Palm Beach, FL

5 April 2015

Happy Easter, we are on the move again and are docked in the City of Palm Beach Marina. At $2,90 a foot with electric, water and dock pump-outs included it’s not cheap, but better than others (still looking at you, DuSable in Chicago) We have a great view of both Palm Beach and West Palm Beach across the ICW.

Morning started well., off the dock at 7:30 and our first wait for a bridge at 8. Met up with the crew of the Incognito a We need 19′, and I prefer to go under at 20′ (wave rock). They need at least 25′. We followed them up the ICW about 37 miles. They were going at strange speeds, but once I started plugging the speeds into the chart plotter, I would see that they would arrive at the next bridge 5 mins before it opened. This gave them and I a chance to check with the bridge master, scoot under the bridge and then off to the next.

Entire 38 mile trip took 6 and change hours, lots and lots of no wake zones on the way. Incognito knew where the open spots were and we did appropriate speeds. So it was a nice ride.

Not much water traffic so that made it easier. A few bridges are short at 9-12 feet so lots of traffic waiting, but there wasn’t any crash and bash, it was all good.

Lots and lots of mega homes along the ICW Huge 8 bedroom, multistory, multi-garage, pool, places to put boats, etc. Ugly colors on some, ugly statues on others. And sometimes both, do you really need a gold dolphin in your fountain?

The houses went from COOL to ok, to Meh, to us snarking out on the ugly ones and looking at the 1960′s ones that haven’t been flipped to mega-home to decide what the asking price would be.

We found the bridge tenders were all nice and talked to us and wished us Happy Easter. They were all pleasant, so we knew they were not from Ohio and Illinois lock systems.

We got past the last bridge just before 2 PM and moved across the ICW to the East Side and slid into the Palm Beach City Dock. We fit nicely in a 50′ slip, which is good since they charge by the dock length, $2.89 / foot, free electric and free pump out on the dock. Livin’ the dream in Palm Beach.

We pumped out, refilled the water tanks, and sprayed down the boat to get the crud off.

Susan made chicken cutlets with peas and mashed potatoes. Yum.

Then it was time to walk the most amazing mile in Floria, Worth Ave on Palm Beach. In our case it was only three blocks away.

Aahhhoooo the stores. You name a high level fashion designer, they have a storefront here. Did well on Wall Steet, have a 6 figure bonus to spend, this is your street! Sadly, or maybe lucky for me, it was Sunday PM, all the stores were closed. But we stared in the windows of all the great places, even the realtors. You to can live in a 1 bedroom place downtown for only $35K per month.

Stopped at a few restaurants to look at menu’s. Much higher that what we pay at Outback. Since it was Easter, men needed a coat, and I left mine on the boat so we needed to pass on them.

Walked through the residential area on Brazilian Drive. Very nice homes, the landscaping was amazing. Hedges perfectly trimmed, trees that had orchids planted in them. A few houses had 12′ hedges along the front and they had cut openings in to let the cars in and out. Nice way to get some street side seclusion.

We will be off at dawn to go to Stuart, FL Iabout 40 miles away) trying to get out of Florida by the end of the month.

Starting to notice that some of our friends we met on the Loop are getting their gold banners for completing. This week it was “Pier Pressure” and “Estrellita”. Congrats!

BTW posts will be a little out of whack, there are 9 back posts that will appear the week of the 6th to fill in the gaps of the trip.