We have started our winter cruise but I have been lax in posting.
We arrived back in Clubfoot Creek the end of September. The next weekend we moved across the river to Oriental to take in the Ol' Front Porch Music Festival with friends from the area. Unfortunately part of the festival was rained out but otherwise it was a great time with good music and friends. When in Oriental in the spring we had ordered a new mainsail telling them we would pick it up when we got back in the fall. We called the sail loft to let them know we were back. That afternoon they met us at the dock and bent on our new sail. It is a vast improvement. After the weekend we moved up to Broad Creek and tied up at Jerry and Donna's (from Blue Jacket) dock to work on some projects. The new mainsail was too stiff to fit into the sailcover. When Cori made the sailcover she allowed for a new sail being larger and it was a relatively easy modification. While the sewing machine was out she went into production on the bags she makes and got many completed. We were at the dock for over two weeks working on projects and provisioning for the season in the Bahamas. Next we moved back to Clubfoot Creek and continued with preparations. We spent another week getting ready and trying to stay warm. A cold front had moved in and the winds were blowing hard from the north for several days with the temperatures staying in the 50's and the low 40's at night. Doesn't sound like much but you must remember that we do not have a heater onboard. It was cold and uncomfortable.
We had been monitoring the weather forecasts hoping for a straight shot offshore to the Bahamas but the opportunity never came. It would take 4-5 days and there was never a long enough stretch of good weather coming to make the trip. Finally the winds died and on Monday November 8th, Cori's birthday, we pulled anchor and headed down the waterway to Morehead City where we planned to spend the night and head out in the morning. We arrived around 3:00 and as we looked for an anchorage there was another boat getting underway to Florida. We called them and asked for a report of the conditions when they got out. We anchored and they reported back that conditions were very comfortable. We spent an hour finishing getting the boat ready for an offshore trip and pulled the anchor. We planned on going to Fernandina Beach which is on the Florida/Georgia border since the weather forecast was saying that it would get uncomfortable after that. We started out with light winds and when they came up later we were able to sail until they dropped again. We did a combination of sailing, motoring and motor-sailing the rest of the trip. On Wednesday we worked out that at our current speed we would arrive during the night. We prefer not making a nighttime landfall so we decided to continue on to St Augustine, an additional fifty miles fighting a light headwind. We arrived mid-day and dropped anchor by the old fort. We traveled four hundred miles in seventy-two hours and were looking foreword to a long nap. We spent two days in St Augustine and on Sunday morning we pulled anchor and headed out again.
We had decided to work our way down the coast to Lake Worth at Palm Beach to be ready for a jump off to the Bahamas when the opportunity arose. Again, we did a combination of sailing and motoring overnight and into Monday. We then made a decision to stop at Ft Pierce since we were fighting a strong headwind. We spent the next day on the boat while the wind blew and went ashore the next day to check out downtown Ft Pierce. We also caught up with Unplugged who we had met in Fort Myers last winter. Thursday morning we pulled anchor and moved to the marina to top off our fuel and water. We elected to take the ICW down to Lake Worth and once topped off we headed out. We stopped for the night and anchored just before the rain moved in. It rained most of the night and the next morning. We pulled anchor around noon and continued on. The rain held off until we got to Jupiter and then it let loose. We were moving south, the rain was blowing from the north and was blowing into the cockpit getting everything wet and uncomfortable. The stretch between Ft Pierce and Lake Worth has seven bridges that you have to go through, some on a schedule and others on-demand, never any fun. We continued to make our way south until we reached North Palm Beach. Instead of continuing the last couple of miles to Lake Worth we turned off into one of the canals and tied up at a friends dock to wait for the chance to jump off for the Bahamas.
We will be staying here through Thanksgiving and are hoping that the forecast is favorable to make the move over the weekend. First there are some things that need to be taken care of. The Bahamas have changed requirements and procedures for admittance to their country and we can now take care of that over the Internet. We also have to have a negative Covid test within five days of arrival. Assuming a Sunday departure we have scheduled the tests for Saturday.
That's what we have been up to. Hopefully the next report will be from somewhere in the Bahamas.
