Another Day on the ICW

Hi Family and Friends,
We got up early anticipating another exciting phase of our boating journey on Sunday the 18th December . We decided to leave a day early for our destination to Key Largo because the seas are still not co operating and this meant we needed to take the slower option ,the ICW. We left just before 8.30 am in time for one of the many bridge openings we would be dealing with along the way.
At Lake Worth area near Peanut Island , we were stopped by the Coast Guard who wanted to check our documentation which fortunately was all in order This process took about half an hour! Bit of a pain , but the guys were very friendly and even gave us a restaurant recommendation .They apparently stop people at random most days to check for terrorist activities. Maybe they just wanted to look inside our boat!
We meandered down the ICW going mostly between 6 and 10 miles per hour, also stopping in a line with other boats to go under the low bridges. Bridges vary from 9' to 65' .Our boat has a 15 ' height restriction so not too bad most of the time .This is where the power boat has it over the sail boats on occasions! Again mansion upon mansion lined the canal ,many with boats parked outside some around the 70' to 90' length !We came to the realization that travelling the ICW in the weekends is not the best time to do so. Lots of pleasure crafts zip in and out and there are speed retrictions just for the weekends in the ICW. Our six hour journey finished at Hillsbro Inlet near Boca Raton at a delightful marina called Lighthouse Yacht Club. Reminded us a bit of CYC our yacht club in Maryland. Sam the assistant dock master was super friendly and helpful.
We decided to try out the Coast Guard recommendation and had a short ferry ride, across to Cap's Restaurant.The daughter of the original owner served us drinks in the bar. Apparently the story goes that the owner was into rum smuggling from the Carribean while running his restaurant and his brother was the local lighthouse operator so he could know when the coast was clear to bring in the loot!
Over and Out
Erica