Bahamas bound

We have begun a two month adventure on Serenity!  Our plan is to go from Sarasota to Marathon in the Florida Keys, then to Bimini, Harbor Island, Staniel Cay, and the Abacos in the Bahamas.  Claiborne and Stan will join us in Staniel Cay with their families the end of May beginning of June.  Stanwood has invited himself to join us in the Abacos.  

We spent two days at our marina provisioning the boat.  We are substantially poorer!  We bought enough steaks, burgers and wine for two months.  While staples are available in the Bahamas, good wine and meat are scarce. 

We enjoyed dinner our last night at our marina with John and Mamsie Maynard from New Orleans.  John is a retired lawyer, and they are doing the loop.  We had a great time catching up.

The wind is up, so we took the ICW (inside route) and  spent two nights at anchor on the way to Sanibel Island.  Today (Monday May 1) we go to Marco Island via the gulf.  From there we cross Florida Bay to Marathon and then cross into the Atlantic for the trek to the Bahamas.  Naturally there is something that always breaks.  Today it was my digital depth finder.  Who knows what tomorrow brings!  The boat is behaving well overall, and the increased living space is awesome.  When the kids arrive we will put it to good use!

Marco is a vacation/fishing resort, and is roughly half way between Ft Myers and the Keys, so it was a good place to get out of the 4-5 ft head sea we were battling.  We ate at a local diner on Marco Island and commiserated with fellow boaters about the inability of the weather gurus to get a wind forecast even remotely accurate.  Tomorrow (Tuesday) is supposed to be calmer if the front does not come through which the gurus say it won’t, maybe, if it doesn’t, and then again, it may.  No %^^&*&, that is the forecast!  Stay tuned! 

The Admiral at the helm.

The ICW is always busy in Florida.

Venice, FL.

We take two hour shifts at the helm.  Alexis enjoys her off shift!

Serenity's galley.

The helm.

Our neighbor at Marco-Har!!