Day 92, Year 10: Passage to FL, Day 12—Vero Beach to Jupiter
Date: Saturday, January 10, 2015
Weather: Mostly Sunny, N 10-15, Temp in the 70’s F
Latitude: 27 00.348 N
Longitude: 080 05.750 W
Location: Anchored in Hobe Sound, Just N of Jupiter, FL
Miles Traveled: 42.9 Nautical Miles
The world was a bit brighter today as those overcast skies gave way to sunshine. And it is getting warmer. But traveling in the Intracoastal is definitely wearing. All day long you stare at a little screen trying to steer to keep the picture of the little boat (representing your boat) right on the ‘magenta’ line. The line on our screen is black, but it is always referred to as magenta as it is that color on most chart plotters. Some days you are in narrow waterways and other days there are wide expanses of water. But those wide expanses are deceptive because they are shallow, shallow, shallow. You’d better not get off that line because just out of the channel the depths might be three feet or less. The Intracoastal really is a ditch! We have one more day of this tedium and then we get a break. We will arrive in West Palm Beach in the early afternoon and we plan to stay there for at least a couple of days. Once we get settled tomorrow, my sister-in-law Sue, who lives just south of West Palm in Boynton Beach, is coming to get us and take us (including Lee and Lynda) to her house for dinner. What a special treat!
I’m not going to miss staying on the magenta line, but I am going to miss seeing all of the bird life. That has been one of the special treats of this trip down the ICW in Florida. But starting yesterday we entered a much more densely populated part of Florida—more boats and less wildlife. And the boat traffic and the number of bridges increase exponentially from here. The anchorages are different, too. We have had quiet anchorages up until now. But when we arrived here late this afternoon, there were three power boats pulled up to the little mangrove beach blaring music. Mark’s take on that was that they were providing us with free entertainment. Lee’s take was that there was “beer, babes, and barbeque” on shore and that we should join them. But the sun went down and they left—opportunity missed. Tomorrow we have six bridges that have to open for us in just 21 miles, so I’d better quit writing and go to bed so we can get an early start.
 |
| 150110 Day 92 Passage to Florida–Day 12, Vero Beach to Jupiter |
