November 17, 2011

Mission aborted! We hauled the anchor at 3:15am and were headed out of the inlet by 3:30am. We made our heading towards West End of Grand Bahama Island, the inlet was choppy and the seas were a little choppy too. The wind was ESE at 10 knots. As we made our way out into the Gulf Stream we were getting pushed as we had expected, but our 35 degree heading change into the wind was not comfortable (The West End is due East of Lake Worth Inlet, and when we hit the Gulf steam which has a 3-4 knot current it was pushing us North, so we had to head ESE to correct for the current). We were hobby horsing over the 4 ft waves that had about a 4 second period between them, water was coming over the bows and we were getting that annoying wave slap. Our speed over ground was only 4 knots, and even leaving at 3:30 we were just barely forecast to arrive in the Bahama's by 5:30. We were essentially fighting the wind and current. The deciding factor for us to turn around was that the wind was also forecast to turn to the North and that would have made things miserable if it changed before we got to the Islands.
Deason was another factor, he does not like these kind of conditions, and a 12+ hr day of misery for him was not fair. He is at the age where he can make is own assessments of a situation, and as much as we try to reassure him, he is going to trust his own feelings. Where as Dahlia is ambivalent, as long as we are smiling she will too.
The hardest part about turning around, and it sounds so silly, but we were actually worried about what people might think. It seems so juvenile and high schoolish, but part of the reason we didn't turn around right away is pride. We have always told ourselves to trust our first instincts, and inevitably we did. Had it just been Chris and I with out the kids we probably would have kept going, but we made the prudent decision for us. The next few days the forecast is suppose to be rubbish, and we would have gotten over there and had to fork out a ton of money to stay at a marina because we wouldn't have been able to make it to a protected anchorage in time.
So for now we are back in Lake Worth, and hopefully, another weather window will open up next week.

November 16, 2011

We have been running around like crazy trying to get everything we think we might use or need over in the Bahamas. We do know that if we forget anything that we can get it in the Bahamas, but it is so much more expensive. I guess beer is $50.00 a case????? Not that we need beer, but it is still staggering to think that a case of Budweiser can empty your wallet. We have also made copies of all of our important documents, and stocked the boat with plenty of toilet paper!
Our water maker is fully installed, and we will give it a test run to make sure there are no leaks. It is a comfort to know that we won't have to pay for water in the Bahamas. Here in the States you are able to get free water where ever you stop, but in the Bahamas it could cost as much as $0.50/gal. It doesn't sound like much, but to fill a 100 gallon tank every five days will add up quick.
We are at the North end of Lake Worth right now, we will head down to Peanut Island tonight to anchor closer to the inlet, and we will head across tomorrow around 3am. That way we can hopefully check in and anchor before the sun sets.

November 14, 2011

We had a great visit over to Naples. We didn't do much after meeting our midwife. We basically spent our time between the pool and the couch. We did go to the zoo one day. Dahlia is very much into animals....all animals, and even insects. So naturally the zoo was a hit.
We plan to head back to Palm Beach today and get the boat ready to leave. The forecast this week is for South winds so hopefully we can get it together to go.

November 11, 2011-Naples

We have met the midwife and loved her, she is knowledgeable, laid back, and can be to the house in less than 10 mins. We did have a little scare, we got to listen to the heart beat and when she felt my uterus, she seemed to think that it was a little big for my supposed gestation. She thought that we should have an ultrasound to see if there was only one baby in there! I wish I could have got a picture of Chris' face when she said that, it was priceless.
We went for the ultrasound that day, and there is only one baby in there! I am 14 wks and the baby looks healthy and growing normally. What a relief, mainly because I really want to have this baby at home, and no one will deliver twins at home. I am sure I would have been hard pressed to find a MD who wouldn't try to convince me to have a C-section too.
We will be in Naples until Sunday, then back to Lake Worth to await some Southern winds for our crossing over to West End, Bahamas.

November 9, 2011

We had a great day. We swam in Barry and Marsha's (or as Dahlia refers to them as; Auntie Barry and Auntie Marsha) pool and then went to a sea turtle hospital. They rehab sea turtles and then release them back to the ocean. There were quite a few sea turtles there, most of them had swallowed fish hooks or gotten entangled in fishing line, but there were some who were there from boat propeller injuries. When they have shell injuries air gets trapped under their shell and they are not able to dive because of the buoyancy issues. They need to dive to be able to eat and sleep, without that ability they have a hard time remaining healthy.
Deason and I took a half an hour sea turtle class while we were there. We learned all about the 5 different types of sea turtles that inhabit the Atlantic and about how they treat them at the hospital. It was a lot of fun, apparently it was only for kids and I was the first adult to sign up.....weird!
We head to Naples tomorrow, and Uncle Barry will be keeping a watch out for our boat while we are away. I wonder if he will have a big party on the boat while we are gone?

November 8, 2011

We made it! It was close today, we weren't sure if we would be able to make it all the way to Lake Worth, but we did. We ended up anchoring in the dark, but at least there was a near full moon and plenty of room here. You could probably anchor 1000 boats and still have some decent swing room.
We are not sure yet if we will head over to the Bahama's from here or from Ft Lauderdale, but at least that is only a day trip if we decide to go down there first. The winds are forecast to be out of the North indefinitely so we won't be heading to the Bahama's this week at least.
We are going to leave the boat here in North Palm for a few days while we head over to Naples. I have an appointment to meet with a midwife on Friday to make sure everything is going according to plan. Feels like it is, and hopefully we will be able to do a home birth at my Dad's house.
I wanted to do a home birth with Dahlia, but at the time my insurance said that I couldn't, even though it would have been considerably less expensive. This time I would really like to have this baby at home (or Dad's home). I had two natural child births so far, with no complications. I didn't exactly have bad experiences in the hospital, but as soon as the babies come out I want to be in my own bed and not have to hear overhead STAT pages waking me up at all hours. Its a frustrating process if you want to go home from the hospital early, there are massive hoops to jump through.

November 7, 2011

We left Titusville early, and had another beautiful day, sunny and warm with a few passing showers that only lasted 10 minutes max and after they always left a rainbow. We had dolphins off of our bow today too, and even though we see hundreds of them each day, I never get tired of seeing them.
We had planned on anchoring just North of Vero Beach. Right near the anchorage is a small dock that is listed in our guide as being only $10 per/night, usually these places are taken up pretty quickly by other cruisers so we never plan on staying at one of them. When we came up to the dock it was empty, so we decided to take advantage of it.
The dock is called "Jones Fruit Dock", it is part of the land that was owned by the Jones Family who had a citrus grove. They use to sell the fruit commercially, and also if you bought fruit from them you could stay at the dock for the low price of $10. Years back hurricanes had destroyed the citrus plants on the farm, and they were no longer able to sell commercially. Dick Jones who had been the owner at the time had still allowed people to stay at his docks for the minimal fee of $10 plus he would usually bring you a free bag of fruit.
Recently, Dick Jones has passed away, but before he did he had sold his 16 acres of land to the county for a large sum and they let him stay in his home until he passed. The dock is sort of in limbo, the county is thinking of using it for environmental purposes. The gentleman who is the care taker (Scott) came to see us when we pulled in, he gave us the run down of what happened and told us that he wasn't really concerned if we paid or not.
He also gave us a small tour of the area, and showed us the inside of a house that was for sale next to his. Most of the area around Jones land is big gated communities, and golf courses, except for the small part that we were showed by Scott which is all dirt road and privately owned homes. It was peaceful and quiet, and almost felt like we were walking down a dirt road on a small tropical island. It is these experiences that we would never have had if not for being on a boat, I think there is something kind of special about that.