Monday, June 30, 2025
Sometimes to feel ready to leave, you just need to leave. We had told ourselves we would head out on Bequia Chief by the end of June. This timeline was very similar to last year when we left on Frea. However, this time finding a weather window was no excuse since we were going to be taking the ICW all the way to St. Mary’s from Miami. The ICW is a protected waterway and since the boat doesn’t have any masts, we didn’t have to think about bridge openings either. Our goal was to get past Ft. Lauderdale by the end of the day. We were able to make it from Miami to Boca Raton.
Rough Start
When Josh woke up that Monday morning, he wasn’t feeling well. I had taken the week off from work so I was hoping (and pushing) to keep on schedule. Josh reluctantly prepared and secured everything on deck. We then motored over to the fuel dock to fill up on diesel and finish putting away final items.
Although our tanks have a gauge, it is an old school dip stick gauge made of copper. This made it difficult to see the fuel line. We decided to fill up and keep an eye on the flow. But as the fuel started bubbling up from the deck, it was also spilling up inside the boat. This means that there was fuel all over the floor that we had to clean up. Not a great way to start the day. We filled the port side fuel tank with 25 gallons and the starboard fuel tank with 55 gallons. By the time we filled up on fuel and water, we dropped lines around 11:00 a.m.
It was a hot day and since we didn’t have time to put our temporary bimini shade up, we took turns taking the helm out in the sun and hiding in the shade under the dodger. We passed downtown Miami and reminisced about going the opposite direction six years ago. When we arrived in 2019, neither of us had been to Miami before. Although Miami does have an impressive skyline, we were overwhelmed by the number of boats going in and of the river and we were unaccustomed to being in water that was 15 feet or less. We had passed downtown before we even realized it. This time we had experience on our side and passed by confidently.
As we passed under the 79th Street Bridge, we looked up and saw someone waving down at us. On instinct, we waved back and a few seconds later realized it was our friends who had come to take photos of us with the skyline in the background as we left. It turned about to be the most surprising and uplifting part of the day. We met these friends only 6 months before, but they were rooting for us. One of the many reasons we love and have stuck with this lifestyle.
Long Day’s End
After a long day and not wanting to push the engine too far on it’s first big outing, we checked Navionics for a place to anchor. We anchored in Lettuce Lake near Boca Raton by 5:45 p.m. This is a small basin opening off the ICW surrounding by houses. The basin could fit us or two small boats. Luckily, no one else was there, but it was the perfect place for jet skiiers to come and whip by us. Thankfully they were gone by sunset, but we endured for a few hours as we cooked dinner.
35 miles down in a total of 7 hours. Not too shabby for day one.
