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Heading home

Unfortunately the weather did not favor us with light winds. (In fact, a possible tropical storm may be forming in the coming week!) Instead we were seeking shelter from forecasts with 20+ knot winds from the west and south.  The small cays of the northern Abacos, that we had hoped to wander among, do not offer protection at the best of times, but even less from south or west winds.  We were debating running for protection back in Green Turtle when a 24 hour window appeared to open.  At 8 AM we made the decision to run for Fort Pierce.  Now running is never really a Krogen activity so it may be no surprise that with the high seas and strongish west winds we were fighting most of the way it took us until after 2 the next day to reach Fort Pierce – 180+ miles from where we were anchored on the north side of Allans Pensacola.  We did have a short rest at Great Sale and earlier at Moraine where we pulled our dink on deck and tied everything down for the crossing.  The waves on the Gulf Stream were flat compared to the chop and roll on the bank.  Our final farewell from the Bahamas included a flashing sendoff courtesy of a lightening show off in the distance.  This should have warned us of the arrival back in the USA where we were greeted by a fast moving band of violent thunder storms stretching across the Florida peninsula.  We dodged the weather waiting for a break and finally made the inlet at Fort Pierce.  All these weather “issues” were more than offset by the four Mahi Mahi that Steve caught between swells and squalls.  The contents of the boat were rocked about but everyone agreed the Mahi tasted great – expertly blackened by Suzanne.  Just another wonderful shared evening with Alizann and a pleasant end to our Bahamas Wandering.