We were back from New Zealand for just over a week and barely over our jetlag and decided that would be a great time to cross over to the Bahamas. We had intended to go to the Bahamas soon so had already been to the vet for the necessary health certificate, but then Kevin found out he needed to be back Stateside this past week for work. We decided to put off the Bahamas and we would move the boat down to West Palm for the week instead. Saturday morning arrived and we left our slip in Ft. Pierce and were out of the inlet heading south to West Palm with no real plan of where to keep the boat. Out of curiosity we looked up the weather conditions for crossing to the Bahamas and that was it, we turned to Port and set a course for the Grand Bahama Yacht Club (our planned check-in location). Crossing conditions were mostly calm. Towards the end of the trip there was some thunder and lightning nearby which made us steer away and reef our sails (lightning can strike up to 10 nm away from a thundercloud and we were the tallest thing around there for miles), but it thankfully never caught up to us and we got to the marina for customs and immigration in good time, arriving before they were even there!
Almost as soon as we arrived poor Kevin had to fly back to the States, so I spent the week getting some work done as well as chores around the boat (including cleaning all the bird poop we got on our decks in Ft. Pierce) and taking Kata for walks to explore the local area full of flowers and coconuts. Last year we made a new friend, Laurel, who joined us going south around Cape Hatteras on her first offshore passage. Since then she has been sailing around in the Pacific and having all sorts of adventures. She also happened to be in town while Kevin was away and it has been wonderful catching up with her and meeting some of her friends here. Earlier in the week we went out for dinner and as we were sitting at our table we saw a rocket going by, so we whipped out our phones to get some videos. Suddenly we saw one traveling light turn to into many, as it exploded in the sky and began to rain down. Confused, we started googling and found that the upper stage of the SpaceX Starship Flight 8 had lost several engines as well as attitude control and then completely failed and broke up over the Caribbean.
For days last week, firefighters had been battling wildfires on the island. Police apparently suspect arson, but with the purpose of clearing lots, instead of going through official channels to do so. On Friday we went to an airshow at the west end and when we got back to Lucaya the air was thick with smoke. We had a blast at the air show though. The Red Bull team apparently come here to practice for the big air shows around the world. It isn’t advertised here but those in the know get a private show and it was unlike anything I had seen before. Everything was happening all at once!
Kevin was supposed to return on Saturday but missed the last flight in from Miami because the airport train was down and he arrived at security 5 minutes too late as a result! Poor Kevin again, desperate to get back, had to spend a night at a hotel in Miami to get the first flight out on Sunday. All was made better when he arrived and we went for a sushi dinner and saw some beautiful sharks swimming below.
Plan tomorrow is the Berry Islands but Fish Fry Wednesday is calling to us so we will see! Many more photos dumped below:
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