12-24-10
Merry Christmas Eve! For the sake of making a good title, let’s pretend this is the seventh day of Christmas…
On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: Seven bridge’s openings… Yep, seven bridges to navigate through in only 22 miles of waterway.We gaged our speed of travel so we arrived in good time for all but one of the bridge’s openings. We had to wait for half an hour for the Donald Ross bridge to open, but actually, the wait was not bad, since we were able to throw out the anchor and sit secured until it was time for the bridge opening. While waiting, I had a delightful conversation with the bridge-tender via the VHF radio. Some bridge-tenders are nice and some are down right grumpy. This one was really in the Christmas spirit and was charming. There was a big power boat on the south side of the bridge, also waiting for the opening, and when he hailed the bridge-tender, the bridge-tender told him there was a sailboat also waiting on the north side. The power boater was also in the Christmas spirit because he verbally offered to let us go through the bridge first since we had the current pushing us. The bridge-tender commended the power boater for his courtesy, and we did as well. In general, it seems more times than not, power boaters have no regard for sailboats and their lesser degree of maneuverability; so this captain’s kindness was held in high regard.
Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse
On this leg of the waterway, the water changes in color at all the inlets, noticable first at Fort Pierce Inlet, going from a dirty brown color to a beautiful aquamarine. Most of the water on which we traveled today, was a beautiful aquamarine color. The lighthouse at Jupiter Inlet was spectacular to see with the bluer than blue sky as a backdrop and aquamarine water in the forefront
We anchored in Lake Worth around 3:30; and, after Captain Gary made sure our anchor was holding tight, he took the dinghy to shore and went to a nearby grocery…and a French bakery. We are grateful Ed, Cheryl, Sandy and Nancy introduced this area to us when we all anchored here in April. Thanks to Gary’s trip to town, we are now totally ready for Christmas.