On Monday (Valentine's Day) we stayed put anchored at Great Sale Cay, since the weather didn't look good for crossing in the next few days. The only other boat in the anchorage left during breakfast and we had the anchorage to ourselves until right before sunset when another catamaran showed up. We went for a great little dingy ride around the entire anchorage, and a little walk among the mangroves. The anchorage was one of the quietest places I've ever been - no planes, cars, or really any sign of human life besides the us and the two other boats we saw.
Tuesday morning we woke up and headed the 45 miles from Great Sale to West End. We had a good day of motor sailing over the Little Bahama bank and said good bye to the super clear water as we headed around Grand Bahama Island and into Old Bahama Bay.
At Old Bahama Bay we also said hello to fast internet. I think it's the fastest internet we've had since Costa Rica! Ben used Google Voice to call Chris Parker and Bill from work. Chris Parker, the weather guru, said the weather looked better for crossing Thursday, which is what it seemed like from his forecast that morning on the SSB as well. We both also called home to update our families on our float plan.
On Wednesday we had a lot to do in the morning - clean the boat, clean and fill the water tanks, clean ourselves (shower), and grocery store shopping. We had heard from the bartender that the hotel/resort had a shuttle into town, so about 11:00 we went over to find out how that worked. She said we could borrow bikes since the next shuttle wasn't until 11:30, but I had taken quite the tumble down the stairs (into the galley) Monday night, and we had been working hard all morning so we decided to wait for the shuttle. The shuttle took us to the grocery (convenience) store and the liquor store. At the convenience store we were able to pick up a few staples to get us through the next few days, including our last loaf of fresh Bahamian bread. At the liquor store we were able to stock up on rum for the rest of our trip (don't tell customs, I think we're only allowed to bring in 2 liters, but we exceeded that a little). After those two stops the shuttle driver turned down a back road to a little tiny restaurant to pick up a large lunch order for many of the workers back at the resort. When we discovered that's what the locals were eating we ordered two conch burgers to go!
Since we finished all the work we needed to do we headed down to the beach bar to enjoy our last day in the Bahamas. It was pretty windy to sit on the beach, but enjoyed our last opportunity to watch the clear, green/blue water.
After the beach bar we gave Chris Parker another call. He said Thursday was do able for the crossing, but Friday seemed a little better. We decided we'd probably wait until Friday and went out to eat.
Thursday morning we woke up at what was becoming normal time - 6:30 am for Chris Parker's broadcast. Between Chris and the NOAA forecasts we decided at that point Thursday was sounding a little better than Friday. We decided to head out and if it seemed possibly rough to turn back in an hour or two. We ended up having an incredible day of motor dead down wind with our small head sail out. We were surfing down waves making excellent time. We anchored just south of Peanut Island at about 4 pm but missed customs/immigration by just minutes so we couldn't leave the boat. It was ok though, we enjoyed a beer, watched a few small boats sailing in the lake, and blew our conch at sunset.
Friday we took care of gas and customs/immigration by 8:30 am. We were a little worried when we went to customs because we realized a cruise ship had just pulled up, but we didn't have any problems and it didn't take much time at all. Since there were 9 drawbridges in the next section of the ICW we did some inlet research and decided to go back out the Lake Worth Inlet and head north to the Ft Pierce Inlet. We ended up having another excellent day under full sail. Both inlets were a little squirrelly. While headed out the Lake Worth Inlet the wind was about 15 knots and the waves were pretty significant. Around the same time we started having trouble with our chartplotter and almost headed back, but we stuck it out and were glad we did - we ended up making it all the way to Vero Beach, which is 65 ICW miles. Coming in the Fort Pierce inlet, the current was really strong, as warned in the book. We thought we would be ok because we were going in on a rising tide, but the current was still significant, and the current, waves and tides made the seas a little confused. The only problem we had was when our starboard motor died (and has continued to die since). Bad news, of course this occurred right before a holiday weekend. The good news - a pod of dolphins welcomed us back to the ICW.
During the sail we saw jumping, spinning sharks. It was probably the coolest "nature" thing Ben and I have seen (I've probably said that before...). One of the sharks ended up jumping about 15 feet from the boat, which is when we finally realized, "THEY'RE SHARKS!!" A little bit of google and we were able to identify them as spinner sharks.
We moored for the evening at the Vero Beach Municipal Marina and dingied to the restaurant for dinner since we were almost completely out of food on the boat. The bar was PACKED, but after a drink and a half we were able to snag seats at the bar. I was very sad the restaurant did not have a house rum punch, I guess we're really back in the states.
Saturday morning we went to the farmers market in Vero Beach and caught a cab to the Publix. The cab was worth it - we had a lot to stock up on. And all this before 10:00 am, which should allow us to get almost a full day on the ICW under our belts. Being on the ICW is being back to the grind, following the magenta line on the chart down a pretty narrow channel. There are a lot of boats out, fishing and enjoying the beautiful Florida weather. It's not too bad, but it reconfirmed our decision to go outside yesterday, especially since we missed so many opening bridges.
We anchored just south of the Cocoa Twin Highway Bridges at ICW mile marker 897, which means we made over 50 miles today even though we didn't start until 10! Our goal of 50 miles per day seems too easy - although I'm sure there will be a few days that we want to stop and sightsee, or need to stop and do laundry, or just can't bear to keep the boat in the ditch for 8 hours, so I think the 50 miles a day goal is still a good one. We had some trouble setting the anchor, but we persevered and got it set. Also, the motor didn't die once, so it's possible we won't need to worry!
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