Sunday, April 2,2006

We dropped our truck off and pushed away from the dock at 3:25 pm. Anchored at Boot Key Harbor Channel entrance for the night with friends from the dock aboard “Free Spirit”. A new tradition of conch horn blowing at sunset begins as a beautiful sunset over the Seven Mile Bridge finalizes our stay in the Florida Keys.

Monday, April 3, 2006

Bright and early (7am) as the sun rises we set sail to Key Largo. Light winds suggest a motor sailing day. Dolphins come and bow ride as if to say good bye. “Free Spirit” experiences some engine problems but decided to keep going on. Anchored at Rodriguez Key for the night with “Free Spirit” at 4:30 pm.

Tuesday, April 4, 2006

Early departure again at 7 am. Winds allow us full sails to help with the motoring. Beautiful waters greet us with the Miami skyline. Heading to No Name Harbor through Biscayne Bay Channel, we pass the Cape Florida Lighthouse and go through Stiltsville. Anchored about 4:30 pm. No Name Harbor is a great anchorage in the Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. With use of the park facilities, restaurant on site and a short walk to stores, we find this a wonderful location to wait for the proper weather conditions to cross the Gulf Stream.




Friday, April 14, 2006

Our 10 day stay in No Name Harbor has been a great hideout from the BIG winds but also very, very interesting. This little harbor experiences a vast amount of boat traffic - small, large and very large sizes. Thursday, our friends, Ed and Susan Grover visited us on their way to the BVI’s for a sailing charter. What great friends!! We enjoyed lunch at the Boater’s Grill at No Name Harbor and then they took us to the grocery store to reprovision. Little did they know that we would come out with 2 carts full of groceries. BUT hey isn’t that what good friends do. Thanks Ed and Sue!!

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Left No Name Harbor at 8 am headed to Fort Lauderdale. Tom spotted a big sailfish as it flew out of the water. What a sight! Motor sailed the distance and found the channel into Ft. Lauderdale is suicidal. What a crazy busy port with plenty of cruise ships and barges, etc. Docked at Pier 66 at 4 pm. A cold brewsky never tasted sooo good!!

Sunday, April 16,2006

Happy Easter to all. Escape and Avalon (a Catalina 30 sailboat with John and Harriett aboard) left Pier 66 at 2:45 am with ¾ of the moon. Out of the channel at 3:30 am we found ourselves amidst 2 freighters and a BIG tugboat pulling an exceptionally massive barge about 200 meters behind it. The tugboat captain (Coastal Dave) was more than accommodating and very helpful. We passed 8 cruise ships waiting off shore at various distances awaiting to enter the port. After the “floating cities” encounters, the Gulf Stream was very calm and uneventful and the sunrise was welcomed.

Catching a ride in the middle of the Gulf Stream.

Approaching West End on Grand Bahama island about 4 pm (75 miles later ), we found they had Old Bahama Bay Resort and Marina had no slips available for the night. We proceeded to the anchorage around the corner and ran aground in what the charts said to be about 8 - 9 feet of water. NOT !!! We were christened by the shallow waters of the Bahamas. Tom was able to lift the boat enough with an incoming tide to free Escape with no apparent damage. Babette pleaded with the dock master to let us stay at the fuel dock for the night. She had great success and also obtained dockage for as long as we would like to stay.