Florida and The Bahamas  Mar 25 to April 15 2014

They say that life happens while you are making plans. I had been making plans to go kayak sailing in Mexico this winter, but various and sundry situations had me postpone that plan until next year.  Late March came and things were looking quiet for the next few weeks at Casa del Ramona so I accepted an offer to join my friend Diny sailing on her boat in Florida just in time to cross with her to The Bahamas where she planned to spend the next several months. I flew to Miami and took the commuter train up the coast to West Palm Beach where her boat was in the water. Her plan was to work our way down the coast about 45 miles to at least Fort Lauderdale where it was a better place to take off and give a better angle for crossing the Gulf Stream to The Bahamas. We spent a few days there at Palm Beach waiting out some nasty weather and doing a few odd jobs on the boat, including trouble shooting and changing the oil pressure switch on her brand new engine, and fixing a leak that was a bit worrisome in the bilge. All systems finally looked good so on Sunday we launched and sailed with a nice wind behind us and a bright sunny day all about. We sailed about 25 miles and dropped anchor just off a pretty beach to spend the night, expecting to move on to Ft Lauderdale the next day.  Right as we were dropping anchor a boat of US Border Patol agents pulled up and asked us if we were legal. Upon assuring them that we were, they bid us a fine evening and roared off to go find the terrorists. 

Diny`s boat, named Adventure Quest, is a Balboa 26, very similar to my No Bad Days. It is a classic good ole boat, has seen a few rough years but since she has owned it over the last few years she has done a lot of work on it to get it ship-shape and comfy. She has spent the big part of last year sailing the Florida Keys and will spend this year in the Bahamas.  They are a group of about 650 islands, 55 miles east of Florida. They were a British colony and in the 70s they became an independant part of the commonwealth. The crossing over there from Florida can be a peice of cake in good conditions but horrible in bad conditions. The Gulf Stream flows north about 3 miles an hour and when any wind blows out of the north the ocean kicks up a nasty chop so we are looking for a 3 day window of forecasted south and east winds to allow a good safe crossing.

Diny and I met sailing in Mexico a few years ago and we have very similar styles of sailing and traveling. She is a retired nurse, very adventerous, likes roughing it, doesnt let much of anything bug her, cheerful in rough conditions,  and enjoys poking around in wild and obscure corners of the world.  We get along great.

So this morning we pulled up anchor off the beach and sailed on down to Fort Lauderdale. It was a very fun and satisfying trip, so much so that when we arrived we took a  few laps around the harbor under full sail just for fun.  We came in and anchored in a little lagoon surrounded by billion dollar houses with yachts to match. I cant believe the amount of money here. Everywhere you look is a lakeside mansion and mega yacht to match.

The weather is looking good for a crossing to the Bahamas tomorrow afternoon. It should take about a day or two. Standby for news