MIDORI ADVENTURES

A weather window to the Bahamas came up for Sunday, March 12th, the weekend of the Seafood Festival. Time to say goodbye to Brenda and Mike on WRINKLES who we met at the Charlotte Harbour boat yard back in October. We wish them a wonderful time of exploring in the Exumas and hope we see them again in the Fall to hear first hand about their adventures!

Had a fun time while my sister Dana was visiting. Starting with cousins Bobby and Fran Newman’s gig at the Elks; a beach day followed by happy hour at Sparky’s with old friends Vernon and Rose (ROAMALOT); great music and food at the Seafood Festival and a pool day at the Banana Bay Resort.

We had expected to be able to start heading back to the boat yard right after the Seafood Festival, but the weather turned cool with winds out of the N and NE. Not good for travelling almost due N across Florida Bay. We want to have a three day window.

In the meantime, old friends from the Charlotte Harbour boat yard arrived and we had a couple of happy hours at Castaways and Overseas with Cindy and Steve (SLIP AWAY), Linda and George (HEARTBREAKER). We also chatted up with Colin and Catherine (FLYING SAUCER).

We went to the Hurricane for Thursday night wings and said our goodbyes to Dennis (MOON PEARL) and Steve (BARBARA JEAN). Although we had met Dennis previously in Bimini, we enjoyed getting to know him better this winter and Steve is a new friend whom we really enjoyed hanging out with!

Through the weekend of March 18 & 19, we prepared for departure by topping up gasoline, water and provisions with a constant vigil on various weather apps and programs.

We had our last Yoga class today. We shall miss Emily and her wonderful instruction!

Starting tomorrow, Tuesday, March 21st, it looks like we have a two-day window to get to Fort Myers Beach. There is a very windy (25 - 30 mph) NE front forecast for Thursday. For tomorrow the wind is still out of the NE, but clocking E and relatively light at 10 mph. All we have to do is get through those crab and lobster pots in Florida Bay and then we can travel along the coast of the Everglades National Park where crab pots are not supposed to be (ha, ha).

The plan is to go as far as we can during the 12 hours of daylight and anchor somewhere close to shore in the Ten Thousand Islands. On the second day, we hope to make it to Fort Myers Beach. If not, we can anchor at Marco Island or Naples.

Stay tuned,

First Mate Lynn and Captain Brian