Exploring West Palm Beach

On a partially rainy day last week, we got off the boat to look around, and discovered the City Docks at West Palm Beach. Madelyn was especially thrilled to find that the city has a free trolley which runs every 15 min or so, stopping along a main shopping street and going to CityPlace, an outdoor mall nearby. There is also a stop at Publix, the major grocery store, which may come in handy. There are lots of outdoor restaurant patios, pedestrians with small dogs, storefronts and palm trees.


We also stopped at the Maritime Museum again. We had been invited to their monthly outdoor party with music and a "Bounce House" for the kids.

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Someone recently asked me "how do you get on and off the boat when you are not at a dock?"

When we return to our anchored boat, typically Brian is steering with the outboard engine, and I am at the bow of the inflatable boat, reaching towards "Estella" until I can hold onto the railing. Then Brian turns off the engine, and I tie off the line (aka rope) onto a cleat. I also need to lower the swim ladder you see at the right of this photo, so we can all get on.

Tying a "figure 8" knot to the cleat...

You can see the swim ladder is down in this next picture. Brian and the girls have now climbed onto the boat. I am still on the dinghy. I have let it drift away from "Estella" so I can take a picture. After I pull the dinghy back to the larger boat, I will climb aboard and raise the swim ladder again. On average, we do this about 2 times per day.

Madelyn and Katja are so used to it by now, they can climb up quickly on their own, or they love it when Brian swings them up using the shackle on the back of their life jackets. They always say to me "Mommy! Do it like Daddy does! We like to fly!", but I'm too out of shape, so I make them climb up the ladder.


As you can imagine, this is more challenging with loads of laundry/groceries or in rainy/rocky weather. Look at all of this laundry!!!! The rest of us had to pile on top of these bags for the ride to town...