Saturday 5:30 am - May 26
HARBOR TOWN TO PECK LAKE.
Our departure out of Harbor Town was less than auspicious. 5:30 am rolled around. A quick head-poke out of the hatch confirmed my suspicians - it was dark and raining. Having already resolved that weather would not stop us, we prepared for departure. Oil checked-check, engine started-check, instruments on-check, dock lines untied-check, coffee in thermos-check. All systems appeared go. First hurdle – stop the blinding light that was shining in our eyes. Seems like a minor thing. I can attest that while you are underway at 0-dark-thirty, it’s not a minor thing. Having never used our chart plotter at night before, we did not realize that at night, it is lit up like a 7-11 in a bad neighborhood. In order to perserve our night vision, we opted to cover the offending chart plotter with a pillow and just peek at it every so often. Our adventure was underway as we headed down the barge canal. We made the 6:00 am opening on the SR 3 bridge and pointed LaLeLu down the river (that’s code for Intracoastal Waterway or ICW). The wind was steady on our beam at 20-25 knots and we were treated to a lovely, brisk, pelting rain (see, time does erase pain from the memory). We motor-sailed at about 6.5k. Not the sort of departure you dream of, but what the hell, we were underway on our big adventure.
The voyage was fairly uneventful until we got south of Melbourne. We had to re-assure Jace a few times that the boat would not tip over, although, I am not completely sure that she ever really believed us. A 25k wind on the beam can generate a weebles-wooble-but-they-won’t-fall-down effect. After Melbourne, the number of boats steadily increased, as did the number of idiots driving them. This was Memorial Day Weekend after all. For some reason that escapes me, anyone can buy and operate a boat – no license or training required. Bad manners seem to go hand-in-hand with bad boating skills. We bit our tongues and tried our best not to let the big wakes of the inconsiderate power-boaters bother us.
By mid day, the boat traffic was very heavy and the section of the ICW we were in started meandering. Maintaining a point of sail was becoming increasingly frustrating due to the strong, flukey east wind and constantly changing direction of the river. We put down the sails and continued pushing south courtesy of our faithful motor.
The girls preferred this as they were able to sit on the bow for a better vantage point from which to watch the waterworld show that was unfolding around us. The further south we went, the bluer the water turned. Just before we reached Ft. Pierce, the ECSA group that we were meeting advised us that, because of the exposure to the east wind in their Ft. Pierce anchorage, they were heading further south to anchor south of St. Lucie at Peck Lake as well. We decided to push on and get to Peck Lake. We lucked out on our inlet approaches at Sabastian, Ft. Pierce, and St. Lucie inlets and managed to pick up a few knots speed at each from a flooding tide. We arrived in Peck Lake at just about 7:00 pm. Amazingly, we made about 100 miles on the ICW that day.
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