Jan 11:

It has been a long time since I have had a real breakfast. My Sheriff friend pointed out a place called Harry and the Natives on my way back to the boat in the cruiser yesterday.  I suggested we try it. It was certainly as good as his recommendations had alleged. I loaded up on pancakes as we read and studied all of the décor.

The wind was stronger than ever this morning and I will admit to being a bit nervous about heading back out into the channel when the tidal current was moving into the wind increasing the amplitude of the waves. We decided to give it a few hours to change and instead drove to West Palm Beach to find a new hotel for the next two nights. The Best Western had advertised a $49.00 rate so we went there and reserved a room. By the time we got to the beach in Jupiter again to launch it was 2:00. We slipped into the moving current with wind still strong behind us and covered the first mile in a wink. We first passed through the bridge and made a turn upstream against the current of the Loxahatchee River for about half a mile and then turned again into a narrower channel leading south. Rowing was frequently interrupted to turn the boat sideways to ride out the several large swells generated by a powerboat’s wake.

I would like to write a chapter in Chapman’s book about navigation and boating rules and etiquette. It would be about how to be polite to a sculler when passing or meeting on the water. Many powerboat drivers simply don’t understand that their boats throw up large waves. Others do and delight in the turmoil they leave as they pass by. Still others do understand and try hard to be polite and slow down, but when they do their boats sink down in the water and plow up even bigger wakes. All of the boats are different in that they displace different amounts of water. Displacement equals the weight of the boat in water. So a heavy boat will displace more than a light boat. Hull shape has a lot to do with the speed and the shape of the waves that are created. A heavy boat that is moving fast seems to create an easier wake to ride out than one that was moving fast and slows just before it reaches you. A fast boat planing creates little wake until it politely slows down sinking into the water and plowing up a huge wave. Few drivers seem to understand the latter. So best intentions fail. I understand this. It is the one in five driver who deliberately speeds past and glares at your efforts to signal him to slow down that earns my rancor. The channel is marked occasionally with signs saying "Slow to idle speed" because of the danger to the poor unsuspecting manatees who swim near the surface. It is apparent that idle speed has many interpretations. So does "25 mph"! Today one "Cigarette boat", popularized by George H. W. Bush cam by at what I estimated to be 50 to 60mph! I am sure that from this point on down through the most intensely populated part of Eastern Florida I will have my rhythm broken by more and more such speeders.

We made 7.25 miles in less than two hours in spite of the interruptions. At Juno park in Juno Beach we pulled out and got the boat up on the grass near where I could park. I had just started thinking about how I was to get a ride. A car drove in and stopped near us and I walked over to ask the driver if he knew the name of the taxi in the area. He thought a minute and then said: "Hop in. I’ll take you up there." So I was driven back to the car within minutes and we were back to the Best Western by 6:00.

A 7.25-mile day brings us to 145.35 miles total. It appears that we are more than half way to Miami.