Old Port Marina, North Palm Beach, Florida: January 13, 2021
26.8171° N, 80.0591° W
Marc- We left Jensen Beach at daybreak (07:30) and headed South with plans to reach Lake Worth. The first half of the trip was uneventful with the usual dolphins and pelicans messing about. Excitement came when we reached the St. Lucie Inlet, crossroads of the ICW and the St. Lucie River. What we saw was a floating dredging pipe blocking about 90% of the navigable channel of the ICW and no dredge in sight. Luckily we had Michael go explore ahead with his Ranger tugboat. Michael threaded the needle and found the narrow slice of deep water at the western end of the pipe and by staying very close to it and then advising us on the best route. Michael continued to lead all of the way to North Palm Beach. Unfortunately we were held up by several drawbridges that opened only on the hour and the half hour. The bridge operators only seemed happy when boats are waiting to pass through. It is nearly impossible to time the passages through here. All of that being said we were only delayed about an hour in total by bridges.
North Palm Beach is quite different from any area North of here in Florida. There are many high rise condo complexes here and many marinas catering to large Sportfishing boats. Sue and I went out to explore the town on foot. We found two shopping areas nearby with many shops including a West Marine, Publix & a Honey Baked Ham Store (the latter is where we picked up a delicious dinner). The neighborhoods we came across could not be explored because they were gaited and obscured by high fences and high hedges. We did find a very modern designed church about 2-1/2 miles into the walk on the edge of a State Park (the Park was inaccessible without walking another mile). One advantage of having a marina next to a drawbridge was when the bridge opened it totally shut down Route 1 and we could cross the 4 lane highway safely on foot.
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