November 11, 2015
We left Boynton Beach Marina close to first light. Even though we only had 50-60 miles to go to
our next marina, we would rather leave early and get in early rather than have
something come up and then risk getting in after dark. Although the ICW in the area between Boynton
Beach and Stuart isn’t rural, it certainly isn’t as crowded as the Ft
Lauderdale area, so we were looking forward to nice cruising conditions.
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| Naomi, Rob, Jim, and Captain Ray on the flybridge |
We still had at least 14 bridges on our route, but we hoped
to only need a few of them opened for us.
Tamure is at least 22.5 ft to the top of her Garmin radar arch, so we
felt comfortable that she could pass under bridges with at least 23 ft of
clearance. Even though guidebooks tell
the typical water level for each bridge, we still had to read the actual water
level at each bridge to make sure there would be enough clearance. The water level markings on the bridges so
far have been situated so that they were pretty easy to read from a distance
through binoculars, although we still had to be fairly close to read the small
sign that told how much additional clearance was at center, if any. Many of the bridges in this area have
interesting architectural details rather than being just plain and functional.
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| Since this boat was taller than us, we didn't mind being behind it |
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| Most of the bridges were arched bascule bridges (we didn't need this one opened because it had additional clearance at the center) |
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| Jim's first bridge while piloting the boat |
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| He did great |
Captain Ray did quite a bit of the driving, but Rob and Jim
took their turns as well.
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| Jim at the helm, smiling even |
I took a short stint myself, but I was glad to sit with Ann
& Sasha on the front deck to enjoy the cruise for the most part. Of course, since Sasha isn’t happy just lying
around for very long, we had to have periodic play sessions as well.
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| Ann and Sasha |
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| Sasha liked this little perch |
We passed more nice waterfront homes, a waterfront trailer
park, and a number of small and large marinas.
One of the marinas near Palm Beach had mostly larger yachts of at least
100 ft length; not Lorelei IV’s kind of neighborhood at all!
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| Waterfront trailer park |
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| The boats on the left are more the size of Lorelei IV |
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| Palm Beach marina with huge boats. The boat right above Ann is probably at least 60 ft, so that gives an idea just how big the other boats are! |
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| Nice of this factory to add to the scenic view along the ICW |
We passed Jupiter Lighthouse, a popular tourist attraction
which sits near the mouth of Jupiter inlet.
This is another point where boats can decide whether to “go outside” and
cruise in the Atlantic Ocean or “stay inside” on the ICW, depending on sea
conditions. Since this was really an
extended shakedown cruise for Tamure, we didn’t want to put her through any
potentially rough conditions so we elected to “stay inside”.
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| Jupiter Lighthouse |
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| Jupiter inlet |
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| ICW near Stuart, FL |
The start of the Okeechobee waterway is near the St Lucie
inlet at Stuart, FL. We turned off of
the Atlantic ICW to go up the St Lucie River and arrived at Sunset Bay Marina
about an hour and a half later. It is a
very nice facility which is within walking distance of downtown Stuart, and
there was a scenic, breezy Riverwalk which made the walk seem even shorter than
it actually was.
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| Tamure docked at Sunset Bay Marina |
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