Preparing for the passage

Preparing for the passage   …   Saturday 6th April 2013

It's 8.45 pm and I have just 15 minutes before Starbucks closes and I get kicked off the system - so this has to be quick! We spent the day preparing to head out tomorrow morning. The forecast is good and we have decided to make a passage from Nassau all the way to Fernandina Beach (at the very north of Florida) all in one go. This is a journey of 450 nautical miles and if all goes as planned we should arrive on Wednesday morning. But these calculations have a lot assumptions and the timing could be a bit off. We lifted and deflated the dinghy and strapped that down on the foredeck, fixed the inner forestay in place and yanked on the stay sail in case the winds really pick up. We checked up tides and currents for our intended entry inlet and also for back-up options and input waypoints into the GPS. We re-provisioned, cooked a couple of meals that can be re-heated along the way and topped off our water tanks. Having done everything we could think of we took a quick walk to a park just north of the marina and then Bob took us out to dinner at "Poop Deck", where we had an excellent meal. Now we need to get some sleep so that we are all fully alert in the morning. We'll be out of contact for at least 3 days but plan to post a blog describing the passage as soon as we can after that. Here's to a un-eventful trip!

Mike

Bob Knowles - our friend and extra crew member

Adorable little Bahamian girl and her uncle who we met at the park

Little girl - close up