Adventures of Tom, Jan and Peanut: Feb. 10-15th Weathered in at Lake Sylvia

The first 2-3 days anchored in Lake Sylvia were fun. Two canals joined the lake with street levels bridges. It was an easy dingy ride down the canal, across the ICW then down another short canal to a Raw Bar. The bar allowed you to tie your dingy up to their dock only asking that you eat or drink at their bar in return. From the Raw Bar it was a nice walk to a local outside mall area. They had the biggest wine/liquor store I had ever been in! I swear it was the size of a Kroger or Stracks. Great prices too so we stocked up one more time before leaving the states. One evening we enjoyed dinner with the daughter of a good friend who lives about 45 minutes from our boat. Another evening we enjoyed the company of a couple we had met at the AGLCA conference in October. By Sunday the 12th we were beginning to get antsy. It sounded like the next weather window for crossing to the Bahamas would be Wednesday, the 15th but we still had not met anyone who was crossing. We had said all along we would not attempt the crossing alone but now had to reevaluate that decision. I had even posted a note on the AGLCA blog in hopes of boosting our chances. New boats arrived throughout the day on Monday, most of them sail. We would routinely take our dingy around, meet the new arrivals and ask their destination. No luck finding a boating buddy but we did meet a very nice couple from Manchester England who winter in Florida and spend their summers sailing in Turkey. Nice huh?! We had a lovely time talking with them and they told us to look them up when we come over to England in September. Back to the boat, we again sat on the aft deck reviewed weather, charts and talked about what to do. This time when we looked up to watch another boat come in and anchor we realized we knew them.It was Little Mick. Excited, Tom hailed them on the radio. Yes, they were crossing with two other boats, yes they were leaving on Wednesday! Whew Hoo! Only one slight problem, they were going to West End. We were going to Port Lucaya. We checked out our charts and confirmed that our paths would be similar for a while so we would at least have visual company for a pretty good distance. Port Lucaya is about 20 miles further than West End so we were happy to hear that they wanted to leave at 4:30 am. That would assure our arriving in Port Lucaya in the daylight. Little did I know that the calm that I finally felt about the crossing would be short lived. On Tuesday we had a four way planning conversation via the VHF firm up plans. Little Mick and his friends had decided to wait until 6:30 am to leave! That would put us in Port Lucaya in the dark. So much for company. Now Tom and I had a decision to make. We either change our plans and travel to West End, wait for a few days in hopes of meeting another boat or go on our own to Port Lucaya. Tom was adameant. He did not want to pay the $100.00 dock fee to stay the night at West End and we did not want to wait for the next weather window. sooooooo we were again on our own. I put the waypoints in the GPS, double checked them and Tom did the engine checks. We set our alarm for 4am. The decision was made!