Thursday March’s 29th, twenty eighteen
We left Sunrise Bay in Fort Lauderdale yesterday at about 08:15. We were setting up our timing to hit the bridges on their schedules. The bridge schedules are set up so that the mythical boat can hit the bridges smoothly and without racing. Fracas is not a mythical boat. Some bridges require 7.5 kts and others 2.0 kts. Luckily I can quickly set up automatic routes on the IPad using Navionics and get a time of arrival. Bridges are directed to hold to their schedules and are to only be open for four minutes max.
Going outside could be an option if the weather cooperated. The wind was blowing North East and was over 20, the Gulf Stream and the shore side ocean would be cooking. We planned on a short day anchor at Boca Lake at lunch time and spend the night. We passed through the Camino Real bridge at 11:40 and were anchored at 12:00. The only problem I couldn’t get the anchor to hold. The boats that were there had positioned themselves in such a way that I couldn’t find a spot that I was comfortable with. I am particular.
We picked up our ground tackle and decided to continue north. To this point we had traveled 14.4 nautical miles and dealt with 6 bridges. Our new plan, 12 more bridges and 26.4 more nautical miles and a destination of Lake Worth anchorage. We spent the afternoon carefully timing our arrival at the twelve bridges just in time. Holding Fracas in place is like nailing jello to the wall.
The most interesting part of the trip was transiting the South Boulevard bridge. They are replacing this bridge with a new very fancy bridge. I don’t think it’s related to the fact that Mar a Lago is adjacent to where this bridge lands…
The first pic is the bridge as we went through yesterday. The gantry is in place for placement of the new bridge sections. The second pic is a representation of the new bridge… more later
