14 December 2020
Depart: Lake Worth Anchorage 9:35
Arrive: Pompeno Beach Private Dock 3:00
Distance: 31 nm
Conditions: Sunny, mostly clear skies, 70's
So that Clark, up at the bow, can have one hand to show me where the anchor line sits while he uses the anchor washdown wand with the other, he came up with new one-handed signals to communicate with me at the helm. As he illustrated the hand positions, I ended up laughing as he looked like he was all wrapped up in himself. Previously, he gave me directions that -indicated how to move the throttles to position the boat as needed to raise the anchor.
With the new directions, his signals directed me as to where the line sat requiring me to translate that into the appropriate throttle movement - a complete change. I did fine except when he pointed straight out to port. It took me a moment to remember that meant port in reverse and starboard forward. He was pleased with the results of our interaction, so I guess we will be using these new signals from now on.
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| Lake Worth Anchorage near Palm Beach, FL |
Being near Palm Beach, we passed a marina with a number of mega yachts. As we motored by the mega yacht "Aquarius", I looked up some information on its size and points of interest. The vessel is 302 feet long and 44 feet wide with a 13 foot draft. The tender is almost the size of our previous boat being 34 feet long. The tender has a garage on board Aquarius. Besides the usual features of a yacht, this one has an elevator, a helicopter pad, and a beauty salon.
To work on the radar tower on Aquarius, scaffolding had been built and two men were busy as we passed.
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| M/V "Aquarius" |
We also saw a vessel named "Quantum of Solace" which measured 240 feet long by 44 feet wide with a draft of 13 feet. If interested, this one is for sale at a mere $58 million.
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| M/V "Quantum of Solace" Valued at $58,000,000 |
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| No name visible on this mega yacht British ensign visible on stern |
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| Marina of Mega Yachts with tenders lined up on the dock |
We had two choices from this anchorage for today's travel -- ICW or Atlantic Ocean. Clark still felt unsure about the port engine and thus decided to take the ICW. As a result, today became "Bridge Day" today! We had numerous bridges to deal with today. Some were tall enough for us to pass, some we managed to squeeze under, one just happened to open when we got there, and a couple we had to call for an opening because they were too low for any but the puniest boat to pass under.
As we approached the Southern Boulevard Bridge, we had a hard time deciphering what we were looking at. Whatever it was, the chart showed a 14-foot clearance and we need around 22+. We would have to wait. The bridge opens at quarter to and quarter after the hour. We arrived at 10:18, so we floated around for 25 minutes waiting for the bridge to open.
The bridge turned out to be a lift bridge with a bridge-under-construction next to it - thus the confusion.
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| Bridge going up |
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| Bridge fully raised with Piece of new bridge sticking out |
At the Ocean Avenue Bridge, we saw we had a 21.5' vertical clearance, and that is just a tad less than we need to clear. We needed to lower the mast to get under. I went back to get in position to help Clark with the mast and found the line for the pulley to be tied up in a knotted mess. I struggled to untangle the line as the bridge got closer and closer. Altough I struggled with the line, Clark had already put the boat on auto pilot and started lowering the mast.
All too quickly, the knotted mess of line disappeared out of reach and out of sight over the edge of the hardtop on the boat where it jammed preventing the mast from coming down to rest in its normal spot. Clark said, "That's good enough!" and we ran back to steer the boat through the bridge. Thank goodness we only needed the mast part way down to clear the bridge! (No picture of this bridge as our hands were rather full at the time.)
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| Boynton Beach Tower |
Besides dealing with bridge after bridge after bridge, we dealt with "Idle Speed No Wake" for a large part of the trip. It was so bad that we got excited when we saw "Slow Speed Minimum Wake"!
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| Yet another "Idle Speed No Wake" sign |
Yet another bridge!
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| Low bridge, can't squeeze under that! |
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| Kayaks waiting for us to clear so they can go through bridge |
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| View passing through bridge - Closeup of bridge gears |
Since we traveled slowly, we did get to enjoy some Christmas decorations along the way!
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| Reindeer |
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| Santa! |
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| All out for Christmas |
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| including a Gingerbread House |
Mid-afternoon we arrived at our friend's home and tied up at his private dock for the night. As per usual with Steve, we sat on his patio and talked and talked and talked. When dinner time arrived, Steve suggested pizza, and we enthusiastically agreed. He ordered a Cheeseburger Pizza from Papa Johns. None of us had eaten that before so it was a new experience for us all. Fortunately, everyone seemed to enjoy it! Finally, around 9:00 pm, we decided that we should say goodnight / see you in the morning!
Clark announced that with the completion of today's trip on the inside to the Hillsboro Inlet, we have now officially traveled the entire length of the Atlantic ICW. Given we frequently travel on the ocean, that one leg on the inside was the last bit required to complete the picture.
15 December 2020
Depart: Pompeno Beach Private Dock 9:20
Arrive: Pumpkin Key Anchorage near Biscayne Bay 4:55
Distance: 61.5 nm
Conditions: Sunny, Calm Seas
When we dressed this morning, Clark and I both donned shorts for the first time in weeks. It has been way too cold even in Florida. I had gotten so used to wearing jeans that it felt weird to have my legs uncovered!
Before departing this morning, Steve invited Clark to his garage to see his inventory of Yanmar parts and decide if he wished to purchase any of them. Clark walked away with a box full. Now we just need to figure out where to store them on the boat!
Having seen enough bridges and slow-speed zones yesterday to last us a good long while, Clark decided to take the ocean route to Miami. The Hillsboro Inlet bridge opens every 15 minutes, so we did not have long to wait to get underway.
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| Hillsboro Inlet Bridge |
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| Sign says: "Hazardous Inlet - Local Knowledge Required" |
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| Looking up at open bridge |
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| Looking back as we continue on to the ocean |
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| Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse |
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| Red/White Inlet Marker - nary a ripple! |
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| View of coast near Fort Lauderdale - no waves! |
As we had smooth sailing on the ocean, we could hear chatter on the VHF radio. Bridges listen on channel 9 in Florida, and we still had that channel in our scan of stations. As we listened, a boater came on to call a bridge and requested a "courtesy" opening. He said that he was in the lead and had three boats traveling together. The third, a catamaran, had lost one engine.
Sea Tow of course was listening as well and jumped in to offer assistance. He got squashed real fast. "We don't need Sea Tow; we need bridge assistance!"
The spokesman begged the bridge tender to hold an opening as the catamaran fought the current. The bridge would normally open in about 2 minutes. The fleet of three could not get there in that amount of time and would need to float around for half an hour or more waiting for the next opening. Ultimately, the bridge tender agreed to delay opening for 2 minutes to give them more time to get there and then held it for them.
A few short minutes later, I heard the lead boat, S/V Gypsy Wind, call the next bridge with the same "song and dance". At that point, Clark decided to remove Channel 9 from our scan list, and thankfully we heard no more.
After that, we enjoyed a leisurely and peaceful cruise on the ocean until the port side engine alarm started blaring. Since that is the engine that we just worked on, we were both concerned. Clark hit the "clear" button a bit too quickly and lost the information on the reason for the alarm. Fortunately, or not (for my poor ears), the alarm was still sounding on the display unit below. I ran down and saw that the alarm was a routine maintenance alarm. Once he knew what it was, he could easily reset the maintenance clock. "Well", Clark said, "for once the maintenance alarm is in sync with maintenance since we just changed the oil and filters!"
The port engine is not the only piece of equipment on the boat that has been troublesome. The refrigerator has been acting up. When we had cold temperatures, the fridge did not complain. Today, with warmer temps, it decided to generate a burning smell. We noticed it before on hot days. Now it was back again.
When Clark investigated the burning smell, he found it coming from under the fridge. A fan that is supposed to cool the motor had stopped spinning. He took a flashlight to see and a metal tape measure to reach under the fridge and so poked at the fan to see if he could get the blades to spin. He did get them going! He left that fan spinning and added an exhaust fan to help cool things down. He added "buy new fridge parts" to his "to do" list for arrival at Faro Blanco.
As we approached Miami, I wondered if any of the cruise ships we saw in May would still be around. I figured with a busy hurricane season that most, if not all, would have been moved somewhere safe. We did manage to see one owned by a French company anchored offshore.
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| Cruise Ship Company MSC |
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| Cruise Ship "Meraviglia" 1037' long, 171' wide, 28' draft |
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| Miami |
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| More Miami |
After exiting the ocean and while traveling through Miami waters, we saw ...
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| Tall building with a "spaceship" on top (Naturally, to Clark, it looked like a giant stereo speaker.) |
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| Side view of "spaceship" building |
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| Pink and blue skyrise |
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| "Eagle" Ferry |
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| "Heron" Ferry |
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| Work boat |
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| Huge Fenders and Lots of Containers waiting for container ships to come |
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| Port of Miami Container ship loading docks |
Compared to some other times through here, we had minimal boat traffic. Very quickly we were on to Biscayne Bay where we spotted some folks having a fun time.
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| Parasailing with Miami in background |
Having traveled 30 nm and reached Miami, we were only halfway through today's voyage. We still had another 30 nm to go. We did some calculations and wondered if we would arrive at our destination of choice before or after the sun went down. We finally got there just before 5:00. Clark grabbed the camera at sunset for the obligatory sunset picture.
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| Sunset at Pumpkin Key anchorage |
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