Hope Town, Abacos, Bahama to Vero Beach, FL, USA

March 19th we left Hope Town and headed to Green Turtle Cay.  The wind was from 0 - 5 knots all day so it was a motor boat ride, but at least it was an easy passage through Whale Cay Cut.  Even with no wind it was still bouncy going through the cut.  On days with wind against the current a "rage" forms and this area is often impassable.  We were glad to get this little section of the trip home behind us.  We anchored off Black Sound and dinghied into the marina with a jerry jug to get another 5 gallons of diesel, unfortunately they were out of fuel so we had to dinghy back to the boat, raise the anchor, re-anchor outside of White Sound and dinghy past the boat aground (the full moon tides made the very shallow entrance channel even more difficult than usual) and into the Green Turtle Club Marina.  This marina had diesel and we had just enough Bahamian cash left over to buy ice cream.  Doug from KITE came over for dinner and to talk about the crossing to the states.  We had a great view of the sun going down and the enormous full moon coming up over the island.

Sunday we had a nice easy sail  to Allans Pensacola Cay. 

KITE

We went for a walk ashore on uninhabited Allans Pensacola.  When we returned to the boat we considered going for a swim until we looked under the boat and saw a nurse shark enjoying the shade from the boat.  Many people feel comfortable swimming with nurse sharks which is fine for them but not for us! 

Monday we had a fast downwind sail to Great Sail Cay.  For a change our problem was slowing the boat down.  We were often sailing between 7 and 8 knots with only the reefed mainsail up.Great Sail is a very busy place for an uninhabited island. There were 17 boats in the harbor at one point getting ready for the crossing.  All afternoon and evening boats were coming and going. 

Tuesday I spent the morning baking bread and cookies to prepare for the crossing and to keep busy until it was time to leave.  At 11:30 a.m. we left Great Sail Cay.  What a difference a day makes, we went from 20 knots of wind to a mirrorlike calm. It was so still the sky and water were the same color so it was hard to see the horizon.

We were traveling with KITE and had planned on having the option to anchor on the bank for a couple of hours if the seas were calm.  We decided to anchor as soon as it was dark and set our alarms for 1:00 in the morning so we could get under way by 1:30 a.m.  This turned out to be good timing because just as the sun went down we saw six other boats anchored on the banks so we anchored near them on the theory it would be easier for anyone else who was traveling at night to avoid a group of boats in one place rather than many boats scattered randomly about.  It was a weird feeling to be anchored miles from the nearest island. 

After a nice nap we had a cup of coffee and were under way.  The weather forecast was for winds out of the south which would have been nice.  The west wind was more of a hinderance than a help.  The wind on the nose combined with the gulf stream set us about 20 miles north of where we planned to be so we had to sail back down the coast once we were out of the gulf stream.  Although it was a slow crossing it was very easy with 1 -2 foot  seas.  We anchored in Ft Pierce at 5:20 p.m.    Before we had left Florida we had signed up for the Local Boaters Option which allowed us to call immigration and clear into the country by phone which was a lot easier (and less expensive) than taking a taxi to the airport.

Thursday we had a surpisingly nice sail to Vero Beach.  Our timing was good and we arrived in time for Bill to get a haircut before going to the Thursday potluck.  A nice treat was seeing Russ and Pat from CONSORT.