Ft. Pierce, FL-a good crossing!

 Well the weather gurus were correct and we had a good trip from Great Sale Cay to Ft Pierce, FL on April 1.  Coincidently, we made the same crossing April 1, 2014 when we did the loop.  Must be something about April fools day??  

We have decided to leave the boat here for a few weeks, and have some maintenance done while we fly home.  There is a shipyard here that can fit us in and take care of our list, so we opted to leave it with them instead of going farther north.  We plan to resume our travels north May 1. 

It is approximately 170 NM from Green Turtle to Ft Pierce, so we broke the trip up into three segments.  Segment one was a short hop to anchor at Allan's and Pensacola Cays.  There is a decent anchorage there and great snorkeling nearby.  Also there is a creek full of turtles making for a nice dinghy excursion.  From there we went to Great Sale Cay which is an anchorage commonly used to jump off to or from Florida.  Running about 12 knots, it took about 10 hours to Ft Pierce from Great Sale.  The gulf stream had only about a 2' chop.  So we will fly home from Orlando and my next blog post will hopefully be as we are headed north! 

Sunrise, April 1.

We cleared customs via our ROAM app, and struck the Bahamian flag.  I miss the Bahamas already....

The ubiquitous Brown Pelican-a good sign that we are back in Florida.  

The old Coast Guard station in Ft Pierce. 

At anchor-Allan's and Pensacola Cays.  

My last underwater pictures as I wont be doing and diving the rest of the trip.  This is a juvenile Dusky Damselfish. 

A Blue Tang and finger coarl. 

Spanish Hogfish

Four Eye Butterflyfish. 

Soft coral garden. 

Adult Dusky Damselfish. 

Banded Butterflyfish.  

Rock Beauty. 

Grey Angelfish.

Turtle creek-can you spot the turtles? 

What a great last day in the Bahamas! We are now back in the thick of urban living.  Have to learn how to drive a car (not a golf cart) again, not get run down while walking, and drive on the right....  Ces't tout until May.  

It is time to head back to the States.

One of the common themes this winter has been the weather.  Here in the Abacos there has been a cold front coming through about every week.  Fortunately, most have not had much rain or lightning, but the winds pick up from the south before the front, and they clock west then north as the front passes through.  That makes for short weather windows to cross from the States or go through the whale (the passage from Marsh Harbour to Green Turtle).  It has made for extremely pleasant temperatures, and most days have been sunny and mild.  The wind, however, has been a nemesis.  Yesterday the wind was mild, but the sea still had 7-9’ rollers from the stout north wind from the past few days.  Yesterday around 8:00 am we heard a Mayday call on the VHF radio.  A 40’ sailboat attempted to cross the whale and the boat was swamped by the rollers as they crested when hitting the shallow (10-20’) water in the whale passage.  The sailboat did not have enough power to battle the cresting waves and swamped.  All of us at the marina were glued to our radios as the rescue played out.  At first a 60’ motor yacht spotted three survivors in their dinghy.  Due to the rough seas, they could not transfer from the dinghy to the yacht, so the yacht took the dinghy in tow.  Then the tow line broke and the yachtsman could not find the dinghy due to the steep waves.  Luckily a rescue boat set out from Baker’s Bay, and found the dinghy and towed them to calmer waters.  The sailors were brought to our marina and had to book passage to Nassau to go to the American Embassy to get new passports so they could re-enter the US.  What an ordeal! 

With that thought in mind, there is a small weather window opening April 1.  We plan to cross to Ft. Pierce, FL that day.  We will reluctantly depart Green Turtle Saturday and make our way to a staging ground to cross over.  Hopefully the weather gurus are correct!  If not, we will divert to West End on Grand Bahama and wait. 

Even though we haven’t been able to take the boat out much since Ken and Allyson left, we have made the most of our stay.  We explored the island by golf cart and went to many beaches where we were the only souls there.  One of the nice things about boating is the comradery with other boaters.  We made new friends and enjoyed dock tails on each other’s boat.  As usual we have met people with connections to Houma/Thibodaux and have mutual friends.  It is a small world. 

The boat to our port is a Viking sport fisherman and it charters out.  We made friends with the captain and mate, and they told us it was even too rough for them to go out the whale this morning.  To our starboard is even a bigger Viking.  It is run by a nice captain and mate who are employed by the owner.  They took his daughter out a few days ago and scored a big Wahoo in the rough seas.  They earn their money! 

Alexis and I chartered a bottom fishing trip during one of the calm days and scored a mess of strawberry grouper.  We have had a steady stream of fish and lobster while here, and eating has been what we do….

We both have thoroughly enjoyed staying in the Abacos for three months.  In the past we have always gone south to the Exumas, Eleuthera, and the Berry Islands.  This year staying in the relatively protected Sea of Abaco, we completely unwound.  I read over a dozen books, and we enjoyed the slow pace of staying in one area.  The Abacos probably have more nice restaurants and bars than anywhere outside Nassau.  We have sampled too many of them!  It is time to return to the US!

 

Captain Eddie Bodie was great! 

Why I don't own a sailboat..

 

Steak night and a blood moon rising at GTC.  

The Levett's arrive

Ken and Allyson joined us and we had a great time.  We picked them up in Marsh Harbour, then went to Hope Town for a few nights, ending up at Green Turtle.  The weather was outstanding, and we ate and drank to excess!  They departed for home, and we will stay here at Green Turtle until we leave for Florida.  

Sisters at the helm. 

Arrival at Hope Town.  

Naturally Ken found the marker where the first loyalists arrived after being kicked out of the newly formed USA. 

The Hope Town lighthouse is the last kerosene lighthouse in operation worldwide.  The keeper goes up each night and ignites the light.  We watched one night, and it is a process. 

The stairs up to the lighthouse. 

The view from up top. 

 The above three  pics are from Loyalist Park, on Green Turtle Cay.  Ken spent the day there! 

The snorkeling has been terrific, and the wind finally let us get to the reefs about 1/2 mile offshore.  

On the last day before they left, we booked an excursion with Brendal's Dive Shop. 

Even Ken went snorkeling, although he claimed to have a close encounter with a shark (nobody else saw it...). 

A regular Jacques Cousteau! 

They cooked us a delicious lobster and grouper lunch on the beach.  

And we fed stingrays!