We made it! The weather held Sunday and we crossed to Bimini for an overnight and check in with the Bahama government for our “cruising license”. Then an overnight at Chubb key in the Berry Islands and yesterday we made a bumpy ride to Nassau ahead of the incoming weather. The next few days call for 7-9+ foot seas and wind so we will stay put.
Sunset at Chubb Key, Bahamas.
Our friends Donna and Paul were flying in to meet us at Georgetown for NYE but at this point we may be here in Nassau for a week or two. Good thing they have a connection at Nassau! Remember the previous post about weather? We respect it.
Nassau is an interesting place. If you want a little bit of Las Vegas you can spend time at Paradise Island. There is also a nature preserve, a pirate’s wax museum (I think we’ll have to check it out just cause it sounds so hokey), and a golf course so we’ll be able to stay busy.
Below is a picture of our newest boat holiday mascot. Rudy will be seeing some of the islands before we put him away until next year. Think he’s big enough?
Rudy is the newest Christmas decoration for the Laa-Dee-Dah. Unfortunately because of his size we can only put him out when there isn’t much wind.
All boaters are weather dependent unless they are crazy or have a death wish. We have several different weather applications we check each day, sometimes multiple times during the day as well as a weather feed we get from a meteorologist about the areas we’re traveling to. The weather is always gustier and more prone to storms in the winter even tho the hurricane season is in the summer so attention must be paid and respect given to what is happening outside the boat. To cross from Florida to The Bahamas we need to find a window of favorable weather and then make a run for it.
Work got done on the boat last week but I needed to be in Virginia as my Mom had passed away. Things happen for a reason and I believe the work on our boat was slow to allow me to easily travel home when needed. I arrived back in Florida on Wednesday and of course, that was the last day of a three day window to leave.
Today we finally left the boatyard and moved to an anchorage up the coast in North Ft Lauderdale on the ICW. The wind is gusting to 50 mph, rain showers come thru once in awhile but hey, we’ve not at the dock anymore. Progress is progress. We met up with the fuel barge on the way up and filled our tanks to the top as gas in the islands is much more expensive.
The weather is looking like it might be favorable for a crossing to Bimini on Sunday the 23rd. If we don’t make it then we may be stuck in Florida until after the New Year. So we’ll sit here at anchor for another day and a half, enjoying the quiet and readying everything to beat feet Sunday morning.
Cross your fingers the next post is from The Bahamas.
Boats decorated for the holidays troll the ICW in front of our anchorage
Our general plan is that we are going to be gone for the next 3-5 years and circumnavigate the Caribbean ending up in Panama. At that point if we’re still having fun we’ll turn around and come back the same way. If we’ve had our fill of the boating life we’ll take the north route off the coast of Mexico and the Gulf back to Ft Lauderdale to sell the boat and move onto the next phase of our adventure.
I’m sure everyone is familiar with the iconic song Hotel California and the line “you can check in but you can never check out”. Well we are in Hotel Florida Boatyard. We are starting week five on a two week project. Yes I know there was Thanksgiving and we lost a few days there. Then there were a couple emergencies and the guys had to be pulled from our boat to handle those. But enough is enough. WE NEED TO LEAVE! Problem is that even if they finished tomorrow we can’t go anywhere cause the weather is really not friendly to cross to the Bahamas right now. Hopefully by this weekend we will be outta here!
At least the boat is back in the water and we’re back aboard. Isabella is a much happier kitty and we are now in the midst of provisioning the boat.
In the meantime we’ve seen a few movies, played golf a few times and even managed to drive up to Palm Beach to have dinner with some boating friends that were passing through. Gary flew to Alabama to see his Dad and I managed to get back to Virginia to see my Mom for her 95th birthday.
The boat has new bottom paint and the props have been clear coated. We have a new forward looking sonar as well as a new single side band radio. There are a few other little goodies on board like a new air compressor so we can fill our scuba tanks ourselves, as well as some cosmetic fixes that were bothering us.
Christmas decorating on our boat is rather minimalistic but we do have a new addition that will show up in a future post.
But for now here are some pictures that we thought were entertaining.
Before bottom paint…After bottom paint.It’s always unnerving to see your boat swinging in the air. This was moving it back into the water.Mom on her 95th!You would never see this sign in the north!Only in Florida do they think snowflakes are Christmas decorations instead of reality.
