Running Errands in the West Palm Beach Area, Florida, USA

Dawn on Tuesday, March 31

By yesterday morning, the wind had died down quite a bit and we had light rain. But the anchorage was more uncomfortable than it had been the last couple of days. There was more boat traffic, and the wakes made the anchorage rolly. Also, the wind waves were causing a somewhat lurchy motion. Eric put out the port flopper stopper.

After Keith finished his school work, we took the dinghy to shore. There wasn’t much water in the bottom of the dinghy, so hadn’t rained all that much overnight, either. We hopped in the car and headed to the closest mall. It was very upscale and fancy. After being in The Bahamas for so long, where access to goods was limited, it was a bit overwhelming to be in a mall, with unlimited access to almost any good one may want to buy.

We bought Christi a new phone case — hers has been held together with blue tape for more than a month. We got a new keyboard for Keith — his had broken about a month ago. Eric found a work around, so Keith has been managing, but it was making school and talking to friends tough for him. Eric got his reading glasses fixed — one of the nose pieces had broken a couple of weeks ago and it actually hurt him to wear his reading/computer glasses.

After taking care of our errands, we went to El Mezcal for a late lunch. We were sad to find it was closed on Mondays. Having our heart set on Mexican, we found a place with good reviews called Torero’s and went there. It was in a strip mall.

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Visiting Friends and Family in Palm Beach, Florida, USA

Sunday, March 29 — It rained hard throughout the night, and it was still raining in the morning. At 0500, it also became vey windy. We’d made plans to meet Scott and Sheila at the sailing club at 0945. We lucked out because the rain stopped as we were getting ready to go. Here was Eric bailing out the dinghy prior to our trek to shore.

Shortly after we tied up to the dock, the rain resumed and the wind picked up even more. We had come a little early so that we could buy a pass to use the dinghy dock, and were disappointed to find that the office didn’t open until 1000. We hung out under the sailing club’s covered patio until the office opened and we could get a pass.

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Welcome Back to West Palm Beach, Florida, USA

Dawn on Friday, March 27, taken as we were getting ready to go to sea.

And the sunrise.

We pulled up anchor at 0745. It was a mostly sunny day with scattered clouds. The conditions were uncomfortable until noon, with 14-knots of wind and fairly large waves on the beam. Keith got sea sick. Christi didn’t feel great. But then the wind calmed down a little down to 10 – 11 knots and the seas began to smooth out. By 1400, it was a nice ride. We ran at 1600 RPM and our speeds averaged in the low 6s.

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Days 3 – 4 of Passage from Norfolk to Marsh Harbor, Abacos, Bahamas

Friday November 14 — By midnight, we were nearly across the Gulf Stream. Eric was able to put the autopilot back onto auto navigation mode. Our speeds improved, and Eric moved the RPM down to 1600, where we were averaging about 6-knots. The winds had calmed down and were now coming from the aft, so the ride improved. Keith’s seasickness subsided, and he didn’t seem to be catching Christi’s cold. Eric was still fighting the cold. Christi’s cold had turned into a sinus infection. It was a dark night. The moon didn’t rise until 0200, and when it did, it was only a crescent, so it only helped a little with illumination. Here was dawn:

Friday was a much better day at sea than Wednesday and Thursday had been. The seas were calmer — 3 – 4 feet at 5 – 6 seconds with wind chop waves of about 1-foot, all coming from the starboard beam. It was significantly warmer than the Chesapeake had been, and the temperatures were pleasant at 75-degrees. We were averaging high 5s/low 6s at 1600 RPM all day, although at one point, when the current was with us, we sped all the way up to 7-knots for a short while and at another point, when the current was against us, we slowed down to the low 5s for a short time.

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Keith’s Perspective on Our Last Week in the Chesapeake/Le point de vue de Keith sur notre dernière semaine dans la baie de Chesapeake

On Saturday we left Dennis Point and anchored at Deltaville for the night. On Sunday we went from Deltaville to Norfolk. We went to dinner at Lola’s with mom’s friends. On Monday, we decided to go the Bahamas instead of Bermuda. If we wanted to go to the Bahamas, we needed to get in gear quick because the next weather window was Wednesday. Dad did a bunch of repairs. 

Samedi, nous sommes partis de point Dennis et nous avons ancré le bateau à Deltaville pour la soirée. Dimanche nous sommes allés jusqu’à Norfolk. Nous avons mangé le diner à Lola’s avec les amis de maman. Lundi nous avons décidé d’aller aux Bahamas, pas aux Bermudes. Si on voulait aller au Bahamas, on devait faire beaucoup de choses très vite parce que le prochaine fois que le météo allait être en faveur était Mercredi. Papa a fait beaucoup de réparations. 

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