We have a short 20 mile day to our first anchorage. The day is planned to be short as who knows what our timing will be through the 8 bridges today and 10 bridges tomorrow. We make the call to the second bridge after leaving West Palm Beach and are told that we should continue our approach and the bridge will open as we arrive. At about that same a USCG small boat approaches and states that we must stop and wait behind the red mark (about 3/8 mile from the bridge) until the bridge is all the way open. Now we are in catch 22 with two people telling us opposing instructions for the next task. By the way the guy with the 50 cal on the bow (USCG) takes priority. This is the Mar-A-Lago restriction we have heard on CH 16 for days now. Have to keep the President safe you know. This is a major issue in all the local news papers and all the cruising websites as the ICW shuts down and has major restrictions disrupting all water traffic as well as all land travel within 1.5 miles of his resort. At $1M per day expenses to the local governments when he is around and the travel disruptions I would probably be quite concerned also. My immediate concern is for the bridge to open so I can proceed and get the 50 cal out of my face. As the bridge begins to go up the USCG small boat wheels away and goes to accost SEA JULES with the same drill. I proceed to the bridge with quick glances over my shoulder hoping the USCG boat is still going the other way. The remainder of our trip is uneventful other than the gruff and grumpy bridge tenders. They must go to school for that. The trip to the second anchorage is another 20 mile day.

Once anchored we find out WHITEBIRD is in the canal right across from our anchorage. Small world indeed. Our anchorage is right under Bill and Karen’s condo where BLUE THUNDER is kept during the winter. Bill is working in Toronto and Karen is out on errands but says we can land the dinghy at the stern of BLUE THUNDER to go to shore as Lana has once again arranged a visit to another Catalina 42. I am still working and trying to complete performance reviews for my 10 reports before our rumored weather window to the Bahamas on Friday. I have arranged another review for 4:30 in the afternoon and Lana assures me we will be back in time. Once on shore the broker states he just landed at the airport, is getting his car and will arrive in 45 minutes. Our time is just now 1 PM. James arrives and apologizes for the pilot’s uniform but he just returned from Ft. Myers where he delivered a boat this morning and he was deadheading on Southwest which he flies 737s for. He and Lana start sharing acquaintances when she sees his phone has a Jeanneau logo. It makes the traffic seem light but we don’t get to the 42 until 3:15. A quick tour of the boat, very nice and Lana wants’ to write a contract, the boat can wait as I am more interested in my work schedule so we head back to OUR DIAMOND. James drops us off and I get back to the boat with 4 minutes to spare. Upon completion of the review we are back to shore to go to dinner with Paul and his wife, Jennie, from All Class Detailing and Tim from their crew. Lana worked with Paul, Jennie and Tim while with Lagoon. It is a great dinner with quite a few stories and goes past cruiser’s midnight (9PM). We get back to the boat at 10:15 and crash. In the AM we stow the dinghy on deck and get ship shape to head for No Name Cay in Key Biscayne on the outside. We have flat seas and light wind so motor sail all the way with a 2 hour sail at the end when the wind jumps up to 15-20.

At No Name there are several boats anchored and we find a spot and somehow end up to close to the boat behind us. Halfway to No Name I had arranged two more reviews so I spend an hour on the phone while Lana and the guy on the boat behind us stare each other down for being too close. Review finished, we pull anchor and reset across the bay with more room. Actually we reset the anchor twice as the first time we end up on top of SEA JULES, I missed two of the chain markers and had out an extra 50 feet. Once settled it is on the phone for the next review. This working stuff on the way to finance the vacation can be so stressful. I do not get a lot of sympathy from those at work though as they are stuck in an office. I’ll take the stress, I think. At happy hour with SEA JULES and WHITEBIRD the weather looks good for Thursday and Friday so I arrange 6 more reviews for Wednesday. Lana will have to do groceries, laundry and fuel without my help. She ends up calling Mirko and Courtney for chauferring around for errands. They had a Catalina 36 and worked for Lana at the Annapolis Boat Show last year. They were moving their Catalina 36 from Cape Cod to Ft. Lauderdale that year and were ahead of us about two weeks the whole trip. Groceries, laundry, fuel and reviews all done we have dinner at the Boater’s Grill in No Name with Mike and Julie and Mirko and Courtney. Afterwards we shuttle water from the shore, after fighting off three raccoons (all three of us, Lana, me and the raccooons were all quite spooked), and again load the dinghy and outboard. I finish some work at midnight before crashing with a 3:30AM alarm for departing to Bimini. Pulling anchor was fun as a boat anchored in front of us and we were about 4 feet from their quarter when the anchor finally came out of the water. Unfortunately we missed touring the lighthouse this year as we have a good two or three day weather window. Last year we toured the lighthouse with Bill and Susan of CORET. The story behind the name CORET is a good one for another blog entry.