Green Turtle Cay to Great Sale Cay to Stuart, FL

I know, it has been a long time since we last posted and everyone is wondering where we are. 

Monday, bright and early to make the tide, we left Green Turtle Club and motored at a leisurely pace to a very large anchorage at Great Sale Cay.  This was about 50 miles from Green Turtle and about a third of the way to Stuart.  Winds were pleasant and the seas calm.

Beautiful sailboat we passed

After an uneventful night on the hook (I was the only boat that used a ball as pointed out by Chuck) with about 20 other boats, we again set off at 6:50.  As you might expect Chuck had said 7:00 but in his interpretation, that means anchor up and underway.

Sunset from Great Sale

We set a course for just north of Memory Rock and proceeded at 24 Kn. in calm water and bright sunshine.  

There was some concern as we crossed the reef, which is the beginning of the Bahamas plateau, but no depths lower than 11 feet were encountered.  It still amazes me to cruise over the bottom and see all the detail.  From there, a straight shot to the St. Lucie entrance, again at 24 Kn.  It was just as the Admiral ordered, calm seas and pleasant temperatures.  We did get some small waves as we got about 10 miles offshore and the depth becomes shallower than the 2500 feet depth we showed during our crossing.  The only indication of the Gulf Stream was a warming of the water.  We did encounter a rain squall that we could clearly see on the radar, but no other concern.

Bye Bye Bahamas

Upon arrival at Sunset Bay marina in Stuart, we fuelled up then called customs and immigration.  After giving them all the details I was just hanging up when they advised that I now have 24 hours to physically report to one of their offices, so we rented a car the next day and drove to Fort Pierce for this check-in.  Altogether, not a problem.

Tuesday evening we had a farewell dinner with C’est La Vie at the Sailors Return restaurant at the Marina.  Boy, do they serve large portions, I not only could not finish my pork chop, but could not finish it the next day for lunch.

 

Sunset at Sailors Return

Wednesday C’est La Vie departed at 6:50 and headed for River Forest.  Chuck got there at 1:30 (he complained of having to wait ½ hour for a train) and got his stuff transferred to the RV.  The boat was hauled the next morning and he is now in Naples.

Jennifer is leaving from West Palm Beach this evening and we have elected to stay here until Tuesday when we start our trip north.

Nothing much to report , just doing errands and shopping.  We will not be posting again until we start next week.

We do commiserate with the people up north who are getting another snow storm  I know that this was saved just to give Fred and Liz a welcome home gift.

Ta Ta for Now!

Bill, Sandy and Jennifer