We've done a bit of traveling since the last entry. Our original plan included a stop at Vero Beach. For those non-cruisers who have never taken a boat to Vero Beach, you should know that most tie up to a mooring but share that mooring with one or two other boats. Some people don't like being tied to another boat with people on it they've never met, but others see it as a way to get to know other boaters. Our problem right now was that our newest crew member doesn't like spending the night alone and was crying off and on during the night. The last thing we wanted to do was keep other boaters awake with our dog. So we skipped this stop. We stopped in Melbourne for the first time and then moved on down to another anchorage we never tried at Ft. Pierce. This provided us with the chance to check out another couple of towns we'd not visited before, because we always stopped at Vero.
Then it was on down the ICW to Lake Worth by Palm Beach. We'd been here before but never visited Peanut Island. There is a park on the island operated by the city of Palm Beach that is really nice. We walked around and checked out the beach and a snorkeling area, but didn't actually go in the water. Perhaps on our spring trip north. There is also a bunker on the island built for Kennedy while he was President. Tours are available, but we didn't take advantage. Again, perhaps on the spring trip north. We also met briefly with my sister and husband who live in West Palm Beach. We'd seen them at the reunion, but they really wanted to meet Maddie.
In the past, we'd always gone out into the ocean at Lake Worth and made a long day trip down to Key Biscayne or Miami. This time, the weather was not ideal for the trip – too much wind and wave action for our newest crew member. So once again, Maddie was influencing our travel. We stayed on the ICW to deal with more than 20 bridges in fewer than 50 miles to Ft. Lauderdale and then another 10 before we would arrive at Dinner Key Marina in Coconut Grove where we would pick up a mooring. No sharing here, but Maddie has adjusted to sleeping alone, so it would no longer be an issue.
Although we'd seen lots of expensive homes on our trips south, this portion of the travel still gave us pause. The ICW was narrow along this route, so we were closer to the homes. In fact, there is one stretch between West Palm and Ft. Lauderdale that's called the canyon. The shoreline on both sides is concrete, so any boat waves bounce back and forth across the narrow space. In spite of this and other challenges, we actually found it to be an interesting trip...bizarre in some ways, since we'd never been through an area of the country quite like this before. And traveling south by car just doesn't provide the same view of this stretch. Based on the multi-million dollar homes and so many highrise condos – some 30-40 stories high – we were also struck by the sense of a very high population, most with plenty of money. Boats considered big were once 50-75 feet long. Now to be considered big by us, one must be over 100 feet. We saw many in the 150 – 200 foot range parked in front of homes or at marinas specifically designed for these big boats. (I wonder how big a boat must be to become a ship.)
For those travelers who wonder about the bridges, we can say that the timing worked for us. Most were on a schedule, and we could travel fast enough to get from one bridge to the next and meet that schedule. Our new engine worked well and moved us a bit faster than the old one would have. So slower boats would have more of an issue here. We also left early in the day and stayed ahead of a lot of other cruiser traffic. That also made the bridges easier to deal with, since we were often the only boat going through.
We got to Coconut Grove early in the day and were able to go ashore to explore a bit. We found it similar to South Beach, also a part of the Miami area that we'd visited last fall. The marina is supposed to have more slips for boats than any other on the East Coast – pretty impressive. We'll spend a day here getting chores completed before moving on down to Marathon. This last leg of the trip south should take us two days. We're looking forward to arriving in Marathon and relaxing for a few days before getting on a plane to head back north for the holiday visits with family.
Captain Bob
Carpe Diem
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