West Palm Beach & Sailing with Friends

We left Fort Pierce for West Palm Beach, one of our shorter runs of just 45nm. Tide and current though meant we needed a 6:30 am departure. We were joined by our long time family friends, Lisa and Grady. While it was mostly a motor boat trip, we did get an hour or so of good sailing with Grady taking a turn at the helm. Dolphin and turtle sightings along with just a rather pleasant and warm day. Lisa and Grady also helped with our provisioning in Fort Pierce, much thanks to them. 

West Palm Beach, lying along the intercostal waterway has a run of about 5 miles called Lake Worth, that creates a large anchorage area that is frequented by cruisers and mega yachts, though currently more of the latter. In the past this was a very poplar jumping off point for cruisers heading to the Bahamas, however, shore access has become increasingly difficult with both yacht clubs closed to guests (a Covid thing that never changed I guess) and the corporate buy up of the marinas, with most of them now just catering to mega yachts. Not to be too negative, there are some great attractions. Peanut Island is an outstanding state park where we donned our snorkeling gear for the first time. West Palm Beach has an annual sand Christmas tradition that is world renowned. The sand sculptures, highlighted by the Christmas tree are frankly unbelievable - like there has to be some unknown trick to keep these things together. Either that or my sand castle building skills are severely lacking. 

Next stop is Miami, Key Biscayne and a rendezvous with Jake for Christmas. 





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