Ep. 43 Who’ll Stop The Rain
15 November 2024 | Titusville
Bill Bernaerts | Windy and cooler

"Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once in a while you could miss it."
First off, thanks to everyone for their emails and comments of concern regarding Sara. Rest assured we are not taking this situation lightly and that is by I explained in detail what our plan was. We won't be on the boat of this thing does actually happen.
We proceeded down the ICW today committed to our Plan B, against the current for virtually the entire day so only made 43 nm. We dropped the hook in the Titusville anchorage in the dark, which was a bit of a challenge but, as they say, no pain no gain. Funny enough, the forecast for Sara has changed yet again and now is predicted to be a lot less severe in wind speed as it is now predicted to make landfall in Central America. As the old saying goes If you don't like the forecast, just wait 24 hours certainly applies here.
Apparently when 1 of these storm cells hits land it takes a lot of the wind speed out of it so it is now a tropical depression. That's great news for Florida but unfortunately the countries it will pass over are forecast to get up to 20" of rain over a couple of days. As if they don't have enough to contend with in terms of poverty and government issues. Here's hoping thy are wrong on this forecast. At least Cuba isn't getting whacked for the 3rd time in a month!
https://youtu.be/Q1qGB4d-7nw?si=3RetCyRNFXllIQ-p
This is certainly encouraging news but before we start high fiving each other we will wait to see what the forecast says tomorrow. We are now 110 miles north of Lake Worth, which is the staging area for the crossing to West End Bahamas. Our plan is to head there a couple of days prior to the big day and reprovision for the final time at comparatively reasonable prices. Although, I don't know where we're gonna put it all. It's been almost 50 years since I used a beer case as a pillow but sacrifices must be made!
One of the things we didn't have a read on was how much propane Amaruq uses. We have 2 x 11lb. tanks aboard which fit in a weather tight locker. Propane, being denser than air, is a hazard on a boat if there is a leak as it will find its way to the lowest point in the boat, being the bilge. I know, I spend a lot of time talking about the bilge, but this could be deadly if it accumulates and there is a spark. We have an alarm and sensor that detects any leaks and a solenoid valve at the tank that is normally off to mitigate the risk.
As with many things, propane is hard to come by in many areas of the bahamas and we wanted to go with full tanks if possible. Our stove/oven and the bbq are the only things that run on propane on the boat. So in Jacksonville we took the tank we had been using to get topped up. A the guy said he only could get about 1 gallon in and it was full. So that was about 4 lbs. used in 6 weeks, which is pretty amazing. At that rate with 2 tanks we should be good for about 4.5 months so could only need to fill 1 tank when over there.
https://youtu.be/vsYBtfQ3QDo?si=1BF8SEDGkIHvXr_M
Tonight's shot is from the other day at sittin at the dock of the bay restaurant in Ponce Inlet. This egret was standing on a tree on the patio. At first we bought it was a statue but apparently he is a resident and likes to be fed shrimp. I could do that job!