West Palm Beach - day 2

Another beautiful sunny day in south Florida.  West Palm Beach has created a wonderful waterfront park area close to downtown and next to our marina.

The park features lots of open space and several ampitheatres.

and fountains...

One of our favorite restaurants, E.R. Bradley's is one block south on the waterfront.  http://www.erbradleys.com/brads.html

Evidently Mr. Bradley was quite a character - he owned and operated one of the largest casino's in the country in a state where casino's were illegal.  He was an American steel mill laborer, gold miner, businessman and philanthropist. As well as a race track proprietor, he was the preeminent owner and breeder of Thoroughbred racehorses in the Southern United States during the first three decades of the 20th Century.  More info at : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_R._Bradley

So we opt for a late lunch / early dinner.

There is a large marine hardware store, Hopkins - Carter Marine Specialists, and I decide to see if I can find an anchor for the boat.  The current anchor is rusting somewhat and I have wanted to step up one size larger to increase the holding power.  It's always nice to wake up in the vicinity of where you went to sleep.

The old anchor.  You can see that the fluke on the right is missing a chunk that fell off when I took it off the pulpit.

Although the store was only a block away, they agreed to bring the new anchor (weighs 45 pounds) down in their van and the dock guys loaded it into a golf cart and brought it out to the boat.  How's that for lazy.

In any event the new anchor fit fairly well, I will need to adjust the blocks that it rests up against when in the stored position.  Another trip to the hardware store (my third trip of the day) to get some starboard.  I'll cut and fit it later.

Tomorrow we were hoping to be able to run outside (in the ocean) down to Miami, but the forecast is for 3-5 foot seas and that may be a little uncomfortable (for some of the crew who shall remain unnamed - they are still a little surly from the reduced rum rations). 

Running inside, we may only get as far as Fort Lauderdale, about 45 miles, as there are numerous bridges, many of which we have to wait to open (most will only open on the half-hour).  But a leasurely journey is part of the boating adventure.  Yes?