When we are at a marina, we don’t have to get up quite as
early, because I can usually take Sasha on her morning walk while Rob does the
engine checks and programming of our route for the day in the
chartplotter. When we are at anchor, we
all go to shore in the dinghy, partly for security and partly because it’s nice
to have an extra hand getting the dinghy docked and secured. Some mornings though, we just wake up early
and are raring to go. This was the case
at Melbourne, so we left the marina by 7 am.
We had a nice cruise to the north anchorage at Jensen Beach,
arriving there at 2:45 pm.
Active Captain reported some shoaling at a portion of the
entry point closer to the bridge, so we took the suggestion of one of the
reviews and followed the northern edge of the deeper water contour. We had 7-10 ft of water depth all the way in
and anchored northeast of the private channel and a sailboat that was already
there. When we went to shore in the
dinghy, we took the portable fishfinder so that we could check the depths at
other parts of the anchorage. There was
more consistent deeper water closer to the boat ramp, which is likely why there
were 4 boats anchored in that area. We
did notice some crab pots close to the channel in the area of shoaling marked
on Active Captain, so we would have avoided it anyways.
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| Jensen Beach anchorage |
When we got to the small dock where there was room to secure
the dinghy, another dinghy was already tying up there and the guy restarted his
motor and left it running after he disembarked.
Since it was the type of motor where the propeller spins all the time
and he didn’t go far from the dock, we waited, thinking he was just dropping
someone off or picking someone up. He
noticed us waiting and asked if we needed help getting dock, so we told him we
were concerned about his boat swinging around and his propeller contacting our
inflatable tubes. He explained that he
had been having some trouble with keeping his motor running which is why he had
restarted it, but he quickly jumped back in his boat and turned it off. As it turned out, he was anchored on the
south side of the bridge but was chauffeuring a recent arrival whose dinghy had
been damaged when it had broken loose.
Even though it was pretty windy, it was still quite hot on
shore. I took Sasha for a short walk
while Rob stayed near the dinghy since we didn’t have a way to secure the
fishfinder. We went back to the boat and
gave it a quick wash since it was pretty sticky with salt. Then we relaxed on the aft deck, enjoying the
breeze before preparing a supper of corn, leftover BBQ, and leftover pizza. By the time we went back to shore, it was
cooler, so we walked into town to check out the downtown event that someone at
the boat ramp had told Rob about. It was
a small street festival with a couple of bands at local restaurants and artisan
tents displaying their wares, so it didn’t take long to walk through it. On the way back to the boat, we stopped at a
large cleared area where a number of people had parked to walk to the festival,
and got in a good Frisbee session for Sasha.
On Friday, May 19, our destination was an anchorage at
Singer Island, home to Phil Foster Park, staging point for the famous Blue
Heron Bridge dive sites. Since it was
only about 40 miles from Jensen Beach, we hoped to arrive in time to dive at
the next high tide, which was at 3:22 pm.
Since there can be a pretty stiff current from the tides, it is
suggested to dive the bridge 30 minutes to 1 hour prior to high tide in order
to have the most time with easier conditions and clearer water. People also dive at low tide, but reviews say
that the water is murkier than at high tide.
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| Little Blue Heron |
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| White Ibis |
We got underway by 7:30 am, following our previous track out
of the anchorage since we knew we had plenty of depth there. Once we passed the St Lucie inlet, where you
can turn west and go through the Okeechobee Waterway, we were in new territory
for us with Lorelei IV. We had come
through this area when we had helped take Jim’s boat from Ft Lauderdale to
Naples, FL, but it’s always different in your own boat.
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| Rob loves the autopilot remote (You were right, Captain Ray!) |
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| We can adjust our compass heading with the arrows if we are just holding a heading, and we programmed auto-guidance start into Button #1. We hope we never have to use "MOB" (Man Overboard) to mark a GPS location. |
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| Sasha keeps herself and us in shape by always being ready to play |
We were in fairly narrow waterways for most of the trip
until Lake Worth, so we were somewhat protected from the stiff east southeast
wind.
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| The only way to these homes -- or very nice camps -- is by boat |
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| Kids' playhouse on the water, complete with their own boat |
We were seeing more boats though,
so we didn’t use the autopilot as much.
This is because the wakes from some boats push us further off of our
heading and the autopilot doesn’t correct us back fast enough for our comfort. There were also quite a few No Wake zones for
manatee areas and the autopilot doesn’t do as well at slower speeds either,
especially if there is much wind and/or current to correct for as well.
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| We went through quite a few No Wake manatee zones but they must have been deeper in the mangroves |
As we reached the more populated area near Lake Worth, we
began to see more drawbridges, but the 7 on our route had enough vertical
clearance for us to pass under them without requesting an opening. We did wait at the Parker Bridge just for a
few minutes, however, because there were 2 boats waiting and the bridge tender
delayed the bridge opening so that emergency responders could get to a reported
fire. Since we were in a No Wake zone,
by the time we got to the bridge, the last emergency vehicle was passing over
it, so the opening started soon after and we were on our way again.
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| Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse |
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| Waiting for the bridge opening at Parker Bridge |
The Parker Bridge marks an entry onto Lake Worth, so once we
were past it, we were only 4 miles from our final destination for the day,
Singer Island. The anchorage looked
fairly crowded, but there was room for us on the side nearest to the
channel. For some reason, the color
markings on our charts indicate that there is a small strip of shallower water
right off of the channel and then areas of deeper water beyond, but we never
saw less than 13 ft going in. We dropped
our anchor in 10 ft of water, but then reset it when we weren’t comfortable
with our distance from the boats nearest to us.
Since we use rope for most of our rode and our bow is about 8 ft high,
we generally put out at least 100 ft in order to have the proper scope for good
holding. This means we need a clear
circle of about 160 ft radius in good depth to feel comfortable that we won’t
hit anything or anyone as the wind/current changes our position on anchor.
We were anchored by 12:15 pm and ashore by 1:00 pm to give
Sasha some shore time and get some information about diving the bridge. Since high tide was at 3:22 pm, we wanted to
be back with our scuba gear and in the water by 3. We headed back to the boat by 1:30 pm, and by
the time we got our anchor reset – this is when we actually did it – and our
scuba gear prepared, we really didn’t have much time to spare.
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| Dive gear ready to go on the aft deck |
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| Rob loaded everything into the dinghy |
The dinghy dock is close to the “Little
Bridge” dive site, so we donned our gear there.
Rob put his gear in the water from the dinghy and then did the
slip-and-slide maneuver to don it once he was in the water. I went up on the dock just to see how it
would be getting in from there and climbed down a ladder once I had my gear on.
If you haven’t dove Blue Heron’s Little Bridge dive site,
don’t expect to see lots of pretty colors and coral. The reason for its fame in the diving
community is the biodiversity and small sea life that can be found in such a
protected, easy-to-get-to location.
Depths are generally around 10-15 ft, so your tank can last up to 2
hours. We spent an hour and a half on
our dive and probably didn’t see even half of the sea life that people have
reported seeing, but we still saw plenty.
We didn’t have a camera with us, but visibility wasn’t as good as it is
reported to be at times, so we wouldn’t have gotten very good pictures anyways.
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| The Little Bridge is on the right side of this picture, and the Big Bridge is on the left |
Here is a short list of what we saw: sea robins (flying gurnards), a huge
barracuda, at least 6 species of crabs (including some sort of burrowing crab),
razorfish, 3 types of angelfish, porcupinefish, tiny and small drumfish,
pufferfish, bristleworms, school of spade fish, sheepshead, conch, large hermit
crabs, horned honeycomb cow fish, porkfish, eels (sharptail, spotted, garden),
huge arrow crabs, lots of lobsters, large starfish, baby flounders, head shield
slugs, and too many more to list them all!
We went in the water around 3 pm and
came out at 4:30 pm, with 300 psi in our tanks.
Since we started the dive from the dinghy dock on the north side of the
bridge, we swam against the ebbing incoming tide going to the bridge. By the time we were swimming back to the
dock, the outgoing tide was pretty strong, so it was a good time to be done
anyways. If we had started later or had
had more air at that point, we could have swam with the tide along the snorkel
trail, got out at the west side of the swimming area, and walked back to the
dinghy dock.
After we got back to Lorelei IV and
rinsed our gear off, it was time to relax and enjoy the breeze and the
scenery. The area is very busy with
boats, especially on the weekend, so we did a bit of rocking from all of the
wakes. Since the anchorage is near a
bridge, you would think that boats would slow down for the anchored boats since
they have to slow down for the bridge anyways.
While some did either slow down or wait to throttle up when they were
close to the anchorage, it seemed like most of the boats either kept up their
speed until the very last second or took off as soon as they were
permitted. You would also think that the
officials who control No Wake zones for this area would extend the zone for a
ways past the bridge on both sides since so many boats anchor in these areas. Oh well, I guess if we think that it’s too
rough while we are here this time, we will think try to anchor further in next
time or avoid the area altogether.
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