Dawn on Wednesday, April 1, 2026
This morning, it was very rolly in the anchorage. During manatee season, boats were required to go slow here in Lake Worth. As of today, manatee season was officially over and the boats were allowed to go fast again, making the wakes bigger and the anchorage uncomfortable. We were having a hard getting anything done because of all the motion.
Given how unhappy we were about the motion, we were thrilled when Yacht Tech called and said they could get us in early — they had availability today at a slip in Old Port Cove Marina. Anxious to get to a more stable spot ASAP, we immediately stopped school, stowed the dinghy and brought in the flopper stopper. We had several lines attaching the dinghy to Kosmos, and we noticed that one of the lines had broken. The water dripping from the flopper stopper as we pulled it up was black – yes, it was an out tide and that was water that had come from deeper in the lake. In preparation for tying up, we got out the fenders and dock lines. We pulled up anchor at 1045.
The ride through the narrow ICW channel was disconcerting, but all went fine. Here were a few photos from the trek north. The narrow channel between the marinas/boat yards and Peanut Island. This photo did not do justice to just how narrow the channel was.
The Nordhavns at the end were in Marina Village, the place that Yacht Tech had originally assigned us to.
This helps give a sense of how narrow the channel was.
And here was one of the many power boats that went roaring by, many getting uncomfortably close in spaces where we didn’t have room to make evasive maneuvers.
We were assigned the same slip that we’d been in last year. Eric spent a lot of time getting Kosmos tied up just right. There was also an issue with the power. We had some power, but not the maximum amount of power. He thought the power cable may be going bad.
We had texted Johnny and Joanne to let them know we were moving. They said they liked the restaurant in the marina complex, Belle’s, and suggested we meet there for dinner. Even though it was in the same complex, the complex was huge and it was kind of a long walk from the slip to the restaurant. This shot was from our slip to where the sidewalk jutted out. Belle’s was basically at the tall building in the background.
This photo was taken from Belle’s looking back towards the part of the marina that we were in. And our slip was at the far end.
Unfortunately, the marina bathrooms and gym were next to the restaurant, so it was a long walk to the bathroom, too. But at least it was a beautiful walk.
It was a higher end restaurant, so we were pleasantly surprised to find they had an amazing early bird dinner special for only $20 that included a salad, main course, bread roll and dessert. There were six main courses to choose from. The food was great and the portions were surprisingly large for $20.
After we finished eating, everyone walked back to Kosmos to watch the Artemis II rocket launch from bow. Sadly, immediately after launching, our view of the rocket was blocked by a cloud. It was visible for just a brief moment after it emerged from the cloud, then kind of dissipated into the horizon.
We visited with Johnny and Joanne onboard for a while. When they headed home, they dropped Eric off at the car so he could bring it back to the marina.
Life at anchor can be wonderful and we really do enjoy it. But there was a lot of low level stressors tied to anchoring, such as power and water management, the logistics of getting to shore, etc. This evening, Eric was super relaxed. He was happy that right now he didn’t have to worry about power management, didn’t have to worry about being onboard during the correct window of time to make water, nor worry about whether we’d be able to make enough water in that window to meet our needs, and didn’t have to worry about rolling around from all the big wakes. Christi was thrilled to be able to step off the boat at any time. She sometimes felt trapped onboard, particularly when we were at an anchorage where we couldn’t go to shore.
The now full moon was amazingly bright again.
