Tuesday, November 29th, South Lake Worth anchorage

The wind quieted to nothing and the water was dead calm. It was a peaceful night.

Boats were pulling out of the anchorage and headed south?, we weren’t sure because it certainly hadn’t calmed down outside yet. Some were going to the south anchorage to wait to cross over to the Bahamas, like we were going to do.

We left after a nice lunch, stopping at the Riviera Beach Municipal Marina for fuel, water, and to dispose garbage. We had to wait for a long time for a SeaTow boat to leave, another SeaTow waiting for it. As we were going into the channel to the anchorage, both SeaTow boats were towing MitSeaAH, a huge sailboat we’d seen going into Tidewaters Marina in Norfolk.

Just as we were pulling into the anchorage, a hail went out from Southern Heat for boats wanting to cross to Great Sale Cay tonight. I answered the hail and said we were. This started a discussion among boats about the weather and the crossing. I heard Discovery talking on the VHF about Chris Parker’s report saying the cold front would funnel air down the Gulf Stream building up waves. Marilyn from Discovery read Chris Parker’s report to us, which also said to check Fowlie Rock buoy. South Wind from Alaska chimed in to say he’d be interested in going with our group, if we went. Exuberant was outside on their way to Miami and Prue hailed us to let us know what it was like out there and to call them later to check with them when we were ready to go.

At 6pm the consensus was to go. The weather had calmed, the buoys looked good, but we’d check again at 11pm, our departure time. We readied to leave, putting the dinghy on the bow, fixing pizzas to eat on the way, taking the sailcover off, getting the jacklines ready, and resting as much as possible.

At 10:30pm I turned on the VHF to hear Southern Heat and South Wind discussing the crossing. Southern Heat said the buoys didn’t look good; the wind had kicked up with the waves and Dave thought it a no go. I hailed Exuberant and Burt said he had to veer out into the Gulf Stream to avoid a freighter and it was nasty out there. That decided it. We’d wait. Unfortunately, if we didn’t go now, we probably wouldn’t get a chance for 5 or more days because there was a strong frontal system coming in with strong east winds.