Lake Worth

5/3/2021

After 12 days in a marina in North Palm Beach we departed and moved down to Lake Worth today.  It isn’t a long trip, but it will shorten the day tomorrow for the Gulf Stream crossing.  We are anchored tonight about a mile south of the inlet in a very large anchorage in Lake Worth.

Before departing the marina we filled the water tanks and stopped at a fuel dock to top off the fuel tanks.  We bought just over 200 gallons of diesel which is what we used on the trip down from Jacksonville.  We did not pump out our holding tank as we will dump that in the ocean tomorrow. 

Just after departing the fuel dock we crossed under the PGA Boulevard bridge.  The photo below is looking back at it.  The ICW here is narrow and there is lots of boat and commercial traffic.  We did not need to have the bridge opened as it had 24 feet of clearance at this tide level, and we need just under 23 feet, but the commercial tug behind us needed it open.  It is fairly painless to open a bridge with just a radio call, but some bridges have scheduled openings and it can be painful to sit and hold position while waiting for them.

After passing out into Lake Worth we had an uneventful trip down to the ocean inlet.  The northern part of the lake is wide and shallow, and we really can’t stray outside the dredged channel.  After reaching the area near the inlet we passed Peanut Island, shown below.  This island was formed from dredge spoils when dredging the commercial harbor, and it is a common place for people to beach their boat and spend the day.  On weekends there is little room for another boat to get in to the island.

Just past Peanut Island we got a brief view of the ocean inlet, shown below.  We will go out here tomorrow.

We are anchored tonight in the southern half of Lake Worth.  This area is an enormous anchorage extending more than a mile each direction from us.  There are hundreds of boats anchored here, some derelict and abandoned, and others occupied with people who might otherwise be homeless.  A view of the anchorage are shown below.  There is a move afoot in Florida to restrict anchoring to 30 days in any position.  That won’t affect us, and I think it is a good idea to control the abandoned boats in front of very expensive homes.