Our second month at the marina in Lantana ends tomorrow, time to move Light Reach. Scott had made arrangements for us to stop at the Loggerhead Marina in Stuart on our way to American Custom to be hauled out on July 28. She will remain there on the hard until November. It isn't physically possible for us to get from Lantana to American Custom in one day. And we needed to get back to the condo somehow. If only we could trailer the car behind the boat, like motor homes do!
Our plan was to move the boat, spend the night on board in Stuart, pick up a rental car the next day, drive back to the condo to get our car, return the rental car and then spend the night at the condo July 27. We'll drive our car up early the morning of the 28th and leave the car at the marina while we move the boat up the river.
Our timing could have been better in regards to the tides. Low tide was at 7:16 am. That meant waiting until the tide was rising to get out of the marina. The unfortunate part of that was getting a late start. While we had plenty of daylight to make the 43 nm trip, the temperatures were slated to hit the mid 90's and as the day wore on we would have an increasing chance of thunderstorms. There also was the matter of the bridges we would have to time. The Flager in West Palm opens only once an hour on the quarter hour and not at all during rush hour.
We arrived at the marina just about low tide, stashing the car in the garage. We got the boat ready to pull out unhooking the electric, getting the route set in the chart plotter and securing the boat down below for travel. At 9:30 on a rising tide we cast off our lines and backed out of the slip heading out to the ICW. Our goal was to make the 11:15 opening of the Flagler. Best laid plans to often go astray and our timing got thrown off by a mega yacht (75 ft or more) and its tender. We went through the Southern Blvd bridge behind this behemoth and its 25 ft tender. They putzed around going through the bridge which delayed us just enough to not be able to make the 2.8 mile distance to the Royal Palm Bridge for its 11:00 AM opening. We had to make that opening to get to the Flager for the 11:15. Imagine our frustration as we watched the bridge spans lowering when we were only 500 ft away. We asked the bridge tender to hold it for us but we were just far enough away and slow enough that they didn't feel they could. We were forced to wait until the 11:30 opening and then another 45 for the 12:15 opening of the Flagler. Meanwhile the thunderheads continued to build and the heat continued to rise. With very little wind on the waterway there wasn't much of a breeze. We had packed on plenty of cold water which we were consuming in mass quantities. Once we passed through the Flagler our timing improved somewhat reaching the Jupiter Inlet at close to high tide. It seemed to take forever to get through Hobe Sound and approach the cross roads where the St Lucie Inlet, St Lucie River and ICW intersect. This is where we would make our turn to go up the St Lucie, notorious for shifting shoals. It was near low tide by the time we got there at 18:30 and started our turn. It was quite literally touch and go as we bumped the bottom at least 4 times as we made our way into the river. We were on a previous track as we came in, but either we came out at a higher tide or the shoals had shifted. We were in the channel but as any local will tell you that doesn't mean a whole lot here. The groundings were soft and we didn't stick but it did make for a couple of tense moments. I think people here have Sea Tow on speed dial. It took us over an hour to get up the river to the marina where we had our favorite slip reserved. Coming into the marina the water was still very skinny and on our way to the slip the water got skinnier than the Captain felt comfortable with so we aborted that and headed for the front dock along the seawall. There was space enough for us to tie off which we did between a catamaran and trawler. It was past 20:00 when we settled on the dock. We got the boat settled and headed to the pool hot, tired and thirsty.
The picture was taken as we came through the Port of Palm Beach. Notice the thunderheads over the cruise ship. We got very lucky dodging the storms on our journey.