Galileo Feb 25, 2017 Update

Hello all,

Sorry that it has been a couple weeks or so that we since posted our progress.

Since our last report prior to departing from Ft. Pierce, Florida we were successful in crossing over from Lake Worth, Florida to West End on Grand Bahama Island on February 13, 2017 then the next day on to Great Sale Cay, then the following day to Green Turtle.  It was a great sail all the way from Great Sale to Green Turtle in company with two (2) other sailboats. And for part of the way for us, a pod of dolphins that numbered at least eight or more on each side of our boat.  As soon as I figure out how to capture a frame from the 5 minute video I will upload that in the future.

In the mean time here is a photo of our GPS status as we sailed from Great Sale Cay to Green Turtle in the company of Aria (an Island Packet 350) and Brown Eyed Girl (a Moody 38).  The winds were steady out of the southeast at 15 to 25 knot the whole day.  At the end near 3:30 they picked up to 30 knots (a little dicey dousing sails) before going into White Sound at Green Turtle to dock.

As indicated in the top left-hand corner above our speed was 7.1 knots.  A little unusual for our heavy cruising sailboat which is an Island Packet 37.  Also shown is our track on the right with Aria in the center and then Brown Eyed Girl to Aria's left.  All of us were very closely spaced for most of the day.  It was a fun ride or as they say a "salty sail" with great winds.  It was a seven (7) hour sail with no tacking.

We stayed at the Green Turtle Marina that night and the next waiting for the wind to settle down before progressing.  As we arrived on a Wednesday we took advantage of the Green Turtle restaurant's steak nigh.  Yummy!  On Friday February 16th we departed Green Turtle and were successful in crossing out into the ocean to get around Whale Cay and back into the Sea of Abaco on our way to Marsh Harbor.   This was our fastest transit over the last three (3) years from Lake Worth, Florida to Marsh Harbor due to the great weather we experienced along the way.  At Marsh Harbor we stayed anchored over the weekend of February 18th and 19th then progressed around to a slip at the Boat Harbor Marina at the Abaco Beach Resort.  We did this to be positioned to attend the Royal Marsh Harbor Yacht Club 2017 Commodore's Ball held onsite instead of paddling ashore in our dinghy with our Mardi Gras.

This RMHYC function was well attended with over a hundred present.  Lots of feathered masks and beads.  You didn't have to do anything to get the beads.  There were past out at the door by the greeters.

As usual Gerry has been expert in maintaining our diet as she alway is.  Because the weather has been nice and cool she experimented with making bread.  She used a modified recipe of Hayden Cochran bread from Island Spirit and it has been great.  She added whole wheat flour to Hayden's recipe.  Here is the result.

That's it for now.  We are off to the pool here to relax and catch some more rays


Gerry and Larry
Team Galileo