STUART, PALM BEACH & FT LAUDERDALE

He Said:  Hello Blog Readers.  Hope all is going well in your world.  We are having a gr8 time since the weatherman has been pretty friendly to us - some rain and wind but overall some nice warm weather.  It probably sounds like I am all about the weather, and it’s a fact.  When the weather is nice our world rocks, when it sucks it can be challenging on the boat.  At the end of the day it has been a terrific trip.

On Monday Jan. 6 we departed Vero Beach (which we really enjoyed), but it was time to book.  We woke up to a little fog but not a big deal.  We headed to Stuart with about a 6 hour day in front of us.  After pumping out, watering and fueling up in Ft. Pearce we were ready to continue south.  As we left the marina it felt like the boat had lost some of its steering ability, and right I was.  Our starboard engine would only throttle to 500 RPMs - not so good.  This is another reason people love having twin screws.  If one engine fails, you run on the other.  The only tuff part is docking and maneuvering the boat without both engines.  We survived.  As we pulled into Stuart we called the marina and decided to jump on a mooring ball which is much easier than cruising into a slip with only 1 engine.  All went well at the end of the day.

I will not go into great detail, but that same nite our dingy boat got loose.  It didn’t help that we felt like we were in a flipping ocean. The worst part is that after a full season of watching college football I missed the BCS Championship Game.  I watched all the BCS games except for the FSU/Auburn Game.  After hearing about what a great game it was, maybe it was a blessing that Michigan State beat us.  FSU may have laid a big hurt on the Buckeyes.  The reason I didn’t catch the game was that we had no transportation into the marina, no dingy, no swimmy in choppy water.  Maybe if the Bucks were playing I would have dove over and freestyled into the dock -  just kidding!  Here is the great news – we found Mr. Dingy the following morning.  What luck.

The next few days were windy, windy, and mo’ windy.  Although Stuart is very cool the stinking wind was holding us as prisoners.  We were planning on leaving on Thursday, but believe it or not the wind was way too strong for us to take a chance.  Remember we take no chances.  Did you forget who my partner is??  Thank god she has a lot more smarts than you know who.  That nite we only got 8 plus inches or rain.  If we left, we would have been in Palm Beach.  How about this, they only got 22 inches.  15 inches in just 3 hours.  This is not a typo.  It rained like a mother f#@*er!!  You know how I hate cussing, so maybe I need to be more careful with my sharp tongue.  Forget about it.

Not sure if this boat was a victim of the record setting rain and wind!

While we were holed up with the wonderful wind we did get some work done on the boat.  We had a heating/ac mother board thing happening, and we had it fixed.  We also got the starboard engine repaired.  It was very simple and pretty cheap so we were very happy with the end results.

We prepared to head S. on Friday AM to Palm Beach and had a nice 6 hour trip.  We walked to some pub with my name in it - gr8 food and drinks.  When we arrived the duo was playing “Pirate Looks at 40”, some more JB and a bunch of Zac Brown music - tuff to beat. We spent that nite in Palm Beach then headed the next day to Ft. Lauderdale.

Jack in front of his namesake bar - Grumpy's!  Jack loved the wings.  Pat loved the grouper.

Look out here comes the Clampetts - Jed and the family. We cruised into the marina about 4PM on Sat., hoping to catch some NFL games that day and we did.  The reason we kinda look like the Beverly Hillbillies is that our little 42ft. Carver (total length) all of a sudden became a 42ft. dingy.  Holy shit where did all of the $$$ come from.  Between the hundreds, maybe thousands, of mansions we passed and the money in this marina we felt like the Jed Family.  Of course on top of it we had to bring the stern (back) of the boat in first. I don’t know if we are getting better or just beginner’s luck, but no problemo.  The most nerve racking part of this is the average boat in our area was probably 75 ft. and maybe only worth a million or 2.  Like I said, no problem - just a lot of HOLY SHITS.

Mansion built by Mr. Flagler as a wedding gift for wife #3

Now we are hanging in Lauderdale, and it rocks. We watched some NFL the next few days and spent a few days enjoying the 82 degree sunny weather.  The beach was about 500 yards from the boat.  Any 20 year old that is living in cold weather should check it out, they probably would never leave.  Sunday was the biggest beach scene I think I have ever seen.  Young people, old farts, sun tan lotion, surfers, cars cruising everywhere, Harleys, cocktails, and just plain fun in the sun.  Then there is me flopping around in the water trying to look cool.  (Sorry to say, but I fit into the old fart category from up above.)  We of course found some fun beach bars for a few cold ones.  I am sure you all find that hard to believe.

A beautiful day on Ft. Lauderdale beach.  The water was warm and wonderful.  As you can see, the beach was crowded

We had a wonderful Sunday nite.  Our boat broker from Boston spends his winters down here in Lauderdale.  Scott and Robin had us over for a great dinner and fun evening.  Scott picked us up at 7pm on Sunday, and we got back to the boat at about 1am.  What a great nite.  The following day we kind of got prepared for our departure on Tuesday - laundry, pump-out, and of course groceries.  We are planning on leaving Tuesday AM for the Miami/Coconut Grove area then a few days later we will be in the Keys.  It is amazing we have been gone almost 2/3 of a year - from Boston in May to Miami in January.  Not bragging, but sometimes we honestly amaze ourselves.  What a trip!!

We stayed here 5 years ago for a couple nights before a cruise.  This was Jack's introduction to the ICW.  Had to stop by for a cold one.

We took this same picture 5 years ago.  Jack's still looking good.

Looking forward to my brother Terry and nephew Todd meeting up with us down in Marathon Key.  Should be a blast.  That’s it for now.  Tired fingers.  

Later, Captain Jack

 

She Said:  It was an easy departure from the ball in Vero Beach, and we were quickly under way.  We had a little drizzle along the way, but pretty uneventful until we arrived in Ft. Pierce for fuel, a pump out and water.  Our GPS and charts showed one approach, but there were no markers where they were charted.  Come to find out the harbor was under a massive updating project and a brand new channel was dredged.  The marina talked us in and all was good.  We departed Ft Pierce happy with our 2.4 MPG, but our happiness was short lived.  We were no sooner back on the ICW when Jack said we had no throttle on our starboard engine.  It was running, but he couldn’t get it out of idle speed (about 500 RPMs and we typically travel around 1200 RPMs).  We had a mechanic lined up in Stuart to look at a couple other issues, so we decided to limp the remaining 25 miles on one engine and have the problem addressed in Stuart. 

We had a slip reserved, but Jack wasn’t comfortable pulling into a slip with only one engine.  We called the marina and they were able to accommodate us on a mooring ball.  Stuart is 8 miles off the ICW on the St. Lucie River (part of the Okeechobee Waterway that cuts through the state of Florida) – it was a very scenic trip.  It was a beautiful day when we arrived in Stuart – we opened all the windows and hatches.  We met up with Eric (from Cocoa) and sat at the outside marina bar and had a happy hour drink with him.  Suddenly, the winds picked up and we all decided to head back to our boats to “batten down the hatches.”  We planned to meet with Eric later that night at the marina lounge for pizza and the BCS Championship Game.  The winds kept getting stronger and the water choppier.

Jack and I were seriously debating whether a dinghy trip back to the marina was really a smart idea or not.  I went to the back of MTB for a final assessment of the situation.  I couldn’t see the dinghy.  It was dark, and I thought maybe it was on the side of the boat.  No such luck – she was gone.  It was highly unlikely that someone came alongside MTB and stole the dinghy (especially in the rough water), so the most likely scenario is that I didn’t tie her off properly.  I’ve been tying the dinghy for months, and if anything Jack grumbles because I tie it too securely.  But for some reason that wasn’t the case this day.  The constant tugging on the lines due to the rough conditions apparently dislodged my tie-off.  We definitely we’re watching the BCS game that night.  Instead I was on the phone with the local police.  They couldn’t have been nicer.  Office Fitzgerald came over to the marina, met with Eric and together they looked for the dinghy – based on winds and current.  Unfortunately, the dinghy was no where to be found.  

Stuart was gloomy like this during our entire stay.

 

It was a rough night on the ball, but it was better than being slammed against a dock all night.  Jack was up with the sun and on a mission to find the dinghy.  He had the binoculars and was scanning the shoreline when he saw a dinghy on a beach in front of a house.  All these dinghies look alike, so I wasn’t letting my hopes get too high.  There were still whitecaps on the water, but when the marina opened they sent out a good sized boat to take Jack out in search of the dinghy.  Sure enough, the dinghy Jack saw was ours – it was embedded in the sand beach.  Because the dinghy was imbedded in the sand it kept it from floating out into the river when the currents changed, but it also made it really difficult to dislodge.  So I went out with Jack and together we got the dinghy back to MTB.  What an experience. 

While we were rescuing the dinghy, mechanic #1 called to say he was on his way to fix our heat/AC unit.  Because he had a used part, we were able to get the whole job done for less than the price of a new part.  The day was starting off on the right foot.  We went into town – we’d been on MTB for too long.  We had lunch and did some grocery shopping.  At 3:00pm mechanic #2 showed up to look at the engine problem.  He checked a couple things and quickly found the problem – the bolt that held the throttle mechanism together had come off.  An easy fix.  We had him look at a couple other things, and he determined everything was just fine!  It was an excellent day!  But the winds and water conditions continued to deteriorate throughout the day, and we were stuck on MTB for another night.

The weather conditions improved, but not to the point where we could leave.  We kept busy all day and ventured out in the rain to meet Eric for dinner.  It was an early night since we planned to depart the next morning.  We woke up in the morning to fog and drizzle.  The forecast was for more of the same so we decided to stay put – why have a miserable travel day.  It’s a good thing we stayed put.  That night there was an unpredicted, hellacious rain storm.  The worst of the rain was 22” (15” in 3 hours) in Palm Beach where we had reservation for that night.  There were initial reports of a tornado, but it ended up being only 80 MPH straight line winds.  We only had 8 inches in Stuart so we felt lucky to have stayed put.  When the rain let up, we bailed out the dinghy – what a mess. 

The weather was good the next morning so we unhooked from the ball (like many other boats) and headed out.  Departing from a ball is the easiest departure, and we were underway in no time at all.  The Roosevelt Bridge, which opens on demand, shouldn’t have been an issue, but it was.  We had to wait about 30 minutes because two trains were crossing.  Not the quick start we hoped for. 

There are 3 bridges here.  The first bridge (blue) opens on request.  Behind it is a RR bridge that is open unless a train is passing.  The back bridge has 65' clearance.  This is how we started on trip between Stuart and Palm Beach

The trip to Palm Beach was the most densely populated stretch of the ICW that we’d been on.  There were lots of houses – and most of them were BIG houses.  It was amazing.  (The next day, the mansions were even bigger.  I was also surprised by how much new construction there was.  Unbelievable!)  We had reservations at a working marina – it didn’t offer much, but we were only looking for a cheap, easy access place to spend the night.  We were pleasantly surprised to find Jack’s Grumpy Grouper a short walk from the marina.  It was a cute, fun place and the grouper was excellent.

This is a dredging vessel - it's what keeps the ICW at navigable depths.  It's interesting to watch

Although we had only a short distance to travel (35 miles) we left early Saturday morning because we heard that this part of trip would be slow.  Let me tell you, slow is an understatement.  There were 6 bridges in 10 miles – and about ½ of the bridges are low enough that we have to wait for them to open.  With our antenna we need 23 feet of clearance – if we could have lowered the antenna it would have helped a lot.  Bridges weren’t the only issue.  The water is warmer so that meant more manatees and that meant slow speeds.  There were also slow speed zones because of narrower water channels and dense population.  And finally, we were slowed down because it was a busy, congested Saturday - there were stretches where the speed limit slowed to “minimum wake” on weekends.  All and all, it was a long, slow travel day.  To top it off, the marina gave us wrong docking instructions which had us going in circles around the Las Olas Bridge in Ft. Lauderdale.  When we finally got to our slip, Jack docked us stern in like a champ.  We were happy to be spending the next 3 nights in the heart of Ft. Lauderdale.

A typical Saturday on the ICW near Ft. Lauderdale: boat traffic and bridge openings.  Most bridges open every 30 minutes.

Ft. Lauderdale was a lot of fun.  We were about 2 blocks from the beach and there was so much going on – bars, restaurants, beach, and people watching.  This was the most activity we’d seen since NYC.  We went out for dinner at Quarterdeck our first night.  It was a long day on the water, and we called it an early evening.  The next day was action packed.  The sun was shining so we spent a few hours on the beach – the water was clear, blue and the warmest we’d experienced.  We walked around and checked out the Bahia Cabana – a marina bar/restaurant we went to 5 years ago; Coconuts – an oyster bar that gets its oysters from the Rappahannock River (where Jack had his first oysters); and The Elbo Room – featured in the beach movies of the ‘60s.  As great as the day was, the evening was even better.  Our boat broker from Boston, Scott, was in Ft. Lauderdale with his wife, Robyn.  They have a condo a short distance from our marina and they invited us over for dinner.  What a wonderful night – the food and conversation couldn’t have been better.  We didn’t get home until 1am.  We would have liked to have spent more time with them, but we were both leaving Ft. Lauderdale in a couple of days.

Welcome to Ft. Lauderdale!

What a dive.  The Elbo Room from the '60s beach movies

Our last day in Ft. Lauderdale was spent provisioning and doing a final load of laundry.  We ran into friends from Cocoa Village; they were staying in Lauderdale for a month and had a car.  They dropped us off at the grocery store making provisioning much easier.  The weather forecast for the next few days wasn’t good, so we decided to skip South Beach/Miami and head directly to Coconut Grove.  It’s a good place to wait for a good crossing to Marathon.  I’m really looking forward to month in the Keys!