Independence Day Cruise 2024
Our Cruise to Celebrate Independence Day this year nearly didn't happen but we pulled it off even if we were a day late.
Life happens so we spent the 4th of July at home and enjoyed watching the fireworks over the rooftops of our neighbors houses. But we did plan for the cruise and to leave the dock early on Friday the 5th.
We had prepped the boat and so loading on Friday only took a few minutes, but we still went through our checks- Water √ , Shore Power √, Fore & Aft Whips removed √, Nav Instruments Installed and Checked √, Opening Ports Closed √, Anchor Locker, Aft Locker, Port Side Locker locks removed √, Engine Raw Water valve opened √, DST810 Transducer installed √, Ear Tec headsets - batteries installed √, Cabin Secured for Sea √, Genoa Sail tie back removed √, Mainsail Cover Zipper opened √, Main Halyard slack removed √, Engine Start and check Pulse** √, Fore & Aft Dock lines removed √, Fore & Aft spring lines removed √, Ready to depart the dock - Helm ready? √, Cast off Midships line and walk the boat away from the dock. Stow the dock lines. We're underway.
Without any issues we navigated to the end of the canal and turned to Stbd ( right for those that don't know ) then a couple of twists and turns before arriving at the 11th Avenue Swing Bridge. Around a few more bends and we are at the junction where the New River splits to the South and North, we keep Eximius up the North Fork of the New River.
As we passed the 7th. Avenue Bridge, we could see that the FEC Railroad bridge was starting to open so we were lucky, it was expected to be closed for another 30 minuets according to their phone App. So we passed the Railroad bridge, Andrews Avenue bridge opened without any delay and then 3rd Avenue bridge was the last in the line and we had an uneventful motor all the way to the Mouth of the Port Everglades Inlet.
Once on the Ocean, we turned North East but the wind was veering with us so when we turned North, the wind was pretty much on our stern and our Apparent wind was on the Bow, we were not going to get much assist from the sails, we tried, but nope! So we basically motored all the way up to the Hillsboro Inlet. There was 3+ Knots of current flowing out of the Inlet Bridge but we pushed through it just fine. The Bridge Tender commented that we had quite a wild ride through the opened bridge.
It's a bit of a slog heading up the ICW from the Hillsboro Inlet to Lake Boca and the still flowing South Tide meant we could not make it to the first bridge 'Hillsboro Blvd' in time for it's net opening so we had to slow down in order to get there just before the 13:30 opening, we then had 30 minutes to get up to the Camino Real Bridge which opens on the 20's ( 20 past, 20 to and 00 ) then we arrived at Lake Boca which was not too crowded.
Anticipating that we would raft up with Hector & Lucy on Alebrije later that day, we chose a place to anchor but a couple of other boats arrived and spoilt that option. So when Alebrije arrived later in the afternoon, we decided we would move to raft up with them on Saturday morning.
We put our Shade up on the boat and that helped a lot in keeping the cabin temperature down to about 95ºF . So we wet up our Generator to run the Air Conditioning, noisy but much cooler. Our Dinghy is on the deck and it's a significant amount of work to lift it over the side of Eximius and then put the outboard on the dink, so we left it under the boat shade.
Saturday morning, after a too warm overnight, we confirmed that Hector was ready for us to come alongside and we hoisted anchor. Peggy at the helm, I setup the fenders and lines from the Bow, Stern and Midships for when we got alongside Alebrije. We both had our Ear Tec headsets on and so were able to quietly talk to each other, that was a big factor in our pretty perfect raft up. Hector and Lucy were on deck to take our lines, Hector put out a couple of his really big fenders. His fenders are the inflatable type, I think they are FenderTex really good. Ours are Taylor made and we have soft fender jackets covering them so we don't mark any boat that we raft up with.
I ran Eximius' generator so that we could have AC on the boat, while I was chatting with Hector and explaining how to get a bit more out of AquaMaps on our tablets, the generator ran out of fuel. We didn't notice that while sat in the cabin with Lucy still working on her computer. The good news is that our neighbors can barely hear it when our generator ( Honda eu2000i ) is running. The bad news is that the temperature aboard Eximius was starting to rise back up to 90CF.
Aboard Alebrije, as always happens, Hector and I shared about new things we had on our boats. There's something about two sailors wagging their chins on boat stuff. It's surprising how much you learn by listening to 'What's New' and there are always stories to share.
Later Lady Gray joined us and tied onto Alebrije's Port Side. Barry & Jamie had guests that are not really sailors but that only added to the expanse of conversations over the, always pleasant, Bring Something To Share dinner. So there were eight of us and two dogs aboard Alebrije and we pretty much solved the worlds problems.
This was a short cruise for Lady Grey, they left sometime while I was down inside Eximius. Hector and I had planned to break the raftup Sunday morning so that they could head out of the lake via Boca Inlet. That surprised me, but we discussed recent changes to the dredging of the Inlet and Hector was confident that it would not be an issue. When it was time to breakup the raft, Peggy took the helm, and we cast off the lines ( they were our lines but I'm not sure there is a term for brining the lines back rather than 'cast off' ). We just pushed ourselves away from Alebrije and motored ahead of her, we made a long 360º to port by which time Hector had his boat heading to the North East corner of the lake and we snuck into his previous anchoring position.
We spent the rest of Sunday at Lake Boca, Eduardo ( Cookie Monster ) invited us for dinner but our dinghy was stowed on deck and it's a real chore getting it into the water and putting the engine on, so we took a rain check. Before dark, we took down the boat shades and prepped the boat for an early departure Monday morning.
Our prep the night before proved valuable on Monday Morning, we were able to have a light breakfast and setup the helm for raising the anchor and heading down to catch the 0700 Camino Real bridge opening. With 30 minutes between Camino opening and the Hillsboro Blvd Bridge opening we had plenty of time and just motored slowly past all the mansions on either side of the ICW barely a soul stirring and we only saw two other boats during that half hour.
The motor from Hillsboro Blvd Bridge down to the Hillsboro Inlet bridge is typically about an hour and we didn't have to push it. The bridge opens on the 15's if any boat requests it, we arrived a few minutes early and so had to hold station opposite the bridge, still hardly any other boats under power.
We followed our track from when we came into the Inlet on Friday and had no issues with the depths. Once out of the Inlet we turned towards the south and headed for Port Everglades. There may have been no boats on the ICW, but there were quite a few on the Ocean, mostly fishing boats with a few dive boats and one drift fishing boat, it was a bit rolly to be on the drift boat and they were not packed - maybe around 20 souls onboard all toghether.
The only concerns were the dive boats. Like everyone else, we have to give them 300' clearance so as to keep their diver safe, when we spot a dive boat ahead, I simply change course by 30º until we clear them and then 30º back before resuming our track. Some dive boats have huge dive flags that can be seen a quarter mile away, others have the flags so that they cannot be seen all the way around and they are the most concerning. If they don't know how to fly their safety dive flags, then do they know all of the other safety procedures for their divers.
Again the wind was not worth keeping the sails up, so we dropped them, setup the Auto Pilot and kept an eye out for challenges in front of us, we probably look like desert rats when we keep popping our heads our of the cockpit to check for other vessels but it keeps us aware of our situation.
As we approached Port Everglades, we noticed a pretty big ship was heading down the channel from our Port Side, it was not going slow either! I timed it so that it would pass us in the channel while it was still wide enough for both of us. Of course, it slowed down so now we were abeam of the ship. I called them on the VHF radio and asked if they were going to turn to Stbd ( North ) or Port ( South ) so that I could decide to either speed up to get out of their way or slow down and let her do her thing. The skipper replied they were stopping in order to turn around to Stbd as they were going to back into the slip that was directly opposite the Inlet. I decided to speed up and just get past the turning basin before he began his, Tug assisted, turn. He had started his turn by the time we had turned North towards the 17th street causeway bridge.
I called 17th Street bridge to let him know we did not need an opening. It was not high tide and even then, we can squeeze under the bridge in the middle if the Fender boards show just 52' of clearance.
We have done the trip from the bridge to Sand Bar Park so many times it's routine, but we still comment on every channel marker, it's so easy to get distracted and mistake our track. We had no surprises as we took the left hand fork to go on the West side of Sand Bar Park and then the hard to Port when we passed marker #5.
Heading up the New /river, we checked the FEC railroad bridge schedule on the phone app and learnt that the bridge was going to be down, so we slowed. As we approached the Andrews Avenue Bridge, I called and requested an opening but acknowledged that the FEC bridge was down so I could hang round between 3rd and Andrews if needed. Andrews replied that the FEC bridge was only down for a single Brightline train and so he would open the bridge right away, I guess traffic was light at that time.
By the time we approached the FEC Bridge it was already opening, so we just had to slow down to let it fully raise, then we motored through. The 7th Avenue bridge must have anticipated our arrival and was ready to open as we turned past the Huzinga center, then it was a quite motor to the Fork of the New River and we turned onto the North Fork. After motoring through the 11th Avenue Bridge which also opened soon after we requested, we gently continued to the turn onto the canal leading our slip We wore our Ear Tec headsets and made a perfect come alongside maneuver with the boat stopped just an inch off of the dock. Perfect - Peggy scored an 11.
So that was our trip, we didn't take many photos or videos and had nothing untoward happen, it was a pretty relaxing weekend and to be honest - a day on the water is better than - well pretty much everything.
See you on the water.
