There were threats of storms around the time we would arrive at the St Lucie Inlet, and the coin toss came up The Ditch, commonly known as The ICW. Won't do that again. But that's schedule's on a sailboat.
We dropped the mooring ball before eight am, just as Summer Wind was already heading out. They turned towards the Lake Worth Inlet while we turned to the west side of peanut island.
I was surprised at the number of boats at anchor to the NW of the island, most looked like they were headed towards being derelict, sad, but it's a thing here in SoFla.
We followed the channel of the ICW and headed under the Blue Heron, fixed bridge. We really didn't do any route planning but I did use Garmins Auto Guidance to plot a route to the Jensen Beach Mooring field.
A quick note about Auto Guidance: First, it does not pass the route to our Auto Pilot, no bigger but it woul be nice.
The second issue is more of a user interface issue. To explain it let me describe how we use the chart plotter when navigating the ICW, which we do a lot.
Our practice is to put a mark at the next bridge that opens on a schedule, then we adjust our speed to arrive at the bridge when it's due to open. That way, we don't get there to early and have to turn a few donuts till it opens.
In short it's nice to know the eta at the next bridge.
When using Auto Guidance, we have to scroll the view on the chart plotter to show the next bridge and the tap the track line to find out the era.
There is an option to edit the Auto Guidance track, but I haven't played with that yet.
What would be nice is if the Auto Guidance feature would show the time to the next significant points on the route. Obviously this would require us to indicate those significant points.
OK, rant off.
So we headed up the ditch. First bridge was Parker bridge which opens on the 15 and 45 minutes of the hour. We had to wait a whie,( see the note above about Auto Guidance) but it opened on time. While waiting we looked up the next bridge and time. It's the PGA Blvd bridge and opens on the. 00 and 30 minutes. We got there on time. This area is wealthy, the homes look more like hotels, that's saying something as Fort Lauderdale is not exactly a low cost community.
Next up is the Donald Ross bridge 00 and 30 mins.
We arrived at the bridge for the 10:30 opening, but it was down for maintenance. It opened at 11:00. Glad they maintain the bridge, but why today?
Onwards. Indian town bridge was next and was ready to open. We had a while to wait and advised the bridge tender that we would do some donuts as the current was pushing us to the bridge. While waiting, the tender called and advised that the next bridge, the Jupiter Federal bridge, was permanently down due to construction. OS! We asked and he advised that the holding by his bridge was not great. There were a few boats at anchor to the south of the bridge but the depths were pretty skinny there. He asked if we still wanted to pass his bridge.
I figured we should see what options were like nearer to the Jupiter bridge, so we continued North, thanking the tender for his assistance.
We dawdled up towards the Jupiter bridge and called the tender.
He was really helpful stating that there was a significant electrical issue that only allowed one span to open. My reply was, we'll take it. He then informed us that the new bridge had four spans, so we would only be able to pass one half of the bridge. DUH!
Asking the tender about any place to anchor and got the expected reply...no.
So we looked over the chart for somewhere to drop a lunch hook ( short anchor and chain ) and found a good spot void of any cables and just outside the channel.
Just as I was about to go forward, the tender called.
He advised that they were going to try a test raise and if successful he would confirm we could pass. OK, get the boat nearer to the bridge. I noticed the traffic control bars had lowered so we pushed the throttle forwards. Eximius will turn in here own length when asked. The Southern spans both started to rise, we continued forward. Fully up, we confirmed that we couldn't pass and headed under the open bridge. Note! Only the southern spans open but the spans on the northern side stick out beyond the fenders.
Luckily but more like good practice, Peggy was watching our passage from the port side and realized we risked catching the northern spathere's .
The next bridge is known h our mast shrouds. She urged me to to move the boat to starboard, the kind of urgent urging, like "DO IT NOW" I did and we were good.
Now for the tricky part of the route. Navigation through the junction of the Jupiter Inlet and the ICW.
IT'S REALLY SKINNY WATER THROUGH THERE !!!
We had already decided to pass to the south and east of the shallows in the middle of that junction. The local authorities may have dredge the area but theres hint of that on the charts, So Beware.
It's a long motor to the the next bridge. Pretty scenic but stressful as the channel is narrow and quickly gets shallow, but there are some places to anchor if needed.
The last bridge before the St Lucie river is Hobe Sound bridge, it opens on demand.
Then it's the long motor up through Peck Lake. Long!
Nearing the end of the trip, but not out of the stress zone yet.
Most of this passage we were following Bob423 routing. The point where the ICW joins the St Lucie River, the St Lucie Inlet is a very wide area littered with shallows that a dog could walk in, and we saw that! Locals seem to be up on the plane in their powere boats, but for us, with 6 feet of keel below the waterline, it was ... tread carefully. We did.
The shallow channel up to the 65' Causeway bridge took a lot of concentration and ,after a long day of being focused on staying out of the shallows, we're still in stress ville.
We found our mooring easily and with Pegs ar the helm, we caught it first time. There was a strong current trying to to pull us away from the mooring while held onto the pennant for dear life. Peggy realized what was happening and put the engine in gear then steered to the ball.
A couple of minutes later we were secure.
Phew. We were exhausted. No storms in our area but a couple several miles south of us.
Chris had arrived an hour earlier. Several club member boats were also here. Alebrije invited us for cocktails. Commodore Barry & Jamie drove up and planned to stay on Hector's boat for the night.
Peggy and I were tired, but I didn't realize how much till the next morning.
I did not sleep well and didn't feel good in the morning. Peggy and I put the dink in the water and mounted the outboard hoping it would run. It didn't, not even after about an hour working on it . Did I mention that it was hot! I was suffering and Peggy was insisting the I rehydrate. We had drank most of the bottled water in the last 48 hours, but I was leaking quicker than I could drink it.
By mid morning I was feeling sick. Peggy kept an eye on me and my fluid intake. Participation in the picnic this afternoon did seem doable. A couple of club members brought more fluids from ashore and I continued to hydrate. While the other club members were enjoying the picnic, I set up our Generator and flashed up the air-conditioning then went back to bed after a lunch of bread ,cheese and ham. I woke up around 5:15 and Peggy got me back on dehydrating.
Starting to feel better but not up to going out for dinner at Conchy Joe's.
I made dinner from a planned meal that Peggy had prepared during the week. Feeling much better but we agreed to head South Sunday instead of staying here at Jensen Beach.
After dinner and dessert of home made yogurt and apple sauce, I went up on deck and prepped the boat for an early departure.
Stowed the Generator, Topped up the Diesel tank, Stowed the lines we had used to launch and stow the dinghy and outboard, checked the deck was secured for some stormy weather this evening. Then down to freshen up for the evening.
And brings me to the end of this day. Feeling so much better and so grateful for those club members that called to see how I was doing.
I'm good, thanks guys.
Setting the alarm for 06 double bubble.
Good night.
