Leaving the Bahamas

A last minute post here!

I’m feeling a bit sad as we prepare to head out, back to the US. Our future plans (which of course, are written in sand J) are to spend the next 2 years in the north, exploring new territory – including the Chesapeake, New England and maybe beyond to Canada. We're really excited to explore the NE but it does mean that we won’t be back to Bahamas until 2019. The Exuma’s and the out islands here are magical places -  I don’t think there’s anywhere else quite like it. It’s sad to say goodbye, even if only for a couple of years.

We had hoped to spend a few days relaxing in Palm Cay. It’s been a busy 2 months and we’d both like to hang out for a few days, catching up on chores and chilling out a bit. We spent yesterday alternating between working and playing. I even pulled out the fabric for my next quilt project! But then last night we got an email from our weather router saying that he thought it best that we depart Tuesday as this week is the best weather window to leave. It looks like some stormy/windy stuff could blow up from the south next week and we'd like to make the Carolina's by mid-Month at the lastest.

We're incredibly lucky to even have the choice to stay here into June. Our insurance stipulates that we be north of Florida by July 1st. Many demand north of Georgia or the Carolina's by June 1st. Our plan is to have Blossom in storage by July 4th so we have a few weeks to play with. Of course hurricane season still hangs over your head this time of year.

We've decided to head to Charleston, knowing that we can go to shore at Jacksonville if we need to (if we get tired and want to take a break). I've reserved a slip there so now we need to decide how long we’ll stay. That may well also be weather dependent. Charleston would put us about 4 days out from our hurricane hole which is reasonable given that you normally have at least a week notice that something might be coming.

Last minute changes aren't our forte but we’ve rallied and are preparing to leave ;) We'll get a later start than we might have liked as Martin has to finish some maintenance tasks and I need to prep the boat for the passage. But the real reason is that the water is really skinny here and low tide was at 10am. The channel is dredged to an even 7 feet and we draw 6'8". So we'd like to wait for a rising tide at the very least!

In all honesty, Martin and I are bit anxious. One year ago this week we left Palm Cay Marina, anticipating a lovely 26ish hour cruise to Palm Beach, Florida. We had a lovely cruise for about an hour or so before it all went up in smoke - a fire in the engine room. Needless to say, we’ll both breathe a sigh of relief once we’ve passed through Nassau Harbor.

And so we’re off. We expect the trip to be about 60 or so hours. It’s difficult to guestimate because of the gulf stream. One time we sped up to 12 knots on our way to Charleston! We're not banking on that though and anticipate arriving early and anchoring out until slack high tide on Friday when we'll go into the marina. Oh, and this trip I'm trying half a patch on the arm for sea sickness though I don't think I'll need anything!

See you state side…

Boat Business:

•  I finally sewed the dinghy cover zipper. It's been leaky and needed to be repaired. My Juki is a killer sewing machine and marched right through 3 layers of stamoid!

Split along the zipper needing repair

Rocking my sewing table!

•  Wing Engine Racor. Martin changed the racor on the wing as the vacuum gauge is showing that it is beginning to clog.