Dawn on Friday, March 27, taken as we were getting ready to go to sea.
And the sunrise.
We pulled up anchor at 0745. It was a mostly sunny day with scattered clouds. The conditions were uncomfortable until noon, with 14-knots of wind and fairly large waves on the beam. Keith got sea sick. Christi didn’t feel great. But then the wind calmed down a little down to 10 – 11 knots and the seas began to smooth out. By 1400, it was a nice ride. We ran at 1600 RPM and our speeds averaged in the low 6s.
Since we were on our way to the ICW, where making water was problematic, Eric ran the DC water maker until the tanks were full. We had a few minor issues with the equipment today. This morning, the anemometer (wind speed sensor) stopped working for a short while. It turned out that it was just stuck. It managed to get unstuck by itself, but it seems to be having issues intermittently. And at one point, the autopilot randomly freaked out and started to do a U turn. Eric turned off the sensor and hand steered until it settled back down. All seems to be working properly again. The speed-through-water sensor had something clog it and it stopped working. It did not fix itself. Here was the dusk.
The moon was 2/3 full and shone brightly, providing a surprising amount of light, making visibility pretty good.
The ride worsened slightly in the wee hours of the morning, but we’d still call it a good ride overall. We stayed at 1600 RPM, but our speed improved. By 0800, we were flying along at 8-knots! We entered the ICW at the Lake Worth entrance at about 1000. Currently, the anchorage in downtown West Palm Beach was closed due to a boat show taking place there, so we anchored near the Manatee Discovery Center.
The east side of the channel was more protected from the wind and had less fetch, but the dinghy landing area was on the west side and we wanted to be close since our little motor would struggle against the current. We opted for the middle. Here were some shots of the anchorage — looking northwest. Peanut island is to the right, and to the left is the mainland and boat yards.
Looking west.
Looking south towards downtown West Palm Beach.
Looking east at the homes of the bazillionaires.
Once we’d anchored, we ate a light meal, took showers, got the dinghy down, and went to shore. We passed the fuel barge on the way to shore.
The only public place we could take our dinghy was a tiny park with a beach or the sailing club next to the park. The sailing club charged a fee to use their docks. We didn’t see anyone around to ask about using the dinghy docks, so we beached the dinghy at the park. This was looking at the sailing club’s boathouse and dock.
The park was long and skinny. There were signs indicating that no one should dig, so we guessed it was an easement for underground pipes that had been turned into a public space.
Once on the street, we walked past the sailing club’s clubhouse to see that there were three cop cars blocking the entrances to the parking lot.
We couldn’t see anyone at all — no cops, no people — so we had no clue why the cops were there. We walked two blocks through a low-end residential neighborhood made up mostly of 1950s era small, blocky bungalows. It looked similar to neighborhood around the Manatee Discovery Center.
Our destination was Taqueria Miguel, a taco truck on the corner of the residential street and the main drag. Even though it was a truck, we sensed it was permanently located there.
This was a shot of the main drag — it also looked to be made up of mostly low, blocky, 50’s era commercial buildings.
All three of our meals combined cost less than 1 burger + fries did in the Exumas. And the portions were big and the food was really good. We were all tired and didn’t feel like walking around, so we headed straight back to the dinghy once we were done eating. The police were gone, so we went inside the sailing club.
The woman who worked there said the fee to use the dinghy dock was $30 per day and included use of all of the club’s amenities, including the showers, kitchen, bar and restaurant. We walked down to the dock to check it out. This was the path between the club house and the boat house.
Another shot of the boat house.
We had to walk through the boathouse to get to the docks.
The docks.
The dinghy ride back to the boat was slow since we were going against the current this time. Eric and Christi took naps. Eric had texted Steve after we’d anchored, and in the late afternoon, Steve came by in his boat to say hi. It was nice to see him, but he didn’t stay long. This anchorage was closer to the ocean and had more boat traffic than the one in downtown did, but it was fine overall. We were feeling out of sorts from the passage and the rocking in the anchorage, so we just watched a movie in the evening. During the dusk, the sky was really interesting. This was looking west.
And this picture was taken at the same time, but looking east.
