April 11, 2019 Thursday West End, Grand Bahama to Fort Pierce, Florida 88.1 nautical miles

27°28’16.2″N 80°19’30.5″W
27.471170, -80.325148
Elevation: 0 ft

Along the Way

WOW. We were greeted by an unpleasant surprise as we left the marina harbor. 4-5 foot rollers. It must have been the wake from LET’S GO, NOT JUST DREAMING and the rest of the pack who had just left the marina in front of us. Windy.com and Marv’s Weather couldn’t be wrong. About an hour later as they continued towards Lake Worth and we headed north towards Ft Pierce we finally out ran their wake. The rollers flattened out for a much more enjoyable ride just as Windy.com and Marv’s Weather predicted. (you know I’m kidding about the wake don’t you)

For those of you who know Dale, you know red traffic lights are his nemesis. It’s almost impossible for him to catch a green light. It’s really aggravating. Here in the Bahamas his nemesis is sailboats. He is forever in the middle of nowhere and there is a sailboat crossing from his starboard side so he has to yield for right of way. Where do they come from?

We rode the Gulfstream for several hours. It nudged our traveling speed from 9.2 knots to 12.1 knots.

Once Florida was in the offing cell our USA phones were turned on. The USA offers an online Customs and Border Protection app that you can check into customs with. Dale filled in all our info and submitted the form. Presto, a Customs office called us for a video chat. That’s as far as we got. Turns out we have to be on USA soil, like a boat dock, to clear customs. We are anchoring out tonight and not dropping the dingy. We will have to complete Customs at our next fuel stop.

Space X taking off from Cape Canaveral. Thanks for the call Mark H. We would have totally missed seeing it.

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Neighbors

Our other neighbor is the the N. Causeway Bridge. It’s a little noisy but interesting to watch.

Floccinaucinihilipilification

Fort Pierce has a colorful history. Edwin Binney, who lived in Fort Pierce, invented Crayola crayons. Binney and his cousin, C. Harold Smith, produced the first box of Crayolas in 1905.

Nauti Words

In the offing – imminent or likely to happen soon. “Offing” is that area of sea that can be seen from land, so when a ship was seen to be “in the offing” it would be expected to dock before the next tide.