The REAL Adventure Begins!

A little update since the last post. We spent five nights on the mooring ball in Vero Beach. They don't take reservations for the balls, so it was easy to keep extending our stay and was very affordable. The first couple of days were beautiful, although a little cooler than we would have liked, making it an easy ride to dinghy dock when we wanted to go ashore. We took a long walk to the beach and enjoyed the neighborhoods with the big live oak trees and typical Florida architecture. I turn 68 on Sunday, but I felt like a kid hanging out in this retiree mecca.  There are quite a few elderly folk.

On Monday we used the free bus to do some food shopping thinking it may be the final provisioning opportunity. Publix was really busy and the aisles were packed with shoppers. They should really consider enlarging their aisles in the stores that are used heavily by retirees. It was pretty slow going for me who likes to zip through the grocery store. The bus was convenient for the shopping, but there is only one bus and the route is an hour long. We loaded everything on the boat and prepared for the coming weather. Our mooring ball neighbor flew his drone and got a picture of both boats together before the winds moved in. When the wind started to change, the boats swung and the stern ended up very close to the mangroves. Fortunately the depth was sufficient.

It was so windy on Tuesday that we didn't even get off the boat and kept the dinghy tied up on the swim platform. ​We had sustained winds of over 20 knots and gusts close to 40. It was pretty noisy with the waves lapping up against the hull and impressive that the mooring balls held everyone in place. 

Wednesday was a little calmer. Martha did some laundry at the marina and the Seakeeper technician came out to the boat to finally repair the Seakeeper. After lunch we took the bus down to the beach to see how rough the waves were and for Martha to look through some of the shops. There was some heavy surf. Glad we were not out in the ocean, but it was a nice Florida winter day. Warm in the sun, but cool in the shade and still a little breezy.

It took another night for the winds to die down and we decided to leave early on Thursday morning.  The water was calm, so we untied the lines from our neighbor's boat at 7:45am and headed to the fuel dock for a fill up and pumpout. We got there before opening and before the other boats that were planning to leave. It was a pleasant trip down the Indian River. We had to line up for a couple of bridges and wend our way through some construction. This segment of the ICW has numerous spots that require no wake speed. That coupled with slow passes of sailboats and trawlers kept us on our toes. We dreaded going through the Jupiter area, but it turned out to be a non-event, though slow. We had a lot of obnoxious traffic to deal with on our previous trips through the area, but not as much this time. There is a major bridge construction project going on and everyone has to go slow and stay aware. We tested out the Seakeeper during the trip and it worked fine......Thankfully!

We arrived at the Old Port Cove Marina in North Palm Beach about 2:15pm. Just before arriving it started to rain a little, and then just as quickly it stopped and the sun came out. We got tied up in slip number 86, next to a Swift Trawler from Montreal and among a number of large sportfisher boats. After checking in at the office and getting our complimentary bottle of wine we took some time to relax and wind down. 

A little later in the afternoon, one of the sportfishing boats came in. Our Canadian neighbors asked them about their catch and were given a couple of large kingfish that the fishermen didn't want, which they cleaned and cut into steak-sized portions. They offered us some and we all went up to the marina grill to cook the fish. It was all unexpected and the first time we ever had kingfish. It made for a very nice surprise meal. The boat went out again early this morning. It will be interesting to hear what they catch today

We are now staged for a crossing over to the Bahamas, maybe tomorrow. I have completed the online cruising permit process and paid the $300 fee. The only thing in our way now is weather. Conditions are not predicted to be perfect, but perhaps possible. We will make a final determination in the morning. The Lake Worth inlet is just a couple of miles south and then it is 55 miles over to West End on Grand Bahama Island, a typical travel day as far as distance is concerned. We knew that we may have to wait for a crossing opportunity ("weather window" in boatspeak), but my well-documented lack of patience makes waiting a challenge. We don't want to put ourselves in any danger, so we will carefully evaluate the conditions. If we decide to cross and things look bad as we proceed we can always turn back and try another day.

This is where the real adventure begins.