Our windlass arrived yesterday and Mark quickly installed it.  We are now ready to leave and head south again.  We could have left this morning, but wanted one more day to finish up last minute trips to the stores nearby.  This afternoon we made one last visit to Publix, a stop at West Marine to pick up some LED lights we ordered, and of course, one last frappaccino at Starbucks.  In addition, we wanted one last day of shore power, unlimited water, free wifi, and a step off the boat to walk Daisy.  Mark is washing the outside of the boat and I’m doing the inside. 

Above I took full advantage of power, making hot chocolate in my “Cocoa-Latte Hot Drink Maker” and using the electric griddle to make English muffins.  Some electric appliances don’t take much power, but the microwave/convection oven usually requires the genset running.  The breadmaker takes very little power, but I think I’ll be heating water or milk on the stove from now on for hot chocolate.  I started making English muffins the last few weeks we were in the Bahamas two years ago, and I’ve made them ever week since then.  The dough is made in the breadmaker and they are baked on a griddle.  The toaster uses quite a bit of power and so does the blender and coffeemaker.  Mark uses an Aero Press for coffee, much like a French Press, which we also have.  At this marina, we were charged $20 a day for power.  Some marinas check the meter and charge you after you leave.  At Sunset Bay we paid $95 a month.  We used much more power there as we ran the air conditioner almost every day.  Here, we only turned it on for short periods of time after we got back from bike ride/shopping trips.  I never asked, but we are almost the smallest boat here and there are quite a few megayachts.  They probably use $20 an hour.  Maybe it all evens out, but I know we haven’t used $120 worth of electricity in the last six days.

That’s the only complaint, and not really that much of one, about Old Port Cove Marina.  It’s been a beautiful place to stay and so convenient to shopping. We could never get here before since you have to go under a 65 ft. bridge in Lake Worth, near the inlet to go north on the ICW.  We always stayed at the Lake Worth anchorage, which doesn’t have good shore access.  Here, there is a dinghy dock which takes you a few steps from US1 and Publix.

We have stopped at the grocery store every day to pick up “just one more thing.”  When you know you can’t get something until next June, it makes you think.  We bought lots of rum in Stuart, but forgot to get the punch for rum punch, a staple of cruisers in The Bahamas.  Actually, Mark thought we could use some powdered punch drink we have, but when we saw the big bottles of Hawaiian Punch at the Palm Beach Publix, two for $5.00, we decided that was so much cheaper than we paid before in The Bahamas we better get them. 

Our freezer and refrigerators are totally full. We have six half gallons of milk (Smart Balance with expiration dates the end of January.}  After that we’ll be using dry milk.  I even had room for our favorite Weight Watcher ice cream bars in the freezer, definitely not available in The Bahamas.   We will be able to buy a few more items at grocery stores near the mooring field we’ll be staying at in Miami.  I’m sure we’ll have more things we just have to get.

Tomorrow, we’ll leave early, motor about four miles to the Lake Worth inlet and go a few miles offshore for about 40 miles to Ft. Lauderdale.  As of now, the conditions look fine for the next few days.  We’ve had strong winds and cloudy, rainy days almost every day since we arrived more than a week ago.  The next weather window to the Bahamas will probably be early next week. We’ll wait until the conditions are near ideal.