We’ve finally given up the marina life. After a month at Reynolds and 6 weeks at Loggerhead, it was definitely time for this old boat to get a move on. We backed out of our slip on Jan. 31 and headed to the fuel dock. Once our tanks were full, we followed Jane and Steve (on Daydreams ll) out the inlet and onto the ICW.
The weather on Monday was perfect- warm and sunny and a little bit of north east wind to give us an added little push down the ICW. There was a bit of traffic on the water but for the most part we were alone going south. We followed Daydreams for most of the trip down to Fort Pierce until we got to the North Fort Pierce bascule bridge. We took the lead after the bridge because we knew the anchorage we were aiming for that night. Our anchor was down and secured by 2:30pm and we were able to relaxed and enjoy our first night on the hook in 6 weeks!!
The next morning we headed out the Fort Pierce inlet (at 8 am) hoping for a nice east wind sail down to Lake Worth (about a 45 nm journey). Well we got a journey alright but not the lovely sail we were hoping for. We left Fort Pierce on a flood tide so we battled the current out the inlet. Once released from the inlet’s grip, we turned south into wind that was way more south then east. Crimson Kathryn has an overheating issue when we sail with wind on our port side. We heel over which causes the water intake to come out of the water. Our engine is water cooled so we have to be very careful to watch our engine temperature. We tend not to put sails up on this tack to avoid any overheating but Tuesday’s ocean was so wavy and with the wind almost on our nose, we had no choice but to put the jib up. It was a long sail – we had to tack 3 times to keep moving away from the shore in order to use the south east wind as much as possible. After a day of bouncing around, we made it into the Lake Worth inlet at 6:30pm. Daydreams got in about 2 hours before us so they were able to help us get into the anchorage by talking us in. Steve was also out on his bow with a big flashlight showing us where to drop anchor. We were never so thankful for a buddy boat!!! One positive from our sail down – Crimson Kathryn didn’t overheat!! The engine stayed consistently cool. All the work Mark did on the cooling system worked wonderfully.
So here we are – anchored beside the mega yachts at Rybovich Marina and waiting for a weather window to cross to the Bahamas. It’s looking like we will have a good opportunity this Saturday starting around 1 am. Our Covid rapid antigen tests are done (negative!!) and we have our Bahamas Health Travel Visa. We’re working on our click2clear cruising permit now. It’s getting closer!
Crimson Kathryn and her crew 