I have just completed my 23rd Island Packet Yacht Owners’ Association Calendar. This edition is another international global edition showing how our IPYOA fleet is worldwide. Plus our owners really sail the world. The $5.00 profit per calendar is applied to offset the ongoing costs of the www.IPYOA.com web server, which hosts 18,500+ photos of IP yacht modifications by owners. This web server went live in 1998 and has been supporting the fleet for 27+ years at $50/month! That is 324 months this web server has been live which has costs me $16,200, or $600 per year plus! So, I make this calendar every year and I make about $500 from selling about 100 calendars a year. This $500 is applied towards the $600+ costs. That is obviously not the total cost of the web server, there are additional software subscriptions installed to help run the site. Its always entertaining how people think I am making a living off the IPYOA, when in actuality I spend over $2,000 a year on supporting the IP fleet. Enjoy this 23rd edition.
2026 IPYOA Cover1 JAN 420 MACARENA anchored French Polynesia2 FEB 35 ISLAND SPIRIT sailing for SXM under full moon3 MAR 485 AESTAS sailing Galveston Bay TX4 APR 420 TRANCE Bras dOr Lake, Cape Breton Island5 MAY 440 BLUE BEAR sailing Aalsmeer The Netherlands6 JUN SP CRUISER KOTI Isl of Evia, village of Panagia, Greece7 JUL 38 STARGAZER anchored off Ellis Isl NYC8 AUG 380 TOUCHÉ off the Statue of Liberty9 SEP 349 KOKO anchored Worton Creek Chesapeake Bay10 OCT 350 SIRENA off Cabo Samana Dominican Republic11 NOV 40 SHAMBALA anchored Alligator River NC
Our little 35-footer has been stored in Jolly Harbor, Antigua, for six months. From May 2 to December 2, she was hauled, stripped down to bare poles, and strapped down to a concrete pad resting on welded-together jack stands! This is hurricane storage in Jolly Harbor, and it is not cheap. But after making three runs from Annapolis, Maryland, to the Caribbean Sea, we felt it was time to leave the boat down here and enjoy time at home off the boat.
Dec 2, we checked out our Girl…
Launch Day
Always exciting to see your 20,000 lb boat be picked up with a massive marine travel lift and driven across the land to the travel lift well at the fuel dock. Jolly Harbor Marina is a very skilled team and their goal is to make your time here easy and enjoyable, They are focused on customer service and it really shows. WE LOVE this place. They are the best of the best, hands down!
The skilled travel life operator runs all with a wireless remote
We Rented a Condo!
This has been the best situation for launching and preparing a yacht, a condo with a dock. Yes, this is what we found in Jolly Harbor where there are many many condos here and we found one in the North Finger with a nice 40 foot solid dock with cleats. The cleats are rare we have seen, so this was lucky. We booked this for a week and then extended it 3 more days because we loved it. After ten days of work, we had the boat rigged and ready for us to move aboard and anchor out.
Our boat docked at the rented condo, yes yes yesJob one at daybreak, hoist sails in calm no windThis may be the LAST time I take off this stack pack and main sail, so much work to rehoist this.After many days of work, the boat is rigged up, dinghy, outboard, sails, running rigging, starlink, etc
Anchored out for the next 6 months!
Departing the dream condo air conditioned condo, we moved out to Jolly Harbor and dropped anchor where we have anchored ten times before. Now it was time to clean up the cabins and bunks and organize the yacht. You would think this would be easy, but it is crazy how much stuff we have aboard, so we have begun to load up bags of gear and stuff to give away. And we did.
Sunset shadows on the hull, always a fun shot
Of course we fixed some systems
Every yacht has systems that need to be upgraded or worse yet, repaired when they stop working. When we put this boat away 6 months ago, every system was working fine, but now, we had to address three systems. 1 the shower sump pump failed. 2 the propane solenoid was rusted and looking old. 3 the sewer pump was intermittent so lets install a new one. I was able to do all three of these systems while still at the condo dock, so that was great.
New macerator sewer pumpNew propane solenoidNew bilge shower sump pump
Lucky for us, we had all these spare parts onboard and we need to buy nothing. We just needed to tear out the old non working gear and install the spare part. We have torn this boat apart fully 4 times so we know the systems and we have the tools to fix nearly anything that may break. Lets hope this is the end of this for this season.
Paradise Reached: Deep Bay and the Beach
One of our favorite places is the beach of Deep Bay, Antigua. Yes, there are jet skis here and yes the large cats bring over cruise ship quest, but it is still a dream beach location. By 3 in the afternoon, everyone is gone and you get the bay and beach to yourself. Nice.
Deep Bay Beach off our bow.
Neso Tent on the beach
Boat buddies, Mike and Jenn of sv HAPPY 420 introduced us to these beach shade tents. This was the second time we tried it and they are really cool. You fill the corner bags with sand and then pull and stretch the shock cord as tight as you can. Then you push two pole up under the fabric and you have a tent. We like to place the poles in opposite corners as then the fabric takes the wind better than a standard lean-to set up. This was fun.
Radeen loves the beachLocals ride by on their Uber 🙂Neso Tent with pole in opposite cornersOur “car” the AB dinghy and our boat at anchor, Deep Bay Antigua
Thanks for sailing along
We are trying to bring back the blog, as our Facebook page has taken over top billing. But with decades of blogging here, we want to keep this going as a record for us as well. Thank you for sailing along. Please ALSO like and follow us on our PUBLIC sailing Facebook page here, that is always current content.
We use the Garmin Inreach, and whenever the boat moves, we turn tracking on making a very cool archive map of our travels. For fun, click the VIEW ALL and then zoom back or zoom into areas like the USVI and BVI and you will see our tracks. Very interesting.
This is the 22nd year of my sailing calendar. I create this for the Island Packet Yacht Owners’ Association, IPYOA.com that I created many years ago. Our IPY fleet of owners is very connected and is worldwide with thousands of owners sharing and supporting each other. These photos have been submitted by owners and I then take them and integrate them into my custom printable frame with text and captions. Here are the images, enjoy this 22nd edition!
The 22nd IPYOA Sailing Calendar
The COVER of the 22nd IPYOA CalendarJan 2025Feb 2025Mar 2025April 2025May 2025June 2025July 2025Aug 2025Sept 2025Oct 2025Nov 2025Dec 2025
We were hosted on Salty Abandon Podcast the other night as we talked about the routes into the Bahamas. There are two sections of the Bahamas that most people will sail to. One: and the easiest is the Abacos, the northern section. Two: the Exumas are more challenging to sail to and are the southern islands. Yes in the middle are the Berry Islands and some will make this area be their exploration. For us, we have made over 10 trips into the Bahamas and we prefer the Exumas and the far out islands like Cat, Conception, Rum, Long Island and Eleuthera.
Looking at the big picture below, you will see route #1 east into the Abacos and then you can see route #2 heading down into the Exumas. We have done both many times. The two pages I published discuss and show each of these routes in details.
Hayden & Radeen in Stuart Fl ready to sail to Caribbean Sea season #24
We plan to add some catch-up blogging posts now that our season #24 has ended. We sailed from Georgia to Florida to the Bahamas to the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico to USVI to St. Martin and then finally onto Antigua. We spent Thanksgiving and Christmas in Stuart Florida then moved down to Biscayne Bay and stagged there for the Bahamas.
Our Island Packet 35 ready to sail south
This year’s sailing was incredible because the winter had many strong cold fronts that came off the USA East Coast and these strong fronts pulled the tradewinds north or south making it a great sail to sail EAST! The run from Florida to the Caribbean Sea is 1,200 NM on a course of 120m. With the normal headwinds of 090m this places the winds 30 degrees off your port bow as you push southeast for a month!
So, with these fronts, we ended up sailing 9 legs from Miami to Antigua and we sailed 90% of all of these. We had so many north winds that we sailed from Puerto Rico past the USVI and directly out to St. Martin. Then two weeks there, we turned around and sailed back to USVI on yet another north wind. Then two weeks later we sailed back to St. Martin. This is unheard of, but we enjoyed this all and will always sail east on any north winds the Caribbean Sea gives!
You hopefully are following us along on our public Facebook page for svIslandSpirit, that blog has been easier faster, and more current for posting. We have been using that page as our newer blogging platform for years. Yet, this platform has all our 13+ years of blogging, and tracking maps, so we need to resume this and update this as we have before. Thank you for checking in, I will try to post a summary of the legs we sailed to reach Antigua.
Here is a map overview of this season #24. Look at this run, we are very proud of our 5th Caribbean Season. We have stored the boat in Antigua and we hope to keep it based in the Caribbean Sea for a year or two. We will see….
Season #24 GA to Antigua, our 5th Caribbean Season
Interactive Tracking Map
If you look into this archive map you can zoom into and click on a point to see the date and time for that location. I use these archive maps to help me review times and distances. See this link
This is my 21st year of creating the Island Packet Yacht Owners’ Association Calendar. This year’s edition is more global than ever, with fleet members sending in photos from as far away as Cape Horn, Alaska, Mexico, and the Netherlands! Island Packet Yacht Owners really get out and go sailing. It is always amazing where we see our fleet sailing too. Take a look at these photos and you will agree, that the IPYOA is global!
2024 IPYOA Calendar Cover, Jesse Shumaker and Mike Parsons Connie Hamilton ParsonsRodd and Shelly Benfield 379 Tasi at Isla Carmen, Sea of Cortez, MXHayden Cochran Warderick Wells, Bahamas, Paradise 350 Traveller, 380 Painkiller, 35 Island SpiritSuzy Suzanne Hurwitz 37 Cay Paraiso Water Cay, JumentosMarlene Adam Reasoner 420 Trance Sailing Wing on WingJonell Bowman and William Bowman 350 Kharis on Port Clyde mooring, MaineJim Martin IP44 Alisoné rounding Heron Neck Light, MaineKevin Hornback 420 Catharpin Blue, Sailing Glacier Bay AkJudith L. Jacobsen 380 Touché in Fiordo Falcon, PatagoniaJesse Shumaker 440 Vita Beata View of the boat at mooring from hike on Jones Island in the San Juan IslandsCarla and Jeff Hale 485 Latitude, Pot of Gold at the end of the Rainbow in AntiguaJohn Bartges Lisa Speer Bartges 445 No Wahalla between the Pitons in St Lucia.Richard Hage 440 Big Bear and 27 Carpe Diem Big and Small in Leiden, Netherlands
Thank you everyone for looking at and enjoying our sailing adventures! This has been a lifetime passion of ours. Radeen and I appreciate you sailing along. Please add a comment as they are emailed to us when you comment. Thank you!
This was our 9th season in the Bahamas after spending the past 4 winters in the Caribbean. So, this was a review tour of the best places. The best part of the Exuams is between Shroud Cay and Rudder Cay. We focused on these places. Here was the planned route inbound, A direct run from Miami to No Name Harbor….No need to stop at Binini when the wx window is open. Run east as far as you can reach.
This is a short 20-hour run from Miami to Great Harbor in the Berrrys
After checking in, we powered on east to Highbourne Cay, then south to Staniel Cay, and onto Black Point as well. After Black Point, we pushed down to Rudder Cay and swam the Piano. From there we turned around and sailed back to Black Point, Staniel then Compass and Cambridge, and Warderick Wells and Shroud. Here are the best photos of the past month. Enjoy.
Photo Essay of Sailing the Exuamas 2023 One month…
Blue Blue Blue with a storm coming off Shroud CayOur pet nurse shark that loved the shade of our boat off Staniel CayThe anchor chain in 20 feet of waterRadeen and the blue water of Black PointSwimming with Eagle Rays at Warderick WellsThe beauty of Warderick Wells is breath takingLazy sailing in 10-12 knots on the beamBuddy boat 35 JUST DUCKY and us sailed for Black PointWarderick Wells never gets oldSailing our fav, the Code Zero in 12 knotsThe best sailing photo ever, 35 Just Ducky and 35 Island SpiritIsland Spirit with all three sails outBahamas blueDown with the Q and up with the Bahamas flagRadeen taking in the blue water of the banksWalking Staniel Cay
This was a very short Bahamas season for us, only a month. We usually are over here in Jan, Feb, Mar, and April, then we sail back to the coast May 1. This season we did not sail over until the second week of March! Still, it was well worth the effort and time, and the push east to reach the 200 nm it takes to reach the Exuma Chain of Islands. No place has better watercolor and better beaches. Hands down, the Bahamas are a dream.
Heading North
We are sailing north to Freeport Bahamas where we will dock for one week at OCEAN REEF CLUB April 16-23. Then after that, we will sail for the Florida coast. This season we will store the boat May 15-Nov15 at Brunswick Landing so we can get an early start at the Caribbean. We want to spend Christmas in the USVI. One more Caribbean Season for us. That is the plan.
We are excited to share with you our recent sailing adventure from No Name Harbor near Miami to Great Harbour Cay in the Berry Islands.
The Planned 130 nm route direct to the Berrys.
We have a fleet of five boats!
We departed from No Name Harbor on March 7, 2023, at 7 a.m. We were eager to set sail on this exciting journey with IP 35 Just Ducky, IP 350 Traveller, IP 370 Sea Lyon and Fleming 55 Our Eden with former IP380 & 440 owners aboard. Our destination was Great Harbor Cay, in the Berrys, a group of islands in the northwestern Bahamas. We charted a course via North Rock, which is located north of Bimini. After passing North Rock at 2:45 a.m., we prepared ourselves for a night of motor-sailing on the Bahamas Banks which are only 10 feet deep.
Cape Florida Lighthouse as we head out to sea.
Sunset brought Full Moon Rise!
As the sun began to set, we eagerly awaited the rise of the full moon on the Bahamas Banks. Finally, at 7 pm, we were greeted with a spectacular view of the full moon as it rose above the horizon to the east. The moon’s radiant glow illuminated the surrounding shallow waters and gave us an amazing view of the white sandy bottom. It provided us with awe-inspiring sights that we’ll never forget. The sound of the waves against the hull and the gentle rocking of the boat put us at ease as we motor-sailed through the night.
Sunset as we push east on the very calm Bahama BanksFull Moon RIse at 7 pm, perfect for an all-night run, no reason to stop and anchor in this calm.
Digital Radar Approach at Night
At 3 am, we navigated the approach to the island and dropped anchor at last, feeling a sense of accomplishment and excitement for what lay ahead. The Berrys are known for their pristine beaches, crystal clear waters, and abundant marine life, and we couldn’t wait to explore Great Harbor Cay from the marina of the same name, renowned for its friendly staff and fun activities.
Navigating at night under digital radar and chartplotter as we arrive at 3 am!
The Bahamas Waters are the BEST
In conclusion, our sailing journey to the Berrys was an incredible experience that we’ll always cherish. It was the calmest Gulf Stream Crossing we have ever experienced. From the stunning full moon rising on the Bahamas banks to the exhilaration of motor-sailing through the night, this adventure was one for the books. If you ever have the chance to sail in this beautiful part of the world, don’t hesitate – you won’t be disappointed!
Radeen taking in the beautiful Bahama Banks Blues as we push eastDown with the Q flag and up with the Bahamas Flag, welcome to the Bahamas, our 9th season here!
Thank you for reading our blog, yes, we are a bit behind and trying to catch up. We are also posting nearly in real time on our public Facebook PAGE. Please like and follow our page there, you do not need to have a Facebook account. Thank you all. PS: Messages and comments are sent directly to our email. We will see them immediately.
We never leave Florida and go to the Bahamas without first spending time sailing Biscayne Bay and enjoying “The Grove” and Miami Beach! I have said many times that Biscayne Bay is the second-best sailing and cruising area on the entire USA East coast after Block Island Sound which to us is #1. So, after departing Stuart Florida, our first destination is always Miami. Many people pass right on by this dream sailing area on their race for Marathon Key or Key West. We love boating around this area! Upon arrival at Government Cut we were met with a cruise ship heading out. But first our route…
Stuart to West Palm
We ran down the ICW inside on the waterway from Stuart to Peck Lake, to Hobe Sound to West Palm Beach where we always head south one bridge past the inlet and anchor between the bridges. West Palm Beach is a dream spot to anchor, except for the reversing current and some boat traffic. We spent a few days here and enjoyed the famous ROCCO TACOS.
Queue Up to Depart for Miami
We left the town and moved up to the Lake Worth inlet where we anchored just inside the inlet and to the south. This spot is perfect for heading out the inlet at 0500, which is zero-dark-hundred. Being anchored here makes it so much easier to simply get up, brew some coffee and up anchor and set your main sail to a double reefed main and go. This Lake Worth Inlet is short and very easy to navigate. This was a first-time run of the inlet for our buddy boat, 35 JUST DUCKY and it was simple. Still very nerve-racking when you have never done this, but it was a great day.
0500 the view out the galley port
Before nightfall, Steve Job’s yacht motored on by with a route to the Bahamas as the weather was fantastic. We were planning a direct run to Miami where we could wait for the next weather window to cross on the FULL MOON on March 7th, 2023.
Our Buddy Boat, 35 JUST DUCKY with Steve Job’s Yacht, Lake Worth Inlet
The OFFSHORE run to Miami
Heading out to sea at 0500 it is DARK, and there was no horizon except for the city lights to the shore to the west. That was comforting as we simply headed out the inlet and, at the 35-40 foot water depth past the jetty, we turned south and pointed towards south Florida. Within an hour and a half, 0630 the sun rose and we had a spectacular day of motor sailing down the coast.
Sunrise is always a joy at sea. This one was great as well.
Hello South Florida
By keeping the beach to starboard and staying close in the 30-40 foot or less water depth, we avoided a south-flowing counter current to the north-flowing Gulfstream and picked up 1/2 a knot of speed closer to shore.
Motor Sailing because the winds were calm, 5-8 knots
Hello MIAMI Inlet, (Government Cut)
Arriving at the inlet we were early with the ebb tide coming out and the east winds blowing in so you know about wind against current. YUP, it was crazy rough going in. Then add to this the insane 50-60 foot sport fishing boats doing 30knots as they pass you on port then another on starboard and they hit your beam with their 4 foot waves, your boat is going midship cleat to midship cleat water to water. Plus all items below deck have now hit the cabin sole and your boat is trashed. Yup, welcome to Miami. Oh yes, add in a cruise ship and this is typical.
Cruise Ship coming out as we are going in
South Beach Hotels and condos as we navigate the inlet
Fishermans Channel to the left
You are not allowed to enter the main channel due to the cruise ships, so you have to turn into Fishermans Channel to the south. This takes you by all the container ships and their cranes busy loading and offloading the containers. Look at the size of these ships!!!!
Miami in the distance as we pass the container ship terminal19 across and 10 high, that is ON TOP of the deck. There are more below the deck. These are tractor-trailer boxes, and containers. It is how all imports arrive in the USA!!! No, we do not own a single ship. We just allow them to use our many ports in USA. ????
Biscayne Bay Fun #1 BOCA CHITA
With our first anchorage off Virginia Cay and watching the Miami City lights come on, it was a very peaceful night. After a few yacht services at Crandon and a tour of Dinner Key, it was off to Boca Chita for a night. Linda and Mahlon wanted to see this island, part of Key Biscayne National Park and the beautiful building that is NOT a lighthouse. It is a simulated lighthouse built by Honeywell because he could. Lucky for us a park ranger/tour guide was there and we all got to climb up the lighthouse and take a tour. We really enjoyed our time at Boca Chita.
Hayden, Radeen, Mahlon, Linda atop Boca Chita LighthouseOur two Island Packet 35s at the Boca Chita park
Our hero sails by, Jeffrey and family
While we were running south for Boca Chita, our dear friend Jeffrey Cardenas and his family were sailing south to Key West on their new catamaran! So, we all decided to meet up at Boca Chita and enjoy a bottle of bubbly to celebrate their new yacht. We followed Jeffrey for the past few years as he solo circumnavigated the globe on his Island Packet 460 named FLYING FISH! We first met him in person a year ago in St. Croix. His blog is a fascinating and a wonderful read. Jeffry is the best of the best writers. Please see his worldwide stories here:
Hayden, Jeffrey, Ginny, Radeen, Mahlon, Lilly and Linda. This is a lifetime photo here. What are the chances of this?
Good Bye Boca Chita, you are one special place
Sailing out of Boca Chita, I am reminded of the many, many fun times we have shared with great friends here. Thank you, Honeywell. Thank you, National Park Service.
Next….Miami Beach…OH NO!
From here, we sailed back up to Dinner Key where we enjoyed “THE GROVE” and then…..oh yes….then we moved over to Miami Beach. Well, that is the subject of the next post update, as I try to catch up on this blog……
Meanwhile, please see my menu link for all the great places to explore in the Biscayne Bay area.
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We have been here in Stuart Florida since Nov 14, 2022, and as we have always posted and said: “This is the BEST Place in the USA to winter your boat!” So here we have been here for nearly three months! We have no complaints.
svIslandSpirit on mooring ball #20 at Sunset Bay Marina, Stuart, FL.
What have we been doing?
That is a very good question, and the answer is, simply living on our boat in one of our favorite towns and upgrading and working on yacht systems. We had thought that all of the refit work we did this past summer in Rock Hall, MD, would have made our boat totally ready for her 5th winter in the Caribbean. Our destination was Bonaire this year, but with a busted KBW10 transmission, we lost a good month or more just with that issue
When you rip out your transmission and it is on the counter….not good.
So, let’s work on da boat!
With the transmission ripped out and sent back to Schooner Bay Marina for Alfred Holzer to review why his repair in June failed, we decided to focus on what else we could rip out. Ha Ha. Well, that led us to…..why not the sewer hoses, as we have not ripped them out in 7-8 years. Oh, that sounds like fun, yea, let’s take the Dremel tool and cut the sewer hoses out. Well, we did, and it took us 6-8 hours, one day only and we had all new sewer hoses and a new head. Now that was a quick turnaround.
New vented loop installed into the head cabinet.Radeen and the 30 feet of new $$$ odor safe head hoses. KaChing
Well that was fun, what next?
Once the head and sewer were rebuilt and all brand new we decided to look into the water heater which was rusty and leaking. Nothing lasts in the saltwater, salty air of the yachting world. This water heater was installed in 2013 by the Island Packet factory when we gave them our yacht to explore the brilliant idea of creating the Island Packet Yacht Refit program. Well, after 6 months and a full refit yacht, the IPY factory said, NO THANKS, and shortly thereafter they went out of business. Next, I present the idea of the IPY Refit program to Colin Mack, and being a smart businessman, he decided to go after the work. Today, 2023, I bought my new water heater from Colin because he has now built the ULTIMATE Island Packet Yacht service company. Every Island Packet Owner can no benefit from his work. www.MackYachtServices.com
Radeen and her new water heater gift delivered by Colin…. also notice those new block!!!
So, with a newly delivered water heater, we went after that job and now we have a new system there:
Why Stop???
With the transmission still not back, and with it getting lost in the mega snowstorm over Christmas, I decided to take Colin Mack up on his new upgraded deck hardware. YUP, we bought all new deck hardware and removed our old 1994 blocks, and installed all new MYS blocks which are made by Garhaurar Marine custom for Mack Yacht Services. This Island Packet Yachts Refit program really seems to be a great idea I outlined back in 2013. Colin was smart enough to take it up when the IPY factory said no. Great job Colin! Check out these new custom blocks.
Bling Bling $,$$$ new deck hardware for the yacht.
Who wants White sails? I do!
Again, since we were not going anywhere, we dropped the jib and the staysail and sent them over to Mack Sails for upgraded WHITE sun covers. I really do not like the color on the sails, we had blue for many years. I prefer white sun covers, so we had them changed up to white. I know, the white will not last as long as the blue, but I like white sails and so now we are back to all white. Thank you Travis.
White sails, Jib and Staysail now match the code zero.
We test sail the transmission!
Well, the transmission was found lost in a trucking center in Michigan, and it finally made it back to us at the end of December. It took me 3 hours to reinstall the transmission. I then hired Simply Yachts #1 mechanic Chris, to do an engine alignment, and off we went for a test sail. On Jan 1, Team Island Spirit was back on the launch pad ready to make her run for the Caribbean Sea…
All systems check out, and the transmission is back up and running.Radeen is one happy sailor girl. She love to travel and she loves to sail….
Wait, did I tell you about the welded lifelines?
While waiting for the transmission in Nov Dec, we decided to hire the most creative and artistic metal fabricator and welder in the Stuart area. Alexander and his team replaced our top and bottom lifelines around the cockpit with custom hull-matching curved solid stainless steel bars. WOW, I never expected these to be curved to match the hull shape, and he said if they are straight, they do not look as good. Well, he is right. These curved hull matching bars are a work of art, and he is very proud of his work. We are thrilled and we love the added safety of these bars around the cockpit. Look at this work!
Top and bottom lifelines replaced with solid curved welded bars.Alexander and his team are true artists, and I really admire their work
Did someone say STARLINK?
Well ok then, let’s add StarLink satellite high-speed internet to the boat. Elon Muck and his company SpaceX have been launching 2 rockets a week with 55 satellites on each launch for a long time now. He has placed these Starlink low earth orbit satellites to provide internet around the world. Well, guess what? It really works and it works very well. It is not cheap, as the antenna and router cost $700 and the mobile RV service is $135/month. The RV version allows you to relocate and move to a new location. Reports are that this works down the island and nearly everywhere, so we will give it a test run this March and April. We installed this into a standard fishing rod holder and clamped that onto the bimini frame. The power consumption is about 4 amps 12v, but it runs on 120-volt AC, so we have to run the inverter to power the outlets.
Our Starlink antenna is mounted over the side of the Bimini. I plan to move to an aft location to prevent it from overlapping the solar panel.
So, here we are….on the launch pad
With all systems upgraded yet again, and with some new systems, we are once again on the launch pad and will be heading out soon. We always like to move to Miami and sail Biscayne Bay testing all systems. There we will also fire up the Spectra watermaker and get that system running before sailing over to the Exumas. We plan to simply sail the Exumas this remaining season and then for a new process, we will store the yacht in-water at Brunswick Landing Marina, May 15-Nov 15. When we return we will set sail ASAP and as fast as we can to return to our Caribbean challenge. For now, Sunset Bay Marina is a dream stop.
Sunset Bay Marina, is our favorite winter home in the USA.
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