When we left Green Turtle Cay to head to Great Sale, we thought we had a window to cross in a few days. It closed en route. Little did we know, this would be a frustrating pattern our entire trip north. We were only carrying 33 gallons of diesel and we had to motor the entire way to Great Sale Cay, but we were hoping the next window would have enough wind to get us to Jacksonville or Cumberland Island. Alas, it was not to be.
With our weather window closed, we waited for a few days at Great Sale with more boats than we had ever seen there. Obviously the weather was clogging travel plans for everyone. Great Sale Cay has virtually no internet, so we were VERY happy we had installed the SSB the previous summer so we could get weather forecasts from Chris Parker. Those of us with SSB gave the weather forecasts on the VHF to the boats without SSB or Starlink.
After the blow passed at Great Sale, a short window opened up to cross back to the U.S. Yay for a window! Boo for not having any wind. If we wanted wind, we were going to have to wait for another week and even then there was no guarantee the forecast would hold. Time to regroup.
We knew we didn’t have enough diesel to make it to Jacksonville, but we were hoping that if we could get a bit of wind we could make it to St. Augustine. Our friends on SV Minx and SV Purrfect were heading there, but with bigger boats they carry much more fuel. We said we’d hopefully meet them there, but we were going to have to see how the weather panned out.
Before we left we had routes set for Fort Pierce, Port Canaveral, New Smyrna, and St. Augustine. Where would we end up? Even we didn’t know.
Our Pelagic autopilot was on the fritz so this was going to be a hand-steering motorfest. Not our idea of a great time, but you do what you have to do. Raising the anchor around 1:00 a.m., we waved goodbye to the Bahamas until next season.
Big Red performed like a champ and we motored along, adding diesel from the jerry jugs as the hours went by.
We quickly crossed Fort Pierce off the list and hoped we could make New Smyrna or St. Augustine. But by sunset that night we knew we couldn’t risk it with the fuel we had left. The little wind we had was in the wrong direction, so Port Canaveral it would be! This was going to be a new one for us.
Around 2:00 a.m. I got up for my shift, and as I grabbed my iPhone and AirPods (I listen to podcasts with one ear bud to pass the time), I noticed that the quarterberth that they were lying on felt warm. I lifted the lid off the battery compartment, and that was REALLY warm. It also smelled a bit odd. Uh-oh. I mentioned it to Jeff who said it was probably heat from the engine. I VERY skeptically agreed and we kept motoring along.
Normally we try not to enter new inlets or anchorages at night, but we were going to be at Port Canaveral about an hour before sunrise. We weren’t too concerned, however, because it’s a major port for cruise ships. We knew it would be lit up like an airport runway and at least equally wide.
Going through Port Canaveral ended up being easy-peasy, and we wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. We were accompanied by manatees and dolphins as we went through the lock, enjoyed a pretty ride through the canal out to the Indian River Lagoon, and stopped to get much needed diesel at Titusville Marina.
We pushed on to our regular anchorage on Callalisa Creek near New Smyrna and finally, 205 nautical miles later, we gladly turned off the engine and let go of the steering wheel. As for the heat in the battery compartment? That’s a story for the next blog.
Typically we cross to the Bahamas from Lake Worth and anchor at Great Sale Cay, then check in at Green Turtle (our friends on SV Cutting Class used that route for over a decade, so we copied them). We like leaving from Lake Worth because the current sets us north to enter the Little Bahama Bank at Memory Rock. Once we left from Miami and checked in at Bimini, but we didn’t like that route and won’t do it again.
This time however, we were in Vero when the Donald Ross Bridge north of North Palm broke down, preventing us from going inside to Lake Worth. We don’t have any problem with going outside between Fort Pierce and Lake Worth, but the closer you get to Lake Worth the more you start fighting the Gulf Stream which is a pain. With weather windows being what they are, often it’s easier to just suck it up and make the run inside – not an option with the bridge not opening and no sign of it re-opening for at least two weeks.
So now we were looking for a window that wouldn’t involve bashing into south winds so we could head south to Lake Worth before crossing. Amazingly we got it pretty quickly, so we waved goodbye to Vero Beach with a plan to head out the Fort Pierce inlet.
We got lucky and timed the Fort Pierce bridge perfectly. Well, almost perfectly. We had a little help from a patient bridge operator. But thanks to her we didn’t have to wait an extra 30 minutes. We were on our way with a plan to head south until we started fighting the Stream, then hang a left.
While we were motoring south, I commented to Jeff about how confident we’ve become over the past four years. We’ve gone from our first overnight being a huge deal of 120 nautical miles with great trepidation to “Eh, let’s see when the Stream starts pushing against us and then just go for it if we feel like it. It’s only 145 nautical miles from Vero.”
Another thing that has changed for us is to start our watch system right away. We used to both stay up all day and then each take a four-hour shift for a single overnight, but that left us pretty tired. Our friends on Lone Star told us they start their watches immediately, so we tried it when we did our overnight to skip Georgia. What a difference! We both were substantially less tired in the morning, so we did it again this time with equal success.
It was an uneventful crossing, just the way we like it. The clear skies gave us plenty of stars to see by, and the bioluminescence kicked up by Pegu Club as she chugged along was so cool to see.
The crescent moon rose when Jeff was on watch, and he told me when I got up to switch shifts that he had forgotten all about it until he saw an orange dot on the horizon. At first he thought it was a ship, but as it was rising it got bigger and bigger, and he thought “What’s on fire over there??” Then the other point came up (because the crescent was at an angle) and he thought, “Duh! It’s the moon!” LOL!
We dropped the anchor at Great Sale around 30 hours after leaving Vero and grilled a celebratory boneless ribeye that we had bought specifically for this occasion before falling asleep around 7:30 p.m.
The next day we anchored at Crab Cay for the night, then we were off to Green Turtle so we could check in. Our season in the Bahamas had finally begun!
So would we cross from Fort Pierce again? Ideally, no. We were fighting the Stream quite a bit to make the necessary southing to go in at Memory Rock, and that’s not something we need to do when we leave from Lake Worth.
We could have entered the Little Bahama Bank a bit farther north, but we were coming in at night so we weren’t entirely comfortable doing that. Our route via Memory Rock is tried and true for us, so we didn’t mind entering at night that way.
Bottom line, leaving from Lake Worth works for us and it’s our number one choice. But if the Donald Ross bridge (or another bridge between Ft. Pierce and Lake Worth) breaks down again? Then we’d definitely leave from Fort Pierce vs. waiting the extra days for a repair. Under those circ*mstances, it’s definitely worth fighting the Gulf Stream for awhile!
The Bahamas are in the unenviable position of trying to support an economy that is heavily reliant on tourism while protecting its citizens and residents from Covid. Many of their tourists come from the United States which is one giant Covid hotspot at the moment. We wouldn’t have been surprised if the government had simply told people with U.S. passports that they weren’t welcome (as so many other countries have). Instead, they came up with a plan to balance the risks. So far, it seems to be working well – knock on wood.
Currently (and I do mean currently – there was a period where the rules were changing every 7-10 days), in order to bring your boat over to cruise in the Bahamas you need to have a negative RT-PCR Covid test and an approved health visa. The catch is that you can’t apply for the health visa until you get your negative Covid test, and with a few exceptions you must arrive in the Bahamas no more than five days after you take the test (test day is day zero). Winter weather windows for crossing the Gulf Stream can be tight, so the key is to find a laboratory with a quick turnaround time, along with a certain amount of luck.
When we arrived in West Palm we were actually in the middle of a three day weather window for crossing, but we had decided to pass it up. Our heads weren’t ready for it yet and we wanted to spend a few days checking out West Palm. We are super-careful with Covid so we weren’t able to see much, but we saw enough to know that we’d like to spend a week hanging out there post-Covid. There are tons of different restaurants and independent shops, the beach, museums, outdoor concerts, etc. Hopefully next year.
No matter how big your boat is, someone else always has a bigger one:
Fortunately we didn’t have to wait too long for the next window. We were looking for a solid two days that would get us to Green Turtle Cay in the Abacos, with a backup plan to check in at West End (only 50 nautical miles away from the Lake Worth inlet) if the window shrank.
What’s the big deal with taking the test and having the window disappear? Well, at $180/person for the tests (there are free tests available, but it’s a roll of the dice as to how quickly the results come back), $60/person for the health visa, plus a rental car, we were looking at a sizeable chunk of money if the window didn’t pan out. That being said, we would never cross the Gulf Stream without a good window so if we lost $500+, so be it.
When we woke up on Monday we saw that Friday was a possibility for crossing. By Tuesday morning it looked less likely. But on Wednesday morning not only did Friday look much better, but now Saturday and Sunday were also looking good. We reserved a rental car for the next day, just in case.
Thursday morning we woke up to listen to Chris Parker’s 6:30 a.m. forecast for the Bahamas and Florida. The window was still looking good. Gut check time: were we ready to roll the dice and spend the money? Telling ourselves it’s only money (yeah, right), we decided to go for it. Continue reading “The logistics of getting to the Bahamas during apandemic.” →
We spent several days in the very large north anchorage in Lake Worth stocking up on last minute parts at West Marine and groceries at Publix. While it was a bit of a scramble to get across the beached dinghies, the anchorage was convenient with Publix only a block away and West Marine a few minutes beyond that. We even were able to pick up some items for our friends on S/V Lone Star. They have been in the Bahamas since early December and are running low on chocolate in particular. This constitutes a crisis on their boat and ours! With a small package of Dove costing $10.00 in the Bahamas, we were more than happy to pick up extra chocolate for them, to be hand delivered at some point down the road.
All the while we were keeping an eye on Sunday’s forecast which appeared to have great potential for a Gulf Stream crossing. The Gulf Stream runs in a northerly direction so conventional wisdom says not to be in it when there is wind from the north. The wind against current stacks up the waves, and depending on the wind strength the resulting ride can be anywhere from very uncomfortable to deadly. In the winter the crossing windows can be few and far between due to the fronts that regularly drop down from the north. We had been looking at Sunday for several days, and we figured if the forecast changed we would simply continue to head farther south towards Miami and the Keys, and leave from there.
Continue reading “Our first Gulf Streamcrossing.” →
