Well, we missed a weather window last week, because of some unfinished things that needed to be done, and laziness. The engine had a leak from the valve cover gasket, plus a few other things we needed to finish before crossing. We are almost done all the pre-departure projects now.

And now it looks like we will be waiting at least till next week. We will be having wind from the east and north east as far as NOAA.gov can predict. So we are going to be here for a while. We ended up moving up to a marina a little farther up the new river. The marina facilities are very nice, except the location is kind of far away from everything, so we have been walking a lot.

We have decided to take a different path over to the Bahama’s after talking with several people that have made the trip multiple times. Now we plan to leave from Fort Lauderdale around 10PM and we should arrive at West End, Grand Bahama, early the next morning. We will check in there, and then head 20 or 40 miles to an anchorage. After that, we will be able to take small trips south from island to island in the Abacos. The distance from Lauderdale to West End is a little less then 70NM, but we will most likely get about 20 of those miles free from the gulf stream pushing us north. This path makes more sense for trips to the Abacos. The original path from Miami to Bimini, is a better route if you are heading south to the Exumas. The reason we won’t be staying at West End, is money. It would be nice to tie to a dock after making the overnight trip, but the marina charges $3.05 a foot, with a minimum of 40 feet, $20 for water, $20 for electric, so to stay one night would be well over $160! There is an anchorage close to West End, which we might be able to go to, but it is said to be a poor anchorage, so we will most likely go 40 miles to Great Sale Cay.

So we are starting to get anxious to get over there, but everyone says that you really have to wait for the right weather. And this is our first trip that we will be off shore, and at night, so we are going to be extra cautious.

Our plan now is to go to he Bahama’s as soon as we get the weather, and explore the Abacos till the end of May. Then we plan on sailing back, to somewhere north of Jacksonville. And we are going to be leaving the boat there till next fall. We are going to spend the summer back home.

Many people that go sailing on the east coast, go up and down the ICW every year, but for us, we really wouldn’t want to have to go all the way back up and down the ICW. Going down the ICW was a great experience, but I think for us, one time is enough. If we have to take the boat up or down the East Coast, I think I would try and go out in the ocean more, to cut down on the motoring days. We spent about 300 hours to get from Cape May to Fort Lauderdale, which is about 1300 miles. That is equivalent to driving about 15,000 miles in a car.

Our time in Fort Lauderdale has been pretty nice. We have eaten in some great restaurants, enjoyed walking around the area, met some nice people here at the marina, and have had time to relax. But we are looking forward to swimming in the crystal clear water on white sand beaches in the Bahama’s.