25 April 2015
We SAILED so incredibly well today, that we decided to look for an inlet that we could reach before sunset. Tonight Sundowners are just inside Lake Worth Inlet. We had an average speed of 7.1 kn today and made good time. Who knew we could cover ~70 miles and get into an anchorage before the sun disappears. (side note: usually we calculate 5 miles per hour.. you do the math).
Here’s how the day went: We left Biscayne Bay, Miami yesterday. We had decided to leave a little late since we were going to do an overnight and get back in at Fort Pierce. But after the Chris Parker broadcast (which is at 6:30am) and a coffee, we left.
We had a great sail. The light winds were from the ESE and so we shook out the double reef and sported a full Genoa. We should have gone Jib and Jigger (Genoa and Mizzen) but we were averaging 7.5 knots and the boat was sturdy so we were okay with that.
As we passed Fort Lauderdale, Port Everglades and the Dania Cut all things changed, very reminiscent of our trip last summer on m/v Persistence. Within a half hour the winds and waves increased. The winds clocked and the waves hit us from the side. But were still smoking.. now averaging 8 knots. As we sailed up the coast, I recalculated the distance we had covered and asked Steve to re-think our sailing plan. "If we continue like this, we could make it into Lake Worth and not have to go overnight!” Steve jumped all over it. We got in to Lake Worth just bypassing two separate squalls (man do they ever spin the winds around) and were having our martini’s at 9pm.
Today we are heading north (on the outside.. what are we stupid!) but the winds have clocked again and they are SW, coming off the land. We have a storm jib out and the winds are around 20 - 25 knots. We should arrive to Fort Pierce and then on to Vero Beach in time for proper martini hour.