Sun Spirit

 Yes we have arrived in the Bahamas. We are at the Old Bahama Bay Marina in West End - the most western point of Grand Bahama Island and the closest to West Palm Beach. Since the days are still short at this time of year and you always want to arrive in daylight, Steve told us it was best to leave at 4 am this morning! A bit scary getting out of the mooring field and the channel, but once we got to open ocean we followed right behind Gaya. This was our view of the backside of Gaya - you can see their stern light: Once the sun came up we could sit back and enjoy the journey. A few firsts for us today - first time in the open ocean and first time travelling in the dark. It would have been the first time putting the sails out on this boat, but there was no wind. We were told it was perfect for the crossing as the waves were quite small as well. We ended up having to motor the entire 9 hours. A perfect day for power boaters. Nice beach and pool here which was great after a long hot swe...

 Fort Pierce City Marina was a great place to stay for a couple of days. It was so nice to be at a dock for a change - there is laundry facilities, showers and Lise was able to drive us to the grocery store before their car was moved to the storage area. We also purchased some rapid Covid tests just in case anyone is feeling ill, we can test and isolate immediately - hoping it won’t happen though. There sure are some big boats in Florida - this one was parked on the same pier as us: On December 27th we celebrated the second birthday of these two on a FaceTime call: We also celebrated our Millar Family Christmas with a zoom call - it was supposed to be in person but actually we get to see more family this way. We heard it is really cold in Alberta and BC! On December 28th we left Fort Pierce with “Gaya” at 7:00 am to allow enough time for our next destination. Good thing too because we had a couple of incidents that slowed us. First off, Gaya’s engine alarm went off so they had to s...

 Christmas 2021 and we have arrived in Fort Pierce after leaving our home port 7 days ago. We left St. Augustine on Wednesday and put down the anchor in Daytona. It was a cold journey with a temperature of 8 C when we started out. Since we have no heat and no winter clothes, we were bundled up in layers - 3 pairs of pants, 1 long-sleeved shirt, 2 sweaters and a jacket for me. Lots of pretty scenery on the way on the sun was shining. It gradually started to warm up - plus we were heading further south. The next day our stop was Titusville where we filled up with diesel and pumped out the heads. We managed to snag the last mooring can and settled in for the night. Friday morning a lovely sunrise greeted us as we set out. This was a long 8 hour day and we were tired by the time we stopped at a small anchorage just north of Vero Beach. A perfect spot to spend Christmas Eve. We were having some trouble with our anchor and Gunter had to spend some time working on it. We were worried that...

 We left Green Cove Springs bright and early as the sun was rising on Saturday December 18th. Menus are planned for the week and we have enough fresh food to last until next weekend. We arrived in the Jacksonville port area which is always a bit scary with huge container ships and car transport ships all around and moving quite fast in the shipping lanes. We tucked into an inlet off the main traffic lanes beside Blount Island and set the anchor for the night. We saw our first dolphins of the season and lots of small boat traffic since it was the weekend. Some of these guys think it is fun to drive fast close to us and then watch as our boat rolls back and forth from the wake. Is it coincidence that these boats were flying Trump 2024 flags?! Luckily night comes early this time of year and it was quiet once it got dark. We had a beautiful sunset on the port side of the boat and moon rise on the starboard side. On Sunday we started south down the ICW and arrived in St. Augustine in go...

 Another busy week of boat work - why do things take so much longer than you think? In the blink of an eye the week has flown by and it gets hard to remember what we actually did. The good news is we got our vaccine boosters at the local pharmacy - no line-ups or trouble booking appointments as long as we were within 1 day of our 6-month period.  It’s hard to believe that Christmas is only a week away. Apparently trees are getting sold out quickly here too. Beer overboard!As we were loading up the boat with essential supplies, Gunter dropped a case of beer into the river - we watched in shock expecting it to sink rapidly to the bottom, however beer floats!  He was able to snag it with the boat hook and retrieve it from the back of the boat - another crisis averted. The boat seems to be extra heavy now. We missed this guy’s 5th birthday, but had a nice FaceTime call. Happy Birthday! What else? Put up the dodger and bimini (basically shade covers) which was a whole day of p...

 One week after arriving, we are in the water, although with a lot to do still. However, it is much easier to get jobs done while at the dock (when you have power and running water) rather than on the “hard”. Climbing up and down the ladder all day is very tiring, so we are glad to have a small climb of 3 steps onto the pier.  The docks are all full until boats start leaving so that is why we are tied up to a pier. So what did we do all week? Cleaning, organizing, fixing stuff, having new batteries installed, shopping for staples and unloading stuff from the car up that ladder. Cleaning all the dishes required the 4 bucket and a hose method. Canned goods that are stored in the bilge (under the floorboards) have to have their paper labels removed in case water soaks the labels off and then you don’t know what anything is! For that reason, all the cans have to be labelled with permanent marker. Gunter working hard in the head, so we can hopefully avoid toilet troubles! We took a...