And still it blows from the S-E
01 December 2006 | Lake Worth, Fla
Jim Lea
Yesterday we left Stuart n the morning heading out through the three closely spaced bridges. The first is a highway bascule bridge, the second is a remotely operated railroad bascule bridge, and the third is a fixed (65' clearance) highway bridge. The railway bridge is open unless a train is coming, and we heard that there were a couple of trains every morning around 8:30, so we headed out in company with a few others to beat the trains. And we made it, but it can be a nervous passage as the currents are strong, and lining up all three bridges (they aren't all in a row, for which some engineer should be scolded), isn't a simple task. But we were all through without problems, although one of the sailboats that came through with us had recently had some trouble as the stump of a mast was just visible above deck. We headed out the river, about 5 miles back to the ICW and started out again. By the way, Stuart appears to be the demarcation line that separates polite power-boaters in the north from those otherwise in the south. Up to then, we had never been "waked", or had a powerboat pass at full speed, and leave us rocking (sometimes quite violently) in their wake(and, for a 50' sport fisherman it can be a huge wake). The normal procedure for an overtaking powerboat is to do a "slow pass". That means that he comes up directly behind us, continuing at full speed, until very close to our stern. Then he throttles back to idle speed. Because he approaches directly from behind us, even though he continues at full speed with a huge wake, it doesn't affect us as it spreads out behind him only. When he is ready to pass at idle speed, we throttle back also, letting him pass more quickly. Then he roars off again, spreading his wake out in front of us, but running away from us. It works well, and we have learned to rate power boaters at their passing quality. The best ones are actually the ones who might seem most aggressive, carrying their full speed as close to us as possible. But entering Stuart in a narrow channel, one came at us, passing just yards from us, throwing his bow wave into the cockpit, and hitting us with his wake so hard that it broke across the foredeck, and rushed down the deck. Luckily all hatches and ports were closed, or we would have had a mess below! And it happened repeatedly as we left yesterday, so it wasn't just an isolated incident. But we could have worse to worry about. And again on the "not fun" front, the number of opening bridges is increasing rapidly. Yesterday between Stuart and Lake Worth, we went through 8 bridges, most of which open on a fixed schedule. And the schedules are sort of set up the same way traffic lights are sometimes set up; so that as you leave one, and arrive at the next, it will be just opening. Except that, like traffic lights, it rarely works. It means that for sailboats, you have to motor at full speed from one bridge to the next. And I don't like running our engine that hard. As we approached each bridge we would see it opening when we were still far away (in company with others, and the bridge operator on the VHF shouting, "Bring 'em on down or you'll miss the opening!" which would mean idling around the bridge for a half hour until the next opening. So by the end of the day, when we anchored in Lake Worth, which is in Palm Beach, we were exhausted. We spoke to a number of other boaters at the dinghy landing who are planning on heading off to the Bahamas, (to the Abacos, in Northern Bahamas) tomorrow (Saturday) as there is a good weather window. It is forecast to be light (10 knots) easterlies with just 2' seas in the Gulf Stream. So they will just motor over. We talked about it but decided to continue down to Miami as we need some supplies that we can get there, and we want to go to the southern Bahamas, so that's a better departure point. But as we planed our next step, to Ft Lauderdale, we saw 22 bridges that we would have to go through, all needing to be opened! After yesterday's experience, we decided to go out the Lake Worth inlet and sail down and back in at Ft Lauderdale. That was the plan for today, but this morning, the forecast light easterlies seem to have been postponed for 24 hours, so we decided to wait. We spent the day doing some shopping for supplies, reading and cleaning, and will be up for an early (pre-dawn) start tomorrow. But I forgot to mention the homes on the waterway here in Palm Beach. One huge mansion after another on both sides of the waterway for mile after mile! The wealth is unimaginable. It's as if, as each new one was built, the owner said to his architect "Like that one but bigger!" Some are very nice, but many are just plain gaudy. I'll post a few photos when we get a good internet connection. So tomorrow Ft Lauderdale, Sunday Miami, and Monday some shopping, then ready for a crossing. Based on the long range forecast, there is nothing in sight until mid-week at the earliest, so we will likely have a few days to kill in Miami. We'll manage!!