Down to Fort Lauderdale

The end of the year brought the end of our time in Fort Pierce.  On Thursday, December 31st, we said our goodbyes and lifted our dock lines from their cleats.  We were bound for Fort Lauderdale, to wait out a weather window to cross over to The Bahamas.  BTW, it is The Bahamas; it's official.

We chose to go south through the ICW, the Intracoastal Waterway.  Why?  Well, we have never done it before.  It's protected.  We will see how people live along the way.  We ignored the advice of our pilot guide that advised against cruising this section of the ICW on weekends.  It was time to go.  Yes, the weekend was coming, New Year's Day Weekend.

Our first leg took us to, arguably, the nicest anchorage of the South Florida ICW, Peck Lake.  The bottom had good holding.  The anchorage had room for dozens of boats (which it had).  But, its charm is the short walk to the Atlantic.  The beach is part of the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge.  It is the longest stretch of undeveloped beachfront is South Florida.  We spent two nights here, so we could have a day poking around.  We had a manatee off the stern our first night.  After dinner, I dipped a pan into the water and someone thought I was feeding him.  It jumped up and I jumped back.

 

Leg two, Saturday, January 2nd, took us to Lake Worth and introduced us to weekend travel through densely populated South Florida.  In our wake were the wide waters and green banks of the Indian River.  We were now in a narrow waterway running through residential neighborhoods, commercial districts and ocean ports.  We were constantly maneuvering around other boats.  Our anchorage on Lake Worth was in North Palm Beach.  We had a comfortable night surrounded by the city's lights.

 Sunday, January 3rd, a day from hell on the concrete canal.

Imagine:

•  50 foot wide channel enclosed by concrete walls
  
•  no speed limit
•  25 to 30 foot speed boats coming ahead and behind, doing 25-30 knots
•  30 to 40 foot speed boats slaloming between all other boats at 30-40 knots
•  waves ricocheting off waves, off boats, off the sea wall
•  us rolling through 30 degrees on each side

Now I know we’re ready for the Gulf Stream.

 

We did get a nice view Mar-a-Lago.  Big US flag.  Fortunately, tRump had flown back to DC the previous night, so we didn't have to deal with added security on the ICW.  I suspect he had calls to Georgia election officials to make.

 

We reached our calm anchorage for the evening, Pelican Harbor.  This "harbor" is a pond, large enough for 2 or 3 boats, surrounded by high-end, make that Florida high-end homes.  Anchoring there is a bit like driving your RV to the nicest part of town and parking it in someone's back yard.

Civility on the water returned on Monday, January 4th, as we completed our trip to the Venice of America, Fort Lauderdale.  This segment was all about the brides.  Dozens of bridges.  Tactician Francine calculated distance between bridges and time between openings to set our cruise speed.  "Hello [bridge x], this is sailing vessel Hiatus checking in for your next scheduled opening."  After passing under, "Bridge, Hiatus is clear.  Have a good day and good new year."  "You, to Hiatus."  With each passing mile (statutory on the ICW, not nautical) we moved deeper through the wealth of South Florida.