Since I didn't find a boat bringing me back to Europe I decided to join Bill on his first sailing trip in the Atlantic coastal waters of Florida. Bill just brought his boat down on a trailer here from Sandusky, Ohio a few months ago to Fort Pierce, Florida and was fixing the boat up since then. He drove the boat down the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) and I took the Tri-Rail up, so that we were able to meet up in West Palm Beach, where Bill showed me around his boat and explained his plans to me. The first half day we spent walking around West Palm Beach, getting some supplies for the boat as well as groceries for ourselves.
Bill's boat has been a large project so far, like every boat, but hasn't been under sail that much apart from minor day trips on Lake Erie. He sold his house and most of his belongings and realized his dream of living full time on his Tartan 37, starting his sailing trip in southern Florida. His plan for the first weeks and months is exploring the coastline down to Miami and along the Keys, a series of tropical islands that extend about 120 miles into the sea from the southern tip of Florida between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. I am joining him just for a small part of his journey, looking forward to discovering incredible places, seeing a lot of sea life and gaining more sailing experience. I'm glad that Bill published his trip in a Facebook group, looking for crew to join him and I am sure that together we will learn new things every day. After the few miles Bill motored down the ICW before we met he already had adventurous stories to tell of near collisions with lifting bridges that had not opened, at the wrong time or too slowly.
The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is a 4,800 km long coastal waterway along the Atlantic Coast and Gulf Coast in the United States. It stretches from Florida to Boston in Massachusetts and is used for both commercial and recreational purposes. The use of the waterway is free, but commercial users pay a fuel tax. The ICW consists of natural canals, saltwater rivers, bays as well as artificial canals. Regarding our journey within the next days/weeks we can either take the ICW to Miami or go off the coast in the open Atlantic. Our decision for or against the one or the other option will mostly depend on wind and swell.
The Tartan 37 is considered one of today’s classic cruising yachts, the number 37 indicates the length in foot. The boat was introduced in 1976 and built until 1988, in different versions more designed for either cruising or racing. Almost 500 boats have been built in total and each one is known for its sound construction quality and therefore robust sailing abilities under various conditions. For me it is the first time at all being on a monohull sailboat which, in contrast to catamarans, have completely different characteristics.
After getting some more supplies for the boat, including a snorkel and mask for me and future crew, we lowered the electric dinghy into the water and surrounded the small Peanut Island to go for some snorkeling. Peanut Island is an island with less than 100 acres at the mouth of Palm Beach Inlet, one of various inlets that connects the Atlantic ocean and the ICW. The island was formed in 1918 by dredging projects that also created the bay and harbour of Palm Beach. The island was named Peanut Island for a planned peanut oil shipping operation that failed in 1946. Peanut Island was also home to a secret detonation facility for President John F. Kennedy for many years. In 2005 a major renovation created campgrounds, picnic areas, a pier and an artificial reef. The reef seems to be well accepted by the fish, which is why we stayed there for some time. It was wonderful to see life under water again, for me the first time in the Atlantic. Some of the fish I had already seen in the Pacific or the Sea of Cortez, others were completely new to me.
The next day we did some further exploring in the dinghy, looked for possible anchorages for the next days and we stopped at Peanut Island again to do some hiking, snorkeling and swimming. On the way there we passed something that looked like an underwater geyser. Probably it was not of a natural origin but rather a a burst pipe of a water supply line that was running from West Palm Beach to the island Palm Beach.
We also put up the reefing lines for the mains'l, which make it possible to reduce the area of the sail under heavy weather. Furthermore we glued
the additional letters to the boat which indicate the boat name. Before that the original letters couldn't be seen very well when the dinghy was attached to the boat. Now the Tenacious can cruise
all waters officially and Bill and I must not be worried about any harbour police fining us for a missing boat name. We got the boat ready to leave the marina and anchor outside and do some first
sailing, probably just up and down the coast for a few miles as winds are not favourable to do our planned trip down to Fort Lauderdale and Miami within the next days.
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