There is always something!

Fort Pierce to Fort Lauderdale

It has been a busy few days (week?) since we last wrote.  We replaced the starter battery, finished getting the boat stocked, emptied the storage room, parked and covered my trusty Subaru. With the last day of the good weather we left the dock bright and early Friday morning and headed out to the Atlantic.  Seems crazy to have our first sail of the year (and in 8 months) in the Atlantic, but we knew that the seas would be calm and it was the only way to get to West Palm Beach without having to go under those nasty 65 foot fixed bridges. We had a lovely motor/sail, and even had a school of dolphins greet us as we came out of the Fort Pierce Inlet. A good omen!

We arrived in Lake Worth, which is a very popular anchorage for boats waiting to go across to the top of the Bahamas, or further down the Florida coast, and it was quite busy near the entrance when we arrived.  We found a lovely spot away from the crowded area, looking at a lovely mansion and its sailboat parked out in front. Not a bad view!

Our Lake Worth view

We were planning to do down the ICW (Intra Coastal Waterway) for the next section of the journey to Fort Lauderdale, as all the bridges between Lake Worth and Fort Lauderdale are bascule bridges, which open up from the middle and have no height restrictions. Or so we thought!

Bascule bridge

Hugh had been doing his usual research on the next day’s trip when he came across a comment on one of the sites saying something about there being a lift bridge at one of the bascule bridges (the third bridge down).  Further research did not support the social media comment, and there is nothing shown on the official nautical charts so we dismissed it as “bunk” and planned to leave the next morning at 8am and start the ride down, going through 22 bridges to get to Fort Lauderdale.

I was woken up at 5am by Hugh saying “we have a problem”. Turns out, it had been bothering him that someone had said something about a lift bridge, and after further searching, found that there really is a temporary lift bridge where they are replacing a bascule bridge. Now, for those of you who followed us last year, you might remember that our mast is 64’4” without instruments or antenna, and most ICW bridges are 65 ft at HIGH tide which gave us some room to go under at low tide. We called the bridge tender and she swore the lift bridge has a height of 65 ft at LOW tide We used our water bag three times last year to heel us over to make it under bridges that were too low and swore to each other we would never do it again. It’s too stressful and heart stopping! Now, with instruments back on top of the mast, we are about 65 1/2 feet high and were pretty sure we could not get under this bridge without heeling the boat.

Needless to say we did not leave, or sleep anymore that morning, but spent the rest of the morning discussing what to do. Should we go outside to Fort Lauderdale? That would mean waiting for a few days with big winds in the forecast. Should we just go over to West End, Bahamas like last year instead of our plan to cross to Bimini from Miami then down to the Exumas? Should we get the water bag out and do it one more time?

We decided we might as well enjoy West Palm Beach as we weren’t moving anywhere that day, so we lowered the dinghy and went over to the town dock and walked into town. The first thing we found was a huge “Green Farmers Market” with tons of stands selling food, crafts, flowers (beautiful orchid plants) and all sorts of environmentally friendly stuff. Great Fun! We even took a free trolley ride, thinking it would show us a bit of the town, which it did, but mostly it’s a free bus service for the local seniors! We had lunch in a cute little Italian place, then decided to take the dinghy and ride down to this lift bridge and assess it with our own eyes. The ride was a little wet, but not too far, and sure enough, there it was with all its glory, that damned lift bridge! We noticed that a sailboat was heading towards it and as they waited for it to go up we asked how tall their mast was. They replied it was 55 feet. So we watched them go under, and from where we were sitting it looked like they had quite a bit of space above their mast, but who could tell from the where we were sitting?

So we went back to Trekker and decided, with our hearts in our throats, that we would rig the water bag up and heel over to go under the bridge. Again. It’s actually crazy that we still had the bag on board, as it was in the storage locker and we were going to leave it in the car since we wouldn’t need it, but Hugh decided at the last minute to take it. Who knew we would need it so soon! We decided to go under at low tide, giving us as much clearance as possible, plus we spoke with Hugh’s brother Adrian, who said he thought that they are saying that the height is at low tide to give themselves a little wiggle room. They certainly don’t want any masts hitting it as it is a temporary structure. Finally, Hugh called the Coast Guard and they said they would never have approved a bridge lower than 65’ above high water … who to believe??

We left just before low tide, giving us lots of time to get through the first couple of bridges, then get the bag ready, fill it and go! As we got through the first bridge I heard someone on the radio call for an opening of the lift bridge, to which they were told there were mechanical problems and it couldn’t be lifted. WHAT?? I called the bridge and confirmed it was not working, but she would call me as soon as it was. How long? No idea. So, we decided to anchor and go tomorrow. But just as we were finished anchoring she called to say it was working. We looked at each other and Hugh thought it would be better to go tomorrow, but honestly, I just wanted to get it done and over with. So, we got the anchor up and headed towards it. With hearts pounding, and of course the wind blowing, we got the bag filled and headed towards the bridge. Honestly, I cannot tell you how close we were, but I did not hear the antenna hit the bridge, so we must have had at least a few inches to spare! (my heart is pounding while I write this!!) We quickly got the bag aboard and headed through a couple of more bridges to an anchorage that we had read about at Lantana. We were quite happy to put the anchor down and celebrate another bridge heeling success with a beer! We swear we will never do it again, but …

The next morning, we headed down the ICW through 17 more bridges, enjoying every moment of it. The houses (I should say mansions) along the canal are unbelievable. We even went by a family of Manatees as we cruised down. It was all very relaxing and enjoyable. 

We arrived in Fort Lauderdale and are now sitting at the dock waiting out the heavy winds that came through last night, and are probably going to be here all week. 

Trekker sandwiched between a big cat and power boat

We really hadn’t planned on being here that long, but it could be worse. The weather is lovely (a bit windy), we are tied to a dock, the beach is two blocks away, and there is lots to do in Lauderdale.

Of course, being a boat, there is another battery issue with our house bank, but we are in a good place to have work done. I will leave that story for Hugh once we know what is happening.

The adventure continues … one day at a time!