone, etc.) and they put in the code.  Some places it changes every day. We walked around the island and explored the cost for a golf cart.  Tomorrow we plan to rent one to do more exploring.

We met an interesting couple from France (Annie and Michel).  She was injured in a car accident and is in a wheel chair!  They are from the same area of France where Jeff is going to school this semester. She taught “French as a second language” and is familiar with the school Jeff is attending. Their sailboat is about 34 feet long and somehow they manage.  They carry a power chair on board and get it into the cabin.  Another boater here (from Newfoundland) borrowed a wheel barrow and a group of folks carried Annie over to the beach!  They got her in and out of the water and onto and off of a chase.  Then 4 big Bahamians carried here off the beach to her power chair!  Good deeds all around!

Cam, on Adagio, is teaching Lisa how to fish.  His family will never starve!  He catches fish every time he tries!  Lisa caught a nice size pompano with the rig that has been hanging in our salon since Jeff left us last year.

A lady named Miss Juliette came by taking dinner orders (fish, vegetable, salad and potato) for $12. Everyone says her food is great, so we order dinner for tomorrow night.

Lisa made pasta with some of the lobster she bought for dinner.  Really sweet and tasty!

Dessert was from the ice cream truck which passes the marina every evening at 6:45pm.

Friday, February 27, 2015.  The wind is supposed to swing around to the East, so we move Rhiannon off the east-facing face dock to an inside slip. We are hoping for a decent weather window Sunday or Monday. Today, it is party cloudy and 80.

We went down to Sue and Joy’s Variety Store and rented a golf cart for 24 hours.  We had to wait while they located the cart and filled it with gas and then brought it to the store.  “A few minutes” island time was over an hour, but we got to watch Millionaire re-runs on their TV while waiting. We picked up the Konescos (Adagio) and headed out to explore the island.  The north end of Bimini is a resort, with beautiful marinas, a Hilton hotel (not quite done), a cruise ship terminal (not quite done) and lots of high end condos with gorgeous views.  There is a man-made beach which is beautiful.  Other than 5 people on the beach, we saw on people who work there – deserted.  Maybe everyone comes over for the week-end from Miami and Fort Lauderdale.  On the beach there we found lots of conch shells.  On the way back, we passed two “conch shacks” and saw piles of conch shells!

Marc on Adagio is in need of propane.  So what you do is call (or go to) the local liquor store (a block away) and ask for “Big Fred”, who is either hanging out there or down at the south end of the beach.  If he is not there, they will call him and sooner or later (island time, remember) he will show up in his propane truck to fill your tank.

We stopped at Nate’s bakery and bought cinnamon rolls and banana bread.

One of the landmarks here is the Dolphin House (see pictures).  It was closed when we were there, but when open the owner gives tours and it is a bed and breakfast too!

We have found all the Bahamians to be very polite and courteous.  The school kids wear uniforms and everyone is well dressed, even tho’ as you drive around the island, it is obviously not too prosperous.  There are many houses/buildings that appear to be half finished.  There are many more that are derelict, not sure if it was caused by hurricane damage or neglect.

Besides teaching Jo Ellen on Adagio how to crochet, Lisa spent an hour babysitting Maria (age 3 (Adagio) and Gina (age 4 – her grandfather works at the marina).

Driving is on the left, English style – well actually, everyone drives in the middle of the road and then dodges to the correct side when meeting an oncoming vehicle (golf cart, scooter, car, truck, trolley).  You just have to remember which way to dodge (left not right).  It is also common to see two vehicles stopped in the road – one going each direction – the drivers having a conversation.

Dinner tonight courtesy of Miss Juliette.  I had grouper and Lisa had snapper (a whole small one).  The food was very good.

Click here for Bimini pictures

Waiting to cross over to the Bahamas

Tuesday, February 17, 2015.  We are still at Nixon Bight, although the wind is supposed to clock around to the southwest, west and northwest and it will get very uncomfortable here as there is no protection from those directions.  We talked to Ilene, who is just around the corner in Hurricane Harbor, but we also heard from Outbound, who is in No Name Harbor, which is only 2 miles away.  No Name is also very well protected and there is shore access there.  It is part of Bill Biggs State Park and you can get to town. 

The anchor is up at 10:30am, it is 75 degrees and sunny, the wind already in the southwest 10-15.  The anchor is back down at 11:30am in No Name Harbor.  Besides Outbound (Steve and Deb Crane) who we met in Swansboro, NC, when we could not go past Camp Lejeune because of the live firing, we meet the Konoscos (Marc, Jen, Cam (8), Joe Ellen (10) and Maria (3)) on Adagio.  They are headed to the Bahamas also

Part of the entertainment in No Name is watching people try to anchor.  It is a very small space and many people just can’t get the anchor down safely with enough swing room.  Many try and then give up and go elsewhere.  Every now and then someone comes in who is going to “do it their way” no matter what.  Almost everyone only puts down one anchor and 50-60 feet of anchor rode.  However tow boats came in and put down 2 anchors so they would not swing at all.  Not good when everyone else is swinging a 100 foot circle!  Shortly after we arrived someone in a 56 foot Hylas (sailboat) came in a put down 100 feet of chain.  That made his circle 156 feet, so he was constantly getting very, very close to everyone around him.  He refused to change his anchor, so eventually the boats around him moved away.

3 SM, 2.4NM today. 25°40.64’N  080°09.79’W

Wednesday, February 18, 2015. The winds clocked around as promised and the sky looks ominous.  Winds out of the NW@25+.

Thursday, February 19, 2015. Winds are still North to Northwest at 25+.  We are seeing gusts of 40.  It is clear and cold – 45 degrees. Our generator has decided to act up.  It is showing the same symptoms it did a couple of years ago.  It will start and then immediately die.  At that time the problem was the solenoid that controls the throttle (that we discovered after replacing almost every other electronic control component).  I have spares, but nothing seems to help. If I disconnect the throttle control solenoid, the generator runs and puts out electricity. That is the way we will have to use it until we can get a technician to look it over.  Every time we come to No Name, something breaks (as you may or may not remember from 2 years ago).  We made three trips to this harbor then – ready to cross to the Bahamas – and something went haywire every time.  We finally gave up and went to Marathon.  I was able to catch the service people at Atlantic Marine before closing and they promised to have someone here first thing on Monday.

Friday, February, 20, 2015. The wind has let up a bit, but still 10-20 out of the north, making a passage across the Gulf Stream impossible.  Today, Steve (Outbound) rented a car to drive to Fort Lauderdale to pick up solar panels he ordered. When he got back, the panels were too large to fit on the frame he had built – back to Fort Lauderdale.  I asked Steve if he would keep the car an extra day and I would pay for the day so we could get groceries, go to West Marine, the hardware store, etc.  So tomorrow is errands day. We had Steve and Deb for a game of Mexican Train after dinner.

Saturday, February, 21, 2015. Errands day – and it took all day.  Miami traffic is awful!  But we got everything done we wanted to.  We also picked up some packages at the local UPS store (generator parts, and Amazon order).  Lisa has been crocheting blankets for our friends (Ember and Peter) three little girls, and we get those mailed off as well.  It is cold today with the wind still out of the north.

Sunday, February 22, 2015. Outbound’s new (downsized) solar panels are connected and working.  Yeah! There is a yacht club cook out at the park today and the club told everyone here they would have to move to make room for the 50 “members” boats coming in.  Right. No one moved.  It was a big affair tho’.  I especially enjoyed the great jazz band they had and seeing all the current and future officers (25 of them) marching around in their uniforms.  Why do yacht club officers wear Navy-type officers’ uniforms?  Pomp and silliness in the extreme! Gone at 3pm and replaced with partying folks from Miami.  Loud and loud!

Monday, February 23, 2015.  There are three boats here trying to get repairs completed.  Adagio is having issues with their water maker and a technician is coming today.  John and Joanna on Kachina are waiting on water pump parts, and we hope to get our generator back in business.  The weather window to cross has arrived and it will last until Wednesday.  Quite a few boats left this morning.  The wind is South at 5-10, perfect as soon as the seas calm down.

Nelson (the technician) from Atlantic Marine in Fort Lauderdale arrives at 10.  Believe it or not, he has never been in a dingy, always working at boats tied to a dock or on the ground.  I had called their office and asked if I needed to bring the boat in and they said no.  Turns out Nelson loves boats and thoroughly enjoyed the dingy ride.  He first replaced what we thought was a defective relay, but that did not correct the issue.  We concluded that the solenoid was again the problem.  However, after checking the throttle linkage between the solenoid and the throttle, he determined that the linkage was incorrect.  One, it had come loose, and two it was too long.  Because it was too long, the solenoid could not hold it open, so the engine would die.  The only reason it had worked for the last two years was because it was adjusted all the way down, but it was hitting the stop every time and that eventually worked it loose and parts must have fallen into the Bilge and disappeared.  This linkage came with the solenoid we installed two years ago, but it was for another model generator. Weird, huh? Nelson actually shortened the linkage (using my Dremel to cut and shape it).  It worked like a champ! Yeah Nelson! He checked the generator output and everything else on the unit and declared it perfect!  Bahamas tomorrow!

Lisa did our laundry today and met more folks at the laundry (seems to be the cruiser’s meeting place).  When she got back from the laundry, Brittany and Jonathan came over to give us information on their trip to the Bahamas – they had just returned. We raised the anchor at 3pm and motored over to Crandon Park for fuel and water.  Back at No Name at 5:30pm.  At 6pm, Kachina (John and Joanna) is rafted alongside and we are talking about how to make the crossing tomorrow.  At 7pm, Marc and the kids (Adagio) come alongside in their dingy.  Their water maker has finally been fixed, after the technician had to make two trips back and forth to Fort Lauderdale to get the correct parts.  Great service all around today!  Departure time is 5am.

.Click here for pictures from No Name Harbor

St. Augustine to Miami 2015

Tuesday, February 3, 2015. We departed Rivers Edge Marina, St. Augustine at 8am. John and Nora (Saber Tooth) and Bob and Judy (Greenstone) are leaving today also.  Both boats have committed to meet friends in Nassau on February 14.  It is sunny and cold (46 degrees).  Wind North at 5-15.  It is the end of the incoming tide and we manage to ride the tide until 1pm.  Nice.  We were making well over 7 knots all morning and covered 42 miles.  At 2:20pm, we pass through the bridges at Daytona with no problem.  The tidal push is back and we are making 7.5 knots over ground.  At 4pm we have the anchor down in Rockhouse Creek, New Smyrna Beach.  Partly cloudy and 60 degrees.  There is one other boat here.  Another boat shows up at 4:30 along with Saber Tooth and Greenstone.  62SM 49.6NM today.  MM842.2 

29°03.62’N  080°55.91W

Wednesday, February 4, 2015. Anchor up at 7:30am.  Cloudy, 65 degrees, no wind.  No issues at “the corner (Red 18)”.  They dredges this area last year and we never saw less than 12 feet of water.  We made the Coronado Beach Bridge opening at 8am.  The tide from the Ponce de Leon inlet is running with us and we are making 7.9 knots. We turned into the Indian River, passing through the Hallover Bridge at Cape Canaveral at 11:15 and lost our tidal “push”.  We saw a few of the Rose (pink) Spoonbills, but not like you would see later in the spring.  Their roosting grounds are a couple of island at the very top of the Indian River.  It is cloudy, 73 degrees and looks like rain.  Greenstone and Saber Tooth stop at Titusville to meet friend for lunch.  We pull into Cocoa Village Marina at 3pm.  We hope to see Lisa’s Uncle Franny (and Virginia) and her “Uncle George” (Her Dad’s best friend) and Bev.  However, Lisa is still fighting a cold or something that has her coughing, se we may have to forgo seeing them to avoid passing whatever this is around.  We walked around Cocoa Village and had dinner at Ossorio.  They’re speciality is fire roasted pizzas and sandwiches.  The food was teffific.  56SM  44.8NM  MM898 

28°21.48’N 080°43.56’W

Thursday, February 5, 2015.  Wind is howling 25-30 knots, which makes it impossible to get out of this slip/marina as we have to go toward the north to do so.  There are three foot white caps at the marina entrance!  Lisa uncles opted to bypass seeing us as they don’t want whatever malady Lisa has.  We did boat chores and thyen went to dinner at Murphy’s Grill in the village.  Very “bar-like” and a bit run down (maybe intentionally that way for “the look”), but the food was terrific!

Friday, February 6, 2015.  Wind still howling, but down a bit to 20-25.  We will sit for another day.  Saber Tooth and Greenstone continue towards Lake Worth today and make it all the way to Fort Pierce.  We cleaned the boat, the laundry and ourselves and then had dinner on board.  I walked over to Ossorio and bought some of their pastries for dinner tonight and to take with us (bread pudding, cinnamon rolls and apple tarts).

Saturday, February 7, 2015.  Wind finally abated.  We met Floyd Tapp on the dock this morning.  He gaves us a copy of his book “The Saga of the Sailing Hillbillies”. He and his wife Elaine (originally from Kentucky) sailed (Jaibolfro) for years and now they have bought a trawler.  The book is a “How To” of what NOT TO DO – funny too! As we have said before, a large part of the enjoyment of doing what we are doing is the people you meet.

We are off the dock at Cocoa Village Marina at 7;50am, sunny 60 degrees, no wind (feast or famine with the wind).  Noon, the tide is against us and we can make only 6 knots.  Sunny, 70 degrees, wind SE @ 5-10.  3:30pm we are at the fuel dock at Vero Beach City Marina.  Load up with fuel and water.

As we are entering the marina, we see River House leaving (Deb and Bob’s boat).  They told us they had sold it and moved on-shore. The new owners are taking to Fort Pierce. 

Our new TV is here and we pick that up at the marina office when we check in.  Hopefully, it will last longer than the last one.

4pm, we are on our mooring (which is the one River House was on).  We called our friends Stan and Judy and Wayne and Colleen (Cool Change) to let them know we are here.

Saber Tooth and Greenstone are leaving tomorrow morning for the Bahamas from Lake Worth.  We won’t catch up with them and Lisa is still fighting her cold/cough.

54SM  43.2NM today.  No bridges.  MM 952.  27°39.56’N  080°22.27’W

Sunday, February 8, 2015. There is a reason they call this place “Velcro Beach”.  Once here it is hard to leave.  The price is reasonable, the facilities are nice, there is transportation to the beach and town, the restaurants are good, and you can get stuff fixed.  We talked to Pete Brocker, who works on boats about getting some canvas repairs done (he can do it), about our outboard that needs attention (he showed me how to fix it (dismantle and clean the carburetor), and how to get our new solar panel working (referred me to Mike Giannotti).  Dinner on board this evening).

Monday, February 9, 2015. Sunny and 60 degrees. Lisa and I walked into town and had lunch at Casey’s Place.  Lisa had a Reuben and I had a burger.  Great food at very reasonable prices, especially in Vero!  We actually went to town to mail a package, but the post office is closed for lunch from 1 to 2.  First time we’ve run into that.  Bought some candy at Kilwins and then headed back to the boat.  Very nice afternoon.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015.  Rain came down in buckets and the wind is back howling out of the north.  We did get the new TV hooked up and made a call to Mike about the solar panel issue. He was able to come by this afternoon, once the rain stopped.  I had everything hooked up correctly, but wired the ground from the controller incorrectly, so our battery monitor could not see it.  Now working as it should.  We would love to put another panel on, but then Rhiannon would look more like an aircraft carrier (maybe we would be able to land the helicopter on it!).  Afterward, I dismantled the carburetor on the outboard, cleaned everything, and got it all back together with no extra parts left over – and it now runs! 

We met Stan and Judy at Riverside for dinner.  Great to see them.  They are off on a cruise (cruise ship cruise) through the Panama Canal to Los Angeles, then a train to Chicago and New Orleans (where they will spend 5 days), then by car back to Vero.  Sounds like a trip of a lifetime!

Wednesday, February 11, 2015. Lisa did laundry and I worked on bills, updating Jeff’s FAFSA application for next school year.  Wayne Thrailkill (Cool Change) came by and gave Benny a ride to Walmart for some essentials.  Wayne and Colleen’s boat is at Loggerhead Marina here in Vero and they have their car here as well.  We met them 2 years ago when we were at Loggerhead at the same time they were.  Their blog is http://www.coolchangetravels.blogspot.com/

While doing laundry, Lisa met (again) the folks on Flying Pig (Skip Grundlach, Linda Fells, and Linda’s Mom (who is 90)).  We met them last spring here in Vero.  Lisa also met a woman who is from Penetanguishene (where we bought this Rhiannon) and bought her boat in New Bern, NC, and a guy who is from New Bern.  Small world .

Thursday, February 12, 2015. Another sunny day, 70 degrees, nice!  Lisa and I took the “free” bus to the Fresh Market (wonderful grocery).  While the bus service is free, there is a donation box which we always drop a dollar each in.  When we got back to the boat, Benny prepared a cheese roll for tonight’s cocktail hour and pot luck at 4pm.  It’s a great recipe and easy. 

Cheese Roll

1 8 ounce jar of dried beef chopped fine

1 package of regular cream cheese

½ cup chopped green onions

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Combine all the ingredients and form into a ball.  Refrigerate (best if at least 4 hours).

Serve with party rye – yum!

We met Barbara and Harry Oehler (Our Dream) again.  Their dog Merlot had passed on, but they had a new puppy with them Kira (German Shephard).  Nice puppy and it was good to Barbara and Harry again.

Although we had put up notices asking if people were headed to the Bahamas that they contact us, we had no queries.  I guess everyone really is “velcroed” there.

Lisa heard from Kathy MacNeil, our neighbor in Beverly for many years.  They also have a condo up at Burke Mountain, where we also had one for many years.  It was great to catch up as their kids sort of grew up with ours.

Friday, February 13, 2015.  We are off the mooring at 7:30am.  Clear, 48 degrees, no wind.  Today is a long day and there are 8 bridges to negotiate.  The tide and wind are with us and we have the anchor down in North Lake Worth (North Palm Beach) at 4:15pm.  It is sunny and 70 degrees, wind West at 10. Three on-request bridges and 5 scheduled ones today (we made all the scheduled ones on time – nice).  63.5SM  50.8NM, 8 bridges.  MM1014.5

26°50.29’N  080°03.15’W

Saturday, February 14, 2015. Valentine’s Day. Lisa and I exchanged cards, candy and kisses before our morning coffee. Cold this morning, 45 degrees.  Enough already, it’s Florida!  Today will be a long tedious slog down to Fort Lauderdale.  19 bridges!  And only two on request (turns out it was three because of construction).  All the others are scheduled openings and trying to time the distance between the bridges, the tide and other factors like how many boats are queued up at each bridge, is difficult.  On the trip north last year we went outside to miss all these.  However, today is a high surf and high wind warning. No fun outside.

Anchor up at 8:20am.  Sunny, cold north wind (again), 50 degrees. We actually had a good day with the bridges. The only issues were the first bridge (Flagler Memorial) where they were doing construction and only opening once an hour; and the last bridge (Sunrise) where we were sitting there waiting for the opening and a 100 foot motor yacht headed in the opposite direction decided he could make it under without the bridge having to open.  Well, he made it by the skin of his teeth, but by the time he did, the opening time had passed and the bridge tender informed everyone that they had “missed the opening” and would have to wait for the next one! ???????

Lots of boats this year. The marinas in Fort Lauderdale are all full, the mooring field is full, the anchorages in Lake Sylvia and Middle River are full.  Even the little anchorage north of the Las Olas Bridge was full (4 big boats). Who are all these folks?  Lots of Canadian flags.  We finally anchored at the corner of Middle River and the ICW at 7:11pm.  It took 3 times to get the anchor to catch – unusual for us, but once caught held fast – and came up clean – must be a hard bottom.  The charts show there is 9 – 12 feet in middle river, but it must have been dredged, because the majority of it (all the way up) was 15-25 feet deep! The area right at the south side of the corner with the ICW was only 10-12. Good anchorage, but a lot of traffic – big yachts up and down the Middle River.

48.5SM  38.8NM  MM 1063. 19 bridges today, only 3 on-request. 26°07.66’N  080°06.61’W

Sunday, February 15, 2015.  Anchor up at 8:25am.  Sunny, beautiful, 60 degrees, wind WNW at 5.  We made the Las Olas Bridge at the scheduled 8:45 opening and the 17^th Street Bridge at 9am.  We headed out the Port Everglades inlet to the ocean and the 20 miles outside to Miami.  The seas are flat and there is little wind.  Here the ocean has turned that Caribbean Blue that everyone loves. The water temperature is 74 degrees!

At noon, we enter the channel for Government Cut in Miami and have to dodge a tow boat and barge, and two large yachts.  The Fisherman’s Channel was being dredged when we came through last year, and now there is even more work going on. At one point, the channel was almost completely blocked.  There are signs everywhere say to go slow, but only the sail boats were going slow.  What a zoo!

At 1:30pm, we stop at Crandon Park Marina and fill up with water and fuel.  At 2:45pm, we are have the anchor down in Nixon Bight in Key Biscayne.  This is the site of the former Florida White House of Richard Nixon.  If you ever though Richard Nixon was an honest man, check out these two websites for a history of this real estate deal. 

Nixon's Florida Whithouse

37SM  30NM today.  2 scheduled bridges. MM1100  25°41.80’N  080°10.40’W

Monday, February 16, 2015.  Today we are just hanging out. Sunny and 70 degrees. Lisa is working on crocheting blankets for our friends 3 little girls and I am working on this blog.  There was a small window in the weather today to go to Bimini, but they are predicting 3 foot choppy seas upon arrival.  We decide to wait for the next window, which will also give Lisa a chance to finally shake off this cold.  We have heard from Seeker and Ilene, both in Marathon.  Autumn Borne is in Key West.  Saber Tooth and Greenstone did make it to Nassau and have met up with their friends there.  Hopefully, we will be there soon!

 Click here for the latest pictures

First Blog of 2015

Monday, January 26, 2015.  Today we travel back to St. Augustine to the boat.  We just made it out of Manchester, NH, on Southwest Airlines, before the snowstorm began.  It snowed, off and on for 2 days, accumulating 14 inches at our house in Meredith, NH, but, of course, we were not there. 

We had a very nice Christmas at home in NH.  Christmas Eve, the boys and girl friends (James and Laura, Jeff and Carly) and Jake and wife Betsy all came to visit. Christmas Day we went to see “Unbroken” with friends Dave and June and then out for Chinese food.  

It seems that shortly thereafter, we had a run of events “which try person’s soul (and everything else)”.  On December 29, a woman lost control of her car and ran into our son James’ house.  He has been living in Lisa’s art studio on Meredith Neck Road.  The roads were dry, so we are not sure what caused her to lose control (distracted?).  She was 21, no insurance, unmarried, and pregnant.  She was taken away in an ambulance, but, thankfully, is OK.  Our insurance has been great, but the issue has really been taxing on everyone.  On the same day, Lisa’s friend (whom she has known all her life), Linda (Mitchell) Vondermuhll passed away from complications of breast cancer (she was only 42).

We spent New Years Eve with friends Karen Durward and Niece Colleen. Very low key, but nice.  We saw “The Imitation Machine” and then went to Patrick’s Pub for dinner and celebratory drinks.

On January 2, Lisa drove to Billerica, MA, to attend Linda’ wake and funeral (on Saturday) and while there received a call that Lisa’s Uncle Tom (82) (her Dad’s only sibling and brother) was in the hospital – So on Saturday, Lisa drove the parents out to Kingston, NY.  There were there 3 days and by the time they left, Tom was much improved.  While they were driving home on January 6, I received a call from my sister.  My Mom had a massive heart attack and the EMTs had not been able to revive her.  We are glad we got to spend time with her in November.  So, on January 9, James, Jeff, Jacob and Betsy, Lisa and I flew to New Orleans and then drove over to my sisters in Diamondhead, MS.  The funeral was the next morning and it was nice to see some relatives we had not seen in a long time. We all flew home on January 12.

Lisa managed to get in a day of “hard water sailing” (ice boating) on Thursday, January 22, at Brewster Beach on Wolfeboro Bay. Not a lot of wind, but she had a great time. If you have never done this, it is a thrill, with the boats reaching upwards of 60 miles an hour. Lisa went sailing with Charlie, Eric and Paul.  All exhausted at the end of the day.

On Friday, January 23, we put our youngest son, Jeff, on a plane to Aix-en-Provance, France (near Marseilles), where he is going to school for the spring semester – along with girl-friend Carly Ward.  We stopped in Billerica on the way to Boston Logan Airport for Jeff to say good-bye to Lisa’s parents. The jet lag and difference in culture had an affect the first few days, but he seems to be adapting nicely.  He and Carly set up a blog site, if you’d like to take a look at www.carlyandjeffstravelblog.blogspot.com

Needless to say, we are glad the holidays are over.  However, no sooner had we arrived in the warm weather, than both Lisa and I came down with colds.  Miserable.  Between fighting the colds and getting the boat ready to depart, we fall into bed exhausted each night.  The good news is the weather has been lovely, a little cool, but nice.  We rented a car to do the provisioning, which took three days as we had little on board, and will finish up the last bit this morning (today is Monday, Feb. 2).  We have changed the oil and filters on both engines (main engine and generator), all the fuel filters (there are three), cleaned the main engine air filter, changed out the #2 injector and fuel line on the main engine (it had been leaking a bit on the trip down from Oxford) and changed out all the return lines on the main engine as well, and tightened the belts.  Mechanically, we seem to be ready.  Thanks to the guys at The Boat Shop here at Rivers Edge Marina (especially Tim Belangia (tim_belangia@yahoo.com) for their help.  Tim is available as a freelance when not in St. Augustine (lives and travels by boat).

I got a new TV tested and installed and all the wiring done and the thing quit working.  Remember the days when TVs were finally thrown out after years of service because you wanted a new one?  I will send this one back to Amazon and try again.  At least all the wiring is done! AND we found the DVDs for Downton Abbey Season 5!

Jon and Nora Mayo are here.  We met them last year.  They are from Toronto, but left their boat (Saber Tooth) here over the summer.  They are headed to the Bahamas, and we will try to tag along. We also met another couple, Bob and Judy on Greenstone, who are also headed across.

Our plan is to leave St. Augustine tomorrow morning and make our way south to West Palm Beach (Lake Worth), where we will try to cross to the Bahamas as soon as weather conditions are favorable.  We hope to stop on the way in Cocoa to visit George and Bev Major and Lisa’s uncle Franny (and Virginia) and in Vero Beach to visit Stan and Judy Hedlund.  Our colds are much better, but not quite gone yet.

Click here for the first pictures of 2015