Waiting for weather

We are pretty well set to head south.  We are now just waiting for a good weather window.  This weekend there is a strong cold front coming through.  The winds are going to be north, which is good, but could be up to 35 knots, which isn't good.

We have all of our provisions onboard.  All of our bins are full and the freezer is full of meat.  The aft cabin which we call the garage is full of paper products and other dry goods.  We are carrying three five gallon jerry jugs of gasoline and two five gallon jerry jugs of diesel fuel.  The boat has settled down to almost the top of the bottom paint line in the water.  I really wouldn't want to put any more weight on the boat.

We will most likely take the same route we did last year.  Go down the ICW to Southport, NC and then out the Cape Fear river inlet and do a 48 hour run to the St. Mary's inlet at Fernandina Beach, FL.  Once in Florida we will most likely stay in the ICW down to Vero Beach and wait there for a good weather window to cross over to the Bahamas.  We still are not sure of what route we will take to the Bahamas but we would like to go out the  Lake Worth inlet at Palm Beach, FL.

There are about ten other boats here at the marina that are also about ready to head south.  We all meet on the docks in the morning to discuss the weather.  When we are out cruising we live by the weather.

Reprovisioning

We have started the provisioning process for our winter cruise.  We will store about 5-6 months of food and supplies on board.  We have already stored $400 worth of canned goods.  Next we will purchase paper products and dry goods.  After that we will get the drinks, soda pop, wine, juices and powdered drink mixes.  Last we will get the meat products that will go into the freezer.  In all we will spend about $2000 which isn't bad for 5-6 months.  There will be some fresh produce and fruit we will purchase along the way when we can find it.  While in the states that isn't a problem but in the Exumas you just cannot get much good quality produce.

We are still putting the boat back together from when we had taken all of the sails and canvas off because of hurricane Irene.  I have finished the maintenance on the generator and the outboard motor.  We plan to leave New Bern, NC around the end of October or the beginning of November depending on weather.  This year we are going to store our Expedition at a friends house about 2 miles from the marina.  We will come back here next summer at least for awhile.