We made the leap from Miami to Ft. Pierce. While successful with the objective, the day had its frustrations. I really desired to hop in the Gulf Stream and ride its currents, 3.5 knots northward. Adding the Gulf Stream's push to the atmosphere's forecasted winds east at 10 knots we should be able to cover the distance, velocity made good (VMG) in boat speak, at incredible speeds. Indeed we did at a few times have a sustained VMG of over eight knots with some max speed over ground reaching 10.4 knots while surfing down waves. BUT... the coast of FL from Miami to Ft. Worth actually runs northeast. My simple mental image of the entire east coast of FL is one long line running north northwest - not true. This placed C'est la Vie running close hauled and forced to tack back offshore away from Ft. Pierce to sustain progress northward (sailboats cannot sail directly into the wind - C'est la Vie can realistically sail 50 degrees off the winds direction). .click here for map of FL coastline This slight miscalculation of the direction of the FL coast also applied to the Gulf Stream's direction. Thus the eastern wind was creating confused, read 5 foot unpredictable waves, seas in the northeastern current of The Stream. Running close hauled with the confused seas was unpleasant. Tacking back against the Gulf Stream's current was slow. This meant we spend most of our day on either long fast northeastern tacks up the coastline or short slow south eastern grinds back out into the stream. While fun sailing, the trip did not match my vision of jumping on the magic carpet ride and sailing a beam reach northward up the wondrously blue waters of the Gulf Stream all the while enjoying a VMG of over 8knots. Ahh... seems like life... so seldom do our plans match our reality.

And... around midnight, still striving to sail past Ft. Worth were the FL coast does indeed turn northward allowing us fall off the wind onto a comfortable and fast beam reach. The winds - forecast to increase and become SE - the winds just vanished. So began the 9 hour motor into Ft. Pierce.

Anne and I took up a rotation of two hour watches through the night. Neither of us really slept much. In my limited experience 24 hour passages are realistic with a crew of 3 to rotate 4 hour watches. Less the 3 crew and 24 hour passages become something to be endured not something to be enjoyed