Staging for the Bahamas!

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We left Punta Gorda on Sun 1/26/25. Our plan was to make three long days and get to No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne to cross to the Berry Island in the Bahamas with other PDQ's. The marina at Burnt Store Marina was kind enough to let us tie up to the gas dock, in front of our condo the night before we left. It sure made last minute preparations easy!

The best-laid plans.....

We had a good day on Sunday, and made it through 3 locks and several bridges, with a final destination of Roland Martin Marina in Clewiston Florida. We got on the water Monday 1/27 at 6 am for a beautiful sunrise underway.

Our final lock, the St Lucie lock, was closed for maintenance for over three hours! That changed our plans UGH! After much discussion, we decided to slow down, make our way south, and start looking for another weather window. We spend the night on a mooring in Manatee Pocket in Stuart Fl.

On Tuesday, we traveled to West Palm Beach and anchored for the night between two free town day docks. On Wednesday, we traveled to Fort Lauderdale and paid for a dock at the 17th St Yacht Basin. It was just amazing to travel down the ICW through these cities. The homes are huge and beautiful. The water is getting clearer and the weather is warmer!

Jupiter Island light house, new construction of a Route 1 bridge in Jupiter and an example of the homes we drove by.

We saw all sorts of things while underway, a Ferris wheel, a boat that runs around Miami as a billboard, and lots of water taxis.

We have been provisioning for our weeks in the Bahamas. We have been trying to find food items that may be hard to get on the islands. As we ended up taking a few days longer to cross, we made one more Publix stop! Yup, right on the ICW!

When we attended the PDQ Rendezvous in Jan, we met Jim another PDQ owner who reached out and offered to sponsor us to stay at the Key Biscayne Yacht Club. We arrived here on Thursday and will stay two nights with a plan to cross to Great Harbor Cay Marina https://www.greatharbourcaymarina.com/ This is by far, the most beautiful and amazing Yacht Club we have ever visited!

We plan to leave (tomorrow), Feb 1 at 6:15 am. We will be running 14-15 knots. For the first 3-4 hours we will be crossing the Gulf Stream (about 44 miles). The wind is forecasted to be 10 knots from the south-southwest and decreasing throughout the day. We will cross north of Bimini and continue to cross the Bahama Bank (about 73 miles). We expect to arrive around 4 pm. 🤞🤞

We have several knowledgeable friends who we have shared our detailed float plan with. The other PDQ folks are excited for us to arrive.

They say, as we approach the Berry Islands, the first thing on the horizon that we will see are the cruise ships, just north of Great Harbor Cay, on the private islands Great Stir Up Cay and Coco Cay owned by the Cruise lines!

I am both super excited and extremely anxious about the trip tomorrow. This will be my first offshore experience but I will be traveling with my MacGyver who will stop at nothing to make sure I am safe. Gerry has spent many days off-shore and our boat is prepared! We can do it! I can do it! I will update you on Sunday!