It’s been a very busy and fast few days after leaving Vero Beach. We were on a mission – get to the Bahamas – and the weather actually cooperated with us!!
Our first stop was Fort Pierce and it was a quick 2 hour motor down the ICW. We encountered very little boat traffic that day and arrived at our anchorage by mid-afternoon. It was nice to relax and get to bed early because we knew we had an early morning the next day.
Wednesday 3:30am – we pulled up anchor and headed out the Fort Pierce Inlet. I was at the helm and guided us out onto the ocean. The night was clear and the channel was very wide and well lit. We had no problem getting out and turning south to Lake Worth. It was a very easy motor south – definitely one of the smoothest ocean passages we’ve done in awhile. The passage was great but passing through the Lake Worth inlet was crazy!!! We entered the inlet before noon and all was going smoothly until this stupid sport fishing boat came barreling into the inlet beside us!!! This was a narrow, short inlet and these guys didn’t care at all that their wake would toss us all over the place. It was nuts!! The worst waves we saw all day! Fortunately Mark was able to steer us into the wake of that boat and had enough time (and room) to turn back for the second boat coming at high speed. This boat must have seen our chaotic swerving because they slowed down and gave us an easy pass!! We no sooner got passed these two power boats when the border patrol boat pulled up beside us to ask about our cruising permit – really!! Did they not see us getting rocked silly by these power boats!! We answered their questions and kept going.
We were up early this morning (Thursday at 5am) – the weather was looking great for a windy crossing to West End, Grand Bahamas. We were underway at 6:20am and I took us out again. We got close to the narrow part of the inlet and of course were swamped by those darn sports fishing boats! At least 6 boats passed us in the entrance (or exit) of the inlet. It was a good thing we were ready for them and Mark zigzagged our way out of the inlet as each boat passed us.
Our crossing went really well. The first third was a bit rough – wind almost on the nose and some big waves in the same direction. We did a bit of pounding into the waves for awhile but eventually the wind and waves smoothed out and we made good time (although we had to keep the motor going even with all 3 sails up). We really wanted to make it to West End in time to clear through customs and immigration so we could continue our journey to the Abacos tomorrow (Friday). We were successful!! We got into the marina at 4 pm, cleared through and also managed to get our wifi box working all before dinner!!
We’re now relaxing at the dock at Old Bahama Bay marina enjoying a bottle of bubbly. We’ll head northeast in the morning to Great Sale Cay (not sure if there will be cell reception there – we need cell for our wifi). We’ll be continuing east to Green Turtle Cay on Saturday.
Crimson Kathryn and her crew 