Day 137: Crossing the Stream

West End, Grand Bahama to North Lake Worth, FL (anchored)

June 1, 2022

A lot of cruisers wish one another, “Fair winds and following seas” when we leave one another’s company. Fair winds are ones that speed us on our way and following seas are waves that are going the same direction as the boat so they help push us along.

When we crossed the Gulf Stream in February, we did not have following seas and the trip was rough. Today we had following seas although not enough wind to do more than motor with Lailia’s headsail up.

We traveled about 60 miles in 9 hours, which is not too bad. Neither of us got sick and the ride was smooth enough that we could take some turns napping in the cockpit. We’re both still amazed by the distance flying fish can go!

There have been many rain bands the last few days in the Bahamas; today we had a rainbow which feels auspicious.

A cool thing is that we were able to go through customs via an app when we were about a mile from entering the inlet at Lake Worth. We had loaded our passport information and Lailia’s Coast Guard registration number into our account. We logged in upon arrival and were cleared within about 2 minutes. Prior to this app’s launch, boaters often had to go to a customs office to clear in; the last thing we wanted to do after a 9 hour trip is to dock somewhere and wait for paperwork to be completed.

The skyline of Lake Worth is so very different than what we have been enjoying in the Bahamas and the water is nowhere near as clear. We have spent so much time exploring remote islands that all these condos and traffic are strange.

We are anchored tonight just north of Lake Worth and are keeping an eye on the weather forecasts as there is some nastiness expected. We have members of our flotilla family heading this way tomorrow and we’d like to see them – but we also don’t want to have to be anchored in high winds later in the week.

We have flown the Bahamian courtesy flag since we cleared through customs in Bimini. John wore his Abacos shirt as he took down the flag which is showing the wear and tear of 90 days of wind and (mostly) sun.

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I found some photos of Lailia at Great Sale on Facebook taken by the other boat in the anchorage with us. Their photos show how remote this anchorage was.

They also managed to get a photo of the waterspout.