March 14, 2105 Port of Palm Beach

Last minute details
We both woke up during the night thinking of things we should still do.  I was thinking about checking our SPOT device to be sure it was working the way we wanted it to.  And I remembered I was supposed to send a recipe to someone.  Dave was thinking about the outboard motor for the dinghy.  He decided he will check the impeller and replace it, if need be.

So this morning, Dave took the shuttle to West Marine to get a marine lubricant.  And he decided to get their impeller on the small chance that he was wrong about which one he needed.   When he returned, he serviced the outboard motor.  He was able to clean up the impeller and use the existing one.  He did find one replacement impeller on board, so we have that to take with us.  He now realized that both the West Marine and the Boat Owner’s Warehouse impellers are wrong.  There is a company that translates Mercury parts to other company’s parts, and he believes they are messing everyone up-Sierra.

I spent some time sending out the SPOT message to family that says we are OK, and checking to see if it was being received.  Since my sister wasn’t getting it, I went back into the account and realized not all of the addresses were saved.  So after about 10 e-mails between me and the SPOT device, I finally felt reassured that it was working the way we intended it to work.  It allows 10 addresses.  So we have siblings, our son, and the float plan people. 

I also putzed around storing small items and organizing things until Dave was done. 

Then we both took one last long shower at the marina shower house.  I almost hate to admit this, but it is kind of funny.  As I was walking back to the boat, I saw a pick up truck with a trailer double parked in the marina.  Just for a second, I thought “they better not be blocking our way because we are ready to leave.”  Then I  immediately giggled because we aren’t using the road.

We left the marina about 3:00 and motored only 5 miles to anchor just south of the Lake Worth Inlet by 4:00.  This is Saturday in Palm Beach.  There was all kinds of boat traffic in that 5 miles.  In a shallow area, we saw what looked like little floating cabins with a deck anchored in place.  There were about 3 we could see near Peanut Island.  We couldn’t tell if they were public, like a picnic shelter, or private.  But they looked like fun. 

Well, we spent about 2 hours doing other last minute things, like filling out the Bahamian Customs forms  that we have had for over a year.  Now we are going to nap so we can leave at about 10:00pm.  So tonight’s journey will be part of the next blog. 

We are leaving at night so we can arrive in the Bahamas at daylight.  We are heading to Memory Rock about 20 nm north of West End.  Then we will travel along the norther banks to Great Sale Cay and anchor Sunday night.  Then on Monday, we will travel in the Abacos to Green Turtle Cay and check in with customs.  I will activate the SPOT device, so our location will show up with this blog when I get a chance to update it. 

This is a new chapter in our lives and we are pretty excited.
Wish us luck.