Scott here. What is 58a? Read on I will explain!

After a good 2-3 hours of sleep at Bimini we decided to leave. We could have stayed in Bimini a little longer but we were having some comfort of home issues and just wanted to get back to start the process of getting stuff fixed. And, Rita is flying back to WI for a month and we wanted to get those plans set and plane tickets purchased.

It was rolly the entire way, but that was expected. We changed our plans and decided to go to Fort Lauderdale instead of West Palm Beach. At one point we thought we might go north and turned in the direction of West Palm Beach, it didn’t take but 1 minute for us to decide we didn’t want to pound through the waves for 3 hours. Fort Lauderdale it is!!

We saw a very cool helicopter circle us a few times out in international waters. With some help we decided it was a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk. Once we were within 3 miles of land, in USA waters, we were stopped and eventually boarded by US Customs and Border Patrol. We had two people board us. One with Rita in the helm and one with me down below looking at our paperwork and searching below.

I know some people get upset with getting boarded by law enforcement with no reasonable suspicion or probable cause. Personally, I think it is great as long as they are arresting people that need to be arrested. We didn’t need to be arrested so we were released after less than 15 minutes. Rita loved operating the boat while trying to stay down swell while they boarded. NOT!

Here is our plan and actual

Plan & ACTUAL
Date: February 15, 2024
Start at: 9:00 am ACTUAL 8:50 am
End at: 4:00 pm ACTUAL 3:15 pm
Total Time: 7 hours (6:37 travel time plus time to anchor and no wake zones)
Distance: 59.6 miles ACTUAL 59.9

We dropped anchor in a very crowded anchorage called New River Sound. We didn’t think it would be a problem with all the boats moving together as needed, plus the wind would be less than 10 mph and even less here being protected by the buildings.

It was an early night, but we were woken up at 10 pm by our neighbor. It seemed like the two small sailboats near us didn’t swing like everyone else was swinging and we were WAY to close to them. Well crap!!

We only had 40′ of anchor rode out, but if the boats are not swinging the same that won’t work and both of us need some sleep! Anchor up and look for a different spot.

Travel Day 58a – We tried to drop anchor in one place, but it didn’t catch. Well, time to head up to the next anchorage we thought about, but at that time we decided against, since according to the reviews, there was nowhere to take Jazzy for a walk.

It’s dark with limited options and there was room in this anchorage so we dropped the hook. I actually slept in the helm as I was a little paranoid now, even though we had more room. Didn’t matter, I slept like a rock until just before sunrise when my alarm went off. Rita and I drop the dinghy at 6:15 am to see if we could find a spot to take Jazzy for a walk. There wasn’t one. So we pulled anchor and left. But, that is a story for travel day #59!

Travel day #58a put another 2.0 miles on the days travels and 49 minutes. That is the story of #58a! LOL!