Our return home brought us back to a winter wonderland. Everything looks nice in a fresh snow. These pictures were of our house and around our property on Otter Lake in late December. 
You may note that the water on our lake looks very different than it does in Florida. Wait until you see the picgtures of the Bahamas. The water there looks even more inviting.
Our time at home was very hectic. It seemed that we had many more people to visit than we had time. I was not sure our livers would survive. It was almost as bad as living on a boat.
We had decided to drive back to Florida rather than flying. This is because we knew that we would have a great number of things to take back and that a car would make life easier.
Our planned date of departure was January 4, so on Januany 4, we left.
Our drive South was uneventful. We arrived at Stuart, Florida in the mid-afternoon on January 6.
We had hoped to have a bit of time to visit friends in Florida before crossing the Gulf Stream, but recognized that if an opportunity arose, we had better take it as we might otherwise be waiting for a long time. It looked like a really good weather window of opportunity was going to open on the 11, 12 and 13th. We opted to aim for the 12th as that was the earliest we could reasonably be prepared for and to aim for the 13th was risky as the window might close before we reached it.
Provisioning was a mad race. Our friends Gerry and Pam helped out. We bought and stored 480 cans of beer, 60 liters of wine, oh, and coincidentally, about $500 of food. After filling both our water and our gas tanks, the Stray Cat floated about 2” low in its water lines. Oh well, from here on, the boat would only get lighter.
In preparation, I also had to replace the oil seal on the cam shaft of our Yamaha outboard. I had bought a spare prop. I also tried it on to make sure it fit.
On January 11th, we made arrangements to leave the Stray Cat in Indian Town (on the waterway leading to Lake Okeechobee) for the summer and left our Jeep there for the rest of the winter. On the same day, we checked out of Stuart and motored down the intercoastal waterway to Lake Worth, passing houses that we had already seen earlier in our trip.
Our planned date of departure was January 4, so on Januany 4, we left.
Our drive South was uneventful. We arrived at Stuart, Florida in the mid-afternoon on January 6.
We had hoped to have a bit of time to visit friends in Florida before crossing the Gulf Stream, but recognized that if an opportunity arose, we had better take it as we might otherwise be waiting for a long time. It looked like a really good weather window of opportunity was going to open on the 11, 12 and 13th. We opted to aim for the 12th as that was the earliest we could reasonably be prepared for and to aim for the 13th was risky as the window might close before we reached it.
Provisioning was a mad race. Our friends Gerry and Pam helped out. We bought and stored 480 cans of beer, 60 liters of wine, oh, and coincidentally, about $500 of food. After filling both our water and our gas tanks, the Stray Cat floated about 2” low in its water lines. Oh well, from here on, the boat would only get lighter.
In preparation, I also had to replace the oil seal on the cam shaft of our Yamaha outboard. I had bought a spare prop. I also tried it on to make sure it fit.
On January 11th, we made arrangements to leave the Stray Cat in Indian Town (on the waterway leading to Lake Okeechobee) for the summer and left our Jeep there for the rest of the winter. On the same day, we checked out of Stuart and motored down the intercoastal waterway to Lake Worth, passing houses that we had already seen earlier in our trip.
We hauled the outboard on board, deflated the inflatable and hauled the hard dingy onto the after deck where we lashed it upside down. We were nervous but ready. It was a case of early to bed as we know it would be early to rise the next morning.
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