Tomorrow will be our last full day in the USA.
We plan to cross to the Abacos in the Bahamas early Monday morning.
If it all goes to plan, we should be checking in with the Bahamian authorities by Tuesday midday.
We've been obsessively watching several weather apps, trying to learn and understand the safest way to cross The Gulf Stream and how best to navigate the shallow inlets and cays as we enter the Bahamian islands.
This feels like a great leap into the unknown. It's not the fact that it's a new country that has us scrambling to get sufficient supplies and do last minute boat checks. It's the fact that there are fewer facilities and resources (especially in the Abacos since hurricane Dorian hit), so we must be self-reliant with food, water, diesel, spare boat parts etc.
There are places that are starting to open up where you can get water and diesel, but for the most part, we need/want to be self sufficient.
We have all the donations and supplies that we will be bringing to the Abacos and her affected residents. Thanks to those who generously donated, it means a lot!
Christmas day was an absolute blast.
We had an easy morning on the boat, the kids opened their presents and we called our families back home.
In the afternoon we dinghy'd to nearby Peanut Island for what was supposed to be a modest gathering of a few kid boats.
It ended up being an epic party of 10 cruising families, 14 kids between us (18 months to 13 years), an incredible potluck spread, BBQ, swimming, snorkelling, manatees and sting ray sightings, and a ginormous bonfire at night with too many s'mores to count.
The next day was back to Bahamas preparations.
The kids are picking up bits and pieces of information from overhearing our conversations about the planning and preparation.
There are LOTS of moving parts and priorities change hour to hour as we navigate our way through the preparation stage.
Tonight we had a family discussion about what this upcoming passage means and although it may only SEEM like just one more overnight passage, it is a lot more significant and has more implications if things go wrong. More than ever, we need Team Thornington to come together.
Generally, the kids have been pretty good and keeping themselves occupied with the new books and Lego sets they received for Christmas.
Thanks to our multiple visits to the Kennedy Space Center, their newest obsession is anything to do with space, rockets, shuttles and the International Space Station.
Tomorrow I'm doing one last provisioning run for fresh produce and chocolate chip cookies. I've got a deep hankering for chocolate chip cookies at this very moment and knowing I don't have any on board is painful!
I could dinghy to shore and walk the few blocks to a grocery store if I really wanted to, but it's dark, windy and rainy and I'm feeling lazy.
If only Uber Eats delivered by dinghy to boats at anchor!
Well, it seems we've been preparing for this crossing for a long time now.
We're feeling a bit worn down from being in Florida. Not to mention humid, sticky, antsy and stagnant.
Sometimes playing the waiting game is harder than going into the unknown. Especially when the wait is for an undefined period of time.
For me, I will feel like we have 'made it' when we can hoist the Bahamian courtesy flag 🇧🇸, hand over the supplies and donations that are currently occupying every available square foot, and when I can jump directly off the boat into the warm turquoise waters.
Not long now.
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| Rainbow after the torrential rain storm. |
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| The other end of the same rainbow |
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| This morning we baked croissants and cinnamon rolls. A good sweet pick me up. |
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| Glamourous cruising life. Walking through a rainstorm next to a busy road in a questionable neighbourhood to buy transmission fluid. Fun fun! |
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| Christmas morning treat - Ghanaian coffee! Thanks Anice! |
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| Santa found our boat!!! |
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| Roasting marshmallows on the beach for the tenth s'more will be what the kids remember most about Christmas 2019. |
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| Just a few remaining boat families gathered at dusk on Peanut Island around the bonfire, with the skyscrapers of West Palm Beach in the background. Didn't take any photos during the day at all... that's how awesome and busy we all were! |
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| Lego'ing |
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| Both diesel tanks on our boat and multiple Jerry cans are full. Took us nearly 3 hours to complete this task this morning. From leaving our anchorage to docking at the fuel dock, pumping the fuel and then going out to re-anchor again. No boat chore is ever easy or simple or fast. |
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