Weather windows are the funniest things. Sometimes they arrive at the perfect time like some sort of magic. Most times, though, they only seem to materialize at the wrong time, when you can’t take advantage of them. You just watch them go by like clouds in the sky, hoping your timing with the next window will be better.
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What are weather windows? Well, they are precious treasures of whatever weather you need to get somewhere specific. It may be 15 knots of wind from the east or west, when you are travelling north or south on a lake. Or no wind when you are traversing a difficult waterway like the Mona Passage (between Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico), or it may just be the right wind strength and direction and comfortable sea state (waves or ocean swell) that make whatever sailing travel on the ocean safe and cozy for you and your crew.

Weather windows certainly come and go. Sometimes, they arrive just when you need them to arrive, which was the case when we first went south to the Bahamas in 2022. Back then, we saw a perfect weather window opening for the first week of January 2023 when we were in Vero Beach and we were able to make it work for us. We arrived in Fort Lauderdale on December 31, took a great weather window to Miami (No Name Harbor) and had the necessary few days to get Ocean’s international travel documents stamped by the USDA and to do our final stock up of provisions before the perfect weather window to cross the Gulf Stream for the Bahamas also materialized. It was perfection.

This year? Not so much.

Of course, there have been perfect weather windows this year but they came around when we were otherwise occupied. There was gorgeous weather in early December…but we were back in Green Cove Springs, still readying the boat. Then another lovely weather window over the holidays…but we were still making our way down the ICW in southern Florida.

Yesterday, after many days of watching weather, we actually had one of those perfect weather windows fall in our laps, allowing us to make our move on the ocean from Fort Lauderdale to Miami. Yes! It was a short 30 nautical mile trip along the coast and it was delightful. Well, except for the mayhem of the ultra busy Port of Miami harbour on a beautiful sunny Sunday. We survived but…wow!!!

Here at Key Biscayne in Miami, we will stage for our crossing to the Bahamas. We have a few tasks to get done while we still have easy access to spare parts and easy shopping. We will rent a car in the next few days to get Ocean to the veterinarian for her international papers and also to get our final load of provisions. Oh, and some replacement parts. 
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An odd event on our trip down here was that our new anchor bow roller decided to disintegrate. It was brand new this fall but managed to break down after just a few weeks of travel. It was obviously a dud! Not having a bow roller means lots of heavy lifting of the anchor and chain. For me. Yikes! Thankfully, our boat buddy Jean came up with a great suggestion just in the nick of time. Before the bow roller fully broke off, we wrapped it in Gorilla tape to keep all its parts together and to keep it rolling. It worked! That tape is like flexible steel. Nothing is breaking it down! Oh, and we are also lucky that the closest West Marine to us here in Miami had one Wild Horses-sized bow roller left on the shelves. We pick it up tomorrow!

​The other thing we need while we are here is lots of rest. We are exhausted from day after day of travel through West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale and Miami. We motored every day after leaving the Vero Beach area, going through about 27 bridges (most of which we had to call to have opened and time for our arrival) and completing 140 nautical miles of the ICW. We fought many 4 knot currents, boat traffic craziness, busy anchorages, lots of shallow bits, and even going aground passing by one particularly dicey ocean inlet (Don’t worry – Wild Horses is fine. It was just a sandbar and the rising tide allowed us to float free just 10 minutes later. Yes, we were shaken and stirred but, otherwise, no worse for the experience). 

​Oh, and that magical next window we need to allow us to cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas? Well, it hasn’t made any appearances yet but that is okay with us. It will arrive when it arrives and, this time, we will be ready. Bahamas hang on! We are coming for you!

As we make our way down the ICW, our days are pretty easy. The weather has been wonderful with lots of sunny days, hardly a cloud in the sky most times. We have been moving Wild Horses almost every day but finally took a rest at Vero Beach to ring in the New Year with friends here.

Vero Beach is a wonderful spot for cruisers. It is right beside the ICW and it is only a short 20-minute walk to a cute waterfront with miles and miles of beaches and boutique shops. Perfect for cruisers, the city of Vero Beach runs a marina that offers fuel, water, showers, laundry and free bus rides for groceries and other supplies. For shopping, there is a lot that is just a dinghy ride across the ICW or you can take a free city bus that takes you even further and really find everything you need and more. 

The marina offers dock slips and mooring balls for a fee but it can be really tough to reserve a spot because of the enormous popularity of Vero and its marina. This year the numbers are down a bit so spots are free but we still chose to anchor out, which is just the way we prefer to do things.​

We have been at Vero Beach for almost a week and the rest has been wonderful. We have enjoyed many walks to the waterfront, and in the beautiful neighbourhoods in between, a great free outdoor concert and, of course, we have spent a lot of time at the enormous and highly popular Vero Beach Dog Park.
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The Dog Park has been a real highlight for Ocean. She has been able to run, play, socialize and otherwise get her doggie fill of all things “Dog”. Her excitement is palpable as we dinghy up to the dock right outside the park! 

​Making the days even better, is the natural cadence that we have with our boat buddies on Tekana. Even when we are just doing boat chores (laundry, filling diesel, getting groceries), we tend to prefer to do it as a foursome (sorry, it’s a five-some if you count Ocean!). There is always lots of laughs and great conversation to make carrying a 20lb backpack full of groceries seem a little lighter.

As great as Vero Beach is, we have made plans to continue our journey south. We will stay in the ICW until Fort Lauderdale and then we have a short 30 mile sail along the coast on the Atlantic Ocean that will take us into Miami. We spotted a nice weather window a few days out for our ocean leg of the trip. This would get us to Miami by the end of the week. After that, we are just waiting for the next weather window to cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. We went to bed excited about our plans and ready to weigh anchor in the morning.

We woke up to dense fog. Ugh. This fog will clear in time for us to make our planned anchorage for the day but they are calling for more of this soupy fog every day this week. This will make it very challenging to have the long days we need to make our planned weather window.
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Yes, the weather is king! We will move onto Plan B, which is shorter days (after the fog has dissipated) making our way south and looking for another weather window. Miami and the Gulf Stream crossing will just have to wait. And that is okay too 😊.