Back in the U.S. of A.

Well, the plan worked! We headed northwest and bumped into the state of Florida! That was easy.

We departed West End, Bahamas at 0615 (dark!) and headed towards Ft Pierce, FL. With the Gulf Stream current running north at 3-5 knots, we took a 15 degree cut to the south. Ten hours later, we entered the inlet at Ft Pierce having averaged 8.2 knots for the 82 nm run. The inlet was pretty 'sporty' with the outgoing tide running into the SE winds. All in all, a pleasant crossing. Both the wind and waves were mostly behind us. Once in the inlet we continued up the ICW for another two hours and finally stopped in Vero Beach.

The next day we rented a car and drove to the Ft Pierce airport to clear customs and immigration (which took all of 3 minutes).

We have no pictures of the crossing since it was all water and sky! Unlike the crossing over to the Bahamas in February, we could see land (or at least condos) fifteen miles out. GPS makes the navigation so much easier and takes away a lot of the anxiety.