11-21-11 thru 11-26-11
Up and getting ready to leave. Its Jason’s birthday and we hope he has a good one. We got water at the marina then pulled out about 7:30. We can see dark clouds behind us and hope the bad weather stays away from us.
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| Stormy clouds behind us. |
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| We got to Peck Lake and anchored at 2 pm. |
We circled around the area to check out the depths for future anchoring. The name Peck Lake is deceiving, since it’s just a wide place off the ICW. But it does have a pretty beach and the ocean is just a little hike away. We keep seeing a ferry coming and going and wonder what is on the mainland. We hope we have good night and not too buggy. Skipper Bob says its “buggy”. If so we will close the doors and hope for a cool night. We can hear the snapping shrimp again. We have heard a few at other places, but they are louder here, I guess there are more in the warmer water. The island we are anchored near is not very wide and we can hear the waves breaking on shore on the other side. We both thought it was the wind at first, but when we checked, the wind was quiet.
We left Peck Lake about 6:45, it was a beautiful morning.
We got to the Lake Worth Inlet and anchored around 10:45. This is a busy inlet with a big turning basin. We had an easy day of travel and we glad to get here and get settled in early. Rocking B had gone outside from Fort Pierce and got there about 2 pm. We went for a dinghy ride with them to stretch our legs. The water is a beautiful blue-green color. It was so clear that we could see jellyfish swimming by.
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| Jellyfish |
We talked with Ken and Margaret about plans for the next day. The next part of the trip will be very slow since there are 20 bridges. We can go under 10 of them with no problem, but the rest have to be raised. A few of those are on demand which means they will open them when we ask them too, but the others are going to be a problem. Some open on the hour and half-hour, some open every 20 minutes, and some open on the quarter to and quarter after. It would be a major undertaking to make all the bridges in a timely manner without either wasting a lot of fuel getting there or wasting a lot of time waiting for the opening. We talked to Rocking B and they are definitely going out since they have to have all the bridges opened for them. We checked the weather and looked at the outside route and decided to go outside too. It will be a long day since we plan to come in at Miami.
Up and moving in the dark on 11-23-11. We pulled up anchor and were on the way by 5:30 and yes it is dark. Once we got to the inlet it was lit up like a runway so we had no problems. The weather called for 2-3 foot waves at 4 seconds apart in the morning and changing to 10 seconds later in the day. We went out to the sea buoy and turned south. We stayed closer to shore on this trip. When we went outside at Port Royal Sound, we were sometimes 29 miles off shore since the water is so shallow in some places. The water gets deep quick here so we were about ½ mile off shore most of the time. The waves were ok, but it was bouncy when we went downstairs. We actually picked up some speed from the cross currents off the Gulf Stream. We had planned to be on the water for about nine hours, but got to Miami and were anchored around 2 pm.
We came into a big busy area. We were lucky; as soon as we entered the inlet we took a shortcut to the Venetian Causeway and our anchorage. Rocking B had to go a different way since they were too tall for the 35 foot bridge.
We are very close to the area that the cruise ships dock at and can see them across the waterway.
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| Miami skyline |
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| Miami wildlife |
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| They were as curious about us as we were about them. |
The area we are in is beautiful, with big expensive houses and great scenery. There is one island called Star Island, where, yes you guessed it, the stars live. We went for a dinghy ride with Ken and Margaret and she kept telling us who lived on the island, but we weren’t sure who lived where. Stallone, Shaq, and I don’t remember who else.
We celebrated Turkey-day in Miami. It was 80 degrees, blue sky, fluffy white clouds, and gentle breeze. We said if we can’t be with our families, then Miamii is the place to be. We listened to Christmas music from the house we were anchored near all day long. They had a catered meal outside and I am sure they were not happy to see us in their waterway. But it’s a free world and they don’t own the water.
Margaret and I had bought supplies for the meal and it was great. We had turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and red velvet cupcakes for dessert. We all were stuffed. It’s a good thing we brought our fixings, because the grocery store was closed on Thursday.
Shay and I were working on the blog on Friday and he said the boat wasn’t “swinging” right so he went outside to see what was wrong. The walked to the front of the boat and looked down at the anchor chain. It was wrapped around a sunken sailboat.
It was about 3 feet under water and did not have a mast. He called Ken and asked him to come over and give some advice. We cranked up and started pulling up the anchor and the sailboat started to move. We stopped, moved the boat around and pulled up again. Thank goodness, the chain came up with no problems. We decided to move and anchored in front of Rocking B.
Shay called the Coast Guard and told them about it and asked what they would do. They said they would make an “announcement to mariners” to tell them about the hazard. Shay asked if they would move it or put at caution marker up. No… just make the announcement a few times and that’s it. Well, we decided to post a caution on Active Captain, an interactive cruising guide that we use. It lets you post up to date information about marinas, anchorages, local information, and cautions. We also put a jug with a weight on it over the boat to warn others. Maybe one of these will keep someone else from getting wrapped around it like we did.
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