Voyage 2013-2014: Chapter 2

11 Jan 2014, Last Days at Vero, 27 39.594 N/ 080 22.29 W

Time to leave Vero. Weather stinks but a weather window should open up in a couple of days It has been unusually wet and stormy here. Boats are backing in Vero, Lake Worth, and Miami waiting for a window We will see.

We were lucky to meet up with Bob and Sue on SV Colleen Mae with

their friendly pups, Lord Norman and the Sophie. We would watch the dinghy voyages, rain or shine, to shore-based relief. The pups came down with some malady but recovered after a trip to the local vet. Good doggie fix!

Our last sunset in Vero for a while. Tomorrow we will head out Ft. Pierce inlet, head towards Miami on the outside, and then hang a left towards Nassau. We hope the window will hold.

14 Jan 2014, A Couple of Nights to Remember, 25 27.726 N/ 078 09.21 W

We left the mooring field around 0830 timing our transit through Fort Pierce inlet at slack water. Good thing! The seas had not settled much from the last blow so it was quite rolly for most of the morning. We approached the shores of Palm Beach after sunset. We hugged the shoreline as best we could to avoid the effects of the stream. The seas were picking up again as we passed Lauderdale. Maybe we should tuck into Miami? The cruise ships were lined up to go into Government Cut, it was still dark, and we would have a 2 hour wait to get in.

We headed for North Rock on the Great Bahamas Bank where anchored for the night waiting for the seas to settle a bit in the Tongue of the Ocean. Today, life is good. The Banks had flat seas and a gentle following wind. Tonight, life turned not so good. As we were approaching Northwest Light (no light anymore), we observed a Mailboat approaching. We tried to hail him on the VHF but guess what? Yep, no response. As he got closer, we diverted course hard to port heading for the Northwest shoals. Still he was coming right towards us. He was within a couple hundred yards when he finally turned. Never heard anything on the VHF. To complete, the evening we had a similar experience with a catamaran with faulty running lights. She was too busy chatting with a buddy boat to monitor channel 16. She finally woke up when we blew the danger signal. We were not polite.