Ft. Lauderdale and Finally to The Bahamas
We have spent the last few weeks in Ft. Lauderdale in an anchorage called Lake Sylvia. Our first two nights in Florida were in a marina (which is very expensive) until the Captain on the next boat over told us about the lake. We had some engine problems the guys had not been able to diagnose and needed to get this resolved. We asked around and found a lady mechanic that came highly recommended, The Diesel Doctor, Sherry Ouelette. She was willing to come to our boat to find out the cause of our troubles. Turns out she was “Crackerjack” as the guy who recommended her said. She listened to the problems we described and told us the solution. We ordered the parts straight away and two day later we had them installed. Now we just had to wait for our weather window.
In the meantime, we used our dinghy to get more supplies and just tool around the area. I had never driven the dinghy so it was lesson time for me. Jaxson learned that the dinghy tied up to the rear of the boat is also a great jungle gym and spent fun afternoons swinging to if from our boat. There was a restaurant close to our area that allowed dinghies to dock for a $10 fee they would then subtract from your bill if you ate or drank at their establishment. We used this a few times and enjoyed shopping and dining.
We watched the weather and read our reports from Chris Parker (He is a weather service we subscribe to) and December 21st was the day to leve. We left around 10AM and motored down to Key Biscayne, Florida. We stayed just outside of No Name Harbor in a nice calm anchorage to ready ourselves for our early morning departure to the Bahamas.
Our plan was to sail most of the day on Monday the 23rd and clear into the Bahamas in Bimini. Then Stephen and Natasha looked at the charts more closely and found there was not many places we could anchor and we had some higher winds coming in on Christmas Eve. We decided to motor on though the night and check in at the Berry Islands on Christmas Eve morning. We love it when a plan comes together. We arrived this morning at 8AM to Chub Cay. Chub Cay is one of the larger of the Berry Islands and has a fuel dock and other amenities. After we fuel up and check in we plan to spend the rest of the Christmas Holiday just exploring, snorkeling, and relaxing.
