It’s Thursday morning and we are anchored in North Lake Worth, a long open part of the ICW that spans the “Beaches”. That would be West Palm Beach, Palm Beach etc. The anchorage, unlike so many others in FL is quite open with room for many boats. Lake Worth inlet is about 3.5mi south of here and it’s a very popular jumping off spot for folks heading over to the Abacos, the northern Bahamas.
Yesterday we headed out of the Ft Pierce inlet and ran down the 50 miles from there to the Lake Worth inlet on the ocean side. We had a bit more wind than we wanted, topping out at over 20kts, and the seas were pretty big, although on our stern. Pandora handled it very well but Brenda was less than enthusiastic about the rough ride, as you can imagine. And, it was also pretty cool, in the low 60s. Before you Northerners get all uppity with comments like, “Bob, you don’t know cold! How about 30” of snow and 20 degrees?”, don’t forget that it’s supposed to be WARM here and to sit out in the wind all day in the low 60s can get a bit chilly.
OK, OK, so I am getting soft. However, don’t go feeling too sorry for us as today it’s supposed to be in the low 70s and warmer than that in the next few days.
Our plan is to hang out here for a few days and then to head further down, likely on the ICW, not outside, to Boca Raton and then on to Ft Lauderdale. This part of the ICW is very pretty, if jammed with bridges, sometimes every mile that only open on their schedule. And, don’t be even a minute late or you have to wait another half hour or hour for the next opening. If you can keep up a steady 7kts between bridges, the openings are supposed to be timed so you can make all of them with a minimum of delays. Well, that’s the theory anyway.
The homes along this part of the ICW, known as “The Gold Coast” are huge with each one bigger than the last. I always wonder if some, or most, are paid for with “Ill gotten gains”. As most of these are probably second homes, I can only imagine with their “real house” looks like.
The simple way to avoid the delays of all the bridges is to head back out of the Lake Worth inlet and make a short 30 mile run down to Lauderdale in the ocean. However, we really enjoy Boca Raton, which is about half way from Lake Worth to Ft Lauderdale, as there is a particularly good anchorage and would like to spend a few days there. Alas, life is full of compromises when you are Snow Birds.
Anyway, today I am planning to do a bit of exploring ashore and Brenda’s going to catch up on her weaving. She’s working on a small, if challenging, piece that has an early March deadline and she hasn’t made much progress so far. Weaving involves a lot of trial and error to get the image right. As a result, she weaves and then un-weaves often which makes for sloooow progress.
Friday we will be meeting up with old friends Linda and Richard who live in West Palm Beach. In a previous life I worked with Linda and it’s always nice to see them when we are on our way through the area.
Yesterday’s run was quite a romp and a few times our speed, as we surfed down the face of a wave, topped out at a bit over 9kts. That’s pretty fast. Brenda spent much of the day down below as it was pretty cold up on deck. I saw a couple of dolphins near the bow and at one point I saw an enormous sea turtle. Unfortunately, my camera was down below and as we were going so fast, he was gone in the blink of an eye. I would estimate that he was about 4.5’ long and his head was as large as a cantaloupe. A pretty amazing sight.
It’s going to be a beautiful if somewhat overcast day here with temperatures to be in the low 70s. What a dramatic sunrise we enjoyed a short time ago.
A great way to get the day started for a couple of aging snowbirds hanging out at the “Beaches” here in sort of sunny Florida.