Honah Lee 2

 It seems that every weekend there is a major blow that pins us to an anchorage a lot longer than planned. Last week, heavy winds were forecasted for Sunday. We wouldn’t be able to move until the following Tuesday or Wednesday because we needed to wait for the sea to calm down. It had been 5 days already that we were in this small town on Cat Island and looking at possibly another 5 days. Not a lot to do in this  area nor did it have many restaurants, groceries, fuel or water to fill out tanks.  There was a one day window to cross a big exposed section of the Atlantic to another island that is much bigger with lots of services, hiking trails, farmers market and more.  The decision was made. We would do a 10 to 12 hour day and get to Long Island before the next big blow.  Always before heading out, we check long term weather, the direction of the winds, currents, tides etc. This time of the year the winds are mostly south-east so when anchoring we look for areas ...

It’s been three weeks since our arrival in the Bahamas. The weather is definitely better than Canada; warmer and sunny but the winds and rough seas have been brutal. On arrival, there was a heavy wind warning coming within the week so we made a hasty retreat from the Grand Bahamas Island to Hatchet Bay in the Eleutheras. Hatchet Bay is an area that we already knew from last year that offers all around wind protection. The entrance to the Bay is nerve wracking because on both sides are high rocks and is a very narrow corridor.. Luckily we already knew this so it made it a little less stressful. The first wind storm wasn’t as bad as predicted. Our anchor held nicely and we managed a decent nights’sleep. A second storm was coming in a few more days with heavier winds. We decided to stay put. The winds kept escalating..... looked on our anchor monitor... shit we’re dragging 😱 our neighbor is decidedly much closer than before and he’s not on his boat. We needed to pull up our anchor and mo...

Customs and Immigration  Customs and Immigration building  West Palm Beach   Finally arrived in the Bahamas. It’s been long in coming and quite the journey to get here. When we left Canada on November 9th, we never expected that it would take this long to get back here nor that we would have so many hoops to jump through. It was quite the feat to travel by air with all that luggage including a ladder and cockpit table and after that it was one mechanical problem after another. Every time we solved one, another would pop up, or the old one would break down again. Ordering the right part, making sure that it’s  all there and fits was quite the challenge. When we left Sketchy Marina,  the main motor on our boat wasn’t working well and the small outboard motor on our dinghy was questionable. We just decided to keep going and see if we could fix it on the way down. No way we wanted to spend Christmas at Sketchy 😱 We managed to fix the main motor, but had to row...

 It’s been a challenge to say the least.  We left Canada on November 9th and had expected to be in the Bahamas by now. Unfortunately we are still in Florida working on mechanical problems on both the boat and our dinghy motor. For every problem that we solve, it seems that 2 more pop up. Of course our budget flew out the window several weeks ago. We did leave Green Cove Springs  on December 20th heading towards West Palm Beach where we’ll cross the Gulf Stream.  The last 3 weeks have been very cold in northern Florida. Nights have been as low as 1 degree Celsius. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day tied to a mooring ball in Titusville due to heavy winds. We couldn’t get off the boat since our dinghy motor is shot and rowing wasn’t an option with the distance to the dock and big waves. So we lit candles to chase off the cold air and stayed under the covers to stay warm. Who would have thought it would be so cold in this southern state. Oh and a few glasses of win...