Sunday 7 Feb 2016: Barbara is whipping up dinner as the sun
sets on a virtually windless, beautiful sunny day at anchor in Boot Key Harbor,
Marathon, Florida. We’ve spent the day
on the boat doing little projects. Listen
to the weather to see when we can leave for the Bahamas, double check the
markings on the anchor rode, put a connector on the end of the secondary VHF
antenna, find receipts for things which need to be returned to West Marine,
enjoy a tasty lunch, measure a fitting and a hose which need replacing, add a
couple trolling lures to the tackle box, dig out the lazy jacks which didn’t
get re-installed when the mast was down 3 years ago, rig up the bosun’s chair,
wake Barbara from her nap and send her up the mast immediately so she doesn’t
have time to worry about it, take her picture while she is up there because my
son tells me if there are no pictures it did not happen , Make Barbara a Dark
and Stormy as a reward for installing the lazy jacks and making it back down
alive, clean out the cockpit cubbies in search of the frog which was in there
but must have jumped overboard, sell a piece of equipment which I’ve been
hauling around for several years to “Diesel Bob” who responded to my ad on the morning VHF
radio cruisers net, visit with “Uncle Dev” who stopped by for a while (We met
Dev only by radio two years ago in Eleuthra.
He is friends of our friends Jeremy and Heather and Thea and Shea), plan
our next trip to town with Dev’s help, beat Barbara in a game of cribbage (she
is still several games ahead of me this trip!),
have a glass of wine while writing this, smile because Barbara is happy
puttsing around in this version of her nest.
This is a sunrise picture Uncle Dev took of us in Governor’s
Harbor, Eleuthera, Bahamas two years ago.
This is proof Barbara went up the Mast, Ben!
Night before last was rainy and very windy. Yesterday was very windy all day, blowing
20-25 with occasional higher gusts. Our
wind generator topped up the batteries so we turned ot off for a quiet night
last night.
We would have moved north today, but we would have only been
able to make it to anchorages with poor protection for the weather predicted
over the next several days. Big wind is
supposed to arrive again tonight. We may
be able to move later this week.
We’ll make at least one more trip into town and pick up some
replacement provisions. We’ll probably
top up the propane tank we’ve been using since launching, just because we can
and who knows when the next opportunity will present itself. The wine supply is a little light on volume,
so we may add to it. We could buy
supplies in the Bahamas, but they are significantly more expensive so we may as
well load up what we have room to store.
We are biding our time, waiting to sail from one paradise to
another.
Looks like your weather will be pretty static for the next few days.. 15-20 kts seas 5-8 ft out away from the keys... westerly swell..
ReplyDeleteLooks like a great time..