CAST OFF THE LINES!
That is it! We departed this morning at 6:30 am from Tavernier, our hometown, to the Bahamas, Nassau then Georgetown in the Exumas. This is a well known route to us since we went there almost every summer the last five years.
The kids of the street came, as they promised, at 5:30am! They said their goodbyes to Emilie and Alec, it was so nice, they really like each other a lot and it was very emotional. We crossed Snake Creek Bridge at 7:00 am and there were Pam and Sara waving "bon Voyage", we will miss them so much!
Too many tears so early in the morning...
It is now 3pm and we are almost across the Gulf Stream heading for South Riding Rock. We will continue on the bank overnight and then to Nassau. We had light winds (Luckily since we are motoring right into it, what is new, I can't wait to go in the direction of the Trade Winds, One day...) and a beautiful blue sky with almost no clouds!!
It is TRUE, I cannot believe it, we are on the first day of our Adventure and I am so Happy!!!!
GRAND DEPART!
Ca y est, nous sommes partis a 6h30 ce matin de notre maison a Tavernier pour la premiere etape, Georgetown ,dans les iles Exumas des Bahamas. Nos petits voisins (5) sont tous venus nous dire au revoir a 5h30 du matin, je n'en croyais pas mes yeux, cela a beaucoup compte pour Emilie et Alec a qui ils vont bien manquer. Puis en passant sous le pont de Snake Creek Bridge, Pam et Sara etaient la aussi pour nous souhaiter "Bon Voyage".
Ces derniers jours de preparatifs ont ete epuisants et j'ai passé la premiere partie du voyage a dormir! Je serai donc fraiche pour prendre mon tour de veille ce soir et laisser David se reposer.
Difficile a croire, notre reve se realize enfin et nous voila au premier jour de ce nouveau depart, quel Bonheur!
Pour cette premiere traverse, nous avons un beau ciel bleu sans nuages et un vent leger (tant mieux puisque l'on ne peut pas naviguer, nous allons bien sur a l'Est d'ou le vent souffe!, nous utilisons donc les moteurs a environ 7-8 noeuds). Nous continuerons toute la nuit et demain jusqu'a Nassau pour ensuite descendre le long des iles Exumas jusqu'a Gorgetown.

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Finally O'Vive is back home, in the Florida Keys.
She is kind of ready but we still need every minute of the 4 weeks we have left before our EDD.

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O'vive needed a lot of equipment and or adjustement on board: from a water maker to the Single Side Band Radio, and a few little surprises to fix or improve, this kept David busy full time on the west coast of Florida for 2 months! He got the professional help and great advices from Pat Reishmann (Pat has been involved with Manta Enterprises for a long time and knows quiet a lot about catamarans).Bradenton was a neat little place, I went with the kids to visit David for a long week-end and we visited the Salvator Dali museum, the library, the shore area and park. The marina was very clean, quiet and safe, also very accomodating regarding the extensive work we had to do. One very interesting phenomenom of this area is the shrimps and the capharnaum they make, I was wondering what was this crunching noise around the hull , it was millions of shrimps who love this mixture of salty-fresh water!

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We were in search of a great program (meaning easy to learn but displaying a lot of info). After a few try at Page maker program, we definetly decided that this blog system will fit our needs just fine with a minimum of efforts. There is so much to research and prepare between the homeschooling (The kids are still in Traditional Public shool at this time), the first aid kit (I should say wagon) and all the add-on to O'Vive that we want to have before we leave in December that David and myself are busy all day long. We used to work long hours so it seemed at first that you could accomplished so much in a whole long day ! But since everything is new, it requires research, consensus and power of decision! We are so excited though! Our dream of 20 years is about to come true!
We have been cruising every summer the Bahamas waters for over 7 years now on a Manta 42, our first catamaran called Melusine (a french mermaid's name). We really enjoyed Melusine very very much but we decided to get something bigger for our trip, the kids are taking a lot more room than when they were 5 and 7!
The Bahamas were absolutly beautiful and quiet remote when you get to areas like the ragged islands, south of Georgetown. We loved the turquoise waters, spearfishing and all the good friends we made there.
By now whomever reads this blog besides friends and family has probably figured out that I was a foreigner (French, but leaving in the U.S since 20 years now and a US citizen), by the way I turn my sentences, also more than likely by the way I spell, sorry!!!
Anyway it is great to be in the "getting ready" part of the dream, I love it!!!
Any info from Florida resident who boatschooled children (middle and highschool) would be greatly appreciated!!!

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