The Loggerhead Marine Life Center, Juno Beach, Florida, USA

Dawn on Friday, May 23

Yesterday, Eric realized that the blackwater tank needed to be fuller in order to get the suction going, so he added some water to the tank. In good news, it worked and he was able to pump out the blackwater tank, although he was concerned that it may not have fully emptied out. 

After morning chores and school, Eric and Keith went to the water park. It was empty, just as it had been on Wednesday. The park had a lot of rides. They went on almost all of them, and the longest wait was 2-minutes. They had a blast. We later found out that the local schools finish the year on Friday, so they were glad they didn’t wait to go. It’s probably crowded when school is out!

In the evening, Johnny and Joanne had us over for dinner again. They also invited another couple they’d been friends with for many years. Joanne made a great dinner and we had a lovely evening with them.

Today, it was rainy. After morning chores and school, we went to the Loggerhead Marine Life Center, which we were told was a turtle sanctuary. We took the road that ran along Singer Island north. While there were plenty of houses and small condo complexes, one hallmark of the island was what felt like a never-ending line of high-rise towers.

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The Manatee Discovery Center, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA

On Wednesday, May 21, it was a hazy morning, obscuring the colors of dawn.

In preparation for the haul out, Eric spent the morning stowing away gear that normally lives on the deck. Moving it all was quite a project. 

Once school and morning chores were done, we drove over to the Manatee Discovery Center. While the center itself looked like it was relatively new, it was located next to an electricity plant in an older, lower socioeconomic area.

We were pleased to find out that there was no admission fee, though donations were accepted. The upstairs was closed today for a private event, but the upstairs had traveling art exhibits and beautiful views, so we didn’t miss any important information about manatees.

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Cruising the ICW and Dinner at Two Drunken Goats

Dawn on Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Johnny and Joanne had offered to let us borrow their car, but since there was no place to park it downtown, we’d declined. However, at Havn there was parking, so we took them up on the car. In the morning, Eric went to Johnny’s house to pick up the car. After he returned, he used the marina pump out on our blackwater tanks. Much to his dismay, it wasn’t working. Sigh.

In the afternoon, Eric went on a boat ride with Johnny and Steve on Steve’s boat. Steve picked Eric up from the end of the dock.

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Welcome to Palm Beach Shores/Singer Island, Florida, USA

Sun just about to poke over the horizon on Monday, May 19

As we were doing our morning chores, Eric noticed that the water quality being produced by our water maker was not good. He was worried that something in the dirty water here had damaged the membrane, so he shut off the water maker. He also didn’t want to try using the DC water maker, for fear that the same thing would happen to the DC unit. The reality was that it wasn’t viable to stay in an anchorage long without being able to make water, so Eric immediately started trying to find a slip in a marina. 

Eric checked marina pricing and availability online. It looked like the best deal was at a marina named Havn. We felt like that was meant to be. He made an online reservation, then did some calculations. Due to the shallowness of the channels and the difficulty docking in the strong current, we needed to get there at high slack tide. We also needed to be cognizant that the bridge only opened at 15 after and 45 after. He determined that we needed to pull up anchor at 1230 to make the bridge opening at 1245 and then make it to the marina at high slack tide. 

Since we had some time to kill, we went to shore and had lunch at a burger place called Lindburgers. It was good and relatively quick.

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Eating Out and Concerts in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA

On Sunday, May 18, we missed the sunrise, but here was an early morning shot of Palm Beach.

We decided to go for a walk before morning our chores, as it would be too hot by the time we were done. We headed over to the dock, and this time walked south along the shoreline. South of the park was a restaurant named Bradley’s. Next to Bradley’s was an amphitheater.

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