Coming to you from the Abacos



Bahamian coutesy flag on Salty Dog spreader



We’ve made it across to the Bahamas. We left Lake Worth (Palm Beach) last Friday morning at 4:45am with our buddy boat, S/V Autumn Wind (Ken & Kay). We had gentle seas and wind, unlike our last crossing. Cindy hooked a big Mahi Mahi about 8:30 in the morning. Big enough that we couldn't reel it in on the Penn 750 offshore spinning rig and the  stainless steel leader broke. It did jump up out of the water long enough for us to see the coloration and identify it. We motor sailed until 9pm and anchored at Great Sale Cay (pronounced key).  Ken and Kay told us after we’d gotten anchored that two hours prior they had hit something BIG and they thought it was a whale. They were a little shaken up, but other than that they were fine and Autumn Wind was as well. Got up Saturday morning and came the rest of the way to Green Turtle Cay, where we will remain until after New Year’s.

There will be a Christmas Day potluck dinner here with many cruisers in attendance. Haven’t decided what I will take yet, but there will be so many different dishes and we do so love these get togethers. We will miss being with our family on Christmas, but the next best thing is being with friends, both old and new.

We cleared in through Customs earlier today, so we are now legal to wander around and gladly display our Bahamas courtesy flag (picture above).



South African schooner - skipper aloft in 30K winds



Boat flying Austrian flag

 While we were waiting in Lake Worth for an opportunity to cross, and the wind was howling so much for a couple of days that we did not get off the boat, we had to find something to entertain ourselves – so one day we got out the binoculars and tried to figure out how many different countries were represented in the anchorage, by the flags they flew, as this is an area of staging for boats wanting to head to the Bahamas, as well as other islands south. We probably didn’t get all the countries, but here are the ones we did get; US; Australia; Switzerland; New Zealand; Canada; South Africa (believe it or not there were 3); Austria; Sweden; Norway and France. The next day, because the wind was still howling, we decided to count the boats that were dragging their anchors and had to re-anchor. That count got up to 9. Our anchor did not budge – thankfully. Some days you are the entertainment and some days you get to watch the entertainment.


We wish everyone of you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Waiting for the illusive 'Weather Window'

We’ve meandered down from New Smyrna Beach to Cocoa to Vero and are now in Lake Worth (Palm Beach), anchored behind Jack Nicklaus’ house, or at least it is rumored to be his house – who knows?!

Vero Beach

Our humble Christmas Tree

We were in Vero Beach for a week and ran into a number of boats that we’d seen three years ago and many more that we didn’t recognize. We did get to view the Christmas Parade of Boats while there, as they came into the anchorage and turned around right in front of us – we couldn’t have had a better seat. Also managed to get to Riverside Café to watch the Auburn vs. S. Carolina SEC Championship game – GO AUBURN!!! Hopefully we’ll be somewhere we can watch them play for the National Championship in January.

Jeff’s gotten many of his projects completed, although as I’ve said in the past, for every one that is completed two more go on the list. We seem to have a terrible leak around one of the big windows on the port side of the boat, along with both large overhead hatches, which we found during the all-day rain last Wednesday. Today’s project is to dig out all the caulking and re-caulk before the rain comes in Sunday night.

The view from our cockpit last night

For the last couple of days it has actually been warmer – in the 70’s. That will come to a screeching halt – the warm weather that is – as the next cold front moves in.


Our plan is to hang out here in Lake Worth until the weather is right to cross to the Bahamas. Our course takes us out the inlet here and then across about 54 nautical miles of open ocean including the Gulf Stream to the banks. If the wind is from the North, the north flowing Gulf Stream kicks up high seas. So we need light winds from any direction but North for the Gulf Stream seas to settle down and enough time before the next cold front to be in a safe anchorage in the Bahamas. Best guess is conditions may be right next Friday December 17. Perhaps the next post will be coming to you from a tropical island!