Great Escape Escapes North

Hey, sailing is no problem, but the prep and planning makes the vision into the reality. We found that out today. You see, on the way down when we trailed Pete, he had been there, done that, and did all the planning. Now that we are on our own heading back, the reality of knowing where to go, and particularly where to go when it deviates from the inverse of our trip down, suddenly amplifys the great value of having a Pete in you life when you do this sort of thing. Hey Pete- we miss our mentor!! Dude!!!!

To elaborate- we cast off from Coconut Grove at 7:30 this morning and planned a run to Lake Worth, some 60 odd miles, no biggie. When we realized it took 1.5 hours to make it through the Miami harbor and out to the turning point north at the end of Government Cut, it dawned that full cycle planning had not occurred. Add that 1.5 hours to the 10 planned, and there was no way to make it before dark. Of cource realization and gung ho optimism are not necessarily the brothers of rational thought, so....go for it.

We unfurled sails and blasted north off Miami beach and were making a good 6+ kts but a southerly current bopped a knot off of us. By the time we made it to Fort Lauderdale, and even though we got a boost on the tide change, it was obvious that Lake Worth as a target was dodgy as a prospect before dark. Memo to self: Robo does not see in the dark worth schmidt. Get in before that. So, we ducked in at Hillsboro inlet and did about 10 bridges to get us into north Palm Beach and a nice anchorage adjacent to the ICW. Great dinner on board of Tilapia and caesar salad sloshed down with a cold bottle of Prosecco. The life of a mariner is rough. Arrrgh.

Side note- The Florida bridge keepers can be power freaks. Some open their bridges on the hour and half hour, some every fifteen minutes, others on demand, and every permutation of that sequence. If you miss a scheduled opening, you simply have to wait the 15, 30 or even 60 minutes until the next opening. This is why you go like warp speed between bridges to try to not miss a scheduled opening.

The trick you develop is to try to con the bridge keeper into to holding the spans open that extra few minutes that will allow our over-heating diesel to propel us through the bridge. We figured out the best way to do this is to enlist a female voice over the radio. Ok, you say, no fair with the sex thing. Well, if it saves you half an hour of having to hold station in a 3 knot current that is trying to force you into a rock abutment, then, well, so be it.

Of course Phyllis was up to this task, mastering the VHF radio protocol and managing to place amazing charm into the sugar-sweet southern accent thing. The charm of this was getting spans held open way beyond where a male voice would be able to do. Now you know how we can knock off 14 bridges in less than half a day.

Yoo hoo!!

Tomorow, try to make Fort Pierce, inside or out side or whatever. The weather forecast will dictate.

Cheers, Rob