Ready To Go

This was a very productive week for us. We are expecting Windsong to arrive next week, and then we will cross to the Bahamas at the first weather window, so we need to bring our projects and provisioning to a conclusion. We finished the cockpit enclosure, and as reported in our last post also finished the SSB radio installation. On Thursday, we rented a car for two days. Our solar panels, which had been on back order since October, finally came in. The manufacturer, Kyocera, had a huge contract for which they diverted production to fulfill, creating a backlog of orders for the panel size we needed. The panels were in Fort Lauderdale, so we saved the shipping cost by picking them up there. This also had an unexpected benefit of earning us a Florida solar energy credit. These two refunds were about twice the cost of the car rental. We also picked up our life raft, which is now good for another three years. We made a major provisioning trip to Super Walmart and also had a propane tank filled. We are now ready to go, or at least we think we are. Friday afternoon, with our work done, we went to visit Jupiter Lighthouse. We had passed the lighthouse at Jupiter Inlet, but hardly took notice, as it is a tricky area. The Gulf Stream is only four miles offshore in this area, so the waters are a brilliant blue, having been carried north from the Gulf of Mexico. The lighthouse is on Coast Guard property, so all the tours are guided, which is great since they provide a lot of history and point out other items of interest. We had a very unexpected surprise while at the light. Just at that moment, Jock's Lodge was passing by. We had not seen them since before Christmas. We got some good pictures of their boat from high atop the lighthouse. By evening, Star Shadow and Jock's Lodge were again anchored with us. We had made the decision to pass on the Exumas this year and visit the Abacos (northern Bahamas), and Windsong had agreed and will join us. As it turns out, Jock's Lodge is doing the same, so the old gang will be back together again. Star Shadow will be moving on down to Fort Lauderdale later in the week. Larry and daughter Claire are aboard. Janet and son Graham are back in Canada for surgery on Graham's ear. They will be returning in another week or so and will fly into Fort Lauderdale.

Jupiter Light