So you got a plan do you...

Lorries Fabulous Coconuts!



Happy Birthday to me!



Lorrie "Satting the Anchor"



Sitting on a "coral reef crankin out some tasty licks"



Grouper!



Tropical Airplant!



Godspeed caught the only fish that day (flying fish, see the wings)



Racing sailboats in the Coconut Grove mooring field


So there we were victims of the weather, trapped in Marathon Florida. For the better part of a month we were tied to a mooring ball in Boot Key Harbor and a fellow Wyoming cruiser on the vessel Footloose was there. We were having sundowners with him and I was crying the blues about our time to get to the Bahamas was slipping away and how terrible that was. Then the unexpected happened, he looked me square in the eye with that Wyoming “matter a fact” look I know so well and said with measured sarcasm “you poor poor people, stuck on your sailing yacht in the Florida Keys in your shorts, watching the sunset, and after your winter cruise is over you have to go back to a place like Star Valley Wyoming and spend the summer, yea it’s just terrible you can’t make it to the Bahamas the year and my heart goes out to you! Ok Ok Glen, I get the point you are right, this is still fantastic and I will shut up now!
Our good friend Jim Matthews from Northern Florida had driven down and was staying onboard. He planned to cross to the Bahamas with us, and then fly back to his car. He had left his car in Miami, so we sailed out of Boot Key harbor and headed for Miami. The first day was a blustery sail as we were sailing close hauled against the wind and on a beat into the waves. Godspeed was heeled over 15 to 20 degrees and sailed nicely, but you had to move around the boat with care. Of course I had to get a line out and was rewarded with a Spanish mackerel and a nice grouper. We broiled two nice grouper filets that night and had a peaceful night swinging on the hook behind Rodriguez Key and a great sail into Coconut Grove (South of Miami) the next day. Jim waved goodbye and we headed into the ocean, turned north on a fast 90 mile sail to Lake Worth. We had not been a few minutes out when we heard our friends on the vessel Our Freedom on the radio. They were about five miles ahead and were headed to Lake Worth as well so we had a buddy boat. After negotiating the inlet, we approached the cruise ship Bahamas Celebration and she was hard aground blocking the channel with tug boats and lines pulling like mad. We kind of stopped and pondered our next move when a Coast Guard boat with his” flashing blues” just a blazing away rapidly began approaching. “About face” was our next move and he then left us alone. A while later Captain Bud, the tugboat driver, had freed her from her grounding and out to sea she went. The Coast Guard made a security call on the radio telling “all mariners in the vicinity of the Bahamas Celebration be advised to give her a wide berth and pass with extreme caution”…so we did just that! An hour later we set the hook in Lake Worth beside Our Freedom in the dark.
When other cruisers ask us what our plan is, I usually tell them the honest truth “we have no plan”. This cruise we had a plan to go to the Bahamas and our answer was: “we are going to the Bahamas,” however Mother Nature had different plans for us. It is not wise to have a strict plan when living in the great outdoors, so Instead of being disappointed we will slowly head up the coast of Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolinas, cross the Virginia state line and into the Chesapeake Bay. We plan to follow spring up the coast and “take time to smell the roses.”
Hey wait a second, did I just say “PLAN”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!