West bound

We sailed from Fox town to Great Sale Cay to anchor for the night and stage for our westbound gulf stream crossing. When we arrived, there were 2 other boats anchored.  Through the afternoon, another 20 boats showed up and anchored.  Three of them had crossed from Florida and were still flying a quarantine flag.  They also disappeared down below to get some sleep from the all-nighter they had just completed. Of the rest, about 2/3 were from Canada which about matched the ratio we saw throughout the islands.  Unfortunately, neither Modaki or Persuasion were there. They decided to linger another week and wait for the next weather window.

It was interesting talked to a few of the people staging to cross about their timing, their arrival plans, etc.  It was pretty clear there are lots of different strategies.  That became even more clear on Thurs morning as people started to leave one at a time. We were actually one of the last to leave. But we had calculated the distances and times and decided to stick with our plan.  So just after lunch, we pulled the anchor up and headed west. We crossed off the Bahama Bank into deep water at a place called White Sand Pass. Given the wind forecast and the gulf stream current, we thought that would give us the best angle for heading to Ft Pierce.

 

 

The interesting thing about the crossing is that we ended up timing our arrival exactly with 4 other boats that had left before us from Great Sale. All 4 of us crossed in a line through the Ft Pierce inlet at 9:30 Friday morning. As we went through the inlet, a Coast Guard boat and 4 FL law enforcement boats motored out and closed the inlet right behind us to start diving operations on a sunken barge.  Everyone else entering had to be escorted one at a time through the inlet. Close call!

We called Customs to check in, then proceeded up the ICW a little ways to Vero Beach to meet up with some friends and rest for a couple days.

 

He quieted the sea with His power