After leaving Melbourne on the morning of the 24th we entered the most built up section of the ICW from Palm Beach through Miami. The homes are lovely-- once again we were amazed by the wealth we'd seen on our trip down the ICW-- mile after mile of homes in the $2-5 million range! Where does all this money come from? We hope not sub-prime mortgages!
However the ICW through this area is called the "concrete canyon" because the concrete seawalls on all the huge waterfront homes reflect the boat wakes and turn the ICW into a choppy mess. The logical solution is to create "no wake zones" and require the boat to move at about 5 mph past these homes. Calm quiet for the homeowners but at that speed it makes for a long day if we're ever going to get to Sarasota! We slowed down and enjoyed the scenery but made up for the speed by cruising from dawn to dusk. Just about at dark we found a pretty anchorage in North Palm Beach and crashed for the evening!
Nov 25th - Palm Beach to Hallandale
Cruising slowly through Boca Raton, Delray Beach, and Ft. Lauderdale felt familiar-- we had vacationed in the area over the years. As car drivers we hated waiting at the draw bridges for the boats to pass... but now, as boaters, we had to pass under 26 bridges over a 2 day period. A few opened on request and we could fit under a few of the higher bridges (our "air draft" is 22 feet and it was tense passing under some bridges with a clearance of 23 feet!). But most bridges operate on a schedule and, if you miss an opening you have a 30 minute or more wait until the next opening. Boats don't have a "Park" setting on the transmission-- you need to use forward and reverse and spin the wheel back and forth to compensate for wind and currents while maintaining your spot near the bridge and avoid other boats -- tiring! By the end of the day we were happy to tie up at a marina, get a quick shower, and catch a taxi to Mass!
Nov 26th - Through Miami to the Keys!
We hadn't seen a skyline like this since early October in New York City! The morning was slow with a series of bridges and no wake
zones... but Miami seemed to pass quickly and we were soon in Biscayne Bay heading for the Keys. Our dolphin friends joined us riding and jumping in our wake-- at times they almost seemed to be posing for a picture! The water temperature rose into the mid-80's and it turned a light aqua color. As we pulled into the marina at Plantation Key we immediately felt the relaxed culture of the Keys -- the dockhands chit-chatted with us for quite a while before bringing the fuel hose. We tied up tight, washed down the boat, changed clothes, and strolled hand-in-hand to a local restaurant for a great dinner-- fish for Marianne and ribs for Chris! It felt great to be in South Florida again!Tomorrow we begin the long trip from the Keys to Sarasota past the Everglades and up the West coast...
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