Sailing Ohana

Finally seeing a “weather window” that looked promising, we started completing our requirements for crossing over to the Bahamas. This meant a couple major grocery/provisioning trips, covid tests, plus a vet visit for Morris, all to be competed within 24 hours of arriving on Bimini. Obtaining the required health permits and pet permits, cruising documents, etc., was a mind-boggling project. I found a vet that would come out to meet us at our dinghy for Morris’s exam, since we have no transportation other than Lyft. It all went well until I dropped my phone in the water at the dinghy dock. This was devastating on top of several days of frustration with cold, rainy weather and feeling “stuck” in Florida. We grabbed yet another Lyft to the nearest Best Buy where I bought the only unlocked phone they had. So now I’m the disappointed owner of a Samsung Galaxy 21.

We headed east for the crossing in the middle of the night so that the boys could sleep. As soon as we got out of the channel from Fort Lauderdale it became obvious that the weather was not what was predicted. The waves were huge and the winds were about 8 knots more than forecasted. We got a couple of miles out and and both boys threw up. We made the sad (but correct) decision to turn hard starboard (South, in this case) and go to Key Biscayne, FL.