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Ashore Travel

Happy Birthday to Me

We were on the customs dock in Old Bahama Bay, West End, Grand Bahama at 7:30 am and got everything in order. Chris went ashore to clear in with Customs once they opened, and I restored order to the inevitable disarray of an offshore passage. I was so excited, but I didn’t dare text anyone […]

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Travel Under Way

Adios, America!

I slept better than I expected I would, but I’d be lying if I claimed not to be nervous. The Gulf Stream can be a true beast if conditions aren’t good, and even in settled conditions I had no idea what to expect. Besides, I’m always nervous before an offshore passage, even though I’ve now […]

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Ashore Travel

Merry Christmas

It was weird to spend Christmas away from family. This isn’t the first time we haven’t been home – a few years ago, Chris, his parents and I spent Christmas in the jungle in Belize. And last year, we had our very first Christmas (celebrated on Christmas day) in our own apartment due to the […]

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Ashore Travel

Staging

This week was all about final prep for the trip. Vero has a fantastic, free bus system, and on Saturday we headed over to Target and Lowes to get some school supplies to bring to donate in the islands, and we needed ratchet straps and a heat gun. It took longer than we’d hoped, but […]

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Ashore Travel

Velcro, er, Vero Beach

The trip to Vero Beach took us through a narrow channel surrounded by spoil islands and shoals – in places the water was only inches deep right up to the edge of the channel – but it was a pretty trip. We topped off our fuel before pulling into our slip, and the first thing […]

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Travel Under Way

Spoiled

We didn’t have far to go yesterday, so we started the morning with breakfast in town at a cute little bakery. We even got a bit of breeze (and by a bit I only mean 5-10kts mostly on the nose), and the Indian River was deep enough outside the ICW channel that we were able […]

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Ashore Travel

Hot Cocoa

We decided not to stay the full week in Titusville – we had hoped to stop off at Cocoa, and since it’s close enough that we could make the hop in a single morning, we decided to go for it. Chris took the first watch, and I took over so he could take his morning […]

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Ashore Travel

We Have Liftoff

It was really nice to be back on a mooring for a while – although it was so calm that it didn’t feel that much different than being on a dock. One morning, we took Squall to circumnavigate one of the little spoil islands, and it almost felt like we were in the tropics. But […]

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Travel Under Way

See Ya Later, Alligator

As usual, we were on our way with the sunrise. I was glad we chose not to stay in Daytona for the week – I don’t think it would have been my scene – but it wasn’t a bad stop for the night. With the current running hard against, at points we were down to […]

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Travel Under Way

In a Fog

…alternately: I’m just trying to find the bridgeHas anybody seen the bridgePlease(Have you seen the bridge)I ain’t seen the bridge(Where’s that confounded bridge) The Crunge – Led Zeppelin While the current was still running in our favor, we cast off our lines once more. It was a beautiful morning with a light haze, but shortly […]