Weather continues to stink. We are forced to leave Vero
harbor and head on the inside to Lake Worth. We are not happy but there
will be a small weather window for two days in two days to go to the
Bahamas. The down side is that we will have 10 days of foul weather
after that. Forecast have 10-13 ft swells in Atlantic from the Bahamas
to Sint Maarten during the period. We will see when we get to Lake Worth.
The city of Jupiter has many bridges and they are not
conveniently spaced. We losted several hours waiting on bridges. It
took us over 2 hours to get out of the Jupiter area. Did we mention
that we are not fond of the 'inside'.
Sailer Boy and his folks on SV Island Dreaming passed us
(everybody passes us) on the way to Lake Worth. We met them in Vero
where they had the cutest dog in the harbor. They are heading south for
Miami and the Keys.
We arrived at the Lake Worth anchorage near the inlet.
Anchorage is lumpy but we are less than 5 minutes from th inlet. Sammy
is happy as her BBB is available and the wind is not too bad. It is a
good thing we refilled it before we left Vero.
Today we are ready. Our plan has us leaving this evening
when the wind dies a bit, follow the Gulf Stream until we are abeam of
the northern limits of the Little Bahamas Banks, then head easterly
until we arrive at the North Man o War Channel and then into Marsh
Harbour. As we left at 1730, we noticed that the skies were darkening to
the west. As we went out the inlet, we were greeted by two tugs and a
dredge. No problems, Mon; except the skies turned into squalls that
chased us to the Gulf Stream.
The squalls vanished about 4 hours out from Lake Worth and
it was a pleasant motor sail up the Gulf Stream and then outside the
Little Bahamas Bank. Wind by the time we arrived at the Man of War
north channel (at 0730) was non existent. We had a bit of an 'oops' as
we were lining up to enter the channel; the Garmin chart plotter stopped
plotting. No problem. We reset it and life was good again.
We entered the Marsh Harbour anchorage around 0930 and it
was a bit crowded. We were lazy so we got a slip at the Conch Inn
marina. Maybe that was not the best choice as it is mainly a home for
charter boats. But hey, this was our first shot at the Abacos. Our
plan is to check out the place and then scope out an anchorage. But who
knows.
They have an interesting and informative Cruiser's Net
every morning at 0900 on VHF channel 68. It provides useful weather
information, status of the various ocean channels, as well as a bit of
advertising by the local vendors. We found it more useful than the
George Town net. We discovered "Buck a Book" through the net; a
business in a container that is helping the effort to save the Abaco
horse population. Very nice people who run the place. We bought a few
books and DVDs.
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