Conditions: 75& sunny
Location: Lake Worth, West Palm
We stayed a few days at Palm Beach to stock up for the Bahamas, make a solid plan on when to leave, and to wait for our friend Jack to fly in and join us for the crossing. Dad and I found time to go to the beach and bike around Singer Island while we were waiting. Jack flew in on the 25th and we were just able to finishing stocking up when he arrived. Dad made the plan to leave this evening at 10pm. I got up at 7am, Dad got up at 5am, and Jack woke up at 3am. I don't think any of us are looking forward to leaving like this but our weather window is closing with dropping temperatures and a northerly breeze predicted to come in the next two days. Dad wants to leave at night so that we cross the deep Gulf Stream in the dark in order to cross the shallow Bahama Bank in full sunlight. We will end our trip at Great Sail Cay. Around 7pm we got the boat ready for sea. We made up a ditch bag and partly inflated our emergency life raft, aka the zodiac. I have to admit I wasn't really prepared for how serious Dad and Jack described the possible "ditch" situations. The worst scenario was definitely the possible tug boat and barge death trap, involving long wires stretched between the two of vessels, hooking and dragging down any boat that attempts to come between them. I thought I'd feel safer with Dad AND Jack aboard, but the more they went through fatal event scenarios the more nervous I got, I suppose it can be rather dangerous.
No comments:
Post a Comment