Thistle at Great Sale Cay

It would have been nice to rest at Great Sale Cay before pressing on but we were riding a clocking front and needed to be out of the Gulf Stream before the wind went west and then north. So our stop at this sliver of land consisted of taking Chloe to shore, investigating the stranded ketch, clicking the sunset photo, and getting under sail again within 45 minutes.

We headed into the darkness, slightly north of west, across the last 50 miles of the Little Bahama Bank and then into the deeper waters that separate the Bahamas and Florida. We set the autopilot and then also set alarms in case we both fell asleep. Shortly after entering the Gulf Stream Linda noticed a ship's lights to starboard. We pulled it up on radar and AIS. The 1000 foot, 80,000 ton Maersk Kokura was about 6 miles away, travelling at 18 knots, and on a perfect collision course. It's best to get these kinds of situations sorted out ahead of time so we hailed them on the VHF radio.

"Maersk Kokura, Maersk Kokura, Thistle".
Pause.
"This is Maersk Kokura".
"Maersk Kokura, we are the sailboat 6 miles off your port bow. I believe we are on a collision course and want to make sure you know we are here".
Long pause.
"Thistle, we are changing course 10 degrees port".
Long pause.
"Maersk Kokura, I see your course change -- thank you very much!".

About 26 hours and 175 miles after leaving Green Turtle Cay we entered the inlet at Fort Pierce, Florida. We motored past the Coast Guard station, somehow avoided being pulled over for a random boater safety inspection, dropped the hook beside the channel, hoisted the quarentine​ flag, and started the process of cultural reacclimation.