June 1 & 2, 2024
I had originally planned to continue north in the ICW today all the way to Lake Worth where I would anchor before going outside for a passage north. But I was simply too exhausted–too burned out–to go through another day like yesterday. In fact, I decided I would wait right where I was until the weather was favorable for an outside passage, which should be on Monday, and then just go outside via the Hillsboro Inlet a mile or so north of my anchorage. It looked fairly descent if the winds weren’t too strong. That way I could avoid any more crazy drawbridges. (Well, I’d actually have to go through two on my way to the inlet, but that was better than 16!) So, I just relaxed for a couple of days.
Oh, and fixed my anchor roller. About a month before departing I had replaced the worn one that had been on the boat since I bought it three years ago with a brand new one. I also ordered a spare at the same time. It is a simple device–just a rubber roller that is held between two stainless steel arms at the very front of the boat. The anchor rests on it when not in use, and when lowering or weighing anchor, the chain rolls across this wide rubber wheel. There was just a 1/2″ stainless steel bolt that went through it to act as the axle, with nuts on the axle on the outside of either arm. But, no lock washers, which I thought was a bit strange. But, I installed the new one the same way the old one had been installed.
Well, it was one of these very nuts that had come off, and the pressure/weight of the chain or anchor had caused the axle to jam between the arms. The roller itself was fine, I just needed another nut. Luckily, I had one the right size, and this time, I added a lock washer (and some Loctite) to it. (It turns out this wouldn’t be the last I hear from this anchor roller!)
Other than just relaxing, I did some weather and route planning. It seemed like the next logical leg would be going outside, around Cape Canaveral, and into the Ponce de Leon Inlet just south of Daytona. It would be a good overnight distance of around 180 nm.
I was also enjoying the breeze. As soon as I had turned the corner at Miami, the weather had moderated–temperature-wise–quite a bit. It was not only about 10 degrees cooler (mid-80’s), but unlike my windless days on the Gulf Coast, there was always at least some breeze coming off the Atlantic. In fact, it was blowing about 10-15 knots even inside this anchorage, which confirmed my decision to not have gone back outside in Miami and to wait for it to moderate.
The anchorage was quiet at night, but not so much during the day. Again, this coast doesn’t have all the spoil islands along the ICW like we have on the Gulf Coast that everyone takes their boats out to on the weekends. And there are very few anchorages here, either. So any one of these little “lakes” were targets for people coming in with their radios blaring, dropping their anchors for the day, lounging around in and out of the water, and usually drinking heavily. Mind you, this tiny “lake” was really just a bay a few hundred yards across surrounded by residences. Yet, these boaters would anchor 100′ off someone’s home and blair their music so that you could hear it all over the bay. I wonder how they would appreciate someone parking a car in their front yard and blasting music all day. For some reason, they seemed to feel like if they had a boat and it was the weekend, they could just forgo any consideration for others. It was like there was a competition to see who had the loudest stereo system on his boat. I mean it was so loud that I couldn’t hear my iPad sitting in front of me inside my boat. Again, it was this sort of show-off attitude that I found prevalent in southeast Florida. It would be nice to get away from it!