Waiting for the Bahamas

“Life is what happens when you’re making plans” pretty much sums up our cruising season so far.  Although we left home on January 7th it took until March 2nd to arrive in Bimini in the Bahamas.  Cathy fractured a few bones in her foot just before leaving home so has been sporting a walking cast. By the time her foot could handle extended sailing it was February 15th.  It then took until March for a decent weather window for crossing the Gulf Stream.  Spending two winter months in Florida still beats dealing with snow, especially when your toes are exposed in a cast.  Here are a few highlights of our ‘sunshine state’ time.
As usual countless hours and dollars are spent preparing the boat for the season. In the Bahamas you need to be prepared for anything with spare parts and a shocking amount of food and other supplies.  You know you’ve spent too much when suppliers start reserving parking spots in your honour.

Spend enough and you get your own personalized parking spot

 We spent a record 10 days in West Palm Beach and enjoyed the free trolley service instead of our usual walking. We are in mega-yacht company as you can see from our neighbors.

One of the smaller boats......

Indeed the streets are lined with Royal Palms and with year round good weather, bike paths are complete with repair tools. Kim ran errands around the city on a rented City Bike and discovered this bike repair station along the waterfront in West Palm Beach.  Every hand tool one would need to effect minor repairs to your bike, including a hand pump.

Broken bike repair station

We always enjoy the Saturday Farmers Market that is a two minute walk from where we land the dinghy.  The produce is very fresh and lasts far longer than the supermarket foods.  Orchids of all kinds are amazing to see.  Martha Stewart came shopping too – it seems she was staying at her Palm Beach mansion.

Orchids at the farmers market

Not all of our days were sun bathing temps. On the day we left for Ft. Lauderdale it was 6 degrees C. Nothing that a t-shirt, turtle neck, down vest, blanket and driving gloves didn’t fix.

Boy was it chilly this morning. Florida can get cold !

We don’t sail much in Florida but did get in a motor sail to Miami where we do enjoy anchoring in a multi-million dollar neighbourhood in South Beach.  We attended the Miami Boat Show and admired the inside of a Hylas 63 and an Amel 54-wow!

We also discovered the Botanical Gardens and have included some of the plants we saw.

Spiny tree...ouch !

Clown fig

Ponytail palm

Orange flower palm

Mangrove tree

Along the canal where we dock the dinghy to go into town Kim spied a beautiful iguana with colours we never see in the Bahamas.  The iguanas we usually see are huge but definitely much more ugly.

He seemed to be protecting his space. We were worried he might jump into the dinghy.

Now we are waiting for a weather window to cross the gulf stream…stay tuned