The Fountainbleau (SP?) Hotel in Palm Beach\
After Vero Beach Tthe plan was to make our next overnight at Peck Lake--just south of Port St. Lucie and then make another overnight on the hook somewhere around Palm Beach before heading to our intermediate destination, Ft. Lauderdale. We did spend the night at Peck Lake. This is just a wide spot off the ICW just south of St. Lucie inlet. Diane had been reading about it for some time and we had passed it last year on our way north. Despite the anchorage being quite crowded with "day trippers" and the wind howling at 25 mph and higher, we managed to find a spot to drop the anchor and she held well through the night. We witnessed one mishap--about an hour after a boat arrived it started to drag its anchor and there were several of us on our decks yelling and radioing and sounding the horns to get the guys attention--he was inside, probably taking a nap (or something else) and was completely oblivious to the fact that his boat had dragged at least 200 yards and right between (fortunately) 2 sail boats that were anchored behind him:
The distinctive thing about Peck Lake is that it is the only anchorage on the entire east coast of Florida, on the ICW, where you can anchor, dinghy over to shore and have a short (100 yards) walk to the beach on the Atlantic Ocean. This is why the Admiral insisted that we park here rather than head into a marina and out of the winds and quite uncomfortable wakes from passing boats in the ICW (we were anchored only a couple hundred yards off the main ICW channel--quite bouncy until traffic began to diminish in early evening.
As I said, the plan was to make another overnight stop before heading into Ft. Lauderdale (F.L. from now on as Ft. Lauderdale is too much to have to repeatedly type for a 2 finger typist), but we made such good time the next day that we ended up going straight to FL arriving at the Coral Ridge Yacht Club at 6 PM. Whether or not we would be able to make this 70 mile jaunt was uncertain because of the number of bridges that we would encounter. There were 26 altogether--only one was a major highway bridge at 65 ft. The rest were drawbridges at 25 feet or shorter (officially--Bascule Bridges) and most are on a predetermined opening schedule such as every half hour or on the 15s and 45s. Only 2 were "open on request". So if you don't hit them just right you can spend many hours of a trip sitting dead in the water and waiting. About half the remaining bridges were tall enough to get under (We are 17 1/2 ft tall) but the others presented a timing issue. Fortunately we were able to time our speed and arrivals so we only had extended waits at about 5 bridges--5 to 20 minutes) This is how we were able to make it all the way to FL (just made it--sunset was at 6:35PM)
One of the more picturesque bridges
Typical Florida Yacht (in Palm Beach)
The Coral Ridge Yacht Club is a very nice private club and marina and I'm not quite sure how the Admiral talked our way in--but she did and here we are for a few days. We're right at the end of the marina, right on the ICW but fortunately in a No Wake--Idle Speed zone so it's not too rocky when other boats go by. It's really quite interesting to see the great variety of boats that pass by all day long. And you can tell that Spring Break has commenced as many of the boats are bedecked with college yutes doing their typical Spring Break thing--often clad in extremely small bikinis--not that I've noticed.
We'll be here for almost a week. Tomorrow, our friends Chuck and Nancy are driving over from Burnt Store Marina (Where we kept our sailboat from 2011 until we sold her in 2014). Thursday we drive back to Cocoa to pick up our car. Friday is shopping at the Galleria Mall--I'm told (2 blocks away). Saturday will be provisioning day and Sunday or Monday we'll depart for the Keys. In between we'll spend some time with my cousin who lives here and who will baby-sit our car while we're down in the Keys.
The weather has been windy but otherwise nice and even cool--sleeping under blankets. Although we know that will change once we get to the Keys. No storms (yet).
More about FL in my next post but right now--heck, it's after 8PM--I'm going to bed.
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