Thursday, February 09, 2012 - Peck Lake Anchorage

The winds were steady from the North, Northeast all night. I got up at 1am to check the anchor alarm and to look at the anchor lights in the anchorage. We had a normal swing distance on the GPS alarm and after we got the anchor set last night it didn’t look like we were going anywhere. There were 5 anchor lights plus ours. The air smelled good and the breeze just slightly shy of cool. But the way the wind was whipping my hair around had me returning below after about 5 minutes. Hate having to try and detangle wind-blown hair.

I got back up a little after 5am and put the water on the stove for coffee. I’d forgotten how long it takes to get the water boiling and coffee made on my little alcohol stove. So when the smell of coffee hit me, it was most welcome. I spent the dark part of the morning on the computer checking email, enjoying my coffee and the sensation of floating, and listening to the slapping of the waves on the hull and the sound of the wind generator whirring. After Wayne got up, we caught the weather, he listened to the morning news and I played on the computer. Sounds like the winds are going to continue strong from the N and NE for a few days so we’ll be blowing about in a bigger anchorage at Lake Worth.

We decided to lift anchor at 10am and because Wayne couldn’t get the windless working right last night, he was manually hauling up the anchor this morning. It took us about 10 minutes, he at the bow raising the anchor and feeding it down the chain-hole and I was at the helm waiting for his direction; forward just a little, now neutral;

We had our audience again. The sailboat Ashanti had his binoculars out once again; watching Wayne and chatting, laughing with the little woman. They, in turn, had their audience again…me… I was watching them laughing at us while they watched us. She then noticed that I was watching her… Oh my… She tried to hide behind the dodger but that didn’t work to well as the boat swung around and I let us drag a little closer to their boat. I hoped my pores looked huge through his binoculars – grinning… He wasn’t shy about being blatant and I had considered giving him something to look at – but refrained and smiled.

Once we got underway, we saw our first dolphins of the trip between the Hobie and Jupiter bridges! I raced to the bow with my camera and one raced to the back to swim next to Wayne. It came up next to Wayne a couple of times, then splashed him and took off. I didn’t really notice that one because I’d spotted one up ahead that looked like it had something on its dorsal fin. It turned out that his fin was actually split but I’m not sure how that happened but I would guess that this one couldn’t be as fast as the others in its condition.

I made some ham/cheese sandwiches for lunch and we’re busy playing the ICW bridge game. Seven bridges to open today on the ICW before getting to Lake Worth:

1 - Hobie Sound Bridge – opens on demand
2 - Jupiter Bridge – opens on demand
3 - Jupiter Federal Bridge – opens on demand
4 - Indiantown Road Bridge opens on the hour and half hour
5 - Donald Ross Bridge opens on the hour and half hour
6 - PGA Boulevard Bridge opens on the hour and half hour
7 - Parker Bridge opens on the quarter and three quarter hour

Ah yes… It was interesting to see if we could time the bridges… nope currents and wind against us so we had to wait at the Donald Ross Bridge for his 1:30 opening. It wasn’t too bad though.

We pulled into Lake Worth about 3pm and spotted Azaya by marker Red 6. We proceeded to glide up to them and I ran down to get my conch horn. With the wind coming from the east, we waited until we pulled next to them to start blowing it so the wind would carry the conch horn’s melody to them (they were below deck). It was good to see them pop up and wave to us. “AZAYA!” “KOLIBRIE!” Laughing.

We tried to use the new windlass again, this time Wayne unhooked the chain stopper so it wouldn’t keep catching the chain, and dropped the anchor in anticipation that it was going to foul up again. It worked like a charm though and the anchor dug into the rich mud bottom. After waiting for it to settle, Mary Clare and Axel came over and we caught up over beers and talked about our weather window options for crossing. I tried calling Barb (Klabara) to see where they were. But got transferred over to another number so she was either on the phone or their US phone was still off. We were talking about our crossing options and Barb and Klaus were going to cross with us originally but since their return to Canada and back, I wasn’t sure where they stood. We figured they were a day or two behind us and didn’t know if they were at Peck Lake or still at Indiantown talking about their options.

We went over the NOAA reports and Passage Weather readings. Then after Mary Clare and Axel left I got onto Accu-Weather to see what they had to say too. We do have a window Friday night if it holds but it’s a short lived one. We were originally looking at it when it was supposed to be here Thursday, but it’s tightening and stalling. The waves look good – half a meter to a meter but against the winds and the winds are clocking around pretty fast with some strong ones coming in from the NW sometime on Saturday. We don’t want to be caught in those in the Gulf Stream. The west wind would aid us across but the north wind tends to churn up the Gulf Stream into some nasty and sometimes treacherous waters. Right now, Wayne is for staying. We’ll see what the weather looks like in the morning. Things tend to change fast. The next opportunity to cross with no northerly component would be the 13th or 14th but that also looks like a window that is getting narrower and narrower - closing rapidly. We’ll see.

Hmmm our head seems to be having a problem flushing… time for the vinegar and oil treatment. I hope it’s not something major – I hate having head problems (oh - a head is a toilet).