The girls all left after New Year’s to go back to NC. Shannon stayed to continue getting the boat ready for cruising.
A few days after the girls left, Shannon (with the help of Kent Meredith, Kathy Meredith, and Joffre DiSabatino) took Aventis down the ICW to another marina in order to get some repairs made and the bottom painted.
Squeezing Aventis into the haul out was a little nerve wracking for sure! It still amazes me to watch boats get hauled out and moved around by massive Travel Lifts. During the haul out we had the bottom painted, a cracked bow fixed, underwater lights added, a thru hole for a watermaker added, and one of the sail drives fixed. Kind of scary having holes drilled in the bottom of your boat for lights and thru holes!
Bottom painting Aventis.
Fixing the bow on Aventis.
Ashley and Addie came down to the boat to celebrate Addie’s 14th birthday! Wait until next month to find out her big birthday present!
We went down to Key Largo for lunch and to snorkel.
Before we knew it, Ashley and Addie had to go back to NC. Before their flight, we went to Le Tub on the ICW for lunch. Addie loves their shrimp!
Shannon was left alone again on the boat, but he seemed to manage ok.
Our friends on Wind Ensemble were leaving the next day for their cruising around the world adventure. Shannon took them to Jaxson’s Ice Cream Parlour as their last Florida treat for a long time.
Well, as it happened, Shannon got the opportunity to go on the first part of Wind Ensemble’s journey, and so the next day, he left Fort Lauderdale for No Name Harbor on Wind Ensemble with Kent and Kathy Meredith.
We had just exited Port Everglades channel when we encountered this navy submarine. Very cool watching it do drills!
This is Kathy Meredith at the helm of Wind Ensemble on our way to No Name harbor. No Name is a good jumping off point to cross the gulf stream to Bimini. Wind Ensemble is a 2018 Lagoon 42. She sails beautifully!
Shannon and Kent enjoying the sail to No Name.
Before we know it, we are passing the lighthouse on Key Biscayne and arriving at No Name for the evening. We woke the next morning at 4:00am to start our crossing to Bimini. We had a great sail over and arrived about 2pm.
After checking into customs, we walked over to Sherry’s for drinks and dinner. Sherry’s is a dive right on the beach, but has the coldest beer in the Bahamas and the best fried fresh lobster anywhere. This is Kent and Kathy Meredith on Sherry’s deck overlooking the ocean.
The view from Sherry’s.
When we got back to the marina, we watched Bull Sharks have a feeding frenzy. Needless to say, swimming at the marina is not allowed!
The next day we sailed to Gunn Cay, our jumping off spot before crossing the great Bahama Bank.
We bashed all day into the wind and decided to stop about halfway. We simply dropped the anchor and tried to take it easy for the night. The seas and wind were pretty rough. Luckily, none of us get sea sick!
The next day we made our way to Nassau. Again, we bashed our way through high waves, high wind, and this time, rain.
Just as we were arriving to Nassau, the weather pretty much cleared up for us!
We enjoyed a great sunset in Nassau! We had a great evening celebrating a successful and eventful crossing of the gulf stream and great Bahama bank. The next morning, I took a flight back to Fort Lauderdale. To this day, Kent and Kathy are still roaming the Bahamas!
