A quick update as I'm not sure if I'll have Internet tonight and tomorrow hope to go outside and be able to anchor near shore Sat. night and start crossing to Bimini Sunday morning early. Right now winds are suppose to be 7 kt from the south and the seas 1 ft. on Sunday. I need to get up to Biscayne Bay today just inside of Angle Fish cut where I'll go out.
Yesterday I moved up to Key Largo and Ixneigh hauled me around to get gas and some supplies and we had a good dinner together and he shared more about the Bahamas with me. He went to Georgetown in the Exumas with a Mac 222 (impressive!!)
I only spent one day at Whitehorse and that was rigging a two pulley system to get the dinghy outboard off the new side mount on the side of the boat into and out of the dinghy. It works great compared with trying to lift it on and off by hand so well worth the time spent. I don't feel like I'm going to loose it to the bottom of the sea now. The winds were going to be good so left in the morning and went 40+ miles down to Little Shark with 6 miles off shore being about max due to the way the coast curves in. Got there and the winds seas had picked up do I really liked having the autopilot keeping me into the wind while I got the main down.
Bill and Mary were there (they have a Hunter and I knew them from the Internet but we now got to meet face to face). Left early the next morning and made 58 miles across Florida Bay to Channel 5 and up the Keys to Islamorada for the night and yesterday to Key Largo. 296 miles since I left the boatyard on the 9th (the day sailing with Scott in that). I'm tired but feeling good about things and glad I'm doing this. Being 71 now I don't count on the future to do things I think are important. Once I get across the Banks past Bimini I'll slow way down on my daily passages and stay in one place multiple days if I'm happy,
Sumner
P.S. Lots more happened in those days above but that will have to wait until latter but one was running up onto the beach in the dark leaving White Horse Key (bow on the sand and stern in 9 feet of water) when the GPS quit running and I didn't realize it and I wasn't where I thought I was (things are tight in those channels).
I'll never leave again, and never did in the past without both chart plotters up and running and I had also screwed up my night vision with some yard lights on the boat. Those won't be there either. Lessons learned......
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