Bahamas Bound?

By mid-April we were ready to begin heading south for our long awaited voyage to the Bahamas. The plan was to take our time cruising down Florida’s east coast, stopping over at other Loggerhead marinas along the way in Stuart, Palm Beach Gardens, Lantana, and Hollywood, ending up ten days later at Miami which would be our jumping off point for a Gulf Stream crossing to Bimini. We were all set to depart on April 16^th, but the weather was not good, so we waited a few more days until conditions were just right, sunny and calm.

Adjusting our schedule, we decided to by-pass Stuart and move on to Palm Beach Gardens while the weather was with us. We left at dawn on Easter Sunday to get a jumpstart on what would be a long cruising day. Conditions were calm enough in our harbor that we didn’t need assistance with our lines. Just past the St. Lucie Inlet which has dredging going on, we came upon a tow in Hobe Sound heading toward us. Luckily we remembered “tow boat language” when he requested a “2 whistle pass” (starboard to starboard) on the VHF radio. The sailboat in front of us, however, was clueless (didn’t even have his radio turned on) and almost collided with the equipment being hauled to the dredging site.

Our next destination , South Lantana, was just 21 miles down the ICW at the southern end of Lake Worth. Although conditions were favorable most of the way, as luck would have it, the winds picked up considerably by the time we reached our marina. Anxious to get safely tied up before conditions deteriorated any further, we called the marina for our slip assignment. After two aborted attempts at docking (once because they directed us to the wrong slip and once because the assigned slip was too small), we finally ended up securely moored in a desirable spot.

The next day, running the 42 mile gauntlet of bridge after bridge between Lake Worth and Hollywood wasn’t as bad as usual because the wind was just a light breeze, making waiting for bridges to open not too difficult. What a relief also when we arrived at the marina to be assigned a slip on the inside of a T-head with a long finger pier to tie up to. This location with a view of the ICW just outside the harbor was very pleasant, with lots of shade and cool breezes, too.

By this time we were back on schedule, and thus, were able to relax for a few days before continuing on to arrive in Miami by Friday, April 25^th as originally planned. With less than 20 miles to go, we fueled up at the Hollywood Municipal Marina and then headed south once again.

Our destination was Miamarina, located adjacent to the Bayside Park Marketplace in the heart of downtown Miami. This day we only had to wait for two bridges (one of them for a half hour!), arriving at our marina before noon without too much boat traffic to contend with, except for a water taxi trying to exit just as we were entering the harbor. Luckily, he observed the Law of Gross Tonnage and moved out of our way.

Following our plan, we will stay here to await a favorable weather window for crossing the Gulf Stream to Bimini.