January 11, 2011 Hutchinson Island to Palm Beach

            Waking up this particular morning on the fuel dock had been interesting.  It was extremely foggy and in our cockpit there were mosquitoes.  Dealing with flies and mosquitoes was better than the snow storm the NE was dealing with.  I was not complaining! Brunelle could not get out of its slip due to the shallow water and we needed to wait for high tide.   She finally got out around noon time with Dan and Martha pulling inch by inch on the pilings.  We all agreed that the marina was not good for sailboats. 

            Once we started down the waterway towards Palm Beach, it was simply beautiful.  We saw numerous huge homes with their mega yachts parked outside the homes.  We saw several golf courses along the way which were being used in the 80 degree weather we were experiencing. 

                                                 Golf Course with a view

            We went through a lot of bridges that and one in particular wasn’t happy with us.  Dan in Brunelle was leading the pack of four sailboats and several power boats too large to go under the bridge, and the rule was that you were supposed to call ahead of your arrival at the bridge to request an opening.  The bridge tenders could see us coming.  Dan called ahead for this particular one but he used the incorrect bridge name and, therefore, the bridge operator did not answer back.  We waited 20 minutes at the bridge waiting for it to open.  Dan called again at the opening time and asked if it was going to be opened.   We were told no, because we had not called ahead.  Dan sweet talked her and she finally opened the bridge. We had to hustle since the next bridge opened in 15 minutes and it was over a mile away.  Some bridges open upon demand and others have set times such as on the hour and half hour.

Jupiter Lighthouse in Palm Beach County

            We met up with Sevilla along the way; they had been in Stuart for a month. We all arrived at the Lake Park Marina about 5:30pm to a dinner on Pekabu.  This marina had been Pekabu’s home for the past month until we were all together.  Now that our original four boats were once more all together we were able to continue our awesome journey.

                   One of the many homes we saw with a yacht parked in front of it.