Crossing the Gulf Stream

We weighted anchor at 6am in the dark and motored out into the North Atlantic and then motor sailed for almost 8 hours in closed haul occasionally heading upwind to get a better sail shape. 

Chiheb did not seem to understand my tactic, complaining we were off track. But we were making good headway. 

All port tack with a southerly wind

Most of the other sailboat were to our port side ahead and they were all bigger and thus faster. 

First time out of view of land

The last 40 minutes we turned off the motor because we could. 

Slowly we motored into Alicetown, staying clear of the shallows.  Arriving at Big Game Club. They quoted us 3.75 a foot but the bill came out to 160. 

I cleared immigration and customs and got out fishing license.  The click 2 clear was troublesome - especially on the iPad but it worked. But I never got my drone license which I had paid for and had the receipt. 

Chiheb really wanted to take a shower so we did, had supper and walked the town at night

Next morning we walked the entire North Bimini from the marina to the south cut and north to the Hilton resort.  

We picked up a loaf of Coconut bread at Nate’s for $10. Don’t know if that was expensive or not but I fulfilled the ritual. 

Chiheb wanted to go to the New Year’s party at the resort and I wasn’t interested. The Eventbrite site said it was sold out anyways. 

We got back to the mariana I went for a swim, tried to fly my drone but we were in restricted air space.  

I noted the bilge pump ran about 8 times and realized I had to tighten the shaft packing again.  Chiheb was at the marina using the final wifi. 

I decided to anchor just north of the marina instead of going further north and I got us deeply stuck in the mud.  A local worker on a wreck came and towed us out and suggested a place near the shore and it was tight. 

I had never intended to use less than 50 foot of chain and Chiheb argued that I had too much scope.  I took my time before agreeing to less scope and used a line to make a snubber with a bowline.  

I still preferred to take my time to change my mind and I still would have preferred to set the anchor with more scope. 

It was only then I realized how clear the water was that I could see the whole chain and where the anchor was.  Spectacular!

Chiheb’s arrival

 I did many errands in the morning prior to Chiheb’s arrival about 2PM

We met at the metro station.  Had a burger at Burger King walked around a bit and went to the boat  

Saturday we toured downtown Miami

Sunday we did the groceries with San Rito Raou and Chiheb  and filled my spare diesel Jerry Can as well as a fellow boater using Sanrito’s car  

Chiheb and I swapped out the damaged anchor 

Boat Work

Put away provisioning 

Cleaned fridge 

Installed newly filled propane tanks 

Installed new battery 

Empty food nets 

Cleaned water tank filter screen

Inspected the oil leak on the cam shaft manual crank

I slept aboard BELLUM

The next day I went to the Apple Store in Brickell to have my iPhone battery replaced.  They were slow at changing the battery so I went to tour the local urban spraw  Like the rest of Miami, everything was densely built up.  Reminds me of the movie BRASIL.

Nothing interesting, so I went back to the Apple store and had a demo of the incredible Apple Vision PRO - very impressed and  expensive.  I bought it.  

Came back home and Sandro had ordered Pizza from Dominios that ended up not delivering, so we had pork.

Miami - ashore

On Saturday morning, we got up early. Did Costco West Marine Walmart Home Depot and I got well stocked with groceries. 

I got a haircut by Sandro.

I investigated my Radio station license which expires March 31 2025 

I applied for a drone license and paid for DTOPS for CBD  for Cruising Permit for 2025.

Canceled VOIP for Sylvie and create a new DID transfer for Patrick's cellphone.

Sandro gave me a long needed haircut.  In Daytona, a barber had offered me a discount to cut my hair !  It was pretty bad.

On Sunday, Sandrito, Raul and I went to deliver the provisions to BELLUM and went out for a quick one-hour sail in Biscayne Bay in light winds.  

We loaded up the boat, anchored and then went to Sandro's friends for a pig roast birthday party.

Christmas Day, I worked on photos and drove Sandrito to work and back

Christmas day plus one - I updated this BLOG

Boat work done in Miami.

Put away provisioning

Cleaned fridge

Installed fresh propane tanks

Installed new house battery from Costco

Empty food nets 

Cleaned water tank filter screen

Changed Rocna anchor with Chiheb.  The anchor was bent at Dodge Island Bridge on December 19 and took several attempts to dig in at No Name Harbor.

Boca Raton to Miami

In Lake Boca Raton in the morning, I dived to inspect the shaft drive chain. The water was clear and salty. 

The drive chain was good, but the anodes were fairly worn. I had two anodes. One for fresh one for salt water.  I guess the fresh water one was pretty much corroded. 

I took off at 10:30. I got much better at timing the bridges. But as I got into Miami, I kept missing the bridge timing and wasted lots of time waiting for the next opening.  There was some shoaing, so I could not travel fast.

I got into Miami late, tired and concerned about Dodge Island bridge. It says it is 65 feet but I was very uncomfortable with it. Maybe it was fatigue and the darkness. I called Wally and he strongly suggested I return back and anchor between third and fourth Venetian bridges. 

The next day I cross the Dodge bridge again and the antenna definitely touched the bridge even though it’s supposed to be 67 feet My mast is 46 feet 

I got fuel and fuel at Croydon, Marine, and then docked at No Name Harbor. I tried to make Ramen for lunch but the propane ran out.  Perfect - I had optimized my propane usage.  The third SodaStream was also almost empty.  Trifecta!   

I tidy up the boat, remove the propane tanks, prepared the battery for changing I clean up the boat 

I waited for Sandrito to pick me up. He had trouble getting there and was trying to walk eventually he got there I re-anchored the boat and came back to the house and had a pork supper with Raul, Sandrito, Sandro and Nelly.  Good reunion.

West Palm to Boca Raton

I got tired of West Palm and was pressure to get to Miami to meet up with Sandrito and provision for the Bahamas and be ready for Chiheb’s arrival. 

It took me some time to get familiar with the bridge timing. I Followed a Quebec boat La Die with a big Quebec flag on the stern. She was a 29-foot boat with an outboard motor. After a while I abandoned because they could not keep with the bridge schedule 

I anchored at Lake Boca Raton about 5:30 - just before sunset.

Peak Lake to West Palm

After waiting out the bad weather in Peak Lake, we finally got go to West Palm

It was an easy ride from Peek Lake to West Palm Beach 

I anchored far from city dock.  Dinghy in to visit the town.  West Palm is a nice town.  I wondered around and dodged a Florida rain shower that lasted about 45 minutes.  I returned to the wrong dock for the dinghy and determined there were two municipal docks.  The dinghy was at the North dock. 

Saw Wind Gypsie anchored near the Municipal dock.  Dropped in to say hello to Wally.

Went back to Bellum and BBQ something. I forgot what it was.

The next morning, the boat swung, and I was close to another boat, so I decided to move closer to the Municipal dock, near Wally.