Marathon

     Back home in Marathon.

     What?

     We now consider Marathon one of our homes now that we no longer have any connection to a dirt dwelling. Mystic, Ft Pierce and perhaps Annapolis are other places that feel like home.

     Previous blogs have detailed how we got here this year: staying on land for quite a while for repairs and completing the sale of our former house, stopping in the Solomons and Great Bridge while Carol worked and then a pretty quick trip down to Florida. What was the strangest was being in freezing weather, then pretty cold weather and then going from Charleston to Ft Pierce in one passage and getting into very warm weather.

     It's beautiful now down here. A little warmer than is usual. A summer weather pattern for a while longer. Anyway, here are some photos from our passages to Marathon 2012.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!

 

 

 

In the Keys Again - Almost

     We are anchored in No Name Harbor, Baggs State Park, Key Biscayne, FL.

     Almost the Keys. They start at Key Largo as far as I am concerned but Key Biscayne is close enough even though it's Miami.

     Very nice protected harbor but a little popular...very crowded. We seem alright for now. Tomorrow we head to Tarpon Basin, Key Largo and the next day we should be in Marathon, our southernmost destination this year. We need to get there before the world ends on 21 December. Do I need to buy Christmas presents? Or wait?

     In Fort Pierce, with help from a consulting engineer and a consulting friend, Mike Guay, we completed rewiring of our AC electrical system and installed a new regulator on our generator. Seems to be working fine now but I've said that before. The rewiring should protect the regulator. May have done so already.

     We spent an extra night in Ft Lauderdale due to the forecast and had the chance to watch their boat parade. Too long. Too commercial. But very pretty. We didn't stay until the end. Old folks need their sleep. Some Floridiots came into our anchorage after the parade and made a heck of a racket trying to anchor while well lubricated with adult beverages. I use adult very loosely. 2100 to 2300 noise. Nice.

     Here is the photo of the submarine we encountered off of the St Mary's River. I assume they were going to our sub-base in there for work. This is obviously not in our navy.

     Next blog from Marathon!

A Real Offshore Passage

     We are now at Fort Pierce, FL visiting good friends, resupplying, doing maintenance and upgrades. We've had to find a new anchoring spot because of new islands being built in our usual spot off the City Marina of Ft Pierce. Building islands? Yep. Hey, it's Florida.

     How did we get here? Well, that's interesting.

     Our last stop had us in Charleston, SC and Ft Pierce was the next stop. That's right, no stops in between. In a (mostly) straight line, Ft Pierce is about 350 nautical miles from Charleston.

     We stayed an extra night in Charleston to allow the seas to die down a bit after the long term offshore storm we'd been dealing with and also to do a little tourist stuff. We love Charleston.

     Then we got underway. 0630. Still mostly dark, clear and cool. We leave the Ashley River, get into the main harbor and then exit by going around historic Fort Sumter. The main shipping channel is about 10nm long in order to get clear of the breakwaters and the shoals. This often a very lumpy trip and this year was no exception. Not as bad as last year but rough enough. About 3/4 down the length of the channel we can turn south. This put the seas (about 4') and the wind directly on our stern and this is not too uncomfortable for us. A straight line to Florida puts us about 50nm off the coast of Georgia and as the day went on conditions improved. Lower seas and wind. During the first day we had a very large pod of dolphins join us again and stay quite a while. Really stunning.

     Our first night at sea was pretty nice, too. Reasonably calm, not too cold. I keep referring to our first day or first night. Yep. Normally it's about 24 hours to the Florida border from Charleston or 30 hours to St Augustine but conditions were good and forecast to remain that way so we decided to keep going and spend a second night at sea and continue on to Ft Pierce inlet, the next Class A inlet available to us. Class A means 'safe' in nearly all conditions. St John's River Inlet and St Mary's River Inlet are both Class A but St Augustine Inlet is not.

     We passed by St Augustine and headed for Cape Canaveral. Things went well... until about 2300, about 10nm from the cape. It got much windier and choppier, right on the nose. Not the favorite conditions for a catamaran. Not conducive to sleeping either. We had about 8 hours of uncomfortable bouncing around. Not dangerous. Just not much fun. And very tiring.

     Our third day at sea was okay overall. Better later in the day than earlier and we were around Cape Canaveral. We arrived at Ft Pierce late in the day, checked our 'normal' anchorage and then moved to our current spot outside of Faber Cove across the ICW from downtown Ft Pierce. It's nice and protected but it's about a mile from a spot to tie up the dinghy. Not too bad a trade off.

     We got to sleep well for the first time in a few days, shower at our friends home and enjoy mostly upper 70 degree days. Hatches open at night, too. It's been way too long since the last time for that. We are looking forward to a month or two of similar days. We can only hope.

     So that's the story of of 350nm and 58 hour passage offshore. At times we were about 50nm offshore and at others just a mile or two. Carol got really into it and was willing to keep going. Maybe someday. Maybe not.

     Oh, did I mention our encounter at sea with a Chilean Navy submarine? No? Maybe next time ;>))

Myrtle Beach

     We're at a marina in the North Myrtle Beach area now. Why?

     Welllll, it's been an adventure getting here. And it's cold. Cold means not wanting to shower on the boat. Sooooo.... we're paying for a marina to have access to a hot shower, laundry and other amenities. We also had to get some paperwork notarized so a stop was in order.

     We had nice passagse from the Solomons. Pretty calm conditions. We stopped at Portsmouth, VA so Carol could get off the boat to go earn some $$$$ to keep us going. I spent 4 days at a free dock at Great Bridge, VA in the town of Chesapeake. Chesapeake is not on Chesapeake Bay so who knows why it's named that? It is a site of an important Revolutionary War battle so I was able to learn about that, get groceries and fuel and do laundry while there.

     Of course the weather took a turn for the worse while sitting. And it was worse for a while. A storm parked itself off the Carolinas and stayed. And stayed. And stayed. This made for very strong northerly winds and rough seas in the open water portions of our passages. Albemarle Sound wasn't too bad with following seas. Neither was the Alligator River. But it would not have been fun going north in those conditions. Then we had to deal with anchoring in 30+ knot winds as well as crossing the Pamlico, Bay and Neuse Rivers in atrocious conditions. Four or more foot seas, heavy rain, gusts to 40 are not our idea of fun. Yet we pressed on. Can't get to warmer weather if we're parked. And we do need warmer weather. It's been in the low to mid 40s at night, low to mid 50s in the day. With the strong winds it felt much worse.

     Now we're getting highs in the mid 60s so things are looking up. We are only a couple of days from Charleston and from there we hope the seas have layed down enough that we can make a 30 hour passage to Florida offshore.

     We can only hope.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Afloat Finally!

   
 We are back floating in the water and we don't seem to be sinking. This is always good. The repair job is done and it was an excellent, quality job if a little on the expensive side. $19,000.

     Okay, maybe more than a little on the expensive side. Our previous boat only cost a five thousand dollars more. For that we got an entire boat. Oh, by the way, you can make an offer on that boat.

     Here is what all that money looks like. The before photos are in my previous post.

     And here we have the guys who did the work.

     Now that this ordeal is over we are heading down the Bay towards Solomons Islands where we'll stop while Carol goes off to work. I don't know when we'll ever get to the Keys and it sure is damn cold up here. Yuck!

Back on the Boat Again

     We're back on the boat again after a week and a half away. I usually only write after a passage or two but the boat is still on land in Pasadena, MD.

     The paint job turned into a sand blasting paint removal job which turned into a grind off inches of epoxy from a poor repair job done by the original boat builder about 10 years, and several owners, ago. Boooooo!

     The boat had more than an inch of epoxy filler removed in some places. Putting that much on is an improper repair procedure and we're paying the price now. 5 figures. To the left of the decimal point.

   
   We were away from the boat to go "home" to empty and prepare our house for a closing.There were several last minute issues which cost money and stress but now it's done. We are without a house. Our only home floats. Yay!

     Frankenstorm is heading our way or to New Jersey or to New England in the next few days. We should still be on land and therefor reasonably safe. We'll see.

Pasadena

    We are now on land for annual service to the boat. It's going to be a very expensive stop. We've been having issues the last few years with peeling bottom (anti-fouling) paint. It's going to cost a lot to have the bottom soda-blasted, barrier coated and painted.

     To make things more hectic we have been negotiating (now finished) our house sale and repairs and are waiting for financing confirmation, then the closing.

      Getting here was interesting. My last post was written while underway off the coast of New Jersey. We had a good sail until we got to Atlantic City right around sunset. The course change put us more into the wind and seas. The bigger chop only lasted about an hour before the seas dropped to under a foot again. Not bad.

     We had to go around Cape May in the dark through a very narrow passage in the reefs. We came pretty close to a 6 foot shoal before making it through the most dangerous areas. Then we aimed for the main shipping channel. I went to bed for two hours just before we reached the channel and woke up for my shift to find us a mile or more off course on the wrong side of Ship John Shoal. Scary. Took me a while to get back on track. Fortunately daylight came and all was well.

     We started through the C & D Canal about 0800 and passed by Chessapeake City and its free dock to go on to the Sassafras River off Chessapeake Bay. The last segment from the Canal to the Sassafras was nasty, bashing into a very big, nasty chop. Pounding is no fun. It was a nice quiet anchorage, however. We'd never been there before. All in all it was a 30.5 hour passage.

     The next day we went to 'our' spot in Worton Creek. It was only two hours away so even though it wasn't a great day to be on the Bay again, it was short.

     After that we went to Bodkin Creek where Pleasure Cove Marina is.

     And that's where we are now. Not knowing when we will leave or how much it's going to cost us.

Southbound Sailing

     Southbound! And sailing! Wow!

     We are off the coast of New Jersey as I write this. Close enough to get a wi-fi signal. And we're sailing.

     We had a slightly rough first few days after leaving Mystic. Big head seas to Mattituck and then way bigger following seas to Oyster Bay. Decent speed however.

     From Oyster Bay we went through New York Harbor to Atlantic Highlands, NJ. NYC and the East River - Hell Gate passage was mostly uneventfull for a change. only one stop to avoid a ferry and one log that went between the hulls without contact, or even being seen.

      

     Freedom Tower under construction. We had a great view of it from the anchorage at Atlantic Highlands. This isn't that view.

     We stayed a few extra days there because of offshore head wimds and pretty big seas. There was also a major front forecast with storms. The storms just missed us but the winds didn't. Heather took advantage of this delay to take a ferry from Manhattan to stay with us for the weekend. Yay!

     Now we have relatively small waves but they'll likely get bigger later. The wind will shift to on the nose later, too. We are on a very long passage. It's one we haven't done before at all at once. We are going (hopefully) from Atlantic Highlands all the way to the C & D Canal in one shot. It's at least a 30 hour trip, maybe more. We'll be going around Cape May in the dark. Risky? Maybe a little. We'll write if we don't make it. Errr... maybe not.

    

     Roosevelt Island Tram over the East River.

End of Summer

     Wow! It's September and I haven't updated this blog since May. A little bit has happened since then.

     We did a lot of work on the house and listed it for sale as mentioned in the previous blog but we also spent all summer continuously updating, repairing and replacing stuff. Major $$$. The good news is that less than a week before our departure for winter we are getting an offer we can accept. That's also bad news because, as I said, it's less than a week before departure.

     We got a little bit of cruising in this summer since the trip to Hamburg Cove for Memorial Day. We went to Coecles Harbor, Shelter Island for a rendezvous with the squadron. We did a one week cruise of the Buzzard's Bay area with Heather and Luca aboard. There was a solo long weekend at Montauk and then the season finale at Watch Hill, RI for Labor Day weekend. Above is a photo of a Portuguese Man O War jellyfish off one of the Elizabeth Islands (Cape Cod). We've never seen one this far north. Actually we had never seen one until we cruised to Florida. This big one could be fatal if you got up close and personal with it.

     That's it! Not much traditional boating. Being liveaboards makes it all different.

     I will be updating this blog on a more regular basis after we get underway and head south.

     Until then...

Back in Connecticut

     I'm writing this off of someones unprotected wi-fi in Hamburg Cove, Old Lyme, CT. Hamburg Cove is on the 8-Mile River which is off the Conn. River which is off Long Island Sound which is off the Atlantic Ocean which is off, off, uh, nevermind.

     We have been back for more than three weeks but we are now at a squadron rendezvous for the Memorial Day Holiday. It has been a pretty rough three weeks. We got back to our house to begin preparing to re-list the house for sale, again. Cutting up trees, painting walls, moving furniture, redesigning the layout, new lighting fixtures and much more made for a lot of work in a short period of time. But we have had visitors looking at the house. First traffic in quite a while. This is good.

     Our trip from Annapolis was good (at the start) then fairly miserable... rainy and cold. Nice passage from the C & D Canal to Cape May, NJ but after that: not so good. The overnight to New York City started okay but after midnight it got a little rough, then rainy, then thunderstormy. Our batteries were overheating and it was foggy so we ducked into Atlantic Highlands behind Sandy Hook for a short while before heading through the city. This wasn't bad. Visibility wasn't great but it didn't need to be. We made it to Port Washington, Long Island fine and it was nice for a while but the next few days weren't quite so nice. Our trip to Port Jefferson was cut short at Eaton's Neck by a nasty chop so we went into Huntington Bay. It was Mattituck the next day and Mystic after that.

     So ended this season's round trip south to the Keys and Cays of the Caribbean. If we sell the house we won't need to come home so soon next year. We can wait for the warmer weather we've become used to.

Probably a while before a new blog.

Annapolis

     We are in Annapolis, MD. We got here after spending several days in Solomons, MD. We had a dock thanks to Jack and Kathy Locher. We were far ahead of schedule and the winds were pretty high for several days so we stuck around and did some bike and dinghy touring. We also met up with our friends Mike and Carol there. They were on their migration back north to Meriden by car.

     We had an easy trip on the remainder of the ICW but Chesapeake Bay was a little rough, more each day until we decided to wait out the conditions in Solomons.

     Now we are on a Navy mooring in Weems Creek, West Annapolis. It's free, paid for by the taxpayers. Oh, wait, that means it's not free. They put them in to have a protected place to put their sailboats if there is a hurricane and locals and transients can use them if there is no storm approaching.

     We are waiting in Annapolis because Carol is off working in Detroit. Once these two weeks are over we will be back on the 'schedule' we were on last season. This will put us back in Connecticut by the second week of May. Sitting here lets the other snowbird boaters start catching up with us. A trickle are starting to show up in Annapolis.

     Next up: the C & D Canal, Delaware Bay, the coast of New Jersey, New York City and Long Island Sound. Delaware Bay has the potential to be nasty and going offshore also has the chance of being rough. Once underway we are about a week from home but we may have to wait for weather windows. Spring weather is unstable as I'm sure you know.

Coinjock

     We are now in Coinjock, NC. It's a little town that, for us, is two small marinas on the ICW. It's only 50 miles from the start of the ICW in Norfolk, VA.

     We have had a rough time since we left Charleston. The first day was fine but the passage up towards the NC-SC border was very slow because we were always against the current. It seems even though there wasn't much snow this winter the hills are draining the rain and snow falls into the waterways to the ocean. All that water was coming right at us.

     We had to stop short of our plans at a small marina in Myrtle Beach because it was getting dark AND we wanted to watch the UConn women's basketball Final Four game. The promised wi-fi at the marina was on the fritz so the owner drove us to a restaurant where we could watch the game on TV. Unfortunately we lost and the $120 we spent on the marina, food and cab home was wasted. Oh well. Next year.

     After that stop we went to a new-to-us anchorage a little west of Southport, NC. Pipeline Canal. Another long day to get there because of adverse current. Then we went up the Cape Fear River v-e-r-y slowly against the current and along the Carolina Beach and Wrightsville Beach areas. We ended up at Camp LeJeune very late in the evening. It was our longest passage time-wise on the ICW. Underway 12 hours. To make matters worse the Marines were up until 11pm flying their Osprey aircraft just a few hundred yards away from us practicing VTOL and air support. Very noisy! Can't complain though. The Marines own the anchorage and we civilians are lucky if and when we can use it. The long day made up most of the time lost the previous 2 days due to current.

     We had another decent day going past Morehead City and Beaufort (Bo-fert) to Cedar Creek. Things went downhill after that.

     The Neuse River was our next passage and it was awful. Strong wind and current on the nose. No sailing. A two hour passage took us more than five hours. Four miserable hours. This was followed by the Pungo River which was okay, but only by comparison. It was not quite miserable. Just rough. We ended up at Belhaven to buy some very expensive fuel. We kept tripping out the breakers on their fuel pump. Ended up burning out their electrical circuits so they loaned us a golf cart to drive more than a mile on main roads to a gas station. Scary. But the fuel was cheaper there.

     From Belhaven it wasn't too bad as we were mostly in canals, protected from winds and seas. Of course we managed to go aground three times. Once for me, twice for Carol. When we reached the Alligator River things went crazy! Extremely rough water and wind on the nose. For the first time ever  we turned around and headed BACK to shelter three hours before our normal anchoring time.

     In the morning it seemed better and we headed back to the open water portion of the Alligator River. It WAS better but not by much. Instead of 4 foot seas it was only 1-2 ft. After five hours we got to Albemarle Sound. We had hoped to be able to sail but the wind direction failed us again! Two hours of awful followed by one hour of not too awful. A ten hour day got us to here in Coinjock.

     We will cross into Virginia tomorrow and we'll see if we get back to Chesapeake Bay in the next two days. Better weather coming... or so they say.

Charleston. Again

     We are back in Charleston again. Northbound. Last year we just stopped for one night but this year we have to stay for two and a half weeks. Carol has to go off to work.

     We are about two weeks ahead of the time we arrived last year but after the work stop we will be back on plan for a mid-May arrival to our home waters. Two weeks is a long time in the spring. The cruisers are mostly still well south of us and the warm weather is there, too. We've had some days since Fort Pierce that started off in the very low 50s. Yuck.

     From Ft. Pierce we had mostly good days, stopping at some off our usual places for overnight anchoring. Eau Gallie, New Smyrna, Saint Augustine and just over the border of our home waters (according to the insurance company), the St John's River. The last stop in Florida is where the weather took a turn for the worse. Very windy with thunder-storms for three days.

     We spent two nights in St. Auggie expecting to meet up with friends there but it all fell through. Still, we saw a re-enactment of the preparations for a battle between the Spanish (heros) and English (pirates) in the 1600s. BTW: the English won.

     From the St John's we had a very rough trip to a new stop, St. Mary's, Georgia. It's just over the Florida border and is a cute tourist town. It's mostly a base for the Cumberland Island National Park which is about seven miles away. Having our own boat we anchored off of the island and explored some of the park. Beautiful. We had some very up-close encounters with the wild horses we only saw from a distance last year when going by here. We latched onto a tour to learn about the history of the island and then did our own hiking. The beach is amazing.

     The other interesting things are once into Georgia we started getting the gnats we met last year (awful) and also started hearing the spring birds we used to hear when we were in Connecticut in the early spring (nice). Farther south we mostly see sea birds like pelicans, cranes, gulls, etc. Not much in the way of singing birds.

     We stopped at a couple of obscure anchorages in Georgia then in Thunderbolt (near Savannah) and Beaufort. From there a quick jaunt to Charleston.

     Other observations... we are seeing a lot more dolphin this year and when we were leaving Hilton Head I saw a pair of Bald Eagles. Carol couldn't be bothered to get up to look at them. We're getting too jaded. Okay, maybe the cat sleeping on her was a factor.

Bahamas and Back Again

     We are back in Florida (Fort Pierce) again. We cut our time in the Bahamas a little short (by about 10 days) because we are having trouble with our batteries holding a charge.

     We were at some remote locations and not getting an engine started could be a disaster. We struggled to get started one day at Man-O-War Cay which is a populated island but even that would have been a bad situation expense and service skills wise.

     We started our cruise at Old Bahama Bay Marina after crossing the Gulf Stream. From there we went to Great Sale Cay. That's an uninhabited island with some decent wind protection. Nowhere to go ashore and nothing to see except dense mangrove. Next stop was Strangers Cay. Even more isolated. We did not see a boat or any people for more that two days. Crystal clear water. Electric colors. Stunningly beautiful. Got on the island easily to walk the Atlantic side and Sea of Abaco side beaches. Swimming, bathing, re-enacting a movie scene, all fun activities.

     After two nights there we went to Allens-Pensacola Cay. Two cays joined by a hurricane 10 or 20 years ago. Also uninhabited but plenty of people on boats around. At least 6. This island features a covered platform the natives occasionally use for shelter when they are on a fishing trip. There is also a sign tree. This is where cruisers hang signs or other stuff with their vessels name, crew, date there info, etc. We didn't contribute to the litter.

     Next stop... Green Turtle Cay. Civilization. Big city. Okay, may be 200 people. But it had shops and groceries and museums and more. All crammed into an area about the size of a Wal-Mart. Friendly people, too.

     From here we went over to Manjack Cay. This island has a good number of private homes owned by foreign nationals. Mostly from the US or Canada. But other countries were represented. Very friendly people who let cruisers wander their trails. A couple of them also host a party on the beach every full moon. Cruisers bring food, drink and musical instruments and the party goes on. A good time for all.

     Then onto Great Guana Cay after a passage through the 'Whale'. To get into the Hub of Abaco you have to briefly go out into the Atlantic. These passes are subject to 'Rages' that can make them impassable and very dangerous. Like crossing the 'Stream' you have to wait for the proper window. Guana Cay is a small island that has one famous spot. Nippers. A beach bar overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Very popular. It was very nice but I'm not really into bars no matter how nice the location.

     Only one night there due to incoming weather so we went to Marsh Harbor. That's a large but totally protected harbor. Third most populatd area in the Bahamas. It has lots of choices for groceries and booze and parties. We stayed there for four days as a nasty storm blew. Met some people we knew previously and also made new friends. Other than that, not much to recommend. Too big to be friendly or personal.

     Next stop was Man-O-War Cay. A nice mix of natives and foreigners with two protected harbors. Here our battery problems got worse and we were lucky to get an engine started. This made us consider our options. The weather forecast four days away was not looking good. We decided to cut short our trip. We headed back to Green Turtle. Then to Great Sale (a very long trip) and from there, a very, very very, long trip across the Stream to Fort Pierce, FL.

     This was not as easy as our passage to the Bahamas but not awful. Middle two or three hours, while in the Gulf Stream) were a little bouncy but, again, not terrible or dangerous.

     Now were back  in the US to spend big bucks on 9 batteries. Big bucks but maybe a third of what it would have cost in the Bahamas. Here is an example: Diesel price in Marathon, a high price area: about $4 a gallon. Diesel price in the Bahamas: about $6 a gallon. In the US we paid as little as $3.50 and as much as $3.90.

     So this cruise was a 'check it out' crusie. Learned a lot for future trips over there. May be next year we'll skip the Florida Keys and spend more time in the Bahamian Cays. By the way... Keys and Cays are pronounced the same way. Go figure.

Bahamas

     Wow! We are in the Bahamas!

     After much worrying about the passage from Key Biscayne to West End, Grand Bahama Island we had an easy passage. The worry was whether we should go because the weather window was so small. The wind shifted to the NE much earlier than forecast but it was so light it did not kick up seas in the Gulf Stream. Of course small seas is nice. No wind isn't. But, we are used to motoring. I do not like going on deck to raise the mainsail at night in open ocean. Chicken or prudent? Not sure.
Going around Cape Florida from No Name Harbor, Key Biscayne, FL at midnight was an adventure but after that it was easy going.

     The wind, when it came up, was from the NE and it brought some showers but it wasn't too bad. We couldn't sail into the wind because.... sailboats don't do that. Even if we were good sailors.

     The Old Bahama Bay Marina where we cleared Customs is a fancy resort. Expensive but a nice place to relax one night before moving on. The blue of the water is just stunning. We have been in the Virgin Islands as well as the Florida Keys and the Galapagos Islands so we know the comparisons.

     Next stop: Great Sale Key and then the rest of the Abacos.

Departing Marathon

     It's been five weeks of great weather in Marathon but we're ready to leave, at last. We had two days of 60 degree weather and two HOURS of daytime rain. Otherwise mostly perfect. 70s and several 80 degree days.

     The only bummer has been the repeated failure of our generator. $1800. in October that lasted 2 1/2 months. $1000. in January that lasted two DAYS. Grrrr. We received a new generator from the company for free but installation and wiring and monitoring upgrades cost us an additional $1300. Ouch! We're hoping we will not have further failures.

     Since Carol was done with her working/travelling interval we've been doing maintenance, restocking and touring. We've been out to Pigeon Key by way of the Old Seven Mile Bridge a couple of times. Lots of sealife in the water below the old bridge and during an openhouse on Pigeon Key I saw the underneath structure of the original railroad supports and a number of exhibits with wildlife including sea turtles, a gator, a croc, several snakes and a lionfish.

     We are headed up to Miami tomorrow to wait there for a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream and explore the Abacos, part of the Bahamas. Excited, nervous but, we think, prepared. It's about a 60nm trip and we've been about that far offshore before but crossing the Stream can be an adventure. We don't like adventures.

   We'll be somewhat out of touch because phone and email is expensive so only contact us if it's urgent. We'll have use of our phone but it will be off when not in use.