Almost!
15 April 2013
Cynthia
Sunday night - 4/14/13:
We were all set to leave the dock around 1630 and decided to radio Old Port Cove marina to see what there fuel dock hours were. We needed to fill our main tank with diesel, having already filled 4 gerry cans with diesel fuel for our trip. To our surprise they told us they shut down the fuel dock at 1630! On to plan B - we emptied 20 of the 22 gallons we had into the tank and then Tom drove to a gas station to refill the gerry cans - best laid plans! Once back we finally left the dock around 1815 and arrived at our overnight anchorage just south of Peanut Island around 1900. A few minutes later Jim and Dave dinked over to pick us up and go to Dave and Bev's boat Clover Leaf- a 60' steel trawler designed by Kroegen (18' wide) for a drink and to unwind. We talked about our plans for the morning and agreed to leave around 0600 and make our way across.
Back to our boat around 2015 for a skillet dinner (so glad I bought this easy to fix meal) a few minutes of relaxation and then to bed at 2230.
Monday 4/15/13
Our alarm went off at 0500 and we were up. I prepared our fresh fruit for breakfast and got the coffee pot ready for when we started the engine. Got out the harnesses and life jackets to wear on deck and then received a call from Jim saying he was ready to pull up his anchor in about 15 min. Tom went out on deck ready to do the same when we discovered our running lights were not working. Needless to say all of the lights were checked when we launched the boat in January. No problem, we have some portable ones we use for the dingy so we got those out and mounted them. Anchor up by 0600 and we headed for the Palm Beach inlet. At 0630 Chris Parker (the weather guy) broadcasts on single side band channel 4045. Our buddy boat listened on his single side band and heard there was a band of squalls and based on our speed we would probably hit them and be in them for a few hours. We conferred with Jim and Dave (who hadn't left yet) and decided to abort, go back to where we had anchored and try again tomorrow.
On our way back it rained slightly and produced a half rainbow right over Singer Island - beautiful! Once back on the hook Tom fixed the running lights problem (some oxidation on the connections) and we are good to go. We now have some down time to get settled into our routines, recheck the charts and be ready for an early morning departure tomorrow.
Thanks to those who have acknowledged our trip. It's great hearing from all of you. I do want to remind you that you can post comments on the blog (if you want too) just click at the bottom of the page on Comments.