Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Hobe Sound Anchorage - At anchor

Hoolie's relief beach is in the background
Leaving a dock with a 15 kt wind blowing you broadside towards two pilings demands carefully planning. The first step was to enlist a dockhand from the marina! Otherwise, as soon as the lines were released, the wind was going to blow you into two pilings you'd rather not have a close relationship with. With the dockhand holding the bow close to the dock we were successful in backing out without touching anything, a major accomplishment by itself. We proceeded to the fuel dock and filled up both the diesel and the outboard tanks - all ready for the trip noth now! I must add that it's very important to talk through how you're going to exit a slip, what direction to go in, how to hold the last of the lines for direction control, etc. Confusion at exit is not good!

How would you like to meet this guy on a narrow ICW waterway?
The Lantana bridge is being rebuilt and will be out of commission for vehicular traffic for almost two years! However, in the meantime, the spans will be left in the open position for boat traffic, a definite plus for those traveling the ICW. The trip north for the next 20 miles is a race against time to make the bridges. There were 6 sailboats headed north and we all made the first bridge but the next bridge required a 7 kt speed to make in time. Normally that can be done but the tide was foul and it slowed us all down. I upped the rpm to 2500 and gradually pulled away from the flotilla. We barely made the bridge opening, still going 2500 rpm without slowing down. The boats behind us had a 1/2 hour wait for the next scheduled opening. By the way, the engine held 80C (normal operating temperature) all the way to 2500 rpm and the only change was cleaning the barnacles off the dinghy I tow behind the boat. Can it be that simple?

Spring is early here too?
We pulled into our anchorage at 2:45 pm, a nice day for us and relaxed. From here we plan on making Vero Beach City Marina for a couple of days. We'll do a wash and get some minor odds and ends at the supermarket and maybe visit the beach. Vero is the city with free bus service and so is very popular with the cruising crowd.

0 comments: