Friday, March 18, 2016

Erben Renewal back underway

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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