Thursday, February 28, 2008

Banana River to Lake Worth

Freshly baked bread cooling before it is ready to eat.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Well we have made it to Lake Worth (North Palm Beach), the last stop before crossing the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas! We will now start watching the weather closely. We need 15 knots of wind or less and no northerly component in the wind to have a pleasant crossing.

We woke on Tuesday in the Banana River to a fleet of kayakers or rowers swishing past. These were young guys with big shoulders who were kneeling on one knee and paddling very narrow kayaks. I was very impressed. We motored south to Fort Pierce with warm temperatures, and I baked a loaf of bread along the way. We anchored three times in the Ft. Pierce anchorage. Once we were too close to another boat, once we had about 6 inches of water under our keel (at high tide), and the third time was the charm.

The weather forecast for Tuesday night and Wednesday was for a cold front to pass so we decided to high tail it for Stuart on the St. Lucie River where the anchorage was better protected. Along the way we saw a large flock of wood storks. Very impressive birds -- they were huge! We picked up a mooring ball for two nights at the South Point Anchorage which is run by the City of Stuart. The cold front didn’t arrive until early Wednesday morning. We had lots of lightning, rain, and wind. The rain stopped, and we took our newest dinghy (the fourth one) to the dinghy dock for a shopping trip to Publix. Bill is still not sure we have enough beer. Later in the afternoon we went into historic downtown Stuart to look at the shops full of stuff we don’t want or need.

Wednesday night’s lows were to be in the upper 30’s so the Red Cross opened two cold weather shelters. These shelters were for those who live in unheated, inadequately heated houses, or those living aboard unheated boats. We were tough sailors and stayed on board. It got down to 53 inside Irish Eyes, and we had highs in the 60’s today. It was been a long underwear day, again. We thought we were past that. Julia and Josh took away our winter coats, but thankfully we haven’t needed them.

We will watch the weather and do our final provisioning. I am excited!

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