West Palm Beach Anchorage, Florida, USA

We are up early to try and get everything done before we need to leave the marina at lunchtime. We plan to go to the anchorage in the ICW by the Lake Worth exit before an early start tomorrow morning.

Kevin has the engine services to do and I need to go to the supermarket for a few things we forgot last time as it is likely to be a few days before we stop anywhere for long. I head out on the bus and am lucky enough to get one as soon as I get to the bus stop. I am also desperately hoping to find a hairdressers as I have been promising myself a new hairdo for months as soon as we got to the States. I am looking more and more like a surfer chick with bleached highlights and straggly ends, but we have been here a week and I have still not managed it. When I get to the mall there is one hairdresser there but it is empty except the elderly black guy hairdresser and looks like an old fashioned barbers shop, I decide this is probably not the place for my makeover and head to the supermarket.

I arrive back to find Kevin up to his waist in the engine bay in the direct sun with a slight breeze literally dripping. I swab him down and start to work myself. I get a trolley and go to fetch the diesel and pay up for the slip. The lady in the office say I must get an attendant to help fill the jerry cans (the fuel jetty is being renovated), he however starts the pump and retires into the shade leaving me to it. Very sensible it is scorching hot. When I get back Kevin has finished the engine service and I walk back along the pontoons to dispose of the oil waste. The disposal facility is right at the back of the huge warehouse of powerboats stored in the rack storage facility, looking pristine, definitely a really good way to keep a seldom used boat. Water is topped off and Invincible washed down.

West Palm Beach Anchorage

We then head back in to have a shower before we hand in the key for the marina, the showers are air-conditioned and it forms our favourite part of the day as you get a little bathroom area to use and we finally cool down after all the running around. We go to the marina office to see if our post has arrived and are pleased to head back to the boat with our parcels. We check the contents all charts and books are there and I make my sixth and last walk down the pontoons that day to hand in the key. We move easily off the mooring and breath a sigh of relief to get onto the anchorage. The ICW is really wide at this point and we are south of Peanut Island with beautiful villas overlooking us and flat calm waters. A squall passes over and reduces the temperature again before we get an early night.

West Palm Beach Anchorage