Saturday May 10: Stuck in Paradise

Literally - we're stuck here in paradise. At least we like to keep in mind that there are way worse places to be stuck.

Yesterday, we cast off the lines about 8 am and headed out of the harbor. Destination? Lake Worth inlet - 60 miles away.

Waves were forecast to be 3 feet with an occasional 4. No problem as the winds and waves would be behind us and pushing us on our way west.

After 6 miles (about 40 minutes), it was clear that, once again, the forecasts were off a bit! I think it was the set of three 5 foot waves that made the decision for us ....

Turn around - tomorrow is another day to try. Who needs to plow through this for 8 hours? Somehow, the pictures just don't do justice though .....

At least we knew where to dock :-)

Back and tied up by 10:30 or so. Coming back was against the wind and waves so we had to slow down some for a more comfortable ride in.

So here we sit at the West End awaiting a chance to make the trip across the Gulf Stream. Fortunately we don't have any deadlines which really helps.

The best thing about going out was that we didn't sit here in the harbor (where the wind is not blowing as hard) thinking 'we should have gone'.

Our decision to turn back was confirmed by the folks in a 52 foot Sea Ray and a 40 foot Sea Ray that came over from Port St. Lucie.

They said it was TERRIBLE. Of course they were going into the wind and waves so it would have been even worse than the waters we were in..

Sounded like it was 5 and 6 footers most of the way - in particular in the gulf stream. That I don't need :-)

The TV broke off the wall, glasses broke and indicative of the worst: the toilet seat broke off from being bounced up and down so much as the boat went over a wave and crashed into the bottom of the next one. But they had been waiting 4 days ....

So we're willing to be patient. Slight chance of tomorrow but most likely Thursday.

That's ok - like I said if you have to be stuck somewhere it might as well be in paradise :-)