Saturday 4 April 2020
Underway from our anchorage in a wide spread of water at
0720 hoping to make about 76 miles today toward Jupiter. The winds were light to naught last night
affording us a very quiet night of rest.
I was curious to see what this day would bring in the way of aquatic activities
because a friend told me the governor had ordered all Florida waters closed to
boating and fishing. Apparently no such
order was given because the first big boat ramp parking lot we saw was full of
empty trailers, and there seem to be plenty of fishermen about, I have seen an official order by the
Freshwater Fish and Game Commission, the overseer of the Florida Marine Patrol
restricting the number of people allowed on any vessel (ten) and the further
restriction of vessels being no closer that fifty feet to each other (excepting
marinas).With us in the long straight waterways of Florida’s Atlantic coast and heading south every day, I have
happened upon a novel sun screen economy measure. Up to about 0900 the sun streams strongly in
the port side windows of the pilothouse onto my left arm and left side of my
face while I am at the helm. So I apply
sun screen to those areas and swap sides in the afternoon. With a prolonged period of no contact with
shore facilities facing us as we try to avoid contact with Miami area residents
and the fact that all marinas there and south into the Keys are closed we have
been watching our water use carefully because we only have a 150-gallon tank –
by comparison our much smaller Calypso carried 240 gallons. After three days, we have consumed only 25
percent of our supply; so we are confident that filling up in Fort Lauderdale at
a marina which has given us an overnight reservation will possibly see us
through the rest of the trip if we do not get stuck somewhere due to mechanical
or weather issues. Today saw us cruising
sedately by Sebastian Inlet, some interesting homes along a stretch of twisty waterway
at Wabasso and Winter Beach, Vero Beach, St Lucie Inlet and down into Hobe
Sound where after 73 miles we anchored.
Despite the corona virus warnings to stay home and isolated we saw many
Saturday boaters (many younger adults) out on the water packed shoulder to
shoulder with their friends on fast boats.
I guess they figure they cannot transmit the disease in the open air,
DUH. Tomorrow we will wend our way to
Fort Lauderdale where we will enter a marina and stock up un water before
getting down into Miami where we will anchor in preparation for a pre-dawn
underway time in order to travel the 94 miles at sea in the Hawk Channel
outside the Keys to arrive at Channel five before darkness. We did run across some familiar faces, err, fins along the way.
