Route of trip that we are taking to Georgetown, Bahamas

We've had a request to talk about the route we are planning on taking to get to Georgetown Bahamas - so here it is.

We leave Saturday, Sept 4 to sail to Ashtabula Yacht Club
Then go to Erie, PA  and then to Buffalo.
We are going on the Erie Canal to the Hudson River - hopefully meet up with Chet Sladinski close to Catskill, NY or somewhere else (open for discussion) then taking the Hudson River to New York City and to the Atlantic Ocean to Norfolk, VA.  We will need one person to travel with us down the Hudson River to Norfolk, VA so if interested, let us know.  We hope that it will be a 4-5 day trip unless we stop a day for sightseeing in NYC.

Once in Norfolk, VA we plan to take the ICW (Intra Coastal Waterway) until we get to Charleston, SC where we will go outside on the Atlantic Ocean down to Florida to St Mary's River.  We are skipping Georgia because half the time your are going North to go South and it's buggy (lots of insects).  Once again, when we go outside on the Atlantic Ocean, we would like to have one person travel with us so if you are interested in joining us, let us know.   The beginning of December we will be picking up my daughter, Katie, close to West Palm Beach, FL after visiting her dad and Grandma O'Callaghan for Thanksgiving.  She'll be traveling with us to the Bahamas during her holiday break from college.  Our launch off place to cross the Gulf Stream will be Key Biscayne, FL.  We will go across the Gulf to Gun Cay (pronounced Key) Cut; across the Bahama Bank down to Nassau, Bahamas.   It depends on the weather and what Katie wants to do whether we will try to Georgetown, Bahamas or stay closer to Nassau.  I would like to get to Georgetown before I start my nursing online classes Jan 3, 2011.

We plan to stay most of the time in Georgetown, Bahamas and also want to leave early enough to visit Key West as I've never been there and there is a hospice I would like to check out.

All of this is subject to change as we go along.  For those that are wanting to visit us we just want to let you know that you can pick the place or the time but not both as it can be very dangerous when picking both.  We have to go during the weather windows, and as everyone knows from last winter, they can be few and far between or frequent.  Also the weather window can open anytime of day, so even if it's in the middle of the night - when the weather is good - that's when we go.

Now onto another topic - Provisioning and Milk.  Phil and I have decided that we will stock up on dry milk powder instead of buying milk on the trip.  We have bought Peak dry whole milk powder from Holland - tried it out in a small can first - and bought 2 of the 5.5# cans that have 104 servings each.  They arrived the other day and are the cans BIG.  Please see below photo of me holding them.

So now we have to find a place to store them!  I know - in the quarter berth!!  only kidding.  We have been saying in the quarter berth for everything we don't know where to store.  I have also purchased from Emergency Essentials 2 #10 cans of instant nonfat dry milk powder (72 servings each) and a special pitcher to mix it in.  I haven't tasted this milk yet, but from the testimonials, it's suppose to be good.  My idea is to mix some of dry whole milk powder with the instant nonfat powder to get an in between fat content, about a quart at a time.  Why are we doing this??  Because milk is heavy to carry when we're in the states.  In the Bahamas, milk is expensive and you have to worry about it going bad.  I really don't like the taste of the long life milk either.   We are also planning on vacuum sealing amounts of the powder that will fit into containers we plan to use from on a regular basis and store the rest under the "L" cushion of the starboard settee, which should be a cool place being under the water.  Time will tell if this has been a good purchase and decision or not.  We also have a Lock N Lock pitcher to use to keep it in the refrigerator and not spill.

This weekend we plan to go through the belongings and look at the clothing with a critical eye of what to have on the boat.  I also want to put the binding on the V-berth quilt and got some fabric out of storage with that in mind.  Also got my grandson Calvin's quilt pieces out of storage in the hopes that I can work on it to give it to him sometime before he is 20.  lol