Sailing Southward

A lot has happened since my last post.  As I write this it is 11 pm Sunday Nov 4th and I'm sitting in the pilot house of Top Shelf moored in the Atlantis Marina in Nassau Bahamas.

Big Seas of Canaveral

2 weeks ago, I started in Hilton Head.  The boat moved south to Stuart to finalize repairs on the water maker and put a windlass (anchor) switch on the fly-bridge.  I'll need the anchor switch later in the trip as I’ll be single handing the boat and I’ll need to drop/raise anchor while running the engines.

We left Hilton Head October 18th an hour before civil twilight.  The wind was blowing 25 gust 30 kts out of the NE. Normally we would consider running downwind in these seas, but I had Ed O’Neil on board as crew and he was untested in bigger seas.  We decided to go south on the Inter-Coastal Waterway (ICW) for the next 2 days.

Ed being tested offshore

Going aground mid-channel 5 times over those 2 days had us move off-shore at St Augustine in 25 kt winds out of the NE.  Ed was about to be tested!  12 hours off shore and we got into Canaveral just before dark.  Ed passed the off-shore test in 5-7 ft seas with flying colors!  Next morning we were off 2 hours before sunrise and got to our slip in Stuart at 2 pm.

Julianne and I made a Quick trip to NYC for Jackie’s college parents weekend.  I was never a fan of NYC, but it is growing on me.  It was cold & rainy, so we were glad to be back on the boat Sunday night ready to start the adventure.

Watermaker - No Water!

We got delayed one more day waiting for a valve for the water maker.  That gave us time for final shopping and organizing the boat.  The valve was delivered at 9 am on Tuesday, and was tested and ready to go in 30 minutes. We left by 10 am for the 5 hour cruise to Sailfish Marina in West Palm Beach to stage for crossing the Gulf Stream.

We met Ryan and Sam at Sailfish Marina for dinner.  Julianne will be going home at Thanksgiving to be with the kids.  I'll be hosting Ryan and Sam as we spearfish the SE Bahamas.  Ryan wanted to meet Julianne since he will be taking her place for 3 weeks in December.  I'm sure I'll talk a lot about Ryan and Sam once they are on board.  Suffice to say that these are two special young adults.  Julianne was equally impressed, especially with Sam.  We got to bed by 9 pm as we were getting up early.  Next stop....Bimini