Crossing the Gulf Stream

I was up at 6:00 and ready to go at 6:30. There was enough light to see boats and to follow their navigation lights.

The anchor and chain were a mess of gooey black mud. I was hoping this would be the last time we would have to deal with intercoastal industrial strength yuck for a long time.

The sport-fishers were and incredible nuisance. They just blast past and at close range. I can understand their impatience and the need for close quarters when we were all in the channel. The final straw was when a 30 footer blasted past on a full plane about 80 feet away when we were 2 miles out to sea. There was absolutely no need. Things were pretty rolly anyway. The forecast was 7 to 10 knots from the East. What we had was 10 knots from the North – right on the beam which makes a power boat roll pretty badly. This clown in the 30 foot sportfish made our moveable furniture move, books fly out of bookshelves, a wine bottle break and worse, made for a very upset Admiral.

I really did not know if this would be a day where we could cross or not. I have always heard that you have to get at least 5 miles out before you know. At 5 miles out, it was like a light switch had been thrown. The wind swung around to the East and went almost calm. The waves from the North dropped dramatically and started to build slowly from the East. For a power boat, this would be ideal.

Originally, it was my plan to head diagonally from Stuart to West End and to clear into the Bahamas there. Several people advised that this might not be a good idea since it would mean fighting the Gulf Stream for a long way. They suggested that we head for Memory Rock and then to Great Sale. This is a good idea except for one thing: it is over 100 nm from Manatee Pocket to Great Sale. We would not get there until 10:00 PM or later. We preferred not to travel in the dark and so chose to head for Mangrove Island a patch of mangroves truly in the middle of nowhere, out of sight of land in all directions. We arrived there in the fading light at about 6:30 PM and anchored for the night.

Truly, it was a lovely thing to pass onto the Little Bahamas Bank, North of Memory Rock, around 2PM. The seas almost instantly became calmer. The water took on a lovely shade of green. It was time to raise the yellow quarantine flag. This was an important milestone.

So was anchoring. That made it time for wine and brandy!