December 19th ... Miami Beach, Fl


I was asleep at about 8pm last night so I was up and wide awake at 1am. It was warm so I sat in the cockpit for a while watching the city lights and traffic on the causeway. After a while I went back to bed and slept reasonably well for the rest of the night. The alarm woke us up at 6:30 to listen to the weather. There were no significant changes, so our crossing tomorrow is still on....

There is a cold front following us by about 24 hours so we'll see how we're settled and if necessary deploy a secondary anchor. It looks like wherever we end up ...probably Andros, we'll be there a few days before the seas subside.

After some coffee and a container of yogurt, I topped off our fuel tank from our jerry cans ( a total of 12 gallons from Vero Beach). I picked up Barry and we motored to one of the marinas for 10 gallons of fuel each...filling all our tankage.

About noon we picked up Barry and Susan for a trip to the Publix (the local grocery store in the south) where we picked up some eggs, bread and two nice rib-eyes. We made our last stop at an ATM and headed back. On our way we stopped to visit with "Peservance 2" laying out our plan for the crossing.

Back at the boat, I attempted to fix another leak in our hot water tank but won't know for a day or two if I was successful.

We read for a while and then took the dinghy back into Miami Beach to visit with Kevin and Lizz from "Cielo". It was a treat to see them again after more than a year. Our paths may cross again in the spring.

By the time we got back it was about dark. Secured the outboard on the stern rail and hoisted the dinghy for ocean travel....

We warmed up some ham for dinner instead of grilling the steaks that were originally on the menu. The grill is too close to the dinghy when it is up-we hope for no dinghy problems this year.

From now on we will be back in the remote blog updates...via the SSB ... if we can remember how it works, or whatever wifi is available in the Bahamas. We are suspending our phone and internet service for at least 3 months.

We must say we would like to stay here longer. It is a nice, big anchorage with easy access to town. You can dinghy right to the grocery store (Publix) and it feels safe. It is also a pretty anchorage which is not always true when you're in a city. Ah, well...

We're out of here at 7:30 a.m.