It took us 2 fairly short days traveling south on the ICW to reach our next destination, Old Point Cove Marina on Lake Worth.

Vero Beach is at mile 951 on the ICW, and on the first day we traveled as far as the Peck Lake anchorage, which is at mile 1014. It has been our practice to get to the marina or anchorage where we will spend the night by mid-afternoon to avoid having a situation where there is no room for us when we arrive - something, by the way, that has never happened. Upon arriving at Peck Lake at 2:50 we spotted ten boats already at anchor and thought maybe our luck had run out. However it was a roomy anchorage and we put the “hook down”. We rowed Dimples ashore and walked a short distance through a beautiful state park to the gorgeous tropical aquamarine blue watered beach (previously unseen on this trip) with a high white foamy surf rolling in. We took our triathlon swimming wetsuits but found that the surf was to high to enjoy swimming. After a walk on the beac we rowed back for a sundowner glass of wine and dinner. During the night the wind came up and blew hard, but our Bruce did not drag an inch.

The anchor came up without difficulty the next morning, but we had a brief scare upon leaving the anchorage because we got out of the channel and almost ran aground. The second day was marked by rain/sun showers and bridge openings - a total of 7 of them. Most of the openings were “restricted”, which means that they only open at certain times, usually twice an hour), and not “on demand”. We did our best to time our passage to reach each bridge at the right time. In once case, a bridge opened early to let a big barge through and the bridge tender then closed the bridge before we could reach it. He announced on the radio that the next bridge opening would not be for a half an hour. While we were in the channel, waiting with the engine in neutral, a 70 foot yacht, Serenity, moved slowly past us; just then a small powerboat passed us on the other side, making a wake that caused Les Miserables to slide sideways, almost hitting Serenity, an outcome we avoided only with going “full ahead” on the engine and “hard to starboard” on the helm. Serenity now....serenity now!!

At 10:45, we passed ICW mile 1,000, representing the distance our little sailboat has traveled since October 16, 2011 when we passed the buoy off Norfolk, VA which marks the start of the ICW.

We spotted an Osprey nest, with a mother bird feeding her young babies. Other than this, our two days were marked by the works of man rather than the wonders of nature. The ICW from Vero Beach to Lake Worth is marked by huge, multi-million dollar mansions, often with multi-million dollar yachts tied to private docks behind the mansion.

The opulence continued after we reached the Old Point Cove Marina, following a minor incident when we got into some shallower water after we passed on the wrong side of a marker marking the channel into Lake Worth.

The marina is part of a huge “gated community” which includes a bunch of high rise condos, each costing more that a million dollars. Our introduction to the marina was delightful. We had a fairly strong wind behind us as we docked (violating Captain Jack Klang’s rule - NEVER DOCK WITH THE WIND BEHIND YOU!) and I had to put the engine “hard astern” as we entered the slip. “Prop walk” caused the stern to move to port into a piling, so it was not pretty. Suddenly we saw our 83 year old friend from Vero Beach, Merl, dash across to our slip. He took the bow line Merry threw him and in seconds had it secured to a cleat. His movements were as lively as a keen teenager dockhands! It turns out that Merl and his lovely wife Barbara and their great dog - Mozart, with their big trawler Endurance are docked right across from us. We have been delighted to join them in nightly “sundowners” - wine +! We have been to dinner on Endurance multiple times by the gracious invitation extended to us by Barbara, who is a fabulous chef! Merry and Barbara went on a shopping expedition using the boat bikes the Endurance carries. They ended up coming back with 2 neat folding chairs Barbara bout strapped to the back of Merry’s bike along with groceries. They had a good laugh about hauling their loads rather than riding their bikes back to the boat. We have had some great runs along the waterfront, dined at some nice restaurants, and spend whole days walking 8 + miles round trip to John D. MacArthur State Park (that’s right! - the guy from Chicago donated a portion of his huge estate to the park!) and to a big shopping mall.

However, we feel “stuck” again, as we wait a whole week for a “weather window” to leave here and cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. Our Les Miserables is the smallest boat in the marina. She is surrounded by vessels costing anywhere from $300,000.00 to $3,000,000,000.00, and further down are yachts costing 20-30 million, including Tiger Woods’ yacht, Privacy (his ex and kids live in Palm Beach). Interestingly, we do not see many people on their yachts - we mostly see cleaning services and “yacht detailers” working on them. It is nothing like the thriving community of “J” dock at North Point Marina during our all too brief season in Illinois.

Frankly, we don’t feel we fit in. Wiley has been stopped twice by security at the guardhouse gate when re-entering the gated community. The parking lots are full of cars that cost half of what our house costs. When we pass people on the sidewalk and say “hi”, they sometimes look at us and don’t answer back.

We have an appointment with Customs and Immigration, thanks to Barbara’s help, to get a “local boater’s card” to make it easier when we re-enter the United States. After that appointment early on Friday, if weather allows, we want to leave the marina (which is nice, but pricey!) and travel four miles down Lake Worth to an anchorage near Peanut Island. Our plan is to leave for the crossing to West End at midnight and figure it will take us 12 hours to get to our destination.