We have one full day left to prepare for our first passage – Crossing from Fort Lauderdale to Bimini, Bahamas. We’re anxious. Last night I woke up in a sweat at 2am. Yelling gibberish at Ashley trying to clarify what kind of shackle she needed. It was critical to our survival. We were in a storm and I couldn’t hear her over the noise of the wind. She quickly reassured me and put the fan on me. The sweat dried. Back to sleep I went. Lightly.
But there was a big storm last night. A massive thunderstorm was upon us for hours. I’ve never seen it rain that hard. Terrorizing. I imaged the lightening hitting our mast and destroying our electronics. My mind churned trying to think of all possibilities. And then I found one – Our dinghy filling up with water, getting so heavy and causing the davits to crack. Out on deck I went. Buck naked and pulled the drain plug out of the dinghy. There was a good 1’ of water in it.
I sit here the next morning with coffee in hand and realize the last two weeks resembled last nights thunderstorm. Endless days of work. Fixing critical boat things. Cleaning. Planning. Worry. It hasn’t been pleasant. It hasn’t been paradise. Not the paradise we imagined.
Tomorrow we leave. Come hell or high water. Tomorrow we point our bow towards paradise.
One of many trips up the mast. Fixing the mast track.
The view ain’t bad up here.
Mast track problems.
We were anchored in Sylvia bay for close to one week. Sylvia bay is an interesting place. It’s a party scene on the weekend. They also have a few rules which the police enforce religously: No laundry hanging off the life lines. No pooping. But wake boarding and jet skiing is absolutely allowed. I think they don’t like live-aboard cruisers. Why would they. They’re cheating at life.
Had dolphins visit us on multiple occasions.
That headlight was glued to my head for two weeks straight.
