No Riots Yet

November 17, 2020

Two weeks after the election and the loser’s acolytes are annoying many, but the vast majority of the US population has accepted that there is a new President in the USA, the rest of the world is simply sighing in relief. There is no sign of major social unrest related to the election thank goodness.

Despite that, my crew, Paul has returned home avoiding any threat of social unrest and waiting out his quarantine so he can have Christmas. Before leaving Paul was instrumental in repairing many items on the boat, the last being the installation of a new hot water tank. Here he is deep in the belly of the beast.

Oops. Sorry, this is Paul, deep in the belly of the beast.

Our last run was from Indian Harbor Beach, and we ran down the ICW until reaching Fort Pierce. From there, the weather had improved enough that we slipped out into the Atlantic to do the last 45 nm in the Atlantic, entering the ICW again at the Lake Worth Inlet (West Palm Beach) where we anchored and waited for the morning light.

There is a wide range of maintenance work being done to prepare for the winter in Bahamas, including replacing the motor on the dinghy, replacing fluids in the engines and refreshing the seals and hydraulics on the davit (crane). The boat also requires some cleaning after the trip down.

With an expected three or four months of time in The Bahamas, putting enough wine, and chips aboard is also a critical process! That part is almost done. The good news is that The Bahamas has lifted their VIP or ‘vacation in place’ program. Now, with a COVID test before arrival and another test five days after arrival visitors are free to roam around freely assuming they follow the social necessities of masks and social distancing. That means that a large supply of groceries is not completely necessary.

In any event, we have planned for staying at anchor for a long time and so a new bread maker is on order to ensure we can make bread, a new cellular data chip is on order so we can communicate, and we have a lot of water, fuel and wine. All should be fine.

I suspect that I will cross to The Bahamas around the end of the month. Perhaps another update or two before hand, but for now it’s all about finishing the prep, riding the bike and enjoying the heat and humidity of Florida.

My thanks go out to Paul for helping with the transit south and all of the fine work accomplished on board during the journey and associated waiting. Paul, your knowhow, conversation and work ethic improved the boat and the journey.