Day 100, Year 10: West Palm to Lake Worth Inlet Anchorage
Date: Sunday, January 18, 2015
Weather: Sunny and Warm—Just Perfect
Latitude: 26 45.989 N
Longitude: 080 02.698 W
Location: Anchored Near the Lake Worth Inlet, FL
The ‘chill’ is gone and the weather is warm and luscious. With great hesitation, we left the comfortable anchorage in West Palm Beach just after noon today and moved about four miles north back to the Lake Worth Inlet area. We left before Lee and Lynda as we made a fuel and water stop at the Palm Bay Marina just next to the city docks—not an easy in and out as we thought it would be, but we made it. The currents here are fierce and we are yet to understand just when slack tide occurs. Anyway, we got fuel and water and headed back out just in time to make the 1:15 pm opening of the Flagler Bridge. I had called Lee and Lynda and told them we had hoped to make that opening and they were there to go through with us. The anchorage near the Lake Worth Inlet was not exactly what we expected. There is a huge dredging operation going on here and there was only one other boat in the anchorage area. We entered hesitantly because of the dredge and the young man on the other boat came over in his dinghy to tell us to feel free to anchor close to him to avoid the very strong current of water caused by the dredge. So far we have been fine, but it was a bit disconcerting to anchor so close to fiercely swirling water. And in addition to that, the view to the west is totally industrial. Not my favorite anchorage!
Once we felt the anchor was holding, Mark and I hopped in the dinghy and went across to Peanut Island. This little island was formed in 1918 when dredging projects created the Lake Worth Inlet and the Port of Palm Beach. The island got its name as it was the proposed site of a peanut oil shipping operation in the mid-1940’s. That was a failed proposition, but during the Kennedy Administration, the little island gained fame again as the home of the Kennedy bunker. JFK and family spent a great deal of time in the family home a couple of miles south in Palm Beach, so a cold war bunker near-by was felt necessary. In 2005, a thirteen million dollar renovation of the island turned it into a fantastic little weekend vacation spot for locals. There is a very wide brick walkway that goes all the way around the island, campgrounds, and docks for small boats and dinghies. They even created a reef for snorkeling. Mark and I took the dinghy into one of the docks and walked around the entire island. We were too late to do the museum tour, but it was a delightful walk around the island. When we returned to the anchorage, we picked up Lynda and Lee and brought them over to Windbird for sundowners. Tomorrow morning at 7 am we head out through the Lake Worth Inlet and on to Fort Lauderdale.
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| 150118 Day 100 Florida, USA–West Palm to Lake Worth Inlet Anchorage |
