West Palm Beach, February 7-18, 2022

      We have an extensive list of items that we needed to do on the boat.  Some were urgent, some just desirable and some more in the category of aspirational.  Before we left Richmond, we actually divided them into locations where we thought we would accomplish them.  Some for Charleston, some for St Augustine and so on.  As the trip wore on, we often said to ourselves things like "that doesn't really have to happen yet" or "we could do that in West Palm."  In this state of careless optimism, we arrived in West Palm and now we could no longer defer most of them, because if they didn't get done now, they just weren't going to happen before we hit the Bahamas, which realistically means that they weren't going to happen until next year.  When we arrived in West Palm, we had already shipped several packages to Lisa's dad.  It is no exaggeration to say that we had a new delivery to the handy Amazon lockers every day.  Most days it was 4 or 5 things.  In addition, some of the items we ordered were too bulky to fit in the lockers and had to be shipped to Lisa's dad as well.

      Our first day ashore, Lisa's dad and his wife Jenni met us at a restaurant they picked called E.R. Bradley's.  It is kind of a combination bar and restaurant and is located literally just steps from the dock where we took our dinghy ashore.  We had a nice meal and had fun catching up.  If I had a complaint it was just that the band was playing at a volume that made conversation difficult.  We must have liked the place well enough, because we went back later to watch the Super Bowl where the noise was fine, except when I had a FaceTime with the gang back home at Karen's place where everyone was gathered to support the Bengals, my nephew John's lifelong favorite team.

My favorite Bengals fan, John, when we visited Cincinnati years ago to watch them play.

     Neil and Jenni were very generous, meeting us with packages twice, loaning us their car for a day and going to out to eat with us three times.  The car was very helpful in getting some key boat projects accomplished that required us to visit a distant West Marine.  Honestly, our time in West Palm as a bit of a blur with projects pretty much every day.  We certainly didn't finish everything on our list, but we got a great deal accomplished and pretty quickly settled into a rhythm.  Having gone back to life at a marina since West Palm, I think I can confidently say that we generally are happier at anchor.  So long as there is access to shore where we can stretch our legs and get in a run, the boat just works better on anchor.  Cooling breezes circulate freely and it just feels right.  We developed a routine that was working pretty well for us and I'm looking forward to getting back to that life very soon.

 The lights of West Palm from our boat at night.

     We found a delicious French patisserie called Panatere, with a delightful  French chef and owner that we stopped at often.  My only demerits are as a result of being a place that specializes in coffee and breakfast pastries but only opening at 9am.  My one tip for anyone cruising in the area is to make sure to catch the farmer's market on Saturday.  It was enormous and varied.  We particularly enjoyed the ceviche and the guy with hothouse heirloom tomatoes and opinions on everything.  Don't miss it if you are there.

       Once we finished whatever boat chores we were going to complete, we had to wait for a suitable window to cross over to the Bahamas.  As you probably know, the Gulf Stream passes just off the Florida coast and creates very dangerous seas when the weather is wrong and we didn't intend to take any chances with that.  We also had a very productive call with our friends Nick and Megan O'Kelly of Sail Clarity who gave us a ton of really good advice about where we should go in the Exumas and how to handle adverse weather systems once there.  If you haven't checked out their YouTube channel, you should.  Look for our names "Mike & Lisa" at the end of every video!




Location: West Palm Beach, FL, USA

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