Thursday, December 25, 2008

Crossing the Gulfstream

An absolute glorious start to the crossing started at 4am 21/12/08 (Jacob's birthday)from Key Biscayne.The crossing to take approximately 10 hrs,and it did ,until the final approach to North Bimini when we dropped the cloth and started the engine to an awful din coming from below.The engine was stopped and the saloon decks lifted to inspect the cause of the thump thump thump!A few expletives later and the problem was found to be the prop shaft slapping the bilge ,as the universal joint bolts had come loose.A few more expletives directed at the "mechanic" in Ft Lauderdale who re installed the motor,who apparently hasn't heard of Loctite,made me feel much better.A quick call on channel 16 saw our sailing buddies aboard "Simpatico" take us in tow to the anchorage in North Bimini.Two days of scrounging around the harbour and our own stores aboard found some new hi tensile bolts and loctite and we are ready to go when the winds clock to the South in a couple of days and head over towards Nassau about a 20 hr sail.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Florida Keys

Hi Everyone .......from all aboard the "BAY"
We are currently enjoying some time around the Key Biscayne area ,No Name Harbour has been our home on and off over the past couple of weeks as we have sailed around the Biscayne Bay area.We have met some lovely cruising families ,so Jake and Anastasia have had some company too at long last!
The days rip past us ,from listening to weather reports and looking for weather "windows" to hop across the Gulfstream,to filling our water tanks or gen set routines to keep it all alive,home schooling the kids ,then watching the sun go down with some fellow cruisers ........enhanced with a couple of drinks of course!!Copped a bit of a flogging today crossing the bay ,we had too much sail up and .....cut a long story short ....I stuffed up ,and we lost our steaming light to the briny.Nothing $50 and a climb up the mast won't fix.