Saturday 14 December 2013

Hanging in Ft. Lauderdale

So close yet so far away...
It's looking like we will head to Miami in the morning - Biscayne Bay - drop the hook and wait for the next weather window for a good crossing over to Nassau in the BAHAMAS. Really hope to be there for Christmas but we have been warned that sometimes those windows don't come when you want them to. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed!
Can't believe it's almost Christmas. Lots of holiday cheer all around us.  Lit up palm trees are taking the place of our pines, Santa and reindeer make appearances down here too.


We spent a few days in Boca Rotan, Fl. at a great anchorage. Lots going on all around us, a big spot for the locals to come and hang out on weekends. We swam a lot, had the paddle board out and managed to just relax for a couple of days. Spent some time on their beaches, lots and lots of people, lazing around, surfing and skim boarding and a multitude of other water sports. Met up with some fellow boaters we haven't seen for a long time and met a couple of new ones. 
Saturday night we sat on Harmonium eating yet another fabulous meal and catching our first Christmas boat parade complete with fire works being set off in multiple sites along the route. Just beautiful. 






Traveling the ICW has had it's challenges as we headed south from Lake Worth, mainly speaking of bridges.  There are so many of them, I will actually have to go back and re count, but I think something like 24-26. Few are on request but the majority are on a schedule and these schedules didn't seem to correspond to any  of the books we were following! Hurry up and wait seemed to be the pattern of the day.  Ultimately we got in the habit (between ourselves and Harmonium) to call ahead to each bridge and confirm openings, worked great!

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY is what we are seeing a lot of these days. The concentration of SPECTACULAR homes and massive yachts is mind boggling, what recession?

Due to another Christmas boat parade (full marinas for floats etc.) are plans changed from our original destination in Ft. Lauderdale. We were redirected to a City Marina, Cooleys, up the New River in downtown Ft. Lauderdale. We had to anchor just before the first bridge to go up as it is important to hit the timing for slack tide to transit this waterway. A hair raising adventure as we poked our way through the "wiggles" never knowing what we were going to meet heading in the opposite direction through this very narrow River. At one point we had a large tour boat come up fast behind us and they radioed us to "pull over a bit" and let them by. Al and I looked at each other, where are we suppose to go?? The captain gave us directions and all was well. Our next corner we ended up tying up to a dock as we waited for the train to pass by. Lots of fun and the River was so beautiful as we head into the heart of the city we are so thrilled to have experienced it.







The week has been great here, Great city. We rented a car and have now completed our provisioning for the Bahamas. It has been very overwhelming to me, trying to buy supplies and food for such an extended period of time and then finding places of it all on board. Task complets, and the boat only has a slight tilt to port.  Hopefully when we fill the fuel tank we'll sit a little flatter. Most importantly, I found a space to stow all 20 bags of wine!

Yesterday we headed over to Naples to visit our most amazing past neighbours from Brighton who winter down hear. Had an awesome visit, as always, and managed to see our first alligator while crossing I-75, very exciting. 





Tonight we are off to watch the parade with a number of other boaters here at the marina then an early departure down the New River tomorrow. We are going to take the outside pass down to Miami for a little sail shake out before crossing to Golf Stream, should be fun.

See you all again once we're in Miami, take care. xo

  

1 comment:

  1. Hey, you two doing great! We love your blog, SO wish we could be doing it. Ray today in Oshawa (first weekend ever we haven't been together), and he has no power, been out all night due to their ice storm, we here in Ottawa area had 12" overnight, a good foot yesterday, and its snowing now (again), so enjoy, ENJOY, E N JOY your life out there. PS Theres a good provisioning spot if you go to the Abacos in Marsh Harbour much like Costco. Sell Kirkland products too. PLUS booze cheap in Bahamas. Wine and beer not so. I WISH YOU BOTH A MERRY CHRISTMAS and keep us posted how you do with the window of weather. xxx Angie and Ray (Enticer) (First splash-in 2014 will change to Solitaire)

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