Mile 1000
28 November 2016
Shortly after leaving our anchorage Saturday morning we achieved a monumental milestone which was crossing mile 1000 on the ICW, mile zero is in way back in Norflok VA. Originally our plan had been to do one or two overnight passages to avoid the slowest parts of the waterway, however unfavourable ocean conditions and concerns over our vibration issues kept us in the ditch the whole way. I have always felt that every Canadian should drive the complete Trans Canada Highway at least once and every boater who does the north south trek should do the complete ICW at least once. However, reaching the Rockies after hundreds of miles of prairies gave me the same feeling of relief as arriving in Lake Worth and now the end is in sight and it is time to jump to the islands.
We anchored Saturday afternoon in a nice protected bay at the top of Lake Worth and spent a quiet evening admiring huge mansions and some mega yachts at a nearby marina. Turns out we keep good company, one of the houses belonged to Jack Nickalaus and Tiger Woods used to keep his boat at the marina. Sunday morning we enjoyed a leisurely sail to the Riveria Beach Marina where we have tied up for 2 or 3 days while we provision the boat. Martine and Andre Seguin picked us up after lunch and we went to Costco for the first load of supplies. After a tour of Singer Island with the Seguins we had dinner at their condo before heading home for the night.
The boating community has been up in arms the last couple of years because Florida was trying to introduce a law restricting anchoring in many places; boaters felt that the state was just doing favours for the rich who didn't like people anchoring and blocking their view of the water. However, now that we have seen the number of abandoned boats and floating wrecks that people live on I can understand the need to do something. The photo is of one such live aboard boat in Riveria Beach anchored right beside the channel in front of a marina that services mega yachts.