One Last Time (for a little while)

We never did go back to Green Turtle to dodge the weather, instead we decided to put up with some pretty regular squalls whomping us, mostly at night, just to get another good dive in at Allens-Pensacola/Umbrella Cay. It has been grey and we’ve been trying dive in the rain, not having much luck, and were thinking it just might not happen.

Our cruising permit is good through the 20th, but the weather gurus are saying that all of the factors that have been keeping this Hurricane season quiet are dissolving by the end of the week and they are expecting to see things heat up pretty quickly afterwards. That was our que that it’s time to head along and there looks to be a very favorable weather window to head back to Florida this week.

Fortunately today, even though we had a nasty squall last night and woke up to rain, cleared out and we made the most of our last full non-traveling day here. Keith got a bucket full of hogfish. Do I need to say more? Obviously it turned out to be a great day! Normally we only catch what we are going to eat that night and maybe one for the freezer for a rainy day, but today we upped our limits (still totally within the legal limits) and brought home four so we could have a fish dinner our two while back in Florida. Seriously, I think we might go into withdrawals, we’ve been eating fish probably five nights a week, and most lunches too! Besides the fish, the dives were good. All clear, tons of pretty fish, no big scary fish.

With our diving done, we still just couldn’t get out of the water yet and spent the rest of the afternoon just floating off the beach. I am so not ready to leave yet.

With our rainy down time I’ve started a list of things to get done while back in the States and while in the boatyard. It’s the first list of anything I’ve made since leaving Florida. We should get started on it soon so that we are all set to hop right back over here as soon as the weather for the season settles down. Can you believe there are still plenty of islands in the Abacos we haven’t gone to yet?! Plus, we will be heading further south for the winter months. We don’t like cold water.

So the plan at the moment is to sail to Great Sale Cay tomorrow for staging, double check the weather, start our crossing the following evening, and hopefully be pulling into Fort Pierce the evening following that. This will most likely be the last post till we get to the other side of the stream. See you there!