Our two days in Ft. Lauderdale went very pleasantly. As terrible as the Floridians' behavior was on the water, every single person we met on shore went out of their way to be pleasant and helpful. We officially checked in to the US in person at the US Customs/Border Patrol office down by the commercial piers and a gentleman who was also there doing Customs business - who turned out to be a former cruiser - very kindly drove us to our next destination. GB and I provisioned; we shopped; we ate sushi and pizza; we met even more nice people. Delightful.
However, we were so traumatized from our brief experience of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) that on May 12, 2011, we left Ft. Lauderdale to sail offshore to our next destination: West Palm Beach/Lake Worth Inlet, about 52 miles further north up Florida's coast - a mere day trip after so much overnight passage-making through Central America and Mexico. It was a good plan until we discovered that on the east coast of Florida, when the wind blows from the N or NE above 15 knots? With the strong opposing current of the Gulf Stream? It makes for a decidedly bumpy ride. Physically panful, in fact. We had water coming up over the bow and rolling along the entire length of the coach roof, to crash like surf against our glass windscreen.
At least that action washed some of the grime off the deck.
In midafternoon we entered West Palm Beach's Lake Worth Inlet without significant incident, except for the professional skipper of a 164-foot motor yacht/floating pleasure palace who didn't respond to our increasingly frantic hails on VHF 16 as he forced us into the path of an oncoming barge. Him, we reported to the US Coast Guard (one advantage of having an AIS system aboard is the ability to identify with specificity the boat that almost ran you down). Florida boaters. Jeez.
The highlight of the day was getting to know the ICW a bit better for the five miles from Lake Worth Inlet to one of Florida's best anchorages: North Lake Worth, at 26 deg.50.3 N/080 deg. 03.2 W. Well-marked approach, depths were good, pleanty of room for many boats, the water was calm, and it was far enough off the ICW that there were no wakes. Bonus: if you know where to beach your dinghy there's a sooper mart within easy walking distance which makes provisioning pretty much a snap.
For us, though, this first time at the North Lake Worth anchorage was a one-night stopover because we had much bigger fish to fry: a 10-year refit of The Fox we had scheduled to happen at Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart, Florida. We were about to get busy.
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