Another leisurely day at anchor with beautiful blue skies, temps in the80’s and a great breeze blowing through the boat – who could ask for anything more. Wednesday morning was spent with Tom working and making phone calls to work. Luckily he has an air card which allows him to connect to the internet. I tidied up the boat and then worked on my counted cross stitch piece – one that I bought at least 4 years ago and never really got into until last summer. I like to work on it while on the boat so it’s finally taking shape and hopefully will be done within the next few months and ready to frame.
Late afternoon we took the dinghy for a ‘spin’ and explored the waterfront around the Port of Palm Beach. We saw a huge dredge which during the day is working offshore, a ship being loaded with containers for transit to the islands – it’s interesting to see these fork lift trucks pick up the containers and then a big crane loads them onto the ship. Another ship was loading boats onto its deck for transport somewhere (probably across the ocean). There was one being loaded when we dinked by and another two – a sailboat and trawler floating just off the entrance waiting their turn.
On our way back to the boat we noticed a sailboat that had come in earlier and anchored near us. Tom thought he saw Buffalo, NY as the hailing port so we went by and sure enough that’s what it read. We called to them and said we were also from Buffalo and they invited us on board – Dean and Susan on a CSY 44 – Autumn Borne – lived in East Aurora for 35 years and have been cruising for the past 6! We had a great chat with them, exchanged stories, etc. They were making their way north to Hop-O-Nose marina on the Hudson where they keep their boat during the summer. (This is the marina we stopped at to step our mast after traversing the Erie Barge Canal) They had spent time in the FL keys and were giving us some tips where to anchor in Ft. Lauderdale, etc. They were a wealth of knowledge and it was great to have met them. We hope to catch up with them next season.
On Thursday we motored back to our mooring ball in Lake Worth. After getting settled we dinked to our floating dock with our garbage and recyclables and walked back to our house. We needed to pick up the cruising guide of anchorages along the intra coastal and while there we also took a shower!! Before we left the boat we called Judy & Jim Bloom to invite them to our boat for cocktails, etc and they accepted.
Tom dinked me back and then went to pick up J&J who met them at our floating dock. We had a great early evening of conversation and food. Before they left Jim and Tom reviewed the charts and Jim circled some of the anchorages along the way. We will see them again on Saturday night when the Castaways (the sailing club we joined) are meeting for dinner at Bradleys in W. Palm Beach. We will motor our boat down there later today and anchor off of the city docks.