December 28, 2019
So much excitement . . . and so little accomplished. We arrived on the 25th and picked up our rental car (not a great customer service story, but I won’t bore you with details), got the boat opened up and slept.
I would be remiss if I didn’t give another shout out to the crew at YachtTech who made our hull sparkle, made our bottom smooth and well protected and serviced a number of items that I haven’t/couldn’t or didn’t have the confidence to do myself. There is more to do, but the boat looks awesome and we will be in fine shape for the next month or so.
On Thursday we ran around setting up the boat. Megan needed blow up toys, we all needed some groceries and the dinghy was being serviced and needed to be picked up. (Again! I could write a whole blog post on that and likely will next time I am bored). I even found two hours to put in a nice bike ride on land before land goes away for a while.
Friday we were ready to depart, but the winds were not our friend, and I put in another bike ride before deciding to leave at 1pm.
We arrived at the Lake Worth inlet around 2:30 or 3 and turned to go out. The size of the waves was obvious, but we ventured out anyway. Only about 1 mile though. We were burying the bow in waves that were averaging 10′ and peaking likely in 15’+. After discussing, we agreed that an overnight run in that weather wasn’t the prudent choice, especially given that this is unfamiliar territory and there is LOTS of guidance that crossing the Gulf Stream is difficult. Back in we went.
From there we turned South on the ICW and started to build our skills for navigating the ICW. Let me just say, that I would greatly prefer being outside of the ICW over being on the ICW. In this weather, however, I will take the ditch (the nickname for the ICW).
We ended our day, after dark, pulling up to a fuel dock at Boynton Harbor Marina. We figured out how to follow the many day markers, finding our way with the night markers and using the chart plotters and iPad to navigate. We had opportunity to use our new, super bright handheld spotlight (to find markers at night), along with the night vision camera (which wasn’t actually that helpful in the channel, much more helpful on the open water). It was blustery, raining from time to time and somewhat less enticing than the warm, sunny Florida that at least Megan was expecting. C’est la vie.
While we have a galley full of food, the Marina allowed us to spend the night tied to their fuel dock, and so we ate at Two Georges’ restaurant (beside the marina) and apparently it is world famous. Probably more for the happy hour than the food. It was typical American fare, and very tasty, but was definitely pub food. The plastic cheese on the nachos is always a shock to even my lowly sensibilities about food, but it was definitely below Jinhee’s standards. Jinhee insists that she loves any food that gets us all around the same table. 🥰
When we started up in the morning, the manager granted us the night’s stay for free! What a great present. We will be back for sure next time we head south.
Today’s weather didn’t improve at all, and we continued south on the ICW. The weather remains stormy, variable and not at all appealing for crossing to the Bahamas. We passed by many exquisite canal side homes . . . the kind you see in fancy house magazines and with Zillow we could even check out the prices of some of the homes for sale. Let’s just say the prices are a bit crazy . . . the only place I have been that is crazier would be Toronto. At least the $3-5MM in Boca Raton gets you waterfront an infinity pool, bbq station and a dock!
Megan thought the ‘Christmas’ house was particularly gaudy . . .
Jinhee spent a couple of hours calling marinas in and around Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades) to find us a spot for the night (HOW MUCH???!!!). As always she found us a great deal, which means less than $200 a night around here. Funny enough we are EXACTLY back to where the boat left three weeks ago. Today we went for groceries again and walked past the hotel Andrew and I stayed at when we picked the boat up.
That’s the story so far . . . we are going to cross but sort of … not really. There will be more to come as we make our way across, perhaps tomorrow.