This week has flown by. Our new raft mates were only with us two nights. They moved to be closer to their other friends. We were finishing our pumpout on Thursday when another boat came along side to raft up. John and Tara on Scout, had two dogs, a dappled dachshund and a three legged chihuahua. They were so cute together. They were only with us for two nights. Just long enough to provision and then they headed to Miami. Carl and I have taken a few walks through the surrounding neighborhood and to the beach. Brenda picked me up to do some more provisioning and then we enjoyed a late lunch together with Magnus. That night we joined Dave and Gillian on JilliQ with their new raft mates from Wilmington N.C. Dave and Gillian spent some time showing us some of their favorite anchorages in the Abacos. I put little sticky notes all over our chart book. Davido picked us up for another run to Walmart and the bank on Saturday. We are watching a weather window next week. It looks very promising so the decision is made to leave Vero in the morning to head to Lake Worth. Things are happening quickly now and I am getting very excited and a little anxious.
We stayed up late last night. After leaving JilliQ, we took the dinghy in to take showers. After we got back to the boat, we still had to put things away and make room for Davido. He will stay in the forward cabin that we have been using as storage. I cleared my things out of the forward head and even cleaned out a drawer for him.
Sunday December 13
We are up at 6 a.m. We have some last minute things to do. We untie from the mooring at 7:30 and moved the boat to the fuel dock. The staff doesn't come in until 8:00. We take advantage of the time to fill our water tank, empty trash and put a few letters in the mailbox. At 8:00, Davido arrives just in time to help us pump out. He throws his gear on board and we take off, pulling away from the dock at 8:30. It is a beautiful day. The wind picks up and we put the head sail out. We are doing 7+knots motor sailing. There are an abundance of dolphin out today. We see quite a few wind surfers too. We are in our anchorage at Hobe Sound and drop the anchor at 4:00 p.m. I made a deep dish pizza, put it in the oven and opened a bottle of Pinot Noir. After dinner I made some individual 1-2-3 microwave chocolate cakes with cream cheese icing and we settle in for a game of dominoes. I can hardly keep my eyes open after the third round and it's only 7:30! We call it a night.
Monday December 14
We are up at 7 a.m. Carl makes his famous oatmeal for breakfast. We spent some time planning over coffee and had the anchor up at 9:15. We only need to travel 14 miles today, but we have to get through 6 bridges. Three are on demand, two are on the half hours and one is on a quarter after and quarter to the hour. Really? It was a beautiful sunny day. The winds are still kicking around 20 knots, on the nose. We made all of the bridges without having to wait...yay! We anchored at Lake Worth at 1:10. We spent the afternoon double securing everything on deck, running jack lines and checking the ditch bag, making some last minute phone calls and catching up on my blog. It will be an early night tonight. We plan to leave at 2:00 a.m. out of the Lake Worth inlet. It will be about a twelve hour crossing. We should be at West End, Grand Bahama Island by early afternoon. It may be a while before I can post a blog again. Wish us luck!