Well we are waiting for a weather window to go to the Bahamas. We have been in Riviera Beach for about the past two weeks waiting for favorable weather to go to the southern part of the Bahamas this time, and the weather gods have not been smiling on us. (At least the traveling weather gods are not smiling, the weather here has been gorgeous. )  Riviera Beach is on the east coast of Florida about half way between Miami and Cape Canaveral. The Bahamas are south and east of here. The Gulf Stream flows from south to north and is between us and the Bahamas and therefore has to be crossed in order to get there. The winds have been blowing a lot from the east (just where we want to go) or from the north which makes them blowing against the Gulf Stream resulting in BIG  square waves which makes for very uncomfortable sailing. ( As I write this I see that the wind is blowing 33 knots  from the north :).)

We spent the holidays in Fort Myers (west coast of Florida) with my mom and the planned to sail to the Bahamas in January but life intervened. The boat had “issues”. Unfortunately the problem with our DC  generator never got fixed so in Florida we decided to get an AC generator. Not so easy. We tried to get some estimates but I guess our project was too small (it is high season for the marinas right now and we are little fish in an ocean of whales, you should see the size of some of these boats! ). By now it was February and so it was on to option three, solar panels. You see in a sailboat you need power to run the refrigerator, make hot water , charge your cellphone, run the navigational instruments etc. and that means the batteries need to be charged. The engine ( if you are running it) or the generator, (DC or AC ), or solar panels can do that. Thanks to Amazon, we went on line and ordered solar panels, Hartley being a whiz at electrical stuff wired everything and we hired a guy whose business was called Headless Parrot Welding, (I was a little nervous with that name) who did  a great job welding the frames for the panels and voila: power!!!

In addition to all that my oldest brother Iain decided to get married. It was a great wedding and all got together and had a fabulous time.

 

It involved some logistics as my youngest brother is a quadriplegic . My Mom had been thinking of remodeling her bathroom but with Keith coming she decided to do it and right away and make it wheel chair accessible. She and I had fun designing and decorating the bathroom. It got finished just in time to celebrate her 92nd birthday.

Part of the party included a champagne toast with 25 people in the bathroom.

Life is never dull with my Mom.

So now we have the major projects done and we have some time to play. We get up every morning and check the weather forecast for the next few days and for a week out (that far out is science fiction as Hartley says). Then we get on with pretending we are not waiting but just enjoying being on the water in Riviera Beach. We got new folding bikes and they ride like a dream compared to our old ones so we have gone on a few good bike rides. One of them was down in West Palm Beach ( the town just south of us where Trump has his southern White House).  As you can imagine the homes there are incredible and the  bike path goes  right by them. Not by Trump’s, MaraLago is very secluded. We don’t have a car so we ride our bikes to the grocery store and sometimes out to dinner. I filled the freezer with food but buy new food while we are here as that was/is intended for the Bahamas. (See I told you we are pretending not to wait.)

We also have put our kayaks to use. Right across from the marina is Peanut Island. It gives a great place to kayak around and sometimes we even stop and have a picnic lunch.  One of my goals that I haven’t done yet is practice getting back in the kayak if it tips over. I keep saving that for a really hot, humid day, but the days here have been so beautiful mid seventies and not all that humid that I haven’t gotten myself that ambitious yet.

We also have been doing some walking and running. There is a place called Manatee Park about a mile away where Florida Light and Power spills warm water from their electric plant into the ocean. When it is cold the manatee gather there to enjoy the warm water. They also have a big pavilion with information about the manatee. Right now the ocean water is warm enough that there are rarely any manatee there but I have a few pictures from January when there were several.

On the way to the park as you cross the bridge you can see the yard where they move all the cargo to go to the Bahamas. It is fascinating to watch the trucks lift these huge containers and move them around the yard with seeming purpose.

Next comes the Florida Sugar and Molasses company.

Diet is impossible as you smell the molasses waft through the air. A replica of one of Columbus’s boats just floated by.

And then there is always the possibility of a rainbow.

Well on with pretending we are not waiting. Today is Wednesday and the predictions are that maybe Sunday we might get to go. All we can do is keep having fun and go when the going is good.