| Seaesta |
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| February 1-11 |
| February 1 Palm beach is a large city. The water is clear aqua blue, we can see to the sea bed here at our anchorage. Heather and Pierce went into a town called Riviera, all the shops have bars on the windows and doors. This area is difficult if not dangerous to get arpund in without a car. February 2 James continued working on installation of the the Auto Pilot. February 3 Still anchored in Palm Beach. Rain and lightening...uggg February 4 A large storm system continues across the area. Warnings of wind gusts of up to 50mph were broadcast. I am very glad we upgraded our anchor system to all chain. February 5 Today is windy but the sky is clear. Heather worked on the dodger extender. A little more hand sewing and the canvas work will be done. February 6 Heather went to City Place Palm Beach and found a Barnes and Noble to write this web page at. It is amazing how few people know about hot spot locations. I spent four hours writing this very quickly (hence the spelling mistakes) Once I arrived back at the boat I discovered the vessel Tamere was anchored nearby. Tamere are leaving for the Bahamas tonight with about ten other boats. We are not ready since we do not have water and fuel stocked. It was nice to see Scott and Kitty again. February 7. We are getting every piece of laundry washed.. Pierce made friends with a spanish boy at the laundrymat. Wash loads in the Bahamas cost $10 a load. We completed other chores as well as filling up on water and fuel. Took a nap and then set sail at 21:40 out of the Palm Beach inlet.. February 8 Arrived at west end Bahamas at 06:00. The sailing was good with following seas and "MERLIN" our auto pilot helping us single handed watches. It was good that Merlin drove since Heather was sick on her watches. Night sailiing is quite different from day sailing, a sharp lookout is needed so that you can avoid all the fishing vessels. We had to sail 20 degrees off plumb to compensate for the strong gulf stream. On approaching the island flying fish jumped and landed on our boat. Now thats what I call easy fishing. February 9 We are in the Bahamas. We were greeted by a dove which came and landed on our boat about 5 miles out. The dove walked right under my arm and seemed almost tame. The dove only flew off once we had dropped anchor. James cleared the vessel and her crew into customs and immigration. The water is clear here. The ocean bottom runs so deep the depth sounder can not work, then suddenly the ocean floor jumps up to under a hundred feet. There must be some amazing sea walls down there. In Port Lucayca. February 10 We were told to leave Port Lucaya or rent a slip no anchoring allowed. So we set out for the Lucayan Waterway. We somehow became stuck on coral in the waterway canal- obviously we were not exactly in the channel. Using a bamboo pole I was able to push the boat off the coral.. we decided to head for Patterson Cay. The Cay (pronounced KEY) is a national park island about 1.5 acres big. We anchored and the boys snorkled. James exclained it was like national geographic photographs. The air and water was too cold for Heather to swim. We sat at anchor in four foot chop all night...oh JOY. February 11 WE did not get much rest last night with the wave conditions. Sailed to Great Lucayan Waterway entrance and after finding the correct angle of approach entered the canalway. We anchored in a little man made lagoon.. |
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| Port Lucaya, Grand Bahama |
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| GOT MILK? |