M/V Serenity: 8 February, 2020 Like a turtle on the Indy 500 race track

Saturday, February 8, 2020

8 February, 2020 Like a turtle on the Indy 500 race track

Crazy day of dodge boats, 35sm, 5.5 hours of pretty slow travel.

It was windy in the anchorage last night; supposed to be 5 or less. Woke up at 0200 with at least 10+ and wave slap and burgee and American flag flapping like crazy. We got under way at 0750 from Pendarvis cove setting course to complete the last miles of the Okeechobee waterway. We looked out at the Atlantic Ocean from the St Lucie inlet as we made a hard starboard turn and began our journey on the Atlantic Inter Coastal Waterway (AICW) at 0925. The mile marker is 987.9, increasing as we travel south toward Key Biscayne. Mileage 0.0 begins at Norfolk, VA. Continuing south, houses got bigger and bigger. Boats getting bigger and bigger. Boaters rude and more rude.

Jupiter, Fl Inlet lighthouse

Clear signage of minimum wake or no wake. Some of these Captains’ interpretation certainly different than I suspect most people would consider. No law enforcement observed. At times traffic so dense and so fast both ways it was dangerous. Easy to understand how so many boating fatalities occur in south Florida. We want to see by boat the Key Biscayne area south of Miami, anchor and then maybe go a little bit more south before u-turning and beginning our long journey north to NYC and the Hudson River/ Erie Canal. We will see how far south we end up. Really not excited about having to retrace our tracks, but has to be done. So far, this will not be pretty for a couple hundred miles. We know not to travel on a weekend but we are and will have to suffer the consequences of wakes and rudeness.
Key Biscayne National Park

National park photo

We have anchored in a very quiet location a good mile off of the AICW in a small lake surrounded by maga homes and mega yachts. Even a few MEGA Trump flags! We are in this very nice canal community of north Palm Beach, FL. (map) Generally protected, we are in 10 feet of water. Secured for the day/night at 1315. Enough with the crazies out on the waterway. Will engage them again tomorrow.