Picture shows West Palm Beach by night

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Late April finds us in Boot Key Harbour, Florida Keys.

We made our way down the ICW as far as West Palm Beach. The anchorage there was right in front of the town so very handy to dinghy ashore for shops, restaurants etc. West Palm Beach is very cruiser-friendly with a free tram/bus that we could take to the Publix supermarket, and another $1 bus to the laundry.

The ICW had been great but lots of concentration needed to stay in the dredged channel. One enduring memory of it will be the lonely whistle of the goods train; the railway line runs parallel to the ICW so every few hours we’d hear ‘Wooo-oo Wooo’ as it trundled past crossings. It seemed louder and closer at night when everything was still. We finally saw the train as we waited to cross the line whilst cycling in West Palm Beach (see Picasa pics).

Friends Glenys and Don (Aguatherapy) were staying in Fort Lauderdale and luckily had transport, so they picked us up for a visit to ‘Bluewater Charts’ there, and we enjoyed a lovely lunch in the Longhorn Steak House. There was lots to catch up on as we’d last seen them when they visited us in Modbury – and we ate steak then too if I remember correctly! Sure beats pizza Glenys!

We were waiting for a suitable weather window to sail to Cuba, a passage of around 2 days – or so we thought. Our route crosses the 80 mile wide Florida Strait and therefore directly crosses the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream has to be treated with respect as it flows at up to 2/4 knots at times, and if the wind is in the wrong direction the seas can become very rough. So we waited.

During this time we hired ‘Boris’ Bikes – ‘Sky’ bikes to be correct, heavy bikes with solid tyres – and cycled over the bridge to take a look at the actual Palm Beach. It is a lovely beach (sorry no pics) but so posh that there are no ice cream stalls, no shade and no shops along the beach. Perhaps the owners of the very expensive looking houses thought it would bring down the tone of the place!

Eventually we found an ice cream parlour a few blocks back and enjoyed a $7.50 (!) single scoop cone. I guess we can be comforted by the fact that it cost us nothing to drop the anchor and stay nearby, whilst homeowners and holidaymakers have to pay top dollar!

Eventually the weather gods smiled and we set off on 24th hoping to get to Cuba in one go, sailing south and west around the Keys until just south of Marathon then heading across the Strait. We chose to go outside the Keys as we’d be night sailing and expected to be south of Marathon after 28 hours. This was to be a bail out point if necessary. The first day’s sailing was great with the wind on the beam giving us speeds of up to 6 -6.5knots. It was great to be out on blue waters again! We saw several turtles surfacing and a pod of dolphins played around us as we sped on.
During the night however we hit adverse currents and our progress slowed to 2-4 knots. We know now that the whole area is influenced by Gulf Stream. This continued all next day so instead of arriving at Marathon on 25th we sailed slowly through a second night arriving at dawn. By this time the forecast was not as favourable to cross to Cuba so we are currently on a mooring ball in Boot Key Harbour, Marathon playing the waiting game again.

At least we can catch up on our sleep – and there’s a great steak and lobster place with a good happy hour!

At present it’s looking good for a Thursday night crossing…watch this space!