It’s been a long time hanging out in Ponce Inlet, where I’ve been anchored south of Daytona, but now I have left and I’m not going back!!
What a huge adventure! I’m writing this as we are running the motor, passing Cocoa Beach, Florida on this sunny, windless morning. It’s me and Kathleen, she is amazing, I met her in the Yukon in Canada. She is from Germany and has flown out here to travel with me for 3 weeks. When she bought her ticket a month ago, we didn’t know where I would be. I had hoped in the Bahamas, or at least somewhere south of here, but a lot of things prevented me from leaving Daytona. I even advised her not to come, and go with her backup plan for her vacation, because I felt like I didn’t have enough experience sailing this boat to make her feel safe. But I also knew if anyone could handle starting this journey with me, it was Kathleen!!
It is incredibly helpful to have her here, we are sharing so many new experiences together. She flew into Miami about 5 days ago, and I drove down to pick her up. We had a day at Key Biscayne, a short drive from Miami, where we ran all around the little island and swam at the beach. We climbed a lighthouse where we could see all the buildings in the city, and the water was brilliant Florida turquoise out to the ocean. That… is the way to the Bahamas. Kathleen and I are going to try to make the crossing together.
We’ll see what we have time for on this trip though, because before we can cross to the Bahamas we have to sail down the Florida coast to Miami. Possibly one other friend will come to join us for the crossing, and eventually we will try to get this little sailboat back to that spot we found at Key Biscayne. From there we will cross.
DAY 1- Goodbye Ponce Inlet…
We woke up in the morning with a great weather forecast ahead. We had done all our shopping and packed up the boat, all that was left was to sail away! We said goodbye to all the dolphins, pelicans, blue herons, and egrets that live on the mangrove islands of Ponce Inlet. It was a great place for me to spend a month getting ready and I’ll miss it!
The current grabbed us and I taught Kathleen how to steer the boat and the other basic things she’d need to know. We put up the sails briefly and did a little sailing, but it’s difficult to sail properly in such a narrow channel. We soon put them down as we came to our first drawbridge.
We called the bridge on the radio and opened it, now we were in the city of New Smyrna Beach. We saw a lot of dolphins all through the day, it is great to see them. We also saw a few shipwrecks, a mast sticking out of the ocean, one sailboat was high up on a sandbar.
After we left the city, we motored a long way through a more natural area of mangrove swamps. There’s so much to see out there, birdlife is everywhere. We passed docks from houses with pelicans sitting on them, we past fishermen, and also saw a few hawks flying around or sitting in nests on the channel marker poles.
Eventually the channel opened up when we arrived in a wilderness area called Mosquito Lagoon north of Cape Canaveral. The wind was blowing in the perfect direction for us and we put up all the sails. We killed the engine, and were still able to get along pretty fast. For many hours we had the perfect sail, and we passed deserted islands of palmetto trees, with grand looking pines from swamps in the distance.
That brought us to the Haulover Canal, where we put the sails down. So abruptly it happened, the extremely tight channel caught us by surprise as the current ripped us into it. We avoided all the rocks, and were screaming towards a drawbridge! I called them and they opened it, but through the channel the wildlife was amazing! 5 blue herons all sitting around each other, egrets, even a flamingo overhead. We passed manatees! And a flock of pure white pelicans. It was a thrill ride, to bring us to a totally new bay.
This one was a big open space, with some industry in the distance, and now the sun was getting low. We weren’t sure how far we would make it before dark, but we eventually arrived right after sunset at Titusville, and dropped the anchor in an industrial area.
What a peaceful night! And so exciting to get this trip underway, we had a couple glasses of wine to celebrate and cooked a great dinner. It was also Valentines day. I’ve never had a better date on Valentines day than this one!!
2/15- Passing Melbourne
The Intercoastal Waterway travels inside the Florida coast, just behind the exposed beaches. It’s a long channel, sometimes wider than other times, of relatively calm water. There’s a lot of bridges to go under, and the coast is mostly developed with cities. But some wilderness remains too. Today, the Intercoastal was pretty wide, and also polluted. Not really much to see.
We kicked the motor up at full blast and tried to go as fast as possible to get to our distant destination of Miami…
The morning was calm. We passed a bunch of cities which looked exactly the same from the distance. Eventually we put the sails up and cruised along with the afternoon breeze. At some point I ran with all the sails and the motor, going faster than ever. We didn’t have much to do, this life can be a little boring or basically trap you into this routine of just sitting around all day. But it’s also pretty sublime. Once we’re running with the sails things get a little more fun. We never ran out of stuff to talk about. I’m happy not to be alone right now, Kathleen will only be here until March first, but I appreciate it so much that she is here.
With all our efforts we covered about 55 miles. At sunset we were somewhere in the wilderness, where many little islands were among the shallow water. We anchored in a very shallow spot next to an island, it’s great that my boat can get into these shallow places! I only need about 3 feet of water before I will run aground, and at this anchorage the depth dropped below 4 feet for a moment. That was spooky! But we anchored in about 6 feet.
I also dropped a second anchor off the back to make sure we wouldn’t be dragged into the shallows when the current changed. That actually worked very well! It was another gorgeous night.
2/16- Jensen Beach
The morning sunrise was beautiful and we woke up before it with the notion we had another day of work. Another 50 miles we wanted to cover. We did our chores, had our coffee, and headed out into the beautiful day.
It was a long way to Fort Pierce and became obvious by mid morning it would be a windy day. I had the mainsail up and the motor to fly along for a long time while Kathleen took a nap. I lost my hat in a wind gust! Aww.
The city of Fort Pierce came suddenly with a drawbridge. I woke up Kathleen and the current dragged us into the town. The water was suddenly a beautiful shade of turquoise! Boats were everywhere and after leaving town we put up the sails. But the wind was very strong. We reefed them! My first time reefing the mainsail, which means to make the sail smaller to handle the strong winds. It worked pretty well, but the sailing was a little scary. Kathleen doesn’t have much sailing experience, and today she was learning what it really meant to be committed the taking on the elements every day in a small boat! She is really learning how to sail and this is the best way to learn.
We still had a lot of fun but were exhausted by the end of the day, pulling into a town somewhere called Jensen Beach. We had to go ashore, because we realized we weren’t going to have enough gas to get all the way to Miami. We had made it over halfway now! It was obvious when we came to shore, now we were seeing coconut palms! The air was starting to feel more tropical than it did in North Florida. After this town, we can officially be sailing in South Florida.
It was a bit of a journey to get to the gas station, because the close one didn’t have the non-ethanol gas I preferred to get. So I left her to use some wifi and took a walk. However, after filling the gas I realized, it would be impossible to carry all this back! And fortunately a kind lady offered me a ride. She appeared out of nowhere while I was standing at the pump, just to compliment my hair. I was trying to hitchhike anyway, and convinced her to take me! It was pretty cool that happened, because always I seem to get what I need on this challenging journey.
I bought Kathleen a beer, and we walked back into town together just to explore the place and enjoy ourselves. We got some snacks at the grocery store. It was a kind of lame place I guess… I wish we could be somewhere more pristine and beautiful together, but still, we were having so much fun. It really has been perfect. The night we had a beautiful view to the calm water and the lights of the city and bridges.
2/17- Jupiter.
We left and passed St. Lucie inlet in the morning. It was Sunday, and all the fishing boats were cruising out for the day. We entered a gorgeous channel through mangroves, under a drawbridge, and eventually found ourselves in a wealthy neighborhood.
We motored through here, where lots of people drive around on floating coaches. We yelled to them to make us a drink!!
We talked a lot about the political state of things, about the developments we saw paving over the natural world, and how it all sits so close to sea level here… just a two meter rise in ocean levels would put all these coastal cities underwater. We saw a lot of mansions today, passing close enough to observe every detail of them. A lot of them are uninhabited, owned by some super rich foreigners. There are a lot of giant condos as well.
The animals live between the developments with their homes being consumed by them.
At one point we saw the perfect beach, and Kathleen had been really wanting to swim in the last few days. We mostly found swimming to be not so nice, because the water is generally polluted and pretty cold. I said, hey, this spot looks perfect! So we dropped the anchor and jumped in!
It was a glorious hour or two spent there, we swam to the deserted beach and ran around and played among the palm trees and mangroves. We swam back to Simplicity and took out the brushes to scrape some of the growth off her bottom. Then, always driven by the force to keep MOVING, we headed back to the Intercoastal.
That was the last we saw of the wilderness.
We came to the city of Jupiter. It started with huge mansions and condos, and millions of powerboats zipping around and throwing up great wakes for us to ride. Always tight in this channel, (we call it the autobahn!), and eventually came the first of three drawbridges.
It was at the area where there’s a channel to the ocean, so great currents attack this place. The first one the operator was rude to me, I don’t have too much experience calling them and getting them to open. I’ve found they sometimes won’t answer if you don’t tell them the correct bridge name, and am also having a very difficult time finding the names! No matter, it eventually opened, but the second one was tricker.
My timing was a little off coming to the bridge, because it was waiting for some giant fishing boats and mega yachts to transit the bridge with me. As I approached I realized I had come too close too soon. I decided to put the engine into reverse, which didn’t work. It popped out of gear. I had been having this problem before, which I tried to fix when I had the engine serviced. It seemed to work, but I understand how it works. It’s a certain adjustment, and it looks like the shaft just loosened itself back up to give me the same problem as before. When I tried to put it into reverse again, the engine kicked upwards in a horrible way, sputtered and died.
Now I was floating quickly towards the beach! I started the engine, and made a quick maneuver to do a u-turn away from the closed drawbridge. I had to avoid a bunch of huge yachts in the process. It worked and soon I made it through the bridge.
Before I knew it we were screaming towards the next one with the current. After circling the harbor a couple times, we passed under that one too.
From there, passed huge mega mansions, the boat traffic was insane. They were kicking up massive wakes throwing us around. We hated this. Boats were everywhere today, because it was Sunday of a holiday weekend! Ahh! Bad time to be here for sure!
I had planned that we had to cross 4 drawbridges today, but I was mistaken. There were two more! Now… the ones we had passed so far on this journey were on call, but these two were on a time schedule. They would open every half hour, either on the hour or half, or on the 15/45 minute mark. They stay open for just 5 minutes or less, so your timing must be perfect!
This worried me, as we rounded the corner and came to the bridge. I wasn’t sure of my plan if we couldn’t pass through, because making a u-turn in this tight channel around all the boat traffic is a trick. I should mention that it is easy for anyone to make a boat go, the expert challenge is to make a boat stop! But also, it is the responsibility for these powerboats to get out of my way! I have the right of way over them.
I didn’t have to worry about it, because 3PM on the dot we arrived at the bridge and it opened for us like magic.
Great! Now just one more. We arrived exactly on the minute at 3:15, by perfect coincidence, and the Parker bridge of North Palm Beach was happy to open for us. If no-one else is ready to pass through, after one minute it begins to close.
After this we saw more boats crowding around the entrance to the channel than I’ve ever seen in my life. We snaked between them all and suddenly opened up into a huge bay! This is West Palm Beach and I’ve been here once before!
It was incredible to be back and see a familiar skyline. Years ago I sailed into this town coming from New York City, and ended my trip here by abandoning the lousy boat I was on. Kathleen and I are always joking and having fun, I told her she should leave me in this town as well! She’s very brave, and is sailing the boat no problem now.
The wind was a bit too heavy to sail today though, and with the narrow channels, bridges and boat traffic, this is no place for a sailboat. Fortunately my motor is doing great, (aside from the reverse problem) and we should have enough gas to make the rest of our journey.
The waves were huge, but the boat wakes were huger from the powerboats surrounding us as we continued towards the cruise ship port and industrial area of the city. We decided to end our day early and anchor in a protected anchorage in West Palm Beach.
Music was playing from every direction from people enjoying the weekend on the little island here. We anchored among some other sailboats not far from a marina and docks which compelled us to go explore shore. Although industry was all around, the water was crystal clear like turquoise glass like I hadn’t seen yet on this trip. It comes right in to this place from the mouth of the ocean not too far from here. The night before in Jensen Beach I had dreamed of this spot!! In my dream, Kathleen and I were swimming in crystal clear water around a bunch of boats in an industrial marina, and here was the place…
We watched a massive cruise ship pull out of port surrounded by a smog cloud. It was a monster, it’s top decks dimmed by the fog around it, and the smell of diesel coming from it was staggering. If it smells that bad from here I can’t imagine actually being on that boat…
After dinner we’ll head to shore. I know this place! I spent a week back in 2015 before abandoning the awful situation I was in which brought me to this slummy part of town. I spent that week in this exact same marina we are anchored in front of right now!
…
This trip has been incredible, but what’s coming ahead is terrifying! We know what we went through today with the bridges… The big cities lie ahead now. If we take the intercoastal tomorrow to Fort Lauderdale, we will pass through 25 drawbridges in an extremely narrow channel the entire time.
Or we cut to the ocean, and sail the rest of the way, but it will be a very long trip. 65 miles more to Miami means over 12 hours of sailing. We aren’t sure how the weather will cooperate, and I’m voting ocean but Kathleen says stick to the Intercoastal. The coast is open, rough and exposed, but the 25 drawbridges and psycho traffic doesn’t sound too good either. The intercoastal route puts the boat in extreme peril but the ocean route has potential consequences for our personal safety.
We stopped here at West Palm early today to decide how we will handle tomorrow. Or maybe take a day off and leave the next night… We’ll just have to see what we face, because we can never quite be sure what is coming around the next corner. 🙂
