Finally getting to the Bahamas

Fri 1st Dec 2023 - A large tourist boat came and docked beside us spewing ice-cream eating, trinket shopping tourists everywhere in the little town. We think it’s time to move on. 😁 

Sat 2nd Dec 2023 - Foggy morning but the cold has gone which is fantastic. Went for an early walk around the town and then left the marina and anchored nearby in preparation for departure in a couple of days. Dense fog enveloped us throughout the day with a sprinkling of rain. Sort of eerie, cloaked in fog, deadened noise, surrounded by water.

Sun 3rd Dec 2023 - Rained most of the night; everything on Muti is damp. Please let the sun shine! Sun played peekaboo in the early afternoon providing some relief. Although we have a fair amount of solar and lithium batteries for energy storage we start to manage our energy after 3/4:days of cloud cover. Our induction stove and new convection oven/air-fryer are electric. We do have a propane stove but we are trying to keep its use to a minimum - so far so good. Did we mention the air-fryer is fantastic?  Rob is looking forward using it to bake his sourdough bread 

Mon 4th Dec 2025 - (Fernandina to  St Augustine 56 nm, 12 hrs) Left for St Augustine in the early hours of the morning, we motored all the way (with a little bit of sail up) and arrived in St Augustine in the early afternoon. The oldest city in the US, this place is, as always, very quaint. We’ve never experienced the city during the Xmas season - the lights are gorgeous, especially from our viewpoint over the water. But of course, crowded with tourists, especially over the weekends. We hope to get out of here before the coming weekend. 🤷‍♀️

Tue 5th Dec 2023 - Cold again in the morning, warming up during the day. The sun came out, we went for a nice long walk and stopped for some lunch in the touristy part of town which was not very busy at all. Score!

Wed 6th Dec 2023 - A pleasant winter, sunny day today. Just hung out on Muti, had a fun, early dinner in town at Harry’s with our friends Doralyn and Mike from vessel Two Tickets, also a Lagoon 42. 

Thu 7th Dec 2023 - (St Augustine to Cape Canaveral 55 nm 14 hrs) Coldest night so far, but predicted to warm up ‘biggly’ today. Departed on night passage for Cape Canaveral, seas were a little bumpy but not much wind so we motor sailed slowly most of the way. We passed the rocket launch site on the way. 

 Fri 8th Dec 2023 - Arrived in Cape Canaveral in the early hours of the morning. Much warmer here! We went through the Cape Canaveral lock, and anchored in the Banana river, new experience for us! A little anxious, Rob called the lock operator for instructions; he was extremely personable and helpful assuring us traversing the lock was a non-issue. Manatees and dolphins have learnt to use the lock to migrate from open ocean to inter coastal water, they accompanied us in the lock which was a pleasant surprise. The anchorage is unprotected from W through N. E through S would be well shielded from wind. The bottom is thick mud - good holding with our Rocna anchor. We shared the anchorage with 2 catamarans so it was pretty quiet (except for the Disney cruise ship in our view, accompanied by the thumping music!). SpaceX Falcon Heavy (as in  Elon) has a launch ready to go later today that would be visible from our deck - been there, done that. 🚀😮 (Update: turns out launch was postponed to next week.)

Sat 9th Dec 2023 - Woke up to a pleasant morning: warm weather and NO wind. Who knew this weather condition even existed? Living on land we are never really conscious of weather. 😳 But alas, calm before the storm. Gnarly weather predicted, starting in the next day or two and lasting for at least a week. 🤯Pulled into Cape Marina for the next few nights and met up with Doralyn and Mike again, they were in a neighboring marina. Not sure who is following who. 😂 Plenty of dolphin life at the marina. Oh, and bird life dumping on Muti - pelicans are big birds!

Sun 10th Dec 2023 - A definite shift in the weather this morning, the wind kicked in but still not too cold making it pleasant. We decided to hang at the marina until the bad weather has passed. We dug out our foldable bikes and cycled 6 miles to the grocery store to purchase fresh produce. Some showers early evening. 

Mon 11th Dec 2023 - Very windy this morning (20+ kn), glad we are safely in a slip in the marina! When the sun came out later we went for a long walk exploring Cape Canaveral, the cruise ship mecca of America. Killing time while we wait for the bad weather to pass, at least we’re getting some boat chores done. 🥱 Rocket launch was cancelled again tonight due to weather, too bad as we were actually looking forward to a nighttime launch. 🤷‍♀️

Tue 12th Dec 2023 - Weather seems to be getting worse, it was cloudy and wind was howling when we woke up this morning. 💨 Though everything calmed down enough in the afternoon and we were able to have a barbecue on shore with Mike and Doralyn.

Wed 13th Dec 2023 - Same weather situation this morning, and as per the meteorologist there is no end in sight for this front. Nada. 🤦‍♀️ I suppose if we’re stuck here we better get some cleaning and washing done. 😮

Thu 14th Dec 2023 - Wind howling this morning! 💨 Seems next week should be better. 🤷‍♀️ Went for a long walk and hung out on Muti doing chores.

Fri 15th Dec 2023 - Never-ending wind. 🫣Loco viento! But the rain has not yet arrived.

Sat 16th Dec 2023 - Seems the worst of the weather is this weekend. 😮 Wet and windy walk to venture out for lunch with Doralyn and Mike and then back to Muti to hunker down as the rain arrived in full force.

Sun 17th Dec 2023 - We survived the night! Less rain this morning so we can dry out, but still very windy. 🙏 Wind relaxed later in the day which was a pleasant change, although the temperature dropped. Rob: we spent the night with winds whipping around just south of 40 Kn’s, big tides, the dock we are tied up to started to fail due to wave and wind action and my partner in crime slept through it (mostly) - I think she might finally have succumbed to the live aboard life style - what more can I ask for, except better weather? Tonight is a good night, very little wind, no waves and a couple of single malt scotches, yeah Boet! 

Mon 18th Dec 2023 - Beautiful sunny day, though a little colder. But we’ll take it! And as per the meteorologist, we will be able to continue our journey later this week. 👏 Looking forward to moving on, we are a little tired of Disney cruise ships and the accompanying noise. Rented a car for the day and got some provisioning done: that stuff you never thought you needed on the boat and then realized you do after you set sail. Dinner with Mike and Doralyn before they go home for Christmas. Finally saw the rocket launch tonight from the deck! 🚀 (Unable to include the video as it’s too large, the picture shows the start of the launch.)

Tue 19th Dec 2023 - We have the all clear to head out tomorrow! Prep day today, nice sunny Florida winter  day.

Wed 20th Dec 2023 - Weatherman says to delay our departure by another day due to inclement conditions. 😮🤦‍♀️We again went through lock to anchor in the Banana River for the night.

Thu 21st Dec 2023 - Challenging morning, turns out going through the lock is not really a good idea in 20 mph winds (give or take) as the method of tying up inside the lock is manual (as in, just hook a cleat or 2 with a line and hold on). And then once we cleared the lock and the bridge we were heading to the marina fuel dock to top off our diesel and get some water when the transmission cable to the port engine broke rendering that  engine useless. It took awhile to figure out why we had lost control of Muti, one of those really scary moments. We spun around in circles for a while avoiding hitting all the other boats in the marina (I guess you could say that was lucky). With help from the dock workers we finally secured ourselves to the fuel dock, but not without some gel coat damage on the starboard bow. We decided the gel coat repair can wait for next summer, but obviously the transmission cable needed to be repaired. Mike saved our butt by graciously lending us a cable, we luv you man!With input from Mike, Rob replaced the cable; sailing buddies are definitely the best! This marina is really full for the holiday season, but they said we could sit on their fuel dock for a couple of nights; moot point as we couldn’t go anywhere as Muti was broken. At a cost of course, nothing is cheap in the marine industry (especially in Florida)! 

Fri 22nd Dec 2023 - (Cape Canaveral to West Palm Beach, 109 nm, 20 hrs) Finished up the repair work to port engine and patched the gelcoat on the bow. Headed off past all the cruise ships to the ocean. 🎉👋 An overnighter to Lake Worth, bumpy as hell. Why? 😱 The good news is that it should be our last passage before crossing the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas.

Sat 23rd Dec 2023 - Anchored in Lake Worth, West Palm Beach around midday. Pretty busy anchorage close to the inlet, probably because this is a staging area for the northern Gulf Stream crossing route. We ventured further south in the ‘Lake’ to a less dense boat population and also closer to the public dock for a shorter dinghy ride to shore. We’re in the right place! Next stop: Bahamas. 🤞

Sun 24th Dec 2023 - Beautiful anchorage very close to the hustle and bustle of high rise condos in West Palm Beach, a little surreal for sure. Dinghy’ed downtown and lunched with David/Laura, fantastic to hang out with old boating friends who are now happily living the condo life in Pompano Beach. We miss seeing them on the water sailing Reunited, also a Lagoon 42. After a long lunch they drove us to the grocery store so we could pick up a few provisions before heading back to our “condo” on the water. 🙏 Hopefully a good time was had by all! David snapped the picture of us heading off in our dinghy. It was clear after seeing it why an Uber driver a few weeks prior informed us we were easy to spot in the rain as we were “Mustard and Kethcup”!

Mon 25th Dec 2023 - Feliz Navidad! 🎄 Peaceful, quiet day here in the anchorage. Overcast and windy, but beautiful. ❤️

Tue 26th Dec 2023 - (West Palm Beach to Berry Islands, 135 nm, 24hrs) Rained pelted down overnight, we woke to a cloudy day. The meteorologist we subscribe to gave us the all clear, we leave this afternoon! Sun was peeking through the clouds so we ventured into town for a nice walk and to get some petrol for the dinghy, quite the workout carrying the gas back to the dinghy! Departed early afternoon, a little bumpy initially but the waters calmed down in the Gulf Stream. Very busy night, lots of traffic during the crossing, from cruise ships to tankers to sailing vessels similar to ours. Thankfully we have AIS and a new radar for traffic detection.

Wed 27th Dec 2023 - Entered Bahamas waters early in the morning and continued on to the Great Harbour Cay marina in the Berry Islands. We cleared customs and hoisted the Bahamian courtesy flag! The standard procedure is to hoist a yellow quarantine flag until  check in with customs and immigration, followed by the Bahamian courtesy flag. 

Thu 28th Dec 2023 - Had a good nights sleep. Went for a walk to explore the little town today. Not much of anything, very distressed. Rained quite a bit in the afternoon. Bad storms predicted in the coming days so we’re glad we’re here tucked away safely in this little marina. 

Fri 29th Dec 2023 - Woke up to a pleasant day, overcast with the sun peaking out at times. Cycled to a beach bar on the windward side of the island.  Gerda rewarded herself with her first Rum Punch 🍹 of the season, delicious! Concluded the day with a lovely video chat with our Australian/New Zealand family: Lindsay, Chris, Janice, Steve and new addition baby George. Love the TV showing cricket in the background, hope that wasn’t the delivery room! 🤗 No bad weather apparent yet, but we think it’s coming.

Sat 30th Dec 2023 - Decided we wanted to head further south as soon as we can. Listened to our meteorologist in the morning to see when we have a good weather window but it seems it will only be later this week. 

Sun 31st Dec 2023 - Chilly night. Staying put for Old Year’s Eve, we will be ringing in the New Year in the Berries. 🥂

Peace out