Hollywood Beach, Preparation for the Bahamas

Steve and Linda Franko aboard Yesterdays Dream have arrived. They checked in at the Hollywood City Marina. We still had a couple of days at the Loggerhead Marina after they arrived.

It's a happy day when a man gets a new boat.
Even if it happens to be a dinghy.

I think they arrived on Tuesday and that was the same day that the new dinghy was delivered. Peter had fun putting it together. No big deal really, just a little learning curve. I read the directions for him and before long it was done. We got the old soft bottomed dinghy off the back of the boat, and got the new one on.

Had a test drive from our marina up to say hello to Steve and Linda. We haven't seen them since the summer on Georgian Bay. We already had made arrangements for docktails back at our marina so it was a short visit. We agreed to return the following night and join them for dinner.

Wednesday, Tom and Amanda from Montana and off the boat named "Big Sky" took us to Fort Lauderdale so that we could get our charts for the Bahamas, and 3 water cans for the side of the boat. Once in the Bahamas you buy your water. We are hoping to anchor out as much as possible, and enjoy the swimming, snorkelling, and fishing once we are there. Definitely do not want to have to return to a marina just for water.

Hollywood Beach Bridge, lighted at night.
This is the best pic out of the 6 that I took.
Pictures taken from a  bouncing dinghy.

Taking pictures at night time from a bouncing inflatable boat, creates some interesting effects. Not necessarily what I was going for, but interesting.

Our welcoming committee. Steve and Linda

We were very fortunate that a sailboat left the marina on Thursday morning, and Steve immediately spoke to the dockmaster for us. We called right away to make the reservation, and the dockmaster was rather hesitant, he said he already had 2 or 3 boaters looking for a slip. Wow, I don't think the other boat had been gone half an hour. Peter said he wanted to make the reservation and join our friends and the dockmaster agreed. I don't know how long we would have had to wait otherwise.

Linda with the stuff that would
not fit in the trunk. Good thing they
 got a full size car.

Thursday, Steve and Linda had arranged to rent a car so that we could all do the big shopping to provision the boats for the Bahamas. People have said that you can buy most everything in the Bahamas, but paper products tend to be expensive, so stock up before you go. We bought a lot of canned goods, wine and beer. Canned goods because they are heavy to carry. Wine because it is hard to find in the Bahamas, and beer because it is very expensive in the Bahamas.

There is a huge contingent of french speaking Canadians in this marina. All very friendly. In fact it was a gentleman from Trois Riviers, that helped to catch our lines and get us settled.

Friday, the new battery charger arrived and Peter and Steve had a dinghy ride back to Loggerhead to pick it up. Peter had it installed just ahead of Steve and Linda coming to our boat for dinner. I had a Crock Pot Vegetarian Cookbook and was looking forward to trying some of the recipes. Southwestern Beans and Corn over rice, and Steve had made his Cucumber and Green Onion Salad. All very good.

The first evening we were together; the girls won playing Euchre. Last night the guys won. I must say it is much more fun winning, than losing. I am quite sure I did not have a decent hand all night.  Oh well there is always tonight.

Peter is locking the bikes. Now look closely, can you see that he could have another problem brewing? Check where the cord for his hat is caught on the handle bar of the bike. Retired people are so much fun. 

Another shopping trip. Warm up those
shopping carts.

This morning the four of us were off for a bike ride to Publix in Hallandale Beach, and Peter wants to return the small battery charger that just could not keep up with our system. After Publix, Steve and Linda were off to Winn Dixie, and Peter and I were off to Walmart for the return. We then went over the ICW to the beach side, and finally were able to get onto the beach to ride our bikes along the ocean walk.  A great bike ride.

Riding with Peter is sometimes very lonely.

We are patiently waiting for the weather window that will give us a good crossing to the Bahamas. There has been a lot of wind out of the north, high winds, and high seas. Looks like perhaps Wed. may provide an opportunity. However that is so far away, you can never tell. We will have to wait and see.

Not sure what we will have for communications once we get there. If you don't hear from us for awhile, do not worry. It is probably that we haven't arranged for communications yet, or it is just too expensive for the relatively short time we will be there. We will use our Find Me Spot so those of you who track us that way will be able to see where we are.

Storm water run off tube that is behind the boat. In the evenings it pumps about every 30 minutes, if not more often. For some reason it doesn't seem t pump during the day. Those tubes are about 18 inches in diameter, so it is a serious amount of water that flows thru.