"2002 Trip Part 11 Jumping Off Point March 10-12" West End by grandmaR

Entrance to harbor from the channel

I had expected to stay another couple of days at Lucaya, but Bob thought he saw a weather window with the wind from the south coming up for Sunday. So we left Lucaya and had a nice sail from Lucaya to West End on Saturday. - 31.8 nm.

We ate dinner at the very expensive restaurant.

March 11, 2002 - Sunday.

It was supposed to be nice to go Sunday, but it wasn't. The wind was still from the north. So we stayed there another day. The boat next to us that did leave Sunday had their jib blown out.

A boat that I think was a bareboat came into the slip beside us - between us and a big power boat. They tied off without speaking to the harbor master. I think it was three couples - older men with trophy wives. One of the ladies was wearing a captains hat with gold braid, a black bra top, and grey striped harem pants.

Then later, CAROLINA came in and the harbor master (not being able to see the slip because of the big power boat) told them to go in next to us. I got on the radio and told him that there was already a boat in that slip. So they put CAROLINA on the end of our dock. Bob came to help with the lines and so did some other people. I came and watched.

Carol of CAROLINA later told me that she appreciated that I was the only one on the dock (of the 4 or 5 people there) who wasn't telling her what to do. I had to laugh at the idea of me telling anyone else how to dock their boat.

We didn't want to eat in the (expensive) restaurant again and couldn't find the little hamburger place on the beach that was supposed to be open, so we ate on the boat.

The bareboat next to us had in-the-mast furling which was whistling in the north wind. We were waiting for the wind to shift around to the south so we would be comfortable cross the Gulf Stream. I said to Bob that if the whistling stopped, we'd know the wind had shifted and we'd be good to go.

CAROLINA and the entrance to the marina

We checked with the weather and the wind was going to be from the south. We decided that if we left really early in the morning that we could get to Ft. Pierce. Bob from CAROLINA was supposed to help with our lines, and the little catamaran on the other side of us was leaving too. CAROLINA was going to Lake Worth because they thought it was shorter.

The weather forecast was for 2-3 ft waves, with wind of 10-15 knots

We left Tues am abut 6:15 right after the little catamaran (without Bob's help as he wasn't up yet), and surfed across to Fort Pierce doing 92 nm in 13 hours.

We were doing 9 knots in the Gulf Stream, with 12 knots being the fastest we went.

The above is what I wrote to my family.

Behind the story - it rained until 10 am, and then we were dodging showers with the wind getting stronger and stronger - a steady 20-25 knots, with waves of 6-8 feet.

Finally when Bob said the GPS had us doing 12 knots, I strongly suggested we reef something (had the main and jib up).

The waves were under the quarter and the foam from them breaking under the boat made the depth alarm go off about every 2 minutes. We finally got out the instruction book and figured out how to turn it off, as we were in 600 to 900 ft of water.

This was another scarey passage (hull speed is about 7+ knots), and I spend some of it lying on the cabin sole again.

CAROLINA (which is a faster boat) left after us and went to Lake Worth.

• Pros:Quietly luxurious
• Cons:Expensive and isolated