Inlets south of St Lucie
 

On Apr 7, 11:14*pm, Frogwatch wrote:
On Apr 7, 9:51*pm, Wayne.B wrote:



On Wed, 07 Apr 2010 21:08:53 -0400, wrote:
The real problem is getting the right weather
window for the crossing so you don't get the stuffing beat out of you,
the crew, and the boat. * People who get it wrong have *many* stories
to tell and none of them are good.

Most of them show un in Bermuda Triangle legends

Oh, I've met a few close to where we live and the wave height
estimates get higher with every telling.

We have run into some "interesting" current driven wave conditions
down here in the Caribbean between the islands. * The wind mostly
blows strong out of the east every day so that is predictable, but the
current depends on the state of the tide, and exactly where you are in
the cut. * Current can be with the wind at the beginning of the
passage and then reverse and swirl around only a short distance away.
Wave heights can be 2 or 3 feet with wind and current in the same
direction, and then within a mile be 6 to 10 feet and breaking. *You
can see it up ahead and mentally brace youself. *The good news is that
the islands are mostly within ten to twenty miles of each other.

Wayne: *I regret not being able to take advantage of your offer of
dockage but I passed Cape Coral too early in the afternoon to stop.
"Over analyzing"? *Well, isn't that what a physicist/engineer is
supposed to do, it is all fun. *I'll probably do the conventional
thing and leave from Lake Worth inlet for West End although the Berry
Islands are still an option.

I read somewhere about going out Lake Worth inlet and heading south
for two hours before heading toward West End to account for the
current.

Inlets south of St Lucie
 

wrote in message
...
On Wed, 07 Apr 2010 20:56:10 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Tue, 6 Apr 2010 19:50:46 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote:

Can anybody provide any useful info on inlets south of Saint Lucie for
a 28' sailboat with 13 hp engine? What about Jupiter inlet? What
about Hillsboro inlet? If Hillsboro inlet is ok, it would be good to
use it to get to West End because it lies enough south of West End to
be able to use a SE wind AND the Gulf Stream current to good effect.
Sailing direct from Lake Worth Inlet which is what most people do
would involve fighting the Gulf Stream.

Unless you leave from the Florida Keys, which is what we usually do,
you will be "fighting the stream" to some extent regardless of your
point of departure. For what it's worth, no pun intended, most
sailboats leave from Lake Worth inlet at Palm Beach and check in at
West End. Throw in a 20 or 30 degree offset to the south as soon as
you leave the inlet and then make a mid-course correction about
halfway through the stream depending on how you've done so far. You
are over analyzing. The real problem is getting the right weather
window for the crossing so you don't get the stuffing beat out of you,
the crew, and the boat. People who get it wrong have *many* stories
to tell and none of them are good.


Most of them show un in Bermuda Triangle legends

I know a couple and have read on the NGs about others who ignore "winds with
an N" and advice about going to the Bahamas during hurricane season.
This seems to describe them pretty well:

"There are three kinds of men in the world: those that learn by reading,
some that learn by observation, and then we have the ones that have to pee
on the electric fence themselves to figure out it's not a good idea."