Thanks for all the useful feedback to this request. We finally made the trip starting about six weeks ago. The portion of our journey from Cape Canaveral via the
ICW through to Palm Beach went very well indeed only running aground three times with our 6’
draft. In the area of Grant Farm I missed a sudden left turn in an area dotted with islands but thankfully made it out relatively unscathed. Again on approach to crossing the St. Lucie inlet we ran aground again. This took some tight maneuvering to get out of that situation. Thankfully the
CAL turns on a dime so rotates out in forward
gear rather well. At
Lake Worth I made a turn into a channel a little too early. This one could have been avoided if my
transducer was dependable which it’s not (new one being installed within weeks.)
My real troubles started in
Lake Worth (Palm Beach) when I attempted to take the outside
route to
Miami. On exiting the inlet 1/2 mile out our
engine quit. I’d never sailed the vessel and had no crew so we decided to get towed back to Lake Worth where we were stranded for 8 days while I attempted to get a
mechanic that would be willing to come out to the
boat which was at
anchor. The issue turned out to be an acutely filthy
fuel tank, the sludge being stirred up on entering the Ocean. Once the filters were changed and
engine bled we continued down the intracoastal to Hollywood in Broward (couldn’t find Marina or
mooring in Ft Lauderdale). My plan had been to take the outside
route on a calm day to from Port Everglades to Coconut Grove. Unfortunately it was a Saturday and the heavy
boating traffic stirred up the
ICW waterway near its narrowest point. This is where we stalled again and I had to drop
anchor in the middle of the ICW with very large Yachts going by, ouch! Unfortunately we made it the rest of the way to
Miami under tow (5 hrs). As of this writing the
boat is still stranded in Biscayne Bay as I’ve not been able to procure either a
mooring or a
mechanic to help me get started from a bypass tank. I do have a booking to haul her out on 3/22 so I can yank the tank and have it thoroughly cleaned. While doing this I’ll change my
transducer too.
I also need to assemble a crew so that I can finally sail her and use the engine as little as possible. Cant wait to get this period behind me, that’s for certain.
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