Saint Augustine, Florida to Lake Worth, Florida

[Tayzach]

Thanks to everyone for their replies. I will be monitoring the thread until we depart. As of now passage weather.com show rain Monday in st. Augustine. Beginning Tuesday it shows Northwest wind for the next couple of days. Reaching with his cat seems good. I welcome all input.

[ka4wja]

Larry,
I've made the run up and down the coast quite a bit in the past 40 some years.....and an early AM departure next Tuesday looks great!!!

The best advice you've gotten here is from "xsboats" and "amarinesurveyor".....

Here are my thoughts.....(from memory, this weekend I'm 200 miles from my boat and charts...)
1) Leave St. Aug as the wind clocks a bit west of SW.....or as soon as you see a west wind.....
2) As you leave S. Aug, you can head out SE'erly till you reach the 10 fathom line or so.....and then head for a waypoint about 3 - 4 miles off Cape Canaveral.....this will keep you a few miles off the coast, the whole way....(and maybe, just maybe you'll pick-up some light southerly flowing current, but don't count on it for your planning...)
3) After passing the Cape, turn slightly SSW for a few miles....again staying along the 10 fathom line.....and head for a waypoint a few miles off Ft. Pierce.......
4) As you pass a few miles off Ft. Pierce, staying near the 10 fathom line(just inside the 10 fathom line is good), head directly for a waypoint a mile or so off Jupiter.....
5) Then head straight for a waypoint a 1/2 mile off the Lake Worth Inlet outer bouy......
6) The Lake Worth Inlet is a big, wide, deep water commercial inlet....it is well marked and is very easy to navigate, day or night.....(although I've heard some comment that all the lights on shore make it difficult to pick out the channel markers, I've not found that to be the case...)



7) I believe you'll be on a 42' Catamaran?????
And, if so, you'll have a very nice beam reach the whole way.....and possibly a broad reach as you near Lake Worth......(depending on your exact departure time, and the wind-clocking....)


As for weather info....
That's easy....
NOAA-Weather Radio on VHF is good....
And, before you leave have a look at NWS-NOAA Marine Coastal Weather here....
South Marine Text Forecasts by Zone


Here's this week's Gulf Stream location info.....

Originally Posted by NOAA

THE APPROXIMATE LOCATION OF THE WEST WALL OF THE GULF STREAM
BASED ON SATELLITE DATA AS OF THURSDAY JANUARY 6 AT 11 AM...

47 NAUTICAL MILES EAST OF PONCE INLET.
31 NAUTICAL MILES EAST OF PORT CANAVERAL.
28 NAUTICAL MILES EAST OF SEBASTIAN INLET.
21 NAUTICAL MILES EAST OF FORT PIERCE INLET.
12 NAUTICAL MILES EAST OF SAINT LUCIE INLET.

THE APPROXIMATE LOCATION OF THE WEST WALL OF THE GULF STREAM AS OF JAN 07, 2011 AT 1200 UTC...

3 NAUTICAL MILES NORTHEAST OF FOWEY ROCKS.
11 NAUTICAL MILES SOUTHEAST OF PORT EVERGLADES.
12 NAUTICAL MILES EAST SOUTHEAST OF LAKE WORTH.
14 NAUTICAL MILES EAST SOUTHEAST OF JUPITER INLET.

THIS DATA COURTESY OF THE NAVAL OCEANOGRAPHIC OFFICE.

Flying along the Florida East coast, with a strong West wind is blast!!!
Seas are slight and the sailing is fantastic!!!
It's too bad you didn't leave yesterday!!!!

Although lighter winds (10-15kts), the wind forecast for Tues looks good....


Fair winds...

John
s/v Annie Laurie

[teejayevans]

I did have trouble picking up the lights, they are not exactly bright and do blend in a bit (at least when approaching from the south). IIRC, they are the smaller & dimmer LED types. Of course GPS helps a lot.
You could also jump from Ft Pierce to Bahamas if skipping west end and going past memory rock if that works out better for you.
Tom