YachtAweigh: Back in the USA – West End, Bahamas to Fort Pierce, Florida

Apr 23^rd – It was a warm extremely windy and rainy day. I got up a few times during the night to ensure our anchor wasn’t dragging since it became extremely gusty during the night. There’s a chance of thunderstorms today and it’s extremely windy thus we’ve decided to stay put in our Green Turtle Cay anchorage. This means that we’ll have to travel farther either tomorrow or the next day to get us into position to cross to Florida on Wednesday. We were trapped on the boat since it rained all day thus Maria read a book while I did a number of things including picking away at the guitar. I had to pump out the dingy when the rain stopped and then it started to rain again. I like getting a free boat wash but we’re good now, however we really can’t complain since we haven’t seen much rain on this trip. During the night the winds really picked up and there were lightning storms close by … another night where we had to get up a number of times to ensure the anchor was holding.

Apr 24^th – It was a warm sunny day with moderate winds. We pulled up our anchor from our Green Turtle Cay anchorage and headed north 59 miles to anchor in Great Sale Cay which is close to Grand Bahama Island. The weather forecast still looks good for a Wednesday crossing thus we’re making our jumps strategically to ensure that we’re ready as long as the weather cooperates. Our daughter Amanda wrote her final exam today and she has officially completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Waterloo … Exxxcellent! Of course we had to have a beer or 2 to celebrate her success! As the sun dropped the winds picked up and came from the south thus we had at least 3 footers hitting us in the anchorage until about midnight when the winds changed directions and came from the west and we were protected once again. I think we’ve had enough of the Bahama winds and we’re looking forward to crossing back to the US.

Apr 25^th – It was a warm sunny day with moderate winds. We pulled up our anchor from Great Sale Cay and headed 64 miles west to Old Bahama Bay marina in West End on Grand Bahama Island. It was a lumpy ride and of course the boat got covered in salt. Towards the end of the trip we had to cross through Indian Rock Passage which is a very shallow passage and unfortunately we arrived close to low tide. The lowest water we saw was about 5.5 feet but it was scary at the exit since the current and the winds were against each other thus it was a very rough exit! When we arrived at the marina we learned that they were hit hard by Hurricane Matthew thus their rates were lowered since there was no power available to boaters … but guess what … shortly after we tied up one of the electricians said they got our power working and asked if we’d like to plug in … “Yes Please!” … free power for 1 day! During our marina stay we visited the beach, the pool and went for a walk in the area. Afterwards I had to check all the boat fluid levels and chart a course to Fort Pierce to prepare for an early morning getaway. The weather still looks OK for tomorrow’s crossing … keep your fingers crossed for us!

Apr 26^th – It was a warm sunny day with light winds however the winds picked up at the end of the day. We got up early and left Old Bahama Bay marina and travelled 100 miles north west to Fort Pierce Florida. The winds started out light however there were big rollers on our side to start our crossing. Halfway across things seemed to get worse with larger rollers as we crossed the Gulf Stream. Finally it got calmer for the last 30 miles of our trip as we approached Florida. Once we arrived we reported in to the Customs Boarder Protection Agency and they asked that we appear in person at the Fort Pierce airport. We grabbed an Uber to the airport and it didn’t take long to report in. When we tried to get another Uber for the ride back we ran into issue and finally after 1 hour someone accepted the job. Once we got back to the boat the winds were blowing hard … we’re so glad we beat the winds to Florida! Then we just had to have a cold one to relax with some dinner while I put together this blog post.