Daytona Beach, FL to Riviera Beach, FL (via Titusville, FL, Melbourne, FL and Fort Pierce, FL) //
The next few days after leaving Daytona consisted of making headway down the ICW toward Lake Worth Inlet so that we could make the jump from there to our final destination in the US coastal waters: Miami, FL. We were avoiding getting back to the coast as the sea state had been building and would remain rough for the next few days. We decided to consistently complete 40-45 nautical miles every day in order to make swift progress. This meant we would get going after first light around 7-8am in order to arrive to an anchorage between 4-5pm, before sunset. First stop was Titusville, then Melbourne, down to Fort Pierce.
During these days, we used our time to continue researching boat insurance through the Caribbean, as BoatUS would only cover us as far as the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos. Knowing we would be seeking a new insurer, we figured we should have the boat surveyed so that we could provide recent details of the vessel’s conditions for quotes. We started looking for surveyors and pinpointing a prospective boatyard to have the boat hauled out. Aside from that, we still needed to tie loose ends with our own health insurance for the remainder of our time abroad. We were pretty much on our phones making calls or stuck in front of our iPads and computers for the next three days tending to these tedious but essential matters.
By Thursday, December 13, we left from Fort Pierce and continued on what we were hoping would be our last run in the ICW. However, by the time we arrived Jupiter, FL we had to go under quite a number of bridges that opened on very specific schedules, inevitably delaying our time of arrival to our destination. It was getting late and we were feeling pretty tired and overwhelmed with the prospect of finding a decent anchorage in an area we hadn’t researched well enough. And we also knew we had some pretty strong winds coming later that night. As we waited for yet another bridge near Jupiter, we stumbled upon Loggerhead Marina, bit the bullet, and took refuge there for the evening. There was a high price tag to our stay, but we made sure to use our time well: provision, fill up on diesel, and enjoy every amenity the marina had to offer to the full extent, even if it meant swimming in the pool in a brisk day. The dockmaster was super easygoing and let us stay until early afternoon when after the winds had subsided the next day.
On Friday, December 14 we continued our course south to Riviera Beach/Lake Worth area. While the winds had subsided in the narrower section of the ICW we were in, as soon as we came under the last bridge in Jupiter, FL, the channel opened up and with that came a lot of swell and choppy waters hitting us head on. But we were committed to making it as close as we could get to the Lake Worth Inlet. By sunset we arrived to what looked like a decent anchorage, albeit full of derelict vessels (some sunk), next to Phil Foster Park. The park had a great dinghy dock which we used to get over to the beach on the other side at Singer Island the next day.
Sparidae on her anchor
Going on a walkabout, we captured this view of Phil Foster Park and anchorage area