"2002 Trip Part 12 - Return from West End" Fort Pierce Travelogue by grandmaR

Approaching Ft. Pierce

We left the West End, Grand Bahama on Tues am about 6:15 for the long trip to Ft. Pierce.

We "surfed" across doing 92 nm in 13 hours. We were doing 9 knots in the Gulf Stream, with 12 knots being the most we saw. We came into Ft. Pierce at about 6:15, and were tied up at the fuel dock and logged in with customs before 7.

They left us on the fuel dock the first night because we got in at dusk, and the dockmaster felt it would be too hard with the wind and current to get to the transient slips at night (He was RIGHT). There is no current at the fixed fuel dock. Plus it was pretty dark by that time and the fuel dock guy would have had to walk all the way around the marina to do it - he was just going off duty when we got in.

We went to the local restaurant and ate dinner and fell into bed, but Bob had trouble sleeping because of the trains. (No trains in the Bahamas)

I think Bob couldn't sleep because he was overtired.

Wind Walker

The next day, they put us over on the transient dock (top photo.

We spend the next day recovering and visiting folks on other boats like ours.

There are 10 showers as they have built a new bathhouse/laundry room on the north side. There is an email connection on the south side.

fish school between the boat and the dock

There was so much current at the transient docks, that there were local fish which hid from the pelicans by swimming between the boats and the dock.

We helped the power boater from across the dock to get into the dock - he'd gone out fishing, and even a power boat has a problem in this current.

CAROLINA who left West End at the same time as we did bound for Lake Worth came in later in the afternoon. They apparently had a terrible time crossing the Gulf Stream, and also a bad time coming up from Lake Worth.

Armed with information from Carol (of CAROLINA) we walked up in town. The marina information says it is right in the center of town close to restaurants, but we got lost, and walked through an industrial section before we found anything.

RosalieAnn from across the marina.

We did have a nice dinner. We ate by the window and watched the gallery across the alley which was having a wine and cheese art showing. There was an artist outside on the sidewalk doing a painting.

We left the next morning at slack tide. We'd watched other people being carried helplessly down the fairway by the current, almost hitting other boats, so we had to make a plan. We still had a little trouble getting out because of the current. We had to use the max rpms of the engine.

From here we went to Melbourne to the Intercoastal Marina.