Erben
Renewal back underway
After
four months hanging around Ortega Landing – minus a few shore trips, we have
headed south along the Atlantic ICW for a crossing to Bimini from Cape Florida
in Biscayne Bay. Our trek south was
uneventful – mostly using familiar anchorages.
The much delayed Space X launch provided entertainment on our stopover
in Titusville – directly opposite the Kennedy Space Center. The endless bridges below St Lucie Inlet were
a pain with their schedules designed to test our slow speed as was the traffic
from the all too frequent inconsiderate South Florida boaters who trashed our
kitchen with their wakes. Those
inconsiderate few are so memorable we sometimes forget to mention all those who
are careful to slow down and share the channel graciously or let others pass
through bridges first to help them make the next opening.
In
a fast 10 days we were on the hook behind Florida International University. The Haulover Marina let us use their dinghy
dock so the Admiral could make a quick trip to California for her big sister’s
wedding. This long awaited event was as
unique as the happy couple and a great chance to wish them well and see
siblings as well as cousins. It was
also nice to meet the groom’s family who traveled from Oregon for the
festivities. A once in a lifetime celebration not to be missed!
Back
on board after a marathon shopping trip to Publix – our favorite grocery store,
we exited the last bridges for a quiet night off No Name harbor ready to jump
over to Bimini with first light. The
waters were calm for the crossing and we entered the harbor at Bimini Sands to
clear customs. (Our attempts to anchor
in the thin sand and rock were unsuccessful and luckily the resort had space
for us.) It was an easy entry with Steve
filling a few trees worth of forms and sharing a taxi to the airport with three
other cruiser captains. The Admirals
dutifully waited with cold beverages to celebrate our official clearing through
customs – the lowering of the yellow quarantine flag and raising the Bahamas pennant.
The
next morning we crossed the banks on another calm day and spent a night partway
to break up the 130 mile trip into West Bay on New Providence Island – home to
Nassau. With the weather gods still in
our favor we only stopped for the night and headed on across the banks to
Highbourne Cay in the Exumas – our cruising grounds for this spring.
Time
to relax and get on Bahamas time - just us and few mega yachts in this scenic
stop. Hope to have good WIFI to keep
this more current and add the photos.
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