Boynton to Ft. Pierce to Melbourne

As promised, dawn came early. We shoved off from Boynton Harbor Marina about 6:15, 6 minutes before my Sunrise App said it would be first light. The channel is straight and wide in this area, so I felt comfortable traveling for 6 minutes in the pre-dawn hours. We have 70 miles to cover to get to Ft. Pierce with 12 lift bridges along the way. Four of the bridges open upon request, but the other eight open on a schedule. Some open on the hour and half-hour. Others open on the quarter hour and three-quarter hour. The spacing for most of them allows a slow boat to make it from one to the next and not lose too much time. For example, the Southern Blvd Bridge opens on the quarter and three-quarter hour. It is 2.1 miles to the Royal Park Bridge which opens on the hour and half hour. At 8.1 MPH it takes me 15 minutes to make 2.1 miles. The trouble comes in when there are pedestrians on the bridge and the opening is delayed by a minute or two. I have to push Jenny hard to try to make the next opening, and she doesn’t like for me to do that every time. So, if you are walking on a lift bridge at opening time and you hear somebody below yelling, “hustle it up, get off the bridge”, that might be me, but it’s for a good reason.

We missed one opening by a few minutes and had to wait for the next opening. But we were able to time the others where we made the openings on a timely schedule. Sometimes we would have to go 6 MPH between bridges, so we didn’t arrive early. Sometimes you arrive early and have to float in a strong current, you end up just circling back a half mile or so and floating back to the bridge again. If the current is against you, it is easier to hold the boat in place.

I like to arrive at the bridge about a minute or two before the scheduled opening, that way the bridge tender knows you are going to make it. They do not like to hold the bridge open any linger than necessary, and some of them are sticklers about the opening time. I followed another sailboat for the first couple of bridges on the trip from Boynton to Ft. Pierce.  But he liked to push his luck with timing of his arrival. He would set his speed to arrive at the next bridge, just in time for the opening. Which works fine if the current doesn’t change and slow you down. Sometimes a channel narrows and the current gets much stronger and you slow down. After a couple of times of this, I passed him and took the lead (or maybe I just don’t like to play follow the leader). I think I saved him a couple of times. I got there and the bridge opened and then he comes puttering around the corner, a minute or two behind me. The bridge tender would hold it for him since he/she had it open. I believe if the bridge was not open, they may have said, Sorry pal, you’ll have to wait for the next opening.

But with all that, we made it to Ft. Pierce by about 5:00, an 11-hour day. We stayed in Ft. Pierce two nights so we could explore the town a bit. It is a much smaller than I thought. It is also known as the Sunrise City. The population is about 45,000. It is a part of the Treasure Coast where a lot of baseball spring training goes on. There seemed to be several college baseball teams in town for spring camp. The downtown area is very clean and new looking. Mostly restaurants and boutique shops.

On Monday we headed to Melbourne. Only 46 miles (the marina spacing requires that the next few days will be around 45 miles per day). The bay becomes a little more spread out here, so you are a half mile off the bank on either side, so it is more nature scenic, rather than big homes and boat scenic. We saw a couple of adult dolphins with a young one swimming along. I saw a sea turtle, just as it disappeared below the water, and before I could point it our to Theresa.

We got to Melbourne about 3 PM. We got checked in and thought we had some time to explore a bit. Melbourne seems to be a sleepy little town that rolls up the sidewalks at 5, except a few restaurants. We found an ice cream shop open, got a scoop and headed back to the boat. Tomorrow we head to Titusville.

Lesson Learned: Proper planning must be done in advance. Planning the departure time is critical to making the first bridge opening and starting the day off right.

Add caption

Add caption