Reaching The Florida Finish Line

Palm Beach to Key Biscayne  |  11.5 Hours  |  74 Miles  

Our anchor monitor showed that we had been firmly planted in the Palm Beach anchorage. A nice sweeping C-curve is always a good sign. We had set the hook in 30 knots of wind. This morning as we raised the anchor at first light, there were only minimal ripples on the water. We had to travel north to reach the busy and heavily trafficked Lake Worth Inlet. We turned east just past the dredge and set our sights on the open water of the Atlantic Ocean. Today was a light traffic day as we only had to navigate around one incoming container ship.  

The Tropic Carib was small in comparison to most similar ships we've encountered. We turned south, stayed out of it's path, and set a course for Key Biscayne. Barry set the throttle at the RPMs he wanted to run for the day then we sat back and enjoyed the ride. We passed very few vessels, but plenty of large motor yachts and fishing vessels passed by us. One order of business had to be taken care of before we reached our destination. We ventured out beyond the three mile line and emptied our holding tank. This little diversion put us out into the Gulf Stream which was running strong pretty close to shore. 

We futzed around longer than necessary in the strong counter current before returning to full speed in the near-shore water. We were in no real hurry and were busy checking out the scenery. The Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse signaled our arrival into the Fort Lauderdale area. I was able to spend an hour or two on Fiberglass Beach catching some rays and watching the oceanfront skyscrapers come and go. We reached Miami as three cruise ships were departing with their latest load of passengers. The Cape Florida Lighthouse marked our turn into our anchorage in Key Biscayne as the sun was approaching the horizon. It was definitely the golden hour. We identified a spot in the back of the pack and dropped the hook. The sun was disappearing quickly and I watched closely in hopes of seeing a green flash. That did not happen today. What did happen today is we reached mile marker 1095 of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, 1155 miles from our home marina in Deltaville, and our final stop in Florida. Tomorrow we'll take the dinghy into town for a few last minute errands in preparation for crossing over to Bimini.