Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Recovering in Fernandina

Just a quick update - I am 5 days post surgery and back on Kismet. Life is pretty frustrating right now but the thoughts, calls, prayers, and kindness of so many people have certainly helped. We will see the Doctor on Friday; and hopefully I will be released to leave here. Captain Bligh has been doing his best to make me comfortable!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

A New Twist

Sometimes things just work in our favor. We were back in the USA for 5 days and planning our trip north when Laurie didn't feel that well. We tried to deny the obvious
(hindsight) but after 24 hours, a trip back to the ER at Fernandina Beach seemed prudent. We were only a few miles away at Cumberland Island Georgia.
Laurie was diagnosed with appendicitis and had surgery. She is recovering,a bit slower than we hoped, but she is scheduled to be home tomorrow.
So you are wondering how things work out in our favor? We could have been offshore or somewhere remote in the Bahamas but we were home and everything was resolved quickly.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Back in The USA

Not sure what's happening; but I can't get my pics to transfer to the blog..... so I guess I'll just give ya'all an update. We left Green Turtle at 1000 on Wednesday, April 7th with "Last Tango", It's About Time, and "Argonauta". The forecast was good; albeit very light winds after Wednesday. The winds were great that day though, and the armada all sailed the 50+ miles to set the anchors for the night at Great Sale Cay. Next morning we all decided to "go the distance" and leave the Bahamas for northern FL; even though the wind would be light and we would have to use the motor alot. We figured that it would take about 50 hours. On Thursday we motored past Mantanilla Shoal off the Bahama Banks by 1800, and said good-bye to the beautiful waters. We continued on to pick up the Gulf Stream and ride the current North. We did sail that night until the noise of the sails, etc. became too uncomfortable. Very little sleep that night (maybe an hour or two). Friday was a beautiful day on the stream - we said good-bye to "Last Tango" who were going to continue on to Charleston SC. We did sail some on Friday, while "IAT" and "Argonauta" did some fishing - caught Amberjack and Mahi. Our autopilot went bonkers and we thought it was unrepairable; until the captain was able to diagnose the problem and fixed it by evening. (Hooray!) We wanted to arrive in Fernandina by early Saturday morning, and that worked perfectly! We also were able get a few more hours of sleep Friday night (about 5 hours in total). The whole trip took 48 hours - we cleared customs and set the anchor in Fernandina Harbor at 0930. Had a celebratory cocktail and dinghied into shore for a couple of hours until all of us thought that a good sleep was in order. Today we will explore the Fort and town and then have fish dinner aboard "Argonauta".

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Back To Green Turtle Cay

Today we had an uneventful trip through "the whale", to set the anchor by Green Turtle Cay. There is good internet here, so blogging is on the agenda. We are here waiting for a good weather window to head back to North Florida. That probably won't happen til the middle of next week. We sat out a passing front in Treasure Cay - fortunately the worst of it blew north of us. We are hanging out with "It's About Time", "Last Tango", and "Argonauta". Great fun doing dinners on each others boats and playing dominoes.