Stuart to Lake Worth to Fort Lauderdale

Stuart to Lake Worth

Having completed the OWW, we settled for a few days in Stuart, Florida. Stuart is about five miles up the St. Lucie River from the Lt. Lucie inlet to the Atlantic Ocean where there is a crossroads and access back onto the ICW. For some time now, we will be on the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway or AICW. The mile markers start well north of here as you can imagine, given that the crossroads is at or about mile marker 990. The mile markers increase all the way south to Key West. At the moment, we are at or near mile marker 1165, anchored in a place our friend John recommended, called Lake Sylvia, right in the heart of Fort Lauderdale.

Stuart is a great town that has everything. Especially cool is the Riverwalk area on the east side of town. There are restaurants, art galleries, bars, cafes, ice cream, stores, etc. It is a very nice place to stroll. Since we were on a marina mooring ball, we were able to bring the dinghy right into the marina and tie up at their dinghy dock. Very convenient. We could walk right on the Riverwalk pier all the way to the Riverwalk part of town. There is literally a pier that wraps around the river front part of town. Very cool.




When we arrived, it was late so we ate dinner and went to sleep early. It was cold and windy. It had been a long day on the water. Most of the crossing of Lake O and the St. Lucie Canal, several bridges, and three locks was characterized by rain and wind, fog and mist. It was all generally pretty quiet, and the water was plenty deep, but traveling in that kind of weather takes concentration and you get tired by the end of the day. We were pretty wiped out. It was so beautiful, there simply are not words. It was a very welcome relief from all the “civilization” we experienced on the West Coast of Florida.
The next day, the weather was not a whole lot better, so we did a whole lot of nothing but work on the blog. As you know, this time, we did something a little different. Instead of just writing and posting photos, we thought a better way to show the OWW was through music and a slide show. Brenda, being the master video maker, found the music and then the software. Then, we had to put it all together. Finding the music turned out to be a lot more interesting. Most folks might simply find a song that mentions the word, “river” and dub the photos. Not Brenda. She went in search of a song that described the Okeechobee Waterway. This is how we discovered the music of Mike Jurgensen. Well, try as we may, we could not figure out how to download the song and use it. So, we managed to get the lyrics, and I pulled out the old guitar and started figuring it out. In the interim, we found Mike’s phone number on his website and called to see where we could get a copy of the song, “Roll on Caloosahatchee.” Well, Mike, like most folks, was not immediately available. So, in order to keep the process moving, we decided I should learn the song, and then we would record it. That was interesting in itself. The only microphone we had was part of the cheap video “eyeball” we use to Skype with. After hours of trial and error, we finally had a take we liked so we decided to cut our losses and use it. I know it is not nearly as good as Mike’s recording, but it was passable and would work out for the video. This took the better part of all day. It was not until nearly 10:30 p/m. our time that we were able to finally publish the blog. We sure had a good time making it.






The next day, I dinghied into the marina and walked into the marina office to check in and pay for the mooring ball, and then I hear this voice behind me say, “Are you Larry?” I turned around to find that it was none other than our friend John Barr whom we met and came to know at the Channel Islands Yacht Club back home. I felt terrible. I knew he had moved to Stuart, but it had completely escaped me. Nevertheless, we had a great visit with John and his friend Linda and visited his boat for cocktails and sunset. It really is a small world.


The next day, we wandered around Stuart. We discovered the Farmers Market, the chocolate place, the ice cream place, the Heritage Museum, and many other gems. The Heritage Museum is particularly cool. The building in which it lies used to be the original town feed store, general store, fertilizer store, and all around the only store. I may have also served as the post office, the pharmacy, and the apothecary. However, Stuart bought the building in 1988 and turned it over to these folks who wanted to make it into a museum. They pay $1 per month and maintain it themselves with donations and the proceeds from sales of small items. What is particularly cool is that everything that is in there was brought to them by families who lived in Stuart for generations. Additionally, unlike most museums, the stuff was not all behind glass, but was displayed right out in the open so you could get a good look at things. This place had it all from High School Yearbooks dating back to the 1950’s to photos of grandma down at the river front taken during the 1930’s and 1940’s. There was old farm equipment and all sorts of antique household goods. One could easily mistake this museum with an antique store. We learned quite a bit about this town on the river from spending time in this place.
We spent two days walking around Stuart. The weather was glorious, but we decided it was time to go.



So, on the morning of the 15^th, we let go the mooring, and started heading south towards the Keys.
The passage was not at all like I thought it would be. It was quite beautiful. Jupiter Sound and Hobe Sound were fantastic. I expected nothing but Condo Hell, but found this is not the case at all. The AICW is lined with parks and mangrove. Then you get to cruise past some really beautiful homes backed right on the water. It was not the “Condomania” I was anticipating, so it is actually quite pleasant. The waterways were narrow, but as such, easy to follow and there was plenty of water for the most part. By 3:00 p.m. we were anchored in a place called Lake Worth, right out in front of the town of North Palm Beach. Now we know where a large population of mega yachts live. There are some big ones for sure.

As soon as we got anchored, Brenda went to work feverishly preparing me a birthday cake. She’s such a love. It was really good. I cannot thank all my friends and family enough for all the birthday wishes I received via email and on Facebook. It’s really nice to know so many friends care. We are a long way from home, but we think about you every day and miss you all a lot. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Brenda made me this beautiful cake for my birthday.

Lots and lots of candles.

It got a little smokey when I blew out the candles.

And it tasted really good, too.

At this point, we are “truckin’” south. We are not going to be investigating every little place along the way on the way down to the Keys. We want to just get there. We’ll take our time coming back up. So, for now, I have to get the boat ready to travel. It’s going to be another long day. But, a good day is a day under weigh. I’ll write more later.

//////

Lake Worth to Fort Lauderdale

What a difference a day makes. From Lake Worth, we pulled a long day all the way to Lake Sylvia, right in the heart of Fort Lauderdale. We are anchored in this small “lake” with several other cruising boats. It was a very interesting trip.

I really cannot say enough good things about the condition of the waterways down here. They are uniformly deeper (around 13 feet) and very well marked. Where the channel is purely lined with homes and banked with concrete, there are no marks, so you just stay in the middle. There are a lot of bridges, however. We went under 19 bridges yesterday, several of which we had to wait for openings. We can squirt under a 20 footer when we know there is an additional 3-4 feet at the center, and depending on the tide. However, there were plenty of them with clearances of between 5 and 15 feet that we had to stop for and have opened. Only a few of these are “on request”. The rest, operate on restricted schedules. By this I mean that some may open only on the hour and on the half hour, or they may only open on the quarters. Some only open at quarter after and quarter ‘til. It is all but impossible to time the openings just right. We nailed it a couple times. One time, however, we had to wait for nearly 20 minutes for an opening. We were traveling in a small pack with some sail boats and got slowed down, so we missed an opening, and had to wait - running in circles in a narrow channel for nearly half an hour. What a pain in the ass that was. For a while, we also got stuck behind two giant party cruisers who took up almost all of the available water. I decided that it was fine to just “live” behind these guys for a while. They are locals and they know what speed to run to make the bridge openings on their route. This worked out well. Since they are commercial, they get more deference from the bridge operators and so there was no delay. We just coat-tailed on them and passed right along.

For a while we were stuck behind this very large cruiser some Italian custom built yacht, that had some rather impressive running gear. While I never saw it, I know these boats usually have twin 5-bladed props. These things churn up the water for a long way behind them. Some of you may know what this kind of thing does to a depth sounder. Due to all the turbulence and resultant turbidity in the water, depth sounders go “nuts”. As such, for nearly 15 miles, I had no useful depth information other than the occasional flash at what I believed was an accurate depth. Now, you have to understand that I knew what was happening and so I fell even further behind. But even a half mile back, I was still getting this guy’s “gas”. So, we are running along and the depth sounder is showing 2.3,1.9, 4.5, 3.6, etc. So, I resigned to just stay in the middle and note the position of the magic magenta line, figuring this way, I would stay out of trouble.

There is an area you get into just after entering Fort Lauderdale where the AICW is lined on both sides with concrete. This area should be called, “The Bathtub.” For a protected waterway, it sure was rough. Even a canoe going by makes a little wake, right? In this area, all wakes are reverberated and magnified by the concrete walls. So, here we are, meandering our way down the middle, we have two schmucks and several smaller schmeckels go by at high speed, and it’s time to hold on because the water in this tub get’s crazy! The problem is not so much the design of the waterways as it is the boaters who operate in them. It seems there is a correlation between the size of the boat and the competence of the operator. There is little respect shown other boaters as these yahoos in their small runabouts feel compelled to tear through no wake zones at high speed. I guess they figure that, when on plane, they are not making much of a wake. This is actually true, but it’s still discourteous to other boaters. There seems like there is little or no enforcement of any water laws around here.

On the trip to Fort L, we saw some of the most magnificent yachts we have ever seen. All the biggies are down here. There is a sign on the bridge when you cross into Fort L that says, “Welcome to Fort Lauderdale, the Yachting Capital of the World.” No kidding! It seems like nothing under 150 feet even has any business being here. Burgers, Fedships, Symbols, Johnsons, etc. All the big designers are well represented. Brenda and I nearly fell off the boat when I commented at one point, “Now that’s a really big Johnson.” We laughed so hard. We’re still laughing.

There is a Mega Yacht in the background that is completely shrink wrapped.

It is nice that, while there are some giant mega condo highrises, the waterways were mostly lined with big, beautiful homes. This made the trip interesting. There are as many styles of architecture as there are colors with which these homes are painted. There was an abundance of infinity pools, fountains, and statuary. What was most wonderful, however, were the gardens. Tropical, tropical, tropical is the only way to describe the gardens. Many varieties of broad leafs, palms, and other colorful plants, banyan trees, banana trees, and even cocoanut palms. No more pine trees. The many colors of the gardens against the many colors of the homes gives this place a really nice palate to enjoy. Some might consider this place ideal. I love it, but I’m not convinced it’s the right place for me.

Last night after we arrived, we hopped in the dinghy and went to a place called Southpoint Raw Bar. It was a 5 minute dinghy ride. Great food, great prices, and a lot of fun. Even though it rained while we were sitting out on their deck, it didn’t matter. It was warm and tropical out.


What a nice change from the frozen bayous of the panhandle. We got pretty soaked on the ride back to the boat, but it was fun.

We are very close to the Keys now and some serious preparation is in order. Fortunately, it is windy today, and we plan to stay put for the day anyways. I have guidebooks to read, charts to download and print, fuel planning to do, and several other chores to keep me busy and the boat off the bottom. It’s quite a bit more complicated if you’ve never been here before. It’s not as simple as pulling up to Coches Prietos and dropping a hook. I suppose, however, for the cruiser who has never been there, it is complicated as well. You have to simply understand where you are going and consider the information available to you. What makes it difficult is the abundance of information. Sometimes, it can simply be overwhelming. So, I find it is best to break it down into smaller bites: here to there, then here to there. If you try to plan the whole thing, you will make a mistake. Down in the keys, running aground doesn’t always mean a soft landing in the mud. Coral abounds. Not only do you screw up the boat, but the authorities really frown on boaters who do damage to their coral and grass beds. Again, it is a matter of figuring it out. And, we will. It’ll just be a little at a time. That being said, I better get to work.

Bye, Y’all.