Yay! Tomorrow we’ll be on our way south again – next stop St Augustine Municipal Marina. There we’ll be catching up with a fellow Bayliner owner, Tom, who Lance has ‘met’ through the Bayliner Forum.
The watermaker is in, (it’s really quite amazing), the dinghy has had something of a repair [thumbs down Mercury Marine - we're giving you a very poor rating for not yet coming to the party! 
], the new anchor is all ready to be used and a few other odds and bobs have been sorted out.
We’ve got our wetsuits, snorkelling gear, fishing rods etc and almost all the provisioning is done. Although we do of course still have to eat everyday so I’ll have to keep replenishing where I can! 
Last night we enjoyed another lovely dinner with Mary and Mike from Paradise Yacht Sales. http://www.paradiseyachtsales.blogspot.com/
CaptionArm wrestling over custard eclairs
They have been wonderful during our 3 week stay here and they even ran me up to the grocery store yesterday for a few last minute items - we’d returned the rental car the day before. We’ll certainly miss them as we move on but we’re planning to store Amanzi here when we return, so we’ll get to catch up again in March. Meanwhile they’ll continue to read our regular blogs which we’ve promised to keep going. (I can hear you all saying YAY!) Of course once we get to the Bahamas our internet access will probably be severely curtailed and I’ll no doubt have severe withdrawal symptoms.
We’ve said goodbye to Arthur and Mamiko – they will be following us early next week – so you never know, we may just meet up again somewhere down ‘the ditch’ (no, not the Tasman – it’s actually another name for the ICW).
Meanwhile though we’ll go and join the hordes of boaties that are waiting for a good weather window to cross to the Bahamas. We’ve heard that the further we go towards Miami, the narrower the waterway becomes, the more boats there are out and about and that well mannered boaties are in very short supply! Many power boats will apparently think nothing of buzzing past at great speeds creating large wakes. It surely can’t be worse than heading out of Auckland Harbour – or can it? At times that used to feel like being in a washing machine – although I have to admit that was during the Americas Cup when every boat of every description seemed to be out on the water!
9 December 2011 – Au Revoir Fernandina Beach!
Yay! Tomorrow we’ll be on our way south again – next stop St Augustine Municipal Marina. There we’ll be catching up with a fellow Bayliner owner, Tom, who Lance has ‘met’ through the Bayliner Forum.
The watermaker is in, (it’s really quite amazing), the dinghy has had something of a repair [thumbs down Mercury Marine - we're giving you a very poor rating for not yet coming to the party!
], the new anchor is all ready to be used and a few other odds and bobs have been sorted out.
We’ve got our wetsuits, snorkelling gear, fishing rods etc and almost all the provisioning is done. Although we do of course still have to eat everyday so I’ll have to keep replenishing where I can!
Last night we enjoyed another lovely dinner with Mary and Mike from Paradise Yacht Sales. http://www.paradiseyachtsales.blogspot.com/
They have been wonderful during our 3 week stay here and they even ran me up to the grocery store yesterday for a few last minute items - we’d returned the rental car the day before. We’ll certainly miss them as we move on but we’re planning to store Amanzi here when we return, so we’ll get to catch up again in March. Meanwhile they’ll continue to read our regular blogs which we’ve promised to keep going. (I can hear you all saying YAY!) Of course once we get to the Bahamas our internet access will probably be severely curtailed and I’ll no doubt have severe withdrawal symptoms.
We’ve said goodbye to Arthur and Mamiko – they will be following us early next week – so you never know, we may just meet up again somewhere down ‘the ditch’ (no, not the Tasman – it’s actually another name for the ICW).
Meanwhile though we’ll go and join the hordes of boaties that are waiting for a good weather window to cross to the Bahamas. We’ve heard that the further we go towards Miami, the narrower the waterway becomes, the more boats there are out and about and that well mannered boaties are in very short supply! Many power boats will apparently think nothing of buzzing past at great speeds creating large wakes. It surely can’t be worse than heading out of Auckland Harbour – or can it? At times that used to feel like being in a washing machine – although I have to admit that was during the Americas Cup when every boat of every description seemed to be out on the water!