Just a Bit Further Along
The East winds continue to keep us pinned in Florida, but we’ve used the Intracoastal (ICW) to get up to Lake Worth, just off the Palm Beaches, where we can set ourselves up for our long passage to Beaufort. I hope never to transit the ICW in a deep-draft boat again. We went fully aground inside the marked channel just north of Miami, where an inlet was shoaling the waterway. We went through three more sketchy inlets yesterday and you could almost reach out and touch the palpable stress in both our faces. With that experience in mind, not to mention the nearly thirty bridge openings we endured to get to Lake Worth, we hope never, ever, to revisit this stretch of the ICW.
That said, the anchorages we’ve managed to discover have been nothing short of lovely. We spent two nights in a nice spot in Miami Beach, two nights on a mooring in Fort Lauderdale, last night off the Lake Worth inlet, and tonight, up in a nice cove at the northern reaches of the lake. The girls were beside themselves with glee when we pulled the dinghy in to go shopping and found a nice, sandy swimming hole under a bridge. They were in the water before we could ponder the question of swimming. Of course we will swim. Of course.
The ladies have been wonderful. The other big downside to the ICW is that there are long stretches where I’m watching for buoys and shoals and John is steering, leaving the girls to manage themselves. They watch Curious George, color and draw, play with Play-dough, sleep, eat, repeat. It’s insufferably hot in the cockpit with a bulky lifejacket, so they bide their time down below. They never complain. Today on our short passage, they played some involved imaginary “Make you into a princess and sell the shark for three quarters” game. I am glad they have each other, and deep down, they are too.
The highlights for them come when the adventures onshore begin. Just riding a bucking dinghy in a chop is fun. Add that to a thunderstorm while waiting for a trolley, and then an impromptu swim in the ocean. Every day is new. Every day is different. For them, that’s enough.
Cross your fingers for the wind to go south, or southeast, or west, or southwest. We might get our chance this weekend. But I shouldn’t have said that.
When we did the ICW in our first catamaran I used to marvel, “HOW to monohullers do this??!!” I felt like I was always a few inches from running aground and we draw 3 feet! It gets better after Florida though, less to watch out for, deeper, less traffic, and of course fewer bridges if you decide to pop inside. Enjoy!
Yep, we did most of it on the way down, dragging mud at times- South Carolina was an awful nightmare too. I imagine we’ll go from Beaufort to Norfolk again, via the Dismal Swamp, but I have no inclination to revisit the rest!