It is time to turn around!

Gay returned to West Palm on Tuesday.  After reviewing various options and Gay's availability, we have decided it is time to head back to River Dunes.  In Florida, there are few navigable inlets that allow easy access from the ocean to the ICW.  Lake Worth (West Palm) is one as is Fort Pierce.  Since we loved the 7 bridges that had to be opened on the ICW in that stretch and all the power boats darting around and leaving huge weeks in the narrow channel (not), we decided it would be much more pleasant to cover that leg in the ocean.  All in all, it was about 60 nm from dock to dock.   Gay's assessment of her choices were:

                     a.  long stretches of boredom interspersed with a little terror at the docks (Ken has managed fine without the bow thruster--it is just that Gay freaks out knowing it is not there as a backup);
                     b.  bridges, bridges, bridges, traffic, traffic, traffic but never a moment of boredom!
                     c.  fly home and abandon ship!

Eager to get underway, we chose "a" even though we knew there would be stiff winds and 5-7 foot seas (the forecast for Friday in that area was even worse and we would have had to wait a few more days to go outside or take the ICW on the weekend--neither of those choices was very appealing).  It was a rollicking ride with wind averaging in the 20's and gusts up to 30 and seas that often were over 7 feet.  Those conditions actually made the trip more boring as it was impossible to do anything but hang around in the cockpit and we met only two or three other boats on the water during the entire trip.  Frankly, we all handled the trip with ease.  We continue to be pleased with the choice of the Beneteau 393.  The Fort Pierce Inlet had to be the easiest inlet we have traveled since getting Patina.  Deep and wide, not heavily trafficked.  We spent the night in the Pelican Yacht Club and would highly recommend it.  The help at the dock was amazing, the yacht club was quite nice with good food, nice pool, great views.  There are numerous little shops within walking distance and the Atlantic beaches are only a one mile walk.  We decided to stay here an extra day to enjoy the area.  It is not yet "southern Florida-ized".  The highs today are supposed to be in the mid-seventies (compared to the snow in the Denver).

Patina was encrusted with salt from the top of the dodger to the smallest crevices as we had lots of water crashing on the boat.  The dodger, bimini and enclosure kept the cockpit very comfortable.  The winds and currents from the northwest tried to push us further offshore and we lost one whole knot of speed staying on course.