TIme to go

Hi All-
We've been in Marathon for a couple of days now, got here Friday and now it's Monday. This is the jumping off point to head to Bimini in the Bahamas.

I signed up for weather routing with Chris Parker, THE weather expert in these parts. I talked with him on Saturday morning and based on that conversation we decided to postpone our departure until Monday, today! I'll give Chris a call again this morning to makes sure it all looks good and if it is I expect to be letting go of the mooring ball about 3:00 this afternoon. Recommendations have been to leave early enough to have daylight until we're passed the reef and all those dang crab pots! I so hoped we were done with them.

While we were here in Marathon we got quite a bit of stuff done. Besides a provision run to Publix (grocery store), we've been to West Marine and Home Depot. Can't be on land and not got to West Marine and Home Depot.

We had a list of stuff for Allen to do while he's with us and he's been knocking things off the list pretty well. He and I finished up the last few connections on the water maker and we are now making fresh drinking water out of sea water! And it tastes good, as much as water tastes. There was one leak in one of the high pressure hose connections I put together. Once that was fixed we were done! Yeehaa!

Allen built us a new table in the cockpit that we've wanted for some time. And I was starting to have some cooling issues on the dinghy outboard but those are sorted out now. He cleaned the cockpit and put some back rests on the aft seats. All that and kept a sharp eye out for crab pots. It's been fun having him here and very productive as well. There's a chance we may have him up the mast in a boysun's chair later this morning.

Unless Chris Parker's forecast changes when I talk to him in a couple of hours we'll let go of the mooring ball at around 3:00, stop to fill up with fuel and water and then head out. Depending on how much of a push we get from the Gulf Stream we are expecting the passage to take about 20 hours.

Did I mention Fantasy Fest? Since our departure was delayed a few days and we had some time we took the bus down to Key West on Saturday (Halloween) and went to Fantasy Fest. That was quite an experience.

We have some pictures (not of Fantasy Fest) to share but I'll do that later as it's getting hectic as we're preparing to leave. One bit of good news. As I was typing this Susan called an electronics guy here in Marathon and he gave us what's wrong with the AIS. And I know exactly what to do to fix it! I feel a lot better about being out on the open ocean at night with it working.

Once in the Bahamas I'm not sure what kind of voice or data connections we're going to have so it may be a while before I post again.

Take care.
Brian