Vero Beach to Lake Worth

Hello everyone,

Well, we finally did it - we threw off our dock lines. That was a difficult thing to do after seven weeks at dock!

By the time everything was ready, it was almost noon. We left anyway. Heather & Jeff VanDyke were aboard for the trip as far as Ft Pierce. It was sunny but quite cold with a lot of wind blowing. We let out a tiny piece of sail and motorsailed down the waterway. We did a great job of docking at Ft Pierce and were lucky that the tide was slack and the current wasn't as bad as usual. A frozen pair of passengers left us there and we continued on to Big Mud Creek. The book had said that it was a protected anchorage and a good spot to see manatees. The entrance channel didn't seem to have as much water as the guide book said and my captain looked at me with questions written all over him. But, we kept going as we were committed by then. Inside, there was a lot of water! Fourty feet in fact! A little deep to anchor but we did it. We were all alone except for pelicans and manatees. We enjoyed the sunset and a lovely dinner and then an early night.

Up early and moving the next day, with lots of water in the entrance channel now. The tide was up. This was bridge day. There was at least six of those things, all on different timetables. Along the waterway were incredible houses with beautiful grounds right up to the water. And mega yachts. At other spots, the scenery was quite wild and undeveloped with mangroves and sand dunes along the waterway. We arrived in Lake Worth / West Palm Beach at three pm. Shortly after our anchor was down, we saw two other boats that we had seen in Vero. Dinghies were launched and we caught up with all the news. It sounds like it was no advantage to have left Vero a week ago as everyone stayed in marinas here due to the bad weather and high winds.

We will stay here a day or so a wait for good weather to cross to the islands but if it doesn't materialize, we will head off-shore to Miami and maybe take in the boat show. Just what we need - more gear!

I will write again when there is more news. All the best to all.

Heather & Murray Rand
aboard Windswept IV
Ham Radio VE3 ZUA