ICW Experience

Tuesday, May 5

It rained hard all night with 20-35 knot winds.  We decided it was a good day to stay here and just relax.  The guys went to Boat Owners Warehouse and West Marine while the girls are content to do small projects and "write this log" or other computer "work" on the boats.  This will be a good day of rest and catch up before we try to move further down the coast through the ICW tomorrow.  The wind and rain of the night continues through the day but the predictions for tomorrow are for a lot less wind and only scattered rain showers.  We will meet for BYOB again tomorrow morning to discuss whether the weather conditions are appropriate to move toward Ft. Lauderdale. 

This marina is quite plan, kind of a working yard and not close to town or restaurants although there is a Publix close by none of us are in need of any food items yet. 

The scenery of watching the many Viking Sport fish pull into the Viking yard next door has been spectacular.  We are guessing that many of them are doing the same thing we are - waiting for the opportunity to cross to the Bahamas to fish. 

Monday, May 4

The morning was beautiful and we all meet on Stocks & Blondes at 9 AM for BOYB (bring your own breakfast) and discussion about the day.  High tide is not until 11:47 AM and we all want a high tide to transit the section from Sunset Marina to the ICW and the St. Lucie Inlet.  We also had 2 bridges right outside the marina in which we need an opening to pass though, the Old Roosevelt bridge and the railroad bridge.  So it was agreed that we would all be in the river in front of the bridge at 11:00 AM, we were right on time and called the bridge for an opening only to be told that it would be at least 45 minutes because they were having trouble opening and the bridge tenders had called maintenance twice but no one had arrived yet.  By now there were about 6 or 7 boats circling the narrow deep water in front of the bridge.  Luckily the Sunset Marina fuel dock was very close so we all tied onto the fuel dock to wait.  As soon as The Maine Event got 8 gallons of fuel on board the bridge called us and began to open.  So much for the perfect (tide related) departure plans of the morning.  We slowly made our way down the ICW toward West Palm Beach with Stocks & Blondes in the lead because they could justifiably tell the bridge tenders they needed an opening even when the bridge was 35 feet.  There were three (3) 35 foot bridges in which Stocks & Blondes and the Marlin Striker would have to lay down our outriggers.  With the outriggers up our boats require 40 feet to pass under the bridges.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with outriggers, they are the large poles attached to the sides of our boats that lay out to the sides in open water (Marlin Striker is then 77 feet wide) to keep the fishing lines spread apart so they do not get tangled.  Laying them down to the back of our boat to lower our height is not a quick or easy job.  Having easily passed through eight (8) bridges during the day, only one, the Indiantown Road bridge, gave us any trouble about lowering the outriggers.  Marja even called on the phone and got permission to pass but the bridge operator claimed that there was a shift change and he knew nothing about the phone call.  The to top it off, the same bridge operator closed the bridge before Afterwires was got through so John H had to lay down all of his antennas, etc. to pass under.  Such are the normal trials and tribulations of dealing with bridge openings. 

Departed Sunset Marina - 10:45 AM
Day total miles - 32.1 NM
Day travel time - 3 hours, 47 minutes
Max speed - 33.6 knots
Average speed - 8.5 knots
Winds - NE 10-15
Temperature - 77 degrees partly sunny

We ended the day at New Port Cove Marina in North Palm Beach, FL. 
(New Port Cove Marina Manager, Bruce Grout, Andrea Spencer, Office Manager - $1.50/ft.  561-844-2504)
Arrival time - approximately 5:00 PM 

Cumulative totals:
Travel time - 11 hours 49 minutes
Total Distance - 151.6 NM
Average Speed - 12.8

Just as we arrived at the marina channel entrance it began to rain making the boat decks very slippery along with very windy conditions.  The dock hands tried to help (for 2 of them it was their first day on the job) but we were the best hands for each other.  All went well and everyone made it in without any mishaps. 

Everyone was quite satisfied to stay on the boats and have dinner on our own.