One Thousand Easy and Convenient Miles

Somewhere between Vero Beach and Fort Pierce we counted our one-thousandth nautical mile since we left Solomons Island back in October of 2013. As we congratulated each other on this milestone (pun totally intended), the good ship Taia scoffed contemptuously and kept slicing through the murky waters of the ICW. In her 33 years, she is likely to have seen many more thousands of miles slowly pass under her keel.

Quite satisfied with ourselves for this nautical achievement, Natalia and I celebrated with a smile and a nod at each other. The kids, deeply enthralled by their daily allowance of iPad consumption, graciously ignored the captain's chipper announcement and resumed their entertainment 3 milliseconds and 1 empty stare later. Then we proceeded to anchor less than a mile south of the Fort Pierce inlet. The sun congratulated us by setting in an explosion of orange and purple.

Our week in Vero Beach seemed like a couple of days. We got a lot of hoarding... sorry, provisioning, done. Being on the verge of crossing the Gulf Stream to get to the Bahamas, we wanted to be sure we had a lot of everything we think we might need. As difficult as it is for me to admit to this, here it goes: I'm afraid to leave the reassuring convenience of having everything under the sun available for purchase at a reasonable price (Dear Amazon: I love you!). I hope to one day look back at these frenzied shopping sprees and laugh at myself for having been so ludicrously addicted to instant availability of everything. (That said, I'm still looking for automatic transmission fluid, so if you know where to find it close to downtown West Palm Beach, please give me a shout. And remember, it has to be both convenient to get and cheap!)

We had planned on doing another offshore hop from Fort Pierce to Lake Worth, but, hardy and salty as we are after our first 1000 nautical miles, we decided not to face southerly winds and the north-setting Gulf Stream while trying to go south. Instead, we stayed on the ICW and motored comfortably to the St. Lucie River, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean through the St. Lucie inlet.

Swimming in the St. Lucie River

After arriving at St. Lucie, the weather forecast announced south-westerly winds for the next day. With these slightly favourable winds, we decided to venture offshore for an easy 30 miles to Lake Worth inlet. And so we did. We had our best sail since the Chesapeake. It was a lively 25-mile beat with 3- to 4-foot waves and 15- to 20-knot winds. Not very comfortable, but the fact that we were sailing, not motoring, in those conditions, made me extremely proud of the crew.

The city of West Palm Beach is located three miles south of Lake Worth inlet. The anchorage, right next to downtown, is wonderful: protected, with good holding, and with 2 newly-built public floating docks that don't chew up inflatable dinghies. This town has been a very pleasant surprise.

We put high value in a good anchorage, and this one has the additional perk of a beautiful locale. Downtown West Palm Beach doesn't boast the typical modern architecture of steel and glass. The buildings are modern but in an art deco style reminiscent of Miami Beach. Everything is clean, pretty, and colorful.

West Palm Beach will be our home for the next few days, while we wait for a good weather window to cross the Gulf Stream and enter the Little Bahama Bank. The water's getting warmer and clearer, and the crew is ready for more of that.