Wednesday 1 January 2020 New Year’s Day
Well, here we are starting the third decade of the millennium. Barb has already told you of the head adventure yesterday so I won’t say anything except that perhaps it was meant to be that we stopped where we did and when we did. As it was we were able to take the three hours to make the repairs, have dip to clean off, and still have a decent New Year’s Eve. If we hadn’t stopped until five o’clock we would have been working on the head in the dark and then had a smelly and unpleasant dinner before bed.

The anchorage was a great place to watch the New Year come in. There were numerous parties ashore and afloat. The larger power yacht has seven others rafted up to it and around eleven o’clock a smaller raft of runabouts anchored off as well with a thoroughly lubricated female aboard who kept screaming “Fight! Fight! Fight!” and then laugh hysterically. She could probably be heard all the way to Miami and represents why some homeowners on the ICW don’t like boats anchoring in front of their property. All the fireworks seemed to be individually set off and were all around us. Even the houses ashore were setting off sparklers. At two in the morning the last boat came in to the mooring field and anchored just off where we were. Considering the bridges along the route he must have been really determined to get to just this spot.

I will be posting this early today as it looks like we will be going out through the Port Lauderdale Inlet and heading across today. At least we will go out and test conditions. The NOAA forecast is for 2’ seas with a five second period and 10-15 kn winds from the NNE. Not dissimilar from our experiences at home. If we don’t get over today we will be here for a week as there are fronts moving in. From this inlet we will probably clear Bahamian customs in the Berrys which we should reach sometime tomorrow with an anchoring in the middle of nowhere on the bank between Bimini and the Berrys for a rest tonight. After clearing in, and weather dependant, we will head off to Fresh Creek in Andros Island.

Happy New Year again.

Watch this spot to quote another sailing friend of ours who has just left Hope Town and is in his way to the Elutheras.