Well we wound up back at Vaca Key. We just cannot seem to get too far past Marathon. We got to an anchorage off of Long Key 2 days ago then heard about a horrible storm on the way. It looked like hours of time spent in 30 to 40 miles an hour of wind. We and our Buddy boat bent every sail to get back to Vaca key and found the last 2 slips in Marathon at Pancho's Gas Dock. Paradox moved so fast it was the first time that we ever lost control of her as she exceeded hull speed the weather helm spun us around in a 360. Nevertheless it was a great sail.
We spent 2 nights at Pancho's.
Tonite we are sitting comfortably at anchor outside of th harbor at Marathon. We expect to be leaving for the Bahamas tomorrow at daybreak. It will be a 21 hour in company with our new friends Mike and Debbie Baltier. Their boat is quite slow unless we have very strong winds but I have learned a great deal from Mike and Deb. They have been doing this for 13 years now. The photo shows their 44 foot Bruce Roberts.
For those that are navigation oriented here are our waypoints and forecasted wind and waves.
Terry will be the official skipper since he is the only one that navigates right now.
Ski is Terry's father and will be the first mate since he is the only other sailor.
Debbie, is Terry's wife and will be officially a swab, but she is looking for promotion. [...]
JoAnn is the matriarch of the group and while her sailing titile will be swab she does have 2 votes on the destination committee. The skipper can overrule for safety reasons, but if JoAnn can get just one other person to vote with her that will be where we go.
Princess is our Boston Terrior. Her position on the boat is obvious.
Misty is our miniature chihuahua. She will be our translator in Spanish Speaking Countries.