Sunday 5 April 2020
Today was busy on the water as more and more people woke up
and realized is was Sunday, and they needed to get out on their boats since
most other activities are restricted in one way or another by the anti-corona
virus measures taken by government. It
was nice and peaceful in Hobe Sound as I got the boat underway from a quiet
anchorage while Mary went through her waking up process after I let her sleep
in knowing I did not need River and then Lake Worth Creek dumping us into Lake
Worth around North Palm Beach. The lake
was broad and easy to follow the channel through eventually leading us to West
Palm Beach where we waited for a lift bridge go up. To our east as we waited was Mar-a-lago,
President Trump’s weekend getaway resort.
Next we went by Lake Worth Inlet and followed along more of the lake
until it petered out into a narrow canal in Boynton Beach where we saw many
elderly retirees sitting along the waterway banks in front of the many housing
complexes they must have bought into a long time ago. The buildings were clearly of an earlier era
and well below the opulence we saw farther north and later south of there in
the Lauderdale area. Then we passed
Boynton Inlet. I might explain that
inlets have a dramatic effect on the speed we make because depending on whether
we were north or south of an inlet incoming tides (flood) would push against us
or push us along – same effect, only in the other direction for ebb tides. We would find ourselves making 9-10 MPH (a
most welcome speed for this slow heavy vessel) over the ground as we neared an
inlet with a heavy ebb current sucking the water out of the AICW, and as soon
as we crossed the inlet, we were down to 5-6 MPH fighting against the water
flowing to the inlet. About halfway
between the inlet we had passed and the one we were approaching the current
would be light and variable. It made
predicting when we might arrive at our day’s destination a bit iffy. Then there were the bridges. As we got farther, more Sunday boaters showed
up on the water and more bridges were too low for us to slide under with our
mast lowered to get us down to an air draft of 17.5 feet. As we with our large and unwieldy bulk came
to a stop a few hundred yards from the bridge, the current usually seemed to be
from astern required us to back the engine to keep from being swept into the
bridge. This action usually ended up
putting us at quite an angle to the channel somewhat blocking all the smaller
boats which could get under the span.
Being impatient as most folks in speed boats tend to be, they squirted
around us on either end leaving me no options about placing our engine in gear
to turn the boat either toward the bridge or away from it in order to go back a
ways to get in a better position to run through the bridge whenever it
opened. One time when we were getting too close to the bridge, I
just engaged the noisy bow thruster in high speed to get our bow around while
putting the engine in forward gear with the rudder thrown hard left and let the
smaller craft scatter and save themselves as best they could. We all lived.
Somewhere in all this boat dodging and bridge waiting, we went by Boca
Raton Inlet, and Hillsborough inlet slid by too. We ogled at the massive homes and guessed at
why boats were named what they were and even used Zillow on Mary’s phone to
check out some homes with for sale signs.
We saw them for sale for 19-40 million.
Eventually, we arrived at the only marina in Fort Lauderdale willing to
take in a wayward transient boat, Hall of Fame Marina. The swimming hall of fame in located on the
marina grounds, or vice versa; thus the name.
The reason we stopped here was because we needed to replenish our water,
and Mary wanted to catch up on laundry.
She does a load, and I go out and put the water hose into the tank fill;
wash and repeat. If I don’t keep up with
her, she will drain the tank and cause problems with the pump running dry and the
water heater being empty. Tomorrow we
will get up late and wander down to an anchorage near the cruise ship terminals
in Miami so that we will not have any contact with shore there. After going to the marina office to sign in
and then next door to order take-out food from a restaurant, I came back to the
boat and stripped and took a shower before eating my dinner. From the Miami anchorage, we can easily exit
Miami early on Tuesday morning to run the 94 miles to Channel Five where we
pass through the Keys into Florida Bay, as previously mentioned. The weather will likely not be perfect for
this open water passage, but hopefully it will not be so rough we have to turn
around and return to anchorage. We need
to make the several day run to the west coast of Florida while our water supply
is in good shape.
