We left Vero Beach as planned, around 10 a.m. on Friday, bound for an overnighter to Miami. The rains had continued for over 24 hours, filling our dinghy with inches of water. Smart Luke had already devised a water pump-out system using a small electric bilge pump. He just plugs the little motor into the starter battery for our outboard motor on the dinghy and it pumps away, saving many, many strokes on our hand bilge pump,!
It was still sprinkling when we were ready to leave, but the promise was clear skies and a relatively calm sea later, so we optimistically set up the fish cleaning table!
Smoke, ever sleepy as a cat should be, was rousted by the despised sound of the boat engine starting. She came to the cockpit, but she was not particularly happy.
In an effort to appease her, I brought out one of her favorite cushions. I don't know why some of our friends say she is spoiled... LOL... anyway, I love the way this accidentally came out - looks like a floating carpet with the Princess aboard.
As we motored for 2 hours to reach the nearest navigable ocean inlet for Latitudes, Smokey resigned herself to a usual spot, between the cockpit and the stern hatch. Judging that look, I'd say she was still unhappy. Luke will explain a little below, but Smoke had no clue how unhappy she was about to be!
Approaching the last bascule bridge before the Ft. Pierce Inlet. The high rise bridge further along the ICW is on the other side of our inlet.
And finally, our inlet to the Atlantic.
Looks calm, doesn't it? Boy, oh, boy..... We had cleverly timed our departure from the inlet to be near maximum ebb current, about 3.5 to 4 kts for this inlet. While we are very aware of the "rage" phenomenon, where current opposing wind generates unusually steep and high standing waves, wind was from the north, parallel to the shore, at less than 10 kts, so we dismissed that as a possible issue. Well, wrong again! Waves were from the east, current going to the east at least 3.5 kts. Shortly after we were congratulating ourselves on our timing, getting a free ride with a boat speed of 10+ kts, we noticed the standing waves, kinda like rapids, except not going down hill. In reality, waves were probably only about 4 ft high, but close together, as we smashed our way through them, spray flying, boat slamming. It was mercifully brief, and we were out the other side. Smoke, however, thought she was going to die and howled the entire few minutes.
As time went on, wind came on the nose, and waves nearly so. After 6 more hours of rolling around a bit (and not being able to fish!), we opted against 9 more hours of nearly the same. We decided to call it quits and duck into the Lake Worth Inlet. Another 10 hours or so to Miami, overnight, uncertain of how conditions might change, just was not in the cards. We made it in about 1/2 hour after dusk. I hate anchoring in the dark, but Luke did an excellent job of navigating the inlet using our PERFECTLY WORKING CHART PLOTTER, radar and the lighted markers indicating the channel. He found a good anchor spot just off the channel and we were all happy. As we turned out of the channel to find an anchorage, one of those massive cruise liners slowly began her approach into the ocean. Lights everywhere, loud 70's salsa music, and happy screaming passengers. Glad we weren't 10 minutes later!
Soon after we settled down we heard a "secuitie, securite" alert for an incoming TowBoat US towing a "partial submersible"...not at all sure what that was, we watched it come in. A TowBoat US boat was leading her and at least 5 more security boats surrounded the 100 foot plus something coming in. Sure enough, only about 10 feet or so of whatever it is was above the water, like an upside down boat but lit from the inside. A big 10 foot rigid tail came up from the back. A naval combat vessel ... Here is way more technical info than you may want ... click here
The night was fairly tranquil, but large vessels came through all night. One - the loudest one that woke us up - carried 3 huge, vacuum wrapped sport fishing boats --- lotsa money on that barge! Most were like this ship from Germany, carrying containers for Tropical.
Ok, I'm gloating here--- yes, Virginia, it IS warm in this part of FL! Here I am at 8 a.m. - ish, getting ready to pull up the anchor so we can move to a quiet anchorage about 4 miles from our first anchorage spot.
No, that hair hasn't grown much yet!
We did move to a large, quiet anchorage north of the inlet. Here Luke has replaced the missing line on the main sheet and also put a new bow roller on our anchoring system. Pretty clever, this guy - note the strings tied to both his wrenches and his wrist. I believe this is something of a "live and learn" as there has been more than one little tool that has slipped to a watery death.
Yesterday we relaxed, took showers, did a few chores, and then caught up with Mimi and Otto for dinner on their boat. The Super Bowl is on tap for today (no, I don't care who wins, just want to watch the commercials and see how cold it is!). If the weather forecast stays the same, both boats plan to leave Lake Worth tomorrow early, go back outside, and end up in Miami before dark. Maybe I can do some fishing! Then we will wait for the right weather window to cross to Bimini.
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