Today we spent a full day at the dock. We met a family of 4 from Ontario, Canada. They have been sailing on their catamaran down the ICW, and crossed the Gulf Stream from Palm Beach just yesterday. Here is a photo of our boat, and then their boat at the docks. You can see they have bicycles, which would be great for us to have:
Their children Delaney (age 9) and Mitchell (age 6) went back to the pool and beach with us and we all had a great time. Brian went snorkeling and found a live Conch in the shell:
Madelyn and Katja played for hours with Delaney:
The perpetually out-of-breath-and-excited Mitchell at the top of his “mountain peak” of sand:
We had a chance to quickly wash down our boat since we had freshwater hookup available at the dock. This is a free service in the US, but cost $15 here, since freshwater is in shorter supply. “Estella” needed a good washing, since it had been a few months, and she had a lot of saltwater build-up on her deck and hull. We stopped short because we were invited for Happy Hour on “Charlotte Ann”, Mark and Lisa’s boat from Ontario. It was a fun evening as we all made new friends.
Later on, we studied the charts and realized we needed to leave at 5:00am the next day in order to make it to our next spot in time for sunset! We had not prioritized our trip planning very well, instead spending the day relaxing, on other boat projects, and with new friends. Now, after a few drinks, at 11:00pm, we were tired and not excited about sailing for 10 hours the next day with little sleep. We also felt anxious about leaving this tight spot at the dock in the pre-dawn darkness with no help! But it did not seem right to stay on another night or two, because the winds were predicted to increase and move in our heading direction, and because this marina was expensive. We decided to just go for it and leave the next morning.
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