West End to Fort Pierce FL - We are back in the USA!

Check out the sky

We arrived at West End on Thursday April 11, 2013. We knew the weather would be iffy to cross to Florida on Friday and sure enough it was. We hung around West End and prepared the boat to leave on Saturday. The problem was the wind coming out of the north. That won't do. 

Rusty doesn't care about the weather.

He is happy inside the boat

Saturday morning was no better. It was super windy and looked like rain. Kermit and Tony (Headquarters) decided we would stay put. A few boats went out and promptly came right back in. If you plan to travel for 5 to 8 hours you don’t want to do it in a huge bounce all day. Water over the bridge is just too much!

Sculpture in the garden near where we waited for the bus

We were determined to wait patiently at West End on Grand Bahama Island for the proper weather window. So we decided to take the bus to Freeport and explore a little!

Waiting for the bus: Kermit and some fellow travelers

 The public bus is inexpensive, about $7 per person to Freeport. I should be a 45 minute drive. We waited with Tony and Shirley and another couple for at least 2 hours until one finally showed up. Turns out if the bus is full it just drives past. Lots of full buses traveled from West End to Freeport that morning and bypassed us.

Traveling along the Abaco Sea into Freeport

Finally the desk clerk called someone she knew who put his personal activities aside to run his bus on Saturday. Isn’t that wonderful? We had these kinds of experiences the entire time we were in the Bahamas. People really go out of their way to be nice here.

A funeral

The bus runs along the water for a while through some villages. We saw funerals and people enjoying their Saturday. 

We saw fishing and crabbing right along the shore in some sort of farming set up. They looked like they were farming fish right along the cost.

Buildings and houses got more crowded as we got closer to Freeport. We saw the cruise ships in the ship yards. We think these were in dry dock since we did not see a debarking shed and there were no cruise ship crowds in town. 

The Sands Brewery

We also saw the Sands Brewery! And fast food for the first time in 6 weeks.

We tried to figure out the bus system. It appears that bus drivers are assigned or own or rent a specific bus with a specific bus route. The buses have names and numbers on them like taxis. Evidently bus routes are sanctioned and assigned to certain drivers. They are not allowed to travel outside their assigned territories. People get on and off the bus wherever they want by just saying something to the driver. These are actually 9 passenger vans stuffed with lots more than 9 people. 

The buses at Freeport bus station

The driver who took us and some other people from West End to Freeport (his name is Harcourt) could not take us further to Lucaya where the tourist area is. When we arrived at the Freeport bus station Harcourt told the 4 of us that we could pick up another bus at this bus station and for $1.25 we could go to Lucaya. Or since he was feeling friendly he would drive us a little further and drop us off 2 blocks away from Lucaya for no extra charge. We took option #2 and tipped him for his time, service, and consideration. He was a really nice guy.

After wandering around for a few minutes Kermit and realized we were in Lucaya before. The bazaar and restaurants looked really familiar. It rained on and off most of the day so we went from bar to restaurant to bar enjoying the people watching.

Shirley from Headquarrters

Kermit checking out the boats

Tony and Kermit checking out the menu

The bazaar

There are segways evreywhere it seems

Tony and Shirley from Headquarters

One of the charters got a huge catch

At the fourth bar we noticed a photographer taking shots of some young scantily clad women. They moved from the pavilion across from the bar to the stools next to us in the bar. The mothers in us were concerned about these young women. The rest of us thought they were kind of scanki. Check out the scars on this young woman’s leg. It looks like she has been cutting herself on her leg.

Everyone was watching the girls pose

Notice the white scars on her leg? We guessed this was from
cutting herself. Maybe. Maybe not. 

We wandered over to the bus stop and made our way to the Freeport bus station. It appeared we were stuck when the West End bus didn’t appear for an hour or so. At one point a nice bus driver asked what we were waiting for. When we said we needed to go to West End he said he would take us since he lives in West End and was on his way home. Another example of really nice people going above and beyond just because they are nice people!!

Rusty enjoyed West End a lot. We walked around, checked out the people, and wandered in the water. He is easy to please.

The resort has a gym!! So Kermit and I both went every day.

Finally we leave, Sunday April 14, 2013

Tony untying his lines

We left West End at about 7:30am. It was a spectacular day – bright, clear, not so windy. About 8 boats left at the same time with destinations of Port Worth FL, directly to South Carolina, Fort Lauderdale, and Fort Pierce. We traveled with Headquarters bound for Fort Pierce.

The marina is packed with boats preparing to leave for Florida and
boats preparing to leave for Great Guana Island to attend a
fishing tournament.

The parade out of the marina early in the morning 

We left with about 8 other boats

Catching a few zzzzs

Not much to see. Just lots of water. Not bad seas for a crossing.

The water was great. It is definitely worth waiting for a good weather window. One foot waves with occasional 2 foot until we got about 5 miles out when the waves got higher but nothing we couldn’t handle.

The port engine stopped suddenly right in the middle for what seemed to be no reason at all. After checking to make sure nothing obvious was wrong, we moved ahead on one engine for about 10 minutes then cranked the port engine again. We figured out that at one point the waves got so big that one prop came out of the water prompting the engine to shut down. The engines ran perfectly after that.

We are famous for our auto pilot. Even with the auto pilot on we move off course all the time, wandering sometimes as much as a mile off course. While we had time and we had a big field in which to travel, Kermit played with Otto and finally figured out a better way to handle the auto pilot to keep us closer to our course. Once he plotted the course in the chart plotter, he manually adjusted the auto pilot to get it on course. Turns out the auto pilot needs to be plus or minus one degree from the course noted in the chart plotter in order to stay on course. After he did that we went directly to our point!

This big boat was being towed. Not sure why. 

Headquarters

Starting to see land at Fort Pierce. Water got bigger.

Lots of traffic coming in to the Inlet.

We got to Fort Pierce about 5pm. The Inlet was awful with so much water in the tide that the current was still really strong 1.5 hours past slack tide. The only way to know that is from local knowledge. So needless to day the entry into the Inlet was tough.

The water was running pretty fast as we came in. 

Headquarters coming in the Inlet. Notice the whitecaps?

Kermit kept talking to the boat, “You can do it.” “Come on baby, turn into the wave.” No pictures of this part. I was too busy holding on and saying little prayers under my breath and the boat heeled from side to side.

Traffic coming in the Inlet

The weather was perfect for a Sunday afternoon in the water. 

We breathed a sign of relief when we got further into the Inlet. Sunday afternoon we passed lots of boats hanging out in the sandbars, folks fishing on the piers, and folks partying at local restaurants and bars along the water.

Lots of bars and music coming in. 

Marina along the inlet

Under the bridge and to the right to the marina. This is a
bridge on the Intercoastal Waterway.

Under the bridge we can see the Fort Pierce City Marina. Lots of construction. They are building little islands to protect the harbor from hurricanes like the ones that destroyed the marina in 2004. The inner part of the marina is open and beautiful.

The grounds are all new and beautiful. In July they will begin installing the piers in the Waterway protected by the islands.

Fort Pierce City Marina

It is wonderful to be back in the US again. The food, the grocery stores, the people, the fabulous Internet connection right at our dock provided by the marina. It is different from Bahamas and so much more familiar.

We were exhausted so we grabbed a quick bite with Tony and Shirley, just in time to see an Aussie win the Masters!! Shirley was thrilled!

The next morning we rented a car in a total rain downpour. We all went out to the airport to check in with customs. When we arrived we called in and were told we had to make an in person visit for some reason. The customs folks were really nice. It appeared they were going to give Tony and Shirley a hassle about their boat permit but instead the guy offered a way for them to get an additional 6 months on their travel permit, which is exactly what they need. All for only $19. In exact change. 

As we checked in with friends and family, we realized there are lots of loopers hanging around the Fort Pierce area. So on Monday we had a party at Headquarters. Dick and Deanna Shepard from Sareanna were at Cracker Bob’s for repairs down the street. John and Pat from Satisfaction were docked at the marina on Hutchinson Island across the water. Charlotte and Stephen from Jackets 2 were nearby too. We were having docktails when Judy and Micheal from One September showed up!! They drove in from North Palm Beach to surprise us!!! It was wonderful to catch up in person after only talking by text for so  long.

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures. I have to get better at that.

Next: Kermit does lots of boat maintenance and I go to Greenville to see my sister