Holding Pattern (2013-12-20)

We're still at anchor in Lake Worth, awaiting a weather window in which to cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas.  The last few days the waves out on the Atlantic have been upwards of 5 feet, and the next few they will still be 4 feet or more.  We have a small possibility that a weather window might shape up for Monday, but if not it might be a few more days as a cold front is forecasted to come through on Tuesday.
All of that being said though, there are a lot worse places to be while we wait.  This is a large fairly well protected anchorage with lots of room for boats and good holding.  There is a fair dinghy landing close by that is within walking distance of a Publix and a West Marine which makes provisioning for the Bahamas easier.  The weather has also been very kind to us as well, with sunny clear skies since we got here and temperatures in the high 70's.

We've spent the last three days stocking the boat up with all of the provisions that we've heard are hard to get or expensive in the Bahamas.  Being new to all of this we've probably over-provisioned, but it feels good to have so much on board.  It took five full dinghy rides back from the landing to ferry all of the supplies back to the boat.  We've been lucky to have Don and Lynn of S/V Redshift assist us with transportation for the first two days, which allowed us to hit up a Walmart and Costco for better prices.  Yesterday we finished up with a walking trip to West Marine and two to Publix for the last of the provisions.  The boat is pretty much full up, with enough food and supplies that we could probably survive for months just with what we have on board.  Once we get a weather window open up we'll make one more trip the day before to stock up on fresh produce and any other last minutes items we might find we want.

Today we're looking at raising the anchor and heading off to one of the local marinas to top off our fuel tanks.  Because we're only going as far as the Abacos this year (a distance of about 100 miles from the location we'll be entering the Bahamas) we should have more than enough fuel to last the winter, and with any luck we won't need to refuel in the Bahamas.  After getting fuel, filling up on water and disposing of trash we'll be back to the anchorage to re-anchor and continue to wait.