The Bridge comes down on the Lady !!!!

Friday AM 10:15 we hoist the anchor and prepare the boat for an overnight to Ft Pierce. This will be our last overnight for a while..it should be warm enough for Joyce from now on. We start circling in front of the Bridge of Lions with an out going tide of about 2 knts going under the bridge. The real Bridge of Lions is under re-construction . They have built this lift bridge (clearance 80') to serve the population during the 2-3 yr construction process. The 1 st pic is from the north...you can see the real Bridge of Lions just past the lift bridge. About 3 boats go out and 2 come in, we waited till the last incoming boat and then started into the current swept passage
I always put the bow thruster down to help keep the boat position while waiting for the bridge to open....and in case the strong current pushes us toward the bridge wall. I'm watching the sides of the bridge making sure we are centered.....Joyce is up taking pictures....

If you look at the base of the pilings you can see the current. We are going about 4 knts with the current...right down the middle of the bridge opening.

About the time Joyce takes this picture she says " The bridge is coming down..."...I look up and indeed the bridge IS coming down... "@$#%$#@&%...YOUR RIGHT IT IS" I throw the boat into reverse and give it full throttle....remember we have 17 tons of boat....plus the ton or so of food...going forward at 4+ knts...we have a 100 hp engine....we are maybe 75 ft from the bridge....now we want to go the other way against a 2 knt current backwards....sailboats do not like to backup in a straight line....by this time the bridge is well down below the 68' air draft of the Lady. I had 2 things going for me that morning that saved the rig...1st.Amel uses a propeller called an Autoprop. Its kind of like an automatic transmission for boats. It gives the same thrust in reverse as it does in forward.....even folds to cut drag while sailing.....and when 1st put in gear it takes little bites of water like a tugboat ...then as the boat accelerates it changes gear...kind of like 1st gear then 2nd and so forth in a car............2nd I had the bow thruster down...this lets the helmsman steer in reverse kind of like having and outboard....it allows me to push the bow left of right....anyway....I have the boat backing out of the bridge.....we had become the morning entertainment for sure....I'm backing at full speed..just missing the boat that had entered just before us....as I back around...I must get the bow around and pointed away from the bridge so we are not swept side ways into the bridge abutment. I full throttled ahead to swing the bow with the thruster and motored back into the anchorage........my heart still racing...about that time the TOW BOATUS comes along side and asks if we are all right....I think he thought he was going to get a nice tow out of all of this....I said yes..except for my blood pressure...He said I should call the bridge tender...which I did after I calmed down..We did receive a "That was some great seamanship getting out of that one." complement from the TOW BOATUS guy...guess he should know....the gets to tow all the stupid ones home after they screw up..... and they make a good living down here....lots of stupid ones... like the bridge tender....
Once on the outside we head south .... of course the wind is on the butt....so we put out the starboard pole and sailed "wing on wing". There was enough wind to have us sailing along at 7-8 knts down wind.

The winds were supposed to shift from the NW to the NE and drop during the night. We were alone out here...had not seen any boats all day except for the shrimp boat convention we saw earlier that afternoon...for sure no ditch diggers. As the sun went down in the west the full moon rose in the east giving us a gorgeous but cool evening.

After dinner Joyce crashed aft...I got her up around 11pm...she came back and got me at 11:30 pm...seems the wind just shifted and then died...we rolled up the sails and started the "iron jenny". Joyce was being nice to me by letting me sleep...around 4am...yep she let me get almost 4+ hrs of sack time...the wind had started to pick up out of the NE...we brought in the starboard pole, rolled out the jenny and sailed along at 8+..Joyce crashed....A few cruise liners past us on the way back into Cape Canaveral to get a new herd of cattle...I call the Cruise Ships..."cattle boats"....just watch the passengers when they go ashore....they are like a herd of cattle..get one going someplace and there are 50 right behind them...more on them when we get down to the islands......I saw a light ahead about 4:45.....a white light..which would mean a boat from the stern....could not see anything on the radar.....kept getting closer...played with the gain on the radar...finally seeing them at 2 miles. A very poor radar return...WOW...another sailboat....on the same course as we were....now it was a race....we were close hauled as the wind was still shifting to the east....we were going between 8-9 knts...unfurled the mizzen for that extra 1/2 knt....now in the high 8's and 9's. About sunup we passed on his starboard side about 50 yards away. It was a 46-48' cutter...a sailboat with 2 sails in front of the mast. By the time Joyce came forward, they were a sail in the distance....We had planned to arrive in Ft Pierce about 1pm...but because of out great sail trimmer"me" and some wind from the right direction we arrived at 10:30am. We went in and fueled up...OUCH....104 gallons...$371 dollars later...did fill the water tanks...we were going to try and scoot down to West Palm...another 50 miles...but the Capt was not in the mood to enter the inlet in the dark....so anchored...cooked our "Thanksgiving Dinner" since we had gone to the Wiegand's on Thursday.. Nothing on the tube...no judge shows or Jerry Springer on the weekends. I still have my Netflicks account and as long as we have phone service I can watch movies online,so we went aft to watch a movie in bed. on the computer......Joyce was out after the opening credits....but she was warm...the temp here this afternoon was 80...only down to 65 deg at night...so we can now slow down and enjoy the warm weather....yes Joyce finally stowed her gloves ...wool socks and scarfs.