Our Voyage South

December 16, 2013

We were scheduled to be put back in the water Monday, December 2nd at 10:00, so we were standing by ready to help with the launch. The travel lift finally had us in the water at 11:30, Alex and Jesse, the 2 guys who operate the Travel lift, did such a great job we just stood by and watched till they had Time 2 Go tied to the dock. In the afternoon we started some of the in-water work...we got the jib on, the dinghy in the water and tied to the boat, and test ran the engine.

Tuesday Dave found out the raw water pump had oil leaking from the seal and he arranged to order a new pump. We managed to get the main sail on and Dave did an oil change, before our day ended early. Today was the date that one of the Thanksgiving week parties was rescheduled to, due to last week’s weather. Tonight was the Wine Tasting Party, which besides for more wine then anybody really needed, there was a great meal and a really good band that played all the songs that we all could dance to. The night ended with a grape stomping competition that neither of us had enough wine in us to want to participate in but was fun to watch.

The next morning we went into town for last minute errands and checked over the van prior to taking it to the storage yard. In the afternoon the new raw water pump arrived and Dave installed it. Today ended early as well because it was the second postponed party from Thanksgiving week. Tonight was Reggae night, complete with a Caribbean meal, a keg of beer, a steel drum band, and later limbo dancing. We made this an early night, as we were planning to leave in the morning.

We took a bit of a ribbing about our destination as we were only going about 10 miles down the St.Lucie Canal to a campground and marina run by the Army Corp of Engineers. This marina is similar to the one we stayed at last spring at the Franklin Lock, very quiet and peaceful. We are still finding Tree Frogs on the boat at night, gave 4 the heave ho last night. After one night we headed east again to Stuart and their mooring field.

Sunset Bay Marina and Anchorage is a popular spot for people to stop and wait for a weather window to cross to the Bahamas. There are good facilities at the marina for anyone staying there including laundry, showers and a boaters lounge with decent WiFi. Nearby there is a good selection of shopping, including a Publix grocery store within a short walk from the mooring field. We were fortunate to be able to get a mooring ball. Waiting for a weather window here isn’t as boring as it sounds at first. The new outboard motor we brought down is a real treat... not having to wonder if it will start when we climb into the dinghy to go someplace, is wonderful. There are quite a few of the people that we had met a Indiantown Marina here and we have been getting loads of suggestions about places to see when we get to the Abacos in the Bahamas. On one of our trips in the dinghy, Dave spotted a large Wharram catamaran and when he told the people that we had a small 17’ Wharram cat at home, we were invited on board to tour their boat. Their boat was the prototype for the 46’ Tiki model and they knew James Wharram personally. Ann and Neville were a neat couple! Ann has sailed over 50,000 miles, including a solo crossing of the Atlantic and Neville at 78, had similar experiences. We had a wonderful afternoon having British tea and hearing of different places and getting advice as to when to cross the Gulf stream and where to stop over there.

There was a possible weather window coming up on Sunday December 15th so we decided to leave Stuart on Friday and go south to the Lake Worth anchorage to be closer if it happened. Six hours and eight bridges later we dropped the anchor in the north end of Lake Worth in West Palm Beach. Saturday the weather window closed, the forecast was for 14+ knots of wind and 4’-6’ of waves on Sunday. We took a slip at nearby Old Port Cove Marina, to give our batteries a good charging. The dockmaster told us about a 72’ Sportfishing boat that had tried to go out and had to turn back due to the waves at the inlet. While we were checking out the boaters lounge we met Ed, who drove the marina’s courtesy van and he offered to take us to any spots we needed to go. So we took him up on his offer and picked up some supplies.

Monday we moved Time 2 Go back to the anchorage to wait for the next weather window.