We’re anchored in Lake Worth, right near the inlet. When the tide is outgoing, the water is murky and dark. When the tide is incoming, everything changes!

The water slowly turns teal blue, and gets clearer and clearer. Our first day at the anchorage, we started marveling over the clarity until finally we couldn’t stand it any more. We got the paddleboards out and started playing around.

We got out our SJ Cam, which is theoretically waterproof but we’ve never tried it. We put it to the test!

We’re anchored in about 9 feet of water, and we can clearly see the bottom. There’s not much to see though – so far it’s all sand, plus our anchor.

It is absolutely magical. This is the kind of jewel-toned water I’ve been dreaming about. Kyle was as giddy as a child – he kept jumping in! He put his fins on and swam around, diving on the anchor and checking the propellers (they are both still there).

One thing that is NOT there are the rubber fairings that Kyle glued to death. Both of those are gone. So that’s $226 worth of parts that just fell off, and we won’t be able to replace them until we haul out again. Even the invoice for this part says to install it with 3M 4200! Maybe next time we’ll use epoxy….

We’re not the only ones enjoying the water around here. This anchorage is huge, and it is packed – I’ve never seen so many boats in an anchorage! It looks like most of them are either abandoned or long term installations, which is disappointing because we’ll be here a while so it would be nice to find some friends.

We’ve also got a few high rent neighbors. We’re very close to West Palm Beach, and there are several mega yacht marinas in the vicinity.

Since we’re mostly sitting and waiting right now, we’re finding projects to keep occupied. I’m trying to master the art of sourdough bread (in a boat without climate control and an oven without a thermostat, there’s a lot of guesswork!). One night we got a delightful downpour of rain, so we did the normal thing and collected buckets of freshwater, then took boat showers. The next day I used the water to do laundry. Yachtie hobos!

We’ve also been doing our part for the #trashtag movement – you wouldn’t believe how much debris goes floating by. I’m not sure if a boat overturned upcurrent from us, but at one point I jumped on a paddleboard and came back with an inflatable ring and two nice baseball caps (well, I thought they were nice, but then I saw one said “Ohio” on it). By the time I got back to the boat Kyle had the dinghy ready to go, we went back out and collected a man overboard pole, a garbage bag, a plastic jug, and a few other pieces of garbage. I’ve snagged a few other pieces of junk that have floated close enough to grab, there’s no shortage of trash floating around such a crowded area.

But let’s end on a happy note! It’s hot and sunny and we can finally play in the water. Since we have a little time off, we can actually enjoy it, too! After all of the challenges we’ve been through, it’s starting to finally feel worth it!