Crew join me aboard Harbinger

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6th March
Crew join Harbinger
Great news, Jeremy and Carla have joined the good ship Harbinger. Jeremy is from NZ and his girl friend Carla is from Brazil. They are a great couple with lots of sailing experience and this will make the trip that much more enjoyable.
Therefore plans are afoot to depart Marathon at the earliest opportunity, and that might be tomorrow or early next week. Having said that it all depends on the whimes of the weather. We are not the only ones waiting for a window of opportunity, there are dozens of boats her in Boot Key Harbour waiting for a window. As i write this snug in my bed the wind is once again howling outside. It seems that there is little respite from the frontal systems coming through. This coupled with the requirement to have the wind between SE and W, and less than 25 knots there have been precious few chances to cross the Gulf stream (GS). The gulf stream runs North East/North at 2 to 4 knots and is more like a river, 50 miles wide, hence the need to have a southerly wind and moderate conditions. One could however go in a very light northerly but that would necessitate motoring most of the 180+ miles to the far side of the Grand Bahama Bank.
The other day a lovely couple from the UK made an attempt to cross the GS. They are very experienced and have crossed the GS 9 times before and so they know what they are doing. After 30 miles they had to turn back. In all they were out at sea 17 hours, through the night, in dire conditions and felt lucky to make a safe land fall, totally exhausted they slept for 24 hours. As a result they have now decided to sell the boat after cruising the Caribean and South America for the last 23 years.
Hopefully the next bullitin will be from the Bahamas.
Bye for now.

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Photos

local sea dog
Many boaters have sea dgs, and there are a few cats as well.