Change in Plans

Day 11: April 5, 2014

We had an interesting night.  Sleeping on a boat, you develop a feel for what is normal and what is a deviation from that norm.  We sleep through rocking caused by waves and noises caused by wind in the rigging, but if there is even the slightest change in the pattern, we both awaken quickly.  That was the case last night when, at round 3:00, the boat rocked is a bit of a different way.  We both

Our closest neighbor at Peanut Island Harbor

woke up but did not respond because we assumed that the boat was rocked by another boat passing by.  However, we soon became aware that that rocking did not stop. Our boat was pointed at a different angle than the boats around us.  I went out into the cockpit and realized that Damn Dink had her painter ( the line tied to the bow securing her to our boat) wrapped around a mooring ball and the tidal currents were dragging us sideways.  Luckily, it was an easy fix and we were soon back to sleep.

Over coffee at around 7:30, we began analyzing our situation regarding time and destinations.  We have at this point lost 10 days of our 30 and we have yet to leave

the ICW.  We studied the wind and weather charts and it did not look favorable for a crossing for the foreseeable future.  We discussed the fact that if we indeed got out to the Bahamas, we would immediately need to be look for that window to return.  We have a hard deadline date of April 24 that we need to have Second Wind on the trailer so that we can catch a flight to St. Johns on April 25.  So, considering all of this information, we decided that we must realistically choose an alternative plan. 

One of the things that we wanted for this trip is to do some skin diving and the diving off of Key Largo is some of the best around so the decision was made to head south and plan for the Bahamas sometime when we have an open ended schedule.



An ocean buoy to prove we were out there.
note the calm waters



We piddled around the boat until 11:00 before heading out.  The winds were light and I was curious what the ocean looked like after 6 or 8 hours of lighter wind so we headed back through Lake Worth Inlet out into the big water.  And to my surprise, the waves were down and the water was quite passable. We headed back to the ICW and I suggested that we reevaluate the forecasts and maybe make the jump today.  But then, I revisited our earlier rationalizations and decided to continue on south to Key Largo.

Janine scoured the tour guide books for potential anchorages and came up with one about 25 miles south of our starting location.  Since it was already near noon, 25 miles would be a good distance for the first day on our southerly trek.  One huge obstacle, it turns out, was getting through the many bridges that stand as barriers to transit of the ICW.  Originally, most of them opened on a “On Demand” basis, however, over recent years, most have set a time schedule such as every ½ hour or every quarter with a once an hour thrown in.  We passed through 11 bridges between Palm Beach and our anchorage in Delray Beach and most of them required a wait of up to 30 minutes before we could get through.  Of that bunch,



Having lunch waiting for a bridge
in front of the Biltmore

only 2 were on demand.  As we approached the very last bridge before the anchorage, we called to inquire about the next opening and he said that it was at 6:30 and the next one after that was at 7:00.  He added that he would open it at 6:30 only if we were standing at the entrance when that time arrived.  I looked at my watch and it was 6:25 and we were probably ¾ of a mile away.  I cranked up the motor to full bore and we roared along at 5.8 mph and arrived fairly close to his entrance at 6:30 and luckily he assumed that we were close enough to be awarded an opening.

We encountered all different types of personalities in the bridge tenders.  One gal

Briny Breezes/15th Street Bridge Boynton Beach FL

was really chatty and chastised power boaters who passed  us making large wakes and another she warned to slow down because she had two sailing vessels awaiting passage.  Other tenders would not respond even to the “thank you call” that we routinely made after our passages.

We finally left the long Lake Worth probably 10 or 15 miles from Delray Beach.  On that last part of the trip, the Water Way became narrow and lined with either concrete shore walls beside the miles of condominiums and homes or rock walls put up to hold the canal in check.  Our tour book called this stretch of the Water Way “Hot Dog Alley” in recognition of the inconsiderate boaters who scream past in their high-powered boats shaking your teeth and threatening to shove you into the wall.

They even abandon power boats



Delray Beach is a beautiful passage with elegant homes lining the narrow Way on both sides.  This area is nice because they enforce a “No Wake” policy so it is smooth cruising through the entire city.  It is week end and there are a lot of boats and jet skiis around so this area was a welcome relief from the screamers. 

Our selected anchorage (and the only one for miles) is a small round pond called Bel Marra located just off of the Waterway.  It is probably 200 yards in diameter, completely lined with homes and condos in the heart of Delray Beach.  We arrived shortly after 6:00 and were pleasantly surprised to find not another boat anchored there.  I was worried that since we were so late getting there that we might have no room to drop our hook.  We really had no other options. 

So, we anchored in more or less the middle of the pond, fired up the grill and had a wonderful NY strip steak and garlic mashed potatoes and a cold Killians to end this day.  We were tired and sleep came easily.