Sailing South 2011 - 2012

I had a good talk with the CBP officer today who explained several things about cruising permits.. He gave me a paper stating info about renewing the permit... basically it comes down to only resident aliens can renew a foreign flagged vessel cruising permit if the boat was made in the states... If you are not a resident alien then the only way you can renew is to have your permit expire while you are out of the country for at least 15 days before you return... you can turn in your permit when you leave and have it cancelled and the reapply when you return... but make sure you are out for the 15 days and they will ask for papers to show you checked into the foreign port as proof

I will be leaving St Augustine in the morning and plan to take 7 to 10 days to get to Ft Pierce.
The batteries were dead this morning and I suspect I left something switch on... it was raining with thunder and lightning till about 9:30 and then with a little sun peeking through the solar recharged the batteries enough so we could start the engine... the refer was finicky about running but by the afternoon it seems to be working again... will need to keep an eye on it and the switches we leave on... I may need to get a third battery and dedicate it to engine starting only

I am now in Vero Beach for US thanksgiving... I plan to make my trademark Jambalaya
After checking in and out tomorrow I will head for Ft Lauderdale and then it will either be south to the keys with a cruising permit or east to the Bahamas without one

Still in Vero Beach Fl. now and will be sailing farther south soon... May stop in Lake Worth and get another battery sized 4D for the boat for additional reserve capacity when I entertain later into the night

So while debating about getting another battery I had to measure up the space... anyways I took of the caps on my 2 year old batteries and find low electrolyte levels... a summer of solar charging took a toll on the liquid levels... now an excursion to find distilled water and to see if they come back to par... To be continued....

My batteries appear to be back up to par after a long day motoring down the ICW
That will save me a few dollars
Had a great sail from St Lucie to Ft Lauderdale left at 07:00 and sailed into the night and arrived here at 20:30.

I am getting tired of Ft Lauderdale and need to get moving... If the winds abate a little I will sail south to Miami in the morning to Coconut Grove. Sailing inside to there are 25 or so bridges and all are on a schedule with the last being only 54 feet... The schedules are such that I will have to wait for each successive opening... Well I am off to get some groceries and rhum and wine for the trip.

I am going to go down to South Miami tomorrow morning. The winds have been blowing hard out of the N to NE for the last few days so unless there is some moderation today we will stay inside and deal with the 20 or so bridges south of here...
Will check in and out to the Bahamas when we arrive... Looks like there may be a 1 - 2 day weather window on Wed/Thurs. to cross to Bimini... Wish me luck...