… perhaps our version of March Madness. In any event, it’s been an interesting few days. After the calm, laid-back vibe of the Keys, we made our way out of the mangroves and into the madness. We waited in Boot Key Harbor for favorable winds for our journey north… and they never came. Problem was we’d made plans that had us committed to being in north Florida for visits with friends and family on a schedule. Finally, we couldn’t wait on the weather any longer. It’s not been awful. It’s still warm, we’ve still got plenty of sunshine. The winds are simply from the wrong direction for the direction we’re traveling. So much for trying out our new sail cover. And even when the winds (occasionally) have been in our favor, we’re deep in the land of restricted bridges. So, we motor on.
I’d posted before, during our journey south, about our decision to go outside (which had us motoring into south winds!) to bypass the madness that is the ICW between Ft Lauderdale and Miami, FL. With some wicked weather in the forecast, we would not have that option this time. So, inside/on the ICW it would be for a stretch.
We took two days to make our way from Boot Key to just south of Miami. Unfortunately our schedule for the next leg had us cruising through Miami on a Sunday, translate: lots of week-end powerboat yahoos on the water playing “lets wake the little guys”. Let me just say that cruising the ICW through south Florida was particularly jaw-dropping after having spent the better part of the last two months in the Florida Keys. South Florida, Miami, Lauderdale, Palm Beach… they might as well be a different planet. Don’t get me wrong, some of it was pretty in a non-nature kind of way. Then there were the monster yachts around every corner. Mostly, we spent a lot of time paying attention to the bridges.
Some of you will remember from earlier posts about bridges, that not all bridges are alike. Some are fixed/high, usually 65 feet or so, translate: not a problem for us. One along this stretch is a fixed bridge at only 56 feet, a show-stopper for most sailboats, but again, not for our 46′ so-called “air-draft”. A few of the lower bridges open “on request”. The vast majority however, 25 of the 34 bridges of our 3-day run to be specific, are “restricted”, meaning they open on their own schedule, which varies from bridge to bridge, and occasionally changes just to keep it interesting. For three days, we averaged a bridge about every 3 miles. Captain Mike and I made a pretty good team if I do say so myself. I spent my time checking and double-checking schedules, feeding him waypoint information for the chart-plotter, communicating with the bridge tenders to request openings and feeding us in my free time. Mike managed to pace us from bridge to bridge and keep us from blowing and drifting into bridges and other boats while we waited for not-always-prompt openings. Truth be told, it was actually kind of an enjoyable run, but I certainly wouldn’t want to do it every time we travel north/south. Been there, done that if you will.
It shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did, that we saw more mega-yachts these past few days than in all of our time on the water to date. I’m not talking about the cruise ships and cargo vessels. I’m talking about privately owned, sometimes available for charter mega-yachts. It’s also amazing how much info is available about them online for curious minds. We saw M/Y (motor-yacht) Starship, a 143′ monster with a helicopter on top… I’m not kidding; check out my photo below and some interior shots here. Available for charter. We had an up-close and personal experience with an 82′ vessel, M/Y Sveti Nikola, that entertained us with repeated attempts to anchor, yes anchor, in a way-too-small-for-its-size spot in the middle of us small craft. We’re thinking the massive stainless steel anchor they carried probably cost more than our whole boat… except that none of the 4 crew on board seemed to know how to set an anchor effectively. We watched them lower and raise and lower and raise said anchor about half a dozen times over several hours. We relaxed a bit when they finally moved from beside us to off our stern, meaning if they broke loose they at least wouldn’t cream us. They were underway just before us the following morning, but I’m thinking someone didn’t get much sleep on anchor watch. We also played leap frog with a couple of charter yachts, M/V Kathleen Windridge and M/V Windridge K, 142′ and 131′ respectively, the latter of which we think may have been piloted by a captain-in-training from the looks of it. We transited a number of bridges with these boats, watched them go broad-side to more than one bridge while waiting for openings, and later saw them leave Boca Raton with ritzy-looking parties going on aboard as they motored out of the harbor. Available for private charter, check them out here. I was also astounded at how many vessels carried Cayman Islands flags/hailing ports. I swear there was a whole marina full of such vessels in West Palm Beach. It seems that Tiger Woods’ M/Y Privacy which we saw in North Palm Beach is also CI-registered. But I’ll stop there…
We had a bit of excitement as we passed Lake Worth inlet when the waterway opened up a bit, winds were following, the current was incoming and whomper-wake sport-fishing boats AND marine patrol vessels were throwing little Cheshire all over the place. Suddenly, in the midst of all of that fun, our engine rpms got flakey, the engine stalled a couple of times… not fun. We managed to limp the few more miles into the anchorage at North Palm Beach where we were headed anyway, miraculously got the anchor set well and resumed breathing. After a bit of poking around, Mike’s theory/guess was that the rough ride had stirred up some crap from the bottom of our fuel tanks which was messing with our fuel pick-up. After a few phone calls, he managed to make arrangements to meet a couple of guys (the Tank-nicians) the next morning for a fuel-polishing, which looked to me kind of like a dialysis treatment for a diesel engine. Weird.
Thankfully all of that excitement didn’t interfere with our plans to spend a few hours with Captain Laurie, a friend from Oriental, NC who is now crewing on an 80′ motor yacht and just happened to be in North Palm Beach with some extra time on her hands when we passed through. She gave us a peek, actually a grand tour, of the vessel she’s tending to before we headed out for a fine meal ashore at Mondo’s. I can vouch for the Grilled Mahi with Gouda Mac n’ Cheese, very yum. Fun to catch up with Laurie as well who the following morning offered the oh-so-appreciated ride in a car to the grocery while Mike was assisting with Cheshire’s dialysis treatment. We still managed to get a few hours on the water yesterday afternoon, and at the end of a very bridge-ful few days, were rewarded with yet another amazing sunset… in the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge, with trees and wildlife, no condos, no mega-yachts. Nice.
So, we’re off again, working our way north on a schedule. Thankfully, the weather is due to turn around a bit in the days to come. Good thing, ’cause we’ve got some miles to cover. As always, stay tuned.
WOW – you guys live an exciting life. : )) The sunset pictures are gorgeous – I am looking forward to experiencing my own sunset. (Even though I feel a little bit bad that you guys couldn’t linger a little longer since you need to get back north to meet up with me. ) Tuesday night, PT spent a lot of time talking about my upcoming adventure with you — John, Pam & Mark gave me great suggestions as to what to take and not take. Very excited and looking forward to spending time with you. XOXOX, Elfi
Looking forward to having you aboard!
Looks like I need to get a bigger boat!
… or, just stay away from Miami and environs on week-ends.
[…] boat and tied up off my swim platform one night while we had drinks and then went out for dinner. Lori wrote a nice blog about their trip here. Check it out by clicking on Lori’s name above. […]
[…] in downtown Miami after a night offshore on a Saturday/weekend. Bad idea. Miami madness. Our second experience was several months later when we planned poorly and had to make an inside run on the ICW north […]