(no subject)

Fort Pierce, FL USA
N 27 27.362 W 080 18.396

Libby and I both had the same reaction after we dropped anchor tonight. The Bahamas were great but we're glad to be back.

The passage over here from Great Sale Cay was smooth and uneventful. The wind let us down. For a large part of the past 36 hours, we had to motor instead of sail.

Last night we cheated. We arrived at the edge of the Bahama Bank at 0430. We didn't want to sail in the ocean until dawn, so we anchored right there for an hour's sleep. It felt really strange anchoring way out there with nothing but water around us. We were also close to what must be a very big underwater cliff. At the edge of the bank, the depth goes from 20 feet to 1500 feet in almost one step. It would look like the Grand Canyon if one could see it.

Out in the middle of the Gulf Stream today it was really beautiful. We had partly sunny skies, 6 foot swells that were pretty gentle, and the water temperature in the Gulf Stream was 81F (27C). The color of the Gulf Stream is impossibly blue. So blue that I can't describe it. I tried taking some pictures but the water will probably look black in the pictures. We were entertained by the flying fish and by dolphins. I saw one flying fish that flew and flew and flew for what must have been 100
meters. Wow. I didn't know they could go that far. We also had a visit from a pod of three dolphins who escorted us part of the say, swimming in our bow wave.

Our friends Leon and Kim on Gypsy caught up to us last night and sailed along with us all the way here.

The roughest part of the trip was entering the inlet here at Fort Pierce. The tide was going out and meeting the ocean swells trying to roll in. Those conditions create an area several hundred yards deep where the waves are very big and totally confused. Small boats would likely capsize or swamp in those conditions. Even Tarwathie was hard to handle. Libby was at the helm and it took all her strength to wrestle with the tiller. Libby is getting pretty salty though. She knows what to expect
and doesn't blink an eye navigating such obstacles now.