The boat was scheduled to be in Marathon for our family vacation. Planned a mix between condo and boat time, but as usual when making plans and keeping schedules on a boat, they don't always mix. This was the case as the weather forecasters predicted beuatiful weather for an outside run on Wednesday of this week and not having any nasty weather until possibly Friday in the Miami area. Left St. Lucie Inlet at 0800 and found monster waves from an out-going tide and an incoming heavy wind of 15 -20K (it was forecast for 8 to 12K). I bury the bow into oncoming waves at least six times with green water washing the entire decks. Took a wave from the side that washed me to the far side of the cockpit. That is not too worrisome as the boat can handle it fine. My mistake was in not latching the forward hatch. It opened, then locked in the open position allowing all that water to dump directly into the forward cabin. Oh Joy!
After getting out of the inlet I was able to close the hatch but the damage was done... everything soaked of course including the LCD TV I stored there for safe keeping. (ha) My crew Jake got sick within minutes as the seas were large and very confused with rain squalls passing every hour. Pour guy, I've been there. So for the next five hours I got a workout on the wheel and bracing myself. I must admit, it was a little fun for me. I love that boat. The CSYs' come by their reputation honestly!
So after pulling into Palm Beach Inlet instead of moving on, we took a break anchored at Peanut Island. Jake was much improved but the prospect of not being able to go on the outside and dealing with the intracoastal bridges all the way to Biscayne Bay did not appeal to me. This was all for a quick family vacation of 5 days. I weighed the options and decided to take a leisurely inside trip back to the home dock the next day. The weatherman again lied as the predicted 5 to 10K winds were still blowing hard. Oh Well, had a good time anyway and stayed at a great anchorage that was new to me.