Bahamas to FL

3/25/16

To make a long story short, we left the protection of our boat slip at Green Turtle Cay and anchored to the northwest side of Mangrove Cay (nothing there but mangroves) since the winds were expected from the southeast.  Shortly after we arrived, storm cells off the coast of FL headed our way with heavy rain, thunder and lightning.  One cell sat on top of us for 20-30 minutes with winds up to 55 mph.  Scott fired up the engines and every once in a while shifted into gear to take the load off the anchor.  To say it was frightening is putting it mildly, but thankfully we held our anchor as did the other 12 or so boats around us.  After the storms passed the sea was still quite lumpy so sleeping was pretty much out of the question.  It was a long night.

3/26/16

Daylight brought us a beautiful sunrise and calm seas.  We stayed put until midday then moved with 4 other boats to a place on the chart called Memory Rock.  The plan was to anchor there and get an early start for the 76 mile trip to Ft. Pierce inlet.  The "anchorage" is simply a point on the chart that, hopefully, is not on the route of other boats who might be transiting.  There is nothing there.  Nothing.  The nearest land 20 miles to West End on Grand Bahama and 76 miles to FL.  During the middle of the night, wind met current which made for another unpleasant evening.

3/27/16

Wide awake at 03:00, the plan was to leave at 04:00.  We hauled anchor and set out for Ft Pierce Inlet.  It was very dark and a bit unsettling to travel with only the electronic instruments to guide us.  There were a few 'blips' on the radar that we navigated around without ever seeing them.  At least one was a very large freighter many hundreds of feet long.  By the time the sun rose, we had been traveling for about 3 hours.  The trip started out fine but as the day went on, the wind blew harder.  The seas were out of the southeast and began to build from 3-5' so it was a very tedious day, arriving in Ft. Pierce about 14:00.

Center of the Universe Rock on Bahamas Bank

Sunrise after the storms of 3/25

Sunrise out in the gulf stream