An Eventful ICW

A clear wake across the Gulf Stream

Lake Worth Anchorage: 2009

Welcome to the US of A!!  An ever watchful Coast Guard made their presence felt not long after we left West End, Bahamas making our way to West Palm Beach.  We nervously anticipated crossing the Gulf Stream but it behaved beautifully and our crossing was without incident.  Except we were intercepted!  Our papers in order & questions answered correctly, we were able to continue on to our destination.   Not before noticing the level of surveillance.  Powerful boats, regular air patrols and even a little grey rib (with Men in Black) as we neared the coast.  

Once anchored in Lake Worth, we were easily able to walk to the Coast Guard Office.  We left Bruce, our faithful dinghy under the watchful eye of staff at the Riviera Beach Municiple Marina.  So, with cruising permit in hand (from the Spanish Virgins) we complete the paperwork to check in.  No fuss, no bother. The experience was nothing at all like rumour mill "advice" we had been given.  Even so, we were glad to have everything in order and to have phoned on arrival (once anchored) for their advice. 

 

Will we or won't we??

Bridges.  Our mast didn’t hit any of the many bridges we encountered while cruising northwards along the Intracoastal Waterway.  Helpfully, at most of the bridges, there was a marker indicating the distance from waterline to the bottom of the bridge.  Our mast is 63’ above the waterline, plus the VHF antenna height – about another three feet – and the bridges were said to be a minimum of 65’ above the water.  I think that turned out to be quite true.  Our antenna never hit but we always (except one time) approached each bridge at minimum speed.  Why?  As you look from the deck, it always seems that the mast is going to hit the bridge or power lines – no matter how high they are.   We became more confident as we progressed though.  With some glee, we watched son, who had joined us for a few weeks, almost fill his pants when we forged full speed under the first bridge that we came to.  I think we entertained quite a few fellow boaters and onlookers as we negotiated those bridges from West Palm Beach to Norfolk for the same reason.

Just give me a helmet &
a black leather jacket and I'm set

Shallow Draft Keel.  Our keel is shallow draft (5’6’’), wing and bulb affair.  Our method of getting off when grounded is simply to try and reverse or accept a tow from some kind people in passing hot water boats.  We found from experience (plus obvious common sense once we tried it), that pulling over our mast or putting the boom over the side, etc only dug the winged keel in deeper in the soft mud. Not helpful at all!  One time we simply put out the anchor then waited with a coffee while the tide came in.  Twenty minutes later we were away again……

Folding Bicycles.  We purchased two folding bikes from West Marine in Vero Beach – they’ve already paid for themselves.   You can see so much more, visit more interesting places than you would just walking around.  Those American supermarkets that are almost always one or two plus miles away from your anchorage are easily accessible by bike.  We’ve loaded milk crates on the back to carry our groceries home and the First Mate has a (girlie) basket on her handlebars.  We also use our backpacks.  If we were ever stopped at a bicycle weighbridge coming back from a supermarket we’d be way over the limit!

Channel Markers come in handy too!

Autohelm Speed/Log.  Originally I had replaced the dial in BVI because it was old and difficult to read.  Later I replaced it with another one in the US (from a great boat spares shop in St Augustine).  This was one of the many easy fixes "on-the-go" as we rolled up the ICW.  We were spoilt for choice in terms of ships chandlers like West Marine and came across some great second hand stores too.