I find myself day dreaming about cruising the Bahamas every available moment now with the time drawing near. I have had a long list of things to get done prior to leaving and I am forming a list of things to remember to take with us when we leave Missouri next Sunday. My "leaving list" is starting to look pretty good. Just a few "must get done" things left. I am of course leaving the place in very capable hands of Matt and Jabet but I'm afraid they may be a little preoccupied with Baby Wade so I will probably leave them a list as well. My "taking list" is getting a little scary. I am quite sure we don't have a big enough car or boat to haul it all. Stay tuned as we plan on making a post with a picture of our car packing and you will see what I mean.
Along with day dreaming about cruising, I spend a lot of time thinking about and looking at the weather predictions. We need a small 5-6 hour window of good weather on May 1st to make the crossing. The weather forecasts are usually 10 days out and there are some NOAA weather stations we like to look at for real time wind and gulf stream reporting. If you would like to watch with us check out the following sites for Molasses Reef (not too far from us in Islamorada) and Grand Bahama for an idea what it is like near Bimini (our 1st stop). Molasses is http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=MLRF1 and Grand Bahama is the same except SPGF1 on the end. These sites also give a 4 or 5 day forecast.
The ideal wind would be 10 knots or less from the Southwest. 10-15 is doable. 15-20 would not be fun. Any wind out of the North is always worse as the gulf stream runs towards the North and a wind will just kick it up. The forecast right now is finally beginning to look good. The wind is waning about every day for the next few. Let's hope the trend continues.
Stay tuned for "Packing 101."
CTM
