Once more, with feeling...

A quick update tonight to say that we got word this evening from the crew of Blossom that all is under control and they will not need our assistance or company. A professional skipper, with whom they have worked before (and who was with them when we met up last year in Rock Hall), will be flying out this week to assess the situation and help them move the boat to Palm Beach. Initial observations of all systems indicate that only the wing engine has been affected.

Given that we will not be needed and also that it will be at least Wednesday before they have everything squared away for moving the boat, we will weigh anchor first thing tomorrow (Monday) morning and get under way for Palm Beach. It's a 10-11 hour run, give or take, and I expect to be dropping the hook in Lake Worth sometime after 5pm.


Final sunset in the Bahamas. Not as spectacular as some of our earlier ones. Arianna, on the left, has stowed her toys and will probably get underway sometime overnight. The cat to the right of our ensign dropped the hook this afternoon.

I still have some data left on my Bahamian SIM card and we should have access right up until we are out of range of the Bimini BTC tower, probably 5-10 nautical miles out (about one to two hours after we get under way). With any luck I will be able to call the eye doctor before we are out of range to reschedule my appointment.

We never did move today, nor even offload the tender, so we are still in passage trim. Although we did go for one final swim this afternoon in the crystal clear water, and I even scraped off some more of the hull, until an inquisitive barracuda spooked me out of the water.


In the other direction, an almost-full moon rises over South Bimini, while the fading sunset illuminated the clouds to the southeast.

I am hopeful that I can simply move my eye appointment from the morning to late afternoon, which should give us enough time to get cleared back in to the US and the boat settled someplace. Otherwise it might be next week before I can get back in, which would pretty much pin us down to Palm Beach for the week.

If Blossom gets the all-clear for travel on Wednesday, they might be in North Palm Beach as soon as Friday, and we'll try to catch up with them there. In the interim we will try to make it to the store to re-stock some of our critically low provisions, and take on enough fuel to make it all the way up the east coast.

Unless something unexpected happens, this will be my last post from the Bahamas, and when next you hear from me, it will be uploaded via a US cell tower.