Bridge Triumphs ... Tuesday 1 Jan 2013
No, I’m not talking about card games. Today we departed from Peck Lake at 8:30 am
with the prospect of seven bascule (opening) bridges to negotiate. All was
going swimmingly for the first few bridges that would “open on request”. Then we were approaching the first of the “
restricted bridges”. At this point we
were following two boats that didn’t seem to want to maintain a constant speed. We were concerned that we wouldn’t reach the
bridge for the opening at 11 am. We
overtook the boats and arrived at the bridge in time. Then we needed to travel 3.2 statute miles in
about 28 minutes to make the opening of the next bridge. It was a very tense time as we had both
opposing current and wind. A call to the
bridge got us a message ‘to get a move on’.
We squeeked through at the last moment.
Although we were happy to get through, we then had less time to get to
the next bridge. Another frantic sprint
seemed doomed to failure. By revving the
engine up we were able to catch up with the boat ahead and got through
again. According to our guidebook the
next bridge was about 1.5 miles away and opened only at 12:45. Happily our guide was wrong and the bridge
opened at 12:15. We were on our way to
Lake Worth and very relieved to be done with bridges! We anchored without too
much fuss. Then we deflated the dinghy and
secured it to the foredeck. Mike and Paul put up the inner forestay and hanked on the staysail and did a few other
preparatory tasks. Now we have just finished a fine meal of risotto and
steak. We are all hoping to get an early
night in preparation for the 3 am wake up call.
Tomorrow will be the crossing day, all being well.
Gloria
26 46 02.6 N, 80 02 40.3 W
Gloria
26 46 02.6 N, 80 02 40.3 W
Paul concentrating at the helm
congestion at one of the bridges
One of the many fancy houses we passed north of Palm Beach
I guess manatees are immune from damage by sheriff's boats
High rise condos west of Lake Worth
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