After Heather got back I had a lot of mail to go through. When you only pick up the mail every month or two it seems to really build up. That and more chores, like finishing the third rail section on the boat.
On Sunday we went back to a slip, hooking up the electrical this time for air conditioning and to top up the battery bank. To do so on this new dock we needed yet another electrical adapter, but this one wasn't too outrageously expensive and came in handy again very soon. We made final passes to the grocery store and marine supply houses.
We checked in with the insurance company for the boat to confirm our coverage for the Bahamas and topped up our water tanks. We started checking the weather religiously again, sometime three and four times a day, trying to find the best window for the gulfstream crossing. We rinsed off the boat again, finally swapped out our diesel jugs we use for an emergency reserve, and printed out and started filling out our Bahamas entry forms.
We knew we were getting close when on Tuesday we took the car to a long term storage place south of the airport and payed thru May. Here's one last shot of one of Ft. Lauderdale's creepiest residents, in this case hedge surfing to surprise people walking to the beach.
On Wednesday we took showers ashore and made one last visit to the French bakery before we left the slip. After pumping out at the adjacent dock we chugged down past the bridge to the fuel dock and topped up our new reserve diesel jugs and the main tank, and grabbed a last couple bags of ice.
We went back up to the mooring field and picked up a ball. We started preparing like we used to when we would take the kids to southern California on vacation. Pack up the car until we we ready to go, then don't. Wake up in the middle of the night and get started, and we'd be well on our way before the sun came up. So that's what we did.
The picture below is from the mooring field looking at the small park at the base of the bridge on the west side.
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