Weather forecast for April 15, 2019:
Delray Beach, Florida
Low 68 high 77
East winds, 10 to 12 kts
Captain’s Log: April 10, 2019 thru April 14, 2019
With our teen-aged guests now safely on their way to Miami International Airport, we hightailed it back to the boat, anxious to start moving north. The anchor was up and we were moving into Biscayne Bay by 10:30am on Wednesday, April 10th.
We squeezed under the William Powell Bridge and slowly cruised past downtown Miami. The skies were cloudy and the colors were subsequently muted, but we still enjoyed studying the various styles of architecture along the waterfront. On our port, approaching the Dodge Island Causeway, we past the Miamarina at Bayside. This marina is where we got married, on the 170ft schooner Mystic, on Valentine's Day, during the 2016 Miami Boat Show. Great memories!
With the Causeway behind us, a hard turn to starboard put us into the Miami main ship channel where we past several mega-yachts and a very large Disney cruise ship. At channel marker red 8 we made a hard turn to port which put us about 2 miles off shore and parallel to South Beach.
Three hours and 20 miles later a hard turn to port put us at the entrance of the Port Everglades ship channel. The channel was lined with mega-yachts; one amazing, unimaginably expensive yacht after another.
The current running from the ocean, through the channel and to the ICW was fast and strong and, as I turned our bow towards the 17th Street Bridge, we were being pushed towards the western shore of the ICW, which was currently occupied by several huge yachts.
The bridge only opens on the hour and half hour and, of course, it was 10 minutes past the hour when we made the turn; we had to hold our position for 20 minutes. I struggled to keep the boat close to the center of the ICW while other pleasure boats queued up behind us. Fortunately, none of the boats now in the queue were of the mega-type. Even so, this dance with the current that I was reluctantly engaged in was nerve-racking. It would repeat itself with almost every draw bridge that we approached (we have 31 draw bridges to negotiate between Ft. Lauderdale and St. Augustine).
Another sailboat, a dark green, steel-hull, Thomas Colvin designed junk-rigged schooner of about 42ft, overtook us and almost cut us off as the bridge opened. We were both upset at the rudeness of its captain and I shouted my displeasure at him, which he completely ignored.
Still fuming, we headed towards the anchorage at New River Sound, which was our destination for the night. We had to pass the Las Olas Boulevard Bridge to reach the anchorage and the bridge was going to open in 8 minutes; it was going to be tight. The green schooner was now ahead of us in the channel. I called the bridge tender on the VHF radio and he told me to "put the pedal to the metal" if I wanted to make the opening.
Of course, just as I was wanting to pick up speed, the steel schooner slowed down to almost a complete stop and sat in the middle of the channel. Anger and tension gripped me as I swung the wheel and increased the throttle. I blew past the schooner, hurling invectives at the captain, and made a bee line for the bridge.
Soon after passing the schooner I noticed a large inflatable boat coming towards us from dead ahead. It was coming straight at us and, with every slight turn that I made, this boat made a mirroring turn, still coming straight for us. I had to slow down. It was a cop, and he was screaming at me.
We were in a no-wake zone and the 50,000-pound Perfect Love was putting out a huge wake. He circled around me and, as both boats continued towards the open bridge, he laid into me. Of all of the many things that he shouted, I clearly remember "DAMN-IT, YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER!!!! I DON'T GIVE A CRAP ABOUT WHAT THE BRIDGE TENDER TOLD YOU!!!!". He was evidently monitoring VHF channel 9 while I was speaking with the bridge tender. Had we been set up?
While fear and panic reigned on deck, Shirley was down in the cabin on an important conference call with her boss. Startled by the chaos above, she politely but abruptly ended the call and came on deck. We were certain that a ticket was on its way but, incredibly, after venting, the officer turned his bow away and departed (unfortunately, neither Shirley nor I thought to take pictures of our encounter with The Law so you will have to use your imagination).
We made the bridge opening and dropped our anchor 10 minutes later in New River Sound. Shortly thereafter a good, stiff, SAD (safe arrival drink) was thoroughly enjoyed by the crew.
We shared the anchorage, which was surrounded on the east side of the ICW by high-rise condos and on the west side by huge private homes (one of which belonged to the actor Nick Nolte), with eight other boats. A few were derelicts. We slept well and departed the next morning at 6:45am.
Our destination for April 11th was Delray Beach Municipal Marina, 21 miles and 10 draw bridges up the ICW. On the way we would pass Pompano Beach, home of Inflatable BoatPro.
We purchased our dinghy, which was now in need of some repair, from Inflatable BoatPro. We were hoping to somehow get the dinghy to Inflatable, have it fixed, and retrieve it while we were passing through Pompano. I called Inflatable and spoke to Bruno, the service manager. Bruno was extremely accommodating; per his suggestion, we dropped a bow and stern anchor just off of the Alsdorf Park Boat Ramp on the ICW. I splashed the dinghy and motored over to the boat ramp where Bruno's man Steve met me. Steve took me back to Perfect Love and then returned to the boat ramp, put our dinghy on a trailer and left for the shop. We weighed our anchors and continued towards Delray.
Mike, a friend and former business colleague, lives in Boca Raton. His company, Champion Solutions Group (CSG) was a key technology partner of my former company. We had arranged to meet upon our arrival in Delray. Shortly after dropping off the dinghy I received an unexpected call from Mike. He was on a boat on the ICW, with his boss Chris, my former CSG account representative Bill, and three gentlemen who used to work for me at my former company, Todd, Barry and Chris. We were all going to meet for dinner that night. What a pleasant surprise!
Later that afternoon Mike, Bill and Todd met us at Deck 84, a bar three blocks from the boat. It was a wonderful reunion; it actually made me miss working for a minute or two; catching up over drinks with Todd, my successor, was really great. It was a short walk down East Atlantic Avenue into downtown Delray and Mussel Beach, the restaurant where we gorged ourselves on mussels and crab legs.
Todd, Barry and Chris were flying back to Louisville the next morning and Bill was flying back to Cincinnati so, after bidding a fond farewell to Todd and Bill, and planning to meet with Mike and Chris the next day, Shirley and I headed back to the boat. It had been an eventful day.
On Friday morning, April 12th, Shirley and I walked two miles to the Knowles Park boat ramp where Steve from Inflatable BoatPro met us with our repaired dinghy in tow. We splashed the dinghy, thanked Steve profusely, and motored back to our boat.
Later that day we walked back to East Atlantic Avenue where we found the 'Delray Affair' in full swing. According to the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce:
"In its 57th year, the Delray Affair is the largest arts & craft festival in the Southeast United States. The event takes place along the palm tree lined downtown streets of Delray Beach and stretches 12 city blocks from the Intracoastal to NW 2nd Avenue. The Delray Affair has received numerous awards for its ‘eclectic’ mixture of fine art, great crafts and funky products from around the world. Last year, artists and crafters from 30 states and twelve countries exhibited at the Delray Affair."
That evening Chris, his wife Sherri and Mike met us at the boat. After cocktails and conversation, we returned to Deck 84 for dinner. Chris very graciously let us use his car the next day to do some grocery shopping.
Chris picked up his car the next day while Shirley and I were back at the 'Affair'. We had a wonderful time sampling the goodies and perusing the tents; I am sure that we stopped at all 500 vendors. We finally escaped after Shirley purchased a few items of clothing and some very attractive placemats for our salon table; I bought a hat and two shirts. That evening we had dinner with Mike and his girlfriend Nicole.
On the afternoon of Sunday, April 14th, we met Scott and Karla, our good friends from Skipjack Marina in Marathon. They were on their way to Cocoa Beach to vacation with family and had graciously offered to drive our SUV to Cocoa from Marathon, saving us a 500-mile round trip. Delray was on the way to Cocoa and they stopped by to say hello. Their time with us was short but very enjoyable; they had to be in Cocoa the next morning and we were leaving Delray at first light.
Until next time, may your tomorrow bring fair winds and following seas.