After a long spell I am finally uploading another blog post. I just have not been motivated to write anything lately. But I have been thinking a lot about this boating adventure and how to make it suit my life goals. The result is that I’m going to make some changes. But first, what’s been going for the past 6 weeks?
Since last post I made another trip to the Bahamas. It was a nice trip so I made a video of it:
On the return trip I was going to stay in Bimini but the weather turned bad so I just headed for Florida. But because I do not have a satellite phone I was unable to check the weather report (no cell service). So unbeknownst to me a big storm was headed my way which hit about 3 am on my way to Ft Lauderdale. Heavy seas, rain, thunder, lightening for about 5 hours. Not pleasant but I did not worry about the boat. They say boats can take a lot more than their sailors.
I stayed a short time in Florida just to get my outboard motor repaired and a few other spare parts. I also bought a kayak and a wet suit so I can snorkel and go spearfishing. A wetsuit is needed here this time of year because the water is just a bit chilly. My kayak.
I speared a lionfish one day. These are invasive species who do a lot of damage to reef fish so they say kill as many as you can. Their fins are venomous though so you’ve got to handle with care. But apparently they are good tasting. I speared five lionfish all together but they were too small to fillet. Here’s a typical one.
After several failed attempts to catch lobster, one day a boat pulls up and a guy asks if I want to buy some lobster. He had about 10 of them, fresh and still alive, so I bought them all for $60. I had a couple for dinner then froze the rest (tails only). I had so much lobster I am kind of sick of them. Here they are.
On the road again?
One drawback to sailing is that I have not been able to get very much exercise. Even though I have a kayak now and a wetsuit, and weights and exercise bands, I just have not been motivated to move around. As a consequence i have gained about 40 lbs which is uncomfortable and unhealthy.
So I have decided to get back on my bike and do some more bike touring. My old bike now rests 2000 feet under the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, so I will have to buy a new bike and kit it out for touring. My plan is to visit my sister in Colorado this summer and bike around the area from June to October, which coincidentally is hurricane season. So the boat will be “on the hard” as they say, which is out of the water and stored in a boatyard during the worst of the hurricane season. Then in October I’ll put her back in the water and sail until the following summer.
But in the meantime I’ll be sailing around the Florida keys and making more trips to the Bahamas. Stay tuned.