Riviera Beach to Boynton Beach | 3.1 Hours | 16 Miles
Following last night's blog post, I went out to Fiberglass Beach to enjoy the warm evening. The lights from the boatyards and marinas glowed behind the Blue Heron Bridge. This morning, I again went to the bow after sunrise. The wind had intensified overnight, but the sky was clear. I had a good look at Phil Foster Memorial Park at the base of the bridge. Although not seen from the anchorage, there is a renowned dive and snorkel site on the south side of the park and bridge. The Snorkel Trail looks like an incredible place to visit. We'll put it on our Bucket List for another year. Our travel day was going to be short, so we waited until 10:30 to pull up the anchor. By that time it was a beautiful morning. The temperature had warmed nicely and the sun and wind were both strong.
The Palm Beach area has every type of boat imaginable within eyeshot. Unfortunately, there area quite a few derelict and/or long-term non-moving liveaboards in the anchorages. Large sportfishers with skyscraping tuna towers zip by in all directions. The mega yachts, however, are what draw the most attention. I chuckled as we passed the 358-foot Bravo Eugenia*. Since Jerry Jones' plans for February have been squashed yet again, it seems his crew is preparing for his annual late January island escape. (Yes, his boat is longer than the field on which his Cowboys play.)
Our eyes were once again on the lookout for our friends' boat. Change of Pace, a 43-foot Selene sister ship, was at anchor just off the Palm Beach Country Club. Terri and Jeff were not onboard, but Terri and I texted and shared smiles knowing we were really close. We hope to catch up with them in the Bahamas. We had five bridges that needed to open for us today. For most of the day we were in a parade of at least four vessels. When traveling in a pack, some of the pressure is off to time the opening perfectly. The fastest boat leads the parade and slower boats (like us) bring up the rear. While staging for the bridge openings we got an opportunity to look around and take in all the development.
We arrived at the Boynton Beach Marina slightly ahead of schedule at 1:30. A two-knot current and 20-knot wind forced us to abort the first docking attempt. On the second attempt, Barry eased us gently into the wall. We promptly prepared to give Crossroads a full soap bath, her first since October. Its been too cold to bring the hoses out, but today it was in the low 80s and we didn't mind getting wet. Barry scrubbed the decks and I washed all the vertical surfaces. It was a pleasant surprise to see Flip Flop pass behind us on their way to Delray Beach. Boat washing took over two hours, but we got all the nooks and crannies, lids and sills. It was then time to get our showers in preparation for a visitor.
The reason for our stop in Boynton Beach is so we can visit with Barry's Uncle Ben, who lives in nearby Delray Beach. He arrived to the marina at 5:00 and we showed him the exterior of the boat. The tide was quickly falling, and the low water level did not allow Ben to come onboard. We'll try again at tomorrow's high tide. Ben took us on scenic drive along oceanfront A1A and we ended up at his favorite local Chinese restaurant for dinner. When we returned to the marina around 7:30, the water was still receding. We joked that it would be easier to climb onto the upper deck than use the caprail (which was below the dock) to step down onto the side decks.
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