4/15-Left YARCOBR at around 4:00 p.m. (high tide) and anchored in North East corner of Lake Boca. Plenty of water and quite a few sailboats.
4/16-Left Lake Boca at around 7:00 a.m. and went to Hillsboro by way of the ICW. It was high tide and I was tempted to go out of Boca Inlet but windlass wouldn't pull anchor over roller (swivel was stiff) and I wouldn't go out into the ocean until I resolved the problem. During trip to Hillsboro I used main halyard winch to bring anchor the rest of the way onto the boat and then lubricated all the rode fittings. Entered the Ocean from Hillsboro Inlet with no difficulty and began trip South under power because wind was on our nose. Seas are moderate and it's a little rocky sometimes but generally uneventful. Enter Government Cut about 2:00 p.m. and transit South channel along Dodge Island to Claughton Island and down the ICW under the Rickenbacker Causeway into Biscayne Bay proper. Plenty of water in that section of the ICW even at low tide. Proceed to anchorage at center of West coast of Key Biscayne. Chart says 8 feet, but it's 14 ft. almost to shore. Good protection from East and enough from South to make it suitable for us.
4/17-Left Key Biscayne Anchorage to enter Hawk Channel through Biscayne Channel at 8:15 a.m. It's high tide and Biscayne Channel has lots of water but ocean is rough when we get through channel and wind and waves would be on our nose all the way to Rodriguez Key (just off of Key Largo), a 45 nm trip, so we bag our plans. Turn the engine off when we get back into Biscayne Bay and do some sailing. Boat does 7 knots easily in 12 mph winds on a reach, which is nice. Kryss handles the helm and after about an hour of piddling around in the Bay we're both ready to go back to the anchorage at Key Biscayne. We sail in with Kryss at the helm and drop the anchor under sail (first time we've done that in this boat). Lot's of boats but it's a big anchorage. The water's quite warm already and all's right with the world.
4/18-Hanging out today. We were thinking of going to Sands Cay cut to hang out, but we would just have to stay too far from shore to accommodate our draft to make it worthwhile.
4/19-Hung out again, played Scrabble, swam, etc. It's a really nice and safe anchorage.
4/19-Left under power to return to YARCOBR. Strong afternoon thunderstorms are forecast for entire coast from Miami to above Palm Beach. Miami Harbor is busy but trip under Rickenbacker Causeway, along Brickell Key, then along South side of Dodge Island and out Government Cut is uneventful. Freddy Danovitz goes flying by us out of Government Cut as we exit, but he doesn't recognize us. Put up jib and continue under jib with engine on, with moderate aft wind and following seas, doing between 7 and 8 knots most of the way well past Baker's Haulover Inlet. Can see why it would be a good thing to invest in a whisker pole. Wind picks up and seas get quite lumpy as we approach Port Everglades. Tide is mid-ebb and is having a significant effect on our speed and the sea conditions. Figure it should quiet down when we get well past Port Everglades, but that's not the case. Wind picks up to around 20 knots and the thunderstorms are closing in from the West, fortunately they seem to be South of us. As I get to Hillsboro Inlet I begin to rethink the wisdom on not having gone in at Port Everglades (oh the pain of all those bridges) and decide that if I don't like what I see that I'll backtrack to Port Everglades. As we approach Hillsboro it's clear that the wind will be mainly aft of us and we go in and there is not that much turbulence in the channel itself, so I call the bridge to advise that we'll be coming in and standing by for its next opening and I start in. There is not that much visible turbulence, but the following wind/seas and outgoing tide create a great deal of turbulence beneath the surface and it's a lot of work to get in safely. Big problem is that once in, maneuvering in the small turning basin isn't easy with a few other vessels waiting for bridge and strong wind and current. Following us in is a very large yacht and once in, it takes up a lot of room. I request that it precede us through the bridge. It does and we get through OK, but not without some careful helmsmanship. You would think that a contrary tidal current would make it easy, but in this case it pulls you into the side of the bridge fairway. Make our way in the ICW up to Lake Boca and decide to hang out there for the evening rather than try to bring boat into slip in heavy winds with imminent threat of really big winds in thunderstorms that are threatening. We're well anchored when a thunderstorm comes through and the winds go up to about 28 knts. with heavy rain, but it's brief and then all's quiet. 4/20-Leave Lake Boca early as more thunderstorms are predicated and make our way back to YARCOBR. Trip is uneventful but docking isn't as easy as it seemed it would be with West wind and incoming tide pushing us Eastward as well. Short, tame trip, but learned some helpful things about how updated software in plotter works; learned that there is plenty of water in ICW from Dodge Island, along Brickell Key and through Rickenbacker Causeway, and found a really nice anchorage at center of Western shore of Key Biscayne. That gives us a nice short trip to take where we can do some day sailing and have a pleasant anchorage in which to hang out, even if the winds are not favorable for a Southerly passage. Attached picture was taken by a neighbor as we were maneuvering to enter our slip.
Comments