On the Dock Again

 We have been so busy here, fishing, cleaning, laundry, filling fuel and propane, and going on death rides with Finley that we haven't had time to untie the lines and head out again.  We are looking at leaving tomorrow, but currently the wind is pretty strong and if it doesn't die down like it is supposed to we will just have to stay another day.  We had been waiting to scrub the bottom of the boat until we were in some clear water and could see what was around us and what was growing on the bottom of the boat.  The passage over to the Bahamas took off most the grass growing off the bottom, but left about a million barnacles that had to be scraped off.  We spent our first day here scrubbing and scraping the bottom side of our boat.  Our hands and feet looked like raisins.  We of course hung out with Finley and the boys went fishing while I stayed back at the boat and worked.  I have to take advantage of the Internet connection.  They came back a few hours later with one decent sized lobster and 3 tiny ones with tails only 2 inches.  Their antennas is all you see when you spear them and they looked regular sized, but it was a surprise when they pulled them out and they were so small.  Finley took us for a drive last night in his box truck that, well you remember the last time we rode in it.  With Finley you never can be to sure where your night is going to go.  We were supposedly just picking up a mattress and delivering it to one of his friends house.  We picked up the mattress from what Finley called a "Haitian Walmart".  It is a huge warehouse, just the bones, filled with bulk items.  We wish we wouldn't have forgotten the camera.  Picture this, mountains of top ramen stacked floor to ceiling, the isles are all made of stacked food, no shelves.  Bins filled with everything from socks and underwear to pots and pans. The walls were lined with rugs, mattresses, you name it and it was probably here in bulk in this concrete box.  I basically described any Walmart you have ever been in only it was unlike anything I had ever seen.  There were small shacks on the back side of the warehouse where security lives to keep an eye on the warehouse 24 hours a day.  After we picked up the mattress we delivered it to the lady and then Finley wanted to show us some different neighborhoods and take us to get some bread at the bread guys house.  We have now seen the slum side of Freeport and purchased some homemade wheat bread, cinnamon raisin rolls, and sweet potato bread.  The lady selling the bread has some kind of skin disease that produces huge boils all over her face, arms, and hands.  We all hesitantly shook her hand.  We will never forget our camera again.

 Finley had to borrow our extra pair of flippers

 Lion Fish in a Boot

Gulf Stream

We left Lake Worth yesterday at 6:39am and arrived in Freeport, Bahamas at 12:39am. We knew we would have some choppy water because the forecast was for Northeast winds 10-15 knots.  The Gulf Stream moves 3-4 knots North and so with the winds and swells coming from the North it would create a choppy sea.  We motor-sailed for about 8 miles then pulled the motors and enjoyed a couple hours of great sailing moving about 8 knots.  Even though the prediction was for 10-15 knots of wind after 10:00am the wind died down to 3-5 knots.  This slowed us down to 2-4 knots.  We decided we had nothing but time and so we didn't put the engines in, but continued at a snails pace.  Every once in a while we would get a gust of 8-10 knots, but it never lasted long.  Also while moving 2-4 knots in the Gulf Stream that moves 3-4 knots you don't make much mileage.  In fact we were pushed North 4 miles.  As the day moved on the wind picked up a little and we averaged 5 knots.  We almost caught one fish, but lost him feet from the boat after he put up a good fight.  What we thought would take us 10-12 hours ended up taking 18 hours to cross from Lake Worth to Freeport.  By the time the sun was setting we could see the lights of Freeport and we were all ready to tie up and go to bed.  Fast forward 6 hours and that is exactly what we did!  We are proud of ourselves for not giving in a using the motors to get us here sooner.  That's right we are back in Freeport.  We didn't think we would ever want to come back here, but couldn't pass up seeing Finley one last time.  I mean how could we not stop by if we were going to the Bahamas again?  We only plan to be here a day maybe two.  We will be heading south trying to get to the Exumas.

 We thought this was Tiger Woods buzzing around our boat on this wave runner.  Turns out his boat was docked directly behind us.  It's named Privacy in the photo below.

 Sunrise

 Middle of the Gulf Stream and 9.2 feet??  What just swam beneath our boat.........

 Sunset

 Getting ready to clean the bottom of the boat in the crystal clear Bahamian water

Something's in the Water

Here in Lake Worth at night anything that moves in the water glows green. The fish swimming under our boat are surrounded by a bioluminescence. If we move our hands or feet in the water they leave a sparkling green trail.  It is really cool, but we have not been able to get any good photos.  It certainly makes for some eerie October nights!

Anchoring/ Living on the Hook

We are only on day 3 of not being tied to the dock and we LOVE it. It might be the cold front that moved in or the fact that we are always facing the wind so there is a constant breeze blowing through the boat, whatever it is it makes life so much more comfortable.  Today we went to West Marine to get the very last items on our list, then to Bed Bath and Beyond, back to West Marine, then to the boat.  Oops! Back to West Marine one last time grabbed some dinner and back to the boat.  One of the boats in our anchorage had the gas tank stolen out of his dingy today.  We were parked right next to his dingy and boy are we happy we purchased the cable, and locking system for our motor and gas tank.

Will We Ever Really Be Ready?

As we were heading south yesterday the RPM's on our starboard engine started bouncing all over the place, so we shut it off and then couldn't get it to run again.  First things first we changed the spark plugs. Nope not that, so then we changed the fuel filter.  Yay!! Started up and idles fine. Turns out it was a good thing because we thought we had 4 spare fuel filters, but really only had 2 and now only one.  We have already been to West Marine today and stocked up on fuel filters and will get spark plugs tomorrow.  After fixing the engine Preston went for a dip in the open blue to scrub the bottom of our boat where the speedometer gets its reading, because it has not been working for the last month and we figured it was just overgrown with scum. It was quite hilarious to watch the  "Daring Preston" scrub and get back in the boat in as much time as it took to jump in the water. He was out quicker than a lightning bolt. I guess it is a little creepy to jump in open ocean 100' deep not knowing what is beneath you. I don't think he will be doing it again anytime soon, because shortly after a lone shark went swimming by the boat about five feet below the surface!  CREEPY!  We had a few dumb things happen yesterday too. As we were turning into the wind to drop the sails Lucy's potty pad caught the wind and went flying! Yes, she had just used it, and all of our hatches were open.  YUCK!  One piece went flying into the ocean so we got the sails down and rolled up and practiced our man overboard. We rescued the piece of plastic with no harm done.  After that we thought we were somewhat safe back in the ICW.  Boy were we wrong.  As we were headed to our anchorage in the 50 yard wide ICW some inconsiderate guy in a monster trawler went flying past us full speed leaving behind his 4 foot wake. Phew...... We had just enough time to turn and hit the wake at some kind of angle so we didn't go bouncing all over the place.  After talking about what a jerk he was we were ambushed again. This time he came from behind with no warning, full speed, and even closer. SMACK, BOOM, and that unmistakable sound of shattering glass!  His wake hit us so hard the fridge door that locks shut flung open, everything on the table was now on the floor and my bottle of olive oil was shattered and splattered everywhere.  Of course twice wasn't enough and he was coming back for a third time. This time we got out the blow horn and were standing on deck ready to give them some hand gestures.  Boy is he lucky he turned off the ICW before he went past us again or he would have gotten it from me in my rubber gloves waving my hands up and down (universal for slow down and open your eyes you moron).  Preston had another gesture in mind.

Mine, mine, mine, mine

Bon Voyage Fort Pierce!

This blog post is the last thing we are doing before we untie the lines and cut the roots holding us in place on this dock.  I would not be surprised if we have grown roots off the bottom of our boat.  We have at least an inch maybe two of scum, moss, and probably some pilot fish that will follow us out!  We have the wind generator up and working perfectly, the boat has been cleaned inside and out, the water tank filled, and we are ready to get on the hook.  We are planning to head down the ICW to Fort Lauderdale, where we will cross the gulf stream over to the Bahamas.

Final Days in the USA Spent with Friends and at Walmart

We only have a few days left before we will be leaving Florida.  The boys have been getting the wind generator mount finished, but still have another "days" work on it.  We rented a car on Thursday and drove to Orlando to meet up with our friends that were on vacation at Disney World.  We had a blast and enjoyed spending the evening crashing their vacation!  I had been to Disney World before, but had forgotten how HUGE it is.  It is amazing how much detail Disney puts into every level of their brand.  We swam in 3 different pools all with themes, Finding Nemo, Little Mermaid, and Cars.  It was funny when we were all swimming around and I popped my head up out of the water and made everyone else hold their breath, go under water to listen to the music!  That's right Disney plays music under the water.  There is no music if your head is above the water, but the second you go under......."Sailing, takes me away, to where I've always......"Anyway we had a blast and were very happy to see our friends one last time before we leave.  We also took advantage of having the rental car and stocked up on supplies at Sam's Club and the grocery store.
Preston, being the 13 year old kid that he is, dared our neighbor kids to jump off the end of the dock into the murky water.  He of course couldn't miss the fun and joined in as well.  They all looked like they were having fun, but I would never jump willingly into the marina water.  YUCK!
Green bananas, laundry done, and the boat sitting an inch lower in the water can only mean one thing.  We are getting ready to leave!  I hope we leave as scheduled this week so I don't have to do another grocery stock.  Depending on the weather we will be trying to get off the dock on Tuesday, maybe Wednesday.  Tanya- our apple oatmeal bread will not last us till then and we will want another loaf to snack on as we travel!!!