Day 1: Delray Beach to Lake Worth

We spent the morning carrying provisions and gear from the condo then Jeff had a 2-hr call. After his call we cleaned out the condo and shut it down for the season. At 1445 we pulled in our dock lines and backed out into the turning basin at Tropic Bay. Grady, Christian, Neala and Jeff were under way at last! We quickly motored under the Linton Street bridge to Atlantic Avenue, George Bush and the progression of bridges up to Lake Worth. Large thunderheads were behind us and approaching as we passed the Ocean Avenue bridge. Christian was at the wheel and we were motoring well when suddenly the oil pressure alarm on the engine began to scream!

Motoring out the Tropic Bay canal

Passing Deck 84 at Atlantic Blvd Bridge

He pulled back the throttle as I dived below to check the engine. There was two inches of very hot oil in the pan under the engine so we shut it down immediately. After some inspection, Grady and I discovered that the seal on the oil filter had failed and we had lost about half of the 3 gallons of oil that the Volvo holds. Fortunately, we had a spare filter and more oil so we began to make repairs.

At this point we were under sail and the thunderstorms finally caught up with us. Neala and Christian handled the sails and the boat while Grady and I replaced the lost oil and cleaned up the mess under the engine. Soon we were under way again and the rain continued for the next two hours. At the north end of Lake Worth there are three timed bridges. We were running as fast as we could run but the Ocean Avenue bridge tender told us we weren't going to make the 1800 opening and would have to wait for another 27 minutes for the next. I told him I bet we could make it to the bridge before he could get it open (that takes 4-5 minutes) and as we got to the bridge he was just raising the span for us. We thanked him profusely and continued north to anchor near Blue Heron Bridge as the sun finally set.

A fine dinner of steaks and salad with a bit of red wine and we were ready to turn in. We have some stowing to do on Friday and we need to clean the bottom, change headsails, top off fuel and pump sanitaries before we can leave. We are hoping for a weather window to develop over the weekend so that we can get out into the Gulf Stream maybe Saturday.

 Our anchorage neighbors in Lake Worth