ST. LUCIE INLET - MM 988
We left Fort Pierce at 8am this morning on our way to our first ocean sail this trip. Today was a major accomplishment for us aboard 4mySanity. We sailed our own boat in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time and Capt Bob was in his glory. I believe his remark was "this is better than sex"..............hmmm. OK then, let's move on. We were fortunate to have great winds with a northeasterly direction that put us on a run for the next 4 hours. We enjoyed several pods of porpoise along the way with a couple jumping our bow waves. With the sun directly on our bow the pix were not as great as the scene itself. Just amazing creatures and we loved sailing alongside them.
At 1:05P we anchored in the Manatee Pocket which turned out to be a much smaller anchorage than we imagined. All in all it was an amazing day. We are planning another ocean leg tomorrow.

LAKE WORTH/PALM BEACH - MM 1014
Departed anchorage at 8:25am to sail to Lake Worth today. Ocean had 2 foot swells - not too bad - but a southeasterly wind direction which meant one very heeled up sailboat. Bob, as you can imagine, was in his element, and I was hanging on trying not to slide off the seat into the cockpit. Four hours of pure joy for the first mate. No dolphin sightings today which was a bit of a bummer. I could have used the distraction. Just looking at Bob today I know he could live full time on the water; I am sure of it. Maybe he is part dolphin? We dropped our hook in the Lake Worth anchorage at 1:34pm. After looking at our timing for getting into FLL we decided to stay here two nights which really made the first mate happy.

BOCA RATON - MM 1048 - First thing is learning that this town is pronounced Boca "Rattone". We knew we were on our first leg of a two-legged journey that would take us through 20 bridges in the ICW to get to our destination in Fort Lauderdale. Timing is everything and the captain studied his charts, the ICW Waterways reference guide and Active Captain. Yes, We are all set! The first bridge opens on the 15 minutes after and before the hour. We leave at 8:30 am to make the 8:45 opening. On the approach, Bob hails the bridgetender for the opening only to learn that the Flagler St. Bridge is under reconstruction and only opens on the 15 minutes AFTER the hour. SO MUCH FOR PLANNING THIS DAY. I could not help myself and kept asking the Captain how we did not know this? Isn't major construction something that would be in at least one of these ##@!! reference guides? AFter a while of hearing my crankiness Bob began pressing his finger on the console. I asked him what the heck he was doing and he said he was looking for the MUTE button. He was sure the boat maker included it in the basic package when we bought the boat. We both cracked up..........he looked so damned serious .... imagine being stuck in a small, confined area of the boat (ok, "with me" I'll add since I know it's what you're all thinking or at least what my family is thinking) and the boat going round and round in circles because we couldn't get under the darn bridge and we had 45 minutes to kill....Kill being the operative word in that moment.

So yes, we both just laughed and soon enough the bridgetender was announcing the bridge opening and we happily passed under it. Good bye Flagler St. Bridge..........now, only 19 more bridges to go. Oh What Fun It is To Ride in a 55 horsepowered open sleigh. Oops, wrong song.

We timed the remaining 10 bridges for this leg just right and arrived in Lake Boca Raton at 1:43pm. We enjoyed cocktails in the stern before hitting the sack. Very hard to sleep with 30 knot winds howling all night. We had great holding in the anchorage but those winds were just blowing like crazy. No need for an alarm clock the next morning.