Back in the land of the free (water that is)

Back at Bahia Mar (big and rich) Marina

We left West End yesterday at about 7:00 am and plowed through about 15 miles of 4′ head seas. Not bad just sloppy. The plan was to head for Palm Beach but after doing the math we decided it would not only be a better ride but also more economical to head further south toward Ft Lauderdale. The Gulf Stream slowed us down a bit but we still made it in by 4:00. Even after waiting 30 minutes for a cruise ship to pass through Port Everglades and back in to dock, we made it to Bahia Mar by 5:00 pm.

We got tied up and was desalting the boat when our son Mason and a fellow from the Memphis office, Rob, walked up. They were in Miami on a project and the timing worked out just right. Good to see both of them. Mason is going to stay a few days with us.

As you can see in the above photo we all need hair cuts.
I think Radar is still looking for all the Sea Spray folks.

I got an email from our friends on “Duet”. They had quite an adventure going home. Here is an excerpt from that email.

We had a pretty good trip, we ran nonstop to Charleston from Hopetown. It was flat calm most of the way, very little sea. We were about 200 miles offshore, which was new for us, but not that different from being 50 miles off frankly. We were planning for Beaufort or even Norfolk but the weather started to deteriorate and rather than arrive at Beaufort in 25-30 SW at 3AM (Beaufort as you probably know, faces SW and is unjettied) we turned for Charleston. We were out for about 60 hours, about 500 miles or so, one of our longer trips and good practice for the Caribbean.We love Charleston. Unfortunately, we got stuck there for 2 weeks (about 1 week too long as we needed to get north) due to Andrea. The conditions at City Marina during the storm were interesting. We were on the outside of the mega dock, at the very end, since we were leaving any time *smile*. During the height of the storm we had a 3 foot swell coming straight up the river, although it didn’t blow much over 25. We bounced so much we chaffed right through a 3/4 braided dockline. The entire marina was undulating up and down, even on the inside. Fortunately, it only lasted 24 hours.The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. We went outside around Cape Fear, not bad, 4 footers off the stern most of the way, and into Beaufort. ICW from there. Every time we go in the ICW we swear we will never do so again, and this trip was no different *smile*. Going south in the fall we are hoping to go around Hatteras into Beaufort.

Good to hear they are home and safe. Hope to run into them again next year.

Happy days