Staging for the Crossing to Freeport

We are up bright and early to untangle the line from the mooring ball here at Stuart. Ekotopia has left slightly ahead of us, headed in the same direction - south! The only minor disaster: my brand new camera has stopped working. There is an error message, and the call I made last night to the Canon support line has not given me any promising news. The camera will need to be returned for repair. I feel a little sick about this, but there is very little I can do now.
The trip to Lake Worth is reasonable uneventful, other than the inconsiderate sport fisherman in "The Big Wahoo". They came up behind us at full throttle to pass in the very narrow and quite shallow part of the exit from Stuart. Blair tried to get his attention to slow down, but he would have none of that. So, Blair did the only thing he could: he turned our boat directly in to the path of the oncoming boat to force him to slow down. It was a little exhilarating watching The Big Wahoo slam to a near stop. He wasted little time passing us and powered back up ahead of us. The wake he left was a little scary and we did manage to bump the bottom. The worst part is that these powerboats stir up the bottom so much that we are unable to get any kind of reading as to the depth of the water beneath us until they have long passed us and the wake settles down.
The biggest surprise along the way was hearing from Gary and Lina on Rum Line II. They have been stranded in St. Augustine (shudder!!) since American Thanksgiving having a new engine installed. But they are finally underway and bound for Lake Worth as well. We will meet them there and do the Gulf Stream crossing to Port Lucaya together.
We motorsail through West Palm Beach and try to guess where Tiger Woods yacht might be anchored - in the area somewhere close by, but alas, we don't spot it as we pass through. We wind our way around Peanut Island where we drop the anchor - our temporary home until the magic moment arrives for our window to cross the Gulf Stream. We will leave at around dusk to ensure our arrival at first light in Port Lucaya. We meet a nice couple on s/v Blue Rhapsody - Greg and Luba - parked off our stern. We all share a lunch at the marina close by - they are headed to Georgetown where we hope to catch up with them once we arrive there.
Over the weekend, Blair makes a repair to the dinghy - the elusive slow leak which he manages to track down. Gary and Lina on Rum Line II have stopped at a dock to deal with a generator issue that sounds serious. But nothing seems to get in their way this time to get underway, so they make their plans to meet us behind Peanut Island for the grand exit - scheduled for Tuesday at dusk.
Some Interesting Facts about Peanut Island:
All of Peanut Island continues to be developed as a park and environmental restoration project. It is very popular locally and is usually surrounded with many small boats anchored all around, especially on weekends. Island facilities now include picnic shelters and facilities now include picnic shelters and restrooms. There are kayaking lagoons and scenic outlooks. Native vegetation has replaced the causarina trees (Australian pines)overgrowing the island. The former Coast Guard Station and the JFK Bomb Shelter are now part of the Palm Beach Maritime Museum.
Some Interesting Facts about Lake Worth Inlet:
Lake Worth Inlet is a wide, well-marked, jettied and deep straight forward ship channel that is one of the easiest to enter on the Atlantic Coast. The meandering Gulf Stream is closer here than at any point in the United States (sometimes as close as a mile offshore, but usually out about 12 miles), and both commercial and recreational craft give the inlet heavy use. It is a favourite point of departure for boats bound to and from the Bahamas.