Alulquoy

We have arrived!

We departed Hobe Sound at 6:45AM to begin our journey through 11 bridges. 10 of the 11 bridges are titled Bascusle bridges, which means we must hail them on the VHF radio for openings. Some of these bridges were within 1/2 mile of each other and opened at certain times. So, proper speed amd timing is required to keep on schedule.

There were several bridges in Jupiter Fl where the waterway snaked back and forth in short distance. We seem to be getting better with boat navigation, timing and teamwork to maintain an efficient schedule.

As we enter the Palm Beach area, we realize we have entered a different world. Very elaborate waterfront homes and boats. I think their annual landscaping service costs more than my home. You should see their bushes. And just think, we are in their backyard.

We cruise past north Palm Beach and arrive our destination of Lantana FL in SW Palm Beach around 12:30PM. We are currently settled in and enjoying a daily rum ration on deck. It is sunny and 82 degrees. A sense of accomplishment surrounds us.

We will spend a couple days relaxing then spend some time working on the boat, getting it ready for future use. Maybe even get out there again before we go home.

It is always exciting to embark on a new journey. Especially when it is an entirely new experience. We have encountered some interesting and challenging situations over the past 11 days and worked together to get through them safely. If we can do it, you can too.

Thanks to our crew and Mother Nature for providing a safe voyage. It has been a wonderful experience.

Low tide this morning is at 11AM and there is a bridge we need to passage that is within 15 minutes of our departure from Harbortown Marina in Ft Pierce. The bridge is 65' high and our mast is approx 64' high. So, we departed at 9:30 to move very slowly under the bridge.

As we approached the bridge, we could see the current bridge height was 64.5'. After some discussion, the skipper proceeded as we closed our eyes and crossed our fingers that the crossing would not sound expensive. Success, we cleared the bridge by 6 to 12 inches.

As we continued to motor down the intracoastal, we noticed that we were in a short parade of 7 sailboats moving south. We proceeded in an orderly fashion within a couple hundred feet of each other for several hours. This appears to be a very common snowbird process during this time of year.

The intracoastal near Ft. Pierce is several hundred yards wide and over a period of 30 miles becomes fairly narrow. The ocean meets the intracoastal near St. Lucie and if we would have taken a right turn, we could have transitted the Okeechobee canal through the state to Fort Meyers.

As we passed St. Lucie moving south, the intracoastal is filled with mangroves and birds. Now we see the first sign of expensive waterway homes. As we pass St. Lucie, we discuss our plan to anchor overnight on the intracoastal and choose a location titled Hobe Sound. The last peaceful outpost before Jupiter and Palm Beach.

Hobe (Hobay) Sound was named by the Indians and it seems only proper for Alulquoy to anchor there as Alulquoy is named from an Indian myth. Hobe Sound is a slight widening of the intracoastal with mangroves and wildlife on one side and rural expensive homes on the other side. It is a nice quiet anchorage where we can view the beauty of the night sky.

As we settle in around 3PM, a small airplane conducts several fly bys with the traditional tilting of the wings. Pretty cool. As night falls we enjoy our friendship by listening to several musical artists on the stereo. Cat Stevens was a hit. Are we showing our age yet?

As our anchor light was still on the fritz, we awoke a couple different times during the evening to change batteries in our temporary anchor light. All in all, it was another good day and peaceful evening.

We are getting very close to completing our boat delivery.

We departed Cape Marina at Canaveral FL at 7:30AM and transited the channel inlet to the ocean. We set the sails at 10AM with winds from the ESE at 10-15 MPH.Caribbean music is playing and we are feeling good in 80 degree temps. "Looking good Billy Ray - Feeling good Lewis."...That is a fun quote from the movie Trading Places and reflects how we feel.
At 11:30AM.

Some rain moved in and the winds changed to SSE making our sailing very difficult. We pulled in the sails and began to motor. Arrived Ft. Pierce at 5:30PM . The Ft. Pierce inlet was very straight forward, short and easy. One of the easiest and best inlets on the Atlantic seaboard. The town appears clean and orderly.

Harbortown Marina was very easy to find and within close proximity to the inlet. Although, it is not within walking distance of town. We walked to a lounge for a dinner that was delivered from a local Italian restaurant. The food was the best we have had on this trip. Back to the boat to gaze at stars and reflect upon our day while a dolphin swims around the marina.

It was another very good day. We put 60 ocean miles behind us and are within 70 miles of our final destination of Lantana FL. We will take our time and probably arrive before Thursday, Thanksgiving. Doug said he cooking us a Turkey.

By the way, we are thankful there were no bridges over the Atlantic Ocean. If you read our previous journal entry, you know what we mean.

We thought we would rest and recover from our BAM-BOOM-BANG night sail by sleeping in and taking our time today. The plan was a leisurly motor down the intracoastal and put 30 miles behind us.

So we departed Cape Marina at about noon and transited two bascule bridges and a lock between the marina and the intracoastal. A dolphin escorted us through a bridge and we were so close we could hear it breath.

At the intracoastal there is fixed bridge with a 65' height. Most fixed bridges on the intracoastal are 65' at high tide. Our mast is 64' high. As we approached the bridge we thought we should take a binocular view at the bridge height marker. 64 feet. 64 feet! Yep, 64 feet. Are you sure, yep 64 feet. Let me look. Crap, 64 feet. Ok, let's check the tide tables. High tide is at 2PM. Crap! That means we will have to wait at least another four hours before we can pass under the bridge. What should we do?

One alternative was to place Eric and Ken at the end of the boom and swing them out to the side of the boat so the boat would heel over and the angle of the mast would lower to clear the bridge. That alternaitve was dismissed upon visions of our photographs in Transiting the Intracoastal Waterway for Beginners Magazine.

After about a half hour discussion, we decided to return back to Cape marina in Canaveral through the 2 bascule bridges and the lock. Deja Vu. We would start out early the next morning and avoid those darn fixed bridges on the intracoastal by sailing the ocean.

So here we sit at Cape Marina at 4PM for more R&R before we depart tomorrow on the ocean. Hopefully the wind and waves god will be with us.

The lesson we learned today was the 6 P's. Most of you know what that means. In a nutshell, we were too focused on relaxing after our last passage and did not plan appropriately before the next departure. Another lesson learned.

The plan for tomorrow is to depart at 7AM and sail the ocean to Ft. Pierce FL. Hopefully there are no bridges on the Atlantic ocean.

We just wanted to say thanks to our readers for your comments. We often don't have time to respond to each email and wanted to let you know we have receieved and appreciate your comments. Also, this site only allows us to post one picture at a time under the free plan. I'm sure there will be photos to share when we get home, if we get home.

Stay tuned. Our adventure is almost over.

It is still dark and we are standing watch. As winds become more south than north, it is making our sailing more difficult and driving us inland toward the coast. We have been sailing approx 6 to 10 miles offshore to avoid commercial traffic and maintain our final destination. Ideally, we should be 20-40 miles offshore to reach our final destination and eliminate some of this traffic. Interesting, there hasn't been much traffic on the ocean or intracoastal. Certainly, much less than I had anticipated.

As the winds become on our nose, we must elimate sail and fire up the engine. The seas are rocky and the ride is like being on a roller coaster standing up. I am not exaggerating. It is quite an experience but is not fun after prolonged periods of time. The rocky seas are throwing us from side to side while the boat is twisting and pounding through the waves. BAM-POUND-BOOM goes the boat. It is extremely difficult to walk, sit, sleep or simply rest. Our physical and mental capabilities are being challenged and drained. This is when we experience deprevation and must rely upon each other to charge our batteries. Simple things like making a sandwich or cup of coffee for each other temporarily recharge our batteries. It is no time to be an individualist.

At 5:05AM, Daytona Beach arises on the horizon. Then Cape Canaveral about 8AM. It is awesome to see the large Canaveral launching pads arise from many miles offshore. To bad we won't see a launch. But we do see For Sale signs...just kidding.

As we BAM-POUND-BOOM past Canaveral we experience some temporary navigation problems but soon recover. We must alter course to avoid large shoaling. Another learning experience from which we relied upon each other to resolve. Having several people on board has enabled us to have a checks-and-balance system.

We are very tired and stink as we enter the Canaveral inlet at about 6PM. We hug the outer edge of the channel as these large cruise ships pass. Again, how small we feel. The marina is very close and we are looking forward to showers, food and SLEEP. We don't really stink but realize how spoiled we are when we miss a shower for two days.

We are parked at Cape Marina which is directly across from the cruise ship(s) embarkation area. Wow! We walk several blocks to a waterway restaurant for dinner and are pretty tired and quiet. Back to the boat to collapse and rest for the evening. A daily rum ration or two and off to snooze.

By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIC! Can you think of a better way to spend a birthday than being beat up in a boat on rocky seas for 30 hours. What a learning experience. 244 miles in 34 hours.