Sailing with Bob & Vickie

We are back!!

Mar 31 - Saturday came so soon and it is now time to leave the Abacos – we might call this the treasure of the Bahamas. At 3:10 AM, we depart West End on Grand Bahama Island heading to the States - Thank goodness for a full moon. The first part of the journey is smooth but the last few hours are a little rough (waves are not 1 to 2 ft as predicted but more like 3 and 4 ft rollers and even a few 6 ft). Note: Somewhere on the trip to the Bahamas our engine tachometer stopped working – it worked intermittently but mostly not. Well as we leave the Bermuda Triangle, it is working – spooky. We finally see the shores of Ft Pierce and at 2:05 PM, we arrive at Causeway Cove Marina at Ft. Pierce, FL – I am amazed at the travel time but the gulfstream really pushed us home. It took almost 3 hours to clear Customs (first we have to receive an arrival number from the CBP by phone who keeps us on hold for over an hour so we get an UBER to head to airport where we will eventually go through Customs). We pass a boater as we are heading to Customs and he says “Good Luck”. They won’t talk to us at Customs without the arrival number and we only have 24 hours to report back in to the country and it is Easter weekend and wonder if the call for clearance will ever be answered. The poor Custom Agent is stuck trying to close the case but he needs the number so we UBER back to boat and stay on hold for a couple more hours until someone finally takes our call. WOW – I didn’t realize the difficulty entering the States by private vessel– now I understand the comments made by the Canadians going through the States to get home.
All is good, we are finally cleared so Vickie decides it is time to do laundry and this is where I meet Cher. We are having a great time talking about spending so much time in such close space with just one significant other. We laugh and she explains about the area on their boat designated as a "NO GO ZONE" where she can't be bothered by anyone, of course Vickie never has this problem (edited by Bob). Serendipity needs this - Funny! Gotta love talking to other long term boaters!