Moving up the East Coast

6/13/2026

Hello!

Update: We are in Beaufort North Carolina, anchored behind Fort Macon State Park. We are working our way up the coast toward the cool weather of the northeast and need to take every chance to move northward. Our stay in Charleston was short. The Charleston City Marina was huge. So big that you can call for a golf cart to pick you up from the boat and take you to the parking lot. They have a daily shuttle to West Marine, and the shuttle will drop you off or pick you up anywhere in the city of Charleston. The boats matched the marina. We looked like a little dinghy there. Large yachts were staying there or came and went daily to get fuel and pick up charter passengers. We were able to have a quick visit with my niece, get to West Marine and do laundry before an opportunity to move north came up. Our passage from Charleston to Beaufort NC took two nights. The winds were high and right behind us the last part of the trip. We transited the inlet to Beaufort at 2:30 am on Friday June 12^th and anchored behind Fort Macon State Park at 3:30 am. We are looking at options for the next step. We can either go up the intracoastal or sail in the Atlantic around Cape Hatteras. The weather will be the deciding factor.

Some impressions from the past few weeks: 

Marinas and docking:

When you decide it’s time to stay in a marina it’s easy. Just call them on the VHF radio or by phone and make a reservation. Getting the boat in the slip is another matter. Our boat is quite old-fashioned in terms of maneuverability. It has one engine and no thrusters. Most power boats and many sail boats these days have at least two engines plus bow and stern thrusters to push the boat sideways. This is where Al’s experience and skill come in. He started boating before double-hulled boats, thrusters and joysticks were common.  All captains must consider the wind, current and dock characteristics plus the specific ways their boat performs to dock a boat. Docking at the Conch Inn and Marina, Marsh Harbor Bahamas required Al’s skills plus an experienced dock master. We pulled into the marina at noon. The wind picked up right before we approached the slip, blowing broadside to the boat. Al  had to increase the engine power to keep the boat moving straight and not get pushed sideways. The mooring lines were ready on the bow, midship and stern and we knew the dock would be on the starboard side of the boat. We entered the slip and I threw the dock master the bow line. He immediately said, “I’ll take the midship line next.” He tied the bow line off to a piling, came to get the midship line and told Al to put the boat in reverse. The extra power needed to get in the slip with the wind blowing was going to slam our bow into the dock. Reverse! Captain, Reverse! We were both yelling. It worked, and we did not hit the dock. But the wind was blowing our stern sideways and dangerously close to the boat next to us. The dockmaster tied off the midship line and jumped on our boat. He made a large loop in the stern line, stood on the back of the boat, threw the loop into the wind and lassoed the piling on the first try. Then we could pull the boat over, so it lay straight in the slip. After that feat, the pressure was off and we finished tying the boat up. The dock master’s skills were impressive. He was also very personable, calling me “Boss” when he gave me instructions while we were docking. What a pleasure it was to meet him and spend time at that marina.

We are unintentionally retracing the steps of our 2011 trip, visiting some of the same places, but 15 years later. What a difference 15 years makes. In the Abacos, most of the buildings and infrastructure were destroyed by hurricane Dorian in 2019. Now every marina is new, most of the houses are new, the stores are new, and there are large businesses dedicated to construction. There seems to be an air of prosperity that was not present 15 years ago. They are somehow maintaining a uniform style to the houses, hotels and restaurants and they do not seem to be building too much. One woman we met who has been coming to the Abacos for decades said that before Dorian the power used to go out regularly in Hope Town. Now the power never goes out because the entire power grid was rebuilt. The owner of Wally’s Fine Dining in Marsh Harbor said their restaurant had not been completely destroyed. The building has a sturdy old colonial feel to it, with Spanish tile floors and an archway separating the property from the street. It was very important to her that they restored the grounds and entryway exactly the way it was. She said people had been coming to her restaurant for generations and she wanted to preserve the original look and feel. She remarked that while many others were interested in updating, she needed to maintain tradition. I can see the importance of both. People had to rebuild and the Abacos seem to have adopted an attractive building style and color scheme. Many establishments show pride in keeping a clean and neat appearance. It was also wonderful to see traditions and history being preserved and honored.

I think that should be it for today.

Thanks so much for reading!

Love and Peace,

Fran Lima

 

Heading back to the US

 Hello!  6/6/2026

 Update:

We are on a passage from Marsh Harbor Bahamas to Charleston, South Carolina. My sister Helen Landmesser joined us on Monday in Marsh Harbor. We had fun running around the Abaco Cays. We rented a car one day to see Little Harbor and Cherokee Sound. She helped us prepare for this passage and is a great, experienced boater; she has joined us on Jade many times.

I’m thinking that we west coast Florida boaters like Al and I are just not used to the Atlantic because it seems pretty rough out here. It is a full body workout just fixing coffee. No need for the gym this week. There have been a couple moments I was asking myself, “Why do we do this type of travel?” Maybe I’ll have a good answer before this 4-day, 3-night passage is over.

Here’s what my sister has to say about the trip this morning as I write this: “The boat smells like truck stop!” We put fuel in the tank, so a little diesel spilled in the cockpit. The coffee preparation and drinking caused three coffee spills. One in the microwave, one on the cabin floor and one in the cockpit. I say we do need several more days to perfect all this and clean up our mess. Good thing we are starting to laugh about it.

Back to the questions. Something we are asked:

How are you and Al getting along with each other on that small boat?

A lot of people asked us this question before our first long cruise in 2011-2012. We did not even understand the question because we had not had issues getting along since we met in 1998. It was a second marriage for both of us, Al was divorced for just about a year when we met, I was single and dating for 8 years. I kept getting college degrees since I had not met the right man. For the first 10 years,  Al and I fully enjoyed his 31-foot classic sailboat Christine. We did two-week trips to the Florida Keys, Charlotte Harbor and Cuba plus extensively explored the anchorages near Tampa Bay.

However, the 2011-2012 trip brought out any and all fault lines in our relationship. Just this past weekend after a discussion about plans for later in this trip I said to Al, “Well, it’s nice that we can tell each other what we are thinking without the horribleness.” To me that sums up the difference between now and then. I think we all know what the “horribleness” entails, yelling, criticism, insults, not being completely honest, letting things build up so they are a huge thing. Yep, that’s where we were on the first trip. Even though we kept going and had a lot of fun the tension was bad at times. Thank goodness we learned how to get along because there is so much we enjoy about each other and so many similar ways we like to enjoy life.

I need to get this out on Starlink and prepare to take watch. It’s actually a very nice day, sunny, not super hot, just bumpy waves coming at us regularly on the rear starboard quarter. Soon, we will be in the Gulfstream and hope to pick up speed. The weather predictions are good for the rest of the trip. Al checks in with our weather router twice a day. And will keep working on our coffee making and drinking skills!

Thanks for reading!

Love and Peace,

Fran Lima

 

Marsh Harbor, Abacos

Hello!  5/30/2026

Update:

We are still anchored in March Harbor, Bahamas. We seem to get stuck in places for a week or two, but worse things could be happening. My sister is joining us June 1st and will help with the passage north. This past week was fairly quiet for us, along with a few boat projects and chores we did have some fun.

The format this week is: The good and the not so good! 

Attempting the impossible before coffee

Friday, we got up early to change out the headsail, because there was no wind. Wind usually increases during the day so early morning was the best time for this task. Our current headsail is very large. Al wanted to put on the smaller Yankee, headsail for the upcoming trip to Norfolk Virginia. It was no problem getting the sail down but once on deck we needed to fold it and put it in a bag. The sail is stiff, heavy and huge. Usually, it’s laid out on a grass lawn to fold. Without coffee, I was not in my usual, “we can do anything!” frame of mind. It seemed impossible. And actually, it was impossible. We ended up sort of folding it and wrangling it into a ball with lines, ratchets and straps then picking it up with a halyard to get it on the cabin top. When we pull into a slip Monday, we’ll get it onshore, folded and into its bag. For now, it is a hilarious looking package hanging in front of the mast. Our friends at home got quite a laugh at the photo of it. Sometimes, we do the best we can.

Back to the beach

On Thursday we took a ferry to Nippers on Guana Cay to eat lunch and swim again at the fabulous Atlantic beach. The wind was from a good direction, so the waves were small. We could easily get in the water which was totally clear and a perfect coolish temperature. Nippers sits up on a bluff overlooking what is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen.  It is typical of a Bahama beach, amazing with very few people. The steps down to the beach from Nippers are not a good idea after having too many of their signature rum drinks. We played it safe and went to the beach first. Nippers has good food and a cute double pool with waterfalls and an area with lawn chairs and umbrellas. The buildings and restaurant look like it was not destroyed by the hurricane. It still has some old Bahamian charm; not everything is perfect. They like to blast loud popular music which makes it seem like the coolest place on earth, especially on Sundays when it’s packed with 20 somethings all singing and dancing in the sun.  This past Thursday there was a nice crowd and the music was not terribly loud. We ate our lunches overlooking the Atlantic and got on the 3:15 ferry back to Marsh Harbor with a boat full of working Bahamians going home for the day.

What smells?

We needed to stock up again on groceries for the trip north. I spent most of one day planning a menu and writing a grocery list. I like to have great meals on a passage because it can be hard and the meal is one of the best parts of the day. On Tuesday we walked to the store. People had told us the grocery store in Marsh Harbor was the best in the Bahamas. It was very big, with what looked like everything under the sun. We always shop with a regular backpack, a cooler backpack and several canvas bags. The cooler backpack and regular backpack were stowed in a locker for two weeks while we had quests on board. Al and I separated at first and started to browse the isles and familiarize ourselves with the layout. At one point I smelled something bad and thought “Is it me?” I did not think so. I thought, “It must be this store.” Then Al came by and asked me if he smelled bad. I got close to Al; no, it was not him. I thought “It must be this store.” We did what we could in that store but there were a lot of things on my list they did not have. No chuck roast, no ground pork, no bananas, no decent frozen fish and very few tomatoes. A spoiled American here I am. We got everything packed up in the backpacks and bags and called a cab to get back to the dinghy dock. We managed to buy quite a bit and could make salads and drink club soda mixed with various juices again plus a lot of other things. I’ll adjust the menu and maybe my attitude a little bit too! The mystery of the smelly store was solved when we realized our backpack was the culprit. Some food substance had festered on the backpack bottom while stowed for two weeks. All I can say is, be kind to travelers! Sometimes people are off their game when in a new place. 

Attending Church in Marsh Harbor

We attended the Sunday service at the Anglican/Episcopal church, St John the Baptist. It was a very typical Episcopal style service with a procession, vestments plus a lot of incense. The parishioners were very warm and welcoming and were quite formally dressed. I was glad I wore a nice skirt, but if we go back, I’ll wear something that falls below my knees.  During the Peace, one woman sang an impromptu song and practically everyone in the church was up greeting everyone else. The church was in perfect repair, with fresh paint, multiple minisplit air conditioners and a roof that looked completely new. They were working on fundraising to finish the parish hall next door. We took a taxi from the dinghy dock to the church. When the driver dropped us off, she called out to the Minister who was in the parking lot and asked him to give us a ride back. He said “No problem, that’s fine” but on the way out we told him it wasn’t necessary. He spoke to a parishioner nearby who said she would give us a ride. A lovely young woman introduced herself as Miss Taylor and said she was a local high school teacher. She was new to March Harbor originally from Eleuthera. She told us that Eleuthera was much prettier than the Abacos. So, now we need to go there! Maybe on the next Bahamas trip.

I believe that will be all for today.

We are off to a Bahamian pharmacy this morning because Al has a cold. We’ll see what is available there. I prepared for all types of dire medical scenarios but forgot about the common cold!

I greatly appreciate all the comments and interest in the blog. It is very fun to write about the trip.

Thank you for reading!

Love and Peace,

Fran Lima

More time in the Abacos, Bahamas

Hello!  5/23/2026 

Update:

I missed writing last week; no time to write with friends on board. After arriving in the Bahamas, we stayed in West End at a dock for about a week. Bob and Fran joined us there for a trip across the Little Bahama Bank into the Sea of Abaco. After a day in West End we spent two days moving the boat eastward towards the beautiful Abaco Islands. We anchored in two remote places on the bank, Mangrove Cay and Crab Cay and then picked up a mooring ball in Green Turtle. Green Turtle was worth a day of golf cart sightseeing, and we made it to New Plymouth, Pineapples and the beach where turtles swim right up to you looking for a handout. The next day was an easy crossing around the Whale and the famous pig roast party at Nippers where the beach was outstanding. We moved on from there to a protected anchorage in Marsh Harbor where we all took the ferry to Hope Town the next day. I consider it a happy achievement to deliver guests back to their home in one piece and having had a good time. There was a lot of storytelling, funny mishaps and inside jokes during the trip. We all had a wonderful time and are all still friends! Times like these are one of the supreme joys of this type of travel.

We will probably stay at anchor in Marsh Harbor for a week or so and then start moving north to spend the summer in cooler weather. Hopefully, another guest will be onboard soon to help us begin the passage north.

There have been so many wonderful happenings in the past two weeks. I will have to focus, or this will get too long.

Question:

Why is water so appealing?

This was the question on my mind as I walked on the Atlantic beach in front of Nippers Beach Bar, Great Guana Cay. It was a particularly beautiful day. We descended the bluff from the restaurant to a beach of cream-colored sand. Crystal clear bubbling salt water spilled over rocks along the entire shoreline. The weathered limestone formations created multiple varied waterfalls and pools of water. To me the rocks and pools were begging to be explored except that a brisk wind was blowing directly onshore and waves and currents made it risky. The shallow water just beyond the limestone rocks was a turquoise color which turned to a deep blue farther out. I walked up to a space of about 20 feet of clear water between two large limestone rocks. I had to get in and completely submerge. A young man nearby was also submerged and bodysurfing on the small waves but expertly holding his rum drink above his head and out of the water. That guy still makes me laugh but, in all seriousness, to immerse myself in water like that is something I live for. 

At another location, in West End the calm beach water was the color of a clear green coke bottle. I loved sitting in the water up to my waist and watching as turtles bobbed their heads up for air 30 feet away. These perfect beach days are some of my favorite experiences, but even other views of water catch my eye. Looking out from our boat the water is different every day. Water reflects the color of the sky as it changes from blue to orange or pink and then to the black of night. The sun shining on water can look like sparkling diamonds or a road of shimmering gold bricks. There is so much more to say about water. I don’t think I am any closer to answering my question. Without getting scientific or philosophical I’ll take the easy way out and talk about my own genetic tendency to love the sea.  

Frances Faries Thomas, my maternal grandmother, loved Tybee Island beach as a child growing up in Savanah and she lived on Indian Rocks Beach for a time in the 50’s. Shells she collected are a part of my shell collection. My grandfather, Edwin Thomas, worked on ships in his early twenties and wrote that he needed to come home and finish his schooling in Georgia or he would never come in from the sea. He became a lawyer and moved to Tampa in 1923. Edwin sailed all over Tampa Bay and as far as Cuba. The wooden water jug from his sailboat is an end table in my living room. Growing up, my father always had a sailboat. We sailed all the gulf waters around Pinellas County from Caladesi to Egmont Key. We learned to read charts, tie knots, tack, jibe and anchor plus always had a delicious lunch on board made by my mother. Early on, the elements of water, the outdoors, a little adventure and good food were a regular part of my life. Maybe this is why I never left Florida and have always lived within a mile or two of a body of water. For some people it is as natural as breathing to love the water. I am one of those people.

I believe this should be it for today. I’ll continue to blog weekly after this.

Thanks so much for reading!

Love and Peace,

Fran Lima

 

 

 

Marathon to the Bahamas

 Hello! 

 Update:

We are now in the Bahamas! We left Marathon Wednesday at 10 am and arrived at West End Thursday at 11 am. In 2011 when we were here, West End just had a customs office with a marina and seemed desolate. Now there is a complex with hotel rooms, a souvenir shop, an upscale restaurant and a Tiki bar near the beach and pool. Several boats were checking in at the same time, sail and power. Quite of few of us went straight to the beach and visited Da Straw Bar. The rum drinks and cracked conch hit the spot, and we met a bunch of other boaters. Among them, two couples from Treasure Island, right near where we live.

 Last few days in Marathon:

To finish up with Marathon, it was overall very relaxing. The last two days were busy, with a day trip to Key West and a day of laundry and grocery shopping. Getting to Key West involves catching the Lower Keys Shuttle, and the trip takes 1 ½ to 2 hours. Figuring out the schedule and bus stop location is I believe what is called, “Getting out of your comfort zone.” We never really knew we had it right. Luckily in Key West there were people at the bus stop to ask, but in Marathon we just guessed. The bus came pretty much on time, and we bumped along the Overseas Highway in air conditioning for a change. Once there we went straight to the Conch Republic, had 2 Pain Killers, then to Bo’s Fish Wagon for cracked conch and then to Kermit’s for frozen chocolate covered Key Lime pie on a stick. I found my favorite shop, Dragonfly Imports, was still open and had to support them. We relaxed on a shady park bench for a while, wandered around Duval Street and managed to find the bus stop again to make it home before dark. Do we sound like old people? Well, yes, because we are!

 Question:

What Makes you grin ear to ear?

Al did not want to make the trip to Key West. I really wanted to go and once we arrived, I remembered why. To me Marathon and the Keys between there and Key West look like scrubby, sparsely populated windswept places. Key West is vibrant. The difference in Key West is evident as soon as you drive onto the island. Key West is solidly developed, has tons of old houses, history, character and almost every kind of shop or restaurant you can think of. I have visited all the historic sites on previous trips, including Fort Jefferson. After 2 and ½ weeks in sleepy places I loved being there. When we were back on the boat that evening Al told me he could tell I really wanted to go and that when we got on the bus towards Key West he noticed I was grinning ear to ear. I had to ask him, “What makes you grin ear to ear Al?” I did get an answer out of Al but it took a day or two. I think it's a good question.

 Passage from Marathon to the Bahamas / Three little birds:

The passage went well for the humans onboard and for 1 out of 3 birds. Al worked on the route and timing and figured that we would arrive at noon Thursday. He was only 1 hour off, pretty good! From Marathon we went essentially straight south in between the reefs and into the Gulfstream. The water turns a beautiful blue in the Gulfstream and the current gave us a 2 knot speed advantage for most of the trip. We chose the weather, very little wind, because again, to wait for great wind for sailing is to never go anywhere. And, to go in the wrong weather is to risk hating this type of travel or to risk your life. This route always brings us into contact with other boats. Lots of sport fishing is done in the Gulfstream. The Margaritaville cruise ship was 5 miles behind us for a while off Miami and we saw several tanker and container ships close to West End. It was exciting when two small birds joined us near 4 pm. It seemed to be an adult and a juvenile wren. This has happened several times to us around Florida. They usually fly away when you get close to land or in the morning after finding a safe place to sleep down below. You see a little pile of bird poop and know, oh, that’s where you slept little bird. The little wrens hopped all over the boat inside and out, even landed on us. They were a joy to watch. We gave them water, but they did not drink much. In the morning the little one hopped up in front of me and sat on the depth sounder panel. He then hopped all over the front deck and flew down below. Al found him shortly afterwards sitting in the V berth and realized he had died. Right at that time a sparrow came aboard and thoroughly checked out the boat. The sparrow was there for a while and we assume he flew away when we came close to shore. Unfortunately though,  we found the other wren had died in the back cabin. I did some checking online and felt better after learning it’s common for small birds to die that come on board. They can be migrating, exhausted and dehydrated. I am thankful to have had the chance to observe such small birds up close for so long and for the tough little Jack Sparrow that we hope is happy now somewhere in West End.

We plan to explore the Abacos after a day or two here in West End.

Thank you for reading!

Love and Peace,

Fran Lima

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marathon, Boot Key Harbor

 Hello!

Update:

We remain in Boot Key Harbor Marathon, at the City Marina on a mooring ball. We have been exploring the area by dinghy and occasionally Uber, plus doing chores. Laundry and grocery shopping take a lot longer from a boat. The harbor has hundreds of boats but is fairly quiet. There is no car traffic noise here, just an occasional generator and always dinghies going back and forth. We have tried several restaurants and liked them all, Dockside, Keys Fisheries and Keys Steak and Lobster. We like to end each day in the cockpit with one of our boat drinks and watch the evening come in before fixing dinner. We plan to sail to the Bahamas next week. 

 Marathon stories:

Boaters here are extremely helpful. We came into the mooring field and promptly ran aground in an area marked by an informational buoy as “shallow.”  Go figure! But the writing on the buoy was very faint. A man in a nearby boat started gesturing wildly in the direction we needed to go. Al got us off the shallow area and we headed to our assigned ball. Meanwhile the woman from the boat with the gesturing man got in their dinghy and started off in a direction. It took us a few minutes to realize she was helping us. She picked up part of the mooring ball, I snagged it with a boat hook, and we strung a thick line through it to attach to the ball So nice! Another man helped us find the way into the marina office. Again, with some wild gesturing as we were headed towards the shallows in our dinghy. On the second day here, we put our dinghy in the water, started the engine, put it in gear and immediately wrapped one of our lines around the propeller. A massive catamaran was motoring towards us. The woman on the front of the boat kept saying over and over “Our brakes went out.” I had a couple of choice words for her, but I managed to hold them in. Al started paddling the dinghy so we would not be run over by the catamaran. Luckily the man at the helm noticed us and slowed down to avoid us. Seconds later our next-door neighbor came out on his deck to ask if we needed help. I thanked him and said we were out of practice. He replied that he and his wife had been cruising for only a year and had wrapped their dinghy prop 8 or 10 times. So nice!

 Info and Questions:

Are you missing your friends from home? Yes, the hard thing about travel is leaving your buddies at home. We like to make “Happy Hour Calls” to our friends and family while watching the sunset. Hopefully some will be able to join us on this trip. We have met a few folks here, in the marina laundry room or the mail and gathering area. We met some locals at the Dockside Restaurant. People here seem very friendly and down-to-earth. One way to communicate in an anchorage is to put up a flag that signifies something about yourself. A boat in the harbor Horizon had a Seven Seas Cruising Association Commodore flag up. We are also Commodores in that club, so we dinghied up and said hello. They circumnavigated the world in 8 years and now spend their winters here and summers traveling in a campervan around the US. We had a nice chat, one interesting thing the woman said was “I always tell people, if you don’t like working on your boat, don’t get a boat.” So true!

How did you prepare for this trip?

It’s hard to know when to say we began preparations for this trip. In the 80s Al built a 31’ wooden cruising sailboat, Christine, and he has been making overnight trips on sailboats for decades. When we met in 1998, we started taking trips on that 31-foot boat up and down the west coast of Florida as far as Key West and Cuba. So, you could say we started preparations way back then! To get specific about this trip, in the last few years we have steadily upgraded our current boat Jade with a new engine, new sails, updated electrical system, new dinghy, new navigational systems plus the decks, hull and bottom have been painted. We wrote out a boat project list in the beginning of 2025 to get focused. We worked on project after project all year, interspersed with normal life! When that list was complete, we started another list. Usually, several items are being worked on at the same time, and we try to finish a task completely before crossing it off the list. In mid-February 2026 we moved on to the boat.  That helped us finish the final projects and put a pause on most of normal life! In the last two weeks we had a meeting every night covering what we did that day and what needed to be done the next day. Those last two months were busy and tiring but it got us off the dock on April 15^th.  

Let me know if you have any specific questions.

Thank you for reading!

 Love and Peace,

Fran Lima

Passage to Boot Key Harbor, Marathon

 Hello!

We left the Manatee River Thursday April 23rd at 7:00 pm and arrived in Marathon Saturday April 25th at 10:30 am. It has been years since either of us have done a passage, so we were nervous. I usually don't care if I can see land but on this it was reassuring. We could see the shoreline until south of Marco Island.

To avoid heavy winds and high seas from behind us we settled for lighter winds coming from the direction we were going. That made for a rough first night. The boat did well and we took turns staying up to watch the horizon and adjust our course. We use an auto pilot to steer the boat on long runs; it needs to be watched and adjusted occasionally to keep us on course. We do not want a fully automated, integrated system. It's good to have something to do while on watch. I entertained myself with some movies downloaded to my phone, reading a book and catching local stations on a new AM/FM radio my friend Joan gave me. There is also like nothing being under the open sky with time to think about life and talk to relatives no longer with us.

The sky was mostly clear and temperature nice during the passage. We saw one sea turtle, some flying fish and seagulls. We used the diesel engine the entire trip and had the mainsail up to steady the boat. If we waited for the right wind to sail everywhere, we would never go anywhere. It is very nice when the winds are right and we can put up the sails and travel to our destination sailing.

On Saturday morning we would see Marathon. The water was just 6-12 feet deep and was a nice turquois blue. It took a few hours to get around to the harbor. A woman came over in her dinghy to help us pick up the mooring ball. Super nice because it is not an easy maneuver and we are out of practice.

We are swinging off a mooring ball now which is almost as nice as being at anchor. There are hundreds of boats here. Boats at anchor, on mooring balls and in marinas, boats in every conceivable condition.

We are close to the marina office and dinghy dock. Grocery stores, laundry and supplies are nearby so we can prepare for the passage to the Bahamas. It is exciting to have made it this far.

Thank you for reading!

 Love and Peace,

Fran Lima

Information, stories and more

Hello again!

We are still anchored in the Manatee River, waiting for good weather to make a passage to Marathon. All the food and tools have been put away and the safety gear checked. There are a couple of items left on the to-do list. We have gone to shore twice using the dinghy. Friends Bob and Fran even joined us on Saturday afternoon for a meal out. Thanks guys!! The weather has been very nice, but too windy for travel.

A few more questions: 

How do you decide if the weather is good for travel? Sailors are habitually checking the weather. Al checks several cites and apps regularly. However, for a trip like this we pay for a Weather Router, Chris Parker at Marine Weather Center. He has been advising sailors for decades and offers several levels of service. Al is on the Florida/Bahamas Zoom call right now. Chris gives a detailed description of weather and then sailors ask questions about their specific plans. Al will be on this call most every day of the trip, at around 7 am, except Sundays when Chris takes a day off.

What safety gear do you have? Well, quite a bit. It sometimes makes me ask myself - Why are we doing something, supposedly for fun, that requires lifesaving and emergency communication equipment? That may be a question for an entire blog post! Our equipment includes a 4 person Liferaft that will deploy and inflate if we trigger it or if the boat sinks. We have 2 locator beacons that signal our location to the Coast Guard. When these beacons are set off it essentially asks the Coast Guard to pick you up, so they are for a dire emergency. We have several VHF radios, an SSB (marine ham radio), continual access to the internet with Starlink and an InReach satellite tracking device. Several friends and family members can watch our track when we move the boat. Our inflatable life vests are comfortable to wear continually and have an attachment that allows us to clip on to the boat with a tether. While on deck we each carry a tracker that shows our position in the water on the boat’s chart plotter if we fall off the boat. We also have a Lifesling and block and tackle set up used to retrieve a person who has fallen overboard. There are also multiple flares and a “ditchbag” holding emergency items in one spot to easily grab if we need to abandon ship quickly. Sailor’s superstition says, “If you don’t have it, you will need it!” So, I will leave it at that. I have probably forgotten some items but that covers most of it.

A typical cruiser experience!  On Sunday morning Al and I were in the dinghy and I was trying to start the outboard. Even with all this boating experience, I forget about the intricacy of engines. I generally think any piece of equipment should be also to take a severe beating and respond immediately to any request I make of it. So, the engine would not start, and we were drifting away from our boat. Next to us was a nice powerboat with two couples that we had been watching over the last couple of days. They seemed to be enjoying themselves like we were. They saw us having trouble and immediately moved towards their dinghy to lower it in the water. They yelled out to us, “Do you need help?” At that point, I gave up and let Al start the engine and give me another lesson on how to treat mechanical things. We did go over to say hello to the nice folks and had a little chat. They were former sailboat owners and lived in St Petersburg. We went on to our destination, enjoyed a nice breakfast out, threw out the garbage and filled up a 5-gallon jug of water to keep the water tank on the boat topped off.

On the way back to the boat, we decided to check out the damaged dinghy dock at Emerson Point Preserve. The preserve is a wonderful park and before the hurricanes of 2024 was accessible to boaters by a very nice dinghy dock. It’s too damaged to use now. We noticed our boater friends were there in their dinghy, pulled up on the beach near the dock. They had finished their visit to the preserve and were unsuccessfully trying to start their outboard engine! We ended up towing them back to their boat with our dinghy. These are the types of encounters that happen all the time with cruisers. Life is more basic, less stressful and the natural tendency to be a decent person seems to come out. Another reason I like this sailing life.

Thanks very much for reading!

Love and Peace,

Fran Lima

2026 Sail - Bahamas and East Coast of the US - Intro Post

For those interested in details and information this is the spot. I'll start with some typical questions.  If you have others let me know. Please forgive me the sailing terminology. It is an entire second language!

What kind of boat do you have?  It's a 44 foot CSY (Caribbean Sailing Yacht) walk-through cutter rig built in 1980. We bought it in 2007 and have been working on her ever since. Jade is powered by a mainsail, large genoa and a staysail or the 65 hp diesel engine. Down below there are two berths, two heads, a walk-in shower, a galley, a salon and a walk-in engine room. The mast is 64 feet tall and she draws 5 feet. Our top speed under sail is around 7-8 knots, under power it's 5-6 knots. Traveling this way is slow! A nice change from our normal life.

How do you cook? The galley has a propane oven, with a three burner cook top plus a small microwave. An upright refrigerator / freezer is built in. We have a pretty good amount of storage for dry goods and dishes. The storage for pots and pans is quite small and is under the oven. We use a percolator for coffee and frequently use a pressure cooker on the stove top. There is also a propane grill on the back deck. The grill gets used a lot. I have several cookbooks on board and we usually have internet access to look up recipes. My cooking style is mostly gluten free, low inflammatory, Mediterranean. I'm experimenting with baking in the pressure cooker. So far, it's going well - apple crisp and cornbread were both yummy. For this trip I loaded the freezer with meat and bought mostly fresh vegetables and fruits. We have some frozen and canned foods too and will need to replenish along the way. 

Do you stop every night? Usually, yes we do - is the best answer. However, when we are on a trip that will take several days, the boat keeps moving around the clock. For example, sailing to Marathon from the Manatee River will take approximately 40 hours. We leave in the evening and spend the entire time moving the boat without stopping. We take turns staying up at night, usually taking 2 hour shifts. We rest whenever possible during these passages to avoid getting fatigued. We fix nice meals as the weather allows, listen to music, read, check on the boat systems hourly, always keep an eye out for other boats to avoid a collision, continually watch our course and stay aware of the weather. Once we get to our destination we stay put at night, anchored in a protected cove. We usually stay several nights in one place. This is the real purpose of the trip - checking out the sights, socializing with other cruisers, exploring and enjoying the area. Staying at a dock costs at least $200.00 a night, but anchoring is generally free. Being on a boat at anchor is one of the most pleasant experiences you can have in life. I absolutely love it, and it is one of my favorite things about this lifestyle. The peacefulness and proximity to nature seems more natural to me than life in the city. 

This seems like enough for today! If people want, I can keep sharing this style of blogs along with Facebook photos as we travel.  

Thanks to all. Love and Peace, Fran Lima

Final Post - Coming home and Captian Al

We arrived in St Petersburg July 29th at noon. We blew the conch horn, shot off the cannon and toasted with Champagne with our welcoming party. Al gave a speech thanking the three women who made the trip possible, Jade, Mama (Caroline), and Frances. Then we stepped off the boat. We had wonderful gatherings that day and that night reuniting with friends and celebrating the fulfillment of a dream.

This longer blog will tell what we did to prepare for the trip and how we feel now that we have returned. It includes a lot of photos of Al. Al is basically "The Man" on Jade. He is the one who really made the trip happen. He can design, install and repair anything on a boat. He went through the entire boat upgrading every system. In just the first year he designed and replaced all the chain plates, stanchions, lifelines, running rigging and wooden cap rails. That year he also relocated the batteries, improved the chain locker and installed a new windlass. He worked with a metal fabrication shop to design tools and parts to do the upgrades. His work and supply of spare parts made it so that we had very few problems or mechanical breakdowns. Only once were we stuck somewhere waiting for a repair. Al can fix anything in any type of sea state so when something happens he takes care of it immediately. Al was the navigator and weather man. He checked us into Customs. He even took some of the photos. Al is also the main reason we met so many people. He can make a connection instantly. His charm comes through immediately and because of Al we met people and made friends everywhere we went. As you can tell by all this, one of Frances' main jobs is to make Al take a break and relax!

We both have been boating all our lives, Al in New England and Frances in Florida. After we met in1989 we sailed Al's 31 foot boat up and down the coast of Florida on weekends and vacations, going as far as Cuba. We found out about extended cruising and knew that was for us. We did not want to wait until retirement so we decided to take a two year break from regular life and go sailing.  We started a 5 year plan in 2006. The first year we bought Jade. The next 4 years we worked on the boat, saved money and attended classes and training seminars. We can't emphasize enough the amount of training and preparation that went into this trip. The training really started 15 years ago when we joined the St Petersburg Sail and Power Squadron and took seamanship and navigation courses. Then we both obtained Captain's licenses, Al has used his as a professional captain and Frances did it for the information. We are members of Seven Seas Cruising Association and have attended numerous weekend training events and individual classes offered by that group. All the training classes are a lot of fun too and a way to meet other sailors preparing to take off. During these 4 years we kept up with normal life, working, spending time with family and friends, going on vacations, etc. It was a fun time and having the goal of cruising in mind got us through many a rough day. 

Things got very busy the last year before leaving. We took the boat out of the water for painting and emptied out the house to get it ready to rent. It was a lot of hard physical work, good training for cruising! Once those two major things were completed we had three months left to go. In the last few months we wondered if we had lost our minds and were crazy to be going on the trip. At the same time we were afraid something would happen to prevent us from going. We scaled some hurdles in the last two months by sheer determination and left the dock January 29th 2011. It's true what everyone says, the minute you leave the dock you feel free. Al played the John Lennon song Starting Over and we sat there saying to each other, "I can't believe it".            

The previous posts tell the story of the trip from beginning to end. We kept a journal and ship's log so we can write a more detailed account later on if we want to.

We have found that going on the trip put life in perspective for us. Traveling to all the different places, learning about the history and culture of the US and the Caribbean and meeting people from all over the world has given us a better outlook on the world. There is plenty of time to think about life when you are traveling at 6 miles an hour. We had time to talk about all the things we saw and experienced. We were also able to savour so many special and beautiful moments. A sailing cruise involves a lot of physical labor and gets you in shape. Living on a boat is a daily workout especially when you are sailing and on land we walked almost  everywhere. We took a break from TV, newspapers and commercial radio for the entire year and a half. We only had sporadic phone and Internet service for the past 9 months. We were on the Internet for about 3 hours a week to keep up with the headlines and do the blog. In every new place we saw the historic and interesting sites, tried new foods, had fun snorkeling or going to local festivals and parties and spent a lot of time with people we met. The experience has shown us that the world is an amazing and beautiful place with tons of very nice people.

Having said all that, it's nice to be home. It's nice to turn on the air conditioning, it's nice to be clean all the time. It's wonderful to be with family. It's nice to have unlimited water and power. It's nice to be able to get any thing any time. It's so easy to accomplish things here. We have phone service all the time, Internet service all the time and a car. At first we were in culture shock. So many companies, charities and organizations vie for your attention. Everything seems so fast. People talk fast here. You can be busy all the time if you want to be. 

We have jumped back into life in the US but will continue to live with the "cruiser" attitude that got us out on the water and through the trip. We had a dream and acquired the knowledge and skills to make it happen. Obstacles had to be overcome, on a boat it can mean the difference between life or death! If you make friends along the way the trip is much more fun. Some people we met will be our friends for life. It was a lot of work but the rewards were worth the effort. No matter what happened, at the end of each day we stopped, enjoyed the sunset and had a nice meal. We want to use everything we learned at sea to enrich our lives now on land. The adventure continues, just in a different setting!

We are living with Fran's parents for now. Al is continuing his business and Frances is looking for work. 

We want to thank all our friends and relatives for cheering us on and welcoming us back!  

We thank the Ocean that inspired and challenged us for a year and a half. 

Finally we would like to say, "Don't be a stranger". We have spent the last year and a half with people and we like it that way! 

To everyone we know we wish you fair winds and following seas,

Frances and Al Lima