Trawler Blogs

Well, today we saw a lot of change from further north. The weather is decidedly milder. We don’t know if it is just a general warmup, our location further south, or a combination. We suspect the latter. We understand that it is forecast to get cooler on Monday.
The wealth is staggering. Our banner photo shows a marina with maybe a hundred mega-yachts, some of them shrink-wrapped (now that’s a lot of plastic sheeting!). Such yachts are rare further north but much more common here. The photo to the right shows tens of beach condo buildings.
We found people that are very helpful here. We stopped for a pump-out since the Vero Beach pump out had not been working as well as many along the way. New Point Cove Marina did not have the correct fitting for our boat. One man drove Ken to a hardware store to find it and, when they didn’t have it, worked for an hour to try to make their fittings work and get out enough to let us continue our journey. There was no charge (though other marinas we called along the way charged $ 15).
On the other hand, the go-fast boaters don’t even consider the damage and the unpleasantness that their wakes create. (See photo right.) We couldn’t even figure out where he was going in such a rush. This photo was taken about two miles from the north end of Lake Worth; there was no place further for him to go. We are continuously thankful for our stabilizers.
Up to this point in our trip, bridge tenders have been courteous and helpful. Not down here. Jupiter Federal Bridge: “If I open this bridge for you, it is going to cost you a lot of money.” (Referring to fines for requesting an unnecessary bridge opening. It was necessary for Escapade.) “What is you port of documentation and your documentation number?” We arrived at the PGA bridge about two minutes after its scheduled opening. He hadn’t opened it because there was no boat traffic before us. He made us wait for a half hour until the next scheduled opening. Yet for a mega-yacht he new (007) he said he’ll just open it when 007 got there. We arrived at the Parker Bridge about 7 minutes before the scheduled opening. Bridge Tender: “There will be a delay like there has been all day.” Ken: “How Long?” Bridge Tender: “One to Thirty Minutes, I have workers on the bridge.” Then later: “We will not open until the next scheduled opening (45 minutes later).” Still later: “We will only open the north span.” When she finally opened half of the bridge, we still had to wait for the oncoming traffic–small boats that could easily have gone under the closed portion of the bridge so that the 4 larger boats that had accumulated there could proceed.
We had planned on a short day. With all of the delays, we used the full day. We are not happy with the prospect of dealing with 20 bridges between Ft. Lauderdale and Miami. We hope that the weather permits an outside passage.

Our visit to Vero Beach was very enjoyable. We had the opportunity to socialize with dear old friends, meet new ones, and think about our future land home. And we are glad to be underway again and excited about meeting Kevin and Courtney in Ft. Lauderdale in a few days for the Holidays.
The morning was very foggy, and believe it or not, the fog seemed to thicken as dawn broke, portending a warmer day. Ken (Rusty – Slow Dancin’) towed us in our dinghy to pickup the repaired dinghy engine. Once installed we made our way around the mooring field to say good by to new and old friends: Ken and Joy (Slow Dancin’), Jim and Nancy (Solitaire), Corey and Linda (Live Wire II), and Jim and Beth (Mad Cap). We will all meet again soon in the Bahamas or on our way there.
We prepared Escapade for travel, including putting on 387 gallons of fuel (!), filling up with water and hosing down the cockpit. We then set out for Stuart in the warmth of the sun. What a glorious day! Everyone enjoyed the change–a dolphin cavorting in the bow wake, pelicans splashing in to catch their prey, cormorants flapping their wings for lift off, seagulls swarming schools of fish. The water became that aqua color that speaks of the tropics. Huge cumulous clouds billowed on the horizon but were not threatening.
On the way we passed the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant. This was built in the late 60s-early 70s by Bechtel, one of Ken’s former employees at the same time Ken was working on Turkey Point. The plants are very similar designs, and Ken had a lot of interactions with the folks at St. Lucie.
We turned north into the St. Lucie River and anchored off the channel for the night. We’re in a huge panorama of homes and trees. The anchorage was a little rolly at first, but as soon as passing boats went home for the night, it became very pleasant.
We enjoyed our evening at anchor, and even watched our favorite Friday evening news show – Washington Week.