CHART 7
Jupiter to
North Palm Beach
CHART 8
Lake Worth
CHART 9
Delray to
Pompano Beach
CHART 10
Fort Lauderdale
CHART 11
Pompano to Baker's Haulover
CHART 11-A
Dania
CHART 12
Miami Area
Cruising Florida's GOLD COAST
This fabled stretch of waterway sneaks up on you after you turn southward at the mouth of the Loxahatchee. After about eight miles of channelized waterway, you jog into Lake Worth and are surrounded by a large complex of marinas and marine facilities, several waterfront restaurants and a cluster of posh highrise developments which are the unmistakable gateway to the Gold Coast. The twenty-two mile passage down Lake Worth is lined by several towns including Riviera Beach, Palm Beach and West Palm Beach and the Palm Beach Inlet, a/k/a Lake Worth Inlet, for all-weather passages.
At the south end of the lake is Boynton Beach with a definitely-not-all-weather inlet. South of here the waterway passes through (among others) Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach and finally enters Fort Lauderdale - the Yachting Capital of the World - where marinas, fine restaurants and boatyards abound, both on the ICW and up the New River.
The inlet - Port Everglades - is all-weather.
Continuing south, we can go west into Dania where more fine boatyards and marinas cum restaurants line the Dania Cut-off Canal. Staying in the ICW heading south we soon come to Hollywood, North Miami and finally Miami (with its Miami River into the west) and beautiful, famous Miami Beach. Of course, there are many marinas here to choose from.
We'll leave the Gold Coast now and head down to the Floridians' own playground, the Florida Keys.