Friday, February 2, 2007

Here we sit in an anchorage in Lake Worth, Florida, the temperature is about 80 degrees F and I'm looking at three boats with full cockpit enclosures, all bundled up. I can't understand what they think they need protection from. One has about five jerry jugs of diesel on the deck as well, another thing I can't understand doing on the ICW. With what seems like a marina every five or ten miles and such good guides to facilities on the ICW, there is just no chance a sailboat is going to run out of fuel.

Last week, looking around the Southpoint Anchorage mooring field in Stuart last week, I counted five boats on moorings with fenders hanging over the sides for the entire week. The boats never went anywhere, I didn't see anybody coming alongside them, I can't figure out why they couldn't stow their fenders. South Point Anchorage has a policy that every boat on a mooring must come to the dock to pump out its holding tank at least once every two weeks, which, I was told, is for some of these boats the only movement they make. Maybe it's just too much effort to stow the fenders after that long stressful trip to the dock?

Here's where I show my age, I guess. Back when we started out cruising...... we didn't even have a bimini, and our dodger was a little boxy thingy that just covered the companionway hatch. I admit, we put a better dodger on within a year of owning Watermelon, but the bimini didn't get added until we had been in the Caribbean for a year, perhaps because I refused to come into the cockpit until after the sun set. That year's delay was probably a good thing because we knew better what we wanted and what we could tolerate. We had acquired a couple solar panels and had a nice structure built to accommodate the solar panels with a sail slide on the inside edge into which we could slide our bimini.

I was, and still am, adamant about having good visibility. I think that would have helped two boats that we passed on the ICW the other day. We had just caught up with several sailboats as we came into Jupiter Inlet, which is a bit confusing as one makes a 90-degree turn to starboard and then has to mill around to wait for the bridge to open. The first of the two sailboats seemed to have turned too sharply or was caught by the current and ran aground, coming to an abrupt halt. The boat following a bit too closely behind barely avoided rear-ending the first boat by what looked to be inches, but then swerved back into the boat, perhaps pushed by the current, and crunched their bow against the other boat's anchor. I couldn't see how much damage was done; probably not a lot but it sounded bad. It may not be fair to say that without the full cockpit covering their visibility would have been better and they would have avoided the collision in the first place, yet I can't help observing that the more "stuff" attached to sailboats on the ICW the more oblivious they are to the other boats around them as they motor along.

That last observation leads me into my favorite rant about sailboats chugging along down the ICW. Having originally been a powerboater, Peter is keenly aware of the problems they face when trying to pass a sailboat in restricted waters. The power boat doesn't want to raise a huge wake to discomfit the sailor, but the faster the sailboat is traveling the faster the powerboat has to go to pass them, and the faster the powerboat is traveling the bigger the wake. When we were motoring in the ICW with our sailboat, I learned very quickly to pull as far over to starboard as possible and to slow down significantly to let the powerboat pass. We all benefited; the powerboat could get past quickly and resume normal speed and we weren't tossed around by a big wake. It seems like common sense to me, but very few sailboats do it. They will stay in the middle of the channel even when there's plenty of depth all across it, to "maintain speed and course." And curse the power boat as it goes by. Why? Even in our power boat we slow down to let a faster boat pass us.

Because the wind is blustery with less than perfect weather, we aren't going very far until after the Miami Boat Show. The boat seems to need to be hauled anyway; we're just hanging around for a few days. Peter's a bit bored, but I've decided that it's time for him to wire in the new 110V outlet so I can get my computer and printer off the salon table. Oh joy.

February 4, 2007

I guess Peter wasn't up to doing any wiring on Saturday because immediately after drinking his first cup of coffee for the day he announced that we were leaving. It was overcast and a bit too chilly for me to go into the water to check our props anyway; we may as well continue on south.

With a north wind we were able to run just a bit faster than 8 knots, but that's a lot slower than running at 12 knots with power to spare. Peter changed the fuel filters but that didn't help at all; now the only reason we can think of that we can't get up to reasonable speed is that the props are badly fouled from sitting idle so long in Stuart. As soon as we can find someone to dive on the props, or the water gets warm enough for me to dive on the props, we'll see.

We anchored early in a comfortable anchorage, Lake Boca Raton, rather than push on and have to settle for a less than pleasant anchorage further down.

Sunday morning we started early, arriving in Ft. Lauderdale well before noon. Peter didn't like any of the options for mooring or anchoring and with plenty of time we decided to continue on to Hollywood or N. Miami. Unfortunately just past Port Everglades we were stopped by the Coast Guard before reaching the Dania bridge, one of the many bridges along the waterway. A sailboat sunk right at the bridge and until it can be raised the bridge is closed to all boat traffic. They can't say if it will be two days, a week, or whenever before that part of the waterway will be open to traffic again. That sinking sure ruined somebody's day! Here's a link to it: http://www.fototime.com/9A0B04E4137F620/standard.jpg

With a loss of one-third of our engine power Peter is unwilling to run outside for even the short stretch between Port Everglades and the next inlet. We're only guessing at what the problem is and it would be terribly embarrassing if something went wrong. The decision is a bit academic anyway because the weather got progressively worse as we turned around to find some place to anchor for the night..... or longer. It is windy, gusting up to 25 to 30 knots, raining hard, and we are very cozy in Lake Sylvia. The only disadvantage is that we haven't seen any place we could dinghy to shore and walk around; cheek by jowl expensive homes and very large motor yachts, no room for a poor cruiser to tie up their dinghy. Not that we would consider that right now, but the weather is bound to improve some time!

Oh, well, we have plenty of food and water and fuel to wait out the next few days.

Monday, February 5, 2007

We heard on the radio early this morning that the Dania bridge is open again, but I'm not sure I want to leave today. It's really lousy outside.