Our position is: 27:06.861N 80:08.616W

On Sunday we could put it off no longer so we were up fairly bright and early and heading for the fuel pontoon as soon as it was open. We needed to catch the 8.45 opening of the lifting bridge next to the marina and just about managed to fit in refuelling and paying our marina dues before radioing the bridge tender to let him know to expect us. It was a bit of a rush but we made it by the skin of our teeth and we were on our way.

The first stretch involved 4 bridges at 3 mile intervals with a timed opening pattern that was linked. We arrived at bridge 2 in plenty of time and headed on towards the third and radioed them to expect us as we were what we considered to be a reasonable distance away. However we failed to pick up any response and when we radioed again, as we got closer, we were told that as we hadn’t responded earlier and hadn’t been close enough, we would have to wait until the next opening in half an hour’s time.  This seemed a bit harsh as we were there in time, so we pleaded a bit and the bridge tender relented and let us through. After that we dawdled a bit, admiring the beautiful houses along the water’s edge, together with the big power boats on their personalised docks, until we realised that we were likely to take longer than the half hour to the scheduled opening of the 4^th bridge at the Indian Town Road. We put a bit of a spurt on and radioed ahead, but the bridge tender said he couldn’t see us, so we were too late and would have to wait for half an hour, even though when we got there it was only about 1 min after the hour and there wasn’t anybody else going through. We took the opportunity to have breakfast as we hovered about, but I felt particularly aggrieved about the wait when he made no effort to open at exactly the right time and didn’t even start closing the road until at least as long after the scheduled time as we had arrived half an hour previously.

There were 3 more bridges to pass through but they all opened on demand. The bridge tenders were polite and helpful and very quick to respond when radioed, in marked contrast to the Indian Town Road guy. Because it was our first day on the Waterway and there were quite a few opening bridges to negotiate we had not planned to travel too far, so we arrived at our proposed anchorage on Peck Lake in time for lunch and anchored beside 2 other boats, not far out of the channel as the depths were a bit uncertain. The pilot book described the anchorage as peaceful and lovely so we were a bit disappointed to discover that they were dredging up sand from the Lake, which was being blown down a huge pipe onto the Atlantic beach in an attempt to counter coastal erosion. Even though it was Easter Sunday they worked all day. At night the sound of the big rollers crashing onto the beach was almost as noisy!

After lunch we inflated the dinghy and went to have a look at the beach. It was proving popular as there was a regular small ferry bringing people over from a dock on the other side of the Waterway, as well as a collection of motor boats fastened to trees while their owners enjoyed the sun and sand. The sea looked too wild for enjoyable swimming, not to mention the current whipping along the beach, but a few intrepid souls were taking to the water. We walked along the beach, admiring the huge pipe moving the sand about and trying to identify the small wading birds busying themselves at the water’s edge, until we’d had enough and went back for tea. On the way back we stopped to chat to Steve and Dorothy on the next boat. They were local and kept their boat at the marina opposite the anchorage, but had come out for the day just to enjoy being on the water. Just as we got back to Moorglade we were rewarded with the sight of dolphins swimming round the boat.

Our first openng bridge near North Palm Beach Marina                                    Big waterfront houses along the way

Indian Town Road Bridge opens eventually                                               Inland lighthouse at Jupiter inlet

Dredging at Peck Lake                                                                      Atlantic side beach complete with pipe

The ferry bringing more visitors                                                                Motor boats tied to trees

       Further along the beach was deserted but still had the pipe!     One of the liittle waders that didn't move quickly enough to escape the camera

      Apparently this boat was being worked on and just sank one day              Steve and Dorothy's boat at the Peck Lake anchorage