UPDATE: Back to the U.S. to Reckon with Hurricane Season

Our cruising insurance requires us to be north of Cumberland Island Georgia before June 1st so as much as we would like to stay it’s time to hit the road.  We thoroughly enjoyed our 5 weeks in Abaco and are planning much more time here in the future.

The weather gods created a good window to run the 180 nautical mile trip back to Vero Beach. We left Green Turtle bright and early Friday morning and enjoyed a beautiful day on the water arriving at Great Sale Cay around 3:30 pm.

I must admit we had a first time experience on this leg of the trip. I remember seeing a tee shirt that described our experience a few years back. We were about 5 miles off Great Sale Cay when I noticed a cruising power boat begin to pass us. They were a quarter mile or so off of our starboard beam. As they moved away I picked up the binoculars to read the name of the vessel. About that time their rod on the stern began to bend over. They caught a fish. Well that’s not that unusual, however seeing the woman quickly climb down from the fly bridge totally nude was. Yep, not a stitch of clothes. She grabbed the rod and it must have been a big one. The guy stopped the boat and climbed down to help out. Yep, you guessed it, not a stitch of clothes either. I thought to myself I might want to learn how to fish like that. Seems like it could be a lot of fun. Anyway, you’ve got it. The tee shirt I saw a few years ago said “Fish Naked”. While at the time I laughed and thought yeah right. These guys must have thought it was a great idea, so now we have it. People really do fish naked.

The crossing from Great Sale to Ft. Pierce Inlet had it’s moments. Most of the trip was comfortable however about 11:00 pm Saturday night the wind shifted and picked up from 10 kts south to 33 kts out of the northwest. Couldn’t have happened at a worse time. We were in the middle of the Gulf Stream and things got a little rough. Wind Dust did her job well and we pushed on despite the conditions. Around 3:00 am the wind began to die down and we were able to pick up speed to Ft. Pierce Inlet arriving there at 7:45 am. It was a beautiful sunrise on Mother’s Day Sunday and we transited the inlet to the point where we turned north on the ICW for Vero Beach. The 1^st obstacle was my favor bridge, Ft. Pierce North. This is the bridge that almost closed on us our way to the Bahamas so I’m ready when I hail the bridge tender. Well guess what. The bridge tender tells me they have had an accident and the opening will be delayed until repairmen can fix the problem. All I can hope for is no one was seriously injured and the investigation will wake up the person responsible for Florida Bridge tenders. This guy needs to retire.

After a 30 minute delay the bridge opened and we head for Vero Beach City Marina. We were on the mooring by 11:00 am and promptly crashed. The next morning we put the dinghy down and headed for bathhouse. After defuncking at the showers we headed to Publix for cheap beer. I say cheap because of the cost of beer in the Bahamas. One case of the cheapest beers was $38.00.  The Bahamas does not have sales tax or income tax. The only revenue the government collects is import duty on imported items. Next year I will repaint the waterline on Wind Dust and load her down with lots of Ship’s Store “Beer”.