The Adventures of S/V Jupiter's Smile: Docked in Fort Lauderdale

Jupiter's Smile departed Lake Worth's Old Port Cove Marina on Tuesday March, 8th. We went only a short distance, to Lantana, just south of West Palm Beach and anchored off the ICW in front of the Key Lime House where we planned to go for a nice dinner ashore. We met Steve and Cindy from S/V Slip Away as we walked across the Lantana Bridge towards the beach. Steve had a hat on with Slip Away embroidered on it so I knew they were neighbors in the anchorage. We chatted a while and learned that they were acquainted with cruisers we knew, S/V Pea Soup and S/V Scandia. We decided to eat together at the Key Lime House and spent a nice time there.

The next morning, we left to travel another short distance to Delray Beach, anchoring in a small man made lake off the ICW. When we pulled in, there was a nice sloop anchored and Barb went out on deck to ask how much anchor rode they had deployed so that we could be sure to be far enough away when we anchored ourselves. The fellow said that this was a terrible anchorage as he had been dragging most of the night and had snagged a plastic chair as well. I was thinking that he was trying to discourage us from staying there and since he hadn't answered Barb's question, she asked again. He said that he had thirty feet out. That explains why he dragged!

The lake was at nearly high tide with just under twelve feet of water depth. Add another five feet for the distance from the water's surface to the anchor platform and you have seventeen feet. We put out a five to one ratio of rode to depth, so we would use eighty five feet where he had used thirty! We anchored well away from him! An hour later he left and we had the anchorage to ourselves. Good luck on your travels, sir!

Bob and Lauren Gardner had said to contact them when we were nearby and since they lived less than two miles south of our anchorage right on the ICW, we called. Even though they were preparing to return to Long Island that afternoon they suggested that we go to lunch. Barb and I hopped in the dinghy and scooted down the ICW to their place and tied up. We had a nice lunch right next to the Boca Raton Inlet Bridge and had a nice chat. When we returned to the dinghy the tide had gone out and one of the tubes of the dinghy had been sliced by an oyster or a barnacle and was essentially flat. I said that the boat should still float with its inflatable floor and the other two tubes still inflated, but it would be a much slower return ride. We did just fine and called to say that we had made it back safely and for them to have a safe flight to Long Island.

With some nasty weather approaching we decided to stay put the next day and that turned out to be a wise move. In the morning, the tenth of March, the earliest possible day when we were told we might have our replacement dinghy (and that would have been fortunate, considering the events of the previous day) I called our representative at Marine Max in Pompano Beach, just fourteen miles away. He e-mailed me the tracking number and he indicated to me that the dinghy would not be in until next week. Yet another disappointment.

The weather service put out an alert for fifty mph winds and heavy rain with a chance of water spouts in the afternoon and I watched the approaching squall on the radar. We had set the anchor the previous day into the East wind. During the night the boat's bow pointed to the south with very gentle wind. With this change of wind, the anchor had not been pulled towards the south at all. When the wind changes the process is usually gradual enough that the anchor resets itself firmly, but this was a much more rapid and forceful change. The cloud that swooped towards us was very, very dark and the wind turned the boat violently from pointing southwest to pointing north in seconds. I started the engine to be sure that, if the anchor did not reset itself in its new direction that we would still have control of the boat. The rain came down in buckets, but in time, it became clear that the anchor was holding and we just needed to wait out the passage of the squall. Within an hour the wind was moderating and the rain was much more gentle. We had a nice sunset.

On Friday, we set out to visit the Marine Max store and deliver our sad remains of a dinghy. I called once we arrived and practically forced the dinghy on them. We anchored a few hundred yards from their shop and they came out in a boat to get the dinghy assuring me that they would call me on Monday to report on the situation and arrangements for getting the replacement dinghy.

I was unsure of the anchorage and the fact that it was a Friday afternoon, I wanted to be settled into a place away from the crazy weekend traffic. It was early and in spite of not being able to contact Bruno by phone we set out to travel the short six and a half miles to his dock. We called a second time, but got no answer. As we floated right to the docks another cruiser poked her head out and Barb was able to ask if Bruno was there. The woman (Pam) went to get Bruno and he directed us to a dock where we tied up without incident.

Barb departs the boat at Bruno's

We met neighbors, Pam (her husband, Bruce, is away tending to his father) on S/V Ahquabi and Paul and Sandy on S/V Quarterdeck. Both of these boats and crew are circumnavigators and are very interesting to talk to and coincidently, they remember hearing about our friend Dorothy in Venezuela several years ago and know Graham and Iris on S/V Pelagic, cruisers from Australia we met in the Bahamas.

View from Bruno's looking east

Looking south

So here we are today, on Saturday, pretty much settled in. I called our former cruising friend, Christine Pennington and left a message for her that we were in town for a week and spoke to my nursery school chum, Ruth Puzo and we will meet her tomorrow for a visit.

Barb's bike ready to emerge from its backpack sack...

....and ready to be unfolded. It is a full sized, 21 gear mountain bike!

We took our bicycles off the deck, unfolded them and after lunch we took a ride to see the Las Olas Boulevard St. Patrick's Day parade ending. We biked to the beach and realized that this is the first day of the Spring Break for many college students. Much of the sand on the beach is covered by very uncovered flesh. Sand is a chemical compound composed of one part silicon and two parts oxygen - silicon dioxide, the same as glass. There are other silicon compounds and mixtures observable on the beach as well. A major golf tournament, the Cadillac Open, is going on at the Doral.