We're in Florida now

Hello all, We’re in Ft. Lauderdale, in the mooring field by Los Olas bridge. We were here last year when we came back from the Bahamas. I think I last e-mailed after the Family Island Regatta. We went on up to Nassau, taking about 10 days over it, swam most days, and had to wait in Allen’s for weather. We stayed there for a while, swung over to Rose Island for a break, and went down to Potters Cay for veggies, breakfast there next time. Lots of little shacky sort of street food stalls, I love those sorts of places. We had a gorgeous fast broad reach over to Chubb, but it stayed too windy to continue on up onto the banks as we had hoped, so we stopped at Chubb. Called the Spanish consulate in TO while we were there as they told the man when he was in TO two months ago, that his Spanish citizenship would be ready by then. It was not. We were told that we were, “moving too quickly” (10 months ?!?!?) No apologies or anything. So we still don’t know, but at this stage I cannot imagine the job is still available. Ah well. We were at Chubb for three days waiting for good weather, then Chris Parker, the weather guru started talking about hurricane Adrien that was going to hit Central Am. and on up into the Bahamas, maybe by Sunday. Most likely as a tropical depression. E 15 - 20 kn suddenly looked pretty damned good, so off we went at 6 am, sailed and sailed and sailed. There’s nothing wrong with the banks except that they go on altogether too long. We rounded N rock, once again unlit, in the dark, again. Do any other idiots try this? We actually saw the thing this time, which was
heartening. Dropped the hook around midnight off Bimini beach on the west side. It doesn’t sound too bad here, but it was very rough, and went on FAR too long in one shot. Even the husband got sea sick for a couple of hours, the rest of us had been feeling grungy all day. We had a wonderful time in Bimini though after sucking up the yucky banks crossing. We didn’t go inside, instead we stayed anchored off the beach. After we had breakfast, the man rowed the girls and I in, and then had a desperately needed nap. He looked fairly destroyed that morning. The girls and I bought candy for their allowances, and some groceries, and then played on the beach for hours. The younger girl and I EACH FOUND A HAMBURGER BEAN!!!! THe eldest had found a heart bean there in Jan as well. There was also BUCKETS of sea glass. We could be very picky and probably found 10 pieces of blue glass. We could have literally gotten gallons, but how would we have carried it.
This morning, Sat. the 21st, we left Bimini at 4 am with a forecast for W 5 - 10, seas 2 ft or less. It was flat calm, and the waves never kicked up, although the wind came in NW, and we had a dreamy crossing. No one was sea sick. We had a lot of freighters, but they all waited for daylight. It took an hour longer than the other times, but I’ll take that for calm weather. Now we’re tied up at Los Olas in Ft. Lauderdale, and had ham and turkey cold cuts for dinner from 7/11, it was truely delightful. Really. Tired, and we have a ton of errands to do and then we’ll head N towards Glades to put the boat up again.
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