Tonight (Friday October 23) I am trying to catch up for yesterday and today. Yesterday (Day 19) was a tough day and I was wasted when we finally got slipped at the Dinner Key Marina in Coconut Grove on Biscayne Bay just south of Miami...so I ended up crashing last night before I was able to get the day's blog done..so we are catching up this evening.
The day started with the anchor up at 7:20AM. The sun is just coming up in this shot across the ICW from our anchorage. We were looking at 14 restricted bridges on our way out to the Atlantic Ocean at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, and timing would be everything.
This was our first bridge of the day. We were about 15 minutes early for the 8AM opening.
Note the other bridge just beyond this one..We had to wait until 8:15 for the opening of the 2nd bridge.
While waiting for the bridge opening, this osprey flew by with a fish in its talons.
We have now been under more than 50 draw bridges. There are lots of ways to open these things, but two seem to predominate, gears and hydraulics. Here is a pic of a geared draw bridge...
Our journey today took us from Lantana to Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Fort Lauderdale, out into the Atlantic Ocean south of Lauderdale, then back in at Miami Harbor at Government Cut, and down to Coconut Grove on Biscayne Bay. We started at MM 1031 and ended up at MM 1095. But with the ride outside and then back in, we did about 75 miles today. Considering the restricted bridges, and the tough outside ride, it was a long exhausting day.
We saw some incredibly expensive real estate, more boats than I have ever seen (Fort Lauderdale claims to be the yachting capital of the World), and even a few interesting bird shots!
Here are some of the homes and buildings that we saw going south, especially in Fort Lauderdale..
I guess that these folks like white, big, and modern!
This house is huge and has a drive under dock..We got very tired of looking at this house as the draw bridge just past was closed due to electrical problems for 90 minutes (this is the 2nd time we have been delayed at a bridge for electrical problems in 2 days)...so we just piddle around trying to keep the boat off of the sea walls due to the tidal currents...also put us 90 minutes behind our bridge schedule which we never made up.
This is an "Art Deco" high rise in Boynton Beach...can you say PINK??
At one of the bridges, these folks joined us in the sailboat "Seabreeze" out of Tampa, FL. It turns out that they are retired and from Philly, and the Skipper used to spend a lot of time in York as he did business with York International. The were a bit slower than us under power, but the bridges kept us together until they pulled off for the day in Ft. Lauderdale. They also draft 5' and planned to take the inside ICW route down along the Keys..we will have to go outside as we draft almost 6'. We may yet meet up at Little Shark River where we are both planning to anchor on our trip up the west coast of Florida over the weekend.
Another home being renovated in " Money Central".
This sign says it all!
We passed this fellow, the Nordic Prince" about MM1064. This boat was stunning and about 150' long..
More boats
and MORE boats....
And high rises and more stunning homes
I have seen this house listed in the "Wall Street Journal"..can't remember the price (but it is way out of my league!)
Boats AND high rises..they are both like flies in Fort Lauderdale.
About 2PM we headed out to the Atlantic Ocean via the Port Everglades Inlet. Unfortunately, we had to go out here, or stop for the day (in hindsight it might have been better to stop here like Seabreeze did). There is a bridge across the ICW in south Miami at MM1087, the Gloria Tuttle Bridge, that is only 55' high. Unfortunately, we are 65' high....so out we had to go outside.
It was a tough ride, and the first out in the Atlantic for Vic. We were a couple of miles offshore (trying to stay inside of the Gulf Stream which is only 6nm offshore). It was a tough ride with 6-7 foot seas and 25 knot winds across the port beam. I had the mainsail out, not that it was the big driving force, but because it forced the boat to take a heel to starboard rather than rocking back and forth across each wave. We were heeled over more than 20 degrees at this point.
This is the only photo that we took as we were departing at Port Everglades..looking back on the Lauderdale skyline.
FINALLY, we are coming into Miami Harbor. These high rises are just north of Gov't Cut which is the Harbor entrance.
Upon entering the Harbor, we turned to port down Dodge Cut and past the cargo handling.
The number of high rises in Miami dwarfed even Ft. Lauderdale.
And here is a pic looking back on the downtown Miami skyline as we are sailing south across Biscayne Bay to Dinner Key Marina in Coconut Grove. Dinner Key is about 2 miles west of the ICW at MM 1095.
Our arrival at Dinner Key Marina was less than impressive. Aside from the fact that I was just plain tired, they sent us to the fuel dock (which had closed an hour earlier). The wind was blowing us pretty briskly into the dock. As I was trying to get the boat off of the dock, I caught the grill that was affixed to one of my port side rails and ripped it off of the boat..so much for grilling steaks out on the stern for the next few days...then the slip to which we had been assigned, already had a boat in it..then when they finally sent us down to another slip, there was no one there to give us a hand...normally if it is your slip, the lines are already on the pilings, but in this case, we were only saved by a considerate nearby boater who took pity on us and helped us tie up. The folks from the marina got there about 30 minutes after we were tied up...would not recommend this place again.
We each took a shower as the day was pretty sticky..plus we were both covered with salt spray from our ride in the Ocean...and then walked over to the Chart House for a very nice dinner. Afterwards, we picked up a few groceries at a nearby store, and walked back to the boat. I turned in at 10PM and asked Vic if she minded if I just slept in on Friday as I needed a down day...I did not blog, or do any planning for Friday...plus I suspect that neither one of us was ready to do 10 more hours out in the Atlantic unless the seas subsided a bit...
1265 miles down...about 300 to go..I am glad that this day is done!
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