Tuesday, April 5, 2011

We're back!

Tuesday, 05 April, 2011

Hello faithful followers:

Scott and I are currently on a mooring ball in Vero Beach, FL after crossing back over from the Abacos Saturday-Sunday.  We left Green Turtle Cay at 8:30 Sat. morning with our buddies, Ian and Sue on Kokopelli and arrived in Ft. Pierce at 11:30 am after our 27-hour crossing--- tired but happy to be back in the good ol' US of A.  We anchored off of Harbourtown Marina in Ft. Pierce and,  after a long afternoon nap, we had a nice dinner and then an early bedtime.  Sleep is a wonderful battery recharger!

Yesterday, Kokopelli and Painkiller motored a couple of hours up the ICW to Vero Beach and enjoyed a trip to the local Publix for some provisioning.  We had lunch at the Riverside Cafe near our marina and then went over to Kokopelli for sundowners.  Today, they're calling for high winds and thunderstorms so we're all happy to stay put here in Vero.  Tomorrow, weather permitting, we hope to head north on our trek towards St. Augustine.

Now, to recap on our last week in the Bahamas:   we thoroughly enjoyed spending some more time at the Jib Room/ Marsh Harbour Marina and then heading over to Green Turtle Cay on Tuesday. We rented a golf cart on Wednesday last week and drove all over the island since we were fairly far from the actual settlement.  It reminded us alot of Hope Town and Spanish Wells.  Nice folks with a slight English accent.....a reminder that they're descended from Brits who came over in the 1600's to settle the islands.  We were anchored out in one of the sounds there and had some fairly strong winds but the boat did fine.  Anxious to cross back over, we were happy when the forecast gave us a weather window, albeit a narrow one.  Kokopelli decided it was a "go" so off we all went on Saturday morning.

It's wonderful being back on US soil and even things once mundane -- like shopping at Publix -- take on exotic overtones since they *always* have bananas and fresh produce.  We've gotten used to shopping for produce only on days when the mail boat has delivered in the out islands.   It's funny how you take such things for granted here, huh?

So, we'll keep you posted as we head up the ICW towards home.  We hope to be in St. Augustine over the weekend as we loved it there in November and want more time to explore that wonderful city.  Hoping to be home within a week or so, especially if we can go off-shore for the hop from St. Augustine to Beaufort, SC.  Take good care and thanks again for keeping up with our blog.



Jason and Stephen, dockmaster and chief dockhand, at the marina.  This shot was on Saturday night during their "steak night".

Chef Marvin, cooking "up a storm" for the steak night.

Linda "Boo" (L) with her mom.  Linda and Tom are owners of the marina and are very friendly, warm people.

The Jib Room from outside, looking in

Our last Bahamas sunset for awhile.  This was on the crossing while we were still on the Bahamas banks.  Our friends on Kokopelli are seen here in front.