Memorial Day Weekend Cruise - St. Lucie Inlet

 Safe Boating through the St. Lucie Inlet

Credit to the Florida Oceanic Society.

In our planning for the 2025 Memorial Day Weekend Cruise to Jensen Beach, we had to review the St. Lucie Inlet to ensure a safe arrival and departure.

Peggy found this page which shows a Trifold Brochure published by the Florida Oceanic Society, it's a really good, no, not 'good', it's an essential read for anyone unfamiliar with the Inlet.

Eximius has a draft of 5'7" plus another inch due to the gear loaded in the boat.

We're always mindful of the tides of any inlet that we plan to pass through and the St. Lucie Inlet is known to be a risky adventure. However, our boat came from Manatee Pocket and was routinely sailed out of the St. Lucie Inlet, so we know it's ok, just requires a careful understanding of the conditions and the channel markers.  Having a reliable engine is a plus, having a full suite of electronic navigation and depth information at the helm is also a plus, however, we'll have our anchor ready to launch just in case.

Ok, with the inlet in mind, let's review our plans, but first a thought:- It's often said that the most dangerous thing to have on a sail boat is a 'Schedule' !! Schedules tend to push decisions on whether to go or not, whether to go this way or that, whether to push on or duck. We're very aware of that and so we tend to put in alternatives and decision points but still we're not afraid to recognize that perhaps we should back down and seek an alternative. So the trick is - be aware of the alternatives.

On to the Route Planning.

According to Aqua maps, the route from our Dock to the Marina a Lake Worth for our overnight stop is 37nm, 7.5 hours.

We're not worried about our entrance to Lake Worth as big ships go through that inlet so there's very little risks. However, our exit from Hillsboro Inlet is one to consider. The 'Hillsboro District' dredges the Inlet almost continuously, and, really important, they publish the Chart of Soundings every month. Here's the link to their latest Soundings. 

The chart shows the soundings as well as the date and time they were taken. We lookup the data and determine the actual depth above MLW at that time. Under calm conditions, we can always transit the inlet, we just have to avoid the really shallow areas. But if the Ocean is stirred up near the Inlet, then with waves of 3 or 4 feet, those soundings drop significantly. We have touched bottom several times in the Inlet, the bottom is sand and we can feel if the boat touches it, it just pushes through. But if we dig into the sand more than an inch or two, then we could be in trouble.  So, we plan our transit of the Inlet to ensure we're safe. Ideally we would transit when the tide was rising, much better to know that the depth will increase and lift us off rather then when the tide is dropping and we bare the risk of grounding deeper.  Low Tides at Hillsboro Inlet on May 22nd are at 07:17, so we'll plan to transit to the Ocean around 8am.

As mentioned, the tides are not an issue when we are due to arrive a Lake Worth Inlet. So our next navigation planning is from Lake Worth to St. Lucie Inlet then on to the mooring field at Jensen Beach.

So, high tide Friday May 23rd 2025 is at 6:54am and Low is at 13:50. The tide will be rising after 2pm but the St. Lucie Inlet is subject to shoaling, so we would rather arrive at the St. Lucie Inlet around 5pm.

Setting up a route on AquaMaps from Lake Worth to St. Lucie Inlet is about 40nm and at perhaps 5knots, that's 8 hours of sailing. If we get a bit of a lift from the Guld Stream so, maybe we'll do 6knots, that brings our transit time down to about 7 hours. 

We need to be leaving Lake Worth Inlet 7 to 8 hours from 5pm, ie. We should leave Lake Worth Inlet around 7 to 8 am ( a transit from 8am to 5pm is 9 hours ) It's easy to slow down so that we time our arrival at the St. Lucie Inlet )

If we left at 8am, we should arrive at 5pm but we could leave at 9am and still arrive around 5pm assuming there is some decent ( not too much ) wind.

There, we have our departure time for Lake Worth  - you know we'll be scouring the weather info Thursday night to help make the decision when to head out of the lake Worth inlet or even to go up the ditch from Lake Worth - not my favorite choice.

If we get to St. Lucie Inlet at 5pm, we should be at the mooring by 6pm - time to head out to dinner with the other club members that get there on Friday night.

To wrap up:

Depart the Dock 7am, exit Hillsboro Inlet at 8am

Arrive Lake Worth Thursday evening

Depart Lake Worth Friday Morning around 8-9 am either on the outside or up the ditch.

Arrive St. Lucie Inlet Friday evening around 5pm and to the mooring around 6pm 

Next: plan the return trip.

You get there quicker on a power boat, but you're already there on sailboat !