At 3:00 AM on Wednesday, March 16th Grace was one of three sailboats departing from Mangrove Cay for the Gulf Stream crossing. After passing Memory Rock each of the three chose different headings - s/v Cutting Class took the more southerly heading towards Lake Worth Inlet, s/v Plan B took the more northerly heading towards Fort Pierce Inlet, and s/v Grace maintained a due west compass course until within about twenty miles of entering the St Lucie Inlet, at which time our heading became more northwest. We motor-sailed with the mainsail for about twelve hours of the passage, initially reefed until we heard the updated morning weather forecast from NOAA and then we raised the sail completely. When the northwest wind died and the sail was flogging back and forth it was dropped, and the confused sea state for the last ten or so miles forced us even more north as Grace was rolled from beam to beam at times. During the crossing the engine compartment blower motor gave its last working effort, as did a fan inside the eighty-plus-degree cabin (which Kevin quickly realized was the cause of the terrible odor we were suddenly smelling outside in the cockpit); fortunately, the ocean spray had diminished so we were able to get the port lights and forward hatch opened to ventilate the odor out of the cabin before we dropped the anchor at 7:30 PM a few miles north of the St Lucie Inlet. During the day's passage we got to see numerous flying fish, one large japanese man-o-war, and one large fish that jumped up completely out of water.

Above: that morning's sunrise.