We Made It

We arrived at Harbortown Marina in Ft. Pierce at 9:00 am yesterday, after traveling 233 nautical miles in 36 hours. In those 36 hours we motored for 20 and sailed for 16. The sailing was quite good and the sea conditions were not bad at all; usually 2-3 feet, sometimes 3-4. The route we took, through the Northeast and Northwest Providence Channels, is extremely popular with cruise and cargo ships. George saw eight cruise ships on his watch Saturday night, I didn’t count how many I saw. Sundays are often turnaround day for cruise ships and some of them seemed to be out there meandering around and just killing time before going into port. One Disney ship was traveling one direction then, a few minutes later, was traveling the opposite direction. On Sunday night, our second night, we didn’t see as many ships but had more close encounters. There was a period on my watch when I had a cargo ship heading toward me and a cruise ship approaching from behind. The AIS said they were both going to come within a few hundred feet of us. Way too close. George had happened to get up around that time and helped me out by hailing the cargo ship and asking the captain’s intentions. By the time he reached him the captain had already changed course to allow us to pass each other with a mile in between. George went back to bed and after that I just watched the cruise ship on the AIS. Sure enough, the cruise ship eventually changed its course and passed a mile behind us. 

We were not able to get a slip at Fort Pierce Inlet Marina this year but feel fortunate that we could get a slip here at Harbortown. When I woke up this morning I was a bit confused about where I was, the Bahamas? home? Florida?  It took a few seconds to figure it out. We will be visiting family for the next few weeks so I probably won’t do much posting until we are getting ready to head north again.