Tide Pool Has Returned

Monday 3/6/06

Tide Pool is tied up at Sailfish Marina on Singer Island, Florida!

Well, who would of thought that it would be Grace that would be fighting to stay in the Bahamas, but it's true! I have been watching the weather patterns closely, and saw a perfect day to cross the potentially nasty Gulf Stream - Today! Sunday morning, we were in Green Turtle Cay and were looking at stretching our trip a few more days to explore the northern Abaco Cays, then cross over later this week. The weather patterns late this week were not looking favorable in the Stream, so at 7am I cornered Grace and suggested we make a long run from Green Turtle Cay to West End on Sunday, and cross to Florida early Monday morning in predicted ideal conditions. She reluctantly agreed and we were off and running the 100 miles to West End within 30 minutes. It was a long, bumpy ride, but the girls were champs as always (except for one near mutiny at the middle of the trip when we said we had 4 hours to go). After passing through Indian Cay Channel, we arrived at Old Bahama Bay at West end around 3:00 and the weather was settling beautifully for a 60 mile crossing at first light the following morning. The forecast was for winds at 5 knots and seas 2 feet or less. Well, we had the 5 knots of breeze, but the 2 feet must have been meant for giant land as we encountered some sizable, albeit gentle swells in some areas - leftovers from stong northerlies a couple of days prior. These would be considered 'local anomolies' in weather terms. Just goes to show that you have to be careful in the Gulf Stream. In all, the crossing was much easier then our trip over, the girls were great and the boat, as always, ran without a hiccup. We went 40 miles before taking the first spray over the bow.

Now we have a full week to get over the culture shock and cruise south Florida before putting the boat on a truck Wednesday 3/15 and the family on a plane 3/16. Grace is fully booked with patients on Friday 3/17 so we will be back into the full swing soon. We are really looking forward to see our friends and family!

We still have some posts from our last week or two in Abaco that we will get up soon!

Off to find a movie theater, pizza and possibly a shopping mall...

Doug