Tuesday, December 19, 2017
41 miles 7.1 Engine Hours
7:45 AM Underway
7:48 AM Docked Starboard side to fuel dock
8:16 AM Underway
2:02 PM Docked Face Dock, Port side to

Today I decided to take on some fuel as we hadn’t bought any since Myrtle Beach. The price is good at the Yacht club and the prices are not going to get better as we head further south. We took on 140 gallons and that was within two inches of each tank being full. The tanks will be topped off before we head to the Bahamas as I will not be buying fuel there.

After getting underway I tried to find a slip in Jupiter. Jupiter is one of the most expensive places to try to tie up for the night. All of the reasonable places were full and I settled on Harborside Place in Jupiter. Harborside is part of a Wynndom hotel complex and was $4.00 / ft. Our boat is 36’ long So, that was $144 to dock for the evening. The Yacht club we had just left was $1.75 / ft. $63/ night. So, not only does fuel get more expensive, docking gets more expensive too. One facility we considered was $6.50 / night. Didn’t consider it long though.

On our passage we saw more wealthy estates along the ICW. It is very hard to describe the homes. Some are huge but look more like a museum with flat stucco appearances. Some are kind of greek style. All are well manicured with pools, gardens and art sculptures. And then there are the boats. Most are shined with wax it seems, just gleaming. And, then there are people operating boats that only know how to throw huge wakes, not slowing down when meeting or worse overtaking Liquid Therapy. I wish I could get videos of the reckless way many of these boats are operated. But, I’m too busy taking evasive actions to avoid smashing our boat.
This does not get better the further south we get. More rich people with high horsepower boats that don’t care how big wakes they throw. Also what is bad is this is a fairly narrow stretch of water with seawalls on both sides of the ICW. When a boat passes you deal with the V shaped wake coming off their boat. Prior to meeting you their wake has hit the seawalls on both sides of the waterway and is reflected to the other side. This causes a cross hatched wake system that is un-natural and the Liquid Therapy’s hull is confused how to handle it. These selected waves are often worse than the offending boat’s primary wake.

Anyhow, getting tied up after a day of trying to keep Liquid Therapy upright I was pretty tired. The really great thing is that Wayne and Susan Baker came to visit us. They live less than a mile from from where we docked. We had a cocktail aboard and then ate at Calaveras Cantina Restaurant on site. Calaveras has great margaritas and make the guacamole fresh at tableside. That was wonderful. It was also great catching up with Wayne and Susan. I had seen Wayne at our 50 year reunion of the class of 67 Highland Springs HS a few months back. But we had not seen Susan for quite some time. After diner we walked over to where some other art was being displayed. Susan is very talented as is Wayne. Wayne was an art teacher and their enthusiasm in the arts is hard to beat. I told hime I couldn’t draw a straight line with a ruler. He said he could teach me to draw. After we get home I may have to fly down with a pencil and ruler and take a class from Wayne.

Today’s picture is the PonTiki charter boat. Looks Like a pontoon boat set up with a bar & grill, sliding board and lots of fun. We didn’t get one picture of Wayne & Susan. We were too busy talking.