18 February, 2020 2000 Statue miles traveled

Bridges, barges and solar power.  35 SM; 5.5 engine hours

Beautiful morning at our stealth boat camping spot from last night.  But the SE wind never let up and was actually a bit stronger this morning.  After walking, dumping trash in the bins on the beach we assessed how to leave the docks.  We were pretty close to shallow water off the stern, needed to swing the stern to starboard exiting the docks then swing the bow port into the wind before returning to the AICW.  We had a plan, another boater was there to assist with the lines.  We untied at 0730 and began to ease back out of the slip, but the wind was stronger than anticipated and could not get the stern to behave.  Full helm port, forward, bump throttle; opposite helm starboard and reverse, what a show.  Our gracious dock hand was there to give a push as needed and no paint swapped, no fiberglass chipped and no feelings hurt.  Underway.  Returning back into safe water we watched and captured the moment we passed 2000 SM in Serenity.

Yahoo 2000 miles

At the junction of the AICW a large power cat was approaching slowly, surprisingly we were going to overtake.  I called on the radio, making a courtesy call saying we would overtake.  We ended up switching to a working frequency and chatted.

Solar powered CAT

Captain said he was an environmentalist, what ever that means and said he had built the boat as a demonstrator .  He bought a 2019 diesel powered catamaran, gutted it and installed 5KW of solar, twin DC electric motors and a high efficient BMW generator.  He had a electric powered dinghy and said he had enough energy to run A/C 24/7 and cruise at 6 knots.  5kw of solar is huge.  Boat was for sale.  He had taken it to the Miami International boat show.  Not sold.  Price $1M +

Interesting areas traveled today, passing Jupiter Inlet, the water was spectacularly blue and clean. Would have liked to visit the light house, but no free docks or decent anchorages close.

web cam

Wind has picked up to a strong 15 MPH from SE.  We initially anchored near Jensen Beach north. Jensen Beach   I miss read the charts and dropped the hook in a cable area.  Since we were close to a public boat launching ramp, we splashed KAOS and rowed the trash and ourselves in and spent 45 minutes walking the park area.  Back aboard Serenity, we stowed KAOS and repositioned and reset the anchor at 1530 in 8 feet of water.  (map) The anchor came up clean, no fouling which is very good.

Sign on park ground.  Hope to see a whale?

  Windy and lumpy anchorage tonight.

1409.9 Hobbs: 2034SM elapsed