Marathon to Vero Beach

Since our last blog post, we spent two additional days in Marathon since the wind was still blowing. The Marlin Bay marina is a great spot to hang out for added time.  

Greg developed a sore back for no known reason, and fortunately there was a massage therapist working at the club on our last day.  The combination of the massage and some time in the hot tub was ideal to allow us to get underway. 

We got away from Marathon Tuesday in somewhat lighter wind conditions.  Although it was blowing from the SE and our route would supposedly be in the lee of the Keys chain, the shallow water dictates that one has to stick to the designated channel, which is still a number of miles from land and lots of fetch to pick up some wave action.  

Progressing along the route there are some small keys and sand banks that provide a bit of reprieve from the waves, but the boat still got pretty salty by the time we got to Elliott Key, at the south end of Biscayne Bay. This was a 70 mile run and a good start on our progress north, catching a needed weather window.

We anchored with a few other boats and Greg went for a swim as it was very warm, both air and water, and might be the last ocean swim of the trip.  For those boaters who wonder what their anchor and chain set looks like in 12 knots of wind with a reasonably good pull on the anchor chain, Greg’s swim included a perusal of the set.  The anchor was well hooked in the sand at a depth of 7’,  and of the 75’ of chain out, 25’ was on an angle down from the snubber, and 50’ was laying on the sand providing a very good horizontal pull on the anchor.  We went to bed that night very comfortable with the anchor set, which was very reassuring as the wind swung to S overnight and picked up to 15-20 for a while.  

By morning the wind was back down to under 15 and we got underway for the 2 hour run up Biscayne Bay to Miami, with the wind at our back.  Although that gets one into protected water, the bridges start.  Over the next 5 hours we had to pass thru 7 bridges that needed to open.  This really slows the progress as the bridges are on a schedule and they are set to intervals that allows for only 5 or 6 knots.  At least there is lots to entertain as the ICW is lined with beautiful homes for much of this stretch. And it must be spring break week also as there were lots of party boats going by. 

By 230 we were at our destination of the Coral Ridge Yacht Club, and in the pool shortly thereafter as it was in the mid 80’s.  The shorter day and lower speed meant only a 45 mile day.  

The next morning we were up early to attack the onslaught of 17 bridges to deal with.  And about a dozen of them are within a 25 mile stretch.   This is quite tiring as it is a continual process of “next bridge, what height, does it need to open, on a schedule (most are) or demand, set the waypoint on the chart plotter, how many miles, what is the optimal speed to meet the schedule, call the bridge tender”.  

After doing this run a couple of times I developed a “cheat sheet” with all the bridges summarized for Name, ICW mile number, height, and schedule, and I work from that, but it is still a mind numbing process after a few bridges.  At one bridge, we thought we might be stalled for a while as one of the spans wouldn't lift, but after a bit we got permission to proceed thru the one open span.

We couldn’t get into our desired destination at North Palm Beach, despite having contacted them initially 5 days earlier.  So we chose to proceed north another 10 miles to an anchorage in Hobe Sound that we had used on the way down, and another 3 bridges.  We anchored with one other boat but within an hour two other boats had anchored very close to us.  In the early evening we had a ferocious thunderstorm blow thru for a couple of hours, which certainly removed any residual salt on the boat.  After that, the wind dropped off and died overnight.  I got up at 2 am for a look around and the water was mirror smooth.   

We departed at sunrise for a 50 mile run north to Vero Beach.  We arrived about 1, just as the wind was coming up.  We are spending a few days here as a cold front moved thru Saturday which brought 30 to 40 knot winds, a terrific rain storm, including a tornado watch for a while and a temperature drop from 84F Saturday to 68F Sunday, with a low in the 40’s overnight.  Definitely required the heat on in the boat when we got up this morning. The wind continued moderate and out of the North thru Sunday, which makes for very poor travelling conditions, so we hung around for another day, and got a Publix run in. 

So our first week we have made pretty good progress.  Over the cumulative 4 days running, have logged 215 miles course over the ground, but again we have been stymied by wind for a few days. The wind is forecast to shift to the East on Monday and ease a bit then continue to improve as the week goes go so looks very good for travel.