Waitin' On Weather

Life in Palm Beach

We were excited to finally reached the eastern side of Florida and promptly were greeted with a cold front. Don't laugh … we actually had temperatures in the mid-60s and rain showers too! We tied up at Riverwatch Marina in Stuart, the closest marina to an LDS chapel.   It was pretty skinny water coming into the marina as it serves primarily power boats. Thus, we had to time our arrival and departure so we were not at low tide. While there, we were able to pick up some groceries and fill our water tanks ... always a good thing. 

We ended up walking about two miles to church on Sunday because we missed our ride, but it was a

"Owl House" In Stuart, Florida

nice walk.  At church we met Ron and Carol who live on their sailboat on a mooring at Sunset Bay Marina. They gave us a ride back to our boat and later had us over for dinner on their boat.  It was great fun trading stories and we enjoyed getting to know them.  We eventually moved “Little Lara”, anchoring near their boat, “Dragon Dance”. Over the next few days they introduced us to other cruisers in the marina who were here getting their boats ready for their next adventure.  The anchorage was near Shepard Park with bathrooms and a place to tie our dinghy, so we could go ashore, and spent our time there exploring the area.  While in Stuart we stocked up for our Bahama trip (what? Another grocery store!),  went to the local museum and browsed the fun shops in the old town. We also got our hair cut short to conserve water in the Bahamas. That's partly the reason … for my part I hate having wet hair when its cold, and short hair dries much faster.

Peggy's New Hair Do

Soon, we were saying our goodbyes to all the friends we made in Stuart and we headed south to Lake

Worth, where there is an easy outlet to the Atlantic Ocean.  The weather forecast originally had a small weather window (a period of time when conditions crossing the gulf stream are less rough … notice I did not say smooth). The trip down the Intracoastal Waterway could have been done in one day except for the nine bridges we had to deal with, six of which were on a restricted opening schedule. Which means, they only open every half hour and one only opened every hour. So we spent a lot of travel time trying to hold the boat in position so as not to get pushed into the bridge by the current before they were ready to open. We anchored one night in a little cove in Hobe Sound, which was beautiful and quiet after all the fishing boats retired for the night. By the time we reached Lake

Shopping in West Palm Beach

Worth our small weather window had closed, so we went to “Plan B” and headed further down the waterway to West Palm Beach (to attend church) and anchored near the municipal day docks.  This worked out great because we could dinghy to the docks and leave the dinghy there while we explored the area.  We found a great farmers market that also had arts and crafts. So after sampling some of the local food, buying some great BBQ hot sauce from Andre, and spending time chatting with two local authors who were selling their books, we caught the local free trolley and checked out City Place.  This is a picturesque area with lots of shops and eateries. And we stumbled onto the movie theater so of course we went.  Later on our date we enjoyed Stromboli at an Italian cafe.  When we got back to the boat it was dark … we had spent the whole day away from “Little Lara” and were glad to see she was still anchored where we had left her.

"Little Lara" Anchored in West Palm Beach

The wind is supposed to veer back to the north next week due to another cold front.  All the weather forecasters say 'Don't cross the gulf stream (which flows from south to north) if there is any northerly wind because the waves get exponentially higher.  I am fine waiting here for another weather window. Jay however is getting antsy and wants to go to “Plan C” and head for the Florida Keys.

Hopefully our next blog will be from the Bahamas!  Pray that we have fair winds and calm seas.