Stuart Yacht builders to Peck Lake to Lake Worth

Day #115; Loop miles = 1,566

After a handful of days at Stuart Yacht Builders, we once again headed south. Our good friends on InSpeyered 2 also finished up their list of repairs so we were able to time our departure together as we had hoped. We know that we have a bit of a long slog now to get south to the Keys if we choose to stay in the AICW...it is very slow going as we make our way south through West Palm Beach, Ft Lauderdale, Miami, etc. There are dozens and dozens of bridges, some that we will need to have opened...miles and miles of No Wake and Minimum Wake zones, and lots of boat traffic. The option is to travel "on the outside" in the Atlantic, but unfortunately, the winds do not look promising for this route. So...we will take it one step at a time.

Our home at Stuart Yacht Builders

On Sunday, we made our way up through the St Lucie inlet area...a traffic jam on the water...and stopped at an anchorage on Peck Lake. It was a nice anchorage adjacent to a wildlife refuge that had a short 50 yard path from the shore of the Intercoastal to the Atlantic Ocean. The only issue we had was some restriction on where we could walk the dogs, but that worked itself out. The beach was empty...the 4 of us had miles of beach to ourselves, and enjoyed a nice long walk on Monday morning.

Monday found us making our way south to Palm Beach. As expected, as we made our way south, it got ever more congested, and the real estate and boats got larger and larger along the way. We anticipate that this trend will continue as we make our way to Ft Lauderdale and Miami. The size of the boats, and the beauty of the real estate becomes almost mind numbing...it's hard to imagine it until you see it for yourself. Here's a smattering of what we saw...

Houses and boats like these are more than commonplace...literally thousands and thousands of them.

Yes this is someone's "boat" in the dock behind their home.

The Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse.

Now this one was huge. It was being moved from one slip to another just as we were passing in a smallish part of the ICW on Lake Worth. We found out later that it was 223 feet long. It looked like a small cruise ship, and required 2 tow boats to move it. Incredible.

Monday night finds us anchored in a mooring field in Lake Worth (Palm Beach area). It is a very large field with tons of moored sailboats, but there was ample room for us. We found that a sailing club just across the Intercoastal from us allows folks to use their docks for dinghy access to land for a small fee. So, a short dinghy ride from our anchorage, we have a relatively convenient spot to walk the pups. The wind is light tonight, so we expect a quiet and peaceful night. Tomorrow, we plan to try to make it to a marina in Ft Lauderdale, but will have to see if we can make it that far with all the bridges and slow zones...time will tell. All for now...