The Sailing Coopers: Exciting day!

Well, we had a very restful 12(!) days in a quiet marina in North Palm Beach, but David was getting twitchy so it was time to move south. Leaving North Palm this morning was mildly eventful: two rescue boats zoomed past us on the ICW with their sirens blasting (there was a report of a capsized boat off the near shore), two freighters were on their way into the Lake Worth inlet as we were heading out, and add to that several dozen fishing boats heading out for the day (they are always in a hurry).

This is one of the reasons why Florida is cracking down on visiting boats!

Always dredging the channels

There were ~100 boats anchored south of Peanut Island waiting to make the jump to the Bahamas! Weather conditions just haven't been ideal for that.

One of this morning's freighters

But after we entered the ocean, conditions couldn't have been better for sailing......12-17 knots of easterly wind moved us along at 6-7 knots with the main and headsail up.......nearly perfect. Just when we were settling into enjoying the sail (ie, not listening to the engine roar), one of our new fishing rods came to life!

Back story......David bought two salt water rods with Penn Senator reels while we were in North Palm. We later bought lures from West Marine -- one for tuna and the other, sadly named Lil Stubby, for other fish. Of all the lures in that endless aisle, Lil Stubby most resembled Bob Mette's favorite lure (he and his lovely wife, Christine, were the previous owners of Virginia Dare).

So, I manned the helm while David reeled in the fish that had chomped on Lil Stubby. From the time the reel spun to life until David dropped fillets into the refrigerator and returned to the helm, less than 20 minutes had lapsed! For some reason, I thought that whole process would last a lot longer.

Sails up, engine off.....peaceful sound of water lapping along the hull

Reeling in our first fish!

34" wahoo! Say hello to Lil Stubby in the foreground :)

Man o' Daisy, that is a SHARP knife!

Containing the "goo" with a trash bag. We might have to figure out a better way.

Lots of pretty sights along the way...

Fancy hotel(?)
My friend Greg Roth (DAHS '81...woot-woot!) just informed me that this is The Breakers Hotel built in 1925 by Henry Flagler. Thanks, Greg!

Lots of people on a fishing boat (no less than 6 pelicans perched on the boat waiting for a treat)

Sadly, my camera was not on the proper setting to capture this visitor, but this is what I got....

Our view for most of the day

We entered Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale inlet) and headed south to a marina this evening. David's grilling some of the fish for dinner. The rest has been vacuum-sealed and frozen.