Renee is so excited about getting to the Bahamas that she got a new hat and bathing suit!
Getting such a late start this season and being 39 degrees in Georgia, we could not wait to get moving south. The first leg of our journey south is 274 nautical miles to Lake Worth/North Palm Beach, Florida. This will take around 50 hours from start to finish. The prediction was to have 20-25 knots of wind with gusts up to 30. But the wind would be behind us so we decided to make the run. If we passed on this window, we might have to spend another week at anchor in St. Marys where it is still very much winter.
The trip down was just as advertised and not the normal 10-15 knot winds with 2.5 foot waves (conditions we prefer). In the sailing world, these sailing conditions are referred to as being “Sporty”. In addition to the winds, we had seas at 6-8 foot confused seas (coming at us from all angles). We spent the entire trip cold and wet. Take a look at Renee’s leg warmers. A couple of towels duck taped onto her shins. Not only functional, but stylish!
We arrived at the Lake Worth Inlet where we were planning to anchor for the next few days. The Inlet has some deep water near the channel but then shallows very quickly and has a wicked current. This makes anchoring difficult especially when there are already several boats there. We made several laps of the area scoping out depths and trying to find as place where we could fit in. We decided that there was no room at the inn and decided to push on to the North Palm Beach anchorage about five miles away. Just about the time we arrived at our new anchorage, it began to pour. The rain was so hard that it was difficult seeing the other boats in the anchorage. Fortunately North Palm Beach anchorage is very large and there is plenty of water for our 6’7″ depth. We anchored and spent the next four days here. Say goodbye to 39 degree temperatures, it is 78 during the day and a chilling 67 at night, finally!
We could dingy ashore and the grocery store was just up the street and the shopping mall and every other store you can imagine just 1.5 miles from where we came ashore. We treated ourselves to dinner and watched the Super Bowl until after the halftime show, then back to the boat. After a few days we had our weather window of 10-14 knots and 2-3 foot seas. We be gone to Miami.
Having staged our crossing last year here in Miami, we had the lay of the land. So going to our favorite spots like West Marine, Laundromat and Flanagan’s (for ribs) via Uber/Lyft, bus and train was fairly simple. Unless you are schlepping four loads of laundry. This still has its challenges.
We found out that the Miami Boat Show was being held during the time we were going to be here. Going to the show has been on Renee’s bucket list for some time so we decided to go. The show format is to have both sail and power boats at the same show unlike the Annapolis shows where there is a show for each type.
Also during our time we had the unexpected surprise to have our son Jesse and grandson Knox come to pay us a visit. They flew down from Tennessee and spent a couple of days here with us on the boat. It was wonderful seeing them and a great Valentines present for Renee. Here we are sharing a morning cup of Joe.
We had planned to leave the next day for the Bahamas but our refrigerator started acting up and I thought it would be better to have it looked at here in the states rather than find out we have an issue once we were cruising in the islands. Since it is presidents day weekend, we can’t get anybody to come out until Tuesday. This turned out to be not so bad because Tim (Belle Marie) our buddy boater came down with the flu and has been down for a couple of days now. So we Hurry Up to get here and we Wait. Next good weather window may be Thursday. Hopefully both Tim and our refrigerator will be feeling better by then.
