Offshore to Lake Worth (West Palm Beach)

Offshore to Lake Worth (West Palm Beach)

Monday 4th January 2021

We were up at “sparrow-fart” (6am), drank coffee from the thermos (made the previous evening) and made toast and peanut butter for breakfast. The anchor was up just before 7am and we were underway. We raised the main sail whilst we were still in the Fort Pierce inlet and then once we out in the ocean conditions were a little bumpy but not too bad. However, the predicted 10-15 knots of wind was rarely above 10 knots and mostly a little lower. Coupled with a direction of almost dead down-wind we found it really hard to maintain a decent speed under sail … and we tried hard, polling out the genoa, wing-on-wing. So we ended up motor sailing the 44 nautical miles to the Fort Worth inlet. It was an uneventful passage with small swells from the stern and several other boats to keep us company. We tried our hand at fishing, trolling a “pink squid” for a while and then a cedar plug, alas with no success. The highlight of the day came just a few miles before our destination when a group of dolphins spent a good 10-15 minutes playing around the boat. (See video below). The low point was our anchoring drill. Entry into the Fort Worth inlet was really easy (it’s a class A inlet suitable for any conditions). However, when we got to the anchorage area there was a large dredging tug working exactly where we planned to drop hook. We circled around, covering some very deep (25ft) and pretty shallow (7ft) areas before we finally settled on an acceptable spot. Well it would have been OK if it wasn’t in an area where there are cables – which I did not realize until after we were settled. So we pulled up and moved over to anchor in a comfortable position in about 20 feet of water. All in all it was somewhat stressful. Now we are happily relaxing, showering and anticipating dinner … spaghetti Bolognese.

Mike

26 45.979 N, 80 02.629 W

The "Dumb Dog" - looking back to Fort Pierce. It's a dubious practice to be dragging the dinghy behind the boat whilst off shore, but the forecast was benign and it's a bit of a pain hauling the dinghy aboard and deflating it ... only to get the deck covered in dinghy anti-fouling paint!

"Remedy" was anchored next to us in Fort Pierce inlet (and here in Lake Worth) ... seen here just south of Fort Pierce. They are motor sailing with their genoa - we didn't see a single boat just sailing.

Approaching Lake Worth inlet

The tug "Mr Connor" with barge and pontoons in tow with West Palm Beach behind

The view from our anchorage in Lake Worth - more industrial than I remember from 2012

Dolphins off the bow of Cotinga