04: Cruising: US East Coast
Motor-sailing through Money Country

Motor-sailing through Money Country

We were hoping to jump off at Fort Pierce and sail down to Miami but the weather offshore is nasty. So instead of staying at our Fort Pierce anchorage for who-knows how many more days waiting for a better weather window to head offshore, we take off down the ICW. We are antsy to head further south and to finally make it to the Bahamas.

Now, while we prefer sailing out in the ocean to motor-sailing down the ICW, the ICW does have its pros:

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Pro #1: Your amazingly talented husband bakes you the coolest-looking bread EVER. With raisins for eyes.

 

 

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Fresh out of the oven!

 

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Pro #2: You can “exercise”. Here I am trying to work off the bread-people.
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Pro #3: When you motor-sail, your engine is running. When the engine is running, you can charge stuff! We pull out everything we own that needs a charge, plug it in, and let it soak up the power.
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Pro #4: The opportunity for people watching is greatly increased. Case in point: you will not see wind surfers ten miles offshore, however, on the ICW- look out!

 

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Pro #5: You can fix stuff without the risk of puking! On our last offshore stint, the autopilot need a fix at 3 in the morning while we were heeled over with waves crashing on our beam. There was puking. On the ICW one can fix to their heart’s (and stomach’s) content.

 

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Pro #6: You can pose for cheesy boat photos. Here I am doing my best “Melisa pose” showing off our navigation / steering setup.

 

We motor-sail to an anchorage just off the ICW called Peck Lake.

 

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We’ve discovered this new little drink called a “Dosarita” (Dos Equis beer + margarita flavoring- I know, it sounds gross but it’s not, trust me). It’s becoming our new tradition after a day of sailing to pop open one of these and relax after the anchor has dropped. We sit in the cockpit, relax, and make sure the anchor really has set.

 

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We dinghy ashore to the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge. There’s a tiny patch of sand where we can leave our dinghy. From there, a twenty second walk down a sandy path through trees and brush to the ocean.
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Sandy pathway through the “secret garden” to the ocean.
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The ocean. You can’t really tell from the photo (you can’t ever really tell from photos) but the waves were big and breaking hard. We were really glad to be in our safe, quiet, calm anchorage on the OTHER side.
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This girl is happy to be running around on land again! Racing the waves (they won).
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Showing Stéphane C and G (so he can play “Heidy-Ho”).

 

Next morning we leave Peck Lake and head for Palm Beach.

 

“We are now entering Money Country”.

This from Stéphane after we’ve passed the one-hundredth or so mega yacht docked in front of its equally impressive mega-mansion.

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Good choice of complimentary primary colors – it is important that your yacht goes with your mansion.

 

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What mansion would be complete without its very own beach?!
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One word: curtains.
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Does it cost extra to get grass in that particular shade of green?
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Thought of brother Daniel as we passed several extremely well-manicured, lush golf courses.
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Along this stretch we passed seven or so bascule bridges (drawbridges). Some of them opened when you asked, and others opened only on a schedule (i.e., every half hour). So if you don’t get there in time for the opening, you had to very carefully maneuver in the channel trying not to run aground, not to run into the closed bridge, and not to hit the other power / sail boats who are also waiting for the bridge opening. Are you surprised that Stéphane was really good at this and me – not so much?
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Finally through the bridges and nearing Palm Beach. Here we come across some kind of law enforcement practicing drills – those little dots in the water? Those are heads attached to swimming bodies performing some kind of drill? Not sure what was going on…
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We have arrived! Palm Beach, FL. As you can tell, warm weather is still eluding us. Actually, it’s not that bad here but I tend to go overboard on the layers because my body doesn’t like to keep its heat.

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