While Vero Beach quickly became one of our favorite places, we had to take advantage of any weather window we could find to get across the Gulf Stream. Those windows are short in the winter and spring, making planning a challenge.
The closest inlet to Vero Beach is 12 miles away; Fort Pierce. It is not an ideal place for a crossing to West End, Grand Bahamas; West Palm’s Lake Worth Inlet is better and the further south you get the better the experience.
Complicating things further for us are our Dogs and Bahamas COVID protocol. The Bahamas requires testing not more than 3 days prior to entry. Getting the appointment for an NaaT test is not difficult, but you need to know the day you will cross, a 20 hour event from Ft. Pierce and when you will check in. Then backing up, you need to find available testing appointments. If the weather changes, you start the process again. Also, before going to the Bahamas any pets being imported must be examined by a Veterinarian. Just one more appointment to manage.
As luck would have it the various weather gurus agreed that a favorable crossing would happen on a Thursday/Friday/Saturday. A new front would arrive on Sunday making the Gulf Stream impassable for small craft.
We found a mobile vet that could examine the dogs on the same day we were getting our two hour lab PCR test for COVID. Now we just needed to be negative and the dogs to be well and the weather to cooperate and we could be on our way. And everything came together, as we had hastily planned.
We purchased our Bahamanian health Visas, uploaded our negative test results. Work was notified that we would take vacation that Friday. We plotted our course in AquaMap and our chart plotter. Then Thursday evening we made our way to Ft Pierce Inlet. As the sun set, we turned South to gain some ground that the Gulf Stream would take away later that night.
With the wind on our nose, we were forced to motor into it. The waves were small, maybe two feet. There was not much boat traffic. For the first two hours after dark we were led south by the lights of West Palm, slowly getting closer to our turning way point. A tug with a long tow over took us. It was head to Andros according to its AIS data. We hailed them and adjusted our speed down and course more easterly to give them plenty of room. That was the last vessel we would see for 10 hours. Not long after, we made the turn East.
It was time. Even though we had not quite made our way point I could not stand the droning of the engine any longer. We rolled out the head sail and a reefed main. We started sailing between 5 and 6 knots not exactly towards our destination. As predicted, the Gulf Stream put a significant arc in our course. As the wind died overnight the peak of the arch became more pronounced. Reluctantly we fired up the engine to increase boat speed and flatten the curve 😉
Other than running the engine, it was a glorious night of sailing. We were greeted by a beautiful sun rise. We had little traffic coming into West End. We anchored outside since we had decided to not stay there the night. But after a long check in process with Click2Clear we decided to grab a slip for the night and enjoy the amenities of the resort but only for a day