April 3

April 3. Our neighboring boat that we had dinner with last night was up and underway without making a sound. That is until they had the bridge that was 40 feet from our boat raised to allow them passage. Holy Christ. That bridge had warning bells to slow the cars before the gates came down and then a claxon to warn nearby boats that the bridge was now closing. So needless to say we were up before the alarm and on our way by 0730.



We opted to backtrack a few miles and go out the Fort Lauderdale inlet and sail north on the outside. We were under full sail by 0830 and making about six and a half knots with a beautiful sunny day unfolding before us.

As we left the inlet we had a pod of dolphin put on a spectacular show for us. They repeatedly launched themselves clear of the water. It was awesome and ended as soon as Christy picked up the camera. We also had a weird experience as a container ship was approaching the inlet as we were leaving. We saw him coming and we cut the last red mark short as we left the channel in 35 feet of water and started north. As we were putting up the sails we realized that at the last minute he turned off his approach to the channel and was starting a right hand circle towards our stern.



The picture is deceiving; he’s way closer than was comfortable for us.

Just before noon the wind started to get fluky and when we were down to less than 4 knots we started the engine and were motor sailing along at well over 7 knots. We got to the Lake Worth inlet at about 1400 and had to fight in against the last bit of the ebbing tide.

Once we were inside it was like stepping into the middle of a crowded drunken frat party. Just inside the inlet there’s a small beach only accessible by boat so it was packed with beached speed boats. Jet skis and small powerboats were whizzing this way and that coming and going. It was quite the shock after being alone in the ocean for the day.

After a 5 mile ride north on the ICW we were into the anchorage in Lake Worth that we had stayed in on our way down. We dropped the hook in 15 feet of water, deployed the dinghy, cleaned the boat and were sitting with our post anchoring cocktails when our neighbors from last night pulled in. They had left an hour earlier but had gone inside and had to deal with about 2 dozen bridges so they arrived an hour and a half after us.

Last night was one of the most beautiful at anchor and there’s been many special ones to choose from. The moon appeared from behind a vee shaped cloud and had the appearance of visibly rising as the cloud moved away from moon. It was a huge moon and wonderful to watch. A great end to a really nice day.