We Reached, June 2, 2013

The Bahamians have a term for arriving at a destination. They simply say, "we reached." When we arrived in St. Augustine on May 31st, we felt like we reached.




The above picture shows what has happened to our Bahama courtesy flag after flying for five months in the windy Bahamas. We will need to replace it before we return next winter.




We spent 18 days working our way through the Abacos. We visited the towns of Little Harbor, Hope Town, Marsh Harbor, Green Turtle Cay, Great Guana and Coopers Town. All were unique and interesting, but what we really liked was getting out to the less inhabited islands and walking the beaches. Laurie has enjoyed collecting shells on these beaches.




This is a "signing tree" at Allen's Cay. This is a spot where people leave signs and momentos to commemorate having been here.


This is us in front the "signing tree." The hard hat we found on the beach and decorated is above Laurie's head.




This is Dave and Teresa, a couple from Nova Scotia that we met in early May at Davis Harbor on Eleuthera. We have been bumping into them regularly as we have travelled and have enjoyed their company. They are doing a long offshore leg to North Carolina as they head home.

After leaving Allen's Cay, we moved to Great Sale Cay to prepare to cross the Little Bahama Bank and the the Gulf Stream and on to Florida. The forecast came together and we left Great Sale at 9:00 am on May 27 (Memorial Day). It took most of the day to get across the bank and just before dark the water depth plunged from 20 feet to over 2000 feet deep. We had planned to fish when we hit the Gulf Stream, but it was much too rough to consider fishing. There was no way we could land and clean a fish in 7-8 foot seas.

It was a remarkable crossing in that we sailed nearly the entire way under a full moon. With the aid if the current in the Gulf Stream, we were at times making over 10 miles per hour. We also did not see another boat the whole way. We arrived at Cape Canaveral at 8:00 am, covering the approximately 180 miles in 23 hours. We were tired, but happy to have the crossing behind us.



We relaxed for two days at Canaveral before moving north. We were faced with the choice of going outside and sailing along the coast in the Atlantic or going up the Intracoastal Waterway. The forecast was for continued strong winds and big waves on the Atlantic, so we choose the ICW.

After two full days on the waterway. We arrived in St. Augustine and tied up to a mooring ball. This is a place Leo and Dan had stopped on the way south in early December, but Laurie had not seen.




We will do some sight seeing and make a plan for storing the boat, then it will be on to Michigan for the summer.

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Location:St. Augustine, Florida