Some of you have said, "you can cross the state of Florida?"
Yes, you can! From Ft Myers on the west coast, you travel on the Caloosahatchie River until you get to Lake Okeechobee. As you can see, it is a huge and you do lose sight of land once crossing. There are 5 locks and multiple bridges, several which are RR bridges that need to open by either raising or swinging sideways. Then you exit the lake and travel the St Lucie Canal until you get to the St Lucie River where it forks north and south, where the dreaded 3 bridges are on Hwy 1/Federal Hwy. From the St Lucie River you travel out towards the Jupiter Inlet where it crosses the ICW. That intersection is called The Crossroads.
The Florida Mini Loop
aka
Smugglers Run.
The ICW south, around the Keys and back up the Gulf coast to Ft Myers and back to the east coast via the Okeechobee waterway
Wednesday April 15
We had a great night on the St Lucie River and it was a beautiful morning.
Sunrise and moonrise
Sunrise at Jupiter Inlet and the Crossroads.
Anchored by the Wabasso Bridge, north of Vero Beach. We first attempted to anchor behind Pine Island but we ran aground a couple of times. We had 3+' under our keel in February but this time, it was a no go. We are guessing that the strong southerly winds are moving water out behind the little islands.
We stopped early today, around 1 PM. Storms are predicated for the afternoon with a wind direction change so we know that this spot is a good one to wait it out.
The rain that came was light and the wind change occurred late in the evening and wasn't very strong though we may have had more wind protection than we thought.
Thursday, April 16
Sunrise and anchor up at 6:45 AM
The beautiful and calm morning turned a bit rainy and a lot more windy! Winds had changed to the north as predicted during the night but not too brisk and it is cooler.
The first hour (7 miles) was pretty nice but we could see the rain coming as predicted. Our plan was to get to Titusville which would be a long day. Once the rain hit the winds also picked up so Plan B came into action.
Today is one of those days we are happy to have updated our Furuno system and have a separate chart plotter on the iPads. The new Furuno has our Time Zero chart plotter, with new radar and a satellite weather station which is great. Today we are using all of them!
We also run AquaMaps on the iPads. It seems a bit redundant to have both but it is very convenient for route planning in our laps and it is good to have 2 different systems to check the charts or in case one goes out.
Its all good!
Chris Parker says gusts to 35. It seemed gustier and the ICW had at least 2’ waves and chop!
The Melbourne area is a place we have wanted to stop at but it has not worked out with our travels. Well, today it is a perfect place to stop! Thankfully our 1st choice was a great one and once we got tucked behind the spot of land and trees where the Melbourne Bridge starts, it calmed down tremendously.
AND! We were only here for about an hour and our Sassy Kat (ex Sassy Kat as Dorian totaled it) friends that live in Indiatlantic drove over the bridge and saw us! We had a good chat on the phone and it is sad that we couldn't see them.
Anchored at 10:25.
Another short day.
A Field Day as our Navy friends, Larry and Erin say!
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