High winds, lightning & staging to cross

Captain Michael surveys his sturdy vessel from

the dock at Cannonsport Marina, Palm Beach

A huge thunderclap shook us all out of our bunks about 3am as the predicted cold front brought the brunt of a series of violent storms to central and south Florida last night. I have never seen so much lightning in the air, striking all around us with the howling winds threatening to yank us from our ties to the decrepit old wharf at Jones Fruit Dock.

I ran to the pilothouse and turned on the weather station to try to get an idea of the actual strength of the howling winds. Gusts of 30, then 40, then 50, then over 60 knots rocked us against the dock. The highest gust I saw was 66 knots - or about 76 mph! Hurricane strength. Fortunately, the lines held and the dock pilings survived the night's onslaught of stormy weather.

The storm finally subsided and the rest of the night consisted of more lightning and lots of rain. No sooner had we gone back to sleep it seemed than the alarm was going off for us to wake up and get a move on to the south. We finally untied in the rainy pre-dawn hours and set off for Palm Beach, where we planned to stage at one of the marinas near the Lake Worth inlet for a dash across (dash? at 7 knots?) the Gulf Stream to the Little Bahama Bank.

We ran south uneventfully in the rain until about 3pm when the weather suddenly cleared and the sun came out. By the time we tied up to the gas dock at Cannonsport Marina in Palm Beach, it was looking like a typical early spring South Florida afternoon with the clear, turquoise incoming tide and boats everywhere.

We topped up our diesel tanks, flushed out the water tanks, added a Corona (or two) to our personal "tanks" and walked the four blocks to Johnny Longboat's on the beach for a nice, casual dinner.

The winds are currently out of the SW at about 10-15 knots and the seas are forecast to lay down nicely tomorrow afternoon. So, it looks like all the planets are about lined up and we are ready to cross tomorrow starting early afternoon. If all goes as planned, we should cross onto the Little Bahama Bank just about dusk. Then, it's all night running across the Bank in the dark, arriving at Spanish Cay for customs check-in about 8am.

We'll hopefully scarf down some breakfast at Spanish and then move on the final few hours to Marsh Harbour, where we will tie up at "The Beautiful Marsh Harbour Marina and Jib Room Restaurant". Now Fred and Michael insist that the best ribs in all the islands are to be found at some joint in the BVI.  But I have a feeling they might change their minds after sampling some of Chef Marvin's finger-lickin' baby back ribs at the weekly Wednesday "Jib Room Rib Night". I'll report our findings...