We arrived at West Palm Beach a week ago Saturday and dropped anchor across from the West Palm Public Docks. We immediately contacted our Florida family members and arranged times to visit with them. We spent last Sunday with the east coast crew, then drove out to the Tampa area Monday to visit overnight with the west coast crew (saw my first manatee in the wild- see post pic), arriving back at Lady Tuesday in time for dinner. That was our fun, except for an occasional lunch or dinner out ashore since. Otherwise it’s been all about frantically preparing to make the jump to the Bahamas. Mom & I have started the provisioning. I have to do it in steps or it really tries my sanity; I hate this type of shopping. The boys have been installing and fixing. We anchored closer to the public docks Thursday to make it faster (and drier) getting ourselves and our stuff to and from Lady.
Friday we learned the anchorage and docks were closing Sunday morning in preparation for the upcoming boat show and we had to vacate by 7am. We decided to try to beat the exodus and hauled anchor after breakfast yesterday, moving up river to anchor off a friendly sailing club that allows transients to use their dinghy dock and facilities for a nominal daily fee. We were there for about 3 hours. The front forecast to blow through arrived on schedule Saturday kicking up 20+ kt winds with the promise of increasing to 30 kts and continuing through part of Tuesday. We were not excited about making a zillion dinghy runs in those conditions. It would have required donning our foul weather gear and putting all our supplies in contractor bags to keep them dry. All the marinas nearby were full, so Dave kept calling marinas further and further up river until we found one about 5 miles away with a spot for us. Amen! So we hauled anchor again and arrived at said marina around 2pm yesterday. Showers, laundry, significantly less wind and calmer waters, not to mention the shopping and restaurants surrounding the marina. A final slice of convenience before we set off for the remote islands of the Caribbean.
We checked out the lay of the land here yesterday afternoon. Then I got a luxurious hot shower ashore and set out to retrieve our rental car back in West Palm and visit my cousin Suzie and her clan to pick up the packages they’ve been collecting for us, and to have dinner with them. My folks and Dave enjoyed the facilities and got dinner to go from the Italian market about 150 yards from our boat.
And now the final (we think) countdown begins. The next weather window for crossing to the Bahamas appears to be Thursday. So we have until then to finish everything in preparation. Our generator controllers should arrive tomorrow; the final replacement pieces that should prevent complete system failure like the one that happened in November. The rest of the lists remain pretty much the same as my last post, but most of it has at least been started. Baby steps.
Bring on those blue, warm waters and pretty fish!
Life on Lady 
I just read your blog. What a lot of work and you aren’t finished yet! I’m tired thinking about it. I’m glad you were able to get tucked away in a more hospitable place up river. I’m so very glad you all got to visit us! We had a really good time.
Love,
Cousin Karen
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