Palm Beach 2017

2-2-17 I woke up shortly before the alarm sounded this morning, Karen was already awake lying in bed next to me reading her iPad. Today we leave quiet and beautiful Peck Lake for West Palm Beach, we hope the town puts on a Super Bowl party like we attended here last year. Karen and I loved West Palm. The anchor came up without problems other than stinky clumps of mud which landed on Mango’s bow pulpit and deck. Wait, there was something else. Mango’s anchor brought with it another anchor and rode. I heaved it aboard, I’m sure I can find a use for it.

Treasures form the deep.

This year the our plans to use the West Palm anchorage comes with some caveats. Karen and I had to do a bit of research and make sure that the anchorage we usually stay at wasn’t off limits now that our new President is coming to Palm Beach. We found that our anchorage is about 3/4 of a mile north of the exclusion zone. We’ll see if the Coasties give us any issues.

It was shortly before 8 when we motored slowly out of the anchorage at low tide watching dolphins actively doing something at the north end of the anchorage. About a half hour later we were accompanied for about 5 minutes by dolphins on each side of Mango’s stern teasing Karen and making her chase side to side trying to talk with them. The trip was uneventful other than the 707 Bridge tender being a cranky old man and yelling at me on the radio since I didn’t fully hear his first response since he was stepped on by other traffic. It was really no worry other than I feel a bit bad for having to repeat my radio traffic. I only felt bad for a short time before I heard the mean sounding guy yelling at another vessel for the same thing. We made good time and arrived to lay down our anchor at 2:30 while Karen actively pointed out more dolphins. I should have said it sooner, Karen and I always consider the sighting of dolphins a good omen. I washed the mud off of Mango’s deck and hopped in the shower to be ready to give the crew of Fracas a tiny tour of the downtown area.

PBR toast to Anchor Down

Mural of recently deceased musicians.

After my shower I quickly dropped the dinghy and we both attempted to gather our stuff for going ashore. This is the first time we feel the need to lockup the dinghy or the boat. Last year we had no issues but it’s another year and other than the crew of Fracas we don’t know the other cruisers around us yet.

Going for a walk ashore is great after a few hours sitting motoring the ICW. The weather today is close to perfect and we slowly walked past the Flagler Park area while workers setup for tonights concert. During the dime tour of the main street area we found two restaurants / bars that went out of business. No more $5 PBR half quart buckets and the corner bar and “World of Beer” is also no longer in business. Grease is still doing good as we walked the main street area. Everyone felt like burgers so we stopped in Grease to eat. It was the best burger I’ve had in quite some time, everyone stated the same thing. We then walked down to the park just as the concert was starting. I think we all had a tad too much to eat as we decided to continue to walk the boardwalk of million dollar yachts while hoping our meals would settle into place. After a little walk that ended at our dinghy dock we unlocked and loaded into our respective dinghies and motored across the ICW to our awaiting boats but not before we spotted the motor vessel “Wasted Seamen”. We see a lot of interesting boat names and we have to take pictures when we see them.

Great Burger at Grease. West Palm Beach FL.

What a name for a boat.

2-3-17 Today passed by quickly, I surveyed Mango’s motor, checked belts, oil and cleaned the strainer. Everything passed with flying colors. Before I knew it we were aboard Fracas having drinks and appetizers watching the change in aircraft patterns as well as timing the Coast Guard patrols passing our boats. President Trump is now only a mile or so away and just as Obama screwed traffic every time he came to Chicago, Trump is doing the equivalent down here. At least we don’t need to drive anywhere.

The crew of Fracas, namely Greg are hilarious. This evening as the Coasties, guns in hands, machine gun mounted on deck were passing by Fracas, Greg’s head appears coming up from the companionway sporting a towel looking like he just entered the states from one of the banned countries. Shortly afterwards towel removed he was up on deck cooking steaks that MaryLynn purchased earlier today. Meal was superb and after a game of Kings Cribbage we motored back to Mango for a quiet nights sleep on anchor.

Sites from West Palm.

2-4-17 Today I woke up to Wren’s squawking loudly from the trees on shore, I’m not sure what got them so excited. I would’ve liked to sleep a bit longer as I was up more than I wanted to be last night. Last night was hot, kept peeling off covers and considered turning on the fan shortly before I fell back to sleep.

I got dressed, motored over and performed my T25 workout on the pier. The crew of Wasted Seamen stopped me mid pushup, brought over a plant and had me pick several Ghost Peppers. It was very nice of him and not sure we’ll be able to use them but his plant was so loaded with more than he could use.

Afterwards I came back and cleaned up just to hop in the dinghy with Karen and crew of Fracas to attend the Farmers Market. A Dreamsicle smoothy later and I was feeling great ,just people watching. Karen and MaryLynn loaded up on fresh items for meals while I lost them while people watching. Before making it back onto Mango I wanted to stop by and see what the Rum Fest was that will take place tonight one block away from the market. All of us thought of attending until we saw it was $50 a ticket. If you know me you know that should I spend $50 to attend the fest I would be trying to drink as much as I could to get my $50 worth. Anyone who’s been with me drinking rum knows that I’m being smart not attending. The crew of Fracas did not want to attend, probably for differing reasons.

Back at Mango we see we have new neighbors, Linda and Dave aboard S/V Toucan. They’re from Worcestershire England and are sight seeing the states. They seem very nice and think that they’re going to watch the Superbowl with us and Fracas. They’re not really interested in American football but they are interested in free beer. Hopefully they’ll stay.

We invited the Crew of Toucan over to Mango for drinks and appetizers along with Greg and MaryLynn. It was interesting getting an English view of our American politics. Especially tonight with everything going on around us, protests had started just on shore near where we park our dinghies. It seemed tonight was full of craziness. The craziness of helicopters buzzing overhead as well as law enforcement boats zooming by lights and sirens blazing. The background to all of this was the loud thumping and vocals of the music at Rum Fest.

The evening ended kinda early as a cool front entered the area and along with the breeze made things chilly up on deck.

Karen on the Phone, What ya know. Bridge
up .

MaryLynn drying her feet after dipping them
in at the beach.

View of the anchorage from Royal Palms Bridge.

2-5-17 It was the day of the Super Bowl but more importantly is was MaryLynn from Fracas birthday. I’ll keep it short and tell you that I ate too much and drank too much. Greg and I both can attest that. I can tell you that beer & chocolate shakes don’t mix well and Greg could tell you that beer, cheesecake and expresso don’t make ones stomach feel all that good. The night did end with good food and rum drinks at Grease (always good food) along main street with many others. Some of us enjoyed the game more than others but we all enjoyed it.

2-6-17 This morning Greg from Fracas went to pickup his rental car and because Enterprise felt sorry for him gave him the something just short of a church bus. I was skeptical of his driving of such a large vehicle here in the states (you know being Canadian) but he got us to and fro without as much as a scratch even though I was out shopping for a neck brace afterwards. Greg needed this ride to pickup a part that arrived at Sunset Marina in Stuart after we left. The part is a bolt for his Simpson Lawrence windlass that came all the way from Scotland. After a quick pickup at the marina we were off grocery shopping because we plan on heading to the Abacos tomorrow providing the weather window still looks good. As it turns out we needed a vehicle the size of the church bus for Fracas groceries and other items. Once we returned to the waterfront bystanders were asking where the party was, Karen and I needed to explain it was just Canadian food and beverage preparation for crossing to the Bahamas. I think MaryLynn is going to foster an island for a month or so, if not she could.