Bahamas Bound

  This morning Kim found a dive hole in the wall restaurant/local guy that prepares conch ceviche just as fresh as can be, right out of the sea. We watched him cut up the cucumbers/tomatoes/onions, and most importantly the conch from straight out of the ocean. Then we took a dinghy ride back to mermaid reef, and this time Jessica had her contact lens in so she was able to see lots of fish and a sea turtle swimming over the reef. I was on a mission to get some lobster, a.k.a. crawfish to Bohemians. I was finally able to harvest one crayfish and we threw it on the grill with some salt, pepper, garlic seasoning, and butter. It was super delicious. We finished the evening with salmon and Kim and I told stories about growing up and Jessica got a real kick out of it! 

  Woke up in green turtle key at a marina for the first time in over a month. Jessica filled the water tanks and I got some diesel.    Kim went for a walk and turned in the golf cart. Made our way to Marsh Harbor today. Put the big motor on the dinghy and went out to mermaid reef and snorkel around a bit. But the highlight of the day was going out to eat dinner with my soulmate and my sister. We had some mahi-mahi and accidentally had pulled the dinghy up to the wrong dock. So after dinner we realized that we were locked out of the dock area, but no fear, because Kim scaled the fence and unlocked the gate for Jessica and I.  

  We checked in with customs and got Kim, Jessica and I cleared along with Alli our dog .    As soon as we were cleared with customs, a beautiful rainbow appeared in the sky! Kim rented a golf cart for the three of us and we explored every inch of Green Turtle Cay. Had a nice lunch at a  local restaurant where we had cracked conch. We also found a local Bahamian taking out a couple for conch  harvesting and he showed us how to get the conch out of the shell. Then we found a beach on the ocean side to go snorkeling on and saw some reef fish and had a good time snorkeling together. A local was preparing conch ceviche so l bought a cup for an appetizer before going to the local Green Turtle Cay Marina bar. We enjoyed the local drink called the Goombay Smash. We enjoyed meeting another couple at the bar who gave us some good  sailing tips for the next couple days.    The weather continues to be beautiful! Blue skies in the upper 70s.

  Well, our plan was to check in with customs today at Green turtle cay.    We called the customs lady and she indicated that she needed to catch the 3 o’clock ferry to get home. I need to get used to the island time thing. Sure is a good way to live .    So we anchored at manjack cay, and explored with the dinghy. We saw some juvenile turtles eating grass, and Kim stuck her head in the water with her mask looking for a reef, but we never could find it. We played a few rounds of wheel of Fortune and had a nice hobo pack for dinner. We were fortunate enough to see a couple dolphins playing in the bow wake, and see some bioluminescence in the water. We also saw another rocket takeoff from Cape Canaveral. 

  Forecast was West winds 5 to 10 turning north west 10 to 15 after midnight Sunday. That little bit of North component to the wind against the Gulf Stream concerned me so we left Lake Worth Inlet Sunday at 2 PM instead of at dusk. Motored in light air across the stream to memory rock at 11 PM.    Even though my plan to enter the Little Bahama Bank was following a charted route, I saw 7 feet at one spot on the chart and it was dead low tide at 11 pm. Kim and Jessica were sleeping and there was absolutely no one around for 50 miles except an occasional Disney cruise ship 10 miles away.    Being totally on our own, I decided to wait 7 hours until dawn and high tide to traverse the Bank. Of coarse at this point the wind and waves pickled up to 15-18 knots with the gulf steam fetch building the swells.    But I was bound and determined to wait and play it safe. So I spent the seven hours tacking back-and-forth in the dark to save fuel and stay off of the L...

  Made the crossing!!! More to come soon…..

  Today we started by leaving the Mooring ball for a hour to fill up with gas and diesel. Jessica took the opportunity to fill the water tank so they will be topped off for crossing to the Bahamas. My sister Kim drove over from St. Petersburg and took us grocery shopping and then dropped her car off at West Palm Beach . We had an excellent evening catching up and eating a rotisserie chicken. We feel so fortunate to have this opportunity tomorrow to cross over to the Bahamas. We are hoping to leave Florida early Sunday afternoon and reach the little Bahama bank sometime in the wee hours of the morning.

  Jessica did our laundry today while I double checked the navigation charts to the Bahamas. Then we went for a dinghy ride and found a nice beach at the confluence of the St. Lucie river, Manatee pocket, intercoastal, waterway, and Atlantic ocean St. Lucie Inlet. We let Alli run around and she continues to amaze us how she has healed up from her broken toe injury. We were ready to get off the boat and do something different for dinner so we walked to a Mexican restaurant and had a really nice dinner.    Looking forward to having my sister Kim come on Saturday.  Then we will prepare for the Bahamas crossing hopefully on Sunday afternoon. Fingers crossed for good weather conditions….

  We woke up this morning with Boat chores on our mind. So Jessica wiped all the mildew from the ceiling of the inside of Methuselah.  Our friends, Tim and Carolyn gave us a coconut, so Jessica got out the chisel and dissected the coconut, which had delicious milk, however, the meat was a little hard to scrape off from the shell. I was ashamed of the outside hull of Methuselah from coming down the muddy Waters through South Carolina and Georgia. So I got out the old toilet bowl cleaner which worked to take off the scum  and unfortunately, the wax as well. So then I got out the restore/wax and gave Methuselah a proper hull shining. During the process, I noticed quite a bit of slime building up on the bottom paint so I put on the wetsuit and scraped off the slime/soon to be barnacles. As we were preparing to bring our dog Alli to the veterinarian for the last-minute checkout before sailing to the Bahamas, we got a call from the mechanic saying the boat part for the tra...

Jessica and I are still on a mooring ball In Stuart, Florida. The diesel engine part has not arrived yet due to delays with Yanmar being closed on Veterans Day. Hoping for tomorrow delivery, we will see.    However, we are still waiting on the weather window to cross over to the Bahamas anyway so it’s not really a delay. We are still thinking possibly Sunday night that will be able to sail from Florida to Bahamas.    We started the day by attempting to bring Methuselah to the dinghy dock in order to clean off the scum line from coming down the intercoastal waterway, but it was too shallow to pull up to the dock so we came back to the Mooring ball. Our friends, Tim and Carolyn seared swordfish for our lunch, and it was absolutely delicious.    We started the online application for cruising to the Bahamas, still not finished yet, quite a task.    We learned that we are actually 7 miles from Stuart FL proper, and are in a town called Port Salerno....