Trip today: 108.5 miles in 16.5 hours

It was still clear and sunny when we reached West End at 3:00, and the sea was relatively calm with a moderate swell. If we just kept heading west, we had another 4-5 hours of daylight and would be half way across the Straits before nightfall, and in a couple more hours the lights of the Florida coast would brighten the sky. So off we went...setting a steady pace of motor sailing in the light breeze. The two Catalina 42's were well matched and we stayed in close proximity with each other for the entire trip. Our AIS system picked up all the commercial traffic and came in handy when our course brought us close to 5 ships...unfortunately we had to make course changes to let first a large cargo ship, and then the Carnival cruise ship 'Elation' pass ahead of us.

At 7:30 Brian blew the conch horn to mark the beautiful sunset, but there was no green flash to be seen. As darkness fell, we had a late dinner and settled in for the rest of the trip. As we moved through the darkness, we enjoyed several check ins with 'Eco Beach' our buddy boat...always fun to chat with Mike and Roberta. It was nice to finally see the glow of the Florida shore, but then there were more things to attend to...more AIS targets to identify, radar targets to track, lights on the horizon...navigation aids and lights onshore.

At midnight, we rolled in our sails and headed into the Lake Worth inlet...and now came the tricky part. Many times we have raised anchor in the early morning darkness to begin a journey, but arriving at a destination in the middle of the night was much more daunting. Three months ago we'd departed at dawn from this anchorage, and had a good understanding of the prime area to anchor, but in the darkness we had to discern if boats nearby were on mooorings or anchored, and their swing room. We finally set our anchor, with Echo Beach nearby, got settled, checked in with Homeland Security, and then had a well earned sleep!