Day 108-109 Dec. 2-3
Moved the boat 5 nm south to an anchorage that is closer to the inlet and we are near Glory Days and Quick Sticks. I was hoping to head out today, but the weather is looking better for Saturday, so keeping our fingers crossed. The seas are supposed to drop to 3-4 feet on Saturday with ENE 10-15 kt winds, so it should be a good sailing day. We've spent 3 weeks covering only about 60 miles. I'm getting anxious to make the crossing to the Bahamas.
On the bright side, we can take our dinghy in to the dock and for $10.60 we can use the showers and laundry. We are also in walking distance to the Publix grocery store so we'll make one more quick stop there to pick up some fresh produce. There is also an automotive supply store handy so Greg can get the gasket sealer.
Greg and Ken spent the morning on Glory Days helping Laurie put the new track in his mast. I had a nice morning cleaning the boat and baking chocolate chip cookies.
This afternoon, being bored, I took Greg for a drive in the dinghy. We went out to the inlet to check out the conditions. It was looking pretty rough. There was one sailboat outside and he was just a boppin'.
We had a nice evening on Glory Days visiting Laurie, Francis, Ken and Meridee. Can certainly see the advantage of owing a cat (not the animal...the boat)(although I would still like to have a cat...the animal!). There is so much room on them, especially when it's 48'. Nice layout as well in that the living area, sleeping areas and galley are all separate.
Day 110, 111 - Dec. 4,5
Thursday was laundry and shower day. It felt soo good to stand under the hot water for as long as I wanted. And having washed clothes by hand twice, I have a new love of laundromats.
Today, Friday, we walked to the Publix grocery store and stocked up some more. I'm sure I'll find I've missed some things and will have too much of others, but I don't think we'll starve. We did make a second run this afternoon with our dolly and picked up more coke, beer and wine. We are definitely done now. Groceries from now on will just be regular shopping items, ie fresh fruit and vegies.
They had a large scale at Publix, so I couldn't resist getting on. I've lost 5-7 pounds...yeah!!!
I was talking to my mom the other day and she has her Christmas tree up and decorations outside the house. I know this is going to be a very hard Christmas for me as I've always been home with mom at Christmas. So I have a small request from anyone reading this. Please send me a picture of your Christmas decorations. I would love to see the decorated trees and yards at home. Decorations here in 80 degree temperatures just look wrong. :(
If you can't add them to the blog, please send them to my email: peaceandquiet@live.com
Day 112 - Dec. 6
Finally, we got out of Lake Worth. We left this morning at 6:30 with Quick Sticks, and with Glory Days following at 7:00. Of course Glory Days passed us and arrived at anchor just outside No Name Harbour well before the rest of us.
When we got through the inlet and tried to raise the main sail, the halyard wrapped around a knob near the top of the mast, so we had to lower the main, unwrap the halyard, and raise it again. The reefing lines were still in from our last trip, so they needed to come off. It took several long minutes to undo them. We have always had trouble with the reefing lines. ( maybe after today's episode we might actually get around to replacing them with the lines we bought in Rockland, Maine). Then, when we tried to raise the main again, one of the cars broke off. The sail came down again, Greg did an amazing Mr. Red Green fix, and the main sail went up at last!
It was a gorgeous day for sailing, even though we had to run the engine all day to maintain a 6 kt/nm avg speed.
We landed at Biscayne Bay, just south of Miami at 6:30 pm. A 12 hour run over 73 nm. This was our first nighttime entry into a harbour and anchoring. My first thoughts on the subject...I HATE it. My biggest fear was that some idiot boat would be sitting without lights on. Thankfully we got in and were able to anchor on the edge of the field so we didn't have to try to maneuver around any boats. The plus side of coming in at night, we had a beautiful full orange moon shining down on us.
No comments:
Post a Comment