Day 18 – Bimini
At 6:30 a.m. Tommy listened to Chris Parker’s (the weather guru) radio broadcast on the single sideband radio and Paula made coffee. It still looks like a Sunday or Monday departure. The morning was spent fixing 3 tiny leaks from the watermaker plumbing, rigging a rail mount for our old spare handheld anemometer (Tom), replenishing […]
Day 17 – Bimini
Weather update – the wind regularly gusted to 30kts in the marina last night, making for a bouncy night and continues to prevent us from leaving. Our most reliable forecaster says these strong winds will finally subside by Sunday evening. We still are finding Bimini interesting. Everyday we get a little bit better idea of […]
Day 16 – Bimini
Another blustery night and morning! The weather gurus anticipate this will continue till the weekend. We each got up in the night to check our lines and the positions of anchored sailboats behind us. On one of these trips above decks Orion was bold and bright just above us. This morning Tommy finished up the […]
Day 15 – Bimini
The wind blew all night somewhere between 15 and 20 kts. This made for great airflow through the cabin. As usual, we were each up at times in the night to check out different sounds that the air and water produced. At 11:45pm Paula heard a noise and went up on deck to find that […]
Jury-Rigged Stern Light
Today we set about to find a solution for our missing stern light. Two days ago while we were walking in town, another sailboat trying to dock near our boat lost control in the wind and current. It never hit the hull of our boat, but its rigging got caught up on several items mounted […]
Day 14 – Bimini
Today we did boat jobs in the morning. Tommy did further investigation into resuscitating the anemometer and making sure the marine network field connector he installed yesterday on the ripped end of the wire was functional. He made sure no other part of the system was affected by the damage (everything else was OK). Alas, […]
Day 13 – Bimini
Our first full day in the Bahamas was full of happenings, some pleasant, some not so pleasant. We were up to see a great sunrise, and had coffee and breakfast. We then walked into town with a few goals: we wanted to buy Bahamian SIM cards for our phones (the folks at the marina desk […]
Day 12 – Bimini, Bahamas
Tommy woke us at 5:40 a.m. before our alarm clock. We were both excited and nervous about our crossing. On the Chesapeake Bay and ICW, we don’t usually wear life jackets in calm weather, but we wear them on any ocean passage. For this crossing we also had tethers at hand. A tether clips to […]
Day 11 – Key Biscayne
We got up earlier today so that Tommy could have a chance to reevaluate a possible alternative final approach to Key Biscayne, given that we would likely arrive in the shallower waters around the Key near low tide. We were all set to go except for pulling and stowing the power cord at 6:45a.m. but […]
Day 10 – Fort Lauderdale
Last night’s anchorage featured boats very closely anchored and moored together, nice breeze, and pleasant temperatures. All these factors led to our decision to sleep in the cockpit, and we both got good, although interrupted rest. We were able to leave the anchorage just after it was light, and had just turned the corner to […]