SV Auwe Auwe

We arrived at the ship yard last night to wait to be hauled out... they said come and they’d fit us in when we left the Bahamas in a hurry. Jacksonville looks pretty in the background tonight as we sail into Metropolitan park... but wait why are we sailing again? We are supposed to be going on the hard this week. Our jello plans keep jiggling. The shipyard is over run with boats coming back early so they can’t get us in til sometime next week...wait what???... So we have found a different ship yard today. We will go there tomorrow and start the process. Our plan now is to have the boat hauled on Friday, finish everything that afternoon and start driving home Friday night. We will drive straight through to Niagara Falls (16 plus hours not including gas/washroom breaks) where we will sleep in a family members hotel that is closed for the winter, then drive home the last 6 hours to arrive on Sunday at some point. So if the jello doesn’t keep shaking we will be home on Sunday. Meadow and Andrew and a local friend at home have been stocking our fridge and cupboards for us as when we get home we go into 14 days quarantine. I must say I am happy we are headed home. As much as I hated to leave the Bahamas early, they have since been put on a 24 hour lockdown. No one is supposed to leave their homes (and boats) except for a 90 minute exercise break. Curfews are in effect. Travel is banned between the islands. If you sail somewhere you are not permitted to go ashore. Beaches are closed. Gatherings of only a maximum of two people at a time and they must remain 6’ apart. Essential services like groceries and gas are permitted but being in a foreign country on lock down doesn’t sound like fun to me. People are being arrested for breaking curfew with hefty fines and jail time. Bahamas is taking it serious and truly cracking down yet reading various pages some still don’t take it serious. Visas are being threatened to be revoked. Other countries could learn a thing or two from their lead... We have friends still there and we hope they are faring well and hope the 24 hour curfew for them ends soon. We hope you all are well no matter where you are reading this from. Our thoughts are with you all.

Social distancing with our friends of Heavy Metal as we sail back to Florida together.

Soooo after many hours and days of debating. Of deciding to pull anchor and head back to Canada or to wait it out here in the Bahamas we decided to wait it out. We took mom to Pig beach at Big Major and we’re heading to Eleuthera when the Bahamian government put a stay in place order for the next 11 days, yesterday. We weren’t anchored where we wanted to stay for that period of time so we left just before it came into effect and started sailing to Eleuthera so we’d be near a ...grocery store and friends. Part way there when we ran into SV Heavy Metal in the middle of nowhere and made the split decision to buddy boat back with them to Florida. We honestly feel safer in the Bahamas. We are stocked for about a month but... but... being on lock down in a foreign country made us really want to be back in Canada... if this lasts more then a month or two. We still have a hurtle as Canadians for getting into the states first but we have friends in St Augustine that made calls for us to see about our entrance. It sounds positive so we are going to try. We still have about 3 nights probably, as there is no wind. Hoping for a nice boost from the gulf stream. If Florida turns us away we will reevaluate but we hope that they will let us in so we can prep the boat on the hard for hurricane season before the yard closes as well. Then we will drive back to Canada. So here are a few piggy pictures and we will be in touch in a couple days when back in US cell service. Until then we hope you are all safe.

Our friends have been catching amazing Mahi! Usually when we are sailing we do too. However today all we caught was half a baracuda... a shark bit off his tail end as I was reeling him in. No Mahi for dinner tonight

Andrew and Ania’s last day was a beautiful way to end their vacation with us. We headed to Fowl Cay and stopped to snorkel on the way. We were able to anchor in a sandy area close enough so we could snorkel to the reef straight from our boat. When we were finished here we moved to Fowl Cay and had the beach to ourselves. Ania, Max and me bush wacked to get to the ocean side of the Cay, then we all spent the afternoon swimming and floating around.... I spent the longest time in the water yet. Snorkeling and finding sand dollars half buried in the sand in about 8 feet of water. I found a sea star which we observed and let go as well as a conch we were going to eat but decided to let it go in the end. We also saw many small crab in the shallow waters. We stayed anchored here for the night and just before bed we saw some Caribbean reef squid. That was a neat experience. A fun last day. This morning we waved goodbye as they head back home to Canada. Hopefully next year the weather will cooperate more.