West Palm to Bahamas

[Frost]

I'm going out of the Lake Worth Inlet over to the Bahamas on the first weather opening after June 25. Looking for any other boats heading out around the same time.

I had planned on going straight to Great Sale but my travel partners had some damage to their boat on the way down the ditch so I'll be going alone now. So instead of Great Sale, I might just do the short hop to Settlement Point. If you are going this direction at all, let me know. This is my first crossing and would really like to be traveling within VHF range of another boat. The goal is to make it to Green Turtle by July 3.

[over40pirate]

Lake worth to Settlement point sounds like a trip that most likley will require you to motor.
it's roughlly a 90 deg. course, which with the Stream, you will have to sail or motor a 130 deg. course, to make 90 deg. over the bottom.

To sail you would need roughlly south to west winds. You never want to go with any northerly winds.

I would think it over, and while you are waiting for weather, go down to Ft. Lauderdale and leave from there. it will be a much nicer trip. From ft. Laud. you could sail with south east winds. And the Stream would give you nice increase in speed over the bottom.

Light winds and engine trouble, might land you in Bermuda!

Have a nice trip. And a safe one.

[Chuck Baier]

Originally Posted by over40pirate

Light winds and engine trouble, might land you in Bermuda!

Have a nice trip. And a safe one.

Great advise to give someone on their first crossing. We have done the crossing from both Lake Worth and Key Biscayne. Both will probably require motoring into east winds unless you get lucky and you probably already know you will need to adjust for the stream trying to carry you north. Unfortunately most folks are leaving the Bahamas this time of year to not be there during hurricane season. The weather off the Florida coast right now is not conducive to a good crossing with the big thunderstorms coming off the coast with some packing 50 to 60 knot winds like they were yesterday. Right now these are a daily occurrence so be careful. You don't want to be in the stream for one of those. Tuesday night and Wednesday forecast call for east 15 to 20.

[slomotion]

Motoring/motor-sailing into light east winds is as good as it gets for this crossing. Pick your weather window carefully and go for it. Once you cross the stream and hit the Banks, you can usually find reasonable shelter fairly quickly if things turn nasty.

[Frost]

I know ALL about the south Florida weather right now! Been in some nasty stuff coming down the ICW. I'm also not so naive as to think this is a mandatory trip. If it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. I'm perfectly happy with checking out S. Florida until December.

Just wanted to see if anyone else was heading over for Race Week and the S.N.P. That way we could discuss the weather and pick our window together.