Day 144, Year 10: Ready, Set, Go . . . or Not
Date: Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Winds ESE 15-20, Temp in the 70’s F
Location: Dinner Key Marina Anchorage, Coconut Grove, FL
We are poising ourselves for a Thursday departure to cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas, but we could still back out depending on the weather updates tomorrow and early Thursday morning. If the wind should go a bit more south we would feel better about crossing on Thursday, so we shall wait and see. In the meantime, we spent our day getting ready to go. We spent the morning taking a close look at the weather forecasts from various sources and in the early afternoon we headed to shore. We filled our water jerry jugs and put them in the dinghy (something we have been doing every time we go to shore) and then we headed for the bus stop. The Coconut Grove Circulator bus ends its route near West Marine, so we made the mandatory stop there before catching the next bus on to Coral Gables. We went to Coral Gables because the only TD Bank and Barnes & Nobles in this area are there, right next door to each other. TD Bank is our bank and we needed to get cash for the trip and to let them know that we will be traveling. If we don’t let them know, they invariably cut off our ATM/credit card—not a good thing to have happen just when you arrive in a foreign country. One of my birthday wishes was to go to Barnes & Nobles to get a few books that Detta recommended. So after visiting the bank, we did that. We then went to the post office to send a few items and hurried on to the bus stop to get back to Scotty’s Landing for a 6 pm meeting of cruisers interested in going to the Bahamas. We don’t actually know who the couple was that ran the meeting, but we did meet another couple, Deb and Drew from Exeter, New Hampshire, who are planning on heading to the Bahamas next week. It really is a small world. The meeting was very informative and we so appreciate the cruisers’ radio net here that comes on at 9 am every morning to let us know about things like this meeting. It was well after dark when we walked back to the dinghy dock and we had a rough ride out to Windbird. The dinghy dock is a LONG way from the anchorage and tonight it was rougher than usual. The only really calm weather we have had since we arrived here was last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday while Tom and Detta were here. We might have to ask them to come back if this wild, crazy, windy weather doesn’t stop!
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| 150303 Day 144 Florida, USA–Bahamas Cruiser Forum at Scotty's Landing |
