Try Again

At Sea
25 46.44 N 080 05.78 W

We are on our second attempt to leave Miami. Yesterday, we waited impatiently for that darned front to move past. We shouldn't complain, that storm caused a lot of damage and a lot of fear to people in Central Florida.

For us, the worst thing was that the storm front stalled. All day Thursday it staid stationary. As it turns out, we could have sailed to Fort Pierce in fine weather and gotten there long before the storm. Never mind, it would have been imprudent to try. Prudence and frustration go together.

Frustration got to us Friday. We heard one forecast say winds W 10-15 and another N 6-12. When the front passed, we elected to hear the good forecast and ignore the bad one. We departed. A definite case of get-there-itis. Well, about 10 miles out, the wind shifted from W to N at 18. Our progress into the wind slowed to 2 knots. Our intentions to go in the Gulf Stream had to be cancelled because of N winds. The easiest way to cancel was to return to Miami.

We spent the night anchoredc near Fisher Island. Look up Fisher Island (Florida) on Wikipedia. It's very interesting.

This morning winds are almost calm. We plan to motor out to the Gulf Stream and then pick up E@10 to sail up to Fort Pierce in light winds with a current boost.

We have a new computer, new software, and a new rewiring of the SSB and Pactor modem since the last time I tested Winlink email. Therefore, there's a fair chance that it won't work and that I can't post any more blogs at sea until Sunday night.  Right now, we're still in cell phone range of Miami, so I'm posting with my Droid.