Salty Paws Travels 2,500 Miles, Mostly on Land

Salty Paws was last in the Bahamas in March 2020 when COVID hit.

We are now a day away from our expected Thursday (3/17) crossing from the Florida to the Bahamas.  The conditions look excellent with a forecast of light winds and wave height of 2-3 feet with a 10 second period (i.e., time between waves).  This will be our third crossing from Florida.  The water was glass-like in our first crossing but not the most pleasant in our second.  I need to plan on Molly being nervous, particularly in the time leading up to actual crossing, which will, I hope, confirm our decision that it is the right to time to cross.

Depending upon the conditions we find based upon Molly’s standards, we could turn back or decide to take the shortest crossing of 55 nautical miles to West End, Grand Bahamas, or in smooth water speed the full 100 or so nautical miles to Grand Cay, a great starting point to explore the Abacos.  Readers can check on our progress, or lack thereof, by visiting inreachlink.com/AF2FSBB.  I am still refreshing my use of our Garmin InReach that sends and receives satellite signals, and is supposed to update our location every 10 minutes, assuming I have it on. 

Granddaughter Charlotte (on right)
and friend helped show off the fender
board that I made.

Leaving Georgetown on 2/27.

It is hard to believe that we left Maine over two weeks ago with snow on the ground and a temperature of 15 degrees.  The trip down to Florida covered 2000 miles, visits to friends and family along the way, and a 4-day stay with our granddaughter and family outside of Atlanta.  There I got the boat ready for use as an RV for two nights, and we finally splashed in the water in Daytona Beach, where a fellow Rosborough boat owner offered to store our truck and trailer until our May return. 

Molly at the helm in the ICW.

Sign in Titusville Park.

Over the last several days we have cruised down the Intracoastal Waterway with stops in New Smyrna, Titusville, Micco and Nettles Island.  It is great to see the pelicans again, and a small alligator briefly blocked our passage out of one marina.  We were untouched by one storm that created havoc and freezing temperatures in northeast Florida.  It got down to 44 degrees in Micco, but we were quite comfortable on the boat.

On the Cross Bronx Expressway.  We
will take a different route on our return.

We shared many great meals and laughs along the way, and our dog, Tory, has been a loveable hit everywhere.  Still, there have been multiple challenges in our travels.  We went through all the major metropolitan areas coming south because of our stopping points.  Our bridge clearance height is roughly 12 feet 8 inches and imagine our surprise when one of the Cross Bronx Highway bridges was 12 feet 8 ½ inches on the sides and 12 feet 10 inches in the middle.  I held my breath as we went under in the middle lane.

Another challenge was driving the 7 miles from my sister-in-law Nora’s house in Silver Spring to my cousin Paul’s house in Bethesda.  We made the mistake of not yet having a trucker’s travel app.  Google directed us on roads with travel lanes narrower than the trailer and overhanging trees around the height of our rig.  Then we encountered residential streets with steep hills and parked vehicles making passage nearly impossible.  Later I dealt with a severed brake line on the boat trailer and a refrigerator that wouldn’t run off the boat batteries.  Then, of course, were the separate trips to urgent care facilities for both Molly and me. 

Molly relaxes after her injury at the house of a fellow
Rosborough boat owner.

In Florida we visited a boating acquaintance, who wanted to show us his boat.  Molly started up his 5-foot tall, makeshift stairs to the craft.   She immediately hit her head on a metal cross piece that was head-high.  The force of the hit knocked her backward.  She grabbed for a support, that was only a loose boat hook and twisted off the stairs, falling directly on the hard ground below.  She shrieked in pain from her twisted knee (the one that was operated on last year!) and back.  25 miles down the road we arrived at an urgent care facility, and a nurse came out with a wheelchair.  Two hours later the x-rays proved negative, and we hoped that the muscle relaxant prescription would work its wonders quickly.  It has now been a week, and Molly is much better, but still not 100%.

As to me, I have had a toothache, very mild at first and increasingly painful over the last week.  Then last Friday (3/11) I noticed that my lip was swollen.  There was an urgent care facility 2-miles from the marina we were staying in Micco, and, fortunately, Molly insisted that I pay a visit.   The excellent PA quickly diagnosed me with an infected gum.  I had never heard of such a thing.  I got one shot of antibiotic in my butt, pain pills and a 10-day regimen of penicillin.  In less than 2 days, I stopped the pain meds and was and am feeling great. 

InReach shows our 
boat position off
Nettle Island.

With friends Diane and Sid Cohen on Nettles Island.  

Now we are departing Nettles Island Marina, off Hutchinson Island in Jenson Beach.     In the 1960s the island was entirely made of spoils from the dredging of the nearby Indian River.   The hunk of several acres of sand was purchased by a Michigan RV dealer.  His sales pitch become “Buy an RV from me and get a free week of vacation on your new RV at Nettles Island in Florida.”  He also had the island divided up into RV lots (perhaps, 20 by 60 feet) and began selling them.  [The lots now sell for $150,000 or so!] Soon, most of the lots were sold and occupied by RVs, and, in time, many of the RVs become mobile homes and others new-construction stick homes.  It is one of the most densely populated places that we have seen, but it is all well-cared for and strongly controlled by a very active homeowners association.

Yesterday we got our required negative COVID tests and restocked our refrigerator and stores.

Tory and I raced back to the boat.

  I then spent multiple hours last night completing the required online submissions and payments for Bahamas Customs, and we may finally be ready. 

We are now anchored in Lake Worth, West Palm Beach, and dealt with a tornado warning and a race to be back to the boat before the expected downpour.  Fortunately, neither came.

Bahamas, here we come!

Salty Paws is often the smallest boat in the marina.
We are in the center of this picture,  Do you see us?