Back in the States

We left Bimini, Bahamas, at 8:00 a.m. Thursday, June 12th, and made the 55-mile, six-hour crossing to Ft. Lauderdale. The seas were generally in the two- to four-foot range, mostly hitting us from behind, so the majority of the trip was relatively smooth. The last hour-and-a-half was a little rougher, but by then we had the coast in site and knew we'd be back in the Intracoastal Waterway soon.

We anchored in Lake Sylvia that afternoon and dinghied to the Southport Raw Bar the next day for a very nice lunch. They have a dinghy dock and the Winn-Dixie is right across the street, so we were able to do a little re-provisioning before heading back to the boat. Lake Sylvia has a 24-hour anchoring limit, so we pulled anchor about 2:30 Friday afternoon and put in a few hours before anchoring in Lake Boca Raton. This part of Florida has a lot of "no wake" zones and low bridges that only open at designated times, so it can be pretty slow going, even for a slowing-moving trawler!

Some of the innumerable multi-million dollar developments along the waterway in south Florida.



This is one of the many low bridges that had to be opened for us along the ICWW in south Florida.


Saturday we covered about thirty-five miles over a period of five-and-a-half hours, including three in the rain, before anchoring at the north end of Lake Worth. Sunday we took the dinghy to a landing at the northernmost part of the lake and were planning to walk to a nearby mall. We got there about the same time as another guy in the anchorage and he offered to give us a ride. His van was parked in the Publix parking lot just down the street, so we happily took him up on his offer! On the way he told us that we were anchored near Jack Nicklaus' house and that Tiger Woods' megayacht was at a nearby dock. There is definitely a lot of money in this part of Florida!

Tom dropped us off at The Gardens mall, which was probably close to two miles from where we left the dinghy. We had lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen and did a little window shopping, mostly just enjoying the wonderful air conditioning! We then walked to The Downtown mall a short distance away to check out the movie theatre but decided we weren't really all that interested in seeing a movie, so we walked back to The Gardens mall where Todd bought a Garmin personal travel assistant at Radio Shack.

We first saw one of these units when our friends Bob & Linda Eckels came to visit us in Ft. Myers Beach in February. It is basically a GPS unit that allows you to look up stores, restaurants and other points of interest that are in the vicinity and it tells you how far away they are and how to get there. It even gives you business addresses and phone numbers! It's really a neat device and will be extremely handy for us on the boat as we are always covering new territory and wondering what's around us. Happy early birthday, Captain!

The walk back to the boat was long and hot, so we stopped off at the Publix to cool down before making the final trek to the dinghy. On the way back to "Life's2Short" we couldn't resist taking a peek at Tiger Woods' yacht, "Privacy." As you might expect, it was a beauty and was the biggest boat around. Of course, after winning the U.S. Open a few days ago, he can probably afford to keep it!

Palm Beach Gardens, where Lake Worth is located, is like Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous! This is Tiger's yacht, "Privacy."



Pulling up the anchor at Lake Worth.


This is Tom's boat, "Essential Part."


Monday we went as far as Jensen Beach and encountered a little more rain along the way, but the heaviest storms bypassed us. Another storm moved through about 4:30 that afternoon staying south of the anchorage, but it cooled the temperature down nicely! We put in another five hours Tuesday and anchored at Pine Island, just north of Vero Beach, with a stop along the way at Ft. Pierce to fuel up at Port Petroleum. We took on 300 gallons of diesel at the bargain price of $4.78 per gallon, including tax, which is actually pretty good considering most places we've seen are around $5.00 and that probably doesn't include Florida's seven percent tax.

Again, the storms popped up all around us that afternoon but we only had some wind and a little rain. The daytime highs have consistently been in the low 90's and there have been thunderstorms nearly every afternoon. Wednesday was no exception. We went another six hours and anchored at Cocoa, Florida, which is near Cocoa Beach but is its own city. The storms rolled through about 5:00 p.m. and, again, the most severe storms stayed to the north, south and east of us. Radar showed watch boxes all around us but we only had to deal with some wind, waves and rain.

Earlier in the day, the Captain had used his new toy (the personal travel assistant) to check out nearby points of interest and located a Mexican restaurant. So we got the dinghy down and headed in to town about 7:00 that evening. With the help of our new little friend, we easily located the restaurant and enjoyed Mexican food and a few long-awaited margaritas. What a handy little tool!

Today we only had a short run of about two hours to the Kennedy Point Marina where we will leave the boat for the next week. Kennedy Point Marina is in Titusville, near Cape Canaveral where NASA launches space shuttles. Too bad there isn't one scheduled any time soon. This would be a great place from which to watch it!

"Life's2Short" at Kennedy Point Marina.


Todd's sister, Jennifer, who lives near Orlando is going to pick us up on Saturday and we are going to spend a little time on land before continuing the journey north. We plan to return to the boat on Tuesday and leave here Wednesday or Thursday of next week, which will give us five or six days to get to Jacksonville to meet up with Todd's friend, Raffael, who is visiting from Switzerland. Then, we're Savannah-bound to celebrate the Captain's 50th birthday with family and friends.

P.S. I realize that the number of photos on this post are minimal, but I have to tell you that the scenery on the east coast of Florida cannot compare to the magnificence of the Exumas. Hence, the lack of photos. Sorry!