We intended to make the trip straight though but had some serious problems at 4 am one night and had to put into the ICW at St. Lucie. 1 hint don't ever try to sail through that inlet, particularly at night. One of the guys on board assured us he had sailed through the inlet. We got there and couldn't find any lights, but had to go for it (engine was sputtering in 30 knots and we had blown out the #3 that we were sailing under about a half hour earlier). There were no charts on the channel (1st hint) We drew 8' and when we got in there we found breaking waves (meaning no water/shoal) were being knocked down because the keel was deeper than the water, but the waves would pick us up just enough to bump along. We got through the channel somehow and found about 9' of water again by bumping along until we were floating, dropped the anchor and decided to wait for sunrise to reassess the situation. Called the CG to find what our best course of action/course may be from here. Their response was "You just sailed through WHERE? That inlet has been shoaling up badly for years and is no longer navigable." So we knew we couldn't get back out that way (and at this point we were going to fuel up). Fired up the computer to find some charts that showed the channel (again showing it not navigable) and realized we were about 100' from the ICW, problem was that there wasn't enough water between us and the ICW to get us there. Another call to the CG told us that we were at high tide (and we only had about a foot of water under the keel). So the 4 of us that weren't at the helm all hiked out hard to starboard (even let the boom all the way out) to induce some heal, fired up the engine and plowed our way through after about 15 minutes. The ICW is shallow in spots so we had one person below on the computer watching depth on the charts the whole 25 miles to the next inlet that we could get through (Palm Beach) and telling the skipper what part of the waterway was deep enough for us. We bumped a few times, but the only real problem was trying to get through the Jupiter inlet. There is a shoal all the way across the inlet except for one small passageway. We went back and forth for 20 minutes and couldn't get through. Finally a tow boat US boat was coming up the ICW and talked us through it. Basically told us to go to port until he said to turn and then turn hard to starboard and point right at his bow. We got through and were on our way. Honestly the trip down the waterway was nice. Some beautiful homes along that stretch but with the shoaling and the bridges (oh, did I mention there were probably a dozen bridges along this stretch that either open on the hour and half hour or will open on demand but only once they have you in sight) the trip was slow. So we went back outside the rest of the way to Ft. Lauderdale. And it was a rough day. Basically 15-20 from the east (right on the beam) we sailed with just the main for the next 7 or so hours and stayed about 7-8 knots the whole way. Ft Lauderdale in early December at night is amazing by water. Some of the Christmas displays easily cost as much as a decent C27. Chris D toy box eastport, md
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