Hobe Sound - at anchor

Southern Blvd Bridge - only 65 ft at low tide! Of course, we were fine with our 55 ft mast

 We are living a charmed life with making bridges. It was tight at a few but we just got there in time and didn’t miss a single bridge. However, you need to capable of 7 kts even in an adverse current to avoid missing one and waiting 1/2 hour for the next opening. 

Hoolie is happy, he has his beach nearby

In the course of racing between two bridges, I ran over a small branch that I didn’t see but heard the “clunk”, but then the prop started to shake the boat. On sh*t I thought, that’s all I need is a haulout to fix the prop! I did the usual backup routine that opens and closes the folding prop and after four repeats of the process, I saw a chip come floating out aft of the boat. In the process of digesting the branch, parts of it must have been caught in the gear mechanism of the folding prop. Opening and folding the prop by alternating periods of forward and reverse did the trick of expelling the offending piece of wood. The prop was smooth again after that.

Add in the 7% tax for the total price!

Having survived that scare, the rest of the trip north was without drama. We took on fuel and I think most of the fuel prices are now being rounded up to the next higher dollar amount. Diesel was less expensive than gasoline which was $7.00/gallon plus a tax of 7%. Diesel was around $5.90 plus tax at most places, higher at some. 

We are now at one of our favorite anchorage areas, Hobe Sound. The anchorage we chose is a new one for us. It has a sand spit reaching out from the west to the ICW channel which provides wave protection from a south wind if you anchor behind it like we did. With a north wind, you just anchor on the south side so the anchorage can provide wave protection from either direction. It also has a sandy beach for Hoolie, a requirement for us. 

We have winds predicted all night around 20 kts but with our anchorage, it’s pleasant but windy. On Thursday, we’re heading north to the Loggerhead Marina at Vero Beach to wait out two days of forecast rains. I have taxes to do and other work so I’ll be occupied for a while.