The Admiral and Chief of Milroy Naval Operations was piped on board on Saturday, March 19th (what a great birthday present) in Miami with all due protocol and respect for her office. She was on a 3-week inspection tour of the fleet.

All kidding aside, we were both looking forward to spending some more time together on the boat and so after picking her up at the Miami airport and a quick stop for seafood on the way back (see a pattern here - remember her last departing dinner) we made a beeline back to the boat at Dinner Key. It was great to have her on board again and she was amazed at the sights and sounds of Biscayne Bay.

The weather was hot and a welcome reprieve from the cold and snow at home and Cindy quickly fit into the rhythm of cruising. So much so that she decided simply to take a couple of days on the mooring to rest and relax before thinking about doing any further cruising. We settled in to a quiet couple of days on the boat enjoying each other, good food and peace & quiet.

We were contemplating a crossing over to Bimini in the Bahamas with a buddy boat in the marina but the first favourable weather window was not forecast until Thursday. While the weather was warm and the winds a reasonable strength the winds were coming out of the north, and for those non-sailors following this blog, you do not attempt to cross the Gulf Stream with any sort of a north wind because the wind and current work against one another to create huge waves that make any crossing, at the very least, uncomfortable and, possibly, even dangerous. So we had time to think about it for a couple of days, but when the time came we decided that our time window for being back in the States was too short for a trip over to Bimini and we made up our minds to simply head back north along the coast and enjoy short travel days and long evenings at anchor.

On Saturday, March 26th we left Dinner Key about 9:30 in light and variable winds out into an absolutely calm Biscayne Bay. We travelled under the Rickenbacker Causeway, south of Dodge Island and out the Government Cut into the Atlantic Ocean that had only a mild 3 foot chop. At the end of the channel we turn left to head north for Ft. Lauderdale. As we headed north we did run into an increasing chop that build to 4-5 ft that made our motor slightly uncomfortable but the Gulf Stream current was pushing us along at over 9 knots and so the trip was a fairly short one. We entered the Ft. Everglade Channel and passed under the 17th St. Bridge and into Lake Sylvia to anchor for the night arriving about 3pm. The winds built considerably overnight but the holding is good in the anchorage and we had a restful night at anchor.

We weren't in any hurry because we had some time to reach our final destination of Indiantown and so when we awoke to a forecast of high winds and heavy thunderstorms we decided to stay put in one of my favourite anchorages in Florida. As it turned out, the weather turned nasty for two more days and we had to stay here in the anchorage. Over the next couple of days we explored Ft. Lauderdale by dinghy in between a couple of doosie storms that made their way through giving us winds of about 30 knots and lots of lightning (see the lead picture).

On Tuesday morning the forecast still wasn't great but we decided that it was settled enough to make our way up the ICW for a few hours. Cindy wanted to experience some of the ICW she had missed on the way down and so we made our way up "The Canyon" looking at the sights and passing under the many bridges. We enjoyed the day but early afternoon brought severe weather warnings for the next two days including possible tornados and so we decided to seek out a dock for the night. We stopped at Palm Beach Yacht Centre which is located just north of the Boynton Beach Inlet and found a pleasant marina with reasonable rates. We ended up on a fixed dock near the entrance to their basin and the wind ended up pinning us to the dock for the next 2 days with winds that registered 38.5 knots on our wind instrument (we actually damaged our fender holders by being crushed against the docks at the height of the storm) and while we didn't have any tornados some apparently were sighted inland just over 15 miles away. Needless to say we were glad to be tied to something solid.

On Friday morning the bad weather had passed and summer seemed to return so we poked our way a little way north into Lake Worth because I wanted to share with Cindy the north anchorage. We made our way into the anchorage about mid-afternoon and anchored just out of the channel near the southern edge. Shortly after we met up with Steve & Karen off Bikini Club who we had met in Atlantic Highlands just south of New York on our way south and they joined us for afternoon drinks onboard Leeway and then we joined them on Bikini Club later in the evening to watch a movie. That night and the next day were absolutely idyllic for anchoring. We took advantage of the fine weather to dinghy to shore and explore the Lake Worth area and do a small provisioning.

Monday morning we reluctantly pulled the anchor a little before 9 am and continued our slow march north. The weather was windy and slightly overcast but generally OK for travelling. We had to make our way under 8 more bridges today as we passed the multi-million dollars estates of Jupiter Island (home of Tiger Woods and others) on the way towards Stuart. We made our way under an ever-brightening sky past Peck Lake and into the mouth of the St. Lucie River and, as we have become used to, we bumped several times in the channel past Manatee Pocket before making the turn toward Stuart. We arrived at Stuart about mid-afternoon and after taking on water and getting a pump-out took a mooring ball for a couple of days. Stuart is a favourite stop for us both and we had stopped here earlier in the season. We stopped now because it was on our way to Indiantown which is further up the St. Lucie River and the Canal where we will leave the boat for the summer and return home. We took the opportunity to stay a couple of days to enjoy Stuart and the amenities it has to offer before moving on.

Thursday morning saw us off again. We made our way up a very shallow St. Lucie River because Florida is currently suffering from one of the worst droughts in its recent history. In fact, until we reached the Palm City Bridge, about 2 miles upriver from the anchorage, we were actually touching bottom most of the time. Once past the bridge and into the canal the depth got more substantial and we floated past rural farmland and moved, more and more, into the Everglades territory in the Florida interior. We were headed for Indiantown Marina which is famous for being one of the most secure hurricane refuges for boaters in Florida. Indiantown lies on the Okeechobee Waterway just east of Lake Okeechobee and shallow draft boats can travel to Florida's Gulf Coast through this passage (few sailboats this year). The leg from Stuart to Indiantown requires transiting one lock before reaching the marina and the combination of being 27 miles inland, regulated water depths, and relatively high terrain make this area a good one for boats looking to stay somewhere safe in hurricane season.

We arrived at Indiantown about 2 pm after waiting for the lock that was operating on reduced hours because of low water levels and settled in to a slip. We enjoyed a quiet few days together before Cindy flies out on Sunday.

And, so the 3-week inspection tour was all too quickly over and we were once again face with being apart for another spell. It's not the greatest arrangement but it beats the alternative.

The nice part is that we both can't wait until the next time.