Thursday, October 31, 2019

18 hours to Fort Pierce 82 degree Gulf Stream

Oct. 31, 2019
Drew and I Faced time today so they have connection closer in.  He said they've done more sailing than ever.
You can see on the map they are close to shore as they travel for the last day to Fort Pierce.  It's a little north of Port Saint Lucie.  They are scheduled to arrive at the Fort Pierce Inlet around 8:30 am.  Drew always wants to arrive at an inlet during daylight hours so he keeps his speed accordingly.  Can't go too fast or they arrive in the dark.  

If there was an emergency(that's the way I think) there are only a few inlets down the eastern coast of Florida for anchoring or getting into marinas:  starting from the north:
1. St. Mary's River - the Georgia/Florida border near Mayport, then 45 miles south to
2. St. Augustine Inlet (best at hightide and follow markers into great City Marina, call Boat US for local information) 70 miles to
3. Ponce de Leon Inlet at New Smyrna Beach then 50 miles south to
4. Port Canaveral Lock near Cape Canaveral Air Force Station south of Titusville, then 40 miles to
5. Sebastian Inlet  to the Indian River and ICW that leads 14 miles down to Vero Beach City Marina (hardly call it a city, mostly a town, but it has a couple of great movie theatres and big malls)
There are bridges over some of these inlets, rivers, and the ICW. Sometimes you have to wait for a draw bridge on the inside to get to your marina.
Then 26 miles to
6. Fort Pierce Inlet into Harbor Town Marina
Total of about 250 miles or 40+ hours by boat to Fort Pierce from the top of FL. Via Route 95 Florida, excluding the Keys Florida is about 442 miles long.

What doesn't show up on the map are the many public ocean and river beaches and unoccupied islands to explore north and south of Fort Pierce.  Almost the entire North Hutchinson Island coast up to Vero Beach is State-owned and South Hutchinson Island is also almost all state beach down to Stuart.  In Fort Pierce, a long, stone jetty public park is heavily used; it's a walkway on one side of the Inlet where you can watch the water traffic, birds, beach life, and eat at one of the many restaurants or stay in a hotel.  Not fancy.

Pictures along the way as the boys were out at sea.
Nice breakfast of Lox and tomatoes (no fresh bagels).



The biggest entertainment is the morning or evening sky. A little telltale showing on the left with the breeze.



Instruments at night showing radar on the right  -12 miles out from the boat there are no boats around, track upper left - 186 compass degrees, depth 82' and speed is 5.5K, and bottom left is the direction of the wind - indicator showing it's on the nose.  Bottom right,-the dark, round thing is the real compass - not digital or electrical.

 


Nice speed showing on the iPad's Navionics program, going 7.2 k. That's a good clip.



A clear, full moon night - not sure if it's moonrise or set.  Bright planets too.
 


Adam on starboard, near the coast in the background



Nice

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The first photo with moon, makes sense—it’s in the first quarter now, above horizon at sunset as a slim crescent, setting a couple hours after the sun.

I have no idea how there would be a full moon any time this week! Makes no sense for evening, morning, or any time until around the 12th—rises full as sun sets, then sets full as the sun rises; with variations of about an hour the day before and after it’s full.

Meanwhile, congrats to Drew and crew--and weather--for so much sailing! May the remaining 2 days of trip go smoothly.
Love, Sara

Anonymous said...

Update from Drew - Yes, it is a crescent moon, that show up in sunset pix above. For some reason, when photo showing planets in line with moon, the crescent moon shows up round !!??