Lake worth to Fort Lauderdale down the ditch

 Heading from Lake Worth to our home port.

The weather on Monday Morning was forecast as Wind from the South and as it had been a bumpy Sunday evening, we opted to go down the ditch ( I know, Kick me! ) from Lake Worth to our Dock in Fort Lauderdale.

We were awake a couple hours before our 6:30am alarm, so it was an early breakfast of Cereal and Fried Bread and the, so needed, cup of coffee.

As we were preparing to drop our mooring lines, Summer Wind was doing the same thing and were also heading down the ICW.

Really no issues heading down the ditch. We spotted Alebrije at anchor off of the city docks in down town Palm Beach and later heard them calling the bridges we had passed an hour earlier. We motored in company of Chris & Kelli on Summer Wind. 

Still feeling the left over of Heat Exhaustion from the Trip up on Friday, it was peaceful heading south. Just after passing Ocean Bridge, south of the Boynton Inlet, we heard a change in noise from the engine/prop. Temperature was fine ( 147ºF ) Speed was still good but the noise was unsettling. I went below while Peggy shut the engine down while we were in a straight section of the waterway, I checked the Raw Water Filter - dirty but certainly not clogged and the engine temp ruled that out but always worth checking.

With the engine stopped and the prop now slowing down, there was a definite 'Swishing' sound that slowed as the prop slowed and we came to a stop in the water. My diagnosis was that the Shaft Zinc had slid down the prop shaft and was rubbing against the cutlass bearing. The forward edge of the bearing was perpendicular to the shaft, so I figured, at worst some of the bearing forward edge might get rubbed a bit.

Stay Calm and Carry on

I had informed Chris of our problem and my diagnosis, so Chris kept us close company for the next few miles.

A couple of bridges later, we had to increase our RPM and heard a loud Bang! It was almost certainly the sound of the zinc breaking off of the shaft and hitting the hull. The noise stopped.   

It's not unusual for our monthly dive team to put on a new zinc without removing the old, so I figured we might have a second zinc further up the shaft.   Pretty sure we 'did' because it too started making a noise but then it too fell off. Now just the normal noise from the shaft and we were back cruising at our normal speed without a worry.  ( I send an email to our dive team and asked them to remove any remaining zinc and replace it with a new one, we keep one at the dock just in case they ever find the need to replace it.)

Other than a brush with the bottom before Spanish river bridge, the rest of the trip was easy but Really Really Busy! There was a line of boats waiting to get past Spanish River and the Palmetto Park Bridges.  Soon we were past Lake Boca and down to our usual neck of the woods. Summer Wind called us on #9 to go to #68 and advised that they were about to turn off the ICW to their dock and thanked us for being buddy boats for the trip back. It does make a huge difference when you really do have a buddy for a buddy boat. Thanks Chris & Kelli.

The wind was blowing off the dock but we managed to put the boat, port side too, alongside. The next half hour, or so, we unloaded the boat and loaded the truck. We here home by 15:30, exhausted from the weekend.

Good to be home.

Looking forward to our next trip. Peggy also hinted that we should do a longer trip, to the Dry Tortogas next year ( April / May 20256 ) so I'll start planning that one.

See you on the water.

Paul