Returning north March 31-April 1, 2021

 Wednesday, March 31, 2021. Day 115.

We had planned an offshore passage to save a couple of days. Due to the endless number of bridges on the ICW in the Miami area, the inside trip can take forever! Last night the weather forecast was good, so I put on my patch and we secured the dinghy, the paddle boards, and everything else on the boat. We got up early in the morning; I took a pill, and put on the wrist bands, and, at 7:27am, we ventured out into the ocean. Unfortunately it was not to be. Although the weather report had said the winds would cooperate and the ocean would be doable for me, it was not the case.

The chop was heavy. Magic Moments was pounding on the swells, water was spraying on the windows, the glass bottles and dishes were clanging. We knew that we would have to be very careful opening all the cabinets after this to avoid breakage.

It was too rough; it was not fun. We turned into Miami and entered the north channel, surrendering to the reality that we would not be going offshore.

It was beautiful in the channel, and my stomach was calming down; I removed the wristbands. When we were 85% through the channel, a Miami Dade police motor vessel with blue flashing lights approached us and via radio said the channel was closed and forced us to turn around and go out and re-enter the south channel. The officer said the channel is closed when there are two cruise ships in the channel. Please note that the channel is huge, the two cruise ships were docked, no one was moving, there was no signage or other indication of any restriction and we were essentially through the channel!

 This was extremely annoying because we had to turn around and go out the whole way, and reenter in the south channel; we lost a couple of hours and it threw off our timing for the bridges (and there are LOTS of bridges).

Traveling near so many bridges so close together, causes the radio traffic to get crazy. The radio sounds like a cacophony of messages: announcements from the coast guard, boaters, and marinas, requests for openings, responses by the tenders; it is endless, loud and also unclear sometimes who is addressing whom.

After passing 16 bridges that required openings, and a few we could motor under, we anchored in Boca Lake (approximately 4:15pm). It was tight and very crowded, with a big sandbar (obviously a rather shallow area). 

 We anchored one hour before low tide, with only 3.1 feet under the keel, and a nearby neighbor trawler who complained that we were too close. I thought he had a point. Captain Roland felt that we were safe. Roland is attentive, careful and knowledgeable, and, in this case, he was correct. At 5:40pm, after watching, observing and calculating, tide, wind, and current, Captain Roland confirmed that he was satisfied with the anchorage.

As I’m sure I mentioned previously, one of the fun things to do while cruising the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AICW), especially in this area, is observing the homes from mega mansions to old style Florida; some classic with round columns, some with square columns, tiles, arches, modern, mediterranean, and eclectic.

In addition to enjoying the view and the landscape and the passing homes, checking boat names is also a kick. Two favorite boat names of today: “Drifting Coconuts“ and “Yachta Yachta”.

Another note of the day: at 8:am we passed our 1900 mile mark on our adventure, and, more importantly, neither of us have thrown the other overboard, nor jumped ship!

Thursday, April 1, 2021. Day 116. April Fools’ Day.

I am not sleeping through the night; awakening from time to time; not sleeping well does not make me happy!

We left early, and went under the first bridge of the day, at approximately 7:20am, and then the Spanish River Bridge a little before 8am. Minutes later, with a phone call alert, we passed Ann and Richie on their balcony in Highland Beach. It was great to see them (seriously social distanced...with binoculars!), and to wave and talk on the phone; Richie took a great video of Magic Moments as we cruise by and also some stills (one of which was with me on the bow in full Devigi.....the only way to cruise no matter the weather!). Very cool!

At the 15th Ave. Bridge in Boynton Beach we had to wait way too long. The bridge tender (I grade her very low on my list of bridge tenders), opened at an odd time and thereby messed up our ability to get through the bridge that was a mile away for its regular schedule, so we lost another 30 minutes.

We were trying to make the next bridge in spite of the hold up on the 15th Ave. Bridge by my least favorite bridge tender, and, as we were cruising at a rapid speed for us, Enosis, the sailboat behind us (way too far behind us), radioed the bridge tender for the Ocean Avenue Bridge and asked that he hold the bridge for him when he opened for Magic Moments. The result was that the bridge tender didn’t open for us at the normal opening time, he waited for Enosis to arrive 20 minutes later, and, then made us wait until the next scheduled opening. We lost another 40 minutes. Circling around, wasting time and fuel and increasing the risk of collisions; not my happy place. Enosis called us on the radio later and apologized for his request to the bridge tender recognizing that he held us all up unnecessarily. Kind and generous Captain Roland blamed the bridge tender, forgiving Enosis.

I steered on and off passing the beautiful homes. The passage was lovely, we had sun, a gentle breeze, and gorgeous homes to see as we steered from the flybridge.

At Boynton Inlet, the current was rough and the whirlpools resulting from the ocean intersecting with the ICW, made steering tough so the captain took over. When we went under the Lantana Bridge on the 10:30am opening, the bridge tender radioed to Captain Roland that he was cruising too fast through the bridge. Our cruising speed is really slow, and that was a surprise.

Several bridges later we approached 707 Bridge which opens on request. The tender opened the bridge only partway, just enough for us to get under, but shorter than full opening. This was amazingly unusual. Every tender tells every captain, to not enter the wooden fenders until the bridge is fully open, and this one only opened part way. The reason: there was a lot of heavy road traffic, Magic Moments is not that tall (25 feet), so we could get by with a partial opening and the time to hold up the traffic (reduced time to open and close) was minimized. We were quite surprised and wondered if that was verboten in the bridge tender manual.

Most of our travel was from the flybridge until the early afternoon when the wind picked up dramatically and suddenly, at 3:40pm, the rain started.

At approximately 5pm, we anchored; it took a second try to get the anchor to grip (not all bottoms are created equal). 20 bridges (15 on request), the timing and the stress, today was a long one. We plan to stay two nights at Peck Lake; we need some R and R!