First thought is – glad I’m writing these posts otherwise I would have no idea what day it is! Wednesday? Really? Time goes by with no thought for days of the week. It’s a very odd transition. Days instead of being labeled as Wednesday, are labeled in the brain as splash day (yesterday) and “move day” like today!
Yes, not only does she float, but Amel also can motor! [Side note – this is something we are very thankful for! Anyone that has sailed enough has had engines die at the most inconvenient times like entering a harbour or docking! When we splashed yesterday – of course the engine would not start for us! Mike had run it the day before…but not when we needed it. Luckily for us, Mike went ahead and gave it another bleed – then Voila – it turned on! Mikey’s magic knack for making broken things work came to the rescue again!].
For anyone that has checked out a map, Indiantown is actually inland – almost to Lake Okeechobee. “Odd place for a boat?” you say? Yes….a tad. However it makes for a very safe hurricane hole all summer for many boat owners that live other places from June-Nov each year. There is a skinny canal that goes all the way to the East coast….and that is what we traveled on today. Goodbye Indiantown Marina…..hello St. Lucie lock and Dam run by the army corp of engineers. We weren’t ready to be anchoring yet still with so much provisioning to do, so this was a good ‘inbetween’. Not as expensive as a marina, but at camping rates of $30/night it still allows us to be tied up to land and not yet need the dingy.
Henry was excited to be at the helm and often asked to take over. Was a really good first day on the move – safe, quiet easy day of motoring – not another boat around, flat calm canal, nice sunny day. No water depths to worry about. Took 2.5hrs to travel approx. 15miles (yes – you can drive that distance in 19mins). Life on a boat moves at a different pace…..
We all had the nerve racking excitement of going under our first bridge on Amel. There are a lot of these in Florida. We knew it was fine…. Our mast height is 49’, you can see by the water height chart posted the bridge height was over 56’…it still freaks me out though to watch the top of the mast!
Remember the heat and humidity I may have mentioned yesterday? Well today we got a taste of the other side of Florida in the winter….a cold front. As I write this I am wearing 4 layers of clothes including my skiing long johns. It’s going to be 48F tonite and we are sleeping in an unheated boat. Thank you Rheta for the wonderful comforters on the beds! Time to think like camping in a tent!
We got another provisioning trip in tonite before dinner…..so I’m off to find places for another 10 bags of food….wish me luck…..
Fun Afloat 