8 Jun 13

Well, another fine adventure under our belts.

We left Ft. Lauderdale at 06:00 with the plan of getting to Lake Worth by 14:00 before the daily afternoon T-storms set in. Once out of Lauderdale and 2 miles offshore, we picked up a 3 - 4 knot following current; we were making 11.4 knots SOG for a while, motor-sailing. About 09:30, we got surrounded by rain and T-storms, thunder and lightning all round. We shut off all electronics and steered the old-fashioned way - by hand using the binnacle compass; yes, we are still paranoid about thunder and lightning. We were watching the weather radar on Terri's iPad and it showed a string of T-storms centered over Lake Worth moving slowly NE. No way to go around, although we considered going on to Ft. Pierce, which is only 4 hours away at 11 knots, and no way to get into Lake Worth without heading into the lion's den. We also considered going back to Ft. Lauderdale, but that would have taken all day with the 4 knot north setting current, and I hate to back-track. At 10:30 I turned instruments back on and turned for Lake Worth inlet, then 3 nm, bearing 340 deg T. Terri threw a dram of whiskey into the sky to try to assuage Neptune and Thor. We had 4 knots of north setting current until we got past the jetties; we went into the channel at 2100 rpm and heading 45 degrees higher than our COG (i.e., we entered the harbor following the leading lights pretty much sideways). Then, once we got into the harbor, it really started to rain and the wind gusted up to 30+ and thunder and lightning increased in intensity and proximity; not good. But, we found the marina and got in OK and tied up at 11:40, without further incident. 47 miles in 5.6 hours. I'm having a beer for brunch to slow my heart rate down.

We are hoping for a "no drama" leg tomorrow.