It was hard to leave Miami, but we did

From Captain John (posted by Karen): 

We left Miami on Tuesday and headed north to Lake Worth inlet on the outside (the Atlantic Ocean for you non-boaters).

 

 

 

We made good time with a knot of following current so we pushed on from there on the ICW (Intra Coastal Waterway) to Mile 1000 in Hobe Sound where we anchored (100 mile day). This avoided 13 bridge openings and innumerable slow wake zones.

 

The next day we took it slow to Stuart.

 

 

 

Floating Tiki Barge

 (John says the following Dredge photos are for his Sediment Homies)

 

 

 

Where the ICW meets the St Lucie River on the Lake Okeechobee Waterway (known as the Cross Roads), we went aground near marker 6A on the St. Lucie River (marker 5 is apparently missing).  The track on the chart plotter showed there was 7 feet of water there and our track on Navimatics shows the area as 9 feet! 

 

There was a Tow Boat US anchored on a nearby sandbar so we were quickly pulled off (we have insurance for this).  He said this is a notorious stretch where shoals change rapidly - probably why he was hanging around.

 

The dog was just along for the ride.

 

 

 I tried to dive on the boat but visibility was very bad due to a high silt content (St. Lucie channel churns up the bottom) so we continued on.  We did not feel any vibrations but I was worried about the propeller, so I found a diver who checked out the bottom today.  (Karen: I wish I'd taken his picture - he was bald, had lots of tattoos, and had a silver ring in each nipple!!!!!)

 

He said there was no damage to prop or rudder. He could see that the paint had been rubbed off of part of the keel. He also commented that our bottom paint seemed to be generally losing its biocide properties as there was a lot of signs of growth despite regular cleaning.

 

So all is well that ends well. We are waiting out this front in Stuart and will head for Lake Okeechobee on Saturday. Made up these lyrics to mark the occasion to the tune of “Crossroads" by Clapton and CREAM.
 

I went down to the Crossroads, and I ran our boat aground.

I went down to the Crossroads, and I ran our boat aground.

Did not do any damage, so we are back to cruising around