From Stuart, it is only one day’s travel to get to Ft. Lauderdale, the end of this leg of Adventuress’ maiden voyage. We awoke early to get the most use of the hours of daylight. As was our habit, we checked the weather report over coffee and breakfast. NOAA had issued a warning for “hazardous conditions” until mid-morning for all inlets, including St Lucie inlet and the next inlet down, Jupiter Bay. We did some further research about these…
Sometimes boating is an adventure of a lifetime, and sometimes boating is a lesson in patience. After yesterday’s necessarily short run, we had wanted to get a sunrise start on the day to make as much distance as we could. Sweetwater Yacht Basin is very noisily located just to the west of the Wilson Pigott Bridge. From the sound of it, the Wilson Pigott Bridge carries a veritable freeway of traffic, but it is much more likely to be just…
From Cabbage Key, it was but a little way to the mouth of the Okeechobee Waterway. The Okeechobee Waterway cuts across Florida to the lake of the same name, the largest body of water in the state. The waterway itself is shallow, puckeringly shallow. A channel had been dredged along the way that was marked with pylons—red even-numbered and green odd-numbered—but even the channel was only ten feet deep. So, we bumped from pylon to pylon, with one of us…
Tired and dirty from our marathon run from Gulfport to Tampa, Robert and I determined to take a day to rest, clean the boat, and get what provisions we needed. Breck returned to cooler climes and the warm arms of his lovie in the morning, so for the rest of the trek it would be Team Murphy. We slept late, ate a pancake breakfast, cleaned inside Adventuress, and made a list of things we would need at the marine…
Adventuress is equipped with an AIS transceiver. The Automatic Identification System transmits a broadcast with Adventuress’ name, location, speed, and heading. Any vessels in the area with an AIS receiver will get our information, and can display our information on their charts. With AIS, you can see where we are. Go here and search for Adventuress using our MMSI # 368056620.
-Editors Note 11 Sept 2018: We finally got into data coverage range and I’m doing some clean-up on the website. I realized that I never posted this entry, so here it is. When we woke, NOAA had revised its estimate of when and where Gordon would make landfall, and it was good news for us, and not-so good news for Biloxi. But since Morgan City was west of New Orleans, things were looking better for holing up in Morgan…
We rested in Gulfport, rising late, getting a good breakfast in and doing what repairs and chores had cropped up. Today we would make the long run to Panama City, setting our course east and going straight on until morning. The Gulf could not be more welcoming. We piloted for much of the daylight hours from the flying bridge. Above, the wind kept everyone refreshingly cool and dry. The canvas shade protected us from the warm sun, and the…
The plan was to push from Lafitte early in the morning. We anticipated that we’d have several locks and bridges to pass on our way to the end of the Intracoastal Waterway and out to salt water. Lafitte at pre-dawn was still. A thin layer of fog formed on the water and the shore, coating everything with swampy slickness. One frog, brilliant green, and I imagined desperate to leave the swamp, had climbed aboard sometime in the night and was…
On Wednesday the 5th, we slept in and stayed the day in Morgan City. Ironically even though we were stalled in Morgan City because of Gordon, the sky was a clean, clear, rain-washed blue and a friendly sun shone from dawn to dusk. We washed the boat, made what minor repairs we needed to make, and rested. Buying supplies at the local hardware store, we were the beneficiaries of the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival. Apparently, Lays wanted to test drive…
After the last two days of very challenging boating, Team Adventuress was in sore need of a win before the crew started defecting. Last night we agreed that we’d take the ICWW to Vermilion Bay. Turns out that was the best decision so far. Although the egress from the slip we squatted in was still difficult… wind and current still there, but the light of day made all things look much friendlier. From the fuel dock we took one…