November - BLM to Lake Worth

November 24 – Leaving Brunswick for the open ocean!

It feels like we always tend to stay longer in one place than we planned (in most cases due to weather), and even so, there is always a flurry of activity at the last minute before we can finally shove off.  Leaving BLM was no different … drop off the car in storage, finish hauling unused supplies from boat to storage, one last trip to the liquor store, settle the mounting bill we have with the marina, one more boat project,  and of course, more boat parts to buy ….

But, we did it!  At 10:00, we cast off dock lines and were ready to chug down the channel to the Atlantic.  Of course, we hadn’t planned on a strong west wind pinning us to the dock, and it ended up taking close to 30 minutes to literally wrestle our boat into position (thanks in large part to the sweat and strength of Chris, s/v Relentless).

We were pleasantly surprised to find the Atlantic much calmer than predicted (4ft swells vs 9ft swells – indeed a pleasant surprise!).  With wind from the North, behind us, we pointed our bow south and settled in for a 2 day passage to Lake Worth FL.  This is our first attempt at a double-overnight sail, so we’ve got a few backup plans in case we want to change our minds (the beauty of FL is the several inlets nicely placed along the coast that provide refuge off the ocean).  Since s/v Maja has not been run for longer than a few hours since April, there’s always the fear that something will break once the engine is pulling a load for 48+ hours.

Day 1:  The sea was a bit rolly with NE swells, but uneventful … just the way we like it!  We had planned on 4-hour shifts, but Dan let me sleep until midnight, so I returned the favor by giving him 6 uninterrupted hours of sleep.  Yes, it was that kind of night; almost a full moon so plenty of light, and not too many fishing boats to dodge.  Fortunately for me, the dozen or so shrimp boats that I had to pass were moving along in a stately, straight path, almost like travelling in lanes on the highway (something they don’t seem to do in the daytime).  Plus, they were covered with lights, looking kinda like Disney-on-parade.  The only drawback was that it was coldcoldcold.  I had on everything but my long underwear – two l/s shirts, sweatshirt, down vest, wind breaker, hat, hood, mittens … yes, even socks!

one of many shrimp boats encountered during the day/night

 

That's me at the helm ... under many bundles to stay warm.

 

Day 2:  Very calm seas and less than 10knots of wind, still from the North.  Sunny and clear. No regrets today – except for the outcome of the Vikings vs Bears game that we were able to hear on Sirius radio.  The best part of the day for me was coming on watch at midnight and feeling a noticeable warmth in the air. Ahh, yes, passing Cape Canaveral seems to be the mark where we leave cold weather behind and enter the warmth you expect from Florida.  We didn’t see a single other boat on the water all night.  No other cruisers, no fishing boats, no cruise ships … we had to ocean to ourselves, except for the brightly lit  Canaveral coastline.  The only drawback of reaching Cape Canaveral was the Gulf Stream which was running very close to the FL coast, so even though it was comfortable in the cockpit, we steadily saw our speed slow down as the 3-4knot current worked against us.  The current slowed us down all night, and by daybreak, our expected arrival at Lake Worth had moved from 1pm to 5pm. Since it takes about 1-2 hours to transit the channel from ocean to the inlet, we had good reason to be concerned that we could be entering Lake Worth to anchor in the dark. 

dawn

 

no wonder it's the favorite part of the day!

Day 3:  By 8am, we were on the phone changing plans.  We decided to duck into the inlet at Ft Pierce instead of charging on to Lake Worth.  We like Harbortown Marina and decided to stay there for the night and take on fuel and showers, and most importantly, visit with our good friends, Ed and Karin on s/v Passages.  As is their custom, Ed and Karin met us at the dock when we arrived and invited us over for dinner (Karin always provides a delicious hot meal when we meet up with them after a long passage).  After 2.5 days of sandwiches and Zone bars, her spaghetti, wine, salad, bread and dessert was the BEST meal ever!!  The only drawback is that their company is so much fun that you want more of it, not less, so as we dragged ourselves back to our boat at 9pm, we seriously tried to talk ourselves into staying longer at Ft Pierce!  But as usual, we were chasing a closing weather window, and if we didn’t leave for Lake Worth today, we’d be staying here for another week b/c of the cold front moving in Wed afternoon. 

November 27:  Day 4 of our passage south.  We left the comfort of our quiet dock at 8:30am, after deciding to make the trip to LW via the ICW instead of going back to the ocean.  This is always a hard choice for us to make b/c we prefer the freedom of travelling on the ocean (no shallow depths to worry about, no channel markers, no low bridges that we have to wait to open, no other vessels to navigate around).  But, the ICW offers very protected waters to travel, with many anchorages available and very scenic development along the waterway.  Taking the ICW means that we’ll cover the 50+ miles into Lake Worth over two days, and we’ll get to see a stretch of the ICW that we haven’t been on before (and then we’ll know if this was a good idea or not!).

opps. someone had a bad day.

 

After being out for 2 hours, the ICW seemed like an excellent choice as one of our engine belts broke (nice that there are two of them!), and we were easily able to pull out of the channel and drop anchor to make the belt change.  Certainly couldn’t do that on the ocean!  Plus, we are seeing more boaters that we know from last year on the ICW, and that is always an unexpected surprise.

we just love these 'avenues' of water separating 'streets' of homes

being on the ICW = bridges.

and houses of the rich and famous ...

 

November 28 - Happy Birthday Laury!

 

We spent our first night at anchor at Hobe Sound.  It was so still that I awoke early in the morning certain that our boat was aground!  We had a short 3-hr run into the Lake Worth so it was a treat to sleep in and have coffee in the cockpit before getting underway.  There are 4 bridges to pass on this stretch of the waterway and once we got underway, we found ourselves behind a barge.  Instead of trying to pass him, we opted to stay 100 yds off his stern ... which had the benefit of giving us easy passage thru every bridge as barges always get their way!

s/v Maja at dock in No Palm Beach Marina

m/v Southern Pilot.  Ed and Connie Dooley

The gangs all here!  Cogswells stopped by for visit. On the Dooley's boat.

 

December 2. So we came into the PB marina intending to stay for 3 days.  It's now been 5 days, and we're not sure where to go next.  The wind has been blowing steadily strong (NW 20-25k) every day, so there has been no incentive to leave the comforts of the marina for a rocky anchorage.  And, we like to tell ourselves that boat projects are much easier at the dock vs at anchor...so Dan has been busy changing the oil, fixing a pesky electrical panel problem, and finishing the final installation of the floor boards in the bathroom (post watermater project).  Plus, having Ed and Connie just a few boats down the slip makes it VERY hard to seriously entertain thoughts of leaving the marina.  Not only are they good company (former sailors now on a go-fast trawler who also love to talk politics), they also have a car, and every afternoon we get together a fun outing to the beach, or for shopping, or the requisite stops at bars for happy hour. Nothing beats having good friends at the dock!  We have been spoiled with several tasty meals with them, not to mention discovering that we have a real taste for Grand Marnier!

 

Weather for crossing to the Bahamas continues to be suspect.  Basically, we are looking for anything but a north wind, with seas less than 6 ft ... and what we've got is wind that has been blowing hard from the north for about 3 weeks.  We are meeting James in the Bahamas on 12/24, and we've already changed his flight from Georgetown (Exumas) to Rock Sound (Eleuthera), figuring that we have better odds to cross to the Abacos and arrive in Eleuthera before him.  Then we'll spend two weeks with him on the boat traveling down to the southern Exumas where he'll fly out of Georgetown on Jan 5th.  It's surreal to worry that we won't be able to transit 150miles over the next 3 weeks ... but considering how the weather has been running, it's something we worry about every day as we are stuck at the dock in Palm Beach.

 

Next weather window:  Friday, Dec 8 - Tues, Dec 11.  Stayed tune and keep your fingers crossed.