This afternoon we reached Vero Beach. We are happy to be making progress towards home again and to have successfully navigated a day that at times was a bit tricky. The challenge we anticipated ahead of time was navigating a series of four “restricted” drawbridges. These only open at certain times, say, on the hour and half-hour, or quarter after and quarter of the hour, and are lined up in a row, so that a delay in traversing one can result in missing the next and having to try to hold position in place for a half hour. Throw in a bit of current and other boat traffic “short” enough that they can go under the unopened bridge, and you can have a nervy time of it.

We got a good early start and made the first two bridges in a row without problems. The third opened late, due to a faulty traffic signal, which caused us to miss the fourth. We circled in place for 30 minutes until the next opening, but still felt pretty fortunate to have gotten thru with only one 30 minute delay. There were 4 additional “on request” opening bridges and five fixed 65-foot bridges which were easier to pass. This adds up to a grand total of 13 bridges today.

Having become accustomed to the breadth of waters in the Exumas and the mostly low profile buildings and dwellings on shore, we found ourselves enthralled anew by the beauty of the natural and man-made surroundings of many parts of the ICW. We also had forgotten how narrow it was. The shores in some areas seemed close enough to touch. Waterfowl like ospreys, pelicans, ibis, and cormorant were plentiful, and many of the homes were large and impressive (featured picture).

Our next interesting moments came at “The Crossroads” where the St. Lucie River crosses the ICW and leads west to the Okeechobee Waterway, and East to the  St. Lucie Inlet to the sea. It was a broad expanse with big current, multiple shallow areas and lots of boats. One boat with a 7-foot draft was anchored in a shallow spot in the middle of all this, waiting for high tide to hopefully bring depths he could traverse.

We were able to hail a trawler who had just traversed the crossroads south (we were headed north) and she was able to give a report on the depths. It sounded like we could make it, but there were several long stretches of  7 and 8 foot depths that would be difficult for deeper draft boats.

As we approached our very last drawbridge, the current was swift, pushing us towards the bridge. Tommy hailed the bridge tender, who told us he would stop traffic and directed us to bring C Ghost forward and approach the bridge closely and pass through once he raised it. This is not unusual, as most tenders want the bridge open and car traffic stopped for the minimum amount of time. We did as he asked but as we got close,  the bridge did not rise. Paula used the binoculars and saw that the bridge tender was out of his bridge tender house, having an animated conversation with the driver of a stopped vehicle on the bridge (very unusual) . He then looked down at us, hopped back into the house and began to raise the bridge…slowly. At this point, Tommy had slowed C Ghost as much as he could without losing steerage. It was either make a hazardous hard reverse or go through. Adding to the fun was the rapidly enlarging presence of a big tug-driven barge behind us.  The bridge spans had now raised and separated enough that our mast could safely fit through, so through we went! Before Tommy could hale the bridge tender to tell him we were clear, the bridge tender came on the radio, roundly castigating Tommy for having “come through the bridge too soon.” Tommy apologized, and explained that there was an awful lot of current pushing us towards the bridge and he was unable to make a safe reverse. This did not mollify the bridge tender who went on for several minutes about how lucky we were that the Coast Guard was not on hand to give us “a big fine.” Paula was proud that Tommy never lost his cool. He simply apologized and did not get into any war of words. In retrospect, we wonder whether the stopped car on the bridge had also received a tongue lashing!

With all these interesting events and sights, 63 miles went by much more swiftly than we could have imagined. It was nice to see the familiar approach to Vero Beach Municipal Marina. We tied up to the gas dock and filled up with diesel before heading to a slip on the same pier we’d been on when we traveled south. We were greeted warmly by one of the live-aboard doggies that was here last time!

Once settled, Tommy suggested that we eat at the Riverside Cafe, less than a mile’s walk. Paula, who had just started to take things out of the fridge to prepare dinner, happily stuffed them right back in and put on a dress.

We had a great seafood dinner: seafood stew, tuna nachos, flounder and house salad with blackened shrimp. On the walk back we passed a large dog park. What fun! We saw many excited pooches meeting their buddies for a quick sniff, lick, romp, and pee.

Next it’s bedtime as we have an early start tomorrow.