Thursday, January 29, 2009
SR: 7:07am SS:6:00pm

Lake Boca Raton Anchorage N of 65 in 6-8 ft of water.

Wow, after 7 bridges yesterday, we must be masochistic or something - we traversed 12 bridges today! The first one we started with -Flagler Bridge - had an electrical breakdown when we got there, so we had to wait and circle for an hour while they had an electrician come out to fix it. Maybe we should have headed out at Lakeworth? We figured that we had never come this way before, annnnd most likely, after this time probably won't again - so we should do it at least once (what were we thinking!?!?). Seriously though, it is very interesting and the ICW affords a view of Florida that we wouldn't normally see. Like Nettles Island (the square one) and the one we were next to last night called Peanut Island. That one was a dredge island (created by dumping dredgings and letting them pile up) that has an interesting history! The Seabees covertly built a secret emergency fallout shelter for President Kennedy to use during the Cuban Missile Crisis - in the event of a strike, while the Kennedy's would vacation in Florida. While it turned out that it really wasn't needed after all, it still stands (not so covertly now) and they give tours of the shelter. Pretty interesting. It was so covert that most of the Kennedy friends and family didn't know about it. Can you imagine???

Passing through Palm Beach I couldn't believe the huge homes...mansions, compounds or estates along the way. Breathtaking places - some with 14 million dollar yachts docked in front of the places. I really don't know what to call them and can't imagine what a family would do in such places. All I can say is Wow... To quote the Intracoastal Waterway "Lush, plush, elegant, luxurious, rich, opulent, affluent. Such words don't adequately describe some of the places in southern Florida..." you need to see them to believe them! Full size Greek statues on the lawns - not just one or two, but a couple places had circles of the statues like Stonehenge gods surrounding a garden setting; and bougainvilleas in shocking pinks and reds, and magenta colors covering massive walls and cathedral archways... There is incredible wealth and power in this area for mile after mile. You'd never see these places by car, only on the waterway - they're protected, gated estates/communities viewable on the waterfronts that they own. Impressive places - but I'm glad I don't have to manage them or the upkeep on them or their servant's houses.

We seemed paired up consistently with a boat called Whisper at the bridges - it was kind of fun to see if we could make all the bridges. They open at different times - some on the hour and half hour, others on the quarter and three quarter hours. We originally started with 3 other boats but one went on ahead and two fell back. Needless to say if you didn't (or in our case couldn't) make the bridges due to your speeds, you had to kill time waiting for the next opening. We were originally going to go on to Lettuce Lake or the anchorage across from it (where Whisper was heading) but after the delays and waiting, etc... 13 - 16 bridges seemed a bit much and at 12 bridges it felt like we'd gone "A bridge to Far" once again, so we pulled into the Boca Raton Anchorage at 4:55pm and waved goodbye to Whisper. I hope we see them again.

It was shallow getting in here at 5.5 ft??? But we managed to get in, and who is here? The 32 ft Bayfield from Vero Beach! We yelled greetings back and forth at each other - good to see them again - they have such a pretty little boat! I guess I'm just a little partial to Bayfields! There's a young couple that pulled in after us (Kirian - a WestSail), that's heading for Eluthera (an island in the Bahamas) to get married. The parents, etc. are meeting them there. I teased them about being together on the boat already and they said the Best Man is keeping them apart (LOL, uh huh...). It's nice to see there are still romantics out there - an island wedding and sailing off into the sunset . Hey! We're doing that ummmm... just quite a few years in between LOL. I'm glad these kids can do it while they're still young :) "Knot for Shore" also pulled into the anchorage. I liked their name. I heard them on the radio and wondered if the spelling was Knot or not... but was surprised at shore - I thought it was "sure". Cute name!

Anyhow our 20-mile trip today ended up being 31 miles and our flag can attest to how many times we circled and circled waiting for bridges to open LOL